You have to see this

One of my schools has a special education class so ofcourse I am involved with those kids.  I walked in today to this scene.  This "student" is in his forties and once they are in a special ed class as children, they are welcome forever.  At first I was shocked and somewhat offended that this old guy would be in the class with the younger kids but....turns out its really very sweet.  There are no other programs in town for handicapped adults so this is his day program.  There is a girl in her 20s and she fits in fine too.  She actually does some nurturing of some of the younger ones. 

In this photo, the teacher is giving this guy a pretty good haircut and in the background you can see some dishes....the families take turns making and bringing in comida each day.  The state provides frijoles, rice, oatmeal ( for a drink) and cooking oil and the families take turns cooking and bringing in the food each day.  Each kid has to bring his own trastes ( dish and spoon or fork , there are actually very very few forks in use) each day and the teacher has the responsibility of serving the food.  It is a pretty good system...the only problem I see is that near the end of the school year they usually run out of food and the kids just go without...I think thats pretty hard on some of them..

Just wanted to share this moment.   tomorrow I am taking about 40 kids out to see the town dump.  Trash here is a huge problem....even the teachers didn''t know there was a town dump... guess the just thought the trash just vaporizes..so I am going to spend a lot of time teaching the kids about trash, reduce, reuse, recycle....we' ve already had about 8 plastic bottle pickup days and have not really made a dent in whats lying around town.  Lots of projects......thats good.

The other picture is two little kids that were helping me pick up trash in the park....sooo cute. 

More later

Various photos

OK, little explanation.  First photo is Nici trying to be cool....and I mean cool, not "cool.
Next is the view out the back of the cheapest, and most exciting, form of transportation in Leon. Its called a ruta, a little truck with seats on the sides, a canvas top, only 4 cordobas from the bus terminal to the commercial center, and a nice breeze the whole way. Taxis are 20 cordobas.  I used to be afraid to ride in them, but I have found my nerve.  Also, I don't get on unless I can get a seat, standing in the middle near the back is sure death !!! The vehicle you see out the back is a tricycle, one guy riding/pedaling and a seat in front.  These are as expensive as the taxis and I used to use them, still do, but prefer to either walk or use the rutas

The next photo is the mercado at the bus terminal in Leon.  I was just standing there waiting for my bus and took this.  Its representative but this was taken late in the day....sometimes there is a lot more action.  Its hard to capture the " je ne sais quoi " in a photo. ( forgive my French...hope you know what I mean)

 The last is a photo of a group of school children marching thru town from the school at one end of town to the mercado at the other end where they would attend an opening of school pep talk program.  I just love the uniforms.

OK, another bus story.

Turns out , when coming home from Leon, I like the last bus of the day...seems so much more tranquilo when its dark out side and the lights are on inside the bus....just seems that way.  So, last night, I was on the last bus, it was dark, the bus was very full.  I got on early so I had a seat by the window, near the back of the bus.  Actually I was sitting over the rear tires...I figure that is safe if we get rear ended.  I am not too sure the buses have rear lights or if they are actually working at any particular time.  TMI.      I was watching people board and this young woman got on carrying what appeared to be about a 8 or 9 year old boy who appeared to have CP as his arms and legs were in normal proportions but flaccid and his face was a bit different but he was very interested in looking out the window...the whole scene.  So, she had to stand in the aisle with this big kid propped on a seat back but still in her arms.  I was fuming, of course,  that no one gave her their seat but....no one did.  We made a few stops and then, out of nowhere, this kid gets handed to the gal sitting in front of me next to her open window, a school bus window, you know where the top part drops down so its only 1/2 open.  Well, at the next stop I look up and here this kid is being handed out the window, feet first, face up to I presume his mother who is standing outside next to the bus in the pitch dark to receive her son.  It all went off without a hitch....just like always...they know how to get things done.

We are ending the 4th month of the dry season and boy is it hot....and dry.  Dust storms are constant and people just squinch up thier faces and keep on walking or whatever.  No one likes it but they just keep on about their business.  April is supposed to be the hottest and the dryest....and then we have 6 months of the rainy season when I am sure I'll be complaining about the mud ( lodo)  Since I live on a dirt street, I get the benefit of the dust and I am sure we'll have plenty of mud.

  Right now we have water most days but not all days so we all know how to fill up a couple large buckets in case the water is off when we need it.  I drink bottled water so that is not a problem but boy would I miss water if I could not take a shower or at least wash off when I get home from whereever.  The water is not actually cold as  the ground it comes out of here is pretty hot, this being the land of volcanos, dormant and active.  There is a thermal energy plant not too far from here. 

I ride my bike almost everywhere and people are getting used to seeing me go by.  At first, many people asked me how old I was and if I had a bike in the US.  Grandmothers here are rarely on bikes.  But, their lives are much much harder than ours..their grandmothers are much "older" than ours.  I put a bell on my handlebars and I just got a basket put on the back to carry stuff in.  I am starting to look very eccentric !!!

I went to a presentation yesterday in Leon put on by an organization that runs ecological tours for profit and free for school children.  It was held in a beautiful building, an old colonial home of an early physician here in Leon, Dr. Debayle.  It is owned now by the university and I presume its available for organizations such as the one hosting my meeting yesterday.  Anyhow, it was gorgeous, interior garden, second story veranda around the interior garden, fabulous woodwork, tile floors just beautifu.  This particular building is even special from the exterior whereas there are some pretty rough looking places along the city streets but if you peer inside, it looks idyllic, hamocks under palm trees in interior gardens, lots of shade and tile floors looking very cool, some lovely spots.

So, thats all for now.   I'll put a few photos on.
Pat

Temperature

I found a centigrade/farenheit converter on line so I plugged in our temp. 28, thats only 82, seems a whole lot hotter.  I decided the sun is extremely fierce down here because in the shade its really pretty decent. ( if you are not moving, just sitting and talking ) So, I feel cooler already.  My house is not much, but when I'm inside....I'm in the shade where its only 82 and if I keep my bike on the right side of the street, in the shade, thats not too bad either. The bus is still hot.

Speaking of the bus, I had another memorable bus moment.  I had a seat, albeit an aisle seat, in which you are vulnerable to all types of rubbing with people standing sometimes three deep in the aisle next to you, but anyway, I had a seat this time.  There was a sweet young woman standing near me, our eyes met a couple times and we exchanged pleasant smiles, then finally she asked her question.  Was my hair "original" or "pintura?"  All my expensive highlights have grown out , so I had to tell the truth and tell her it was original.  Then, this is the good part, she petted me.  She reached out and literally petted my head.  She said things in Spanish that were clearly an expression of how fascinating she found my haircolor.  Sooo cute.  She was so genuine and uninhibited.

Neighbor kid

Well, I got these photos on here but now I have to give a little explanation.  This last one is some of the kids, and their leader, Churro, yes with dreds, after one of our morning after a fiesta plastic bottle collections....these, and lots more  were all lying in the streets...people here just drop them where they are standing..its really quite amazing. So far, we've had 8 similar pick ups, after fiestas.  The kids are going to sell the bottles to a recycler in Managua.  Hopefully, we can get the mayor's trash team to start separating the trash, and getting the citizens to do so too. It will be a process.

The first pic is a little neighbor boy playing with Nici thru the chicken wire I put up to keep her in.  He had been playing with those bottle caps when he noticed her and then they played together.

The next shot is my street, a little further towards town where it is paved with blocks they call aldoquin.  Its actually pretty smart , when they have to do pipe work, they just pull up the blocks over the pipe and then replace them when they are done.  What I liked in this picture was the neighbor kids playing on the dirt pile...wouldn't see that around a construction site in the US.

The shot of the pigs was just so cute.  Their mother was sleeping nearby and these two siblings snuggled up together.  They woke up once, shifted around and then went back to sleep equally close.  I'll put more on soon.  Maybe I can find a way to label them before I upload them onto the blog.  Hope so.

Well, I am finally posting again.  I waited until I had a laptop I could use at home rather than sit and sweat in a cybe cafe, and now I have it, thanks to my sister.  We are advised not to buy electronics down here as they are somehow configured differently, or something, even the brands like HP and Compaq, so she bought it up there for me.   I found a vol. who was visiting her family in Annandale, VA so my sister in MD took the computer to her and she brought it to Managua where I met her and we made the handoff. It worked perfectly more or less, the vol. in VA got delayed a couple days at the airport due to snow but I eventually got it and it is working perfectly. 

And, as luck would have it, my next door neighbor is the IT guy for a Spanish NGO here in town and he has wireless internet and has let me pay a little monthly to use it.  I think I have said before that this is the land of contradictions...he and I live on a dirt street, with water and electricity available most of the time, where they raise fighting cocks OPENLY in the dirt yard across the street, where ox carts pass daily....and we have wifi.  I'm not complaining,.,,,,just observing.

I have sort of dreaded posting since it has been such a long time and I had the silly idea that I would have to "catch up" by posting everything that has happened for the past month.  But, finallly, it occurred to me that I did not have to do that....its MY blog, so I can blog how much or how little I want....why did it take me so long to figure that out ? 

I have acquired a pet, Nici, a kitten who was treed in a neighbors yard.  She is calico and very cute.  Many cats downhere are inbred and have a long pointed face with large ears.  I am sure they are very sweet too but I was hoping I'd get one that looked more normal, and I did.  I'll try to post a photo but still am not sure how to do that.  I have found someone already to take her when I leave in a couple years and I also have a girl who will take care of her when I have to leave for more than a day at time.  People here are totally mystified by an "indoor" cat and the litter box concept.  Personally, I don't love the litter box concept either, but we live right on the road where trucks pass at high speeds ( yes, creating huge dust clouds)  some times and there are lots of dogs running loose. She'll get to go outside when she is older and faster !!  There are a lot of veternarians here, I guess because there are so many farm animals of various types.  So, right away, I got cat food ( they thought I was crazy when I asked if it was OK to feed to a kitten) and a big bag full of serrin ( thats Spanish for sawdust)  Kitty litter has not made its way down here yet.  Also, the vet recommended a pastilla for parasites.  So, I took her in ( no appt) he weighed her ( three pounds) in the same scale he weighs out the chicken mash in and he sold me a pastilla.  He charged me10 cordobas...thats about 50 cents. Now that is certainly something that is cheaper down here. 

School has not started yet for the kids,  but the teachers went in all this past week.  I really do admire and enjoy the teachers.  At one school, the catholic/public partnership school, the teachers are all young and seem to be best friends.  At the other, the public school, the teachers are more of a mix, many on the older side, but still all seem to be very friendly with each other and very very friendly toward me.  Both are very nice places to go each morning.  The catholic school has an English teacher so I have been working with him every morning this past week with some kids who failed the english exam at the end of the last school year and have a couple weeks of tutoring and then the opportunity to take it again next week.  That has been a lot of fun. The English teacher is very motivated to improve his own English so we have a lot of discussion too.  He corrects my Spanish and I reciprocate.  You know I love doing that.

Yesterday was an especially productive day for me.  I started out with the English class, until about 9 :30 am and afterwards was at my house, honestly planning to post to my blog, when the mother of one of the deaf kids who I have talked about earlier came to my door.   We had had a meeting the previous Friday with a representative of  the national assn. for sordos ( Spanish for deaf) , a representative from the public school system ( special ed) and four families here in my town who have deaf kids

I think I mentioned earlier that on one of my first days here, I observed the special ed. class in the local public school and discovered 3 teen aged boys who were deaf and had not received any special training in signing and the teacher had not had any training in how to work iwth them.  The boys are all very well behaved and well dressed and have families that are very strong and supportive but things down here are so hard to manage, I believe the families had just figured the would have to accept what ever the school offered.  Anyhow, out of ignorance or hutzpah or a combination of both, I started exploring resources and found the national assn. in Managua and set up a meeting with the executive director, that was about two months ago.  I bought several sign language dictionaries and gave them to the boys and their families here in my town.  The schools were on vacation at the time time, so things were a little harder than normal to orchestrate but eventually we got the meeting put together that we had last week.  The lady from Managua ( about 2 hours away) came, she brought the lady from special ed. who works out of Leon ( which is only about 45 minutes away)and I got 4 of the 5 families here in my town to show up.

  As it turned out, one of the deaf boys brought  another young girl ( aged 23) who lives nearby who is deaf but who had gone to a special school where she had learned some sign language when she was very young, a primary school.  She has a diploma from primary school but that is as far as she has gone in school ( 6th grade)  She seems perfectly intelligent.  Also, her mother told me yesterday that she could hear with the hearing aids they had loaned her at that school but they did not have money for them and the gov. does not provide them.  They are a typical very poor family which has just accepted their lot.  She did not seem angry when she told me that, just resigned.  I am hoping to find some resources for the girl's hearing aids.  Anyhow, the lady from Leon, the special ed. lady, was so impressed with this girl and what she had retained from her very early training in sign language, that she has arranged for this girl to get further training to be a sign language instructor so she then will come back here and teach the families and our children to sign.  Apparently, she will actually be hired by MINED ( That stands for Minister of Education) immediately, with her 6th grade education, to work in the mornings with these other deaf kids here in my town to teach them what she already knows, and then in the afternoons she will travel by bus to Leon where she will have her classes to get further training.  Apparently, she will be able to get her high school degree and then continue to get her "license" as a teacher.  I don't know if I have described this adequately, but its all pretty amazing to me.  Here was this 23 year old deaf muchacha ( a general affectionate  term for young woman) living in the country with a 6th grade education and helping her mother raise more kids then one day, out of the blue, she has the opportunity to finish high school, go to college, and have a profession here in Nicaragua.  Granted. a lot has to fall into place between now and then, and I do have a tendency to jump to conclusions,but ....I see this as a big WIN !!!! The families of the boys are pleased to as they will now have her as an instructor in their classroom teaching them  ....something they have not had before. 

One other experience I want to  share...its another bus experience.  I was sitting in a seat next to the window near the front of this bus when the bus stopped and there was a lot of shifting and squeezing going on in the aisle as people from the back were making their way forward to get off.  One really fat guy squeezed thru, I could see and feel the trouble he had passing in the aisle next to where I was sitting.  Finally, thru my window,  I saw him sort of squirt out the  bus door and was shocked to see not only a giant belly in front, but I also discovered that he had squeezed past all those people with a firearm of some sort, a gun, stuck in his belt, not a holster, just stuck in his belt.  He is one of our policia nationale.  What amazes me is that he apparently had no fear that anyone would touch his gun as he squeezed past them.....amazing.

Another thing I want to share...before I left Boulder, .I had changed my mailing address so that I would get an absentee ballot.  I was upset that it never did arrive and was blaming everyone from the Clerk and Recorder in Boulder to the poor souls at the Managua post office.  Well, it came a few days ago with the stamp " Missent to HoChi Minh City"  Now doesn't that just beat all ???

Now, I am going to try to figure out how to post some photos.

PS, thanks for all the birthday greetings ....its just great turning 65!!!!

More later,
Pat