University of Nicaragua in Leon and Casa de Cultura

I am attaching some photos I took recently.  Maybe I've already posted some others of the U. of N. but I just LOVE this building.  Its the administration building and there are classrooms in it too. 

My Spanish classes are in the Casa de Cultura so I have included some photos of it too.  This used to be a private residence but the owners were Somosa supporters so they fled, abandoning their home,  to the US as the Sandinista revolution gained momentum in Leon in the late 70s.  I guess they still live in the US but in the 80s or 90s the US govt apparently gave Nicaragua the money to pay the family for this house and the title went to the Mayor of Leon and now its a cultural center.  Apparently there is some dispute about how much money was paid for the house ( a Sandinista told me it was 2 or 3 times the actual value of the property). 

The front of the UNAN administration/classroom  building

This is the exterior of the Casa de cultura.

Exterior of the Casa de Cultura showing their list of activities and the sign for the Spanish language school ( yeah, I know, hard to read)

Obviously, the now empty swimming pool wiht overlooking balcony and the archway going to changing rooms, now bathrooms. 

One of the interior garden areas, pool is at this end.  The gate allows access for cars from that street.  The Casa is on a corner.

Open stairway with pretty ironwork

Mural at the top of the stairs

Anyhow, the pictures are pretty much self explanatory and the house must have been fabulous as the architecture is beautiful altho keeping up the maintenance is difficult.  I don't know what kind of funding they have, probably not much.  I think I have posted earlier a photo of the painting of Regan with a gun sitting on a Nicaraguan native woman's shoulders, she has slit her wrists and there are  little caricatures of Kissinger and Haig dressed as court jesters standing at her feet.  That painting is hanging in the Casa totally unprotected, altho it is under the overhang in the courtyard.  It should be in a much more protected place but......funding.

This won't knock your socks off but...

OK, I had to get this down in writing.  I just got home by way of a 15 person van with 22 people in it, plus the driver.  I don't usually use the vans because I have worries about the condition of the tires, they drive too fast and they often overload them.

Well, today I went to Leon for a Spanish class which got cancelled so I went to see Ice Age 4 in Spanish...it was good and I could understand a lot, not all, of it.

When it was over,   I asked the woman next to me ( she is a doctor from Malpaisillo who I have met at a couple different events here) when the last bus to Malpaisillo left.  She told me 5:30.  So I went to the grocery store for a couple things and sort of took my sweet ole time getting to the bus.  When I got there, I learned that it had left at 5, not 5:30 so I hustled over to the part of the mercado where the vans load up and luckily there was one there, with the doctor and her daughter in it.

So, we filled up the seats, plus the three that are contrived by putting these little homemade chair things in the aisle, resting on the aisle seats on each side...so we had 18 plus the driver.  I was not thrilled, but I was not panicked.  As we were backing out, a young couple showed up who clearly needed to go to Malpaisillo, so they got in and sat on a bench behind the driver,  facing the rest of us, ( so thats 20), then as we were pulling out of Leon, on the highway, two guys were standing by the side of the road who the driver recognized as being from Malpaisillo so he stopped for them.  They actually stood on the exit step with their backs to the sliding door.  That brought us to 22 and I was not thrilled. 

So, we took off  but....... stopped to get gas.  All I could think of was the added weight of a tank full of gas on those marginal tires.  But that was not the worst of it.  He did not turn off the engine and we people ( sheepeople) sat in the van, windows closed, doors closed , sweating our guts out.  I am a little hesitant to just blurt stuff out like " Why don't we open the door and the windows."  so I leaned over the kid in the "aisle" seat and said to the Doctor, " Porque los ventanas y la puerta estan cerrado ?" 

Well, god bless her she had fallen asleep but she shook off the sleep and blurted out something like, "Open those windows, its hot as hell in here." and the windows flew open.  The two guys standing i n the door opened it and stepped out to breathe.  Its amazing...its like they don't even notice when they are sweating.

So then we had air but the whole van starting rocking.  I looked out and the driver who was filling the tank was pushing the van to make it rock. 

So, again, I leaned over to the doctor and said, "Whats this all about?"  She laughed and said aloud in Spanish, " they think if they rock it they get more in,  a tanks a tank..its like a stomach, when its full, its full."  and she got a good laugh with that one.

So then I thought about the rocking causing  a spark with the metal against metal and I whispered to her," El moto no es apagado", she listened for a minute and then blurted out something about "explotado" and she got another good laugh."  They laughed !!!!!!!!!

Needless to say, the driver got back in, the two guys got in and closed the door behind them and off we went.

We made it to Malpaisillo....   this time !!!