Just Photos

 This is a hand crafted custom made chandelier of Belgian crystal hanging in the French panaderia ( bakery) in Leon where I get the best whole wheat ( multicereal) bread, wonderful coffee and use their pristine bathrooms.  It was made for the owner of the property, a very rich Nico, who  leases the property to the Dutch couple who runs the bakery.  We have diversity.

I mentioned this circus in a previous post.  Next year I hope to take some photos inside but I'll need a flash camera which I don't have at present.  Its is such a throwback and the people just loved it !!!!  El Principe s means "The Prince."

This is a covert shot of a kid dressed for work somewhere as a clown.  I think he was on his way to Leon where they ride the local buses in pairs and make jokes, shouting back and forth to each other from one end of the bus to the other, and then go person to person asking for donations.  As always, the people love it and seem to support it generously.  The kids on this minibus were scared to death of him being so close.  He was a cute kid.

Just a little news

Doris and Javier enjoying my bed and pillow.  How do they know ? Javier has the world's longest limbs.

I am attaching  at the end a photo that shows the sign I mentioned in my last blog.....I just think that is so darn funny.

I am also attaching a photo of Helen, Margarita's owner.  She is 8 and has been used by the family as a babysitter, ergo she'smissed more school than not.  Both her mother and her old sister both have infants for whom she is used as a babysitter.  She cannot read at all but does know some of the sounds so at least we had something to work with.  She comes over almost every day to do some reading work and I send her home with a packet of nutritious cookies...which she just loves. She does not know the alphabet, nor the days of the week.  such basics..but it has been so rewarding watching her progress in just a few weeks.  Her smile is huge.

I am teaching her to read in Spanish which is so much easier than teaching a kid to read in English....Spanish is so much more predictable...tho there are a some irregularities, but not many.

The Peace Corps has issued a "stand fast" which means we volunteers are not permitted to leave our communities for the next two weeks, unless given prior permission from the country director.  The national election is next sunday and they are expecting a whole lot of agitation in the next week and then afterwards, regardless of the outcome.  But, it is a pretty sure thing that Ortega will be declared the winner....sort of like Bush but they won't go thru a Supreme Court charade....they'll just declare it.

There have been a few skirmishes in some of the more northern departments ( counties) and there was even a photo in the paper of the police going door to door in one little burg with their guns drawn looking for a couple of agitators who ran off.  They found them and they looked like little old men so the town got very angry about the police presence and actions.

Actually, many countries have withdrawn their NGOs and financial support due to the illegality of the elections in 2008 so there are some real problems.  In fact, Holland is closing its embassy and terminating its fianacial support to the country.  There are lots of vehicles and buildings here with inscriptions indicating that they were gifts of Hollandia....so that is really going to be felt by the poor folks here...the rich ones won't even notice but the poor folks are the ones who always suffer first and hardest.

Well, the town just went black.....its about 8:30 so now I am on battery.  Glad I have a head lamp to read by but it attracts the tiny little bugs that can get in thru my mosquito net.   Darn,  I am discovering the lighted computer screen does too..so, good bye.

This is Helen sitting at our table.  She is a dear thing. 

A photo of the "Garage sale" sign that made me laugh.

More later,
Pat



I'll blog if anything else happens

Some explaining...but worth it...I think

OK, this will take some explaining but I think it will be worth it.

In Leon, the houses are built in the european style  with the door flush with the sidewalk but when you get  inside you see an interior courtyard, sometimes with a lower and upper level, sometimes very charming with palm trees, hammocks, banana trees, etc.

Anyhow, on the street all you see is a flat door and its usually pretty dull.  Sometimes, a few feet past  the entry door is a wider door which is where they drive their car in, over the sidewalk and into a part of the house that is used like a "garage." ( garaje in spanish)

The point I am trying to make, is that from the sidewalk, all you see is an entry door and then a few feet away, another wide door for the car to enter.   Often, I have seen a sign posted on the wider door  NO ESTACIONMENTE...meaning   NO PARKING.  Obviously this is done so one parks in front o the door and the homeowners can get their car in and out.

Well, today, I was walking along a sidewalk past an entry door and then I came to the wider door and spotted the sign posted  " GARAGE SALE"  Someone had added in marker " carro" which means car) I Think think think to myself, why does that sign seem so weird ?

Finally, I got it.  There is nothing for "sale."  Sale is the Spanish word for "leave".  So I figure someone saw this sign somewhere and figured it meant, " this is a garaje and the car might need to "sale" -leave !!!  Isn't that the cutest ?

An update

The Police Officer who took my "denuncia" on his manual typewriter using 4 sheets of carbon paper...the embodiment of efficiency and competency.

Doris and Javier recovering after a wrestling match. Doris is the one in front...a little smaller than Javier but both girls.

Probably recovering from  another wrestling match.

Some updates....Doris and Javier are doing fine...so glad I got two kittens, they are very cute together as you can see.    Hopefully I am serving as a model to the Nicaraguans on how to have pets and that cats are pets and they need more than dead rats to eat.

   I was working the other day pulling weeds in a corn patch at school with a couple kids when I heard one of them singing some lyrics in English.   I asked him if he liked US music and what his favorite group was...Airay sooplee...yep, air supply.  It is so cute....then they asked me a whole bunch of words from songs, most of them had to do with "love."  They were so cute when I translated things about  love into Spanish for them. 

Some of you know I got robbed about 3 weeks ago in Leon.  At the risk of retelling this tale to some of you,   I felt something wet hit my back and when I looked at my shoulder, I saw some gooey yellow stuff so I assumed it was a bird.( turned out to be mustard)   I looked up and behind me and saw a man behind me wiping stuff off himself so we had a little chat and then he offered to wipe off my backpack.  At first I resisted but he insisted.  Then a buddy of his ( I later determined) came up in front of me and pointed out more stuff on my hand or side.  While I was trying to figure out where he was pointing, robber number 1 apparently unzipped my backpack and took my wallet.  True to form, I did n't have much cash with me but I did have several ID cards and two bank cards.  They did not get my cell phone so I called another volunteer in Leon and got enough money to get back to Malpaisillo.  Within two hours, those sons of bitches used my debit card ( as a credit card so they didn 't need my pin number plus they had all my other ID except my passport) to buy about $1000 worth of stuff before the card got blocked.  They also used my credit card at McDonalds and a coffee shop but visa automatically reversed those charges, which were very small,  as soon as I told them they were not mine.

I did not realize  I had been robbed until about a block after it happened when I went into my favorite rest room in Leon ( and there is not much competition for "favorite rest rooms") to finish wiping myself off  and saw that my wallet was missing.  So, I was not traumatized by the robbery but I have to admit I felt very violated when I thought about it later and realized that people on the street must have seen what was going on but  did or said nothing  to stop them.  You have to figure it had to have had looked suspicious to see a gringa grandmother being wiped off by a couple of local yokels.

Anyhow, I'll attach a picture of the policeman who took my report.  One guy in a room with a desk and a manual typewriter using carbon paper ( yes they still make it and almost all the government offices here still use it) to make several copies.  He was very efficient and thorough and the Policia Nacional should be admired for their work.   Providing Boulder Valley Credit Union with the documentation they needed was more traumatizing than the robbery.  I actually had to go to the US Embassy in Managua to get  the claim form notarized !!!!!and that cost me $50.  They have a section called Citizens Services...it should be called Citizens Profit Center.   At their insistence, I sent them a copy of the police report, which of course, was in Spanish.  They emailed me and told me I had to have it translated into English, but luckily my son intervened on my behalf and they agreed to take my statement in an email.  Thank god...that would have cost me a fortune !!!!

I have taken 2 salsa dance lessons in Leon with my Swiss friend, Nicole.   She leaves in December and I will miss her.  She is very young and a lot of fun.  I went with her yesterday to Managua to the trial of two of the people who robbed her.   I had to leave before it was over to get the last bus to Malpaisillo, but she texted me later to say both were convicted.  I am not sure of what they were charged with exactly and they'll be sentenced later.    But, it was a jury trial and I was very impressed with their system.  It seems they have everything we have in the way of judicial process as far as you can tell from watching from the outside, but the Judge and the district attorney seemed very competent and well organized, prepared etc.    Nicole and a German friend of hers were kidnapped and robbed a couple months ago in a taxi and the criminals have been in jail awaiting their court date.    They were kidnapped, handcuffed together, robbed, driven around for two hours to various ATMs in Managua where they withdrew as much money as they could get, and were  threatened with having their fingers cut off if they did not give their ATM numbers.

The good part of the story is the police work done by the Nicaragua police.  When Nicole and her friend went in to make their police report, the police called Nicole's bank in Switzerland which was able to give them the location of the ATMs where the money was withdrawn, the police in Managua went to those locations, pulled the videos, recognized the robbers and went to their house and arrested them, on the spot, in possession of several items taken from one of the young women ( cosmetics from her purse). I don't think they recovered any of the cash. 

So, all in all, that turned out OK but Nicole was very traumatized by the whole affair.

My work in the schools is sort of winding down .....we have class until the end of November but there are lots of vacations scheduled between now and then.  For instance, the election is on  Sunday, Nov. 6  but the schools are closed the whole week following the election ...no, I don't know why. We are still working in the gardens and trying to get a few crops before vacation.  We have abono( compost)  at one school but the director there sees it as a trash pile and has not allowed the custodian to add any more of the millions of leaves he rakes up every night.  At least, he seems to have stopped burning them which is a big step.  Now I have to get them to see the leaves and other yard waste as a resource to compost rather than trash.

   I have a great woman to work with, my counterpart, Adelayda.  She and her family are exceptional.  I have included pictures of her and her husband Mario in the past.   I recently learned that he played professional baseball down here for 15 years for the Granada team that is about 4 hours from here so he only came home 1 weekend a month.  After he retired from that , he worked here  in Malpaisillo for serveral years for the Mayor as a sort of sports coordinator ( I think)  and then he spent 5 years in Biloxi, Mississippi doing Katrina construction.  He and about 10 other guys from this town were there  ( all illegally) living and working together.  In fact, the other night I was sitting on their porch chatting with Mario and another man from this town who had worked with him in Biloxi but who had been deported.  Apparently, he got caught driving without a license so he was automatically picked up, jailed and eventually deported.  The funny part was his story about how he spent a couple weeks in the Jackson County Jail before being moved to the immigration detention.  He was really scared in Jackson county and told some wild tales about how the African Americans and the latinos don't mix, which is something he did not know right away and so he tried to be friends with everyone.  He said he was happy to be moved to INS detention.

There is another young fellow I have met here, he's about 30 and has an amazing story.  He has not only lived in the US for many years ( illegally of course) but he has made his way to Canada, France and Spain.  He wants to get back to Canada as he says he can more easily get his "papers" there and eventually imigrate to the US from Canada.  He has a rental property in Managua which I assume he bought with money he earned while working in the US.  and I ran into him the other day in the bus station when he was on his way to Managua to check on his new renters.   He is just amazing to be from this little podunk town, with nothing but a high school education, but has made his way literally around the world without benefit of passport or visa.   Oh yes, his English is very good and he speaks a little French too.  His mother is a teacher at one of my schools.

I went to a Jehovah's Witness assembly ( testigos de jehovah) last weekend with Adelayda and it was interesting.  I like to go to those types things to hear a lot of Spanish and to watch the people.  Actually, three of the friendliest people I have met here are Jehovah's witnesses so.....anyhow, it was interesting.     No....no worries, its not for me.  I actually almost got into an argument with one of their more aggressive "elders" when I aked him when the church started and he said "Able was the first"....so, I guess they take that all literally....oh well, they seem to be happy and I can't see that they are doing any harm. 

Last thing...there is a circus here in town and it has got to be a throwback to what we used ot have in the US.  They arrived in town in a big truck, put up their "big top" on an empty lot on a corner in town, they have three animals, a monkey, a goat and a sheep.  They used ot have a deer but in the last town they had let it out to graze and someone shot and ate it.   They have a center ring with a trampoline and some kids who do flips and jumps in clown costumes, they have a tight rope walker whose tightrope is about 8 feet off the ground, they have several groups of slap stick clowns who come out and tell funny stories and the crowds love that.  I spent a lot of time watching the crowd and they were totally enjoying all the acts.  It was terrific and so humble.  The other night, the power went out in town but the circus had a generator so all the townspeople flocked to the circus and it was a huge night for them.  That is one of the very nicest things about being here...seeing how simple life can be and what joy people can get from simple pleasures.

One other last thing...there was a parade last Saturday.   Teams from 6 other communities came here to compete in our special olympics.  Before the parade, everyone met in the central park and then paraded thru town to the stadium where they held the competition.  I've attached a photo...its not very good but I got some good video.  They refer to people with special needs as people with "capacidades diferentes." Thats a nice way to say it.

These are kids from a couple of the teams parading
thru town  before the Special Olympics competition.  They are carrying their banners and they had music with speakers in a truck and a guy walking along wiht a microphone announcing what it was all about.  very efficient way to get the word out...if you live in town.  If you live in the 'burbs, you don't get the news.

The principal ( director) of one of my schools and a student leading the other students in the Himno Nacional.  They are very patriotic.  This was the day they celebrated their independence from Spain...dia de patria. At each school all the children stood and listened to the declaration of independence being read aloud. Its a very nice tradition.

They don't refrigerate their eggs and they don't keep the cats off of them.  This is a kitten who is expected to eat rats eventually as its total source of food.  They don't really think of cats and kittens ( or dogs for that matter) as companions...just as service providers.  Doris and Javier are getting better treatment.

The kids were decorating for the Independence day parade so they sent this kid up a tree to tie the banner.  They just don't worry about things the way we do...and it all seems to work out.

Another shot of the street decorating effort.  Good kids and fun teachers.  Thats the Nicaraguan flag they are hanging.

I had an English class the other night with some older young people ( 17-18) and we had a blast.  They thanked me profusely at the end.   Saying please and thank you is not something that is done very much so its really noticeable when you hear it.  They were wonderful.  They all work in one of the little stores here in our mercado....just nice young people.

Thats it for now...life goes on...
Pat

Benji has a home

Thank you, all you wonderful people.  I got responses ranging  from "ahhhhhhhh Pat" to "send him tomorrow."  I really got a glimpse of what wonderful people I have the priviledge of knowing...thank you all.   My friend over here, Chelsea,  put him on her facebook page at the same time I  blogged about him and she got a hit.  The ex boyfriend of another volunteer wants Benji.  The volunteer and her Nica boyfriend had a dog who looks very similar to Benji but they have broken up and the volunteer is taking the dog back to the US with her in a couple of months.  So, she told her old boyfriend about Benji and that was that.  He will be living in Riva which is in the south of Nicaragua, near the Costa Rica border.  He will have a good home and will not have to endure a long airplane ride. 

But, thank you all.   Does anyone have any interest in little horses that look more like ponies but work like oxen ??!!  Just kidding, but there are tons of needy animals down here.  You might see another Benji on my blog but I will not toy with your hearts. 

Love to you all,
Pat

Benji needs a home

Ok, its starting.   I need a home for this good guy.  Another volunteer and I will help getting him to his new home.. he .just needs one.  He is very gentle and soft, even with his hard life.  He is also very skinny under that pretty fur.

  He lives in a neighborhood but not any particular house.  When Chelsea, a PC vol who lives in his neighborhood,  leaves in November she does not know where he will be  getting his next meal.  If someone will take him, we will get him his shots, neutered, and provide food for him for the next year and then I'll  bring him to you when I come in Nov. 2012. 

Just another update

Nicole, the volunteer from Switzerland, whose house I am now renting, on a horse out in the country.

This is the house of Javier and Doris in the Valle de las Zapatas.  He seems to be a serious farmer.

I am going to call them Javier and Doris...not sure at this point of their genders but who cares.  They seem happy. I am glad I got two of them.

These kids are experts on innovation...no drum stand, so where's my bike !!!

There is a Nicaraguan word...fachenta.  It means fancy, snobbish.....these girls were fachenta this day.

I took one of my 3rd grade classes on an excursion to the mercado to watch the women there who make those little purses with recycled chip bags.  The kids were enthralled and the women were very generous. 

Three of my lovely girls playing memory with the color words in English...they really got into it and are very competitive..but, good losers.

This building has interested me from early on but I did not know that it had a history. This is an example of why this country has no infrastructure.  This was the train station for our little town, which linked it and a lot of othe little towns to the cities and other small towns along the way.  I can't find a whole lot about it on the web, but apparently it was started in the late 19th century, grew larger and then declined and then President Chamorro, a woman unfortunately, sold the whole damn railroad to another country as recently as 2002 !!!!!! She sold the country's railroad !!!!!  My counterpart here remembers when it was running thru the town....of course, that is only 9 years ago....OMG !!!!

Not a whole lot new in this little burg.   There have been a lot of disruptions to the school schedule lately because of the 75th anniversary of the founding of the town along with the preparation for the Nacional dia de patria which is either the 13th or the 14 th of September.  They get the whole week off from school so I am not sure which is the official day.  There are parades both days so that further confuses me.  But, to be sure, the kids are having a lot of fun preparing with all the drums and marching and the carnival in town, etc.  Its very exciting for them.

I am attaching some photos from my trip yesterday to one of the comarcas ( suburbs) of my town, Valle de las Zapatas.   According to the farmer who we were visiting, there are about 150 houses there, and two schools so it is not really small.  All the families are involved in agriculture or cattle and it was a really delighful place.  I went with Nicole, the volunteer from Switzerland, who brought her bike here from Leon on the bus and then we biked out there together .  It was about 45 minutes each way and was not too bad in the morning while it was still sort of cool but it was a killer at 3:30 when we returned. 

The farmer, Javier, and his wife get up at 3:45 each day to milk 5 cows by hand and then he gets on his bike and bring the milk to his sister's house, across the street from my house, and she sells it.   That might give you an idea of how labor intensive everything is here.  While we were at the house, his herd of dairy cows, there were about 30 total, came trudging home and I discovered he hires a teenager who herds them on a horse, brings them home for water, and then his son, age 9, uses the same horse to take them back to the field until they come back home about 5 for the night. 

While we were there we saw 4 kittens but no mother and learned that the mother had been killed on the street a day earlier.  So, since they can lap up milk on their own, I offered to take two. ( Picture below)   Javier brought them to me this morning in a card board box hung from his handlebars and they are adjusting nicely.  They are curled up in my lap right now and I am really glad I got two as I think one would have been really traumatized to be taken away from all his siblings so early.  Anyhow, I have two and they seem to be happy, so far.

Another interesting sight out there  was a dog dragging his hindquarters around.  Seems he too was hit by a car which apparently broke his spinal column as he has no sensation in his back end.  He does not seem to be in pain, eats , poops, etc so despite him looking very very pitiful, I guess he is better off like this, than dead.  I guess.....

I think I have gotten a little more hard hearted about the hard life animals have down here.  I see so much of it from killing iguanas to beating and starving horses....its horrible..but every once in a while you see animals that have it a lot better and it is so refreshing.  It seems all the Nicas know there is a lot of mistreatment of animals but no one seems to be able to do anything about it.  They have an animal abuse  law that they refer to in stories in the paper but clearly it is not enforced.  I have seen these very small horses, I think they are really ponies, that they use to pull carts all over town, including in the cities of Leon and Managua, right along with the 18 wheelers and the huge buses, with multiple brand marks all over their bodies, clearly someone just kept placing the branding iron in various places all over the poor animals, obviously not caring about the pain involved.  But, if that is clear for me to see, surely the police can see it and could enforce the law by charging that poor horse's owner with something.  Its clear, the authorities here are overwhelmed.....and animals come way down on their list.

Javier's wife, Doris, is the lady who comes to my house once a week to mop the floors and do my wash, all of which is well worth the price.  Anyhow, I have this pile of fallen leaves and kitchen scraps in my backyard ( they call it a patio)   They usually burn everything like that but one of Peace Corps goals is to teach them to USE organic waste, compost it, or at least don' t burn it, at least pile it up somewhere and let it rot naturally !!!!.  Anyhow, when we were out there yesterday at her house, she told me she has started doing that after she saw my little pile in my yard !!!  Yay, a victory. 

Also, one of my students from the catholic school lives out there too so Javier's daughter took me to her house for a little visit ( ratita).  She took us out to show us her patio and all her trees and animals, and she told me that she remembers the video I showed them about the endangered species in Nicaragua.  Another small victory....gotta take the small when ones when I can !!!!

This next week, since the schools are closed, on Monday I am going to Esteli, a town not too far away to have lunch with another volunteer who is leaving Nicaragua in October, a month short of her 27 month committment.  She was teaching English is a very samll town outside of Esteli and had a tough time.  She did not enjoy her assignment very much, but she loved the kids and made lots of friends in her town and in Esteli.  Esteli is not as big as Leon, but its pretty good sized and has a couple nice hotels and restaurants ( with airconditioning)  Seems all the volunteers like getting away about once a month to a place with AC !!!! 

 Tuesday and Wednesday are the parades here in Malpaisillo so I'll have to make an appearance at both of them, and take some video.   I have english classes each afternoon, and some evenings, in my house so I'll probably continue with them if the kids come.  I'll try to work in the gardens some, but it really does not make a whole lot of sense for me to do that without some teachers and or students involved.  After all, its a teaching project !!!  Actually, its a good week to be off so I can get my new little friends acclimated to their new home. 

I have an update on Margarita.  Turns out she is 9 months old according to one of the girls in her family ( although she could be wrong and I plan to see what the vet thinks).  She has a large place on her back without hair and the girl told me that it was all burned off when a neighbor woman poured scalding water on her to get her to stay out of her house.  When I told other people about this, they just shrugged their shoulders and said, yeah, thats what they do around here.  See what I mean !!!!?????   Anyhow, I think her hair is growing back,.  I can now pick her up and touch her all over.  I have cut off a lot of her mats and I think she is still flea free.  She has not come to eat in the last couple of days so I have not seen her.  I actually think she gets enough food at her house, its just not dog healthy food....its their leftover rice and tortillas.  Anyhow, I want to bathe her this week....just petting her turns my hands black..she is so dirty, but very very sweet ( carinosa, they say down here). 

I also have a neighbor's full grown cat who has started coming to eat the dog food that I put out.  She seems to be real hungry so I just let her eat.  It will be interesting to see how these various animals all get along with the two kittens.  I am calling them Doris and Javier....the names of the farmer and his wife who gave them to me.

So now, some photos.