Well, I am back in the cyber in Jinotepe this fine Sunday morning. It actually is ¨fresco¨which is what they call weather under 90 degrees. Actually, I am beginning to adapt to the weather and don´t feel so hot so much of the time. I learned the other day that body temperatures here are a few points, like 98.8, above what we call normal. I can believe it.
I am starting this new paragraph for Ramelle..Apparently, he likes paragraphs !!!
I have experienced a few interesting things in the last couple of days that I wanted to share. First, we are half way thru training and I am sooo ready to be in a community where I will stay for a while. I love my training site but it is hard getting comfortable knowing I´ll be leaving in a few weeks. We had a presentation from current volunteers who are living in sites where there will be a place for a new volunteer and next week we get interviewed/given an opportunity to express our desires. There is only one site that I don´t want and that is in a gold mining community that PC describes as very poor. I don´t think I could take any deeper poverty than normal and I have such a hatred of mine owners in general....well...I just don´t think they should send me there. I think I would like to be near Leon as it is a city described as ¨liberal.¨ Of course that relates back a couple centuries to when Granada was considered the cultural and conservative capital and Leon was considered the ïntellectual and liberal capital. Leon is more of a tourist town with lots of colonial ( thats another issue) Spanish architecture that has not been damaged by earthquakes, fires or volcanos. Anyhow, I think I would like to be near Leon but that means going to a place that is hot, hot hot !!! Good thing I have grown to LOVE cold showers.
New paragraph !!! So, the interesting things. First, I was just hanging out in the front part of the house and saw a little horse drawn cart coming down the road so I watched it approach. There were two youngish hombres aboard, drinking cerveza out of plastic bags. They sell things here, all types of things, in small quart sized plastic bags as it is muy carro ( very expensive) to buy a whole bottle of something , so they repackage it, like Coke and milk, into these very thin plastic bags, put on a twist tie, and people buy them, bite off a corner, ingest the contents, and then, unfortunatamente, throw the plastic bag onto the street. But, anyway, this was the first time I had seen cerveza in a bolsa...but, when you think about it...why not. I don´t think they have an open container law and if they do, it must not apply to horse drawn carts.
New paragraph. Another thing involved the Sandinistas. We all know about them from the late 70s and early 80s and the contra horribleness. Well, I have been reading a lot and know a lot more. First of all, there is still a Sandinista party, in fact , it is the party that is in power now and the Presidente of Nicaragua is Daniel Ortega who was a big player in the ´79 revolution to overthrow the Somozas and then continued to lead the country until the late 80s when he and the Sandinistas agreed to hold an open election and by some stroke of luck.....his party lost and the Liberal party took over. Anyhow, that is another thing and the whole Contra funding etc.that went on for at least a decade is another sad tale from down here. But, yesterday, I heard this loudspeaker and siren approaching our little town and then saw three vehicles race by with Red flags flying and numerous hombes standing the back of the trucks waving their arms. Some kids from my family, which is very very Sandinista having had many of their sons and one daughter who is now a lawyer fight with the Sandinistas against the contras in recent history, ran to get and fly our Sandinista flag ( which is black and red) in front of the house for when the Liberals returned. Very interesting and very passionate. One of the bloodiest battles of the revolution took place in this town where I am sitting right now and the Senora in my host home recalls the bombers flying very low over her house ( where she was raising 9 children) on their way to this town. Recent memories for this family.
And lastly, this morning I got a taxi to town ( 5 cordobas which I cannot even calculate but 21 cordobas is a dollar) so I could get a watch battery and on the road out of town I saw a whole crew of people and of course the ever present horse ( the horses here are actually large ponies - cheaper to feed) and cart working to fill holes in the caraterra ( road.) I recognized one of the kids from our youth group and asked the taxi driver if it was gente( folks) from Guisquiliapa....he said yes and we chatted about how they were not waiting for the gobierno ( government ) to fix their road...they just did it themselves. It was a wonderful thing to see.
Thats all for now. I am NOT sweating at this very moment !!
No comments:
Post a Comment