Report from Malpaisillo

Well, gang, I have been here almost 3 weeks and it is amazing how much a person can learn, and how fast.  The folks here are so unpretentious...so open,inviting, generous, humble, what other words can I use ?  People walk by my house and call out, ¨Hola, Patri...¨even when my door is closed and they don´t even know if I am at home.  It is really amazing.  Almost everyone responds to Ädios¨ ( which, incidentally means ¨hello¨as well as goodbye¨)  and some of the grimmest looking people, break into a wide smile and respond when I say Adios to them first.  Really really feels good.

So, I buy the paper everyday to practice reading Spanish, and the headlines last week were ¨Wikileaks alla aqui ¨or something like that.  Apparently our embassador, Callahan, as well his predecessors said some things about the Nicaraguan democratically elected government in their secret emails which expressed a sentiment different from what they were saying cara a cara( face to face)  here in their daily activities.   I have not heard or read a response from Nicaragua yet but....I keep buying the paper and looking for it.

Also, Nicaragua is in a dispute with Costa Rica about the rights to a river, Rio San Juan, which is on our southern border ( their northern border) .  The reading has been interesting on that too as there are several treaties, findings, and even a recent ruling from the Hague which seem to control but that has not stopped the controversy.  I read this morning that Costa Rica is asking the US to send troops.  Great !!!!

I have set up Spanish classes with the woman who lives next door, she is a Spanish teacher at the local secundaria ( high school)  She seems very very smart and her husband is the IT guy for a local ONG funded by Spain, Xochilt Acalt.   Its a huge ONG ( NGO) employs about 85 people from the local area in its various capacities.
Its primary meta ( goal) I believe is to empower women and they work with women on farming practices, anti-family violence, manufacturing those red tiles for roofing and gobs of other stuff I have not yet understood.

School is out now until the end of January so I have had lots of time to roam around town and meet lots of other folks.  I have met Nicole, a volunteer at Xochilt from Switzerland.  She is very nice and we may go on a bike ride this afternoon after it cools off a little.  I also met this really cool guy from here who is young, has dred locks and seems to know everyone.  He had a call in/shout out music show on the local cable channel ( another contradiction) which has a little studio here in Malpaisillo but he needs funding....$200 a month for a two hour show, 5 days a week. He says he got about 30 calls an hour when he had his show so I am sure there is a formula by which I could extrapolate how many actual viewers he had.    I am working with him to include some info about safe sex, HIV, adolescent pregnancy, etc. in his program once we/he can find a sponsor.  These subjects are a world wide goal of Peace Corps so I can incorporate them in his show, and he is very willing,  and he is willing to work with a young person on his show, as a secondary project.  That idea needs some work, but I think it has lots of potential. His audience is exactly the demographic we are trying to reach.   He has a degree in architecture but cannot find work in that field. .  Its very very hard here...very high unemployment but lots of people with degrees as the state provides free college education.

I´ve spent quite a bit of time with the community educator at the Centro de Salud, its sort of a public health organization.  Medical care is free here, more or less.  If you need surgery or have an emergency, you are covered.  You also can get your medication free if its something the state provides.  But, there are a lot of medical expenses that are not covered so its very hard to understand so far. She, Marlene, is about my age and very very active.  She has taken me to a couple very interesting meetings, one with young local girls who are pregnant.  She, along with representatives of the Commission de mujeres y ninos ( women and children) of the local office of the policia nacional presented some very basic information on nutrition and danger signs but the girls were very attentive and had very sincere and thoughtful questions.  I am hoping to get incorporated into that group and eventually provide some nutritional and enviornmental information.  One of my obligations to PC is to work with a group of youth, so that might be my group in the making.

Dental is not covered and there seem to be a lot of dentists around. There are also a lot of abogadas ( lawyers) but they all seem to work out of their homes and seem pretty humble.  There might be more fancy lawyers in Managua or Leon, but I have not seen them yet.

Last week we celebrated Purisima.  It rated a day off from work for most people on the day following the celebration  which is Dec. 7 but it is technically a religious holiday.    I think it is the celebration of something to do with the virgin Mary and they call it ¨concepcion¨so I am guessing its the day she miraculously  conceived....I just don´t get it.  Anyhow, people set up altars in front of their homes, with a statue of the virgin mary decorated with blinking lights, often with regatone music playing in the background and then after dark, their neighbors come around, call out something about the virgin mary, the homeowners respond with some predetermined phrase, and then the neighbors all sing a predetermined song about the virgin Mary  until the homeowner comes out with small gifts or candies for all the neighbors. Also, all the young boys seems to have unlimited access to fireworks and ¨bombas¨so they were exploding until late into the night.     Its a lot like Halloween....but, not.  Its really very sweet, and the locals love it,  but not being a believer...its a little hard to figure out.  I am told that Nicaragua is the only country that celebrates this holiday, and they even have another similar holiday, named the same thing, in August every year.  One is called the ¨little purisma¨and this one was called the ¨regular purisma. I am told the celebration in Leon, the big city nearby, where the famous catherdral is located, is HUGE.  I want to be there next year on Dec. 7.

I actually went to misa ( mass) right before the rounds started to experience that part of the holiday.  There were only about 15 people there, counting me and the three music people and two priests.  Its sort of sad how church attendance has fallen off...because the churches are so big and look so empty when there is no one in them. 

A little about food...its somewhat of an issue..but not really in the grand scheme of things.  I have found a local lady who sells fresh corn tortillas out of her front door two houses from me ( she has a dirt floor), and another lady across the street who sells guyaba ( I think that is how you spell it) cheese which she makes right there on her front porch ( her back yard , which they call their patio, abuts a huge field of peanuts.) I can buy eggs, one at a time for 3 cordobas each which amounts to less that 50 cents a dozen ( I usually buy 6 at a time since no one here refrigerates eggs, and the vol. from Switzerland told me they don´t either and that she thinks its odd that we do)  There is a comedor ( small restaurant) on the corner of my block where I can buy lunch most days for a dollar and it usually consists of frijoles, arroz, ensalada ( shredded cabbage in a good vinegar mixture) sometimes pico de gallo ( which they call something else) and a corn tortilla on top to scoop it all up.  I actually use a fork but most folks don´t.  They have meat every day, but I have established myself as a vegetariano so I pass on the meat....just don´t have a good feeling about how they handle their animals when they are alive...or dead.  So, I get plenty to eat and have not gained any weight so I am not worried.  I buy water from another lady on my block ( the water is potable but we are told there are lots of residual chemicals in the ground water from when the farmers here were using chemicals to excess that were provided by an American agriculture co. with directions in English only so the farmers misused them to grow cotton for American consumption...of course)  This area used to be one of the most fertile spots in Nicaragua but ....after the cotton fiasco ( cotton agriculture was outlawed in the ´70s due to the horrible consequences) the land has not recovered so now they grow peanuts and some other basic grains....and graze cattle.  The other night , I boiled a pepian ( a squash that is a staple here), put it in the blender, added some powered soy milk and some olive oil ( you can buy some good stuff at the grocery store in Leon but it is unfortunately owned by Walmart), spun it around and used it as a sauce on some pasta.  It worked. I bot my three burner gas stove, the blender, some dishes, a bicycle and some other small stuff from the previous volunteer who was here.  At the time, I did not realize how lucky I was to have access to that stuff.  It is hard to accumulate it all.

Whew, I am out of steam......One last thing.  I am working with the families of two deaf/mute teenagers here in town who have had no training in sign language but who both seem to be perfectly intelligent, lovely young men.  One of them has one sister who is a doctor, another who is a lawyer, another who lives in  Wyoming and a 4th who is currently a student in biology in the state university in Leon.  My spanish is not good enough to fully understand why they have not pursued specialized training for their brother, but I am getting there. I got him a dicionario of the Nicaragua sign language and he got very very excited.  We are going to have little classes, just them and their families and me, to practice some of the signs and try to teach them to read a few words at the same time.  I have contact with the Nicaragua assn. of Surdos ( deaf/mutes) and am hoping they will help me facilitate getting these boys some legitimate instruction.    lots to do.....I love it.

Love to you all,
Pat