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.