Its been over two months since I wrote on this blog and I think that is a sign that sights and events down here have become my new normal and who wants to write about much less read about normal.

From time to time I am moved by a particularly tender moment ( usually involving a child) or a particularly shocking moment ( usually involving an animal) and plan to go home and blog but I have not done so, obviously.

This morning I have something to say that is not all that shocking but it will give a flavor of things here.

It started raining last night and as far as I could tell, it rained all night sometimes softly and sometimes hard.  I was awake a lot during the night....not because of the rain but because of two male cats who have started dining here on a regular basis.  Its OK if they choose different seating times, but when one crawls in thru the missing glass panel in the window to discover that the other one is already "a dentro"  all Hell breaks loose and its not easy for any cat to escape thru the same 4 inch wide space that he had just casually crawled thru.  When this happens in the "living room" which is about 5 feet from the "bedroom" and separated by only a partial wall, my two little innocent spayed females, Doris and Javiera, run like the wind and pounce on my bed or onto my mosquito net.  Either way, I then become part of the drama.  But, it is usually over as quickly as it begins ( not counting the gutteral sounds which emanate from the bushes under the escape window for the next several minutes.)

So, somehow I slept in this morning and awoke with a start at 7:15,  My usual time to amanacer is 5:15 due to the barking dogs and the vendors calling out their wares in the street in front of my house,( which is also separated from the street by only a partial wall).  But anyhow, it was great to sleep in and I must have been really sleeping soundly as I did not hear or sense the two cats who I discovered when I opened my eyes sleeping in my mosquito net right above my head.  It looked from my perspective like two bags of potatoes hanging in a hammock....they must love it...it looked very comfy. 

So, I had an English class scheduled  at 8:30 so I rushed around and headed to the school on my bike ( the rain had pretty much ended) only to discover that school had been cancelled due to "lluvia."  The kids and the teachers don't go to school when it rains during the night before.   Actually, if it had cleared up and the sun had been shining, they probably would have had school but few kids would have come.  But, it was still very dreary and sprinkling around 7:30 so they just all stayed home.

On my way home, I stopped at the market and bought a libra of tomatoes, a libra of onions, a dozen bananas and a jug of water.  Peace Corps warns us to be especially vigilant about not drinking local water during the rainy season.  The well water often gets polluted when the rios get full and the  ground gets saturated.  I have been drinking bottled water all along but some of the younger braver volunteers try to go native and eat and drink like the locals. 

One last unfortunate occurrence this morning....as I was riding my bike home I noticed a kid coming toward me on a bike in a cute hat and an umbrella in his hand.  I watched him as he rode up next to a dog who was innocently standing in the road, not in his way, facing the side of the road, and saw the kid reach out with his umbrella and poke or stab ( I couldn't tell how hard it was) the dog in the side.  Of course, the dog yelped and of course, I yelled at the kid.

 There is so much of that kind of thoughtless infliction of pain on animals.  I try to understand it as a function of the extreme poverty...that so many people are so powerless and in such pain themselves,  that they get some kind of relief by inflicting pain on someone or something else.  But, try as I might, I still don't get it.

Based on what I read in the paper, there is a lot of abuse of all types in the more rural parts of this country, but here in my town, it seems like the kids are well cared for and treated appropriately.  There is one woman in the mercado I've seen grab her son by his ear and twist it very cruelly so much so that he screams and when she lets go he rubs it and cries for a while. But, other than that I don't recall having seen a child hit or disciplined physically by an adult. 

I have two other classes today - one of which was this morning so I am sure its been cancelled.  I am building a garden and vivero with a 4th grade class at the Catholic school ( more about that school later) and we were going to work on that but of course can't after that heavy rain even if they had held school.  My other class ( actually three classes) are this afternoon with 7th graders.  We have a video about violence in "noviazgo" relationships ( boy/girl friends) that I have been taking to Ciencia de vida classes in the secondary school with great success.  They kids love to watch it and depending on the skill of their teacher, they have a good discussion afterwards.

Finally, regarding the Catholic school where I work.  I may have mentioned this earlier, but I was shocked to see how few resources they had, what disrepair the buildings were in, the kids have no books and the teachers even less.  The teachers are paid less than the public school teachers ( that means less than $200 a month)  and sometimes they are not paid on time if the coffers are low.  The kids pay about 100 cordobas a month, thats about $5.00.  They have a preschool class that has three levels of preschool mixed together ( 3, 4 and 5 year olds) and then then have one class of each grade 1-6 in the primary and 1st year thru 5th year in the secondary.  They have a really great PE/Music teacher and they have a computer lab with 5 computers so they sit in groups of sometimes 6 at each computer and take turns using it.  They have a partime English teacher so each class gets 1/2 hour once a week.  The teachers seem genuinely dedicated and seem to do a great job with VERY little.

Anyhow, I heard somewhere that this town had a sister city in the US which had given generously to the local public library.  So, it occurred to me that our sister city might have a catholic church that could help out our catholic school.

To make a long story short, I did find out that the catholic church in the sister city had indeed been very generous with the catholic school here many years ago but had gotten badly burned by the "loss" of quite a bit of money which was under the control of the local padre and furthermore , had lost more money when the local farmers had defaulted on their farm loans ( in a program set up by the catholic sister church).  I was told that when they learned that "someone" had absconded with the school/church money they decided they would not pay back their loans either.  There's some logic there ???  But being a country flooded with relief agencies and NGOs does something to the folks....

Not sure of the details, but that padre "left" and a new padre came but he "left" too after what some people told me was having "inappropriate" conduct with young people in the church.  So, now they have a padre who is a monsignor and who the school directora ( principal) tells me is of a much higher level than the previous two.   So, after some detective work and communicating by email with some folks in the sister city who had worked on the public library funding, I made contact with the catholic church of days gone by and have reestablished a relationship between them and the local church/school.  We have a SKYPE meeting scheduled for July 5 between the school directora and the Monseignor and the Human Development committee of the church in NY.   So, I count that as a success.....they are few and far between, unfortunately. 

I did go on a little junket to the Carribean Coast of Nicaragua and will attach some photos from that.
Before that, I had spent  a couple days at San Juan del Sur with a former PC vol. who was in a Spanish Language school there for a month. 
All for now,
Appreciate what you have,
Pat

A tree in our town park which just has to be the inspiration for the Trufula trees in the Lorax.



A group of the teachers from the Catholic School doing an inservice.

Pedestrian bridge from one part of San Jual del Sur to the other.  One side has the commercial stuff and the other side is exclusive homes and condos

San Juan del Sur

San Juan del Sur

The immediate view from the room where I was staying in San Juan del Sur.   A more panoramic view is of the lovely beach and sunset but this is the reality of the community, for the most part.

The longer view from my room, averting ones eyes from the immediate surrounding.  Tho you can see at the bottom of the picture the fence lining the foot path up the hillside which is the only access....no roads up this hill.

I took this in the small plane on the way to the caribbean coast.  My counterpart, Adelayda, sat right behind the pilots.  TSA would go nuts.....no security on this flight. 

In the port of Bluefields, on the carribean coast.  Plantanos either going out or coming in.

A Moravian church in Lagoon de Perla.  The Moravians have a lot of churches on this Coast.

A colorful little photo of the harbor in Laguna de Perla.

My street again with my neighbor ( who is very cute but an awful brat) buying an ice cream from the cart.  This old man pushes this cart all over town in all kinds of weather.  The brand is Eskimo which they pronounce Eskeemo with the accent on the kee.

These clever children are swinging on this trash receptacle which is good use of it since its bottom has rusted out and the trash goes straight thru.  The kids are very very hard on things...don't understand that but trying.

A load of firewood on an ox cart at the end of my street.  The water standing is wash water directly discharged into the street in violation of health dept. regs. but...........there is little enforcement of many regs.