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.

A really short one

Margarite was on my porch tonight eating and drinking, and then she laid down and rested .....and she WASN"T SCRATCHING FLEAS !!!!  I'll bet that is a first for her....it was so wonderful to watch.

I got the first half of that pill into her and will get the other 1/2 in on Sept. 13, then monthly after that.

I tried to get her a pill today to prevent pregnancy, but they don't have a pill, just an injection.  When I said I could not give her that,the vet asked me if I could bring her in and they would do it, so I whispered to him, " She's not my dog....."  He laughed....so, maybe when she gets real relaxed around me, he said I could give her a little sedative, and then give her the shot...so, maybe I can do that in a couple months.

Just an update

I've been back about 2 months and everything is back to normal.  I am having English classes in my house with no more that 3 kids at a time so that is very nice.  I still have my class at the school for the younger kids and that usually turns into a free-for-all, but they seem to like it that way, so I can live with it.  ( for an hour a week)

I was planning to blog last sunday, but just when I got all geared up, the power went out and did not come back on until sometime in the night.  Then, as I was getting into the shower the next morning, with the bathroom light on, I discovered there was no water.  I learned later from another teacher that there would not be water FOR 4 DAYS !!!!! Apparently, they notified all of us good citizens but I did not get the message.  They use these red moto taxi's ( a three wheeled scooter with a cab on it)  with HUGE speakers strapped on the top, to go up and down the streets announcing everything from a water shut off to a death/funeral in the town. They also use the same means to sell green peppers, announce church services, announce baseball scores, etc. so I have pretty much grown to ignore them.  Besides, the guy doing the talking is also the guy driving the moto taxi and it usually sounds like ....  "BLADHALDKFGeotjvnsjfleiwqjdkgfnvbjgtoyJito" or worse, to my ears.

I'm attaching some photos.  One is of the 50th Anniversary celebration of Peace Corps ( 30 years in Nicaragua) that was held in a very nice restaurant in Leon.  I went and took one of the principals ( directora) of one of my schools.  It was nice, very small and simple. I think she enjoyed the information.   I guess in the past they have had a lot more money to spend on celebrations and the like, but they have had their budget cut so they are cutting out the frills, too.

I took a bike ride this morning, my first other than in the streets of Malpaisillo.  It was a little scary as there is virtually no shoulder and the buses and trucks move awfully fast.  But, I made it.  I went out to a little community to give some money to a family to pay the bus fare for the young woman, Jackeling, who I have mentioned before.  She is going into Leon 3 days a week to help out and observe in a deaf school so she hopefully can get hired as a teacher and hold classes here in Malpaisillo for our deaf kids, their families and those from the surrounding comarcas.

 I have learned that the reason there is so much deafness here is because the families have access to antibiotics over the counter and those which end in "micin" have the possible side effect of deafness.  Apparently, when children are born in unclean conditions they often suffer "sepsis" which the family then  treats with this antibiotic which apparently kills the infection but often results in deafness.  The rate here is 5x that of the US.  Actually, I am surprised it is not higher. 

Anyhow, I have gotten involved in attempts to get some deaf education going here.  I am planning to host a week or two "camp" when the kids are off school in January, to teach them some basic signs and finger spelling.  Kids love that stuff and learn much faster than grandmothers...I am sure.  I am hoping to work with the lady who directs the Public Library.  She is currently in Pittsfield, MA on an exchange with their library.  She has never flown before and she is traveling alone.  The folks in MA offered to allow her to bring a traveling companion, but apparently we would not issue the person she chose a VIsa so she is coming alone.  That will be a riot !!  She is very eccentric !!

So, the first picture below is that of a litte........doggie !!! how pitiful is she ??Her name is Margarite and she has a family but its not much of a life.  I have started feeding her and giving her fresh water.  She chows down on both.  I got a pill ( 10 cordobas==about 22 cents) to give her to kill fleas.  Sometimes they bite her so bad, she cries out and then goes after them.  Very sad, and she is filthy.  The little girl who owns her calls her their Pekinese.   If she has Peke in her, its a very small percentage.  Anyhow, I am giving her some food and comfort for a year or so.  I'll try to get a better picture but she is very timid.  I told Helen, her owner, that she is very timid and Helen says thats because we hit her.  Duh !!! There are no pretenses over here...that is for sure.  I have been feeding her for only a few days, but the other night she came and I did not know it , so she barked, to let me know she was available for eating.  I have this flea killer pill to give her so I have to buy a hot dog to stick it in now that she'll let me get close enough to toss bits to her.

Margarite having a little snack and some fresh water on my front porch.  She is very timid but at least she does not run when I open the door.  She waits for something to appear in her bowl. 

This is Helen with her pig.  Her family owns Margarite and they live right behind me on the next calle but we have a very high concrete wall between us.  This is not my street, mine is paved.  This is the street that connects my street with Helen's  and it  is a river after the rains.  The rains come down so hard and fast that the earth cannot absorb them so theres a lot of runoff and the plants dry out the next day. 

 

This is the 50th Anniversay of Peace Corps celebration.

These are some 5th graders with their teacher , Brenda.  They took some gifts and a cake to her house and invited me.  They'll each get a copy of this photo when I remember to t ake my cable to Leon with me. She is a fantastic teacher. 

This is an inside shot of a little place in Leon, La Rosita.  Some gringos own it and they cater to extraneros from everywhere.  Lots of PC vols. meet there for various purposes and TO EAT !!! 

This was taken at the restaurant where the PC held its 50th anniversay.  Just a shot from the second floor down to the entry way.  Its very pretty with lots of beautiful woodwork.

I have internet in my house thru a modem that connects to the phone system.  That has been very nice and lets me keep up with my loved lovely ones in the US.   I have a granddaughter skiing in Chile right now with her ski team and then she has been invited to ski with the US ski team ( not as a member of the team, just as a prospect) this winter in Austria, while the rest of that crew spent several days on Lake Powell.   My son and his wife have been travelling a lot with their music and this past weekend was spent in Santa Fe. Check out Finnders and Youngberg on YouTube.   When he isn't traveling the world to Star Trek conventions, my brother is in upstate NY writing screen plays and fighting the fracking companies that want to get into the shale in his part of the woods. My sister is in Annapolis doing good deeds in a thrift store that supports the elderly in their homes, that is,  when she is not in Florida, running the condo association down there.

So, thats it for me for now

Love,
Pat
PS  Margarite says good bye too !!!!

Variety is the spice of life

Today was one of the most diverse I have had  so I wanted to be sure to log it, for my benefit at least and it might be interesting to some of you.  I went to my public school, 18 de Junio, at 7 am to take some posters I had made that have the English words for most of the colors.  The teachers were thrilled to get them and the kids just LOVE anything related to speaking English.    Then, I lost my patience with a water spigot that has been leaking for at least two days.  It was clear no one was going to address it so I went to a local ferreteria, hardward store ( my counterpart's husband has one on their front porch - photo attached) and bought a "clave" spigot for 72 cords which is about 3.50, took it back to the school and the special ed. teacher fixed it.  My counterpart said that Paticia " esta sufriendo" about all the water that was just spewing out all over the playgroud unless someone tied the turning mechanism down.  Anyway, it just amazes me how so many people down here can just NOT SEE so many things.  I guess you have to get that way to stay sane when so many things are in such disarray.  Its the third one I have replaced....I just can't stand to see water going all over the place when the dogs are walking with their tongues hanging out....

So, I left that school about 8 to keep a prearranged meeting.  I had arranged over the phone in Spanish ( can you believe that ?) with the sister of  the girl who is deaf go to Leon with me to meet some of those folks who work in the deaf community.  The plan was that I would get on the bus in Malpaisillo and she would be standing along the highway and I would be watching for her and the bus would stop for her and we would go the rest of the way to Leon together .  It worked.  She was there and the bus stopped and so forth.

I had arranged ( or so I thought)_ to take her to Leon to meet some folks at a special education school who could get her connected with the right people so that she could hone her sign language skills, get some teaching skills and hopefully come back to Malpaisillo as a paid teacher and teach our many many kids who are deaf and currently have NO services.  Most of those kids just stay home, but some go to school and just watch whats going on and look forward to recess !!!

So she, Jackeling, and I got to Leon, got a taxi to the part of Leon called Sutiavi where the school is located and got to the school only to find that there were no kids there, the main teacher she needed to see was at a training in another town and most of the rest of the teachers were in a training.  She did get to see the three deaf teachers who were there but not at the meeting and they all knew each other from somewhere ( the deaf community here is very close, just as it is in the US) so that part was wonderful. 

One teacher came out from the meeting and basically told us to come back on monday and we could see Martha, the lady we need to see.  So, that means on Monday, after my morning in the school here , I'll get on a sweaty bus, meet Jackeling along the highway, and make another stab at Leon.  If nothing else, I am gaining huge confidence in my Spanish when I have to talk to all the folks on various topicts.

 Even our taxi driver was a treat - I spoke to him in Spanish about where we wanted to go and then, when the other guy got out, the driver started talking to me in English.  He had learned it all in high school here and was now in his last year of college....driving a cab and finishing college.  The odds of him ever finding a job other than driving a cab are very slim...but many of our young people are well educated with nothing to do with their education.  Its sad. 

So, Jackeling went home on the bus and I stayed in Leon to do some errands.  Actually, I bought a dock so I could play my ipod in the house without earphones.  Its wonderful.  I also went to that french bakery, bought a tuna sandwich on a whole wheat baguette ( a big treat) took it to the super market where they have air conditioning and a few tables, bought a paper and sat there and ate my sandwich and read the paper.  Yes, read the paper, I buy one almost every day and can pretty much understand it all.  The politics are really heating up...we actually had a bit of a riot in one of the smaller towns in the northern part of the country.

I got home about 2:30.  The bus ride was not all that bad...not at all crowded and no rain.  Two of the teachers at my other school and I had agreed to be at their school at 3:30 to work in the garden.  We had talked and they let me know, by text message, that this was the best date and time for them and it worked for me.   So, at about  3:20 off I go with a bag of partially composted leaves and kitchen peelings in a sack in my basket behind my seat and a bucket of the same stuff hanging off of my handlebars.  There were a few kids there , but NO teachers.  The garden was clearly dry as a bone, as I knew it would be.  The partially composted leaves were to mulch the plants to try to preserve some moisture.  So, I spread the leaves around a couple of the plants and watered them in and they looked so much more healthy just with the leaves there instead of that dry powdery " soil" lying there.  Notice I put quotation marks around that word...its not really soil...its dust.

By way of background, the Nicas use "basura" to describe anything they are not eating or wearing.  For example, basura is either organic or inorganic but they rarely differentiate and that is something we are trying to teach them.  So, basically basura means trash.  This cute kid was standing there in the garden watching me mulching the plants and he asked, very genuinely and sweetly, " Why are you putting all that trash around those plants ?"  It was so sweet and innocent.  It was a teaching moment so that s what I did,.  There are lots of them and the kids are so great.

So, a couple of the kids and I watered the garden and I took a couple of tomato plants to transplant and gave to Adalayda on the way home.  She is my counterpart and I have mentioned her many times.  She is fantastic.  I am attaching a photo of her husband's ( the baseball player who just got home from living illegally in the US for 5 years working in Biloxi)hardward store on their front porch. 

I am writing this about 8 pm, with my Ipod playing Jimmy Buffet songs on its new dock, I/m connected to the internet after having spent my day as I have described above.   So many contradictions....it constantly amazes me and keeps things interesting.

Well, as luck would have it.  The lights just went out so now I am on battery, have a candle burning next to my computer, no fan, no tunes..   Gotta love it.

Thats it except for a couple photos

Jackeling is the one in jeans, the child is the daughter of the couple on the ends and Adolpho, the other guy is deaf too.  The child is not deaf.

This is called a mini ferreteria

Pat