Hello all!

Ive made it home for the holidays. Its almost a surreal experience. Because I when I left last year the temperature was simpler, and because nothing really ever changes here, it almost feels like Nicaragua was just a short vacation or something, because the world I'm walking back into is pretty much identical to the one I left.

Im having a hard time explaining my time abroad. As many of you know Im a cynic, and its possible I've been painting my experiences rather strongly with the negative brush. But thats really not the whole reality, as you probably know from my previous readings.

Its wonderful to be able to communicate in my native language,Im actually more of a talker now than I was before, Im just catching up! My vocab in english has become slightly diminished, but it should go back up as I need to study for the GREs (UUUGHHHH!). Another thing that I hadn't anticipated was that when you can't communicate you loose a little of your personality, so its nice to have the whole Hazel back.


Happy New year everyone. When I feel more inspired I'll write more.

So this weekend I took a well needed mini break. A friend and I are down in San Juan del Sur for a couple nights relaxing on the beach (Did I mention how sweet of an assignment Nicaragua is?). We splurged on a surfing lesson and I was standing after only a few tries. We stayed in the white wash, we actually werent ontop of any breaking waves, but I think we¨ve got a solid start. Surfing has always been something that has interested me, but never imagined myself ever doing. Its fun!
Sorry, no pictures!

I went north on friday, and helped build an oven with another volunteer. (i´ve decided that I´m now an honorary Agriculture volunteer). These ovens are really awesome because they do a few interesting things, they cut back on wood used because they are more efficient and hold heat better, are cheap to build, and last for a long time. Also the design releases less smoke, therefore reducing lung problems in the household. These ovens are constructed using bricks, an old steel drum, rebar, and mud. Cement isnt used because it doesnt hold the heat as effectivly and its expensive.

Successs!

Dec 1 is World HIV/AIDS day. I had planned activities for that day in the center of town, all of which flopped, (due to a variety of things like I had a conference and was out of town the week before, my co-leader in the health center lost her father that week, and it took 2 months for the mayor’s office to even receive my letter asking for help, let alone responding to it) so I was a little disappointed. The next day I traveled out to a rural community where I have a small, but active youth group. We´d planned a presentation in the park for 2.30 pm. (Of course that really means 3.30)
So we got set up and waited and waited, and no one came. We had maybe 5 mothers and their kids, and I´m not really sure that I wanted to give condom demonstrations to 5 year olds, not really umm... pertinent yet. So we decided to start anyway. By the end of the day we had over 100 people show up. The doctora who works in the health center came by and saved me from my terrible Spanish and helped explain how HIV works, the difference between HIV and AIDS. In my site we have 16 cases of HIV in all the communities, and have had 4 deaths this year. My part of the country has over 1000 cases, and the country as a whole has well over (I think) 8000 cases. Those numbers I think were an eye opener the town’s people. After the little presentation we had maybe an hour of games and prizes (thanks to an NGO in Managua that donated the hat, towels, condoms, etc etc). The girls and I did condom demonstrations to over 100 people, I thought it would be more embarrassing, but I learned quickly how to laugh at myself.



This was a game where we tied balloons to people feet, and they had to stomp them. When a balloon was popped the person was supposed to answer an HIV/AIDS question, but that didn’t quite work out.



Here we had a competition of two pairs to see who could put the most water in their condom. This activity is designed to demonstrate how much condoms can stretch. A commonly heard complaint against condom use is that ¨they don´t stretch enough to fit¨.



The little town’s cultural alliance performed some traditional dance for the group, and we ended the day with a dance competition.



I finally feel like my projects are working out, yesterday was a huge morale booster that was well needed.

This is the virgin mary surrounded by lilac like flowers. This is in honor of the Purisima, which is celebrated from Nov 28 until the 8th of December. I´ve been told that it is a celebration of the Virgin, and the activities focus on children. Here the children sang bible songs (this was set up in the government run health
center)and we handed out oranges, rice pudding, and candy.




Lunch, beans, rice, steamed veggies, and salad- surprisingly colourful meal!

I recently had a friend visit which was amazing. We spent one week in my site, and the secon week treaveling.
This is a view from where we stayed on the Island of Ometepe. This island is in the middle of Lake Nicaragua, the largest lake in central america. It actually even has a sustainable population of bullshark. There are two mountains that form the island, we climbed the smaller one which is actually behind us so you can't see it in the photo.
View 1

View 2

I really like the contrast between the red roofs, green forests, and blue mountains.


This above photo is of the guid we had, we succesfully eluded him the whole day, he was rather obnoxious, and less than obvious about his interest in me. (it was awekward he'd tell me how much I look like his sister, then tell me how beautiful I am and do something like rub my shoulders or try to play with my hair.. ewww!)Here he asked me if I really needed glasses so he gave them a go, and realized yes, I am rather blind.


This photo is of me returning a work call, I love that my office can be on the side of a volcano to the tune of howler monkeys.






Coffee beans growing. perfect climate for them, and its amazingly tastey.


A couple of the ferries that take people to and from the main land.


A view of the bigger of the two volcanos which we didn't climb. This one is active.


We volunteered for a day on a permaculture farm (not still 100% clear on what permaculture is exactly, it involves farming modeling naturally exhisting ecosystems,and landscapes) we had the honor of chopping down banana trees which machettes which was a blast! The trees only live for a year or two bearing fruit at which point they're cut down. Each tree gives birth to around 8 new trees after being chopped.

So becareful of hornets when cutting down groves of banana trees, I got caught in the action of being stung.


Path through banana trees


View from volcano Maderus.


This is the lagoon in the middle of the volcano. Beautiful and errie.


Myself and my friend! (she said I can post her picture...!)



Muddy feet!




This bug was huge! about the size of the palm of my hand, its clinging onto the top of a fence post.



When we were in Granada we visited a animal clinic which speys and neuters pets for free.




Sunset from the coffee farm

I've become somewhat interested in Volcanoes, and here is an interesting online book from the USGS about volcanoes. http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/volc/cover2.html

I have a friend visiting now, which has been a complete blast! we´ve spent a week in my sight, but next we are going to travel around a little bit, try to get up the top of a few volcanos! Its been really interesting being somewhat like a translator. Sometimes I´ll forget what language I´m supposed to be talking in, and turn to her in spanish, and speak to my Nicaraguan friends in English. On her last night in my town, we made home-made ice-cream using the zip-lock bag method. All the little kids on the street lined up the get a spoon full scooped into their hands which they would happily slup up. Everyone in my town was really receptive, and open to my friend. I was a little concerned that it would be a strange clash of worlds, my friend from home, and my new Nicaraguan life, but it wasn´t at all awkeward! Being a translator has made me feel a little more confident about my spanish, which was well needed!

Well tomorrow we´re hoping to get up a volcano tomorrow, so its bed time!


Hazel

Weighing kids, cooking classes, and pickup trucks

So in some of the rural towns we have programs where monthly, workers from the health center and volunteers go and weigh children from the age of 2 and under. This is tracked, and the mothers counseled if their child is underweight, or losing weight. Many times the counseling bit gets overlooked, but it’s still nonetheless a good program. UNICEF a while back donated this scale system.<
Which is actually really terrifying for the poor kids. They hang in this sack shown here, but kids are top heavy. And the sack always makes like it’s going to flip over and dump the kids out. Many have learned to cry upon entering the health center, others when they see the thing. Others cry while in the scale, squirming all around, making it impossible to get a reading on their weight. There are a few though, that think it’s a blast and laugh, and jump up and down, and refuse to get out.





We had an NGO come into town, and we had a cooking lesson with the pregnant women in the Casa Maternal, (like a halfway house where women at risk, and from rural areas come to wait to give birth, as to avoid risks of a home birth)

So I´ve always liked Toyota pickup trucks. When I was in Honduras in 2003, we had a Tacoma which we loaded with I think it was 18 people, a day of water, food, and cement up a pretty harsh dirt mountain road. The thing never failed us. Only minorly once, and that was the mud’s fault. Here in Nicaragua Toyota Highlanders are the trucks of choice. The Health Department has this terribly beat up white truck that sometimes when instigated makes quite a ruckus. We took this truck out to a rural community earlier this week, and hour and a half ride with medicines, 3 nurses, 2 doctors, me and the driver. (My back is still sore!) On the way to the town we had to go up and down hills one looked like a wall, it was so steep. We spent the day weighing babies, doing consults, (nothing exciting like delivering babies, or chopped off thumbs. After we had to go out and track down an at risk pregnant lady whose husband wouldn’t let her come to the health post (we drove the 1.5 hours out there, and he won’t let her walk the 10 min! gotta love machismo!) She’s 38, had a cesarean, and lives 1.5 hours away from our little health center and that’s on a good day. Well the drive got the truck stuck, I think he was being too cautious, and was going to slow, and the mud caught the truck. So we walked up to the ladies house. Of course the husband wouldn´t let her come with us, because of course he´s a man and knows what’s best for his wife over the doctors (well we were all women, so what did we know) (again gotta love el machismo)) (btw not all men are like that, just the few bitter ones) Well anyway it rained, really hard. and the roads were in pretty rough shape, and that good ol´ truck chugged its way back up the muddy slippery slopes getting us home safely. My little ford would have been no match.

So I was visiting with a friend of mine yesterday, in her little store when I was pleasantly surprised to see a young Nicaraguan (probably 16) stroll in with an almost brand new UMaine tee. I asked him where he bought it, and he told me in a used clothes store. What are the odds!?

So I was thinking the other day about how I never saw kids in the US. Being surrounded by kids all the time is a fairly new thing for me, and ya know it’s not that bad. The other night I was playing with the twins and some of their friends (they´re all like 5-9 in age adoooorable) a game kinda like London Bridge except you get to knock everyone down afterwards. As always there was a group of men hanging out on the street corner (Not drunk though! just bored). So this one kiddo, Estrella, is this tubby little 6 year old. She and I get along well though. Any who that kid has some umf. She took me out probably three times in a row, which was rather embarrassing because of the guys on the street. But ya know I get to play the silly American role, and laugh it off and everyone just says awww look at that foolish American girl. (la Negrita Gringa as some kid called me the other week). In the states kids are kinda hidden away. In college I think the only time I saw anyone under the age of 18, was when I was walking past the daycare. Then living in working after college, I still never saw kids, and if I did notice them, its because they were either getting yelled at by some trashy mom in walmart, or raising hell in the grocery store. This is a nice contrast from the last couple years sans-kidddoos (although they still can be obnoxious but that’s the name of the game i guess). I´m still intimidated by the kids over 12 (I remember what I was like..!) but some of the highschoolers are proving to be fun. I played soccer last week with some of the girls (hombre chon aka tomboys) and we demolished the boy´s team, 10-2. It was highly satisfying, and you don´t need to speak Spanish to play soccer just yell aqui aqui a few times and you´re all set (here here!). Well I can see this turning into a rambling hazel-mess so im out!

Here is a shot of a preschool, not the same one as earlier. When its hot out they meet under this Mamon tree. Its a little fruit with a hard green shell. Inside its pink and soft, and somewhat acidic. Quite tastey.





the kids all get lunch here. The teachers have told me that when the food runs out for the month, their attendence drops







Here is one of my youth groups (Im up to two!) The meeting got a little dull towards the end. We talked about decision making, and anti-contraceptives. (well I didn´t really talk, the guy who was helping me out did most of the work...)

Today was a difficult day. I was visiting with a friend, and her son came home, he´d skipped out on church. The grandmother was pretty upset about this, grabbed a whip and started hitting the guy. I started yelling, and walked out. I made it maybe a block and half, and started balling. I went to talk to some other friends of mine about it. They all told me that I´d just have to get accustomed to it. No one had a single drop of sympathy for me. They all denounced violence, but said its the only way some kids learn. I went back to my friend´s house, appolagized to the grandmother, saying that I did over react. Things went back to normal. But I´m still really angry. Its hard having something that I want to fight, and KNOW that I can´t. No one here has stepped up to the challege. Change has to be internal, not from some foriegner from a different culture, that can barely speak the lanaguage. The grandmother said she didn´t hit him hard, and just over his jeans. Other kids have it much worse, I don´t want to get into that. I guess, the way she explained it to me, made it sound a lot like the ¨spanking¨that most of us were raised with. That seemed harmless. But where/is there a line between discipline and violence?

The first picture I´ve already posted, but I dont know how to delete it. The others are from my host family.

So I live on 4000 chords a month, which is about 200 dollars. That rate changes as the dollar does, but it stays right around that. Its what most teachers make,and have to provide for the families with. I can´t imagine, its hard enough for just me to feed, buy house supplies, transport, and the periodic entertainment. I can´t imagine how it is for people with family members. The teachers make so little, that they don´t pay taxes.
Here is an interesting article about the embassador here. He served in the embassy in Honduras during the contra wars, and now is in Nicaragua, making his appointment somewhat contraversial. I like him, he seems like a decent, personable fellow, but I´m not super familiar with his politics. But this was interesting. http://www.nicatimes.net/nicaarchive/2008_09/092608.htm

So there are some funny subtle cultural things that I´ve noticed as of late. I´ll give an example. The other day we were out at a health post. We were sitting outside around a table reviewing charts, taking bloods pressures, and handing out meds (well, I wasn´t really involved in any of the above, I like to think of my work as still being somewhat observational. I´d set my backpack down on the ground next to me. After an hour or so I went to pick up my bag and realized that it was completely infested with these nasty biting red ants! I looked around and noticed that everyone else had put their bags up on the table. One of the nurses laughed and said something to the effect, ¨All you gringos do that, put your bags on the ground. Why is that¨? I guess being from the Northeast at least, we have an attitude of your bag is dirty don´t put it on the clean table, where as here, the ground is dirty so keep your bags of the ground. How many times growing up were we told to ¨get our backpack off the table¨?! I´ve been trying to make a point now to not make the same mistake, but old habits die hard. I´ll be sacraficing a few more oranges, and cracker wrappings I think..

So I know that I just logged on because I wanted to write about something, now what was it....? I have such a wonderful memory...

Oh yes, I just finished reading a book called ¨Blood of Brothers: Life and War in Nicaragua¨´. It’s by ummm Stephen Kinzer, a journalist who has worked for The Globe, and New York Times (I think those are the two big ones). He started his reporting career in his early twenties in Nicaragua, and has stayed highly interested in the country, its politics, history, culture since the late 70´s. He has over 10 years of reporting experience here, and has some interesting insight, and a broad knowledge of the history of the country. I highly recommend looking into this book.

One thing that struck me about this book was that it really explained the U.S intervention in Nicaragua, really from its start with William Walker up through the early 2000´s. We are maybe taught that William Walker existed, and Maybe that there was this thing that happened in the 80´s that involved Iran, and this country called Nicar-something (Its in the Central America I think, or wait is it in Africa), and something/somebody called the contras, and something about some sort of gun sales....? But really. That was about where my knowledge was when I left the US in January. (Im really bad about investigating a country before I get there, for example Turkey, I lived there for a few months, and still don´t know a lot about it although I just found a book by the above mentioned author about Turkey that I´ll be buying!)

But we aren´t taught how disastrous our policies here in Nicaragua were, for Nicaragua and for ourselves (it seems to have solidified in the minds of many countries that we´re tyrants etc etc, and gave foundation, and legitimacy for a lot of mistrust other nations (especially poor ones) have for us). It shows how all parties involved, the Contras, Sandinistas, the US, Honduras, Costa Rica viewed each other, the philosophy behind various actions taken, and most importantly (I think) put it all in the context of the Cold War and a larger world picture.

Having a basic understanding of the history, really has made me understand some of the more subtle parts of the culture, that I hadn’t even noticed before. Its allowed me to be more patient and forgiving (at least in the short term)with some things that drive me insane. I think in a way it somewhat makes me feel guilty about our history with this country (I wasn´t even born yet, but that doesn’t really matter) and really gives me inspiration to be here, to work with a people who´ve been hit hard from all vantage points, internal and external. It explains the perceived passivism (aka everything is out of my hands, which historically it has been), the chronic self degradation of some of my friends.

But anywho Its a good read even if you´re not in Nicaragua, if you like good writing, history, and overall just to read.

I´ve been reading alot and I´ve got some other books I´ve liked:
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
The Other Boylen Sister (no idea who wrote it)
East if Eden: Steinbeck
There are many others, that I am having a hard time remembering what the others are (doesn’t help that a local ¨bolo¨aka drunk is trying to talk to me. He´s a story, US educated naturopath, speaks English, is a good businessman, but can´t quite the bottle. There have been many mornings that I´ve had to step over him on my way out the door to work)


Well if I remember any other good ones I´ll let ya´ll know!

I had my first youth group meeting yesterday in one of my rural communities. We have a youth group in the main town, by my counterpart refuses to schedule meetings if we don´t have funding for food to give the kids. I still think we can meet and get work done without having food, but she seems to disagree. So I actually up and self motivated, and met up with the remnants of a group from one of the rural communities. There were 4 girls that showed up. I gave them a mini lesson about the immune system, and why HIV/AIDS destroys the immune system. They were really patient with my Spanish, and I think I actually got the main points across! We are hoping to participate in a nationwide art competition about HIV, so I used the meeting as a time to introduce the theme and get to know the girls. It was a highly satisfying experience, and I finally feel like I´m starting to work on my actual assigned work! (reproductiva health and child/maternal health education).

A few weeks ago I went out with one of the nurses to work on census. We caught a bus out of town, and walked down the main road taking down the number of people in the house, age, type of house, if they had utilities or not, and what sorts of animals they have. We came to our last house of the day, a ranch. The family had multiple cows and 4 children. The youngest came running out of the house, practically tripping himself over, carrying an egg. He hands it to me, and says something in timid Spanish (which of course I didn’t understand). I asked the nurse later what the little guy had asked me (I can understand her Spanish because she knows to speak slowly and clearly) and she repeated how the little guy had asked that if he gave me the egg, would I not give him a shot? I guess the majority of the time when nurses go house to house its for a vaccination campaign.

I was able to view another birth yesterday. It was less emotional this time, and the mother wasn´t scared like the first. In Spanish they call giving birth ¨Dar Luz¨ which translates to giving light. Its quite appropriate really. Randomly I was stung by a bee in the middle of the delivery, (my first bee sting) although I must say I’m glad it was me, and not the lady in labor.

This picture is from today (I’m going to try to be better about taking photos) We made a roadside stop under a mango tree to give a month old little baby its polio, and retro viral oral vaccinations.



Before I came here I had a chat with a friend of mines mother who is a natural path. I explained to her that I was joining the peacecorps in the health sector. I told her how I was impressed with the high levels of vaccination that they have here. Her response to that was ¨well I spend most of my time here dealing with the repercussions of vaccinations like autism and other autoimmune disorders. (well there isn´t any solid proof that vaccines cause autism, nor is it as far as I know an autoimmune disorder) I then asked her if she disagreed with vaccinations and she said yes, and that none of her children had vaccinations, nor have they been sick. (they´re really health fanatics, exercise eat well etc etc.) I asked her if vaccines were valuable if we could eliminate diseases like smallpox, and she responded with; well if you look at trends, the diseases like smallpox are already in decline when the vaccination comes out, so we really don’t know if the disease went away naturally or it was the vaccine that did it. Can you imagine? and this lady has a doctorate to give people medical advice. If you have been exposed to a place where people, not just babies, die all the time from preventable diseases I feel like she´d sing a different tune. Even is the shots do cause autism personally I think if we can save thousands of lives its worth the few hundred that get autism.

Another thing is that this lady, her children are living in a developed country. There is a phenomenon known as ¨Herd Immunity¨(I believe that’s the name, I´ll explain). Herd immunity is when a population are immune to a disease (aka receive vaccinations) no one has the disease. So if a person goes without the vaccine in an area where no one else can catch the disease, then there is no one to pass the illness to that specific person. So in essence, this lady´s children are safe from things like hepatitis, because everyone else is getting vaccinated.

I pushed the natural path more to explain how vaccinations cause autism, and she didn’t have an answer. Its not that I have anything against naturopaths. Their work is valid. Not all modern medicine is 100% nor is natural medicine. I think the two could work together really well if the two camps would just listen to one another and not see each other as some great evil.

More on health care. In the US I think we take for granted the people to people interactions we have between medical providers and the patient. Doctors have a reputation of being impersonal and un-empathetic. Nicaragua puts this on a whole different plane. For example today a little girl was crying because she fell. Her mother said to her ¨if you don´t stop crying, that doctor is going to give you a shot¨ the doctor nodded in agreement. The threat was totally empty, but the little girl (she was probably only 3) did shut up. Maybe the immediate outcome was what the mother had wanted, but I don´t see how threatening kids with injections is good for anyone´s mental health. Also a kid crying from falling is totally normal. Adults constantly are calling their kids ¨necio¨or annoying/stupid for normal kid things, like playing, running around. I asked if necio has a negative connotation, and was told that it indeed is a negative word. So these poor little kids, the majority here in my site at least, grow up learning that normal kid behavior is annoying, making them in essence a bad person. There is little discipline here, so situations tend to escalate ending with someone getting smacked. The behavioral problems aren´t nipped in the bud, so kids learn to push their parents limits, and the parents loose patience very quickly. It’s a cultural problem that I can´t even come close to touching, nor do I feel it’s my place to so, as I’m an outsider.


Well that was all super cynical. I meant this to be a more optimistic post. I guess cynicism is a bad habit, which I need to work on breaking...
I get to come home for Christmas in 14 weeks! So for wants/needs I have requests out for the following: apple pie, peach cobbler, Spencer’s ice-cream in Milford, fish chowder, hot cocoa, and sledding, apples, blueberry muffins, Thai iced tea, sushi, apple cider, good wine, Moscow mule, chocolate cake, good company, speaking English, snow, cooler climes, exercise....oh how the list grows...

Cue the thunderstorm, time to log off! (saw a rainbow today hanging over the volcanoes, absolutely beautiful)

Hello all!

My local volcanoe had a minor erruption last week, which was kind of exciting. Alot of smoke, and ash. I think the type of volcano that San Cristobal is, isn't prone to violent firey explosions.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h2XeRIAo4H1klveujf8GudAobTsAD9AI61480

It was shooting up pretty large mushroom clouds a couple days later when I rode past the base of it.

I just had my first in service training. we were put up in the city of Estili for a couple days. We had sessions on everything from how to work with youth, to how to procces soy from beans to make milk, and soy meat.

 
 
 


So this is Yolanda, and she is making star fruit-orange juice, (which by the way is beyond phenominal) They call star fruit melecoton. (or spelt something like that).

So one thing that is very noticable about living in a new culture are their beliefs, which to an outsider (Me!) can seem quite strange. Here's an example. The other night I was invited to dinner with a family with whom I've made friends. We were in the back yard playing with the kids, when a small chicken, who'd been trying to roost in the trees fell out of the roost, and landed on its back. This caused quite the ruckus, between the kids, the adults, the dogs, and other chickens in the trees. The grandmother ran over with a plastic washbin, and placed it upside down over the little bird, and procceded to drum the tub with a stick, with the little bird inside. She would lift the tub up, and check on the bird, continue to drum, check on the bird, continue to drum. Finally I snatched up the little guy, and checked it for potential breaks, cleaned off his little bloody wing, and gave it some water. The grandmother took the bird back, and drummed over it for the final time. This time the bird opened his eyes, and was moving his head around (an atestment to the success of the drumming). A kid ran over with a box, and took the chicken to another house in the complex. I asked the grandmother why this system worked. She told me that the bird fell because it was full of bad gases, and that the drumming worked to expell the bad gases. I'm not sure if I belief that this worked, but nevertheless the little bird seems to be recovering.

Other beliefs, (in my opinion) are less mild, and in a way fairly dangerous. These tend to be seen more in the rural areas,and i'm not sure how wide spread they are. For example, Women, after delivering a baby can't shower, or eat fruits or veggitables, or meat, for a fairly extended amount of time. Another which I think contributes to the large number of skin problems that are found here, is that the people believe that you can't shower in the afternoon because your blood is hot, and the cold water will make you sick. Because the people don't wash the sweat, or dust, or dirt off your skin, skin problems are really prevelant here.

I mean, there are wonderful things about this culture, the people are amazingly friendly, but some of these beliefs, I just have had a hard time understanding, and really, can be frustraiting. I try to teach people the facts behind the beliefs, trying to show the bennefits of shower, or how you need to eat fruits and veggitables to repare the body, etc etc. But I imagine its hard to believe a foriegner (me) who doesn't really speak the lanaguage (me)when you've grown up in a society that confirms, and teaches these belief. I have to be careful to not be culturaly-centric, or condescending, or preachy. I just present the information, and hope that someone will use it.

Its easy to reflect on a new culture, but I've been trying to think of beliefs that we live by in the US. We have our supersticions, like dont walk under a ladder, or break mirrors, and knocking on wood, but these aren't principles which we live by. can anyone think of beliefs we have stateside?

Hazel

New back ground! Hopefully it doesn’t hurt anyone’s eyes. I think the black frames the pictures better, and supposedly uses less energy!

This weekend, I took a little mini holiday to the coast a little spot called Salinas Grande. I´m not sure who Salina is, and what she had that would be considered grande, I didn´t work up the courage to ask! I have a friend who lives there, and ex-PeaceCorps volunteer. Went went over the first couple steps of surfing, (ie staying on the board while paddling, actually way harder than it looks!) We paid a local guy to take us down the river, through the mangroves which was a phenominal experience. I forgot how much I love the environment and learning about our natural world, I had an environmental concentration to my undergrad degree for a reason! Our informal guide is a ranger-guard in the reserve where we were. He showed us how the mangrove trees are seeded in the ground, how the seeds are weighted, and have to land just so in the soil to germinate. He also told us there are crocdiles 5 meters long that live in the river (a bit bigger than our little outboard) but they´re afraid of the noise of the engines on the boats (I imagine that weren´t-no-fish-tale). Periodically sharks are pulled in from the fishing boats, and on discovery channel for the last week I watched many many shark attack dramatizations, I´m not gonna lie, I was a little apprehensive to be in water over waist deep. But it was a fabulous weekend, and when the turtles come to nest next month, I´m definately going to try to get back!


Oh the last photo was from a quincenera (not sure how to spell is) Its like a sweet sixteen they do here for the girls.