Blogs from Northern Highlands, Nicaragua, Central America Caribbean - page 11

Hi everyone, Yesterday afternoon I had a natatamale (Christmas tamale) which is cooked cornmeal around rice and vegetables and it was delicious. It was served at the restaurant across the street from the hostel and they give you coffee all day, gratis! Check out my picture. After resting for a while, I went to an evening yoga class in spanish. I was the only student and the teacher was kind of out of shape. His yoga was nothing like yoga I have every done, but more like calisthenics. But for 10 cordobas ($.50) what can one expect (Cannot find a question mark on this keyboard!)! Then I took a great shower, Wow! I had a wonderful rest in this quiet hostel. I have the deluxe room and slept so well there ($12-night). I made an appointment ... read more

Early Saturday morning (after a late night at our school's swanky staff Christmas party), we met our hired driver and our 12 seater minibus to head out for Nicaragua. The trip there was relatively easy (took about 5-6 hours total including travel, border, and lunch) other than the border stop. SUCH drama to get over from Honduras to Nicaragua. First we had to pay a fee to exit Honduras but were told that the stamps in our passports were really good enough to let us go. Apparently the extension that the school got for us, while working on our residency cards, is only good to stay in Honduras - NOT to travel out of it. The guy said he would grant us this passing because he knew we were going to a wedding (a lot of ... read more

Okay, so here´s what´s been up. Thanksgiving was awesome. Like, full spread of EV-VERY-THIIIIING and it was waaay too much to eat. And we woke up to homemade waffles and fresh strawberries and BACON frying. How, you might ask, was this possible? Well, we were hosted by a husband wife (ex, actually) team of USAID workers. She is USAID Nica and he is USAID Iraq, but had a week of vacay. USAID is apparently made up of 50% Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCV). But, the overall acceptance rate into USAID is all of 2%. However, worth looking into. Because that house was swank. And you move to a new post every 2 years. This weekend, though, after returning... not gonna lie, I´ve been depressed. Actually, I was just really annoyed with everyone and everything and generally ... read more

Yup, more. Love wireless. So went around with the idea of photographing the women and their gardens... but kept getting sidetracked by all the kids who wanted photos taken. Then Lenin and i went to the town of Palacaguina to meet a bus coming from Wiwili where his father had sent 150 pounds of corn, several platanos, and some cuajada (cheese) and we had to pick it up and get it back to Somoto and then to Moropoto. Meanwhile, we played with the camera in the park. ... read more

9 November 2009 Monday 10:16 am The pictures in this blog are a motley bunch. First, there’s Coco, one of two seamstresses in Moropoto. She took in four pairs of pants of mine, as even the pants I bought here are too big. Now they fit again! She charged me less than $0.50 for each pair. She also hemmed some fabric Lenin and I bought for a sheet, and she made a pillowcase, too. The green material with the suns and moons is now what my sheets and pillow case look like. The next is of “aunt” Leo and her husband, Tono, the carpenter. Leo is the 1st/2nd grade teacher at the Moropoto School and Tono is a baseball player, farmer, and carpenter. He makes his own baseball bats, as well as shelves and doors and ... read more