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Published: September 1st 2008
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So there´s a phrase here in La Prusia the chicos like to use, "Salvaje Man"(Savage Man). Its a favorite endearing expression here. Other necessary phrases include "eres beliiiiin"(your craaaaazy) and "whatzupman!" And no that last expression is not a part of my English curriculum.
Life is active as always here in Nicaragua. Two weekends ago a few of us decided to take a weekend and go to Leon, a college town in the north. The town is very similar to Granada. It is very colorful and very laid back. Tranquilo, even. The city favors FSLN to the max and just loves the Sandinista movement. There are marks of red and black on everything. Walls, signs, poles, flags everywhere-- I'm guessing they're big fans of Daniel Ortega. Murals are popular and all highly politically motivated, but are also very beautiful and creative. Leon played a big part during the revolution back in the 70s. We went to the Revolution Museum and saw lots of photos, news clippings and videos. The guy running the place was in the fight and showed us some wonderful shrapnel wounds he had. Its such a juxtaposition to see what it was like 30 years ago and
what its like now. Just so radically different. It also gave some real life perspective to the romantic idea of being a revolutionary or a guerrilla, despite my aims to instill Existentialism to the masses through muscle and steel (hence the pose).
After a day in Leon we went to la playa hugging the pacific ocean. With only a couple other tourists, it was fairly far removed from life near Granada. The waves there are very violent and can pull you out to sea with ease. It was a fun environment for body boarding for sure. There was an inlet that was much more passive to swim in. We got to play and swim with a family from Leon taking the same opportunity we were. There would be a swarm of eight children that would run up to me and blast their Spanish at me. Having completely mastered the language by this point it was easy to decipher everything thrown at me. Right? Well, maybe I wasnt as suave as I can be in English. After a minute of losing interest in a gringo with weak Spanish, they would move the swarm to the next gringo and torture him
for another couple minutes. At least the father was more patient with our Spanish. The experience was nice because you get to act and do what the locals do. Maybe better understand what real Nicaraguan life is like here a little. Overall the beach was a real pleasant experience.
The following weekend was a little less active. I opted to stay in town because the La Prusian niños baseball team had a big game and parade that weekend. At eight in the morning, 15 local baseball teams marched from the Parque Central to the lake in a grand procession. I'm sure our team was very proud because they had just received their new uniforms that week. I dont know if the kids actually enjoyed the march itself. My guess is no. But we all got to walk together and go to an award ceremony afterwords. I'm afraid the La Prusian baseball team has not been able to compete so well for the past several years. I don't think they've had a win two years or so. Now they ended the day with a tie (1-1) which isnt bad, but they need a win. Hugo, the real coach for the
team, is a very good trainer and I think hell be able to whip them into shape.
The rest of the weekend was filled with buying plants and learning guitar. Its nice to try to work on little projects like that when you have some time in one place. The plant thing was quite an adventure. Took a few hours to go to a town with a nursery and bought six fruit trees-- mango, banana, avocado, orange, and pear. All for the low low price of $9. The bananas need only one year to bare fruit and the others need three. Hopefully they will still be alive and kicking then! For the past two weeks there was another volunteer who was really a tremendously good guitar player. He was kind enough to get me started on my way to learning some songs. Nothing big, but its just something on the side I can work on.
Outside of the weekend adventures, work has been fairly consistent. Im still running meetings everyday and presenting projects for people to work on. Construction has still been my focus but Ive been getting more into community involvement as well. Almost all the houses
are completed in the project. We put a big rush on two of the houses because both patrons were having big issues outside of it. Matelde has six kids and a wife and was living in a one room shack. He is one of the poorest people around and couldn't even repair the water leaking through his roof. The other house was for Leila, who has just left her husband because he would hit her. She literally had no place to stay until we threw the roof up in her house and put some lights in. So it was nice to see two families have immediate benefit from the work we do. The real person they should thank is Angel, the owner of the organization. He is the one that put the rush on the houses. He also basically gave Matelde his house, because we know the man has no way of paying for it. It was an incredibly generous thing for Angel to do.
Sorry for the brief update, but got to run. Last night for some of our friends, so its going to be a wild night of dinner and ping pong. Yee-haw!
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hansa
non-member comment
Bravo!!! Pete, You are on the right track
Dear Pete, Re: family violance. No human should have to take phisical or mental abuse. Would this wife and child beaters accept this abuses on their own self? Your thinking about should whole family get punished because head of the household is abuser? Is very true. What if some of the priviledges of the abuser can be curtailed. without hurting rest of the family. When your work and efforts are offered with such sincearity and generocity ; sooner or later receivers will take it at its true value. May The Divine guide you and shower you with Grace.