not a whole lot to report here... cont´d... and Blood of Brothers interestingness

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Not much going on. Got back from all of my travels. And am now in the community until the second week of June when I go help out with some training days.

Went to the baseball game on Sunday. Moropoto has a team - mostly middle aged men from our town with some kids from the surrounding communities.... I love going to hometown games where everyone knows all the players... like little league! The whole Moropoto side was off its rocker - mostly guys and teenagers - very few women. Most of the women were selling things. Like tajadas - or bags of fried banana chips with a bit of tomato and cabbage salad in the bag, too, with salt and chili... for 2 cords... or 10 cents. Or cigaretts. Or big slices of watermelon. Or enchiladas. Though I woulda killed for a dog and a beer. At any rate, we won both games. 11-1 and 4-0. A lot of Moropoto was drunk Sunday night.

Now I´m just getting back into the swing of things in the community. Waited in line at the water pump this morning making trips to fill up the pila for an hour and a half. Good times at the water pump.

Got a text from Arielle saying she is flying home to Seattle. Mexico City is freaking out over the swine flu thing... and then there was an earthquake. And she decided to get out while she can. Not gonna lie, I am jealous. Not that my city is nuts, but that she is flying home.

Going to Estelí tomorrow to see Moncha and the host family there. Taking Lenin. I´ve met all of his people, now he needs to meet a smidgen of mine.

And that´s about it.

Oh! PS Congratulations to creiter!!!!

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Thursday afternoon
Estelí

Well I finally got the boy on a bus to Estelí ... He was convinced my host family would hate him and be all protective of me and he was so nervous he almost made us miss the bus. At which point I told him to buck up, grow some balls, and remember that I just spent 15 hours - each way - travelling to meet his family in the-middle-of-nowhere-Jinotega and IIIIII didn´t whine the whole way and Estelí is only an hour ride in an expresso. That shut him up. And of course things went fine and he got along with them well and realized that they, in fact, are a cool bunch of people and, like my family in the motherland, if I´m happy, they´re happy.

Worked on travelling vocab on the bus. Window seat. Aisle seat. Reclining your seat. In (flight) movie. And all the sentences that go along with that sort of thing.

I just took him to the bus. He left this afternoon and I stay until tomorrow when we have a PC meeting here in Estelí for all volunteers in the Segovias.

And on that note, am going to make some phone calls and then go home and read...

Currently reading... Blood of Brothers: Life and War in Nicaragua by Stephen Kinzer... and it is fascinating reading. I am reading a borrowed copy, but feel this is one I should own.

Blood of Brothers
Author: Stephen Kinzer
Theme: History, International Politics
Year: 2007

http://www.drclas.harvard.edu/publications/book_series/blood_of_brothers

In 1976, at age 25, Stephen Kinzer arrived in Nicaragua as a freelance journalist and became a witness to history. He returned many times during the years that followed, becoming Latin America correspondent for the Boston Globe in 1981 and joining the foreign staff of the New York Times in 1983. That year he opened the New York Times Managua bureau, making it the first daily newspaper in America to maintain a full-time office in Nicaragua.

Widely considered the best-connected journalist in Central America, Kinzer personally met and interviewed people at every level of the Somoza, Sandinistas and contra hierarchies, as well as dissidents, heads of state, and countless ordinary citizens throughout the region.

Blood of Brothers is Kinzer's dramatic story of the centuries-old power struggle that burst into the headlines in 1979 with the overthrow of the Somoza dictatorship. It is a vibrant portrait and cultural history of the Nicaraguan people and their volcanic land.

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Comments

[vicki]

Arielle
Liz and I were just talking about her the other day, and were a bit worried. Glad she is leaving!

[mom]

Guess You're Lucky!
Guess you're just lucky that this Swine Flu didn't start attacking and killing people BEFORE you got to make your (free) trip up to Mexico City to see Arielle for a week, huh? I am so sorry, though, that she is leaving for this type of reason (as opposed to just being free to choose her own time schedule). Mostly, though, I am just so grateful that, at the moment, you are both still healthy and flu-free! Tamiflu for SARS, Swine Flu.......so glad that it currently works on these horrid new diseases. How about Your People....all OK so far?? XOXOXO

[anonymous]

I just got your letter today; thank you so much for sending it! It totally made my day. Now we know: it takes about three months for a letter to get from Nica to NZ. Wow. It makes you appreciate just how far away that is, and how lucky we are to have electronic communication and all that.