Blogs from Estelí, Northern Highlands, Nicaragua, Central America Caribbean - page 3

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Hi everyone, I am glad some of you are getting my blogs. Apparently for about a week I was unaware that I made my blog private and emails were not going out to my "subscribers". Now, I think I have gotten my act together and you should receive emails as I complete my blog entries them. This morning I said good-bye to my family and left the village of San Juan de la Concepcion, which happens to be down the road from La Concepion. The spanish classes were great, but were 4 hours every day. Then there were field trips and other activities every day and there was no time to assimilate what I had learned. And we were all exhausted after the trips to pineapple farms, wine tasting, beach trips, etc. Also, living with the ... read more
Mural at the Hostel Luna
Mural of Children
Catholic Church in Esteli


Always have been a morning person. The day before yesterday I woke up on the wrong side of the bed. Or, as they say in the Spanish, I woke up on my left foot. I alternately hated everything. I hated that the two boys in the house never haul water, and I hated waiting in line to haul water. I hated that Lenin got to drink coffee and eat breakfast while I drank coffee, watching the damn pump, so I would know when it was my turn to fill the buckets for my house, and I had to keep eating and then hauling and come back to eat. I hate the guilt when I don't help haul water. In general, I hate hauling effing water. Then Lenin and I took the puppies and went up to ... 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
tono and leo
leo and tono, teacher and carpenter
masacuate poisonous snake that ozman killed... curled up in the house...


19 August 2009 Esteli 10:30 am Every time I see a business I think about how I could do it better. If only that applied to my volunteer work. I am a bad volunteer. I could be better. I am not giving this job my all, living up to my expectations, etc. I like to dream and plan the next step more than live in the present. I need to set aside dreams of the future and focus, really focus, on being a better volunteer. I work well with schedules and goals. I need to set up a schedule. A budget of my time, so to speak. Yup. Things to do…. Continue teaching English to the kids at school. Start actually studying Spanish again… like with a notebook and dictionary. I can get by, but after ... read more


As we headed north from Granada, we saw more and more guys in jeans and cowboy hats. Estili was agriculture country through and through. While the city is not overwhelmed by a number of sights that would qualify for posters designed by the ministry of tourism, it did serve as a very good stop for us. Isle de ommetepe and Granada are very different. As such, I felt that it was very worthwhile to swing by to see a region not as touristy, and what felt like was a more authentic representation of everyday life in Nicaragua. The hostel that we stayed in was nondescript, but clean enough. They had a duck named 'Jose' and three parakeets that I did not learn the name of. All 4 of them had free reign of the atrium. It ... read more
grass on the power lines
breakfast smoothie place
Church off the central square


29 May 2009 Friday 8pm, Esteli office Well. Decided to get out of my site for a while and come to Esteli for the weekend. Not gonna lie, though, don’t like leaving when the boy is still there. But he has to work tomorrow and has class Sunday and it’s fine. I have a ton of stuff to do tonight and tomorrow. Stuff to buy. Stuff to do. And am going out to Moncha’s for Mother’s Day tomorrow. I am in the office, blessedly on wireless, and it feels like I am in college again, preparing for an all nighter. Except it’s only 8pm and I will probably crash in about two hours and head back to the hotel. TO DO X print photos photos to kodakgallery.com WORK REPORT 6 month INTA report seed bank office? ... read more
that would be our neighbor who scaled the tree
one cousin sat and watched
israel up macheting


I am back in Estelí. For the night. Maybe for tomorrow night, too. So I just got back from a 4 days of IST.. or In Service Training, for all Ag volunteers. We went to this farm in the department of Masaya, south of Managua. We started with chores every morning from 6-9. I worked in the rabbit cages the first morning. They have a lot of rabbits. Like a lot. I watered all of them for an hour. While others fed them. Then we learned all about how the farm runs and how they keep track of all of them and where they sell the meat and how much a rabbit costs to buy and the different breeds. Interesting. A grown rabbit costs between 120-400 cords, or $6-$20 USD depending on the breed. Yesterday I ... read more


Okay, so I´m not much into politics. And it´s hard to keep in touch with them when you´re in a foreign country. I will say that I have become slightly more republican since being abroad from the good ol´USofA. And a helluva lot more patriotic and defensive about my country, tis of thee. Okay, maybe not more repuuuublican... maybe just less of a liberal democrat. Or fiscally republican and socially democrat? Quien sabe. Anyway, the point is that I honestly don´t keep up with politics. But that doesn´t stop me from having an opinion. This morning at breakfast the older volunteer couple - they´re in their 60´s and live in a site without electricity - and I and another young volunteer were eating breakfast.... And they brought up the apparent event that Obama released the memos ... read more


Over grensa bar det og rett inn i ein ny buss. Ein ska alli bli forstokt over kva slag folk som vi selge eller tilby ein ting paa bussturar. Matselgarar, menn me vatn, brus og ol og gamle kaaner med heimelaga boller hoyrer til det meir vanlege. Pa denne bussturen fann ogsaa ein pengevekslar ell to og ein predikant med paaskekollekt og preken paa spansk vegen inn i midtganga. Lurt aa spare tid: Halde preken medan du likevel skal fraa A til B med bussen:) Ellers er paaskefeiring i latinamerika ganske keisamt. ALT er stort sett stengt, inkludert barar og restaurantar, og i to dagar levde eg difor paa drikkeyoughurt og appelsinjuice. Eg kan ikkje sei anna enn at eg var ganske glad daa langfredagen var over og busstransport endeleg var mogleg igjen, og endaa ein ... read more
Paaskeparade i Nicaragua


It´s late as far as mornings go, seeing as how it´s 8.45. But we were out late last night and I guess my body needed sleep. Now I am slightly hungover and hungry and waiting for the others to get themselves showered and dressed so we can go get breakfast. But first! I THINK I MIGHT BE GOING TO MEXICO CITY FOR SEMANA SANTA!!!! TO VISIT ARIELLE!!!!!!! eeeeeek! Details not finalized yet, but hell yes I am going! But Abeyta´s not onliiiine right now to discuss! Okay, I´m hungry. More later perhaps. Taking the 11.45am expresso back home. Dear god this is the longest time I´ve been away from site, I think. Left Tuesday.... ALSO! Will, one of my crackhead awesome roomies from China just emailed and he´s heading through Central America and dear god it ... read more




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