Blogs from Estelí, Northern Highlands, Nicaragua, Central America Caribbean - page 6

I am back in Esteli and totally annoyed with the like 9 year old boys who are sitting next to me. Summer is beginning and there is hot and dust everywhere. But at this point, I am just happy to be out of the mud! My lovely Reefs tan has been totally effed up as I´ve been wearing my brown leather sandals and now my feet just look dirty. Took me a day to figure out that, no, it´s just the color of my skin now. But they still look dirty to me. So today is Wednesday and our afternoon of making more cajetas with the students was moved to tomorrow... so with my free afternoon came into Esteli for a bit. Need to get a haircut, stat. Learned how to sing the Nicaraguan National Anthem ... read more

Greetings browsers After one day, seven buses and three taxis I´ve escaped the rain of the Caribbean for the sunshine of Nicaragua. Nicas are a friendly bunch. It took only 5 minutes to be invited back to someone´s mums´ house for tea and I had the joy of being dubbed there on a bicycle - pack and all. ... read more

Ah! Escaped from the hotel with another bandit to run and use the internet for a few minutes! Have been in conferences all morning with our counterparts and we leave tomorrow for our site visits. Our official counterpart is INTA, Instituto Nicaraguense de Tecnologia Agropecuaria... basically a big farm organization. So I´m going to the department of Madriz and to the town of Moropoto, which is about an hour south of the capital of the dept, Somoto... up a mountain... near the Honduran border. More conferences tomorrow and then I take off with my team. So the Jefa of INTA in Somoto is here, and my extensionsita from INTA for my region and the lider (leader) of the community of Moropoto, too. I am like the only person that has 3 people, a literal team. And ... read more

Placing yourself in a foreign environment for an extended period of time unfailingly provides an incredible theatre for learning. Plus the more dissimilar the environment you choose from your status quo it seems the more potent the learning opportunities. When everything is unfamiliar you find yourself in a world that can quickly drag your emotions from complete elation to abject despair and back again. As long as your mind is ready for this draining emotional rollercoaster you begin to crave it (perhaps). The last few weeks we’ve certainly experienced this effect to full force in our little universe of Sabana Grande. Shifting from high alert and worry as we had to urgently sample the local medical care for treatment for a nasty intestinal infection to a sense of overwhelming gratitude for the phenomenal way in which ... read more

Good god, time here is literally flying. In less than a month I will be done with training and out in the middle of nowhere! Okay, so not really the middle of nowhere. I mean, come on, not counting the lakes, Nica is smaller than my home state. And there are something like 200 volunteers scattered throughout. So “middle of nowhere” has to be put into context. Will find out next week where I’ll be living for the next two years. Am hoping to be in a community higher in the mountains where the primary crop is coffee… but more on that if it happens. Learning all number of things about sustainable rural development and food security. The ground is so fertile with all of the volcanoes, but there is absolutely no infrastructure so everything is ... read more