Blogs from Northern Highlands, Nicaragua, Central America Caribbean - page 21

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

Oct 12, 2008 7:45 am Sunday Wow a lot has been going on since I wrote last weekend. First of all, last weekend I managed to leave my USB 1G memory stick in the computer at the internet place… I didn’t realize this until I’d gotten home, of course. I caught the last bus into Esteli, ended up on the Sandino urbano that takes the super long way around, and was worried that I’d miss the last bus out of Esteli… So I asked the cobrador, or the guy who takes your money on the bus, and he was super helpful in telling me where to catch the last urbano out of Esteli so that I could catch the last bus back to my community, and in telling me that I probably wouldn’t find my USB ... read more

Our alarm goes at 6am. Quite early really but as it’s pitch black at half past six each night so things starts early. For example, Yelba (the mother of our host family) starts her day by taking the days corn to the communities mill at 5am. Our first port of call, post latrine, is a wash at about 6:30am. The place for ablutions is a few paces from the back door in the shape of a small enclosed brick walled area. The view from there is tremendous looking across the lush surrounding hills. Washing equipment is a bucket of water and a pan (plus shampoo and soap of course). Nicaraguan’s are very smell conscious and Yelba often directs us to the shower with worrying enthusiasm. Breakfast - pineapple, melon, banana, a cup of the local coffee ... read more