Down from the Mountains


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Published: December 15th 2010
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Filling up the Milk JugsFilling up the Milk JugsFilling up the Milk Jugs

These jugs are filled up with milk and then we put them in feed sacks and tie the sacks together over the saddle and Zopilote carries them home with a rider on as well.
Hi everyone!

I wanted to get to Leon at some point while I was in Nicaragua. I think it is my favorite city of all in Nicaragua and Ometepe Island is my favorite place. I am staying for two nights at the Tortuga Booluda in Leon. This is the hostel that Rich and I stayed in June when we were in our last days in Nicaragua. The place is quiet and nice and have a nice kitchen to use and provide batter for pancakes in the morning. I think that they have cold water showers, but that is an improvement from the bucket showers I was taking in the windy mountains. I have had tick bites and goose bumps that are almost as big!

A much loved elderly woman died yesterday afternoon. She is of some relation to almost all of the people in Lagartillo and so classes are canceled today while they hold the funeral. They held the wake last night and we all sat in plastic chairs in rows in front of the house while people filed in and looked at la senora in her casket in her living room. It was so cold and windy and
Keeping the calf away Keeping the calf away Keeping the calf away

Here is the calf with a rope halter standing close to Mama but not close enough to get any milk until the human milker is finished.
I had a shirt, a long sleeve shirt and a fleece and was still cold. I stayed long enough to get a cafecita (small coffee) and a pastry and then went home to read my Spanish book and some other English books I checked out of the small library in the community.

Of course they were all upset and it really wasn´t great for me, because that shorts me out a day of classes, if I were to take no Spanish classes on the weekend. So, I approached my new teacher (they change after 5 classes) and she is willing to give me the time of 5 classes over 4 days once I return to the community on Friday.

So I hopped a dusty bus, then a interlocal microbus to Leon and 4 hours later here I am in bright and sunny and warm Leon. I have a private room and free internet and life is grand. And pancakes in the morning!

On Monday, my teacher arranged afternoon classes, so I went out with my hostess´sister, Rosa to milk the cows. She and I walked for 45 minutes up in the mountains where she lassoed her horse
MirabelMirabelMirabel

Teacher number one. Mirabel was my teacher for the first 5 lessons. Next I will start with Lisbeth on Friday afternoon.
(Zopilote, which means buzzard in Spanish) and then I rode on down with her by horse to where the cows were. She had separated out the calves the afternoon before and they were hungry and the cows had full udders. Each in turn she allowed to suckle for few minutes then tied each of them up while ¨we¨milked each cow. I say ´we¨ because I haven´t quite gotten the hang of it. It does seem that I have to not look at what I am doing but instead feel the teat and feel when it refills and is ready to be let down again. After several hours of this we went to the river where the cows drink and there is a beautiful waterfall and pool underneath. Rosa told me that she swims there sometimes, but I thought she was crazy it was so cold.

On the way back from the river is where she says I must have picked up the ticks. Within 1 day I had bumps all over my arms and shoulders, in my hair and around the elastic of my underwear. I think what I have is chiggers, but Rosa says it is garapatas, or
Rosa and Ampara´s Mothers houseRosa and Ampara´s Mothers houseRosa and Ampara´s Mothers house

This is the more antique part of Mamacita´s house. She has a more modern part made of brick with a zinc metal roof. She is a real nice lady too. She is always up early and likes to milk the cows at 70! Papa isn´t so keep on milking cows but likes his Flor de Caná (local rum) and beer. This is the area of the house that has the wood burning stove and where they knead the cheese into football shaped lumps.
ticks. The bugs are really hard to see and they are small and red. I did pull one brown tick off (like a dog tick) which I am sure of. The rest were these they say is colorado red. So, here I am itching all the time or ¨pica, pica, pica¨in Spanish. Milking is hard work, but fun and for all that work we got 24 liters of milk which makes about 6 lbs of cheese that the Mama next store makes. Here the cheese is called ´cuijada¨and takes a lot more work. But everyone eats a thick slice of it at every meal. Que rico!

I realized today that with the two guys that came up to me and started speaking English, that was the first English I had spoken to anyone but myself for 1 week! Imagine trying to communicate what you want and need without enough of the vocabulary you need! One guy on the microbus was telling me he is reading Harry Potter in English. I said, yeah, you only have 6 large books more to get through! He says it will take him a while. Yes, I understand that. I have the Easy Spanish
Pig numero dosPig numero dosPig numero dos

This is the smaller of the two pigs out back behind the house. He doesn´t grunt at me like the big pig does when I go to the latrine.
Reader and have to read and reread what the heck the two characters in the book are doing. Luckily there are questions at the end of every chapter to help me figure out what is going on.

Ok, that is all for now. I hope to send some pictures of lovely Leon tomorrow. I will be shopping for a Coffee Press for my hostess. She has only a small percolator that you heat over gas and has to refill so that we can have a second cup in the mornings. Or I go next door and bum from her mother. We have been saying that is being a ¨vaga¨or a bum in Spanish. Ampara calls her sister Rosa a bum because she takes off and travels around Nica working for her keep at different dairies. From next door you can always hear Rosa laughing before lights out at 8 pm. She is a real sweetheart. I think she is the baby of the family.

I´ll try to upload some ¨fotos¨of my farm experience (pre tick/chigger infestation).

Love,
Dawn


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RosaRosa
Rosa

Rosa is the real cow girl who does the milking. She is always laughing, but is a hard worker. She always screams while she throws water over herself in the outdoor shower. Que comica!
Too cold to swimToo cold to swim
Too cold to swim

Here is the pool from the waterfall. Very beautiful, but I don´t think I could survive the cold.
ZopiloteZopilote
Zopilote

Zopilote is the horse I rode to the cows and he carried me and the milk home. Rosa gave me a stick and told me to hit him, but I just yelled at him some. She says I need to be tougher on him, he can move fast if he wants.
RosaRosa
Rosa

Here is Rosa again. She is really a nice girl.


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