Greetings from Nicaragua. We are nearing our midway point on our journey here. I can’t believe it has already been three weeks. We are starting to get into our groove on the work site. For our first day working with the farmers from San Gregorio, we decided to separate the group into groups of three and disperse them among the farmers. We figured that way they would feel more comfortable working side by side with the workers when the ditch diggin began.

My group went with Norman, a man who works his farm fields alone more or less. His five year old son Menor helped us out quite a bit. The work began with us gathering palm leaves and chopping them up with a machete. One of the guys on the group showed me his hand that the night before he had cut while playing street soccer. It was turning purple right around the cut. An hour later he showed me the cut again, and the purple mark had grown. I made the decision to journey across the farm fields to the spot where we had our first aid bag, and to consult about the wound. After a 45 minute hike, we found Alyson, another of our fearless leaders. She took one look at the hand, grabbed his glove and looked. He had written his name on the inside of the gloves, so the purple, mere ink residue.

An hour and a half later when we returned to our station, the girls in our group had already shoveled out a canal. We proceeded to plant the palm leaves in the ground. The leaves serve as a barrier on the field, to prevent land erosion during all of the rain they receive this time of year.
The men we are working with on this project are amazing. Their work ethic is unmatched. They begin at six every morning, and finish at three. They eat lunch after a full days work. One of our leaders, Raul, has his own farm and family. He makes $2 a day for a full 9 hour day. Each member of the farm community put in $15 for this water project. And somehow everyone has been incredibly warm and friendly, and above all patient with us as we learn how to use the pick-axes (piochas) and shovels (palas), and of course the rock bars (barras) that we use to smash up all the rocks.

Baseball is the sport of choice here, not soccer. There are quite a few pick up soccer games in the streets here, but even more games of stick ball. Many of the kids have gloves here and play catch. During lunch yesterday Gustavo our bus driver, busted out a baseball, so we played some catch. We didn’t have gloves, but somehow began throwing the ball ridiculous distances. One ball hit me square on my thigh, it didn’t feel great. Moments later, on our way back to work, I put my hand in my pocket and felt a bunch of goo. I totally forgot that moments before playing catch, I was about to eat a hard boiled egg. But, given the opportunity to throw the ball around, I put the egg in my pocket for later. Unfortunately the hit to the thigh was a direct connect with the hard boiled egg in my pockets, my pants now have a nice circular mark.

After work the other day, we took a trip to a ceramics village. The Nicaraguan government purchased a pottery wheel for the community of women, as a means for making a little money. The women spend an entire day gathering the clay for their pottery. They spend hours sifting through the clay to purify. Their work was beautiful.

Last night, Joanna, a woman who is volunteering with us and AVODEC and a life long Jinotegan, came over to the house to give dance lessons. I have not danced a lot in my life, but I really love it. The Blandons, our bus drivers, were also there to help us learn. I am beginning to feel a little more in rhythm with the salsa and bachata dancing.

This trip is moving so fast. I am exhausted by the end of the day, but I am enjoying everything. I have already met so many amazing Nicaraguans, and learned so many new words and phrases. And, apparently I had a very active talking in my sleep night, and I was talking in Spanish!! So I’ve finally reached that milestone of immersion. The high schoolers on our trip are a very kind and enthusiastic group. It has been a great experience getting to know each of them, and see them push themselves with their Spanish language skills. Given that they are mostly New Yorkers and Californians, I am trying to adapt to the ridiculous way they say bahhg, and what was the other, oh yeah, meelk. So far I’ve misplaced my new galoshs and rubber gloves, but I do still know where my camera and guitar are. Did I mention that, I bought a guitar, and I love it, and I’m gonna learn me some good Nicaraguan music with itJ
Viva Espana!!