Yo Soy Nosotros

sign in parque juarez in san miguel

I had many possible titles for this blog post some of the rejected:

¿Quieres champiñones?
Who knew I´d have to travel to Mexico to fall in love with the Hollywood Classics!
Tourista fea soy yo
What do you mean what kind of frapacino do I want?
Of course we should break egg shells on our heads.
C´est la vie.

I ended up sticking with Yo soy nosotros. I just loved Reading that in the park the other day. To back up, I´ve been in Mexico visiting my dear tía Virginia in a city in the heart of Mexico called San Miguel de Allende. I arrived in Mexico through Puerto Vallarta on Friday and took an all night bus to Queretaro, and from there a bus to San Miguel Allende.

Cathedral and main square where the egg mayhem went down

It´s only been a few days, but I cannot believe all I have seen and done in that amount of time. I knew this trip was going to be a good one as I waited in the Phoenix Airport for my connecting flight to Puerto Vallarta. I was really hot, and decided to go grab a Frapacino from Starbucks, I had never ordered one, but my sister loves them. So I go up and scan the menú, and find Frappacino, it says I have to decide what kind of milk, coffee, and whether I want whip cream or not. So feeling all prepared I go up to the counter and ask for a frappacino with skim milk and regular coffee. Then the lady at the counter asks me, what kind? And I´m like, oh no, I forgot tos ay the whip cream part. So I repeat myself, and she repeats herself, what kind? At this point i´m red in the face and so confused. I was like, what do you mean what kind? And she says, what kind of frapacino? Eventually we got to the point to her walking over to the menú and pointing out to me the plethora of frap options, oh dios mio! And this is before i had entered the foreign country!

Mi tia and her first family she stayed with, lovely people!! Como no?

San Miguel is a beautiful town about 3 or 4 hours northwest of Mexico City in the state of Guanajuato. It is full of retired expatriates. The buildings are beautiful, and this is by far the best climate I have ever experienced. Everyday its about 70 degrees, sunny, dry and no bugs. We are staying with the cutest couple ever, Miguel and coincidentally Virginia. They are a retired couple in their 70´s. They rent out the three apartments they have, but only to people who find them through Word of mouth, they do not advertise. We have a cute Little kitchen and a terraza to have our breakfast and dinner.

All the wonderful food from the market

Ginny has brought me around to meet some of her new friends, including to older women who work a stand in the market. We bought the most delicious fruit and vegetables from them the other day, and for so cheap!! Ginny is particularly fond of the woman in the picture, and i´ll have to get her name the next time i am in. We also bought a few things from the woman a few stands down. I was talking with her a Little bit in spanish. She asked if we wanted champiñones (mushrooms), so i turned to my tia Ginny to ask her. My question was greeted with a familiar blank stare that left me wondering if she Heard me (my aunt has a Little hearing impairment). So I asked her again a little louder to no avail. I started thinking to myself, wtf ginny, do you want mushrooms or not, and at that momento i realized i was asking her in Spanish. The three of us laughed and laughed over the momento, as we were all confused.

I made Ginny some lunch

This has been a great trip so far. It is carnaval right now in San Miguel. After having a siesta of Margaritas and totopos (chips) we came out in the main square to kids running and screaming. Women were selling bags of eggshells 10 pesos for 10 eggsshells or about 1$. We bought a bag and walked through the square, which apparently was declaring ourselves part of the ensuing battle. Kids of all ages and we three gringos (Ginny´s travel companion Rose was also with us) were going crazy smashing these eggshells on each others heads. This craziness will continue until Tuesday night and the end of carnaval. The best thing was watching these toddlers walking up to each other, one would smash an egg on the others head, then would stand and wait to get an egg smashed on their head. So adorable.

Last night Ginny and I went to this really cute movie theatre and watched ´Dark Victory´ a black and white hollywood movie starring Bette Davis, so good! and it came with a drink and popcorn. The lead actor looked just like Zac Efron, and the supporting cast, Humphrey Bogart and Ron Reagan, not too shabby:)

I love being back in the Spanish speaking world. The people i have met so far have such a wonderful spirit. Ginny has been a hard worker making friendships and trying hard to use the spanish she is learning, i´m very proud and impressed with her progress.

The craziest thing happened the other day at the bus stop. I noticed this man sitting next to me speaking French, and there was another Mexican there. This woman walked up to the bus stop wearing a skirt, and she tripped!! And the French man said, ´C´est la vie´ and the Mexican said, ´yo tambien´

Thanks to my new friend Lee who told me thatJ (I have a way with men in their 60´s for some reason, it affirms my compatibility with Joe Biden I think)

Final thoughts of Nicaragua...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxiF0434Adw

There I said it...I'll miss it until the day I return:)

I´ve got blisters on my fingers...aka I went surfing

I´m surfing, I´m a surfer, I´ve surfed. It´s true, thank you to my new Peruvian genius surf instructor friend Alfredo, I can surf...más o menos. That actually reminds me of this shop in Jinotega. There was a huge sign that said ´Todo para un dolár´ and then below it, ´más o menos´. Nothing in that store cost a dollar, it was hilarious.
Anyway, the first day of surfing was great, I spent the whole day in the water, and eventually could stand up and move on the wave a bit. The next day...gave me blisters and scrapes everywhere. That pictures is the condition my toes are in at the moment. Somehow, everytime I tried standing up I would rub my toe knuckles on the board. And my fingers, I´ve got blisters on the pads of my finger tips!I definitely had a false sense of competence in surfing after using a large table like board the first day. I took a board about 1 foot shorter for the next go around. It felt like climbing a jacob´s ladder paddling. That´s right, I couldn´t even find enough balance to paddle. Plus, Alfredo did not put dummy marks on the board so I knew where my nose was supposed to be. Why is this important you say. Well, if you start paddling for a wave, and you catch it, but you are too far forward on the board, the nose of the board goes directly into the water. My first wave out, it happened. And I know you´ve all had the moment in time where things happen frame by frame, and you are aware of each step of the disaster that happened. Like when I tore my ACL for the second time, it went like this: I saw Shannon Kane´s defender move over to help on another player. She got the ball on the block and I slid over, time my jump perfectly for her little turn around shot she does, jumped higher than I ever had, stuffed the ball back in her face, yelled to give my block more drama, fell down to the ground on my instep, laid down on the ground envisioning my leg no longer being straight, but instead a 90 degree angle outward. Anyway, the same thing happened to me on the beach that day. I paddled for the wave, I watched the tip of my board go under the water, I started to say ´Oh shi..´ a gallon of salt water went directly down my throat, i went under water, and to finish it off, the board came and hit me right in the face...my first run out!! and I remember being under the water thinking, dang, did i lose teeth, or, is my nose broken? i came up from the water and felt my face, and there was blood. luckily, the board hit right under my noses. higher or lower from that mark would have caused much more damage. I of course kept surfing, i knew that stopping at that point would only give me time and awareness to feel the pain. I was much more aware of my positioning on the board from that moment on. . But, after 4 hours of struggling, I found my rhythm. I found the bigger waves, and the feeling of being shot out of the wave and feeling that speed and power is an experience I´ll never forget.

San Juan del Sur and the hostal we have stayed has a crazy way of never letting you leave. I was going to travel on to see the Island Ometepe, a place where two volcanos fused together. Instead I have spent my whole time off here on the beach. After spending the first six weeks of this adventure mostly with Nicaraguans, it has been interesting hanging with travelers in the hostal. These people are crazy, traveling for months at a time, instead of weeks. I can´t even imagine being on the road that long, without a homebase. But after listening to their stories, I´m starting to feel the ganas de try it out. South America is starting to call my name. I definitely want to go to a Spanish speaking place. It feels really good to have the ability to communicate with the locals. I learned how to salsa dance from this wonderful Nicaraguan Marcos. I hope to find some salsa dancers in Logan.

It´s been a lovely thing, spending the morning drinking coffee on the third floor terrace, swinging in the hammock, taking in the ocean breeze. The whole day for surfing, and the night for salsa dancing. San Juan is the triple threat. It´s been a blast, and now it´s time to go back to home sweet home, Minnesota.

Goodbye Jinotega

This picture is my favorite of the trip. I´m not sure how, but it conjures up in me how I feel about this VISIONS experience. Those three young women looking out into the San Gregorio countryside, carrying their piocha, machete and shovel with immense possibilities in front of them.
The trip is now in its final days. The kids are gone, back to their lives in the states and Holland. But I am still having anxious dreams about forgetting them in random places. The other night in Granada I almost walked out on the street because I thought the noise on the street was our Blandon bus. I was sleeping at the time by the way, luckily a new Hostal friend was there to rein in on my craziness.
We came close to finishing up our project. A few more pipes need to be laid. We spent our last fews days at the worksite building a dam at the spring. It was an amazing feeling working side by side with 20 from our group, and 50 nicaraguans, passing rocks one by one and stacking them to build the dam This picture was of our walk up to the Spring, we followed the path of the trench we helped to dig.
This trip has been fulfilling on so many levels. It all came together for me on our last day in San Gregorio, our little farming community outside of Jinotega. The whole community came out to say goodbye to us. That was my favorite day. It reminded me so much of my little pre-schoolers in Head Start. It was such a beautiful experience seeing my High School kids interact with the children of San Gregorio. This little girl Natalia became good buddies with Cara, one of our rock star participants. Natalia would periodically unbutton her pants to pull them up past her little beer belly and then rebutton them. It was hilarious to see, especially when she did it right in front of the whole group during Jose Maria´s speech to the community. (the leader of the water project) We did a three legged race, water bag toss and potato sack relay. The highlight of the day was definitely the dizzy bat relay. We gathered all of the prominent men of the community, the leaders of the clean water project, and created relay teams with our VISIONS kids. The women and children died with laughter watching their normally stoic fathers, husbands, uncles dizzily run towards the children. In the background of this photo you can kind of see the dizzy Nicaraguans run toward the children.
Leaving, like any ending, is a pesada thing.
Throughout the trip I was never sure how connected our group was feeling to our new Nicaraguan friends. In my second blog I posted a picture of a boy named Jeyson. He was our across the street neighbor, 16, already expelled twice from High School. At that point in the trip, he had followed us up the hike to the cross. I remember wondering what Jeyson was thinking at that moment, looking down on his pueblo. Was he optimistic? Was he already disillusioned about what his prospects in life were?

Throughout the trip, the guys especially befriended him in street soccer games. Jon, our director decided to invite him with us to the worksite. The relationship slowly evolved to the point where he was part of our family. Watching our group say goodbye to Jeyson was a touching moment. The toughest guys in our group fought back tears, including Jeyson. At that moment I realized how much our group had connected with Jinotega, it felt so good. It reminded me back to my first VISION trip with St. Thomas. One of our group members brought a quote I had previously never heard, but have heard in many places and in many forms since. ´If you have come to help me leave, if you have come because you realize my liberation is wrapped in yours, stay´. What Jeyson brought to our community was equally as powerful as the positive influence we had on his life.
Our last days on the trip were beautiful. We were able to go zip lining through the Nicaraguan rainforest, and then spend the rest of the day relaxing at a crater lake outside Masaya.
Our final night was in Granada. We needed to leave by 3 AM, so most of the students decided to not sleep, which meant that I also needed to stay up. We dropped the kids off, and took a taxi back to the beautiful crater lake, the best decision we could have made. We stayed at Crater´s Edge, a hospedaje run by a Vancouver woman. We truly had no worries, lunch and dinner was served on baskets lined with banana leaves. The most comfortable chairs I have ever experienced were calling me. That is my idea of vacation, one hundred percent. It gave a wonderful opportunity to reflect on the experience was had just gone through.

For any VISIONS Nicaragua participants who read this, I want to thank you for your extraordinary level maturity and kindness. Throughout the trip we as leaders acknowledged amongst ourselves how lucky we were to have been given such a great group of young adults. I wish you luck in all your future endeavors.

I´m transitioning now to vacation, and as I mentioned before, I´m having a little difficulty letting go of the trip that just was. Today I will try my hand at surfing for the first time, so excited!! Jon Larsen, I found your dragon on the beach today...

More than anything I know this, I want more Nicaragua. Hopefully if the stars line up, this will be the first of many trips down to this hidden gem of the world, and I would love to share it with anyone who is interested.

Futbol and Coffee Beans, que mas quiere...

It's been a month now in Jinotega. I love the pace of life here. For whatever reason I am able to live more fully in the present than in the States. I would love to be able to find this balance when I come home in a couple weeks.
A week ago some of the guys in our group, Ian and myself went to a central park and played soccer on a basketball court. I remember this always frustrating me in Spain that they would waste a good court for soccer. I don't know if it was the recent World Cup action, or what, but that was one of my favorite days here. The court was wet and puddly, at one point, Ian hooked my plant foot as I was in mid-kick and slammed me down into the concrete court, into a puddle, it was awesome. I haven't played soccer in maybe 8 years, the last time being before I had my first ACL reconstruction in High School. I forgot how much fun it is. I think playing on a hard surface is more fun in a lot of ways, much more fast paced, more like basketball in terms of setting people up for shots. It was great to play with so many Nicaraguans. There were a lot of 8 year oldish aged kids, and I kept running into them and having to catch them in mid-fall.

This past weekend we took a trip up to a FINCA (compound)

called Kilamanjaro. It is a huge coffee plantation. We were able to ride horses (it reminds why as a second grader I wanted to live in South Dakota on a ranch), take in the

scenary including a coffee tour, play some cards, and just relax. It was so beautiful, and the coffee was delicious. It gives me Ganas de bring the MN

rovers here on a trip next summer and chill out on the FINCA. Coffee is a huge industry here in Nicaragua. During peak season 500 workers live and work in the fields. This particular FINCA is certified organic. They grow banana trees to provide shade for the coffee beans to grow. It was also on this trip that I learned how to use different functions on my camera, macro function is amazing. I am able to zoom in so close to the green coffee beans, to the point where you can see every detail of the bug that is chilling on it. The coffee beans are still green right now, when they are red, they are ready to be picked. Each shell needs to be shucked, and I forget how that works, I was having trouble focusing our day of the tour, how could I, would you be able to if you just found out your camera could take ridiculously up close pictures? I didn´t think so.
Our work on the water project is steadily progressing. the other day we hiked in about an 1 hr to the work site. We challenged the Nicaraguans already hard at work to see who could dig the tank the quickest. We split the tank area in half, team Nicaragua, versus team USA. I think the group worked harder than we have ever worked, piochaing (spanglish) and shoveling with a purpose, we still got crushed. It was like putting the Pirates against the Yankees, we was beat when we was kids.
Last week I took a brave bunch of adventurers up to the cross on a morning hike. We left at 4:15 AM for the hike. it took us a little while to find the path up, because the combination of my directional talent and darkness did not bode well for our goal of watching the sunrise in Jinotega. And I don't know if it was the combination of me not sleeping the night before (I can never sleep when I know I have to wake up early, something about my anxiety of sleeping through something important) or my absolute disregard for salt and sugar intake on this trip, but about half way up on the hike I thought I was going to do something I've never done before while exercising, I was about to puke all over that path. Somehow I held it together and made it to the top, to find my faithful morning hikers chilling and enjoying the view they had just earned. I got mad love for all my peeps that chose to rise before the sun to make the hike.
Our group of high schoolers are great. It is an intense experience to be away from home for so long, doing work that most are not accustomed to, and learning to find harmony in a new community of strangers. We have been fortunate to have a group of considerate and genuinely kind young adults. Through the challenging parts of the trip they have picked each other up. They all have a bright future in front of them, and I can only hope this experience will in some way shed light on where that bright future leads them.
I am also so thankful for the group of co-leaders on this trip. While the high schoolers have their support network, I also feel totally supported and safe working with Jon, Ian, Jackie and my fellow Minnesotan Alyson. I think there is no better feeling than finding the comfort to hold nothing of yourself back, and that is how I feel here in our Jinotega VISIONS community.
Another update: I continue to speak in Spanish in my sleep.
On Saturday I missed Joe Gannon and Celeste's Minnesota celebration of their wedding. You were in my thoughts all day. I can't wait to hear the stories and the pictures that accompany them when I get home. I am blessed with the coolest family they is.
I miss and love you all and hope all is well in your part of the world:)

Eso es como quiero viajar

Today was a good day. On our way to work today I was overcome with a feeling of appreciation and joy for the experience I have been blessed with here in Jinotega. I have been fortunate to have the opportunity to travel to many places, and I've found that I don't enjoy travelling very much. I love the fun times I have with the people I travel with, but in terms of seeing a new place, somehow it doesn't click with me. It has been on this trip that I can finally pin point the kind of travelling I would like to do in the future. While the Czech Republic was interesting and beautiful, in terms of understanding its culture, it felt like we were on the outside looking in on a little Czech snow globe. We were able to perceive some cultural things, taste some Czech food, but we were still outsiders.
Here in Jinotega I feel the opposite. We have only been here 3 weeks now, and already I feel I am among good friends. Between Victorino's family, the Blandones (our drivers) Darlin (our cook) and Joanna (work volunteer and dance teacher) I am surrounded by loving and friendly people that have welcomed us with open arms in their community. Darlin and Joanna in particular have taught me so many 'dichos' already. My favorite one, and the one I use most often, is: Te llego un burro. (I don't understand) Also, me le meta la pata (Don't let the cat out of the bag).
I have also come to realize, that beyond their welcoming warm personalities, the Nicaraguans I have met, are tricksters. They love to tell you lies and see you squirm, and then let you know they were joking. I feel very at home here.

On our way to work, we had to stop at the Puente de San Gabriel. It has been raining hard for the past few days, and now the little stream has over taken the bridge. We got out, let the kids take a look at the rushing river, and then started helping them get rocks to divert the water off the bridge. Between the 22 of us, and the 8 local community members, we were able to make the bridge passable. Our kids worked really hard, side by side with the men and boys of San Gregorio. In an hour and a half of work, we could actually see that we made a positive impact, and that felt really good.

This picture is of Jon, we helped him and his family put the rocks in place on the bridge.
We were still unable to work for the day, because although the stream had been diverted for now, if it rained anymore, it could flood again and we would be stuck on the wrong side.
After 'work' we went to a swimming hole in San Rafael. It felt amazing. The water was rushing because of all the rain. It felt so good to put my feet on a rock and let the river rush across my whole body. The only downside of the day was that I forgot to take off my watch, and its broken. After not using a watch for four years, I have become accustomed to always having access to the time. And after three weeks I hadn't lost it. Oh well.
This picture is of Fernando at the river we swam in. He´s so awesome!
Its finally sunny this afternoon, and it feels really good, in spite of the exhaustion I feel right now after swimming.
Oh yes, I was able to watch the entire World Cup final, what an amazing match. And Maggie, you were right, Holland was the worst, what a bunch of cheap shotters, they were so much like the Italians from four years ago, it felt so good to see Iniestra snap that ball out of the air and into the net.

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!!