What's Shaikh'n

Moving for Mangos!

2011-06-09T14:50:00.000-07:00

That's not the whole truth... but part of it

Moin is moving for the mangos. I am moving for the job. Our next (and definitely biggest) family adventure starts in July 2011. I've taken a one year assignment in the Google Bangalore office. Huge opportunity for me. Moin will take a year off - his first ever. And the girls will be in international school (hopefully). Lots to get done in a short period of time, but we are all super excited.

We've started a new blog just for this experience... http://movingformangos.blogspot.com/

Our last day in Nica!

2010-08-05T06:50:00.000-07:00

With very little sleep last night and Moin not feeling well, we hung around the condo until noon. Moin had swallowed so much tylenol that he was a bit nonsensical. Aneesa was not feeling chipper either and wanted to take a nap. So Moin, Amara, and I headed out to do a few last minute things. We had hoped to see the volcano Masaya and had a nice offer from Ramon to take us up there in the chicken bus, but Moin was not sure he could last that long. Instead of the volcano we ventured out in the heat of the day to get a few last minute gifts and such.

We first headed over to the Dona Elba cigar factory near the Xalteva Park. They had a few guys in the atrium hand rolling organic cigars. While we neither one smoke, we picked up a pack of their finest for someone who has been saintly enough to watch Nattie the Cattie for three entire weeks! We enjoyed learning a bit about the cigar process and watching them tediously hand roll cigar after cigar. This small store front is part of a much bigger operation in the famous tobacco area of Nicaragua, Esteli. The owner came out to talk to us and shared with us that his family has done tobacco for years and years. He lived in CA for 30 years and had excellent English. They do a ton of business on cigar.com which made me smile a bit.

After our cigar factory experience, we walked over to the market off a side street near Parque Central we tried to visit last Sunday but they were all closed. Wow! This was the local's market and we wish we had come to this area when we had more time and felt better. We walked through about half of it - enough to see the meat market which was not overly pleasant with seemingly unsanitary conditions, lots of flies swarming about, dirt floors, dogs scrounging for small bits of meat, etc. We were not compelled to purchase meat :) The internal aisles of the market were stocked full of anything and everything - baskets, tupperware containers, birthday party supplies, dishes, pots, food, etc. Our eyes were met with something colorful everywhere we turned. We could have spent a lot of time here on a cooler, better health day. Along the way we encountered many trinket-selling vendors. One in particular we had seen several days now - a mom, three daughters ranging in age from 2-7 or so. We have not purchased her goods and did not plan on doing so today either. However, she walked right up to us and handed Moin a pharmacy script with three medicines on them and showed him a wicked infected area on the youngest child's neck. We ended up standing in line at the local pharmacy waiting for our number to be called. In front of us was a group from Louisiana who was working at a church-affiliated hospital, dental, and eye clinic. They talked about the group of OB/GYNs they brought down who are doing surgery all week and how they were buying loads of beans and rice and delivering them out to the rural areas. They also offered their services to the children and family of the hotel staff where they were staying. I am reminded that some religious groups do no service work in areas like this, and it makes me sad.

After returning to the condo, Moin crashed and slept for 3 hours. We woke him up at 5:00 to go get dinner since we skipped lunch. We headed over to Parque Central and were immediately spotted by the 15 year old from a few nights before. By now, I had spent a bit of time reading up on the kids who hang out in the park. I had my strong suspicions that he was a "huele pega" (glue sniffer). He fit the descriptions in our guide book perfectly. He yelled out for us, but we tried to ignore him. He came right up and tapped Aneesa on the shoulder and started talking to her. She asked him if he went to school and what he studied. He seems to always have an answer on hand for her. However, this time he said he lives in a house with his grandparents not in the park with them. We could hear a glass like jingling in his pocket and could see the outline of a bottle which could have been a glue bottle... or not. When we passed a hot dog stand, he asked for one. I still cannot see a kid hungry. So again we bought him a hot dog. I wish there was more we could do. We have talked to Ramon and read the flyers about that clearly say these kids have options. Ramon told us the reason they do not use the options is because of the rules - be here by this time, go to school, no glue, etc. Moin sees people like this all the time in the hospitals and is a bit more immune to the feelings the girls and I have about it. It is very difficult for me to see kids living like this, and I hate the feeling of helplessness that goes along with it. We learned from him that his name is Eddie, and we learned from the hot dog vendor that he is indeed a huele pega. We finished our evening with dinner at Don Lucas - good pizza indeed but I preferred Mona Lisa. Ramon came by to make final arrangements for our return trip and offered to move up the start time to get us one last chance to see Masaya Volcano - yay! He brought his son - adorable! We were able to offload the rest of our groceries on him. And of course the power just went out. We let the kids go first for showers, guess we will have to wait until WA for our shower. I am still amazed that a place like this does not have a generator! And I am amazed at the amount of racket the dogs nearby can make after the midnight hour until just before all of the church bells start ringing at the six o'clockish hour. What noisy noisy nights we have had in Granada. One favorite thing of Granada - very very few mosquitoes!

Cacao Farm Tour

2010-08-05T06:47:00.000-07:00

Granada, we hear, seldom loses all power. However, a major storm blew in last night and knocked out all power. The power went out just as we arrived back from an ALL day tour of the Cacao Farm. So there was no blog post yesterday :(

So reflecting...

We started the day pretty early with a walk to the Choco Museo where the Cacao Farm tour started. The tour is a brand new attraction in Granada and our family was tour #3. Ramon was our English speaking guide again which made us happy. In booking the tour we asked for horses and non-pork lunches. The instructions for the tour indicated the need to be in good physical condition, closed toe shoes, and swimming gear for the volcanic thermal waters. Having already read all of the posters in the Choco Museo, we were excited about the farm tour.

To start the tour, we were driven to a port where we boarded a boat. We had a nice tour around a different section of the Isletas around Granada. Ramon was excellent at pointing out birds, trees, flowers, etc. He also quizzed us on the information we learned on the Masaya tour with him. On this boat ride, there were no Hollywood style houses on private islands. The islands were mostly inhabited by local fisherman eeking out a living and using row boats for transportation. We passed an island that rang out with the call of howler monkeys. As we slowly approached the island, we all easily spotted mamas and their babies in the trees scampering and swinging about. Their call sounds something like a pack of wild dogs and a BART train in San Francisco. The little monkeys are adorable and both girls would be happy to have one as a pet! (HA!)

The boat dropped us off at a section of mainland that is not easily accessible by vehicle. We learned that all of the produce made on this section of mainland is transported out to the markets via boat after boat. Remote hardly describes the area. The farm was a very small scale operation in terms of manpower but had a large physical area with hundreds of acres. The farm manages acres of plantains, citrus, coffee, and cacao. With 30+ acres dedicated to cacao trees, they are a very very small scale chocolate operation.

After hiking up a fairly steep hill with the girls, Ramon, an assistant, and the boat driver who carried a huge machete (we later learned he is the farm foreman as well), we learned that only 4 horses had been sent instead of the requested six horses. Additionally, the horses were sooooo skinny and did not look healthy at all. Hip bones and ribs protruded on all four of the horses. One had a large, open sore on the hip bone area. The saddles were a different sort of saddle than what were are used to in America as these had no straps under the horse. The straps holding the saddle on were under the tail instead. I am no horse expert, nor am I a big horse person... but these horses looked awful. I was overwhelmed with guilt on two fronts - the horses looked so awful that I did not want to burden them with my weight and the guide and assistant were packing in water, lunch, first aid kits, etc for our use. They would not have horses, since the other two horses never showed up. At the start of the ride, we decided to give Ramon a horse and Amara and I would double up on the largest of the horses. The horse was completely uncontrollable. It kept walking on the side of the trail rather than down the middle of the rocky, muddy trail. After I had been slapped in the face multiple times by branches, leaves, and actual plantain clusters, I got off and walked. I rationalized that I would use less energy walking than trying to pull the horse around. At some point Moin also got off and walked. The horses just were not trained to walk the trail they needed to walk and it was very difficult to pay attention to the information while fighting the horses. Throughout the day, I attempted the horse three more times and gave up each time. The horse owners walked along behind the horses whacking them with sticks, leaves, and other objects to make them move along the trail. By the end of the day, the horse owner was riding one of the horses and switching it with a stick or rope constantly. The entire horse thing made me sad. Walking posed its own set of challenges... muddy, rocky, very uneven, steaming hot, and miles of trail. As usual, I had my pedometer in my pocket. I logged over 20,000 steps on the tour alone. If 10,000 steps is about 5 miles... by the end of the tour, I was exhausted and sore all over. My knee was killing me from all the rocks and downhill/uphill combinations.

The tour consisted of the following parts: boat to the mainland area of the farm, walk up a steep hill, walk/ride through plantain fields, walk/ride through the cacao section and get a brief explanation of the process (not too different than what we read in the museum, walk/ride by the coffee section, get a brief overview of the drying process since nothing was drying at the time, have lunch at the top of a hill, walk down to see some volcanic springs used for irrigation, walk/ride for a very long time to the thermal waters, take a scary boat back through a mangrove (but not like mangroves in FL), board the first boat and leave.

Seeing real cacao trees was quite interesting for me. My favorite part of the tour was trying the white flesh inside the cacao pod that surrounds the cacao beans. With a texture like lychees, it is very sweet and delicious. We saw two varieties of cacao trees and pods in all stages of development from flowers to freshly harvested sitting alongside the trail in bags fermenting. The brief overview at the hacienda to explain the fermenting, drying, and sorting was ok but was all talk since nothing was actually being processed.

We made the brief climb to the top of the hill where the main house was located. We ate lunch at an outside gazebo area with amazing views. When the lunch was unpacked, it was sandwiches, plantain chips, bananas, and lemonade. The sandwiches featured about 3 kinds of cold cuts - all pork. Luckily for us, Ramon had carried a package of American cheese with him for his lunch. We made a trade of meat for cheese. We were starving (especially Moin and I who had logged 10K steps by this point), so we were so thankful for Ramon's cheese!

After lunch Moin and I walked down behind the hacienda to see the volcanic spring waters used for irrigation. The smell of sulfur was hard to miss as we approached the spring area. This was one point where you could swim if you chose... we chose not to. Moin's allergies went nuts with the sulfur smell or a flowering tree or something.

Following lunch, we embarked on a very long horse/walk ride through very rocky roads with little shade most of the time en route to the thermal waters. One highlight of the walk was seeing the locals playing a game of modified baseball - plantain workers versus the coffee/cacao workers. The ball was made from flip flop soles molded into a ball. The bat? Their hands. Moin and I found a plantain pod on the ground so we occupied ourselves with the task of trying to open each section.

After about an hour or more of walking, we arrived at the thermal waters, Honestly, they were a bit of a disappointment. With the outside temperature hovering in the mid 90s, the last thing any of us wanted to do was change into our swimsuits behind the bushes and jump into 100+ degree water. Additionally, there was a ton of algae swarming about. All together, the setup did not entice any of us to get in. Our transportation back to the main dock was a "balance boat" that made me nearly panic every time anyone shifted their weight. Under normal circumstances, we would not have gotten into such a boat or would have at least ALL worn life jackets. But when in Nica...

We made it back to Granada just as a huge storm blew in. We waited for about 15-20 minutes for the driver to arrive to take us back to the hotel. While we waited we watched with a mixture of sadness and admiration as families embarked on the journey back across the lake in row boats with the waves crashing and the rain pouring down. I am still in turmoil over whether I would recommend this tour to other families :( It would have taken a considerably longer time to finish with kids if we had not used horses for them... however, the horses were poorly trained, poorly treated, and looked unhealthy. The day is very long for what you get out of it.

We walked into the condo just as the power went out. Everyone but Aneesa got a cold water shower before the condo ran out of water. I had to pour bottles of our drinking water over Aneesa so she could at least get the grime off of her from the long day. We also learned at this point that in spite of the decent amount of money we are spending on this condo, there is no generator. The water is run by an electric pump at the plant; so no electric means no water. We received a call from the Choco Museo to apologize for the lunch mistake. They offered us a free meal at Nectars which was undoubtedly the best food we have had during our stay in Granada. El Colibri in San Juan del Sur is at the top of our list for the entire visit.

After dinner, we returned to the condo. Still no power or water. Nobody from the office stopped by to see if we had flashlights or candles. No apologies. No updates. Finally, we were able to find someone who said... no idea when it will be back on. I am disappointed by this. We seem to have misplaced our flashlight and had to rely on a flashlight app I happened to have installed for fun on my Nexus One. The power came on and off throughout the night for 3-5 minute spurts and then stayed on from 5am on. At some point we realized Moin had a fever. He was so hot, he moved the couch cushion outside and slept by the door for a while. I rocked in a rocking chair until he was cool enough to go back inside. His fever came and went all night long. However, there is not enough electric to start the water back up. It is 4:00 in the afternoon on Wednesday now and there is still not consistent water and Moin still feels awful but we have things to do. Ahh... the experiences we have had.

Masaya tour

2010-08-02T21:18:00.000-07:00

We had a big day planned today. First on the agenda was Volcan Masaya. It is one of the few constantly-active volcanoes that you can actually go up to and peer down into its fiery belly. Our guide Ramon Parra www.finditgranada.com/tours and guides or ramonparra60@yahoo.es picked us up in the morning. But it was not meant to be! There had been some volcanic activity overnight and the park was closed to all visitors. This is only the third time the volcano has been shut - the other two times ended up with an eruption. We put our number on the call list in case it opened later and moved on to the famous Masaya marketplace. There is an old and a new one. We went to the newer one and looked through a ton of shops. A lot of them displayed the kitchier items like bracelets, traditional dresses, purses, hammocks, and some not-so-kitschy items like stuffed little turtles and frogs. Yes, they are reportedly real and we avoided the stores that sold them. The girls found bracelets they liked and Moin bargained with the shopkeepers.

When we were all done with shopping we headed on to Catarina Mirador. It is a lookout point on the rim of an extinct volcano with beautiful lush green trees lining the slopes down to Laguna de Apoyo which is the deepest lake in Central America at 200 meters. We ate at one of the restaurants up there and enjoyed a fabulous breeze and amazing views. Then we headed to see some pottery. En route we saw one of the buildings that had been all shot up by the Spanish and then by the rebels. Now the bullet holes serve a much nobler purpose - drawing in the public to the now bar! We went in to San Juan de Oriente where we visited the Valentin Lopez Pottery School. They gave us the history of their process and then invited us to give it a try. The history was full of traditions that are passed down from generation to generation throughout the town. The process involves hauling clay from miles away on their backs and physically stomping the clay in a dance that is believed to breathe life into the clay. The clay, the colors used, the shining methods - all natural! Various minerals are used to create the colors; sea rocks with varying textures are used to polish; and seeds of plants are used for smoothing. Necessity is the mother of invention - in the old tradition, broken turtles shells were used to carve intricate designs; today recycled bicycle spokes are used. The entire process takes 12-15 days from start to kiln-ready. The kiln is fired up by wood for 10 hours and reaches 900 degree F. They run the kiln two times per month. The townspeople feel the art is in the hands of all... or is it? We were offered a chance to try it out. Dawn and Amara got to work with the master himself. Despite how effortless it appeared, it required a lot of hand strength and coordination to keep the wheel spinning by kicking a huge wheel with one foot while keeping the other foot safely out of the way! The master potter saved both our pieces - for the most part. Although not in any of the guidebooks, this was one of the most interesting things we have experienced. We purchased a small piece out of sheer appreciation of the labor-intensive process.

Next was a dip in Laguna de Apoyo. The lake formed 20,000 years ago when the Volcan Apoyo imploaded and left a crater. We had to navigate a road that tested all the discs of your spine and then some! If you survive you can wade into the refreshing, perfectly warmed waters of the brackish lake while carefully avoiding all the volcanic rock that somehow managed to find delicate bare soles. Several restaurants will let you use their facilities to change and their tables right up on the waters edge if you buy a few drinks. We spent about an hour there and then checked in with the park authorities to see if we could get in to the volcano. Unfortunately the park was still closed so our guide suggested a boat trip around Las Isletas.

Las Isletas are a group of 365 island that were formed when Volcan Mombacho erupted 20,000 years ago. We boated around the many little islands and were shocked to find a lot of them with homes built on them. There are also the local Nica families that eke out a very simple living on them by fishing. One island is home to a local tribe of people and has a church that changes denomination depending on the day of the week. There is also a school that is an elementary school in the morning and secondary school in the afternoon. The houses on the island range from modest to lavish with one of them sporting a boat lift, infinity pool, security cameras, helipad, and even a cell tower!! Some of the islands even have a restaurant or a bar on them. The islands are mainly vacation homes owned by foreigners or Nicaragua's elite. An interesting stop was Fortin de San Pablo which is an old fort built by the Spanish to defend against the pirates. The views were beautiful and the breeze fabulous. We saw herons, king fishers, swallows, bats, and "monkey island" where a vet has four adorable little monkeys that he feeds and cares for. After a great boat ride we headed home but saw the cemetery that the locals use, located on the mainland. We also saw some kids paddling around and some adults fishing presumably for dinner.

We had decided to eat at home tonight and so while the girls showered, Dawn and I headed off to the local supermarket to pick up some veggies and local cookies. It was pretty crowded but we managed to escape through a short line. This time we remembered to bring our own shopping bags and so did not have to carry little grocery-filled boxes through the streets. I left Dawn and the girls at the condo to start dinner and walked down three blocks to the local Pimpollo store to pick up a rotisserie chicken. By now it was completely dark. Imagine my horror when I found the store tightly shut! Since it was late (7pm) we were kinda out of options unless we wanted to walk 20 minutes into town to get dinner. We decided to make do and had fried everything - potatoes and cheese - with some steamed brocolli. It turned out fine and we all very tired so we headed off to bed (after writing the blog of course).

Tomorrow is our big cacao farm tour. Ramon does freelance work and will be our guide tomorrow too. He spent 20 years in the US (good ole Texas) and has great English!

Lazy Sunday

2010-08-01T21:14:00.000-07:00

We did not do much today. After sleeping till about 9:00, we had a lazy breakfast and then played card games. On this trip, we have taught the girls to play a few versions of Rummy and have practiced Spades which they learned right before we left WA. This morning we learned how to play Kings in the Corners which they really liked.

After lunch, the girls swam while I patiently uploaded pictures from the last week to Picasa. A large group of students arrived at the condos just as we were leaving the pool. I am guessing they are high school students and hope they are well behaved :)

In the late afternoon, we walked back to the Choco Museo to see if they had Chocolate Tea. We have heard so much about it from backpackers we have met along the way, and they were out yesterday. We were in luck! They had just received 50 pounds of it this morning. While trying out the Chocolate Tea which was scrumptious, we met the owner of the Hotel and Museum, Mitch from New York. The Chocolate Museum was his "crazy idea" to add on to the hotel. I think it will end up being a fairly great idea in the end! It's chocolate, how can it go wrong?

Our big plan was to walk along the second busiest street in Granada (Calle Atravesada) However, since it was Sunday the stores were closed with few exceptions. We turned down a side street and discovered an open air market with a few stalls open. While the street was dirty and smelled pretty rank, I think it has good potential for neat finds on a busy day so we will have to return later in the week. We wandered through some neighborhood streets, got heckled a bit, and saw the neatest bird nests on ONE street. The nests grow on the telephone/electrical lines. Just to make sure we were seeing nests, Aneesa asked some teenagers and they verified we were indeed seeing nests. The town was pretty dead outside of Central Park and the primary tourist zones. We found our way back to Central Park along dirty and often smelly streets.

From Nicaragua 2010

In Central Park, we looked out for a few kids we saw yesterday. We decided to buy a few kids some hot dogs and it was another surreal experience. Aneesa was more than willing to chat with the kids and practice her Spanish! A 15 year old boy has captured my curiosity. I think he may have been the young kid I smashed into on the street the first day we were here.... but maybe not. I saw him yesterday taking food off an empty table at a restaurant. And today, I noticed he had the same clothes on, still inside out. Aneesa talked to him and we figured out he could also speak some pretty decent English that he learned in high school. He said he lives with his grandparents, and he says he is still in school... I hope so. Enough about that; it makes me depressed.

After strolling visiting with the kids a bit, we tried some street food which the 15 year old told us was flour, corn, and cheese made into flat breads. The girls and I liked it, Moin not so much. For dinner, we headed to Coyote Grill for dinner. They are known for their burger and fries and that is exactly what the girls wanted. We were a bit bummed to open the menu and find a long page on the problem with the kids in the streets and a call out to leave them alone... second thoughts, second thoughts, second thoughts. While waiting on our food, we were entertained by a scary tall, pink, dancing clown-like thing and a short dancing thing. None of us liked these clowns. A few mariachi bands also serenaded young couples. We did some people watching and then headed back to our condo.

From Nicaragua 2010

For the most part, I am not wild about Granada. The colorful houses and streets are fun. And, I realize there are many great hotels here and it is a nice location to hit other attractions. On the other hand, I find it dirty and very smelly (very!). The poverty along the side streets is in stark contrast to the tourist zones full of wealthy locals and foreigners. In San Juan del Sur, we were never heckled or yelled at by the locals. They were all quite friendly and helpful. Here, we have been heckled since day one and in some cases, the tone in the voices makes me very uncomfortable. I do not feel as safe here in Granada.

I am looking forward to our day-long excursion to Masaya tomorrow - an active volcano, open markets, pottery-making, and a lake formed by an imploded volcano.

Choco Museo

2010-07-31T21:35:00.000-07:00

Today we slept in, and it was heavenly! Following a huge rainstorm last night, the temperature seemed to be a bit lower than normal. For breakfast, we had some fruit and eggs-in-the-hole and toast. This is one of the breakfast foods that I make for the kids most times we travel. Breakfast is usually a fast affair in our busy lives, so it is nice to cook for the girls once in a while. I made myself a HUGE batch of oatmeal and thoroughly enjoyed it. After breakfast, we lounged around and re-read the Granada sections in our Moon Guide Book. While in Ometepe, some backpackers said there was a new museum called the Choco Museo that we should definitely hit. We packed up some sandwiches and our ice cold water bottles (thanks to genius Moin freezing them last night) and headed out to the Museum of Chocolate. Aneesa decided to take along all the cookies we bought in the supermarket to give to the homeless kids in the park that we saw yesterday.

The museum contained several large posters about chocolate, a gift store, and an area for making chocolate. After reading about a tour they offer to a cooperative Nica cacao farm that is organic, fair trade, etc, we decided to book for Tuesday. An all day experience, the tour features boat rides, horse rides, hiking, farm tours, swimming in volcanic thermal waters, and sampling organic Nica chocolate. Since the museum is so new, we will be their 3rd tour ever... fingers crossed it goes well. We ate lunch in the beautiful atrium of the museum and admired the unusual outdoor furniture and art work.

After lunch, we wandered down to the Central Park for the first time in the daylight. We all found it depressing :( Trash floats litters every gutter of every road; stalls with handicrafts and pushy salespeople line every corner; homeless kids scrounge for food; skinny, hot dog and hamburger stands are abundant; barefoot ladies walk about selling watered down juices; sick-looking horses wait without water for the next tourist family to hop aboard garishly decorated buggies. Our touring family had planned to hop aboard but decided to sit and watch the horse owners for a while. After sitting for almost an hour people watching and horse watching, we could not bring ourselves to support the horse-drawn buggy tour of Granada. None of the horses had access to water or food; most of them needed to be rehooved; and many had wounds or other skin problems. Instead Aneesa gave out some of her cookies and made little kids happy :) The main cathedral was having a funeral, complete with the funeral buggy out front waiting for the coffin. We also went by a small massage studio that had blind masseuses. It was $3 for a 15 minute chair massage and the girls got foot massages. Moin played table tennis with some of the locals in the back of a restaurant while the girls were getting their massage.

Since we bailed on the horse ride, we decided to head back to the condo to cool down with a nice swim. The water was very nice and refreshing. For dinner we walked back to the Central Park area. While walking through the park we noticed one vendor lady who had at least a half dozen very young kids who were very close in age. The kid were busy climbing nearby trees or playing in the dirt with one small kid seemingly forgotten near a busy restaurant area. We had a wonderful dinner at El Zaguan based on the recommendation from the receptionist and the guide books. The food was great and the service excellent. We tried a traditional Nica dessert (our homestay never included dessert!). The dessert was almost a Nica version of gulab jamans (Indian dessert) with the key difference being the Nica version is made from cassava rather than powdered milk. I liked it but no one else did. We also tried the tres leches cake which is a family favorite. We packed up about half of our food and headed out.

Three of the little kids we saw in the park on the way were all the way down near the restaurants when we headed back. The kids were probably in the range of 3-6 years old. They were wandering around the restaurants areas and noticed Aneesa carrying our leftovers back. While I was pondering why a SMALL child would be standing on the side of a busy street, the older two boys darted right in front of a taxi when Aneesa asked them if they wanted food. We had three containers and gave one to each. They said "gracias" and ran off. Once back in the park we circled around to their stall and noticed there were 9 kids and 2 females sharing the leftovers we gave them. It was heartbreaking. Aneesa went up and asked them in Spanish if they wanted cookies and they were giddy with excitement! She happened to have 9 packages with her. As we finished walking, we pondered the "give a fish, teach them to fish" dilemma. These 9 children were just 9 of many we say tonight.

We have a slack day planned for tomorrow with nothing special on the agenda. The girls want to go get hot dogs and ice cream for their 9 new friends... we shall see. Monday we will head to an all day excursion in Masaya and Tuesday will be the all day cacao farm tour. Wednesday will be our last day in Nica as we head home early Thursday.

Off to Granada

2010-07-30T21:16:00.000-07:00

Today was our last day in San Juan del Sur. It was bittersweet for so many reasons. We are all sad to leave our teachers and Yajaira's wonderful family. We are even more sad to leave behind the kids we have worked with over the past two weeks through the San Juan del Sur Bibilioteca. Moin leaves feeling helpless and frustrated by the medical care - a shot in the arse for this and for that; two or three prescriptions for every ache and pain; minimum sanitation, etc. On the flip side, we are all ready for our standard American creature comforts - air conditioning on super hot days or at least powerful fans, hot water, toilets that flush with consistency, automatic washer and dryer, separate bedrooms, and I could go on but I feel a little spoiled!

The last day of Spanish School was the usual morning-long experience after our breakfast of bananas and watermelon (which we had almost daily for breakfast). I completed the last of my 12 hours of the computer and Internet basics class. In spite of the school holiday, all 8 kids showed up promptly at 8am for the last two hours of class. We had a great time with search competitions and little tips and tricks for better searches. While I planned to give candies in the spirit of competition, I quickly learned there was one little girl who could type pretty well... her team (they shared 4 computers for the 8 kids) smoked the others. So I had to back off the candy for prizes idea; the other teams had the 'you type; I watch the screen for mistakes' approach. At the end of class, I gave each kid a certificate and they were thrilled with it. Simple pleasures. The library staff brought out super super super sweet iced tea and cookies for me and the kids to reward them for sticking out the class. In spite of what I am sure was kindergarten-level-at-best Spanish, I think they learned a fair amount. The library staff was beyond appreciative of my attempt to teach the kids to use computers and the Internet.

Aneesa did not get to volunteer today because of the public school holiday. She was happy to finish her last day learning imperfect tense and reviewing a lot of new concepts. Amara took an assessment for beginners and got 79/82 correct. Yay! At the end of class, we got certificates for our Spanish class and our volunteer work. We ended the home stay with lunch of marinated, grilled beef, salad, and rice and a final picture of Alancito with the girls.

Alan (Yajaira's husband) drove us the two hours to Granada in his old land cruiser that the girls have dubbed "The Party Bus." The girls enjoy his collection of 1970s-1990s music including a song by Sublime called "Pawn Shop." Along the route, we passed many cows, horses, and dogs which we have grown accustomed to. Through the small towns along the way, I was amazed by the abilities of several young men to ride bicycles while balancing large bundles of wood (for cooking) or banana leaves. Many roadside stands offered watermelons, bananas, plantains, etc. The sandia (watermelon) trucks were also out and about; Aneesa loves the way the sandia trucks use a microphone to call out saaaannndiiiiaaaa, saaaannndiiiiaaaa, saaaannndiiiiaaaa and their other goods. In Rivas, tens of colorful bicycle rickshaws lined the main road hoping to score a passenger. Alan and Yajaira told us about a fairly common medical practice for severely sick patients (ie: cancer, etc) - cook an iguana in a small amount of water with onions and garlic. Once it is cooked, drink the water. During our time in Nica, we have learned about many home remedies that include herbs but none that involved iguanas.

Entering Granada was a bit like entering San Juan del Sur - the same colorful houses and the same impoverished conditions. We are staying at a very nice condo about 8 blocks from the Central Park. I will confess it has all the creature comforts (including a pool) and this is the first time on our trip that we are writing the blog sans dripping sweat. After checking in and unpacking our few things we still have with us, we relaxed in the air conditioning before walking to the local supermarket. We have visited many small shops while in SJDS, but not a large Nica supermarket. Fun! In spite of the steamy hot, crowded conditions in the store, we walked every single food aisle. Moin guestimates that half of the people in the store were security or employees - all crowding the aisles with the shoppers. We are not 100% sure of some items we purchased but will be adventurous. The Spanish dictionary I downloaded to my phone only goes so far and does not include Nica-specific terms for food. The girls bought some cereal and are looking forward to having it for breakfast; I got oatmeal... it has been 2 weeks with no oatmeal which is my DAILY standard! We picked up a few other items for breakfast and lunch including several kinds of local chips and jamon de pollo (ham of chicken!). While we are in such a tropical place, the choice of fruits and vegetables is very limited. At this supermarket, we did find apples - 50 cents per apple but we bought them. During the checkout process we learned that plastic bags cost money but empty stock boxes are free. We each carried a small box back home. Some men yelled out at us going and coming. They were mainly yelling at Aneesa. One had perfect English and said he liked her shirt (Black Eyed Peas) and wanted to know if she was Moin's daughter. He also liked her curls.

After groceries, we wandered down to Central Park to get some pizza at Mona Lisa's. The closer we got to Central Park, the more crowded and noisier it got. The streets along the way are lined with restaurants catering to tourists and street vendors. In SJDS we only heard about hot dogs from Alancito; here we saw a dozen hot dog carts on our walk. The streets were crowded with cars, motorcycles, bicycles, people, and dogs which meant there was a lot of honking. Partly due to this crowding and partly due to Aneesa/Amara shenanigans, I had a head on collision with a young man and smashed him right in the face. And of course I screamed as loud as possible as if it were his fault. It was not funny in spite of the girls' hysterics. Music blasted from some restaurants and clubs. Live mariachi bands played on the streets and in some restaurants. Internet cafes were plentiful and the pharmacy had long lines at each counter. Granada is big city for sure and feels much faster paced than SJDS.

Dinner at Mona Lisa was spectacular and reasonably priced. We had pizza (thin crust), bruschetta, and salad. We tried two desserts - cheesecake and apple tart. Neither was worth the calories. Throughout dinner, we counted little lizards playing on the walls and ceilings. Aneesa and Amara would like to bring one home with them. Aneesa became very emotional while we waited for the pizza. She wants to fix all the little kids and make their lives better. I think this experience has been overwhelming for the girls in many ways. We hope both of the girls are inspired to make small changes in the lives of others. For the rest of the evening, we listened to her worries and tried to help her think of small ways to help the community we have become a wee bit attached to. Karma at play for sure - Amara ran smack into a wire cable on the way home. We had to ice her face, but I think we will all take the uneven and cracked sidewalks a little more seriously.

Tomorrow we will sleep in, since it has been 7am days for us for 2+ weeks now.

Manzanas con manzanas

2010-07-29T20:34:00.000-07:00

Today was another feather in Dawn's teaching hat. The students were disappointed when her laptop battery died an hour and forty minutes into a two hour class. And when she asked if they wanted to have a lesson at 8 am tomorrow which is a school holiday for them, it was a resounding and unanimous "Siiiiiiiiii!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Tonight, she made certificates of completion to give to the kids and plans to have a friendly search competition tomorrow complete with candies.

Aneesa spent her morning in the 2nd grade class at the public school. She helped them with some practice in their notebooks, organized the class library and cleaned it up, and helped the kids who were going a bit slower than others. Yesterday, she had a super experience volunteering! She walked the class to the library with the teacher. In the library she read a book out loud (in Spanish) to them and quizzed them over the book. Following the reading activity, she helped with a crafty activity making little paper turtles. While she says she does not want children, she is excellent with them and always smiles a lot while working with them.

Amara spent an hour or so walking the town with her teacher. They hit the reposteria (pastry shop) where she purchased an adorable cupcake that she did not like. This is the second time she has purchased a pastry and not liked it. What appears to be buttercream frosting is actually a heavily lime flavored meringue. The teacher also walked her through the market. She scored a very ripe mango for 2 cordobas (10 cents). The market is a place with small, crowded stalls along the perimeter that feature everything from produce to clothing. The middle section is crammed full of a maze of chairs and very cheap restaurants with a variety of Nica food, fish and chips sort of food, and juices. The dragonfruit juice is amazing! Ladies typically run the produce stands and fiercely compete for your business. Aneesa bought a dress in the market yesterday. When I asked where she could try the dresses on, the ladies moved us to a corner of the store that was clearly in the line of sight of passers-by in one case. The corner was shielded by a mannequin and two dresses they hung up as a curtain of sorts. In another stall, the lady moved us to a nearby stall that was closed where Aneesa tried on the clothes in the dark. The clothing stalls are so small that most of the goods are stored up to the ceiling and must be retrieved by the owner who has the inventory memorized. Other (more proper) stores have small bathrooms that double as changing rooms.

After our volunteer activities, we had another two hours of lessons and then lunch. For lunch we had some excellent pan fried chicken and ... rice and beans. Today we got Coke with our lunch which made Amara very happy. She has become a regular at the nearby corner store for cokes. Fifty cents gets you a cold coke poured into a small plastic bag with a straw.

Aneesa was having a wicked flare up of her allergies despite taking meds and needed a nap. After her nap we headed to Hotel Villa Isabel and met up with Jane from the Library. We talked for a while and then she headed off to Managua to meet some big shots. The girls swam and we talked to one of the guests at her hotel who ironically has a son who lives in Seattle! After swimming we had some ice cream from the street vendor who walks around town with a belt full of bells on a refrigerated bicycle cart. The brand is Eskimo and it'll work on a hot day. (I, Dawn, wish he had the dragonfruit ice cream in that little cart because I am in love with dragonfruit juice and ice cream.)

Back at the school and we played Manzana con Manzana (Apples to apples) in Spanish with an American lady who teaches Spanish 3 in a San Diego high school. She and her husband have an apartment here and recently bought a lot outside of town. Google Translate was a life saver! The games are an excellent way to learn new words. While playing Mazana con Manzana, Alancito had a card that said Bill Clinton; however, he pronounced it Bitch Clinton which made us dieeeee! Aneesa had a card that said Cher and when she said it outloud, he said ahh "silla" which is Spanish for chair :) We love Alancito. He further entertained us by reading us kiddy Spanish books and then asking us questions. He was mimicking the way Aneesa had "taught" his class yesterday at the public school while volunteering. It was adorable, and we learned many new words from his books. I think it is time to head back to the kiddy book section (in Spanish) when we return home.

We ended the evening with a meal of rice, beans, farmer's cheese, and an avocado salad. The thickly sliced avocado was seasoned with lemon/lime and salt and was topped with thin onion slices and hard boiled egg halves. Moin and I completely enjoyed it. In the home we are staying in, the eggs sit out all day every day on the counter. I remember this being the case from our farm days as well.

Spanish classes are almost over and I am very sad about it. Yajaira says with 2 months of 4 hours a day a student with no experience can become fluent. As we end our two week experience, we are all 100% sure we have improved our Spanish. Amara feels she got a big head start (and learned to shop!) in Spanish. In the fall, I hope it all comes back for her. Aneesa is much more confident in her speaking and has saved our behinds when we were out and about in town. Most of the shop keepers do not speak English, so she has been handy to have! She has also increased her vocabulary and learned many grammar concepts that will be covered in school next year. Moin has taken Spanish on full steam as always. He has no fear and is 100% ok speaking exclusively in present tense. As a result, he has had wonderful conversations with taxi drivers and other locals who are very tolerant of his present tense ways. He has increased his medical Spanish and has impressed his teachers. I have added soo many words to my vocabulary and finally figured out when to use ser versus estar. I also got to refresh irregular verb conjugations which completely faded in the 20 years since I last officially studied Spanish. Today I was introduced to past tense and am so happy to add a new tense! I am very much a perfectionist and do not like speaking when I know it is wrong, so hopefully having past tense will enable me to converse more. As we get ready to head to our next city and next adventure in Nicaragua, I am desperately trying to figure out how we can continue to learn Spanish in this manner.

Meeting the library founder

2010-07-28T21:48:00.000-07:00

Last night we had a bunch of rain that came right as we were ready to go to sleep. The big drops on the tin roof made it a little challenging to drift off to sleep despite eating enough carbs to choke a small rhino. I (Moin) started out with lessons today as the clinic was closed. We (my teacher and I) chatted in Spanish for two hours and I find myself bumbling over the same words over and over. My teacher patiently corrects me every time but she is correcting me less now. Maybe I am getting a little better, but more likely she is giving up and thinking about how she is going to get through the last few days without losing her sanity. Dawn went to the library to teach and Aneesa also happened to be there to volunteer with the little kids since she switched to a different school. Aneesa woke up dreaming of "little nuggets of goodness" which is how she fondly remembers her gnocchi from dinner last night. Amara went with her teacher to the local stores and hid some dresses in the back of the racks so no one would find them before we came back. Thankfully she only found 4 things she felt like she could not live without. Then at 10 am, the truck from the library came to pick up all the books we had brought over. We went to the library and met Jane, the founder. Very energetic lady who gave us the back end tour of the library and explained how she came to be in this role. We then went over to her hotel which is right across the street, Hotel Villa Isabella. Lovely place with a beautiful lobby and a pool. The girls dipped their feet in while we chatted for a while. She had just returned from one of her book collecting trips and so a hundred people needed her attention. We had our teachers with us so we decided to go back to school for the last hour and then meet up with her later for a swim, chat and dinner.

After lunch we rested for a while and then did the laundry. Doing it all by hand made me feel like one of the pioneers. Unfortunately I still have not found any gold or land to claim. Rest assured, I will let you know as soon as I find the perfect land development. We had just finished hanging it all up when the clouds rolled in and the wind picked up. The rain started and we moved toward the small section of the clothes line that was not covered. Suddenly the wind changed direction and blew the rain sideways, right into us and the hanging clothes. That sent us all scrambling for cover and while trying to grab the clothes that were fluttering like they were trying to get out of the rain too. That put the shopping plans on hold for an hour and the clouds did clear off.
We stopped by the bank which was happy to give me 20s for my 100, but wanted to see identification and checked the $100 bills much more closely when I converted dollars to Cordobas. Go figure!! We walked to several shops till the girls found the perfect traditional dress. They look more like cover-ups for the beach and ironically are made in China. While shopping we had the intensely purple "pitahya" or dragon fruit juice which we later learnt was probably diluted. We ate at an authentic Italian restaurant with Jane and she told us about how the library came to be and the ups and downs of running such a program in a third world county without formal education. She also told us how gratifying it was to see little kids and adults reading. We strolled to the local icecream store before walking back home. Jane gave the girls a new game called Sequence to try out and they liked it a lot. Now showers for the girls as the rain rolls in again and bedtime for everyone.

Mobile library round 2

2010-07-27T23:26:00.000-07:00

Today we went with the mobile library again but to three different schools. Some of the schools in town were cancelled for teacher conferences but the ones outside town were still open. They are typically one building about 40 yards across and divided into two rooms. The rooms have a dozen or so desks with attached chairs from decades past. The desks bear various testaments, signatures, and pictorial representations of assorted objects, some recognizable and others well beyond recognizable.

The first school was smallish but about the size we had been going to. It had about 25 students between the two rooms. One end was for preschool kids and the other room for kids from grades 1-6. They all sat surprisingly quietly especially the younger ones. The older ones looked at us with what seems to be a mixture of alternating between amusement and boredom. Amusement at the fact that we are so serious about our volunteer jobs, and boredom with the simple crafts we brought for them to do. The extent of their involvement was limited to picking out a color of background paper (sometimes) and gluing a few objects that have been cut out, or selecting a sticker that was bought outside the country and donated. The younger kids will gleefully decorate their simplistic representation of the proverbial peaceful meadow and the older kids will oblige with a smile. I wonder what happens to these treasures once they get to the stark reality of their sparsely furnished homes. Do they get placed next to the omniscient TV or stereo and collect dust? Is it just so foreign that it gets tossed in the trash? I am almost certain that the mud or wood walls in their homes do not have a bunch of thumb tacks holding up displays of their talents. Nonetheless, we all help cut out the objects that the "activity director" is able to whip out freehand. Some of us help sign in the books the students are returning and check out the new books.

The second school was the smallest we have seen with just one end of the building occupied and a dozen kids. It was located at the bottom of a hill and had the most incredible breeze that made it very difficult to leave. The third was the biggest we have seen with three buildings and classes 2-3 times as big as the previous ones. These kids were a rambunctious lot and the teachers had to constantly herd them. Took me back to my deviant youth when we took every opportunity in class to stir up sh*t! Maybe by helping these teachers with these menial activities I can reduce some of the remnant pangs of childhood guilt? Or maybe that requires the intimacy of a confessional since we are in a predominantly Catholic country? It is strangely gratifying to make the first entry on a brand new library card of a 1st grader. As if by doing that you are cheering them down the path to literacy and eventually a better life. These actions are all monitored by our Spanish school teachers who accompany us everywhere and are quick to save us the embarrassment of not understanding basic questions timidly asked of us. They also gently intervene and make us sound much more intelligent than we deserve by rephrasing our garbled responses. Things are getting better though. We are all able to communicate better and understand more than a week ago. Then it was back to school and after a quick lunch, the beatings began again.

Classes went from 1pm till 5pm and by the end of it our minds were pretty fried. We walked around town for a bit and ran into the doc who told me that she had to go to Managua in the am and so the clinic would be closed. At least that is what I believe she said without the reassuring nod of my teacher who shadows me much like a well-paid and highly-trained bodyguard. We exchanged pleasantries and then said our goodbyes. Then it was on to the local restaurant El Colibri that was highly recommended by several sources. Unfortunately it did not open for another ten minutes so we walked the two blocks to the beach. We saw the big dock that the Japanese built in the port of San Juan del Sur so they could more easily continue their whale and shark exploitation in Central American waters.

When we returned, the restaurant was thankfully open as we were ready to eat the entire left side of the menu and move on to the other side. The food was indeed excellent, right from the carrot and coriander soup, to the Italian chocolate sausage (sans meat) and chocolate cake with ice cream, desserts. We even verified the restaurant's consistency by ordering a second round of the chocolate cake ;) We had a serious variety of music from Trini Lopez singing the Peter, Paul, and Mary song "If I Had a Hammer", to Hindi music, and finally Arabic music. Appetizers, entrees, and desserts, bottled waters (the first plastic we consumed in Nica :( ), tax, and tip for four people all for under $75!

After dinner, we waddled back to the room where the girls inspected their war wounds from the mystery bites inflicted over the weekend. Neither appeared to be in danger of losing life or limb and so it was off to the shower and then a little homework, and finally bed.

The rain made a timely appearance right at bedtime and cooled things off. Dawn was able to wrestle my ramblings from the jaws of the digital abyss when the computer acted up and flatly refused to retrieve my post. When my blood pressure returned to measurable levels I was reminded of one of the many, many reasons I am glad I married her. None of which have anything to do with the fact that she is sitting about two feet from me; I have no idea when our return flight or where my passport is; the high likelihood that she will read and edit this blog; nor have I learned how to sleep with one eye open!

But for now, a good night to all...

Back at Spanish school

2010-07-27T16:21:00.000-07:00

Today was laundry day so Dawn and I got it done quickly. Not a lot to wash since we had just done some the day before but we were a little gun shy since the last time the clothes did not dry and we needed to pack and leave. Today started out hot and they were mostly dry by noon. We all went to our volunteer assignments but unfortunately school for the preschoolers was cancelled due to some alert and so Aneesa did not get to volunteer. Amara helped Dawn with her computer class. Dawn had to spend a lot of time preparing the lesson in Spanish but it paid off as everything went much smoother today. I went to the clinic and was quite shocked to see a student from the University of Washington in the doc's office! She was a social work major and volunteering at the local NGO project delivering higher efficiency stoves and water filters, as well as developing better sanitation systems. But she was rushed out as a sick kiddo came in to be seen and was followed by a stream of patients. One of the patients was the mother of the local police chief so we rolled out he red carpet for her. Fascinating to see their standard of care and approach to problems. After a couple of hours we all went back to school for another hour and a half.
After lunch Dawn frantically worked to finish her lesson in Spanish for her next class which was smocking. There were a total of four people and one of the teachers came as well. They were all pretty enthusiastic but the two hours went quickly. Dawn left all her supplies and patterns with them and they even wanted her to come back and do another lesson. She told them where we were staying if they wanted to come by some evening.
Dawn and the teacher went straight back while Aneesa and I went by the bakery. Unfortunately it was closed as the owners just had a baby. The sign said they would open "soon". We had a cooking lesson and learned how to make Indio Viejo which literally translated means Old Indian as in Native American, not curry. We all helped and it turned out pretty well. It is a traditional stew-like dish. After dinner we sat around the table and talked for a little bit. Then just as we got back into the room the lights went out and it quickly became toasty in there. We went and sat outside with the mosquito coil burning to ward off the little demons. There was a lot of lightning and the blackness of the little town made it seems even brighter than normal. After about a half hour or so it came back on. Right as we were about to go back inside we heard a little commotion by the main door. Closer inspection revealed a scorpion about 4 inches long trapped under a skillfully placed flip flop. Fortunately the lights came back on or he may have bitten someone. We were safe since we had been sitting at the far end of the open outside area. He met a quick demise and we went back to our rooms. Quick showers and we were ready to turn in.

featuring Moin as author.
Little behind on pictures because of intermittent internet and power!

Last Day at Ometepe

2010-07-25T21:50:00.000-07:00

This morning we went on a tour of the town near Totoco Lodge with Patricia, the owner's girlfriend. She was really nice and told us a bunch of cool information, but of course, it was steaming-boiling-stifling-roasting hot. I don't think I have ever sweat this much in my life, and I hope I never sweat this much again after this, because it's really uncomfortable and you constantly feel dirty. And somehow, the cold showers don't help as much as you'd think they would. But anyways, on the tour, we walked through the forest on a trail to get to a town near the Lodge, and we saw once again how poor the living conditions are here. Some things are really common, like TV's, bars, huge speakers playing loud music, Coke, chickens, horses, and cows. They may not have sanitary housing or toilets, but they dang well have their TV's and speakers with enough power to launch a rocket. We stopped by the house of a guy Patricia knows who makes honey from two bee farms of his, both of which he walks the four to six miles to every day to check on his bees. It amazed us all how much trouble people have to go through just to do things that we in America consider simple, like going to work or getting food to put on the table. Most people don't buy a lot of their food like we do, they just limit their diet to things that they can grow or raise like rice, beans, corn, fruit, beef, and chicken. There are tons of horses everywhere too, more than the people ride, but I don't think they eat them. I hope they don't eat them...anyways. We saw the library that Patricia started, it was really small (no more than 600 books) but it seemed pretty well used. There were also four computers in the library, which had the Rosetta Stone language program installed on all of them. The computers were donated by a lady from Canada, who also paid for the Rosetta Stone because she wanted the kids to be able to learn English. When we got back there was a Loloa waiting for us at the door - the little lizard we named Loloa. Amara is finally getting to like them.

Lunch was delicious with chicken salad or tuna salad sandwiches and my mom had a drink with che (?) seeds which was like a light lemonade with little black seeds and my dad had a mango juice. The sandwiches were so good that Amara and I ordered seconds! As soon as we finished eating our taxi came and we left for the ferry. The ferry had its bathrooms locked while the boat was in the dock. Mom had to go to the bathroom reaaaalllly bad and waited outside till they were unlocked which was promptly when the boat pulled out. There was a little disconnect going on with all the signs being in German on the ferry and everyone around speaking Spanish. The taxi ride back to Spanish school was fine. We met the new student and had some dinner. Then it was time for bed.

Finca Magdalena, the coffee farm

2010-07-24T18:55:00.000-07:00

Today was a day full of walking a lot and swimming. We were all woken up pretty early by freaking loud birds, bugs, and howler monkeys. The howler monkeys sound like a Bart train, or a bear growling, or a pack of rabid dogs. It was actually kind of scary. Our breakfast was delicious--scrambled eggs, pancakes, toast, fruit, and a yogurt parfait.

After breakfast, we went on a tour of the Finca Magdalena, a coffee farm, and we saw/learned a bunch of interesting stuff. We had to hike a lot to get to the coffee farm, but on the way we discovered that here in Nicaragua, the farms aren't really planted in an order like the rows of plants in America, they just plant their plants or trees where ever they want in the farm's property. Our very friendly tour guide's name was Fransisco, he spoke pretty good English and was really informative. We saw a few howler monkeys on our hike out to the farm, and we were totally surprised by how calm they are around humans. They didn't howl at all around us and were super cute, so we were shocked at how much noise those cute little monkeys could make. Also on our hike we saw my mom's new favorite animal (NOT!) which was a group of several HUGE black and yellow caterpillars, at least four inches long. Once we noticed that they were all conveniently perched under the termite mounds, we learned that they eat the termites when they come out of the mound. Amara said that the caterpillars were DISGUSTING! and my mom definitely wasn't too fond of them either.

We saw tons of different types of trees, including the national trees of Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Nicaragua. After looking at a few petroglyphs, we finally arrived at the farm. The farm had a few places for guests to sleep and had a small restaurant (which served good food and even better coffee, according to my mom). We ate lunch there: spaghetti, salad, french fries (gotta love that American food), mangoes, dragon fruit juice, mango juice, and fish. After that, we got into a big taxi van, which was called the "squeak master" also according to my mom. We drove up the always bumpy roads through really small towns while dodging herds of cows (literally), horses and their riders, kids, chickens, and pigs. By the time we got to the Ojo de Agua (the cold spring water volcano pool) our butts all hurt pretty bad. We swam in the pool for about an hour, the water was really pretty and clear and very refreshing. The only bad thing was that the bottom was either really rocky, or super mossy and slippery. Other than the bad pool floor, it was really nice.

We returned from the Ojo de Agua and ate dinner, which was a beef curry with rice and a chocolate cake for dessert. We had an awesome day, more tomorrow!

--Aneesa (again!) :)

(PS: We will edit and post pics tomorrow... the mosquitoes are ENORMOUS and we are TIRED!)

Ometepe--Land of the VOLCANOES! scary!

2010-07-23T18:54:00.000-07:00

Today was pretty interesting. To say the least. But it was a good kind of interesting...I think.

We woke up really early to pack up our stuff from the room so we could eat a breakfast of watermelon and bananas then catch our taxi to go to the ferry port. Our taxi driver was named Jorge (not George...Jorge ha ha) and he drove crazy enough to make me nauseous and almost throw up when we finally arrived at the port. We got on the ferry and sat on the top deck where we roasted in the heat for a good 30 minutes until the boat FINALLY started moving. There were some pretty annoying people in front of us who were talking super loudly about 'falling out of waaaayyyy-gons' (wagons). I hate it when people do that. The ferry ride was kind of long and extremely hot until my mom discovered that the middle deck was way cooler, so we moved there and were comfortable for a whole 15 minutes until we arrived at La Isla de Ometepe. We found out that there's no specific order to getting off the ferry, no cars first then people--it's just everyone get off get off get off right now. A man with a sign for "daawwwooonn" met us at the port at Ometepe, then we went in his huge old minivan which had a transmission that was going out to get to El Totoco Lodge. The road was incredibly bumpy as we drove for about an hour and a half between small farming towns, bulls, horses, kids, and chickens to get to our hotel.

Once we got there, we unloaded the big rusty van and went to meet a guy named Pablo who gave us each a mango-ish/kiwi-ish drink (which was really good) then he told us all about the lodge and how eco friendly it is and why. Turns out that when they say "Eco Lodge" they really aren't kidding. Everything is powered by solar panels which are on the roofs of every cabin, the water that can be recycled is recycled, they ask you to keep recyclable and compostable materials separate from trash, and the toilets are water-free. Seriously, water-free toilets. They're just like regular toilets, except for the facts that there's no water and you can't do number 1 in the same place as number 2 (as my mother figured out the hard way for all of us, which was by far one of the funniest things that she's ever done on accident). Yeah, my mom's experience with accidentally doing both in the same area of the water-free toilet was pretty messy. Pretty dang hilarious for the rest of us, but really messy. It is really sanitary and very cool though. After cleaning up the toilet that my mom got to know very well, we discovered how hot it was in our room and my mom decided to go sit outside since my dad thought it might be a little more breezy out there. That didn't work too well for my mom either, because soon after she settled down in the hammock on our porch she got stung by a bee who was angry for no apparent reason at my peaceful (at the moment) mother. We all started freaking out since almost all of my mom's relatives are allergic to bees/wasps. Luckily, she didn't have a severe reaction and she's okay now (thank God). It did burn her a little bit and it got a bit red, so I went to the reception-hut-doohickey and got her a bag of ice to put on her sting. She says that she's happy that I took such good care of her.

After all this jazz, we took a short nap then went to take a tour of the hotel's property. Our tour guide was one of the 3 guys who started the hotel, and he showed us everything there was to see and made sure we knew exactly how the water-recycling irrigation works, why they use water-free toilets, and how they go about all the composting. It was pretty cool, a lot of walking up hills and definitely a ton of sweating, but there were tons of beautiful butterflies and lots of pretty trees and plants as well. We learned about the motive for the hotel, why they chose Nicaragua to do it, and a ton of other fascinating information. Turns out that our hotel is pretty spiffy. Coming back from the hike, we saw an orange kitty, which reminded me of Nattie and how much I miss her! She'd go to town here with all these bugs, we probably wouldn't even have to feed her! She's a killer indeed. :) Anyways, we had to hike up an almost straight uphill brick road to get back to our cabin, which we had to do only because Amara insisted on avoiding the much flatter but more time consuming path in the forest. Grrrrr. We were greeted in our cabin by a huge red wasp and an even HUGER big brown spider in my parents' room. My mom seemed to think that cussing at it would make it go away...that didn't work, in case you wanted to know. By the time we got back to our room, we had all drained our water bottles completely empty and were all sweating enough to drown a small horse...gross! We were so desperate for water that we tried the volcano water that was in the bottles in our room, and we found out that volcano water is actually quite delicious. It tastes almost as good as Seattle water, so we were really happy about having water like at home. Now we're at the restaurant eating a dinner of onion soup and a chicken dish. Yummy!

We'll probably finish off the night with some card games and definitely a much needed shower. More later! El Totoco is primarily tourists (lots of female backpackers) which is to be expected I guess!

--written by Aneesa Shaikh (again...yay!) 2nd ever blog post :)

From Nicaragua 2010

Visiting Schools in Rural Communities (day 6 of Nicaragua)

2010-07-22T21:35:00.000-07:00

So today, for breakfast we had scrambled eggs with bread and orange juice. Soon after that, we went on the Biblioteca Movil (mobile library) to 3 schools in really rural communities. We were going to these schools to let the kids check out books and to deliver our donated school supplies. We arrived at the regular library in town after the mobile library had already left, so we had to drive to all three schools and try to find it. We drove seemingly really fast while passing other cars, avoiding cyclists, and watching out for cows and horses to all three schools, but we still couldn't find the mobile library. We turned around and went back to the first school, where we finally found the Biblioteca Movil. I guess we somehow missed it when we were there the first time...I have no idea how that happened, since it's a pick up truck with 6 rubbermaid tubs of books in the back and two guys sitting in the bed of the truck. Of course, the whole people-sitting-in-the-truck-beds thing isn't really unique at all, but the mobile library kind of stood out because one of the guys on the truck was 7 feet tall (according to me) and he is from Colorado.

The first school had first and second grade in one class with one teacher, and third through sixth grade in another class (again with only on teacher). Amara, two of the teachers who went with us, and my mom helped the first and second graders make lady bugs out of paper, while me, my dad, and the other teacher who came with us talked to the older kids and gave them each one new pencil. It was amazing to us how grateful these kids were for small things that we sort of take for granted like pencils and new bottles of glue. One girl at the first school gave Amara a silver bracelet with six hearts on it and said "Mis corazones para ti" (meaning "My hearts for you", I give you my hearts). We all thought that was really sweet and told Amara to make sure she keeps it forever.

At the second school, which had preschool through eighth grade in one class with one teacher (I think), we all helped the kids make mariposas, butterflies, out of paper then helped them draw flowers and faces on the butterflies. One lady who was with the mobile library was naturally really good at making things out of paper, and she could cut out a flawless butterfly in seconds. It took me and my mom about 10 minutes to get a butterfly that didn't look like a spawn of Satan. The preschool teacher was so happy to get the used school supplies we brought. The 12 or so kids were sharing 8 crayons. The teacher immediately picked out all of the crayons and gave them to the kids. The kids gasped and said "hay muchos colores nuevos!" (There are lots of new colors.) Those kids were SO cute, my favorite, and there were a few boys who wanted us to take a ton of pictures of them and show them the pictures. This was most likely one of the first times those kids had ever seen themselves in a picture, and it was really rewarding to see them so happy about the pictures and school supplies.

To get to the third school, we had to stop and open at least 10 gates. The gates were there to keep the horses and cows with visible ribs (scary) and donkeys inside the farms. At the third school, there were preschoolers until sixth grade, with one teacher. There were two dogs that were in the classroom, and when one ventured towards a nearby farm it was beaten by a lady who lived on the farm. :( Sad! At this school we helped the kids make trucks and flower pots out of paper, and we gave them school supplies as we did for the other two schools. There was one 13 year old boy at the third school who told me that I have pretty teeth (which is totally true ha ha haaa) and I was flattered by the compliment. (And NO, Marcos, that doesn't mean ANYTHING! :P) The kids at all of the schools were really happy to get new crayons and markers to color with, and it was totally heart warming to see them smile when they picked out a new color of marker/crayon.

When we returned after that, we ate a lunch of rice with chicken, peas, and carrots with coke. Gotta love that coke (with edible ice!!!). After that, we went to our usual four hours of Spanish lessons, which was pretty exhausting for all of us. Learning for two hours straight in the boiling heat, taking a 20 minute break in the boiling heat, and learning for two more straight hours in the boiling heat made us all pretty tired. We are all progressing really well in Spanish though, our teachers said so! I think we all find that pretty comforting to know that our teachers think we're doing well.

After Spanish school, Amara and I did the laundry (BY HAND!!) and got a chance to chill out for a few brief moments. Later in the night we went to Restaurante el Timon. We ate some pretty good traditional Nicaraguan food here and got to see some traditional dances as well. The dresses for the dances were really pretty and the dances were beautiful as well. When we got back to the house after eating dinner, we had to put clotheslines in very elaborate patterns in our room to hang our wet clothes on, since they didn't dry at all in the FREAKING hot and humid air.

A couple days ago, there was a lizard in out room who was SOOOO cute, so I decided to name it Loloa, and now (since rude Amara scared him off) he stays just outside our room by the roof and makes a weird click click click click click kind of noise all night. I love it, but every time he does that Amara freaks out and says "LOLOA! SHUT! UP!" I'm pretty sure he hates her.

Well anyways, tomorrow we're off to Ometepe early in the morning, we'll try to blog from there as well. Hasta luego! :)

--written by Aneesa Shaikh, my first ever blog post ;)

From Nicaragua 2010

There are a bunch more in the album!

Zip Lining in the Canopy Today

2010-07-21T21:28:00.000-07:00

Today started out sunny and sultry. There was not a drop of rain all day and tonight we are feeling it - even after our cold showers. This morning we began our volunteer work. Moin headed to the clinic where he got a feel for the way a small town Nicaraguan clinic works. A lab is situated right next to the clinic so patients can get tests done immediately and then return a few hours later. Aneesa and her teacher walked to the preschool which just returned from a 4 day weekend. Only half the kids showed up and it was a slow day. She introduced herself to the school (about 100 kids) and got acclimated. Amara and I went to the library. Amara did not do any work since no little kids came in today. I had eight 9 year olds come over from the public elementary school for basic computer lessons. I spent some time online and found a wonderful handout on basic computer information in Spanish. Since I was under the impression that I would teach eight new kids daily, I was thrilled. My curriculum was set. However, today I learned that these 8 kids will come every day for an hour and half! So now I am scrambling to come up with several more days of material. I also learned that there are many volunteers willing to teach english or art or music but no one has done computers for the kids... no pressure. It took me, my teacher, and two full time library staff boys to keep my on track with my Spanish and my nerves. So a call out to the Spanish speaking computer nerds out there! What an opportunity for you! And if you have any materials prepared for basic computers, the internet, or word processing please send it my way.

I also learned that even larger cities like Rivas do not have a public library. The library in SJDS is a labor of love with lots of help from volunteers. We brought hundreds of pounds of books for them and are so happy we did! In other areas, like Rivas, the students must find someone with the internet and ask for help or must go to their teachers' houses to use the books there.

Amara felt a bit sick on the walk back from the library so she had a cold sprite from the local store. After returning to the house, we finished the morning off with 2 more hours of Spanish classes. Aneesa is whizzing ahead of us and is clearly the best in the family for now! Every day, Amara exponentially increases her vocabulary. Moin is the most willing to try and talk with everyone even if it is wrong. And Moin does his homework review the best (I spend my evenings on the blog - the first round tonight was eaten when the internet went down). I am learning a lot of new verbs - pages of irregular verbs and pronouns I have never heard of. There are a lot of worksheets and sometimes I think too many worksheets but practice is good I suppose. By the end of the lessons, Amara had upchucked her coke and was laying in the room half clothed crying. The heat is getting to us all in our own little ways! As soon as the teachers left, the power & water went out again all over town. Without power, you cannot run fans or flush toilets... and it is hot hot here!

Yajaira plans activities starting at about 230 in the afternoon. With some time to spare since I could not get online, we walked to the Pan de Vida (bakery). This was our 3rd attempt, and today they were open. We were greeted by a white dude from Chicago. I set out to get his story - he and his wife own the shop. It is their first attempt at commercial baking. They got the idea after not seeing many pizzerias and bakeries while on a nine month backpacking trek through Central/South America. They returned to Chicago and told their families they were driving for 5 month back to SJDS to set up a wood burning brick over for pizzas. When they arrived and figured out there were 6 other pizzerias, they decided to do an artisan bakery shop. The wife is now "ready to pop" with their first born and they claim their parents are cool with it all. They live out of town a ways but also do not have AC. The prices on their assorted goods - carrot bread, potato bread, cinnamon swirl breads, regular white/wheat, chocolate chip cookies, etc - is very steep. After hearing rave reviews from Alan about the pan de manzana (bread with apples, nuts, crumple toppings, cinnamon, etc), we handed over $7 USD for a loaf of it and had to wait for 4 hours for it to be ready. Yes, that was $7 USD for a loaf of bread. But since this was supposedly the best bread in town and we all know how I feel about bread, I paid for it. Why the high prices? They must get many supplies from Managua and storage is hard. Fours hours later I can assure you the bread was very good, rich, buttery, delightful! After paying for bread we would not get till 4 hours later, we wandered down the main street to Jugos for some juice. But since the power was out, we could only have lemonade... fresh and then you add your own sugar. The jugo dude told us the light go out 2 days a week for 6+ hours, so we might be good for the rest of the week.

After our bakery tour, we headed back for the Zip Lining adventure. Having been once before on small lines in Grouse Mountain, Canada, we were all comfortable trying it out again. An open jeep (meaning no AC!) arrived to cart us off to the other side of town down a bumpy, muddy, dirt road. Upon arrival we were greeted by guides and horse - which I did not think was part of the deal. Apparently. it is the only way up or our Spanish is too bad to negotiate another way up! With helmets on, we climbed aboard. I do not like horses after some previous bad experience in CA and WY over the past few summers. The girls are very comfy on horses so I tried to be brave and most definitely sent positive thoughts to my big big horse. Along the way up we stopped to see some petroglyphs but got no detailed explanation of them. Once we climbed the big mountain and had our behinds bumped to bits, we were met with spectacular, panoramic views of SJDS. Significantly better views than those from our Christo climb (and much easier to get to!). On our previous Grouse Mountain experience, there were papers to sign, videos to watch to learn, safety checks, helmets and harness fittings, and fancy spring loaded braking systems. Here it was climb the mountain on a horse, get off and shoe the horses back down... no turning back now. Stand on a dirt road while the guides Eddie and Walter hook up a harness for you and clip some gear on. The helmet you wore on the horse is turned around backwards (no idea why), and you are handed a pair of work gloves with leather patches on them.... this is your braking system and that is it if you do not want to slam into Walter or Eddie. They kept us moving so we had little time to be afraid. The platforms, 17 in all, were primitive and a bit dodgy. All of the platforms had enormous spiders on them with beautiful webs. Eddie and Walter were full of stunts but we kept it pretty simple. Aneesa had a braking issue in her first line and ended up with a big gash and huge bruise. Moin is treating her. Will hurt for the next few days for sure. The zip lining was spectacular, highly recommend! 17 platforms with some lines as long as 400 meters. Zig zagging through the canopy with amazing views of tree tops, waterfalls, creeks, flowers, leaves, etc. We all just loved it!

This evening I worked a bit and I pondered how the hell I will get the Spanish computer classes done!
Tomorrow is a full day for us - all morning out in rural communities giving out the supplies and seeing even smaller communities. Then all afternoon in spanish school.

Mosquito update:
Aneesa - 6 all the size of a half dollar
Amara - 24
Moin - 3 to 5
Dawn - none and thinking there is some truth to the Vitamin B story

Meals:
Breakfast - two pancakes each with honey and butter, coffee
Lunch - rice, stewed chicken that earned 100 stars from Alancito, salad, and tamarindo juice
Dinner - rice, queso de pipian (squash), orange juice

From Nicaragua 2010

More pics to come of the ziplines!

The power & water went out today.

2010-07-20T19:35:00.000-07:00

Spanish classes start at 8am and go until noon. They are 1:1 and are pretty intense. Both days at 11:45 I have looked at my watch while thinking, "My brain is completely full!"

Amara, Moin, and I attempted to do our volunteer efforts today. However, the government decided on Saturday to extend the national holiday (yesterday) another day. The schools are all closed and so was the clinic. Because the schools are closed, no children were at the library either. So we will try again tomorrow.

Moin continues to learn medical Spanish and started learning verb conjugation today. Aneesa is flying ahead of the rest of us! I spent hours learning irregular verbs that I am certain I never learned in my previous 4 years of studying Spanish. Amara's teacher draws her lovely pictures and is very patient with her as Amara has very little exposure to Spanish. During my class, I learned that 65% of Nicas are unemployed or underemployed. Divorce is rampant with many single mothers supporting their children on their own. The average monthly salary for a doctor in Nica is 4000 cordobas which is 200 USD a month. Many women work outside their house cleaning for others and earn 1200-1500 cordobas a month. The single mothers often cannot afford the uniform, shoes, and supplies necessary for the kids to attend school (and need the kids to work as soon as possible to earn money). This was very depressing for me and left us wondering what else we could do to help here. I am also amazed at Yajaira for being so entrepreneurial. Her mother started her own business at 20 as a street food vendor and eventually owned her own restaurant. When she sold the restaurant, she used the money to build on the extra rooms for the house. Her plans were to rent them out to travelers, but it did not work out so well once the hotels invaded the town. Yajaira then converted the space to the Spanish Ya school 3 years ago. Aneesa learned that Independence Day is Sept 15 and the country only recently started celebrating Halloween.

After the morning lessons, the power and water went out for several hours. After lessons is my time to check email and such... fortunately for me, the wifi is on battery backup ;) But once the computers died, I was done. While waiting for me to do my work, Moin and Alan (husband of Yajaira) got into a great conversation regarding his job as a free diver fisherman. He showed us amazing pictures and his spear gun that he uses. His stories are incredible - diving 25 meters on a free dive, catching 1000 pounds of fish, catching a 150 pound grouper. He described how he used to use a surf board to go out fishing but now uses a boat. His job is very dangerous and challenging.

After the computers died, we went for a walk around town. We hit El Gato Negro for a nice cup of organic Nica coffee and a cinnamon roll. We wondered around the beach area and got some Eskimo at the one and only heladeria (

ice cream store). Many stalls were out with craft items in spite of the rains all morning. We showed Aneesa the Survivor workshop and snooped around there a bit watching them load stuff on a semi truck. Amara and I showed Moin and Aneesa the small library where we will one day volunteer. We had a nice walk in spite of the constant drizzle.

Our trip to the beach was canceled for the afternoon because of the rains and our trip tonight to see the turtles was canceled. Another company that runs the turtle trips called told Yajaira (our director) that there has only been one turtle come up for the past two nights and it has not come until around midnight. Given all the rain and the fact that Aneesa has a bit of a tummy ache, we opted out. We are all pretty bummed but it gives us a good excuse to visit latin america again.

The girls were thrilled to learn that the ice at our home is filtered water... they have been in withdrawal. The girls are still freaking out over the mosquito bites (both have several). The cold showers are still difficult for me; one would think they would be refreshing given the heat, but I hate them. We are all missing our AC but learned that it can triple your energy bill.

Meals today:

Breakfast --> fruit + bread + coffee
Lunch--> pan fried fish (mackerel and rooster fish) caught by Alan, beans & rice, cabbage salad, & dragonfruit juice [I took a picture of the fish on my phone and CANNOT get it off!]
Dinner --> pan fried chicken, red beans & rice, dragonfruit juice.

From Nicaragua 2010

Spanish Classes Started Today!

2010-07-19T18:42:00.000-07:00

Last night we spent several hours at Mango Rosa swimming. The road out there was mud and rock and bumpy as hell. The homes on the road there were small shack style houses, but all had television and satellite. We have noticed that almost all the families here have a television or two with satellite. The cell phone place is always hopping on the main street in San Juan del Sur. I have seen many teens crowded around a cell phone giggling. There are numerous internet cafes and most of the hostels, home stays, and hotels have wifi. No AC, but very wired!

Our Spanish classes started today. We each have our own teacher and are going at our own pace. Moin will volunteer in the clinic tomorrow and spent all morning saying Como se dice... some medical term goes here. Amara is learning her first bits of Spanish vocabulary, and Aneesa is off and running (and got the most homework). I am starting to panic about my computer classes I am teaching tomorrow at the library. I found a wonderful site from the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation that had basic computer information in Spanish... so we are heading back to town to print these out now.

On our break during classes (four hours long) we walked to the Texaco to get a coke in a bottle. After purchasing, they pour the coke into a plastic bag and insert a straw for you! After classes in the afternoon, Moin, Amara, & I walked down to the Reposteria for some pastries. We bought random items and tried them out... mostly good! We also found the market with fresh fruits. The other student told us where we can get salads in town... will try to find that tomorrow. Aneesa did not join us on our walk because she is freaking out about 1) the heat & 2) the bugs. She got a wicked mosquito bite the first day here and it swelled up really badly. She is either reading or saying "I'm gonna die"... mostly reading though. She finished her book on the flight down and has since stolen Amara's book. We have scouted out a bookstore with English books in anticipation.

Meals today:
Breakfast --> fruit, bread, & coffee
Lunch --> beans & rice, shredded beef with carrot slivers, & fresh dragonfruit juice (very yum to me but the girls did not like it!)
Dinner --> same as lunch but with warmed up farmer's cheese and fanta
We are missing our LARGE daily doses of vegetables but are grateful for the home cooked meals and the more realistic experience of what life is like for families in Nica.

Laundry & Sorting School Supplies

2010-07-18T13:15:00.000-07:00

Breakfast this morning was a wonderful bowl of fresh fruit & Nicaraguan coffee for me. I am in love with the coffee! We all got to try dragon fruit for the first time. Since last night was a Saturday, traffic seemed to flow all night. At about 4AM there were definitely cows mooing somewhere nearby. The room is hot and humid in the evenings and we are thankful for the fans.

From Nicaragua 2010

After breakfast we had to do a wash of clothes which involved a bucket, a washboard, and clothespins. The girls have only read about doing laundry this way! Due to my backwoods raising, at least I could manage without help :) Moin, Amara, and I tackled the wash while Aneesa swept and tidied our room a bit.

From Nicaragua 2010

The rest of the morning, we sorted all of the school supplies into 20 stashes. Yajaira estimates we will visit 20 classrooms in San Juan del sur (SJDS) and the rural areas we will see on the book mobile. We all worked on this for a couple hours with the help of Janna (other guest) and Yajaira. We ended up with 20 decent size packs full of pencils, crayons, markers, colored pencils, paper, notepads, glue, scissors, and erasers to give to each classroom. All of the books, games, and crafty supplies will go to the local library.

From Nicaragua 2010

While waiting for lunch, Aneesa & Alan played Monopoly in Spanish. The rules were randomly different :) Lunch (almuerzo) was ground beef with potatoes + rice and frijoles rojo + fresh pineapple juice.

From Nicaragua 2010

Later this afternoon, we are hoping to visit Alan's (Yajaira's son) favorite swimming place :)
But first we must relax in the hammocks!

From Nicaragua 2010

We made it to Nicaragua!

2010-07-17T19:18:00.001-07:00

Travel details:
4 hours to Houston
5 hour layover
3 hours to Managua
2.5 hour van ride to San Juan del Sur

On the way to San Juan del Sur, our driver did not speak much English so we did the best we could to chat with him. Since it was so dark, we were not able to see much of Managua other than the vendors along the street still open late into the evenings. We passed through Masaya and Rivas on our way - again too dark to see much. At some point there were several horses along side the road. We understood the driver to say they eat there... Moin thought he said the people eat the horses so who knows for sure. Many wild dogs roamed the streets in every town we passed. And many bicycles we passed had 2 or 3 passengers on them and no lights (or helmets).

We arrived pretty late and were shown to our room. We are staying at the Spanish school with the owner's family. She has a son, Alan, who is 6 and she lives with her mother, husband, and brother. We are all sharing one room with two double beds, a desk, a small set of shelves, and a bathroom with a toilet that does not accept toilet paper and only cold water showers! The room has fans but no AC, and it is hot, humid, hot, hot here.

Given our late arrival, we crashed and slept till 10 this morning.

Meals for day 1:
For breakfast, Yajaira (the Spanish school director) served us yogurt with bananas and granola and excellent coffee! She said this is not a typical Nica breakfast which was a bit disappointing at first. Looking back we are happy to have had the bananas as that was all the fruit we had all day.
Lunch was excellent pan fried chicken with rice and a traditional salad (cabbage with a light dressing) along with fresh orange juice that the girls enjoyed a lot. For dinner we had red beans and rice with farmer's cheese and fried potatos. We all enjoyed a cold, cold glass of coke from a super sized 3-Liter bottle.

Activities for day 1:
After breakfast today, we walked through the main part of town. I found 3 internet cafes, but we have internet at the Spanish school so hopefully won't need them. San Juan del Sur has a nice beach area with lots of restaurants and bars along it. The breeze off the water was refreshing. Since they are filming two seasons of Survivor here, there is a helicopter (rented from Managua) that is constantly buzzing around. We are dressing to avoid the sun since we all burn (except Moin). At some point on the beach, the girls both decided to take off their t-shirts and leave their long sleeve, breathable shirts on. Figure we will never see most of these people again :) We saw some tourists - mostly backpackers hanging out along the beach. ATVs, bicycles, and motorcycles are fairly common means of transportation. Yajaira said that until about 10 years ago there were no cars here and no tourists. That is hard to believe now. In all of the hills around San Juan del Sur, there are McMansions at the tune of 2+ million USD. Travis Knight (a basketball star) has a house here as well.

Following our long walk around town where we saw houses of all colors, we had lunch and met the other guest at the Spanish school. She is from CA.

After lunch, we had a fun chat with Alan, the son. He speaks slow enough for me & Moin to understand! Aneesa totally enjoyed chatting with him about movies and sports. A truck pulled up with a few boys. They stopped, and Yajaira said they were killing the crabs. This piqued Moin's interest! The crabs live in big muddy holes and are a vibrant red and blue color. We walked through some bushes to see hundreds of them. Of course they disappeared as soon as they heard us coming, but as we waited they popped back out.

Alan, Yajaira and the four of us decided to take a hike up to the huge statue of Christ. We scored ice cream (they call it Eskimo because that is the only brand here) off a push cart on the walk across town. We went through a pretty dicey part of town that might be a 'service' area, but I am not sure. We learned a lot about the education system, the day-to-day life, and the changes that have happened to San Juan del Sur in the past 10 years. The hike was quite challenging for us since we are so spoiled by the mild temperatures in Seattle. The houses on the hike up were enormous and flashy - pools, Mercedes, ATVs, etc. The view from the top was spectacular and made the hike well worth it. This is our first time to stay with a family while traveling and it is definitely a different experience. We are learning so much more about the culture!

We ended the day early with dinner at 6pm followed by ice cold showers. A spectacular rain storm came later in the evening and cooled it off a bit. We are now going to play some cards and head to bed!

On our way

2010-07-16T13:37:00.001-07:00

We left bright and early this morning for our big adventure. TJ (sis in law) was kind enough to stay up until the wee hours with us while we packed up the bags of school supplies and books. We ended up with 350 pounds of supplies & books and filled up 7 random bags that we will leave in Nica as well. Our flight was at 7AM this morning and we are now sitting in the Houston International Airport. I think Aneesa is feeling a bit of pressure right now since she is the most fluent in Spanish and does not want to steer us off a cliff. We are so happy to have finally found a house sitter and to have Nattie the Cattie safely squared away visiting her cousins, Merlin & Gunner.

We packed super light - wearing one set of clothes and taking 2 sets + swimming gear. I was able to fit all of my work stuff & reading stuff in my backpack - including my computer, chargers, batteries, and my headset just in case. The girls played along with great enthusiasm given that they have to carry whatever they take :)

It's been a while!

2010-07-15T12:00:00.001-07:00

It has been a long time since I posted on our blog. We are about to head off on a big trip to Nicaragua and will be blogging about it. This is our first trip to Central America and our first volunteer trip. Stay tuned for photos & details.

Remodel Pictures Slide Show

2009-01-14T08:47:00.000-08:00

Rest of the lights installed

2009-01-05T19:54:00.000-08:00

We love the dining room light, but have no idea why we did not realize the can lights were not removed. This will have to wait for another day since we are so ready to get this remodel done. For now, we have removed the light bulbs -- too much light!

From 2008 Remodel 01

Our Backsplash is done! Stardust Glass Tiles.

2009-01-05T19:51:00.000-08:00

We are super thrilled with the way the backsplash ended up. Initially, we thought the IceStone countertops would be the bling in the kitchen, but now we realize it is the beautiful backsplash that will get all the attention. The colors we chose compliment the IceStone Sage Pearl perfectly. We used an antique white grout.