Masaya it is

So I just got to Masaya, the supposed cultural capital of Nicaragua. I´m only going to stay here one night and I don´t even know when the buses leave tomorrow, but I figured I have to see it. I decided to come here yesterday morning, so I talked to my host-mom and she told me what bus to take, so this morning I got myself to the station, sat on one bus for about two and a half hours and another for about 45 minutes and here I am! I popped on the internet to find myself a place to stay. Wish me luck getting home tomorrow! One website said the only buses in Masaya on Sundays leave at 6am for Managua, but I´m hoping that´s not true.

I dislike mosquitos

By dislike mosquitos, I mean I hate them. I feel like itçs fitting to post about them as I discovered about 15 mosquitos perched on my mosquito net when I entered my room to display it to my boss and the two Aguemayo people. They were going around to four homestay houses that weren-t with any organized program to see their conditions and to see if their organization could help improve them. So after they left my room to talk in the living room (which is all but a hanging hawaiian-print sheet away from my room), I remained and attempted to slaughter the pests. I felt like Buster from Arrested Development when he was running around the living room trying to get the pigeon. "It stepped on my pillow!" I realized I was having no success attempting to pinch them off my net, so I had the genius idea of trying to clap the bugs to catch them. I didnçt think this thought all the way through and immediately regretted the tactic after a ridiculously loud smack resounded throughout the house while the NGO people were attempting to record an interview with my hostmom.

If any of you are in need of business cards, the organization that I-m working for (Centro Promocional Cristiano por la Paz y la Vida) collaborates with a women-s cooperative who makes recycled paper and I-m trying to get them to start a business in printing business cards with the recycled paper. Send me an e-mail and we can talk.

I am still really enjoying my work and my coworkers. I wish I had more time so that I could do more with the organization. I`m still working on the brochure for their tours offered. I donçt think theyçve given any of these tours yet, but hopefully after this promotional material is created, there will be a huge rush to San Ramón.

Here are some pictures from my birthday.
This is my hostmom. That morning she arranged flowers for the party.
This is my house all done up for my birthday party! We had carne asada, which was grilled on that grill in the photo and then placed on a banana leaf after it was cooked. Normally my host mom parks her bright yellow car right in front of the door, so this isn`t what I normally see when I arrive home.
My birthday party! My host-sisters all chipped in and bought me a birthday cake!

I provided alcohol for the celebration, since it was my 21st birthday party and all. I easily could have bought this beer at the age of 15 here, but the gesture was more symbolic than anything. Almost everyone in the photo is in my family.

A week of trips

I had one of the most glorious "showers" here ever, due to the room-temperature (compared to the usual cold) water that my host mom gave me. I´ve started walking or doing something outside in the morning so that the water doesn´t shock me too much, although I still involuntarily gasp after pouring the initial bucket of water over my head. Today I didn´t go into temporary shock, which was enjoyable. So after having such a great shower, I was very disappointed when an hour later on my walk to work, I managed to get mud on my leg. I can´t even stay clean for an hour. This is rural Nicaragua in the wet season.

The past week I really only worked about two and a half days. On Wednesday, I accompanied Theresita, my boss, and two Nicaraguan representatives of the InterAmerican Alliance to La Pita, a women´s recycled paper workshop. It´s located about 20 minutes away, although with the state of the road, you have to factor in the time that your car will get stuck trying to come up from the riverbed. (Yes, we had to drive under a bridge and through a creek to reach La Pita, and the driver spent about 10 minutes trying to drive up the slope to get back on the main road since his truck kept getting stuck on this set of rocks. I remember he slammed on the gas pedal to get the car going and we could just hear the sound of his tires spinning and the engine revving.) The women in La Pita make paper out of the trunks of banana bunches; because of this, the paper has a sweet smell. They make cards, notebooks and bookmarks with dried, pressed local plants.

Thursday, I went with two Spanish people from an NGO called Agüemayo and the group of tour guides to Finca La Hermandad, a cluster of shade-grown coffee plantations that are attempting to preserve primary rainforest that falls on their properties. Finca La Hermandad currently lacks the resources to fully develop itself as a tourist site, but they´ve begun the process with the creation of a hiking trail. We saw a family of monkeys, a sloth, some type of lizard, two different types of orchids (Aunt Sari, you were right!) a great panoramic view of the town and surrounding areas and we experienced muddy/slippery hiking trails and massive ants that bite. I´ll load pictures at some point.
Here`s one that I happened to have on my flashdrive. I love the guy`s face in this picture! He`s one of the tour guides at the center where I work.

Friday, I sat in a town meeting in which San Ramón´s tourism commission unveiled their tourism plan.

Sunday, I went with Theresita, the two Agüemayo people, and two other Spanish people staying in town, to check out Rio Wabule, and the Genetic Reserve of Pine trees. Neither of these sites have been developed for tourism yet, although there is hope that they will be. Theresita wanted me to go so that I could offer my opinions on the two sites. Rio Wabule was great. It´s this gorgeous river/canyon, with some small waterfalls and beautiful scenery. I was rather bored by the Genetic Reserve, as all it is right now is a pine tree nursery. They haven´t built trails or any touristy components in the forest yet because they don´t have any funding. It was interesting, though, to see what tourism sites are like in their early stages, and to experience not-so-great tourist sites. Theresita took this picture of me while we were there.
Here`s a picture of the canyon.

Today I`ve been working all day on developing a brochure to advertise the various tours that the center offers.

Today is my host-sister´s birthday, so after work I`m sure we`ll be celebrating. My hostmom made this semi-alcoholic drink this morning that was thick, creamy and pink with green chunks. I`m not making it sound very appealing but it actually was rather tasty. So we`ll be having that and I think tortas for dinner. She had originally wanted to revive indigenous traditions and kill an entire pig at the party and then cook it, but she got sick and hasn`t been feeling up for the endeavor.

I´m on my lunch break right now and I have to run home to eat before I go back to work, so I should end this here.

This is a photo of the neighborhood where one of my hostsisters lives. I took this while hiking one morning.

Oh boy

I just had an awkward experience, which might blossom into further awkward encounters. Before I start with that story, I rode on my first motorcycle! I really liked it. Now to the story.

Our neighbor, known as 'the man who owns the pool' (I think it´s the only one in San Ramón), stops by a lot and works with Marfa (my host mom) on the Commission of Tourism in San Ramón. I met him my second day here and we´re friendly with each other. He gave me a ride on his motorcycle to my hostmom´s daughter´s house, where he was going for a meeting about tourism and I was going to meet up with a friend who lives near her. About fifteen seconds into the ride, he said that he wanted to explain to me the good characteristics that I have. He told me I was friendly, decisive and I don´t change my mind, and that I´m sensible with my decisions, and that I´m intelligent, friendly, etc. As we got closer to my sister´s house, he told me that I might not understand what he was going to tell me but that the men here treat women like objects and only choose to date women because they have nice bodies, but that he´s not like that and that´s why he was telling me these nice qualities that I have. He´s 45, married, and with kids. It´s just awkward. Hopefully he was just being nice.

A sad day

The one friend I made here is now leaving! Her name is Liz and she is going to Managua first thing on Friday morning.