Reflections on Month 1, Beaches, Volcanoes and More

I have made a breakthrough in my Spanish immersion endeavors.. I actually dreamt in Spanish the other day. Although in my dream I was still confused how to say what I wanted to say. I'm now very familiar with the fact that learning a new language is extremely humbling.The other day I was trying my best to talk with my driver and at one point he mentioned I spoke good spanish which I tried to respond by telling him he's the only person that has ever said this which I completely butchered in Spanish and he had no idea what I was saying. There are plenty of ups and downs but I'm learning it's all part of the experience and the more I step out of my comfort zone the more I learn.

Calle La Calzada

Last week was my last spent in Granada with all the other students. I've come to love Granada with it's colorful colonial buildings, bustling streets, and lively people.  It's a city of past and present like many developing areas. On our walk to school we would see horses with buggies carrying people or produce and women pushing wheelbarrows while SUV's and pickups zipped by them. It was hard to pass the people still asleep on the street in the morning, see the starving dogs looking for food and kids wandering the streets asking for money (although I'm told Granada does have a great orphanage and some of these kids choose to take to the streets because they think they can make more money instead of staying in school).But there are also plently of great things happening there. It's tourism industry is growing more and more for it's history and beatiful views of Mombacho Volcano and Lake Nicaragua. There is a street called Calle La Calsada where the main bars, restaraunts, and more are located and is dubbed "calle de los gringos" for the fact that it is always lined with backpackers and tourists. Which I can't deny we frequented often for the one air conditioned bar.The street was one investment made by the government to restore the architecture of Granada and is a great example of the improvements happneing all around.

                             Granada, Nicaragua                                           View of Catedral, Mombacho Volcan and
                                                                                                                                 Central Park in Granada

My host family´s house in Granada

It's impossible to leave my homestay in Granada without appreciating the opportunities I have waiting for me back in the states when I return. It's difficult to find work here and my host mom, Fatima, and father, Carlos both dropped out of school to find other jobs because it would be difficult for them to find well paying jobs in their fields. Fatima hosts exchange students and tourists in two rooms while the family of 5 stays in one room for themselves. She also sells ice and cooks lunch for others (it's common here for famillies to run restaraunts or small stores out of their houses) Carlos works long days leaving before 6 and coming home after 7. I've also noticed the men of many families live elsewhere in central america like costa rica to work and provide for their families here.

I was also suprised to learn how expensive commodities were in Nicaragua as well. Air conditioning is extremely rare here although it's common for the heat index in the "winter" time to be over 100F. My host mom said her electricity bill is the same or more per month than her father's who lives in miami and runs his air conditioner and appliances all day while Fatima uses a minimal amount for fans, the refrigerator and light at night.

The baby food competition got a little competitive..

One thing I´ve come to love the most about Nicas is no matter what their circumstances are they love to celebrate and enjoy the current moment. I have yet to meet a Nica who doesn`t love to party and dance. Mother's day here consisted of muchas fiestas, lots of drinking, dancing, and music with family and friends. For our last day of Spanish class the teachers even threw us a fiesta complete with a pinanta, food, and games that consisted of popping balloons between yours and another person's chest, back, and by sitting on the other person's lap, and a blindfolded baby food feeding game. Whatever the occasion you can be sure Nicas know how to make it one to remember.

Leaving Granada was bittersweet to say the least. I'll miss my host family and friends I made and I
feel like there is so much more I want to do and explore but I know there are many more adventures ahead in the northern moutains of Jinotega and I´m already loving my first week here. For the next month I'll be working with my partner Brittany in Jinotega, Nicaragua in the local hospital, Victoria Motta. I'm excited to put class knowledge to use fixing medical equipment, translating manuals, teaching troubleshooting or english classes or anything else the hospital may need. Look out for the next post about our new homestay, hospital work and Northern Nicaragua!


Weekend Adventures

The last two weekends in Granada we took trips to San Juan Del Sur and Omtepe Island. San Juan del Sur seems like the california equivalent of Nicaragua. It's on the coast with lots of beaches for surfing and extraneros come from all over to surf and a lot that end up staying for the relaxed lifestyle. Sitting at lunch one day we saw a women riding a rainbow bike with her two monkeys. She then proceeded to stop for a beer leaving her monkey outside then returned to feed it some Fresca. To each his own. The second day we took a jeep to Maderas Playa wich was further away from the  touristy part but had huge waves and beautiful views. This is also where I encountered the first true "Best fish tacos in Central America" sign. I can vouch for this place that they tell no lies. Definitey worth the trip.

                         San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua                          Only in San Juan del Sur

Volcan Conception on Ometepe Island

Our last weekend in Granada we went to Ometepe which is the island in Lake Nicaragua with two volcanoes. Reminder to myself that planning a trip for 13 people to a remote island the week before leaving with little to no wifi is about as hard as it seems. But the beautiful island was well worth the effort to get there. We took a shuttle to San Jorge then ferry over to the island and stayed at a farm on the opposite side of the island way after the paved road ended. The owners make every meal from the food at their farm and after weeks of rice and beans it was heavenly. We hired a guide and hiked up Volcan Maderas, the non active of the two on Saturday. The hike started in a hot humid rainforest and transitioned to a vertical crawl up a muddy slope and ended in a freezing windy cloud forest. I was half expecting to see a dinosour or avatar jump out from the trees. We decided to take it easy the next day after our 8 hour hike and stopped by Ojo de Agua before heading home which is a place on the island with natural mineral pools.

A "cangrejo del tierra" on the hike

Sunset over Lake Nicaragua

     Conception Volcan which I´m told is the same  featured 

    on Tona labels which is the most popular Nicaraguan beer 

Jurassic Park/Avatar/Lion King Jungle  aka Volcan Maderas

     The group at the top of Volcan Maderas

View of Finca Mystica, our hostel

Oh yeah and my last day in Granada I gave up on washing mi ropa by hand and decided to dish out some money for a lavanderia (laundry mat) for someone else to tackle by hand. No shame. I promise you clean clothes have never smelled so good. If I ever get another day in Granada I´m going back so I can learn their ways.

View of  Volcan Maderas from the ferry 

Ojo de Agua, natural mineral pools in Ometepe Island

¡Que le vaya bien!

Becca Avena  (which I have now learned means `scholarship oats` in Spanish, awesome)

Hola!

My third week in Nicaragua is over and I can't believe how fast it's going. As promised this post I'm starting with our work in the hospitals which all 25ish of us visit every friday for the first month.We work at the public hospital in Granada, Hospital Amistad Japon, which was founded by the Japanese who also invested money to treat the local drinking water. The hospital is small.. all on one level besides offices for the jefe and a couple others. The only AC units are in these offices, the lab and the operating room. The layout is four small open air courtyards surrounded by patient rooms, labs, an OR room and doctor offices. People line the courtyard waiting to be seen. Depending on how dire your issue is you could be waiting all day for care or weeks for more serious procedures.

The medical "junk yard" in a hospital courtyard

When visiting the maintenance room in the back of the hospital you pass a courtyard filled with unused and/or broken equipment. This can be a huge issue in many developing world hospitals. People with good intentions donate used medical equipment that arrives broken, or arrives without a manual or one not in the local language. It can also arrive set for a different frequency setting (UK is 50Hz and we are at 60) or without consumables needed for the equipment. There are a multitude of reasons why the equipment may not be usable but the end result is an added responsibility for the hospital to find a place to store or dispose of this equipment. Hence the junkyard piles of medical equipment. I've even heard of cases where hospitals had to spend money to rent out a storage unit on the other side of town just to place the unused equipment they didn't have room to store. It all started with a good intention but ended up being a detriment for the hospital.

Cleaning out an industrial sized dryer. Never have I ever
sweated so much in my life.

Our time at the hospital is mostly spent working with the maintenance crew of 5 helping out with whatever they need  which involves a lot of taking apart and cleaning equipment to keep it in good condition. This isn't always the most gratifying experience but is actually a great way to learn how equipment works and what kind is typical in these hospitals. Also when our group was cleaning out a broken industrial sized dryer ("just in case" our maintenance guy, Jimmy said) we ended up finding a troubleshooting guide in English for the gas regulator which Jimmy said was broken and translated it for them to step through. We've fixed wheelchairs, cleaned ceiling fans, cleaned dried blood out of aspirators (thank goodness that wasn't my group) and last visit we gained enough credibility from the team for them to give a broken incubator to a group who successfully found and fixed the circuitry problem. The maintenance team has been incredibly accommodating to our large group and have an invaluable amount of knowledge about equipment and also the culture in hospitals here and we're doing all we can to learn from them to prepare for the hospitals we will be placed at next month on our own.

Dayo and myself fixing a wheelchair

A "pausa" (break) from work. We've
been adapting well to the slower pace of
work here.

Doctor visits and private hospitals are expensive here (I'm told about $20 US for a doctors visit which is a lot for most families). This forces low income families to use the public hospitals' ER for basic care. While working in the ER we saw a boy with a cough being treated there. This makes it very hard to have any type of preventative health care for low income families.

Fin de Semana Adventuras:

Hammocks where we slept at Postre Rojo hostel in the jungle

Because class is long and work days are longer we use the weekends to unwind and explore outside our city of Granada. This past weekend we stayed in my dream house. A tree house in the jungle. It was awesome and I was also very ready to come home after two days. It was a hostel called Poste Rojo close to Volcan Mombacho that we took the "chicken bus" to. Chicken buses here are super cheap (less than 50 cents)
and are school buses packed to triple capacity with Nicas. If I'm going to pass out here it will be in one of these buses. The last trip a nice man had to physically lift me up and pull me off the bus at my stop because I couldn't move.

Bridge from the bar to more hammocks at Poste Rojo

Back to my dream house. The hostel is built on a hillside in the jungle with an outdoor bar
and suspended bridges leading to other open tree houses with hammocks. After a night in a hammock
I've decided naps are the optimal length for hammock sleeping. Also doesn't help when it's 4 am and you really really need to pee but the howler monkey outside is screaming like King Kong and I'm pretty sure I'll be eaten if I get out of my hammock. Howler monkeys definitely live up to their name.




Saturday we all took Tuc Tuc's to Laguna de Apoyo which is a lagoon in a crater created by a volcanic eruption. We spent the entire day swimming and kayaking in the water. The Tuc Tuc's are like a three wheeled motorcycle with a top which we ended up cramming 6 people into. My arms were actually sore from holding myself inside the tuc tuc so I wouldn't fall out. The lagoon is beautifully clear and much cooler. At one point in the day I even had goosebumps.. I completely forgot what those felt like and it was glorious. I also learned that I am incapable of taking a decent underwater selfie. But hey to each his own.

Laguna de Apoyo. Photo cred to Leila. 

Jamie with both my phones. Which one is now lost
and the other broken.. welcome to my Nicaraguan
adventures :)

Mi Casa Nicaraguense:
Our 11 and 4 year old Nica brothers love to watch TV. They watch cartoons before and after school (they only go half days here) and at night too from their mini rocking chairs. The other day Carlos got a bad grade on his English exam ( he had written that your lips could be found on your rear end.. poor kid, I've made some comparable Spanish mistakes as well.) Fatima, our host mom then decided he wouldn't be watching TV that afternoon and Carlos suddenly morphed into a 6 year old throwing a temper tantrum screaming and crying "Porque no puedo ver television?!" Had I not just had three weeks of Spanish lessons every day I probably would have thought they were watching a Spanish soap opera on max volume. Needless to say it's a mad house and hilarious all at the same time. Oh and Jamie is still as cute as ever.




One thing I miss the most:
VEGETABLES. Spinach, broccoli, green beans, peppers, seriously I would even eat asparagus or brussel sprouts at this point. It is very difficult to get enough nutrients and vitamins in your diet here. The supermarkets are expensive and don't have much variety which is something we're used to being overwhelmed with in the US. Most Nicas buy their food from the local outdoor markets which sell fruits, cheese, bread, meats, and beans. But even prices for beans which many Nicas eat for every meal are rising to triple what they were last month and some are having a hard time finding the money to make meals beyond plain rice. It's common for us to have just Ramen noodles or bread and cheese for dinner but our host family is well off enough to still be able to purchase meat and beans for lunch and occasionally dinner. Breakfast is usually bread and fruit.

The cheese here is also extremely salty to preserve it during transportation and they like to deep fry it which unfortunately tastes nothing like WI cheese curds. Frying is their staple method of cooking for pretty much everything. Turns out even Gallo Pinto which is an extremely common dish of rice and beans is fried. Last week our family dressed up to go to the local Tip Top Pollo restaraunt which is like a KFC version of McDonals and bought the biggest special of fried chicken and fries for us. While I'm extremely thankful for the food I swear I was sweating grease that day.

Nacatamales, a typical Nicaraguan food

But with that being said they definitely do some foods right here. Nacatamales are tamales with chicken or pork and a combination of potatoes, peppers or more in a dough layer made with corn. They are wrapped and cooked in plantain leaves and are delicious. Pollo asado (grilled chicken) is also amazing here. And to my delight they do pancakes very right here. I think there may be some type of drugs and/or a whole stick of butter in them.

All in all it's been an amazing three weeks so far and I can't believe I'll be leaving Granada for my hospital in Jinotega next week already. I'll miss my host family here and all the friends I've made from the program but I'm excited to test out my Spanish and troubleshooting skills. Also I'm excited to get a break from the heat since Jinotega is north and higher in elevation.

Que le vaya bien!

Becca