Rancho Ebenezer

This week I started my internship at Rancho Ebenezer near Niquinohomo.  I will spend most of the rest of my semester working here doing all sorts of things. To learn more about the ranch and what it does: http://www.ranchoebenezer.org/

This week was interesting because I really had no idea what I would be doing.  The director of the ranch is very nice and was super helpful since I didn't know when I was supposed to be where the first day.  I was the only one staying at the ranch this week, so the nights were a little lonely, but it meant that I got all my homework done for the week! 

This shows the area I worked in this week.  The "tables" have leaves on them to feed to the goats and the huts in the background are where the goats live.

During the day, I got to see how things work around the ranch.  I worked with Eddy and Douglas this week.  From what I could tell, they take care of the pregnant goats and sheep as well as some of the rabbits and hens.  Neither of them speaks English, so I got to practice my Spanish and they got to practice their hand motions.  Eventually we understood each other.  My tasks included a lot of scraping pens, sweeping and raking the ground.  Everything is kept very clean at the ranch!  I also helped gather forages for feeding the rabbits and chickens and helped feed the goats several times too.  The work seemed really repetitive and I mostly watched the first few days, but this morning they let me do quite a bit of work on my own.  From what I understand, I will get to work in different areas of the ranch each week I am there, so it should keep things plenty interesting.

A few of the goats

The rabbit room where I was at.

And the chickens!

To get back to Leon, I spent 3.5 hours conquering the bus system of Nicaragua!  I have a love/hate relationship with public transportation here and will be glad when I can drive my car after I get home!  I first had to take a small moto-taxi to town from the ranch which took about 15 minutes on a very bumpy gravel road.  From there, I caught a bus to Managua which took about an hour.  Then I got off on the wrong stop, so I had to wait for another connecting bus to the station I needed to be at.  I waited for about 15 minutes and then spent about 5-10 minutes on the next bus.  Once I got to the station, a bus for Leon was leaving so I just hopped on the next one which didn't leave for another 15 minutes.  Once I am on the bus to Leon, I can relax because I know where I'm going and when to get off.  The ride to Leon took about 1.5 hours and then from the terminal in Leon, I walked home.  My family thinks I'm crazy for always walking home, but it was a nice day and I wasn't quite sure how to tell one of the bike taxis how to get to my house.
Now I have a weekend to spend with my family, which I am excited for since I don't get to spend much time with them any more.  Tomorrow we have our culture class in the morning and then we have next week off for our mid-semester break!  We have all been looking forward to this, and it should be a good time.  We are flying to the Corn Islands, off of Nicaragua's east coast.  They are basically Caribbean islands that are really cheap to get to from Managua.  Hopefully it is a nice relaxing week and we can explore a new part of Nicaragua!