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!

El Campo

This week we had another good trip for our classes.  This time, we headed out from Managua early Tuesday morning with Alma, a lady who works with the Nehemiah Center.  The first stop was Jinotepe, about an hour away.  There we visited with people working for the Luke’s Society.  They work in many small communities around Nicaragua with kids, farmers, and other people.  From there, we took a pick-up truck to a land bank where farmers are given their own land to farm rather than having to rent from rich landowners.   Juan Carlos took us, with all our luggage, some tires and other supplies for the tires, in one pickup.  This meant 4 of us girls squished in the back seat and the other 2 students rode in the bed of the truck amongst all the stuff.  This was another hour drive, however instead of being an hour via highway, it was an hour via bumpy dirt roads.  And these bumps weren’t just small pebbles in the road, it was holes up to a foot deep and various streams crossing the road.  A few times we were sure we would get stuck.  We eventually arrived safely at the first house in this community and met the family we would be staying with that night.  It was very beautiful there, with a view of the mountains in the distance and trees all around.  Hilberto and his wife Marta were very good hosts, especially considering they had just moved their 16 days previously.   Shortly after arriving, we helped with several projects the people in the community were working on.  The first was to dig up some topsoil for a planter.  They turned tires inside out and we filled them with dirt and later planted seeds in them.  The other project we helped with was a water filtration system to turn their dirty laundry and dish water into usable irrigation water for the fields.  All of this was very interesting for us to watch, although we didn’t feel very useful since the men knew what they were doing pretty well.  After finishing the work, we were able to go see the other houses in the community.  There are only 4 or 5 houses there and the longest anyone has lived there is 6 months, so everything is fairly new.  It was really interesting to be able to get to know the families there and see how little they have but how happy they are just because they have their own land now.  All of them had previously been working under other landowners and didn’t earn very much farming that way.  The one house we saw was for 5 people and in total, couldn’t have been more than 8’ x 6’.  This includes sleeping area, kitchen and corn storage, although they were in the process of building a corn storage building.  It was very eye opening to see this, but I have a feeling that once they get established in this land, they will be able to improve their living conditions.  By about 8 we were all pretty exhausted but we managed to make it a little longer before going to bed.  In Hilberto and Marta’s house, there is one big room with beds and then a smaller room that is the kitchen and then a covered area for eating and hanging out.  The latrine was across the field and they had recently built a “shower” where you could take a bucket shower.  In the bedroom, there were 3 beds and a cot, for the 7 women and one of the kids.  That meant a lot of sharing beds and not a lot of sleep happened.  The guys slept outside in the porch area on 3 cots.  That meant they were up with the sun pretty early.  

 The beautiful view at the farm!

After a day of working hard and a night of not much sleep, we went back in to Jinotepe to drop our stuff off at the Luke’s Society.  This journey was slightly easier since we had less supplies in the back, but there were 3 more people coming with us, so all of our group rode in the bed of the truck.  We had a lot of fun singing songs and waving at the people staring at all these “cheles” (that’s what they call us white people) in a truck.   Along the way, we picked up a lady who joined us in the back.  After dropping off our stuff, we headed to another community, a little more urban this time.  There we played games with kids in the morning and then watched a soccer tournament in the afternoon.  It was fun to get to play with kids, doing crafts, ping pong, playing cards and other board games.  We thought we were going to get to play in the soccer tournament, but once we got there, we realized that it was a lot more serious than we thought.  The teams were really good and it was fun to hang out in the park with a bunch of kids and young people, although very hot.  Later in the afternoon, we headed back to Jinotepe and then on home to Leon.  It was a long two days, but very worth it.  We learned a lot and had lots of fun too.  We also learned we have a long ways to go on our Spanish skills since we met two interns with the Luke’s Society who have been here only since July and came with less Spanish knowledge than most of us had prior to coming but are already nearly fluent in Spanish.  It was very humbling and made us want to practice more so we can communicate more. 

Thursday we made a few visits around town for our classes.  In the morning we went to the Museum of Myths and Legends in Leon and then in the afternoon we went to a Catholic Mass.  Both were interesting to see and now we have papers to write about them.  Since we had a few days free, we decided to take an overnight fun trip to Granada.  Granada, along with Leon was one of the first cities in Nicaragua.  There is still quite a bit of rivalry between the cities so it was interesting to visit.  We spent the day walking around town and then spent the night in a tree house!  There was a hostel up a hill a little ways in the jungle where all the buildings were shaped like tree houses and a few of us ended up actually sleeping in hammocks beneath the main tree house.  There was a beautiful view of the valley.  The next day we hopped on a bus to Laguna de Apoyo, another gorgeous spot in the area.  We spent the day relaxing and swimming in the lagoon.  The water was extremely clear, surprising to a Minnesota girl like me who sees plenty of non-clear lakes each year.  I could have spent a few days there, no problem, but we had to come back to Leon to spend some time with our families.  We had quite the adventure on this trip trying to figure out the bus systems and getting very lucky many times.  We counted up 11 busses/taxis that we took during two days, exhausting!  God’s hand was definitely guiding us all the way and we had a great weekend.  

Some of the beautiful views at Laguna de Apoyo

With all this travelling, it is always good to be back with my family and as my Spanish improves, it is fun to have actual conversations that make sense most of the time.  Tomorrow we head to Managua for class again in the morning and the others will all head back to Leon after lunch.  I will stay in Managua though and head to Rancho Ebenezer Tuesday morning to start my internship there.

Travels

Last week went by very fast since we were on the first of several class trips.  We started in Managua on Monday and Tuesday, starting our history class and our worldview class.  Tuesday afternoon we drove to Somotillo, near the Honduran border.  We stayed in a nice guest house there, with the first hot water we’ve had in a month.  They also had internet and air conditioning- luxuries down here.  We were also spoiled with dessert after supper both nights!  That was probably my favorite part-not gonna lie.  Wednesday morning we started out early, going to the community of Ojoche.  The purpose of this trip was to show various programs of community development at various stages within communities around the area.  In Ojoche, the Nehemiah Center has been very involved the past few years and they have a very nicely developed community.  The people have come together to form several groups that focus on bettering their community-in health, environment, and other ways.  It was very beautiful there, many trees and plants lining the roads, a canal dug for the water to flow in, hardly any garbage anywhere, and houses that looked very well kept.  Listening to the community members talk, I was very impressed.  They work together on almost everything and I think their community would put some towns in the States to shame in how they run their community.  I would be really interested in living here for a little while to see how exactly the community works.  Another topic of our discussion was the immigration that happens to El Salvador and Costa Rica, looking for jobs.  This causes many men to be absent from their families for extended periods of time and is something that the community is striving to eliminate the need to immigrate. 

 The road through Ojoche

Next, we went to Jiñocuajo, another community very similar to Ojoche, just down the road.  Jiñocuajo is a community that the Nehemiah Center isn’t working with, but other groups are doing similar work as to what is happening in Ojoche.  This community was a little more run down, but still very nice.  There, we met with community leaders and members and talked more about the immigration that happens there.  Roger, the community development leader from the Nehemiah Center, had come with us and pushed this community to start a secondary school.  The people were saying they didn’t have a building to meet in, but he suggested they start meeting outside and then outside funding is more likely to be available if they try to help themselves first.  There were two girls about our age there that were ready to be teachers, so Roger told them to go for it and start up this school.  In each community we went to, we stuck out quite obviously and usually the kids would stop and stare or just sit back and watch us.  In Jiñocuajo, we were meeting outside, right next to a school, so when they got out for lunch, many of them came close to watch what we were doing and one girl even came up and stroked Cara’s head. 

After lunch, we went out to the Sagrada Familia community.  This was quite a bit different than the two we had seen in the morning.  This community hasn’t had any development work done in it yet and we were there to witness the first meeting trying to organize a development effort in the area.  This community was very obviously much more run down and not near as united as the others.  The meeting brought many mothers and young children, but few men.  There are several groups within the community, and they don’t always get along.  We were there to see most of the people arrive, many at the prodding of their group leader.  The development group’s goal is to get the people of the community to see their individual gifts and be able to put them to use improving their own community.  This is a difficult concept for people to grasp when their whole lives they have been given hand outs.  Their thinking is that the only way to better themselves is for gringos like us to give them all they need.  This was very apparent in the meeting.  It was an interesting process to witness and the community has a long ways to come, but it would be very cool to go back in a few years and see where they’re at.  At the end of the meeting, they had a chance to ask us questions and one of the leaders, who had done most of the talking and was quite demanding of the others, asked what we were going to do for them now that they had agreed to take a step towards improving their community.  We had to tell them that we were just students and weren’t going to do a thing, but that they were going to have to realize how to help themselves.  The end of the meeting was cut a little short and got a little rushed due to the coming rain, but it was a very good experience.

Thursday was another day of visiting communities.  This time we travelled first to the community of El Limonal, near Chinandega.  El Limonal is a community formed after hurricane Mitch, in the so-called triangle of death.  It is between the city dump, a cemetery, and the septic system for the city.  This was literally a community of shacks.  Many of the houses had signs and posters or parts of kid swimming pools making up their walls.  We met at the house of Fatima, a leader in the community with a health initiative.  The kids here were almost too adorable to pay attention, but we managed to learn quite a bit here too.  We talked to the women about their work to reduce diseases in the community and then talked to a social worker from Food for the Hungry about her work with the kids in the community.  Afterwards, we were able to buy some jewelry from the ladies.  Despite the rough conditions of this community, it is quite surprising how well they are coming along and this is another community that will most likely keep improving over the next few years.

We ended our trip in a community near Leon.  This community was also formed with hurricane Mitch refugees.  Most of the community is from a community called Aguas Frias at the base of a volcano nearby.  Here we met in a school with a bunch of women from the community, again talking about health and environmental efforts in the community and also the evacuation plan in case of another natural disaster.  It was really adorable how all the kids gathered in the windows to watch our meeting.  Afterwards they were all very excited to have their picture taken.  We had a short visit there, and it would have been nice to get to spend some more time getting to know the community. 

 These kids loved the camera

We are at home this weekend before another trip next week to the campo (country)!  Tomorrow my family is going to the beach, which I’m pretty excited for and then Monday we leave early again for Managua. 

The true meaning of full

A common site in Leon is the camionetas.  Camionetas are a form of public transportation.  Basically, they are trucks where the bed has been converted into a covered wagon type ride around the city.  During busy times of the day, these are often jam packed full of people.  I have ridden in these a few times since being here, but none were as packed as Wednesday night.  About 4:30 Wednesday, someone came by to say church was at 5.  Our church meets in a house about a block away, so this just meant we all changed quickly and walked over there.  Once we got there, almost everyone got in the back of the camioneta with the sound equipment so we could have our worship service at someone else’s house.  At this point, only a few people were standing in the middle with the rest of us sitting on the benches that line the truck bed.  I thought it was pretty full at this point, but about halfway to the house we were going to, we stopped to pick up more people.  This is when the camioneta was packed.  I’m guessing there were about 30 people in total in the back of this truck.  There really wasn’t room to even breathe.  Every bump we hit, the back of the truck scraped the ground.  We all piled out at the house and a few more people were already there or showed up shortly after.  After church, we all needed to pack back in the camioneta.  Except this time, we had to fit all those who had gotten other rides before in too.  We ended up putting the speakers on top of the cab to fit more people in.  I wouldn’t be surprised if there were 40 people in the back of the truck now.  It was quite entertaining and fun since everyone knows each other, unlike a usual camioneta ride where it is all strangers.  There were about 5 guys that just hung off the back end, kind of holding the rest of us in.  Of course, Mama was looking out for me and made sure I had a sitting spot both ways, so that was nice.  It was definitely something you will never experience in the States!

Last week was an interesting one because Wednesday and Thursday were national holidays celebrating Independence Day.  This meant the whole country, besides us, had the two days off of school and work.  We still had to go to class unfortunately.  But it did mean that my family was free during the day, so Thursday afternoon, they took Lisa and me to Chinandega, another department in Nicaragua.  There, we swam in a “pool” of sorts.  It was basically a dammed up river that had different levels to swim in.  It was fun to get out of the city and spend time in the water.  After swimming, we went to visit my uncle’s family on a farm.  It was a fun afternoon, capped off by being soaked on the way home.  We had taken my uncle’s truck to Chinandega, which meant Lisa, me, Mama, and Papi were in the back of the truck.  Even though we had bags to cover us, I still ended up fairly wet by the time we got home.

Saturday and Sunday I relaxed most of the day around the house with my family.  I went grocery shopping with Mama on Saturday, and we got Oreos which made me happy.  Yesterday evening I went with my sisters and a few of their friends to go play in a park.  We had a beach ball and a soccer ball and played a little tag too.  It was fun to hang out with new friends and get to see more of the city.

We are all very excited to be done with our Spanish classes now and starting something new.  This week we start our other classes.  We have class in Managua at the Nehemiah Center all day today and then tomorrow morning and in the afternoon tomorrow we will leave for the first of many trips around the country.  This first trip takes us to Somotillo for a community development trip until Thursday.  It will be weird to be away from our families for this long, but I am excited for the chance to see a little more of Nicaragua! 

Cerro Negro

Today our group went to Cerro Negro, an active volcano you can sled down.  It was quite the experience and very fun!  We took a van out into the country to the base of the volcano.  From there we hiked up with the boards and equipment on our backs.  Our tour guide, Danilo, had many interesting stories of people he had taken up the mountain and was very entertaining.  He allowed us each to take a small volcanic rock as a souvenir, although I just realized that I left mine in my backpack, so I don’t actually have one.

 It was a very beautiful hike and from the top we could see Leon 25 kilometers away.  Once at the top, we took some time to do jumping pictures and then suited up to slide down.  The tour company provided elbow pads, knee pads, a full body suit, goggles, gloves, and wrist guards for us to wear down.  It may seem excessive, but I definitely appreciated all the gear once I got to the bottom.  I actually wish we would have gotten whole face masks!  Megan and I went down first and both crashed quite a few times.  They hadn’t warned us about that before we took off.  I took one big tumble towards the bottom of the hill, tumbling head over heels and losing my goggles in the process.  Because of this, I am proud to say I was the dirtiest of the group at the end of the ride.  Once Megan and I got to the bottom, we watched the others come down and lastly Danilo ran down the mountain.  It felt so good to take off all the equipment at the end, but we were still all very covered in ash/dirt.  In our mouths, down our clothes, in our shoes, hair, pretty much everywhere, but it was so worth it.  Once I got home, my family was very entertained at how dirty I was and I took a much needed shower. 

 One of the many pretty views

 All suited up and ready to go

 Yep I was just a little dirty

Other happenings this past week:

·         Another week of Spanish class done, plus an exam

·         Pizza night with the group

·         Met my abuelita finally

·         Nights sitting out on the front steps chatting

·         Visited art gallery and Ruben Dario museum for class

·         Funeral at a house down the street which took up the whole intersection with people and chairs, very different than funerals in the States

·         Witnessed a fight across the street which brings everyone, including kids, out of their houses to watch

·         Discovered Chia, a delicious drink

·         Helped my sister and her friend with some English homework

This week is our last week of Spanish class before we start travelling a lot and doing many exciting things.  I found out this past week that I will for sure be working with Rancho Ebenezer for my elective course and my service learning course.  I am very excited for this as I miss being on a farm and working with animals.  Today as we drove to Cerro Negro, I was excited to see pigs and farm land.  I am really looking forward to seeing all that they do at Rancho Ebenezer and see if it’s something I would like to do in the future.  I am adding many pictures to Facebook, so check those out for a more in depth look at what I’ve done so far. 

New family and new life :)

Well I’ve been in Leon for a little over a week now, which means in the past 3 weeks I’ve gone from working on a farm in the middle of the states to living in a small city in Central America going to school.  The past week has brought many changes for me being in a new place with a new family and speaking a new language.  Some of the changes I’ve experienced:

1.       Language: My Spanish has improved a ton since moving in with my host family, but it still has a ways to go.  I can now understand some of the conversations that happen around me and some of the music I hear and some of the TV I watch.  I don’t feel as lost when things are going on around me and I feel more able to have a personality since I can better communicate what I want, although this is still a struggle for me. 

2.       Sleeping hours: This may come as a shock for those of you who know I never go to bed before midnight, but I have yet to go to bed after midnight since being here.  This is due to several reasons.  A) It gets dark here really early, around 7 it is almost completely dark which means that the sun rises around 4 or 5 I think. B) Because of this sun schedule, many people are up around 4 and 5.  Since all the houses are connected, I can hear the neighbors music blaring at 5 AM, I can also hear the neighbors’ roosters crowing between 5 and 6, I can also hear venders in the street yelling “Verduras, verduras” (vegetables).  All of this means that I have yet to sleep til my alarm goes off at 7.  C) I am just plain tired after a day of trying to communicate in Spanish, dealing with the heat, and walking all over the city for school, wireless internet, and visiting the others in my group.  I usually get to the point in the night where I can’t comprehend Spanish anymore, so I head to my room and get ready for bed by 10 usually.  This is completely opposite of my normal sleeping schedule, but it’s how everyone else functions down here, so I’ve had to adapt.

3.       Food: Food here is based around rice and beans.  I’ve been pretty lucky and not had too many beans, which I am not a huge fan of.  However, there really is no concept of breakfast food here.  I’m not a huge breakfast eater, but many mornings here mi mama serves me leftovers from supper or something that could be a lunch or supper meal.  Occasionally I get just fruit or eggs which I like, but a chicken leg is not my idea of breakfast.  For the most part, I don’t mind the food here; it’s just different than at home.  I do love all the fresh fruit and fruit juices that I get!  My favorite new fruit is mamones.  I don’t even know if I could describe them if I tried but here is a picture.  The outside isn’t eaten, inside is a slimy ball that is delicious! 

4.       Activity: Other than eat, my family, like most families here, mostly watches TV and goes to church.  In one week, I have been to 3 or 4 church services and missed at least one.  This is their lifestyle though, most people don’t have hobbies, they just go to church for all their needs socially and spiritually.  Church has been an interesting experience for me since the services are very emotional and full of clapping (even if the clapping isn’t in rhythm).  I am looking forward to being able to understand more of what’s going on in the future.  I also mentioned TV as an activity.  Compared to other families, I don’t think mine watches a ton of TV, but I enjoy the programs.  There is everything from programs in English with Spanish subtitles to English shows with Spanish voiced over the mouths obviously speaking English to straight Spanish shows.  My papito likes to watch baseball, which makes me very happy and I love to join in on watching that.

Those are the big changes I have experienced this week and I’m looking forward to everything else that will happen in the next few months.  This week we have Spanish class every morning again and then we’re free in the afternoons, and I’m sure I will go to a few more church services.  Please continue to keep my group and our host families in your prayers as we adjust to family life here and are still trying to overcome the language barrier.  Thank you so much!

Entiendes?

This is a common phrase I hear, although less and less each day, thankfully!  It means do you understand? Thankfully, I can say SI more! I am adjusting fairly well, and enjoy my family.  My family consists of Mama, Magali who is a nurse, works during the day and then is home in the evening.  Her dad, Papito is usually at the house as well, although I don't think he actually lives there.  Xochitl (pronounced So-cheet) is the oldest daughter, 20 years old and goes to school during the day.  Jefferson is her boyfriend as far as I can tell and is over for a few hours every evening.  Rafael is my brother, 18 years old and works at the farm most of the week, so I haven't seen him much.  Indira is my other sister, 17 years old.  She is home most of the time, and gave me a pedicure yesterday!  Her boyfriend, Oscar is also over fairly often. 
This week we have had Spanish class for 4 hours every morning.  My class isn't too hard for me, but it is good review and I am improving every day!  It feels so good to be improving and learning.  Since the class is only in the morning, that leaves the afternoons to spend time with our families and do homework.  Almost every afternoon, our group from Dordt gets together to do homework or go to the cafe for internet.  It's nice to have others to adjust at the same time and to speak English with :)