31 de Diciembre 2007

The last day of 2007 and I´m celebrating on ¨vacation¨. Myself and 3 other volunteers have taken a trip to Matagalpa and are enjoying getting to know this cool misty mountain town. We´re also greatly enjoying the variety of foods we get to eat, like granola batidos, coffee ice cream, hamburgers, french fries, and beer! And we´re really looking forward to italian food and wine tonight!
Living in the campo and being so far from a city, unlike some of the other volunteers, has its advantages. When the 3 of us living in Nuevo Segovia make the 2 hour or more trip to a city, we really appreciate the small things like a grocery store with chocolate and peanut butter, having a burger and beer for dinner, being able to shop for things we need, and indoor plumbing. And the best part is always coming home. Although I always look forward to my ¨trips¨to the city, I love stepping off the hectic bus after a few loud days in town, to the peace and quiet of my community and being able to say ¨adios¨to the neighboorhood kids greeting me.
The last few weeks have brought more activity than the first few in my site. I´m not quite sure if I´m just getting used to not having much to do each day or if I actually have more activities. I think its a combination of both. I´ve been busy sharing ideas with my new counterpart, transcribing gardening information into spanish, using my creativity to plan for my first womens group meeting, thinking of resourceful ways to ward off chickens from eating my worms in my vermiculture project, getting my hands dirty planting more vegetable and tree seeds (25 vivero bags the other day!), milking cows, riding a borrowed bike around ¨town¨, and attending fiestas.
As Mancho and I were navigating our bikes down a washed out steep dirt hill, I couldn´t help but smile and think how this mode of everyday transportation here reminds me of a weekend mountain biking activity. I realized I was in the perfect place when I thought of how my daily routine here required me to hike through forests, mountain bike, and ride horses. All activities I would go the extra mile to do at home. And I even love riding on the buses here. Even if it means being completely over-the-max stuffed into a bus with my skirt flipping up everytime the handle of the emergency back door opened to let out pasengers.
As for parties, I was lucky enough to attend a graduation party way up in the mountains at a beautiful hacienda owned by the mayor of a local town. The hacienda required 2-3 hours of driving up amazing twisting & turning dirt roads high up into the Segovian mountains, crosing creeks and cow pastures to get there. We arrived and were greated by the owner with a rifle in one hand and a hand out to shake with the other, plus a toothbrush and toothpaste tucked into his shirt pocket. We immediately got into the killing of that nights dinner-a peliquey (sheep-goat cross). My friend and I were lucky enough to get our hands dirty and take part in the skinning and butchering of the animal. I was more than excited, to say the least, and got to dissect the heart and try to remember all those anatomical words I learned this last year.
Surely thinking the 5 year old ¨sheep¨was going to be tough mutton, I was surprised to taste the best meat I´ve had yet in Nicaragua. It must have been that rum they gave it right before the killing.
The rest of the night was filled with lots of food, drink, music, dancing, and horseriding. My first time on a horse here in Nicaragua (finally) and after accidently letting a bull out into the cow pasture, I quickly herded him back through the gate and out of the cows. Then proceeded down the mountain with the old vaquero on the back, arguing in spanish with another friend about the proper noises to command a horse.
I guess my spanish is improving. Poco a poco.
Christmas here was different and pretty uneventful. The 24th is the more celebrated day and includes women spending the day making the classic nica food ¨nacatamales¨. I enjoyed hanging out in the kitchen with the women learning and helping to make these softer, moister versions of a mexican tamale. Rather than being wrapped in corn husks and cooked, they are steamed in banana leaves.
Although women spend most of the day cooking, like we do in the states, the day ended without a big family meal and rather individuals grabbing a nacatamale and eating it alone at different times. Giving gifts is also not a tradition, which is fine with me, as I´ve always thought this was an over-commercialized part of xmas anyways. However, I really did appreciate those xmas packages I received from my parents this year. Mmmm....ghiradelli chocolate and photos from home. Christmas here also included (if you´re catholic) lots of drinking and partying late into the night. There were many, many bolos running around those 2 days. One of which arrived at our house horseback. Myself being so enamorated with horses ran out to ride his horse, but was stopped by my host family who wouldn´t let me ride off with a bolo. There overbearing protection is good at times :)
Since I´ve been training for a half-marathon here in March, I´ve been diligently running every morning. I accomplished a 50 minute run 2 days ago that I never would of thought possible for myself a few months ago. I now have so much confidence and faith that I´ll be able to reach that 13 mile mark in a few months! Anyways, on my morning run through the pine forest I spotted a vacant house that just might be mine in a couple of months. It´s a cute little adobe house with dirt floors tucked back into the pine forest with a yard of lemon grass, banana and mango trees, and the perfect place to plant a garden. The floors are dirt and the conditions are a little rough, but the peace and tranquility of the location are amazing. Up and down 2 hills, cross a creek and you´ve arrived. But its all still only a 10 minute walk to the carreterra, bus stop, local store, and my host family´s home. There´s some repairs that need to be done and not sure if it´ll be approved by Peace Corps, but I´m keeping my fingers crossed.
Getting this new place fixed up, working on my spanish, and planting huertos with the ladies should keep me busy over the next few weeks.
Happy New Year to all and hope you´re enjoying the cold weather and maybe even snow that I´m missing here!