A little rain must fall

Once again, hey all!



So things are still going smooth here. The difference now is that everything is very wet. Hurricane Alma (meaning ¨soul¨) has come through and hit Managua pretty hard, the capital city about 3-and-a-half hours south of us. It rained pretty rough here for a while, and made everything quite muddy, but I was more concerned for Vince, who is staying in Managua. They recieved 20 inches of rain and had flash floods. Homes were destroyed and people displaced because of it. Coincidentally, I have not actually talked to Vince since then, but I am sure he is allright.



Hurricane Alma came at an exciting time: El Dia del Madre! Friday was Nicaraguan (Latin American?) Mother´s Day, and it is a huge deal. People here understand how much work the domesticas perform, and gladly show their appreciation. Wednesday afternoon, starting at 3, was a meeting of all the mothers and their families in the community at the Solar Center. Or at least I expected a meeting. When I arrived in my work clothes, I was surprised to see every single one of them looking beautiful, all dressed up and formal. Concordantly, I borrowed a bike and, instead of making the 15-minute walk back to my house, sped there with haste, put on some nice clothes, and sped back to the center. Apparently I was to be a judge of a beauty competition for the mothers.



It was a fiesta! Children sang, danced, and shared stories, volunteers produced skits, and staff had the mothers play games. Then we announced the contest winners and all had a snack, and then the dancing begun. Of course, I couldn´t resist dancing. However, everytime I went to sit down or get a drink of water, one of the girls would pull me back up again. In the end, it was a blast, and went on until about 6:30 or so.



It was interesting to note that all the men and women have the capability to clean up so nicely. It doesn´t matter where they live, whether it´s in a city or in a house with no electricty in the mountains, a person can still clean up and be beautiful. The difference is, bugs and mud don´t bother the girls here, and that´s some +Cool Points.



CJ and I have cut all the wood necessary for the autoclave, and are just about ready to begin construction next week. It´s very exciting, and I am glad to be rolling ahead with the project. I am trying to have the women and staff participate as well. They can earn hours by working with us, and then use those hours to buy something from the Green Store, which could be clothes or toys or cookware, etc. Hours is an interesting and convenient form of monies for projects like this.



I have decided that I am about ready to teach the locals how to play Ultimate. I was waiting to pick up more Spanish, but it is almost time. I will make an announcement at tomorrow´s women´s meeting for Las Mujeras Solares, which occurs every Monday at 3PM, saying that I will be teaching a fun new game on the Wednesday following this Wednesday, and that they should encurage their families and friends´families to come on by. This is another mini-project that I am very excited for.

***

So everything above was written on Sunday, and it is now Wednesday that I am finishing this up. This is because the power cut out as I was halfway through, and would not be back on for the rest of the day. A testament to the hurricane I referred to earlier.

I did tell the women that I will teach Ultimate next Wednesday, and they liked the idea. CJ and I have also been working on the Solarr Autoclave, constructing and putting everything together. My hands are stained with paint from the work I have done today. I would also like to thank Matt and Pete for helping me out with the construction, and Roberto for giving me some wonderful input into the autoclave. Our business, which I mentioned in the first blog below, is also really taking off. I have a few other ventures in mind that would be much simpler and quicker to start up than the autoclave, which I hope to share with my teammates and work on maybe as a side project. Once again, I urge you to check out www.saluddelsol.org for the latest improved website.

An interesting story: apparently when Robert first arrived here, coming from Scotland into Guatemala, and then here, he had heard of Las Mujeras Solares and asked for them. However, he mispronounced it and asked for ¨mujeras solas¨, which means ¨single women¨. The locals were... confused, to say the least?

Spanish lessons are also really picking up. We are getting into some of the stuff that I really wanted to know, such as how to say verbs in past and future tenses, etc. Because, once I know this, I can apply it to almost every verb I learn, and at least get a better sense across than what I probably currently do. However, my Spanish is going really well. I am able to converse pretty well with most of the locals, especially the kids. My weak point, as anywhere, is being able to hear what they are saying; to pick out the different words, etc.

So, after three days, I have finally finished this blog. I think it´s about time that I get going again... I am looking for a few things here in Ocotal, then I am going to go home for dinner. After dinner, I am helping a girl study for her English test tomorrow. I also learned a pretty cool game during class today that I hope to play with Robert and Scarlett tonight, which is to write down (in Spanish!) a place, famous person, object, color, and animal that all start with the same letter before anyone else can. It is a great way to excercise vocabulary. I expect Scarlett to beat us everytime, because she´s been speaking the language for 11 years (cheat), but then we can ask her what a certain word was, and so on.

They told me everyone would get sick, but no sickness for Daniel yet. Score.

Tengo un Gato en mis Pantalones

Hey All!

I like using these Spanish keyboards, because they have so many more options than our boring US keyboards. ñ,ç,¿,€,¡,º,ª... esta bien. Most keys have three symbols on them, rather than two, so they require two shifts, the second being AltGr.

Anyway, I have arrived in Sabana Grande! It is as awesome and beautiful as I thought it´d be, if not more so. I erred when I said that Sabana Grande meant ¨Great Plains¨, because apparently it means ¨Big Sheet¨. It is also in a bit different location than I thought: 20 minutes south of Ocotal, not Esteli.. though it is near Esteli. My apologies.

Here I am surrounded by mountains and farmland, and there are cities nearby. We are staying in a community, with some clusters of houses here and there. The Centro de Solar, or Solar Center, is the center of activity. It is very impressive, as it was only very recently built and runs entirely on solar power. In it they have a tool room, a storeroom, a meeting room, an office, and a library. It sits on 3-and-a-half acres of land, on which they also have an automatic pump for a well, a composting latrine, and many organic gardens. They also have a construction area, where they make Adobe, and are planning to build a hotel and a restaurant. Both of these would also be run entirely on solar power, and the food would be cooked using the solar cookers! I am very excited about this, and I definitely want to come back to see them.

My house is wonderful. We have electricity (most houses in this area are connected to the national grid), and so have light at night. We also have the only refigerator (at least one of the only ones that I know of), and so that is a big deal to the community. My mother is a great businesswoman... she makes heladeto, a sort of ice treat, that she sells for 1ç (Cordoba), which is very cheap. Currently, 19ç is to $1. My mother, Dona Carmen, also pays others to do laundry, and generating business is very important in the community. As good a businesswoman as Dona Carmen is, however, she is an even better cook. I get exquisite meals, and a plethora of variety, 3 times a day: desayuno, almuerzo, y cena.

I have 28-year-old brother, Yenner (pronounced with a slightly rolled r, almost like ¨Yenen¨), who I don´t see much because he is always working, on a farm I presume. my niece Scarlett, however, I see a lot (when I am not working or she is not in school). She stays with us, and Dona Carmen has her eat with me. She is 11, and has a very large reputation for being great with volunteers such as myself. She corrects our Spanish, and is extremely patient with us. We play games such as UNO together, and she is a quiet, proud, and sweet girl. Not too mention wayy too smart to be in the community for much longer.

It is cooler up in the mountains, but it rains more. It is the beginning of the rainy season, where it pours for about an hour every day. Truthfully, the climate is temperate and perfect for me. Bugs are not too much of a problem, except for an hour after it rains (Mudflies cloud the skies, but only for awhile). Never fear, however, because I do have my bounce sheets in my room!

Showers are taken with a bucket. You get a bucket of water, a little bowl, and a closed-off area outside somewhere, and just scoop and pour. Lather, rinse, scoop, pour, repeat. It´s great. You are in much more control of the water, and don´t waste nearly as much. The temperature of water depends on the time of day you are taking the shower (I love the cold showers because they are much more refreshing here, but if you want a warm shower you´ll be taking it during your lunch break). The bathrooms are latrines, where they dig very large, deep holes, and just place a sort of open-bottomed port-a-potty over it. Sure it´s no Ramada Inn, but you learn to live with it just fine... they are even pretty clean.

I gotta tell you folks, as disgusting as that may seem to you Americans, it is great. Like I said, you live with it just fine, and there are lots of advantages to both.

I am also staying with another volunteer... a 44-year-old Scottish man they call Roberto (roll the first r). We eat and work together, and he is something else. Bob has been a wonderful help in my time here so far, because he has been able to give me all the ins and outs of the village. He showed me how to use the shower, where to get clean water, how to chase away the dogs, not to wear sunglasses when talking to people, etc. He is chock full of great information for me, which I try to pass along to the other volunteers. He is also very bright, and is extremely interested in my solar autoclave project. Unfortunately, Bob is leaving us in two weeks. He has been here for 3 months working on getting the women to cook using pressure cookers in the solar cookers rather than over a stove. He discovered that they can make Chocolate cake using the pressure cookers, which is the only reason they are excited about it (even thought there´s certainly tons of other applications). What an amazing gift from God that I brought a pressure cooker for testing too.

Several other non-UD volunteers, CJ, Jenny, and Emily, have all also been a huge help. They´ve given us maps of the community and the towns, vocabulary lists and phrases, and showed us a few other things as well.

Whew, I feel like I have so much more to share, but I am running out of time. Remind me to talk to you about Soccer, Ocotal, and Spanish.

Oh, one last thing. Unfortunately, my camera has died. I am trying to get a new one, but it could be some time. As a result, I will not be able to post any pictures until then. I am sorry, and I will post some as soon as I can.

Reminding you to conserve water, this is Daniel signing off.