Beans, Corn and Tortillas

Nicaragua! I arrived here on the 10^th on October and it has been pretty awesome from the start. We were placed in with the current agriculture training group that was already in progress. We started a sort of independent training program because our Spanish levels were acceptable and a lot of the training is similar to what we did in Bolivia. At times it is a bit redundant but over all it is a great experience. Even now and again we have to met with a language facilitator and go over some of the differences in the culture and language but this is usually and very entertaining time. The differences in the language are not that great but you have to get used to the words that they use here and sometimes it can be a bit difficult changing. For example, something as simple as saying goodbye is different. In Bolivia the word adios is sparsely or never used. Here they use it not only when saying goodbye but also as something you would say to a passerby. Some how in English if you just say bye and nothing else it just does not fit.

Ride your bike get water!

During training I am living with a really nice family. They are a be traditional Latin family in that they have their grandparents and other extended family members living with them too. My host-mom is a great cook and I just had the best carne asada ever. The potato to Bolivians is the bean to Nicaraguans. In Bolivia there is usually always a potato at every meal. Here you get beans three meals a day. On the bright side my host-dad is a farmer with lots of fruits trees so I get fresh juice all the time.

El Tigre... kind of looks like the windows desktop

Coffee beans...

I just come back from the place I will be living for the next two years. It is a little place called El Tigre in the department of Jinotega. There is only about 45 families and 500 people in the whole community but it is spread out. My host family there is really cool. They don’t have a lot of money but they are always smiling, singing and laughing. My host dad is missing one of his front teeth so when he smiles it is even funnier. One day on my site visit we were coming back from the fields and we stopped at an orange tree along the way. I had to climb up and try to get some. We I was up there he was telling me were all the big ones were and so on. Then he keeps telling me something that I didn’t understand. I look at him with a black look on my face and try and guess what he wants. He keeps repeating himself and I keeping looking at him with a, “what are you saying” look hoping he will use a different word. Nope he keeps on going finally I figure out that he just wants me to shake the whole branch. So I start shaking the branch and a few fall the ground and he bends down to pick them up, needless to say I keep shaking the branch and then about two or three oranges hit him right in the back of the head. It was like something out of a cartoon. He just looked up, smiled his one tooth smile and started laughing. It was a pretty funny moment. I am looking forward to living with them for six weeks after that I can rent my own house. There are a couple houses open so I am already looking forward to that. El Tigre is absolutely beautiful. It is in the mountainous region which means that there is a lot of coffee production. The three main things that they grow in the region are coffee, beans and corn. Those three things made up about 80% of my diet the last week. The rest was made up of rice and quajada a type of chesse that is made in a day. A sample of my culinary diet for a day consists of fried beans, quajada, corn tortilla and a cup of coffee. Lunch consists of bean soup which is beans and salted water, quajada, corn tortilla and a cup of coffee. Dinner consists much of the same. Meals don’t vary much, sometimes it will be accompanied by rice or fried bananas. The dish that Nicaragua is famous for is Gallo Pinto with is basically rice and beans mixed together and cooked in oil… it is delicious. Of course not all Nicaraguans eat like this but they live a hugely subsistence lifestyle in the campo. During my six days at my site I did not eat one piece of meat and went to bed before eight every night. Not because I really wanted to but because there is neither electricity nor running water. This also has to do with the fact that people get up way too early here. Every morning I woke up at 4:30 to the smell of smoke and a thumping sound… this is when they make their tortillas. Did I mention that the family I will be living with has ten kids? That is a lot of mouths to feed and a lot of tortillas to be made in the morning. The smoke comes from the open fire stoves that they use to cook everything. I am involuntarily becoming a vegetarian, don’t have electricity or running water and take cold bucket showers. It could be a lot worse I could have everything… and be unhappy.

Papaya trees

My host dad and his ride...

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