Nica Notes 2011

La Mariposa Spanish School

2011-04-20T18:54:00.000-07:00

Foxy my favorite dog looking

down from the balcony

After Sabana Grande, we continued our trip to La Mariposa Spanish School ( the website it is www.mariposaspanishschool.com).

Chester and I

Elisabeth

We took Spanish classes and my teacher's name was Chester. He was fun; he liked to play games, he spoke English, we made houses out of cards, we watered the plants, and we learned Spanish (of course!). My mom had a bunch of different teachers. She had 2 teachers each day with 1 for conversation and 1 for grammar. Their names were Marlin, Kinema, Elisabeth, and Denis. It was like the school in Leon in that we had classes all morning and then activities in the afternoon-- trips to volcanoes, lakes, markets, museums, talks and history lessons, dance & cooking classes too.

Some of the Eco-hotel

one of our local pulperias

in La Concha

La Mariposa was in some sense like a magical place because as soon as you stepped through the yellow gates everything was so green and tropical, different than the local villages and towns. La Mariposa was right out side of La Concha which was a small town outside of Masaya. Our school in Leon had almost the complete opposite setting then Mariposa because Dariana was in the city and Mariposa was not. Also the "classrooms" were huts in the middle of the gardens at Mariposa and in Leon, we were just in a building in 1 room. We ate lunch in the outdoor eating area near the terrace.They had an Eco-hotel and a cabin on site. You could also stay with a family but we had already done that for our whole trip before that so we stayed in the cabin; they didn't have any room in the Eco-hotel.

The terrace where sometimes we had classes

Where we ate meals, worked on computers, etc...

Our cabin

Our beds with mosquito nets

Me at the sink next to the shower

the dry latrine

We stayed in the bamboo cabin in the upstairs room that had a little balcony outside with hammocks and a table. The ceiling was completely open so sometimes at night bats would fly through! We had to use mosquito nets so the bugs wouldn't come into our beds. There were 2 rooms downstairs and 1 room upstairs. There was a latrine and a shower in a little bamboo house. We did not have hot water but the rooms did so I got to take hot showers twice when Shelby and Claire (other people staying there) let me use their showers. The cabin was right next to the monkeys and the birds so it was SUPER, DUPER LOUD in the morning and we didn't even hear our alarm go off!!!

Foxy and I

one of the two toucans!

the parrots eating lunch

At La Mariposa they had rescued animals. There were 7 dogs, which I liked a lot and there names were Molly, Toto (who was still a puppy and would nip you sometimes but he was huge), Holly(Toto's mom), Condor (who was a street dog but then brought into La Mariposa and is now healthy), Jas, Saltan (who looked like a cow and was the size of a cow), and Foxy (she was my favorite; that's why I saved her for last)! There were a couple (or maybe just 1?) cats at La Mariposa. They mostly stayed up in Paulette's room though.There were also lots of birds that made sooo much noise! There were 2 toucans, tons of parrots, a hen of the mountains, and even a shore bird (a stilt I think). They also had rescued monkeys. There were 4 of them and 3 of them were males but there was 1 girl. She was very shy and always stayed in the corner of the cage. We fed them bananas and sometimes mangos or various fruits. A women named Beth made games that they could play and other interesting foods that they could eat.

2 out of the 4 Capuchin Monos

Me in the garden

The food that we ate at La Mariposa came from a couple of their organic gardens. There was 1 that was on site and you just had to walk down a path to get to it. During my lessons Chester would take me there and I would water the plants. The other garden was quite a ways down the road and so we never went there.

La Mariposa was even more like a magical place because when you looked out the windows sometimes we could see Guarduabarrancos (the Nicaragua national bird). They are really pretty with long tails and the bottom part of the tails have no feathers on them! We could also see beautiful sunsets at night.

Guarduabarranco (Nica National Bird)

one of our lovely sunsets

Pitaya (dragon fruit) plants

We had lots of activities in the afternoon that were all different

a little pineapple

kinds of things. Each week there was certain things that happened on certain days and there were other activities too. On Monday, there was usually talks that sometimes had movies to go along with them. On Wednesday, there was talks about the history of Nicaragua and at night some of us went to a pizza restaurant for dinner. The restaurant was a project that had the street kids make the pizza and work on the farms and they gave them a place to live instead of on the street. On Friday there were Las Noticias which were talks about political things that are happening in Nicaragua. Some of the other activities that we did were these. We went on a hike with Julio (he was part of a host family for home stays and he liked taking people on hikes). On the hike we stopped at an orange farm and at a banana plantation so we had lots of fruit for the hike! While we were hiking up the mountains, we saw pineapple plantations (a cool thing about them were that they were bright pink so it made the whole hillside look pink!) and pitaya (dragon fruit) plantations all over the place! We also went to Laguna de Apoyo which was a giant crater lake that you could swim in.

the pink part is a huge

pineapple farm

picking an orange

At Laguna de Apoyo

My mom with a banana plant

We also went to lots of markets and cities but I will write about them in another post!

Salsa Verde

2011-04-17T17:13:00.000-07:00

Recipe For Salsa Verde

birds eye view of the blender

All of the ingredients
in the blender

The recipe for the Salsa Verde

The chefs

The finished product

Sabana Grande, part 2

2011-03-30T15:00:00.000-07:00

The Solar Centre

A solar oven

The Solar Restaurant

Susan and I in the methane
digestor

During the next few days, we visited the places throughout the community. The Solar Centre was where the Solar Women worked solar ovens,worked on solar panels, and worked on other things also. They had meetings at The Solar Centre. The women built the Solar Centre out of bricks they made by hand! Around the Solar Center there was solar ovens, a solar distiller, a methane digester (thats not ready yet) for the restaurant, and a garden. Right next to the Solar Centre, they are building a Solar Restaurant because they got a grant from The United Nations. It is still in construction and will probably open in May. They will collect cow dung (poop!) in the bottom of the methane digester and cover it to collect the gas that is created as it decomposes so they can run the gas stoves in the restaurant on the methane. There is also a Solar Store that, by working, they can earn hours and buy things. For example, a solar oven would be about $200 and the women can't afford that so they work and then they can get one.

Mauro showing solar battery
charger, and PV panel

Yelba and Jorge working

on a solar oven

My mom and I at the Solar Centre
under one of the signs we painted

The solar distiller

The Solar Women working

on solar ovens

The swings

A map of Sabana Grande

To get to the primary school, you could just walk down the dirt road about a mile until you came to the blue and white buildings that made up the school.Many of the public buildings were blue and white, the colors of the Nicaraguan flag. Enyel and Yubelki went to the primary school but Scarleth went to the secondary school so she walked about a mile too, but then she had to get on a bus for 15 minutes. The primary school started at 8 and ended at 1, but they had a siesta at 10 and lunch at 12. Also they had three grades in one classroom with just one teacher.

The primary school

All off the kids had to wear uniforms with a white shirt, a blue skirt or pants, black shoes, and white socks. At the school they just got a well which means they have water now!
The government provides free education but the families have to pay for the school supplies and the uniforms so it ends up being about three or four hundred dollars a year. Since many kids can't pay for all of their things, they don't go to school and then they don't get a good education. Also, some times the kids want to go to school but they can't (because of money) and so they have to work. One of the volunteers that had been in Sabana Grande a couple years ago (his name is C.J. and he lives in Maryland)and had come back for a couple weeks while we were there started a scholarship for students. Scarleth got the scholarship so she could go to secondary school.

Susan's House

Susan's house was a one room adobe-mud-brick house. There was a hammock in it and one day when I was sitting in it.... it fell down and I was laughing a lot but my butt hurt! She hung it back up outside after that happened. Right behind Susan's house, there was the Solar Mountain where they were working on reforestation and permaculture.

Near Susan's house was near the church and Scarleth was one of the Sunday school teachers. Down the road, towards the school there was a HUGE Ceba tree. In Africa, they call them Baobab trees.

The big Ceba Tree

The church

Our house was one of the 45-adobe-brick houses that the community helped build. They called these houses El Proyecto which means The Project. Everyday we would walk from the Solar Centre to lunch at someone's house. The first week we were there, we ate lunch at Dona Carmen's house who is Jorge's mom. Lots of people said that she was the best cooker in the community. There were a few Pulperias (little stores) in Sabana Grande and they were in the front of people's houses and there would be bars separating you from the store. Typically they would sell little snacks like chips or sodas.

While we were in Sabana Grande, since we were only going to be there for 2 weeks, we didn't start on a big project, but instead, we re-painted the signs for the Solar Centre. My mom made stencils for the logos and we painted the rest by hand. We also were going to build raised garden beds out of bricks made from plastic bottles filled with garbage. During the 2 weeks, there were a couple other volunteers there. Jaclyn had been there for about 4 months before we got there and C.J. was just visiting. In March Cornell and MIT are coming and they are doing a course.

One of the funny things about staying in Sabana Grande was hearing all of the animals at night. We could hear dogs, cows, donkeys and other animals too. Once all of the dogs were howling at the moon at the same time. Then they would all start barking at the same time and they wouldn't stop. My mom, Scarleth, and I were laughing a lot and it was really funny!!

Us at the top

Enyel and I climbing up to the top

One Sunday afternoon, Scarleth and Enyel took my mom and I up the little mountain behind our house. On the way to the top, we saw a spring with cold water in it. There were people washing there clothes there. We crossed under some barb wire a couple times along the way and the ground was covered in pine needles. We were in a pine forest with pine trees all around us. Near the top, it was hard to climb because all of the rocks had pine needles on them. Our feet kept slipping on them but eventually we reached the top. There was a great view of the community.


Us at the top again!

The view of Sabana Grande from the top.

Sabana Grade was a nice place with nice people and I liked living there a lot. I just wished they had warm showers! The solar women really worked hard and I was impressed at everything they accomplished. They inspired me to do my science project on solar cookers, too.

Sabana Grande, Grupo Fenix, and Mujeres Solares de Totogalpa

2011-03-26T14:31:00.000-07:00

Sabana Grande, part 1

After we were in Leon for three and a half weeks we went up to Sabana Grande, a small community in the north of Nicaragua (south of Honduras and near Ocotal) to do volunteer work with Grupo Fenix (a group that does work on solar and renewable energy and also works with the Energy University in Managua. If you want to find out more you can go to www.GrupoFenix.org). There is a group of women called Mujeres Solares de Totogalpa (Solar Women of Totogalpa and their web-site is www.MujeresSolares.org that work in Sabana Grande on solar and renewable energy also.

The path up to our house,
its the one on the right!

Susan, the director of Grupo Fenix, was in Leon to visit University Botanical gardens, and then together we took the Express Bus to Esteli. Getting on the next bus to Ocotal was a hassle because there were a million people trying to get on. Susan ended up in the front and my mom and I were in the back. At La Tabla we got off and Yelba (the mom of our house), Scarleth (her 14 -year-old daughter), and Yubelki (a neighbor) met us. We lugged our luggage down a dirt road for about a mile(NOT FUN!!!!!)with Scarleth carrying a bag on her head(!) and my mom and Yelba struggling to carry our biggest bag one but finally we saw our house.

Oso and I in the doorway

The family we were living with was Yelba, Jorge, the dad, Scarleth, Enyel (pronounced like Angel), the 7-year-old son, and Oso, the tiny 2-month-old dog that was sooo cute. They were all very warm and welcoming to us.

Our house had 5 rooms including 3 bedrooms, a common room (that served as the dining room, the living room, and just a general sitting area), and a kitchen. There was a table, chairs and a T.V. in the common room.

The view from our doorway

Me in our bedroom

The common room

The kitchen

The kitchen counter

The efficient stove

In the kitchen there was an efficient stove that one of the earlier volunteers had designed. It had a chimney so the smoke would go outside instead of staying in the kitchen and then into the lungs of the people making them sick. It also saved fire wood because the opening was smaller. There was only 3 of these stoves in the community and we were happy to live with one instead of having all of the smoke in our house.

The shower house and the
"sink"

The latrine and a raised garden bed

There was no refrigeration and running water where we were living so everyday Yelba and Scarleth went to the well and carried 5 gallon buckets of water on their heads (more than once)!! We helped them a couple times but we couldn't carry the water on our heads..... just with our hands. Then the water went into a 55 gallon drum so we could use it for washing things and ourselves. The "sink" was a slab of rock on concrete blocks. There were bucket showers and they were cold! The shower was a little brick room in the backyard under a papaya tree. There was a dry latrine.

One of the community wells

Their lives were very different from our lives at home. Yelba and Scarleth got up at 5:00 in the morning to do house work: carry water, grind corn to make tortillas,make the tortillas (my mom made some too but Yelba was much better because my mom's got holes in them!), start the fire, cook, wash clothes, wash dishes, get ready for school, etc... Jorge had to chop fire wood. Enyel got up early too because he had to get ready for school. They all took freezing cold showers when they got up, early in the morning!

the walk to the Solar Center from our house


sometimes we would draw together

Last Day In Leon

2011-03-21T09:12:00.000-07:00

While we were in Leon, we were staying with a family in their house. The mother's name was Hilda and her daughter's name was Hildita (little Hilda). They also had cousins that were visiting and the mother's name was Carla and her daughter's name was Danahi. Their cousin was also there visiting just for that day. We left on a Saturday so on Friday night (after our classes) we took them out to pizza. Before we went to pizza they had set up a little kitty-pool in the patio next door because Hildita didn't have school that day. When I was done eating lunch, I got my swimsuit on and went in the pool. The water was freezing !!!!!!!! Finally I got in and put my head under but it was still really cold so I was shivering. While we were in the freezing cold water, we heard something that sounded like a leak. Danahi was looking all over the pool and she found the leak that had water pouring out of it! Finally we managed to plug the leak but there was already a river on the floor underneath the pool! The other kids got out of the pool to eat a late lunch and I got out with them.

After they ate lunch, Hildita dragged me into her room and she painted my nails with bright pink nail polish (I rubbed it right off when I got back into my our room) and put some kid make-up on my face (I rubbed that off too). Then she put a black wig on my head that covered my eyes so I couldn't see anything! I looked really ridiculous and she was laughing so much! When it was time to go, we walked to Pizza Hot (that was not a mistake... it's not Pizza Hut, it's Pizza Hot). Everyone except my mom and I squirted a lot of Ketchup on their pizzas like all of the Nicaraguans that we met!! In the restaurant there was a playground with swings and things to climb on. When Hildita and I went on the swings, the whole jungle gym swayed back and forth!!

We heard noises (we usually did) and when we looked up(there was an open courtyard) we saw bright gold fire works that the church was letting go off for some sort of services.

When everyone had finished eating, we walked to the Parque Central (Central Park) to look at the jewelry and other art pieces that people were selling. Hilda bought a bracelet. As we were going home, we walked by the ice cream spot where everyone hangs out and my mom offered to buy us ice cream. Of course we said yes so went up to the counter to order our ice cream. As we were eating, Hildita's ice cream went plop on the table and her cone was empty! Everyone was laughing a lot and Hildita got another ice cream and this time it stayed on. In the back of the ice cream place, there is an arcade and we put money in the game where there is a grabber that you use to pick up stuffed animals but we didn't get anything out of it. Danahi and I played ice hockey and it was a close game but I won! We walked home and went to sleep in Leon for the last time!

The little stairway outside
of our room

The little courtyard

The little kitchen

The big table!

A weekend with Uncle Andy

2011-03-17T07:12:00.000-07:00

Las Penitas

Before we left, Uncle Andy was going to visit us but because of the snow his flight got canceled to New York so he came to visit us in Nicaragua instead. His flight arrived on Friday at 12:20 but it took an hour and a half to get to Leon from Managua. He came to Hotel La Perla and we went to the beach. We took a taxi to Las Penitas and got dropped off at Hotel Suyapa. They had a pool there which was nice because the ocean was had big waves and the pool was calm.

We ate dinner right on the water front and the food was really good. We could watch people surfing as we ate dinner. It felt great to be at the beach
because in Leon it was so hot and busy but the beach was calmer, more relaxed, and it had a nice breeze so the weather was a little cooler. At night there were very pretty sunsets. They were bright orange and the clouds turned to a light shade of pink. For lunch we ate at the Tsunami Taco Bar which is across the street from Hotel Suyapa and is owned by a Canadian. The shrimp tacos that we had tasted delicious.

We walked to the estuary(where the river flows into the ocean so salt water and fresh water mix) at low tide so the middle was all sand and it burned my feet to walk on it! There were people coming back from fishing and they had to push the boat through the water back to land. There was a guy who picked up a turtle shell that was bloody and the backbone was attached. It made me cringe when i saw it. The back of the shell was beautiful with lots of different markings in it.

There is a nice hostel/restaurant called Barca De Oro at that estuary that we went to and had a drink and washed off. We walked back to Suyapa's beach to swim. When we went body surfing in the waves, Uncle Andy took his camera(it is water proof) and took pictures and videos of us in the water. After we went swimming in the ocean we went swimming in the pool to rinse off. On Sunday morning after a quick swim we left the beach and went back to Leon.

On Sunday afternoon right after we got back from the beach, we went to La Perla and had a quick lunch.

Then we went straight to the Tierra Tours office(a tour company) because we were going to climb an active volcano!!! We waited in the office for a little while and then we were off to Cerro Negro Volcano. This time we didn't get lost like the last time we went!
When we got to the volcano, we signed our selves in and then we stared hiking. We could see Cerro Negro's baby volcanoes that had little craters in them.

The hike up was on black and gray rocks of all different sizes that made us feel like we were walking on the moon. The reason that Cerro Negro is all black is because it is one of the youngest volcanoes in the world. It first erupted in 1850 in a corn field and unlike other volcanoes, it erupted very recently in 1999. So, while the other volcanoes are covered with life, Cerro Negro is all black. That is why it is called Cerro Negro because it means "black hill".

top of the world

The path up was steep and the view over the side was a green and yellow valley between the volcanoes. At the top the wind was so strong that we felt like we were going to be blown over!!! The guide took us inside the crater and we could smell the sulfur(eeew!), feel the heat(sooooo hot), and see the smoke/steam(awesome)!

When we were walking on the ridge of the crater, one of the other people we were with had his hat on.... and then it wasn't on. The wind blew it down the side and it got stuck on a rock so the guy went down and he got his hat back! After
that he didn't wear his hat at all. What we saw was amazing with volcanoes in every direction. The guide, my mom, and i all jumped with joy like we were at the top of the world!

looking into the colorful crater

Only Uncle Andy(and two other people from Austria who were standing) went boarding and he got all suited up with a yellow jumpsuit, gloves, goggles, knee pads, wrist pads, elbow pads, and of course a board! The first two went down and they kept falling down and not being able to get back up again! We were laughing our heads off because it was very funny to watch them. Uncle Andy went down after they did and he just went straight down the side off the volcano.

Then it was our turn to go down so we started walking but found that we could jump, run, and hop and it felt like we were on the moon again! It was soooo fun to go down and by the time we were at the bottom, we had tons of sand and little pebbles in out sneakers!

The sunset was stunning with a fuchsia stained sky and a scarlet sun disappearing until there was nothing left but mountains in the distance. The guide brought candies and we ate them in the van. Tierra Tours provides fruit so we ate watermelon back at the ranger station. We threw the rinds in an iguana's cage that they had at the station so the iguana's could eat them! When everyone had shaken out their shoes and taken pictures we got back in the van and headed home(and we made it without a problem this time).

On Monday my mom and I had classes in the morning so Uncle Andy stayed at his hotel until 10:00 when he met us at our favorite bakery, Pan y Paz. After that Uncle Andy went to the cathedral while we did our second half of classes. The afternoon activity was to go to San Jacinto hot springs. We were going to pack a bathing suit and we thought that it would be nice to go in these hot springs.

We were wrong. The hot springs were hot mud pools with boiling mud bubbles and really hot steam coming out of them! We decided that we didn't want to go in them (no one would want to go in them) and they were just for looking at. One of the boys there said that it takes about 5 minutes to boil an egg. They collected the mud and made pottery out of it that the children were giving to us. Our guide bought some and so did Denise and Cloudio.

Tuesday morning Uncle Andy left so we went to see him before our classes and his flight was at about 1:00 but he had to leave earlier to make it on time.

Leon Favorites

2011-03-06T17:22:00.000-08:00

Iglesia San Francisco

Pan Y Paz at Break Time!

During the three and a half weeks we were in Leon, we found some places that we liked a lot. Since Hilda made us dinner, we did not eat at restaurants a lot but we did once in a while. The first place is a place we went almost everyday at about 10:15, Pan y Paz (Bread and Peace) right around the corner from Dariana Spanish School. It had really good bread and chocolate croissants "and good coffee" said my mom.

The next restaurant is El Mediterraneo which had free wi-fi so we went there frequently to use the computer. Once when we went there I had shirmp and avocado sushi!!!! We had dinner there when Uncle Andy was visiting and had pizza with capers on it. They have a "chill out" room which has pillows that you sit on, on the floor. It also has lights strung on the walls and black umbrellas hanging from the ceiling!

Cocinarte

Cocinarte (cooking art) is a vegetarian restaurant that we went to twice. They have a couple of dishes with chicken but you can ask for tofu!!!!!!

Via Via

Via Via is the fourth restaurant. They also have a hotel, bar and free wi-fi. In the bar they have a pool table and in the back of the restaurant they have a courtyard. If you sit at the front of the restaurant you are basiacly on the street because, like most places in Leon, there are no windows except windows without glass. The whole front is open and when Via Via closes they shut huge folding doors.

La piscina at Hotel San Cristobal

One weekend we went to Hotel San Cristobal and they have a pool so we went swimming in the clear blue water. We ate ceviche, shrimp, and salad for lunch. They also have free wi-fi so we used the computer.

Museo Ortiz-Guardian

The best art museum in Central America is in Leon and we went there a few times. The things in the museum are a private collection but it only costs about one dollar to go in! They have an old part and a modern part. The displays are all around open courtyards with fountains and plants. They have Picassos, a Diego Rivera, and other famous pieces from all around the world.

Models outside Dariana Spanish School

el Cathedral

One of the different things we noticed about the buildings here from the United States is that buildings here usually are around an open courtyard set back from the street. We had fun(especially at night) walking around the streets because you could look in people's houses and see their courtyards. Overall Leon was a nice city and we had fun staying there.

Tomb Ruben Dario

Leon has the biggest cathedral in Central America and we went there as an afternoon activity in our school. We went on the roof where we had a good view of Leon and it was very windy. To get to the roof we had to go up a very narrow stair case with a couple of landings that the huge bells were on. A very famous poet named Ruben Dario was buried under a stone sculpture of a lion in the middle of the cathedral.

Looking East from the Cathedral Roof

statues at the Cathedral

West view to Volcan San Christoba

Right outside of the cathedral is the central park where there are lots of people selling things, walking around, cooking, and blasting music. There are lots of trees in the central park and animals too.

Here are some pictures from around town...

x-Cafe Ben Linder

in Leon

plastic is everywhere!

typical food stand

A note from Nadine: Leon is known as the University town of Nicaragua, with a dozen or so Universities. It is also proud of it's position as one of the strongholds of the Sandinista and progressive traditions, the place where the first Somoza was assassinated by a young poet and where student uprisings were brutally repressed. This all stands in contrast to Leon's long time rival, the more conservative and more refined southern contender historically for capitol of the country, Grenada. Somehow, I knew we'd be more comfortable there than in Grenada, amongst the murals and revolutionary history of the more gritty town.

Hello from Sabana Grande

2011-02-15T13:05:00.000-08:00

Well, we are behind in our blogging, with a backlog of things to write about, including our favorite spots in Leon, the many afternoon excursions we did with our school there and our weekend with Uncle Andy visiting! We will post more soon about that, but right now we are in an internet spot in Ocotal, about 20 km north of our new home in El Proyecto, Sabana Grande. FYI... its Nadine writing this time!

We left Leon on Saturday afternoon with Susan Kinne, the director of Grupo Fenix. Luckily we got the express bus north to Esteli, and from there a taxi to our next bus stop for the express to Ocotal.... it was a mob scene, but we did get on with all our stuff smashed in the luggage hold below. About dark, 6pm ish, we got to la tabla de Totogalpa, our stop, and were met by Yelba , the mom of our new house, her 14 year old daughter Scarleth, and their neighbor Yubelki,11. We had to drag all of our stuff about a mile to their house in the dark...it was not much fun!

The family and the house are lovely, though. Papa Jorge also works at the Solar Centre, and their son Angel is 7 years old and everyone, including the cutest little 2month old puppy, are very friendly..... which is good, as our spanish is still borderline and they do not speak English. There is electricity ..solar and conventional, in our house. No running water, but a good dry latrine and a shower stall to take bucket showers in, refreshing! Actually, it is cool at night, which is so welcome after the heat of Leon!

Today was the first day of school this year. We did not go, but instead worked on school work from PBES! We are going to do some short projects in this next 10 days while we are here before the Mariposa School... Yesterday we visited the Sabana Grande school and the Solar Centre, checking out the solar cookers, efficent stoves, both wood and charcoal, a solar water destiller, solar lamps,and the in construction Solar Restaurant. Hopefully tomorrow we will start a painting project at the Centre, and possibly a gardening project at the school which just got a well!!!!

We have some great pictures, but we do not have our computer today, so they will have to wait to be posted...next time.

Spanish School

2011-02-11T19:56:00.000-08:00

margot and the sign!

Hard at work with Cecilia

Florence getting her certificate of
achievement from the school

Today was our last day of taking Spanish classes at Dariana Spanish School. They provide morning classes from 8-12 and activities in the afternoon (only on the week days). You can also do a home stay.We participated in all three for 3.5 weeks. The classes are 1 on 1, so everyone has their own teacher and usually students switch teachers every week. I (Margot) had the same teacher for the whole time (Cecilia), but my mom had one teacher for half the time (Carmen) and had another teacher for the second half (Glenda). All of the students are in one big room but at different small tables all around.

My teacher Cecilia and I played various games in Spanish to help me learn Spanish in a fun way. We also drew pictures and made crafts. Two days she did my hair like a Nicaraguan girl! A big part of learning Spanish is the verbs which are very complicated(!). Also we have to learn which words are feminine and which words are masculine so we can put the right prepositions in front of them. Some nights I had homework and some nights I didn't, but my mom got tons of homework each night!

one of Cecilia's creations

another hairdo from Cecilia's class!

an aid to learning!

Info about Nica

2011-02-03T12:49:00.000-08:00

Nicaragua is the biggest Central American country, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. It is about the same size as New York but the population is much lower (About 5.5 million in Nicaragua).The main language is spanish, although on the Atlantic Coast they speak a lot of English and Creole. The currency they use are Cordobas, which right now the exchange rate is about 22 Cordobas to 1 United States dollar.

The most common dish in Nicaragua is gallo pinto (rice and beans mixed together). There is also a lot of fruit and meat, chicken, pork, beef, and fish. Tortillas are also seen a lot. Most of Nicaragua is Catholic, there are 16 churches in Leon alone!

In 1821, Nicaragua (along with the rest of Central America) gained independence from Spain. But, fighting continued, especially because the USA wanted to prevent anyone else from building a canal across Nicaragua so they signed a treaty with Nicaragua to own the land but did not build the canal. An especially bad general (Somoza) overthrew the liberal government and became a vicious dictator in 1937. The Guerillas (Sandinistas) fought against the Somoza regime for many years until 1979, when the Sandinistas gained power again. During the 1980's, the USA funded the Contras who fought against the Sandinistas, many people died and living in Nicaragua was hard and dangerous. Now the Sandinistas are in control of Nicaragua.It is much safer now and people are doing better.

Two tectonic plates meet under Nicaragua, and so there are 40 volcanos! The tectonic plates also cause earthquakes when they move against each other because the tension builds up and is released in the form of an earthquake. There was a 5.3 earthquake in Leon the first Friday we were here! Margot's teacher Cecilia was pointing at the ground and talking to the other teacher in spanish really loud and the chair started to move! That was a small tremor and everything was fine (except the water went out all weekend).

Nicaragua has lots of legends and myths and a whole museum about them. Most of them are about the Spanish because the Spanish conquered Nicaragua. In Nicaragua there are a lot of volcanos and some are active and some aren't active but you can still climb the active ones because they are monitored. There are many beaches because Nicaragua touches both the Atlantic and the Pacific Coasts. Even though it is one of the poorest countries in the western hemisphere, Nicaragua still has lovely places and beautiful nature.

snapshots of Leon Murals

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check out uncle sam under
the Sandinista boot

That's Somoza under the
Revolutionary boot

The Shadow of Sandino on a huge
mural of Nicaragua's entire history

Monument to murdered student leaders

What this corner looked like in June 1979
as students were gunned down

Fleur de lis- on the University Bldg
from the 1600's i think..

At the University (6 % funding from
the Government)

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Cathedral in Sutiava

Original stone road (400+ yrs

At the ruins of the 1st Catholic Church

the Sun god, added to the Cathedral
ceiling to appeal to the indigenous
sun worshippers

1 of the altars from the Cathedral in Sutuiava

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Cerro Negro ( from the wrong road!)

The wrong path!

Beginning the climb up

At the Ranger Station

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Mosaics of Myths at Museum of Myths and Legends

The Gigantona with a small nina

the short nicaraguan man that the
Gigantona (spanish conquistadora!) dances with

Sandinista guerilla ready to bomb a tank

Mosaics of Myths at Museum of Myths and Legends

What have they done with our Laura?

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in a crack at Tiger Rocks

looking south from Tiger Rocks at Las Panitas

Sunset from Playa Roca

A Week Of Activities

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Every week day we go to school in the morning from 8-12 (with a break at 10), and then we do activities in the afternoons. Here are the activities that we did this week:

On Monday we went to the other beach, Las Penitas. There were huge waves that came up onto the bar and got everybody wet! We were supposed to leave at 6:00, but that didn't exactly happen.... When it was 6:00 everyone was ready to get in the van and leave for Leon.... except the driver! We had no idea where he was. One of the owners of the bar let us use her cellphone because Ivan's was soaked and wasn't working.We couldn't get through to him so she drove in her pick up truck to go get him. After a couple of minutes she came back with the driver and he had been buying fish!

We tried to leave because it was already about 6:20 but when we were backing up in the parking lot, we hit a white truck! The driver got out and talked (and talked) with the other driver about what to do... and finally we left the beach! We got home at about 7:30. "mas o menos!"

Tuesday's activity was to go to the Museum of Myths and Legends, but the school went there last week and all of the other people had already been there, so Rafael(a teacher) took just us there. The museum was a prison during the revolution, so there was paintings of what you would have seen during the war throughout the whole museum.

Outside of the museum there was a statue of a Guerilla throwing a bomb at a Somoza tank. There was also mosaics of different Nicaraguan legends and myths. Inside of the museum there was a photograph of the Nicaraguan revolution and many other little rooms. In the little rooms there were puppets and sculptures of the people and other things in the legend and myths.

On Thursday our school's activity was to climb Cerro Negro Volcano. We came back to the school at 2:00 and we left in a gray van.We were supposed to come home at 6:00. We had no problem getting to the main road that was paved but after that we got really lost! Our first mistake was at a little school and there was a sign to go to the right but of course no one in our van read the sign at all, so we went left! There were many forks and turns in the road and no one in the van new which way to go, so we just hoped luck was on our side. Also somewhere along the way we got a flat tire so we had to change it!

Finally we got to Cerro Negro Volcano but there were no signs telling us where to climb! We looked around but didn't find anything.We all got back in the van but the van wouldn't move so everyone got out and pushed the van until we could drive. We drove around a little more and finally realized that there was a sign back at the town that said go right so we went right and a guy got in the car and told us which way to go.

We got to the volcano after 5:00 and the sun was going down already so we didn't climb but the rest of the school did and we didn't leave until about 7:20. We made a wrong turn and got stuck in the dark but managed to push the car and get to Leon at 8:30!!!

On Thursday we had a tour of Sutiava. The bus drooped us of in the middle of Sutiava and we walked around town. We went inside the main church and looked around the city.We saw ruins of the first church that was built there by the Spanish.

Usually on Friday there are no activities but since we are new we had to do the tour of Leon because last Friday we went to he beach. Rafael took us around Leon, and we saw lots of murals and other interesting pieces of history. We saw a mural that showed he whole history of Nicaragua. We also saw the university that is the oldest in Leon and was founded in 1812. We walked to the place where four students at the university were assassinated. Hundreds of other students were also killed during the revolution because they were leaders against the government. There are also a lot of museums in Leon so we walked to an art gallery. In the art gallery were paintings of different things you might see in Leon and other things.

we'll add pictures later..

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Week End Getaway--Surfing Turtle Lodge

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On Friday we took a taxi from Hilda's to the Mercadito Subtiava where the buses leave for the beaches. It was a traditional Nicaraguan trip on an old US school bus packed with people, food, bags of who knows what and all kinds of things that people bought in the city of Leon. It's only about 20 km but many stops later and after about 45 minutes or an hour we got off at the end of the line in Poneloya.

To get to the Surfing Turtle lodge we hopped on a canoe (with a small motor) and put putted across an inlet to the Isla des Brasiles. Luckily, we could walk along with a local the 1.5 km to the lodge on the edge of the island in the emerging forest.

"Awesome" said Margot ... there were 3 small cabanas and a 2 story building with a dorm room and a couple of private rooms, as well as a covered patio connected to the kitchen where meals and yoga happened. And swings at the bar! Very casual, of course, and right on the beach with humongus crashing waves all day and night. Bigfoot Hostel in Leon operates their surf school there.

It turns out that 2 other American families were also there; one living in Tegulcigalpa, Honduras -- the parents teaching at the English school there, and the other from CA traveling for 2 months ( all the kids under 8!) They were friends from home and quickly made friends with us too.

Margot watched Star Wars on their computer with them the first night! We went swimming, body surfing when we were not worried about the stingrays at low tide, and walked to the end of the island and the inlet/estuary there. It was a great calm place to swim.

We had hoped to do some computer work and start our blog, but the solar power was out, so they only ran the generator for a wee bit at night.

Saturday night they made a huge bonfire on the beach and Pedro, one of the owners, brought his guitar and played for us.

The Surfing Turtle also tries to help protect turtles. Almost every night, either their night watchman or a poacher who has seen a turtle come on to the beach to lay eggs, digs up the eggs and then re-buries them in a secure spot on the Surfing Turtle beach. The Lodge buys the eggs from the poachers at about 12 for a $1, but they can't buy them all...

On Sunday we went back to Leon with one of the families in a private car, so it was very quick compared to the bus! The CA family is staying in Leon now, so we have been visiting each day.....

From Dariana Spanish School-- our first post!

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We arrived on Wed night January 19th, after an exhausting trip. Carlos picked us up at the Managua airport and drove us Nicaraguan-race car style to Leon and our homestay with Hilda and Hildita (another 10 yr old). As it turned out, they were in Miami, due back on Friday, so Nellie, Hilda's niece met us with a typical dinner and after a shower we dropped into bed.

Classes started at 8am on Thursday at Dariana, a15 min walk past several churches --Leon has 16 or more, including an amazing cathedral, all quite ancient-- and all used for landmarks, as street names are either non existent or disregarded.

After class on Thursday we tromped back to Hilda's for lunch, which has become our routine, and in the afternoon skipped out on our school activity of a movie about Nicaragua's revolution ( a wee bit too intense for day 1 for us...and all in spanish, of course...)

Friday afternoon we hightailed it out of Leon for a respite at Ponteloya, or Isla des Brasiles..

more soon!