From Mountains to a Nifty City!

BRAMADERO

This was the view from the window as we drove through a VERY windy, muddy, and rocky road to the community of Bramadero for a day visit, checking on the status of the 4 biogas digesters that Asofenix and Green Empowerment have installed. It turns out that none of them are really up and running for lack of either materials, leaking, or the owners of the digesters not wanting to keep up the work. Nevertheless, Asofenix will continue to work with them since the community is still interested in making the systems work. Let's hope so!!!

It took us about three hours each way to get there and back, using bus and two small little taxis for transport. However, it seems that walking or horse are also a valid mode of transport, as you can see above! Note the ladies balancing buckets of water on their heads...that's the kind of thing that is character building for sure, however what we hope to render not necessary by building water delivery s

ystems when possible :)

To the left you can see bits of clothes on barbed wire in a river. This is the laundry station. Women come down here to clean all the dirties, and everyone comes down here to bathe...or some people just use a bucket of w

ater and keep their clothes on (I am supposed to bring a "bathing outfit" with me to the campo!).

We all had to take refuge on the porch of the school from a downpour of rain as the rainy season is still working out its last fits. All of those kids live in Bramadero, and in the forefront are Yauzka (left) who works f

or Asofenix, and the profile of Caitlyn (right) who works for Green Empowerment.

GRANADA

Yes, above is a picture of the colonial city of Granada, a beautiful place with almost all of its original structures. All of them make you feel like you are in Spain...because that is who built them- the Spanish! The house of interns and our guide Caitlyn went to Granada for an

overnight. It was rather relaxing and we spent the day today (Sunday) at the pool of one of the hotels after spending the night in a hostel.

As we sat and had ourselves some piña colada and dinner, a very rare couple of wel

l groomed, plump, and fancy horse trotted by us. The riders seemed very proud- for good reason! I've decided that one good way to tell the general economic status of neighborhoods here is by how plump or shiny coated the horses are. THIS horse belongs to someone who can care for him/her!

Everything was "ducky" at the pool- literally! These were our three little duck friends who live by the pool and swim in it, too!

Tomorrow I will go on my first solo journey into a community- the community of El Corozo. I look forward to the bus ride for one reason- each and every bus has an awesome blasting radio system that seems to go with the jolty lugging nature of the beastly vehicles. There is usually a mixture of heavy base beets with "raggaeton," then it might switch to Celine Dion or the Cranberries even (a lot of 80's and 90's music here), then to a Spanish love song, and back to more "boom boom" music. I guess they have the right idea- you gotta get to work and back, and the roads are crazy, so might as well have some good tunes!

In fact, there is a sort of an intermittent, but continuos soundtrack to Nicaragua. I woke up yesterday morning to a surreal "White Christmas" being sung by Nat King Cole, blasting from the neighbor's house. Afterward, of course, it went to reggaeton...and in between were the dogs barking and birds chirping, or kids playing in the street. Not to mention that at night I've been hearing some sort of Nicaraguan coyotes I am pretty sure...very eery sounding!!! The diversity of all these sounds adequately reflects the colorful character of this country. I dig it!

Hola de Montecristi!!!

This is where I am living, a two story pink house in the community of "Montecristi." It is a quaint little upper-middle class gated community, no bigger than about 4x4 city blocks I'd say. For the parental units and others concerned, there is a security guard at the gate and during the night other guards walk around blowing whistles so that I know they are there and on patrol! We also have, as you can see, tall iron fencing around the house, as well as big heavy wooden doors with locks.

Above is the view from my room. To the left is my

bed- very basic and the pillows are made of a strange cotton/foam material. Not the best, but fine! To the right is the other side of the room. Pink, cozy, and well lit.

Yesterday I met all the staff of the Nicaraguan NGO I am working with, called "Asofenix" and took part in (or listened and tried to understand) their weekly staff meeting. They discussed each of the 15 or so projects that are up and running in the communities- what they need in terms of equipment, where the community management is lacking, and new projects on the horizon. The meeting took place here:

I had a little orientation about what I'll be doing, which will include:

• Assisting the "periodistas," or journalists in English, with their journalism skills. This means answering the very basic questions of who, what, where, when, and why in order to adequately report back to Asofenix and Green Empowerment. I'll help them sort out good "stories" that would be useful or interesting for the team to know about for technical reasons, as well as to report back to donors.

• I will also be in charge of planning a renewable energy event sometime in December or January, in a town called "San Juan de los Remates" - a central hub the mountains to many of the communities we work with that are further up in the mountains. The event will be a good way to showcase how helpful the technologies can be and how they work, so that we could possibly start more projects!

• In addition, I'll also make educational materials to hand out to the communities, explaining how a solar panel system works, for example, or why it's important to protect the water or soil.

I am very much looking forward to getting started, though enjoying these couple of days to adjust :)

Of course, in Nicaragua you can expect to see things like this little creature tied up, like a household pet, on the patio of the house across from us:

Pretty cute, eh? I asked some kids on the street what kind of animal it is, and they said it is a racoon...but I know that's not what it is. Anyone who might know, let me know! I have looked it up and so far can't figure it out.

Well, I have got to get to some work now...and surely the next posts will have more exciting adventures and stories to speak of!

So, it is a few days before I leave, late at night and I am tired, but thought I would start my blog today...just about 5 days before my flight and begin my adventure (way) "down south!" I took the above picture from the park in Williamsburg while visiting with friends Jessica and Nate from San Fran, Chris, and Kate.

Preparations are going well- I've bought or have just about everything I'll need supply-wise, though the exciting part is I just don't know exactly what to expect or what it will be like until I get there! My newly purchased dictionary will be a handy friend along the way, though I am certain once there my Spanish fluency will kick into gear!

I am so glad for the friends and family who came out to wish me safe travels with a righteous send-off at the Old Town Bar last weekend :) THANK YOU!!! Now to get some "beauty rest"...