The Latest News from Ometepe

Okay…for those of you who have been checking up on my blog and finding it consistently without new information, I have finally sat myself down to update it. Sorry for the long delay.

Two months remain in my service (59 days to be exact) and I fully expect them to blast by. We had our COS (close of service) conference last month to talk about our last three months of service. I, unfortunately, came down with another case of dengue, however, it was much milder than the first time and I made it through the conference without too much discomfort.

In this posting I wanted to talk about the weather. Last year Nicaragua faced a drought. The rainy season was hardly a rainy season and many crops were lost for lack of water. This year the opposite is happening. The rainy season came on strong and has remained strong. There is usually a month between the 15^th of July and the 15^th and August in which the rain stops but this year on the island it was nonexistent. The rain just kept coming. Then in late August we had a storm pass through like I have never seen before. The amount of water than came down in about three hours surely must have been more than the total precipitation that Montana gets in an entire year. And thunder and lightening like crazy. For 3 hours. It caused a small landslide up the mountain in the streambed that destroyed part of the water system and for the last few weeks we have been dealing with little water and dirty water coming through the pipes (this week it is finally fixed). The road became nearly impassible. Rivers of water came down from the mountain. In one area large boulders covered the road and nearly took out a house near the road. On the other side of the island the water took out small bridges and has left the road impassable for all but bikes and horses and motorcycles. The level of the lake has also risen significantly and in some areas it is now cutting in to the roads. Yesterday I saw a truck loaded with plantains stuck in the sand where the road is being washed away by a stream and wave action. And October is supposedly the worst rainy month of the year and the lake levels are likely to rise at least another foot if not more. Many people have lost their bean crops due to too much water as well. Many people say it is the worst rainy season they have ever seen. Lucky me: I get to witness a drought year and a deluge year.

I also have some bad news: my camera has decided to stop taking pictures, so today I will post a few more pictures from the last few months, however, unless I can find a cheap camera somewhere (unlikely) I will be unable to take any more pictures.

As for the good news, my research seems to be going well. I have about 2-3 more field days left and then I should be finished collecting samples. I plan on returning to school in January to analyze and write up my findings about the age dates of Maderas volcano.

In the next two months I will be tying up loose ends and passing back and forth between Managua and the island with lots of administrative reports and meetings to deal with before I leave the country. As much as I will be sad to leave this beautiful country, I am also getting very excited to be heading back home (Snow!).

MOTHER'S DAY

Some kids sing songs of gratitude for their mothers

My host sisters watch the mother's day celebration

Lucia, Lievin and Xochilth dance a traditional folklore dance

Some 6th graders put on a tradition dance as well.

and no celebration is complete without a Palo de Mayo dance shown here by some 1st graders

DIA DE LOS NINOS: CHILDREN'S DAY

Here some 2nd graders eat a free lunch to celebrate Children's Day

Part of the celebration includes dances and this photos is from a dance competition, this 5th grade pair won

The 1st graders got cake

CELEBRATION OF WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY

Some third graders present their poster and talk about how they can help protect the environment

A couple 1st graders present their poster.

Some 4th graders present their poster

TEACHER'S DAY

All the teachers from one of my schools got together to hang out at the beach, swim, exchange gifts, and dance to celebrate Teacher's Day

A couple of the teachers get down

BABY UPDATE

My host sister's baby gets cuter everyday!

FIELD WORK

View of the island from one of my field excursions.

My guide Luis poses by a lava flow.

NEIGHBOR KIDS

Some of the kids who live across the street playing with my Uno cards. They later borrowed them and destroyed them.

SPIDER

A huge spider I found on my wall one day...I don't normally see many big spiders around my house. I was trying to think of a way to get it outside without killing it but my host sister saw it and she walked up to it and killed it without a second thought. I think a chicken ate it after that.

GIFTS FOR THE KIDS

A generous donor from the states sent boxes full of stuffed animals and clothes for the kids at the school. Here are some first graders with their new friends.

Moises shows off his new stuffed animal.

DEER!

Some cute little deer wandered into our back yard. They are probably someones pets (whom I imagine that they will later eat). There used to be a lot of deer on the island but it appears that they have been nearly hunted to extinction.

School Gardens

Time is passing so quickly here in Nicaragua. I have about 5.5 months left! How did that happen? I have been very, very busy lately, juggling my Peace Corps duties, my research project, and some touristy activities that I want to do before I leave.

In the schools I planted a vegetable garden with 7 different classes. Hopefully they turn out better than the gardens we did last year. We planted tomatoes, peppers, carrots, cantaloupe, and a squash called pipian that is delicious. In San Ramon they did a wonderful job building a fence to protect the garden from wondering pigs and occasional cows. Now we just need to hope that no one steals the plants like last year. Below are a few photos of the kids working on the gardens.

5th Grade B

5th Grade B

Billin: possibly the smallest 5th grader on the planet, but what he lacks in size he makes up in personality.

5th grade A

4th Grade A

3rd and 4th Grade Mulitigrade

4th Grade A

Yestin

This coming week I am also holding a competition in the school in Merida for World Environment day. Each class in the school has to make a poster using recycled material or natural material from the environment that demonstrates one way that they can help protect the environment. Hopefully I will have some photos of that to put up next week.

As for my community project to improve the water system during the dry season, we are still waitin for the funds to arrive. Peace Corps approved our proposal and it has been sent to Washington for their approval. They said it takes about a month to get the money and it has been about a month so hopefully I will be hearing from them soon. The water committee is ready to get started on the project.

As for my research I have spent some time recently climbing the volcano and the larger streams looking for lava flows. I hiked the volcano 3 times in the last month or so and it is never easy. The most recent trip I hiked up the volcano from the town of San Pedro which is about half way around the volcano from where I live. But it was the easiest of the 3 trails up the volcano. However, it rained most of the way up and the trail was horribly muddy and I managed a few good falls. I also managed to hit my wrist on a very spiky tree and a week later I still have a few little needles in my wrist. The volcano is very beautiful and there are always lots of birds and monkeys to be seen and heard. There is also lots of wonderful vegetation, but it has a way of covering and blocking a lot of the rocks making my life a little more difficult. I have collected a number of samples, however, I have a lot more work to do before I am done.

A lovely petroglyph on the way up the volcano.

Inside the crater of the volcano: look at all that vegetation

Freshwater crab in a stream on the volcano.

Waterfall over a lava flow (finally some rocks!)

Last Sunday was Mother’s Day here in Nicaragua and the Thursday before that they celebrated the day in the schools. Below are a few pictures of some of the performances put on by the kids.

Singing a song (5th graders in San Ramon)

2nd Graders shaking their booty (Merida)

3rd and 4th graders giving out boxes to their moms (San Ramon)

3rd graders (Merida) dancing foklore

1st graders (Merida) dancing Palo de Mayo

Kindergardeners reciting a poem (Merida)

Also of note, my host sister Ana had a baby girl. Her name is Miriam Masela:

Mom's Visit

I haven’t updated this in a while, but I thought I’d now put up some photos from March and April.

At the end of March and early April Mom came down for a couple weeks to visit the island and a few other places in Nicaragua. Her trip started off with a little drama (she almost lost her purse upon her arrival at the airport in Managua with all of her money and her credit cards and passport but it was recovered – incredibly). But luckily the rest of the trip remained pretty drama free and we had a really great time.

The day after arriving at the airport we headed to Ometepe where we grabbed a ferry playing a lovely old Jean Claude Van Dam movie. Then as we were headed to my site on the bus the volcano decided to spit out some ash and smoke.

Back at my house we were greeted that evening with a dinner and a small dance performance put on by some of my host nieces and nephews. There were the tradition folklore dances and of course Palo de Mayo.

Lucia and Ernesto dancing folklore

Lucia and Ernesto dancing Palo de Mayo

The next day we visited my family’s finca with the kids and walked around town a little bit. The following day we (or I) decided that we should go to the waterfall. My host sister Adela and her daughter Lucia came with us. Luckily it was a nice overcast morning so that mom wasn’t bombarded with the strong Nicaragua rays. However, I think the sun still took its toll on her body that was traveling from a snowy Montana. We arrived at the top and walked into the waterfall to cool our selves down. Lucia got so cold she put on a jacket.

Adela and Lucia at the waterfall

Mom and I at the waterfall

The following day mom accompanied me to my 5^th grade classes where I was teaching them about the excretory system.

They are obviously paying lots of attention

The next day we went to give a classs to my 3^rd graders on endangered animals. However, when we got to the school both 3^rd grade classes were missing. We found them at the high school playing soccer. Well, at least some of the girls were playing soccer. Apparently MINED told them they had to form a team and let them practice for a league between schools. And of course they had to stop everything they were doing to play soccer, but only the girls and only some of the girls. So we watched for a while and took pictures of the kids and then headed home.

Some of the girls not playing soccer.

In the afternoon we went kayaking out to Monkey island where we did indeed see two monkeys.

He looks so zen sitting on this rock

That night my family had a despedida (good-bye party) for my mom and again the kids danced for us both folklore and Palo de Mayo and to finish El Viejo and La Vieja (the old man and woman).

Henry, Lucia, Ernesto and Katerine dancing Palo de Mayo

Fernando and Alberto show off their moves as the old man and woman

The next day we headed off for adventures around the island. The following photos are from Santa Cruz, Santo Domingo and Charco Verde.

Mom in front of a petroglyph at El Porvenir

The sunset view from El Encanto

Playa Santo Domingo

Lazy monkey at Charco Verde

The volcano and Charco Verde (Green Lake)

Sunset from Finca Venecia

We then left the island and headed to San Juan del Sur. When we arrived it was quite crowded being the beginning of Samana Santa or Holy Week. Everyone in Nicaragua goes to the beach. There are people everywhere, swimming, sunbathing, playing sports, selling food and trinkets and blow-up water toys. Both evenings we were there we ate dinner with a great view of the sunset and watched large pelicans dive-bomb into the sea to catch fish.

Sunset from San Juan del Sur

After leaving San Juan we headed north to Granada where we spent the remainder of Mom’s trip. We visited Mombacho Volcano and did the zipline tour. We visited the famous artisans of San Juan de Oriente to buy some pottery. We visited Masaya volcano at night to look for glowing lava (we didn’t see any) and to enter a bat cave. We kayaked in the isletas and we stayed at a wonderful little hotel that I didn’t want to leave.

On top of Mombacho

Me on the zipline

Mom on the zipline

Sunset over Masaya Volcano

Bats coming out of the bat cave

A Nicaraguan porcupine

Water lily among the isletas

Mom and I in front of the isletas with Mombacho in the background

Overall it was a fantastic trip and I’m really glad that my mom was able to visit me here in Nicaragua. Unfortunately I don’t have the time to write more about all of the interesting things we did and saw. You’ll just have to ask about it next time you see me.