Richard’s Reckless Travels

May 18^th

I set a new record for sleeping in – 7:15! Yea, I know, I’m working on it though. I would’ve slept longer, but my host parents (whom usually wake up at around 5:30) were still sleeping and my parrot was totally FLIPPING out and just screeching. So I woke up, killed it, and ate it for breakfast. That was the game plan, but with it being early, I just had eggs instead. The day was really nonchalant, particularly because I didn’t have to wake up for some Peace Corps nonsense for the first time in since the previous Sunday. I actually got to chill out. It was great, I woke up, read a bit, exercised for a while, then had some breakfast. I took a break afterwards by watching a soccer game which I followed with a 20 minute jog in the boiling hot zillion degree weather. I realised one thing on this jog – it’s too flipping hot to jog while the sun is out. I am far too pale for it to do me any good. Furthermore, it dehydrates you hardcore. Essentially, it’s like dowsing yourself in water and being shocked that you’re wet. It’s obvious and stupid to think that it won’t be exactly the way it always has been – a bad idea. As far as I know, the weather has been 95 degrees and above everyday I’ve been here. Jordan and I were talking last week about how it was cooler and how much nicer it was. After checking the weather report, I saw that we were just losing our minds as it was just as hot every single day (with last Tuesday being a bit hotter at 99 degrees). I’m just super grateful that it’s not as humid here as I thought it would be. It’s more humid than Colorado, but at the same time, it’s completely tolerable. Massachusetts, New York, and Florida are all a zillion times worse with regards to humidity – at least in Masatepe. With weather like this you realise how much you always took a good breeze for granted. It’s the equivalent of being handed a huge bag of gold. While using that metaphor, I’d like to point out that I’d take a breezy day over a bag of gold any day down here – it’s that hot. Fortunately it’s cooler at night so sleeping isn’t nearly as hard as it is in places like DC (which is why Virginia and Maryland were more than happy to cede that swamp to the government).

I really took a good hard look at my host dad’s bike and…realised that practically none of my tools will work on it. These bikes are built for Nicaragua (aka, they’re built like tanks). I didn’t need all these specialized bike tools (save a chain tool and tire levers), all I needed to bring were some screwdrivers and an adjustable wrench. Allen wrenches? What the hell do I need those for? The only thing they’re useful is for boasting about how I can fix bikes…in America. So bring on the screwdrivers.

I went to my host grandmother’s house this afternoon after I went to the internet café which is 3 blocks away. I showed up to find a cauldron (I wish I was overstating this) full of soap. This soup literally had full potatoes, carrots, fist-sized pieces of meat, beets, half heads of cabbages, and several other vegetables, which I’d never heard of. “They’re from the same family of the potato…” Uh…ok. Whenever I see a fruit or vegetable that I’m not familiar with (which tends to be every meal), I ask what it is and generally get an answer like “Oh, it’s like this.” Ok, that sounds good, so I’ll pretend it is that. That’s pretty much the way I’ve approached it. It’s like squash you say? Well then squash it is. I seriously didn’t know half of the food I’ve been eating existed. Not only that, I often get a variation of the vegetable I didn’t know existed the following meal. “Oh, so this is like that one vegetable that was like squash?” Ok, thanks for the squash.

While I’m on the topic of food: I didn’t know you could make drinks out of 90% of the things that I’ve had to drink. While they’re super sweet (today I had some variation of carrot and apple fresco), one glass contains enough sugar to start a candy factory. I knew they had a lot of sugar from when my host mom made a guayaba fresco, but it wasn’t until I saw a glass of a fresco poured today that I realised how much sugar there actually was. I was too full from my soup to eat/drink anymore, so I poured my fresco back into the pitcher – there was half an inch of sugar at the bottom of my cup. Talk about over saturation.

Following my massive bowl of soup (3 times the size of my head), I headed back home for a siesta that invariably turned into a sweating marathon as I opted to sleep in my jeans and clothes. Yea…in Nicaragua that just doesn’t really fly. If you want to sleep, you’re sleeping sans clothes. I met up with my group afterward to work on our town map and discuss with Jordan our next meeting with the jovenes (which is tomorrow morning at 10 am and we’re not counting on any of them to show up). I went home to find my host dad there in an ecstatic mood because the phone was actually working. He was so elated; he busted out his phone book and called the U.S. After his call, he excitedly told me that he just called Los Angeles, skimmed his book, and picked up the phone again. After his various phone calls to every number he could find, I asked him about dinner. He responded that if I wanted dinner, I’d have to go back to my abuela’s house because there was no food in the house. I checked the fridge, and he wasn’t lying. The only thing we had was half a bowl of corn flakes and no milk. I think we buy food every morning from the people that sell food from their carts in the street. I don’t know why we don’t just buy food for a couple days, particularly since we have a refrigerator.

He told me I could use his bike, so my reluctance to go seek out dinner plummeted. I was on the bike and out the front gate before he could finish what he was saying. His bike is a…well…not really a bike. I’d compare it more to a tank. Literally. I know there’s always a comparison like that about how people have indestructible this and that, but this truly is. Back home, I have steel bikes, and they’re hardcore bikes – but they’ve got nothing on this bike. I think the bike is made of steel rods as the bike must weigh 40 lbs. If you ran over this bike you would just damage (obliterate the undercarriage of) your car. The last time I was on my bike was May 2^nd, and wow did I miss my bike. Bikes here go for around 100 dollars if I want a brand new road bike. But since I live on a dirt road, and I’d have to worry about running into wayward bulls (like the one that stumbled in front of our PC bus the other day that we came inches from hitting), I think a mountain bike is the way to go. I had such a good time on the bike, I think I’m going to buy one (a mountain bike is super cheap, with used bikes being even cheaper (in the 30 dollar range)), just for my 3 months here in Masatepe. The city is 6 by 13 blocks, which makes it a flipping hoot and a half to ride through. Especially when you consider you’re avoiding the mototaxis and peole.

While the dinner wasn’t the healthiest (probably the most unhealthy of my life), it was super tasty. With a meal of fried plantains, fried cheese, coleslaw like salad the size of a quarter, and a sugar infused fresco, you’re just asking for a heart attack, diabetic coma, or for good measure, both. But I just can’t say no to those fried plantains. They’re like potato chips, and absolutely amazing. I tell myself that since it’s a fruit, it’s definitely good for me.

Well, at least I rode the bike home.

May 19^th

With our first classes approaching, everybody made a plan for their classes over the weekend. We did some quick practice before Jordan and I had to leave for our 10 AM meeting with our group of jovenes. Ha. I wish. Our group of jovenes turned out to be just one joven – Javier, a kid who I go jogging. Nobody showed up, so Javier busted out his chess set and we had a battle right there in the middle of the shaded area near the broken soccer swing set in our barrio. I killed him during the first game, and he obliterated me during the second game. He’ a good kid – and a good chess player. I think we’re going to make a chess game a weekly/daily thing. So after Javier and I played a couple of games, he went back to his house while Jordan and I established the basics regarding our classes that we’re going to teach. This week we’re both going to teach a class on Thursday, then I have my second class to teach on Monday. Coincidentally, Javier is in my class that I’ll be teaching; it will be good to have an aficionado to help me win over the class.

My game plan for the class is to do an ice breaker where the kids change 5 things about themselves, then have them do it again. The whole point of it is to point out how you have to be creative and innovative to change 5 things about your appearance the second or third time around. I’m only going to have the kids change twice since Javier informed me there are 45 kids in the class. After that, I’m going to have them make a life plan. The activity is called “My life in ten years.” Thinking outside the box is something that most youths are accustomed to, and considering that most of them end up working for a family business and/or starting their own, teaching them to be creative is essential. The activity is something the kids really aren’t accustomed to as most professors just have them copy entire paragraphs for work. I think it will be a good exercise, and it will help me find out more about the kids and how they’ll be as a class to work with.

Following our planning session it was lunchtime. I finally cracked open my book that I broke for fun (‘Stories I Stole’ if any of you are curious), and that was really relaxing. At times this whole experience can be overwhelming, particularly because Peace Corps bombards us with work due to our higher Spanish level. As long as it’s not all for naught, I won’t b*tch about it, not that much anyway. I’m pretty excited for the first class, but really have to think about what I’m going to do in the 5 other classes I’m going to teach. They all have to be in the intro to La Empresa Creativa, which is what I’ll be teaching when I’m at my site in August.

Our group went to meet a group of jovenes that was organized by Luis Aleman (the Sandinista group leader we met last week). We got there (at the Masatepe Intercultural House)…and…he wasn’t there…nor was his group…nor had anybody working there been advised that any group was going to show up. Oh Nicaragua.

So following that less than optimal outcome, Jordan and I headed back to our barrio to track down the youths that didn’t show up to the meeting. It was a real candid and informal approach, which was great – no convincing was needed. They all committed to showing up tomorrow (since they didn’t show up today), so we’ll see how it goes.

All this was followed by my regular nighttime run with Javier followed by my makeshift exercises on the broken swing set with the kids in the neighborhood.

Afterwards, I ate and hung out with William for a couple of hours. He’s over every night and we talk a lot – about everything really. He has become the best guy friend I have in Nicaragua. It’s kind of strange because I can only speak to him in Spanish, but I don’t know, we always seem to be on the same page. We’re similar in many ways, but he doesn’t really rival my energy level nor my enthusiasm when telling stories/speaking (but who really does?).

So far so good – and I still haven’t gotten sick! *knock on wood*