June 29, 2005

El Segundo dia en Nicaragua: Siuna

Spoke with Nohemy last night in her home, she told me the history of Nicaragua, all in spanish, and I THINK I understood most of it...the war, the two party system that have a pact between eachother so the people really don´t have a voice anyway, why she loves nicaragua anyway, what is so difficult in Nicaragua to live here, etc. Her daughter, Franci, named one of their kitties "blanco pelusa, rojo nariz" which means white lint because of the hair she leaves around and the pink nose she has. cute. I went to the airport in Managua again today which is no bigger than Lunken field in Cincinnati, and flew out to Siuna, an old mining town (in a triangle of 2 other mining towns, Bonanza and Rosita). There was a man whose carry on baggage was a decorated cake. no top covering it or anything. WHOA, sketchy! I would have dropped it in a second. My plane was a 12 seater, open to the cockpit, and there were only 3 other passengers. Flying over the campesinos...very cool. Flew through a rain storm. Landed on a gravel runway with dogs and kids running around. The airport in siuna consists of a man who wears an old beat up "official" aeropuerto shirt, 4 orange cones for directing the plane, and a handheld fire extinguisher. Crazy! The people I´m with here are very very awesome and welcoming. Laura and her boyfriend Jesse are here as well as Miranda (all gringos) and then Kenya is Nicaraguan. I am staying at Alba´s house, which she has been saving and saving for. Alba will cook for me and wash my clothes and her grandmother and 7 year old son live there too. No one says the Ss here (not a lisp like in spain, but simply not said at all) so understanding is a bit more difficult than I had anticipated, but slowly I´ll get it. Today is teacher´s day, and Jesse is a teacher so they had a celebration at the school for my arrival and his teacherness. The two men who were supposed to go with me to Bosawas reserve aren´t because one broke his foot and the other found a job...so i´m spending the next few days finding some appropriate helpers. One possibility is an "almost veterinarian" about my age who is "not vulgar"...we shall see. the university here looks very like the elementary school i taught at in ngurdoto, Tanzania, except with electricity and glass windows. everyone has electricity it seems! that´s awesome! funny i have to come to central america to watch bad tv. ha ha. the frogs here sound incredible. tonight we're going to the disco. misunderstandings are funny. i told Nohemy last night i was ten fifteen instead of 25. oops. hay muchos caballos aqui. off to see what´s next. love!

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