Foto Historia: marzo y abril

The past few months have flown by in a hodge podge of settling into life in Esteli and work with the UCA Miraflor, welcoming visitors from home and vacation for semana santa on Isla Ometepe, renewing my visa in Costa Rica marking my 6th months here, and planning and implementing a series of three workshops with the promotores of our Huertos Familiares project. It has surprised me recently to be the one standing still for once as I watch more permanent fixtures stir, shift, and scurry on to other places and jobs. With some surprising shifting of organization and positions at the UCA Miraflor, we have said goodbye to the person that first brought me on to work here as well as some cherished officemates. Last Saturday two roommates moved out and last month I said goodbye to two volunteers working in Esteli and keeping me company. Meanwhile, other extranjeros press on in work and exploration here, unwilling to buy their return ticket or pushing back their return dates. I have casually and not so casually looked into a handful of job possibilities, school possibilities, and possibilities for work that could take me across the world all over again. It is surprising how wide the world feels and how boundless the possibilities as I search for jobs from my perch in Esteli rather than from Boston. Tired of all the writing about oneself that applications require, I am saving my words and presenting pictures instead.

Foto historia de marzo y abril:


Throughout the months of March and April, I worked with the agriculture extensionist to prep a series of three workshops we would give as we transition from our first year of the Huertos Familiares project to the second year, training ten new promotores and bringing 100 new families into the folds. Here, we discuss how to properly prep the soil for planting, and demonstrate methods of planting. Where rainy months bring sudden torrential rains and the dry months not a drop, we employ different ways of planting depending on the season and whether we are planting in the low zone or the high zone.

















One of the goals of the Huertos Familiares project is to insure greater participation of women. Here you can see that not only are women in the majority (the men are to the right of this photo) but they are also in the majority among those who agreed to play a leadership role as promotores, helping the 170 families with any and all technical support throughout the development of this project.

Of course, the biggest highlight and greatest downfall of the three- workshop series were the collection of participating promotores from all sides of Miraflor in our cattle truck. The trips always took a grueling four hours each way to pick up each person and arrive at our selected destination. It was dusty, rowdy, incredulously it always rained at the end of each workshop in the midst of dry season, and to top it all off, the breaks gave out on the last day, making the downhill return quite the experience!

After months of defining Sundays in Bluefields as lazy laundry days, I was happy to spend my first two Sundays in Esteli visiting the majestic Salto Estanzuela...

And my third Sunday at Cañon Somoto, swimming through a mile length of dramatic bright blue canyons in a small town just below the Honduran border...

My dear friend Rachel came to visit, a wonderful gift to me, and I rushed her off to the hottest inferno in Nicaragua during the peak of summer to stroll endlessly on the beach in the quiet Northern town of Jiquilillo, float in the calm waters of the Padre Ramos Wetland Reserve, eat deliciously fresh fish, and then sear our skin under the unforgiving summer sun.

What is black with spots and red all over?

And then, to continue with the water theme, we discovered this magnificent swimming hole in Miraflor, necessary after finding out our host was without water in the height of the dry season.

In the midst of the orchid forest, we discover a parasite tree, common in Miraflor cloudforest, that is hollowed out by great, big veins that strangle the tree, making it possible to enter and climb up its interior.


Beautiful Miraflor, photo taken on one of our many trips up on the motocicleta.

Traditional dancers at our first UCA Miraflor feria, which we held the Sunday before Semana Santa .

Non- traditional dancers... making fun of Creol Palo de Mayo dancers in Bluefields, they dramatically (and not at all P.C.) stuffed their butts and chests and took turns chasing one another with brooms and canes while the other chased after the young men and women in the crowd. They somehow knew to come after me first!

The beaches during Semana Santa, the biggest vacation week in the year.

Ometepe and Lago Nicaragua with my sister Simma.

La Sangre del Jesus.
I carried wine al the way to Ometepe, as it is hard to come by in Nicaragua and impossible in Bluefields. The occasion was especially worth the photo when we learned that the mother of the family where my friend Cat was living had never had a drop of wine. We followed this up by attending the Señorita Verano contest, where 16 year old girls in the small island town of Balgue competed in all the usual dance, swimsuit, talent competitions and were then judged by their fellow Balgueans.

Making pizza in the brick oven on Ometepe.

The view from the top of a tree at the highest point of Volcan Maderas, 1,500 meters above sea level.

The aftermath of our muddy and mighty climb up Volcan Maderas during my sister Simmas visit to Nicaragua.

A delicious sunset to soothe our sore muscles after the climb. And an ice cold Toña to follow.

La cruzera. Jesus is marched on the cross through Granada and every other town and city in Nicaragua on Friday night of Semana Santa. The crowd sings solemn and beautiful hymns with a band following behind and a hundred lit candles shining.

Estelí is ranked number one in baseball. I take Eva to the game on her visit to Estelí and discover that this german girl has no idea how the game of baseball works.