After it all...

And, I'm back! I've been burned, busted, robbed and sick. I've been elated, fluent, questioned and accepted.



What an experience! My last few weeks down in Nicaragua I was 100% everything; running around (and oh, the biking!) everywhere, eating everything, teaching with all my heart, getting to know my fellow artists... I almost don't know where to begin with this final post. I say almost because, well, I'm writing the damn post, so I've jumped in head first...and that's a start of sorts.


Firstly, I'd like to acknowledge my two favorite fruits from Nicaragua.


Number One, Mamones.

Mamones are small, round fruit with smooth skins. The skins pop off in a manner similar to oranges, but the way in which you eat the fruit is quite different. The word "Mamon" means to suck, and that is literally what you do with it. You suck it. The flesh is attached pretty strongly to the large seed in the middle, so you no choice but it suck it all off. Delicious, and easier then it seems.


Moving on..


Number two, Pitalla.






Pitalla can be eaten by hand, sure, but what they're most commonly used in is juice. The inside is pulpy, delightfully so, and I cannot compare it to a fruit here. It's very unique, and can be easily juiced by hand if the power is out and you've got a plethora of thirsty kids running around.

And oh, how I miss these and more! I found a nice site, http://www.vianica.com/sp/go/specials/14-frutas-de-nicaragua.html that has decent photos and descriptions of a lot of the basic fruits there. The descriptions are in Spanish, but I'd still check out the photos.



What else? My classes ended with a bang, or rather a final presentation for the parents and artists. I had the older kids (ages 11-16) perform solo or in duos, while a few of the smaller children sang Mary Had A Little Lamb...I wish I had a video of it... they're a riot.

Speaking of videos, I've uploaded all of mine onto http://www.youtube.com/luciahawley . Even the two second videos the robber took unknowningly are up there.. all, 15?



The robber took my camera and wallet when I was at the beach for a day. I had left my bag on the back porch of the house (Soany's father's...absolutely beautiful, five steps away from the beach, cows included) while I went inside to eat lunch. We decided that it was a 14-16 year old kid, because he took the flashy camera and wallet, but did not take my semi-old looking phone, or just the whole bag. Anyway, I thought both items were long are gone, never to be seen again. That all happened on a Wednesday. Sunday morning Soany comes to my house at 7 am telling me that a neighbor of her father has my camera, and bought it back (for me) for 500 cordoba (roughly 27 bucks). We went to the beach, went to the neighbor's and I paid him back. Then we went to the police office to fill out a notice.



I cannot believe my camera is still here... it's insane. The robber also took some photos, but the videos are more or less the same. So, take a look! I've also got videos that I took while there. If you don't like sunburns, DO NOT watch "Lucia the Snake." I mean that.



I dearly miss all of the artists in the Taller Artistico Xuchialt, and only have fond memories of them. Did I say I got sick my last night there? Rough luck, huh? I felt amazing, ate everything, did everything for eight weeks (excluding my intial illness, but that's fairly typical) and then --BOOM-- got sick my last day there. So, I left without much fanfare. But I feel bad because that last day I was there was "La griteria chiquita," which is more or less their version of Halloween. So we stayed in the Taller and they took turns playing some sort of shoot 'em up game. They say I shouldn't, but I do feel guilty about that.



Last post, eh? I've enjoyed writing in this blog, and thanks to all who have checked it out. Strange, now the trip really feels over. I am so happy I did what I did, I've learned loads about the world, people--I include myself in that generalization--and life this summer. I wouldn't trade this experience for anything in the world, ever.



Love,
Lucia

???

What?? Two weeks left? How did that happen?

I hope you're all well my lovely friends and family, because I am splendid. I'm not ready! A real update soon,

Always,
Lucia

Leon, the City of Concerts

I think by the end of this trip I'll have been to more concerts here then I have in my whole life. There are concerts every night around the city, and the music and vibes are so good, it's hard not to go. Right now I'm uploading some videos, so be sure to check my youtube account (http://www.youtube.com/luciahawley) and watch them!

Tuesday I was working in the office when Susie, the PML coordinator, asked me if I wanted to go to Managua to pick up suitcases full of medical supplies brought down by a delegation from Augsburg college. Hell yes! Anything to change up my routine. We went in a van, along with Ernesto, the translator for the delegation when they get here. The delegation will be spending this week in Managua and will come here to Leon this Monday. Anyway, we drove for about and hour and a half to Managua to pick up the suitcases, got to the airport and after a bit of searching, found the group of 16 white girls with all their luggage. They amazingly brought down 31 suitcases of just the medical supplies, which would have been great, if the airport hadn't decided to hold 11 for no apparent reason. So we took what we could, drove to the Medical Center so that Susie could get a bunch of papers to sign in the hopes of retriving our missing 11 bags. Today is Friday and we still don't have them, as the hospital here in Leon (that needs to sign papers for Susie) has been closed since yesterday, due to a national holiday yesterday.

Life flows differently here. It'd be so easy to get frustrated, and we sure did, but it's just not worth the effort. Wednesday was spent checking what was in the bags we do have, making lists of stuff with Exel in a cyber cafe, burning the file onto a cd, doing other stuff, then later going to a different cyber cafe that couldn't read the file type and finally having to type it all out, again. So, frustration happens, but you can't let it get you down.

Besides the stress of office work, life has been very nice. Another concert tonight, baking an apple tart on Sunday, recorder classes are going well. Plus, last night was awesome because of Foosball: My Guilty Pleasure.

...and then later last night another ride on the Bus Pelon, but this time with salted mangos. Rico, rico.

Oh! Yesterday I also made tortillas with Gladys at her house (which is a bit out of the city.) Mine weren't... pretty, but they tasted great! I brought my camera to take videos, but of course my battery was left charging in the house. So that sucks, but my other videos will make up for it.

I've gotten rather close to Esmerelda, the little toddler in my house, and she now enjoys slapping my butt and poking my boobs and telling me that they're hers. Ah, kids. I retaliate by taking her sandals and somehow manage to stuff them onto my toes and prance around in them.

Speaking of sandals, I have yet to buy another pair and feel my current sandals wearing away into nothingness. There just aren't sandals here that are made for tall women.

So, I'm off to search in the market for sandals. Wish me luck! And check out my vids!

Lucia

Week....5?

I´ve been here for a full month now! I´m feeling 100% better, and am now eating way too much...the food is so good here, I can´t help myself. My classes have been going really well with the older kids. The younger kids don´t have much of an attention span, and their fingers are really small, which makes it a bit harder to play the notes clearly...

I´ve uploaded two more videos onto my youtube account (youtube.com/luciahawley). I have a TON of videos, but it takes forever to upload them, and I forgot my to bring my camera today...

Thursday night I went to a concert with the Taller group. It was at the Casa Cultural, and was very interesting, because there was a bagpipe! In Nicaragua! Fucking sweet, to say the least. The guy who played it is French, and he played a few traditional bagpipe songs before the grand finale: A duet with a Nicaraguan guitarist, playing a traditional Nicaraguan song. With a bagpipe. And that drone it has.

So neat. BUT of course I didn´t take my camera that night, silly as I am.

It rained a ton on Saturday, enough to make a big hole in the street in front of our house. And only our house! No where else. And of course, I have a video of the rain, but...time limits...so typical.

I´m not sure what I´ll be doing this week, besides my classes and working in the PML office. I´m hoping to get to the beach sometime soon. I´ll also be making two apple tarts in the near future, one for the birthday of the little boy in our house, and the other for the birthday of William, one of the artist in the Taller. Apples here are a BIG deal because they´re the exotic, rare fruit here, so I figure it´ll be a lot of fun for them to eat the tart, plus it´s way delicious in general.

I have also taken a ride on the Bus Pelon (the Bald Bus). The top is cut off, there´s a string of colored lights on it and it blasts loud music while driving around the outskirts of the city. It´s a really nice way to cool off after a hot day!

That´s all for now, thanks to all who comment and read,
Love Lucia

So I´m back. I missed the internet too much, what can I say, me being the American I am. I am feeling much better after eating yesterday. Not just any food, but it was really geat to get some protein (in the form of fried chicken thigh). I´ve noticed that Nicaraguans don´t tend to eat much of it. Their diet is based much more heavily on carbs than anything else. I´ve found a local store that carries some yogurt, and though the stuff is prune flavored, I am not complaining. It´s delish.

My energy is back up and I´m able to walk around. I´ll be teaching my class today! I´m looking forward to it, and feel more at ease with the kids then last week. The only thing I´m worried about is Sunday, because there will be an art exhibition of not only the kid´s work, but but the teachers´ as well... which means I may have to play recorder for 70 people... and ah, well, the only song I feel kind of, sort of comfortable playing is Ode to Joy. Which isn´t very impressive or pretty. Yikes!

It´s awfully hot today! Yesterday there were clouds, but today, nada.

MAS

Alright! I´m alive! It´s only been a week since my last post. I got really sick on Sunday and have been in bed up until now. I won´t go into details, but I went to the doctor and he RXed me a bunch of pills, mainly antibiotics. I have a baterial infection in my stomach. All the pills, doctor visit and powerade I´ve been drinking (not to mention the rather gross rehydration salts) equals a grand total of...22 dollars. American. Not bad, not bad at all.

Anyway, while my body was in its weakened state, my mind reverted to thinking about two things.

1. Bad tv shows, such as S club 7 and that one Nickelodeon show about the teen puppet who lived with real-life people.
2. American food.

Now, I understand why I´d think about American food, because I haven´t eaten in four days now. Actually, they were more cravings than thoughts. Foods I thought the most about included Annie´s Mac and cheese, fried rice with PEAS, risotto and coco krispies. I would still go for any of those right now. Comfort food.

Also, because I was sick I had to cancel my class on Tuesday. But my two classes over the weekend went well. The kids are super excited to learn new notes, so far I´ve only taught them A and B.

Because I´ve been sick, not much has happened during the past week. A proper post will occur when I start doing stuff! Friday night at the Taller we´re having a surprise birthday party for Marvin (who is also bringing his new girlfriend for all of us to meet, Ay joyiyo!)

I´m so glad the videos worked out! I´ve got more, but man, they take forever to upload.

Until later, love,
Lucia

Enfermidad

Ok, so I just wrote a post but it got deleted due to my crazy fingers pushing the power button on the keyboard.

Anyway, I had my first class with the older kids on Tuesday and things went really well. It started over an hour late, but that was because the kids had forgotten about the class because of the intensive finals going down in the schools. After the recorder class Sawany, one of the artists at the Taller taught me how to paint, primative Nicaraguan style. That was way cool.

Tuesday was by far my busiest day so far. I planned my class, went vegetable shopping with Angelica, tried to eat some hot soup for lunch (I still don´t get how they do it) taught the class, went to the mercado with Doña Nubia for more stuff and THEN went to concert with the boys. All of it was so much fun (the concert was awesome!!) but doing all of that in one day made me sick as a dog by the end of the night. I think what pushed me over the edge were the insane lights and dancing like the white fool I am at the concert. I don´t regret anything though. So Wednesday I was supposed to work in the PML office in the morning, but I talked with Susie and she let me sleep and hang out there all day. What a slice of heaven! That helped so much. Oh also, a cold (my family is calling it gripe, the flu, but I don´t think so) has been going around the, well, city. So it makes sense that I´m sick. PLUS (the list goes on!) I ate a chocobanano from a street vendor.

Today I organized the books in the office and then napped for the rest of the day. It is so hot here. In my last post I stated that the pace of life is different here and that you shouldn´t push it. Well, I did on Tuesday! And have learned my lesson, so moving onward...

Tomorrow I teach my second class with the older kids, which should go smoothly. Also, I somehow got roped into making a cake for the girls at my house. And thanks to mom (thank you for the email!!) I have a recipe! Yes! We´ll see how that goes. Also tomorrow there´s another concert. Uh, I won´t dance and will bring lots of water.

So, yes! here is the link to my youtube site. LINK: www.youtube.com/luciahawley . So far I have two videos of life here.

I thought that the little girl, Esmerelda was going to be living in our house permanently. Turns out she, her brother and Mom were just temporary. I don´t know why.

That´s all for now! I´m going back to the house for...potato salad? Hah! I doubt it´s anything like ours!

OH ALSO, Thank you for the fantastic comments! It´s been so fun reading them. Keep them coming yeah? Also, I have a cell here that can receive texts...hint hint... the number is 011-505-607-1911 .

I hope all is well,
Lucia