BELIEVE it, it's REAL!

WELL, here it is folks! I should have put this up two weeks ago when I got it... it's basically looking the same other than a few usage scratches which I'm actually quite proud of. Other than running over a nail and losing all the air in my back tire life is good on my new best friend. She treats me good and I'm pretty much a professional at driving it now. I can carry people twice my own weight behind me without thinking twice about it!!!!!!! You'll have to come to Esteli to see for yourself! Yes, that IS an invite!

DIVERTIR!!!!!!!

ABOVE: Stealing sea shells from the beach. I have to decorate my big empty house with something!!!!!
ABOVE & BELOW: LAS PENITAS: On the beach for the weekend with the girls!

LOVING THE SUN :) :) :)
ABOVE: Amanda is taught how to dance by a rasta man... hahaha... Who took this picture?

ABOVE: Edzit's favourite. A family of pigs.... lol, she hates pigs - really! Remind me not to swim there!
ABOVE: Chilling on the hammock on the beach. Like I said, life is rough!
ABOVE: SURF SHOP!!!!! YEAH!
ABOVE: THE BEACH! A LA PLAYA EN ESPANOL!
ABOVE: Well, these guys had a good night... of sleep! That's how good the parties are!!!!!!
ABOVE: Isabelle, Idzit and Yuri (our friend from France who I have to TRY and speak Spanish too) get confused and are head banging to Salsa music. What's going on here?????

Time flies. I've officially been here for a month today. I can't believe it. It goes by way to quickly. I guess it's true... time flies when you are having fun. And fun is definetely what I am having!

NEWS: Last Wednesday I moved into my own house. It's so good to be there. I miss the family and Adrianas cooking but am loving the privacy and freedom to come and go as I please without catering to everyone else's schedule.

MORE NEWS!: I am officially the owner of a brand new dirtbike. I got it last Wednesday and we are already in love with it. I park it in my living room (I have a big house, a really big house) and every morning when I wake up I wonder if it's really sitting there and ask myself if I am completely out of my mind... BUT, you only live once and this thing just felt like the right thing to do. I love being able to cruise around Esteli on it and go where I please. After all, you can't get lost in a place you don't know! I don't have a picture of me on it yet but I promise, it's coming soon!

I'm too busy right now to give a big update but instead I'll tell you two few funny slip-ups I've made in trying to learn Spanish. Of course I've made many more than this; some that I'm aware of and I'm sure many many that I'm not. When I arrived and was still living with the family (I moved into my own place on Wednesday of last week) I was introduced to all the other relatives. Adriana always introduced a lot of the girls as Sovrina. So, I called them Sovrina. I mean what else would I call them? And plus, Adriana named her daughter after her, and her son after her husband. I guessed that this was just normal. Until a week ago in Spanish school when the word Sovrina popped up in my grammar charts. It means niece. So, I'd been spending 3 weeks on the streets shouting "hello sovrina" to every one of them. Check out a past blog of a picture of me and another girl at the disco. I even wrote her name as Sovrina. I called her Sovrina all night, noone ever corrected me. Anyways, now I know there names. The other slip up I did was put my hand up in Spanish class and ask if I could have a clean 'vacas'. Now, I mean to ask for a glass which is 'vaso'. The best part is that vacas means cow. So, I said "please, can I have clean cow". We had to pause the lesson until the others could catch their breath. I suppose I could say worse things. Let's hope I haven't!

ABOVE: On the coast for the weekend with the girls!!!! I need a couple drinks before I attempt to salsa dance!!!!
ABOVE: Funny guys! Saw me taking pictures so ran in front to show their muscles!
ABOVE: Our lovely bartenders!
ABOVE: Our pad for the weekend on the coast!
ABOVE: The view from our pad!

ABOVE AND BELOW: CUTIES!!! In Leon on Independance Day - Sept 14, 07.
ADORABLE!!!
ABOVE: 2 girls that were in the parade on Independence Day in Leon.
ABOVE: A church in Leon. This city is famous for its churches.
ABOVE: On the chicken bus from Leon to the coast. The bus was packed so I got a friend on my knee for the hour ride there. It was SOOOO hot, hence my make up sweating down my face!! What a cute kid! :)

ABOVE: Arrival in Leon, Nicaragua. We stopped here for the day on Friday for Independance day before heading more west to the beach for the rest of the weekend. This is a picture of an old Church. REALLLLLY OLD!
ABOVE: NICA MONEY!!!! One dollar is about 18 CORDOBAS, you do the math!
ABOVE: THE PARADE... THAT WE COULDN'T SEE!!!!!
ABOVE: KIDS PLAYING ON THE LION IN FRONT OF THE OLD CHURCH.
ABOVE: WELL, WE SAW A LITTLE OF IT I GUESS!!!!



THE END! HOPE YOU ENJOY!!!!!!!

OUT AND ABOUT

My appologies for the lack of pictures. I am just going to give a quick update as to what the heck I've been doing over the past week and a bit. It has actually been quite eventful. My Spanish is getting better and better with every passing day but it can be SO frusturating. I have to keep reminding myself that I've only had eight lessons and it just isn't going to be perfect at this point. I can read a story and figure out what is being said quite easily but speaking is another problem altogether. Spanish leaves out a lot of words that we always use in English like personal pronouns (I, me, you etc.) and whenever I want to translate English in my head to Spanish from my mouth I always feel like it's wrong just because half of the words get cut out. It feels like I'm talking like a child learning it's first words or something. I need to keep reminding myself SIMPLE SIMPLE SIMPLE. I've got the present tense verbs down pretty good at this point and have just dove into past tense for the second day. This... is not easy. It's going to take a lot of practice! Practice makes perfect, right?

I just got off a dirtbike. I've been test driving some and there is a good chance that tomorrow I will have bought the one I drove today. I don't know what is holding me back. I know I should just DO IT. It's not that much money and there are so many cool places I could be exploring around Esteli. Plus, this one has a six month warranty which is a definete plus! I would be buying it less 15% on sale and could probably sell it for not much less than I paid for it in about 9 months. I'll keep you posted.

Early last week I went exploring with Christian (QUEBEC OXFAM worker) in the mountains. We went with two Nicaraguan technicians who are each responsible for about 40 families that are growing fruits and vegetables at their homes, plus a couple of school food programs. They kept taking pictures of me and telling me that they were going to sell them to the highest bidder. I guess that is a compliment??? I think I should at least get a cut of the profit... I mean I'm not getting paid THAT well for being here! Anyways, they took us on a very LONG, hard walk up a mountain to visit one home that they hadn't been at in a long time (and after the walk I knew why). I couldn't really walk the next day but it meant that I could skip my work out! We visited about 6 families in total that day and it was really incredible. I really need to do that in order to get an idea of what my job really is going to be here because until now I've strictly been learning (trying) Spanish and visiting some things here and there. I've got so many ideas and I can't wait to get started.

Last week was the opening of a new market in a nearby town. The OXFAM project here has a huge agricultural sector so there are tons of families growing impressive fruit/vegetable gardens. We arrived at the market at about 8:30am on Friday morning. By that time almost 3/4 of the products had been SOLD! I got what pictures I could but it was looking pretty sad by then because there just wasn't much to take pictures of. They had live bands playing and of course the usual ear drum popping loud DJ music during the band breaks. It was pretty awesome to know that these poor people coming in from the mountains had line ups at 7am for their produce!

That evening I jumped in the truck with Veronique and Miguel. Miguel has a BIG truck and had his super duper suspension crazy fourwheeler loaded up and we were off to another town about 2 hours away. It was all about dirtbikes and fourwheelers on Saturday. There were tons... with again LOUD music and dancing and just lots of fantastic fun. We watched the guys race at all the checkpoints over a four hour race including a really steep muddy hill that barely anyone could get up in one go without flipping.

Saturday night I was tired and probably should have gone to bed but somehow ended up going out with a couple Nicaraguan friends. We met up with Isabelle and Idzit as well as Yanik and his girlfriend (all OXFAM workers). Yanik and his g/f went home early but the rest of us were out dancing till 5am. It's wonderful how places never close in these countries. Instead of going out till 2 a few times a week you can just get an entire weeks worth of dancing out of your system in one night/morning! It's actually a lot of fun. Poor Isabelle, every guy that wanted to dance with Idzit or I was steared in Isabelle's direction because she just couldn't say no. I owe her a few thank-you's. There were times she felt like a kindergarden teacher, and others an old age home worker!!!! There sure are a range of ages at these places! Sort of like Gore Bay curfle!!!!!!!!!

I ended up having a sleep over at Isabelle and Idzit's place because I don't exactly have a key to the house of the family I live with. It's frusturating really, I can't get in OR out without someone helping me. Anyways, the girls just moved into a new house and had planned a brunch. So after 2 hours of sleep they were up baking muffins, cooking bacon etc etc. I sure have it rough here!

This week was a lot more Spanish school plus some other stuff. I've been making more and more friends as I am able to speak more of the language so I can fill up my evenings pretty easily. Usually I go home for lunch, then come to the OXFAM office to do a bit of research (and write my blog, of course). For example, last night I was out sharing a bottle of delicous red wine at a fancy Cuban restaurant. Today after Spanish lessons I went to visit this little organic plant project and drink coffee and eat banana cake! There are lots of things to do here. And now that I can say I know people, I really have no excuse to be bored.

So, that's what I do. I'm loving this place more and more every day and the culture is REALLY growing on me. I didn't find Africa hard when I was there, but now that I am HERE... I really wonder how I did manage to survive over there. The two places are not even comparable. I feel like I'm still in ALL of the comforts of Canada but the architecture is just a whole lot more simple. That really does explain it quite well. It's going to awesome when February comes along and I get to travel and am able to speak fluently (I hope) to anyone I meet. Wow.. won't that be cool!

Tomorrow I'm off to the coast with Idzit and Isabelle. Friday is a holliday here so we are taking advantage of it and getting out our bathing suits. For now, I'm off to the gym. There is a pretty decent one (actually two) here in Esteli so I'm taking advantage of being stationed in one place for six months and plan to get back in shape. There's no better time than now!

FROM MZUNGU TO GRINGA

ABOVE: My street boy friend (boy that IS a friend, that is) named Darrien.... He walks beside me all the way to Spanish school most mornings....!!!!! Saying not much of anything along the way! I did get out of him (in Spanish) that is dad is nowhere to be found and he ran away from his mother in Peurto Rico. How, I don't know!
ABOVE: Typical meal that Adrianna (my Latino mother) cooks for me. God bless her cooking!
ABOVE: Adriana and I! This picture was taken at her mothers house on Sunday. We all went there to eat with their HUGE family. Not as many offspring as in Africa, but close!!!! She's beautiful huh!! Especially for having a 19 year old son, I'd say the Latino ladies have some good genes!
ABOVE: Adriana, daugher Adriana, son Julio Cesar!
ABOVE: Pretty birdy at Adriana's moms house. I love my pictures way too much sometimes! But this is definetely a good one!

ABOVE: Even colourfull pharmacies!

ABOVE: A typical shop on the side of the road. It's Sunday here so the others were closed but really, there are just TONS of these side by side for a few kilometers!

ABOVE: A young boy selling music CD's on the street out of a box.

PS. Used motorbikes: HONDAS! But really, I was taking a picture of the little kitty in front........ LOL

OH BLISSFUL SUNDAY :)
ABOVE: The African's do it better!!!!!!
ABOVE: And here I am, trying to get some sun. It's like every where I visit, people just want to be more white. What is up with that???!?!?!?!! Is it US who are crazy??? I just want to be a darko!

My first week in Esteli has been pretty good. I am feeling a bit bored sometimes as I'm not doing any work.... but I think I am pretty happy to be here. I'd be lieing to myself though if I said I liked it as much as Africa. It is COMPLETELY different - that is for sure. Since I've managed to learn a few Spanish words I now know what is said to me while I pass men on the street: "Bonita, guapa" along with kissing noises and hisses. I'm not really a fan. Bonita and guapa mean pretty or beautiful which is lovely enough but let me tell you - a girl gets tired of hearing those words. The Latino women hear them say it to me and laugh as I walk by but in a loving sort of way. I look at them and say "el loca"... (he's crazy)... then they laugh more. I suppose I will get use to this behaviour. I hope. I have never liked attention like that. And if you dare stare at them while they do this, they don't even look away, they just stare back harder. Very akward.

The weekend brought me some unhappiness for reasons I won't discuss via blog - but I'm happy to say that I took out the trash and feel wonderful now. How does that song go: "if you don't like what you've got, why don't you change it... if your world seems upside down, rearrange it!!!"... Done & done. Changed & Rearranged.

Today Spanish school went poorly. I got a new teacher and she is just not going to do. She's very nice, sweet and young but I didn't learn a thing today. She couldn't understand a word of English so when I told her that I just wanted to keep using the same teaching format as my old teacher, Maria, used... she just kept trying to get me to create a sentence out of random words using proper grammar. I'm nowhere near that stage yet. Tomorrow I'm going to have to hurt her feelings and ask for a more advanced teacher. Sorrrrrrrry! I mean, I HAVE to learn this language. And not just so-so, I need to be able to run seminars for the agriculture technicians at some point.... and I'm determined to do it.

Friday night I went out to a disco with Julio Cesar (the son of the family I live with) and his cousins. We had lots of fun. It was a strange place as there were constantly four girls dancing in green bikinis on the stage beind the dancefloor but it was very entertaining to watch them. People know how to dance here, that's for sure. I got up a couple times but mostly tried to stay in my seat to avoid making a fool of myself - and to help in fighting off Latino men. They are SO persistant! "Mi no hablar Espanol...." (I don't speak Spanish), followed by me running away.

Saturday night I stayed in and practiced my Spanish lessons with the family. I actually learned a lot that night and really made sense of some of the grammar in my head. The grammar is going to be very important if I'm to look at all inteligent for these technicians I'm expected to train!

Sunday morning I went for a stroll. I needed to clear my head after some unhappy momments and it definetely worked. I found some really cool places around Esteli and took tons of pictures. I love this city. It's absolutely beautiful and JUST big enough for me. I made some friends with the street kids who actually taught me a few more words somehow! I checked out the used Honda dirtbikes too... Still am not quite sure what to do... New not so good name, or old Honda... decisions decisions!!!!!! I also took some pictures of the mountains and tried to zoom in on these little dirt roads I could make out. I definetely plan to tour those when I buy my beast!

Sunday night I went with Edzit and Isabel (two Quebecers here with OXFAM) to dinner at Edzits maids house. She was so happy when we arrived. She lives in a new housing project area. She use to have a boarded up wooden house but these days has a little cement building. She's only 24 but has a 6 year old daugher (adorable, see pictures below) and lives there with the girls father also. The made us a nice dinner and I finally felt like I had gotten to see a bit of how people live around here. The cities don't do a very good job of telling that story.

ABOVE AND BELOW: LOVE THE COLOURS IN THIS PLACE! Who dares to build a hot pink or flamingo coloured house in Canada!! I dare YOU! I'm GOING TO!

ABOVE: Usually these things are stacked with fresh fruits and vegetables. Delicious!

ABOVE: I couldn't figure out what these people were doing exactly. But I think they were promoting their school???

ABOVE: Complete description of why I love Esteli. Motorbikes and mountains. That's really what this place is all about!

ABOVE: This is how I spent my Sunday morning. Wandering the streets and finding little oasis' like this.

ABOVE: Random basketball etc, court. Again, with the mountains. I wonder if it would be possible for me to get a picture withOUT the mountains!?! That would be no fun!

ABOVE: Ya estamos en Esteli!!!

ABOVE: Out and about Sunday morning. Kids on the street buying something that looked like mini pizzas. Should have tried one!

ABOVE AND BELOW: Love the mountains around this city!

ABOVE: Mas montanas en Esteli! More mountains in Esteli!

ABOVE: Kids playing soccer on the street on Sunday morning. Look at the two adorable little guys on the right on, and beside, the truck!

ABOVE: One of my favourite things to take pictures of: Clothing hanging to dry. I don't know why. Maybe I'm crazy... I am a little you know!

ABOVE: Left to right: Julio Cesar and Adriana (son and mother I live with), Helen, Sovrina and Romeo... Before we headed to the disco!
ABOVE: Sovrina and I. She's the same age as me. She got married 2 months ago to Romeo (beside her in the picture above) and is in her 5th year of 7 studying to be a doctor in Managua. Romeo is already a doctor! This is us at the disco having lots of fun on Friday night. And, no, she doesn't speak English just like the rest: which is perhaps why we get along so well!?!? Who knows!
ABOVE: Who wears short shorts??? Interesting disco I was at... the dancing suddenly ceased and then the breakdancing competition took place... hmmmmm!
ABOVE: Downtown Esteli. I had a wonderful walk about yesterday (Sunday) morning... took lots of pictures...!
ABOVE: IT's ME in ESTELI!

ABOVE: When I get frusturated with my poor ability to converse in Spanish, I just talk to my roommate, Carlos Eduardo (had to give him a realllll Latino name). He doesn't answer but at least he doesn't get a confused look on his face and make me frantically flip through my dictionairy. You'll know I've really lost my mind when he starts answering me.
ABOVE: I spend four hours here each day! Spanish school..... the little room that frusturates the heck out of me for four hours each day. But, it's definetely all worth it!
ABOVE: Part of the OXFAM team. After Spanish school on Friday I joined them for lunch at a nice little restaurant! Delicious food... like the rest of the food here!
ABOVE: Edzit and Isabelle (both from Quebec) raid the ice cream man.
ABOVE: One of the many murals on the walls here.

ABOVE: On the right Cristia: She cleans one of the girls homes who works for OXFAM. She thanks her every day and says what a great chance she has to make a better life for herself and her family. This is her boyfriend and their daughter standing in front of their new house in the Esteli housing project. She use to have a small house with a mud floor and wooden walls. Inside, they even have a stereo and TV now!
ABOVE: The new house!

ABOVE: Me and my clothing pictures!!!!

ABOVE: A _____ tree. I'll get back to you on that... It's in the yard of this cute little family thought!!!!!

ABOVE: Crislin, age 6. They made her name to be a comibation of their's.. but I cannot remember the name of her father!!! How adorable is she!!!!!!!!!
ABOVE: Crislin gets a little less shy and puts on a dress and starts dancing for us! She had the Nicaraguan music pumped as loud as it would go: raggae-tone!
ABOVE: THEIR CUTE PUPPY! I WANT IT!