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!