Can one have too much of a good thing?...

Not sure about that....

What I do know is that after a quite a while of doing the most amazing stuff I have been craving at least a little normality for a while. For that reason after leaving Nicaragua and seeing friends in Guatemala and Mexico along the way, I returned to the UK a little over a month ago.

How long I am going to want "normality" is anyones guess but for me and all those who have done similar things the blessing we have is that if ever we wish to return the hussle and experiences of worlds away all we have to do is close our eyes and there we will be, for at least those few seconds.

So to those of you who have accompanied me on these adventures, thanks for being there. I hope you enjoyed the read.

Nacho's gonna have a wee rest now.

(maybe....)

start of the long trip home...

Adios Granada. Adios Nicaragua (for now).

So. My time working for La Esperanza Granada and living the Nica dream has come to an end. Last week with a very heavy heart and the hugest of lumps in my throat I bade farewell to students, colleagues and good friends.

It has been an amazing 7 months. Like life everywhere it has come with its ups and downs but in general I feel content and very proud of my time spent in Nicaragua. I wish for the people of Nicaragua, the organization and all who work so hard for it, the very best of luck.

Obviously after such time I had to say farewell in an grand style and had to throw the mother of farewell parties.

Here are a few moments taken at La Despedida @ Casa Santa Lucia.

Fiesta, Flor de Caña, Piñatas and Fire!

(another flor de caña anyone? perhaps I have had enough)

(to the left, nigel trying to be a hippy. who thought fire and rum would be a good combination! And to the right a hippy who knows what he´s doing!)

Adios.

Muchisimas Gracias Granada!!!!

(for those of you new to http://www.wheresnachoat.blogspot.com/ please do not measure it on the contents of this particular entry!)

Good friends and colleagues

With my time coming to an end I thought I should at least introduce to the people I have been working with over the past months.

As Coordinator I have have the luck of working throughout all the teams working with both office staff in Granada (here I am working in the office along side office manager and our Nica-fixer Guillermo Galan), with all the volunteers and with the Nicaraguan teachers and directors who work in each community.

La Epifania is the largest of the schools and also one I spent a great deal of time as it is also the administrative centre of the school district. I would come here regularly to talk to the district directors to organise schedules, school hours, La Esperanza activities and general administration. Pictured here, I am with Profs. Jamileth, Guadelupe, Delia, Director Vincente, Jasmin and Estel.

At the start of my time this year I ended up as well as being Coordinator being the team leader of Elba Zamora. A small but highly charged school, full of wonderful kids and just three overstretched teachers, Maria, Karina and Christiam.

Las Camelias is the closest school to Granada and perhaps the most challenging school to work at. A ton of kids are squeezed like sardines into 3 small classrooms and a day working here rivals any job in terms of tiredness one feels at its end.

Early 2006 I spent an amazing 6 weeks working at La Prusia. For this reason this school will always have a special place in my heart. My job as coordinator this year came

to an end mid July but as I wasn´t quite ready to leave and as they were short of volunteers at La Prusia I helped out once again, this time tutoring 1st grade. Here I am with Nurse Julieta, School Psychologist Georgina, Profs. Raul, Rosario, Silvio and below Prof. and good friend Augusto.

I worked with Raul Planas last year and although he no longer works directly with La Esperaza Granada he still works within the schools bringing music to the children via another Granada NGO, Building New Hope and his project Ritmo en Los Barrios. Click on the following link for a short film:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MOZIs1mc-I

Finally I return to the office and am shamed to say I am missing a photo. But this list would not be complete without mentioning Pauline Jackson. As Operations Officer Pauline works tirelessly to benefit La Esperanza and the communities it serves. I also leave, as mentioned in a previous blog, the role of Coordinator to Gonzalo Garcia who is doing a superb job. So much so I am sure I hear the words "Nigel who?..."!

I salute each and everyone of the above people for the hard work they do for the benefit of the people of Granada, Nicaragua. It has been a privaledge working with each and every one of them.

Volcanic activities

I went to León this weekend for the umpteenth time and along with my mate Gonzalo we had plans to hike a nearby volcano, Cerro Negro.

Cerro Negro is the youngist volcano in the Americas. Erupting from a field outside Leon in 1850 it first appeared as a small 20m hill but over the past 157 years and coutless eruptions it has grown to 650m.

Anyway, it proved not as easy to get to Cerro Negro as I had thought and we had to go with a tour. The tour we went with however was slightly different than most in that whist we hiked to the top over a gas filled volcanic wasteland, we "snowboarded" down.

Yes you did read that right.

The eastern edge is covered in fine (ish) volcanic sand and gravel and whist it took an hour to ascend it took only a matter of minutes to descend a 650m, 60 degree slope.

What a rush. Whist I dont know my speed, the fastest recorded had been more than 50 kph!

Okay they might look more like sledges than snowboards but the adreneline rush was quite the same I assure you (up until last year they did descend upright on snowboards but due to significant head traumas and near loss of limbs they had to adopt a slighly safer approach. Vocanic rock isn´t that forgiving!)

Anyway just another day in the life of Nacho........

Music

Last weeks 6 month celebration was marked well with a group of us going to the capital Managua to see Calle 13 in concert. Calle 13 are the current kings of reggaeton.

Reggaeton, originating in Puerto Rico, is Central Americas music of choice and whist popular in the US it´s yet to have much impact on European markets. Look it up on iTunes if you fancy, however I imagine most of you will not become instant fans. To be honest last year I hated it. On coming here second time around I continued disliking it but all of a sudden I have become a fan. If you can´t beat them join them.

Along with reggaeton the more familiar Latin sounds of Salsa still heavily influence day to day life and along with Bachata and Merengue the hips have taken on a new life of their own.

Dancing will never be the same again..........

6 months

Last Wednesday I celebrated 6 months being in Nicaragua. At times it feels like its flown by and at others it feels like an age with so much having happened. With the beginning of a new semester and a new six month period, as always planned, a new volunteer coordinator has arrived. Gonzalo arrived from Spain a few weeks ago and we have been working together in the hand over phase. Whilst a tad sad to be handing over my role I feel very proud of the work I have done as Coordinator and also feel very comfortable in leaving the role in more than capable hands. I feel Gonzalo will lead the organization to the next level, where it certainly needs to go.

For me I had thought with the culmination of the role of Coordinator I would pack up and leave to the soundtrack of The Littlist Hobo playing in my ears but I just can´t do it quite yet. After 6 months Nicaragua and its people have quite a hold on me.

For the time being I am continuing working in a school and maintaining my contact within the 4 communities and generally enjoying the pace of Latino life.

Weather

I went to buy a newspaper the other day and was suprised to see on the front page a photo of a very English looking Victorian street complete with pub, all submerged under water.

The quite feeble English summer has even made front page news in Nicaragua. So Nicas send you condolences.

In additionif it makes you feel any better it's been very cloudy here for some time!!

July 19th

July 19th is a national holiday to celebrate Revolution Day. This year Nicaragua celebrated 28 years since the Sandanista revolution triumfed and overthrew the Somoza dictatorship which had ruled for some 60 years.

This year the celebrations where somewhat grander than in recent years as the current ruling party, the FSLN (sandinistas), who were voted back into power at the end of 2006, where those that lead the revolution and guided it through the war years if the 1980's.

They were not going to let the party slip by quietly.

A whole host of Latin American leaders from the leftist movement were invited, and the whole affair was compared very fluidly by Rosario Murillo , the wife of president Daniel Ortega (and in thr opinion of many the driving force of the government).

Perhaps the most passionate of the evenings speeches was that of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. No matter what opions one has of Señor Chavez, his politics, beliefs or behaviour, no-one can deny that he has quite astounding presence and delivers with quite mesmorizing passion. Watching and listening to him yet again hound the U.S. and promte a united Latin America I couldn't help but think I was witnessing a small piece of history.

Se fue la luz; Se fue el agua

(The power's gone; the water's gone)

Two comments we now hear on a daily basis........

Electricity and Water. Two things we take so readily for granted. At a flick of a switch we have power, a turn of the tap fresh water.

All of the communities where we work have access to electricity and potable water, in theory. However for various reasons much of the community of El Pochete by the school of Elba Zamora has been with out running water for 4 months, forcinug them to buy barrels of water, delivered daily on horse and cart. Similar stories are common place in most of the rural communities, some days it comes, some others not and there's nothing one can do.

For us city dwellers life has been all together more comfortable and we have not been effected by such problems. That is until recently.

Nicaragua is in the middle of an energy crisis (i.e. it hasnt the capacity to provide power to the nation) and whist it waits for help promised by Venezuela, Cuba and its new friend Iran the country is being plagued by severe powercuts, on a daily basis. We are without power for anything between three and twelve hours.

A side effect of no electricity means there is no power to power the water pumping stations so we are therefore also without water. From 7am to 6pm every day we have no running water.

Having only one of the other or neither of the two really makes you appreciate what the majority of us never contemplate in that water and power are not automatic rights.

20% of the worlds population still has no access to drinking water, 40% lack adequate sanitary facilities.......

...just something to bare in mind when the lights go out or the tap runs dry.

Solentiname and Rio San Juan

Just when I thought I had seen all Nicaragua had to offer it throws me a few more surprises. With the schools closed for a week I have a few days off and after a 16 hour boat journey find myself in the south east of the country.

The Solintaname Islands are an archipelago of 64 islands in the south of Lake Nicaragua. They are home to a community of Nica Artists (one only 3 primitavist art movements in the works, the others being Haiti and the former Yugoslavia). The community of Mancarron, founded by Ernesto Cardenal (priest and then to be FSLN Minister for Culture) is a simple paradise.

Continuing east Lake Nicaragua flows into Rio San Juan, this then continues to the Atlantic (Caribbean) coast.

Life here is totally distinct to elsewhere in Nicaragua. With small riverside communities hugging the jungled rivers edge. Life here revolves around the river, it being a mode of transport, a source of food, a place to bathe and do laundry and obviously for the kids, a place to play.

In 1675 the Spanish built the fort at El Castillo to protect its interests inland (its 'atlantic city' Granada). At the time Nicaragua was a popular place for pirating and received many a celebrity sailor. Sir Francis Drake is considered a nobleman in English history, working as he did for the English queen, in these parts however he is known as The Pirate Drake. Even the then Captain Horatio Nelson was here in 1870 and managed to capture the fort, but after 9 months having received no back up he had to leave to continue his career to admiralty.

A colourful history continues in these parts when during the California Gold Rush years if you wanted to travel from New York to San Francisco one did so via Nicaragua and Rio San Juan. There was no quick way of crossing the US then and instead travellers would board steamships (vapores) in NY and sail to Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast, up the Rio San Juan to Rivas, hop on a train to cross the isthmus and then continue to California by vapor.

Around every corner come more surprises in this more than diverse country.

(Here ends the history lesson, sorry to ramble!)

End of Semester

There are two semesters in the Nicaraguan school year and semester one is coming to a close. The exams have been taken, the children have had parties and the teachers are looking forward to a short break.

From the side of La Esperanza it’s been a fully packed and successful time. The four primary school teams have continued in their tutoring of pre-school, 1st and 2nd grades, the health team have been busy with community care and organising the dental and optical programmes and the English team battled daily trying to improve standards past “wassup man”!

Perhaps the biggest success in my opinion of the past year has been the High School team. Education is free to all Nicaraguans until the end of primary school, when many then leave the system through economic necessity. Through an international sponsorship programme we send 50 or so students to high school. Sponsors cover the educational costs (approx. $180 per annum if anyone is interested) of the students and La Esperanza provides a team of volunteers who provide additional coaching sessions in the afternoons after school. It has been a struggle motivating teenage students to come a study after school hours but pleasingly after much effort the study sessions are filling up.

All of the schools where we work belong to the ministry of education and have a full Nicaraguan staff. As anywhere some teachers are good and some are past hope (but what can you expect when the monthly salary for a teacher is $100, low even for Nica levels). Whatever their status all have been working through a period of change this past semester. In October 2006 Nicaragua voted the FSLN back into power and since coming to government it has started introducing promising changes to the education system. Modernising a highly antiquated approach is going to take plenty of time but I wish them much luck as it’s well overdue and most welcome.

Granada Part 2

The centre of Granada is modernising at a fast pace with fancy hotels, internet cafes and bars opening almost weekly. However one only has to walk a few blocks to see the old Nicaragua happily existing as ever. Where you are as likely to see a shiny new 4x4 as you are a laden cart being pulled by oxen The market doesn’t compromise in any way and its energy is unforgiving, with vendors going about their daily business as normal.

A few more blocks and you cross the arrollos, storm channels, and life changes dramatically. Here colonial charm ends and reality hits, confirming the statistic that Nicaragua is the second poorest country in the Americas after Haiti.



Streets are of dirt (or since the rains have come, gloopy mud). Dwellings are made of any such material available, planks of wood, sheets of metal, flattened card, opened rice sacks and most have beaten earth floors.



Shortly many of these residents will become the owners of new more solid structures that they have built themselves under the guidance of NGO Las Casas de la Esperanza (www. casas-de-la-esperanza.org). Seeing the reality of what happens when the rains come I can only begin to imagine how much life will improve with a solid roof, walls and a concrete floor.




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7P9yU_2VX3c

Granada Part 1

Ma and Pa Pedlingham where here a few weeks ago for a flying visit (here we are atop Iglesia de La Merced) and I added Tour Guide to my list of many roles. Doing so made me realise that I am still yet to take you on a tour of the place that I have called home for the past 5 months.

This is certainly a tale of two halves as there is little relation between the Granada of the communities in which I work and that of colonial historic Granada. Part 1 will focus on the city of Granada and Part 2 on its surrounding communities.

The city of Granada was founded in 1524 Located on the shores of Lake Nicaragua it grew to be a very rich and strategically important city for the Spanish Crown. It was the first Atlantic coast city in HispanoAmerica, a strange fact considering it is approx. 250 kilometres from the coast. It is however linked to the ocean via Lake Nicaragua and Rio San Juan (see later blog). It has had a turbulent history, being attacked and levelled countless times by pirates and no-gooders. The Granada you see today was mostly built towards the end of the 19th century after the last major fire to level the city.

At that time Nicaragua was being ruled by filibuster William Walker. A north American despot he took advantage of the two warring political parties (Liberals from Leon and Conservatives from Granada) to declare himself president and had plans to annex Nicaragua to the US and even class it as a State (some would some that more recent US foreign policy had a somewhat similar sentiment but that’s a different story). Finally the two parties formed an alliance and managed to oust the none too happy Walker who on retreat put the city to flame, leaving as a parting gift a sign reading “Here was Granada”

Since his demise there has always remained a degree of tension between the two political cities. However movement was made with the formation of a neutral capital city, Managua, in the late 1800's. The only oversight of Managua was its placement on a substantial seismic fault which lead to its near total destruction in 1972. But again I digress.....

(pictured: Parque central, cathedral. For more general scenes of Granada see blog 'School Excursiones' where there is a Picassa link)

Food Summary

I haven´t done so well in keeping up to date with the food blogs and with time being an issue I have opted to write an overall summary of the best Nicaragua has to offer:

Fritanga – street side BBQ, best chicken in town served with platanos in a banana leaf to take away.
Gallo Pinto – see blog
Tortillas – Flat maize bread, a staple of the americas. How can something so simple be so delicious?
Frijoles – Enteros (whole), liquados, refritos. Beans in all their glory. I could and usually do eat them daily.
Ensalade de Vigoron – A Granada classic. Yucca and cabbage salad topped with fried pork skin (a giant pork scratching). Not a favourite of mine.
Indio Viejo – Maizena (maize flour) made into a paste and cooked with shredded chicken, vegetables and mint. Good.
Sopa de Albondigas - A Monday favourite, meatball soup.
Shrimp and Lobster – from the Atlantic coast. One of Nicaraguas lagest exports.
Plantanos – Verdes, green plantains, sliced finely and fried like crisps
Maduros, ripe and soft, fried whole, sugary and sweet
Tostones, battered rounds often topped with cheese
Quesillo – Mozerella type chees, serves with onion relish and wrapped in a tortilla
Nacatamale – Without doubt the tastiest Nica delight. Maizena stuffed with pork or chicken, rice, potato, spices and healthily but tastily, lard! Wrapped in a banana leaf and steamed. Only available at weekends and always worth the wait.
Ceviche – lime cookied seafod
Baho – Beef, yucca and platano steamed in a banana leaf
Tacos de Leon – worth going to Leon simply for these, see blog
Guapote- Lake fish, some as big as a child!
Iguana – still to try this delicacy
Toña & Victoria – National beers, our good friends
Flor de Caña – My best friend. The best rum in the world. ExtraLite, 4, 5 & 7 years.
Fesco – Fresh fruit juice sold in the street in a plastic bag with a straw. Pitaya, a cactus fruit being the best coloured and tastiest, a vibrant purple.

Isla Zapatera

Lake Nicaragua, or Lake Cocibolca, is vast. So vast in fact that the conquistadors named it El Mar Dulce (Sea of Fresh Water). Its largest island is the twin volcanoed Ometepe (see blog entry March), it was however to Omeptepe’s smaller sister Isla Zapatera that I went to this weekend.

I stayed in a small cooperative named Sozampote, a small group of 20 families who settled on the island some years ago, displaced from northern Nicaragua during the war.

With pretty much nothing to do except look at the most amazing view it was a perfect dose of tranquilo and a great escape from the bustle of the city.

I left this morning on the 5am boat and whist awaking from a doze to see the sun rising from the lakes waves Iit made me appreciate so much this life I am living and how lucky I am to be having experiences such as these.