You know it’s time to leave Quaker House when… February 28, 2010

…it’s 7:15 in the morning, you are fast asleep and the phone rings.  You have to bust through two locked doors and dodge several out of placed rocking chairs to answer it in time.  Only to find out that some one who said they would be arriving at noon will be arriving in 20 minutes. Ugghhh… FINE, I won’t sleep in today.  So you decide to make yourself your last cup of free Quaker House Coffee, but the dish drainer is piled so high if you breathe, everything will come a crashin down.  Even though you weren’t here are all day yesterday and you know exactly who it is that thinks that if they wash the dishes they are off the hook.  Because those same people got you all tangled up this morning when you tried to get to the phone and you knocked a huge power chord off the counter with a crash and their mess of wires from chargers and adapters made you feel like a crazy person.  You look around you and you see that even though they have only been here for two days, the place already looks like they’ve taken over.  Because they have.  Now, you’ve already turned on the coffee machine but you have to push start two more times to make sure all the water goes through.  And where is your cereal?  You just bought a box.  Oh, is that it over there, adopted by the other guests who have imagined that they bought it? Ah yes.  That’s the one.  Ring ring ring!!!! “Good morning, Quaker House… del hospital Lenin Fonseca, 5 cuadras al lago, 75 varas arriba, casa 14 … pues aquí estamos, la casa no se ha mudado… ¿cómo?…alo? alo? uggghhh HELLO?!” Slam! Damn coffee maker. HONK HONK! And there’s guest number one. Of three today.  And then I’m bustin out! HUGE SIGH OF RELIEF.

So this also means that I’m going to be out of range of the internet for a while, except when I’m at school or make a specific trip to the cafe with wi-fi.  Therefore, to give you all an idea, here are a couple of pictures of the new house!

Up the stairs into the house

Looking at our front gate from across the street

Instead of a car we have a kiddie pool

Looking from front door through the living room and kitchen to back door

Panoramic view of the kitchen

The mango tree in our back yard..mangoes are almost ready to eat!

The Tea and Spice Shelf!

Kitchen Counter full of goodies...

Looking into the bedroom from the living room

New dresser and shoes and other such things

Wall decorations, including prints from the mom

A Day at the Market (Movin on in) February 24, 2010

Right now I’m super friggin tired. I have spent all day in the hot Managua sun getting the necessary things for the casita and moving them in.  This morning, Luis and I woke up early and went to the Mercado Oriental (the biggest outdoor market in Central America) to find our furniture.  In order to make sure that we were getting a good deal we had to trek around in the dirt and the mud and the heat and the sun and the crazy people with food and drink carts trying to run me over, to get lots of different prices.  In the end we done good.  We bought a big dresser with the top section for hanging clothes, the bottom with drawers, and on the front of the closet part their is a long mirror (so that killed two birds with one stone) – that is for my clothes.  For Luis we bought a regular dresser with drawers.  We also bought a rectangular wooden table for the kitchen and four green plastic chairs to go with it.  Then, we went a huntin for a refrigerator.  We ended up buying a small washing machine (which is very primitive because it has two parts, one which fills with water and washes, and the other where you put the wet clothes to spin the water out of them).  And we made a deal with one of our favorite market men to find us the refrigerator we wanted at the price we wanted and to deliver it to us in a couple of days.  Then we packed our purchases and 4 men into a truck to take to the new place.  On the way we stopped in la Maximo to pick up Luis’ bed which somehow managed also to fit in the truck with the men, and we headed on over to Casa Nuestra.  The men nicely unpacked it in about two seconds and we were on our way back to Las Brisas.

Ate some lunch, took a shower (but my feet are still not clear of the market dirt so I will have to give them a good scrubbing later), and packed up another bag full of kitchen stuff to bring back to the house.  It was like Christmas unpacking all of the goodies all over again.  Seriously.  Seeing everything we had and putting it on the shelves in our beautiful kitchen made my heart just jump for joy.  Knowing that all the goodies I had saved for months I would now be able to USE…makes it all worth the wait.  From there I came to work at the American School for my second to last day with this level 6 group.  Guess how long it took me to get from my front door to the school. You’ll never guess. 5 MINUTES! Compare to 25 from las Brisas.  There are no words. None.  I’m happy as a clam.

Oh yes and let me explain the other goodness…we made a deal with Heather that if we paid for the whole fridge, we would get to stay in the big room for two months paying the same rent before we had to start paying an extra $50 bucks.  That’s all I can say, it’s all just too good.  In the next couple of days we will get the fridge and hopefully get some internet set up and then we’ll be pretty much set.  Just you wait.  Probably on Friday or Saturday I will bring my camera to take some pictures so you can all get a good visual of the new place.

JOY!

Movin On Up February 23, 2010

So here’s the deal…you know how I said I was hoping to move some time soon? Out of Quaker House, into a place of my own? Well, it’s finally happening. Though not as I had expected. So let me lay a few things out for those who haven’t heard much about this plan.

Luis and I have two very good friends named Angie and Ariel – Angie is from Costa Rica and came to live in Nicaragua with Ariel about 10 months ago.  Ariel is half Chilean, half Nicaraguan, and has lived in Nicaragua for the last 6 years or so – previously he had lived in Chile and Canada.  Angie and I are both in the unfortunate position of not having Nicaraguan Residency, which means that jobs are limited (essentially we are just like the illegal Mexican immigrants trying to find work under the table in the states).  Fortunately for me, native English speakers are in relatively high demand which means I was able to find two jobs which paid a decent  salary based solely on the fact the English is my first language.  Angie has had much more of a struggle finding jobs and currently works excessive hours to receive a very low salary at a wine shop in Managua.  Between the four of us we all had hopes of living together in a house independently (of Quaker House for Luis and I, and of Ariel’s family for the two of them).  We had been saving for months to be able to afford the first months rent, deposit, and other basic necessities (a fridge, a stove, furniture, etc.).  Luis and I had been ready for a time, but we hadn’t found anything that made sense.

On a different note, but one which is still relevant to the end result, I have been struggling with my relative lack of independence since I came to Nicaragua.  It is something that has been very stressful for me, as well as for Luis, and I wasn’t sure that there was ever going to be a real solution to this problem.  And while I want to stay here for a while longer (at the very least a year more), I felt that I had to find a solution to this or I would go out of my mind.  The solution finally presented itself to me this weekend.  I can only feel independent if I feel that I could legitimately live for myself and not need to rely on Luis or my other two friends.

Another friend of mine who has been living in Nicaragua for the past 9 months just got a job teaching English at the same school where I teach.  Her name is Heather Rankin, and she therefore needed to find a place to live in Managua.  I met her for coffee on Saturday to hear what was new with her and to hear about this cute place that she had found.  As she told me all about it, I started to swoon and wished I had been so lucky.  Then she says, “but I can only pay the rent for a little while on my own before I have to find a roommate.  You and Luis should live with me.”  I bit my nails and looked at the floor thinking about all the time we had spent planning with Angie and Ariel, but I agreed to go look at the house.  We walked there from the mall (!!!you can walk there from the mall and walk to Luis’ house too, which doesn’t usually happen in this city).  I loved it.  It’s in a great location, it’s small which is good considering none of us have much stuff to fill it up with, but it’s got a really big kitchen, which everyone knows is the most important part of the house.   It’s got a HUGE gate in front which opens up into a garage of sorts where we can park two cars (ha! yeah right), and then go up the stairs to enter the house.  In the back there is a large patio (as of now there is only dirt and no grass), with a great big Mango tree providing shade.  Luis and I will be moving into the teeny tiny shoebox room to start until we save up a bit more, at which point we may switch with Heather to have the great big room.  This is to say that we will be able to fit a bed, and maybe a bedside table, but no big dresser which we will need to store all of our clothes. That’ll just have to go out in the living room, which is gonna be empty for a short time.  And I couldn’t be happier about this.  Eventually we will be buying some furniture to fill the living room and kitchen.  But for now we will start out with only the necessary.  I had this fantastic idea that instead of buying regular chairs we could buy hammock chairs and hang them from the beams in the living room… it could happen…

Anyway. After seeing this house, and talking to Heather, I realized that in this house with this person I could feel just fine being independent.  And for some time this may be the case, while Luis looks for a more stable job (leading delegations is great, but they don’t always happen every month).  It was also clear that should anything happen (such as me losing a job or losing my mind or other such emergency type situations) it would not be impossible to find some one to replace me in this house – something which would have been considerably more difficult had we signed a contract with our other friends – and it would not have been fair to put them in that position.  As much as I love the other two, as soon as I saw this house and spoke with Heather about the possibility of living there, I realized that this was the solution to many of my independence problems and that it was something I was needing to do for myself.  So here I go. Starting the next chapter in Nicalandia.  And if anyone around these parts knows of a good NGO which could use a Managua based volunteer a few hours a week – I am ready and willing.  Or will be in about two weeks. Solo avisame.

Oh, and I learned a bit of interesting information.  Heather is a chemist who has been specializing in water chemistry down here, and she has informed me that the water filters at the Quaker House (as well as those used in the homes of SIT families) are only designed to filter out certain types of fecal bacteria, and that in fact the water in Managua is already pre-treated to do this.  Therefore, the filters that everyone uses are only for the peace of mind of the foreigners passing through who are afraid to drink from the tap water.  Who knew?

Ah yes, and the other piece of good news – I used to get very sad about the lack of interesting food at the grocery store here in Las Brisas, and not that there will be much more in the way of delicious produce, but the grocery store near our house is nearly twice the size of the other, and I’m super excited to go food shopping there.

YAY! That’s all really.  Except that we have to call one of the tv/internet companies to come set up wireless at our house, so I’m going to have to go around stealing wireless for a while until that happens. Anyway, wish me luck, and I will be taking pictures very soon to show you all.

Kate. Out.

Words from a friend February 20, 2010

Today a friend of mine who lives about 5/6 blocks away wrote the following post on facebook:

OMG 4 ladrones armados acaban de asaltar a mis vecinos, y yo viendo todo creyendo que se trataba de otra cosa, robaron su automovil nuevo,celulares,ipod,omg estoy en shock ni siquiera se taparon las caras los hdp y estuvieron por mas de 5 minutos

Yo pensaba que vivia en una zona bastante segura pero la delincuencia si que ha subido en los últimos tiempos en Nicaragua, por suerte mis vecinos están bien no les hicieron daño fisico y por suerte nosotros nos dormimos temprano porque sino hubiese sido a nosotros que nos hubieran asaltado, y según contaron nuestros vecinos el primer rehén que tomaron fué a un niñito como 3 ó 4 años que le pusieron una pistola en la cabeza para intimidar aún más a mis vecinos, estuvieron dentro de la casa como 10 minutos viendo que se robaban, y la policía tardó 1 hora para venir con sus 3 patrullas!

Roughly translated: “Oh My God. 4 armed robbers just assaulted my neighbors, and me watching the whole thing thinking that something else was going on, they stole their new car, cellphones, ipod, oh my god I’m in shock, they didn’t even cover their faces the bastards, and they were there for more than 5 minutes  And I used to think I lived in a safe area, but delinquency has risen lately in Nicaragua, luckily my neighbors are okay and they weren’t hurt physically, and luckily we had gone to sleep early because if we hadn’t it could have been us that they assaulted, and our neighbors tell us that the first hostage they took was a three or four year old boy, that they put a gun to his head to intimidate my neighbors even more.  They were in the house for like 10 minutes, watching as they were being robbed, and it took the police an hour to arrive with their three patrols.”

The police station is less than 10 blocks away.  They probably “didn’t have any gas for their cars.”

Okay, so again, I write this not to scare you all and to make you fear for me.  This is just the reality of where I live, and it makes me sad, mostly to think about that little boy and how this will affect him.  And while you reflect on this, I just want you to remember that there is nothing about me or you that deserves to avoid this reality any more than these people.  We just got lucky to be born where we were into the circumstances that we were given, but we are no better than this family in my neighborhood, and we are no more deserving of the security that we have than they are.  But we got it, and they didn’t.  So my hope is that by sharing this story, you will all take a minute to be grateful for the sense of security that you have and to recognize that you have it by chance and not because you are as a person more deserving than others.  That sounds a bit like an accusation, and I don’t mean it to, I just know that there are enough people living in the states who hold on to the idea that they are somehow better or that there is a real reason why they shouldn’t have to deal with this kind of fear and insecurity while others should and do.  And while I have the opportunity to avoid this kind of life, I am choosing to be in the middle of it so that I don’t continue to shut my eyes to it and so that others around me feel a little bit more connected to the world than they would be by reading a newspaper article about the sad conditions in third world countries.

Happy updates to come.  Because despite this there is lots of joy and happiness in this country as well.

Things That Happen February 19, 2010

Valentine’s Day happened.  That’s one thing.  It must be said that V-Day in Nicaragua is a hell of a lot easier to cope with than the horrid day in the States.  In my opinion anyway.  I know some of you are thinking right now “well of course it’s better because you are there with some one.” True, but not the point.  First of all, it is known as El Día de los Enamorados y los Amigos – the Day of Loved Ones and Friends, more or less.  And people really do take the friends part seriously.  I saw one or two advertisements mentioning Valentine’s day dinner specials for two, but aside from that, the streets, malls, and public spaces were noticeably devoid of red and white. Hearts were few and far between.  And no boxes of chocolate in street windows (partly I’m sure because they would melt).

Thinking I should celebrate the day even just a little bit, Luis and I decided to go see the movie Valentine’s Day. A Terrible Mistake.  Awful.  Again, in my opinion.  The less than romantic part is that we went with the whole family – which includes Mamita, Jorge, and the new host-sister Jennifer.  Mamita and Jennifer quite enjoyed the film.  Jorge fell asleep.  And then we met some friends to listen to music that afternoon at one of my favorite bars (the word bar somehow makes it sound seedy to me, but get that image out of your head, and replace it with an artsy little bohemian nook with brightly painted walls and african style art where good music is always playing or being played).  Finally went home in the evening to eat left-over Portuguese Stone Soup, which couldn’t have been more delicious.

The next day I taught class at the American school and asked my students about Valentine’s Day and what it means to them.  Pretty much everyone said that they don’t really care about it, and at most they spend the day with friends enjoying each other’s company.  But then again, two of them are married and the rest are plain and simple single.  So, who knows really.

And on a different note, about the weather.  HOT. I know, tell me something I haven’t heard.  Well I’ve been managing well enough, but now even the Nicaraguans are starting to complain and melt.  They say “oh just you wait, Semana Santa [Easter Week] is about 10 times worse,” and I wonder how anyone survives it.  But I suppose I will find out sooner or later.  In the meantime, the crazy weird neighbors, which whom my bedroom shares a wall, decided recently to add a roof to their front patio area.  In order to do that they also had to build up their wall next to ours.  This resulted in the sealing up of the few air holes in my own wall which allowed for the tiniest bit of ventilation.  So.  Weather gets hotter, and the room is not equally as hot but perhaps 4 times more sweltering than before.  During the day, it’s pretty much impossible to be there.  I try to avoid it.  But you know, when the house is full of guests, it can get to a point where I want to pull my hair out for lack of my own personal space.

On that note – trying still to find a house.  Some of you know, others do not, that Luis and I have been trying to save money and find a house to rent with two of our friends, Angie and Ariel.  It’s been slow going and now things are up in the air about whether it might in fact be best for each couple to try to rent their own apartment.  Needless to say their are lots of factors that go into making these decision, and in general I’m just a little bit confused at the moment as to what is the best way to go.  And while Quaker House is slowly driving me insane for lack of privacy and an inability to take advantage of free time when there are guests, I am still grateful that I have this place to stay in while we sort things out and decide where to go next.

I’m a bit tired now.  I just watched Breakfast at Tiffany’s to help unwind after a very windy (read: wine-dy) day, which worked marvelously. And now seems like as good a time as any to SLEEP. So. Updates as they are relevant.  Hasta la Pasta people.

What a Day – not unusual February 8, 2010

I will never get over the fact that I don’t have a car.

Having said that, I’m terrified at the thought of driving in Managua.  So I find myself in a bit of a double-bind here.  But let me just tell you WHY I so desperately wish I had a car and that I didn’t become paralyzed with fear at the thought of driving it.  On Mondays I must somehow transport myself and my things from the Quaker House in Las Brisas to the farthest point away (that is technically still in Managua), aka Las Colinas, aka the rich ass neighborhood which is home to about a zillion embassies as well as at least two posh private schools, of which el Curie is one.  Following my afternoon social studies class at the Curie, I must get myself to the American school, in “nearby” neighborhood las Lomas de Montserrat.  To get to either of these schools you might take a bus that drops you off somewhere in the general vicinity, but you will still have a good ways to walk under the scorching sun and if you ever feel the need to bring your laptop with you, you better forget about it.  From the American school, every evening at 8 p.m. I must then make the trip allllll the way back to las Brisas.  The following day, I make a different combination of trips to the same places at different times.  Wednesday and Thursday, I am lucky enough to only have to get myself to the American school, which makes things considerably less complicated.  So.  I don’t have a car.  How do I do it?  Oh well, a combination of buses, public taxis, and private taxis.

Some say it is lucky that both my “suegro” (father-in-law) and “tio” (uncle) are taxi drivers, because much of the time I can rely on them to help me to get to where I’m going.  And certainly at first I felt quite lucky to have them around as well.  The hilarious thing is that just in this moment I received a phone call telling me that what was an already complicated afternoon will be an equally complicated evening.  But we will get to that in just a minute.  Returning to the subject.  After a time, I realized that while it is quite nice to know the taxi drivers I am with and not to fear that they will rip me off or worse, it is not so nice when they are not reliable.  That is to say that from time to time I must wait for 15 minutes to an hour to be picked up from my destination.  I have on more than one occasion been called just before I was expecting them to arrive to tell me that they will not be coming.   On one occasion as it became later and later I had to call the uncle’s house to ask where he was (as he was not answering his cell phone) only to discover that he was in a meeting and would not be coming at all.

Sometimes this is just an inconvenience and I just have to walk out to the street to find another taxi.  Other times it costs me an extra 80 cords (which is a lot for poor me) to not be late.  Other times it is a matter of frantically asking parents whether they will take me to the “primera entrada” so I can even find a taxi to take me to my destination (because in Las Colinas one cannot find a taxi outside of the school at all).  And this evening I was just told that there would be no one to pick me up from the American School to take me home.  In this case, I have almost no options.  Because I cannot walk to the main street as the chances of me being robbed or worse are extremely high and then the chances of me getting into a sketchy taxi equally high.  Therefore, I would be stuck at this school until some kind soul decided to come get me.  Or else I would sleep on a bench until a security guard kicked me to the curb.

What happened today?  Better to start from last night, whence Donal the suegro told me that Alberto the uncle’s car was fixed and he was going to call me about picking me up for class on Monday.  He didn’t. I called this morning.  He couldn’t take me today, but said he could take me tomorrow.  I get huffy and leave 30 minutes early so I can take the bus half way and then a taxi.  Only about 5 large blocks before my stop, the bus breaks down in the middle of a highly trafficked street.  Everyone lines up to get off the bus as the bus driver (surprisingly) returns 2.5 cords to each passenger.  I walk two blocks so as not to get charged too much extra and find a nice old man to take me to my school.  I still do not know who will be picking me up that afternoon to take me to school #2.  Minutes before entering the classroom I call Donald for about the 6th time and he finally answers and affirms that he can be at the school at 3 to take me to my other school.  Great. Problem solved.  3:05, no sign of Donald, so I call. So sorry yerna, I can’t make it, you’ll have to find another way.  Oh, no problem whatsoever, there are no taxis that come by here, but I’m sure I’ll find a way.  Lucky for me, one of my students walked passed me just at that moment to step into his car and hustle away, so I ask if his mom could drop me at the first entrance to take a taxi.  Half way to the entrance she decides she should just run some errands while she’s out, so she kindly offers to drop me off at my school.  Thank the lord. Double problem solved.

6:30  p.m., I shouldn’t even be on my computer, should be teaching my class when I receive a frantic message from Luis saying his father can’t get me from class. Quick! Call Alberto.  Lucky AGAIN he happens to be passing through the area and will pick me up at 8.  So I make it home alive.  The amount of luck and juggling with transportation blows the mind.

This would never ever have happened to me in Vermont.  Then again, if I were living in Vermont right now I would be freezing my ass off.  So there you have it. For the love of all things good, I just wish for a car, or good/reliable public transportation + a reasonable measure of security.  Too bad that’s not likely to happen here in my lifetime.  Can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings.

This turned into a super pessimistic entry. Promise to smile and paint rainbows in the next one.

I’m Back. For real. February 4, 2010

Today, Thursday, the fourth day of February 2010, I am back to my blog.  For as long as I can be disciplined about it.  Which as my track record shows, may not be very longng.  But I will try.

I am writing this update to you all from my favorite spot in Managua, the Casa del Cafe in los Robles.  It is breezy, there is some tango music playing in the background and I can hear the espresso machine whirring.  I have an hour before I have to leave for class, and there is no better time than the present to catch you all up on life.

To begin with, I went home for Christmas, and the first two things I noticed were: sensory overload in the airport from being surrounded by so many THINGS, and the frigging freezing cold.  I slept under three blankets my first night at home, and never really adjusted to the cold in my two weeks in Vermont.  It was fantastic to see my family and friends and sit next to a fire and drink wine and delicious coffee and eat SO MUCH FOOD that I had been missing.  I stocked up on spices and tea and kitchen supplies while stateside.  And this trip was very important to me for one other reason – it showed me that even though I missed my friends and family while I was away, that really my life is no longer in Vermont.  There is so much about Vermont that I love and will miss again, but I saw that what I want in my life is what I am creating for myself in Nicaragua.  So that came as somewhat of a surprise to me, but it was nice to feel that while waiting for my flight out of Burlington that there was no regret and that I was ready to really dig in when I got back to Managua.

Plus, it didn’t hurt to know that waiting for me at the airport would be my besty from Middlebury, Ms. Sakura Yagi.  She visited me for a week following her vacation in Costa Rica with her boyfriend and his family.  It was perfect timing for me because I didn’t have to start teaching at either school until the following week.  So we hung out in Managua, went to Nagarote and Granada, watched Sherlock Holmes in theater with friends Michael and Peter (who was visiting from Belgium), complained about delegations, and talked about BOYS.  Just like Sunday mornings at Middlebury.  It was lovely.  But then my Sakura had to return to her life in NYC.  Which genuinely sucked.  I cried when her taxi drove away.  And then I picked myself up by the proverbial bootstraps.

Only to face my first week all alone in Managua, as Luis packed up and left to help lead a delegation. Boo.  That was a true struggle for me.  As some of you know, being a white woman alone in Managua without a car can be an enormous challenge.  I was also starting teaching a new group of students at ANS and was unsure what to expect from them.  I neglected to update my blog during the teaching of the last group – which was, to say the least, a horrendous challenge.  They almost made me cry on the last day of class.  Seriously atrevidos.   Needless to say, I was crossing all my fingers and toes to have an easier group this time.  And thank god, I do.  These two groups are a pleasure to work with.  I want to hug them all sometimes for being so cooperative and interested.

Anyhow, Luis returned from his adventures in the campo, and life started over again.  We began the house hunt with our friends Angie and Ariel, and Luis began his job hunt.  It wasn’t long before Luis’ father mentioned that he was hoping to buy a second car and that he was going to need extra help since his number of clients had finally grown to a point where he could no longer accomodate them all.  This is where things stand: Luis is at this very moment driving the streets of Managua with a driving instructor.  In about a week he will take his test to receive his license.  By March Donald hopes to have purchased the new car.  By March we hope to be living in a new house.  By March Luis hopes to be starting his thriving business as a driver for Donald’s clients as well as his own from Quaker House and SIT.  Why not? Check in with me in a month and see where we are with all of the above.

And now me.  I am in the process of getting my residency here.  Luis’ brother Jorge is helping me to speed up the process, and if all goes well I could be a legal resident of Nicaragua in a matter of weeks.  And I am happy.  I think it took me going home and seeing how much my life (and I) had changed in order to realize that I could really be happy here.  I came back knowing what I wanted.  And I am making that happen.  With a little help from my friends.  Of course there are days when I just want to throw my hands up and throw a fit like a 5 year old.  But in the end, I feel more than ever that I am exactly where I am supposed to be.

Thats probably enough of an update for now, right? Please comment, question, and tell me about you all and what I’m missing…

HAPPY 2010!!!