El Campo

So I am finally back in Managua after surviving 4 nights and days in the campo (countryside) of Nicaragua. They were not kidding when they said the campo and that we would be roughing it. We were split up into 3 different communities. I stayed in a house that had a dirt floor, walls of mud and sticks, and it was one room..."oven", bed, "sink", everything. It was like stepping back into time. There is no potable water in the area and all their water comes from the river so I also had a Filtron (a ceramic filter) in the house. The community is situated amongst the mountains and for me to get to other group members houses I literally had to hike up mountains for at least half an hour. On small foot trails. My house had no electricity (or running water) so at night once it got dark the we would sit outside staring at the millions and millions of clear stars, so clear and plentiful that finding Orions belt was difficult. I slept in a hammock which was not too bad but also not the most sleep condusive environment. Nor were the gabillion roosters that would crow at all hours of the morning night and day and the howler monkeys that really liked to be loud at about 3am. Suffice it to say I never got out of the hammock later than 5am. I ate tons of food even though I could rarely finish all they gave me which I felt bad about and I learned how to make corn tortillas (for every meal) including the grinding of the corn.

I lived with an older woman, Sra. Antonia, and a 50 yr old man, Esteban, who is somehow related. Around my house were 3 other little houses with their family members and grand children. Oh, and tons of chickens and roosters that wandered in and out of the house and pigs too...and sad looking dogs. I thought the hardest part was going to be battling the bugs (not so bad at all) but it turned out that communication was the most difficult. The women I encountered (this is all just my own experience and other people had different ones and similar ones...) rarely gave me long answers to questions I asked. The Spanish accent is also more difficult to understand. I did find out that the Sra. has lived in the same town her whole life and has never left to work. For her entire life she has been working the house, cooking, cleaning, washing clothes in the river on the stones, and bathing. For her entire life. We would sometimes sit in silence for long periods of time until I would ask a question and get a short answer or she would point to a plant or tree or fruit and tell me its name and how it can be used as medicine. We also cooked together. When Esteban would come home at night we would sit outside and talk. The campesinos were told that they were our teachers for the 4 days and he took his job very seriously. The first 2 nights we talked about the indigenous culture, poverty, agriculture, his situation. The last 2 nights he told me bible stories. Not trying to convert me, but just feeling the need to inform me of them. Even when I tried to steer the conversation elsewhere he went back to the bible which was frustrating. But he was very nice and enthusiastic. We were there during their "vacation" as they are unable to harvest or get their land ready yet so there was lots and lots of just sitting around. It was also an extremely eye opening experience...especially when they asked me where Canada was and what it was and questions that are so obvious to me but not to people without a TV or radio or newspapers and with an hour and a half walk to the closest "city". It was really relaxing and tranquil and the views were gorgeous. I have yet to figure out how to load up my pictures but I will do that sometime this week hopefully so wait for those.

I have so much more to say but neither the space nor the energy to be able to tell you all my experiences in a blog. You will all be able to hear more in person....or email me and ask me specific questions! This week we are in Managua but next week we leave for a 2 week trip to El Salvador and Honduras. Time is starting to go by much faster.