Trying to fit 3 weeks into one post

I had been telling myself for about 3 weeks that I needed to update my blog and write a new post. I guess this could be used as an example in a manual on how to procrastinate. Anyway, the past 3 weeks have been quite eventful. The first weekend in July I went with some friends to San Juan del Sur, which is otherwise known as gringo paradise. It used to be a quite fishing village, but has since turned into a huge tourist hot spot beach town, with a strip of restaurants, bars, and hostels. (picture below is view from beach at sunset)

While the actual San Juan del Sur beach is nothing to write home about, the beaches in the surrounding area are pristine. They have great waves for surfing, or just for jumping around in, and they are very secluded. We were fortunate to have access to my friend's trooper of an SUV, as well as her superior off road driving skills, to survive a flat tire in Managua and make it to these beaches. While the town, filled with foreign tourists, backpackers, and surfers, made me a feel like I had left Nicaragua for the time being, staying out till 5 am on Saturday night, a true baccanal, brought me back.

As if spending the weekend traveling to the beach wasn't enough, the parents came down last week to spend some time with me, and to see Nicaragua. I guess it's a good excuse to travel when you have a kid in a foreign country. We were able to make it to Leon, Granada, Omitepe, and then again to San Juan del Sur. The trip was a blast, the highlights being my hike up Volcan Maderas in Ometepe (causing me to rip a hole in my shoes), and seeing a turtle lay eggs on playa flor.  It was nice to be spoiled for a week (hot water  and AC in the hotel rooms).

(Me after hiking 3 and 1/2 hours up to the crater of Maderas, it was another 3 hours down in a down pour).

It's unbelievable to think that I only have 3 weeks left here. There are exciting things coming up with work. I am supposed to be the featured guest on our radio show on July 26 talking about the work that we do with 1 in 4 back at Conn. Additionally, I am slated to be an extra on the TV show, as they need some foreign extras for a scene. I'm still waiting on the date for that, but it should be in the next few weeks!

Stay tuned for hopefully more posts soon. I'll try not to have a 3 week break in between this one as well, but no promises!

Until next time, from Nicaragua,
Alex

Que Tuani No ser Machista

Que Tuani no ser machista! is a campaign that I helped launch last Friday in San Ramon, a small rural town in the province of Matagalpa, near Matagalpa city. We left my house at 5 am, when the sun was already out, to head to the north of the country. Though I slept for most of the drive up, I was able to see the absolutely gorgeous countryside on the way back. Nicaragua is a unbelievably beautiful country, with pristine lakes, rolling hills, and lush countryside.

The event, a final launching of the campaign "Que tuani no ser machista", was a complete success. 200 kids from various towns within the Matagalpa province, or municipio as it's called, came out, many of whom walked 2 hours each way just to catch a bus to come to the event. There were various performances, of dance, music, and various speeches. Additionally, local news channels came out, and the event was on the 6 o'clock evening news! The campaign is a play on words, using the word, tuanis, which is the Costa Rican word for "cool". In Nicaragua, people generally don't pronounce their s's. So for example, "el bus" would be said in Nicaragua as "el bu". So, the campaign is saying "it is cool to not be sexist", while poking fun at the Nicaraguan dialect. Overall, it was great to see how the organization puts on events, and the impact that it has on both young men and women throughout the country.

In my spare time, I have begun to practice Capoeira Angola, which is a traditional Brazilian martial art/dance that was created by slaves and is still practiced today. I am not the martial arts type of person, nor am I much of a dancer, but my colleagues from work invited me, so last week I went to the class to check it out. It's not easy, especially the part where you have to stand on your head (the instructor is working with me one on one to get this down, I still haven't mastered it), but for the most part its manageable. After we complete the physical motions, we get together and play on various percussive instruments to learn the song that accompanies it. It's overall a very fun time, and a good workout. I even got a t-shirt out of it (unfortunately not for free), but it does make me look legit.

This week, it's been back to work, and then this weekend, well I'll let you know once it happens.

Stay tuned for more adventures from Nicaragua! (below is a picture from the internet of capoeira angola, to give you an idea of what it looks like)

-Alex

1 week down, 8 to go (more or less)

It's official. I have completed one full week of work (and now a weekend) in Managua this summer. While the week started pretty slowly, it sure picked up this weekend. The word here for a party in which one has a great time and goes pretty hard is baccanal (not sure if this is the correct spelling, but it's how it sounds). I hear it around the office all the time in contexts like "tenés sueño? que paso? mucho baccanal anoche?".

I am happy to say that I experienced this so called "baccanal", this weekend. Friday night included going to a happening bar with lots of dancing to salsa, reggeton, and whatever else. Saturday night consisted of going to a concert, followed by going to the same bar I had gone to on Friday night, but with different people (and for whatever reason worse music). Squeezed in between those late nights was a visit to the monument of Sandino, as well as an exhibit about his life, and a walk to another one of the big shopping malls, Plaza Inter.

What better way to recover from two baccanals? Relaxing on the beach, or as was my case, relaxing at the lagoon. On Sunday, I went to the Laguna del apoyo, pictured above, which is the remains of a volcano that blew its top. Fortunately, for many people including myself, this has created a place where the water is warm, calm, and very soothing. It was certainly the perfect way to end a crazy first week. The location of this laguna is about 45 minutes outside of Managua, but if you were to ask for directions, Nicas would probably tell you "alli no mas" (just right over there, which is used for anything from a block to 5 hours away).

Anyway, more to come on this week, including my first time practicing capoeira! Stay tuned!

Hasta luego,
Alex

The long-awaited arrival in Nicaragua

It's been a whirlwind since I arrived in Nicaragua on Saturday night. It is a certainly an interesting place. There are no street names or street signs, nor are there official languages. I left my foreseen address blank on the airport customs forms because my address of "from the evangelical university, four blocks to the north, one block to the east, house number 97, etc" was too long to write on the form. I think that is part of the charm of Managua however, is that it is a truly unique place. As the quadrilingual couple who owns the house I am staying in explained to me, Managua is more of a big town with a lot of traffic than a true metropolis. There are no tall buildings, all the houses are one story to protect against earthquakes, after the catastrophic quake of '72. There is also no real downtown. There are a few areas with some shops, aka shopping malls which greatly resemble shopping malls in the US, which also have some restaurants. However, there is no concentrated commercial area.

Below is a picture from the internet of what the Managua public busses look like. They are old school busses imported from the US, decorated and re-modeled to be used as city busses.

I am still figuring out my way around the city a little bit. Taxis here are very cheap (it's a buck fifty from my house to the office of Puntos de Encuentro), so I've been taking them everywhere, but I hope to take the bus tomorrow. The buses, as are pictured above, are apparently a different experience, so I'm excited to hopefully not get lost because unlike other cities, trying to use street names will not suffice. Instead, I will be forced to ask someone how to get to "from the plaza españa, four blocks down, 1 block towards the lake". If you come to Managua, make sure you take your sense of direction with you.

Stay tuned for more Nicaraguan adventures, I'll hopefully have some pictures for those crazy people who like visual references.

-Alex