Apologies to our long neglected blog! It has been a whole month since we last updated and how quickly it has passed already! This month has been our working month! I have really been getting into my research – arranging transport, visits, carrying out questionnaires, interviews, focus groups and perhaps being slightly stressed about the fact that one third of my time in Nicaragua has already passed. All the while I feel I’m living a double life – week days getting to grips with people living in extremely difficult conditions in my project communities....and when I get a day off taking advantage of being in a beautiful country half way across the world – seeing the Granadas, the Leons, the tourist havens.... They really are worlds apart. Matt has been busy settling in, arranging his best-friend’s stag do remotely, collecting resources for the many projects he’s working on and learning Spanish.
On the field:
Getting to some interviewees is more difficult than others!...
I have been getting to know 2 off grid communities or comarcas, La Quebradita and Papayal, a 1½ hour very dusty and bumpy ride from Masaya. The two comarcas are highly isolated and fragile communities, it really is difficult coming to terms with the conditions that people there cope with everyday. One is tied up in a land conflict, where the landowner is trying to scare families off the land, in the second they’re waiting for land titles, but both lack all basic services, including drinking water, latrines, a nearby health centre, electricity and adequate housing. Ironically private power lines pass directly overhead the houses, but are used exclusively to pump the many private wells that irrigate the surrounding rice fields. I’m interested in getting to know these communities because this will be the site of a new solar project in the coming month.... Most of the inhabitants have lived their whole lives without electricity, so this will be an enormous change for those who become involved in the project.
Dinner in La Quebradita
I’m getting to know individual members and their stories, it’s nice to be welcomed so warmly into people’s lives. The women in Papayal are particularly warm towards me – they tell me that they are happy that someone is taking an interest in their lives. It struck me how life here is so fragile...one of the ladies helping me out, Doña Prudencia, told me how recently her 2 month old grandson was taken ill and then died suddenly. Living in such an isolated, disconnected community means getting to hospital quickly is just not possible.
Over the coming months I hope to be able to get to grips with the impacts and changes that electricity brings.
On learning Spanish in Monimbó:
Matt, or Mateo or Mateito (‘little Matt’) as he is now known locally has been busy learning Spanish – I’m very impressed at how well he is doing! 3 weeks with a local teacher I swear his Spanish is better than mine was at A-level...I’ve been testing him on vocab....which at times has me in stitches:
Dani: Matt, what is “ant” in Spanish?
Matt: oreja?
Dani: no, that is ear
Matt: ortega?
Dani: no, that is the President
Matt: hormiga?
Dani: correct.
The President of the Nicaraguan Republic is now known as “Comandante Daniel Hormiga” in our very pro-FSLN lodgings.
On more trips across Nicaragua:
The most exciting/random day goes to a trip we took to Leon. Leon is a beautiful colonial city in the north-west of Nicaragua, supposedly set in the most volcanic terrain in the whole world!! Matt and I headed there early in the morning so that I could interview the boss of a solar panel company... On the way our bus crashed and then half way through my interview, there was an earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale!! Fortunately no body/where in Nicaragua was damaged, but it was quite frightening nonetheless, (but Matt was outside in the park and hardly noticed: he was looking around afterward for the culprit he thought was shaking his bench!). After a rather traumatic start to the day, we explored Leon: viewed what is considered the finest collection of art in Central America, ate raspado (ice mixed with sugary syrup...mmmm), got sunburnt looking at a mural which depicts Nicaragua’s troubled history, then climbed to the top of Central America’s largest cathedral, taking in the views... which are stunning!
For the Black Ops fans - Matt going 'prone' in volcanic terrain
As well as all of this, two weeks ago we managed a fleeting visit to Costa Rica for a visa run – after half a day travel, a massive 3 hour queue, narrowing avoiding bandits blagging that our visa run was illegal and that they could get us through via a “friend” for a “fee” ... 4 stamps later, we’ve finally got another 90 day stay in Nicaragua!
This last week we have both been ill and a little home sick. Monday to Thursday of this week have been occupied with visits to the family doctor, Dr Picado (should we be concerned that his surname translates as drunk?!), who prescribed us a pharmacy of medicines, and an intravenous pain reliever to cure our ailments! My experience so far suggests that Nicaraguans are on the side of hypochondria – perhaps why every visit to the pharmacy is like battling with a 4 deep bar queue on a busy FND? The slightest ailment – be sure that there is an injection or tablet to be taken!
All better now though... and so back to work. We are both looking forward very much to our visitors Albo and Alex to the Bay Islands in Honduras come April time and hopefully Simon at the end of March... and what seems like a very long time away: June when Jenny (Mum) and Jenni come out to visit the CHTrust projects.
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