Random Thoughts

Some random thoughts – 39 days into our Nica Adventure

·         I have gone 39 days without TV and I don’t feel like I have missed a thing.  I did watch 2 hours of the Super Bowl and I know Rachel is recording The Walking Dead for me.  Other than that, I can do without the old boob tube.

·         I am officially addicted to the internet.  I can do without TV but I do feel lost and disconnected after a few days without the internet.  The weird thing is, in most cases it is easier to get wifi here than at home.  Virtually every business has it and makes it available to their customers.

·         Nicaragua is plagued by the same two problems that plague most third world countries – government and water.  I have written about the government earlier.  The issue of water is quite simple.  Half the year they have too much and the other half they don’t have enough!  It is amazing to see how they have adapted to take advantage of these realities.

·         Zucchini squash won’t grow in Nicaragua.  The temperature is perfect.  The soil is incredibly rich and you can water them to meet their needs.  The plants will flourish but you will not get a single ripened vegetable.  Why you ask?  There is not enough sunlight.  The Nica day is 12 hours of light and dark all year round.  The squash needs the longer daylight (i.e. summer in the northern hemisphere) to make the flower ripen and form a vegetable.  So all you get here is a gorgeous huge squash plant and never a zucchini to eat.  Who knew?

·         I have now spent 39 straight days with Ruth.  I mean 7x24 days.  That means I am doing what she tells me to do most of the time.  We hike up mountains.  We ride horses.  We hike down mountains.  We take pictures of every horse, cow, pig, gate and door in Nicaragua!  Then we hike some more.  You know what?  It is fun.  I cannot imagine doing this with anyone else.

·         Nicaragua is very diverse.  From the remote Rio San Juan in the south to the cool mountains of Matagalpa in the north.  From the surf crazy pacific beaches to the laid back creole Caribbean.  Throw in two of the oldest colonial cities in the Americas and a huge island in the middle of a small great lake and you have a very diverse country.

·         This country is very much divided over the canal.  No one trusts the Chinese.  Everyone is concerned about the environmental impact.  Most see the need for the infrastructure investment but cannot understand the lack of transparency surrounding the deal.  Most find it ironic that the Sandinistas came to power based on the support of the campisinos (farmers) and now they are confiscating their land (they don’t want to sell at any price) to build a canal for the Chinese.  This will be very interesting to watch.

·         When you book a hotel here, ask about hot water.  In some places it is the exception not the rule.

·         When doing your number two business the general rule is: if there is a trash can next to the toilet, deposit your paper waste in it rather than flushing it.  If no trash can, flush away!  It is a little weird at first but you get used to it.  They had the same rule in China.

·         The best part of the day is natural frescas – any fruit but lemonade is one of the best.  All natural and cost a dollar.  Beer costs a dollar.  Rum drinks cost $2 dollars.  Watch out if you are a whiskey drinker, that will set you back $4 bucks.  Forget about finding a good bourbon, it does not exist in Nica.

We need a Nixon to China moment in Latin America

For those readers who know me well, you know how hard it is for me to refrain from writing a blatantly political post.  Well I can’t wait any longer.  We need a Nixon to China moment in Latin American and there is no place better than right here in Nicaragua.

What is a Nixon to China moment?  It occurred when President Nixon, a Republican who made his career as a staunch anticommunist, surprised everyone and met with Chairman Mao and started the normalization of relations between the two countries.  This only worked because Nixon had the credibility as an anticommunist.

So what is up in Central and South America?  In one word, it is the Chinese.  They seem to be everywhere.  They are buying access to vast quantities of natural resources.  More importantly they are making investments in the Central and South American countries.  Nowhere is this more prevalent than Nicaragua, where they are developing and supposedly building a new canal that will be bigger than the Panama Canal.  They have a real sweet heart deal with Daniel Ortega and the Nica government.

It was not that long ago that we had the Monroe doctrine that declared the America's off limit to the other world powers.  Frankly, our execution of this policy probably did more damage than good.  We invaded and occupied countries like Nicaragua, and meddled in governments throughout the region.  However, the intent is valid.  The US should strive to have strong realtions with all countries in the America’s, not as colonies but as economic partners.

I am surprised by how much the local populace is willing to let by gones be by gones.  They respect the US and identify with us as fellow Americans, as in the continent(s) of the Americas.  Our culture is everywhere.  Baseball is the number one sport; Americans are everywhere working on projects to help the people. Nica’s want to be part of an American community much more so than a Chinese/American community.

The tricky part is Daniel Ortega.  He became the face and the leader of the Sandinista's during the revolution.  He is a huge public figure.  At the time of the revolution he was a communist and a true revolutionary.  We probably drove him and definitely the people away from the US with the Contra's. It is hard to argue that the country did not need a change in government.  The Somoza family and government had become very corrupt.  They were not worth defending.  They truly had no legitimacy with the people and by most any American standard.

Here is a little history I had not paid attention too, post the civil war.  Ortega and the Sandinista’s  won in what the observers said were “free. Fair and hotly contested” elections.  After two terms Ortega said it was time for elections.  From what many tell me, they say he thought he would be easily elected again and was surprised when he lost and Nicaragua elected Violeta Chamorro as the president.  The real test came and he actually turned power over to the new government.  This happened two more times.  There were three non Sandinista presidents.  It sounds like most of them were not very effective.  Then in 2007 Ortega was elected again.  This time he pivoted to the center.  He denounced some of the rhetoric, embraced the church and loosened some of the business regulations.  He was changing from the firebrand communist to a socialist.  The realist says this is because now he was rich and had every economic reason to see Nicaragua grow.  Whatever the cause, there was a change.

Fast forward to today.  The government is still corrupt, but the lives of the poor are better.  There is a quasi-truce between capitalist and the government and the country is growing.  It is still poor but the improvements are noticeable.  What remains is Daniel, as they call him here.

He is rumored to be very sick.  His wife has an oversized role in the government.  Daniel still likes to antagonize the US with his "friends". He still cohorts with the worst of the worst, Chavez (when he was alive), the Castro's while they are clinging to life and even the Iranians and Putin.  

I speculate he does this to add to his revolutionary street cred.  However, to the person, the Nica's I have met see through this.  They say Nica has nothing to gain and nothing in common with these people.  They want better relations with their fellow Americans, the United States.

So back to my original premise.  While Obama dithers on foreign policy the Chinese are making great strides in Latin America.  Obama does not have the "credibility" to establish relations with Nica, a la Nixon.  So we need a strong Republican to step out from behind the rhetoric and reach out to Latin America.  We could slow the progress of the Chinese and strengthen the economies of the Latin countries.  This is the ultimate solution to the immigration problems we face in the first place.

So there is my political rant for the week. Ortega is no saint.  The government still has many issues.  However, Ortega is old and sick.  He has already rebranded himself once.  Why not one more time?  I am sure there are some holes in it, but I do believe we have neglected, or mismanaged or relations with our neighbors to the south.

Now is the time to correct it.

Farm Transportation

Transportation!!!

Since so much is agricultural here transportation is a mix of livestock and motorized vehicles.

The saddles here are so cool. They have a lot of ties so you can keep all of the gear you may need throughout the day tied onto your saddle. They also have their own kind of design. You can have a custom saddle made for $800 dollars here compared to $5,000.00 in the US. If I only had my horses wither and barrel measurements I would love to do that-- what a deal!!!!

Photo1 of course is an example of a saddle.

 

Photo2 wow the way they transport horses, pigs, cows, etc... Is crazy. This trailer just went through town. There is manure on the floor of it -- so wild!!! We went to a horse show the other day and 4 horses were loaded into the back of a flatbed with just square iron tubing going around the sides. The horses heads were all looking around at the scenery -- and for those of you that are like me-- my first thought was NO FLY MASK!!! I could never do that without a fly mask on my horse. Haha!!!

 

 

 

Photo3. I love all of the various ways of moving things from village to town. 

 

 

On a side note-- wow 27 days with Kirk and we are still having fun together That is a good thing!!!!

Except he does not excersize so I have not been either and my new name for our trip is -- gaining weight around Nica. Haha. I am going to make him power walk with me through the cemetery today. Granada has the most awesome cemetery !!!

Farm Life 1 - Ruth

Wow!!! How different the farm life is here since one small farm can easily sustain several families. When I say small I mean 10-15 acres. Depending on the region you can do your meat, veggies, fruit, carbs, and coffee plus dairy.

Photo 1. The first farm we stayed at all of our cheese, cream, and milk came from his cow heard.  Twice a day he and his son called the cows up and milked right by the kitchen dining area. I love the calf waiting for him to finish so he can nurse. Just a note in the US there are a lot of dairy regulations-- this would never pass.

 
 

Photo 2. This is the son, Almond. He is the hardest worker I have ever met. He loves working on the farm with his dad. He also loves to look at photos and read on my IPad. We had no wifi but I could show him what I had already downloaded. On the dining table next to him is his pet parrot. Our kitchen/ dining area definitely had no regulations and health codes-- how fun !!!!

Photo 3. This is one of the ways livestock are transported. In the bed of the pickup are a pig or two and a calf. Sometimes there will be a cow or even a small horse.

So much for so little

Dateline:  1242 marbles

This week has been another amazing study of contrasts in Nicaragua.  As you may have read in my last post, we spent Sunday at a high-end horse event.  It could have been in the poshest part of Atlanta, except of course for the unique Nica attire!

So midweek we visited a school in the Pantanal barrio of Granada. This is one of the poorest slums in the country.   This barrio started during the revolution as a make shift refugee camp.  There was no planning, no infrastructure, just tens of thousands of poor people fleeing from a civil war and/or trying to improve their situation in a city.

We visited Education Plus (www.eduplusnicaragua.org).  It was founded just a few years ago to serve the kids in the barrio.  One of the most interesting aspects of Nicaragua is the significant increase in public education.  Love or hate him, Daniel Ortega, has made a huge push to create public primary schools in reach of every child.  No easy task given the remoteness, jungles, mountains and poverty.  However, it is happening.

The public schools are a work in progress.  There are virtually no books.  There are merely rooms with a "teacher" at a whiteboard.  I use the word teacher hesitantly, because most have no formal education.  It is a prized job that pays well, almost $800 a month!  However, a poor nation has to start somewhere and it is happening.

Education Plus set out to supplement the existing school.  Nica kids go to school half day.  The older kids take the second shift of the day.  The idea was to teach english to the barrio kids to give them a leg up.  While this is certainly going on, they soon realized many of the kids were illiterate in spanish.  They were way behind reading and writing in their own native language.  Add to that, they were hungry and many malnourished and some suffered health issues.  Before you get to judgmental of the Nica's take a visit in our schools and you will see the same problems.



The slums of Pantanal - the "house" on the right is nothing but plastic sheets

This organization is doing amazing things.  We walked the barrio with the director and kids and parents streamed out of the shacks to greet and hug him.  The love and respect was genuine.  The school serves about 190 kids a day.  They provide a meal and 2-3 hours of supplemetal education for the kids. They have teams of doctors and dentist that assist twice a year. They do this all on a budget of approximately $40-50,000 per year.

 How do they do that?  They have an incredible number of volunteers.  Most of them are GAP year Europeans.  A gap year is the between high school and university.  It is tradition in europe for the student to take a break from school and many travel.  I think this is a tradition our American students would benefit from undertaking.



Gap Year volunteers from Germany

 There were approximately 18 students from 8 or 9 countries (Canada, Netherlands, Germany, Russia and even an American or two) on staff the day we visited.  These students really love on these kids for 1-3 months. Education Plus will take a volunteer for a day, a week a month or a year.  They are incredibly efficient. 

Oh how I wish ever American student and parent could see how these people live.  How they survive terrible living conditions, fight for education and seem to be the happy and content in life.   These kids had huge smiles on their faces and just wanted someone to love and hug on them.  At the end of the day this is universal for all kids, rich or poor, Nica or Norte Americano.

 


Older Kids with a perm teacher and GAP year volunteer

 
PS. One of the interesting perspectives I have picked up is the use of the word "American".  While we use this word to us a refer to us -  a US citizen, the Nica’s are slightly offended by this use.  They too identify as Americans.  After all they are part of Central AMERICA.  They refer to the United States as Norte Americanos.  I am not sure how our Canadian friends feel about this, since they comprise most of the land mass of North America.

No Rush No Worries

Dateline: 1244 marbles

Some things never change. We are all the way in Nicaragua and Ruth is dragging me to a horse show.  Eight hours of watching dressage!  I must really love my Ruth!

It all started like everything in Nicaragua. We were early to the event. You would think we would learn. We should know everything here operates on Nica time.

Yesterday we were invited to a lake house out on Lake Nicaragua. We were going to be picked up at 12 so we got there at 11:50.  Well after two bathroom visits and a lot of people watching on the square we were picked up at 2:30. You should have seen Ruth. She was convinced our ride was in a tragic accident and that is why we did not get a message. Turns out it was some miscommunication and Nica time!  All ended well as we had an incredible evening with some wonderful new friends and our extended Nica family on a beautiful island lake house on Lake Nicaragua.

So today we learned our lesson, right?  The show was supposed to start at 9 am Sunday morning.   That is what the website says.  Fool me once shame on you.  Fool me twice, shame on me.  So with that in mind, Ruth called to find out when we should get there.  They said 10 am. Sounds good to me.  An hour after the official start time, how bad could it be?

My first clue was when we walked in to the Jockey Club of Granada the attendants showered us with requests for food and drink.  I figured we were easy targets in out American tourist attire.   That was not it though! 

We walked out of the club and the arena was empty. The tents were all set up but most were uninhabited.  We laughed and walked around.  It really is a high end event with Range Rovers, various ranches and the ubiquitous Flor de Cana tent.  The event is like a steeple chase with sponsors and tents set up with plenty of food and drink.

There were workers getting ready for the big event, which was scheduled to start an hour earlier.  We finally found a human and he spoke English. He was the owner of an agricultural company and was manning his tent.  He said the after part on Saturday night was a doozey so things would be getting started a little late.  We had fun chatting and we asked him what time it would get started. He said around 2:30!  It was 11:15!  
What were we to do?  We were already there and the taxi was long gone.  We just settled in for a long day.  We went back into the club and milked a lunch for as long as we could. The waiter was our best friend and he gave us wifi code so we could at least kill time on the web!

The show started at 2:30.  The horses were beautiful but for me the event was a bore.  It was a Spanish dressage event.  Think horse ballet!  Not my cup of tea, so I had a few Tonas, the national beer of Nicaragua.

A beautiful Spanish breed Horse and Rider

Now in the States a dressage event is for the prim and proper horse crowd.  Lots of classic English riding attire etc.  Not so much in Nicaragua.  It is time to get out your best western wear.  The mixture of the dressage formality and the casualness of the Nicaraguans almost made dressage bearable!

The kids in their best horseshow attire

How many Chicken mascots would you see at a US dressage show?  None!

By 4, even Ruth had had enough and she said we could go.  BUT enter our friend at the agricultural tent.  He told Ruth that no one really comes for the dressage show; they come for the Spanish riding exposition at the end of the show.  Oh hell, now he tell us! It is four o’clock and the expo would be around 7 or 8.  What's a loving husband to do?  At this point we were beyond committed.  I got another Tona and we stayed.

Fast forward to 7.  The Nicaraguan national orchestra has set up on the grand stage. And the show that we really wanted to see started promptly at 7, a mere 9 hours after we first arrived.

Video for windows:

 

 

 

In all fairness the exposition was great. Check out the attached video.. Some horses march, some jump and one keeps beat in the middle. The horses were majestic and the routines were amazing.  Oh well, it was a beautiful Sunday and the people were gracious and we had plenty of time.  That is the best part of this extended trip.  No rush and no worries.

It was not all bad!  These are the Tona girls!

Cowboy Up!

I am now switching to the farm segment of my blogging.

Kirk has had a wide mix of places we have stayed. We have had tropical "camping" type of stays -- all the way to small hotel stays where we actually get hot water (well not always, about 50/50).

One of my favorite parts of our trip is riding horses in each region of the country we go to.

Small family farms are the majority of the population here. They grow what they eat to the best of their ability.  Most of these are very small farms or vincas (less than 5 acres). 

One of my favorite rides was when we worked cattle to and from the coral so they can get water.  The vaqueros round up the cattle twice a day and drive them to a grazing pasture and then back to a coral for water.  Remember getting water here can be a problem.  So to get water in your pastures is hard-- there is no power to run a well pump, plus to put a well in is very expensive -- it is cheaper to just have a horse and do it yourself or hire it out.

They do this by “driving” them down whatever path or road is available.  This gives new meaning to sharing the road!

The best part is cars, motorcycles, trucks, and buses all went by us as we moved the cattle down the road.

Crazy fun!!!

PS I tried to post a video  - I hope it works

A Study in Contrasts

Date Line 1244 marbles 

I feel like we need some full disclosure on our trip.  Based on some of the feedback I am getting, egged on by Ruth's posts, you are concerned about our living conditions.  Rest assured we are doing fine.

We have stayed in a variety of places.  They range from a gorgeous art deco home to a hut in the jungle.  Some have hot water some don't.  (The hot water issue is interesting because having it is the exception.). Some have electricity, some don't and one should have but the electricity to the whole city was out!   All of them are very safe and the hosts go out of their way to make you as comfortable as possible.  Labor is cheap so you have help for everything.  For example we had a HUGE bag of laundry we need washed.  The hotel offered to do it for $5 for line dry or $7 if they used a dryer.  Try to get that done in the US without going broke.



The point of all of this is the variety and range of possibilities that is Nicaragua.  It is a very poor country.  However, it is probably not what you think.  Think the inverse of the United States.  Most of the US is (very) wealthy by the world’s standards however there are areas of real poverty.  So flip that around in Nicaragua.  Most of this country is poor but there are considerable areas that are doing quite well.  The difference is the people.  I will say this many times.  The people have been great.  We have been in some very poor areas but we have never felt insecure much less scared.



We have visited local markets that harken back to the biblical days and we shopped at a grocery store that would rival any in the US.  They even have arugula!  We have seen local artists working in the backs of their homes and I just had lunch in a cafe that was part art studio, complete with ladies painting that could have been in Sonoma, California.



The point of our trip is to see as much of the real Nicaragua as we can.  There is no doubt we will spend a disproportionate amount of our time in the high tier of the country but this extended trip allows us to visit farms, villages, missionaries, local artists and other parts of the country that we would never do in a 7 day vacation.  So far, those have been the best parts.  These areas take me out of my bubble and really challenge the way I see these people and the world.

Could have been a Publix or Whole Foods

Rows and rows of these stalls in the market



The hut in a jungle

The jungle bed - complete with a mosquito net and bat poop cover

An Amazing Art Deco Bed & Breafast



Ruth's What is Missing - part 2

Just so you know--electricity, water and plumbing are a real challenge in the more remote parts. There is very little access to electricity in a lot of remote places and small villages.   Even if you get electricity, the price is based in part on your ability to pay-- not your actual usage. This is great for most Nica’s since this is the poorest country in Central America so they pay very little.

Here is an example -- a friend we made got power out their farm where they only had a security light and a one bulb shack. Their bill was $600/ month for two lights. That is the charge assigned them because of their ability to pay. That helps to carry the cost for others in the area who can not afford to pay. Plus they were out in the middle of no where so it took 1.5 years for them to get power to their place. We asked a real estate agent about his power out to his beach house and he had a $10,000.00 installation fee to get power, but his bill is only a couple of hundred dollars a month. He is in a more populated area since he is on the coast.

Plumbing is basically a septic set up in most areas, but without the ability to pump out the tanks as needed. So you are asked to never put toilet paper into the toilet, or in some cases the facility may just dump into the river. I love the ingenuity of the people where plumbing is concerned.

Photo-1 and 2 -the men's bathroom at the state park (outside in full view). What is missing???

 

Photo -3- no toilet seat??? This is the outhouse we had for our horseback excursion outside Leon. This was a really nice ranch that had excellent livestock for this region!!

 

Photo -4- no plumbing needed here -- the river works great. These were our next door neighbors by our hospidaje in El Castillo ( my favorite city so far). I took the photo from our front porch.

 

Each day is a new adventure!!! While these seem extreme Nicaragua really is beautiful and safe.  The people are doing the best they can with what they have.  I love it.

What does the Super Bowl and MLB have in Common?

 

 

Super Bowl Sunday is a little different in Matagalpa, Nicaragua.  First of all, Sundays are relatively quite in Nicaragua.  Most stores are closed and the busiest place in the town is the central park which is full of families and children.  It really is a Norman Rockwell scene, Latin-style.

So last night Ruth and I went out to dinner.  One of the few restaurants open looked like it was straight from Panama City Beach Florida - Think a cross between Surf Shack and Joe's Crab House.  It was multi-story and open air.  It was right off the square and is very out of place in the mountain town of Matagalpa.  However, it was open so it was high on our list of places to eat.

As we ascended the stairs we were greeted with two large flat screen TV's with the Super Bowl playing.  It was really kid of funny.  Other than a table of a few young men nobody was paying much attention to the game.  I settled down to a table that had a good vantage point of the live music and the TV's. 

I do not know how the reviews of the half time show have gone, but it did capture most people's attention at the restaurant.  There was no sound but the visuals alone attained the highest viewership of the evening.

There is one big difference between a Nica Super Bowl and the American Super Bowl - the commercials.  We did not get the American commercials.  That means it is just another football game.  You will never guess what the number one commercial was on during the Nica Super Bowl - Major League Baseball.  I bet you did not see a single baseball commercial.  We saw dozens.

This country loves baseball.  In fact, it is their number one sport.  It is a hold over from when the US Marines occupied the country in the early 1900's.  The US was hell-bent to make sure no one (other than the US) was going to build a canal in Nicaragua.  While the local hated the occupation they love baseball.

In short it was a quiet Super Bowl Sunday.  To be honest, I did miss the pizza and hot wing!