If Elliot were England and I was the United States and we were having a soccer match between us where points were scored by each visit you received from a friend or family member, then I am sad to report that the United States would be losing by three points to England. For patriotic and personal reasons I can only hope that the U.S. starts to gain ground sometime soon.
For the past five weeks Elliot and I have been volunteering at a local language institute. This past Sunday during the mid-morning break at the institute I was approached by an interesting character. He was a friendly fella and quite informative. Within the first two minutes of our conversation he began to answer questions that I was not aware that I had such as; why he had bothered to arrive to the institute in a van, why he was passing time in the hall ways instead of the classrooms and why his past dealings with almost existing educational institutes had gone sour . The answer to the first of those questions was his segway into a small game of show and tell. He led me to the computer classroom opened the door and made a gesture followed by the words "these are mine, my students that is, 15 of them are studying computers and 5 are studying language." Well done! A few minutes later this fella and I were exchanging phone numbers and emails. Before the break was over I had recieved my first phone call from him. By the time I walked out of the language institute rough plans had been made for a visit to these "really poor students" in the upcoming week.
The visit was of epic length. We had left the house to meet up in the central park by 10 till 7 and would not get back to our house until nearly 8 that night. The three of us- Elliot, Pete(elliot's friend from england), and I were the only people besides the driver and Noel in the 15 passenger van. Renting a 15 passenger van for a day is not cheap but after no haggling and a lot of begging we were allowed to contribute not one peso for its rental. We were off. Our second port of call was the turn off where we picked up one of the "padre's de familia" and his son that would serve as our jungle guides. They were subtlety corrected for their pleasant demeanor and forthrightness on many occasion as the day progressed.
On our way to the mini jungle trek we passed through a few coffee and pineapple plantations. (I wish you had been there to see it and when you come I will take you!) On our way through one of the coffee plantations Noel had the bus stop so that we might briefly chat with one of the ladies who was picking coffee beans. Before he had a chance to prep the moment (I had already been corrected for speaking to a sugar cane vendor earlier in the day. He wanted to do the negotiating for us on everything, and on the sugarcane he got a small piece sold to me for one peso. I went back a few seconds later to thank the woman and she smiled and chopped off 4 more pieces the same size and told me to give them to the others in the van - free of charge) I jumped down from the van and rushed over to the woman picking coffe beans. I wanted to chat and I wanted to grab a picture -with her permission of course. So we chatted and I took a photo of her, and then her daughters showed up and I took a photo of them. They smiled when I showed them the picture and they had a good laugh from it. Then Noel spoke. He took the opportunity to paint the proper picture for me of what was really happening. The chubby senora and her daughters with the smiling faces were actually being exploited for their cheap labor. He went so far as to ask them how little they get paid for each pound picked and then without offering an alternative to the problem let the senora know that not only were the low wages unjust but so was the fact that her daughters had to work from such a young age. I can't help but think how fortuitous that encounter with Noel's words was for the senora and her children.
And then there was a jungle tour. And there were white faced monkeys in the trees and a low roar from howler monkeys in the distance. And we were back on our way to the next destination.
The next place we went was a farm and it was amazing. Farm does not adequately describe what it was. How about a tropical garden of eden? It was full of rows of dragon fruit cactus, orange, lemon, lime, coconut, avocado, and three varieties of banana trees and they were all in evenly spaced rows. Ontop of all that, the ground was carpeted with thick grass and there was a turkey coup. I was beyond distracted and it took several minutes and shouts for my attention and body to get back to where they were supposed to be. The reverse game of show and tell was well on its way. We had gathered at the farm of one of the students fathers. He was the forman actually. There were several fathers and mothers of the students that I had previously met all standing in a circle. Noel began to talk. His speech started with how much he was disappointed that the all other parents of the children attending the institute couldn't make it. Make it for what? Then the podium was handed over to one of the fathers, he was sincere and relatively short-winded. Then Noel handed the mic to me. I was kind of angry to be honest. First of all I was a guest and had no real right to talk in front of those people. I have barely been involved in the lives of their children at all and for me to say anything would, at least in my mind, be assuming the credit for work that other people had done. I had a quick vision of pelting Noel with some of the produce that was dangling from the trees. I talked anyway. I took the opportunity to praise the parents for making the decision to actively invest in their children's future through education. Then the foreman talked and ended with taking us by the arm to the top of the well and having his wife bring a handful of peeled oranges with a bowl of salt -it's common in nicaragua to eat citrus products that way- to the top of the well. After a lot of citrus eating and talks of future get togethers we were sent on our way. As we went to the van I heard the foreman shouting to a handful of his differerent workers "you bring so many of those... and you bring me some of that one.. and...." We were sent on our way with 6 pineapples, 20 bananas, 15 mandarin oranges, 50 limes, and about a dozen oranges. I love country folk!
A few hours later we ended up on a beach. It was our last stop before home! The sunset was nice and the company was mostly desirable. About 45 minutes before we were to get back on the van and 30 before the owner of the restaurant we were at tried to swindle us, a middle aged white guy came up to me. He was by himself and was wondering if he could catch a ride back into town with us. It was late in the day and there was no more buses that would be passing by. Before I answered he had already assured me that he would be more than happy to pay for the ride. I let him know that there was more than plenty of room and that we weren't paying so he would not need to either. A short while later he was at our table and we were all sharing our stories of why we were in Nicaragua. Elliot and I took turns sharing and at some point I mentioned the Peace Corps and our new friend quickly let me know that he was an ex Peace Corps volunteer as well and that currently was the head of Masters International.
I was excited out of my mind. I had read online about his program a score of times. I tried to contain myself and look only just pleased that I was able to help out a fellow traveler, but he wasn't a fellow traveler - he was a fellow traveler that was the head of Masters International. I think the sun might have stayed in the sky for a few extra hours that day.
The next morning I had him over to my house and got to share with him a little more concretely our ideas on what brought us to Nicaragua and what it is we want to do here. He shared my enthusiasm and even seemed to be genuinely excited for us. There was a bit more to it, but nothing concrete as of yet so I will wait on sharing any more for a while.
p.s. - Noel has called me every day since we went on that tour, sometimes starting at 6 a.m. He almost always inquires as to why I don't pick up my phone more and then moves on to asking about my foreign friends and if he will be able to see them before they go. I have yet to determine the relationship between his eagerness to meet them and the higher education opportunities of the students I met. Looking forward to doing some sleuth work in the coming weeks.
