No te tengo miedo.

That's what a 7ish year old told me on Friday night. There is a tradition in Nicaragua that is specific to Masaya called Aguizotes. If you landed in Masaya from almost any other part of the Americas you might think it was a chaotic looking Halloween celebration. And it is kind of like it; the date is always towards the end of October, people dress up in costume, and if possible they try and scare anyone that gets in their path for the duration of the festivities. But there are differences. Their original costumes and the purpose behind them is a bit different. There are only a handful of costume characters that were used until recent years. All of them had to do with some bit of history that usually happened in the years of the Spanish conquest -in the 1500's. One of the more unpleasant examples is called the Carreta Nagua in English that comes to Chariot of Death. One of it's modern expressions is a massive cart that is stacked high with metals barrels that are burning car tires and pulled by a team of motley looking ruffians. It gives the youngsters quite a scare. The original death chariot was a bit different and I think inspired fear not only in the kids but in the adults as well. It was an cart pulled by oxen and driven by the spanish conquistadors. It was used to haul the captured indians back to the spanish settlements as slaves. But, in recent years other characters have started to enter in the celebration and for the past two years we have been a part of that. For the past week prior to the celebration a few friends came came over for a few nights and joined Elliot and I in mask making. The results were the phantom of the opera, a japanimation character, a cyclops, and a couple of Blue Meanies. The night of Aguizotes we had a few friends join us at the house and then we took to the streets with about 10 or 15 thousand other costume clad locals and marched through the streets for a few hours. About an hour and a half into it a little kid of about 10 came up to me and said, "hey can you come scare my little sister" He pointed her out and I immediately tried to get out of it. I let him know that she was to little and that it wouldn't be a nice thing to do. He said that her size and age didn't matter and that i should "please try to sacre her." then she looked over the street and saw what her brother was up to and gave me a funny look. It might sound bad but for some reason at that very moment I felt compelled to scare the little kid. What a jerk right!? So I took off charging towards her with a yell. She crossed her arms and looked me straight in the eyes and said "No te tengo miedo!" Whether she meant it or was trying to convince herself of it I have no idea but I was seriously impressed. I ripped my mask off and gave her a hi-5 and then asked if I could take a picture with her. So in the pic you will find a blue meanie and one very brave little girl. Feliz Aguizote!

How we shop.

Price determines value. If the price is high then it will have a corresponding value. If it's low then the value follow suit. Right? I've decided that either I'm semi foolish or maybe just open to the idea that price doesn't always have to dictate the quality of a product or in my case a service received. In the past few weeks 3 people I know, 2 in the medical profession and one a neighbor, have made comments on a bump in had on my neck. I'm not sure why I paid them any mind. I have had it since I was 20ish and done a pretty good job of ignoring it ever since the doc i went to at that time told me that doing something about it might not turn out so positively. So these three people got me a bit worried and I started entertaining the idea of getting it seen. One of my concerned friends picked up her phone and called a handful of surgeons and told them her thoughts, she was a gp doctor, and then on the end of each conversation asked them how much the consultation would cost. They ranged from 200 to 400 cordobas. I immediately ruled out the 400 guys. That my friend is highway robbery. Even 200 was a struggle. I had a roledex of items that pulsed through my head of things that equaled one doctor visit. Let me enlighten you. A 200 cordoba doctor consult = 1. one ham and cheesepizza and 4 cane sugar sweetened Cokes 2. 8 banana trees 3. a day long stay at the laguna de apoyo 4. 4 world class burritos at the only legit mexican place in Masaya 5. nearly 3 pounds of freshly toasted and ground coffee from the highlands of Nica 6. one pound of Eisenia fetida. 7. Half of a bicycle 8. 20 pounds of beans 9. an electric mosquito racket 10. a 45 minute boat ride for 4 through the isletas in Granada. Puts it in perspective doesn't it. So I biked over to this robbers office the next day and within 5 minutes he let me know that it was what I thought/had been told 10 years earlier and that it would be a good idea to take it out. Then I went blank. Two people went through my mind at that point. My mother and this girl named Claire that was one of our medical interns last year. The common bond was both are detail oriented and seem to have a knack for asking an immense amount of questions about everything and anything. I was still blank and then looked at the doctor and said "is there anything you can think of that i should be asking you?" A few days later I was sitting on my doorstep chatting with my neighbor and her nephew and she let me know that he was good friends with such and such surgeon and that I should at least go see what he has to say. I had already heard about the guy as being the best in town but he also belonged to that category that charged 400 cordobas just for the appointment. I went. He wan't in but the head nurse was and said that the day was done but that I should come back in the morning and that they would sort it out. The nephew then said "well are you at least going to take his name down and put it on the appointment list?" she said that wouldn't be necessary and that it would be sufficient to say that I was a friend of Miguel, the nephew. Sure enough the next day when another nurse came in to do the roll call and asked for my name she said that i was no where to be found on the list. Then she looked at me and said "are you the friend of Miguel". I love how formal these guys can be, it does nothing but inspire confidence in you. I went in and the doc took a look and said that he could schedule for the knife just after he finished with some organ removal which would be around 12. I said ok, went back home prepared myself with a lot of water and a small sheet of paper instructing who would receive my two bicycles, guitar, and computer if things didn't go well and then went back around noon. This is getting a bit long. It worked! Well I think it did and I have a stitched up incision on my throat about a yard long that hopes the same. If you want to see pics then let me know. I thought they might be a bit much to post on a blog. Doctors orders are to take it easy for a few days so I am going to share some interesting recent happenings with you over the next few days. Que tengan una buena manaña!

Tia Sonia

I think the catch on finding home away from home when your gone for a while is finding family. Or at least those that you would consider such. In Nica I have this neighbor, this super transient neighbor but hey...! She randomly breaks out into dance as she walks, at times to her detriment she speaks her mind, she is knocking on 80 but considers a walk across town "muy cerca", she freely offers advice and comes over unannounced on a regular basis to just about every house on the street. At 78 she still considers herself young and thus sees her responsibility to visit all the abuelitas and make sure they are getting along fine. Last night she invited my volunteers to go out with her this morning at 7:30 to participate in a Sunday morning breakfast that she sponsors for the huelepega street kids. Huelepega is a word that refers to the group of kids that live on the streets and always have a bottle of the glue that cobblers use in making shoes. There method of mitigating hunger ,and reality I suppose, is by constantly having their nose plugged into that bottle. She calls them her kids and every time she is in town she brings them new clothes and at least one weekly meal. She is nothing shy of freaking fantastic. Ojala que se me pegue un poco de esa energia de la ,mi, Tia Sonia!

Gran Tocino ;)

I've got great news. Wait, it's better than that. It's a stellar answer. An answer to what I suspect has been a question in the hearts and minds of many of you -us- for quite some time. 4 months 3 days, 4 flights, 2374 miles, and 4 defrosting of the fridge. That, my dear friends, is AT LEAST how long a pack of unopened bacon will last before going wrong.

Celebrando profundamente a lo ligero

In the morning we were lucky enough to be introduced to a school that we will probably be working with for a long while. We toured the facility, made plans to show up at 6 a.m. thursday morning to work with the students, and then said our hasta entonce's to the directora and the CPf's. For lunch Elliot and I ate at this 2 dollar greasy spoon run by a couple that has continually insisted for the past month that we show up to their house so that we can learn how to cook the nica way. "ok ok senora, ya vamos a llegar, de hecho yo creo que este finde no tenemos que trabajar asi que dale por hecho que vamos a estar tocando la puerta tuya este sabado." and this evening after we spent an hour or so repairing fans we made it to intercambio. There were about 20ish friends ,osea amigos Nicas, that showed up. The purpose of the intercambio is to exchange language. At the end of our conversation I apologized for the bad ratio of anglophones to hispanohablantes but they didn't blink an eye, and even seemed to think i was a bit absurd for making an apology. But the best part of the day, of the day that marked two years in Nicaragua, was on the way home from having a few tonas with Elliot. I was walking across the central park and I made a new and extremely small yellow friend. He gave me a hug, a seriously happy tale wag, and then he followed me home. When we got home I sat on the front step for a while and told him that he could stay long term if he was there in the morning, and that I would even investigate the fellas name. Off to check on my new friend! ...Feliz segundo aniversario Casa-Nica!

ya me estoy gustando

problems or opportunities. I suppose it's a matter of perspective. Since I have entered the world of work I have been more than amazed at how the hiring process often goes. What I would call an unreasonably large percentage of ex-bosses seemed about as qualified for their job as any fulano (joe blow) off the street. But yesterday was the first time that i have ever heard some one admit it. It was one of the garden projects that I am working at. I started talking with the teacher that is in charge of maintaining about future plans of what could be done and she ---she is new by the way. her predecessor that was equally trained only lasted about a month before being promoted to vice principal at another school--- so, as i was talking to her she interrupts and says "ok, yeah that sounds good, but i don't really know what your talking about. You see i don't really have any training to work in gardens other than this book that they handed me when i walked in" I tried to contain my laughter but i couldn't. she laughed too. then i SUGGESTED that we plant some of the tomatoes plants that i had brought in and she was in agreement. then she asked about which tool we were going to use and i said that today we are going to use the post-hole digger. her response "i can't use that chunche "thingy-" So i dug the first whole and did it slow and explained as articulately as i could how to use the thingy. then handed it over to her. by the third whole she had a smile on her face and when the fifth was done she said "ya me estoy gustando esto!" Success! Next week I am taking her on a field trip to my favorite organic farm. Her mind is ripe for planting new ideas and I get to do it!

Nica Nice

Last night I had to take one of our volunteers (another former RPCV!) to the local bus station to get a ticket to Costa Rica. There are two bus stations in town that make a one way trip there and one of them has Masaya's version of Lance Armstrong as the sole proprietor and ticket salesman for the local branch of the company. He's Nica nice. That is a compliment. So last night after the ticket was bought and we got home, my friend found out that the time wouldn't work and that he had to change to the early departure hour. I called the guy and asked him if that would be possible and he said that it would and to just swing by the office at 10 in the a.m. So this morning about 15 minutes ago -6:45ish- there was a knock on the door. I was potting plants in the back and decided to let one of the other folks that was up (most everyone gets up early on fridays, it's Zoo day!) get the door. Then I got a yell "josh it's for you." So I went and checked the door and it was the ticket rep. He handed me the new ticket and said "that's all your friend will need, have a good day" and then took off. WHO DOES THAT? Nica folk do that!

Deep thoughts

In the last three days a very special opportunity presented itself that led me to do some real soul searching about personal past times and specifically those that I hold dear, and of those which one(s) are most important. My thinking was so intense that it didn't allow me to leave the room except for the hourly shower or the daily meal. In fact, that whole intense thinking business even led my body to believe that at times i had just got through running a marathon -evidenced by the salt waves that adorned my sheets- and at other moments my body was even convinced that it was somewhere where cold exists -evidenced by me having to put clothes and multiple layers of covers on my body during the scorching heat of the Nicaraguan summer. So at day three I 1.reached a conclusion about the most valued of past times and 2. decided to stop that dangerous business of thinking.
The conclusion: There is nothing that I have done in my short short history that could possibly compare with being well.