rocks.

i can now confirm that there are many rocks in the community of san marcos, nicaragua. i feel as thought i have seen, hit and ate a lot of them. there are also a few that will stay with me probably for awhile, since they're permanently lodged in my skin.

i'm back in a city (granada... the spanish colonialist turned tourist dream destination) to regroup quickly after the past few days in the mountains with the outreach SOS trip from laurier. the past few days, capped off with a final night out with the group, has left me zombie like today. but, i'll try to figure out what has happened.

these outreach trips brought up a surprising amount of skepticism with friends when i started talking about this job with SOS. people wondered why foreign students with no building experience were spending money to go down and do a job that a local could probably do better. i completely saw where they were coming from and agreed on some of the arguments, which left me nervous for what i'd find when i actually went on one of these trips. however, after a few days, i have (almost) nothing but positive things to say.

first. they're no party or picnic. the work was hard! and maybe harder than some of the trip participants thought they were signing on for. we had to dig the foundation of the school so that in the event of another earthquake hitting this community, our work won't be undone. fun part was discovering that the land we were building on was made up of a lot of really unbreakable rock that we had to chip away at, bit by bit for days. its almost finished. anyone who knows me, and my athletic abilities, can imagine how hilarious it would have been to watch me heave this giant metal pole up and down at a rock willing it to break. other tasks, like moving thousands of rocks from point a to point b, weren't any more physically relaxing.

another big concern was that this would be the worst example of development tourism i'd seen yet. again, happily surprised. the guys on the trip really impressed me with how thoughtful and aware they were of their role in the community. they didn't barge in waving answers and judgements about rural life. they made the best effort they could to interact with the community and to go above and beyond the building of the school with english classes, constructive and sustainable projects etc. don't know what kind of monsters i was bracing myself for but i didn't find them...

as for locals, and taking work they could do and benefit from. i think/hope i'll always be a skeptic on this one. but, i'm a more optimistic skeptic right now.

first and most simply, its a shit ton of work that extra hands certainly won't hurt. and, there is also the argument that its not like if the volunteers didn't come, that their $1500 would go to paying locals and the projects. it would probably just stay in canada, with them.

then, there is the lack of local availability. they may not be living the life of excessive luxury, but they certainly work hard each day. after the initial thrill of us being there wore off, the "crowds" (pretty small community) went away and people went back to their daily grind. i'm not sure that people had the spare time to come and put up a school...

there is of course also the learning that comes for both the volunteers coming in and the community that lives there. i hoep that this is an overarching positive learning experience for everyone. i hope that its true that our presence helps inspire people about a world they don't know exists (many have never left this really tiny mountain community). i hope that even though there are language barriers, business students from laurier are able to see alternative forms of knowledge and recognize the value in them. i think many did. listening to them describe the locals changed so dramatically over 5 days. but i guess only time will tell. time, revisits and of course, more spanish. i can't even begin to describe how badly i wish i was not only 200% fluent in spanish but was also from central america. interacting with a community that hasn't seen canadians before is tough to do. there is a lot of hesitation on both our parts and after these first few days, we were finally getting somewhere. then of course, i had to leave. storrryyy of my life.

that defense being said, i hope that peopel continue to challenge me. i've really valued those conversations so far.....

what else. i got to do a few community visits to potential and past SOS projects with our partner organizations. a few big (a high school for a region that doesn't have school past gr. 5 at this point) and a few small (bridges so that kids attending a school don't get washed away by a river or stuck at school/home when it rises). they all need to be explored more before we figure out if they're the right fits for all the players but, there are a lot of really excellent people weighing in on the development an execution of hte projects, so i'm excited to have those conversations.

annnd final thought on the trip. it was interesting looking at the perceptions that people come into these trips with.. about rural life... about where things might go with a school... and generally how people adapt to a really rural community (like, no water, electricity or cell reception rural). this group of volunteers came from really different backgrounds and views than i've been used to (didn't go through the global development studies conditioning) and how that changes responses and approaches from what i would do was cool - and at times frustrating and hilarious - to see. i can't help but realize how low a priority hand sanitizer is for me relative to others.

so. next game plan. tonight i continue to eat all the foods i've been missing... i think i've had my pizza and ice cream fill so its onto something new. food in the community was good but basic and a bit of variety today has been fun. then, a big sleep, and another big sleep on a giant bus ride down to costa rica. tomorrow night i seem to be checked into a nunnery (not my doing..) and then its off to namaldi, costa rica to meet up with another SOS trip that is wrapping up their second week, and then to FINALLY start work! its been pretty much a year of traveling for me as of this month (this time last year i was ending my adventure in east africa... crazy). i had no idea what i was going to do next week, let alone post backpacking or in the next year. i don't think i saw anything about the past year coming. the surprised and questioning faces of the guys on the laurier trip made me see just how much literal and figurative ground i've covered. it makes my head hurt.

the rural move

tonight i say goodbye to spanish verbs, shakira and cobblestone roads.

the laurier outreach trip is currently en route to managua and late tonight, we make a hilarious mountain drive to a village called ocalca to start building a school and vegetable garden for the community. yet another change of pace for me.

will be sad to leave matagalpa. the past 10 days have been calmer than usual for me. i haven't packed a bag or ran once. i think its been like 4 months since that last happened.

i'm hardly fluent at this point but, poco a poco. ive really enjoyed the lessons so far and today, understood a full story read outloud start to finish. when we did this last week and i was supposed to retell the story, i told a completely different one. my host family and i can actually have conversations as well. and, best of all, i can speak in more than one tense (mas o menos).

i'll be doing this rural learning thing for the next while. will be so nice to be removed from internet and life. i feel like a cop out traveler when i go on wifi at spanish school and like things on facebook.

sorry about a dull post. expecting a bit more excitement when i finish these building projects end of august.

shakira.

the past month has had a lot of travel in it and, especially because i'm totally surrounded in spanish, i find myself looking for any kind of similarity. somehow, the biggest constant in my life right now is......... shakira. who would have thought that waka waka would be the most familiar thing in my life.

i have yet to meet a kid that doesn't know all the moves and most of the lyrics to waka waka. i'm betting adults, myself included, don't let on to as much as they know.

right now i'm living in matagalpa, nicaragua where torrential downpours (3 today) compete with shakira (1 play today) in frequency.... its also the coffee capital of the country (hooray!). i'm trying desperately to learn spanish this week before my actual job in central america starts. so far, ive surprised myself with how much french i remember, and have surprised nicaraguans with my english/french/spanish accent. esta es muy curioso.

its frustrating as hell not speaking the language. i am staying with a grandmother and grand daughter and take spanish lessons all day so i'm pretty much entirely immersed. cool experience and what not... lots of learning... but really frustrating. i came down here with pretty generic knowledge of nicaraguan history and politics and already am being bombarded with new perspectives and details. it drives me nuts that i can't absorb more, and that classes haven't made me fluent overnight. thankfully there is an american girl who has been here twice now and can fill me in on what i'd miss out on otherwise. there are so many spanish lessons in my future..........

howweeevvver. poco a poco. managed to hold up (understand? not really contribute) a conversation about homosexuality in nicaragua which was pretty interesting, especially given how psychotically catholic this country is. still wish i could contribute more than basic statements about homosexuality and the gay pride week in toronto.

nice thing about being 95% surrounded in spanish is that i don't have the opportunity to rely on the translator. despite being a mute, i still get to (have to?) maintain a lot of independence. as much as i look forward to my days of having a woman work with me in part as a translator, having to figure this all out on my own is... an experience...?

anyway. this coming weekend my spanish days end when the laurier outreach trip gets to nicaragua. we move to a really small village to build a school... they'll be there for 2 weeks, i'll be there for a week before i move to meet up with another SOS trip in costa rica. excited for english conversation again but its really good to have such a huge challenge that i can focus all of my energy on.

oh, and an aside? nicaraguan food is fantastic. big staples include cheese, beans and coffee... and a bit of chocolate and cinnamon.