A Few Short Stories

One of the critters we found in Miraflor.

The last month here has been a lot of traveling and a lot of working in new places. As of right now I’m fairly exhausted, but I feel very satisfied and I am excited to keep on exploring new places and meeting new people. As far as this post goes, I feel like the only way I can convey what I’ve been up to is with a few short stories.

Paso a Paso

One of the facilitators showing how to correctly use a condom.

HIV prevention methods.

A couple weeks ago I was fortunate enough to participate in and help facilitate a week-long workshop with Plan Nicaragua. They are implementing an educational program surrounding HIV/AIDS at the community level in my municipality. For me it was an exciting opportunity to work with the coordinators of Plan, and at the same time, start to form relationships with people from communities in my area. The workshop served to teach everyone the curriculum and how the program functions. Now it will be up to the 24 newly trained facilitators to put the program in action in their own communities.  Over the next few months, during the implementation phase of this program, I will be supporting Plan and the community facilitators by attending community meetings, helping the facilitators with planning and giving feedback to the facilitators and to Plan.

But as I have learned in my time here, you can’t just jump into a community and expect open arms and everything to work out right away. So I am currently taking the time to visit all four communities, to get to know each of the facilitators a little bit better, and see the communities they live in. So far so good (see the following short story), and I am very excited about the prospects of working more in the rural communities. Since the beginning of my time here, I have always been told that the most need and the most interest are in the rural communities.

My first real visit to a rural community

This title is deceiving. I have been to several rural communities (kind of like villages) since I have been here, but this visit was unique because it was the first time where I felt like the community opened itself up to me. This was also the first time I went alone out to a rural community. In my other visits I always went with my host family, or my counterparts, but this time I was going to visit some newly made friends and future co-workers. I got on the bus while it was still dark out, around 5:30am. We wound through the mountains and passed by a few communities I hoped to visit soon. When I got to my stop I got off along with a couple other women with children. We waited for the ruta (Big truck with benches in the back) to replace a tire and then we were off. I arrived in the community around 6:45am, the air was still cold; I was definitely in the mountains. My friend, and guide for the day, 17 year old Vanessa*, met me on her way home from the mill. Many women were at the mill, with corn to make corn flour and later tortillas for the day. She took me to her house where I met her mother, father, niece, brother and sister. Her mom already had coffee ready for me and the house all in order, ready for my visit. The family was so nice and genuine. I spent the morning there getting to know her mom, dad, and her sister. They fed me tortillas and cuajada (soft cheese) with fresco (fresh squeezed orange juice).

My friend and tour guide in her town.

Around 9:30am Vanessa and I headed out around town, but before leaving, her mom told me to come back for lunch. We stopped by a few houses of my acquaintances from the week before, with little luck. Many of them were out working, picking coffee and planting corn. We stopped by the small health center to visit the doctor and nurse working there. There was only one patient, so I didn’t really have an audience for a charla (informational health talk), like I had planned to give. Then we headed out to find more of my new friends, this time we had some luck. We found one of the guys, Wilmer, and with him we walked out to Cristina’s house, on the outskirts of town. She was also home, along with her 3 children. I played with her 2 yr old for a little while, and then we talked shop. Each one of them is working to form groups of 10 people to teach Paso a Paso to. They talked about who was already in their groups, strategies for choosing people, and their possible meeting schedules. Before we knew it, it was lunch time.

Back at Vanessa’s house, I ate a feast of chicken, rice, tortillas, and fresco. Her mom then told me to take a nap, and offered me one of their beds to relax on. After she insisted more than once, I took her up on it and lay down to read for a little while. In the mean time, the family had gathered bananas, oranges, squash and guanabana for me to take back with me. I left the house with my arms full, and help from Vanessa and her sister to carry it all uphill to the ruta stop. On the way, we stopped by one of the elementary teachers’ houses, but he still hadn’t come home from the fields yet. His wife gave us coffee, and squash with cinnamon sugar to eat while we waited for the ruta. At this point it was starting to drizzle and get cold out again so the hot treat was just right. Shortly after that I made the trek back home, but I plan to go back within a couple of weeks to start working there.

*All names in this story were changed.

Miraflor Reserve and Ritzy Estelí

Of the many times I have visited Estelí, I had never visited the touristy part of the city. I always went and stayed with my host family in one of the barrios. I ate the same food as normal, slept in the house, and played with my nieces. I went to birthday parties, and swam in my Aunt’s pool, but never had I spent time in the ritzy (touristy) part of Estelí. So my dear friend and fellow volunteer Alba, stepped in to enlighten me. On our first night there (after visiting my family’s house and quickly skarfing down beans, tajadas (plantain chips), and cuajada) we went out for Chinese food with two other volunteers. I had sweet and sour chicken, which was surprisingly good. Then we headed back and took advantage of the wifi en our hostel. We went to sleep early so that we could be on a bus to Miraflor by 6am the following morning.
The bus ride to Miraflor was bumpy and long, but we got there around 8am and could not see anything. It was incredibly foggy, and there were no real signs for where anything was. One of the locals pointed us in the right direction. The first spot we found was a tourist center/farm about 2 Km up the road. We stopped in there to ask for directions and they told us there was a trail head from the farm out to mountains and a look-out point. Either we misunderstood them, or they were lying. We took this “trailhead” and walked for about 15 minutes. All we saw was jungle, which was cool, and we got our shoes caked with mud. Needless to say, we turned around pretty quickly and kept walking up the road to look for more guidance.

Leaf cutter ants.

After another couple kilometers we found a house that had a sign saying they sold food. At this point it was also starting to rain, not just drizzle. So we stopped in to get out of the rain and ask for directions. The family was very nice, let us relax for a minute and use their latrine. They gave us directions and offered to have lunch ready for us in two hours if we wanted. We took them up on it and set off for the trail to the waterfall. Another couple kilometers later we found the waterfall and the nice man that charges 50 cents to let you down to see the waterfall. We spent a good hour there just relaxing and chatting. We headed back for lunch and after lunch out to see the orchids. Along with orchids (which weren’t in bloom) there were also leaf cutter ants, and giant strangler trees (Matapalo). The strangler trees are actually vines that long ago consumed the trees as parasites and now all that’s left is the vine in the shape of a tree.  We saw lots of cool types of giant insects, butterflies, run-runs (beetles) and giant daddy long legs. We ended the day with a cup of coffee at the women’s co-op and headed 6 kilometers back up-hill to the bus stop.

The next day we really got to see Estelí. There was an organic farmer’s market, giant book stores, numerous murals and lots of shopping. It’s funny, of all the times I had walked around Estelí, I never stopped really to look at or take pictures of the murals. The city is known for its murals and they truly are beautiful.

The Pharmacy

MINSA Salida to San Jerónimo

Make-shift laboratory.

Last Saturday many people from my town donated their day off to head 2 hours out to one of the rural communities and put on a health clinic. Specialists came from Somoto, pediatricians, internists, a gynecologist, lab techs, and general practice doctors. From my town, MINSA workers (doctors and nurses), as well as police officers, local politicians, and people that work in the mayor’s office all made the trip out. We had general consults, ultrasounds, lab-work, HIV testing, and consults with the specialists all day long. They barely took time to eat lunch. A lot of people showed up, and many of them on horseback. I was blown away at how many people in this town traveled on horseback. It was way more than I had seen in any other rural community. I love seeing how each community truly has its own flavor and way of life. Also there is a famous toucan that lives in the house across from the health center. I took a video. The tucan eats dog food, and acts more like a dog than a bird if you ask me. 

Right now we’re starting the time of year when MINSA makes a big effort to get out to each community to give vaccinations. The vaccination campaign lasts all spring long and it is a great opportunity for me to get out to the communities, give charlas and see some new places. This brigade was more intense than most, because the community had requested consults with specialists, but it was very cool to be a part of it.

Some of the group from my town

Lots of horseback riding