Rabies and Tuberculosis

Work continues as always in Somoto and to keep you all informed of our health-related efforts, here´s a little post to share some recent activities. This past week, SILAIS (where I work) had a Health Fair to talk about the dangers of Rabies and Tuberculosis. As part of the fair, all of the departmental Health Centers were asked to compete in a mural competition. There was also going to be a best-dressed dog show in which dog costumes were voted on before dogs received their rabies shots.

Matt, as the Peace Corps volunteer at the Centro de Salud in Somoto was asked by his colleague if he could make a mural for the Health Fair. We’re still not sure if he won the first prize or the last prize, because they announced Somoto in both places, but he won a cute little Tuberculosis bag for his efforts J. (In my opinion, his mural was the best.)

Unfortunately, it turns out that the idea of dressing up dogs and parading them around is a bit foreign to Nicaraguans and nobody participated in the dog competition. We were planning on dressing Astro up and bringing him, but an unfortunate set of circumstances led to our decision not to….

The day before the Fair, I was sick. Nothing serious, but I was in bed all day. Matt was supposed to stop by our host family’s house and pick up the two girls after work and bring them to our house to bake (we always make desert on Thursdays). But, he called me at 4:30 to tell me he had bad news: Astro had been with him at work and ran away from the health center, and he couldn’t find him.

So, I dragged myself out of bed, postponed our desert making and movie watching session, and set out to ask every person in the street if they had seen a small white dog, with an almost non-existent tail.

The evening was a very sad one because after 4 hours of looking we still hadn’t found Astro and few people had seen him recently. We were at our wits ends and couldn’t figure out what to do. So Matt decided to sit in front of the health center and wait and I went home to wait and see if Astro returned. The minute I opened the front door, a man rode up on a bicycle. It turned out to be the man who owns Astro’s dad. Astro had been in their house for the whole afternoon! They had called SILAIS to tell me, but because I was sick and at home, I never found out.

So, Astro made it home safe and sound, around 9:30 at night and we didn’t have time to come up with a costume for the next day. But it turned out for the best. How embarrassing if he had been the only dog wearing clothes!

Yes...those balloons were my handiwork. Graduate education hard at work here.

Matt´s award-winning mural (or maybe not - the jury´s still out).

Matt´s competition.

The Futon

For the past 5 months or so, Matt and I have been spending most of our ‘sitting time’ in two plastic chairs that were gifted to us by the previous volunteer in Somoto. While we were quite grateful to have been given the chairs, my bum was getting tired of sitting on hard plastic when I wanted to read, hang out or watch a DVD on the laptop. So, in the typical manner in which things get accomplished in our relationship, I told Matt that I wanted to build a futon and he, instead of telling me I was crazy, calmly looked at the photos I had downloaded from the internet, said ‘OK’ and began figuring out how to do it.

The process began last weekend with a hunt around town to find a suitable mattress (‘mattress’ is a pretty loose term here; imagine a sac of material stuffed with foam, cardboard, paper – whatever is around and leftover). After a morning of hunting, haggling and chasing after Astro, we finally settled on a delightful pattern of Pooh (Winnie that is), accompanied by honey pots and bees. Quite classy.

The next step was to hunt down some wood. So we walked across town to the ‘Venta de Madera’ (the wood store) and bought enough to build our futon. Two gentlemen hanging around out front were nice enough to drive the wood to our house for the bargain price of $C60 (three dollars).

After visiting the only hardware shop open on Saturday afternoons, we were ready with all our materials – mattress, wood, nails, saw and hammer. We spent the better part of a day building the thing, but now we have a comfy place to sit!

Matt, cutting the wood on the back patio.

Astro...hard at work.

Me, measuring wood inside the house (in Nicaraguan fashion, it started to rain heavily after we started the project and we had to move it inside)

Astro and the giraffe...still hard at work.

Matt nailing.

Matt and Astro enjoying the fashionable futon :).

A Visit to Miraflor

September 15^th is Nicaragua’s National Independence Day. It marks the anniversary of the battle of San Jacinto when 150 Nicaraguans fought off a force of 150 Americans under the leadership of William Walker, “The Grey-Eyed Man of Destiny,” as he named himself. Walker was invited down by one of the warring factions during Nicaragua’s decades of civil war to once and all rout the enemy into submission. Walker and his crew of American Filibusters completed their task with such success that they continued on their way, defeating the army of the party that had hired them! With no armies left in Nicaragua besides his own, Walker made himself president (after a free and fair election, of course) in 1856, made English the official language of Nicaragua, and turned Granada into his own personal playground.

He only lasted a few years before the Nicaraguans mustered enough force to run him out of Dodge. Walker left his mark along the way, however, burning Granada to the ground. The big battle happened at San Jacinto, between Managua and Leon. The Nicaraguans were holed up in a ranch and Walker’s forces had the entire place surround. Running low on ammunition, Andrés Castro, now a Nicaraguan legend, picked up a rock, a killed in an American attacker by throwing the rock at his face. Apparently, his men followed suit and they had just enough rocks to stall the Americans until another force arrived to attack the Americans from behind. The Nicaraguans won and Walker fled to the States. He made his way back down a few years later to reclaim his thrown, but was swiftly captured and hung in Honduras, before ever making it back to Nicaragua.

OK, so that’s why Jess and I had Monday, the 15^th, off from work. While Somoto filled it streets with the lovely sounds of 15 bandas de guerra, or marching bands, Jess and I decided to head out for the quiet tranquility of the mountains. We made our way to Miraflor, a 120 square mile protected area outside of Estelí. Miraflor is special not just for its ecology, which is very different than its surroundings, but also for the way of life of its residents. Mirafloreños are agriculturalists, but they do it in a very sustainable way. They are big into any technology that will lower their impact on the land, such as solar panels and natural fertilizers. They’ve also realized the tourist potential of Miraflor and have worked to make it a popular destination for those interested in nature.

We stayed at a little cabin without electricity surrounded by coffee and banana plants (which grow very well together). Our cabin was on the edge of a cloud forest, which feels a lot like a rain forest, just colder. Basically, every night the drastic chance in temperature creates a mist that covers the entire landscape and doesn’t go away until the sun burns it off around 10:30 in the morning. For the plants, it’s like getting rained on every single night, so the forest is really damp and jungly, while still only getting to 75-80 degrees everyday.

Jess, Astro and I passed our time hiking and exploring, not to mention just relaxing. Astro was able to get in touch with his roots and try his hand at herding. It didn’t go so well, however. The cows and horses weren’t very afraid, the chickens weren’t cooperative, and sheep actually tried to herd him.

Jess and I enjoyed the food, cooked by a local family, as well as the downright frigid nights. It was the first time we’ve felt cold since leaving the States. We were sleeping in long sleeves and pants under a very heavy comforter.

Commuting to and from Miraflor was also quite an adventure. The busses were packed and Astro had to spend the majority of the time tucked under a seat. Going out to Miraflor was a 1 hour ride from Somoto to Estelí and then a 2 hour ride from Estelí to Miraflor. On the way home we managed to hitch a ride, which had us bumping down the hill at a fast enough pace to get us back to Estelí in about 40 minutes.

So, that’s how we spent our Nicaraguan Independence Day. We’re spending Tuesday just cleaning the house and preparing for the week. Hopefully things will be settling down for the two of us and we’ll be able to write more blog posts again. If you are still reading, thanks for doing so! Here are some more pictures of our adventure to give you a better idea of a cloud forest.

Jess climbing into a hollow tree.

I love this sign because of all the hidden jokes. First of all, Nicaraguans have a big problem when it comes to the difference between B and V, because they both sound the same when speaking. Therefore, when writing, they constantly mix them up. Occasionally you get hilarious signs like this one, which is supposed to say, ¨Don´t throw garbage.¨ as in don´t throw garbage in the street. It actually reads, however, ¨Don´t vote garbage.¨ Which is also a very important thing not to do. Therefore, we encourage all of you, not to throw garbage in the street and also not to vote garbage...
Dr. Werder, I presume?

Be sure to stay on the path...the plants are watching you!!

Every dog has his dreams... (those are cows out there in the field)

Bananas growing over coffee plants and next to pine trees. Who would have thunk it?!

Coolest tree house ever.

90th birthday party!

OK... I had a whole post written up on my flash drive, but it appears to have left. So, the abridged version is that Jess and I went to the canyon again this weekend to look for cool rocks. Then we went to a 90th birthday party for a neighbor´s mom. Lastly, Astro got hit by a car and lost a toenail, but he´s alright!

OK, more to come!

Jess and the birthday girl, Rosa Mariela.

Rosa Mariela and her 5 kids who live in Somoto, Managua, Costa Rica, and Canada.

Dancing with her son from Canada who was forced to leave when the Sandanistas took power. He´s been living abroad more that 25 years, but manages to visit his mom every year or so.

This party was a big deal, with a monster cake and everything. Almost 100 people showed up!

A picture from the mouth of the Somoto Cañon. Jess took this one.

Here´s Astro scrambling among the rocks. It´s almost impossible to get him to sit still long enough to take a picture. We´ve also finally come up with Astro´s breed. He´s really a mutt, but we have to say something to everyone that asks. Therefore, he is officially a Nicaraguan Highland Retriever. It´s not a very well known breed because they live in the isolated mountanous communities of Nicaragua. Their primary uses are cattle, sheep, goat, and bee herding, but have also known to be used by rescue teams during crisis situations to find lost people and food. An official census shows that the breed is down to only about 200 in the world.

Jess and Astro harnessing their chi at the river shore.

That´s all for now, sorry for the delay. We´d love to hear your ideas for a breed for Astro, so post them on the blog!