Matagalpa, Matagalpa

A few weekends ago, we went to visit the other married couple in our group, Kory and Heather. They live in a mountain community called la Dalia, which is in the Department of Matagalpa, right in the middle of Nicaraguan coffee country. Matt and I have been meaning to visit more volunteers in their sites, to see how their daily life and work compares to what we experience in Somoto. Visiting Kory and Heather provided us with an interesting window into the lives of two other volunteers.

Heather and Kory are both artists – Heather is a photographer (though she also has a Masters in Social Work) and Kory is an amazing watercolor painter/poet/creator of interesting things. We had a great time visiting them because you can see their creative spirits in everything that they do.

Our first day in la Dalia, we got to see the town and the house where Kory and Heather live, along with all of the cool personal projects that they have done during their first year in country. To start off with, we got to experience the pulley-based fan system that Kory has rigged up to keep the two of them cool while they are sitting in their hammocks. As you swing, the motion of the hammock pulls a rope over a set of pulleys, which moves a fan made out of bamboo and cloth. It’s pretty cool.

We also saw the solar food dryer that they made from Peace Corps plans, and their tire gardens in the back of their house, where they grow all kinds of vegetables. And, best of all, Matt got a lesson in chocolate-making from Kory.

On the second day, we took a trip about an hour up the mountain to a Park called las Penas Blanca (The White Cliffs). It’s a beautiful set of high cliffs and, apparently, waterfalls. However, we didn’t realize that word had gotten out about the beauty of the cliffs and that the local community is now charging $20 for entrance and a tour. With our cheap Peace Corps mentality, we decided that the price was too high for the short hike that we were looking for and instead just went for a walk down the road. So, we didn’t see the waterfalls firsthand, but we are thinking about a camping trip sometime in the future for the full experience.

On the way back into town, we stopped off at the Casa Materna in La Dahlia. Casas Maternas exist in a number of Municipalities in Nicaragua. They are houses in larger towns or cities, where pregnant women from the country can come and stay as their due date gets close. That way, they are close to the Health Center or Hospital, in the case of an emergency, which makes attending them much easier than it would be if they were still in a remote community. The national network of Casas Maternas is an effort to cut down on maternal and infant mortality.

Heather does a lot of work in her Casa Materna, and we got to see where she spends her days and the women that she works with. In addition, we were able to see a beautiful mural that the two painted last December, and to see the big project that they have been working on.

Some time in their first year, Heather and Kory became frustrated with the lack of permanent educational materials in the Health Center and Casa Materna. Everything is usually written on large poster paper and then discarded after the class or talk is done. So, in an effort to create something lasting and sustainable, the two have worked to put together an advisory committee of doctors and health professionals that is helping them to design a series of large posters which will be printed and hung in every Casa Materna in the country. Each poster has a theme, and they range from things like contraception to breast feeding, to the stages of pregnancy. The idea is that the posters will have information on them that anyone can use to explain health themes to the women who come to the casa maternal. And, given the artistic ability and vision of the two volunteers, the posters they have completed to date are absolutely beautiful.

So, we enjoyed our visit and learned a little bit more about how other volunteers spend their days. If you want to learn anymore about what Kory and Heather are up to, you can visit their blog at:http://theadventuresofheatherandkory.blogspot.com/