Guitarras Zepedas

As many of you know, I play guitar. Others might know that I´ve been planning to purchase a guitar in Nicaragua since we first learned we were coming down here. It´s not that Nicaragua is famous for it´s guitars, it really just stemmed from the fact that I didn´t want to lug a full-size guitar all the way down here.

Well, it turned out to be a very good decision. Every Nicaraguan guidebook makes note of the Zepeda family, Nicaragua´s oldest family of luthiers (guys who build guitars). They have a workshop on the outskirts of Masaya, the artisan capital of Nicaragua. So, about a month back Jess, myself, and a few other volunteers made a trek out there to check out the guitar shop as well as the enormous and beautiful craft market. Some of you might remember the picture of us in sombreros...that´s Masaya. It turned out to be a great day. After a few hours of searching we came across the very humble workshop manned only by the family and a few extra hands.

The way things work there is like this: Sergio Zepeda´s (the main luthier) wife shows you around the workshop and takes you to a wall with several different sample guitars. You choose the look you like best and build from there. You have a ton of choices to make, customizing your guitar exactly how you´d like it. There were so many options, I would doubt if two of the same guitars have ever come out of that place. I spent about an hour and a half that Saturday pointing, drawing, gesturing, choosing, and constantly asking, ¨What if...¨

After you´ve made your choices, the luthiers go to work and PRESTO! In 4 weeks you´ve got a handmade, completely custom, very high quality guitar for literally a 10th of what you´d pay in the states.

I made a quick trip down to Masaya this past Friday to pick mine up, and I couldn´t be happier! The results are below. Sorry I don´t have better or more close up pictures, but I´m sure you´ll be seeing this guitar in a lot of pictures from now on.

Isn´t she a beauty?!

World Wise Schools Entry #1

Hello Mrs. Lyttle’s Class!

Thanks for the great letters. It’s great to learn about all of you and the adventures you’ve been on. Hopefully we can continue to share our experiences with all of you while we’re in Nicaragua. Below are the answers to the most popular questions you wrote to us. After that, please look for a special assignment we’d like the class to complete. Thanks again, and we look forward to hearing from you!

Why did you choose Nicaragua?
In fact, we had no role in the choosing of Nicaragua. With Peace Corps the volunteer can give a geographic preference in the world (for us it was Latin America) but the final decision comes down to the staff at Peace Corps. They make their choices based on previous language experience, technical skills, and needs of the in-country programs.

Is the island of Omotepe an extinct volcano?
Yes….and no. Let’s put it this way: the volcano of Omotepe is not on the list of potentially dangerous volcanoes in Nicaragua, which means they aren’t expecting it to erupt any time soon. On the other hand, the Peace Corps volunteer that lives on the island has come out of his house a few times to find 2 or 3 inches of ash covering everything, almost like a snowstorm. So, Omotepe is not necessarily active, but it’s definitely not extinct.

What are some other Peace Corps sites in Nicaragua?
There are currently more than 160 Peace Corps volunteers in Nicaragua and we’re working in pretty much every department, except the two autonomous regions on the Eastern Coast. Our volunteers are in the biggest cities and villages of 200 people…and everywhere in between!

What do you eat?
Food is very expensive in Nicaragua right now. Therefore, the majority of the people here only eat rice, beans, and corn tortillas. Occasionally they supplement with eggs. It’s sad to here, but the majority of people living in the country only eat 1 or 2 vegetables or fruits a week. There are a ton of organizations working in Nicaragua to improve that horrible statistic, but the reality is farms need to export all of their products to countries like the US to make enough money to survive and really can’t afford to keep much of their products in country. We’re very fortunate to have lived with families with incomes large enough to eat a healthier diet, something more similar to what we eat in the States, but that is definitely not the norm. More on food later…

What’s the deal with the LEGO piece?
Honestly, that’s the only one we’ve seen in Nicaragua. We haven’t ever seen a child playing with LEGO pieces. Sadly, we left the LEGO piece at the dump. Sorry, everybody…

Why did you join the Peace Corps in the first place?
Before we met each other, the two of us independently wanted to do something like the Peace Corps. When we realized it was a common dream, we started working towards getting in, and here we are today! We both wanted to experience another part of the world, and more than on a superficial level. We both wanted to learn another language. We both wanted to learn to live a simpler lifestyle. Mostly, we both know we want to spend our lives helping people, and this is a great way to jumpstart that career.

How is your Spanish? Did you forget English?
Our Spanish is coming along just fine. When we came in to Peace Corps we had a language ability of 3 (out of 10). At the end of training we were both 5’s. We are learning more everyday by reading newspapers, watching TV in Spanish, and just chatting with our family and co-workers. Our goal is to both be level 9’s or 10’s when we leave. No, we haven’t forgotten English, but we try to speak it as little as possible to improve our Spanish.

What kinds of fruits and vegetables are available?
If you live in a place with plenty of water it’s not uncommon to see avocado, lemon, banana, or mango trees. For instance, our family in Somoto has both a lemon tree and an avocado tree in their backyard. Basically, any of those tropical fruits that are really expensive in the supermarket in the States are just falling off the trees down here. It works the other way, too, however. Apples are very hard to find here, and they are easily twice as expensive as avocadoes.

How’s the weather?
Hot and dry. Right now it’s considered Summer in Nicaragua. There is virtually no rain and daily temperatures are in the 90’s. In May “winter” starts. That means rain everyday for about 2 hours and temperatures in the 80’s. That’s really all there is to it.

OK, that’s all we have time for right now, but if we missed a really important question feel free to send it to us again! On to the assignment:

We would like to start a section of our blog called “Nica Profile.” In this section we plan to interview a Nicaraguan every few weeks and post their responses and a photo on the blog. We would like Mrs. Lyttle’s class to come up 10 interview questions we can use. The questions should cover personal likes and dislike, family life, work stuff, and Nicaraguan culture. We’d like the class to vote on the best questions and then email them to us in both English and Spanish. Think you can do it?! Well, then get to work!

This weekend´s project: hanging up the basketball hoop!

Week Two Report

Our host family´s dog, Brandy. There really wasn´t any particular occasion...

Things are going well in Somoto. Jess is forming a girls basketball team with some local 10 year olds. Through her work she was able to meet up with a Nicaraguan whose been playing and coaching basketball for some 20 years and just so happens to be available weekly to help her out. Tonight (Sunday) they had their first ¨practice¨with 5 girls and only one basketball. I hung out for a while, but anyone reading this blog should know that I do more harm than good on a basketball court. It was clear there was a lot of enthusiasm from the girls and I´m sure the next time they meet there will be twice as many players. Let´s just say I´m purty durn proud of Jess!

This Saturday we went to Esteli with another Madriz-based volunteer. Esteli is the largest city in Madriz and boasts almost all of the accomidations of Managua. Better yet, it´s only 1.5 hours by express bus from Somoto. In Esteli I continued my quest for a cowboy hat, however, after about 3 or 4 stores, it was clear that my head is about 3 sizes bigger than any Nicaraguan. So, the search continues (sadly)...

Esteli also has a satellite Peace Corps office. It´s basically a bathroom and a couple computers where volunteers in our area can go to relax, do some research on the internet, or pick up and drop off stuff for other volunteers. Probably the greatest thing about the PC office in Esteli is the floor to ceiling bookshelf filled with cheesy airport novels. Since reading is a big part of our lives, it was great to come across this treasure trove. I walked out of there with Dan Brown´s Angels and Demons and Jess took the 5th Harry Potter book.

Speaking of books, I´m just about finished with a really interesting historical account of the 1980´s in Nicaragua. As many of you know, and probably as many of you remember, the Sandanistas, a Nicaraguan political group based in Communist ideals, overthrew a 40 year dictatorship in 1979. After a strong victory with virtually unanimous support from the Nicaraguan population, the Sandanistas began an 11 year experiment/revolution. From as early as 1979, and all the way through the defeat of the Sandanistas in the 1990 presidential elections and beyond, people have viewed this decade in Nicaragua with wonder, praise, disgust, disbelief, confidence, fear, and a million other emotions. The effect of the Sandanistas on Nicaragua, and really the Western Hemisphere, is still being disputed as to whether it was an inherently ¨good¨thing for the people of Nicaragua. It´s a facinating story in and of itself, but it´s also particularly pertinent right now because the unofficial leader of the Sandanistas and President during the 1980´s, Daniel Ortega, won the Presidential Elections in 2006 after failed attempts in, well, every national election since 1990. Depending on who you talk to, Ortega won with somewhere between 32 and 37 percent of the vote, while the other pletheura of parties came in somewhere near the low teens and twenties.

Being volunteers, we´re not supposed to really publicly discuss our political opinions, especially about in country politics, but we certainly are allowed to learn as much about the political process here. I´ve been trying to talk to families about their ideas and experiences during the 1980´s and how it compares to the current situation in Nicaragua.

I´d love to talk more about it here, but I´ll let all of you reading with particular interests in history to head over to wikipedia or some other research site to check it out first. If any particular questions come up that I can help answer (which can include asking your question to a Nicaraguan and translating the response here) please let me know.

¡Adios!

One Week Down, 103 To Go!

¨La Concha¨in Somoto. Located in the Center of town

Well, we’ve completed our first week in site without any major glitches. We’ve been able to learn our way around town, find the best internet cafes, etc. We’ve even begun (and potentially ended) our hunt for a house of our own. All in all, we are very happy.

In relation to work (Matt) I have been bouncing around different organizations in town trying to figure out who’s got what projects going on and where I can offer the most help. One of the biggest tenants of Peace Corps is that every volunteer needs to be sure the work he or she is doing is sustainable past their departure. Also, it’s important to note that we should not be doing a job a Nicaraguan could be doing. Some might say the opportunities left can be counted on one hand, but once a volunteer gets comfortable in their community and creative with their ideas it’s easy to fill your work day.

I am officially assigned to the Centro de Salud (Health Center), which serves as the primary health care center for the community. Remember, Nicaragua has universal health care, and while there are plenty of private practices around, the majority of the population use the free services offered at the Health Center. Also, the Centro is an extension of the National and State Health Departments, responsible for local educational outreach. That’s partly where I come in. I work with the Health Promoters who spend their days visiting rural communities, established community groups (taxi drivers union, pregnant mothers club), and anyone else who will listen to a talk about how to live healthier. Most topics revolve around reproductive health, disease transmission, and hygiene and community health.

I was able to give my first “solo” charla (the Spanish word for group talk) on Thursday. The topic was HIV/AIDS and the audience was 19 12-15 year old kids. We were in a little town in the mountains around Somoto called Uniles. I had a great time and I think the kids did, too. This particular group is being trained to pass on the information to their peers and family, so they all have a real sense of responsibility and involvement. Even still, the kids separate themselves (just like they do in classes in the States) into those willing to participate, those to shy to participate but eager to learn and, of course, the troublemakers. All in all it a productive hour and a half, and it helped me orient myself to the world of giving charlas solo.

In other news, Jess and I met up with another Peace Corps Volunteer and HWS grad on Saturday. Raul is currently a small business volunteer in Honduras, and lives only 20 minutes or so from the Nicaraguan border. If you’ve looked at a map of Nicaragua you know Somoto is only about 30 minutes from the Honduran border. So, thousands of miles from the shores of Seneca Lake, we had a HWS reunion with people from two different countries, and it only took an hour to get there! It was great to see Raul, who will be finishing out his service in July. We’ve already made plans for him to make another trip so we can visit the famous Somoto Canyon.

HWS Latin America Club Inagural Meetiing

Somoto´s Central Park. Paradise!

Address

Hello!

We are still searching for a house, but we did secure a mailbox! Our new address for everything is:

Jessica Werder and Matt Lyttle
Apdo # 08
Somoto, Madriz
Nicaragua

I´d like to take this time to say thank you for all of the great cards and notes we´ve recieved. We´ve heard from so many people, and I´m sure there are many more notes that were sent and lost in the system, so thank you!

(Happy Belated Birthday Peggy Bunnell!)

¡Bienvenidos a Somoto!

Yes – I am feeling much better J. I think that my already sensitive stomach just doesn’t deal well with Nica bugs (plus I would advise against drinking Managua’s tap water – that was just a bad late night decision; I don’t know for sure if that’s what caused it but it seems like an awfully odd concidence).

We have both officially started ‘work’, though I think it will take some time for both of us to figure out exactly what that means. The main program with which I am going to work is a program that focuses primarily on youth and issues of sexual and reproductive health. It has been a very successful three year program which will lose its funding in December. So, I find myself wondering what the best (and in true Peace Corps mentality, most ‘sustainable’) approach to work will be – to spend my time with this project only to find myself out of funds and out of work in December, or to branch out into the community and initiate some of my own projects. We’ll see. Madriz (the department in which we live) just organized an HIV workforce this month, in recognition of the growing problem in Nicaragua. I hope to contact the director of this program and see if I can help out in any way.

Matt finds himself in a slightly different situation. He volunteered to take over a project that the former volunteer had started in conjunction with a group of Irish University students. The group built a health post last year in an outlying community, and they hope to construct another one this year. It sounds like he is going to be the liason between the group and local contractors for much of the project which should be fun for him. Other than this, he is exploring ideas for working with the University (brand new and very small) population in town and thinking about other projects.

All in all we are doing well and are excited to start our two years here. We started our search for houses today, though it seems like it is going to be a slow and rather round-about process. Nothing is particularly direct in Nicaragua, and it appears that renting a house will follow that pattern. There are few houses in Somoto that have ‘For Rent’ signs and when you encounter one that does, there is no direct route to encounter the owner. The process involves speaking with roughly every neighbor to arrive at consensus about who owns the house, and then with multiple people in the street to arrive at a consensus as to where the person lives. After that, you look for their house, realize that they don’t actually live it, but in Managua, and proceed to look for the house of their brother, cousin or other relative once-removed to see how to get in touch with them. As with everything here, it will be a learning process.

Jess´s family in El Rosario. This is us saying ¨¡Adios!¨

Swearing In is a Success!

It’s official, Jess and I are bonified volunteers of Peace Corps – Nicaragua! We swore in yesterday in a ceremony officiated by the U.S. Ambassador, Paul Trivelli. Our training families and colleagues at Peace Corps were there for the ceremony, not to mention a bunch of the local TV stations.

We’ve been celebrating and enjoying a few final hours with our fellow Nica 46’ers, but slowly but surely people are pealing off for their sites. Jess and I were planning to head up to Somoto Saturday, but she’s managed to come down with something fierce and has been virtually bed-ridden today. We’re going to give it a try tomorrow morning on the 9:45 express bus, so we’ll see if she’s feeling better.

Here are the three Santa Teresa Trainees and their families.

Here´s El Rosario.

And here are all 18 of us!

Semana Santa & Swearing In

Lago de Nicaragua and the Island of Ometepe in the distance (it´s an actively volcanic island)

So this week is Semana Santa in Nicaragua. We haven’t had training classes since Wednesday, because most of the country shuts down for Thursday-Sunday; those people with cars go to the beach, those without stay at home and observe the religious processionals through town. Matt and I have been spending the time in Rosario with my family. Its been interesting – we haven’t had much to do, which is really a first for us here because we are usually busy every minute of the day in training. Matt has been spending a lot of time reading and playing guitar. To be honest, I’m not entirely sure what I’ve been doing.

On Thursday, we went with the family to the beach at San Jorge, on the western side of Lake Nicaragua, an enormous lake in the middle of the country, (just slightly smaller than the Island of Puerto Rico). From the shore at San Jorge, you can see Omotepe, a volcano island:

We also went to visit the basurera in Rosario (the dump). Its about a 20 minute walk outside of Rosario in the campo, and apparently it’s a pretty progressive program for Nicaragua. The mayor pays for a guy to go around town and collect garbage in town. Then they take it out to this place and sort it into organic and inorganic garbage. The organic is used for composting and they have an absolutely beautiful garden next to the dump (in the middle of nowhere…):

Here´s where they do the composting at the garbage dump.

We found this is the ¨garbage section.¨ It´s bonafide LEGO, so we thought we´d post this picture in honor of my brother, Scott. Sorry, Scott, we didn´t think it was worth salvaging, so we left it there...

Other than that, as I said, we have been doing very little aside from observing, and occasionally accidentally partaking in, religious processionals. And spending time with the family, because this is the last week in Curacao….

Bridge to Service

Next week Jess and I will be swearing in as Volunteers! It’s hard to believe we’ve been here close to three months, although sometimes it feels like years. Anyway, we’re going to be meeting with the U.S. Ambassador to Nicaragua. He comes to our swearing in ceremony, presides over it, and even gives an address to the audience. Since our training families are invited, the entire ceremony is in Spanish. We also will be singing the Nicaraguan National Anthem (in Spanish, of course) and saying the Peace Corps oath (also in Spanish, although originally in English). We’ll be sure to post the oath later this week – maybe even in Spanish and English… After the ceremony we have a night of celebration in Managua and then we’re on our own. We’ve talked a lot on this blog about the lack of independence and autonomy over the past three months like it’s a bad thing. Now I have to admit I’m a little scared to be out there on our own. I know as soon as we board that bus to Somoto all those fears will disappear, but taking that first step will be difficult.

Anyway, I’d like the readers’ feedback on a current dilemma I’m having. As you know, I have been sporting a beard for the past 2 or 3 years. A few of the clean-shaven male trainees came up with the idea of growing mustaches for the swearing in ceremony, as this is a traditional look amongst Nicaraguan men. They had to make the commitment weeks ago to ensure a formidable ‘stasch, and therefore have come terms with the look and are ready to face the U.S. Ambassador with a caterpillar above their lip (figure of speech, of course). For me, on the other hand, it’s an issue of “downsizing” and I consequently don’t need to deal with the thought until the wee hours before the ceremony. My question to all of you is, should I do it? Should I shave the beard for the sake of fraternity? Should I risk embarrament in front of the highest serving American official in the country? Even more importantly, should I risk a serious case of razor burn? Your thoughts, please…

Things Matt misses from the U.S.

Borders

Free Internet

Malls

Movie Theaters

Tuna Fish

American Cheese

Cheese Variety

Driving

NOT knowing where my food comes from.

Monthly cell phone plans

Law & Order

Diners

Things that Matt doesn’t miss from the States:

Winter

Things Jess misses from the U.S.:

Warm showers

Snow (at times)

Whole wheat bread

Cheddar

Reruns of Sex and the City and America’s Next Top Model

My Cat

Washing Machines

Wegmans

Bagels

Seasons (At least, I think I will – ‘hot’ and ‘rainy’ just aren’t the same as ‘winter, spring, summer, fall’).

Independence (that will change after training…..)

Jess´s Host Mom with ¨Jesus¨ during the Holy Friday processions.

Life and Times in Somoto

What a week. We returned from Somoto on Thursday after several days of whirlwind introductions and new sites to see. It is now safe to say we are absolutely in love with Somoto. The city is much quieter than expected (quieter than our tiny training towns) and the people are friendly as can be. The current mayor (on his way out in November) has spent the last 5 years really pushing Somoto forward. For his efforts, we arrived to find a new market, new public pool, new soccer stadium, a beautiful tree lined boulevard into the center of town, a new mayor’s office, and, most importantly, a city immaculately clean and fresh. Things definitely seem on the up and up in Somoto. The progress, coupled with the incredible efforts of all of the charitable orgninzations, tells us our time in Somoto will only lead to more good things.

Our host family is great. Akhnaton and Silvia, in their mid-thirties, are great cooks, keep a beautiful house, and have a collection of movies that would make my dad blush. Their two kids, Adriana (10) and Ana Sophia (4) are a handful at times, but they are an incredible resource for clear, accurate Spanish. Our room is comfortable, cool, and has just the right amount of privacy. Peace Corps mandates we live with them for 6 weeks before finding our own “casita”.” Who knows if they’ll be able to get rid of us after that.

As for work opportunities, we found ourselves striking out on our own to start relationships with non-profit organizations in the area. Officially, Jess is working with the State Health Department and I’m working for the City Health Center, but we have the freedom to pick up projects all over the city and outlining communities. Peace Corps calls these “secondary projects,” which really only means we need to put aside at least a few hours a week with our official project colleagues.

Jess and I visited a local extension of the University of Leon and sat in on an English class. We feel this is going to be a great resource for us when we start our youth groups or when we need volunteers for other projects. The extension is only 2 years old, so hopefully we can grow with it and help build the bond between the university and the local community.

Thursday morning we visited The Canyon of Somoto, one of the few draws for tourists to the city. Let me tell you that this canyon alone is worth a plane ticket from the States. Unfortunately, it’s quite a hike from the Carretera Panamericana to the mouth of the canyon and Jess and I found ourselves struggling just to make it back to Somoto in one piece. That’s probably the main reason the city hasn’t been able to really develop the location as a tourist spot: it’s incredibly inaccessible. At the same time, for those who are able to make the hike, the reward is well worth the trouble. The Canyon is a beautifully clean, tranquil place where a true adventurer can find enough nooks and crannies to get lost for hours, if not days. It’s sad that it’s inaccessibility is probably the main factor keeping the Canyon so much more perfect than other points of natural interest in Nicaragua.

All in all, we couldn’t be happier, and we invite anyone and everyone reading our blog to book that plane ticket, reserve a room at the Hotel Panamericano, and come experience beautiful Somoto!

To enter the canyon you have to take a row boat. The walls are two steep to walk.

Jess made a friend during our time in Somoto. Here is her friend examining a piece of orange she gave him. I won´t include the photo of her friend realizing it was an orange and not something more exciting....like a graham cracker. He didn´t like bananas either.

Sandinista rally as the country prepares for mayoral elections on November 4th, coincidentally. Somoto will be sad to see it´s current mayor leave, but law dictates that no one can serve back to back terms, although can be reelected after a 1 term haitus.

Isn´t she lovely? Free liquado to the person who can guess what she´s doing in this photo. Another free liquado to the person who can tell me what a liquado is.

Somoto Or Bust

It’s official! Jess and I will be spending the next two years of Peace Corps service in Somoto, Madriz, Nicaragua. Somoto is the department head and has a population 137,000 people. It’s located 200 km north of Managua and only about 50 km from the Honduran border. Apparently, the majority of the population works in basic grains production (corn and beans), but there is fledgling coffee production throughout the area as well. Somoto is called “The City of Donkeys” and I honestly have no idea why. It’s known for it’s rosquillas, which are kind of like round Cheeze-Its. Jess likes them, but I have yet to acquire the taste. The climate in Somoto is considerably cooler than the majority of Nicaragua – we’ll see just how cool this weekend.

We are meeting with our future work colleagues this week to discuss how we’d like to organize our work week. Jess and I will be working completely independently from each other, in fact for different organizations. Jess has been assigned to SILAIS, the department level government agency that handles health promotion, program level planning, epidemiological research, and MINSA (see previous post) policy implementation. I’ll be working in the Centro de Salud, which is the place people go to get medical attention. Health promoters in the Centro de Salud actually go around the community giving health talks, participating in baby weighing sessions, and working with already established groups (church groups, farmer’s co-ops, etc.) to promote healthier living.

There are several non-profits with offices in Somoto, as well. I’m most excited to find work with the World Food Programme and a Spanish NGO that focuses on food security named Accion Contra el Hambre. Jess would like to work with PROFAMILIA, a local NGO working with youth on reproductive health issues, as well as Horizonte 3000, another youth organization that does radio and TV spots promoting healthier living practices.

The great part about this is that while our home bases will be SILAIS and the Centro de Salud, we are free to work with any group or organization we’d like. For instance, there is a small NGO working on solar energy in Somoto. If we like the work they’re doing, we can take 5 or 10 hours a week out of our Health Center time and work with that NGO. Really, our only boss is the Peace Corps, allowing us to circumvent the normal power structures needed to get things done in Nicaragua.

Needless to say, Jess and I are extremely excited about this site. There is plenty of working we’re interested in. All of the amenities we will need (cell phone, internet, good restaurants) will be readily available in Somoto. Also, it looks like there are some beautiful spots to explore right outside of town, namely the Canyon de Somoto. It’s going to be great!

The church at night in Santa Teresa. It is in the process of being remodelled.

Here´s a burning sugar cane field up in Chinandega. They do this on purpose, but I´m not sure why. We stayed in Corinto, about 50 kms past this farm and the city was covered in the ash from this fire. Needless to say, respitory illnesses are a huge problem in Nicaragua.

Here´s Matt eating a pastry. Jess has such a good eye for great pictures.

Hey Dad (Dave)! This guy was wearing a Lafayette College shirt in the Corinto Health Center. Pretty much every week one of us sees a shirt from a place in the States. They are all donated down here and end up with people who have no idea what they say. Jess saw a shirt from a Barbeque place outside of Rochester. One guy in our group saw a shirt from a water polo tournament he participated in 5 years ago!