First time: Sunday at the beach

I did not go on this bus

I went with students from the English class and some of their kids.  This beach, about two hours from El Sauce, is called Las Peñitas. You can stay here for six bucks a night.

First time: Lunchtime language lessons

I teach English.  Pepe teaches Spanish.

The dictionary problem has been solved

First time: El presidente, la reina, y el general

So named by Richard

First time: Day 9 of construction

Walls = shade!

16 trips like this every morning to get water for the mortar

Little wire ties cut and twisted by me

First time: Asentaderas

Look it up: http://translate.google.com/. Mine ache.

The ride in the morning is over ruts and rocks while dodging every kind of animal, tractor, truck, and person.  The rules of the road seem to depend on where the shade is.

First time: Injury

This is not a work injury, nor a bike injury.  It's a fence-climbing injury.

Ugly thigh bruise. (Does ugly describe the thigh or the bruise?)

U

First time: People here smell so good

(Except maybe me.)

In the neighborhood where I work, the floors are dirt, there is no running water, and laundry is done by hand.  But I pass by dozens of kids on their way to school and all of them wear blinding white shirts and socks.  Likewise the babies in their cloth diapers.  It could be the result of detergents long outlawed in the U.S., but I prefer to believe it is Nicaraguan magic.

I go to work every morning in my filthy clothes from the day before.  Pepe and Richard, on the other hand, arrive scrubbed and smelling like Ivory soap. 

A woman getting water from the well

First time: La casa de Richard

Richard is my co-worker on the Four Walls project house.  He is a neighbor.  I thought my job was hard with only four people and all those 1500 bricks.  But to prove I still don’t know what I’m talking about, here is Richard and his family at the house he built with no one else – himself alone.  It is adobe which means he not only built it, he also made the bricks.  The bricks at my house are like the bricks we use in the USA.  They were brought from another part of Nicaragua. All of the wood at Richard’s house was cut and shaped by him.

(And as to the name:  there are many American names here in addition to Richard’s.  The children at the house where I work are Ashley, Pamela, and Jason.)

First time: A present

This is the grandmother at the house I'm building.  Today she gave me a beautiful blouse.

First time: Where I work

Yes. I am building it.  I am part of a four-person crew -- a mason, the owner of the house, a volunteer from El Sauce, and me.  Funds for the house were raised by the Rochester organization, Four Walls. (And, yes.  I will be hitting you up for money.)  This house cost $1700.

I ride my bike to the site at 7:00 every morning with Pepe, the boss.  The place is about a mile from my house.  Don't ask me where I get the ability to haul bricks in the very hot sun.  I'm getting it from somewhere. Everything is done by hand with the simplest of tools. Pepe told me today there are 1500 bricks.

First time: Where I live

The window in my room.

My room

Yum! Three times a day.

Across the street from a restaurant where mariachi players strolled in from the campo (countryside) last weekend.  Xiomara, the senora of the house, said it happens every Saturday.  They moved too fast for me to get a picture, but I'll try another time.

First time: My kingdom for a dictionary

When I was determined to confine my luggage to two carry-ons, I took out the dictionary and downloaded one to my phone. I thought I was downloading an e-book, but apparently was downloading an app. I cannot access it. I have lived here for a week without a dictionary. This is what the Sauceños listen to (in Spanish) all day long: "I’m sorry." "One more time?"  "I’m sorry." "Slowly, please." "I don’t understand. I’m sorry." Other times they deal patiently with my other pitiful Spanish-sounding noises. I say horse when I mean head. I say that when I mean this. No, I'm not married.  I'm tired.

There are English classes in El Sauce and there are diccionarios en los clases, but they only go one way: Spanish to English.

About the classes.  Weighty business for an hour and a half, four nights a week.  The students are adults who work hard and take the stuff seriously. This is Juan, the teacher. He kicks ass. If I could hire him to be my Spanish teacher, I would be fluent in a month.

Me with students from the class, and also with Rachel, a Peace Corps worker who teaches too. 

First time: Niños

First time: Animales

First time: Ruben Dario

The beloved Nicaraguan poet who created the literary movement modernismo and inspired Jose Marti and many others, His name is a household word in Latin America.  Here he is on a mural on my street,.  

First time: My boss

His name is Pepe.  I am a laborer on his construction crew. I have two exhausting 90-degree days under my belt.

First time: Blogging is not easy

Not only is Internet access limited, my Craigslist Windows XP travel computer is too.

So far the crazy vacation is everything I want it to be.  I have to speak Spanish for all my needs. The senora of my house treats me like a queen.  It is MUCHO hot, but there is plenty of bottled water.  The people of the town are over the top with generosity and friendship.

First time: My world es diferente!

1. Main Street
2. Augosto Sandino
3. Library
4. Poker room
5. Church of the Cristo Negro
6. Brand new hospital

First time: Managua

Little streets, little cars, and muchos motorcycles in Managua, el capital de Nicaragua,  This is my hermosa hotel.  Yacarely, who has many connections to NY, including a boyfriend who went to Geneseo, met me for breakfast.