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.

First time: Nicaragua was once almost a U.S. state

In 1852 a mercenary from Tennessee, William Walker, invaded Nicaragua and declared himself president. The history is hard to follow, but apparently his plan was to annex the territory in order to expand the number of slave states in the U.S., a practice known as filibustering. It happened in Texas, sort of.

Before the Panama Canal, it was possible to ship goods through Nicaragua--along the San Juan River, across Lake Nicaragua, and then overland to the Pacific. Thus, Nica was a fairly important trade route.  Then along came the Gold Rush. Then along came Cornelius Vanderbilt. He saw dollar signs in getting those gold miners and their supplies to California. Vanderbilt financed rebels to overthrow William Walker. President Buchanan supported him. Walker battled the rebels, lost, and eventually surrendered.  He was executed in Honduras. There is a bad and really bloody film about him, available on Netflix and starring Ed Harris.

I have two bandaids

Typhoid and Hepatitis A

I have a headlamp