2d visit: ¡Estoy aquí!

2d visit: It's January. It's Rochester

Get me out of here.

First time: Adiós, Nicaragüita

You have replenished me.

Ay Nicaragua, Nicaragüita

La flor mas linda de mi querer

Abonada con la bendita, Nicaragüita,

Sangre de Diriangen.

Ay Nicaragua sos mas dulcita

Que la mielita de Tamagas

Pero ahora que ya sos libre, Nicaragüita,

Yo te quiero mucho mas

Pero ahora que ya sos libre, Nicaragüita,

Yo te quiero mucho mas.

First time: Semana Santa

Semana Santa (Holy Week) = processions through the streets, a trip to the river, and the three-hour Vigilia Pascual complete with fireworks.

First time: Fire

Imagine a fire in this beloved church. At Christmastime in 1996, it burned. And since the town has no fire department, the blaze was fought with buckets of water carried from the river on horseback. The church was destroyed, but rebuilt.  One of the largest churches in Central America, it is called El Santuario Nacional Nuestro Señor de los Milagros (The National Shrine of Our Lord of the Miracles), built to honor the Black Christ of Esquipulas.

First time: Another house

The day after we finished construction on the first house, we began another. 

First time: The gringo in the group

The gringa in the group is the one with the camera

The gringa in the group gets the jobs in the shade

The gringa in the group drinks imported water

The gringa in the group can’t solve a problem without using money

The gringa in the group has a fancy backpack and clothes made of high-tech fabric

The gringa in the group longs for a pedicure

The gringa in the group doesn’t remember what she paid for her water

The gringa in the group doesn’t know what she paid for her plane ticket

The gringa in the group has a visa

First time: I've been to the mountain top

This is Los Altos de Ocotal, a place I visited on Sunday.  Until I figure out words to describe it sufficiently, all I can do is post a few pictures.

(Mas fotos en Facebook.)

First time: Logo

A plaque identifies every 4 Walls house.  Pepe took me to visit some houses that were completed recently and also gave me a souvenir to take home.

First time: Such beautiful doors

First time: Mariposa

First time: Teaching poetry

For two Thursdays I pretended to be a poetry teacher at the English Class in El Sauce.  We read Seamus Heaney and Sherman Alexie, and also wrote a little.  Some examples:

  

The sea and sky are blue

Like my bottle of glue.

I like my bird because it flew.

And God is love, that’s true.

Summer

Hot fun

Swimming, surfing, eating.

Enjoy the better way.

Bikini!

First time: Comida deliciosa

Mango.  Have you ever heard one hit the roof in the middle of the night?  I thought it was the battering ram.

Cashews.  Just roasted.  Still hot.

A citrus whose name I cannot remember.

First time: Sitting in the calle in the evening

It’s the thing to do. People gather at their doorsteps to catch a breeze and maybe some gossip.

Hilda is Xiomara’s (my hostess’s) mother.  She’s the comic in the crowd.

First time: Here it is!

One snug little house, capable of withstanding the rains when they begin in May, 

• Four walls
• 6 metres by 4.5 metres by 2.25 metres.
• 1600 bricks
• 3360 litres of water
• 23 bags of Portland cement
• A giant pile of sand
• Rebar and baling wire
• Tools: hammer, nails, level, plum line, axe, wheel barrow, gloves, plastic bowls, tape measure, sifter, serrucho, manger, escuadra, barr, pala, reglas, piocha, alfajillas, cucharas, liensa, grifas, cegeta, tablas, prensas
• 90 mason’s hours
• 310 total man hours

 The roof and doors won’t go on until after I am gone. Bummer!

First time: Machete

Refusing to believe that a woman could live 60 years without seeing a machete, Jerson posed with his.

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.