So I blinked and next the thing I knew I had been in Nicaragua for 2 months...and still enjoying the experience

http://picasaweb.google.com/francisinnica I am slowly posting more pics. I have hundreds and I will add some to the existing folders also, such as pics of my house as I slowly start to domesticate it. Which I have been doing by the way. I bought some good pots and pans and cooking has once again become enjoyable. Hmm what else have I picked up lately. Oh yeah, there are two people returning to montreal, the one lady has been here 2 years so she was selling a bunch of stuff. I picked up an iron, some stuff for the kitchen like a measuring cup, a bin for my dirty clothes so they no longer stay in a pile in the corner of the washroom, oh and a bedset with sheets and pillow cases. Yes, after 2 months I finally have pillow cases. I had sheets that I brought from home but with only one set, there are sometimes problems when you hang dry your stuff outside and it is rain season. Too many times did I go a few days without sheets on my bed because it rained during the day while I was at work. So problem solved!

I’m thinking of picking up a cheap used t.v. b/c when my housemate leaves it will be pretty quiet around the house and I want to get the news b/c I don’t always feel like reading the paper after working all day. Plus its good for the Spanish practice.

So this past weekend was my housemate’s last weekend here. So of course there were some festivities. Saturday night we had a party at our house, about 25 people came. We supplied the food and it was BYOB. I cooked 200 tortillas cut into quarters which equals 800 pieces of tortilla. Nothing like homemade nachos. There was also 2 pounds of frijoles, 2 pounds of cheese and some vegetable salad thingy. So this party was decent to say the least. At about 1am we decided that we were going to go to a bar, (same one as always) so we headed out there hung out there for a bit, people slowly started leaving. After some time there there was only my housemate, I and 3 other guys left so we decided to go to Karoake, which is located in the backroom of a really run down ‘casino’, an open room with slot machines and stuff. I didn’t want to go but since it was my housemates last time to go out I decided what the heck. So we went there and song some karaoke and we are all in pretty ridiculous shape. The important thing is that we had no track of time. So eventually it was just us five left in this place and the people working there made us leave and we could not sing anymore. So we were like hmm, it must be pretty late since they are kicking us out. Well, that was the first time that I have been able to walk home from a bar since being here because when we walked out side it was broad daylight out. It was 6am haha. So we get outside and my housemate is like I want to go to Granada (which is an old colonial town with a huge volcanoe….4-5 hours away. But she did not want to go by herself so one of the guys volunteered to go with her. this was so random it was hilarious. So we get back to the house and I was like are you seriously going and she was like yes, I want to go, so she packs her big backpack and showers and then the guy is like ok, lets go on my dirtbike to my house so I can change and then we will go to the bus station and go to Granada. Umm, I would not get on the moto with him I say to my roommate, she is like why not? Oh I don’t know, he has been drinking for 10 hours straight. So they both get on the moto they go to start and what happens, haha, they fall over into a big puddle of mud…hahaha. I shut the door and said by I am going to bed… no coming back in to change haha and I suggested walking to the bus station as I shut the door. So I went to sleep. I only slept for 2 hours and I did not notice that the state my house was in when I entered at 6am, but at 8:30 I did, and it was a complete disaster. The furniture was all pushed to the sides and there was food and drink all over the floor and it stunk gross. The worst thing is that here almost everyone smokes socially, but they ash out and throw their cigarette butts on the floor….gross. So yeah I cleaned up. But, nothing was stolen, because my housemate and I took everything from the house, I mean everything from plates and pans and food to the toothpaste and forks and locked it in our rooms. There was nothing left in the main part of the house or in any cupboards except for the furniture. Cleaning was tough though b/c the cleaning supplies are in the backyard and I could not find the keys to open the door, and there was no water all day and the electricity was out for 10 hours…oh also the night before I ran out of propane (the stove runs on propane). So Sunday was a gasless, waterless, electrictyless day of trying to clean. So at 2pm I go to take a nap, 5 minutes after I lie down I hear banging on the front grill and my housemate yelling at me. I go there and I was like good trip to Granada haha, considering it take almost 5 ours to get there.
I didn’t make it she says. ahaha
What ended up happening was she went to the guy’s house that she was going with because he had to change and she sat on the couch and fell asleep and he could not wake her up. She was banging on the front door b/c she did not have her keys. for some reason the keys on her key chain were switched with the keys with the backdoor! Apparently Saturday night I told her to switch the keys, I guess it sounded like a good idea at the time.
So yeah, my housemate is leaving, she is spending most of the week in Managua. So its pretty quiet around the house.
Hmm, what else has been going on around here. Tonight (Tuesday) there is a going away BBQ for the two people returning to Canada. It is at the farm of one of the guy’s who works in the office. Should be a good time, will be nice to get some barbecued meat. It’s been a while.

The weather has been awesome lately. It has been pretty cool at nights. I actually wore a sweater the other evening when I went for a walk and last night I was actually cold in bed. During the day it is still pretty hot though, but bearable, not like Managua which is hellishly hot 24/7.

So I met me a few longhairs! I have been meeting more and more people and I met some people through the son of the lady I lived with for the first month here. And they are the long-haired, wanna be 1960s rockstar type. Just the way I like em! haha. So yeah meeting some new people, they are closer to my age too which is good. The guy I am closest with here is 33 and everyone else I have been hanging around with is 27-30 so its good to hang out with some people in their earlier 20s from time to time. They are really chill and relaxed and laid back too, and one of the guys is apparently the best guitarist in Esteli so we are going to jam it up sometime soon.

The 16th is “the Day of the Revolution” and on Wednesday Ortega is coming to Esteli to give a speech. The city is getting all decked out in black and red flags everywhere (FSLN colours). Thursday and Friday are national holidays so the office is closed and I get a 4 day weekend which is awesome because I need a break, everyone in the office is burnt out. Last Friday everyone had left the office by 3:30 in the afternoon, even the Nicas. In the morning on Friday there was a workshop/meeting thing and afterwards we went to the office and one guy was like man, I should have taken the afternoon off, I have come into the office 19 days straight. I was like yea, I really don’t feel like working either. So we said screw it, put some tunes on and chilled out for a bit and then went out for some food on a patio.
So, 4 day weekend. I am going away to Miraflor Nature Reserve. It’s the biggest reserve in Nicaragua, 205 sqkm and has 3 ecosystems. Savannah, rainforest and cloud forest. There is not really much tourism infrastructure, it pretty much consists of finding a family to stay with who can rent a spare room or hammock out to you. The reserve is occupied by few hundred small farmers who make up a cooperative. My directions are take the bus going to Yalí and get the driver to drop you off just passed La Rampala (2.5-3 hours). The east side of the road is the western edge of the reserve. Walk 2 km east, towards the community of I forget what its name is and you will see a small farm. Ask there where there is a place you can stay. And then it lists a bunch of names of women who are the owners of some of the small farms who are recommended to stay with. The first day I am going to do some walking through the rainforest and cloud forest and try to see some wildlife, hopefully I can hire someone to be my guide for the day. The second day I am going to rent a horse from a farm for the day and go horseback riding for the day and cover as much as the reserve as possible. The farm I am hoping to stay at, if I can find it, is an organic farm and coffee plantation and it costs about $17 a day, and they feed me 3 meals/day all made from organic food grown on the farm and they have extra rooms furnished with a bed and candle! Should be some relaxing good times.
I think for the next few weeks I am going to take it easy and relax. It’s really quiet around the office this week which is awesome. I am giving a presentation Wednesday afternoon sort of as a summary and conclusion session of the stuff I have been working on and strategies to reduce costs of production and risks. I also added in a little part at the end about the evils of multinational agribusiness…cough cough Monsanto you jackass of a corporation, and how food production is ever increasing yet the number of people starving is also increasing because of the mega-profits reaped by these corporations by exporting to the north what is produced in the south. Next Tuesday I have a meeting with the directors of the partner organizations to discuss a document that I made with regards to prices and costs and risks and projections etc. now that it is done and I got all the information and conclusions needed so the partner organization can start strategizing future production. Up until now they have just been doing it intuitively/instinctively and not paying attention to market patterns and fluctuations and stuff.

I hear it is ridiculously hot in Canada. That is pretty crappy. I would say enjoy while it lasts but as far as I am concerned 40 degrees is unenjoyable...hahaha its hotter in Toronto that it is in Esteli!
I seem to have regained access to the blogs so I promise to catch up on your lives all of you who are abroad. I apologize for not being able to the last few weeks. But I am sure you are all doing well.
Anyways that seems to be about it for now. Got to get started on that research proposal and ethics review!
Talk to you later.