I am in love with Penelope Cruz....and here is my mailing address!

MAILING ADDRESS……

Oxfam-Québec
Supermercado Las Segovias 2c. al sur
1/2c. al este, Estelí, Nicaragua

This address is for letters only.

If you want to mail something other than just a letter use the following address. It would also be good to let me know if you are going to mail a package or something so we know to expect something and we can go get it (sorry, I know that can ruin surprises…but you don’t have to tell me what it is!)

Oxfam-Québec
1023, Managua, Nicaragua


So, I was given advice that it would be a good idea to tone down the anti-Ortega talk in my blog. I will heed that advice. Although, just to be clear, I never said I had anything against the FSLN, in fact, I have a Sandinista flag (and a Nicaraguan one)…I’m just not a fan of their leader. I’m pretty far left on the spectrum, but that doesn’t mean that I think everyone who is left is good.

Annyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyways. Bit of a rough week at work. Arg. So yeah, Wednesday night I worked late, was a little frustrated so hooked up with some people went out to Bar Titanic stayed out late, listened to some rock and roll, drank some beer and then woke up early and went to work early to make sure everything was good to go for my presntation thursday morning. The presentation went alright. The main idea and message got across which is the point. Originally this section was alot bigger and more detailed with better rants but someone gave me the heads up what if someone at wrk reads your blog...not they I have told anyone about it, but you never know, so I cut that part out.

On Monday I went to Managua with a couple of people to pick up a new girl from Quebec who will be here until January. Left Esteli at 4 from work and got back at 11, long day. Haha this is next part is ridiculous. We were literally in Managua for maximum of an hour and a half. Got there, had dinner, went to the airport, that is it. In that time we managed to have to pay off 2 cops with bribes! Welcome to Managua! The first one there was a pylon in the middle of the road so the guy driving swirved out of the way and the cop pulled him over for some reason (e.g. to extract a bribe). It is so obvious too b/c they don’t even act like they are going to give you a ticket, they just stand there and waste your time for 10 minutes waiting for you to give them money. The 2nd one was even better. We get to the airport and ask the cop if its ok to leave the truck in the pick-up zone while we go wait for the girl to arrive. He says sure. The plane is delayed 20 minutes so we go back and ask him again and he is like sure no problem. We ask him another 2 times if he wants us to move the truck and he says no that’s fine. So the girl arrives and we go back to the truck and the cop is there with another cop and the new cop is like you can’t park here blah blah blah, and we were like we asked him (the other cop). This is the good part…..the original cop we asked takes off his uniform shirt and says I have no idea what you are talking about. oh you tricky bastard.

Found my favorite place to eat in Esteli the other night. I was hanging out with some people for work because we took the new girl out for a drink and after I went out for dinner with a couple of them and we went to this place by their house where the guy takes out a grill in front of his house and cooks up a feast, second time I have been there and it is delicious. It is hilarious b/c you never know how much it will cost. The first time we went it cost $125 cords for 2 of us. (that’s like $6-$7. The second time we went it cost 70 cords for 3 of us and we ate the same thing. It’s hilarious watching the guy add up the prices because there is no menu or anything he just starts adding random numbers together. Cheap and delicious!

Ania has arrived in Honduras. Tegucigalpa is about 3 hours from Esteli, and San Lorenzo, where Ania is going to be living is like 2 to 2.5 hours, so I will definitely be heading out there a few times. I told Ania I am giving her a month to settle in and get comfortable and then I am going to bug her. I know other people there too b/c a couple that is going there for two years arrived in Esteli a month ago and they were also at my Oxfam training. Actually, Saturday night I went to their house for dinner with the other Quebeckers. Friday night I invited the new girl to hang out with me and my friends. Gave her a little bit of taste of what Esteli is like. Hung out at my house for a bit then went to a place that had some live music, acoustic guitar player accompanied by a traditional flute. It was good, then we went dancing. So there is a problem with Esteli, which really bugs me. In Esteli, it is not recommended to walk at night, like after 8ish. If you are in a group (of guys) its alright. So this means you take a taxi home at night after the bar or whatever. The problem is that there are hardly any taxis that work after midnight! This has led to the problem that we walk as a group and drop everyone off at their respective houses, but I live in the boons, on the west side of the Pan-am and everyone else lives in the east side of it. So when it comes to walking home at night I am always left alone because they are not going to go out of their way to walk to my house when there house is first. This is really starting to bug me b/c it has happened the last 2 times I have gone out and it is not cool. It never used to be a problem because I had the phone number of a cab driver who I would call and he would pick me up wherever I was but he does not work nights anymore, so I have to find another cab driver who will give me his cell number. Oh man, garbage pick up is Saturday mornings anywhere from 6am to noon so it has to be out by 6. Needless to say I have not put it out the last couple of weeks so this week I had to. So I set my alarm for 5:50am (after getting in a 4) and put my garbage out at 5:50 go back to bed, wake up at 8 and the garbage is strewn everywhere infront of my house….damn dogs!! So I cleaned it up and put the bags out and had to sit and keep watch until the garbage pick up came at 11 so I could shew away the dogs when they came by.

So next weekend I am going on a roadtrip. My friend Luis (a Nicaraguan long-hair) and I are going to take his moto to León. León is 4-5 hours away and is a colonial city close to the pacific coast. So yeah the plan is Friday morning to pack a bag and hop on the moto and make our way out to León and hopefully make it out by just after lunchtime. This means probably driving straight (other than stopping for Luis’ smoke breaks) for the full 4 to 5 hours. I have been on the back of a moto here many a time, but never for a stretch of time that long. So it should be fun. We had originally thought of going with a group and taking a bus and were like nah, screw that. Let’s just go us two guys, it will be more fun because we can do whatever we want.

I used skype for the first time this weekend, talked to Ange for over an hour. Good times. Swapped lots of bug stories. If anyone ever wants to skype it up just let me know and we can set a time up.

Other than that, living alone is nothing short of absolutely amazing. Sundays are so ridiculously relaxing for me. It is like ghost town here on Sundays and I just take that day for myself. This Sunday I work up early hung out at home and read, listened to music, cooked up a storm, went out for lunch to one of the few places that has good coffee here (and its fair-trade and organic!) and it has wireless too. It’s pretty far, but like I said its ghost town on Sundays b/c almost everything is closed so it’s a nice quiet walk. Yup Sundays are nice relaxing days by myself and they will be even more relaxing once I install my hammock! Which should be done in the very near future.

And……ethics review and research proposal are complete. Now that that is done I am more excited about research and thesis stuff.

Hope everything is going well back in Canada.

Peace out.