He even named his Jeep! He must be groovy

So, what were you up to at 7am this morning? I was on the back of Gilberto's motorbike heading to Las Delicias to teach one to one on a farm. Owned by Jose Luis, one of the few English students that's actually a farmer (most are the offspring of farmers) and a motivated guy. Only thing is it's hard to juggle farming and learning so he's the guinea pig to try out visual, practical English classes. And Gilberto goes up there for the cooperative every day to check the cows so there's the lift sorted. Didn't think my first time on a motorbike would be at 33 in Nicaragua but hey!

We went walking around the farm, he showed me things and we named them and made short sentences (This is my brother's house... This is a cow... We call this tree japote") and then we went back to his house and drew a map of the whole journey, with lots of words to practice and remember. My suggestion was then to put the map up somewhere he would see it every day, and I proferred the idea of the loo, explaining that in my culture men like to read there. He didn't go for this idea in a big way (pit latrines aren't so accomodating I guess) but he took to the idea of putting it by the toothbrushes in the kitchen where they clean their teeth. I'm going back in a week - if any of it's stuck we celebrate, if none of it's stuck we knock the idea on the head!

And in the meantime I got to see some blissfully amazing countryside, mountains bananas and coffee as far as the eye could see. And we stopped off at various places for Gilberto to show me family, sugar cane processing places, and more coffee. One difference that he seemed to be suggesting between fair trade and non is that the fair trade farms don't burn their fields, and have many more trees and therefore less erosion. There are environmental indicators to the quality mark.

The most comedic moment was when the road was too stony and Gilberto asked me to get off and walk while he negotiated the slope. I got off, he negotiated perfectly and I bloody fell over trying to walk! Fool.

So here's Gilberto, on the bike, Jose Luis behind him, and his brother. And - the coolest little jeep!! It even has a name - perico. Something like a cockatiel I think... A bit far to bring it back for the dumball but what a perfect specimen!!
















And here is the new clothes washing station at my house in Yali, being finished off. The chap pictured is studying architecture as well as fashioning cement into washing stations, and in 5 years if you want some architecture done - he's your man. I tried to make a joke that the lavenderia should have been a bit more avant garde and aesthetically pleasing (every single wash station in nicaragua is exactly the same) but my vocabulary wasn't broad enough and he hadn't heard of Gaudi. Sorry about the bad light, it's pitch back in that shack out the back and I didn't like to leave him standing there like a lemon too long.