Rebecca Tully

All in the past...

2008-08-18T22:10:00.008+01:00

I went to Nicaragua for 5 months in 2008 to teach English and computing, for communities working to establish community tourism. I also asked lots of questions about coffee and Fairtrade. Along the way I found out more about cows and political nonsense than i expected too...

This blog is over - but may be useful to you if you are thinking of volunteering in Nicaragua - with the Nest Trust or any other organisation. If you are already teaching in Nicaragua or another Spanish speaking country the links on the side may be of interest. There are also entries about Fairtrade and about coffee growing in general if that's something that floats your boat. Scroll to the bottom of the page to start at the beginning, or click on a title in the blog archive: all the ones about coffee have coffee in the title if you wish to avoid personal nonsense!

Friends of mine I made while I was there also made a radio documentary on a similar subject: it's a very accessible introduction to coffee and politics in Nicaragua. Download Shane and Claire O'Connell's Coffee Documentary here

If you ever get a chance - Go to Nicaragua. It is a fascinating, funny, infuriating place and you will leave enriched. Honest! And stay here. It's brill. http://www.cafeluzyluna.com/

Email me on rebstully (at) blueyonder . co . uk
Work in the UK: http://www.rebeccatully.co.uk/

It wasn't extreme...

2008-08-18T21:57:00.004+01:00

...But it was Kayaking.

Rio Istiam is essentially the cleavage between the twin volcanic peaks of the Island of Ometepe. I can legitimately call them breasts as legend has it they are the boobs of a lady from a Romeo/Juliet style love tragedy who flung herself into the lake while killing herself. And, I kayaked over teh top of one breast and down the cleavage, seeing as I went turtles, a cayman, many birds and guided by a fresh 15 year old. He reckoned I was beautiful. And my name was beautiful. That's the last innane ill- thought-out latin compliment I'll be getting for a while I reckon... I drilled him on some pronunciation while we were paddling, he now knows the difference between bird - beard - and board... it was really doing my head in him pointing beards out all the time. This is probably why I missed the first Cayman sighting - I'm no crocodile hunter! I didn-t takemy camera and apart from Norlan (15 and three quarters) no-one was with me so it well seem like a dream in a few weeks I reckon!

One last anecdote

2008-08-18T21:36:00.003+01:00

When we were in the bus close to Yali a while ago, the bus had to stop for a bit because there was an ox in the way. Why? Well, there was a chap herding his 2 oxen back from his field... No-one has tractors up there, they use 2 oxen linked by the horns with a piece of wood- to plough, or pull stuff. (This is the most I've used the word oxen ever outside of a scrabble game.) So this guy's already spent the day ploughing, in drizzle, and now he's untied his oxen from their shackles, hoisted the huge long block of wood onto his shoulder, hoisted himself onto his horse, and he sets off down the track to his tiny wooden house, herding his oxen as he goes. (I'm filling in some gaps here but I've seen alot of tiny wooden houses now...) And the bus waits a bit as it passes, so as he and the oxen can bumble past it. And then he has to make sure he's still got them under control on the other side. And a happy nod passes between driver and oxen man, and we all go on our way.

This way of life is so different from mine, and most English rural life to boot, that being part of it has made it harder for me to contemplate fairness, or poverty, or charity. It's just on a totally different scale. And it's hard to imagine that oxen man, however hard and grinding his life is, would want to swap it for my London turmoil. Hey ho.

What I will miss.

2008-08-14T21:19:00.000+01:00

Hopping on a bus. Snap transport decisions. No advance tickets. They`re like a very well organised lift.
Looking at mountains for a whole 3 hour journey. Such BEAUTIFUL mountains.
People grinning when they get on the bus
Being able to make empty promises and know you probably won't keep them and you'll get away with it
Cheesy 80s music cropping up everywhere
Having time to mull; getting a good 10 hours sleep whenever I wanted
Talking to people I hardly know for hours on a local bus ride
Cuajada (curd cheese ish) and Corn tortilla. Hmmm. They are made for each other.
The friends I made and the happy appreciation they showed for the small things that I did.

What I won't miss.

2008-08-14T21:17:00.000+01:00

Bites. all kinds of flying insects, ants etc. Everywhere.
Being a novelty on the street. Silly comments from pillocky men.
Everyone throwing rubbish.
Unending dampness in rainy weeks
Having no control... or kitchen
The con of a mobile phone company that expires your credit in the blink of an eye!
Not knowing when the water will come back on
Never really understanding people's values
My dictionary falling open at the page that says 'vagina' at the top... I'm bored of the joke now

Not me aswell...!

2008-08-06T04:19:00.004+01:00

It's true, it really is a country that gets under your skin.

I popped to Leon for a little jaunt this weekend. Lovely, colonial, hot, full of history. I found out the times of the buses back to Esteli, and did the usual "putting out to tender" checking information with more than one person to get round the whole telling-you-what-you-want-to- hear business. 3.30 the bus was going, the last one back to Esteli. Get a lovely cab driver to take me there, arrive 10 minutes early.

The annoyance....

It's gone. Oh no, that bus goes at 3.10. WHAT!! Oh yes, hasn¨t gone at 3.30 for ages... WHy do people lie! grrrr! I'm standing in what is essentially a mud/dirt field (yes, it does look a lot like Glastonbury) deciding what to do next.

The goddamn endearing part...

As well as being the cause of aggravation, they always seem to sort it too. Some dirty looking mechanic guys who I ask about the Esteli bus start giving me advice about the other options... get a bus to a crossroads and then stand there waiting on the Panamerican for another coming from another city.. hmmm. I get on the bus, see a nice enough lady with her son and get her opinion on the whole sorry affair. She seems to thing that standing on a crossroads on the Panamerican at 6pm in the dark isn't too bad an idea but her husband happens to be picking her up, they live in a town a bit further up and can drop me at a proper bus stop. So I stay on the bus, exiting only to get a cheap enchillada from another very sweet lady in the bus station.

And after one of the smoothest bus changes in history I´m in Esteli by dinner time. Fall into the arms of Juanita

at her hostel weeping "I don't want to miss this place but I will" unable to stop crying til a beer is placed in my fist.

Nothing changes guys, don't expect a more zen Rebs. Same old hormonal nightmare... and not looking forward to the first journey on Virgin Trains! Unless they¨ve started selling cheap corn products in place of focchacia and pastrami and stopped wearing red waistcoats.

Coffee 8: Politics, and a Conclusion.

2008-07-29T17:23:00.003+01:00

So, the country’s poor. But its widely thought, and reported every day that the big wigs in the government (who incidentally are most of the revolutionaries who fought for the rights of the workers against the dictator Somoza in the 70’s) are creaming cash left right and centre. But this place is full of NGOs, and trade certifications, and volunteers, and international organisations donating money for infrastructure… it doesn’t fit. The Fairtrade premium is spent on things like schools and roads that are frankly the governments job, and there’s little evidence of the government actually doing anything.

BUT the thing about the Fairtrade certification is that it does far more than give money for things that should be statutory… it supports education and farming methods that will avoid erosion and flooding and death, and in my book that’s a bloody good thing because despite it being charming and beautiful there are definitely 2 big problems in this country – ignorance, as evidenced by the chucking of litter around by everyone, and weather. Cities have water problems because too many trees have been cut from the hills around, and the rains cause huge mud slides in the more rural areas for the same reason.

So it seems to me that, as ever, hard cash on its own is never a solver of problems in itself, and that’s why Fairtrade is a damn good thing – but hard to explain why. And we, over the other side of the world, need to have something to rely on that we can trust. One thing though – the premium doesn’t seem to have changed for quite a while, and we know that prices of everything else have gone up – perhaps that’s the next job for the Fairtrade middle men like Sopexxca. They are the voice of the farmers after all.

That´s probably about it for coffee. It´s 3 weeks ´til home time, I´m starting to run out of steam and the broken and battered remains of my working life in London are calling. All that will remain is for you to find your way to Hackney in a month`s time and sample some of the classy Miraflor coffee flowing from my sexy recycled kitchen that I miss so much.

It wasn´t Canyoneering

2008-07-29T16:53:00.005+01:00

Wikipedia describes canyoneering and canyoning as technical descents, so I don´t think I can tick either of them off the list but I did climb down some quite big slippery old rocks at the mouth of Somoto canyon and then swim in my clothes when I didn´t have a change of clothes with me.

Oh yes. Danger is now my middle name. Or Indiana Rebs, someone else suggested. This was verified by a quick look in the Footprints guide on our return to Esteli... Good heavens I´m extreme.

We also waded through the river 4 times there and back, that took all the concentration I had as was very stony and unstable. But SO beautiful!

Anyone want to teach some English?

2008-07-22T19:57:00.000+01:00

If possible, we are looking for a Nicaraguan worker to continue teaching the computer classes here in Yali, but I've also been teaching English to a great bunch in El Regadio which is near Esteli, and the group of workers in the not for profit hostel I stay in in Esteli. I think those two sets of classes would be a great combination for a volunteer, Regadio is a friendly and interesting rural community and Esteli is a great city to relax or go out or what-not. So if anyone you know is thinking of travelling to this part of the world, has a TEFL and can support themselves financially and emotionally for 4-6 months or longer tell them to get in touch! There's also alot of opportunity to help out with publicising and developing tourism in both sites too.

Bubblegum Biscuits and Bugs

2008-07-22T19:33:00.004+01:00

ah. I see that a large quanitity of information and thoughts on coffee is not the way to elicit comments. Well then, how about BUBBLE GUM FLAVOURED BISCUITS?? The good people of Yali cannot rely on a regular water or electricity supply, or paved roads, but they do have 24 hours a day the possibility of, for just one cordoba, floating off to bubble gum biscuit heaven with chicle galletas. It´s odd - they taste like overly sweet biscuits, and smell like bubble gum.

So, I´m back in Yali. The more observant will have worked that out from the banal blog. I also have success to report... I gave my computer students a test in Word before I went away, and the results have been counted and verified. If we take a pass mark as 55%, well over half of my students passed! about 65% of them. That´s alot of percentages isn´t it. Here are some more... The scores ranged from between 2% and 88% - which proved what I was hoping to prove, that some people actually are LEARNING! Hurrah. I´ve only got three weeks of teaching left, so for the computing classes it's PowerPoint fun all the way.

...If I don´t finally get eaten alive by bloody insects. That is one thing I will not miss, I itch in every place and it´s a rolling ailment, when some stop itching you just get more. However hard you try to avoid it. And, even though I seem to get found by any old buzzy flying crawling thing, it had to be Luke that got the exciting one! The coolest of them all - a nice large tick behind his knee... This is the culprit being removed by the woman we were staying with, the trick is to poke them with a hot bean and then they stop holding on to your skin.

Coffee 7: What’s wrong with middle men? Flora’s Farm

2008-07-19T04:19:00.004+01:00

A while ago, I went to my colleague’s family farm for a day out, and great day out we indeed had. I met her sister in law, and brother, and her small niece…

She was blowing raspberries when I was taking the picture...

I only discovered afterwards that Flora is a member of Sopexxca (aforementioned coffee union… keep up) and very recently have discovered she is on the Peet’s Coffee website

http://www.peets.com/who_we_are/community_hermanas.asp

as a shining example of the marvellousness of well-priced coffee, as there is another certification called Las Hermanas that is sold in North America. Well, she was very happy and friendly, and due to money invested by Soppexxca has cabin-style rooms for tourists to stay, they’ve also built trails with viewpoints and they do a coffee tour.

Their life – even with this extra income from tourism – is still pretty basic. A wood burning stove for cooking, a car battery for some radio entertainment, and a half hour walk to the main road. Buses into Jinotega take about an hour and come about every hour. Fairly standard for these parts. But when you walk between their and their neighbours’ fields you can see the difference between organic practices and non, and it would have been hard to implement these changes without the support of their ‘middle man’, Soppexxca. And in contrast to city dwellers, they have good land producing a large quanitity of what they’ll need: corn for tortillas, beans, milk for cheese, and of course coffee. Always coffee. Hmmmmm.

Cut to Soppexca’s offices in Jinotega. In comparison, pretty plush. It’s easy to see what some people mean when they say that the social premiums and higher payments get lost in the wages of the new middle men. They’ve even got a website (at the side of the blog in my groovee little links section!)

But when you think of the work they’re doing on certification, education, negotiating with buyers, even stuff that should be the government’s job like repairing roads and financing schools, that’s not something one small farmer can tackle. So you’re glad of a few middle men, even if they have got better clothes than you and electricity in the office.

Coffee 6: What´s a small farmer?

2008-07-19T04:07:00.004+01:00

So who’s better off with Fairtrade? There are many different levels of quality of life for small farmers and they don´t seem to correlate with certification...

So, for example, you might have a small farm, but you also buy coffee from other farmers and sell it on to the middle men. Then, you are still a small coffee farmer but you´re making money off the others, so you´re doing okay. And if someone in your family has been to the US and come back with a bit of money all the better. You get a poorer family to work on your farm, and you have another job and live in the town. And how well you’re doing will probably depend on other things you’re growing too… beans, corn etc.

I went to visit someone in a smaller community outside Yali a couple of weeks ago, whilst still mulling over this whole business of small farms. The family who are doing alright for themselves: basic conditions, still have outside pit latrine toilets, we´re not talking fitted kitchens or bathrooms but they are making money. For example, they are one of the few families with a gas oven and hob in their community, as well as the usual wood fire set-up. He puts this down to being prudent: he started with a small bit of land 20 years ago, and now he has 2 families living on a fairly large bit of land and managing it for him. When coffee season comes round, he buses in temporary workers from other parts of Nicaragua for the picking. And he sells to Starbucks, who buy the majority of their coffee without certification.

Now it strikes me that someone like him is probably no better off with Fairtrade; as he’s already a middle man of sorts. I didn’t see the living conditions his temporary workers have and I did find out the wage they get paid but it´s so hard to guage: it’s such a seasonal thing that the money needs to last all year round… and I also didn’t see the families that live on his land, so it´s all speculation but I have seen enough others to know that this is mostly very basic: a wooden hut with a couple of rooms, maybe no electricity, maybe no running water and very little inside space.

Of course a beautiful setting, plenty of outside space and most of the time damn good avocados and bananas… but pretty much bound to their boss. Who also isn’t rolling in money either, and is pretty much stuck in his rural life too.

But in terms of personal wealth, for the medium guys, maybe it doesn’t pay. As long as you’ve found someone poorer than you to be on your farm day in day out. But whoever you are, you still have to transport your produce on godawful roads and send your kid to a school lacking resources. Personal wealth in the campo doesn’t sort those issues, Fairtrade premiums do…

There a are a lot of people here, and a lot of opinions. And these are just the small farmers in this country, the size of England. Other people have said that even Fairtrade systems are different again in other countries.

The day I got made redundant...

2008-07-18T18:25:00.013+01:00

I was faffing about with kayaks and rubber rings in a laguna in the extinct crater of a big ole volcano. That's the way to do it! Get over here lads!

That was just one idyllic day of a number of them, I can now confirm Nicaragua is a MARVELLOUS tourist destination and our little sojourn included...

More volcanoes (Masaya - still steaming!)

Jumping...

Climbing up the insides of hollow trees...

Revolutionary celebrations...

And spending more than the average amount of time talking about, and looking at, leaf cutter ants. More research needed on that one. Why do they travel so far? Why only some leaves? Why don't they have more predators? They are freaking everywhere and so damn busy!!

Some of the more interesting bits will seep out in time I'm sure... Like seeing a large portion of the department of Esteli and beyond following Daniel Ortega into town to celebrate the liberation of their city on Thursday. It certainly blows some of the jaded feelings away about the current situation seeing that many people so passionate and happy. Although even the most passionate Sandinistas agreed that he didn't need to talk for hours and hours and most seemed to be using his long speech as a reason to catch up with family... and why not?!

For now, I´m going to let the dust settle a bit and get on with some work.

Viene el guapo

2008-07-09T00:06:00.002+01:00

He got here! And now we´re off to explore the touristy side of Nicabloominragua. Luke says...

Greetings blog fans! My spanish needs to improve rapido to catch up with Rebs. I´m borrowing her for a week or two so no more updates for a bit... Everything is sticky and hot!

See you when I´ve stopped being a tourist!

Coffee 5: To market to market

2008-06-29T18:10:00.007+01:00

So. I am a small farmer. I have picked my crop, put the beans through either my or the co-operative’s beneficio, I’ve dried them…

and now I’d like to sell them. Maybe to another farmer or org down the road who buys and sells, or if I belong to a cooperative, or a union of coffee coperatives, we might have a Faritrade certificate. Then they will take my coffee and sell it on the Fairtrade market.

Now. In the same way you can’t have half an Investors in People standard, your farm can’t be ‘a bit Fairtrade’. You need to show that you are feeding and paying people right, that you are treating your rivers right, etc. Or that it’s organic, or shade grown…

BUT of the four organisations I am aware of that are certified, only one is selling 100% of their coffee on the Fairtrade market. In some cases it seems that this is because not all of their farms are certified yet, but in others its simply because there is not enough global demand. Yup, that’s right, not enough demand.

The Fairtrade organisation only give a certification. You don’t need to pay initially, so you don’t lose out before you’ve found your buyers but you do then have to find your market. It’s two separate entities. But those buyers then guarantee to come back and buy a specific amount year on year. If you think your farms are going to produce more, you can go back and ask if they’ll buy more… but they might not be able to find a big enough market for that amount of fairtrade coffee.

“Oh, that’s funny Rebs, cos Starbucks told me that there isn’t enough speciality fair trade coffee for it to stock it?”

Well, yes, it is isn’t it, because I have asked and asked and checked my language and checked it again and the fact of the matter is that there is coffee being produced by Fairtrade certified farms in Nicaragua that has to be sold on the ´normal´ market. However all these organisations still think its worth having the certification, even with these percentages - as its far more than just a guarantee of price.

There are other certifications, and projects. In a way, this is good – people here are able to sell speciality coffee at a good price and have a relationship with the buyer. On the other hand, it´s becoming confusing for the farmer and I still think that some – like Starbucks´ Cafe Practices – are a greenwash. They make you pay upfront, they don´t guarantee to come back and buy, and they don’t guarantee a price. And that’s the difference, Fairtrade does.

I found someone that seems to agree with this opinion… and she’s trawled through some weighty documents to back it up.

http://greenlagirl.com/2006/02/11/starbucks-cafe-practices-part-i/

So. When you are next in Starbucks buying your Fairtrade coffee ask them why they’re making you look like a prat having to demand it especially. And when they start with their stock answer about there not being enough say PIFFLE. There is Fairtrade coffee sitting here waiting to be bought.

Please comment if I've got any of this wrong adn you are more knowledgabe than me, once again - it's all from speaking to people in Spanish... eeek!

Coffee 4: The Union

2008-06-28T00:21:00.006+01:00

When I was in Jinotega the other day, as well as talking to a singing policeman I found out a bit about Soppexcca. They are a union of 18 Coffee Cooperatives, and every one of their 600 small farms is Fairtrade. This is one of them that also has rooms for tourists and coffee tours...

The premium they get by selling their crop to organisations that buy Fairtrade goes on: schools, uniforms, roads, health projects, the infrastructure of their coffee mill. That other farms without certification in the area benefit from all these things is no bad thing in the eyes of the manager – she sees it as good motivation for the other farmers to join eventually. The farmers in their union of cooperatives also don´t have a problem this year even though the price is lower in the ´normal´ market: they’ve been selling Fairtrade for 6 years and the farmers understand the concepts behind it. The union have done workshops and produced information about the benefits, and the obligations. I've got a great little booklet they produced for the farmers, it's useful for my spanish too...! This general education is no mean feat when you imagine that a large chunk of those 600 farms will be relying on those local buses I´ve talked about for transport, they’re all spread far and wide around the department of Jinotega, up dirt tracks and the sides of old volcanoes, and their main type of work is agriculture and not sitting around chatting about quality standards.

But Soppexcca are only able to sell about 80% of their coffee Fairtrade. And that’s a good percentage from what I’ve found, some organisations are as low as 20%. So you work to get the certificate, you pay to keep it year on year, and yet you don’t get that much-needed social premium money back on 100% of your produce. There just aren´t the people buying Fairtrade... so it has to get sold on the normal market.

Here's their website.. More coffee soon!

http://www.soppexcca.org/en/

A Dam and a Singing Policeman

2008-06-24T20:22:00.004+01:00

Jinotega has a BIG lake with a power plant at the end of it to make electiricity for about 60% of Nicaragua. Or something. We went to find the plant on Sunday, but ended up at a Dam instead....

which was still incredibly exciting as they were building a great big new one too.

We arrived just as the workers were wandering off shift, so we found out a bit about it but not where on earth the money was coming from. It's near a little pueblo called Asturias, so we wandered in to find some coffee. I don't think they're use to visitors - they refused to charge us. So we had to buy peanuts from their little shop cos we felt bad. That´s not the way to fleece the tourists guys!!

And on the way home, we got a ride in a truck before the bus had a chance to arrive, and shared it with this young chap. (looks like 2 different members of the village people eh?).

A very earnest trainee policeman on his way to Managua, with a bit of English that he wanted to practice, who assured me he was the honest type of policeman and not the other kind. He then announced that he writes songs, and throught the bumps and the wind sang us a very romantic ballad about stars reflecting in eyes, and something about the moon. aaaah.

Coffee 3: A bit about Fairtrade

2008-06-24T20:14:00.004+01:00

“The Fairtrade inspectors don´t check every farm and they ask the cooperative workers where they should go... round here the farms are quite bad with environmental targets but the checkers always get taken to the good farms.”

“Our Cooperative has had a Fairtrade certificate since 2005. We are checked every year. Prohibitions include toxic substances and water contamination: you have to have a clean farm. We do know when the inspectors are coming, but they decide which farms they go to”

"There are still too many middle men"

There are more than two sides to every story aren’t there. I’ve talked to unions of coffee co-ops, co-ops, farmers, coffee cuppers and I’ve even read a book. The facts are that coffee plants produce only once a year, picking is labour intensive for a short period, the processing is many-stepped and fiddly, and life is basic for any coffee farmer here. The opinions are harder to pin down.

One cooperative I spoke to are passionate about the Fairtrade certificate, and even more so despite the current climate where the price on the normal market is actually above the fair trade price. I’ve encountered a lot of short term thinking here in Nicaragua, and this is another example. When you have a Fairtrade certificate you are guaranteed trade year on year, and the price won´t go down. But it doesn´t go up either. So when the price is lower, farmers are sometimes more interested in taking their chances on the normal market. The co-operative is encouraging their farmers to look at the longer term picture involving guaranteed trade and money to spend on education, health etc.

This co-op is spending its Fairtrade premium on supporting the “Casa Materna” – a small building in Yali housing mothers-to-be who are just about to drop their sprogs, meaning its easier for them to stay healthy and be kept an eye on.

That's Mariel in the background, a groovee Peace Corps volunteer who also lives and works in Yali and is incredibly understanding when I have one of my characteristic flip outs.

The Casa Materna means it´s then easier for the women to get to hospital in Jinotega (still 2 hours away) when the time comes. That's the ambulance there, just outside my house.

The co-op have also built bus shelters, useful when rain is heavy and times are vague: they all leave on time, but who can say who or what they’ll have to pick up on the way.

This is also the cooperative that was working on the Beneficio (coffee mill) right at the beginning of my trip that is planning to reuse or recycle all its water, and use the gaseous waste from their composting husks to power the plant. They are hoping to provide 60%of their power in this way next year. Here's a skanky pool of the old water from cleaning the coffee, and then a picture of the mechanism to clean it.

This one will get me noticed...

2008-06-16T22:51:00.002+01:00

A philosophical musing on the subject of energy.

I’m reading this book. It’s bloody good and I’d recommend it to anyone – including you Grandad, there’s a part in it that made me think of you. (Revenge of Gaia - link on the left). Among other things, it talks clearly about the different energy options we have and our relationship to electricity. On Saturday, I had a timely reminder of my relationship with it when I was meant to be teaching 2 computer classes and “no hay luz” – no electricity from 3 am until the afternoon. That was quite a long one, but every week in some way or another we have an outage and I’m starting to understand: just how much we take for granted, how we feel in control over our energy, and how it affects a nation’s psyche – You can’t hold anyone to anything, and with good reason frankly. Constant outages lead to this feeling of impotence and lack of control – you never know when, or how long. And when the water goes too that’s when you start to feel they’re doing it on purpose…

I’ll be honest, I’ve been surprised thus far that the blog’s not been head hunted by the Guardian and I’ve not been offered all sorts of money for serialising my experiences… isn’t that what happens with blogs? I reckon this one’s the clincher though. I’ll let you know

The Bus.

2008-06-16T22:44:00.002+01:00

I have become more aware of what people are saying these days. First sign was when I heard on the radio in a taxi that a chicken bomb had exploded somewhere in Nicaragua. I checked with the guy, but yes, I wasn’t hearing things. I think I cam across a little surprised, so the guy started explaining how sometimes people hide explosives in things when they want to make a bomb ‘escondido’. Yup, I’m aware of that concept, I’m from London… I just think that our terrorists have moved beyond the size of a chicken already. Perhaps the size of a cow.

And then on the same day, after hopping off taxi into bus,I finally was able to understand the majority of what Bible Guy had to say as he had our rapt attention waiting for the bus to leave. “Brothers I wish you are having a very pleasant journey here on this day today. Esteemed brothers and sisters please spare a moment of your time to listen to the word of God… As it says in the bible chapter blah verse blah…” and up behind him comes a tough looking woman wearing an apron and holding a big bucket shouting “Enchiladas Enchiladas Enchiladas…” Bible Guy barely misses a beat and continues reading from his battered leather tome as she sells her wares. And we the passengers get food: for the belly and for the soul. If we pay.

Many people have been far more brazen in their travels than me (surprise surprise) so if you put “nicaragua bus” in YouTube you can see their offerings and get more of a feel than simply my words. If you are bored in your constant- internet-constant-electricity lives! Actually.... Lets create a little link on the left hand side shall we... Hey Presto.

T Shirts

2008-06-12T19:28:00.002+01:00

This has been brewing for a while but what i saw this week takes the biscuit!

When I first got here I kept catching sight of diminutive Nica girls and women who looked like they wouldn’t say boo to a goose, sporting t-shirts with really brash English phrases emblazoned on them... Yes I am good in bed... I’m the best – forget the rest... Don’t Touch... I can only please one person a day etc... After a while I became certain that they had no idea what these t-shirts said, and then I noticed that there are hundreds of second-hand clothes shops in Nicaragua. Hundreds. Too many for it just to be the discarded garments of Nicaraguans... it all comes from the US, seconds and goodwill. Hence the brash phrases. But the funniest, this week in little old Yali – Stop Staring – take a picture it lasts longer. On a fairly wizened old crone who was staring at me!!!

Obviously some people have worked out that some of these slogans might not be something they want to be associated with, cos when I was in a shop in Matagalpa a while ago i was approached by a respectable looking lady who asked me to translate a t-shirt. "Chocolate makes me smile". She explained that she wanted to buy it for work and didn’t want to offend.

And - yet more - at the time of going to press I had just seen the trainee priest wearing a picture of two moose and the slogan "Nice Rack".

Mushrooms of the Skin

2008-06-10T17:37:00.005+01:00

There has been a bit of dissent re: no pictures of me on a horse. Let me tell you it's pretty difficult to take a picture of yourself wading through rivers or mounting a horse, and everyone else is sort of busy living their lives and stuff. But here is a picture of me standing near a horse. I think the wading and the resulting waterlogged welly situation has been the final straw for my "mushrooms of the skin" - another great example of spanish word-conservation that I found on my athlete´s foot cream packet...

and here are pictures of me enjoying a party, not the most original I know as you've seen me enjoying parties before but it is in the cafe/bar/hostel that I stay in in Esteli and here's a nice aerial shot too to give you a feel. It was Juanita's 40th birthday... and Elmo had a great time.

Some Farm Action

2008-06-06T21:15:00.002+01:00

Thankfully something interesting happened! So I can feed the blog monster. I thought I’d include the previous to show the mundane nature of many of my days, but luckily today had a bit of what you all like – the mounting of horses, the crossing of roaring rivers on foot, the arms-up-a-cow’s-arse type of day. And I’ve got photos of it all! Gustavo – coordinator of education project, but actually a vet, has a farm a bit outside Yali. He had a few things to do there, mostly involving cows, and was happy as larry to take me especially as he’d like a few pictures of his farm. Most of the track to the farm is not good for motorbikes, so the plan was to leave it in the main carretera. A good job, as we ran out of petrol just as we got to the turn off… (that problem was dealt with much later, and by then I’d hopped on a bus back!)

The guy who works on his farm was waiting with a horse, so we took it in turns being on the horse, or being the one wading through newly-swelled rivers on foot. And on the way back we also shared the horse with a trussed up chicken, who had to wait until Yali to be put out of its misery. Nice… You can just make her out from the red bits on the right of the horse on this picture…

In between the river wading there was milking of cows… (all by hand in these parts, the calf is away from its mother a bit before milking and then gets used to start mum off, but then stays with her some of the day)…

the checking of cow’s innards…

the injecting of cows to make them more likely to get pregnant… (this resulted in some quite annoyed cows so they had to be trussed up to a tree for the event. They had good reason to be livid)…

and meeting a baby.

Aaaaah. And all on my neice’s birthday!!! Happy Birthday Kate.

Gubbins

2008-06-06T20:55:00.004+01:00

Hmmm. What can I tell you. Esteli continues to be a place where I eat good food and speak English, Yali continues to be a place where I come to terms with small town living and attempt to impart computer knowledge. Regadio continues to be a place where I periodically teach English. I have drawn a little map for anyone who has lost track of where things are…

There you go. All clear now? What else can I say…

I went for a little walk the other day up the road out of Yali and took a few pictures, the view is pretty good…

And then I took one of Yali from above.

Also I took a picture of the little prang that happened right outside

my house the other day, it made me think of London as both guys in this terribly macho country got out of their old banger cars and laughed big belly laughs about the whole thing, No road rage here! And, yes, one car does say pride in english on the side. And one car does have a transfer of a horse. It’s not the best picture as I was being surreptitious.

And that's about the size of it!

All fine

2008-06-01T01:16:00.002+01:00

The coast got pretty inundated but other than lots of trees down and about 36 hours of constant rain Yali was fine. And the transport barely stopped. The biggest impediment to my internet access was Mother's Day on Friday, which is a pretty huge deal here. I have just sustained a head injury on a toilet paper dispenser in the Hostel in Esteli, but I don't think I can connect that with the heavy rain. It drew blood though, I may post evidence.

A Quick Heads Up

2008-05-29T20:39:00.002+01:00

There's a hurricane on the way, it´s name is Alma, the main thing everyone here seems to be worried about (and when I say everyone I mean my host 'sister', who has a penchant for revelling in bad tidings) is the electricity and the water going. We're not near the coast. Oh, and of course the lack of transport... great!!!! so this is just to say that if you don't hear from me, it's probably a lack of internet. I haven't had time to get any facts yet, thought I'd post something quickly while I can just in case. You probably haven't heard a thing over there have you!!

http://www.weather.com/newscenter/hurricanecentral/update/index.html?from=hurricane_tracker

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080529/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/nicaragua_tropical_weather

The Swimming Hole

2008-05-27T00:48:00.003+01:00

Orlando seems to like animals. A lot. He owns the bar/restaurant and land of the swimming hole an hour from Yali. He’s raising a funny little Eagle-type bird, which will be off into the wild soon, has numerous dogs and chickens and stories of other strange animals that he’s raised and let out into the forest. He’s also got many plans for his spot of land and his restaurant… organic veg, an energy system using cow pats, solar panels. He’d like to learn English too – he gets quite a few visitors who don’t speak Spanish at all to the swimming hole. Bonnie and I were surprised by this… we’ve not met anyone up here north of Esteli who is being a tourist, much less wants to communicate in English. I’m glad to hear it for his business…perhaps another Nest Trust volunteer in Yali could do a day in San Rafael Maggie Jo?

The Workshop/The Capacitacion /The Taller

2008-05-27T00:43:00.003+01:00

We had the teachers’ workshop, and everyone came, and we had coffee and biscuits, and I facilitated. I taught them Polish*, (with apologies to anyone who actually speaks the language) to show the wonder of teaching without translating, we threw balloons about, and we talked about lesson planning. And we talked about how on earth to get shy Nicaraguan students to produce language. So we’ve lots of ideas. We also decided that Nicaragua’s a great place to communicate without speaking, as they have so many symbols of their own… nose scrunch like a rabbit to say “I don't understand” to name one. So it’s even easier to teach English without speaking Spanish!

I´m terribly glad it went well. So I have had a day off today and concentrated soley on studying Spanish and thinking about the Dumball.

*We did numbers one to ten, matching words to numbers, and I got them to guess the “Who’s this?” “I don’t know.” “It’s ME!” joke to show how you can understand something from context and making stupud signals and faces.

The RAIN Came!

2008-05-27T00:27:00.002+01:00

About a week a go it attempted to rain, and then we had nothing for a few days, Then 3 days ago it ARRIVED. For about 2 hours it pelted down, and I sat in the Cyber place finding things to do on the internet as I didn’t want to travel the 20 paces to my house… It was extremely heavy and since then, we've had about an hour or so of rain every day. Before it comes it gets very dark, and the air feels so heavy I have to support my head cos it feels as if it’s going to drop off. I have shared this feeling with a number of people, in spanish and english, and I seem to be alone with it but I swear I’m not being dramatic – it affects me, I’m telling you.

This is the edge of the square in Yali, awash.

We interrupt this blog... DUMBALL ALERT¨

2008-05-25T21:59:00.006+01:00

This week, I feel like I'm the one at home... The boyfriend that I like to call Luke is gallivanting through Europe again with the Dumball Rally, and once again with a thinly veiled ´charity´ disguise (in the form of War Child) for what is really unadulterated adventurefun. So it's blogswap time, and I'm sitting ´at home´ in Yali, hoping like the middle-aged auntie figure I have become that they all come back in one piece. And when I say all I mean of course DUMBALL ONE, the cowmobilerangerover carrying the geniuses that are the Dumball and their trusty manservant Sudders. Good luck lads, Nil Carborundum!
http://moblog.co.uk/blog/dumball2008
Latest news - Germany wouldn´t let them in so just a short detour through the Alps to Zagreb! Heavens Above.

I´ll tell you about my most enjoyable teachers workshop and the RAIN tomorrow!!

We have transport!

2008-05-19T00:14:00.004+01:00

Well, for the time being everyone's come to some sort of resolution that may or may not involve Venezuela and the buses are back. I don't know any more than that and at present I shan't be placing any more energy into finding out. So I am in Esteli with the wonderful Juanita and cosmopolitan food! And, more to the point, I went to El Regadio today to teach English to a very motivated bunch of young people who are studying three nights a week at the moment without a teacher. What a brilliant bunch. They are really willing to try out their language, a few of them are going to try to lead the others as their language is better, and I will join them when I can on Sundays to do a class and also do a workshop for the budding teachers. This is them working in groups introducing each other... they were even happy to invent names and places to make it all more interesting! "This is Ronaldo. He's from Brazil. He lives in Paris"... When you're all Nicaraguan and you all live in El Regadio the exercise can get a bit tedious...

And as there is just the one bus there, and the one bus back per day, i was up at 5 to catch the 6 am and we had time to explore their gorgeous scenery before the 2pm bus back. They took me to a laguna that - legend has it- is above the head of a big mythical serpent, and the tail is at the other end of the pueblo. This is apparantly the reason for it never drying out... spooky. (Once again, language disclaimer - could have been entirely different) They were great story tellers and they will make cracking guides - in any language!

And, here's a token picture of me to prove I'm here. They insisted on taking one of me on my own, so we may as well use it! You can see that I'm trying to employ the twist-your-body stance that I learnt for my brother's wedding but it didn't quite work.

Right. I'm off to find some English novels and chocolate cake. I hear tell of a place...

The Strike.

2008-05-15T23:19:00.003+01:00

The government isn’t subidising the transport enough. So the taxis, and buses, are on strike in the whole of Nicaragua. You do have to feel for them – they’re already driving clapped-out old US school bus rejects and the ones I have experienced do a bloody good job of navigating stony dirt roads. There doesn’t seem to be an end in sight at the moment and it’s been over a week. Sometimes it’s hard to find out what’s going on cos my language is bad, sometimes it’s hard cos there’s no electricity, sometimes it’s hard cos everyone has a different story. I was watching the news a few days ago, and the whole strike seemed to be over – then the fast-talking uncle came in and laughed at me for watching the government’s channel. Ha ha he said, you won’t get the truth from there. Ah. Silly naïve Rebecca, expecting a news programme to just give me the news. Sure enough, an hour later on another channel – no end in sight. And it’s quite a claustrophobic feeling in small a place like Yali not to have buses leaving and entering, but more than that, the price of food is going up and in cities they are worried they’ll be running out. Because, much food is transported on top of the buses, and also when there is a transport strike they block roads with buses so that no-one can get through – private or public. And the cargo are on strike too. When I explained this to Luke last week he said “So, if you travel, you’re a scab”. Pretty much, yes. But here in Yali we’re surrounded by farms so I guess we’re okay for milk, bananas and cow meat for the time being.

I wrote the above a few days ago, and things have got quieter here and more bunged – -up and violent everywhere else since. And today I had yet another lesson in politics at the cooperative wherein I discovered that transport is already subsidised, and the guys that own the franchises get alot of money and don’t spend all of it on the buses. A fair bit goes in their pockets. So the bus drivers aren’t seeing the benefits of the subsidies, but it’s their bosses that are instigating strikes. So it´s complicated, unsurprisingly. And I’m certain I’m not doing it justice. Gustavo cheerfully adds that the guy who has dropped in to give us the latest news on the strike (“It continues”) fought for the contras, so they fought against each other in the war. But now they´re chatting about a transport strike. And I feel sure that while chatting cheerfully about how they used to fight against each other, Gustavo asked him what he got paid off with after the war and he said “a pair of white trousers”. How far away from my reality am I?????

Oh, yes, and this came just after an in-depth conversation about how Elton John´s music was brilliant in the seventies and has gone downhill since. Which machetes through cultural divides cos we can all agree about that – and that Bennie and the Jets really does kick some ass.

He even named his Jeep! He must be groovy

2008-05-13T22:51:00.005+01:00

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.

Saturday Night in Yali

2008-05-12T00:48:00.002+01:00

Three adult computer lessons done. All absolute beginners, all in Spanish. Maybe this is possible after all...

And this week, as well as having the first proper computer classes, we have agreed a date for a teacher training workshop with all the teachers, we have started using registers in the English classes, and Gustavo has started to observe the English lessons. It has also been agreed that we have a problem with the kids class, that they are unacceptably unruly and if it doesn’t get better the class will be cancelled. That’s quite a lot isn’t it. Due to the bus strike having no end in sight, the agreed date for the workshop is probably going to fall through – nothing yet has happened the first time I’ve planned it in this country – but the fact we’ve agreed it at all is mammoth I believe.

And Saturday night in Yali was pretty fun, despite a 4 hour power cut. I discovered another guy who has opinions on coffee selling- and he's a coffee farmer. He also works at our cooperative on the insemination project. Gilberto is his name for anyone able to absorb it...! He's taking me out to a community called Las Delicias on Tuesday as he has to check cows there, and I need a ride to try out my new "teach english one to one on the farm" idea. I hadn't discovered how fascinating he is to talk to though until he joined me and Gustavo in one of the few drinking establishments in Yali. And who needs leccy when you're a few Toña's into the evening? Especially as I got to indulge my English needs too - a volunteer on another project who's been here a while joined us too. So I'm not the only gringa in the village if you were wondering!!

I bet BAE's AGM didn't have Mariachi...?

2008-05-11T00:28:00.001+01:00

Last week another cooperative in Yali, Cooperativa Gorrion, had their Asembla Ordinaria (like an AGM). As I was in my cooperative’s office that morning, I got invited by our president Noel... once again, not knowing what I was accepting, and I feel sure it was because I had exploded with frustration the day before... (things are moving very slowly on the teaching side).

I’m quite capable now of understanding that I’m being invited to something, but often am clueless as to what. And it’s hard to say "could you explain that again slowly as I want need to wear the right shoes or think up an excuse”. It turned out to be the longest AGM I have yet encountered, but also the only AGM that has involved a Mariachi Band, specifically employed to "wake us up”. I’m in the sort of mood this week where I cannot fathom why another culture would behave as they do (and all this without the influence of the Daily Mail) and I couldn’t help thinking that if they kept to the point and didn’t have an AGM lasting five hours then perhaps they wouldn’t have needed a band to rouse them. Anyhoo, the AGM turned into a fiesta, the Mariachi stayed, and I didn’t dance - again. I’ll have to rectify that soon, but this time it was because I needed the loo. For 5 hours. And there wasn’t one. I have no idea how everyone else managed. Crazy gringa, insisting on keeping herself hydrated. Due to the fact I had no real idea where we were going I didn’t have my camera, but I took a picture of the location the next day... With the balloons gone, and the cattle back in the corale in place of the plastic chairs and rum. There it is!

During the meeting, the manager of the cooperative – a forceful woman named Francesca – gave out in huge detail about Fair trade coffee and the rainforest alliance. I hope to find her at some point and get her to repeat her tirade, in bite size chunks and pausing for dictionary breaks. But it means we might have a Coffee – Parte the Thirde entry and then at least one part of the tag line of this blog may not be lying...

Noel (president of our cooperative, keep up!) also included me in a planned trip to the Miraflor nature reserve last week, for a group of the English students to see what they're doing with tourism. The idea was to motivate them into learning more, Noel is very keen on tourism but the youth aren't really learning fast enough for his plans... so at the end of the trip he gave the youth an impassioned talking-to about how tourism "is in their hands now..." And that with a bit of luck and hard work we will attract "Chele" (literally, white people). And then looks at me and says, "we already have one!!" And I had been trying to blend into the background. He's a groovy guy. I like his vision.

So I’m learning this week that I´m a girl that likes a bit of infrastructure. Call me crazy, but if we’re going to have a (planned) power cut for 3 hours every day, I want to know when it’s going to be. You know, cos then I might plan around it. The same with water. And, hey, no-one likes a transport strike, but when it lasts for 7 days and counting and they block the roads so no-one can pass... So this weekend, I’m not going to Esteli as planned, to teach English in El Regadio, I’m staying in Yali. To continue learning the lesson that patience is a virtue...

Oh, and this will make my colleagues laugh. Guess what I’ve been invited to join in with next week at my co-operative? A strategic planning day!! Hahahahahahaha. Yes, there is a bitter undercurrent to this post.

"The man can barely manage to comb his own hair"

2008-05-04T02:51:00.003+01:00

...to quote my good friend Cath.

What in the name of all that is good and true have you people done??? Boris???

I vowed to keep this blog to the point but sweet Jesus and his angels how the hell have you put that ninkompoop into power? Honestly, I turn my back for a minute... Last time it was a siege on Graham Road and the burning of the best night spot in Hackney. This time... what happened? was it the promise of getting rid of b-b-b-bendy buses?? When did this happen anyway? I thought it wasn't til next week. I'm stunned. There can't be that many Have I Got News For You fans knocking about. Right, that settles it, when I come back I'm not living in London. Who wants my flat? You'll have to prove you didn't vote for him...

Heavens above.

Asked to dance by a War Hero!

2008-04-30T01:49:00.003+01:00

Look at that! It almost looks professional! Yes, that’s the same room that last week contained religious ornaments and mattresses. I’m still unsure whether I’m the right person for this particular little venture, and even less sure whether I’ll get through a class of spoilt feral adolescents tomorrow but at least we now have the tools to try! The covers are essential – the amount of dust is huge, and damaging, and the procuring of covers was becoming yet another stalling point so plastico! was the answer. I was wanting to use the second hand clothes from one of the many shops that sell them which would have fit with my life plan of never buying anything new but as I’d just bought a mobile phone (boo hiss) I thought it was a bit hypocritical and I don't have sewing machine.

I’ve just got back from the big city, Esteli – more dust on the road up through Miraflor, you’re covered in it by the end of the 3 hr journey – where I spent a weekend being a gringo and procuring other English teaching work. Oh, and dabbling in a bit of volunteering consultancy with Juanita, not-for-profit hostel owner and Spaced fan.

Ah, the wonder of being able to utter a phrase like “Tim got a miniature drumkit for his 5^th birthday” and have someone understand… Also met a couple biking round the world, fascinating conversations ensued about the world being broken and one half of the couple teased my woolly new-internationalist outlook so just like home really!! Aaaahh.

And, my first DISCO. After an evening of acoustic café activity largely without electricity, a group of us head to the Pan American Highway in the pitch black to find a cab to take us to a disco out of town. All the discos are out of town, because of the noise apparently but that’s hilarious as everyone in town plays music louder than this disco! Mobile adverts, Gyms, you name it they are all pumping the music out! Anyhoo, some shockingly bad 80s pop and some fair to middling Latin stuff accompanied my friends while they danced, and me while I drank rum. I was not for dancing that night, and even declined the offer (politely of course) of a very sweaty, enthusiastic war veteran.

So, back in Yali after some space, and yet more music blaring as I finish sorting the computer place. A selection of Ennio Morricone, Richard Clayderman and Acker Bilk is what has been assumed we all (the entire pueblo) want to listen to today. Blimey I’m starting to sound like my Dad. At least I can console myself with the fact that he hasn’t visited a Disco on the Pan American - yet…

"We're not in Kansas anymore Toto..."

2008-04-23T18:50:00.004+01:00

Blimey. Where to start.

Yesterday morning I lay in bed from 5 til 8 having intended to get up at 5, but finding I had a sort of inertia. 5 is a perfectly acceptable time to be getting up it seems, and I´m finding going to bed at 9pm remarkably easy. But the getting up… I just don’t know what to expect when I go out there. And my room is nice and safe. So I left my room at 8, obtained some milk (more about milk later) for my granola and thought I´d do a bit of pant washing out the back. In order to give the project coordinator time to come up with a few more problems. I couldn’t quite bear to go back to the `computer` room and see it exactly as it was 2 weeks ago again. ..

Sure enough, the coordinator finds me washing my pants and tells me we have more problems. The electrician came, the price is very high, we have to get it authorized, the guy to authorize it is out in the campo, and when I ask what are the chances of us actually starting lessons next week – we don’t know. And we should have started this week. So I’m standing there in an outhouse, underwear in hand, and I’m thinking I’m an English teacher. How did I get to be talking to a guy about electrical cable with not a lesson of any kind – English, computing, whatever – in sight? And what do I do? Yup you guessed it. I weep. Then I hang my washing out and go back in the house, and a very friendly but incredibly fast talking family member starts asking me what to do with his laptop, as one of the drives appears to be faulty and he can’t get it to start at all. He’s asking ME?! So I give him advice. What the hey. I’m getting to understand how people get sucked into these fraudulent lives, when they pretend they’re doctors and stuff. They think I know loads, and that my Spanish is bad. Truth is I know nothing!! And my Spanish is bad!

Which isn’t true actually. The one useful thing I did yesterday was take the administrator of the cooperative to the internet café (thank god that internet café is there. Thank god.) and search for accounting freeware. We found 3 programs she thinks might be useful, I’ve downloaded them onto a memory stick and installed them on the computer in the office and she’s going to have a play. You’ve no idea how hard it is to find free software in another language about a subject you know nothing about! But we did it somehow…

So. Back to the morning. I pull myself together and think well I can at least check the computers one by one and make sure they’re all configured the same. So I go over to the building, and the priests aren’t there. And the computers are being kept in the priest`s quarters for safe keeping. So once again I have nothing to do.

So I draw a big picture of a computer and label it with Spanish and English words. And then I go home and watch tv. My home, whilst a little crazy like all families, is friendly and comfortable. We have Grandma, Mum, 2 boys 6 and 12, and an uncle. The uncle is the one that talks unfeasibly fast. The Mum, same age as me, is more than happy to talk to me about all sorts and is extremely patient when I don’t understand. And last night I paid her back by doing English with her. Wow, I got to teach English. Hurrah!!

And there are more opportunities in that regard. A possible training session with the teachers here in Yali, who are a mix of locals and Peace Corps volunteers. And some self study groups near Esteli who are using the Nest Trust Book but would like a teacher too. And the aforementioned Priest, who eventually came back... And a week long intensive course in June for the school teachers of Ometepe.

And, by end of day yesterday we had a computer up and running, a lock on the door and were halfway to getting the printer to work. Which, I think, is pretty rapid movement in these parts.

Milk. The Family I live with have a house in Yali, and also a farm nearby. They have cows, and every day there is a great big vat of milk out back in the kitchen. And, as well as selling it to other little shops, they sell it out their back door. A steady stream of people wander along with strange shaped bottles and get a refill. This morning, a young girl turned up and got a lesson from grandma in maths in working out how much 3 litres would cost, and then a little lecture about how you need maths in all of life. I think. She could have been talking about something entirely different but I like to try and fill in gaps!

And the best thing about the house - it´s this close to the internet place...

...But then everything's pretty close in Yali. If I was a local I'd stand in the middle of the basketball court in the town square and shout people's names, and see how many I could get to come running. Not a good idea for me right now, as I get stared at enough...

Birthday

2008-04-19T22:12:00.002+01:00

Yup. I had good food. And beer. and there was someone playing guitar. So, small, and a bit different, but it had the basic elements of a rebs birthday.

I´m in Yali now, having finished my spanish classes - it´s about time I did some work I think. I just have to wait for the electrician to come and make powerpoints, and get the computers out the boxes, and make sure they work, and clear the room of excess mattresses and odd ornaments, and get someone to acquire 3 more desks. And advertise the classes. And none of it is really within my control. That's fine! Its not like Im the kind of person who needs to be in control of stuff!!

hmmm.

The art of the TeleNovela

2008-04-18T00:33:00.004+01:00

When I first arrived in Nicaragua I was quite offended by the telenovela phenomenon: awfully acted soaps that are played in many countries and dubbed into the right kind of spanish for the area and are set in odd, nothing times and places to appeal to as many people as possible. I`m quite a fan of crap telly, but this was something else. However, thanks to the Alma Gemela theme tune my opinion has wavered...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTG6Qvmqm-k&feature=related

It was on in my family´s house in Matagalpa every day at half twelve, and it grew and grew on me... best enjoyed quite loud, and you should sway along with it. The episodes can also be enjoyed on you tube too...

The Weekend - San Ramon

2008-04-16T18:59:00.004+01:00

Haven´t described the weekend in San Ramon yet!

Another teacher came down from Jinotega and we took ourselves off to A nice Albergue to be touristy and talk English. And the Albergue really was lovely... and what´s more it´s been set up by the community with some external help to raise and provide funds for projects in San Ramon.

We also explored the centre of San Ramon which is small bur quite lively, and visited a women´s co-operative in one of the surrounding communities that makes recycled paper.

The walk to this co-operative was superb - coffee plants, strange moss on trees...

And then the next day, we visited a great waterfall. So, all in all a marvellously touristy weekend.

Dos Fiestas! Spam Kebabs and Lasagne

2008-04-16T18:38:00.004+01:00

Well my bad day got better, as they often do. And, one positive point out of the depressing bit is that I got to use the word for ´depressing´- which had been alluding me until now!

Still feeling quite sorry for myself, I went again to find Martha Villareyna - who had accidentally double booked me, as there was an employee leaving for Spain and they were having an office party. So I was invited! And there was no talk of coffee so I am none the wiser, but I have experienced a very friendly 'works do' in Nicaragua. Which included a good 20 mins of impressions of the rest of the team - how they walk, talk and dance - by the sweet looking woman in the right of this picture... it was bloody hilarious! And many many speeches, far more expressive than any we could come up with in England. So I practiced my Spanish, ate a good spread (rice, spam sausage kebabs and a good salad) and went home caring less about the possibility of being eaten alive. And the added repellent of a newly erected mozzie net seemed to work last night... fingers crossed. Gracias a Dios for earplugs eh.

And the second Fiesta - plans are afoot for a small gathering to celebrate my cumpleanos on Friday evening. As the restaurant that does good italian food is very expensive for those on a Nicaraguan wage, and I only have about 4 friends and don´t want to alienate half of them, Jeanette is going to cook Lasagne and pan con ajo and we will drink beer and make merry to celebrate my birthday. Wow, 2 parties in one week! I´m making the most of it as I start work in Yali on Monday...

"Infraestructura? No hay..."

2008-04-15T18:16:00.003+01:00

Well. I awoke this morning to find I had quite a few flea bites. A new phenomenon, and I have a suspicion that I know how they got there... I also found a mouse poo, in my bed, and a few more on the window sill. I am of the opinion that the heavy rain drove a little chap in through my glass-less window last night, and he brought with him fleas as a gift. And left them. I'm dealing with this, practically and mentally, and no es el fin del mundo but it looks to be one of those days cos I also had a spanish lesson in which I found out that there doesn´t appear to be a system in place, with either charity or government help, to pay families a sum of money to foster children. This was in a conversation about a song we´d listened too about street children... and we´d got to that subject through talking about the big glue sniffing problem amongst very young working children.

So, my flea problem is in perspective, but somehow I don't feel better. And I long for the nonsense conversations in offices in Tower Hamlets about infrastructure organisations. At least we have one to talk shit about.

To school and back again

2008-04-13T22:06:00.008+01:00

Lots of last week was spent walking up and down the same road to school and back. And studying. Studying is tedious and doesn't make good copy, and Luke has told me "we need more, and better, photos on the blog"... so here goes.

Journey starts here, just outside my house - and there's a lovely big yellow US reject sitting there too. Then I walk 6 blocks down this road...

You should just be able to make out a little white sign above the road - that`s the turning where my school is. How exciting! And, every day, I walk past....

THE FARMER'S MARKET!! El Mercado Campesino. Who have good avocados. And then, I sit and have a lesson with someone like Wilcon here. Who is pretending to look studious because of the photo but is very friendly.

And, just for good measure, here's another bus. They look good don't they. In actual fact they and the roads combined are so bumpy that a good sports bra is necessary. And you do leave your seat.

That'll do I think. Must study! I'm trying to stay calm but it's hard when I know in a week I'm going to have to use it to teach... and I still struggle over the simplest of things. Hey ho. Vale la pena as they say...

Coffee. Segundo Parte

2008-04-13T21:35:00.002+01:00

I went to Martha Villareyna' s house for tea! The third time I popped into the office she was there, and incredibly enthusiastic. So on Thursday evening I put my skirt on and a top that isn't brown or khaki and purchased chocolates to proffer. She in turn took me to her place in a loverly 4x4, showed me her home, and gave me this amazing hard candy they make from sugar cane on her sister's farm. And we did her homework together. She also explained a little more about her job, and I`m going back on Tuesday for more info!! And more beans rice and plantain. Yum.

CECOCAFEN has about 11 co-operatives under its wing. Those 11 co-operatives are about 2637 coffee farms. There are four different markets for coffee, and only one of those ´markets´ is the Fairtrade market. (I forgot the others. I`ll check on tuesday.) They are able to sell about 60% of their coffee as fair trade, therefore with a guaranteed minimum price. The market's not big enough for the whole 100%. The other 40% - the price goes up and down. But, obviously all their farms have to be ceritified fairtrade, to be able to sell some of this coffee in the Fairtrade market. So the Fairtrade premium is spread over 100% of their farms to go into education, better methods etc, but they're not selling all their coffee at that price. And, what's more, and if I haven`t got this right I'm sure someone that knows will say, that means that other buyers actually buy coffee from Fairtrade farmers for a lesser price...? For example, they sold to Starbucks this year. But not in the Fairtrade market. So Starbucks got 'Fairtrade' coffee cheap? It's all confusing. I'm going back on Tuesday, let me know if you have questions!

Another teacher and I had a great weekend out in San Ramon which I'll tell you more about soon, but during that time we saw a number of coffee families belonging to UCA San Ramon, which in turn belong to CECOCAFEN. And I can tell you that life's still no breeze on a Fairtrade farm. Beautiful surroundings, but houses are small and basic, and life's little luxuries do not abound.

DISCLAIMER: my Spanish is shakey. Take my facts with a pinch of salt! In case anyone is actually reading this for fact. And I suggest you don't...

Quick things:
I have used Gaya's yoga mp3s. Very zen.
These backpacker-y velcro sandals are the most useful single item i have ever bought. Can't believe I shunned them for so long.
Flying biting things like me. ALOT.
Beetroot and Lemon Juice tastes nice. try it.
It's impossible to escape that 'Umbrella' song.

Monday. I feel like Louis Theroux...

2008-04-08T19:23:00.002+01:00

After a bit of nervousness on Sunday, I settled into the homestay okay. The process was helped by God, who it seems in these parts has a penchant for loud fireworks. Jeannette, mother for the next 2 weeks, told me they were for a specific celebration at the local church and a procession too. I popped off to have a look... I can report that it was a fairly plain affair compared to south american and spanish standards, ordinary looking people following a pick-up with a picture of Jesus in it. And - at the back- the DISCO MOBIL guy in his truck blasting out hymns, who only the day before I had seen doing the same around town with adverts for colgate or something! Diversify your client base, that's the ticket.

After my first lesson today I decided to follow up a suggestion from a previous worker that the Manager of CECOCAFEN really wants to practice speaking English. She trades with the US and Europe so uses it alot, and obviously she has an interesting job so I´d love to speak to her. So, and this is the Louis Theroux bit - I just wandered around til I found the office (you have to do this here, there are no street names - seriously) and walked in and asked for her. She wasn´t there, obviously but I left a message with her assistant who was also interested in a bit of extra english in return for much coffee info. The gaul of me! Don't know what's come over me. We will have to wait and see what comes of it.

So... Will Martha Villareyna accept Rebecca's offer of English? Or will she take one look at her and dismiss her as a dirty backpacker? Find out...soon...

By the way if you´re on the list of people that gets told everytime i write something and you don't want to be - let me know. You know me, I don´t like to be a bother.

Oh, and more admin - there really is no point in sending anything by post apparantly, but if you have a burning desire to try i do have an address i can give you. There are also virtually no postcards here either - strange but true. x

Coffee

2008-04-08T00:48:00.004+01:00

Hello! First things first - i can get email now. Got in through the back door.

I still haven´t explained the coffee adventure in Yali, just before i left for Matagalpa. We were just wandering about looking for breakfast when we bumped into Noel, president of aforementioned Co-op in Yali. He´s standing in front of his shop with a great big vat of milk, doling it out to anyone who arrives with something to put it in. Of course MaggieJo knows him, we get to talking, we go in for coffee and a chat. Upon discovering that I´m off to Matagalpa for 2 weeks in an hour´s time, and coffee processing season is nearly over for another year, he decides that we must go 'ahorita' - right now, in the truck, to his processing place. We will be back in time for the bus in an hour. So, the Nicaraguans can move fast when they want to!! And was I GLAD he did. There he is look, standing with MaggieJo looking at the first step of the process...

Because it's a special processing plant (or Beneficio). As well as the normal de-husking, washing, drying business...

...They also in this beneficio re-use the water, and then when it's dirty clean it using a sort of 'reed bed' system of three lakes. By the time the water gets to the third, they are testing at the moment whether they can grow plants and raise fish - and if so, the whole thing will be successful. This is fairly unique in coffee plants, I´m told, and this is the community that´s right at the beginning of starting tourism. I think the hippy tourists will lap it up, no?!
(By the way. Do you raise fish? is that the right verb? I´m losing my English!)
Below are the gutters where the water runs to be pumped back up. I have more pictures but I'm not sure how much of the story they tell so I'll hold back til I know more... And ALL THIS before 9am in the morning!! Santos is the excited looking guy above, in the drying section. I think he'd make a great guide. Vamos a ver!!

Friday. Yali to Matagalpa via Jinotega.

2008-04-05T21:25:00.002+01:00

There´s another teacher based in Jinotega named Bonnie that MaggieJo wanted to catch up with and I wanted to meet, so yet another stop off on the way to Matagalpa. BUT now I´m here, MaggieJo is gone, and I´m waiting to start being a student of spanish for 2 weeks. Hurrah! Wow. That whistlestop tour was the best induction I´ve ever had - and I´ve been inducted by Cath!

Oh - Tower Hamlets people - Juanita (in Esteli) lived in Bow for years, and her brother lived in Hanbury Street. Knew Tower Hamlets well... also wants to talk about volunteer issues when I go back to stay in her Hostel. Small world eh - the Volunteer Centre is on Tour!

Thursday. Yali.

2008-04-05T20:46:00.006+01:00

I´ll let a website that got there first show you the main square, the church and a couple of other views...

http://www.manfut.org/jinotega/yali.html

It´s very small, and after 2 days I was already recognising faces. Gustavo (at the Co-op, coordinating classes) explained much more that first evening we were there, and helped us find a room at the HOTEL YALI - and here is my evidence that every day has not been a Best Western day. Photos of shower and sink - my room was off to the right.

And, a small misunderstanding nearly led to us not staying there at all... Just as we were doing the deal to agree the rooms, there was a short power cut. We decided to go off to get some food, and then ended up staying out a bit longer to drink beer (tasty, 2 kinds, goes down well in hot weather) and talk about Gustavo and his part in the revolution. Maggejo, he and I enjoyed talking about history, and putting the world to rights, so much that we didn´t get back til - ooh, 10pm... The place was locked up with no one in sight! Much knocking on windows ensued, employing the help of the little man with a big gun guarding the place too. I have a feeling when I get back to Yali my days are going to start early and be over at sundown...

Wednesday. Esteli to Yali with the Padre

2008-04-05T20:21:00.005+01:00

More waiting in Esteli - the assured lift from another Yali Co-op guy didn´t come through, and eventually we got picked up by the priest of the district of Yali. Never a cooler priest have I met - jeans, t-shirt, groovy smile... He drove us up through the Miraflor reserve (getting still higher and greener all the time) in his 4x4 at a pace that sometimes caused us to entirely leave our seats. And I discovered through talking about this experience that the word for roller coaster seems to be "Russian Mountain" - but no-one knows why. I was also surprised that I was able to use the word for priest so soon after I´d read it in my Spanish copy of the Alchemist- I knew I might, but I wasn´t expecting revision to happen that quickly!

So we arrive late afternoon and get straight down to business. I´m to teach computing to the members of the cooperative and their families, which means farmers from Yali and surrounding area of coffee and cattle. Some may be in English, some in Spanish, and there may be English classes too- but they´re covered at the moment. As they´re explaining a little of what the cooperative does, I just about understand that they are working on particular types of fodder for cows that is drought resistent, and how artificial insemination has improved the number of calves born. I think... I also thought for ages that there was alot of talk of apples and I wasn´t sure how this fitted - until it was explained that the word also means a measurement of land slightly bigger than an acre. How was I to know??!

Let me explain Co-operatives... There are individual farms. Then there are groups of individual farms called cooperatives. They work together to ensure health, education, good farming methods etc. Then there are Unions of these cooperatives - in Nicaragua, called UCAs. THEN - there are organisations that are the third tier, selling coffee abroad etc. One example is an org called CECOCAFEN. As yet I havent worked out where Fairtrade fits in, or the sessional workers that come from other areas of the country to pick coffee at seasonal times. But hey- it´s not been a week yet!

Managua to Esteli. "We´re Jokers..."

2008-04-05T19:53:00.003+01:00

...So I hung about at the hotel with bell boys and inflated prices the morning after I arrived. MaggieJo was to finish a meeting and pick me up in a combi minibus with cooperative workers from around the north of Nicaragua. This she duly did, and I realised my trip had begun when she wandered into the foyer with 2 guys and introduced me in Spanish. After a moment´s suprise I realised that yes this was perfectly normal as we are in Nicaragua. This has happened a couple of times since - I just forget, and wonder why people are speaking in a funny language. We then had a beautiful drive, which started dry and got greener, and passed a few lakes and mountains, to Estelli. And I listened to a bunch of very sweet coffee workers making hilarious jokes which I didn´t understand, so I spent alot of that journey with a confused smile on my face. The times they spoke directly to me I understood more than I expected, so I know that they are all jokers cos they told me so. With 2 new words in fact. And later, in Esteli, Juanita (Jane but she´s lived here a while...) told me one of the reasons she liked Nicaragua enough to stay, make a baby, and open a hostel is because of the humour... "Grown men will fall off a horse laughing at something". I´ll be back to Esteli another time as its ´near´to Yali, but I had quick scout around an it is pretty and friendly. No time to stop though - on to Yali!!

(Virgin Media Still Annoying From Over Here!)

2008-04-05T17:37:00.003+01:00

Grrr. the internet here in Matagalpa doesn´t think that virgin media exists. So I can´t get to my email at the moment. I`m wondering if its cos they think I´m looking for virgins? So all I can do is blog. Hey ho, I´ve got 4 days worth!!

Important stuff - my insides are normal, if you know what i mean. I have seen Yali. I have been hugely frustrated by work based things. (So I´m obviously fine!!!) I have had to use the phrase "I have a boyfriend" after almost exactly 24 hours here. I have used so much spanish even before I start my course... and feel like many conversations are through cotton wool. I also feel like I am in a constant state of "just bumped into an ex" - you know when you always have exactly the right thing to say 10 mins after you needed to say it? Every bloody conversation, the vocabulary comes filtering through when I´ve walked away!

I´ve seen 5 different places in 5 days, so it´s sinking in slowly. I´m now in the same place til 20 April so I´ve got a bit of time to think, breathe and even get bored... I shall update in stages so you don´t!

BEST Western

2008-04-01T16:20:00.004+01:00

Wowee. Managua airport is definitely not Lima. I was expecting the same huge quantity of people pushing and offering and shouting, kind of like the Beatles were in town. Much quieter... And the whole thing was made ludicrously easy by the fact I had a reservation at the expensive hotel, meaning I was shepherded through customs anyway. I do however think even I could have managed to walk across the street to the hotel instead of being taken in the comedically short shuttle bus... bags in the boot, wait 10 minutes for the other three guests, drive further into the car park, round, and out of the security gates... and pull up immediately on the other side of the road. But after 20 hours of sitting, queuing, taking my shoes off and explaining my reasons for travel I was happy for the lovely treatment!

Over a beer by the pool (this is temporary luxury... i can´t afford 50 quid every night for 5 months...!) I heard from Maggie Jo a bit more about Yali. They are a relatively new cooperative, who have recently joined the nearby coffee union in Miraflor (where this whole project started). They are also a cattle cooperative, and their first project was for artificial insemination to improve their cow stock. Interesting. I shall come back with ideas for Mr Fearnley Whittingstall... I´m off up to Esteli this afternoon, and then further up to Yali tomorrow to find out more, and then before the weekend will have met 2 other teachers from Jinotega and Matagalpa to hear how their teaching is going. By monday I´ll be in Matagalpa doing Spanish lessons, with loads more knowledge about what´s going on... see you then!

Pictures are of the hotel dining area and pool... just checking out my sexy memory card usb thingy. it works luke!

Just the packing

2008-03-28T12:54:00.002Z

is it natural to have an urge for deep sleep when packing? Or an urge to pack things like felt tip pens and crayons? or a tin whistle? That's staying in. I don't care what anyone says.

Thank you for looking... no more until I'm somewhere interesting. Soon!

x

blimey.

2008-03-15T11:34:00.002Z

Due to my brother's sweet and carefully worded mention about the nature of the blog, I've remembered it's probably time to update. I had no luck getting moneyed businesses to support the project, so the pressure's off and it's just you lot. After some to-ing and fro-ing of ideas, from coffee to coast and back again, looks like I'm off to the highlands to a small place called Yali. Maybe even to teach computing too! ha ha. After a couple of weeks in a highly recommended school in Matagalpa, where hopefully my Spanish skills will soar. You never know.

First, I need to finish earning money, go on an easter treasure hunt, be nice to Luke, pack.

x

More about the NEST Trust

2008-02-06T17:28:00.000Z

The NEST trust connects volunteers with communities in Nicaragua that need English to support their community tourism programmes.

Their goal: poverty reduction through education and employment.

How? The students taught become English speaking guides and community teachers. The communities develop sustainable tourism projects. Education leads to increased skills and better job prospects.

The NEST Trust is a dream coming true. The first part of the dream began in 2002 with volunteers teaching English for tourism with UCA Miraflor, near Esteli in the northern mountains. In 2007 a second part took shape when volunteers began teaching in other communities using the specific English for Community and Rural Tourism materials that the NEST Trust has compiled and printed, and a third part is that our students are also becoming teachers.

Find out more: http://www.thenesttrust.org.uk/