working girl

saturday September 18

almost 6 weeks since i moved here and 2 weeks into my new job and i still feel like im in the beginning phases of figuring things out. Today is Yom Kippur and unfortunately since the jewish community is so small that i dont actually know of anyone this is my first year not doing anything.. including fasting since i just got back with my housemate from a delicious nicaraguan breakfast of eggs, gallo pinto, platanos and tortillas. whoops. I was hoping to find some services at a synagogue in Granada, but the one phone number i found online didnt connect me to anything so that obviously didnt work out. Aside from that, the past two weeks have been new and exciting. Work is slow and i haven't really been doing too much, which can be frustrating since i feel like a waste of space, but apparently they want me observing and 'soaking it all in'. Ive been working with the guy, Don Augusto, who is in charge of sales for the hospital's health plans and costumer service, so i've gotten to see the mishmosh of oddballs who come in. Quite a few characters and rando expats who have found their way to this country.

In other news, I had the most incredible 5 day weekend last week! Tues and wednesday were national holidays, so hardly anyone goes on monday, including myself. A friend of a friend had invited me to go on a trip up north, the details of which she couldn't really give me since we ended up winging the whole trip and planning it on the go. So on sunday afternoon (in typical Nica fashion, many hours after we had originally planned to leave) my friend Rosario showed up with her brother Berto, sister Natalia, her sis' boyfriend Ramon, an awesome spanish chick named Miryam, and these two canadians that were vacationing, one who lived in my house a year ago and his friend. Splitting up into to cars we were off like herd of turtles! It was incredible getting out of Managua. I realized that i hadn't really left since I got here and the minute i did it reminded me of why i decided to move back here. Managua is nothing like the rest of the country; granted it's not a city really as most of us in the states know it, but comparatively here is much more urban. Once you head out, the you find much more of the small town, campesino feel that dominates the rest of the country's terrain.
The northern part of the country is madeup of incredible mountain ranges, bring down the temperature, at points even requiring a sweater. Especially now in rainy season all you see is green green green. It's incredibly lush this time of year and absolutely breathtaking. It was such a freeing feeling driving through the countryside as we wound our way up the mountains.
A breath of fresh air and a reminder that my main desire was to get to see as much of the country as possible this year.

We were supposed to make it to a place called Somoto, but given that we left so late that didnt happen. Instead we spent the night in Matagalpa, in a lodge area called Selva Negra, which oddly enough is exactly the same place i visited with my mom and sister 3 years back.
We rented this large cabin right on a little lake that could have fit a group of 20. Arriving around dinner time, we followed our designated tour guide, Ramon, to a delicious steak restaurant and then to a little local bar to cheer to our adventure with more Flor de Cana and Coca cola (im beginning to realize that this friend of mine, Flor de Cana, seems to get mentioned in each of my entries... hmm). It was a fun chill scene where we all just hung out, chatted, and headed home early to supposedly wake up early and head out. I should have known better. As i got up way before most people, I walked around the place, following a little path up to a chapel where many weddings take place apparently. Walking inside i went to the altar and found drops of a bloodlike substance staining the marble.. sacrifice anyone? I'd like to think so. So i sauntered through the trees and paths, it is a coffee plantation so very lush vegetation. Of course i ended up taking pictures of trees with their little signs posted on them to send to my mother, because no matter how much I try to avoid it, I somehow become more and more like her.
Eventually we all got on the road and went to a little house of the side of the road that Ramon knew of, where a few women had made a restaurant. Sitting at a table outside they brought us coffee from the area, rice,beans, cheese, eggs, the largest handmade tortillas ive ever seen.
Their kitchen was a beautifully arranged large dirt floor room, lit by the natural light coming in, a handmade wood-burning stove, which seemed to give everything a more earthy, motherly mademade flavor of deliciousness! Well fed we ended up spending the rest of the day driving the supposed "three hour" journey up to Cusmapa. We went through Jinotega, Esteli (where we bought amazing Rosquilla--a typical cracker/biscuit made out of cor. a good blend of sweet and salty and excellent with coffee), stopped in Somoto, which is the last 'big' town before our trek up to Cusmapa. We bought two days worth of groceries and braced ourselves for the long windy and bumpy two hour drive up the mountains.

Cusmapa is the highest pueblo in Nicaragua and not an easy place to get to. It was our destination because Rosario worked with an NGO called the FABRETTO Foundation that has locations throughout the country, one of them being in Cusmapa. It is an organization that works to provide educational opportunities and economic opportunities to disenfranchised communities in NIcaragua... or so is my understanding. During her year working with them Rosario visited Cusmapa about 6 times and hadn't been back since. Its made up of a few small roads and inserted into an amazing landscape of hills and mountains that offer indescribable lookouts over the country's landscape.
By the time we got there we had missed the sunset (a few wrong turns up the dirt roads, getting stuck behind the one bus weigthed down by the overflow of people, small women's bladders that need do not get along with the bumps in the road) sadly cuz it is apparently unlike anything else. Nevertheless, we unloaded everything at the volunteer house where we got to stay for free, and cooked up a meal, had some drinks and went to bed... again to wake up early...?? Nope, just me Rosario and Miryam, self-designated adventureres of the group. We walked to a lookout point although blankets of fog dug themselves in between the mountainranges so we couldn't see very far out. Then we walked to the Fabretto office to visit, took a tour of the wood workshop they have and the local garden where we received a plant of oregano that i have yet to plant. On our way back to the house to pick up the late risers we were accompanied by some stray dogs and stray village drunks, one old man coming up to the patio and 'singing' for an extended period of time while holding a saw in his wobbling hand. Somewhat alarming, sad, and entertaining at the same time.. some people finally arrived to fetch him.

We all wandered up to the basket-weaving co-op and bought some beautiful baskets made out of pine by some of the local women. then spent the rest of the afternoon looking to rent horses by asking anyone we saw with a horse. by around 4 pm we had come up with 4 horses so the adventurous of us rode down to one of the nearby communities, holding on for dear life when the boy who was taking us smacked my horse's rear to send it galloping like a mad beast and the entire lower half of my body getting bruised in the process. Went back afterwards to cook dinner with the rest, play my childhood boardgame the Amazing Labyrinth, and have me get into a heated 2 hr conversation with one of the canadian dudes that started with sexism and feminism, and then moved on to racism, judaism, white privilege, and the works.. made me break out the academic terminology i have been getting rusty with.

Next morning Miryam and I woke up at 5 to catch the sunrise... we walked down to the lookout and waited amongst the dew covered rocks for the sun to reach up over the mountain and warm our bodies.. We sat for about an hour watching as the sunlight crept up to light the valley and people walked up and down the mountain coming and going to their respective communities. It was an excellent setting to have heart to heart conversation, discussing the meaning of life, ya know, the usual..

The rest of the day was marked by one of the most terrifying and exhilarating experiences i have ever had. and will probably never have again unless someone were to pay me an obscenely large amount of money. We left Cusmapa and drove to the Cañon of Somoto, where 5 of us took the medium length tour of about 3.5 hours with 3 local guides who were from the canyon and knew it like the back on their hand.. it was maybe the only thing that reassured me since we were trekking through strong currents, scrambling on nearly vertical rocks, plunging into rapids, without so much of an explanation really of what we were doing.. They would be like, 'ok, just follow me one by one' and then jump and yell at you to go. But after being slapped around by the water (high and strong this time of year because it is rainy season) it spits you out into the middle of the canyon where you are starring up at the narrow high canyon walls.



breathtaking really.. in part because you get the wind literally knocked out of you and also because its just an incredibly beautiful experience. after jumping 20 ft over a waterfall, floating down the river about 15 min, trekking through the muddy banks and wading through the strong current holding hands, we finally made it out of there alive, bruised and slightly broken and hungry enough to eat every cow we passed by.. which we satisfied by going to a great cuban meal in Esteli.. sorry to offend all my fellow jews, but Pork is awesome!!

Had a great two day week, and chill and relaxing weekend and hopefully today will be learning to drive some stickshift which is a good skill to have here...