Elections

Elections for the San Juan mayor were held yesterday, but I have no idea who won. Strange, right? As loud and full of parades and Sandanista flags and trucks as the streets were in the weeks leading up to the elections here, that's how quiet it seems now. Elections were yesterday; laws forbade alcohol sales from Saturday night to last night. Quite the opposite of the election traditions in the States!

I did not vote this year. Honestly, I don't know for whom I would've voted, anyway. Socially, I'm 100% behind Obama's policies protecting women's privacy, supporting gay rights, etc. but economically... From what I've been reading, I feel like the recovery is too slow, to put it simply. Yeah, jobs are cropping up, but the numbers are less than what economists predicted. And a lot of liberal economists talk about how government debt doesn't actually matter. It doesn't affect anything in real terms. I don't buy that.

More tidbits

This post, from Neiman Journalism Lab, makes a case for more public-minded journalism. Well, duh. It describes the horse-race, simplistic two-sided paradigm that characterizes most news stories in America, and calls for at least MORE stories to "move on" from that model. The post argues that objective journalism is somewhat outdated, and the "left-right dance" should be exchanged for a focus on change for the community - better education, health services, blah blah. Okay, sounds like a great idea. But when you're a publicly-minded reporter writing about how to improve health care, what is going to get that story on the front page? Something interesting and credible. Conflict is interesting; people with titles are credible. Remember, you're writing for an audience, one that's inundated with media and you have about three sentences to grab its attention. This means academics who disagree, politicians who disagree, people affected by the issue - who disagree. And we're back to dancing on strings from the left and right, because the story has to be understandable, too. It's a giant systemic problem, not one originating solely from news organizations or reporters or audiences. I, for one, have no idea how to change that paradigm for the mainstream.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NiemanJournalismLab/~3/Bt2urM5uwFM/

More tidbits

This post, from Neiman Journalism Lab, makes a case for more public-minded journalism. Well, duh. It describes the horse-race, simplistic two-sided paradigm that characterizes most news stories in America, and calls for at least MORE stories to "move on" from that model. The post argues that objective journalism is somewhat outdated, and the "left-right dance" should be exchanged for a focus on change for the community - better education, health services, blah blah. Okay, sounds like a great idea. But when you're a publicly-minded reporter writing about how to improve health care, what is going to get that story on the front page? Something interesting and credible. Conflict is interesting; people with titles are credible. Remember, you're writing for an audience, one that's inundated with media and you have about three sentences to grab its attention. This means academics who disagree, politicians who disagree, people affected by the issue - who disagree. And we're back to dancing on strings from the left and right, because the story has to be understandable, too. It's a giant systemic problem, not one originating solely from news organizations or reporters or audiences. I, for one, have no idea how to change that paradigm for the mainstream.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NiemanJournalismLab/~3/Bt2urM5uwFM/

Fun tidbits

This is about the NYT article that revealed the insane amount of money China's prime minister has been able to make through insider dealings between the Communist Party and business in the country, and what that means for the government's future.

http://dartthrowingchimp.wordpress.com/2012/10/26/what-a-china-corruption-story-says-about-the-perils-of-authoritarian-corruption-in-the-modern-global-economy/

This one's would interest you, Dad. And all those people who wonder (like I did for a long time) why the US couldn't have lavish social services on its citizens like Sweden can do without going bankrupt... Guess what! Sweden is able to do that BECAUSE the United States isn't as "cuddly" (their word, not mine). Americans innovate because of our cutthroat capitalism; other countries benefit.

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2132939

That's all for now, folks!

Raindrops keep falling on my head

That's Salvador's favorite song to drunkenly serenade the building with most mornings.

I think I jinxed the rain, saying we only get about an hour! It rained all night last night and through this morning, so much so that BPP cancelled classes.

Happy hump day! Tonight I'm making spicy orange ginger mackerel :)

I feel the earth move under my feet

Another earthquake in Costa Rica about a half hour ago. This time it ranked at 6.6 on the Richter scale, and I could definitely feel it here in San Juan. Everything is fine though, no worries here.

Update as far as life more generally... The last two weeks of school are upon us! It's wild how short the semester is for the Barrio Planta Project, especially since classes are only three days a week. I'm not sure when regular school ends, but I think BPP schedules around them, so I assume it's the same. My classes are getting steadily better (as long as one certain kid isn't there in the morning class..) and I feel that we've made significant progress through the curriculum. I still think its hard to really improve at a foreign language - especially speaking - unless you practice WAY more than three times a week, but I can't do much about that after all! Rainy season has finally begun, as well. It's not bad, and it's very much a relief to locals, who were worried about drought in the spring if the rain didn't come. Supposedly it rains to about 12 hours a day in a normal year, so it seems this year will be dryer than most, anyway. We get maybe an hour a day.

Happily teaching, spending time with Emile, cooking, and enjoying this beautiful country! I'm looking forward to Emile's mom's visit in a couple weeks, too.

Wooooo!

I deadlifted 135 lbs today... 12 times! That's using the 45 lb plates. Can't believe how much stronger I am, and how cool it is to have a consistent progression I've moved from and am moving toward. It's like finally getting that triple pirouette after months of practice and knowing, given patience and hard work, that the fourth turn will come soon enough :)

View from front of school

Lazy rainy day

Stomach pains are a decidedly unpleasant way to start the day. I was up half the night with them, too, but thank goodness they've gone away for the most part. And I called into work asking for the day off, so Emile and I have been making up for the lack of sleep with reading and doing a whole lot of nothing.

Good news: I got my visa renewed! Good for another 90 days down here ;) Don't worry, though, I'm starting to get a little homesick. I miss being able to do my random art/museum excursions, and I miss music other than the15-song playlist this country has on repeat. Nicaragua is wonderful - a beautiful landscape, welcoming people, fun atmosphere... But I don't think I could live in this beach town for too long. Or maybe I just need a vacation (as if I'm not living in the ideal vacation spot anyway)! There are still several things I want to see and do, like going to the (in)famously sprawling market in Marsella, maybe volcano boarding, maybe go back to Grenada to take more pictures so y'all can see the city through my eyes! Ps some pictures are up on my google plus site. Go check them out. I need to add more - there was a parade that I got a few good shots of on September 15, and I need to take more in general. But the ones up on the site include a couple cute ones of my students :)

Emile's birthday is tomorrow, and he's letting me make him a cake! I'm excited... I think I'm gonna get us lobster and octopus for dinner, too. Go crazy!

Tales of Salvador

Salvador is our landlord. And he is quite the interesting one. I feel like twenty-somethings, or parents talking about their twenty-something's, always have their stories about this or that landlord - the crotchety one who badgered about rent payments, the motherly one who took care of each and every problem, the one who was so absent it was debatable if he existed at all... And so on. Well, Salvador will probably still be my landlord story in thirty years.

I've mentioned that he's a drunk, but I don't know to what extent I conveyed this little fact. I have never seen this man sober! I'm fortunate enough to have him as my alarm clock most mornings, when he wakes up between 5:30 and 7 and begins stomping around the garage (right below our apartment) fooling with his brother's car or his boat. Or walking up and down the stairs talking to his brother, who drinks just as often but somehow functions as the caretaker of the two. Or, his favorite pastime: singing. Most music in San Juan is of the radio pop variety, but Salvador is no regular guy. He serenades the entire building with romantic love songs, "Raindrops keep falling on my head," and the occasional Celine Dion song. Some in Spanish, some in English, it doesn't matter. He loves to sing. His voice isn't too bad, actually, but he makes himself hoarse from wailing at the top of his lungs so often!

I normally stay out of his way. I say hello, of course, and ask how hes doing, etc.. The normal courtesies, but we don't chitchat. The singing and early morning wake-ups don't put him on my best side unless I have a really good sense of humor that day. But this weekend, I think we took a step forward in our relationship. First, I need to say that Salvador, for all his craziness, is a very mild-mannered amiable guy. He wouldn't harm a fly, and he has two very sweet labs (nobody who plays frisbee with his dogs can be too bad). And his girlfriend, though I thought she was his maid at first, is super sweet and helpful. She has to see something in him! I digress. So anyway, this weekend, Salvador brought me food! Everybody knows how much I like food, and this was a pretty good way to win me over. But then, he gave me food AGAIN! After running errands this morning, I walked in and he offered me a cupful of steaming soup with fresh crab. Okay, Salvador, you win. I can't be annoyed with anyone who gives me fresh, yummy seafood.

Until he discovered Pacman. Oh yes, e found it on his computer, and the little "wee-ooo, wee-ooo, wee-ooo," "chugga chugga chomp chomp" blasted at full volume, accented with occasional outbursts from Salvador himself, flooded the building for hours.

He should bring me food more often.

Democracy and Development Revisited…Again

As usual, I'm sitting on the couch switching between reading the addictive Wheel of Time series, perusing Facebook/Pinterest, and reading blogs. Here's one of the more interesting things I've read today (Dad, I think this might pique your interest):

http://dartthrowingchimp.wordpress.com/2012/09/12/democracy-and-development-revisited-again/

This blogger (a very adept academic for his funny moniker "dart-throwing chimp") makes models and predictions about democracy around the world. If you're interested, poke around his other posts. I find it fascinating that so many of our ideas about democracy - how it evolves, what strengthens/weakens it, and how it benefits people - are turned sideways when viewed from a scientific standpoint. Maybe not upside-down, but definitely sideways.

Flying Solo

Since Emile is gone for the next week for his med school interview at UAB, I'll have plenty of time to blog/read etc. And I'm coming up with a list of things to do because I have Monday off of school and need to keep busy. So.

1. Lesson planning: lesson planning is difficult with these kids for several reasons. They don't come to school consistently or on time; they're all at different levels of English, and they have no concept of classroom behavior. So I need to come up with a few more "contingency plan" lessons when class gets out of hand, but I want to stick relatively close to curriculum. I also want to make class more competitive, since many of the students think of it more like summer camp anyway.

2. Make new food! Emile and I stick to the same foods, pretty much, and this week is an opportunity for me to try things in single serving portions, so I don't use much money and don't mess up on something that's supposed to feed us for two days. Like eggs poached in spicy tomato sauce, pico de gallo soup (with our leftover pico juices from taco night last night), and stuff with coconut milk maybe. Now I'm getting ahead of myself.

3. Box better. Shirley, a girl who works at the gym, has a boxing match this coming Friday, and I'm planning on going with a friend. We're going to be her paparazzi squad :) I'm hoping I get train with her some this week.

4. Photos - I need to use my camera more down here. The pictures I've taken on my nice camera are on google plus (they have better technology for downloading the picture with higher quality, god forbid stuff gets lost on my camera). Here's the address: https://plus.google.com/app/plus/mp/562/?source=mog&gl=ni#~loop:pid=115958913340297485960&alid=5782549216259368641&tot=60&title=August%252030%252C%25202012&view=album

Sorry that's so long. But the point is, that doesn't show much of San Juan. I got some fun shots of a parade the other day, but those will be up here/there later. Hasta luego!

All good. Todo bien.

While I was brushing my teeth this morning, the house started rocking back and forth. I literally felt like I was on a boat in the ocean for 30 seconds, then it stopped. Turned out to be a 7.6 earthquake, its epicenter in Costa Rica, that set off the second tsunami warning we've had in two weeks. But the tsunami warning was cancelled, and we have electricity and a second floor apartment, cable TV to watch the news, and Internet to get more news! So all is safe and well, just wanted to let you know.

To read today

This morning I read an interesting article about the prevailing narrative of Africa as hopeless, despondent, violent, etc:
http://www.bostonreview.net/BR37.4/jina_moore_africa_journalism_colonialism.php

Latin America is served better by the US media, I think. I mean, nobody really blankets stories under the broad characterization of Latin America as a whole. But the simplification still exists, as one scholar argues, just on a smaller scale: http://dartthrowingchimp.wordpress.com/2012/08/15/venezuelas-colectivos-and-the-broken-u-s-narrative-of-chavez-as-the-wizard-of-oz/

Settling in

In our new apartment! It really is beautiful - tiled floor (easy to clean), wooden furniture, and a colorfully tiled bathroom with a shower big enough, and nearly deep enough, to qualify as a hot tub. There are a few odd things, like the lack of a towel rack in the bathroom and any storage space in the kitchen, but those are oversights expected from someone like our landlord. The man is ALWAYS drunk. Or asleep. Or trying to get drunk. He took us on a fishing trip - at 530 am, mind you - and he and his brother got Emile to drive the boat so they could drink margaritas while fishing off the back. They caught one king mackerel, and we saw lots of sea turtles. By the time we got back, Salvador, the landlord, was staggering. But he mostly keeps to himself, and he's amiable even at his most inebriated state, so I don't foresee any problems. His girlfriend (poor girl!) takes care of everything anyway.

Teaching is going moderately well. I'm slowly realizing that many of the students, and maybe some of the teachers, see the school in a summer camp light. We teach the kids a little something, babysit them/keep them out of the house for a while, and have fun. I tend to take things like this more seriously, so I'm afraid I'm not the "cool, fun teacher" at the Barrio Planta Project. This week we'll be working on a project, though, which will hopefully achieve both the students' and my objectives. Wellford inspired me for it, actually! Remembering how his Shane Battier book was the only school activity that got him excited about reading and writing, and that was largely because he got to draw pictures, I decided to twist that a little bit. Instead of writing the story first, I'll have them draw a storyboard. A comic-strip-style thing, with only pictures, so they aren't thinking in English or Spanish, just in images. Then we'll put words to the story - in English - and make a book out of it, complete with larger illustrations. One boy in my class, man actually, is 20 years old and has a learning disability/developmental disorder leaving him at the maturity level of an 11 year old. He's always drawing beautiful pictures, though, and I'm hopin this project will draw him into actually learning some of what I'm trying to teach. He's woefully behind despite his being one of my only students that shows up consistently.

Teaching and learning

The first thing noticeable about the school is what's next to it. A concrete playground, usually used as a soccer field, with two netless metal goals at either end. Surrounding the playground are murals advertising every philanthropy in town, from the town's biggest resort's charity fund to nonprofits to local restaurants that helped sponsor the construction of the recreation area. Children playing, yelling, are near-constants here, at nighttime even more than during the day. The soccer league playing nearly every night draws a big crowd lined up against the wall and behind the gate entrance. The nondescript building on one side houses a Spanish school, where tourists take lessons from locals, a fruit and snack stand run by a wrinkly grandmother, and BPP.

The Barrio Planta Project, where I'm teaching, consists of four rooms and a bathroom, which has been a huge conversation topic of late. Complete with tiles and a lightbulb, the bathroom is a luxury the school just added with money saved for the project. It's a young and energetic atmosphere - the school's director is 26, and its administrative director at most the same age - but relatively quiet between classes. A few kids arriving early to class and asking to play with a ball from the office, that's about all. It's humble. The rooms have benches for desks; pencils are given out only with collateral from the students to ensure they are returned, and notebooks are donations from Casa Oro, the biggest hostel in the area. But this school is free, and kids come here by choice. They attend "regular" school in the mornings or afternoons, and go to BPP because they WANT to learn English, though it's no obligation for them. The best way to get them quiet (even if it only lasts a moment)? Ask who wants to learn English, and they all raise their hands so eagerly you'd never think they would speak out of turn. It's a lesson in humility for those of us who were pushed and prodded into our stellar educations... We think we worked hard. We did work hard! But these kids thirst for it, and their best bet is someone fresh out of college with no training and poor Spanish. And I can't even give them homework because there are no textbooks.

First day of school

Was a success! My first class was exhausting, though; a class of middle school boys and two troublemakers makes for a rough first class ever, but all in all, I think it's going to go well. My second class (only five kids showed up, and they were a bit older) went as smoothly as I could have dreamed. Part of that was the smaller size, part was that I could gauge their progress in the curriculum from the morning class. I was flying completely blind in the first one!

I know I need to keep my expectations reasonable... I'm only teaching these kids for three months, after all, but I have high hopes. They know more than I had anticipated, and the younger kids are very sharp. One kept telling me to stop explaining things in Spanish! It's nice to know that they want to be there, want a challenge. They just need to learn a little discipline :)

I don't know how St. Mary's drilled that into us so thoroughly; even our middle school classrooms - many elementary classes, too! - were well-oiled machines. Most of us would get frustrated when class time wasn't perfectly efficient or when someone caused disruptions. Pretty amazing. At times, I think that was for the worse, as nice as it sounds right now. Mom and I talked about the uniformity created by that extent of discipline, at least for very young children. Little kids need room for creativity and play! We'll see how well I can balance that dichotomy at the close of these three months.

Happy Birthday!

It was Granddaddy and Uncle Bucky's birthday a few days ago, and it's Mom's birthday next week... Happy Birthday, y'all!

Today was our neighbor's birthday, and the whole neighborhood came out to celebrate. Piñata, loud music, dancing, musical chairs - it was all there. Except the birthday boy was the dad, and everyone dancing and singing and having all the fun was under 10. Until they made all the women (including me!) get up and dance. They were all shocked that I actually did ;)

Most of the time I spent taking pictures on my nice camera, but I did take one video on my phone. You have got to watch this little guy! He cracks me up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TE8D5uPeMRg&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Mas fotos

The dog that follows us everywhere we go. She even waits at the gym for us!

Pictas

Hermitting

Life is good: sitting inside the house in hammocks, reading and eating watermelon. No complaints :)

I surfed horribly yesterday... Smaller board + bigger wave = Estes like a cat in a bathtub. It was not pretty; the closest I got to standing up was riding the wave on my knees. But I was proud of that, for as badly as I was doing! Given I have surfed a grand total of five or six days over a three month period, I have a long way to go, and that's okay by me. We went to Playa Romanso, which was beautiful as always. And a friend of Emile's, Tomas, stopped by the beach in the afternoon and wants to rent the apartment next to us next month. He just got married to a Canadian woman, but it'll easily be six months before he can get a residential visa to go with her. Tomas is nice though; he'd be a fun neighbor to have!

I always thought hermit crabs lived like, well, hermits - alone. But there was an entire colony hiding out behind our little hay-roofed canopy. They chowed down on our orange and mango peels.

Otras cosas

On another note entirely, I am managing to hone my meager cooking skills down here. Which means when I return Stateside, they'll be great on those great stoves we have over there! Never take the low setting on your stove for granted again. Tonight I experimented with ginger for the first time ever, and it was a success!

First, I put two thinly sliced onions in a pot with some coconut milk. After the onions were soft and transparent, I added ginger, curry powder, garlic, and peppers, then a little bit of water and a tomato after a minute or two. Sautéed up some amberjack ($4 for a 6 lb fish!), threw that into the pot, and served it all over rice! Squeezed some lime/lemon over it, and it was good! I needed some jalapeños and more garlic (like a whole clove) and maybe a carrot... Next time será mejor.

Los próximos meses

After three months of commuting between Memphis and Birmingham, traveling to Central America, and spending my time figuring out what to do next, my life is going to fall into a semblance of order in two weeks!

I'll be teaching two classes of 10-12 year olds English three days a week, and ballet to preschoolers on Tuesdays. What's even better is that the school's mission, to offer supplementary and creative education - it's the only school in San Juan offering free English classes - focuses on the poorest kids in the city. Of course, that brings several more challenges to teaching than a simple language barrier, but it's a mission close to my heart, largely thanks to NBE. I'm sure I'll take these words back when I'm exhausted and fed up with some annoying preteen, but I can't wait.

The school is one small part of a large concrete building, home to several organizations, and it is struggling. If I weren't here this semester, I honestly don't know how they'd keep the two classes I'm teaching. It's nice to know I can make a concrete contribution to their staff.

Oops...

I keep halfway writing posts, then forgetting to send them. Just as well that they're half-posts since this thing tends to post only half of what I write anyway!

Sorry about the lapse in info though... Things are going well here. We're settled in a little green house - we're talking bright kelly green outside and in - up on a hill, getting ourselves situated in daily life. I've decided to accept the offer to teach English and ballet/creative movement for the semester, and I'll meet with Jaime, the school's director, to discuss details about scheduling, supplies I'll need, etc. I'm getting more excited about delving into this project every day, and I'm thrilled to be working with an organization that looks to address education shortages with creativity and an arts emphasis. I can integrate well with that, and hopefully with the team, too. Not to mention the kids, of course. Here's hoping I love teaching and can settle on a career out of it!

San Juan

Sorry, it's been a while... Time flies! San Juan is great; we've found a cheap casa for this month and a possible better option for the next. I have basically agreed to do a workshop - teaching creative movement to preschoolers - with the creative arts/English school I talked about on here. They want me to teach one of their English classes as well, but I'm not sure I can commit to the whole semester, which ends in mid-November.

Emile cut my hair yesterday! I was totally fine with it before he started, but when he grabbed some hair and chopped it... Not so nonchalant. I like it now though; it's nice to have as much o a breeze as I can get.

Regresamos a San Juan

And here's an update.

We arrived in San Juan del Sur yesterday, the surf town where Emile spent two months earlier this year, and where I spent my spring break. The culture in this town is simply wonderful, and the prices are, too. My fingers are crossed that our opportunities here flesh out well enough to stay for a month or two.

Emile is looking into working with a group studying chronic kidney disease in the region. Nicaraguans differ from Americans in that CKD is more common among men, at least in the studies conducted in the northern part of the country. This study would find if the south corroborates that story. Interviewing subjects etc would be a boon for his Spanish, and the study ends in three weeks - plenty of time to surf, while still accomplishing something solid. I'm pretty optimistic about it!

I am meeting with the English and visual arts school this afternoon, hoping to find that interesting and worthwhile. Ideally, I would get to deal with kids of different ages and see if there's a group I might like to teach in the states. For those of you who haven't been following my disillusionment with journalism, I might not want to follow that path. Teaching was a dream of mine throughout high school (thanks in large part to my English teachers at St. Mary's), and it seems to be resurfacing as of late. Who knows, honestly. I don't feel a need to settle into a decades-long career in one area just yet.

Onward ho!

This whole blog thing is not being as cooperative as I'd hoped this time around. Each of my posts is only half of what I wrote, so here's the second part of my post last time:

Yesterday we climbed Volcan Concepción, a 1,600 m volcano right outside town. Hiking a pretty narrow, pretty steep trail was good for my workout for the day, but Emile was a goat and said he was struggling with a pace that slow... I wish I had that problem. We didn't summit, though, due to the little visibility through fog and rain at the top. On a clear day, apparently you can see across Lake Nicaragua to the Pacific and Caribbean oceans. We had no such luck, but it was beautiful nonetheless! Another couple climbed with us, along with a Frenchman and our guide. We weren't the most talkative crew unless Emile was next to the guide, in which case the conversation got away from me pretty quickly. Emile has gotten ahead of my Spanish skills, no me gusta! I plan to rectify that ASAP ;)

I've spoken with an NGO in San Juan that works with children in English and visual arts. They need volunteer teachers, and it sounds pretty great if I don't have to pay to intern, and if Emile is up for returning to the clinic where he worked this spring. Working on some other leads in Grenada, Ometepe and León, so we shall see what happens.

Fwd: Ometepe goodness

Ometepe has been wonderful, except for the mosquitoes. We are staying in a hostel in Myogalpa, the biggest town on the island. Our hostel is more like a house than anything else- the woman who owns it has two kids running around drawing, playing and watching TV at all hours, and there are chickens outside and two horses next door. I have to wear ear plugs at night because the roosters wake me up... I thought someone was yelling "welcome home, mom!" in my dream yesterday mornjng, but it was definitely a rooster crowing.

We've only really met one guy in our hostel, an interesting fellow from Chicago. He dons full-out outdoors gear - safari hat, shirt, cargo shorts, and those five-finger shoes - to walk around town, and he only eats fruits. And a few vegetables, when he makes a salad, blends it up and drinks it. It's called the 80-10-10 diet, and it sounds completely bizarre, though the guy is very nice.

This morning Emile woke up with a very swollen right eyelid, which had been sore since we left the states. He's been tough about the pain, but this morning was no bueno. After a hydrocortisone shot and something else shot in his butt at the hospital, he seems to be feeling better.

Ometepe: Día Uno

Fresh off the boat in Ometepe! Haven't seen the town yet; we literally walked straight to our hostel, and here I am. What I see is lovely though - drying bamboo outside our window leading to a quaint blue house across the road.

Beginnings

So, I've been in Nicaragua for about two days now. In Grenada, a City that has survived with cathedrals and horse-pulled carriages intact since Spanish colonization, making it the oldest colonial city in the Americas. It's a fifteen minute walk from my hostel to the lake, and ten minutes to the bustling market where Emile or a shoe and I a dress fixed yesterday.

We've been cooking and grocery shopping, sleeping and reading and walking mostly. It's damn hot, so we kind of meander slowly down the street wherever we go. Unless we're sprinting, in which case we get lots of stares and comments in Spanish I can't understand!

My only real experience with traveling like this was in Uganda and Rwanda, so I'll probably make lots of comparisons between that trip and this. For one, Grenada has more resources at its disposal than Gulu - more cars, nicer buildings, fewer poor areas, greater variety of food and stores and amenities. That said, it has far fewer resources than Kampala or Kigali, which might be expected since Grenada is not the country's capital. There are almost NO men catcalling here, which is extremely refreshing, and way less attention from locals in general. It is much more normal to see gringos around here, I guess. Or maybe people here just don't automatically expect white people to be aid workers. Our hostel is full of people from all over - last night a group of 20ish French speakers had a giant dinner, taking over the whole kitchen when we first went in to cook. A nice couple from California stays in the room next to us; if we stay another night, we might go get a drink with them.

The plan is to leave for Ometepe tomorrow morning. We'll take a bus to Rivas, then a ferry across the lake to the island. I've heard only good things about it, so I'm excited!

More to come...