Bienvenidos is what they said, and I wondered if they truly meant it. What I have come to realize once again in life is that there shall be no such escapes or underestimations as to generalize an entire people. So far Nicaragua has been truly welcoming with their Flor De Cana and lush green landscape, la gente so quick to laugh and share their deepest custumbres no matter if it makes them proud or tormented, the animals as wild as they come -- invading our casita no matter how Nathan swatts them away lol... We are very humbled to have been so excepted and beautifully cared for. Our family here goes by the last name of Molina -- Isabel, Antonio, Michael, and JosMar. We are living in an area about 3 and a half miles outside of San Ramon, Matagalpa called La Reyna. It is insane lush and rural and feels like we are living in something out of The Jungle Book. En serio. For the past week we have been getting settled into La Comunidad and preparing our scope of work with an organization called La UCA out of San Ramon. We have been designing the framework of our projects and plan to begin "doing work" this coming week at a Primary school in La Reina, focusing on solutions to Food Insecurity using Permaculture and Community Economic models.
The other day while we were having Almuerzo with a few other workers from La UCA a man began to inquire about us. His name was Moses and it turned out he was the brother of our host Madre, Isabela. Moses joined us for the end portion of the meal and unraveled what could have taken a person a lifetime to discover about the situation here in Nicaragua from Food Security to Globalization to powerful personal solutions. It seemed this man knew it all, deep down in La Verdad muuuy sucia. He explained that most of la gente en San Ramon will grow there fruits, bring them to town, and sell them for a 3 liter bottle of "Caca Cola". He preceded to announce that he was 3 years clean and that the answer to Salud and Food Soverignty in Nicaragua is to grow your own fruits and vegetables and eat them. Not fried -- like has become the typical preparation here. Oh yes, and drink muchooo muchooo AGUA. Moses invited us over to play guitar the following evening and we agreed. He is a master guitarist and tocas for the Evangelical Christian church in La Reyna and has offered to clean up my guitar skills over the next couple months. Que bien!
Nathan and I had a bit of an unwelcome visitor the other night... a rat which kept us up all night scampering about the inside of the open-air roof and also rummaging throughout our things. I was so freaked out thinking it would come into the bed lol. Isabel has offered to take care of it but I felt that this was a perfect opportunity to grow a bit more brave. Three days ago this rat was my enemy and now, well... his name is Scampi and he returns every evening to run about the house. We also have a lizard in our casita on a regular basis. There are congos (monkeys) in the trees, tropical birds and butterflies, chickens, pigs, and cows all over the place, wild dogs, inescapable insects, snakes (we have only seen one and it was dead on the side of the road), and one can only imagine what else. Our house is perched within a steep mountain-side surrounded by banana trees, mango trees, citrus fruits, coffee, avacados, garlic, onion, squash.... y mas. The water is not potable (luckily I have my Steripen Adventurer) and we take freezing cold showers. The rains here are unreal. We are healthy and happy -- learning and sharing so much. The reality of life is beginning to take hold and we are both feeling an overwhelming sense of freedom side by side to a gracious and deep thankfulness.
Todo bien? Not really. A lot of changes need to happen in this world my friends. These people are suffering here while we live our spoiled ass lives. It is so clear here how lucky we are and what vast and unnecessary luxuries we have at our finger tips. Maybe soon, some of us will choose to live with less so that others can live with enough. Ok and with this fact, I will say buenosssss noches and send abrazos gigante de Nicaragua from both Nathan and myself xx Salud!
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