A Little R&R Did Us Wonders

The week of March29-April 6, my (Sarah's) parents were here visiting us. They could not have come at a better time. Since December we have been very busy with Aso Fenix groups and projects, so we were ready for some rest and relaxation. We stayed in a beach town, San Juan del Sur, for 5 days where we read, watched tv/movies, swam in the pool, swam at the beach, made jewlery (my mom and I), ate great food and slept a lot. I did not realize how worn out I was until we had no agenda and I had time to sleep and rest. It was a good time to spend hanging out with my parents. We had not seen my dad in over a year and my mom in 8 months, so it was a much needed reunion. It was not hard to see them leave since we will see them in a little more than a month...no they won't be returning that soon, but in fact we will be making our first visit home since we arrived. We will be spending half of our time in Denver, Colorado with my family and the other half with Seth's family in Rapid City, South Dakota.

My Namesake

I just finished reading a book by Jhumpa Lahiri titled the Namesake, so it seemed like a good title for this blog. I never planned on naming any of my kids after myself, nor did I ever think anyone would name their child after me. What I never considered was having someone name an animal after me, this could be considered an insult to some. A family in the community of Corozo that we enjoy a lot named one of their four birds after me. At first I thought, great they named a bird after me, but then they told me the other birds did not have names. That was when I realized how special I was to have a bird named after me. They also told me they were going to give me the bird, but right now it was too young. They are going to train it to eat everything, so when they give it to me it will be easy to handle. I have never wanted a bird as a pet, but I am so touched by this that I will probably have a pet bird once we find a place to live in Teustepe. So I would like to introduce all of you to my namesake...Sarita (little Sarah).

Como matar una gallina

After almost a year and half in Nicaragua I can now say I have seen how a chicken is killed and prepared for dinner. We have eaten chicken many times when we visit houses, but the food was always ready for us. I never thought I really had the desire to see the process of how a chicken goes from roaming around the house to being part of the meal, but surprisingly I found it rather interesting. We were staying with a family in a community called Corozo. Marbelys asked me if chicken was okay for lunch and if I was interested in helping her. Her husband killed the chicken by twirling it around very fast; the chicken moved a bit after, but it did not bother me the least. Then you put the chicken in boling water for a mintue to help remove the quills. The quills were easy to remove and low and behold it looks like a chicken we buy in the stores. Then she proceeded to burn some of the little hairs off by holding it over the wood fire. After the hairs have been burned off she cleaned the bird with soap and water. Now starts the butchering; cut the feet off first, then the head, cut open the body and clean it out with water and then remove the stomach and other organs and the last step is to cut the chicken into smaller pieces for cooking. We had fried chicken and a speciality dish (I forgot the name of it) made up of the organs and mint and wrapped in a bannana leaf. Lunch was delicious. Although I may never be able to kill a chicken at least I know how to prepare the chicken.

Summer is here

Well its hard to believe that it is the end of March all ready. We had three different groups come down, so that really sped things up. The first group was just a two day tour of our projects, it was fun but a lot of traveling. The group was down to install a solar panel on a school in a different part of Boaco, so AsoFenix helped them by doing a training for the local technicians. The village was located up some of the worst roads I have seen in Nicaragua, and the four wheel drive on our SUV wasn't working...so needless to say it was an adventure, but we made it back safely.

We just finished up with two other groups. One group was installing biodigesters (which turn cow manure into cooking gas). We didn't have a chance to spend much time with that group because we were leading another group. They installed several biodigesters and also helped raise funds to install 10 in Bramadero and another community nearby.

The group we were with was a group from Lewis and Clark University in Oregon. They came down down to help us begin to understand the social impacts of our projects. The physical impacts are easy to see and measure, but the social are more elusive. For example, we know that having water in each house means that women and children don't have to walk in more to carry it. But what does that mean to their lives and the community in whole? What do they do with the extra time they have and how has this impacted other parts of their lives? We had a great time getting to know people in other communities. We both found that we really enjoy the social aspects of the projects more than the technical side.

This coming week we will have a chance to go on vacation with Sarah's parents. We are going to a beach for a chance to relax. We are very excited about it and looking forward to the rest.

Life Works in Circles

So once again things are changing for us only this time they are circling back to the beginning. We will be looking for a house in Teustepe, where we thought we would live before we arrived. We lived in a village called Bramadero for 5 months during our first year and decided it is better for the community and us if we don't return to living there. The last 8 months we have been living in Managua and working in communities in the Boaco area. MCC prefers to have their workers living in the area they are working in, so we will be looking in Teustepe, which is a town in the Boaco area. We were a little disappointed mainly because we have become accustomed to life in Managua, but in the end it does make more sense. Of course, we are excited about the possibility of having our own house, but not too exicted about the looking process.