Holy Week

Holy week, the week of Easter, is a big holiday week here in Nicaragua. In fact, many stores and businesses are closed for part of some or all of the week. For the time off people seek out water (beaches, rivers, lakes, pools, and even inflatable kiddy pools). This is a hotter time of the year, so it makes sense finding places to cool off. During the week people also spend time making baked goods, deserts and special dishes.

We spent the beginnig of the week with Ricardo and his family to celebrate Ricardo's birthday. We had a nice dinner at their house and spent time talking.
Later in the week we returned to Asiento Viejo to visit the Reyes. Santo taught me how to make a typical Holy Week desert called Amebar. Seth spent time with Ricardo and his sons building a house. Their eldest son, Ricardito, and his wife are building a house on his dad's land, so they have a home of their own as well as to keep a better eye on the land. Unfortunately, a week ago someone had gone on to their land at night and cut down all of their papaya and banana trees. Making Amebar is made from green papayas, green jocotes and non-ripe mangoes. The fruits are cooked with sugar, sugar cane, cinnamon, and cloves until the consistency is sticky like syrup. It is good, but very sweet.
Later in the week we were supposed to meet up with some friends at a river to go swimming. They were walking from their community and we drove in to the spot on our motorcycle. When we arrived at the spot there were so many people we were not able to find them, so we ended up finding a place to swim further down stream. The place we found was nice and we were the only ones there at the beginning. After spending some time in the water, Yeri, a young girl who lived nearby came up to us and asked us if we would like some arroz con leche (rice pudding). We said yes (it is very common for people in the country side to offer strangers food) and then enjoyed time talking and swimming with her. We found a place we will return to several times before leaving Nicargua.

What Have We Been Up To?

Here are some things we have been doing with AsoFenix since January.

AsoFenix inaugurated a micro-hydro project in the community of El Roblar. The mayor is cutting the ribbon. After the ribbon cutting a women sat down to sew using the electricity. The community provided food for all that came and had quite the party to inaugurate their hard work.
We spent time with a group in the community of Candelaria, where AsoFenix did a water project in 2004. We have done several follow up projects there (pig project, small gardens). We constructed 7 cement wash boards, so the people can use the water from the wash (gray water) to water their gardens.
We have been apart of a couple of community meetings doing base lines. More or less we are gathering information from the community before we do projects in order to have data to compare to after the project is completed and know how the project has changed their lives.
We have also been working with the AsoFenix interns doing projects. We made three improved cook stoves in the community of Potreritos and installed solar panels in individual houses in Poza de la Piedra. An improved cook stove is designed to use less wood because the heat does not escape as easily and there is also a chimney, so the smoke no longer lingers in the kitchen. The stoves are made out of a clay dirt, horse manure and sand mixture. You place the mixture into the mold and pack it down and then add more of the mixture and so on. Once it is drier you cut 4 holes to fit the size of their pots and one for the chimney. The families then need to let it sit 3 days before adding a clay sealant.In between these projects we have also helped plan for future groups and/or interns, visited communities to help maintain relationships, and helped in planning for future projects with Jaime (our AsoFenix boss). We may not always be doing the things we know the most about, but we do enjoy our partner and the work we are doing here.

La Sequia...The Drought

In the area where we work (Teustepe) normally the rainy season is from May/June-October/November. However, we have had a drought since August in an area that is already located in a drier zone. During the summer, December-May, the majority of the leaves fall off the trees, everything turns brown and there are no streams. The communities we work in are all agricultural based, so they only have work in the winter (May/June-October/November). Due to the drought most farmers did not make any money this past year and to make it worse they were unable to store up food for the dry months (summer). So if you don't have enough food saved up and no money because you had no harvest to sell...what do you eat? We know several families that only eat once a day or twice a day but they only have corn tortillas and rice trying to stretch out the food they have until their next harvest. Hearing these stories makes my heart ache because all of my needs are met and how I never worry about if I will have enough food for my family. To add to this when we visit people they always give us food or a drink because that is their culture, but I think to myself save this food or your money for your family, but I can't say that because I would offend them. As you can imagine it is hard to figure out how I can help when there are so many people suffering. One thing the government has done is a work program for food. The may be working on roads or other city buildings and instead of being payed they are given bags of rice, beans, corn for their families.

Bramadero, the community we lived in part of our first year, is having issues with their well...it is drying up. The water project was completed November 2007, when we arrived. This community has struggled more then other communities when it comes to water. Before AsoFenix installed the water system the community had hand dug 18 wells that never filled with water or dried up after one season, so they had to walk 45 minutes to another community for water. Usually, it was women and children that carried the 5 gallon buckets on their heads. Now we are seeing that due to the drought the level of water in the well is dropping. We have had to lower the pump twice, but it takes the pump 4-5 days to fill the 5, 000 gallon tank that feeds the village, so the community only has access to water every 4-5 days. AsoFenix is concerned about whether there will be enough water for the rest of the dry season and looking for funding to dig another well. Since the water level is dropping we have encouraged the other communities we work in to conserve their water to prevent being caught in the same situation.

In fact, the drought has been so bad that it has caught national attention, on the front page of the national newspaper (La Prensa) there was an article of the severity of the situation in Boaco and how Teustepe has been hit the hardest. The drought has been so bad that people's cattle are dying because there is not enough food or water. People do not have enough food and in some cases there is not enough water for drinking. We are now entering the hottest time of the dry season with hopes that the well in Bramadero will not dry up, their will be enough food for families and that the winter begins on time and brings with it plenty of rain.

A Different World

We meet up with Seth's parents in Guatemala for a vacation in January. Seth and I had been to Guatemala 10 years ago, but it was with our study abroad program, so we did not get to do much exploring. Mike and Dee had never been there, so it was an adventure for all of us. We rented a car so that made traveling much easier....we ended up driving a total of 900 miles. Guatemala is the size of New Jersey, which is smaller than Nicaragua.


We started from Guatemala city and headed northeast towards Tikal. We stayed at a nice finca (farm) about two hours south of Tikal, called Finca Ixobel. We had time to hike up a very steep hill called the pyramid, enjoying the scenery and taking a refreshing dip in the lagoon. From there we headed further north to El Remate, located on lake Peten Itza, which was where we based out of to go to Tikal. We did enjoy a cool dip in the lake before we headed to see the Mayan ruins. We spent one late afternoon at Tikal and then got up to see sunrise from the highest temple in the park...however it was too foggy to ever see the sunrise or even a view at all. The temples were fascinating to see and climb, as well as to hear about the Mayan history.

We then headed south towards Flores, an island on lake Peten Itza, that looks like it should belong in Europe. The buildings were tall and close together, something I picture in Europe. We continued heading south towards Coban, which was the starting point for our next adventure. The road to Semuc Champey was a steep, winding dirt road that was a little scarry at times and longer then we anticipated, but it was well worth it. Swimming in the limestone pools was incredible, as well as seeing the forceful river go under ground into a cave, which is what the limestone pools were on top of. We had the opportunity to see our friend, Jenny, from ECHO while we were in Semuc Champey and Coban. it was great to see her and find out how she enjoys living in Guatemala. She is working with Food for the Hungry there and is planning on continuing her work there for as long as needed.


We stayed in a town called Panajachal located at Lake Atitlan. However, there were several towns scattered around the lake, each with their own cultural aspect. There are many Mayan people groups that live throughout Guatemala and there were several different groups living around the lake. The women in the different groups have their own dress that is distinctive to their people group, so one could look at their dress and know what people group they are from (of course we could not). We saw women through out Guatemala in their traditional clothing, but we did not see any men until we went to some of the towns around lake Atitlan. I was so intrigued by the traditional dress of both the men and the women and I think it was because it is so different than Nicaragua.


While at the Lake we hiked in a small natural reserve and Seth and Mike had a little adventure of their own...zip lining. Dee and I actually finished our hike before they reached the bottom. The hike was not very long, but they both also said it was the longest zip line course they had ever done...who would have thought Guatemala would have that. We also took a boat tour of the lake and visited three other towns on the lake where we saw more men dressed in traditional clothing. We of course enjoyed eating breakfast at lake side cafes, the gorgeous sunsets behind the volcanoes and a little shopping.

We also really enjoyed the climate, it was cooler than what we are used to in Nicaragua, so it was a welcomed changed. Guatemala is a beautiful country with so much diversity. It was a wonderful time to spend with Mike and Dee and share a new experience in another country.

The Last of Something

Generally the last of something is enjoyable. Usually when you know it is the last of something you savor the flavor or experience even more. Now that we are in our last year here in Nicaragua we are enjoying the last of many things. For instance, we celebrated our last Christmas and New Year´s here.

We spent our last Christmas in Granada just the two of us. We stayed at a small hotel that had a pool for 3 days. We relaxed, ate amazing food, sang Christmas carols and tried something new this year. Each day we spent time listening to a bible study and then discussed the theme...this was a great way to focus on the birth of Christ. The last three Christmases we have not bought each other gifts and instead used the money to spend time away together. This is a tradition we will carry with us from Nicaragua.

After Christmas we had a group from the United States arrive and were here until January 3. So, we spent New Year´s with the group and we were in the community of Bramadero (where we lived part of the first year). In the countryside there is a peculiar tradition for New Year´s. They make a man out of old clothes and fill him with fire crackers. They call him the man of the old year and at midnight exactly they burn him. It is a symbol of passing from the old year to the new one and a great excuse to use fire crackers. The group stayed up to watch the burning, but unfortunately both Seth and I were unable (too tired) to make it to midnight...we lasted until 10:30 pm, I guess we are old. I did see the video, so it was like I was there. (That is why I don´t have photos to share).

For us this last year is bitter sweet. On one hand it is exciting to think next year we will be home with our families for the Holidays, but on the other hand it means our lives here in Nicaragua will have ended. It is weird to think that all the time and energy we have put into our time here will be over and we will be moving on. It is exciting to think that we will be moving on to a new adventure, but at the same time we don´t want to miss any thing here.