Pictures! But you´ll have to slog through some text to get to them.

I’m pleased to announce that my boredom from a couple of weeks ago is just a faint memory. I’ve had a very busy week with the organization I’m working with, taking all sorts of field trips and attending several of their events. Whenever I get home, I jot down some notes based on what I experienced but, as you may know from reading this blog and/or talking to me, I don’t really “jot down” notes. “Notes” inevitably turn into 6 or 7 page stories that take me hours to type out. One of my summer jobs included typing up meeting minutes which ended up being 20 page stories including descriptive lines like “then person X replied angrily…”. Those minutes were entirely useless. In fairness, though, about a quarter of my typing and note-taking time here is actually time spent playing Solitaire, Minesweeper, Hearts, or (my new love) watching TED Talks. TED Talks are a series of talks from experts in a variety of fields (biology, linguistics, music, etc.) that are available for free on the Internet. Whenever I’m at the Internet café, I try to download a couple to bring home. That way, at least my study breaks are making me slightly wiser instead of polishing my card and/or mine detecting skills (which, if I may say so, are getting quite good). Plus, I can throw cool factoids into my blog: Did you know that “the hardest, solidest, densest rock is really almost entirely empty space”? Don’t ask me to explain it. I don’t get science and each talk is only about 20 minutes. The one thing I did understand is that our brains have not evolved to intuitively understand this factoid. Although I’m pretty sure that Rebecca knows how to explain this empty space weirdness. She has apparently evolved differently…

This posting is mostly dedicated to pictures (scroll down if you don’t feel like reading and are instead in a picture seeing mood), but I have a few observations to share nonetheless. I may one day present these as a TED Talk. How wonderfully “circle of life” would that be? I could be someone else’s unearned study break! Wow. Although these musings don’t really count as “cool factoids” and certainly aren’t making anyone wiser.

I mentioned a few posts back about the English-Spanish mix that you can hear in Estelí. Another amusing dimension of the language phenomenon here is the use of Spanish and English names. Most of the students at the Spanish school where I was studying end up changing their names in some way: I became Vicente, Michael became Miguel, Katherine became Katerina (which sounds more Russian than Spanish, doesn’t it? But I’m biased because I didn’t really like Katherine or Katerina. She thought that every Spanish word she didn’t know meant “orphan”. I’m not joking. We went on a school trip to a preschool and at three different points, she tried to confirm with me that they were talking about “the orphans” (this was a preschool, not an orphanage. Mothers had to drop their kids off in the morning, which would be difficult if a mother was dead). The words that she thought meant orphan were actually “illiteracy”, “small bed”, and “playground”). Back to the names. The reason behind these name changes is just because of some Spanish pronunciations of words, just like I am essentially physically incapable of rolling my r’s or getting the “ll” or “j” sound quite right, there are certain sounds that the majority of Spanish speakers can’t quite make. My favourite aspect of names, however, is English names that have been transformed into Spanish ones. My two favourites are Roger, which becomes Row-Hair, and Bryan, which delightfully becomes almost yelled as Bry-YAN. It’s the same thing that happens to Dutch names in Canada (anyone named Hans (Hands), Klaas (Clause), or Joep (Yop, like the yogurt drink) must feel like Bry-YAN and Row-Hair).

I mentioned in my Dutch blog (which may or may not have come across in the translation) that given the huge number of road accidents that have occurred this month, the transportation police have been out doing random stops on the highway and main street. I don’t know what exactly happens during these stops, but watching the motorcycle stops gives you some idea of the laws and priorities of the police force. Consider the following: A motorcycle is roaring down main street with a man driving, a woman holding onto the man and a couple of bags of groceries, and a child or two smushed between the two adults. The transportation police, spotting something amiss, pulls the motorcycle over. After a brief chat (again, I’m only watching so I don’t know what exactly is said), the motorcycle driver puts on a helmet and drives off, passengers unchanged. Apparently this ride has been made “safer” not by a reduction of speed, not by a reduction of passengers, not by everyone wearing helmets, but by giving the driver of the motorcycle a helmet. In fairness this might cut the number of deaths from 4 to 3, but is that really what they’re going for?

Another example of strange “safe driving” laws? Whenever people in cars see the transportation police, they race to put on their seatbelts. As a passenger in the back seat, I try to do the same (I actually try to do it as soon as I get into the car) but have yet to find a car with seatbelts there. Just like the motorcycle case, it seems as though drivers are worth saving but passengers are entirely expendable. This is particularly unfortunate given that I am always a passenger. Sigh.

I should also note that the safe driving campaign fell on deaf ears for one of the people that drove a group of us to one of the communities, as she adjusted her bra and drove with her knees for about 2 kilometers at 100km/hr. It was quite an adjustment, I guess. She also almost killed about four bicyclists in the city.

The final observation I’d like to include here is about vultures. Not of the avian variety, though, but of the street vendor variety. The placement of vendors selling everything from trading cards to sweets is quite hilarious. They will perch right outside of the entrance to a school and spend all day waiting for school to let out. They sit in the sun for about 8 hours, waiting for about 20 minutes of big business. Some vendors, though, not content to wait for the kids to come out of school on their own accord, try to bait kids to buy candy. One particular vendor, standing outside of a big metal door to a school was tapping on the door with lollipops and, upon hearing something, would throw them over the door and (I assume) wait for money to come flying back. The ice cream sellers are even better. They will stand in one place (often right outside of a school, though sometimes in outrageously remote locations) and for hours upon hours ring their bells. Even after they are well-established (i.e. everyone in a place knows that they are there and no one new has come into the area), the ice cream seller will keep on ringing their bell. It does not end. If I want an ice cream, sir, I will come to you. I only need to hear a single ring of the bell to know that you are around. The 37th minute of bell ringing won’t change my mind.

And now, I present to you my photo-diary entitled: "Untitled Mish-Mash of Photos: A Photo Diary":

To start, may I interest anyone in a trip to the Bull Stank Bar?


My hard-earned diploma, complete with incorrectly spelled name. Sigh. Hopefully future employers still accept this as valid.

Some of Esteli´s murals and graffiti. The first two murals are the ones that are fighting for the title of ¨Vince´s favourite mural".(A close-up of mural #1)

This one must have a slight advantage over mural #1 because a variation of it has become the background of my laptop.

All about the fight for rights. The blue sign in the top left corner is one of the street signs in Estelí. As you can see, there is nothing hidden or obscure about the signs. Why this location is described as "1 block west and 1 block south of that really tall lamp post" instead of 1st avenue and 4th street is beyond me. But I´ve had that discussion already.

In terms of quality photography, this one seems to win. Blue sky, bright colors, clarity. Well done, Vince.

As I´ve said, I quite like the graffiti here as well.

Sandino greeting people who come into Estelí. I stood for several minutes waiting for the wind to swoop up the flag in this picture. You are welcome.


I know that not everyone speaks Spanish, but I wonder if my Canadian readers can spot why this picture is peculiar, and perhaps why Michael Ignatieff looks so pleased with himself...