Fotos in Nederlands and a few bus stories in English

Happy April Fools’ Day everyone! I have not yet been pranked (or punk’d, whatever it is the cool kids say nowadays), and have reason to believe that I will make it through the day prank-free. Why, you ask? There are two reasons. First, I’m feeling a little bit sick (I’ve officially blamed dehydration and heat stroke because I refuse to blame chocobananos), so my housemates will likely give me a free pass. Secondly, I’m relatively certain that everyone who is not my housemate has never heard of April Fools’ Day. That’s not the only occasion that we “celebrate” in Canada that doesn’t pop up here in Estelí. About a month ago, I was babbling on endlessly to my teacher about the awesomeness of Mardi Gras only to be greeted by a blank stare and what I can only assume were internal, unspoken condemnations of my flamboyant lifestyle. Try explaining the logic behind Mardi Gras to someone who has never heard of it. I think it went something like: “You have to give something up and/or cut back on certain things for Lent so on Mardi Gras, the day before Lent starts, you feast on deliciousness. Lots and lots of deliciousness. You pretty much eat more food on that day than any other day of the year so that you’re too sick of those food items to even want them during Lent. It’s awesome.” My explanation was unsuccessful. What makes this weirder is that the Carnaval in Brazil (which is Mardi Gras, isn’t it?) was a front page news story complete with nipples in the accompanying pictures. The Carnaval woman was very slender, no spare tire there. (That line has been typed only because it serves as a segue into the next story).

Speaking of tires (do you see why that extraneous sentence was necessary?), there were two very exciting tire incidents in the last couple of weeks. First, I was so excited to tell you all about my experience as bus assistant on the ride back from Miraflor that I completely forgot to tell you that one of the bus’ tires exploded about 30 minutes outside of town. Here we were, rumbling down a hill at speeds that should be illegal (and probably are), careening around turns, when all of a sudden, we hear an enormous bang and smoke and dust (as well as the horrendous smell of burnt rubber) rise from the left side of the bus. The sound was incredible. So incredible, in fact, that it made the five foreigners on the bus jump in fright (one of us screamed) and everyone else blink. I don’t think that the chicken lady even moved. This must happen often. Anyways, the bus didn’t stop, so we figured that it was just waiting to get to flat ground. When we got to the flat ground, though, we kept right on rumbling along, apparently content to drive on five tires instead of six (the bus has two tires on each side of the back). Safety is totally over-rated.

In the second tire related incident, I was cooking some supper (pasta and tomato/veggie sauce) when all of a sudden there was an enormous bang outside. Thinking that (1) the apocalypse had come just as our evangelical neighbours have been predicting in their songs or (2) our street, one of the only two-way streets in the central part of Estelí, had finally hosted its first accident, I ran to the door, spatula in hand (to protect me from the apocalypse and/or scrape accident-remnants from our wall). What I saw was even weirder than options 1 and 2. There were children playing, people sitting and chatting, and dogs sleeping. When I asked what had happened (and why there weren’t dead people around), someone said that a bus tire had blown up. No one had even flinched. The bus was gone so apparently it, too, was content cruising along missing a tire.

Bus incident aside, we did still have to eat that night and unfortunately my cookery skills (which I like to think are epic) took a bit of a hit. We had been sitting outside with our neighbour and invited her over for supper. I should have seen her reaction to my food coming because when we told her that we were having pasta and tomato/veggie sauce, her response was “is that all?” Once inside, and with our bowls in front of us, she asked where the vegetables were. Confused, I listed all of the veggies in the sauce: green peppers, red peppers, tomatoes, onions… She then made the bold claim that those aren’t vegetables. I thought that we were going to get into this weird “tomato is actually a fruit” discussion (it is), but was surprised that her definition of vegetable depends on nothing else but the size of a vegetable. Apparently my sauce didn’t have vegetables because it didn’t have “large” vegetables, like plantains, carrots, or cucumber. She didn’t explain to me what exactly my vegetables were defined as, but did assure me that they weren’t vegetables. Also, she didn’t like the pasta. Who doesn’t like pasta? It doesn’t really taste like anything. She will likely not come over for supper again.

This same neighbour, you may remember, is the same person who took my picture in the community centre while I was being artsy and admiring art stuff. She must be completely unable to sleep over this because every time I talk to her, she brings it up. I think that we may have achieved some closure over the meal, though. Trying to explain herself (and not realizing that (1) had she not said anything earlier I would have had no clue that she was the one to take my picture and (2) I don’t really care anymore), she provided me with her rationale on that fateful February day. Apparently, she took my picture because she thought she’d never see me again (a strange ethical standard, but to each his or her own, I suppose). Also, it wasn’t even her camera (it was her friend’s) and she doesn’t have the picture anymore. Also, had she known that I would end up as her neighbour, she totally wouldn’t have taken the picture (rule of thumb, folks. Before doing anything, you should ask yourself: what if this person moves in across the street from me in three weeks?). And with those deep confessions, apparently her conscience (sp?) was cleared. She can sleep soundly once again. Unless she has nightmares about my pasta dish.

That was my last story but I will share that I met someone yesterday named Lesbia. I had to get her to repeat it a few times and still don’t really want to use her name. It was awkward.

I unfortunately have no TED Talk factoid because things have been rather busy and my study breaks have been taken up mostly by Minesweeper. I also don’t have a Yahtzee update, despite playing dozens of games while I was recovering from my heat stroke yesterday (an ongoing process) and despite recently starting to sneak Yahtzee into the washroom. Maybe that’s what made me sick…

I do, however, have pictures for you. Enjoy them heartily. I have included Dutch captions because when I was recently asked to speak French, I found myself physically incapable of doing so (it was scary because it all came out as Spanish). I do not want the same thing to happen to my beloved mother tongue.


Dit is een foto van mij vakantie met Rebecca. Op ons laatste dag bij de Laguna de Apoyo (en meer de in de crater van en volkaan is), waaren wij heel vroeg op ge staan om wat aapen te zoeken. Wij hadden success in dit is de foto van de eerste aap dat wij hebben gezien. Daarna hadden wij nog en paar meer gezien (en gehoord- ze makken ontzetend veel geluid), maar deze eerste was heel spannend! Ons cameras hebben niet zo groot zoom, zo dit has de beste dat wij had kunnen doen.

Dit is de catedraal in de stad van Granada. Het is en heel mooi stad met veel kleuren en dit soort architectuur. Wij hadden de bel toor kunnen klimmen en van daar uit was de uitsicht heel mooi (daar zijn niet veel grote gebouwen zo wij hadden heel ver in ieder richting kunnen kijken).

Rebecca en ik bij een van de volkaanen in Masaya. Deze volkaan in de foto was niet aktief maar daar was een volkaan die heel aktief was (met veel rook en wij hadden gas kunnen ruiken). Rebecca had de eerste dag in Nicaragua net niet genoeg zonnenscherm aan en daarom is haar neus en beetje rood! Masaya, Granada, en de zuid deel van Nicaragua waar wij hadden rond gegaan is veel, veel heeter als Estelí. Als mij project in die stadden was geweest, had ik niet door kunnen gaan!

Ik weet niet de nederlandse woord voor "bat". Maar hier zijn daar en paar.

De bar bij ons hotel in de Laguna de Apoyo. Het was heel leuk (of interesant) om in de meer te zwemmen want niemand weet precies hoe diep die meer is en de water is een beetje warm en ruikt aan sulfur.

De strand in San Juan del Sur. De water was schitterend, de strand was heel mooi, en de zon was heet, maar daar waren steets niet veel mensen in de stad (of in andere plekken in de land). Ik denk dat in een paar jaaren zaal de touriste meer kommen.

Ik had mijself gewoggen dit wiekend en ik heb tussen de 7 en 9 kilos verlooren in de 2.5 maanden dat ik hier ben geweest. Mama dacht dat dit te veel was en dat ik niet gezond was. Zij wilden een foto van mij zien om zeeker te zijn dat ik niet te klein ben. Dit is en foto van mij die op zaterdag was genoomen (in de "communist" bar in Estelí- de kranten op die tafel zijn van de USSR). Ik zie er vrij gezond uit, nee?

Ook en foto van zaterdag, in de stad van Condega. In de "Revolution", hebben de Sandanistas een van de vliegteugen van de "Guardia" (van de dictator Somoza) van de lucht geschooten. Dit is die vliegteug. (Ik heb en andere korte broek aan want ik had in deze broek gezwommen in Condega en die was steets te nat om uit te gaan...)

Wij hadden 10 cent moeten betallen voor dit foto. Dit groote vrouw en kleine man gaan naar en festival.

Dit is ik een boom in Miraflor aan het climmen. Deze boom begint als "roots" de rond en andere boom grooter worden tot dat die origineel boom niet meer kaan leefen. Die boom (die vroeger binnen van de boom in de foto was) kan miet meer leefen en wat over is is alleen dit "hollow" boom, die je bijna helemaal kan climmen. Ik had tien meeter of zo kunnen klimmen.

Deze twee fotos zijn gemaakt met de "macro-zoom" op mij camera. Ik vind dit feature heel leuk in ik gebruik het heel veel. Een beetje te veel, mischien.

Mij paard voor ons dag in Miraflor. Zijn naam was "Mariposa" en zij has een goeie paard tot dat ze een vaan de andere mensen geschoop. Mij knien deeden heel, heel veel pijn naar dit dag want ik denk dat mij "stirrups" een beetje te hoog waaren.