ooo hey everyone...so, it's been a while. my ac adapter for the macbook is broken so i'm waiting to get a new one from kristen's dad when he comes next week so until then i will be computer-less again for a while...before you start reading i want to let you know that there are TWO really exciting points to this article so I will try to keep them brief, but make sure you make it to the second half...
Part 1
first, this past weekend we went to Esteli...or a little reserve just outside of esteli. We were spoiled by a nice bus to take us to the city, and then put back in our place with the bus we had to take to the hostel...moved at approximately 5mph up a steep rocky mountain..we shuold have walked. At this reserve/cloud forest we had a lot of fun (this time it was everyone but greisy, sarah and xander came). The 5 of us checked into our room and ate lunch. Then we asked what we could do BEFORE dark. Remember that part later. They told us we could go up to the "mirador" (look-out) to watch the sunset. So, we hike up to the top, Lora and I made it up first and the other 3 shortly after. This is also an important fact to remember. We walked aroudn for a while and didn't see anything because it was so cloudy (in the cloud forest...). But it was so nice we hung out for a while. Xander kept warning us it was getting dark so we should head down soon, it was going to take about 15 minutes to get back. HAH. so the trail was really well marked, except at top. Apparently the last part of the trail we didn't even realize wasn't really a trail, but just a grassy area. And, it didn't help that we didn't all come up together. Now, naturally Lora and I think it's hilarious that we keep ending up at this same trail blocked off by barbed wire 4 times and I'm pretty convinced we're in the twilight zone. Kristen is scared, Sarah is just quiet like always, and Xander keeps announcing which way his sense of direction senses we should go. Eventually we make it down, using cell phone lights to guide the way. Thank God we escaped all those headlines...Anyway, we make it down and there's kind of 2 paths to take back to the Inn...the one we're supposed to take, and the other one. It was so dark we didn't even realize when we got to the turn so we ended up taking the wrong one..aka deep deep mud. I lost a shoe in there temporarily and we were all covered in mud by the time we got back. I'm not sure if I'll be bringing my sneakers back to the states but it's Friday now and I think I've finally gotten all the mud out of my clothes at least.
So after we clean off a little we sit down to get a little dessert and drinks. I decided to try coffee because it's supposed to be excellent there. I surprised myself when it was basically black coffee but I actually liked it. Lora told me not to get my hopes up because not all coffee tastes like that. Boy, was she right. Now, I am pretty convinced there was something fishy in that coffee because granted we were in the middle of nowhere in some cabin, but that night the 2 of us could not stop freaking out. I couldn't close my eyes or keep them open because I saw freaky things either way. So I'm having the time of my life lost on top of a mountain but I can't fall asleep because I think someone's trying to break into our room...definitely something in the coffee. The next day we attempted to find a waterfall but settled for a smaller, much closer one. The way back took forever due to limited bus service to our Inn and limited service on Sundays in general. We finally arrived back in Managua but not before meeting another Nicaraguan who spoke English and had several friends on this bus. Jorge's favorite music includes Jack Johnson, RHCP, etc, cool right? And his friend Manuel and Noella (??) rode all the way to Managua with us. The next day we saw them at the printing place in UCA...loveeee how small this country is.
Part 2:
This week has been pretty normal with the exception of one day. We've seen our language partners a lot, had lunch with them, our shower broke, water went out for a few hours, fotografia was canceled with no given reason, still haven't had the Desarrollo test I was supposed to have 3 classes ago, etc. Standard Nica week. Except Tuesday. On Tuesday we are all sitting in Ethics and a whole parade of people dressed in white FSLN shirts walks by the classroom making a lot of noise and handing out flyers. Okay, kinda disruptive, but that's the least we can expect before election week, right? (Their elections are Sunday, November 9...and we've been told there's about a 99% chance there will be no elections the next day and we should just stay in our house...cool) So after class we're having our usual post-ethics chat session since all our Nica friends are in that class with all 6 of us FU kids. We start to hear some really loud cheering. Not entirely unusual because it's not uncommon for there to be loud music playing out of random speakers on the sidewalk, but this was really loud. We decided to take a walk towards the sound and on the way were greeted by our Spanish teacher, Mercedes, who told us we needed to be careful...why you might ask? Because these were not just any FSLN people, they were a crazy faction of Ortega supporters mad at la UCA for publishing results of a survey they conducted about the past elections. I believe they are threatening to take away any of the funding that UCA receives from the government. Apparently this survey was a big deal, and UCA students for and against Ortega joined together to get these people off of their campus with chants like "FUERA FUERA FUERA" /" que se vaya, que se vaya" / "Ortega y Somoza son la misma cosa" (the first to basically mean get out, and the last one Ortega and Somoza are the same thing..Somoza was the president/dictator before the Sandinista Revolution in the 80s.) Eventually there were a few hopeful cheers of, "nicaragua, nicaragua" - Nicas fighting Nicas is sad, the students just wanted to be heard...Even if the students were for Ortega, they did not support this faction because they forcefully entered campus.
Carlos was right up front in the fighting. I think these language partner pairs were done exactly right. A lot of our other Nica friends and some Fairfield people kept being like "Carlos gets mad too easily." I've never seen him mad before Tuesday. I think if you're not going to stand up for what you think is right, then what are you going to stand up for? If you don't fight for what you believe, you're part of the problem. Props to Carlos for speaking his mind. Of course, we already knew he would do that because he's a political activist and will probably actually transfer schools soon to be a politics major (they don't have it at UCA). Anyway, there was some pushing and shoving, some water bottle throwing, and one large chunk of wood thrown that got someone in the head. Other than that, I think any casaulties were avoided. It continued for quite some time and I think we ran into or got a call from every professor / administrator we know at UCA to tell us to be careful. Of course Lora, Greisy and I were watching everything (Marcello was protecting us!) while the others went off into more remote locations of campus for a while. They suspended classes for the rest of the day so the administration could meet (My classes were already done..) After the students finally succeeded in pushing the crazies off campus, who do I run into but Mario Gutierrez (the Sustainable Development teacher). He says hi and asks if I'm okay and I am. Now usually, I try to avoid any further conversation because he is long-winded, but today I wanted answers. For the next probably half hour he proceeded to explain current Nicaraguan politics to us. I'm not going to bore you with details right now (although they are anything but boring) but I'm sure I'll have plenty more to say in the coming days. This upcoming election is for mayor and the result in Managua will make a huge impact on the whole country because Managua is 1/3 of the population. Basically, it comes down to voting for the FSLN candidate where nothing will change and the rift between poor and rich will widen while corruption continues and only FSLN supporters get government help OR voting for the opposition even if you don't compeltely agree with it (the opposition is a party that broke off from the left because they didn't like Ortega and joined the right because they didn't get enough individual votes last election to still be considered an independent party). However, if the opposition gets elected, Ortega will most likely turn a blind eye to any of its concerns and won't given any support and the situation will probably get worse until the 2012 elections (when the people would have a chance to vote Ortega out of office). lose-lose...but I think you all know what I'd do. The rest of this week we've had to show our IDs to get into campus (thank God we finally got them last week!) and all the gates are locked at all times. I'm guessing this will continue until at least a few days post-election.
Part 3
Okay, so I said 2 parts, but this past weekend Carlos went to Guatemala with an oranization called "Un techo para mi pais" (A roof for my country) to build houses with people from Guatemala, El Salvador, Mexico, Chile, Costa Rica and Nica. In a few weeks they're building in Managua and he said we could go! I'm not sure if the other FU kids are going but I definitely am. He said when they were building houses the first day they got to meet the lady who's house they were building. They invited her to eat lunch with them and she said, no, it's okay I'm going to go eat with my children. They insisted saying, "We are all the same people, eat lunch with us." And the woman began to cry. She felt bad that she didn't have something better to offer them, but they didn't want anything else. The next day she had the students over for lunch at her home with her family. It's going to be a challenge for me to have that kind of experience in Spanish, but then again I didn't speak the language at all in the Philippines and I got by just fine (with the help of the kids that spoke English at least..) Anyway, to say the least, that story made me miss the Philippines harddddd core.
MAHAL KO ANG PILIPINAS!!!!!!
ps, HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!
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