Exploración Del Pueblo

Hello all,


This update comes on the heals of another successful week in Santa Maria de San Sebastian de Yali! While building was a bit slower due to unforeseen holdups, it gave us a chance to spend more time in and around the village, and off the work site.

Regarding progress made, we've continued at a steady pace, and though delayed at times, still hope to complete the school in about 4 1/2 weeks. We've completed the walls and framing upon which the roof will be built and the windows installed. The beams which will be used for the roof have been painted, and are ready for the welder and his team, who will take on the majority of the work from here on out. Most of the physical labor is behind us (with the exception of mixing a shocking amount of concrete for the floor and pathway outside the school), and we are looking forward to spending our time adding the finishing touches, exploring the area, and learning more about village culture.


In the little free time we have before or after the workday, we've taken to exploring the hills around Santa Maria, as they offer both incredible views and a brief break from the otherwise permanently curious children and villagers (we love the interest and their curiosity, but sometimes it can be difficult to be on the spot all the time). The landscape is stunning, and quite varied; standing in a single spot, look in one direction, and find yourself in the Scottish highlands, turn 180 degrees and you are looking over a jungle in southeast Asia. While at times it can be difficult to capture on film, the imagery of this place is not something we will soon forget.

As we reported in our last posting, soccer games have become a regular part of our afternoon routine. How we learned of the pitch and the daily games, however, plays more into our recent issues with delays. While discussing that our brick maker, Bismark, was well behind schedule (yes, all the cement blocks are made by hand at the site - approximately 1600), it came to our attention that he didn't like to work after 2pm in the afternoon, and had simply decided that he could leave when he wanted. While this was quite frustrating at the time, it allowed us both to learn of the soccer games (his favorite destination), and get to know the comical character of Bismark a bit better. I've included below John's description, for your enjoyment:


"Brickmaker Bismark on top of the world! he came from another town but we were convinced he was going to stay in Santa Maria. This man made magic happen on the card table, supplementing his wages by winning a fair amount of cordobas and a bike off the villagers, snuck out of work early to hit the soccer field, and was often seen disappearing to the casas of various senoritas in the village. But he left one rainy morning when his work was done without even a goodbye, and never returned. Bismark - hell of a card player and woman chaser, very mediocre block maker"

Further set backs included one day when materials had not arrived, and another when rain finally came during the rainy season. This did allow us to enjoy a friendly futbol match between Santa Maria, and La Rica, a nearby community. We innocently went to spectate, only to have the captains of the two teams ask Evan to referee. After struggling through which rules they expected to have upheld, and trying to identify who was on which team, he was handed a watch and a whistle, and told it would be a regulation length game (45 minute halves). Given the lack of uniforms, sidelines, the presence of horses on the field, etc., this came as a bit of a surprise. Regardless, it was a great deal of fun, with Evan only slightly favoring the Santa Maria Governators (that's not their mascot, nor do they have one, but it might as well be, as I'll explain in a moment), who came out on top with a 4-1 upset victory.


With the rain keeping us from working, we took in a number of American action movies in one of the casas next to the school. They LOVE American action movies, particularly if it was made in the 1980's - early 1990's. One favorite is "American Ninja," though anything with excessive marshall arts is universally prized. This has inspired a preponderance of marshall artists among the village children, and at times adds to the southeast Asian feel. Arnold Schwarzenegger is also a favorite, and many know of his post-Hollywood political success. John came into some trouble, however, when he tried to tell the enthused fans that in the US, we call him the "Governator;" see, the Spanish word for Governor is Gobernador (and v's are pronounced like b's in Spanish, etc.) so essentially rather than telling the kids Arnold is the all mighty Governator since he was the star of Terminator, it translated to "We call Arnold 'The Governor of California'". Joke completely lost in translation.

This last week also saw Evan move into Taylor's home-stay, as Taylor's host family goes to bed earlier, is set apart from the other houses a bit on a small hilltop, and is slightly more removed from the omnipresent farm animals. One lucky night, while up reading, a freakishly large "butterfly" (BIRD) came into the room, as it was attracted to the light, and landed on the Mosquito net above Taylor's head. While interesting and comical in size, Taylor decided to swat the butterfly away, before returning to reading. Turns out this only excited this particular mariposa, which started circling the room at great speed. About this same time, two children from the house returned, and were excited to help get the insect back outside. Evan was thoroughly enjoying music on his iPod, laughing vigorously from the safety of his own cot and mosquito net. as he watched the comical scene of Taylor, Marco, and Jefferson dodge and swat at this three inch bug while it strafed our heads. Suddenly, and without any warning, the enemy found its way inside Evan's sanctuary, and landed about 4 inches from his head. Despite his general athleticism, Evan has never moved this quickly in his life, while screaming at the top of his lungs and jumping up from his cot and out of the mosquito net. We managed to wrestle the butterfly from his new found safe zone, and throw it outside, only to have it buzz back in just before shutting the door multiple times. After about 5 minutes though, we were able to get in enough good punches to slow it down, and for better or for worse, Jefferson saved it from meeting its maker it a rather painful way to their dog, with one good swat from a flip flop. All participants came away from the incident amused (except for the bug, of course), and we found it one more bonding experience that doesn't break down with the language barrier.

As is our routine, we head back north to the village in the morning, and will hopefully return next weekend with only the final coat of paint to add the following week.

Salud,

Taylor, John, y Evan

Trabajo Rapido Es Buen Trabajo

Hello again from Nicaragua,

There is a lot for us to update you on, but we will start with a brief discussion of our progress on the school. Week number two was a very productive week and we nearly finished all of the walls by mid-day on Saturday. Considering that on Monday we started with only one half of one wall, it shows how hard everyone is working to get the children the new school that they deserve. There is rumor that we are on pace to construct our school in record time, and that knowledge is definitely acting as a carrot for everyone when the work gets tough.

To give you a basic description of what the school looks like, think large rectangle about 60 feet by 30 feet that is split into two rooms with separate doors from the outside. The long sides of the school will basically be left open with large windows to provide the students and teachers with a nice airy atmosphere to learn and teach in. As we travel to and from Esteli on the weekends, we have noticed that this is a very typical school design in the region.

Our next week will be mostly spent finishing the last remaining wall and preparing the tops of the walls for the welder to come on Friday to start the roof and windows. Much of the work becomes skilled at this point so we will mainly be painting and mixing concrete. We are looking forward to some shorter work days that will hopefully allow us to explore more of the beautiful hills that surround Santa Maria. We look forward to sharing more pictures of the stunning scenery that we are lucky to look at every day.

In a new breakthrough last week, we were informed that the village has a soccer field and that soccer is played daily at 4:30 in the afternoon. After learning how to get to the field (it is literally over a small hill that boarders Taylor's back yard), we decided to bring our "futbol" skills to the pitch. Much to our dismay, the fellow players were not wearing work pants and some of them were even wearing cleats. The goals were made of bamboo looking wood that was put into pre-dug holes with one of them even including a cross bar. Instead of playing a nice easy small sided game, we were treated to a relatively intense full field game. Lucky for us though, the hard work we are putting in on the construction site is paying off and our lungs only burnt for two hours after the game. It was truly a great time and it was amazing how well we were able to communicate on the field with our teammates even though our Spanish is still a work in progress. It is clearly evident that sports allow people to bond over a common enjoyment even when a language barrier exists. We are already looking forward to the next game on Monday afternoon, and are hoping to bring a couple new soccer balls with us when we return from Esteli. Next up for us will be to work ourselves into one of the baseball games that supposedly happen from time to time. Based on our collective intramural softball careers, we figure that we will just be bad and not completely horrible.

We head back to Santa Maria in the morning and are looking forward to a big week of work. Check back again next weekend for more stories from this great experience.

Cheers,

Evan, John and Taylor