propensities on a rainy day

Song of the day: "Someone Like You" by Adele. This artist amazes me. She is in my top 5, for sure (with Sara Bareilles, as of right now the Civil Wars, the Script and Brooke Fraser). Also, she is absolutely beautiful, which makes me so happy because she is not a 'off a magazine cover' singer. I so appreciate it.

Things that are filling my mind at this moment:

• tomorrow is exactly halfway through this trip - I am unspeakably sad and happy at the same time.
• loneliness - frankly, I feel like the people here are a family of sorts, but I find that it is still possible to feel disconnected from people who I otherwise would see every day and my family. 
• a good friend of my attempted to take his life a few weeks ago and even though I know it isn't true, I really have trouble not wondering if it would be different if I were there. 
• I am learning so much. Words on a blog cannot describe how much impact the trip to Nicaragua and subsequent IDS 301 and CORE 350 courses have had on my view of the world and large organizations/governments in it. 
• If you want to hear more about Nicaragua, go ahead and send me an email and we can connect via Skype. I would be very willing to talk to you about it. 
• I came back feeling like I needed to change policy, but had a wonderful lecture from a Bolivian and Colombian about making change on a small level and how small level changes eventually have effect on larger, more powerful groups. It was based on Matthew 13:33 - a woman, one of the lowest in society, makes great change (to 60 lb of flour) using only a handful of yeast. Where can I be that handful?
• My eyes hurts. I hopefully will get in to a doctor tomorrow - pray for healing. I'm having trouble seeing.
• I would like to look for jobs in the following US cities: Minneapolis and Boston. If you happen to know of any, please let me know.

Now, I will leave you with pictures of Nicaragua :) - more are on facebook!

 Lago Managua and a volcano - this lake was contaminated years ago and only now is being cleaned up; a process that will take a very long time. You cannot use the water to bathe, to fish in, basically for anything. 

 First thing I saw when getting off the bus in León. Yes, offensive. If you don't understand the roots of it - try and look into them. Research the Contra war, even just wikipedia it. It might broaden your perspective.

 A church in León

 Eco Tourism is becoming huge in Central America - Nicaragua is following Costa Rica's lead. 

 On top of the main Cathedral in León

 To the left (on the roof still) are about 3 more volcanoes. Nicaragua is home to I believe 19 of them. 

 The main cathedral in León from the room of a building across the street

The roof of the war museum - we walked on that.

 This is up where Samoza used to have his base that overlooked Nicaragua. And all the wonderful people again. 

 The Cathedral in historic downtown Managua - if you look closely, it still has not been repaired from the 1972 earthquake that leveled basically the entire downtown. 

 We went to Matagalpa and got to visit coffee plantations!

 mmmmm! Café!

 This is the process where they pit the cherries, as the fruit are called.

 Hammock's at the hostel in Matagalpa

 The third cross to be placed on this exact spot on the Volcán Masaya; "La cruz de bobadilla". The first was placed by the conquistadoras when they were taking over; it was placed there in order to exorcise the devil which they believed was there because of the volcanic activity. Local folklore (thanks wikipedia): The volcano is the gateway to hell. 

 Jump picture on a volcano. Yep. 

There's lava down there. 

Matagalpa

I am halfway through my time in Nicaragua today and it is difficult for me to describe just how much I have been learning. In Managua, we have studied by textbook, discussion and museum/site visits as well as visiting the historical downtown destroyed in 1972. Our first day in Nicaragua, we went to la chureca, a dump where much of the waste from Managua and surrounding areas is dumped. The people living there have made their living by elway of collecting recyclables. In Leon, we also learned a lot about the war. More extensive details will come. Right now I am on an iPod so look for a longer, more thought through reflection in a week or so. I will say, though, that the US has caused a lot of irreparable harm to Latin America. If you don't know about the Nicaraguan war for independence from the samosa dictatorship and than the american-funded contra wars, I would recommend reading about it on wikipedia or something. Today and tomorrow we are in matagalpa, learning more about life in the campo and also production of different products. Today we went to a coffee plantation and had the chance to talk to a group of producers who have come together to forma co-op. It was especially in light of my internship and it gave me more of an understanding of where the coffee comes from. These farmers are not wealthy. One bad harvest can severely hurt their business and even destroy their livelihood, or that of the entire community, especially when farmers are part of a co-op; depending on each other. That's it so far! Taro processing tomorrow!

To Nicaragua!

First a few things:
-I am 95% sure I have a tick on my scalp. It is gross. I need to find someone to help me get it off.
-Yesterday I hiked, it was fun! (probably source of the tick) We also got to come down in a drenching rain.
-I see Hyundai Gallopers EVERYWHERE (just like Riyadh?)
-I also played frisbee the other day while visiting Lynne at her school. Me and frisbee, right? Needless to say, I had a sweet slide in to catch one and got very muddy. Pictures maybe to come.
-These are hiking pictures:

 props to sara for this one. (Took it for you, dad)

 The tropical wadi (I can't think of the term) we walked up and slid down. 

 You cannot tell in this picture, but this leave on the fern is bigger than me. 

 Jump pictures. We are pro. 

That blob of buildings right there? That is campus.

And here is a thought:

Honking in this part of the world has the same kind of connotations as the word terrorism now holds: absolutely nothing. Okay, not quite, but it was a strange parallel I thought of on the bus today. People honk here to greet someone they know driving the other direction, to warn pedestrians that they will not stop, to express frustration. Basically, people just ignore the honking, to be quite honest. You learn to drown it out. Terrorism doesn't really mean anything anymore. It's a word that is used to instill fear, but I don't really think it even does that anymore. When a word has a certain connotation that is widely used, it looses it's meaning. For instance 'awesome' or 'fantastic' - two words that are no longer considered as descriptive as they once were. I would encourage people to avoid making the word terrorism pull up the image of a Muslim or Arab in their mind - the two do not directly connotate. There are plenty of Christian terrorists in present day and history as well. Point = not all Arabs are terrorists. They are oftentimes kind people who have stories just like anyone else. Piece said. Now, Spanish test to finish and packing to do (Nicaragua on Wednesday!).