Nicaragua January 10th

This was our weekend of...rest and relaxation. I, personally, am rather anxious to start working tomorrow. I am not going crazy, but I'd love to be photographing all the time. Yesterday afternoon, we went to a place on the shore of a volcanic lake, called Craters Edge www.craters-edge.com. It's like a hostel, with a large open air dorm, plus smaller private rooms. The water is 78 degrees, and is slightly sufuric. Tourists get fed breakfast, lunch and dinner (good food, too) and can borrow kayaks or tubes. Massages are an option, and two of the girls had them. The photo above is from our orientation from the owner, Anne, when we arrived last night.

The room that we all slept in was set up like this (above) and had 12 beds. It was basically set into the hillside, and the front "door" was really just a big iron gate with screens on it. It worked! From the top of the resort to the bottom, there were several buildings designed this way, to take advantage of the terrain. Of course, this also meant that if you forgot something in the upper building, and then went to the lake edge, you had to climb all the way back up the many stairs to get back to the top. Suffice to say, I did a lot of climbing. :)

This is one section of the stairs down to the water. You can just barely see the roof of the lower hut. This photo was taken from the 3rd level...there are 4 different levels in all.

The girls at dinner last night...we had fun with long shutter speeds. As we ate dinner, we were kept company by a very entertaining praying mantis. He would flit around to each of us, preen, and provided general comic relief. And then, just as we were finshing dinner, he leapt into the candle flame (you can see them in the photo, that was all we had for light) and died. The poor thing!

The walls of one of the buildings.

One of the two resident cats. He was playful and well socialized. At one point, I overheard a conversation between a guest and Anne. The guest was asking if it was a "nica" cat (from Nicaragua). Most Nica cats are skinny and half dead, perpetually. She laughed and said that it was amazing how different they can look when you, you know, FEED them! And fix them. She's right.

There was a floating dock that the girls swam out to. Inner tubes were popular. The water was pretty choppy...again, it is the windy season. :)

The whole group: Jackie, me, Jessica, Marianne, Nicole, Melissa, Leah, and Kelly on the upper patio area.

After arriving back at the Manna house, several girls joined mark for a yoga class. Mark is here visiting from Thailand...where he has lived for 4 years, teaching yoga.

Nicaragua January 9th

Today, we were taken into Managua for the official "city tour". As you enter the city, and pause at redlights, you are approached by a variety of people. Some, like the one above, clean the windshields of the cars and hope for some kind of payment/reward afterwards. Some are hawking sunglasses, bags of water (yes, bags), cell phone accessories, car parts, and snacks. At some lights, we were surrounded by 3 or 4 different vendors, all clamoring for attention. They are persistent.

The group...listening to Lauren Page explaining something about the political display we were walking thru. A lot of the tour centered on politics- past and present. Nicaragua's government has been though some drastic changes, and the destruction from repeated fighting is apparent everywhere.

Lauren Page...

Lake Managua. It is brown because of pollution. La Chureca, the dump, is on the edge of the lake, out of view. As we stood by the shore talking and having lunch, we could see the smoke from La Chureca's fires (spontaneous combustion) and the loose trash was floating ashore in massive quantities. Because this is the windy season, and the wind was blowing towards the dump, we were spared the overpowering smell of it. We were told that it can be, at times, absolutely nauseating. Seeing as the place we were at is an intended "destination spot" for locals and tourists, with bars, restaurants, and park areas, this must be a bit tough on the businesses there.

Part of a display about Nicaragua's history. These panels were probably meant to be standing upright, but the windy season makes that impossible. So they lean against an angled wall.

The view from a high point in Managua, looking towards the lake.

They have signs for everything. It is possible that if they didn't label this small spot of grass and bushes the "green area" we may have missed it. :)

As we were educated about the coutries politics, one of the things we talked about were the government colors. The current president is Daniel Ortega, and the traditional colors of the Sandanista party have been red (blood) and black (death). A recent marketing campaign has the new colors being...pink, yellow, and blue. (I want to know if their marketing director will survive this one.) As you drive through the city, you are surrounded by red and black- on signs, fences, buildings, lamp posts, everywhere. There is a lot of graffiti as well as planned areas of red and black. I think that it will take a long time for the new colors to really take off...if ever! I mean, decades of red and black- these are strong, powerful, scary colors. The new ones? Kind of a joke, but yet NOT. Things were so freshly painted that you can still see the paint slops all over the grass next to it.

Some stairs from the park area to the lake shore...I like lines, what can I say?

Along the lake shore are several large, cement alligators. I am not sure what they represent, exactly, but also along the shore were several signs that warned people not to get too close, "peligro"! (Danger.) I am fairly certain that they simply mean danger as in "toxic water", not danger- alligators. :)

Nicaragua January 8

We arrived safely in Nicaragua last night, after 12 hours of airport logistics. Good flights, no lost luggage, decent airport food. Who can complain? To think that in just 12 hours, you can be SO far from home! The weather here is warm, and apparently it is the "windy" season. It's a bit dry, apparently they never got the rains in the fall, and are concerned about crops as a result. Sensible concern. The photos you'll see were shot today, unfortunately they are not in order. On some computers, I can arrange them according to how I want to tell the story. With the new laptop (??) I am unable to do this. Dragging and dropping images is apparently a NO GO. SO, if things appear out of order...they are. :) We are staying in Cedro Galan with Manna Project International www.mannaproject.org

Today was for food shopping, the marketplace, and the initial tour of the Bradley House. (Bradley House is the school/clinic where the 4 WSC students will be practicing their Occupational Therapy skills.) The photos above are from the marketplace, which although sustained by locals also caters in a BIG way to the tourist trade. Stall after stall of basically the same items at the same prices. However, one stall in particular caught the eye of the girls...the bag shop. As in alligator bags. One story we heard was about how a volunteer once paid for her entire trip here ($7,000) by buying these bags and selling them back home in the states. Hmmmm. Enterprising individual! The bags aren't remotely appealing to me, but the girls were quite entranced by a few of them.

Leah (from Manna) explains somethig to Nicole, Marianne, and Jessica in the marketplace. I think it was the alligator bag story..

Lots of jewelry, clothes, cigars, mugs, shoes, hammocks and coffee at the marketplace. All I got was coffee...so that I can give it to friends once I am home!

Some of the staff at Bradley House...they have staff meetings on Friday mornings, and that's when we happened to come by for the orientation. Our work starts on Monday...the students will be working at the clinic from 8:30 until 4:30 each day. Our assignment is to help with evaluations for the handicapped children that come there. Next week, 10 new children will be brought for evaluation and therapy, in addition to the 50 children that are already receiving treatment there.

Michelle (far left) explains some things about Bradley House to our group. Each room at the clinic serves a different purpose.

A breakfast meeting, Nicaragua style! Jackie Brennan meets with the 4 Occupational Therapy students (Nicole, Melissa, Marianne, and Jessica) to go over today's agenda.

This is the room we share at the Manna House. We bring the house population up to 16, I think. Good thing the place is so big! Photos of the house from my trip here in 2008 are here: www.pbase.com/erikajake/nicamanna

Jake 1972-2009

My horse, Jake, died recently. He was 37. Some of my friends know that I have had horses, many don't. At one point I had 3, but the one I want to talk about today is Jake. I met Jake when I was 19, and he was 17, and I shared my life with him for 12 years. He was given to the Olsen family, a few miles down the road from me. The Olsens had a horse farm, and one day, Jake was led to their house and handed over to them. He was thin, starving in fact, and looked like hell. All of his ribs showed, his coat was dull and rubbed raw over the bones that jutted out. He had not been cared for in awhile, and the person handing him over fully acknowledged that and asked the Olsens if they'd take him. They did, but in the meantime they had 8 horses in the barn...7 that they owned, and 1 boarder. They didn't need horse number 9. Because I had been dating their son, Ken, and was around all the time, they told me that Jake could be mine if I was willing to care for him. Well, seriously, what 19 year old horse crazy girl would turn that down? And so it began. Jakes first few days were bad. When someone has been hungry as long as he had, their bodies generally do bad things when you start to feed them again. It's like taking folks out of concentration camps and giving them food- they get sick. And so, Jake got very sick. For a few days we thought maybe he'd die, but no. He hung in there, and the Olsens and I spent a few nights taking turns walking him out so that he wouldn't die from colic. (When horses have stomach or digestion problems, they can die from colic because they can't vomit. Horses are big and strong, but really quite delicate creatures, too.) Once we determined that he'd live, and he started to put weight back on, I began to get to know him. It was tricky at first. Besides riding with the Olsens and some lessons as a kid, I really didn't know much about horses. Jake was a bit difficult to ride. I can recall many, many rides that first year that I'd come back to the farm angry or crying, and feeling like I should just give up. I couldn't figure out how to communicate with Jake, and he was a tough bugger when he wanted to be. As the years progressed, I did learn what worked for us, but it was always a bit nerve-wracking to put someone else on him. In retrospect, he was not what I'd call a beginners horse. He wasn't anything fancy or trained, really, but he had his likes and dislikes, and unless you knew how to read him you were probably in for a bad ride. It took years for me to understand him really well.

I rode bareback. At first, I tried all kinds of tack- english, western, hybrid. Different kinds of bits, etc. I finally settled on bareback with a particular bit that had 2 breaks and a long shank. That worked best. But once we figured it all out, that was ALL I needed. I was always much more comfortable (and a better rider as a result) when I had no saddle. It's easier (I think) to read your horse that way, and easier to hold on. And sometimes, you're gonna fall, no matter what. You just learn how to fall...well.

This is Ken on one of his horses, Ebenezer, running with Jake. Note that KEN didn't even need a bridle to ride his horse. I have never seen anyone ride like that boy did.

Learning how to get ON to a horse with no saddle was a trick. I would whine and say that I could just get a leg up from someone, or use a stone wall. Ken and his parents insisted that I learn how to get onto Jake with no help. No wall. No fence. No rock. NOTHING. "Imagine that you are riding alone, in a place with no walls, or rocks, or people. And you fall off. How will you get back on?" they asked. And so I practiced in private, until I got it figured out. It was embarassing! Imagine hurling yourself against a horse, jumping as hard and as high as you can to get not only UP, but OVER. Inevitably, I would fall short. Then, one day, I jumped high enough to make it up- and had so much momentum behind me that I promptly fell right over Jake's OTHER side. :) Oh, the look he gave me!

The Olsens had said that I needed to help out at the barn, and so I did. Every morning I'd be there at 5am, feeding all 9 horses, cleaning stalls, turning them out, and setting up for the next feed. They taught me about riding, tack, feed, anything I needed to know. And we rode constantly, thru all seasons, day or night. Eventually, Ken and I broke up, the Olsens moved away, and I moved Jake to other stables in town. But I was always the one to take care of him every day. Some people may think of horses and ONLY think of riding. I loved everything about horses...the riding, the cleaning, the medical care, baling hay, picking up grain and shavings. The way horses smell is divine. The way they sound, the way the communicate, it's like magic...to this day not a moment goes by that I don't miss Jake and wish I still had horses. I miss them and I miss the routine that surrounds them.

Life went on, I got married in 1999, moved to a farm in Sterling. Jake came of course, and my horse was on the same farm that I lived at! Wow! I could wake up in the morning, look out my window and see Jake looking right back at me. That is my Heaven.I insisted on feeding Jake dinner on my wedding day, in my wedding dress. (Jim and I got married in the barn, on the farm, surrounded by family, friends, horses, chickens, cats, and dogs.)Eventually I bought 2 other horses, Andy and Rosie, because I wanted my step daughters and niece to go riding with me, and having 3 horses sounded like a good idea at the time. It got a little complicated, and I won't go into it, but suffice to say a few years later I moved away, got a divorce, and Jake was the only horse I could keep with me. I am sure you can guess that horses are very expensive pets. They are luxury animals, and all my life I have struggled just to pay bills, really. Within a half year of moving, I was in such dire straits that having even Jake was becoming an obstacle to survival, both monetarily and psychologically. In a strange twist of fate, I ended up giving him back to the woman that had given him to the Olsens. Her life (in shambles at that time) was now straightened out. MY life (once normal) was now in shambles. She took him, and kept him until he needed to be put down within the last few weeks. Once I gave him up, I was never able to see him again. Not because they said I couldn't, but because I simply felt so awful about the whole thing that to see him would have been to hard on me. I had pledged to keep him until the end of his days, and now I was not following thru on that pledge. (Of course, I had also gotten married- BIG pledge- and was now getting...divorced. Talk about guilt.) I was a MESS. I cannot emphasize that enough. I am fairly certain that I was barely functional from 2001 until a few years later. I got a call from a friend the other day, telling me about Jake. He was 37 years old, and his arthritis was so bad they didn't want him to suffer thru another winter, so they opted to have him put down. Better that he be put down by choice, and after much thought, than experience some painful accident or condition, and suffer that way.

Jake, Rosie, and Andy. An interesting group of horses. Such distinct personalities and preferences. It was amazing to watch them all each day, and get to know them.