This previous week marked the beginning of our town's month long June festivities. Every area of the country has a designated month-ish period where they celebrate their patron Saint. Our month is July, and our saint is Jacob. Anyways, all the stories and descriptions of the fun to be had as told to us from our fellow Nagaroteños has placed us under intense anticipation.
Last Tuesday was the first of the celebrations and we were sure not to miss it. It turned out that this fiesta was actually not, in fact, celebrating of our own patron saint, Jacob, but saint John instead. For all those not well-acquainted with stories of the Christian saints, including myself, Saint John was beheaded. This is important because the celebration memorialized exactly that aspect of his story.
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"La Carrera de Patos" is the festival whereby our town of Nagarote remembers Saint John. A string is strung across a street at a height of about ten feet. A duck is tied by the feet, upside-down, in the middle of the rope. The neck of the duck is greased. The farmers from the surrounding rural area ride into town on their horses and line up at one end of the street. One at a time the men take turns galloping down the street, reaching up, grabbing the ducks neck, and attempting to tear off its head. This process could last for one attempt, or fifty. I was told that the older the duck is, the more difficult to tear off its head. My observations supported this belief. Once a rider is successful at removing the head, the lucky winner takes off on a sprint around the block, followed in hot pursuit by some of his rivals. When the winner returns he is awarded the duck and a bottle of spirits. Usually one or two more ducks are strung up before the fun is over in that location, whereby the gang moves on to another neighborhood where the event is repeated.
Needless to say, this was quite a mind blowing experience for us to kick off July. I'm not really sure how this could be upstaged. However, everyone assures us that the real good stuff is yet to come. Late July brings horse shows, discotech parties, carnivals, and of course bull riding. More updates and pictures of said events to come.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Friday, June 20, 2008
New Pictures!
Here are a few cute pictures that we wanted to share with you! :)
Baby turtle at Playa Coco.
Alex and his family at San Juan Del Sur!
Me and some of my students celebrating mother's day at a school party!
Yes, I am on a horse.
Beautiful view of the cathedral and Mombacho from Granada.
Baby turtle at Playa Coco.
Alex and his family at San Juan Del Sur!
Me and some of my students celebrating mother's day at a school party!
Yes, I am on a horse.
Beautiful view of the cathedral and Mombacho from Granada. Enjoy the pictures!
June Update
Hello everyone! Yes, we have been bad and have failed to keep a steady update once again. We apologize and we hope this post will curb your craving for some more info.
Alex's Family Visits: Alex's family (parents, Zoe and Ashton) came to visit for about 10 days at the end of May. This time we rented a car so we had a little more freedom to travel about the country. We started our trip at a small beach south of San Juan Del Sur called Playa Coco. We rented a beautiful house and we pretty much had the beach to ourselves. Next, we traveled back to Nagarote to show off our site. After that we headed down to Granada. We went to the Masaya market, spent time at Volcan Mombacho doing the hike and canopy tour, spent the day at the Laguna de Apoyo, and Volcan Masaya (it was very difficult to breath with all of the sulfur). We ended with a final night in Managua. It was a great trip and it was really wonderful to see people from home again. If anything it made us more anxious to go back to the states and see everyone else that we are missing!
Transportation Strike: In May we also suffered from a two-week transportation strike. The bus and taxi owners were fighting for a discount on gas since the prices have sky-rocketed. This meant that we could not leave our site. Like the majority of Nicaraguans we rely on the public transportation system to get around. Fortunately, Nagarote has access to many things such as a supermarket and bank. Other volunteers were stranded in their sites with little access to food or money. Luckily, the government issued discounts to taxi and bus drivers and transportation is back to normal.
Hurricane Alma: This hurricane hit while we were in Granada with Alex's parents. We only noticed a significant amount of rain. It hit the department of Leon fairly hard and many people had roofs ripped off their homes and fallen trees. Luckily the damage was significant but they have predicted about 27 hurricanes/ tropical storms this year.
Work and Schools: We have been VERY busy this month working in our schools and getting secondary projects started. I (Kaitlyn) have completed tree-nurseries and gardens in all of my schools and am now working with teachers to help make their classes more participatory. Alex has started co-teaching with his teachers and has also completed tree-nurseries in all of his schools. He also started a community bank with the teachers in his NERPE. We have both been working with the mayor's office to give enviornmental workshops to the 8th graders at the high-school. This project started out well, and the kids were intelligent and responsive. Unfortunately, as things often do here, this project fell apart when we lost the involvement of the mayor's office environmental commission. We have also worked a little with a local NGO to help educate families that live in rural areas about making family gardens and the importance of nutrition. My volleyball team is still going strong and we are planning an all day volleyball workshop for next week. Lastly, we are participating in a fair this weekend to help raise money for a eco-friendly community center with the local sister-city project Norwalk. Overall, we have experienced both successes and frustrations with our projects so far.
Okay, well I hope this information gives you a better picture of what we have been up to this past month. We are really starting to get into the swing of things and anticipate getting some more projects off the ground soon. In July we have a mid-semester break and I (Kaitlyn) will travel home to the USA for a week and Alex will spend some getting to know more places in Nicaragua, such as Volcan Consiguina. We look forward to hearing from everyone and hopefully I will see some of you when I come home to the states! Nos Vemos.
Alex's Family Visits: Alex's family (parents, Zoe and Ashton) came to visit for about 10 days at the end of May. This time we rented a car so we had a little more freedom to travel about the country. We started our trip at a small beach south of San Juan Del Sur called Playa Coco. We rented a beautiful house and we pretty much had the beach to ourselves. Next, we traveled back to Nagarote to show off our site. After that we headed down to Granada. We went to the Masaya market, spent time at Volcan Mombacho doing the hike and canopy tour, spent the day at the Laguna de Apoyo, and Volcan Masaya (it was very difficult to breath with all of the sulfur). We ended with a final night in Managua. It was a great trip and it was really wonderful to see people from home again. If anything it made us more anxious to go back to the states and see everyone else that we are missing!
Transportation Strike: In May we also suffered from a two-week transportation strike. The bus and taxi owners were fighting for a discount on gas since the prices have sky-rocketed. This meant that we could not leave our site. Like the majority of Nicaraguans we rely on the public transportation system to get around. Fortunately, Nagarote has access to many things such as a supermarket and bank. Other volunteers were stranded in their sites with little access to food or money. Luckily, the government issued discounts to taxi and bus drivers and transportation is back to normal.
Hurricane Alma: This hurricane hit while we were in Granada with Alex's parents. We only noticed a significant amount of rain. It hit the department of Leon fairly hard and many people had roofs ripped off their homes and fallen trees. Luckily the damage was significant but they have predicted about 27 hurricanes/ tropical storms this year.
Work and Schools: We have been VERY busy this month working in our schools and getting secondary projects started. I (Kaitlyn) have completed tree-nurseries and gardens in all of my schools and am now working with teachers to help make their classes more participatory. Alex has started co-teaching with his teachers and has also completed tree-nurseries in all of his schools. He also started a community bank with the teachers in his NERPE. We have both been working with the mayor's office to give enviornmental workshops to the 8th graders at the high-school. This project started out well, and the kids were intelligent and responsive. Unfortunately, as things often do here, this project fell apart when we lost the involvement of the mayor's office environmental commission. We have also worked a little with a local NGO to help educate families that live in rural areas about making family gardens and the importance of nutrition. My volleyball team is still going strong and we are planning an all day volleyball workshop for next week. Lastly, we are participating in a fair this weekend to help raise money for a eco-friendly community center with the local sister-city project Norwalk. Overall, we have experienced both successes and frustrations with our projects so far.
Okay, well I hope this information gives you a better picture of what we have been up to this past month. We are really starting to get into the swing of things and anticipate getting some more projects off the ground soon. In July we have a mid-semester break and I (Kaitlyn) will travel home to the USA for a week and Alex will spend some getting to know more places in Nicaragua, such as Volcan Consiguina. We look forward to hearing from everyone and hopefully I will see some of you when I come home to the states! Nos Vemos.
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