Just When I Thought It Wouldn't Get Any Hotter...

It got hotter...a lot hotter.

Hey all, can you believe its been 8 months!?!  Once again I'm very late with this blog entry but once again I'm going to not write huge blocks of script but rather let the pictures do the talking.

A lot of things have happened in the last few months so it is definitely a good time to catch up.  For starters I'm no longer in my first 3 months of service, which means that I can now move freely around the country and take vacations and such (you should visit).  I also now have a fairly full work schedule and some large scale projects that I'm starting which means writing long proposals to USAID...in Spanish...yikes.

On Traveling

 

Nicaragua is gorgeous.  I can't stress that enough.  I'm afraid I'm starting to become a little desensitized to how many breathtaking views seem to be just about everywhere  The north where I am is mainly mountains with a lot of coffee, beans and corn farms.  Down the pacific coast as you get more central you begin to see a lot more of the Spanish culture in the cities of Leon and Esteli.  Finally to the south on the pacific coast there are a lot of great beaches for surfing and relaxing.  Amongst all this there are volcanoes seemingly clustered everywhere near the middle.  Unfortunately the atlantic coast is a bit unknown to me but I will definitely visit and update.  The following photos are from a trip I took with two of my friends to a coffee plantation known as Tisey near the town of Esteli.

 

One of the Finca Owners at Tisey who happened to be at the top of the mountain we climbed

My friend took a whole bunch of really artsy pictures.

Me looking out over the Mountains at Tisey

More artsy pictures

Bread found in the plantation at Tisey

My friend Alyssa and I posing in front of the entrance

Gorgeous trees

More views from the top

So my friend really did take these pictures...amazing right!  They could be your background pic

Macro focus picture of a fern that my friend Natalie took

More macrofocus of a bug

Another view from the top

More of the amazing trees on the climb up to the top

the three of up at the top

On having a little fun in site (next post will have the pics of sports as well)

I've also been hanging around and exploring my site a lot with my site mates, the following are some pictures from a hike I took with Matt to the top of the big mountain near us.

Matt striking a pose on top of a mountain near Quilali

More beers on top of the mountains

On day to day living

The following are pictures from my day to day life regardless of work.  My house and such.

Clouds very close down over the mountains just after the rain taken from my house

Working with the doctor from one of the local NGO's traveling to rural communities to deliver healthcare

Me and a couple nurses before a big presentation

My host mother Esperanza (left), Tomasa who is about to deliver her second child and Harito (her first child)

The water comes in muddy when it rains...which is all the time

So to not have to bathe in muddy water, we try to collect rainwater when it rains

My room, I was moved in by all the little kids, the floor is really nice!

Emily shelling beans

The garden and my entrance way with the porch

The patio inside the compound

To the north outside my gate, the sky is almost always that pretty

To the south outside my gate

looking into my house

Looking up at Cerro la Gloria, the mountain a lot of pictures are taken from

The main street in town

The exit out of town

The sun starting to set

The entrance to my town with my shadow

The entrace to my street, only the main road is paved

On Birthday Parties

To answer some of the cultural questions the following are pictures from a big birthday party I went to in my training town.  A few things you should remember:

-It's a big party
-It's very religious
-There will be a ranchera singer
-There will be lots of food
-As the birthday person, it is your job to put on the party and make sure people are happy

Going back to my training town for a birthday party, getting ready, chopping veggies for a the meal

Slicing oranges to mix with starfruit, DELICIOUS

remember the small pitbull puppy?  he is big now...still remembers me though

my training town host mother cooking in large quantities

One of the girls getting ready for the party

Setting up the tent and the chairs for the fiesta

More kids getting dolled up

Attractive

the end product on the rice, delicious

we even got a famous ranchera singer entertaining the birthday girl

On Traveling

The following pictures are just a few shots from the transportation to and from my site.

So tilt your head to the left, this picture is taken out of the side of a bus in the roads in which we travel

Matt and I have to often get out and push, or re build the road

Some more mountains on the long ride to an from my site

Still great views
 

Finally a picture of all of us (me, julie and matt) holding harito

So yes, that's in a nutshell my life right now.  What to look forward in the future?


- Work : 10 youth groups, 3 groups of health promoters, working with farmers, working on a USAID grant for large scale project, working at the local hospital, building rooms in local school, building an adolescent clinic, good pics.

-Travel: visiting the other sides of the country, learning new languages, eating new food, snowboarding down a volcano, better pics.

-Fun: more hanging out with my Nicaraguan family, making new Nicaraguan friends, joining the local baseball team (even though I'm probably terrible) and who knows what else, best pics.

Thank you so much for reading!

If you want to keep in touch or have questions/comments/arbitrary statements that you want to send me feel free to email: nish.kishore@gmail.com

I haven't figured out how to respond to comments yet so email might be better.

If you want to call and chat it up my phone number is +50587110910

I hope to hear from all of you!

Nish