Laguna de apoyo - the final week

Well, as of this friday (tomorrow) I will have been at laguna de apoyo for 5 weeks now, and in the country of nicaragua for just about 11 weeks soon. its crazy to think about how some of the things that I´ve done (like going to the east coast, matagalpa and esteli, even leaving from the united states back in may) were months ago. crazy!

As for this last week, we are mostly focusing on working on things such as our final project, an 8-12 page paper about a subject related to the country of nicaragua in some way, whether it be historical, political, economical, social, etc. I am doing my paper about the role of developmental workers from the states who worked in the country of nicargaua during the contra war of the 80s. In a more simplified, less nebulous terms, this basically is saying is that I am writing my final project about how United States citizens worked in the country of Nicargua during the contra war, a war sponsored by the united states government in the 80s, and how these people in the country protested the war, and worked to help improve the situations of the people of Nicargaua durig the time of the war, and those who were affected by the outcome of fighting and war. We also additionally have a village study paper, which we have to write a 5 page paper about the town that we live in, and the history of the area, and the various political social or economic factors that are associated with the place that we live and work. To say that it is a tortorous task for the most part, is an axiomatic statement.

We are heading out to managua tonight, to visit the city and enjoy some night life, and then will be heading back here to finish up with a week of potentially planting trees (assuming that the rain decides not to be too troublesome and interfering with our work) and probably puttering around, hoping to get these projects finsished (which are admitedly quite a pain to do).

On the 29th, the three of us here at Laguna de Apoyo will be heading back to the city of Jinotepe to meet up with the rest of the group (who also will be returning from their various service assignments all over the country), and then we will spend a few days together before flying back to the states on August 2nd.

on the final stretch

welp, we are here on the last 2 weeks of service. that means that it is time to frantically start working on those final projects, and maybe do some work on the village study as well. I mean, being studious is of course, an excellent virtue .

We went out to the jungle this week, and slept out in hammocks under the pouring rain (under plastic of course), and were catching birds and butterflies. we were supposed to also catch bats, but that got rained out during the night. With this project, you catch the animals by putting out a large net, and then taking them out of the net, noting the species, measuring various features of the birds, and then letting them go free. it is basically just a simple system of monitoring what birds are in what area, although I am not entirely sure of the exact nature of the project considering that we are only voluteers who are not really sure what we are doing, and the person in charge of course, speaks a language that I really do not understand

Anyways, we are down to less than 2 weeks, and should be heading home sometime soon in august. Nothing particularly new to report, other than that we are still doing a lot of hiking, and a lot of swimming during the afternoons. There is lot of rain right now, which is a good cure to the lots of heat that was present earlier. Hope to hear from you all sometime soon.

Service is continuing to occur

For those following this, the lack of updates has mostly been based upon the lack of a regular and steady access to the internet ,but so far things have been going well at the biological research station here at laguna de apoyo (for more information about the facility and the area that we are working at, visit this website www.lagunadeapoyonicaragua.com/ )

So far we have mostly been doing work involving working in the compost piles that we have here at the station, recycling the organic food waste and turning it into dirt that can be used for planting trees and stuff. We have recently begun a project that involves moving some trees that have been planted in bags to various locations on the side of the crater. This involves taking the saplings and carrying them up a 25 or 30 minute hike up the side of the crater, which is generally very steep for the majority of the trip up the sides. We also have been doing work at night with a German volunteer who works here with catching and measuring the bats of the laguna, at different locations, and identifying the speices, and measuring various features of the animals, etc. So far the work has been fun, although it is a bit physical at times, but a nice dip in the lake for a swim takes care of that after lunch and that is just dandy.

Host family situations have been good so far. The kids in the community are nice, and altough the facitlities are far different from what you would be used to in the states, let alone in our previous location of Dalores, (we lack things such as running water, have dirt floors, etc) I am really enjoying the location and the commmunity, and really trying to get to understand the people, and enjoy the sort of lifestlye, and living with fewer things etc.

Anyways, we should be getting a service visit one of these days soon from our leaders, so any of you who are watching the goshen blog about this trip to nicaragua should expect to see a few photos and such within the next week or so about our location, along with the rest of the locations of the other students. until then, toodles.