Since I last wrote, our little garden had two community work days! A group of about five Playa Gigante residents came over to see the property, bring home materials for composting at home, and help plant some tamarind and citrus trees on the plot. Otherwise, things on the finca have slowed down quite a bit. Our companion John is still working hard on creating the foundation of his community center, waking up before sunrise to get out and dig out the plot. When he finishes leveling the land the plan is to lay out old tires and fill them with dirt to serve as a sturdy base for a building. For the rest of the garden, the rain is quite plentiful at this time of the year (it's winter here), so no effort needed just yet. In the meantime, our padre de Nicaragua Ruffino took us on an expedition through the jungle behind our homestead to a remote beach. On top of the Pie de Gigante, surrounded by saguaro-like cacti, jungle vines, and butterflies our group could clearly see all the way to Punta Arenas, Costa Rica. From there, Ruffino took us down a creek that leads to an enclave West of the surfing beaches. There, the boys scraped concha snails from the rocks and speared crabs with Ruffino while Jenny and I watched and searched for rocks and shells. When he tired of prying shells with his machete, Ruffino stood on the rock furthest into the sea, in just galoshes and jean shorts, to fish with a kite string and crab legs. He pulled three wonderful, toothy, leopard-spotted and black fish from the water, the last one causing him to loose his balance and drop his watch. When we could not locate it, he let it go with a laugh, remarking that life is more important than any item. Later that day, mi madre de Nicaragua Maria helped me toast and shell cacao seeds, which I ground in a hand-crank and added to homemade chocolate pudding for the family (Maria's favorite!).
The next day, Jenny helped me learn a bit more about past tense in Spanish, and for dinner Russell cooked up a huge batch of pancakes. The family usually doesn't sit at the table with us while we eat our meals, so it was an incredibly special meal. The pancakes took a while to cook (especially since we were flipping them with a spoon), but that gave us a long time to joke with the family about how much John eats or Eliot marrying Ruffino when he tried on his ring. Even though most of the time there is a language barrier between us and the family, we barely felt it that night. We all went to bed remarking on how it was one of the best days we've had at our little homestead by the jungle.
And then today (it's been so long since the last post because electricity was out from here to Rivas for a day...apparently there are two Nicaraguan electricity companies--del Norte y del Sur...thankfully we have solar :P) I awoke at 5:30am to ride our road bike down the path (more like the rocks, puddles, and creeks) to Hotel Brio to help make breakfast with the chef, Isolina. Of course, it was a bit early for the Brio crowd, so we spent most of our time eating her pork tamale (handmade by her mother) and my oatmeal (from a bag), drinking coffee, talking about life, and listening to Mexican music videos. Past that, it was just another day in the life...cooking with Maria, reading, making jewelry out of shells and rocks, then a lovely meal at el Pie de Gigante of bruscetta and hummus...then internet, as a good gringa. Lovely place, lovely people, lovely pastimes; there is nothing bad to say about our Playa Gigante but the mosquito bites which consistently ring my ankles.
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