Some favorite pictures for you all :)

And for the finale

After a final, long ride on the chicken busses back to Playa Gigante, I spent my last night and day catching up with the family and saying good-bye to Isolina (while procuring her address and recipes for Nacatamales and chocolate horchata). The morning of our departure, our Nicaraguan brother Maximo came to wake us up before he went to school. It was a little disheartening for me since I felt that I didn't say a proper good-bye, but thankfully we left just after he returned from school later in the afternoon. We spent the morning packing and talking with Anner, and then Maria made us a magnificent lunch (of which I have a picture....I'll post it later). We joked around with the family for a while, and when it came time to leave (our friend Omar was driving us), we took multitude of pictures, Maria gave me a beautiful purple necklace, and Maximo gave me his Popoyo Surf Zone bracelet. It started raining just as we began carrying our things to the car, so goodbyes became a little rushed. But the family was emphatic in their goodbyes, and Rufino's eyes were brimming in tears, it nearly tore my heart apart. Stayed the night in Rivas, and on the bus into Costa Rica for the flight, the woman from Leon named Brenda sitting next to me basically adopted me, feeding me, helping me understand the intercom messages, and showing me pictures of her family. And now just sitting at the hostel, eating oatmeal and drinking tea with rosquillos (little crunchy corn, cheese, and butter rings) that Brenda gave me. The trip is at an end, but I certainly have much to chew over, so now that I'm coming home I'm sure different details will come out in my conversations. My next post should be pictures and recipes collected in the trip, stay tuned!

Las días de nuestros vidas...

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.

gettin 'er done

We finished the pathways to the garden today! This is a big deal since that means tomorrow we plant. And some time from now, delicious vegetables will ensue! Trust me, I will post pictures up as soon as I have them. For now, I am using a borrowed computer.

Otherwise, just cooking and making friends. My Nicaraguan mother Maria teaches me how to make the most amazing food. Today we had a feast of conch ceviche, spiced pork, snail rice, fried sweet plantains, bread, and strawberry kool-aid. We also made a friend with the woman who works in the kitchen at a local hotel, and she's teaching me a lot of Spanish vocabulary. We'll be coming to help her in the kitchen. She's also part of a minor-league baseball team, which we'll be playing with! They certainly love their baseball here. In all, besides all the mosquito bites, all is fantastic. Hasta!

Still alive!

My body has now almost recovered from the first week! My legs are certainly a sight to behold with all the mosquito bites and cuts, but my blisters are healed, which means that I may once again hold a machete! Through a wonderful group effort, we all finished clearing the land for the garden. Now we just need to outline the plots and hold a work day with the community for preparing the plots. We've got a lot of great soil (from our vermiculture bins) and a new compost bin which we are filling up as we go along. Otherwise, we've busied ourselved making a brick oven (on which we have cooked dinner these past two nights...I am learning to master Nicaraguan cooking from mi madre Maria, so good!). Learning to wash clothes by hand with an old-school style washboard. It's fun, but I feel I will have a new respect for electric washers and dryers when I return. And showers. We won't even talk about the state of my hair.
Otherwise, still chugging along with my Spanish...my conversations have progressed to Spanglish! Part of this is due to the awesome group I have with me. We speak and teach Spanish to each other. Still loving my little homestead in the jungle, it's a rewarding lifestyle, especially for hippies like me.

Adventura y cumpleanos

Hola all! In my last blog I forgot to mention that I ate iguana. It tastes like very dry chicken. Mmmm.

Anyway, it was our amigo John's birthday today, so we headed with Maximo to Popoyo yesterday to get him some pizza and enjoy the beach after working hard. Got to ride on the back of a truck the whole way in the pouring rain, it was fantastic.
Today...we woke up, had amazing huevos rancheros (sooo stuffed), then headed onto a 5 hour hike back to a bus stop to get back to Playa Gigante. I suffered a bit of sunburn, some scratches, and a nasty cut on my foot, but the views of the Nicaraguan coast....breathtaking. The shale rock and seashells, the tide crashing, and the black volcanic sand totally made the hike. Now I just need to sleep for the night, and hopefully I will be functional tomorrow, the blisters on my hand have healed in time for my legs to be in deep trouble. But it's okay, I'm making up for all the lack of excersize during school.

Well, the plane landed

So I am here in Rivas, Nicaragua! We are staying in a gorgeous hostel named Lidia, and in between errands we are getting piña, mangoes, y postres...muy delicioso! My Spanish is already being challenged being here, we´ll see how I hold up. We are fixing to take a taxi into Playa Gigante tomorrow to start the dirty work. For now, though, just enjoying the beautiful (and hot...) Nicaragua sunshine.

Welcome to KT's Travel Blog! (I'll think of a more creative name later)

As some of you may know, I am very bad about maintaining long-distance communication. So, I'd like to provide an all-encompassing account for you all to follow. Please please please email me with comments and conversations, I don't want this to be a one way thing! I'm at ktehrlich@gmail.com.

THE TRAVEL MENU:

First up: Playa Gigante, Nicaragua. June 21st-August 6th.

DU Geography Professor Matthew Taylor began this as a sister project to his work with DU in Guatemala (http://www.geography.du.edu/taylor/Site/home.html). Basically, this particular trip is a student-led project, and our group will be using DU research grants to create a fully functional and sustainable organic garden and nearby structures. The premise of the project is giving back to the local fishing community by generating produce and income. The locals paid a small fee for ownership of part of the garden, and they are to be an integral part of the formulation of our project and the work we do.

I am not sure how often I will have internet while I am there, but I will take every opportunity to communicate here and on email.

I will also be quite safe. I am with a group of DU students and graduates that I completely trust, and we are not the first group of students to work on this garden. Taylor and volunteer students have been working on this project for nearly a year now. The community knows Taylor and DU, as well as a couple students coming with us, and they are very warm and welcoming.

I expect this to be an immense learning experience for me. I will get to experience hands-on the concepts I have been learning about in classes like Ecology, Feeding the World, and Peacebuilding. I want to be able to incorporate myself into the local culture as much as possible by speaking Spanish and spending time with community residents. I think that is the part I am most excited about. Should be amazing!



Second up: Nanzan University, Nagoya, Japan. August 27th-May.

My Junior/Senior year will be spent in--that's right--Japan!

Nanzan University started as a Christian Missionary school, and eventually evolved into a well-known and respected international learning institution (http://www.nanzan-u.ac.jp/). I will be travelling with the Institute for International Education of Students (IES Abroad). Basically, they connected me with Nanzan and help me organize all my paperwork.

This trip is particularly significant, because ever since my family hosted our first Japanese exchange student I have been in love with the country, and all aspects therein. I don't think there is any place that I have wanted to go as badly as Japan. Serendip had it that my high school taught the only public school Japanese language program in the county, so I of course took advantage of it. I learned under the fantastic guidance of my teachers Scott Harguth and Atsuko Frederick for 4 years. But in college, figuring I would without doubt study abroad in Japan, I learned Chinese and Spanish instead. And traveled many places, none of them Japan. Finally Japan is tangible, and that is in the form of Nanzan University!

I applied to a home-stay option, but I don't hear about that until August. What I do know is I will be taking intensive Japanese courses the whole time. My courses taught in Japanese will include those on Japanese literature, teaching English as a foreign language, and various art courses. My English-taught courses for my International Studies major will be Japanese Economy, Japanese Foreign Policy, Japanese Politics, Political and Social Issues of Japan, Asia and Japan in American Foreign Relations, and Japanese Religions. I want to participate in clubs, language learning partners, and volunteerism as well.

But the food. The foooood. That will certainly be one of my favorites.

Japan will be foodie heaven. You will hear much about food.


Basically as the details roll in I will write about them. Watch my blog!!

Hooray for Google Maps!