Day 6 -- Saturday

Linda washing dishes in our small kitchen; woman washing and hanging out our clothes

views on our drive

city square and street scene in Granada

horse-drawn carriage; quiganton in Granada city square

rice, corn, bananas; guide picking mangos that we enjoyed eating

walking through one of the newer houses on coop

Patrick pretending to eat a cicada (just a dead shell, really)

Jewelry and trying to drill hole in bean

dinner at coop on the covered patio

It was raining pretty hard when we got up and had breakfast. We eat at small tables under a covered patio so it was fun to watch the rain. Our breakfasts are simple. Corn flakes or oatmeal, tortillas or pan (if someone has gone to the market early to purchase them), bananas, peanut butter on bread, maybe some string cheese or mango, and always coffee for the adults. We wash the dishes by heating hot water on their small 4-burner stove, then use a soft tub soap on a scrub rag to wash, and add a capful of bleach for the rinse water. We dry and put away immediately so flies don´t congregate-- we also try to keep the food covered at all time because of the multitude of flies. We often leave our dirty clothes for the woman who comes in to do our laundry by using a scrub board and muscle power. We leave one cordova (5 cents) per item. She does an amazing job.

We put on our sunblock and then the insect spray before leaving every day.

This day, though, we are off for our weekend excursion rather than work. The same bus and driver that brought us from the airport to Cuidad Dario picked us up. It is a very comfortable bus. No standing in the back of the pick-up for this 2 hour ride.

It has been such a fun weekend, and we've gotten to see so much more of the country. It is a beautiful country with volcano peaks or rolling green tree-covered hills. We never tire of just watching the scenery, and little villages or activity along the side of the road interspered between the wide open spaces.

On the way to Granada, we stopped at a gas station mini-mart for potty and snacks. It seemed just like the gas station mini-marts in the States with fast food, ATM, coffee, etc. We unloaded at the Granada central square, and were immediately approached by people selling trinkets, or begging. Some of us rented horse-drawn carriages for a city tour to see some of the historic buildings. Granada is the oldest city in Nicaragua and many of the buildings are from a more colonial era. Some of us walked around the streets for shopping. Some of us walked to the lake, which is at one end of the city. Others went shopping or strolling. We saw a guiganton (large puppet-like figure impersonating a Spanish colonial woman) dancing in the square, with small boys playing the drums for the music. Our lunch was at a pizza restuarant -- yes, real pizza!

Then on to the agricultural cooperative where they also have a hostel for visitors. There were 3 bedrooms for 15 of us -- Urania & Patrick were with us. All had mosquito nets. The women got the 2 rooms that had bathrooms; the men got to walk a little distance to the pit toilets and showers.

When we gathered on their porch for our orientation, we noticed all the sounds: cicadas, birds, insects. Then we were welcomed and given an orientation by a beautiful young woman -- her father was one of the first members of the coop. There are 30 farmers who have small plots of land in the cooperative, and each has a house on their land. They have the best looking compost I´ve ever seen, and the soil in all the fields look so very rich. Our guide knocked mangos off a tree for us so we could eat fresh mangos. He also picked various other fruits that we could taste -- one that looked like an eyeball when peeled but the seed inside was good to chew for indigestion, we were told, and Ted seemed to enjoy them the most. Each farmer can decide what to plant. Beans, corn, squash, watermelon, tomatoes were some crops we saw. Our guide currently had watermelon plants, but it is riskier than beans because when they are ripe they have to be sold right away. Beans can dry out and be sold when the market price is good. We ended the tour at a house where the youth have a jewelry-making business. They let us try to use their drill to make holes in the beans or pods, then string them to make our own jewelry. Some purchased the necklaces they had made. Steve brought the lanyards to teach them how to do it, and ended up staying so long that he had a hard time trying to find his way back to the hostel area in the dark. Luckily one of the local children rescued him to help him get back.

We enjoyed the patio and hammocks while waiting for dinner. Lot of sounds. Quite a few bugs, large moths, beetles. (Ted had fun playing with the brownish horn beetle.) The youth squealed when a large moth got in their room. The coop served a dinner of chicken legs in a vegetable broth, rice, beans, tomatos, salad, squash with cheese. Most of us were ready for bed soon after dinner. Patrick ended up having to take one of the young women to a hospital -- she thought she was having a heart attack, but was given something and sent back home. Patrick has so many, many responsibilities. Lots of dog and rooster noises during the night.