Bosawas

Astounding nature reserve, where indigenous people happen to live,

where other people are closing in on its borders and cutting down trees and more trees.

More to come. 

How to run your farm

 Plant a lot of fruit trees, in seemingly random order

Throw some palm trees in there, especially close to your house

Then bring your Norwegian visitors out between the trees, and astound them by pointing out that every tree is of use and has a fruit on it, and gather guava, mango, some random fruits that look like nothing else, and pick the cashew apples with cashew nuts on them.

This is the farming alternative they are trying to encourage the farmers to do, the old fashioned way of having a little bit of everything. Increasingly, poor farmers in the area are selling off their land to the african palm company at Kukra Hill, or planting just one type of tree, or plant, because they can, or think they can, earn more selling it and then buy their food instead of growing it.

And I wonder whether it's not just me (and some organisations) being romantic, wanting the farmers to live in the past, working only to feed themselves and their families, while I myself "need" money to travel, to buy food, clothes, and equipment. I think the answer must lie somewhere in between.

Just kidding

We're not on Corn Island, we're back in Bluefields since yesterday. We had a discussion about where would be the most practical place to work - and where people would be more likely to work - and ended up just going back to Bluefields. We had plane tickets from Bilwi to Corn Island via Bluefields, so it was easy enough to jump off here, even though it might have been hard to give up the dream of going to a Caribbean island.

Anyways, we're here, where internet is scarce as ever, trying to finish and work on several products at once, as well as being social and having a good time before we leave in a week's time.

This part of the project will then be over, and I doubt we will ever be all nine together in Nicaragua again. We will meet for seminars and planning and arranging talks and activities all this autumn, and of course I hope we'll stay friends, but this, this being together, sleepingeatingworking together will be over very soon.

Ms Suzanny's farm

is a chicken perched in a tree, by Ms Suzanny's farm

We stayed three days by Ms Suzanny's farm. She couldn't come herself because she was ill (and all Rocky Point people have houses in Pearl Lagoon, the town), but we stayed with her daughter Mirla and Mirla's husband Jean. We got to walk far and visit a very strange man who had been in the US Marines far too long, I showed off my coconut milk making skills, Johanne had a fever and then we left. It was very peaceful being there, in the middle of the woods (as per usual), with a slightly younger couple than the others we have stayed with.

Rainy Season

 Started one day, 26th April, ended the same day, 26th April

And there was nothing to do but get everything in and stay inside

The rainy season here is supposed to be between May and December, and it's the "winter" in Nicaragua. Ms Florence kept saying the 15th of May, and she seems to be right. We started with one day of forewarning, the 26th of April. And I am telling you: Rain. It is amazing and astounding and completely unimaginable, how much it's possible to rain in one day, or at once. And this comes from someone who has lived in Falmouth, England. More rain than the most heavy, hard rainfall you can imagine in Falmouth, and we did have some rain there too. I feel bad for the next group coming here, since they will be here between September and December, and get a lot more winter than us.

Turkeys and outdoor showers

 Hello, unfriendly male turkey, you must be looking for

 your wife, hatching eggs all day inside the latrine, keeping us humans company

or maybe you're cross after running into Johanne showering down by the well?

By Ms Florence, we shared our latrine with a massive female turkey trying to hatch her eggs, poor thing. We also had a flimsy curtain in front, looking directly at the house. Our sense of privacy was further challenged by the fact that the bath was the forest - that is, the trees down by the well, not too far from the house either. This is when you learn to trust in people and hope for the best. And it's perfectly fine.

Jack/animals in captivity

 Jack, my dear friend

                                                                     And Johanne's best friend and hair eater

We've seen this so many times: monkeys and parrots in captivity, the birds with their wings clipped and the monkeys on leashes or just short ropes. Jack was caught by Ms Florence or her son, and has been staying at their house at least two months from when he was just a baby monkey. He showed clear notions of distress, constantly running up and down, shying away from both his owners, and aggressively tearing off bits of the cane the house was made of and eating it. Again, I shouldn't be surprised that people don't think about the feelings of animals, but they really don't seem to notice it at all.

GRATULERER MED DAGEN

Norway Day 2012, random person, Ingrid, Christine, me and Xiomara

Today is Norway Day, if anyone had forgotten. And I'll be celebrating it in a minivan with the girls in my group, but also with our coordinators, one of whom doesn't like the nationalism implied in celebrating the constitution day. I'll try to eat some ice cream and cake if I can find it.

Here's a greeting to all Norwegians and friends-of-Norwegians (so that's all of you then): Hurra! Hurra! Hurra!

By the way, on my way

Plans are changing all the time, so now I'll be

14.-16. May: Managua, meetings and more meetings
17.-24. May: North Atlantic Autonomous Region (RAAN) - meetings and more meetings - exciting
24.-30. May: Corn Island hopefully, working and chilling at the same time
1. June: Leaving Bluefields, finished, hopefully going to the Pacific side for some time and then maybe Costa Rica way.

Conclusion: I'll be gone the next two weeks without much internet access (again), so please expect only infrequent updates.

Ms Florence & Don Juan

 The first two weeks of this stay, we were with Ms Florence, her husband Juan and 

 Jack, a monkey they had caught and kept on a leash

 And the most beautiful flower garden at Rocky Point

Here they are: don Juan (89) and Ms Florence (67)

These two are the most amazing couple. They got married when he was 45 and she 23, after he'd followed her to the Atlantic Coast to ask her parents for her hand. They have eleven children, as far as I can remember. Don Juan is a "Spaniard" from the Pacific side of Nicaragua, Ms Florence a creole lady from Rocky Point. He never learned English/Creole English through their 40-odd years of marriage, she speaks a mix of Creole and Spanish, and will just switch over any minute. They both work hard at the farm every day, she wears skirts (and short ones too) no matter what she's doing, chopping, weeding, getting the cows in.

I learned to clean the area around the cocoa trees with machete, ground cocoa beans, and finally, how to cook rice and beans with coconut milk. The new families we've been with now have been amazed at how Johanne and I can grate coconut and make coconut milk, which we've been experts on since we first stayed with Ms Connie. The best thing about this stay was coming back and feeling more at home at Rocky Point - we knew the people, the bus schedules, the small paths through the woods, the cuisine, and it felt like a second home.

Lush

That's all

Will write more cohesively later

Bluefields, boy

Looking pale as always

I'm here again, and it feels like such a short and such a long time since last I was here. We're only staying until very early Tuesday morning, when we leave for Managua, then the Northern Atlantic Autonomous Region (RAAN) to meet more mayangnas (another ethnic group) and visit some mines. Internet is scarce, but I'll try to post some more before I go.

I miss Rocky Point already.

Happy Birthday Henry

My good friend H.

I think I raved too much about this last year, but imagine, without Henry Dunant there would be no Red Cross. There would probably be different charities, just like now, but no Geneva Conventions, no neutral organisations to work in war time... This man, seriously.

Religion

Our second farm stay in Rocky Point back in March was with Seventh Day Adventists. It was a more difficult stay than at the previous farm. Partly because we had very different personalities, partly because of their religion. They don't eat shrimp, don't allow dancing, don't drink caffeine (this also includes black tea, of course), and probably have more rules that we weren't aware of. While their religion has many beliefs, and is very open about discussing the Bible – even in church, they have discussions – the main difference from other adventists, the most obvious from other churches, and what meant most to our hosts is that they keep the Sabbath holy – i.e. Saturday.

I am certain that Seventh Day Adventists are nice people. Even in Rocky Point (which is where I know the most) there are others, more open, more relaxed. But these ended up being specifically provoking, because they were so closed. What they spent their entire Friday night and Saturday – all day- preaching, was the different Bible verses where the ten commandments are mentioned, and putting a lot of emphasis on the word Sabbath – which in the Norwegian Bible, as far as I know, is "resting day".

I'm trying not to write too much about this, since religion can be very difficult. But my main point is this: If your entire church attendance is spent on repeating the ground rule of your religion, I don't think the religion is doing you much good. If all your days are spent praying (0500-0600 am and 0800-0900 pm), when do you get to be a good person, like you are praying for?

But also, this is what I wrote in my notebook when we stayed one night with some other (very nice! Very busy doing good things and not discussing the Sabbath all day long!) Seventh Day Adventists:

A religion that means it's more accepted to make fun of someone with Down's Syndrome than to dance a little – both in front of your mum – can't be a healthy religion.