Happy Easter?

Easter is a surprising vague concept here in Nicaragua.  As a country that is overwhelmingly Christian (80+%), Easter frankly doesn’t seem to exist.  Instead, the emphasis of the holiday seems to be put on “Holy Friday”.  As I mentioned last year, it is a national holiday celebrated with parades.  The tone is much less somber than the USA’s Good Friday – people are happy that Jesus died for them.  Therefore, I guess it makes the celebration of Easter unnecessary?  I’ve said feliz Pascua and como paso su Pascua to people and have generally received blank stares leading me to believe that many people are completely unfamiliar with the concept.

Anywho, happy Easter!

Water quality results

So the fancy-pants laboratory finished the analysis of the water quality for the well that we’re digging.  And… it’s inconclusive.  The minerals, vitamins and other physical properties of the water are in great shape.  Unfortunately, they did detect trace amounts of bacteria like E coli.  So my new assignment in all of this is to become a scientist and figure out what our options are.  It looks like I going to have to meet with the national water provider (ENACAL) to see how they treat the water, the Ministry of Health to find out what the parameters are and an organization call SILAIS (no clue what they do).  In my not-quite-yet profession opinion, I believe we can chlorate the water at the source and then boil and/or filter it before human consumption.  While this does sound like a pain, I just need to remember that their current access to water is a contaminated river so this will be a noticeable improvement.

Anyway, Washington is sending me the check to continue the project!  I’m going to buy another thousand bricks and a couple bags of cement tomorrow.

PR Campaign

It being part of my job to educate Americans on life that I live in Nicaragua, I started spamming my story out to various interested parties.  Thanks to Editor Donna and PR wizard Michelle, a couple stories are beginning to stick!  Feel free to read it here!

Nica Trip 5

(Michelle) For those of you loyal readers of Pete’s blog, you’ll notice he’s been slacking. In an effort to make him put up his first post in almost a MONTH (tsk, tsk Pedro!!), here are our top highlights from Michelle’s Nica trip 5: 
·         (P) We made base camp in San Juan del Sur, the only place in Nicaragua that may have a higher population of “whiteys” than host country nationals.  Our hotel was OK.  It only had a pool, oceanside view and bath robes – typical amenities of the Peace Corps life.

·         (M) Ziplining! Thanks to my fear of heights, we were both pretty sure Pete was going to have to push me off the platform(s). Maybe it was the fact that the 7- and 9-year olds in our group went fearlessly before me, but I did a-ok (and even (sort of) enjoyed it!). The views were amazing; we saw howler monkeys and I didn’t cry on top of a mountain…success

Pete and Michelle about to fly through the forest

·         (P) AND THE FOOD!  I have traveled to San Juan del Sur before but unfortunately it was on my government stipend which meant I ate street tacos for all 6 meals.  Michelle and I ate chicken vegetable curry, supreme pizza, steak topped with gorgonzola cheese and burgers large enough to feed my entire community back home.

·         (M) On Saturday night we went to a massive beach party thrown by the local government. There was live music, dancing, starlight and 60 cent beers…yep, it was pretty much the best night of my life.

·         (P) St. Patty’s Day: After a morning by the pool Michelle and I wandered past “The Irish House” (real name look it up).  After nearly 2 years of drinking nothing but Tona and Victoria, it was wonderful to have a Guinness (or two) in the early afternoon.  The owner loved us and our apparel and bought us a round for being such festive patrons.

  
(M) In conclusion? It was a GREAT trip, and a fantastic way to end 1.5 years of traveling to see my cool novio. I head back tomorrow, though, so I guess it’s officially time to start counting down until his FINAL, FOR-GOOD return to the States…in (approximately) 130 days!!!!