Sky high

Alright, this one was too good not to share, but I'm gonna have make it quick... There are 2 types of wind turbines used by blueEnergy, tilt up and ladder-style (not the technical names). Anyway, one of them you service by tilting the entire pole down to the ground and doing repairs there. The other, you climb 100ft into the air and lower the turbine down. The second type was getting serviced yesterday, which sparked a burning desire to hike up the tower and get a good look around. So, after half jokingly suggesting that I'd like to climb up, Stephanie and I found ourselves strapped into harnesses and slowly making my way up the metal framework to the swaying platform above. Despite the rather incredulous stares from the workshop boys, we made it all the way up and thoroughly enjoyed the view. Being that high up offered a stunning panorama of all of Bluefields, the Corn Islands and more. Quite a treat for a Friday afternoon.

Nueva Oficina

The past week was a whirlwind of sawdust, paint chips, cement and gravel. Over the course of 9 days, including a marathon workday on Sunday til 12:30am, we (the workers and various volunteers) managed to transform a rundown, hornet infested and filthy classroom into a pristine new office and conference room. We even completed a full kitchenette and bathroom along with all new grates over the windows and doors (welded into the reinforced concrete structure) and all new furniture. The Desks in particular were an interesting challenge. After starting with the conference tables and discovering that it's impossible to buy dry wood here, I had to completely re-design every component to be made entirely out of plywood. Hence, the desks were each designed to use exactly one 4'x 8' sheet of plywood without any wasted cuts. In addition, they were designed to be transportable and therefore come apart into 2 pieces. Anyway, this is all a much longer story, but I'm way behind on everything else, so I'll let a few pictures speak for themselves. Enjoy!

Here's what it looked like before we got started:






And here's where we're at today:

Beautiful Day

Yesterday was a wonderful experience, it had just a little bit of everything and not too much of anything. The day started with a little home improvement project of building a spice rack for the kitchen. This is something that has been on my mind since the first night I cooked here. Up until yesterday, if you wanted to use any spices, you had to lean all the way over the stove (which was usually on by the time you remembered you needed spices), and struggle to reach the tantilizing jars that stayed mysteriously just beyond your reach, often necessitating the use of a large ladle or other object to extend your reach. Having decided to take the day off from working since I didn't get much of a break last week, Julie and I opted to attempt to remedy the spice situation.

It was lovely morning of interminable rain that turned the ground to mud and brought the temperature down to a reasonable level. As Julie and I sat around sanding our wood I watched our neighbor cut her grass with a machete in the pouring rain, completely unperturbed by the fact that she was drenched to the bone. After laborously hacking through a board with a handsaw only to end up with a crooked, slanting edge, we opted to swallow our collective pride and go ask the construction workers over at G's house to do a couple quick cuts with the circular saw. This was a fun little adventure since it meant running across the mud soaked yard, dodging the laundry that was getting a second rinse in the rain, and attempting to elegantly slide down the slick, wet slope that led to G's front porch. By the second go round, we had already ditched our shoes and were making no pretenses to stay dry. Since it was still a warm day, there was little to be concerned with and we had a ball running back and forth for tools and borrowed supplies.

A few hours later, we were just putting on the finishing touches and getting ready to mount our new creation in it's resting place above the stove when the lights went out and we had to halt work on account of there being no electricity to power our drill. Luckily, it was just about lunchtime anyway, so we took a break, had some food and waited for the power to come back on. It's really kind of interesting because, unlike power cuts in the States, life just goes on when the lights go out. People keep cooking, flashlights are turned on, and most things continue as normal. We even have a backup battery bank for the office, so those who choose to can continue working as long as the power's not out for too long. In any case, as soon as the power was up and running again, at least an hour after it cut out, we climbed up on the counters and put our masterpiece in place. It wasn't quite a perfect fit, but it works wonders and looks relatively pleasing. =) All in all, not a bad way to spend the morning.

In the afternoon, Lynn baked a fabulous chocolate cake with homemade chocolate icing and she, David, Julie and I set out across town to deliver the birthday surprise to a friend of Julie's. We piled in to the cab, picked up some strawberry icecream and made our way all the way across town to 'Loma Fresca' or the 'cool hill' neighborhood for the English speakers in the crowd. After negotiating a price to be driven all the way down the rutted dirt path that leads to the nicest homes in town, we were happily bouncing along with icecream and cake in hand. When we arrived, I was thrilled to see that the home we were to go relax in for a bit was a beautiful wooden structure raised on stilts. As we were ushered in and up the stairs, we found ourselves on a gorgeous covered veranda overlooking the calm, gray lagoon. We passed a few delightful hours eating sweets, chatting and staring out across the steel gray water through a mist of fine rain. As the storms subsided, we watched tiny fishing boats and 2 man pangas (dugout canoes) make their way out across the bay. For the first time since the boat ride into Bluefields, I also got to see a bit of wildlife. There was a regal little egret who strutted around just below the deck, a pair of finches with bright yellow breasts and a chorus of other birds. For the first time in a long while, we were able to enjoy the sounds of nature without the blaring of taxis, barking of dogs and chorus of other noises that are the background to nearly every day.

Refreshed and happy, we said our goodbyes and wound our way back to casa blueEnergy. When we arrived, we were greeted by Guillaume who had just returned from Managua with Christian, a former volunteer who has returned for a few months of work, and Phillip, a former student of his who has come down to help out for a short time. With the whole family home complete with new additions, it was time for a trip to the corner store for beer and flor de caña to start off the night. We passed a few hours chatting while dinner was in the oven and then moved over to the table for slightly more serious discussions. As soon as the food was gone, and the precious wine (which we can't buy here) had been drunk, Guillaume took the opportunity to fill us all in on a myriad of new and old developments that will reshape many of our projects and directions in the near future.

Thoroughly saturated with information, most people drifted off to bed, but a few hearty survivors, myself included, decided that such a serious discussion could only be followed by a night at Four Brothers. Rallying the troupes, we squashed into a taxi and headed off for a night of dancing.

Hours later and happily exhausted, we made our way home and I fell into bed happy with the fullness of the day.

Change of Pace

Since coming back to Bluefields life has taken on something resembling a routine. My project for the week has been to organize (aka 'do' in this country) cleaning out an unused INATEC classroom and converting it to an office for blueEnergy. This would at first glance appear to be a simple task, but as I am quickly discovering, nothing is ever simple. That said, it has been a relatively painless process to date and we are progressing much faster then I dared to hope.

The first major obstacle in beginning our renovation was to acquire a key to the room in question. This entailed meeting with the director of the IPCC campus (who is notoriously useless and loves to drag his feet). Our meeting was no exception to his general demeanor. First, he was "in a meeting" all day for 2 days and completely inaccessable. Then he tried to claim that they needed the room for some sort of administrative training sometime in the future, despite having received orders from the head of INATEC to grant us access. Once we got over that argument, he claimed there wasn't a single other locking room on campus where he could store the (unused) typewriters that currently lived in said room and we would have to wait until Guillaume got back on the weekend to discuss storing them. Though not a perfect solution, I managed to divert this argument by feigning fear of my boss's anger and offering to store the typewriters in the adjoining closet until G's return. Only 2 and a half days after we were supposed to start work on the room, I finally had the key in hand! Quite the achievement for Bluefields!

The next step was to empty out all the desks and typewriters and move them to the small closet next door. This was relatively easy until we discovered the plethora of hornets nests that adorned most of the windows and a few of the lights. At first, we managed to work in relative harmony until the stacks of desks begin encroaching upon the hornet's territory. At that point, in a momentary lapse of attention, I reached up to push a desk aside and immediately yelped in pain. Hopping down and running out the door with a sharp pain in my hand, I cursed the horrid insects and nursed my wound. Only, it wouldn't stop throbbing and was quickly getting red and swollen. Seeing what had happened, Ronald assured me that if I simply peed on my hand, it would all go away. A little skeptical, but without many other options and in serious pain, I opted to try this bush remedy. Surprisingly enough, it worked wonders. Only moments later the swelling had subsided and I was able to return to work.
I spent the rest of the day removing louvered glass panels and laborously washing each by hand. This was the first moment that I wished we owned a power washer. It would however, not be the last.

Although I had nearly forgotten about the hornet sting during the day, at night, as I lay in bed I could feel my hand slowly swelling and when I woke I was greeted with an itchy, bloated, bright red fist. Not a great way to start the day. Opting to work on some drawings rather than doing hard labor, I passed the glass washing task onto Juli and spent the day creating working drawings for the desks Felix will begin building shortly. I was greatly excited to see that he had already started on the tables I had assigned to him the day before, but my excitement was bit premature. By lunch time, Felix had already come to inform me that the wood we had purchased was still wet and would need at least a week to dry before any joints could be milled. Disappointed, but still enthusiastic, I turned my attention to other tasks.

One of the nice things about this week has been that I moved my office over to the shop, which means I actually get to leave the house. Each morning I walk through the streets and up the hill to the INATEC campus and our workshop. I spend the day either working along side the workshop boys or on the computer creating drawings. At lunchtime, we all hike back over the house for a big meal of rice, beans and some sort of meat before returning to work in the afternoon. It's been wonderful getting a chance to interact with all the local workers rather than being stuck in the tiny little office most people work in at the house.

Another recent alteration that has changed the pace of life is that we have now officially entered the rainy season. Everyday without fail, the skies will open up at least once to release torrents of rain. Unless you've personally experienced a tropical storm, I'm not sure I can properly describe to you the volume of water that rushes from the sky in a single instant. You can literally get drenched to the bone passing from the doorway to the sidewalk. Being wet has simply become a fact of life. If you need to leave the building, you're going to be wet. It doesn't matter how big your umbrella or how thick your raincoat, you're still gonna get wet. Fortunately, it's still relatively hot, so getting wet isn't such a big deal. It's not like a New England storm where you're shivering wet and miserable. Here you're just wet. In any case, the change in weather has brought a change to the pace of life as well. Things move with the rhythm of the rains. If you'd planned to go shopping, but it starts raining, you change your plans. If you know you have to do something outside, you make it happen whenever the skies are clear.

Alright, back to our new office space. Do you remember how I started wishing we had a power washer with the glass? Well, the next time I spent the day working on cleaning up the classroom, it was to scrape the flaking paint throughout the whole room by hand. Power washer would have been helpful. Next, I scrubbed all the walls, again by hand, to get rid of years of bird and bat shit, termite nests, vicious biting ants and other such things. Again, power washer would have been wonderful. Nonetheless, by the end of the week, we managed to get one coat of paint on the back wall and everything else prepped to start painting again on monday. Like I said, quite an achievement for the week. Now we just have to hope that the wood dries enough to finish the furniture and that the paint dries despite the torrential downpours and ridiculous humidity. Keep your fingers crossed and we'll see how it goes.

Let it Rain

It's been one hell of a week since I last wrote. The film crew took off on Sunday, only to be replaced by Ismael, Marie and Mathias on Monday. The next 2 days were a whirlwind of activity as everyone else prepared for a long awaited trip to Cuba and I attempted to meet with all 15 people on my list. This would have been a lot easier had we all had our own transportation. Instead, we had to balance all 5 of our schedules in such a way that Victor, our driver, could chauffeur us all back and forth to a myriad of destinations all across the city. With the exception of a few minor issues, this actually worked out fairly well.

On Wednesday morning, I got up with the Cuba crew at 5am to say goodbye and deal with a few last minute logistics before crawling back into bed to wait for Victor's return. Alas, sleeping was not to be an option. No sooner had I closed my eyes than the phone started ringing. Dragging myself up from my mattress on the floor, I was informed by G that despite their best intentions to travel to Cuba on French passports, he and Mathias had to first exit the country on their American passports. So, after locating said passports, I caught a cab and managed to reach the airport with enough to time for everyone to get on their way.

The rest of the morning was spent running errands and locating various items that are completely unavailable in Bluefields. By the time I made it to the only place in the city that ships to Bluefields, it was already early afternoon and I had yet to make it to Matagalpa, 2hrs north of Managua, where I was scheduled to tour a hotel school. Getting back in the Magi-Boogy (our trusty VW van), Victor and I grabbed a bite to eat and started the long drive north. I'd love to tell you all about the sights along the way, but having only slept about 2hrs the night before, it wasn't long before I was passed out across the back seat of the bus.

Cresting a hill at the entrance to Matagalpa, we were greeted with a beautiful view of the city. The whole town is built in a valley ringed by towering mountains on all sides. Throughout the city church steeples rise above the corrugated metal roofs and city parks dot the landscape. After driving around asking everyone we met if they knew of the hotel school we were searching for, we finally happened across our destination. I was greeted by a lovely young lady who took me around and showed me all the different courses and classrooms. They had everything from cooking to computers to sewing and hairdressing. They also had quite a nice, simple auditorium with louvered glass panels for nearly the whole height of the walls.

Having taken lots of pictures and asked all my questions, I climbed back in the van and Victor maneuvered his way through the steep streets and we headed back out of town. On the way back I was delighted to discover that my Spanish has improved to the point of being functional and I enjoyed a lovely 2hr conversation with only minor miscommunications.

Back at the house, I made some food for myself and Rafael and started chatting with him about my plans for the rest of the week. When he heard that I was headed to San Juan del Sur the following day, he very shyly asked if he might be able to join me for the ride. Seeing no reason to force him to stay locked in the house for yet another day of mind-dumbing marathon television, I told him it wouldn't be a problem as long as his dad could come watch the house for the day. Clearly excited, he called home right away and made all the appropriate arrangements.

Bright and early the next morning, Victor, Rafael and myself were on our way south to San Juan del Sur, a world class surfing and vacation local. The intention was to get there, meet with a real estate agent who would show me around the local ecolodges and green-roof projects, visit an earthship construction project and make it back to Managua. Apparently, mother nature had other plans in mind.

As we approached SJS, the skies opened up and let loose all the water they'd been storing up for the past 6 months and traffic slowed to a crawl. The roads turned to mud and visibility depended entirely on wind direction. During a slight break in the storm, we found ourselves at what will one day be a bridge over the river, but which is currently a jumble of concrete and steel. Without the bridge, the only way to continue is to drive down the slope, through the river and up the other side. Confident in the power of Miss Magi-Boogy, Victor steered us down through the rushing brown water that crested the wheels as we passed through to the other side.

Once in San Juan del Sur, the rains started up again and the roads turned to rivers. Stopping in the market for some lunch, we kept our feet up off the ground and moved seats as the holes in the ceiling got progressively larger and closer. After quite a yummy meal, we made our way to Aroura Realty where, dripping wet, I was to meet my guide for the day. A phone call and a short wait later he showed up only to inform me that due to the hurricane we were in the middle of, all the roads were washed out and no one was going in or out of the town that day. Slightly frustrated, but with few available options, we sat down at a beachfront bar and enjoyed a cold beer. As we waited for the rains to subside, I was mesmerized by the repeated scene of gangs of fishermen attempting to salvage overturned and half submerged boats from the violent seas. First, a team of men would wade out as far as they could stand while their friends hauled on the bowline trying to bring their craft closer to the shore. As soon as it reached the first group, the would begin pushing it in towards shore, all the while battling pounding surf and violent currents. As I watched, at least 3 boats were salvaged and brought to shore.

Once the rains had subsided enough to see more than 5 feet, I ventured out to check out the ocean and was pleasantly surprised to discover that the water was warmer than the cold raining coming from above. Seeing that we still weren't going anywhere fast, Victor, Rafael and myself ventured further down the beach, away from the fishing boats, and decided to go for a swim. The water was gloriously warm, but incredibly murky due to the churning of the tides and runoff from the swollen rivers. Nonetheless, we passed a lovely hour or so hopping over waves and riding giant swells back in to shore.

After about an hour or so of calm weather, I figured it was time to try my luck at Aurora again. No go. All the roads were still washed out and there was little hope of any change before sundown. A little disheartened, I called up my second contact to see if I might have better luck getting out to the "casa llanta" earthship. Of course, reading the directions I had been given, which included the phrase, 'turn left into the creek,' I should have known that would not be a possibility. Nonetheless, Dave, who heads up the project for a couple weeks at a time, was willing to come into town and chat. So, I spent a lovely hour or so chatting about different building techniques and the logistics of acquiring bottles, tires and cans for use as construction materials. I also made plans to go out to the site early the next morning should I still be in SJS and assuming the roads were once again passable.

Not quite believing all the reports and wishing to see the extent of our isolation for ourselves, I climbed back into the Magi-Boogy and Victor drove us out to half finished bridge we had passed to come in. When we arrived, there was a line of trucks and buses stretching half a mile down the road, all waiting for the river to withdraw. Parking at the end of this long line of cars, we went on foot to the front of the line and were greeted by 15ft of rapidly flowing water rushing across the road we had passed only a few hours before.

Resigned to our fate we returned to town, played a few rounds of pool, had a few beers and located the cheapest hotel in town. Securing rooms, we said goodnight and reunited at the crack of dawn. The next morning dawned clear and bright, leaving few reminders of the havoc of the day before. Meeting up with Dave we ventured down a long dirt road past homemade cockfighting rings and ramshackle workshops til we did indeed turn left into the creek bed. Unfortunately, the creek was a bit deeper and the sand a bit softer than normal so we ended up parking where the car stopped itself and walking the rest of the way.

Very glad to have at least seen one of the 3 places I had planned to visit, I eventually returned to the car and we headed back towards Managua. Three hours later I found myself back at casa Ivan where a cold shower and a bite to eat commenced another long day. This one included various trips around town for last minute supplies, which was complicated by the fact that Friday was mother's day and all the construction supply stores were closed. Later, after finishing almost all the errands I had on my list, I had victor drop me off at the bus station and began the long journey back to Bluefields via the overnight bus/panga.

Volcanic Expeditions

On saturday, the film crew, myself and Mr. G made our way around the town and out to the market in Masaya. On the way there, we stopped at a national park to explore the wonders of a beautiful volcanic landscape. As we pulled over and got out, you could see the smoke rising from a seemingly endless ravine. The slightly grayish clouds billowed up shifting with the wind. Staring down into the depths of this sleeping dragon, I kept hoping to catch a glimpse of its' firey belly, but the clouds of smoke merely played tricks upon my eyes. Every time I thought I might get a break, the wind would shift ever so subtly and a new puff of smoke would swim across my view.

The landscape adjacent to the gapping depth was barren and rock strewn. The soil shifted from black to green to red to yellow, all with a slightly hazy brown mirage suspended across it as far as you could see. As we climbed the winding stairs to the wooden cross erected above, the clouds of smoke brought with them swarms of every insect imaginable. Some were so small you had to strain to see them as they crawled across your skin, causing your hair to stand and your nerves to tingle. Others were little black lines that squirmed along, tickling the back of your neck, causing you to imagine them crawling into your ears and up your nose. The worst part being that at least some of these nearly unseen foes were vicious enough to sink their teeth in as the passed.

The only way to put up with the constant torrent of microscopic nuisances was to keep moving. So, I hiked quickly up the steps, enjoyed a gorgeous view for as long as I could stand before descending past the abyss once more. In no time at all, we were on our way. Well, after David got finished expelling the "welcome to Nicaragua" message his stomach was so adamantly presenting to him.

Managua

The last few days have been quite a trip. I flew out of Bluefields on friday morning with the French film crew and Guillaume and landed in Managua a few hours later. As we walked out of the airport, G discovered that his phone was out of minutes, so we had to hike down the road a ways to meet up with Victor who would be driving us around in the 'Magi-Boogy,' a rundown diesel van, for the next couple days.

Having arrived after our first meeting was scheduled to begin, we decided to can that one and go straight to the house. On the way, I got my first real glimpse of Managua. It's a pretty intense city. Every stoplight brings a barrage of small children cleaning your windshield, women offering sliced mangoes, cold drinks and trinkets. The roads are full of the most incredible variety of vehicles I've ever seen in one place. There's everything from giant semi trucks to horse drawn carts and foot-pedal rickshaws. The houses are crammed in close, rusted zinc roofs and siding overlapping high walls with barbed wire and broken glass. In certain areas, the broken shells of collapsed houses and apartment buildings frame poorly constructed shacks and empty courtyards. The whole city feels as if it's been under siege for the past 30 years or so. Every home has a high wall of concrete and wrought iron with steel bars across every window and gates closing of each door. There's a tension in the air that mixes with the exhaust and thick, humid air to create a tangible, relentless weight.

Arriving at 'casa Ivan' we were greeted by Rafael, the young caretaker whose job it is to always be in the house. We dropped our bags, discovered the internet had been cut off for no particular reason, made a few phone calls and headed back out again. Guillaume went with the film crew to get his official residency ID after several years of buracracy. I headed off to the grocery store to stock up for the next few days. It was quite a treat to be in a real grocery store with a huge variety of food after a couple weeks in Bluefields where the selection is surprisingly limited.

As soon as I got back to the house, it was time to turn around again and head out for a meeting with Henry, the local architect that I will be working with on the design and construction of CERCA. Unfortunately, our taxi driver wasn't entirely sure where we were headed, so we ended up going by a different INATEC campus before going clear across town to our actual destination. Fortunately, the meeting that followed was well worth the trip! Henry has turned out to be a welcome and refreshing change from the norm or unmotivated and uncooperative individuals that dominate the INATEC offices. Not only had he found me the 3 things I asked for, but he'd gone out of his way to accumulate additional information and compile CDs with examples of hotel school layouts, building terminology and material specs.

With drawings and new material in hand, we headed off to the hotel school that has recently been built with the help of international funding. It was quite a treat to have a tour through the elegant dining room, fully stocked kitchens and 4 star hotel training rooms. Everything they had there was far larger and more upscale than anything we will be doing in Bluefields, but getting a chance to see the possibilities that are available sparked numerous ideas.

When we returned to Henry's office and picked up Guillaume, he was nearly dancing with excitement. He had just coerced his way into a meeting with the head honcho of INATEC and gotten permission to move ahead on a myriad of projects he'd been pushing for for quite a while. I was floored to hear him describe the trajectory of future development that will commence with a reorganization of INATEC-IPCC's existing infrastructure and the construction of CERCA. The vision he described will not only transform the way that training and enterprises occur in Bluefields, but will eventually alter the education system, living conditions and outside perspective of the entire Atlantic coast. There is something truly extraordinary about the way that Guillaume can visualize future endeavors and see how all the interconnected elements can grow together to create real changes.

Hyped up about the possibilities for the future, we came back to the house, cooked a yummy meal and started talking. Many hours later, we moved to the office to start making lists of all the the departments, projects and initiatives that we'd like to include in the development of CERCA and all the associated projects. Somewhere around 3am, still coursing with excitement, we finally called it a night and laid down for a few hours rest before the beginning of another long day.