Conclusions & New Beginnings

It has been pointed out to me several times over the past two years, that the Grupo Colavito blog has no conclusion. It is like a book with the last chapter missing. I was thinking about our old blog today, so I figured I'd give an update to any stragglers out there wondering what ever happened to us.

First of all... our blogging took a backseat to job searching near the end of our volunteer experience. C.J. started a full blown job search of the solar electric industry on the East Cost, mostly focused on MD and VA, all remotely from Nicaragua. I was intending to follow him, so I didn't really start looking yet. I still wasn't blogging much though, partly because C.J. told me that some of my earlier blogs resembled suicide notes... they were too depressing. C.J. became the primary blogger pretty early on.

Oh so, one thing that I was focusing on during this time was figuring out how to get Virginia home with us. I did a bunch of reading online and learned that Nicaragua has a bunch of rules for exporting cats, but the US really doesn't have any restrictions on importing them... strange. The first step was to get her a cat carrier that wasn't just a round laundry basket with a towel tied on the top... which is impossible to find in Nicaragua. I even went to the upscale pet store in Metro Centro in Managua, Escasan... no airline approved bags. Fortunately, I started looking early enough that I was able to buy one online and have it shipped to Pete from Daton, who brought it down with him when he came for the summer. Yay!

So, with the bag taken care of, I had to focus on shots & paper work. My local, Ocotal, Vet helped me figure out which shots were required - as I recall it was Rabies and a tri-feline shot. Well, the Tri-feline was a refrigerated injection that they don't have in Ocotal, only in Managua, a 4 hour bus ride away. I wasn't too thrilled to cart my cat on a 8 hour round trip bus ride, so my Vet suggested that he could arrange delivery. Basically, delivery involves multiple taxi and bus rides for my little vile, all personally arranged... craziness. Surprisingly enough, the vile made it and Virgina got her shot. The next step was to actually take her to Managua to be seen by a particular Vet (I guess he was certified or something) and to get all the paperwork filled out.

Meanwhile, Virginia was the mom to three adorable kittens that we called Sean, Sean Black, and Emilia. They were the cutest little things ever! All the locals were fighting for who would get to keep them. Pretty early on, I think before they were even born, we decided that their homes would be our host family, Frederlinda's family (next door, up the hill), and Reina's family (next door on the other side). All the kittens were going to be together! On our last day, we gave away the kittens, which worked out perfectly since they were about 10 weeks old. (Photo from left: Arele, Jeni, and Alex holding Emila, Sean Black aka Jackie Chan, and Sean aka Sol).

Also around this time, the gate that I designed for the Solar center was being completed. The installation was underway on our very last day there! Our host family threw us a little party the night before we had to leave and we had an emotional goodbye in the morning.

The trip home was pretty stressful with the cat. It was quite a journey. 4 hours on the bus, an overnight in Managua, a taxi ride to the airport, a flight to FL, an 8 hour layover, and a flight to DC. Included in the overnight in Managua, we had plans to take Virginia to the special Vet for examination and then to go the the Governmental office that would issue us export papers. When the Dr. was examining Virginia we realized that the Tri-Feline vaccine had been expired at the time of the injection, so it didn't count. In addition, it needed to have been given at least 30 days before departure, so there was not time to get another shot! Fortunately, the Vet took pity on us and just simply changed the date of the injection on her record... he was reluctant to make the change since, as he put it, there is so much corruption in his country, but he was compassionate about us not getting caught in red tape - THANK GOODNESS! Whew, we got all of her papers in order - but not without a great deal of running around and stress.

When we got to the airport with Virginia, the ticket agent told us that someone would come to review her paperwork. We waited... we waited maybe 20 minutes. The agent went to go look for the guy... he couldn't find him. We started getting really nervous. The agent looked stressed. "Well," he tells us, "they guy you need to see didn't come to work today." We don't respond. "So, you all can go on through to security."

What? All that running around and they didn't even check the paperwork! Sheesh. When we got to the US, we took Virginia through the live animals and agricultural line at customs and the lady just says, "What do you have in the bag, a cat? Ok." What? so easy? "Do you have any food?" "Yes," "You can't take that into the country" So.... the food was confiscated, but Virgina was no problem at all!

When we got home it was culture shock all over again. I remember being so amazed that the laundry could be washed, dried, and ready to wear in only a matter of a couple hours. I took a shower, a hot shower, and I thought "it's so luxurious, and I can take a hot shower every day if I want to, every day for the rest of my life." It was so strange to think that we weren't going back to the other life, we were back for good.

We stayed with my parents for a few weeks while C.J. went on his job interviews. He got a job as a project manager with Standard Solar in Gaithersburg, MD. He considered the position his dream job - he would be managing the integration of commercial and utility scale solar electric projects! We got a little one bedroom apartment in Gaithersburg. It was a small space, but we were used to our mud hut, so we were happy!

I contacted my previous employer down in Newport News and they were happy to have me back for a few months while I looked for a new position up in the DC area. I went to live with my Grandmother for that time, which ended up being about 4 months. I was home with my honey by Christmas, and started my new position with the FAA on the same day that President Obama took office.

Two years later, we have a town home with solar panels on the roof, C.J. is the commercial projects engineering manager at Standard Solar, I'm still at the FAA, and we have a six month old son Joey! He is the cutest baby ever! Thanks for all your love and support through this journey!

I need a ladder to kiss you

A few weeks ago C.J. and I were joined by 4 new volunteers from University of Dayton, Ohio: Pete, Matt, Dan, and Anna. The Dayton kids decided that they were going to take a trip to Granada this weekend and we figured it was a good opportunity to go, since Granada is a must see tourist spot in Nicaragua and we enjoy our travels 10 times more if we have other people to hang out with besides ourselves. Even for our honeymoon, we made sure we went to a resort with lots of young, fun people (mostly other honeymooners) to hang out with. So, we headed off to Granada on Friday afternoon, picking up Vince, another Dayton guy, in Managua on the way.

We got in to our hostel at about six on Friday, and fortunately there was a private room available for me and C.J. - it even has a bathroom (without a shower, but hey... better than nothing). I am just not a fan of the dorm living, we´ve done it twice so far, and I am definately more than willing to pay the extra cash to not have to change in the shower and to be able to wear whatever I want to bed. I think it was like $4 bucks more, so really a no brainer. Our hostel is actually quite nice, after all it is called Oasis. They have free internet, free coffee and tea, a cool little pool, and lots of seating areas and hammocks in the courtyard. There are also tons of young people around to chat with if you feel inclinded. Those college boys like to take advantage of this feature, but I haven´t really. This is partially due to the fact that I started a cold on Friday and my voice is all scratchy. I just don´t like the sound of it, so I´ve been keeping it to myself.

Yesturday, Saturday, we took a bike tour of the city. Granada is right on the shore of Lake Nicaragua, so we rode through the park and along the lake which made for a quite scenic and idealic ride. We took lots of breaks for cervesa and mojitos and just enjoyed how awesome the weather is. Well, it was actually a little too hot, but I would trade that for rainy anyday. We had a few bike problems, namely C.J.´s chain kept falling off, so Matt, C.J., and I headed back a little early. That part was the most grueling because C.J. couldn´t stop pedaling or his chain would fall off and he was on a pretty hard gear. All three of us were drenched in sweat when we finally stopped for tropical fruit smoothies. Those were quite tasty.

As we were heading to the bike shop we noticed a cute little shop that sells cigars, hand made in Granada, and.... CUBA. We were pretty excited for the prospect of smoking Cubans, so we picked up a few for the evening. Strangly, the cigar shop did not sell lighters or cutters, so we went in search for those around the city. We found a really cool lighter that flashes red and blue lights whenever you use it, but we couldn´t find a cutter. As a result, when it came to cutting the cigars I mutulated mine in a way that is too disrespectful to the anyone who loves cigars that I can not even mention it in the blog. And then, since the tobacco was then spilling out the poorly cut end, I just decided to smoke it backwards. This was working for a while, but then at some point my cigar went out and could not be relit. I realized the magnitude of my error when I smoked some ofMatt´s and discoverd how much smoother it is when you actually smoke it right. So basically, my first attempt at cigar smoking was somewhat botched, but still fun and flavorful... after all, it was a Cuban.

After a late night of Flor de Caña and Cubans, the group rallyed for a mornining trip to the tobacco farms for a canopy tour. Since I´ve already done the canopy thing twice, I decided to just chill here and do a little shopping. I was in the market for a new shirt since I always feel like I have no cool clothes. Pretty much all I have are boring t-shirts and polos, because as C.J. told me when we were packing for Nicaragua "It´s not like we´re going to be going out." This has of course proven to be completely untrue. Unfortunately, I am a really bad shopper. This problem is enhanced by the fact that the shop owners in Nicaragua hover and stare the entire time you´re in their store. This, I cannot stand. The other problem today was that I was so sweaty from walking around in the heat that I couldn´t imagine trying anything on, if they even had a changing room, which is unlikely. So, I came back empty handed, which is typical. I have yet to buy a single article of clothing in this country.

The walking around was nice though. There are a lot of markets open, and in central park I stopped to pet some cute little kittens. The woman tried to sell them to me, but I quickly explained that I already have FOUR cats a home, and therefore do not need any more. Speaking of which, our kittens are getting cuter every day and have started running around and playing this past week. Anyway, walking around Nicaragua alone makes me an easy target to all sorts of cat calls and harassments. Depending on how they´re said, they can be amusing or infuriating. Normally, I think the stuff guys says is funny, though I have to pretend I don´t hear or understand what they say, because looking, smiling, or laughing just encourages their behavior, which to be honest is quite disrespectful. I guess I´m too light hearted because I get a kick out of it sometimes, especially when someone says something creative. I´m kind of used to the "mi amor" (my love), "muñeca" (doll), "chela" (fair skinned girl), "mi corazon, preciosa, bonita, guapa..." (my heart, precious, pretty, beautiful), but today I got one that really made me laugh (on the inside of course) -"Una escalara necesito besarte" which means "I need a ladder to kiss you". I´m sure he thought I wouldn´t understand, but 11 months has taught me a little español and I couldn´t help but crack a smile. Ah, well, I never did have much of a poker face.

Our Kitten Had Kittens!

So about a month and a half ago Jenny and I were thinking, man Virginia (our kitten) is really growing strangely. She is really skinny in the shoulders but very pear shaped, fat at the bottom. A couple weeks later as she got fatter we decided to take her to the vet again to see what’s up. We couldn’t imagine she was pregnant because she was only 6 months old. The vet said she surely is pregnant and here we are now, on May 13th we helped deliver three healthy kittens, two boys and a girl. Its kind of shocking for both us and our cat. Our little kitten, still with her tennis ball sized head, only 8 months old, is now mother to three really tiny, squeaky, wiggly-tailed kittens.

So we figured out how it all happened. Jenny and I went to Costa Rica for a week to renew our Visas in mid March. We left our little brother Marcel to feed and watch over Virginia while we were gone. He did a good job, but when we returned they told us about how one night Virginia had a big fight with some other cat and they got inside the locked house and it was an all out brawl for about 10 minutes. How traumatic for our six month old kitten! So this sneaky tom cat got our innocent kitty pregnant in the first heat cycle of her life. I saw him sneaking around our house a few times at night and at least he was a good looking cat, had nice stripes like Virginia but more of a copper color rather than gray and black. The kittens are beautiful, two of them look just like Virginia with black and gray stripes all over and the other is bright orange and white striped. Since one orange one was a boy and one of the black ones was a boy Jenny had the idea to give them temporary names for the next two months until they are weaned from their mom and we give them away to our friends. So Sean, we named the orange one after you since he has your hair and naturally since he has a black brother we named him Sean Black, after our other buddy from college. The girl we named Amelia after our new volunteer friend Emily, who goes by Amelia in Spanish.

The whole birthing process was an adventure. Virginia had been especially more affectionate over the last few weeks and yesterday she was even more so. When I woke up she was stuck to me like glue. Where ever I walked she would follow and when I sat down she would be in my lap immediately. I was sitting having our morning quiet time when I noticed she was having contractions. This was a little alarming for me because I was afraid she might just start popping kittens out in my lap. Jenny had read up on kitty births on the internet and assured me that Virginia would climb down before they came. Jenny prepared a little nest of towels underneath one of our shelves and coaxed Virginia on in so that she could be calm and comfortable. She was in labor for over an hour when she couldn’t stand the pain any more and started running around the house with half a kitten hanging out. She had it standing up in the middle of the floor and scampered under the bed totally freaked and bewildered by what happened. Meanwhile Jenny was upset because the stupid articles she read said that the cat would know what to do and take care of her kittens with little intervention. I was watching this slimy sack on the floor with something inside it that looked like it came from the movie alien and I yelled to Jenny, who had retreated to the other side of the room to get the scissors and cut that kitten out. Jenny suddenly got her senses back and valiantly rushed back with the scissors and cut the kitten free, then began stroking it until it breathed for the first time. What a hero! By this time Virginia returned out of curiosity and her mother instincts took over. She quickly started licking her first born and he came alive with squeaks and wiggles. She laid down right there in the middle of the floor and began cleaning and nursing her baby. The other two were much less stressful since by then we were all experts. It was pretty gross at times but still amazing to see kittens born in front of my own eyes.

The plan is still that we will take Virginia home with us when we come back on July 21st. Now the whole name Virginia doesn’t sound so clever since we will have a cat named Virginia living in Virginia, o well. The same day I announced that we were expecting kittens I had found three takers so we will give away all three kittens just before we leave so they will have at least nine weeks to nurse. Until then it will be fun to see the furry rat-like kittens grow up.

A rewarding experience

Our German volunteer buddy, Martin, lived with one of the poorest families in Sabana Grande. He lived with a middle-aged single mother, Dona Elia, and her 12 year old daughter, Alba Rosa. They were a little bit off from the main pathway of Sabana Grande and none of the houses on their path have electricity, except for Mauro, one of our solar panel experts and more recently Dona Ilda and her family of 12, who just got their own solar electric system a few weeks ago. All the other volunteers knew that Martin had it rough. He was the only one with a true dirt floor, the only one who had no form of modern lighting, and even more unfortunately he lived with the consensus-worst cook of all the Mujeres Solares. This was on top of all the discomforts that the rest of us deal with also.

To Martin’s credit, he stuck it out for the whole 5 months. He knew it was rough, but that is what life is really like for the poorest of poor, and the last thing he wanted to do was move because he was uncomfortable and deny Elia the $50 a month income he was providing. Martin made the best of it and kept a smile on his face. However, he did take the opportunity to escape when he could. He came over and watched corny telenovelas with us and our family every evening. When he wasn’t with us he would go over to Noel’s place and plug in to his outlet so he could use the computer. Martin watched our house for us while we were away in the states for a week. It was convenient for him because he could enjoy the lights, electricity, and even watch DVD’s on our laptop. It was convenient for us because he enjoyed it so much that he would stay nearly all night, which kept away the critters and mischievous neighbors. As a thank you Jenny and I brought back a LED crank lantern for Martin, which was a God-send for him.

As hard as it was for Martin to live with Elia and Alba Rosa for five months, I could imagine how hard it is for Elia and Alba Rosa to live like that their whole lives. Martin decided he wanted to do something really special for his family before he returned to Germany. He was working on a project with a Canadian group who ordered a bunch of tiny five watt solar panels to assemble into small LED home lighting systems for some of the rural families in Nicaragua who don’t have lights. Martin was able to convince his business partners to donate a system to Grupo Fenix. When he asked Elia if he could install a small lighting system in her house she told him it was her dream.

On Martin’s second to last day in Sabana Grande I got the honor to help him install the novel little solar lighting system. Martin purchased all the supplies with his own money and we installed the five watt solar panel and three LED lighting fixtures, which combined only consume 500 mA off a 15 volt battery, thats only seven and a half watts! Go look at one of our incandescent bulbs to see how many watts it consumes and you will understand what seven and a half watts means. Along with the lights we also put in a seven amp-hour battery, which allows all three lights to stay lit for nine hours continuously with no input from the panel. Needless to say it was a pretty rewarding way to spend the day. It was especially nice that I got to lend a hand because Elia and Alba Rosa are the ones who gave us our kitten, Virginia. They have three grown cats and who just had six more adorable kittens!

Ometepe and Katie´s Visit Pictures

Sorry it took me so long to post these, but here they are.
VIEW PHOTOS

More Costa Rica Photos

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Costa Rica is Rica

C.J. and I just got back from Costa Rica on Monday. We needed to renew our visas (which were already 24 days overdue) and we figured we´d take the chance to have a little vacation. We would have gone sooner, but we´re so American that we feel guilty taking vacation from our volunteer responsibilities. We just can´t do it, Martin. (Martin is our German friend who spends more time vacationing than working... just kidding :-) )

So, we set off to Costa Rica last Wednesday. The plan was to take the express bus to Managua (3.5 hours) then the Tica Bus to Liberia, Costa Rica (5 hours), spend the night and then figure out how to take local buses to Monte Verde, our final destination. Tica Bus is supposed to be the quick, comfortable way to travel because it is a real express bus that only stops at the border, has air conditioning and movies. We were looking forward to a stress-free trip, but when we arrived in Managua to catch our Tica Bus, we found out that the guy in Ocotal never actually called in our reservation and we didn´t have seats! Fortunately, the boss got us on the bus with no problem but a little added stress our our side. It also turns out that the air conditioning was broken, but they wouldn´t let us open the windows because the air conditioning was on, so we cooked all the way to the border. How TIN.

At the border, we had no problem with our expired visa we just payed the $1 a day fine. The guy was actually very chatty, especially when his friend came in to show him the passport of the guy he swore was Jean Claude Van Damme. It clearly wasn´t him, but they were convinced. They went on and on, looking at the guy´s visas and saying ¨Look, he was everywhere that there was a Van Damme movie made.¨ TIN, seriously.

At the border we also met a couple who had a newer version of the tour book we were using, and it didn´t have any information about busses from Liberia to Monte Verde. We kind of paniced and decided to take Tica Bus all the way to San Jose (4 extra hours) so that we could be sure to get an express to Monte Verde the next morning. Fortunately the air conditioning worked for the Rest of the bus ride (how unTIN... ironic isn´t it), and we watched a Jim Carey marathon in Spanish.

When we got to San Jose, we shared a cab with a backpacker couple and we got unwittingly tricked into staying at a backpacker place with dorm rooms. Ick. I´ll never do that again, I´ll always pay more for a private room, thank you. The next morning we took the 4 hr. express to Monte Verde and arrived at our final destination only 28 hours after we left home! When we got off the bus we were imediately bombarded with people selling tours and handing out maps, but we quickly slipped away to the Tica Bus office to make our return researvations. We found out that you can take Tica Bus directly to Monte Verde (WHAT?!), well sortof, and so we faxed in our reservation, since they wouldn´t pick up the phone at the office.

Then as we were walking around town I suddenly realized we left our bags on the bus!! Ahhh! How could we have been so stupid, we were so distracted by all the people in our face that we forgot our luggage! Crap, we quick took a taxi to the bus station, where luckily our bus was still being serviced for the return trip and claimed our bags, and we only paid double the normal taxi fare. Whew!

The following morning we went for our zip lining canopy tour. Now that was awesome! We zipped from the top of a tree on one mountain, over the valley, to the top of a tree on another mountain. We saw the most gorgeous views of the rain forest and we had so much fun. We also have tons of pictures to share later. Zip lining wasn´t scary for me, it was an amazing experience that I would do again in a heart beat. We also took a walking tour over a set of suspension bridges in the forest, which was neat because we got to see the forest up close. One of the cool things about Costa Rica toruism is that everyone speaks English and since C.J. and I speak Spanish we get special treatment everywhere... just for asking nicely in Spanish we got to see the Hummingbird exibit for free!

Since, we were planning to take a more direct route home, we were able to stay another night in Monte Verde, and go on a canyoning tour - that is repelling down waterfalls! That´s me at the tippy top of the waterfall on the left! Now that, my friend, was scary! You have to really rely on your rope and you have to actually know what you´re doing... which is why I have a huge scape on my left shin. We went down six water falls, and after about two, I was like, ¨OK, been there, tried that, ready to go home.¨ But no, there were four more to go! I made it out alive thankfully, and I do have to admit that it was really fun. I would definately recommend it to anyone who likes adventure and adreneline!

The next morning we took the recommended 6AM bus to the highway to catch our Tica Bus. Our bus driver took his sweet time getting us there, he even took a five minute snack break at one point. That´s actually very unTIN, because the busses in Nicaragua are serious business. Anyway, we arrived at the highway at 10 minutes to 8, and apparently just after the first Tica Bus passed. We waited there until like 9:35, when the 2nd Tica bus came. We yelled, we held up our tickets, we ran after them and waved our hands like maniacs, but the Tica Bus passed us by, leaving us on the side of the road in Costa Rica with no plan an no more Tica Busses coming until 2PM.

Ok, 1, 2, local busses to the border, then an express to Managua. Not actually that bad, if we had been planning for it. Unfortunately all the time we wasted waiting for Tica Bus got us to Managua too late to get home, so we were delayed until the next morning. We stayed near the Tica Bus office so that we could give them hell in the morning... which we did and we were reimbursed for our return ticket. We were still ticked though because we had spent twice that to get to Managua and to stay an extra night, plus we were stressed beyond belief.

So in summary... travelling was horrible, but the activities were fun (yet ridiculously expensive). We´re glad to be back in Sabana Grande and we have lots of pictures and videos to share later!