campo and friends

Rosibel and I. Rosi was the 19 year old daughter in the house I lived in.














Red and black and the number 2 were painted everywhere along our road as these were the campaign colors of Daniel Ortega, the president who was reelected for a second term while I was there. Pretty much every person I met is very passionate about politics. Largely because the war in the 80s between the Sandanistas (Nicaraguan-run government who overthrew the Samoza dictatorship in 1979) and the Contras (US supported troops who were against the Sandanistas) was on Nicaraguan soil and affected everyone I met. Practically every male over 45 fought in it, and everyone knows at least one person who died in it.


One of the local Catholic chapels. The priest only visits these once every 2 months or so because there are 2 priests for about 40 chapels, but the people still celebrate every Sunday.











Auxiliadora and Andres. Auxiliadora cooked at our house when I first got there and Andres would always come with her and run around the house playing.













Andres (2.5 years old) helping us pick through coffee.












The latrine.



















Kevin (the 5 year old I lived with) and me.
















Chayo (our neighbor) and me.














Ranae is in the door, Dona Celestina, and I. We ate at her house for lunch a lot because one of Ranae's farms that we worked on was right next to her house. She made an awesome squash soup!









Maria is the mom, Ruby is the older daughter, and Nesmari is the little one. I loved this family! Nestor is their dad. They are the caretakers of the farmhouse on the farm across from Ranae's other farm, so we also ate with Maria a lot. She was super sweet and was a really good mom. Once the kids were not shy of me, they would chat and play and were always smiling and laughing. They helped us pick coffee one day.












Tivo, the uncle who lived in the house where I lived. He's a great guitar player!



















They really do use old school buses from the States as their public buses there!












Don Trino, Wendy, and Hermana Tiva.














This chicken kept coming in to lay an egg in Rosi's bed! If we shooed it out it would spaz out and sneak back in to lay its egg.














For new years, they dress a scarecrow up, often put a cigar in it's mouth and a bottle of alcohol in its hand, and then blow it up. It is to symbolize getting rid of bad habits for the new year.














Juana, the 11 year old I picked with.
















Jasmina and her son. She also has a 10 year old daughter and a 5 year old son who she brought to the coffee fields to pick with her. We picked together the last 2 weeks. I would have liked to get to know her better as she seemed awesome. She is living with her parents and her kids and says she is happy single, something that I don't feel like is common there.







My cold lunch on coffee picking days. The white chunk is cuajada, the farm cheese.















Dona Blanca cleaning beans. After beans and dried for storage, they still have a bunch of grass and shells in them so we have to pick through them before we can cook them.



















It is easiest to use wind like this to get the grass out.













Julia.













A local school.












I walked an hour up a mountain to get to mass with Alejandro (60ish year old man) with the guitar and Blanca (40ish year old woman) with a baby. They were the choir and were super fun!












This is the community center that we celebrated mass in. The priest came from Yali (the nearby tiny kinda-town). It was the first time they'd celebrated in this community so it was extra exciting.











Here's the inside all decorated. There were about 30 of us there. When the priest arrived someone ran in the door and yelled he was here (not that we didn't hear the only car drive up as it was probably the only car for at least a 2 mile radius), Alejandro jumped up, took 2 steps, skidded (and I really do mean skidded, this is not being dramatic here) to a stop and ran back to give me his hat to hold, then ran back as the choir group had leaped up to stand in a line by the door and started singing (loudly!) when the priest entered. They continued this serenade as he set up for mass. At the same time, someone set fireworks off outside the door. It was the biggest welcome I'd ever seen!




Yali. 5 km from where I lived. It is considered a town and is where I used internet, but there is no post office or bank here. But there are at least 4 different coffee cooperatives.














Yali.


















Yali, the yellow sign says we buy coffee.














Pigs are almost all kept on leashes here. And I saw a pig with wattles!!!! Have you ever seen that before? It had goats wattles!! They told me that was not too uncommon here-what!?












One of Ranae's farmhouses. It has a great flower garden you can kind of see. A lot of women maintain beautiful flower gardens in front of their houses.












Ranae's house, different view. This is where Juana and her grandparents live. They are the caretakers of the farm since Ranae doesn't live in it. Ranae goes to it almost every day, but having caretakers live in your house is pretty common.









On my walk home every day (the flat part) =)














This is one of the fences we built! It is the line of trees. They plant tree branches that regrow when you plant them so it makes gorgeous tree lines fences.

















Sometimes I helped carry the 40 liters of milk to the road for the morning bus to pick up and bring to San Rafael where the buyers picked it up.
















The hornilla in our house. This is what they use for all the cooking. Can you find the 3 animals (besides the black cockroaches on the walls)?















Different house's hornilla-chickens like the warmth of the kitchen too.











and being carried in black plastic bags on the buses I guess!

















Another type of oven I only saw in one house. Elena made great cookies!


















Kevin and Maidi at Dona Tula's 92 birthday party. Kevin is her grandson and Maidi is her great granddaughter.













Karen, Maidi, ?, and Jose Manuel (all great grandkids).

















Dona Tula blowing out candles on her super delicious fancy cakes that Ranae bought for her.
















The room I slept in, Ranae and I slept in the closest bed, Kevin (the 5 year old) and Aura (the mom) slept in the middle one, and Rosi (the 19 year old) slept in the farthest one.














The outside of the house.












My 2 black backpacks with all of my things.






















Kevin, my first friend there.