The Savage Traveler: Nicaragua: Part 4

Friday, June 27: Today’s work was in the more uplifting community of Placeres del Coco. First we had to walk down the drive at the farm to board the bus because the off and on rain had turned the red clay into a mucky mire. As we left Don Pedro’s sons were filling the drive with gravel from a cart pulled by oxen. The farms of Placeres del Coco are stretched across the hills that line each side of the Coco River, so named for its water color. It is a wide river here and runs to the border of Honduras and to the Atlantic Ocean. Many of the farms here had wells for household water. The heart of the community has a large community kitchen next to a church being built overlooking the river and farther up the hill was the school. A large group of people welcomed us to the village, with a tall, handsome Afro-Carib man at the front. He was clearly in charge and turned out to be the President. We found out from Carolina that there has been a lot of migration by river from the coast, leading to a more mixed population. Again the council leaders took us to the farms that were getting purifiers. Marv and Alex really hoped to be in a group that would hike farther into the countryside today. But no one else was interested in changing groups and leaving us would have left our group too small to do the work. So we stuck with the same groups. Once again our group went to the closest farms, which still meant we hiked a long ways uphill to do our installations. Our council leader was a young woman in flip-flops who carried the barrels and hiked along with no sign of effort. Our first stop was the home of an elderly woman who didn’t have water on hand so we left the materials and went on to install our next purifier, which was fast and easy. The people at this house wouldn’t let us take their picture with the purifier until they had changed clothes, and they didn’t want us to show their feet, wearing the ubiquitous flip-flops, since they didn’t have time to change into their good shoes People are the same, everywhere. On our way to the next farm we found out that the son of the woman at our first stop had brought her water so we could go ahead and complete her purifier. At one of our next stops there were a pair of twins, about a year old, and their mother and her mother. At another, they had just killed and scalded a chicken that they were then going to cook for dinner. It was so interesting to be in people’s homes and see these indications of everyday life. There was no one home at our final stop up on the hills so we left the materials, knowing that the people of the community would be able to get it set-up for them. We had circled back almost to the school and continued back to the farm closest to the community center. This was a sprawling complex of houses that several parts of the same larger family occupy. On our way it rained a little, and while there it rained hard on their noisy metal roof. But it quit and the sun came out by the time we finished, again heating things up like a sauna.

Slowly our three groups gathered at the kitchen, where the women of the village had prepared a chicken, beans and rice (with tortillas, of course) lunch for us. Jeanette had stayed behind today because of the hiking required and so she had helped in the kitchen. When we arrived she was entertaining a group of children, telling them the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves in her fractured Spanish. She has beginning to middle ability but she speaks with such animation and hand gestures that she is a delight to watch and hear. After lunch a few of us went up the hill to the school to break a piñata with the children. Most of us stayed on the porch where we had eaten, sitting in a large circle to have some conversation with the leaders of the village. We asked questions of them about their hopes and dreams for the future of their community and learned more about what CEPAD had been doing with and for them, as well as how they will carry on in the years to come, since their five years with CEPAD come to an end this year. We found out that one of our groups had been to a large fruit tree farm that CEPAD had helped establish. The women who were leaders assured us that they felt equal as leaders to the men in the association but we did notice that men were usually the ones to answer our questions. During this time Marv and Alex also attempted to hike down to the river but, lacking a clear path to get there, they stopped short of their goal. In general this association seemed more cheerful and more prosperous, which raised our spirits as well. Though the work had been equally challenging, we returned to Don Pedro’s farm in a much better frame of mind. Again the women of the family had prepared a rice and bean meal for us, which we ate gratefully before we held our circle and opened our prayer partner gifts. I knew who my exercise buddies had for prayer partners so it was fun for me to watch as Carol and Grant opened their packages. But I was still in the dark as to who had Marv or me. Once again the cold, trickling shower felt wonderful before climbing in bed. I was having some troubles with my stomach and the need for quick trips to the latrine so I was sort of dreading going to bed. But prescription meds from Jeanette and Imodium got me through the night.