Last Reflections

While I only spent two short weeks in El Sauce, Nicaragua, this experience had a profound effect on my personal and academic life. Even though I had previous experience abroad, El Sauce provided me with a unique set of challenges that gave me the opportunity to reflect, expand my worldview, and grow. I will always remember my time in El Sauce not only as one of the busiest two week period of my life, but also as a major crossroads in my life. Overall, I think that my participation in the El Sauce program was the most worthwhile financial and time investment that I have made during my time here at Geneseo.

It would be impossible for me to do justice to the El Sauce experience by summarizing all that I observed and learned in just a few paragraphs, so I will do my best to mention what were, for me, the most compelling parts of my trip. The first of these experiences would be my work in the rural health posts. I am especially grateful for this experience as it gave me the opportunity to explore what a future in a helping career could be like in a practical setting. At first, as a psychology major, I felt that I might be underprepared for the rigors of this internship, but I soon found that many of the skills I have developed a psychology student were very applicable to this position. The willingness to assert myself when necessary, strong listening skills, and an open and non-judgmental attitude all were valuable assets to me as I learned the basics from Yuritsa, the nurse-practitioner. Overall, this experience was invaluable as I honed these microskills and applied them in a different cultural setting. Also, I left this experience more aware of the difficulties faced by the Nicaraguan people and health practitioners in rural areas. Many of the basics we, as Americans, take for granted (such as prescription eye glasses) are virtually unobtainable for a large percentage of the Nicaraguan rural population.


Another experience that had a major effect on me was our trip to Cerro Colorado to observe the basket weaver collective. As a young feminist, I found this to be one of the most compelling aspects of the trip. As the women of Cerro Colorado explained to us, being able to produce and sell these baskets is empowering. It provides them with the opportunity to raise their children while earning a supplemental income. With this extra money, the women gain some power in their families and can better afford basics, such as prescriptions not covered by the state or school supplies for their sons and daughters. To single mothers of Cerro Colorado, this income is invaluable as it allows them to feed and clothe their families. The experience is empowering in another major way – through involvement with the collective, the women gain a social support network. The more experienced artisans coach the younger newcomers while offering support when necessary. I am proud to have been part of the program that has organized this economically sustainable and socially invaluable program.


That is not to say my trip was not without challenges. Unlike my experiences in Europe, in Nicaragua I was exposed to a setting that was a great deal less Westernized. On a cultural level, I felt that it took more effort for me to adjust to life in Nicaragua than it had taken me to adjust to life in Spain. What I took away from these challenges was the realization that, as a foreigner, it is “okay” to make the occasional social faux pas. That is to say, I lost my cultural self consciousness relatively quickly in El Sauce.

Overall, I feel that I left El Sauce more confident in my Spanish speaking abilities, my psychology microskills, and my ability to orient myself to new and challenging situations. Most importantly, I believe that this program helped to foster my sense of independence. What surprised me most about El Sauce was the sense of community the program engenders. The saucenos welcome Geneseo students into their community and, likewise, those who have traveled to El Sauce share a common bond.

Day Twelve (el 13 de enero de 2009)

Today we finished as much of the roof as we possibly could. In the morning we nailed the remaining wood planks in the roof. In the afternoon we placed the tiles over the planks. After we placed all of the tiles we realized that we needed to buy more tiles to cover the hole of missing/broken tiles we couldn't use. Using some of the funds donated to me (Thanks!) Pepe bought the tiles needed. He will probably put them up tomorrow without me, I will be going to the mountains near El Sauce for a tour of the coffee plantation and of the highest mountain point in El Sauce. After finishing two projects in a week and a half I think it's okay to take a sight-seeing break in the middle of the week. English class went smoothly as well. One of the test presentations for the students is to sing a song from their textbook (Most of which are Beatles songs). At the end they wanted me to sing one but I didn't know the lyrics to the songs in the book. I'll try to memorize a song that they can understand for tomorrow. (Photos: The roof in the morning, The roof after lunch before we put the tiles on, Esperanza the Gremlin)

Day Eleven (el 12 de enero de 2009)

Monday means back to the grind and getting up early to get to work at Pepe's. Today went by slowly due to the lack of energy and lack of 3 person jobs. I helped Pepe disassemble his roof by removing tiles and wood boards to be replaced with stronger boards. Pepe said this will only be a two day project which seems improbable but we made a lot of progress in just one day. After work I went for a quick jog which ended badly. Not only did I overheat myself but everyone in the town was staring at me like I was an alien. No more exercising... Kellan and Yacarely had a mis-communication with their landlord and needed to move out of their house today so Meredith and I helped them out. That includes playing with Kellan's soccer ball with some children. We had dinner afterwords at the hotel but unfortunately they couldn't break my 500 cordoba bill -.- I ended up paying with 5USD. Well, let's see if I finish my second project tomorrow. (Pictures: Pepe's mom cooking, a scorpion that stung Pepe, and the initial work of the roof)

A day at the health post

This morning, I made my way to the bus station but Yuritza met with me on the way. The medicine we needed hadn’t arrived yet, so we would have to wait in the Centro de Salud for an hour or two before making our way to the post.

I enjoy the Centro de Salud in the early morning. It’s not intolerably hot and there isn’t a crowd of patients screaming for attention, so everyone is in a much better mood. While I was waiting for Yuritza, I sat and talked with another doctor, Antonio. As it turns out, he is familiar my host family – Sonia, Alberto, and the very gracioso Marlon. Antonio has a very interesting life story – he studied in Spain and in Switzerland through scholarships and came back to Nicaragua to practice.

It’s interesting to see Yuritza in the context of the Centro de Salud. Sometimes when we’re out at the posts, she’s so capable that I forget that she’s still not officially licensed yet, but the nurses at the health post seem dead set on pulling rank on her. Maybe because of that, it took us about two hours to get the medicines we needed.

Without a ride to the health post (all of the ambulances had left for the day), we had to wait for the next bus. Unfortunately for us, much more people take public transportation at 10am than at our normal 7am. Today I didn’t ride the bus; I rode the chicken bus. The second we boarded in Sauce, it was packed because the bus had already picked up passengers in a previous city. When the driver saw that we had a cooler and a bag full of medicines, he opened the back emergency door and tried his best to fit us in. The ride couldn’t have been any more uncomfortable. The bus was hot, humid, and personal space was nonexistent. To make things more interesting, a group of girls boarded right behind us carrying chickens, piglets, and puppies. When we hit a rough turn, I got pecked in the back.

I was so relieved when we reached the post. There were already a few women waiting with babies at the gate The cases were all simple: a baby with a cough, another two who were due for inoculations, and one or two birth control consultations. We were done rather quickly – not many people come on Monday because the doctor comes for consultations on Wednesday.

So, we went on to our next task: cleaning the post. Thepost was filthy after being neglected for about a month because of the Christmas vacation.

Our first task was the worst of all: getting rid of the wasp nests. It wasn’t nearly as dangerous as it sounds: the wasp species that had built in the post don’t attack – they’re just a nuisance. They build their nests out of the polvo that gets everywhere in the dry season. The wasps also tend to build in tight spaces – so we had to look between medical forms, in cracks, and even in the boxes of medicine. Dozens of exterminations later, we emerged victorious.

Next, we visited a nearby house to fetch some water and use the latrine – the health post’s latrine had fallen into a state of disrepair. Today was a day of firsts: I’ve never before had to cross a barbed wire fence, nor have I ever had the opportunity to use a well. Though I almost gave Yuritza a heart attack with my attempt to get through the fence, I was actually decent at using the well.

The health post workers maintain a friendly relationship with the neighbors. Upon visiting, we were offered the usual tortilla. About an hour later, the family came to visit us at the post, just to hcat.

We did some pretty standard sweeping, disinfecting, and mopping. By the time we were done, the post looked fantastic. The only thing that bothered me (as usual) was the way we had to deal with the garbage – some of it was medical waste! We emptied the trash onto the lawn and set it on fire.

I guess this brings me to a suggestion for future groups: There is definitely room for

(1) Some sort of ecological awareness program

(2) More health post awareness campaigns – especially about breast feeding. The health post officials already have a good idea of what information they want to display, but the signs often rip in the wind or get damaged when patients come to the post. Donated signs should be laminated and have large and demonstrative pictures because it seems that many people who come to the outlying health posts are illiterate.

We had one late arrival – an elderly woman who had to walk down from the mountains with her granddaughter, her grandson, and her daughter. She had flu like symptoms, so we gave her the standard medication. The grandson had a rash and, again, we gave him something relatively standard. Despite the fact that they were ill, they were both in good humor. The grandson told me that he has an uncle working in Cuba and jokingly asked me if I, as an American, hated Cubans. I did my best to give the usual explanation: that the opinions of the government don’t necessarily reflect those of the American people.

I guess this all brought me to my big revelations of the day:

Health post workers, especially the nurses, have a lot on their plates. Not only are they responsible for bringing medication to the post, writing and filling prescriptions, diagnosing, inoculating, weighing, and comforting – they also have to organize the community, maintain positive community relationships, make and maintain health post educational materials, be responsible for the upkeep of the post, and chase wandering dogs and chickens out of the post. They do all this under the constraints of a public health care system that can’t provide specialized medications and a salary that would be less than minimum wage in the United States.

Today Yuritsa told me, somewhat kiddingly, that she would never see the doctors going to the well to get water to mop the post. The nurses keep the post running!

Day Ten (el 11 de enero de 2009)

Last day of paradise until next weekend. After some errand running around Leon we took the bus back to El Sauce. There was a group of students from Florida on the bus but I slept most of the way. Good thing I did because the professor with those students would have driven me nuts (He sounded like he's lost touch with communicating in a sane manner as he described Obama's campaign as flawless perfection to which the entire country wept in joy of the historic achievement. Overdosing on liberalism.) Back in El Sauce I realized that there isn't much to do when you are dead tired from travelling, two hours is good enough for a nap, not billiards. For the rest of the night I wrote up my diary and went to a basketball game. Kellan's team somehow slaughtered the other team, and afterwards me and Meredith with to Viajeros with her host-brother and two of the bball players. Overall it was a good end to the weekend but I hardly had the energy to get up for the next morning. (Images: A mural in Leon and me at Viajeros [I don't know the guy in the back, he was just really drunk haha])

Tarantula

12/1/09

Maybe the most interesting morning yet…

I woke up around 6:15, groggy and started to make my way out to the kitchen. As soon as I stepped out the door, I noticed something small and dark scurrying towards me. I jumped back and slammed the door almost instinctively – I thought it was a mouse. I opened the door to get another look and… My worst nightmare was confirmed: a tarantula! Don Alberto came and got rid of it straight away. Looking at it in hindsight, it’s a shame that we had to kill an animal that was so old…

Every day in El Sauce is an adventure.

Day Nine (el 10 de enero de 2009)

Today started with a change for breakfast, pancakes :) and a curious cat that wanted some such he jumped in my lap to let me know this. We went sightseeing in Leon before our volcano adventure. First we saw the rubble of a church bombed during the Sandanista struggle, the church right next to it, and the entrance to a National Guard prison where Sandanistas were tortured (we didn't go in). Instead we went to an art museum to see some religious works, obras del movimiento barroco, Nicaraguan contemporary art, and some classics. One to note was Picasso's bombadero de Guernica which was combined with another painting (I was hoping to just see Picasso's original work). We had Paninis at Cafe Rosita and geared up for our Cerro Negro adventure. Unfortunately Meredith and I both forgot our cameras in our hotels but Kris took a lot of photos. It took 45 minutes to drive there, an hour or so to climb, 30 seconds to board down, and 45 minutes to drive back. I had never been to a volcano ever so this made my life so far. First off the entire volcano is BLACK. There were fumes rising from the crater and around it and sulfur and basalt developed on the slopes, rich in color. Almost at the top is a seismograph reader and at that point the wind was so strong that i almost got knocked off the volcano early. From the top I felt like a God. I dug a small hole with my boots and the soil under the surface was too hot to touch. Finally we were briefed on how to ride down. Meredith and Kris boarded down first and they both wiped out. I too wiped out but it was the most fun I've had in a long time. I want to climb and board down again because I know how to ride now. We were all covered in volcanic ash from hair to boot. After a much deserved shower we ate a much deserved dinner at a Spanish tapas restaurant called Venivé. Meredith ordered the shark jeje. The night was very relaxed, we ate ice cream at an arcade and visited a bar before calling it a night. Funny that on a Saturday in such a big city everything closes at around 11:30-12:00am. Tomorrow we're returning back to El Sauce by bus. (Photos: The cat at the Lazybones, outside the Sandanista torture chamber [the statue is of a man who killed a national guard with a rock], the ruins of a bombed church, and the gang at Yia Yia at night)

Day Eight (el 9 de enero de 2009)

We finished up the wall in the morning. Most of the morning work was listening to music while plugging holes with cement. I left work early to catch the bus to Leon at noon, of course I had to run in the hot sun from my house to the station twice because I wasn't informed that hotels require passport proof. The two and a half hour bus ride to Leon was uncomfortably long. Upon arriving we took a taxi to our hostel, Lazybones, which was a breath of civilization (hammocks, shade, internet, good breakfast, COMFORTABLE BEDS!) After a much needed dip in the pool we went sightseeing. We started with a tour to the roof and cellar of the Cathedral in Leon. The views and religious murals and statues were a trip to say the least. The most interesting part is the tomb of Ruben Dario and the sad Leon in front of it. We stopped by a small historical, once Sandanista headquarters, society across the street from the Cathedral. A tour guide explained the history of Nicaragua starting before the civil war in the 70s-80s, and later we saw the Cathedral from the roof of the adjacent building right when they lit the statue on top. We traveled a lot and stayed in for the night at Lazybones, had some beer and beat Kellan at billiards (no sweat). Tomorrow is our much anticipated trip up to Cerro Negro!!! (photos: Pepe and Noel against the finished wall, the inside of the Cathedral of Leon, the Sandanista slogan in the museum, a night shot of the Cathedral, and the sad lion at the sight of Ruben Dario's grave [Leon=lion so this is how sad Leon was when Dario passed away])

Day Seven (el 8 de enero de 2009)

After a great night of rest and 2 cafes I was ready to finish the first week of my project. We didn't completely finish the wall but we came very close. Pepe and Noel set up scaffolding, which would never pass a New York inspection, in fact within the first few minutes one of the supports nearly collapsed while Noel was standing on the supported boards!! PEPE!! Yo grité jaja. The scaffolding only consisted of ladders, nails, and planks of wood, some of which were for standing on and others were for supporting those boards. The only time I climbed up was to take a picture so I ended up doing the bulk of the work today fetching bricks, water and hoisting cement from the ground in buckets. During lunch I took a great video of me playing with Oso the dog, the boy who lives next door, and my lunch. Since it takes so long to upload photos alone I will have to wait until I return to the USA to upload the videos (in high quality). Also at lunch I told my host-mom that the bootleg man didn't lower the price for me today when I bought more music and dvds and she told me to pretend to buy CDs next time and REFUSE him when he tells me the price and tell him he needs to be generous. After much cement mixing and brick laying all day, we are very close to finishing. After adding one or two lines of bricks and filling in some gaps in the sides and ceiling with cement we will be done!! Probably tomorrow! English class was again very fun. I evaluated presentations and played telephone with a team. Unfortunately my team cheated like no other, but then again they were probably the best at speaking English out of the class. Much of the class was an introduction and follow up questions to Tim, a veteran of El Sauce, which was very funny (Can you write your name in the white board? No, I can't in the white board, but I can ON the white board!) To conclude the day I refilled my water bottles with purified water and went to the bar Viajeros with Tim, Yaca, Kellan, and Irene. I am very excited for my trip to Leon tomorrow. I can't wait to ride el Cerro Negro, I just hope I don't get any sunburn! (photos: the scaffolding, the nearly finished wall, and two students from English class)

9/1/09

There are some things that people prefer not to mention here. The 80's and 90's were a very traumatic time for Nicaraguans, especially the Saucenos.

People will make offhanded remarks about conveniences they had before the war, especially the train that went to Leon - but there is a period of time that people just won't bring up.

The people who are willing to bring up this period of time seem to be the teens - I guess that's because they don't really remember all that much about this time period. Today, one of the tour guides showed me the grave of her uncle who died during the war and went on to tell me about how El Sauce has changed since her childhood. I was surprised to learn that up until the late 90's, there were only about five telephones in the whole of El Sauce!

Our peers are especially reluctant to talk politics. I can't imagine how hard it must have been for them to grow up in that sort of an environment. It's hard to imagine all of that instability, violence, and isolation happened in the El Sauce I'm getting to know today.

Day Six (el 7 de enero de 2009)

Another day of working on the wall, teaching English, and seeing El Saucueño life. Don't ever get addicted to Nicaraguan coffee because the morning you go without it (today) will begin terribly. Today at Pepe's the large plank that me, Megan, and Kris built on Day 4 was integrated into the wall and filled with cement. It is the halfway point to keep the wall balanced. During work Pepe put on a CD of American rap songs, some of which I translated. We also took a ride in the pick-up truck to another part of El Sauce to pick up planks of wood for the next project in Pepe's house, part of the roof. The best part was standing in the back part of the truck while we drove. Unfortunately I got a bad sunburn on the back of my neck and I think it dehydrated my body such that I was like a zombie during lunch and when I returned to work. Pepe noticed how slow I was so instead of working we talked for about an hour and he bought me Traspado (lots of ice with honey). I wasn't aware of it at the time but I was instantly hydrated and energized again. Coming home from work I saw a coffin in a pick up truck with about 100 people following it (including one of the people on Kellan's bball team). I ran into Megan who briefly described how it works and the funeral in El Sauce that took place when the mayor's daughter died. She showed me her house and backyard and adorable dog Esperanza. She also told me that she was expecting a group of volunteers from PregnantCow.com of whom were going to work on a separate 4-Walls program. Ha, beat them to it. In English class, I graded 3 presentations (2 pass and 1 fail) and we role-played with the students. I helped a group form questions for Meredith in an interview and then went to Meredith's group to be interviewed with the questions she helped them form. Then the whole class played competitive pictionary. My stomach feels pressurized, probably due to a piece of chicken I ate during the wood-pick up, and even eating great food at the Hotel Blanco, I need to relax and de-pressurize my stomach. Update: I ended up throwing up all that food at the end of the night (graphic, I know) but somehow I felt instantly better. I had sweet dreams and work up revitalized!! (Photos: Me looking cool [notice the half finished wall in the background], My co-workers looking cool, Megan with Esperanza, and a night shot of a church and mountainside)

Day Five (el 6 de enero de 2009)

A rough start turned out to be another great day in El Sauce. This morning I was grumpy because the house was very noisy for a Monday night and I only had Rice Krispes and water for breakfast... 15 minutes before work my host-mom laughed because I was locked in the house (I didn't have the key for the padlock to the front door -.-) and she insisted on me eating breakfast. I ended up at my worksite 15 minutes late but ironically Pepe and his friend didn't mind at all that I was late. There is a difference between time in USA and Nicaragua, one is strictly up-tight and the other is very laid back. At work I sifted pebbles and rocks out of fine soil which was mixed with cement and water into a mushy pile. First the soil and cement were mixed a few times over into a volcano like pile and then the pile was arranged into a caldera. The water sat in the middle and the outside cement-soil mix was slowly combined to make the cement. Laying bricks was nerve-racking at first, I was scared of making an unsturdy base at the bottom but after the first 3 layers the progress started adding up. Cement mixing and Brick laying was all I did for work today and over 8 hours we finished half of the wall!! Conversation with Pepe was great because today we talked about English and how strange some pronunciation is (like -tion instead of cion on the ends of words, and RE-FRID-GER-A-TOR). It was practice for my upcoming English lesson. The lecture passed by with ease, much easier than I anticipated. The students were of all ages and they were very nervous themselves! I enjoyed introducing myself, hearing them introduce themselves, and then helping them to pronounce and translate words in English. Of course with the planning of Yacarely :) She is a great teacher. Today I also got a chance to check out some of the street stands setting up for the upcoming fair (which apparently is huge, and I will just miss it by one day :/) Most of the stands offer novelties, food, or cheap merchandise and toys. I bought 85 cordobas of bootleg music and a DVD >:] (85cords is maybe 4 dollars and change!) And the work week goes on. (Photos: Pepe and his friend and the progress, a gallino in their backyard, and a picheta)

Day Four (el 5 de enero de 2009)

So today was my first real day of work...and yes I am more tired than yesterday. I worked on one of the walls in Pepe's house, he knows Kellan, Yacarely, and Megan and was first in line for the 4-walls project. We talked for a little and took a look at his adobe wall, ready to fall apart with barely a shove. We all started with the wooden planks and then shoved the adobe outside of the house! There happens to be a wasp nest close to the roof. Megan also helped us with the wall, and translating what Pepe and his brother said. Ana, a girl of maybe 13 years old was around with some younger kids and she could tell what kind of music I liked so she put on some salsa and Calle Trece. At noon I took an hour break and ate like a dog. I also had a long conversation with Alida's grand-nephew, it was really hard to understand him, especially since I couldn't explain why I didn't know what he was talking about. Work from 1-4 went much faster. Thank God that this wall is on the north side of the house or else I would have burned up to a crisp in the sun. Me and Megan worked on cutting wire and bending metal into squares to make a mid-wall foundation. It will go in the wall for support, after we pile 5 feet of cemented bricks in the ground. That will start tomorrow. Conversation with Pepe and his brother was interesting, we talked about political parties in Nicaragua and USA, the WTC, the Jamaican Olympic star Hussein Bolt, and how me and Pepe are still trying to find the right girl to name a few things. I was so exhausted after work that I ate my food in a new record. Afterwards at the office me and Meredith were briefed by Yacarely for our first English lesson tomorrow and we read examples of past lesson plans. I'm a little nervous about that tomorrow because I don't know what to expect from the students but then again they are novices at English and looking to be taught. Upon returning to my host-family's house I saw Osbaldo and Alida in the back watering plants and playing with the dog Oso, which is trained completely different from an American dog. It was hilarious when the dog disobeyed Alida because she took out a bullwhip and smacked the air, immediately sending Oso back to the backyard. I am so tired that I must rest up for my day tomorrow, hopefully the calluses on my hands will go away by then. (A before and after picture of the wall we are working on. And Oso the crazy dog that attacks feet!)

Day Three in Nica (el 4 de enero de 2009)

Today I woke up feeling grogy with a sore throat and stuffy nose, it may be due to the climate change or the dust in the air. Today started with a tour around the parts of El Sauce that I'll need to know. The sun was blazing out but with SPF45 only my neck got slightly burnt. We spent 8 to 12 exploring the sites of El Sauce. The simple grid-system in El Sauce is very easy to memorize. The key-points are where we each live, how to find the office, the ice cream store, and the house I'll be working on. We made some stops by the high school and an elementary school that a professor in Geneseo founded. After we passed by the rodeo we saw the baseball stadium and decided to stop in and watch the game. Kris went to get pictures of the players in the dugout while Meredith slept :P During the game I got to explain some baseball moves and rules to Yacarely. Afterwards was lunch which wasn't my favored but at least I got some chicken meat (it was chicken soup with lots of vegetables, very flavorful but not exactly my flavor). We all reunited at the office and did my favorite thing so far in El Sauce, swimming. We went to a small river called Peroles. It was a 10 minutes mo-ped ride from town and there was a group of teenagers hanging out there. When I saw the kid jump off the rock from 35 feet up I had to follow suit (and I did it like 3 or 4 times). The worst was the foot-flop, like a belly-flop on the bottom of my feet. After an hour or so of swimming we went back to the office for a meeting about the goals and objectives in these two weeks and long-term ideas. I'll be waking up bright and early at 6am for breakfast and wall-destroying at 7am. My schedule will be the 4 walls project from 7-12 and 1-4 and then English teaching from 6-8. That will be my schedule for the next two weeks so I hope it isn't very rough manual labor. After a long day of swimming I ate an entire plate of gallopinto and my favorite melted cheese-bread that my host-mom makes. Odds are I will be so hungry after tomorrow that I will eat even more. Chau (The photos: My host-family, the hallway, and bueyes en la calle)

Day Two in Nica (el 3 de enero de 2009)

Day Two in Nica (el 3 de enero de 2009)
This was the day that made the long flights worthwhile. After breakfast we went to Lake Tiscapa, una palabra Ahuatal. We went on a zip-line ride through three stations around the lake. It was unlike any trip we ever went on, and the last station was done backward-superman style. Afterwards we went to a sealed off prison with pictures and information about Sandino's goal and death and what became of it. We visited the plaza of the National Nicaragua Center and the abandoned church which looked like it was inches away from crumbling, but it still had spirit. For some extra photos we went to the bay of Lake Managua which is one of the filthiest lakes in the world. But it sports a great view. There are a lot of volcanoes in Nicaragua. Mobotombo and Mobotombito are two of the many. We traveled by road to El Sauce, about a 3-4 hour drive. On the way we saw more volcanoes and very small towns, even isolated houses that exist far away from any store. The town of El Sauce is very quaint. The roads are in a grid-lock pattern and there aren't any street signs but since it is so small it is easy to manage. My host family is very nice and it turns out I know more Spanish than my predecesor. I can't wait to give them their present :) After a dinner of gallopinto y otras platas, Yacarely picked me, Kris, and Meredith up to go to a basketball game. It was interesting to see a town come out for a local league game, this is also where I met the rest of the Nicaragua Crew (Megan, Irene, and Juan Pablo). We went to a bar afterwards for some drinks and conversation. Again, we met the panhandelers. One of which Kellan had to escort from the bar (he claims she has a history of consuming paint), and another one, a child which Kellan and Megan were describing right as he walked in to hug us and taunt Megan's boyfriend Juan Pablo. On the way back, remenicing the day reminded me what a fun trip this has been in only 2 short days. Within earshot of my room is a bar still blasting reggaeton-- almost tempting me to go there. And the roosters are already at it, at 12:45am -.-