The Stinky Girl Travels

I don't know if was that quesillo I bought from the vendor next to the grocery store or the stewed beans that were graciously given to me by the Tamarindo mothers, but I guess I can finally say that I have experienced food poisoning. And it was as every bit unpleasant as I had imagined food poisoning would be.   Definitely not happy fun times.  The food poisoning gods did not bestow upon me the gift of explosive diarrhea.... although I don't know if I got the better end of the bargain, because I had the WORSE nausea I've ever experienced in my life.  All night I felt like constantly vomiting, even though I had no food left to vomit. I also had a fever, but it was honestly a mild annoyance in comparison to the horrendous nausea. Thankfully, it passed after 12 hours, and I'm feeling much better now.  I still can't think about stewed beans without feeling like retching, though...not sure if I'll ever enjoy stewed beans again! 

A major part of my work with Mpowering People involves traveling to several rural communities around León, meeting with groups of mothers to discuss their "plan de negocio", or projects for earning money for the year. This usually entails selling something, such as clothing, bread, or soup.  Here are pictures of our trip to Tamarindo:    Traveling by bus: "Bienvenidos a León"                Beautiful scenery                Road in Tamarindo  For the meeting, I created a few questions to discuss with the moms and was in charge of facilitating, which meant asking questions and writing down the responses. It was really hard! Not only was it difficult to understand all of what they were saying, but also to keep everyone on track!  We caught the last bus back to León And took some silly photos together                      Attempt #1 ...

All the girls in my host family and I had a mini salon session together - everyone from one-year-old baby Isis to grandma Doña Vanega had their nails painted!  I cooked tomato sauce and caramelized onions to accompany our lunch of fried fish And used crema to customize each fish with our names!  One of my favorite past-times is feeding carrots to Joka the Rabbit And I drank a delicious, refreshing drink called "cacao" with Gabriela  It tastes like chocolate milk, but less sweet, icy cold, and with lots of cinnamon  Here's a picture of the view from the inside of a camioneta (incredibly difficult photo to get, and at the expense of other passengers giving me weird looks) And the outside of a camioneta, at the market station behind the cathedral               Packed like sardines I was also surprised to find that the avocados here are reddish in color.... And have enormous pits!  Here's the enormous veggie nacatamale I had f...

Hate is a strong word, so know that what I am about to talk about is something that warrants my use of the word.  Every single day, I am sexually harassed by men on the street.  Whistled at. Kissed at. Commented at. Laughed at.  I cannot walk down the street without hearing someone utter the word "chinita", usually accompanied by a kissing sound and an uncomfortably long stare.  What does it feel like?  Anger. Frustration. Fear. Embarrassment. Vulnerability. Isolation. Confusion. Sadness.  I can't laugh it off the way I did with the man who told me "Sayonara, Arigato" because these men are intentionally trying to make me feel uncomfortable by making comments about my physical appearance.  I can't retort, because I can hardly think quickly enough to do so in English, let alone in Spanish.  Often times, they harass me when I've passed by them, or while riding on bikes, so that I have no time to react.  It's gotten to the point where I have star...

At a bus stop on the outskirts of León, I saw something small and furry huddled in the corner underneath the bench.  What I saw broke my heart: a baby kitten, sleeping on a heap of garbage, the epitome of being forgotten and unloved by society.  I couldn't tell if it was sleeping or dying.  And to be honest, I'm not sure which is worse.  If it survives, this kitten is condemned to permanently living on the streets, becoming one of the many animals that roam the streets of Nicaragua, dodging traffic in search of garbage to eat.  I don't want to imply that this problem is specific to León or Nicaragua, because it definitely isn't.  However, I've noticed a certain attitude that develops when one witnesses enough street animals like this kitten, because I notice myself becoming this way too. You become numb to it. After walking the streets every day, seeing countless animals starved and injured, it simply becomes a normal part of life. You learn to avoid street...

León is a beautiful city.  It's a pleasant balance of old and new, calm and chaos:  centuries-old cathedrals, homes painted in every bright shade of green, orange, blue, and yellow you could imagine, coffee shops, the neighborhood pulperias (where you can purchase small amounts of anything you need, such as a few eggs, veggies, some bread for dinner, makeup, toilet paper, etc.)  women walking down the street balancing baskets of groceries on their heads, people selling home-cooked food to the neighborhood, camionetas zipping around with passengers hanging on for dear life, merchants transporting their wares on horse-drawn carts, the daily wail of the city siren at 7:00am and 12:00pm (signifying the time to leave for work and to come home for lunch), and my personal favorite - the tortilla lady who walks down the street every day with a basket of tortillas on her head, yelling "TORTILLAAAAAAAS!" (I'll try to post a video in the near future)  Speaking of loud vendors, ...

       Riding in the back of Mateo's truck         Breakfast with the other vols         Vanessa's colorful training posters       Yogurt breakfast parfait       Eating hot bean soup at the local hotspot, La Cucaracha. Supposedly, eating hot soup cools down the body. Hmmm, well....eating it certainly makes you sweat!           Trust exercise with Sam Relaxing with my mosquito net and journal          Celebration in the streets                "¡Tajadas! ¡Tajadas!"  Mango juice and goat cheese/veggie sandwich at a French cafe called Pan y Paz           View from Mateo's house       Surprise trip to Poneloya beach