December 2, 2016
Kids do and say the darndest things. Last week, Olle came back to the house before Harlan after a session of tag and general roughhousing with their friend Leo. Very nonchalantly, Olle quipped, ‘Harlan and Leo were playing with their fists. A few seconds ago they were using machetes, but they stopped.’ Well, that’s a relief!
As this update is being finalized, December 1st, another Lundgren is down and out. Olle was a beast on the soccer pitch as recently as yesterday, running around like a madman with his red shorts, black headband, shirtless, taking on any and every opponent as he weaved in between the coconut trees, dodging fallen grapefruit while getting covered with the telltale volcanic dust that is the soil of El Tololar. Today he woke up with a fever, and has fought it all day. We are at 101 plus right now, at times flirting with 102 under the arm, and may need to take him in to the doctor by motorcycle soon. Morning Update: Olle is better this morning, but pray.
We have attempted on several occasions to burn our garbage. In general, it has been a complete fail. This is mostly because we only dug one hole for our garbage this round and we mix paper, plastic and organic together. The hole sits in our backyard, shaded by several trees that line Don Lionel’s adjacent bean field. It gets some sun, but even if it baked all day for several days, banana peels, grapefruit husks, leftover pineapple, and watermelon rinds just don’t burn very well. Next time we need to dig a hole, we will dig two and practice proper organic separation!
Burning weeds is a different story though. Carlos has cut our weeds twice now, and each time we have been left with a giant pile of assorted cuttings. The first time we tried to burn them was during the rainy season and it just wouldn’t catch a fire (we haven’t come across any good lighter fluid). Last week we tried again, Miriam and Cully lighting whatever dry egg cartons, boxes and paper products we could find. The fire started with a roar and for a moment we were feeling quite proud, particularly because we had fortunately chosen a day with little wind and thus were not smoking out our neighbors. The weeds on top were dry enough but deep down it was wet. We each danced around the fire for the better part of an hour, a strange looking ritual for passer-bys for sure, us prodding, poking and circling the pile together, rhythmically, in an attempt to keep the flame lit. Ultimately the wind shifted toward our house, and we were left with a smoldering pile of weeds and smoke in our faces. The cool thing was that the fire did actually continue, smoking and smoldering for two days, and finally did succeed in burning all our weeds.
Full disclosure: We have a pee bucket. This is not something you normally divulge, but we really feel a kinship with all our friends and family and are ready to share the truth with you. Okay, we didn’t start with a pee bucket. At first we made the journey to either Wilmar or our neighbor Miriam’s latrine for both #1 and # 2. But one day Miriam had the genius idea that the green garbage can in our room was only being lightly used for rubbish and that it could easily transform into a pee bucket. It is now used by all four Lundgren family members throughout the day (it remains our little secret here :) and is dumped each morning into our garbage hole, another reason why it refuses to burn. We keep a supply of bleach handy to disinfect and have a strict #1 only policy that has only been broken once, during an intestinal emergency. In general we can highly recommend the pee bucket, and now it only seems a bit out of place when one of us needs to urinate during the boys school hours. ‘Hi Harlan’, Cully might say as he utilizes the bucket placed in the corner of our bedroom/classroom. ‘What have you learned today in social studies? Oh interesting, I had forgotten that the Paleolithic Age lasted up until 8,000 B.C. Bye for now...’
Miriam and Cully may in fact have one of the most uncomfortable beds of all time, although the type we use is commonplace throughout El Tololar. Harlan and Olle sleep on ‘scissor beds’ that are basically a bag used to hold rice and beans pulled tightly across a simple wooden frame. They have largely positive reviews of the beds’ comfort-ability. The double bed in Miriam and Cully’s room looks comfortable enough. It has two thin mattresses (we bought an extra one soon after we arrived to augment) and looks cozy. It has a simple wood frame and a wicker bottom with no cross-beam supports. Herein seems to lie the problem. Generally soon after we have dozed off, Miriam ‘rolls’ downhill toward Cully, coming to a rest almost on top of him. We then spend the rest of the night on the flat half of the bed, cozy for sure, but not as spacious as desired. We have taken great pains to identify the source of the slope, but it continues to allude us, even after going underneath the bed to inspect, like a mechanic checking the brakes. The incline – or decline depending on the sleeper’s perspective - remains a mystery.
Our Owl died just before we left for our Costa Rican vacation. We had Owey for the better part of six days. We fed her tens of termites and at least thirty or forty worms we found in rotting husks in the nearby cornfield. We used our fingers to dip water in her mouth. We pet her and endured cuts from her talons. She put up the good fight for sure but went downhill quickly late last Monday night. First she wouldn’t even keep a worm down, then her foot cramped up and she couldn’t hold on to her roost. Finally she couldn’t even stand, and we watched her die as she lay on her side in the hutch we bought for our rabbit Rainer. Losing Owey was a real bummer as we had all grown fond of her and admired her determination to live despite the odds being stacked against her. RIP Owey.
It took us exactly six local bus changes and one taxi ride to cross the border and reach the beach in Samara, Costa Rica, a brief but much anticipated vacation. We ended up leaving a day early due to news of the impending Otto, a very rare, late season hurricane that came onshore as a category two storm in eastern Nicaragua on Thanksgiving Day. It took us an extra day to reach our destination as we were forced to hole-up in the lovely Casa San Juan Hostel in Managua for a night as a result of Harlan’s rapidly deteriorating stomach trouble, made worse by an excessively greasy enchilada, purchased after bus ride # 1, an enchilada whose grease ruined Miriam’s pants during bus ride # 2.
At Casa San Juan we were introduced to the thrilling ‘suicide shower’ (we learned the name later from a couple we met in Costa Rica), evidently not hard to find in parts of Central America. The ingenious invention (which allows hostel’s to advertise that they offer hot showers) has a valve attached to the nozzle with three settings: hot, warm and cold. Coming into the valve are three different color lines. The shower must get it’s euphemistic name either from these dangerous looking wires (water and nearby wires is always a bit scary) or from the ‘hot’ setting. In fact, it should read ‘scalding, don’t use this setting in isolation or you may die.’ It turns out the only way to successfully use a suicide shower is by deploying the buddy system. One person showers per usual, the other stands at attention above, ready to change the setting whenever the showerer says ‘switch’. In this way it is possible to take a shower that stays mostly in the luke-warm range with only brief moments of wicked hot or freezing cold.
Unwittingly, Miriam nearly ingested a cockroach on Tuesday night. We had just returned from Costa Rica to a home with no electricity and no running water. We had stocked up our giant 5 gallon water containers weeks before which was great, but as the water had been stagnant for a while we decided it was best to use the life straws Miriam’s parents had purchased for us before we came. These straws, by the way, are amazing and allow you to sip water even from a dirty puddle if the need presents itself. Miriam took a well-deserved straw swig, followed shortly thereafter by screams and a confused cockroach running for dear life. Lesson learned? Always close life-straw lid when not using for an extended period of time.
In Nicaragua, at least, banana plants have magical powers. They both attract poisonous animals, and at the same time they make them disappear. And everyone here seems to know it. For example, upon finding a scorpion in our kitchen, our friend Beto trapped it and directly carried it over and slid it down into the banana plant. Our friend Marden was over at our house not long after. He saw Cully pick up a small, red, ant looking insect. He told us it was poisonous, at which point Cully said, “So we should kill it right? Marden said yes, but then proceeded, like Beto, to slide the insect (still alive) down into the nearby banana plant. We continue to wonder what is really down in between those leaves and what makes it such a good repository for arthropods ….
In cross-cultural settings, you often find yourself doing are seeing things that are either just weird, or plain funny. We recently took a bus ride with friends to a nearby hot springs. Prior to a bus switch, Cully looked out the window and said to Olle, 'Hey, look at that guy caring that giant piece of meat.' Upon closer examination, the meat was actually a ginormous pig head, just going for a morning stroll with his owner. Olle's eyes got pretty huge. Another time, Harlan and Cully were purchasing ibuprofen. The only stuff they had stated explicitly it was for menstrual cramps but indeed it was 200mg of ibuprofen. We're hoping it works equally well for all of us!
In Spanish, at least in Nicaraguan Spanish, they often use either diminutives (Harlan and Olle for example are not gringos but gringitos, our kitten is not a gata but a gatita). It's kind of cool because you can add 'ita', or 'ito' to lots of words to convey a sense of connection or cuteness. The same goes for extra-sizing things. In the states you might go to McDonalds and 'Super-Size' your order. In Nicaragua, they take it even a step farther, as we found out on Bus # 3 to Costa Rica, driving by a giant sign that stated the upcoming sale was sure to be 'Super-Hyper-Mega-Ultra-Gigantisimo' in nature. Beat that!
What does it take to be an Angel in Nicaragua? Not that much, really just a small donation to make a big impact. In the world of finance, an “Angel Investor” is someone (or a group of people) who provide much needed financial capital, usually to start-up companies. They are angels to the companies (and really to the people who run the companies) because often they are the only ones willing to take a risk on a great idea, on a dream. They make a potentially risky investment, and take a leap of faith.
During a conversation with our friends Wilmar and Adilsa around Adilsa’s kitchen table a few nights back, we had what might be categorized as an ephipany. It went (and goes) something like this. We are ALREADY Angel Investors, or perhaps a better moniker is micro-angel investors. We have some disposable capital, and before us we have people, the people of El Tololar, with big dreams. We have an opportunity, now, to invest in these dreams. Many of you have and continue to do just that through your support of our family. If you want to do more for the awesome, inspiring people of El Tololar, we’ve got a few (actually 4) really cool options for you. Here’s the skinny:
EDUCATION
We as a family have committed to raising money, in partnership with Tololamos, to provide scholarships (bekas in Spanish) to 2 university students and 5 secondary students who really need them. Education is hugely valued here but the reality for many families is that putting food on the table trumps obtaining a degree. For what amounts to less than a buck a day per student, we can help change that equation.
2 University Students = $40/month x 10 school months + $80/student for one-time book costs = $480/student/per year
5 Secondary Students = $225/student/per year. *This amounts to about .62 cents a day per student.
Total Annual Scholarship Cost: $2,085
HEALTH
In a previous post, we noted a need of about $300 to outfit Tololar’s Health Clinic with some chairs, fans, and basic supplies. A good friend is providing this plus even $100 extra! (Muchas Gracias) and we are exploring more needs at the clinic, including donations of supplies.
Initial Clinic Cost: $400 (More possible needs to follow)
SMALL BUSINESS
A successful business anywhere can have big ancillary benefits (salaries for workers, more money pumped into the economy, tax-revenue, etc). In Nicaragua, even a really small, successful business can change lives. We mentioned Wilmar’s story last update. Now’s your chance to support our friend:) You can read a bunch more about Wilmar and his business dream on the Tololamos website and can support Wil through either a donation or a small business loan.
A successful business anywhere can have big ancillary benefits (salaries for workers, more money pumped into the economy, tax-revenue, etc). In Nicaragua, even a really small, successful business can change lives. We mentioned Wilmar’s story last update. Now’s your chance to support our friend:) You can read a bunch more about Wilmar and his business dream on the Tololamos website and can support Wil through either a donation or a small business loan.
Initial Start-up Cost: $4,800
ENVIRONMENT
Peanuts taste good, look beautiful when growing, AND and for a host of reasons we’ve outlined previously and detailed more HERE, they can be really bad for local communities. One way to break the cycle is to plant more trees and other crops to mitigate erosion, soil degradation, and create a natural barrier to the dust that is a trademark of peanut fields during the dry season. For about 1,800 cordobas (about $60 bucks), you can help pay for a worker (for 2 weeks) at the local garden nursery to prepare seedlings that are then offered to community members to plant near their homes, free of charge.
Garden Nursery Total Costs: Approx $1,000
If you want to make a tax-deductible donation to these projects (best to make a general donation and we will work with Tololamos to make sure it gets attributed where needed most within these projects as the needs may shift) you can do so either by mailing a check made out to Tololamos with “Lundgren Family” in the memo line to:
Tyler St. Clare
519 Brook Road
Towson, MD21286
OR
By donating directly through the Lundgren Family Page on the Tololamos website HERE http://www.tololamos.org/lundgren/ We will track all donations and share stories with you of the people behind the scholarships, the health clinic, the tree nursery and of course, our excellente amigo Wilmar.
Muchas Gracias, Feliz Navidad, and Que Te Vaya Bien
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