So far we haven't made much progress on the projects. There was a lot of miscommunication between CARE Atlanta and CARE Nicaragua and so our projects were redefined several times, and I think this last meeting on Friday was the last about project changes..hopefully now we can get the ball rolling because there are only 9 weeks left! Although we spent the entire week 8am-5pm in the CARE office, Wednesday afternoon we were invited to join on a trip to Jinotega. It is a semi-rural community 45 minutes outside Matagalpa. The ride there was intense. The road infrastructure is terrible; there are giant potholes everywhere that engulf the whole truck. There are also a lot of hitchhikers, horses, and very small children playing on the side of the road. The latter surprised me the most. We are talking very small children! Most were entertaining themselves by throwing rocks at cattle or climbing trees. We drove by coffee fields, through the mountains, across fields. It is very, very beautiful. Jinotega is a very chill city like Matagalpa, there are lots of bikes, motorcycles, kids running around, and people walking. We only stayed briefly because we were just dropping off some files, but next week we are supposedly going out into the intervention communities for four days. I am excited to see what these are like!
Saturady Allison and I went on a 7 hour hiking trek from Matagalpa into the surrounding foothils. We kind of did a semi circle around Matagalpa. It was intense, but worth it. We hiked through lots of coffee and plaintain farms. I hadn't ever seen either of these plants so it was awesome. It really is a lush and tropical place. Smiles from abroad! :D
Traffic is weird about pedestrians here too. It's like, cars have the right of way instead of people. So, if someone is on the side of the road or crossing the road, the car isn't going to swerve or slow down or whatever. It's up to the people to not get hit. I have to be conscious of it when I am around traffic.
ReplyDeleteJeff
I find that the key to this is a lot of eye contact.
ReplyDeleteThat's interesting. Here it seems like to get through traffic you have to just start walking and cross your fingers that the cars will swerve or stop. My cousin's friends were joking that they saw some tourists waiting for the walk signal at one of the intersections and it was just the most hilarious thing to them. They tend to do this thing with their hands where it's like a "hold it" kind of motion but they never raise their arms, just the hand. We walked in the road because the sidewalks are a little sketchy, and I haven't been able to walk on the outside yet... still pretty sure I'll get hit. Apparently it's not that dangerous because everyone "gets" the unspoken rules...
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