Welcome to El Viejo, Chinandega. I have included one of the only pictures of my new site that I was able to get on my brief visit a couple of weeks ago. The visit was really nice. Not only was I able to enjoy some great beaches that are very close to my site, but I was also fortunate enough to meet some wonderful Nicaraguans who I expect to work with over the next couple of years. The weekend was full of meeting new people, organizations, foods, and streets. In just three months my little pueblo has become a home to me. I have found myself over the last week or so really starting to realize how much I will miss my training town. Not so long ago everything was so new, and now I find myself haggling with my brothers here over silly things at night. Othertimes I just walk through the streets of a town where everyone knows me, and doesn't treat me as some tourist just passing through. Of course I will have all of these comforts in time, but there is just something special about Catarina. I played my last basketball game last night and it was just nice to hang out with the guys. I have made the ride to Masaya in the back of the truck more than 8 or 9 times now, but last night the weather was nice, stars filled the sky and the clouds formed curtains around the moon. I spent much of the ride back staring up into the Nicaraguan sky thinking about what the same road must have been like just over 20 years ago when fighting would have been a reality of the times. It wasnt until 1991 that Nicaragua was even considered to be no longer in a state of War. The country still faces the reality that in regards to political development it is in the infant stages of Democractic rule.
The country as a whole couldn't be more friendly. When you think about it how could any place with as many small children as Nicaragua has be anything other than welcoming? I think that there are a great number of opportunities for the people of Nicaragua and I intend on doing something about it over the next couple of years. El Viejo is going to be a great place for me to set up shop. There are a lot of places for me to spend my leisure time, what little bit that I do have. Nicaraguas largest Volcanoe is just a few Kilometers away from my town. San Cristobol, although one of the most active volcanoes in the world, is regularly hiked by backpackers from all over the world. The beaches in Chinandega and Leon are also very nice and have plenty of great waves. Perhaps the thing that I am most excited about is the fact that I can get my hands on very fresh sea food anytime I want and we are talking right out of the ocean. There is a small pueblo on the beach where the young boys starting at the age of 10 take 15 ft boats out for 30 hours at a time to catch Red Snapper, Tuna, and just about anything else that they can sale in the market. When the fish are biting the town has money, or at least the children have food to eat, but when the fish aren't biting which can happen for weeks at a time, the children are starving. The reality is that in Chinandega a majority of the people live off the land, and when the land isn't producing enough to sustain the people starve.
