Getting Back in the Swing of Things

After my time in the United States I was unprepared for what awaited me back in Nicaragua. It wasn't so much the elements or the people, but what mental state I would be in. My time at home was a mental rollercoaster. I remember for the first week thinking about how I missed Nicaragua and how I even wished I could go back sooner. Cue my days of joining yoga, home cooking, family, and relaxing and I found myself on the opposite side of the pendulum wondering how on earth I would be capable of going back.

The airport was hard on both my mom and I.My mom was crying that her baby was leaving her yet again, and I was wondering why I was torturing myself. I liked my life in the States, I had a false sense of security that I could find any job I wanted, thus why torment myself with another year in a foreign land. Well, let's just say I am glad I got back on the plane. Upon getting to Nicaragua I rushed back to site and it has been non-stop since then.

I have taken a new oath to work harder than ever and pursue my goals. I have no distractions and my one objective for 2011 is to be the best volunteer possible. Sounds dorky, I know, but hear me out. I felt that I started taking some of my responsibilites too loosely (ie: traveling around for a week) and I needed to reign in my wandering mind. I want to be remembered in town not just as some gringo, but as an individual that has truly changed the lives of many of the residents.

Since I have gotten back I have already set-up meetings to kick-off round two of my soccer league. We are expanding from 10 teams to over 15 and I am even working at starting a female futbol sala league with the high school. Thanks to Ana all of this is possible and the wonderful people at her church. I have a donation of over 200 cleats and 30 soccer balls to my community and the grand unveiling will be at the opening of my league. I have also already met with my high school director to keep my college fair going and have taken it further to offer professional development classes and lecturers to all 5th year students.

I told you I am taking this seriously. It has only been two weeks and my soccer league is alive, I have universities ready to visit during the school year and my baseball league has been resurected from the dead. While I was gone none of the teams practiced and one actually fell apart. I needed to get them back into some type of organization before we head to Angus' site in Muy Muy to play and I not only got my team restructured but formed a new team in La Colonia. To further cement the process I helped organize a two-game scrimmage at the field that lasted over 4hrs and had in attendence over 50 kids.

I don't want to sound like I am bragging, but I am just very excited for what is to come in my town. This weekam having my first meeting regarding the construction of a $10,000 well to help fight the drought we have every year and will benefit over 4,000 people. I also am working at a youth leadership camp next week and will be presenting four different themes with volunteers throughout the country. It is a heck of a way to start off the new year and stick with my resolution; I only hope I can keep it up... it has only been two weeks.

Part I of my garden complete with a roof to shelter the plants from the deadly sun.

Final bit, I swear. In my free time I decided to jump-start my garden. I got a few tires in town from the local repair man and cut them open with my machete. Cool, right? Well, yes it is cool, but not as easy as it sounds. Those rubber tires for trucks are built heavy duty and I think it has been the hardest work-out I have done in months.

Two tires used as a compost since my soil is solid clay and can't support life.

 Ok and the last bit of news. Since I plan on being busy this year I finally broke down and did something drastic. I can no longer walk an hour and a half to school and lose all that time being productive so I bought a bike. Now, I am really into cycling and this is an insult to my racing days. Basically it is a POS, but what are you going to do, it gets me from point A hopefully to point B. It must weigh 40lbs and I have been tinkering with the gears, but it sure is a lot faster than walking.

Fun in Vermont

For the last couple years the four of us always head up to Vermont after Christmas. It is a time to just unwind from the intensity of the holiday and just escape from life if only for a moment. Our Vermont trip was also a landmark because it was the first family trip that I could recall that Sa and I were allowed to bring friends along for the experience. Sure, there are many running jokes that have resulted from this and I know I will never forget the night that one of my friends got too drunk and screamed how he hated us all, but that is what vacations are all about… right? Anyways, the convoluted point that I am trying to reach is that this year it was just the four of us, no friends, no internet, and more family time then any of us had been expecting in quite a while.

No story about our trips to Vermont would be complete without mentioning the Monopoly incident. I guess it has already been two years, but Vermont seems to be one of the only times that we actually get together to play board games. Monopoly already has an infamous history as being a game of contention, but we always have to take it to the next level. A few years back we were all playing and the game as predicted started to get heated, yet I don’t think any of us saw it going so far. The climax of the game was when my dad told me to “Eat sh*t and die!” Luckily no such outburst happened this year, but another such blasphemous event occurred, Sa won. I guess I should give credit when it is due; she did play like a true mogul and bought up every property she came upon and then just held with an iron-fist and refused to make any trades or deals.

Beyond our normal game nights we drove up to Vermont with the blizzard of the year nipping at our heels. Reports said that we were due from anywhere up to two feet of snow and winds of over 50mph… exciting right? We did miss all the snow on the drive up and it was nice to just get into the house, start up a fire and watch the snow come down.

This year was a relaxing trip and what better way to kick things off then just sitting around with the fire roaring, a good movie on, and playing with the dogs. I of course was excited to hit the slopes the next day and was having fantasies of getting in a day as close as possible to the fabled powder out west. Well, who would think you could actually get too much snow? I woke up the following day the world covered in two feet of snow, but the real problem was the wind. It was already freezing outside and rumor is with the wind chill the temperature dropped to -15 degrees. Ok, I love skiing, but I guess this would be a little much and to make it worse the winds were closing down many of the lifts. Alright, I concede it wouldn’t have had the best day of skiing, but it is a form of torture to have all this snow and know that I couldn’t yet go out and tackle it. Just to give you an idea about the quantity of snow I brought the dogs out in the morning and through both Bailey and Tibby straight into the powder.

Instead of hitting the slopes all of us woke up fairly late. I admit, as much as I wanted to go skiing it was nice to sleep in and both my dad and I were playing the game of seeing who would wake up first. That meant we got a stellar griddle breakfast from my mom and we all headed out together to the town of Ludlow. Ludlow is the town at the base of the mountain of Okemo and is always the image I conjure up when I think of Vermont. Since we couldn’t do downhill today we figured we would do the next best and try-out cross-country skiing. Well turns out that two feet of fresh snow is not the best for that sport either and we ended up going snowshoeing.

I’ll admit, snowshoeing was never something I wanted to do, but it was a blast. It doesn’t take much practice and we just did a loop around a golf-course, but it was surprisingly fun.

Traveling to Vermont is a time for all of us to just relax and recharge our batteries. We all take this charge rather seriously and commit to it in our own manners. I like to be active in any possible winter sport, while my mom and sister prefer to be around the house or go into the small villages. Luckily I was able to get out with my dad the following day to Stratton Mountain.

It was still pretty windy out and I was grateful we didn’t go out the previous day. There was still some powder left, but on the steeper, exposed slopes most of the new snow was already pushed aside. For me the conditions were perfect, but since an injury a few years ago my dad had been struggling. We got in several good runs in the morning, but I headed off on my own that afternoon to really start pouring in the runs and hit the moguls and double diamonds. That night we all came together again and headed out for a sleigh ride. Again, not something I ever really imagined doing, but it was a lot of fun. There is something magical about just heading out into the blackness of the night. It was a one horse sleigh and even had the bells to boot. The ride brought us out to a sugar shack and even a roaring bonfire.

 

As quickly as our trip started it was already coming to an end. It had been a busy couple days and absolutely perfect. Yet, we still had one more morning at the house and I was able to convince my mom to take me out and finally go cross-country skiing. I figured I can do most other things, so how hard can it be? Well, turns out that cross-country skiing is not like walking and downhill skiing combined. I was dripping sweat and my mom only hung around for the first kilometer. Again, I got ditched by one of my parents and decided to head out alone. For my first time I believe I held my own and I did about 10km. Perhaps the best part of my cross-country experience was that while I was busy playing in the snow the rest of the family was back at the house packing and cleaning. 

The trip had come to a close and it was time to head back home. I still had about four days in the United States but that rising sense of dread began to dredge up about going back to Nicaragua. Luckily, I still had plenty of distractions, we were heading to visit my cousins in Glastonbury to keep Christmas going and New Years was just right around the corner.

Family Party

I think it is best to present the family party in its own section. The family Christmas party is not just any get together, it is something I look forward to all year and I start the countdown the minute I leave Amparo’s house. It is one of the few times that the entire family is able to get together and to me it seems even more important as we are all growing older and slowly the family is starting to move apart. I love traditions and this is one of the few that I can recall as early as I remember still being intact. As always the kitchen is reserved for the guys.

Sure there are some of the girls passing through, but if you ask anyone, Amparo gets a buy because she is busy cooking chorizos or bunuelos. The main attraction of the kitchen of course is the “holy water” or Aguardiente. It didn’t take long for this dangerous liquid to come out and it always leads to an eventful evening. I remember stories from my dad of the uncles and my grandpa shaving each others’ heads and some pretty intense conversations. If you hang around long enough you are always rewarded by exaggerated stories both from Al and Frank and it never hurts when you start to mix in Will and Tony. 

As fun as the kitchen is, it is vital that you take it in doses. If you are not careful one shot will quickly turn into 8 or 10 and no one likes a drunk on Christmas... we are classy. Remember the main event is the family and this was no normal party. We had a lot to celebrate; Jill and Carlos were visiting from El Paso, TX.

Also, Al and Mel just got married in September and it was their first Christmas as newlyweds. Perhaps the biggest news was that Al and Mel are not along with that accolade, Will and Lyn are finally newlyweds. In fact, I somehow got called in to do a toast in front of the entire family for them. Now for those of you that know me well I am not much of a public speaker and more often than not trip over my words. Well compound my past with a shot or two of Aguardiente and all I could mutter was a few short phrases in their honor. I attribute it to the fact that I was beyond happy to hear that they are finally wed and that they are so happy together, as I said that night… it is about time.

The night is a time to catch up with everyone that we normally don’t get to see and is a time for me to appreciate how lucky I am. I am honored to have such a loving family and I never forget how fortunate I am. For as much as we rarely see each other during the year we are all able to come together on this one night and act like nothing has changed.

It is fun to see the new generations growing up and to see how everyone is turning into truly wonderful people. Yet, as special as the night is, we have to remember that we are all Restrepos and there will be some chaos along the way. This year the chaos came in a wave known as Christy and fake tattoos. I can’t let her take all the credit, I too got in on the fun and before anyone knew it we were baptizing everyone with tattoos whether or not our victim was willing.

I don’t want to brag, but I love my family and I am so blessed to have them all in my life. More than anything my greatest Christmas present this year was being able to come home and spend even just one night with everyone.

Fallon being a ham for the camera

Coming Home

It was a no frills deal getting back to America, but I was half expecting to get stopped at customs. I promised that I would bring back some smoked cuahada (local cheese) and I was pretty sure that it was against the law, but what the hell. Also, I always check “yes” that I have been in close proximity to livestock since it is not uncommon for a loose pig or horse to come meandering through my yard. Well with all my apprehension I knew I was done for and would be called aside to be searched… nope, I was just asked if I stepped in any manure in my boots (are you serious? These were my classy custom made boots; I am not sure what he was thinking). Another big plus of my flight back was that I had no checked baggage and was able to change from my 7hr layover in Miami to only 2hrs! Big plus, yet I still didn’t leave until 4hrs later because of some rain delay, you would think an airport has never experienced rain before.

With all that put behind us I was still home 3hrs earlier than expected and back with my family. It was wonderful to be home again and just soak in all the things that I have missed. After traveling in a bus for so long I had forgotten the simple luxury of having sufficient personal space in a private car. My mom spared no expense in my welcome and I had a new electric blanket for my bed to help me combat the bone chilling conditions that I was no longer accustomed to.

I started off the week simply enough. Unlike my last trip home I had no ambitious plans of running around like a chicken with its head cut off. I was not planning any ambitious trip to NYC and then to Boston or even running around Brookfield. Instead, I wanted this trip to be about family and if my friends wanted to see me, they knew where to find me. Of course this lead to some issues, but I have no regrets about how I spent my vacation. If anything my few times home in the last 16 months have taught me who I can really count on and that it is an inevitable fact that people may grow apart. So a brief summary of my time home was that I started doing Bikram Yoga. Basically it started on somewhat of a bet with my sister. She told me that I wouldn’t be able to handle it… enough of a challenge to perk my interest. I will be perfectly honest, it was difficult, but I was hooked. I always wanted to get into yoga and why not supplement it with a super hot room to help increase the sweating. Over the vacation I went five times and I think I felt taller by the end of it. Also, getting back into a routine made it feel like I wasn’t on vacation, but had moved back home. Some other things were that I met up with a good friend, Carl Bailey, to talk about how we can work together in some of my projects in Nicaragua. He was kind enough to not only invite me to one of his community parties but also later for a dinner party at his place. It felt so nice to know that I have friends with the same interest and see them implementing it in their daily lives.

So the real reason I came home… Christmas. The day after I got back home we were off to the Christmas tree farm to choose our victim. It has always been a tradition of ours to head out to Shelton as a family and find the perfect tree. A running joke is that we scour the hillside marking trees only to come back to one of the firsts and cut it down. Another historical fact is that my sister has a running record of always choosing the tree. It is not that we simply want to appease her, but she actually chooses the best tree. I don’t want to read too much into it, but this year we decided to get a blue spruce and for one of the first times I had the winning tree. Maybe it was because the tree was a new species or I got sympathy points since I had been gone, I don’t care, I won. Well, one tradition that did remain intact is that I got the honor of cutting down the tree. I now know why we usually go for the Douglas firs, those blue spruces are quite sharp and it makes cutting them down a pain in the butt… literally.

We had funny running through the cold and taking plenty of pictures of our trek through the farm. I made sure to take plenty of pictures of the process to show my family back in Nicaragua and even got the elusive Mom in some of the pictures.

Even though I tried to keep my visit home low-key I still was fairly busy. I don’t know what is different between Nicaragua and the States, but my time at home just seems to fly by. I made a thorough list of things I wanted to accomplish, but I still didn’t get to hit it all. I did some Christmas shopping at the mall, took out my dad’s car for a joy ride, but I never had that dead time that I can’t seem to kill when I am at my place in San Dionisio. I guess that is beside the point, getting back to the idea of Christmas I decorated the Christmas tree alone this year while everyone was at work. Another difference between here and there, everyone here works and has a million responsibilities. I can’t really blame them, but I guess I can settle for dead time for the day rather than always having to be at work.

One quick note before I get to the family Christmas party. I did plan one extravagant trip during my vacation. I went to New York City for the night to meet up with one of my best friends. Sadly, I don’t have any pictures of us together because I am just a horrible camera man. Yet, I did get some free time to meander through the city and took some pictures of the skyline and the touristy spots.

I met up with Michelle after taking the train down to Grand Central Station. Upon getting into the city I just realized how populated the city is. Also how fast everyone moves. I am considered a fast walker in town, but I was being left in the dust. In the station I was distracted by the ceiling and felt like a breakwater from the ever present tide of people.

I met up with Michelle for dinner because like any twenty something year old you have a job and can’t just wander around like a Peace Corps Volunteer. It was pretty swanky and I was amazed by this lifestyle. I remember before leaving for Peace Corps saying how I could give it all up, but sitting in that restaurant… I missed it. Everyone around me was so attractive and in shape. Given, I was at 20^th and 5^th Ave, a young professional hot spot, but still I was blown away. I don’t know, I say how I want to continue living abroad and I have been known to openly bash NYC, but after my dinner with Michelle and seeing her place in Brooklyn, I could see myself as a New Yorker… scary.

Quick Vacation to Prep for Vacation

It is harder than I thought to think back only a month, but I guess that is the price I have to pay for procrastinating and continually pushing my obligations aside. The big news of the last month is not only that I was in the United States, but also my touring around Nicaragua beforehand. 

The Nicaraguan school system is different than the United States, the school year runs from the beginning of February until the end of November. In fact, the Nicaraguan system accounts for 200 days in the classroom; whether or not that number is actually achieved is debatable, but you can’t blame them for aiming high. Anyways, right after my Thanksgiving weekend I was busy attending promociones (graduations) for my 4 schools. It was cute and a lot less awkward then the previous year. Nothing really changed, but unlike last year I now knew all of the students and shared a sense of accomplishment in handing the diplomas to all my 6^th graders. Of course I had my round of posing for pictures with families and then the customary visits to all the student houses for lunches. I really don’t know how the teachers do it every year; each promocion is for at least 6 children so that means 6 different families to visit. Besides the distance between all the houses we are given enormous plates of delicious food. Remember, it is seen as rude not to eat or leave too much… that means I was successfully able to fast the following week without an inkling of hunger.

Well the promociones were my last job obligation for the year. Sure, I am supposed to be in site and continue to do community based projects, but my days opened up considerably with the removal of my normal obligation between 6am to 1pm. Also, how was I going to work in town when everyone is on vacation mode? If there is one thing that Nicaraguans take seriously it is their vacation, and who am I to deny them that? So rather than fighting the system I decided to embrace it. I did what any capable person would do and decided to go on my own vacations. 

Here is a quick summary of my last two weeks in Nicaragua before going back home. In the last weeks of school I formed a new group of friends. With Angus and I working together on our baseball league I started seeing him more and more and then one of our other good friends transferred sites closer to our region. Well this resulted with us becoming somewhat of a trio and what better way to inaugurate our group than a trip to Estelí. For those of you who are not familiar with Nicaraguan tourism, Estelí is located up north and famous for cowboys and cigars. We went for a little bit of both. John was on a search for cowboy boots (where I bought mine) and we were curious to find some good cigars. You may not believe it, but Cigar Aficionado rates Nicaraguan cigars as some of the best in the world… do you know where the best cigar wrappers come from? Connecticut, that’s right! Ok, getting back on track. We headed up to Estelí to tour some of the cigar factories, buy some custom made boots, and just get a feel for the city. We lucked out and timed our trip during their Purisima. La Purisima is an event when using wealthy families and the local government first hold a prayer event and then give out free plastic-ware and candy. If any of you have seen the scenes from Africa when they are giving out rice to famished zones you are pretty much imagining the scene of any Purisima. It is bedlam and I couldn’t help but just stand back and watch the frantic people push and shove others out of the way for stupid little plastic cups. I am sorry, but if I have one complaint about the culture here it is this… why are lines so hard to comprehend? Well I am not going to bash the culture, this is only my observation and on a lighter note, the cigar factory… worth every minute. Not only did we get to smoke cigars throughout the tour, but cigars normally worth $30 in the States were only $1 in the factory.

Alright, that trip alone is enough to get me in the vacation mood, but there is more. The following weekend I decided to follow the example of my Nicaraguan friends and take a vacation to get ready for my vacation. I headed down with Angus to San Juan del Sur to work on my tan for a bit before heading back to the blistering cold in Connecticut. True, I am already pretty dark from just normal life, but it doesn’t hurt to touch up and just make the contrast that much more apparent. After 8hrs and 3 buses we made our way down to the beach and met up with several other volunteers. At this point I would like to give a warm salutation to Rachael’s parents. They took all of us poor volunteers out to an amazing and entertaining dinner. I can’t recall ever feeling so comfortable so quickly around two such loving people and meeting them was reason enough to travel all the way across the country. In fact, that was the main reason we headed down to San Juan del Sur and the next day Angus and I headed out to Granada. Besides just being two vaga gringos, Granada is heading back in the direction of site and cut off nearly two hours of travel for us both. Even more, Granada is a beautiful colonial city and perfect for some used American apparel. 

Coming to the end of my little bout around Nicaragua was that after Granada I headed back to San Dionisio to say good bye to my family and pack for my trip home. I don’t know why but flights are always a huge inconvenience and being 5-hrs away doesn’t help. I ended up leaving site a day earlier to go visit my family in Masatepe a short visit. It was so worth it; I played all day with Andres and got to show off my ever improving ability at speaking Spanish. Hilda and Gonzalo are still happily married and are busy saving up to purchase their own house. Sol is also married and now living in the Dominican Republic and Andres is just like any other crazy 8yr old. After only a day I was up the following morning with the family at 3am to head to a special mass, El Nino Divino. I did have to be at the airport at 5am and right as I was about to enter the church the first bus went by and I was told to jump on, sorry church, looks like you will have to wait.

There you have it, a short synopsis of my last two weeks in Nicaragua. Sorry I don’t have any pictures but you get the idea. From the start I kicked off my vacations right and after traveling around and visiting my family in Masatepe, I was ready for the real deal and was heading back to America.