Living a Solar Life

Hey everyone!
I have so enjoyed reading all of your posts and looking at the pictures from Kelsey´s wedding. I also had a really wonderful time and loved being back together again. And for me, it´s time for round 2 on the blog! (yes, i am a couple of days early, but i won´t get internet again until after the 1st of Feb...)

I don´t know where to start. I feel like I ahve experienced so much since the last time I posted. Right now, I am in a rural village in the northern part of Nicaragua called Sabana Grande. It´s a co-operative of women that build solar cookers and then these two guys that try to build solar panels. We are staying with host families and some of our families have solar panels that were donated to the NGO. Okay...let me back up:

I am in Nicaragua right now with 10 other students and 2 professors. It is hot down here - around 90 degrees everyday and as you all know, i love the heat so i am in heaven and tan! I even got burned when I went to the beach and tried surfing until I broke the board. I was so bummed because right when I finally stood up and rode the wave all the way to the beach, the board broke at the end and then they made me pay for some of the board :( But, it wasn´t definitely worth it because the feeling of standing up on the board is totally worth it. So that was the beach one day...The next day we headed to Cerro Negro which is an active volcano covered in black sand. It´s the only volcano in the world like that so we got to go sledding down the side and we got to walk around in the crater. Here´s a pic of us at the top of the volcano.

and this is Carissa volcano boarding

The first two weeks we spent learning Spanish in a city called Leon while receiving orientation about Nicaragua. We each stayed with a host family in Leon to practice our Spanish. I also went to a salsa class with a couple of people in my group and am becoming pretty good at salsa, mombacha, and meringue - hehe. it´s so beautiful compared to the grinding we do. One night with my host family, we had 2 robbers try to break in to the house. I was so scared because I didn´t totally know what was going on so I hid in my bed under the covers, but it turns out the never actually made it in to the house before my host mom came out screaming `ladrones, ladrones`at the top of her lungs.


The group also really likes doing yoga, so I lead sessions a couple of times a week! There are runners in the group, hula hoopers, and soccer players, and fiddlers, and harmonica players. It´s such a cool group and community.

Okay...back to where I started. These past two weeks, I have been without internet in Sabana Grande. Again, with a homestay family. This family isn´t as nice as the one I had in Leon. In fact, the mom is quite a bitch and a total gossiper but her daughter and son are really cool. There´s limited electricity and showers are with a bucket. I got my hair cut here, but I got someone in the group to do it for me. I never thought I would do that!
Here we are taking classes for a bout 2 hours in the morning and then spend the afternoon learning how to build solar panels, solar cookers, and we just finished an electrical installation of solar panels on a `solar restaurant`they are building. And let me tell you about class....hahahahha. We just have to read a couple of pages and then participate in the discussion and wrtie a couple of things in our journal. It´s such a refreshing break from Davidson. I am learning a lot of Spanish and about Solar and about how NGOs work - really sketchily and unorganized (At least the past 2 i have been to).


Learning how to make tortillas! They start from the corn at night, peel it off the cob, soak it and then cook it in ash and water, and then leave it overnight. In the morning at like 5, they take it to the grinder and then come back at like 6 and start banging away making perfectly round tortillas. Mine were nowhere near perfect! Did i mention this was class one day?

Okay that´s all for now because my internet time is up.

This trip is making me think a lot about how consumer-based our culture is and I think I definitely want a simpler life where I am aware about my needs vs. wants. The first thing I want to do when I get back to the US is get rid of almost all of my STUFF.

Much love,
Claire Bear