Reunion in NYC

It's been about four months since the last post... this little blog, declared finished and completed, is now back to life... (sort of).

Time has flown by, after a chaotic and eventful summer in Eastern LI.  We learned that our friend, Bridget, an integral part of our Nicaraguan experience, was going to be in New York City.  Visiting her was a must... so Phil, Jordan, sus novias (los chatts), and myself... went to spend an exciting evening with Bridget at her brothers' place.

Even more exciting (not more exciting than Bridget..... well..), was that another awesome individual Phil and I had the pleasure of living with for a week at our place in Esteli, was going to be there too.  His name is Chad. He was talked about on this blog... way back in February.  He is featured in the "Adventures of Esteli" post.


A reunion of us Long Island kids with Chad and Bridget was truly memorable.  And after only knowing them in Nicaragua, and then hanging out in NYC together, it felt odd to see them here.  But definitely amazing.

Chad and Bridget!!!!!!!

Having a nice ol' time on the rooftop of Bridget's bro's building.  We did a lot of reminiscing on the past year and the many funny moments we had.

Chad lived over in the Caucasus region for a while and he knows quite a bit about the Russians.  He said this is how they would take a traditional photo.  Good stuff.

Here's C. Chatt with Bridge.

And lastly, one nice group pic featuring the LI kids with Bridget and the Chad.  An epic reunion.

Kinda weird blogging about this. But I was tempted to blog one more time.. cuz I definitely miss it. No one really wants to hear about what people are doing in NY....that is, if you're from New York.

And on one final note, I would like to take this opportunity to post one of my new favorite pics taken in Nicaragua.  It serves as a fantastic desktop wallpaper...

This photo encompasses a small portion of a farm in Miraflor, the rural territory for Esteli.  And in the corner is Arturo and another brother preaching to the worker.  Only good memories from Nicaragua....

Farewell Esteli

Being here since October, and now I'm gonna be thrusted back into the New York life once again... it's a weird feeling. 

My last meeting was on Saturday... always hate saying goodbye.  Esteli Central has been a great congregation, so many great friends.

A recent congregation photo after the last meeting we had for the CO visit.

Before the Pioneer Meeting we had during the CO visit which was in the first week in May... here are all of our Regular and Auxilary Pioneers in Esteli Central Congregation

I wanted to take pictures of more of the friends before my last meeting, but being here and taking tons of pictures for this blog, you kind of get sick of it after a while.

I will certainly miss Esteli Central, my first congregation in Spanish.  Definitely a challenge, learning to speak it everyday, but it has been worth it.  The commitment to need-great in a foreign land has been the best decision I have ever made and gives you experiences you wouldn't be able to do otherwise staying back home in the States.... It has been a fun, exciting and absolutely incredible 8 months... To realize that it has flown by and I haven't been on Long Island since October has been unreal.  I would recommend to anyone to try this at least once in your life...you won't regret serving in a foreign land and as long as Jehovah is put first and everything is put toward Kingdom interests, it will definitely be a successful trip.  

Farewell Esteli... don't know when I'll be coming back to Nicaragua as of now... but an experience like this is something you can't resist for long.   There will most definitely be another trip in the future.

Thank you all for tuning in and following along, this is the final post... hope I was able to teach you guys something interesting about this place through the experiences and the posts... 

 To all friends and family on Long Island... I look forward to seeing you soon

Blog, Done... bye

Esteli Balcony Covers Series - Part 15: A Better Place, A Better Time

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To download the mp3... if you would like ...

Welllllllllll.... this is it. My final post for the Esteli Balcony Covers Series.  This is song number fifteen.  I thought it would be appropriate that I started with a streetlight song, and so I would end it with one.  Of course, it's in the same solo guitar, folk fashion as always... "A Better Place, A Better Time," a nice 'emo' song if you want to call it that... but originally made in a ska-punk style, native to Streetlight Manifesto.  

Thank you all for following along for the balcony covers series... it's something I have certainly enjoyed doing these past 8 months to pass the time and try not to get too rusty on the guitar... Hope you've all enjoyed it and if you think the blog would have been better off without these songs, well... I could really care less... so, on that note.....

that's it.  enjoy

Hacienda Iguana

The last half of their time here in Nica, the 3 M's and I, took a little expedish to the beautiful Playa Iguana.  Thanks to the help of Dennis, he set us up with a nice place to stay at Hacienda Iguana to surf and enjoy the beach. 

Dennis let us use his legendary "jeep" for the trip to somewhat remote location at Iguana. 

The 3 M's ready to head for the beach.  I love Matt O's nervous expression here.  At first, driving in Nica can be nerve-wracking, but he got comfortable driving there in no time.

Sunset at Iguana

Epic surf at Iguana... for waves, this is the place to go.  Our original plan was to head to San Juan Del Sur, but thanks to Dennis the trip was much better at this more relaxing and secluded area.  This is a famous break known as Colorado.  

Ultimate beach truck... the racks made easy transport for the surfboards.

During a nice little hike around the edge of the cove to see what was on the other side

Taking a "nature walk" and hiking to the top of this high point to catch the view

A truly inspirational pic... Marvin and the rock. 

Hacienda Iguana is always a fine way to end a trip to Nicaragua... It's a beach that's out of the way, so you need a vehicle, but it's worth it, and in many ways much nicer than San Juan Del Sur.  This was an amazing way to end off a most life-changing and incredible 8 months of need-greating in Nicaragua, and it was fun enjoying this with a few buddies from back home as well...

The Three M's

The 3 M's decided to come and have their own Nicaraguan experience for a couple weeks.

M att O'Keefe

M att McCaffrey

M arvin Carbahol


Their first week, they came to visit my assignment, here in Esteli.

This is a nice photo of the 3 M's at the river leading to the waterfall of Estanzuela, a nice place to sight see relatively close to my place.

 Jokester Matt. M. and his creepy stare

They adapted to their environment well, as you can see... along with their plethora of electronics they brought including, laptops, I-pads, I-pods, droids, gameboys, and tablet pc's...

The 3 M's visiting Esteli Central Congregation.  This photo includes their two favorite people from Esteli they met: Fidencio and Bridget.  You know this is a special picture because it's not often when you see Fidencio smile like that for the camera.

Follow along to the next post about the next half of the visit of the 3 M's...

Esteli Balcony Covers Series - Part 14: This Old City

http://www.mediafire.com/?08xvn90v4l3ns3n

To download the mp3 ... if you would like...

Hey, this isn't a cover.  Sorry.  It's some version of this original I made while living here.  It's about the theme of the previous post on some history of Nicaragua...

Some History...

This photo was brought to my attention recently.  After seeing it inspired me to write a brief summary of a bit of the history of Nicaragua.  This photo is of a Sandinista, taken during the height of the Nicaraguan Revolution, in 1979, in the city I'm living in now, Esteli.  Esteli was actually a main area for the fighting that took place in Nicaragua, to overthrow the Somoza Dynasty, a family of dictators that controlled Nicaragua for many years until the uprising of the Sandinistas. 

The country has had a sad history.  This war in the '70's and '80's, famously known as a fight between the Contras and the Sandinistas, was preceded by a devastating earthquake in 1972, that hit the capital of Managua, obliterating 90% of the city.  This led to corruption in the Somoza-run government because of the bad economic situation the country was in, giving fuel for the Sandinista cause to overthrow the Somoza family.

Here is a picture I found of the city of Mangua, pre-earthquake:

Managua, pre-1972, was a bustling economic center.  It was the most prosperous and greatest of all the Central-American countries at the time.  This picture shows that the city once had the qualities of a modern-day city, with tall buildings and whatnot...

 The earthquake ended up fracturing most of the major buildings in the city, forcing 90% of the city to be torn down and rebuilt... Today, much of the city has been rebuilt, but still to this day it hasn't fully recovered.  The central part of the city was re-defined because it was destroyed, and many communities lie on the outskirts of the city, because many took up residence on the outer edges of the city right after the earthquake.


 This reminds me of the museum at the bethel branch we visited last year, which has since ceased operations back in November.  Refer back to the post about bethel about the museum... The brothers endured a lot through the difficult times during the Nicaraguan Revolution, and even though Nicaragua's turbulent history had it's trials for the brothers here, it still didn't stop the good news from reaching the people, and the rest of the world as well.

Memorial in Esteli

As we all know, our most important meeting of the year, the Commemoration of Jesus' Death, passed over a week ago.  It was my first time taking part in a Memorial in a different country and in a different language than English.  April has been one of the most exciting months of service here in Esteli.  The campaign was great, and once the Memorial date arrived, on the 17th, we had a really nice amount in attendance.

We had 236 in attendance.  The entire hall and both back rooms were filled up, and we had about twenty late-comers that sat outside and looked in through the windows... Our sister congregation, Centenario, had 230... making the entire hall between the two congregations, 466... This was one of the big reasons for staying in Nicaragua throughout April.  

Forgive the horrible, blurry pictures... my camera decided to not work that night, and almost every picture came out horrendous... Here we have, The Vaquedanos, The Manzenares, and the Provchys.  The brother that gave our talk, Jaime Provchy, was in Bethel, and now he is serving in a Mosquito language congregation in Managua.

Our congregation, Esteli Central, waiting patiently outside for Centenario to finish their Memorial.  Everyone came super early, so it got crowded outside really fast.

Fidencio... whom I've started to call padre.  It isn't uncommon for a younger individual to address a patriarch or matriarch figure as padre or madre... haha...

Took a picture of these two punksters in our hall... on the left is little Edgar Arauz, and the other is Abrahan.

Another stupid, blurry picture... but it's all I've got... after the memorial, there's Abrahan, me, Reinaldo Lagos, Felix Espinoza, Clint Cherepa, and Bismark Rojas...

That wraps it up for the Memorial, and basically the rest of the month of April... I have a few more ideas for posts and some other things to talk about, but there won't be a whole lot more... it's hard to imagine I only have 3 weeks left... it's a strange feeling.  

What's there to look forward to for these next three weeks?... well, right now I'm awaiting the arrival of the Three M's, which will be revealed later... and we have the CO visit starting in the first week in May, the last one felt like an eternity ago, which was only back in November...

That's all for now...

Recent Theocratic Activities: Congregation Miraflor Day

As it is the case with many congregations this month, we have had a nice long list of auxiliary pioneers as well as the regular pioneers.  As of now, we have twenty auxiliaries and twelve regulars, to support the special campaign for the Memorial.  One special day, our second Sunday of the month, we dedicated to going up into the mountains, one and a half to two hours away, in a region called miraflor, to invite people, and also find those who scarcely get preached to.

This was our group.  An astounding thirty brothers and sisters, all going up into the rural territory together... most rural territory groups only range from about eight to ten people.  But this month was special.

Back to Miraflor...

This particular day in Miraflor was extra-special... two brothers and one sister (Jorim, Carlos Arauz, and Bridget, to give you names) volunteered to use their trucks for this trip... usually we take the bus, and then walk to our territory... but with the trucks, we were able to places we usually wouldn't have to time to do.  Three red pick-ups all traveling in a caravan, each with ten people... we looked profesh!

Preaching in one little community we found...

Took a picture of this quaint, little house that we preached at after driving deep into the bowels of Miraflor.

That's it for this excerpt about our congregation Miraflor day, which has been the most exciting Miraflor experience so far, mostly because we took the trucks, which was a whole different, and more effective, way to get around the mountains, and find those who are willing to listen about the good news of God's Kingdom.

kbye

Esteli Balcony Covers Series - Part 13: As The Footsteps Die Out Forever

http://www.mediafire.com/?xwjtjluk2bfikot

To download the mp3... if you would like... (better quality)

Here's another one.  A song originally found on the 1998 ska-punk album called, "Keasbey Nights," by Catch-22.  The song's got an interesting contrast between the happy, major progression of the instrumentals and the super depressing lyrics.  It's always been one of my favorites from that album... Anyway, here's my simplified acoustic version of the song...

enjoy it

Masaya Market

One notable place in Nicaragua to mention is Masaya.  The main attraction here for tourists and visitors is the big market it has to offer, which is where most of the authentic Nicaraguan products can be found.

Masaya is located here, on this roughly estimated map.  In the general area of Granada and Laguna de Apoyo.  As I mentioned, the market is basically the sole reason for stopping in Masaya.  But, for a first-time visitor who has no idea about the place, can be deceived.

I found these pictures on the internet of Masaya's tourist market.

Clean and very appealing to find all the authentic Nicaraguan souvenirs you might want.  Very lovely, surrounded by castle walls, this market brings in the tourists.  But, after seeing the REAL market, I would definitely call this deception, "The rich man's market."

Allow me to show you a couple pictures I've taken of the real reason to come to Masaya.

Like night and day.  This market is a maze of small, sketchy pathways through an endless sea of stalls and vendors.  These two pictures are only a small sample of just the beginning of the outskirts.  This place sells all the same products as the tourist market for half the price and basically has everything you can imagine.  One shop could be selling clothes, while the one next to it could be a barber shop, cutting people's hair.  Like I said, it's sketchy... not so much in the way you're gonna get mugged... but there are many unsanitary features of this market, including the food section, which features people cutting up meat under a sizzling tin roof, during the baking mid-day sun.  Walking through that section is suffocating and not fun... but it's all part of the adventure.

Esteli Balcony Covers Series - Part 12: Birds Flying Away

http://www.mediafire.com/?bdaxqza4ax0ev31

 To download the mp3... if you would like...(better quality)

Hey,

One last recording to throw in before the month is over... This is a cover of "Birds Flying Away," by Mason Jennings.  It's not super different from the original... but I also had a bit of influence from the Streetlight Manifesto version, from their 99 Songs of Revolution record as well... which sounds substantially different from this...  but we'll call it a cover of both versions. 

please enjoy

Nos Vemos

The reason for this particular post is to say an official goodbye to my two good buddies and roommates here in Esteli, Jordan and Phil.  They each had to depart from this need-greating trip early, due to their own respective reasons.

 

A photo each, as a brief goodbye, to my two good friends.  It has been fun, and my thanks goes to the two of them for sharing the majority of my first need-greating experience in a foreign country with me.  Phil just left last Friday, so I figured this post would be appropriate.  The second photo, featuring Phil, and two kids from our hall, Asahel Vaquedano and Jorim Junior, was taken last Thursday, which was Phil's last meeting.


See you sometime soon...

on LI...

My Pulperia

Talking briefly about the subject of food, we have these little shops in Nicaragua called Pulperias.  Basically meaning, grocery store.  Our version of my very much-missed Seven-Eleven's from back in the states...  Pulperias have a huge variety of stuff and each one has some specialties... for example: bananas, laundry soap, chilero (hot sauce), eggs, orange drink, tajadas (plantain chips), coffee, toilet paper, cereal, and a ton of other random stuff... the list goes on.

By my house, there are many pulperias... there's probably one every hundred feet or so... but, there is one that stands out.  One pulperia, first discovered by Phil, that I consider the ultimate pulperia of all time.

This pulperia has the basic name, "Pulperia y Variedades." What makes this pulperia so epic? To someone living back on Long Island, would probably think, "wow, what a dump of a store, who cares, when we have an endless abundance of delicatessens, starbucks, and coffee shops (aldo's)..." Well.... to me, this pulperia never ceases to make me happy, food-wise...

Here's one reason:

EPIC BREAKFAST... for 30 to 40 cordobas (depending on if you get the orange juice) you get this pile of deliciousness...  Eggs, gallo-pinto, two tortillas, endless amount of coffee... basic? pretty much... but I've found if you get up early enough, nothing's better to start you're day than to stop at the pulperia before the service group that starts at 8:30am...

Here's my other reason:

This pulperia happens to have the only supply of this little dessert... Trits (pronounced 'treats'), that I could find in all of Esteli.  It's basically an ice cream sandwich/flying saucer thing, packed into this cup...  I discovered this back in San Juan Del Sur.  This stuff is made in Costa Rica, and is a lot more rare to find up here in Esteli... But my favorite pulperia, which is only a minute from my house, had this most awesome delicious snack... First time I found them there, I cleared out all of their supply... (they only had like 5).


Now you know about pulperias, and why I have one special pulperia that I call, "My Pulperia".  My thanks goes to Phil for venturing there first and discovering about its existence and the breakfast they have.


que rico...

North to South

In the last week of February, I got to spend time in a town found in southern Nicaragua, known as San Juan Del Sur.  Actually, this is a very well known place, and a prime spot for tourism and surfers.  You can say it's like the Nicaraguan version of Tamarindo, but it's half as costly and double the adventure.  This was my last "vacation" here in Nicaragua, before my final two months I have now, here in Esteli.  It's weird, because for people coming off the plane, from previous cold weather, to go to the nice, warm coast of Nicaragua, would definitely consider it a vacation... but what is only a bus ride away from my home, it doesn't feel the same.  But it's still cool.  Nonetheless, going from the mountains to the ocean is always gonna be a great trip.

Better yet, I got to enjoy that week with my brother and sister-n-law, Jonny and Nikki, along with Casey and Jarod Goulart from Rhode Island.  When I saw them at the Managua airport, they were all white and wintery.  I could tell that Northeastern winter has taken its toll on them.  But that was about to change...

Lets take a look at some pics from the latest excursion:

  I like this pic.  Here we have the top half of Jonny's face looking out at the cove of San Juan Del Sur, which you can see from his glasses.

On the way down to San Juan, you can't help but check out some of the landscape.  On the road, you end up passing by the immense Lake Nicaragua and an active volcano from the island of Ometepe.

La Percha: This is the name of the place we stayed at for the week.  An incredible view, built right on the cliff.  It wasn't the easiest getting to the place, but its location was amazing.

And of course, with such an epic view, came great sunsets... The second one kind of gives you a sense of the view from the inside through the window... good stuff

These two dogs lived at the house.  And under the house is where the caretakers lived.  It wasn't a problem as far as worrying about safety at La Percha.  These dogs were massive though, like great danes or something, the picture doesn't show how big they really were.  The first night we were there, walking to the house the dogs came running over barking in the pitch black.  I seriously thought I was gonna die.  Turns out these dogs were as friendly as can be and followed us everywhere and even led the way to the beaches.

Here are a couple pics to give you a brief idea of the town of San Juan Del Sur.  Huge amount of foreigners and visitors, it's no ordinary Nicaraguan town.  All the boats were stationed on the outskirts of the cove.  A lot of fishing and surf tours make up some of the town's attractions.

And we did get to surf.  This picture was taken by my brother on the first day we got there.  It was the day we didn't have surf boards.  My brother freaked out when he saw these epic waves coming in on high tide on the cove just south of our place of La Percha.  It was within walking distance.  The funny thing is, the next few days after when we got the boards the waves weren't that good...

The next cove south of this beach is called Playa Hermosa, which you can see in the distance.  That's where they filmed the two seasons of the show Survivor, which they stopped filming like six months ago they said.  We ended up surfing there on one of our last days and it ended up having some of the best waves.

They say the waves here are better and more consistent than farther down south in Costa Rica.  The wind comes over Lake Nicaragua and provides constant off-shore wind 360 days a year.  So the waves were always clean, it just depended on the tides basically...

Jonny and Nikki

Staying at La Percha, renting a truck was necessary.  The place was 20 minutes away on a dirt road and San Juan was the only place you could get food at the supermarket to bring back to cook.  Just one reason why in Nicaragua is more of an adventure I guess, compared to a much more accommodating Tamarindo, Costa Rica.  But this super-old, sketchy Toyota Landcruiser was great and got the job done, besides that flat tire you see... O and it almost killed Jarod while he was driving, when a thick, solid metal bar broke off the roof and hit him straight on the cranium... While he had to stop the car for a bit, we thought he was gonna pass out or something from a concussion. Then he was fine and kept driving...

Surf Safari: We walked to the spots on a trail from our place, accompanied by the two dogs.  Their names were Bicho(beach-o) and Cardinal(car-dean-al).

Surfing Playa Remanzo... the sunset sesh

Jonny and the dog... always cool when the dogs accompany you to and from the water. Unfortunately, we have no pictures of anyone actually on the waves... we were all too busy doing the surfing and not the photography, and we even had a water-proof camera! Unforgivable...

Nikki and Casey told us they saw this turtle come up on the beach while we were surfing... Guess it was true, and here's the pic to prove it.  Crazy story though... you can witness the difference between Nicaragua and Costa Rica first-hand.  In Costa Rica, they had protected and preserved beaches just for the turtles and nesting or whatever, and you even had to pay to see them.  In Nicaragua, this turtle came right on the beach by us.  Soon after, some dude came out of the woods, showed up, and grabbed the turtle by its fins and slung it on his back and walked away with it... That's pretty brutal... the girls said it was a dramatic experience watching the turtle, flailing helplessly, while some Nicaraguan walked away with it... goodness...

Told you there were hipsters in Nicaragua... Nica-hipster... This was actually one of the last photos taken before I got rid of my mustache... don't really miss it...

 Jonathan and his matching green chair.

This big group you see just happens to be all witnesses... It started out just a couple of us, and somehow it just kept growing and people just kept showing up... It's cool to find all these instantly warm and friendly people and then just stand around talking forever... definitely not a bunch of introverted backpackers that's for sure... 

Visiting the hall at San Juan for the Watchtower study and public talk.  Here's Casey and Jarod.

Here's our crew in front of the San Juan kingdom hall.  Nikki, Jonny, me, Jarod, Casey, and Sara.  Sara stayed with us for a while in San Juan.  A sister from Bethel who happens to be friends with Arturo and Ajah, the missionaries in my hall back in Esteli.

We did so much on this trip.  We even hung out with Dennis and Michelle and her parents. This was Michelle's parents' last week in Nicaragua, so they rented this really nice place up in a mountain near San Juan.  It was nice getting to see Poppy in his last week here in Nica too... If you don't know who Poppy is, please refer back to the post about the Managua missionary home painting... O and I finally found out his real name is Harold... haha...  This is one of the only pictures I had of this place... it's funny though because it captures us while we are just arriving... it looks like we're just standing around... looks like we are lost or something.

Gorgeous place they had... with a pool and crazy nice patio area...

Making a bonfire... it was a blast... (not saying it exploded, just saying it was a good time).

Here's our group piled into the truck... those two guys are living in San Juan... the one on the left is Luke who is visiting, and the one on the right is Ceddie, who's been a need-greater here for ten months now... They took us out on their boat and dropped us off at Playa Hermosa, which was our best day of surfing we had.  It's a good thing that we went to that spot on the boat and didn't drive there... we learned that just a day earlier, people got robbed of all their stuff and their car driving to Hermosa...

And... one more sunset pic... why not...

And... now it's time for a geography lesson.  Remember how I keep saying what my favorite places are in Nicaragua... well, here is a map of these places and I've circled where they are in the country... Also, you can click on the picture to have a better look...

Green Circle: This is my home and assignment of Esteli.  Clearly in the mountains, as you can see...

Blue Circle: This is the area of the town called Somoto... This is around the place where the canyon is  located.  Even farther up north than Esteli, close to the border of Honduras.

Purple Circle: Laguna de Apoyo... this is where we went with Rob... the big crater lake.

Red Circle: The last place I've been, San Juan Del Sur.  You can see how far south it actually is... very close to the border of Costa Rica...

So these places are the biggest stand-outs in Nicaragua that I've seen so far... All great in their own ways... I've still only seen a tiny fraction of this country... Especially that Caribbean coast... sadly I probably won't get to see it this time around...

And that's it for the San Juan Del Sur Experience... it feels weird not going back with family after you've been with them on a vacation... it was great getting to spend time with them in this country that I've been to for six months now... Kinda felt like a guide almost... ha... but not really 'cuz the place was just as new for me as it was for them.  Anyway, it was a nice 'final' trip, of good times, surfing with broskis, and exploration.

e n j o y !