Rotary Club and León

July 10, 2008

Lori the volcano boarding record holderIt has been way too long since I’ve written last, and too much has since happened that I’d like to write about! We have been steadily picking up speed with Salud del Sol networking. Last Tuesday, Anna and I went to the local Ocotal Rotary Club meeting, and it was a huge success! Firstly, I knew it was going to be good when we arrived and realized how similar this meeting would be to Grandpa’s Lions’ Club meetings… so cordial, welcoming, and fun! We had to sing our national anthem by ourselves after we sung Nicaragua’s — which, I think, could definitely happen to me at a Lions’ Club meeting :) The members there were so excited about our project and so willing to help us find support and network. We are going to prepare two presentations, one about a solar cooker and one about the solar autoclave, to bring back to them. They can then use these to market the solar cookers and find support for the autoclave project. And, they were really excited when we mentioned our interest in becoming Rotary members ourselves!

On the homefront, Anna, Dan, and I have been working to complete everything we want to get done here. We have two weekly meetings to ensure that we are all on the same page with our individual and group progress. We’ve even adopted Pete Kolis as part of our research team for the summer… he has been helping us out a lot with Dan’s testing! We just finished the first draft of a Salud del Sol brochure to give out to organizations who want more information. We have been continuing with giving weekly computer classes, but this week we will have two because the class is too big! We also have begun doing interviews of the people here so that we can personalize the website.

This past weekend, we had the opportunity to travel to León, one of the knowledge centers of Nicaragua. Throughout history, it has competed with Granada for power, is it has always been liberal while Granada is more conservative. It’s a beautiful city, filled with museums, wonderful restaurants, and amazing churches! We went to Mass at the Cathedral in the center of town, and it was beautiful! While there, we learned that it is the only place in the world where you can Volcano Board… so of course we had to try it! When I signed up, I just figured it was a tourist trap. However, I soon realized that it was much more intense than that.

We had to hike up an volcano, over black rocks, for over an hour, carrying our boards. It was a tough hike, but well worth the view of part of the volcano range. Once at the top, surrounded by the strangest bugs I’ve ever seen, we peered over the edge we would go down–and my stomach dropped. It appeared steeper than any hill I’d seen, and the bottom half dropped out of sight! I couldn’t believe I was about to ride down this on this little piece of wood! But, alas, I made it. After the ride of rocks sputtering up into my face, I was greeted at the bottom with the news that I was the fastest one of the day, with a time of 1:10. Haha, and I thought I was being precautious! Here’s a picture of me, happily smiling that I made it. After all, the volcano last erupted in 1999, and it supposedly erupts every 7 years ;)

- Lori

Posted by | Filed Under Nica2008 

Comments

2 Responses to “Rotary Club and León”

  1. AUNT JOAN on July 14th, 2008 7:08 pm

    Keep up the wonderful work!. You’re in my prayers and thoughts. Stay safe and woohoo down the volcano!

  2. Dave Harris on July 15th, 2008 11:09 am

    I just read the news about your meeting with the Ministry of Health… CONGRATULATIONS, Lori (Salud del Sol). How awesome it will be when you gain support from the WHO and UNICEF!!!! -Dave

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