July 11, 2009
Whew, once again a lot has happened since I wrote last. Below you’ll find details regarding our trips to Granada and Leon as well as stuff about the last week before leaving. I can’t believe I am almost home!
A couple weekends ago all the UD ETHOS volunteers and I were going to go to Granada, Nicaragua together, which is a gorgeous Spanish colonial town and the number one tourist destination in Nicaragua. We planned to leave early on a Friday morning; however, I woke up to hear that Erin had become very ill overnight and was in the hospital in Ocotal with her mother. I rounded up all the other volunteers and, after taking some time to figure out what we were going to do this weekend, we finally went to see Erin at the hospital. It turned out that she had an infection of the intestines and was vomiting frequently. Her stomach was “being torn apart” as she would say and she actually ended up staying Friday night in the hospital as well. I wanted to stay in Sabana Grande for the weekend, but it was one of the last chances that Nathan and I had to go to Granada with Tim and Jim before we left for home and before they left to go on more installations. Therefore, Maria stayed back in Sabana Grande for the weekend, in case Erin needed anything, and Nathan and I went to meet Tim and Jim in Managua to go to Granada.
So, we met them in time for lunch at The Galeria – a really, really nice mall on the edge of Managua. Here they have a great movie theater that puts Cinemark to shame, as well lots of very lavish stores and restaurants. The four of us chose to eat where else but Papa Johns. Oh. My. It was some of the best pizza I have ever had (although it’s still hard to beat Donato’s or Dewey’s Pizza in Dayton, Ohio). It was mostly just nice to have a classic American meal after eating so much Nicaraguan food for the past eight weeks. Nicaraguan food is excellent (and healthy!), but nothing will ever replace my Donato’s, Chipotle, Outback and Panera’s. Anyway, so we had a large, tasty meal in The Galeria in Managua and then soon made our way to Granada. As we neared Granada, the road became much nicer, the area cleaner and the scenery more lush and beautiful.
We arrived and went straight to our preferred hostel, Hostel Oasis, which is the same place that I stayed with the other volunteers when I was in Granada last summer. It is gorgeous and relaxing (highly recommended if you’re in the area!). For a great value, you also get free internet, a swimming pool, free coffee and tea all day and use of the many comfortable chairs and hammocks around the hostel.
That day we spent most of our time in the swimming pool, but then that night we met up with Maria (another volunteer from the Solar Center who happened to be in Granada that weekend as well) and all had a nice dinner and then went to a club for the evening. It was good that we did this on the first evening, because then people started getting ill
We all went for a short bike trip through Granada, checking out the nearby cemetery and visiting the Dona Elba cigar factory. At the factory we were all given a cigar to sample along with a glass of wine for free, as well as a free tour of the factory! However, as the afternoon went on, Tim and I started to get a fever (Tim had just recovered from a fever just a few days earlier) and eventually Tim went to a clinic in the evening to get checked out. I wasn’t feeling too terrible, so I just stayed back and slept. That night Tim found that he had a respiratory infection, so I was worried I might have the same thing as well. The next day my fever became stronger, so I, too, went to the clinic. I did not have the respiratory infection, and in fact I started feeling better shortly after my visit to the clinic. I just went back to the hostel and slept again and by morning I was fine again. Nevertheless, while it was very relaxing to be someplace as nice as Granada, and while we still enjoyed many of the sights and restaurants there, most of the vacation was shot due to illnesses.
Nathan and I eventually made it back to the Solar Center on Wednesday of that second-to-last week and got a few good days of work in. I had been working on a large sign for the Solar Center to post by the road and get traffic attention, because as of now you can only see the Solar Center if you’re right in front of it due to trees, and you can only read the current sign if you are close to it due to its small size. Therefore, this sign is made to be very large to announce the location of the Solar Center and advertise the new solar-cooked refreshments that are sold here. It will go up across the street directly in front of the Solar Center where it can be seen from long distances in both directions (the building is on a straight portion of the PanAm Highway). I got this all put together and mostly painted by the time the weekend rolled around.
For the weekend all of the volunteers decided to make a last-minute quick trip to Leon, Nicaragua, which is the second largest tourist destination of Nicaragua. While not as nice as Granada, it certainly is very nice and has lots of history around it. We were able to walk around, see some historic chapels and do some shopping. However, the best part was Saturday afternoon when we went to the beach on the Pacific coast, about 45 minutes outside of Leon. We followed some Peace Corps volunteers who knew where they were going, and we ended up at a hidden gem among the villages along the beach called Playa Roca, meaning Rock Beach. This is a hostel with an outdoor bar and restaurant on the beach as well as plenty of hammocks and chairs in the sand. We all went swimming for a good amount of time (I went in my shorts because I didn’t have my swim suit), trying our best to body surf the very large waves crashing down on us. For official record, the beaches on the Pacific coast here are rather dangerous, where the locals warned us of strong riptides. However, when we arrived plenty of people were already swimming. While the current certainly was strong and dangerous, that wasn’t enough to stop us from jumping in for a refreshing swim (the water was the perfect temperature!!).
That evening we all went out for dinner and then, once again, to another club in Leon. With a very large group it felt like we were taking over the club. In fact, there are so many volunteers in Sabana Grande now I think we are the majority.
This brings us to our last week in Sabana Grande. Basically, there was a lot to do and so little time to do it. I spent most of it preparing to pass on the autoclave data and report to Erin and Maria, who are here for another month. This means that I spent Wednesday and Thursday writing the start of the report to give them a starting point from which to continue. Monday I finished second-coating all the paint on the sign so that it is ready to go. I wanted to make a backing frame for it (since it is a large, unwieldy piece of zinc that will basically act like a sail), but ran out of time for this as well because of my work on the EVA project. Tuesday I made another 1-watt solar panel for EVA testing. In order to try making a solar panel without allowing any air to become trapped in the EVA, David The Volunteer Coordinator and I tried putting the solar panel inside a back and vacating the air using a pump. The vacating the air worked well but I was not able to test the process of melting the EVA in a solar box cooker (thereby seeing if any air was trapped or not) because it has not been sunny. So, unfortunately, this is a test that they will have to perform without me.
All in all, however, I managed to get a lot done! It has been a great 2-and-a-half months, but now I am ready to make it home! I will be leaving Managua early in the morning on Sunday, going to Houston, and then finally arriving home on Sunday evening. Of course, that’s not without a fun weekend in Managua with TimandJim first!
Sunday evening, Chipotle won’t know what hit it…
-Daniel J Hensel
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