Jon's Travels

I recently moved into a flat near Metro Centro.  Managua is a different sort of city.  It does not really have an old centre of the city, as most Nicaraguan towns have.  An earthquake hit Managua in the 70′s and everything became shuffled.  It is now hip to live near restaurants and malls. The big mall I live near is Metro Centro.  Being in the centre, it basically means this is where a lot of the roads start.  It is also a landmark for many people.

My House. The kitchen

I am glad I live near a landmark, as I would have no idea how to get home otherwise.  My official address is:

Shell plaza el sol, 1c. arriba, 2c. sur, 1/2c. abajo.

This means that they are using a gas station as a reference point.  I have never heard of a gas station being a reference point in an official address before in my life.  I guess things are just done differently here. 

Basically I live 1 block from the gas station east, 2 blocks south, and one half blocks west.  I don;t know about you, but most people do not need to be trained in orienteering, or carrying a compas to find their house.  It was a nightmare finding it the first time, as there were many Shell Stations in the vicinity.

The address of the other house I was looking at was even worse, they used a church as a reference point, and said it was near where the Pirate Radio Station used to be…

Things are going well in my new place.  I am in quite an international house, living with people from Nicaragua, France, Germany, and Italy.  Everyone is nice, and it is quite social.

I have just set up my mosquito net in my room.  I feel like I am sleeping in a princess bed. 

This Friday, I am off to Matagalpa to do some work for SchoolBOX.  I am really looking forward to this, and will post some pictures later on.

For some more insight into the Nicaragua Address System, check out this link: http://vianica.com/nicaragua/14-addresses.html

I am staying with a family for two days in the mountains just outside Catarina.  I am awaiting for my host family to finish my room, as it is still under construction.

Last night I went out with a few people from the neighbourhood, and had my first Nica beer.  I spoke in my improving Spanish, as we sat between two restaurants at a lookout point.

The houes I am staying at for these two days has no running water and is typical of most houses in Nicaragua.  It is a small inconvenience for two days, as many live like this for their whole lives.

Today I hiked for 90 minutes to the closest village to access some internet, have a meal, and see the sights.

Tonight I will go out with some neighbourhood friends and have a few drinks, before heading to the main village to stay with my host family on Sunday evening.

I will post pictures once I have better access to the net.

Girl studying at Jezreel School in the Anexo la Primavera in Managua

I was going to write about something more uplifting today, as yesterday’s entry was quite depressing to some.  There is great hope for the future, but things need to change. 

Today I visited two schools, and what I saw will stay in my head for the rest of my life.I will write about two schools that we visited today.  They are both in very poor neighbourhoods in Managua.  The first school was eye opening (Jezreel), and the second school (Juntos Contigo) was downright shocking as it was literally located beside a garbage dump.

Jezreel School

Jezreel School is located in a very poor squatter neighbourhood in the Anexo la Primavera in Managua.  In order to better understand this school, it is worth noting their history.

Jezreel School's previous location between two buildings. You can see that the rain has caused flooding.

Ronald from SchoolBOX discovered this school a few years ago.  He stumbled across a group of students studying in an abandoned housing lot between houses and a shop.  The classes were all open air, with walls made of salvaged scrap metal.  When it rained, the classroom floor turned to mud, when it poured, the classroom floor turned into a huge puddle.  When it was sunny out, the children were studying in extreme heat.  These conditions were much better than previous conditions when the first school started.  It was started when a group of women in Jezreel School’s previous location between two buildings. You can see that the rain has caused flooding.the community were fed up over the lack of eduction.  One woman went door to door within the neighbourhood and talked to many families.  She indicated that if they wanted to learn, then they would meet under a tree the next day.  The following day, the Jezreel School was born.  Children from all over the neighbourhood came to the tree, and sat on the ground, or plastic chairs, and started to learn.

The children that made it Jezreel School

When we arrived, the school was actually flooded, as part of the roof had too much water on top of it.  The entire floor was wet.  The director spoke of how they were going to raise part of the roof with an extra steel beam they had found.  This would be a temporary solution.

Road to Malpaisillo near Leon

Today was quite an eye opening experience for me.  I went with Ronald and Oscar to visit two schools.  The first school was the Sagrado Corazon de Jesus School in Malpaisillo, in the Apante Central Community in Nicaragua.

It was about 100 km from Managua, give or take.  There was quite a bit or driving on unpaved roads to get to this school.  It is rainy season, so a lot of the roads turned to thick, thick mud.  Some parts were even covered with water.  The school consisted of about 8 classrooms, and taught 628 students from all around the community.  Most of the students had to commute to school, with many children walking 4 to 6 kilometres each way.  The ones that lived further away had to do a combination of walking and public bussing (not provided by the government) for 10 to 12 kilometres each way.

I remember growing up and living about a 1km walk away from school, and the bus picked me up at the door every morning to take me to school.  When school was over, the bus brought me straight home.  When senior elementary school rolled around, I had to walk an extra 30 metres to catch the bus.  Tough life!  There was even someone who got a bus ride to school, and he lived directly across the street.  It was quite funny, as he was the last person picked up in the morning, but also the last person dropped off at night.  The 45 minute bus ride home was ridiculous, considering he lived less than 40 metres from school.  I guess the school board did not trust him to cross the street himself.

Bathroom for 628 students, and teachers at Sagrado Corazon de Jesus School near Leon Nicaragua

 SchoolBOX is building a smaller classroom for this school that will hold around 22 students.  They are also building a block of bathrooms with a septic tank for the 628 students and teachers.  Currently the bathroom that they use is the two bathroom unit pictured to the right.  Needless to say, the sanitation conditions are not up to par for the students.  Most of the teachers will try to hold themselves, and the children will either use the bathroom pictured, the field behind the school, or they will go to surrounding houses and ask the people in the community to use their facilities.  The stench of the old bathroom was quite overpowering, and the current facilities are definitely not condusive to a healthy learning environment.

For some reason, the children were on holiday at this school.  We were told that they were off for their break until the beginning of the year.  Certain schools in Nicaragua work off of different timetables.  Today, when we arrived, a group from the community was there to talk to us.  They thanked SchoolBOX for raising the money to build the classroom, and the sanitation facilties.  They also spoke about other needs within the community.  It was stressed that the only way for the partnership to work was if the community worked together in order to help grow the school.

The second school that we visited was the Ruben Dario School in Leon.  It is actually in the Ruben Dario district.

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Gallo Pinto with Ronald

I had my first taste of Gallo Pinto tonight.  This rice and bean dish is the national meal of Nicaragua.  Tonight Ronald and I dined on gallo pinto with cheese and fresh corn tortillas.

It translates literally to “spotted rooster”  Wikipedia describes it as follows:

“When the beans and rice are combined, the rice gets colored by the beans, and the mix results in a multi-colored, or specked appearance. Costa Ricans usually use black beans while other versions use small red beans like Nicaraguans. Beans are quickly cooked until the juice is almost consumed. Gallo pinto means ‘spotted rooster’ in Spanish, thus the name fits with the colored rice.”

Tomorrow, I will post a synopsis and pictures of my trip to the two schools mentionned in the posts below.

It is a gorgeous day in Managua.  It is 10:30am, and it is 30C, sunny with a slight breeze.  I am working in the SchoolBOX office today as well, trying to bring my blogging and social networking skills up to speed.

Team Ace at Ruben Dario School - SchoolBOX

I am really looking forward to tomorrow, as I will be going with the SchoolBOX team to visit two schools near Leon.

• Sagrado Corazon de Jesus School
• Ruben Dario School

The goal of this trip is for me to see what SchoolBOX has acheived at the Ruben Dario School, as well as the advances in construction at the Sagrado Corazon de Jesus School.  I am very curious about the Ruben Dario School, as a number of my friends raised money went down to this school earlier this year to aid in the process.

This will be my first trip outside of Managua (not that I have really had a chance to see the city).  It should be a great day.

I am enjoying a quiet night in Managua.  Ronald’s family had prior engagements, so I decided to get some food, and bring it back to the house to eat.  The weather is very very warm, it must be 25C, and it is 8pm at night (10pm for those in Ottawa).

I have nailed down my schedule until the end of the year.  I will be in Managua this week, 3 days in the office, and 2 days on site to visit schools and to see the progress of the builds.  I will also be meeting a lot of locals and getting a hang for what SchoolBOX really does.

As mentionned previously, I will head to Catarina on Friday, and will not return to Managua until Dec 13.  I will be in Managua until the 22nd.  Between the 22nd of December and the 2nd of January, I will most likely be travelling through Honduras, and El Salvador.  This is the plan so far, but as we know, plans always change.