Eclipseiness

Whew!  These weeks between work are truly nuts.  In a good way, but they're still nuts.  The nutsiness has been compounded by Jeff starting work on time, just before Memorial Day weekend, and my paperwork delay, so I'm still unemployed for another week.

Mostly, for the last little bit, we've visited family.  It may not sound grand, but it is.  Why do we not take pictures of this?  We celebrated my last birthday before I'm 1/3rd of a century old (Jeff is -still- older), and Mother's Day with both mothers.  We had planned to have a party with both mothers together, but then nature interceded, and my mom got sick - so we celebrated separately.  Still fun!

Then, there was the solar eclipse.  I have never seen a solar eclipse before, and this may have been "just" an annular solar eclipse (Ring of Fire instead of a total blackout), but we decided it would be awesome enough to drive almost 1000 miles each way to see.  So we did.

The closest the eclipse would get to us was southwestern Oregon, but we didn't trust the weather there, so we decided to head for northeastern California.  That required driving through friendly territory - my friend Fawn had just moved to Portland:

 

where she re-introduced us to good (pretty?) coffee:

Then our friend Richard is just finishing up in Eugene:

where we got a very nice tour of town from him.  We also stopped by the West Eugene Wetlands and got a fantastic tour of the educational facilities there:

used to show why a plain-looking but unbelievably gorgeous wetland is worth saving:

The best bit of serendipity was finding camas, a plant that Jeff had yet to find the edible version of for his talk on Native American uses of plants:

Quite a pretty flower for being all useful and stuff.

After being social, it was time to move on to being National Park geeks.  Lava Beds National Monument, with its views and its campground, filled that slot.  Our North Cascades experience taught us to go to a high point for a view, so we went towards the hill on the left:

and we went up.  There was a pretty view and a pretty firetower - makes me almost want to be a fire scout.  Except now, they mostly don't exist.  Boo.  We got up to the top right before sunset, which made for some awesome pictures:

 There's our car! (bottom right):

So we got back after sunset, to a sausage and foil veggie dinner (veggies from the Saturday Market in Eugene!), where we ate babies:

baby carrots, that is.

The next day, we took our time looking around, then headed southeast for the current prediction's clear skies and good eclipse viewing.  We ended up pulling into the Honey Lake Rest Area near Susanville, CA.

We immediately saw other telescopes and cameras with fancy filters, and figured we were in the right spot.

Jeff had recently bought a solar viewing filter for our little regular telescope, plus a second solar-dedicated scope, and a mount that could be hand-controlled and hold both of them.  This was our first try setting them both up, so it was a trial by fire:

But whether they were set up well or not, they had great crowd draw:

although many people had different viewing methods:

Like just pointing binoculars backwards and using a screen (that's the whole shebang, folks!):

Then there was nature's viewer: leaves!  The easiest way to see a solar eclipse without blowing your eyes out is to make a pinhole in something (paper, whatever), and projecting an image through that pinhole onto a screen a few feet away.  Leaves naturally do this, just by overlapping.  At some point, about midway through the eclipse, someone went "WOW!  Look at the wall!"  The wall became our favorite general viewing apparatus:

As we got closer to the mid-point of the eclipse, we noticed that it had gotten dark enough to turn the parking lot lights on:

And then, center of the sun, ring of fire, unbelievable oh-my-lord-I-can't-believe-this-is-happening annular eclipse:

And then it was done.  As seen through the dedicated solar scope, PacMan:

PacMan with solar flares:

FIRE!

Ring of Fire and solar flares!  Ohmilord!

C is for cookie?

After all the excitement, the shadow wall started to seem artistic and stuff:

Did I mention there were fellow geeks around?  There were eclipse chasers, telescope freaks, and just plain astronomy fans.  We had a ton of fun meeting and greeting other folks who thought this kind of thing was worth driving many hours for.  And a couple even had t-shirts, which I tried to track down for purchase later, but couldn't:

That says "Susanville California, Annular Solar Eclipse, May 20,2012."  Aaaawwwweeeeesome...

Our time since has included entirely too much time in a car.  We drove from Lava Beds, CA to home (Nooksack, WA) on Monday, loaded up the truck and drove to Chelan, WA on Tuesday, got Jeff on the boat and I drove home Wednesday, and since he has been working and I have been packing and shopping.  Oh, yeah, and visiting my nephew.  CUUUUUTE!

Soon, I will be off to Stehekin as well, and the posts will be fewer and farther between.  We will have some more Nicaragua videos to upload and hopefully pictures of interesting things for another blog post, but that won't be for a while.  Does anyone else find it strange that we had better internet connection in Nicaragua than in Stehekin?  May I point out that Stehekinites prefer it that way, and that I'm glad that some corner of the US still thinks like that?

So adios, for now.  We'll type at you soon, and we all wish you well in whatever you may be doing right now.  Wish us well, if you would, in hiking off all the excess rice-and-beans-and-oil weight.

Transitioning again

This will be another quick post, since I would rather hang out in the Washington sunshine than on the computer - but all of our fans are clamoring for an update!  And I'm waiting for Jeff to finish paperwork.

We've had a busy couple of weeks since we left El Jocote for the last time.  After a whole lot of goodbyes, we took a week to travel, theoretically to have a little vacation to ourselves before heading back to "real life."  We went up to Leon to visit Carolina at her house where we had stayed while talking Spanish classes.  

After that, we took off for Ometepe Island, one of the most magical places we've ever been.  The first time we went, we visited with Fawn in February.  It was gorgeous, but I was in a walking boot and had a crutch, so I didn't get to check out too much.  This time was much better.  We decided to have a look around at some of the interesting farms they have near Balgue, including Finca Bona Fide, a permaculture farm and educational facility:

 

 We found a few things to tell our Nicaraguan colleagues about, including a cheaper way to make big water tanks:

 ... and the idea of a seed exchange:

We stayed right next door at Finca Magdalena, a community cooperative organic, shade grown coffee farm.  They sell all their exportable coffee to Bainbridge Island in Washington, their sister island, where it is sold as Cafe Oro.  My lordy, but the coffee there was tasty, and the views were incredible (yes, that volcano is smoking):

But, of course, we had to get back to Managua, since the airport was there and all.  We managed one more stop by the Huembes market, where you can find piñatas and other party supplies,

 fish and iguanas,

 meat - at least, I think that's what it is,

 shoes shoes shoes,

 and DVDs, as Jeff spent lots of time discovering.

Packing was a challenge.

But we got packed, and we made our flights - all were delayed, which made for a lot of hurry-up-and-waiting, but we made it.  We got to the Managua airport a little after 5 am (mountain time), and sat sweating in the so-called air conditioning, then flew to Miami, then to Chicago O'Hare, then finally arrived in Seattle at almost 10 pm (pacific time).  But in Seattle, there were my mom, brother, sister-in-law, and my new nephew.  That was so much fun!

We hung around Seattle for a couple nights so I could visit with the new nephew catch up with his parents.

Much eating of wonderful food ensued - my brother, being awesome and all, decided that he needed to show off his new smoker skills with a roast and a big chunk of king salmon.  They both cooked up lovely things like stroganoff, eggs/bacon/pancake breakfast, etc.  Nothing like getting away from the rice and beans!

We have since visited my 95-year-old super-woman grandma, who continues to amaze, spent a little time (never enough!) with my niece, seen our cat and cuddled as much as his pride would allow, celebrated my birthday with both moms, step-dad, aunt, Subira, and another fantastic salmon/shrimp/cheeeeeese! meal, and done one heck of a lot of errands.  More errands and visiting to follow, as well as a road trip to see a solar eclipse, and jobs starting up.  Jeff will be starting on May 24th, it appears, but my start date has gotten held up.  I'd be more ticked if the hold up didn't mean more time with people I'm enjoying seeing...

If leaving is this hard, why do we keep doing it?

I cried a fair amount yesterday, but I mostly blame that on the women of El Jocote.  They kept tearing up when we went to their houses to say goodbye - so I did too.  This morning, I started crying when I gave Martha a hug goodbye, and kept crying until we were a good ways out of town.  I cried again when we saw Angela at the bus stop.  I cried a couple times on the bus, thinking about hugging Nubia goodbye, and waving goodbye to Estel, who was too shy or sad to even say goodbye for real.  I'll need to process a bit before I can write something about our experience for real, but for now, here are some views of our last visit to El Jocote:

The tiny shadow?  That means the sun is straight up.  That means it's hot.

Chocollito kisses for Gerald.

Visiting on the porch at Juan Valerio's house.

Too darn cute!

Doña Ines's mom shows off the garden one last time.

Showing the oldest students photos from the Stehekin school.

Preschoolers see the Stehekin presentation.

Our family.
 

Me with Felipe, Aracely, and their granddaughter.

Me and Jeff with Juan Valerio and Isabel.

We missed out on visiting one of our abuelitas, Santos - no one was home.

Leonarda building a house.

Estel and me.

Jeff and one of the Juanas with her new stove.

Us with Angela Fuentes, including her son Darwin, her daughter-in-law Brenda, her daughter Denia, and her grandkids Carlito and Angelito.

Jeff and Freddy, our new stove builder.

Yes, three pictures of Estel in a tree.  I'm going to miss her, and Julissa, too.

Me and Maricela with her new stove.

Maricela's entries for the ugly chicken contest.

Maricela and her new little girl.

Finally got a picture of Juana (the lady 10 days younger than me) - she's in the middle, and her four kids, Karen, Katherine, Jairo, and Norlan, are next to her.  Her sister is on the end, and another El Jocotian who works at her house a lot, Cruz, is on the other end.

Us and Cruz.

Us and the family we stayed with the most, from left: Ivania, Marta, and Tonio (and Tarzan the dog).

Leaving town.  At 5:30 am, everyone was up and going about their business, waving goodbye and watching me blubber.

Just you wait - soon enough, I'll be really excited about seeing my family, meeting my nephew, and getting back to the most beautiful home I could ever have in WA.  But for now, I'm still teary.

Random thoughts on being nearly finished

The main news since the last post:



Jeff did a bit of damage to himself. He hit his head on a towel rack in our office in Managua, and ended up with ten stitches and (a few days later) two black eyes. The colors are still progressing, but mostly gone, and he got the stitches out today, so his injury isn't quite as destructive to the trip as mine was. However, he will get an awesome scar story out of it...




Last week's trip to El Jocote involved a lot of work on projects, like building three improved cookstoves and two patio gardens, and doing our last educational workshop. But it wasn't as interesting for a write-up, and we really didn't take many photos (a few will be included randomly throughout this post, just to make it pretty). But as we're winding down our work and preparing to leave Nicaragua, I've been reflecting on our experience in the way I typically do: by making lists. (Ask my mom sometime - I'm a list maker, and always have been.)






List #1: Things I will miss.
- The kids of El Jocote.
- Sitting on Tonio's porch overlooking town.
- Hearing Angela Fuente repeat our jokes.
- Tortillas.
- Having a truck coming through town be an event.
- Not having a regular schedule.
- Walking toward a house and seeing two plastic chairs being set out for us.
- The fact that "stress" is not part of their vocabulary.
- Unscheduled social time.
- Seeing kids running around freely.
- Patience with my slow, stuttering Spanish.
- Not having to carry a jacket.
- Angela Velasquez's pinolillo (chocolate-corn drink).
- Angela Velasquez's pure happiness.
- Chicks, piglets, and calves.
- Fake brand name stuff (Holistar!)
- Hearing kids yell our names excitedly when we come to town.
- Community.
- Lack of needing expensive stuff.
- Having lots of moms making me chicken soup for my cold.
- Recognizing the yell of one of the girls, Julissa - she has a very distinct voice.
- Hearing the constant shooing of animals: "Sssshhht! Vapafuera!" for the dogs, and "Hoosha!" for the pigs.
- Angelito yelling "Jeffley!"
- Our ugly chicken contest.
- Kids' toys, like scrap paper that can be five hours of fun.
- Watching the rain come in on a hot day.
(Note that some of these things can be found in Stehekin, such as community, but not in many places in the US. Here, they are the norm.)



List #2: Things I will not miss.
- Nicaraguans on buses (bus rides tend to bring the worst out in a normally very patient and polite people).
- Pigs.
- Dirt.
- Rice and beans.
- Not having private time.
- Being nervous about getting sick from food and drink.
- Not being able to cook for ourselves.
- The music, especially the synthesizers and the volume.
- Being richer than everyone else.
- Sweating.
- Fleas.
- Living out of a suitcase (well, backpack).
- Latrines, and their flies.
- Not understanding the language all of the time.
- Managua.
- Being a girl, and therefore being weaker and being assumed to not understand "men's work."
- Being "better" because we're white.




List #3: Cute short memories:

- We were fortunate enough one morning to find that our bus ride leaving El Jocote would have a kid we knew on it. This happens surprisingly rarely, since most El Jocote-ians don't leave El Jocote much. Jarito is eight years old and very friendly. We asked him if he had ever been to Managua, and he surprised us by saying he had. We asked him what he thought of Managua, and his eyes got big - it was beautiful. We said, really? We think it's too big and kind of stinky. He said no, there are these beautiful glass doors there that open and close without anyone touching them, just by machine, whenever you get close to them. And there are big machines that turn and turn, and people's bags move around and around. It turns out that three years ago, he went with his family to pick up his uncle at the airport, who was being deported from the US. To him, and to several people we've met, Managua is just the airport - they haven't seen the rest. Lucky them.



- Everyone agrees on cures to everything here. A tea made with seven (not six, not eight) eucalyptus leaves, plus cinnamon and lemongrass if you have it, cures a cough. Honey from the nice kinds of bees (not the mean ones!) can be put on a bruise to reduce swelling and discoloration. Anyone that notices that you have a cough or a bruise will tell you the same cure, and will be absolutely sure that it will work. Apparently, it doesn't work as well for gringos, but we're appreciative of the sentiment when they give us tea and honey.

- We were visiting at the house of Jose Inez, another eight year old boy who is one of the cutest kids in the world. His mom proudly showed us a picture of his novia (girlfriend), an American girl that had worked with AsoFenix in El Jocote last year. Jose Inez's blush was one of the cutest things I've ever seen.



- Early in our work in El Jocote, we were working with a service learning group from the US to build a patio garden. During lunch, I was sitting at the table with the rest of the group, chatting away in English. A little girl ran up from behind me, stuck her head under my arm so she could see my face, smiled, and ran back to her mom. "Yep, that one is our gringa." She knew there were a lot of gringos around, but she was pretty sure I was the one that she had seen a few times before.



- Everyone here is surprised that Jeff and I have been married for six years, are in our thirties, and don't have kids. The funniest of these incidents was just a few days ago. I was talking to Juana, who lives in the house highest up the hill. Her husband is in the US working as a kitchen helper in Miami, and sends back a fair amount of money, but she's raising four kids (ages 14, 11, 8, and 4) by herself until he gets back. He's been gone for four years, and expects to come back in December. Juana and I realized that I am exactly ten days older than her. She was surprised, and said I look very young, but that the reason is probably that I don't have kids. She then said I really should have kids, at least one. We had to laugh at that - is she trying to make sure I catch up to her in age?

(Another surprising thing - I don't have a picture of Juana! I will have to fix that on our next trip.)

- Another funny six-years-no-kids moment was at Angela Velasquez's house. She's an 80-something firecracker who walks every day to stay in shape. She's had seven kids of her own, lived through revolutions and counter-revolutions, outlived her husband, and never had much money, but she's the happiest person I've ever met. Her laugh is one of a kind, frequent and full of joy. When she realized that we don't have kids yet, we prepared for the same discussion of why we should have some and why we don't have any. Instead, she said, "It's really better to not have them if you don't want to." We were actually so startled that we laughed. She is absolutely the only person we've heard that sentiment from here.



- Last night, we were watching a telenovela (soap opera) with Angela Fuente's family. This one featured a Romeo and Juliet story set in Italian cow country. The mother of Juliet discovered that her daughter had escaped. She ran to her sons, who were relaxing in the barn, and told them to chase after the girl. They jumped on their horses and galloped off, and Angela's whole family laughed. Who would have their horses sitting around fully saddled up and ready to go? These folks live the life of using horses for real work - they know a lie when they see it.




So there are my most recent lists. I'm hoping that by writing this down here, I won't lose it, and I will always be able to get a little bit of the feeling of El Jocote back when I reread it. I'll miss that place. One more trip!