Sontule is the name of the community in the mountainous national park region of Miraflor where I go for three days every week to teach English and learn about country life. Every Tuesday I catch a 6am from Esteli, which drops me off two hours later at a little village, from where I walk a further hour and a half along a track through the hills to the community. It's an early wake-up but a lovely, relaxing way to start my few days of work and to get straight into the pace of life out here - slow. I have a small and basic, but perfectly adequate room in the family house of Rogelio and Lucia.
There's lots of fluffy things around at the moment. The cat's had kittens and there are two sets of twelve chicks tweeting their way around the house and garden all day. 
Lucia keeps a beautiful flower garden right outside my room. Last week I couldn't believe the number of butterflies darting around amongst the varied and brightly coloured flowers.
After a coffee and some sugary bread, it's time to head out and milk the cows with Rogelio. 
Rogelio's a good teacher and I'm getting a lot better, although this gets put into context when he starts milking, which is like a hosepipe to my weedy tap. This task is rewarded by my next breakfast of fresh, hot milk with the cereal I bring from town, much to the family's amusement, who cannot conceive how anyone can function on less than a big plate of fried rice, beans and tortillas for their breakfast.
So I help out in the local primary school every week, teaching Spanish to 7-year olds, and maths to 8-year olds. Although my Spanish is still rough around the edges, the content of the Spanish work is planned for me as I have half the class whilst the teacher has the other half. The teaching in rural Nicaragua is basic, almost entirely children copying from the board. I like to think I'm helping a bit by varying things at least a little with flash cards, re-arranging sentences, asking questions and encouraging as much participation as I can whilst helping little Cristofer, who usually gets left alone to scribble lines in his notebook.
Breaktime lasts the best part of an hour, during which, the children receive a tasty hot milk drink and some less healthy biscuits. The boys grab a bat and play baseball while the girls often playing a mysterious game, involving bouncing a small ball and picking up stones. The oldest boys seem pretty good at baseball to me, and all come to school with their own glove. I have tried to explain cricket several times to Nicaraguans and have completely failed.
Lunchtime is at 12 and after this I can be found doing any number of things, such as bathing using a bucket of cold water, fishing in a pond, preparing for a lesson, reading in a hammock, walking cows to a field or chopping wood for the stove. Jackson, pictured above, helps on the farm and is my teacher in all country matters involving manual labour. He is a fairly simple lad, with limited communication skills, but he's good natured and a dab hand with an axe, fishing line or horse.
Jackson doesn't make quite such a good photographer - there is a log at my feet, which I managed to split. 
Walking around the community is very enjoyable, soaking up the views, greeting passersby and enjoying the calm, friendliness of it all.
Professor Wallace at work.
With my Thursday afternoon class who are currently learning about countries and nationalities along with the negative present form of the verb 'to be'. Everyone who comes to the classes is really nice and eager to learn, which makes the classes enjoyable and rewarding.
Right outside my room is a magnificent chile plant. This is a particularly fiery variety which I enjoy every night, pickled in vinegar, as an accompaniament, to my evening meal, which inevitably involves rice, beans and tortilla. The people have welcomed me, the lessons are going well and I'm learning a lot about the farming here, which is all completely organic. I should be here until the end of November, with Rachel coming to join me for a day every week before we head back down to Esteli or another part of Nicaragua together for a long weekend. It's all working out pretty well at the moment.
3 comments:
And here I am impressed with my half an hour cycle to work.
top post si! brings it to life...maybe dennis and sue will consider getting a cow so you can continue your milking when you return home?! goes without saying that i'm loving the look of that chilli plant...
Those chiles are mental hot too. I used to only be able to eat 2 or 3 with a meal but I´m putting away more like a dozen now. Yum.
And don't worry Alan- I'm impressed, there are far too few cyclists around Manchester, it's shameful. Good work.
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