STEPHANIE MORK

I always feel that bad weather days are perfect for reading and writing. Today is one of those days. I am sitting sipping my soy latte and nibbling on a scone and feeling very comfortable and relaxed which has been a much desired feeling/state of mind in this latest season.

This spring has been full of all the things. For any of you doing life with higher education – I commend you because it’s hard. I fully believe that school is anxiety producing at its core and although I am loving my program – there is always something to be done that will be waiting for me at the end of the day. I think this time in grad school is very valuable for me and I don’t for one second regret doing it, but I will also be happy when it’s over.

Other things that have kept me busy in this season:

• Trip to NYC with my boyfriend, Mike. Highlights were the food, the Brooklyn Bridge at sunset, walking tour of SoHo and Chinatown, fancy rooftop bar at sunset, aaaand the food. Did I mention the food?
• Relearning how to ride a bike. For the longest time, I’ve had this paralyzing fear and anxiety of bikes. I half learned when I was a kid but I had a few embarrassing tumbles and that was enough to stop me from getting back on. Thanks to Mike – who custom built me a bike this winter – I have been able to ride around bits of Minneapolis with him and actually enjoy myself a little. I’m proud of myself for facing this fear and although I’m not confident enough to ride alone yet, I will get there eventually.
• Trip to LA to visit my long time friend Sarah.  Highlights were spending time with Sarah, sailing, beach time, reading for pleasure, and once again the food. Sarah shares my love for food and knows all the best places. Always a great host and I hope I can repay the favor someday.
• Working my first desk job. I have been working at the Minnesota Department of Health this year as a communications associate. It was a contracted job, so unfortunately I’ve wrapped up my time there – but I learned so much and gained a lot of great experiences and friends.
• Last but not least – preparing for my grad school practicum in Bolivia this summer (!). I will be spending 5 weeks in Bolivia and 10 days in Peru. I’ve been working on getting paperwork ready, going to doctors appointments for all the vaccinations, and making the necessary travel arrangements to get there.

I’m feeling all the things about going into the unknown in Bolivia, but I know it will be a good experience regardless. Sometimes the pre departure anxiety is the hardest part, so I am excited to just get there and start the thing.

Next posts will be about my South American experiences and adventures, and about the work I will be doing there – I’m excited to learn about a new culture, improve my Spanish, and do some exploring.

T minus 1 day before take off!

Until next time.

I have kept busy here with volunteering and doing some social media for Comamos Juntos (follow us on FB, twitter and insta plz) – but I have also been doing my fair share of exploring.

Only a few days after arriving in this country, I made my way to the north of Nicaragua for a trip to a National Forest Reserve called Bosawas.  Thank goodness I was with a group of people! I was suffering from culture shock, heat shock, language confusion and basically just confusion in general.  It was an amazing trip and my highlights from it were:
1) Staying at a remote cabin type place near a rainforest – the people were kind, the food was so so traditional and tasty and the views were stunning.
2) Hiking into the cloud forest.  It was a bit challenging but every bit worth the climb.  We swam in a waterfall, saw jaguar poop and were led the way by a 70 year old man with a machete.  You can’t make this stuff up.
3) Riding the chicken buses.  Not saying they were comfortable but wow what an introduction into Nica culture!  Mostly what was new to me was people randomly jumping on the bus to sell their goods and the fact that a lot of people utilized them to buy snacks and drinks – myself included.

Laguna de Apoyo is a crater lake that was formed by a volcano and is now a popular spot for spending the weekend – kayaking, diving, swimming and general relaxing.
Highlights were:
1) Hitchhiking (sorry mom) – we were safe the whole time but we had to hitchhike to actually get to the lake. The bus doesn’t drive far enough!
2) The fresh air and water – Managua is dirty and the wind is pretty hot so feeling some relief from the hotness with a view was a double win.
3) Going diving! It is quite an experience to breathe underwater – there wasn’t much to see  because its a lake but it was still a nice experience and I hope to do it again somewhere else before I leave Nicaragua.

Granada is a nearby city that is full of life and colors and fresh wind and backpackers.  I met so many people from around the world and its truly amazing what kind of community you can build in just one weekend.  Honestly my main highlights were meeting people, eating french fries, and drinking toñas in a treehouse in the middle of nowhere with monkeys hanging out in the trees above and stars so clear.  I was a bad tourist, but sometimes planning activities is not what I want to spend my time doing. It was very unlike me to go somewhere alone without a plan, but I am glad I did!

Lastly, I went to Volcan Masaya – One of my friends here has a car and offered to drive me up the volcano at night to see the lava.  It was truly an amazing experience to feel the breeze, see the lava and the stars and smell the sulfur.

Nicaragua has so much to offer and I am afraid I won’t have time to see it all – thoughts of a Central America backpacking trip may be on my mind.

I also spent Easter weekend on Isla de Ometepe and it 1000% deserves its own post.

Enjoying the total body sweat today at 92 degrees! Sending sun, mangos and good vibes to you all.

The neighborhood life in Nicaragua is like nothing I have ever experienced.  It seems that each residence on the street has some sort of small business, or is a farmacia, or a venta (a cornerstone) and there is actually a gym right across the street.  Our next door neighbors cook up traditional Nicaraguan food to sell each night for dinner, the neighbors across the street sell some produce or packaged goods, a few houses down there is a woman who makes the best corn tortillas EVER. <– slowly but surely becoming my BFF.  My host family sells both frescos and a fast food-ish thing called repolechas.  Its a fried dough with refried beans, cabbage, cheese, and ketchup and chili sauce on top.

You need not walk more than 10 steps for any of these things, and there are people that walk down the street and sell produce or other goods in carts as well.  There are places that sell nacatamales – which is similar to a tamale but they are literally so big – places for sweet breads or desserts made from fruits, places for candy and snacks – for laundry soap and toothpaste.  Ten steps people.  Okay maybe 20.

Managua isn’t so much a tourist destination. When I tell people I am staying here for a few months they are surprised and ask why and what I think about it.  In all honesty, Managua is big and chaotic, a bit sketchy at times, hot hot hot and there are only few things for tourists.  BUT I am not a tourist.  I am a student.

I am learning the ways of the city buses.  I take them everyday to get where I am going – which is something I did not anticipate.  The city buses are sometimes pretty chill, but sometimes they are a sweaty mass of people squeezing past each other, falling over onto each other and either trying to get off the bus or trying to find a bearable place to stand for the duration of the ride. For this gringa, it can be pretty stressful at times – otherwise it’s just so ridiculous how many people are squeezed into one space that I have to laugh.   I am pretty much the only white person on each bus I get onto which is a bit unnerving, but most people are kind and if I give a smile, I will usually get a smile in return.

I have learned how to wash my clothes by hand.  I will literally never take a washing machine for granted again! I sweated and scrubbed and scrubbed and sweated the other day doing my clothes and I am pretty sure I’m not totally doing it right either.  My host mom kind of had a little grin on her face watching me.

I have learned how to navigate (more or less) the Mercado Mayoreo and find the various places I need to go in Managua.  Each new place that I make it to alone is a small little victory and I cheer silently at myself from the sidelines.  It’s truly all about the small victories people.

I am enjoying life in the Barrio.  In the evening, it is not uncommon to find some family members sitting outside the house just watching the world go by.  Watching as the sun goes down and the neighbors fire up their grill and feeling the coolness of the evening blow in.  Someone usually hands me a fresco and life feels pretty good with a cold sweet fruit drink in my hand and the heat from the sun fading away, while the world slowly moves on by in front of me.

Maybe Managua is a bit dreamy and poetic under all the noise  🙂

Time is moving more quickly than I anticipated here and my last weeks are filling up with trips to other parts of the country.  Next post on highlights of Nicaragua so far!

I think pineapples are the most beautiful fruits.  Inside and out.  Even though they are spiky and maybe formidable on the outside, once you get inside they are juicy and sweet and especially good in combination with their friends – the mango and the banana.  They are photogenic and colorful and also nourish and hydrate the body with all the vitamins.  I have fallen for the pineapple – hard and fast.

I spend and will spend a decent amount of time in one of the bigger markets in Managua – Mercado Mayoreo.  I think my obsession with fruits in Nicaragua began in the market.  There are many things happening in the market – vendors selling their produce, motor taxi’s whizzing by, unfamiliar and unpleasant smells, busses honking, smells of fried street foods, and always keeping constant awareness of your surroundings and where you place your feet – but the fruits… the fruits have stuck out to me as a thing of beauty.

They are for me, a thing of peace in an otherwise chaotic place.  When I think about fruits, I think of tropical places, beaches and nice breezes.  It’s almost as if when I see piles on piles of fruit my imagination takes me to a calm place for just a split second.  And for me, that’s just what I need to focus on the tasks ahead – just a moment of peace.

I will be spending two days a week in the market collecting food with other volunteers from Comamos Juntos.  Our tasks include just that – going around to vendors that have an established relationship with Comamos Juntos and collecting the produce they have set aside that they will not sell.  Many times, we must sort through the crates they give to make sure we are only collecting produce that is not rotten or diseased.  Since it is so hot, produce can go bad much faster, so it is important to go through the whole bin so the communities are getting the freshest produce possible.

Once the food is sorted, it is weighed and recorded.  At the end of the collection the food is divided into three groups for each community and loaded onto a truck for distribution.    The three communities that receive the produce from CJ are Ananda Marga (a primary school), Villa Guadalupe (a community built on the edge of a dump), and a community of ex sugarcane workers that are suffering from kidney disease.

After the work is done, the volunteers share a fresco together – the sweetest old lady sells them right next to our home base in the market.

The market is a fascinating place for me.  It is so so different than how everyone I know makes a living.  People are incredibly creative and resourceful with what they sell.  I’ve seen things from kitchen utensils, to fried plantains, to socks, to bags of water.  People sometimes carry their goods around with them and call out – “Agua, agua!”  This also happens on the buses, in the streets and at most bus stops.  On longer bus rides, people hop on the bus with their homemade goods – things like corn bread, fried chicken, sweet tamales, cut pieces of fruit – you name it.  Going back to my word – fresh – many times these homemade food items are so hot they must have just come from the kitchen.

I am staying hydrated with all the fruit smoothies and seeking refuge from the heat in the mountains or in an air conditioned cafe of bliss – things are becoming a new normal here.  I am continually thankful for my host family and the Comamos Juntos family who have welcomed me so easily into their lives.  Next post on life in the ‘hood – Barrio Paraisito – where I am living.

Managua is just a little VERY different than Minneapolis.  I have been here for one week today and its been a whirlwind.  Today I found a little taste of comfort in an air-conditioned mall with some blessed coffee, wifi and yummy baked goods.   But the past week has been a tornado of activities, new things, acclimating to new places, languages, and mindsets.

The culture shock is pretty real, but I am starting to feel more comfortable going out and about on my own, asking questions and speaking in Spanish.

Here are 6 words to describe my first impressions:

1. Hot
2. Noises
3. Kind
4. Fresh
5. Water
6. Open

My first morning in Nicaragua, I was woken up around 4 am to a cock-a-doodle-dooooo (!) and I could hear the city begin to wake up with the sounds of motorcycles, dogs barking, buses revving, horses clapping on the cobblestone, people talking, babies crying, music, and the smell of cooking meat.  I somehow slept for a few more hours until I had to use the loo only to find that the water was turned off and I had my first lesson on how to flush the toilet with a bucket of water.

I spent my first 24 hours sweating through my clothes, being spoken to in a language I don’t really know, and wondering what the heck I am doing here.  It was a lot to take in and the learning curve for this gringa is very steep.  Its crazy how quickly things like seeing lizards and cockroaches, constant intake of water, never going anywhere without hand sani, and using a bucket to flush the toilet have become the norm.

To go into further detail of my 6 words – hot is pretty self explanatory.  Its literally always hot.  I guess I came during the summer (whoops), and its pretty normal for the high to be around 95 and lows in the mid 70’s at night – which is actually pretty comfortable for sleeping.  I have literally never in my life drank so much water or juices or smoothies just to prevent being dehydrated without really doing anything!

My first description of Nica describes pretty well what I mean by noises.  There is just a lot going on and it’s crazy how early the Nicaraguan people get up and out and start moving in the day – probably because the best hours of the day are about 7 am to 11 am.  1 – 4 pm are the death hours.

Kind is to describe all of the people that I have interacted with thus far.  My host family is so patient with my bad Spanish, and willing to help me learn.  They share their food, answer my stupid questions and have shown me the ways of the bus (more on that later). They are easy to be around and I am so thankful for them.  I have also spent some time with the staff of Comamos Juntos and other volunteers and they again are all so patient with helping me learn Spanish, showing me the ways of the Nicas, and inviting me to go on trips or hang out with them.

Fresh is for the fruits and many of the foods I have tried here. But mostly the fruits, fruit smoothies and frescas.  My host mom literally makes the best frescas in Managua (even though I haven’t tried many others I can tell you they are the best).  They are these juices made from exotic fruits that I have never heard of – the fruits are cooked, strained and mashed and blended up and then put in the fridge.  The family actually runs a little business selling these and I plan to learn how to make them.

There is a thing about water in Managua where sometimes they shut it off – but the good news for me is that the tap water is safe to drink.   Mostly water is constantly on my mind, whether its that I need to drink some, or use some to flush my poo, or dump on my head so I don’t have a heat stroke lol.

Open is for a) my mindset and b) how the spaces in Nicaragua are laid out.  My room doesn’t actually have windows, more like grates with a curtain to cover it in the night.  But it seems that doors and windows are always open, many restaurants are open aired, the people are open, the windows on the bus are open – its just a very open place!

My mindset going into this was one of openness and its been a challenging first week – many new experiences, frustrations and acclimations – BUT I am feeling excited to continue learning and growing and keeping my mind open.  And I have really enjoyed the volunteer work and just watching life happen here.

I have done some volunteering already, received a few social media projects for Comamos Juntos and went to a forest reserve in the mountains last weekend, so it’s been busy! I have a feeling it will continue to be busy, but I don’t have much time and I hope to fill it with more explorations and experiences.

This is very long so stay tuned for my next posts about life in the market and my trip to the cloud forest! With photos! Adios for now 🙂