Hello again,
Yep, it's me. There were some complaints to the management about that last update, that it ended rather abruptly. We here at RMEInc. would like to sincerely apologise for any inconvenience that this may have caused and for the unseemly delay in the debut of part 2. We admit that we were trying to take advantage of the delay to sell more marketing merchandise (see http://www.vcn.bc.ca/~slftf/ for details) and sell the movie rights. :)
So where was I? Well, after discovering scabies, I suppose we were not too pleased, but hey, what can you do? We hiked back out - another couple of hours - the next day, and then sat around for 3 or so hours until the boat came to pick us up. It was at this point that somehow I was made to participate in a game where one imitates animals. Without going into details, I am not very good at this game, but managed to provoke much laughter with my now famous turkey/chicken imitation.
So we headed back to the Ranger's station at Bartola for our last night. Forgot to mention that Alejandra had forgotten her mosquito net, so we shared - an interesting proposition trying to get one net around 2 hammocks - but we managed to do it in a double-decker style. It was fun, but she was in top and a couple of times I had to help her in because it was so high...
Eventually, we skedaddled out of the El Castillo area, but not before we were ripped off by the boat driver who brought us out. Back in San Carlos, we flopped, exhausted in the office of Amigos del Rio San Juan, who we were helping in Papaturro and where we were going to spend the night (catching a boat to Papaturro the next morning).
In San Carlos, a lot of energy was spent buying cold Coca-colas and other such luxuries that the group had been doing without. We also went to the local clinic and were diagnosed with scabies (after we told the doctor that was it) and got some anti-scabies cream. It is great stuff - 5% Permethrin - you know that insecticide that they dip mosquito nets in. Yep, that's the stuff we smeared all over our bodies for the next 5 weeks. Fun.
The next morning, we had a mad dash to catch an early boat and the usual gammet of last minute complications - the place to buy propane for the stove was closed so I had to find some and then they had trouble locking the door to the office so I had to run back to lock it. But eventually we got off, life jackets and all. YCI policy is very clear, the group has to wear life jackets at all times, which is, generally speaking, a good idea - however, no one in Nicaragua wears one, which makes us gringo types stand out even more. So that is always fun.
So we arrived, scabies-ridden (does that seem like a theme? :) to the Ecological Lodge in Papaturro. It had beautiful cabins for guests to stay in - with beds, pillows, mosquito nets - but we didn't, we camped in the "rancho" as we didn't want to spread any scabies around. We had an introduction talk from Ayleen and Armando (here-to-after to be referred to as the Orchid Guy - he loves orchids, knows everything about them, including their scientific names, and only has a 4th grade education) which got people excited about the centre (and Amigos' holistic approach to development) and the work we were going to do: building bridges with the community, maintaining trails (putting fresh sand on them) and even some scientific data collection.
We were to start the next day working on the trails, but the boat wasn't ready - there were motor problems (what else is new?) - but we did get started the next day. I was cooking that day, so I didn't get to see the deal until the Friday.
So, on Friday, I got my first taste sand in a sack. A typical (sort of) sand day started with us leaving Papaturro in a big boat - same size boat of 50ish passengers that brought us in - around 8am. It took an hour to an hour and a half to arrive to a small island in Lake Nicaragua where we collected sand in sacks. Usually we filled about 200-250 sacks and threw them in the boat. This took us anywhere from 2-4 hours. The boat was in the water still and there was no dock in the area, so we had to carry the sacks (probably somewhere between 20-40 kilos depending who was carrying) through the water to the boat.
This walk through the water sounds fun, but several people tried to do it barefoot and discovered small, sharp clams in the shallow waters. Not so fun.
It was monotonous work, but we tried to lighten things up by playing in the water and mud and throwing each other in. (Well, some of us thought it was fun, but I'm not sure everyone who was thrown in thought so. :) Actually, one group member, Nyle, who is taller than I and weighs around 200lb hit me with a full tackle into the water. After I got over the shock, I began plotting to get him in. Later, with an accomplice, we tried but failed miserably. He threw us off like the insignificant beings that we are. :)
After filling the boat with sacks of sand, we went back. The 1 hour trip became 2-4 hours on the way back because of the drying river and getting stuck so often. Fortunately, I brought a book to read most of the time. I remember finishing the War for Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts on the boat.
Around halfway, we almost had scabies conquered and I remember going to San Carlos on one day, with only 3 people still infected. I came back, and then most people had it again. How annoying.
Also, while in San Carlos, a couple of guys who I kept bumping into tried to convince me to be very scared of hell. It didn't work.
We also had to take daily measurements of the rain level, temperature, etc. In the end, just a couple of people did it, it really didn't interest too many of the group I think...
The most fun part of the work, for most people, was working with the community on the bridges. In the end, we built four pedestrian bridges. I cannot describe a typical day because there wasn't one.
We worked with two communities and each one was a unique experience. With the community in Papaturro, we built two bridges over a period of 5 days. On the first day, we ran out of work because they hadn't cut all the posts for the base and the chainsaw broke that morning. They had to wait till the next day to really put us to work. They had just 5 or so community members working with us.
In the second community, we were scheduled to work 5 days as well and on several bridges, however, we arrived on the first day to discover all the wood ready and about 15 community members already working (after we resolved a problem of nail shortage). We finished two bridges (one about 80% done) in one morning. But, due to a miscommunication, that was all we did with them. They didn't seem to realise that we were available to work more. The community was not available though - they had to work in the fields to harvest the bean crops.
Work on the bridges consisted of: (1) the community members
chainsawing planks and posts for the bridge. (2) The community and we
carrying the wood to the worksite. By the way, the posts were freaking
heavy - darn that tropical hard wood. (3) Lining up where the posts would
go. (4) Dig holes for the posts - 1m deep. (5) Put in the posts and pack
them in tight, making sure they were level and lined up. (6) Hammer in
planks - into wood that seemed stronger than the nails. We bent many many
nails. (7) Watch the community members chainsaw the edges to make them
neat and straight.
OK. I am tired so looks like we'll need to release a part 3. Anyway, I guess RMEInc. can make a bit more money on it this way anyway. Please send your cheques to the usual address. Thanks.
Rob
P.S. look for the exciting conclusion to the trilogy which includes tales of how the heck they got out of Papaturro, vacation time in Solentiname, and much much more!