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| Picking coffee |
We began 2014 munching on samosas in the streets of San Nicolas as we watched muñecos explode around us. We had gone to mass earlier in the evening, and then over to the parish for a meal of molé poblano with Padre Patricio and the oblates, Mary Luz and Carolina.
When we came home, we decided to make a batch of midnight samosas to go with the pricey champagne we had bought in Esteli. Just before midnight, we started to hear fireworks in the streets outside our house. The Nicaraguan New Years tradition is to make “muñecos,” or scare-crow-style figures, fill them with explosives, and light them off at midnight. I had imagined the muñecos soaring into the sky like fireworks and was therefore a little disappointed when they just kind of flamed and made loud noises. But it was fun to be out on the streets with other San Nicolaseños, watching the muñecos, at what would usually be deemed an unseemly hour to be awake.
As we start 2014, here are a few of our resolutions for the coming year:
-Floss more regularly. But for real . . .
-Start an after-school book club of some sort
-Plant and grow a garden in our back yard
-Find strawberries for our garden
-Learn more about the 1980s Contra war in this area through oral histories
-Learn how to make nacatamales
-Decide whether to keep Diego, the dog recently bequeathed to us by our friends Idalia and Marlon
-If we keep Diego, put some pounds on his skinny ribs (donations are welcomed)
-Hike to Cerro Apaguaji, a scenic mountain that overlooks the lands southwest of San Nicolas
-Visit a women's cooperative in Potrerillos that makes jams
-Continue our cooking club with neighborhood kids
-Compile the Nicaraguan recipes we've collected into a cookbook
-Work with the P.E. teacher, Reinaldo, to develop some after-school sports teams
-Fix the leaks in our roof
-Learn how to do the elaborate braids that so many little girls have
-Continue tutoring adults in the community in English
-Try eating only beans and rice for a whole month
-Spruce up the natural medicine area in front of our house
-Host a small group with community friends
-Help La Garnacha, the local organic farm, improve their website and communications materials
-Milk more cows
-Buy more tortillas from Dona Victoria across the street
-Build a wood-fired oven
-Learn how to make cheese
-Get bikes
-Visit Costa Rica and Davie's friends there
-Finish the Game of Thrones book series
-Teach English to a class of little kids, a class of high school students, and a class of teachers
-Bake stuff
-Visit the Isla de Ometepe in the middle of Lake Nicaragua
-Practice my Spanish with our friend Fatima, who works at the pharmacy next door
-Teach computer classes to high school teachers
-And of course, most importantly, continue expanding and deepening our friendships with the people of San Nicolas
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