Photos of Where I Live

I live in a small community called Jucuapa Occidental, nestled in the central highlands of Nicaragua. My community has about 70 houses, a primary school and a catholic chapel. Needless to say, it´s rural. The tradeoff is that it´s gorgeous!

To get to my site the school bus has to drive through this river. In the background is a half finished bridge, which will probably never be completed (a recurrent theme here).

There´s also a river that runs through my community. Right now it´s summer so the water level is low and we easily cross on the stepping stones. Apparently during the winter when it floods it´s more of a challenge. We have to put on rubber boots or get on horses to cross. Or, on some days it´s not crossable.

This is what a typical huerta (field) looks like. Farmers in my community grow corn, beans, tomato, bell pepper and onion.

This is my host family, the Cruz Rodriguezes. Patricio my host dad (left) is a farmer by day and plays the violin in a mariachi band by night. Tony my host brother(center) walks around with his shirt unbuttoned, typical of the men in the campo. Margarita my host mom (right) is wearing a shirt says ¨Jesus, my true friend¨ In the U.S. if I saw someone sporting that shirt I´d do a double take, but in my community it seems quite normal.

When I first moved into the community I attended a lot of social events to get to know the people. This is a birthday party for my host niece. I find it somewhat disturbing that the pinata looks like her.

For a confirmation ceremony, an archbishop came and we all paraded behind him into the church.

In my community there´s a cattle ranch where cuajada (cheese) is made. We collect all the curd into a plastic sack and squeeze out all the water. Then, we curd goes through a hand mill to condense them so they stick together. Finally, we toss them into 1 lb balls and sell for about $2. Really good cuajada reminds me of fresh mozzarella. Cuajada served with fresh, hot corn tortilla is one of the best foods EVER!