Reflections from the Other Half

So here we are home in our respective Southern Ontarian homes and we both could not miss Nicaragua more! Wow, what a contrast to come back to. However we are very happy to be back in the summertime and we've already taken advantage of some great camping.

I think that's the part Canada that we really love.

One of the main differences here is having neighbours again. Did they always live so close?! Were they always able to see right into our living room windows?? Apparently we didn't notice as much before but after coming back from the deserted beach of Venecia this feels like a Japanese train car.

So I guess that is one of the many ways that living in Nicaragua has changed us. We both have now agreed that if we were to ever live in Canada it would have to be in the country somewhere -- a radical notion for two former suburbanites/cityfolk.

We find ourselves talking about Nicaragua all the time, usually only to each other as most people don't seem to comprehend what we've been doing there.

"So, you live in the jungle, right?"

"You must have air conditioning, right?"

"They speak English, right?"

"You have a car, right?"

"You guys live alone, right?"

The answers to those questions always seem to surprise everyone. Not that we're complaining -- I'm happy to educate people about Nicaragua, a mostly misunderstood country. But also it makes us sad to think about it, simply because we're not there! We do however plan to be back soon in August.

Quite often we get phone calls from Ramón, with him always professing "Mucha salud para tus familias!", and with us trying to say "We miss you!" in Spanish. (We haven't entirely figured out how to say that yet as they always use the noun falta and the dictionaries say to use the verb extrañar).

But I think they get the point nonetheless.

Another thing we're "looking forward to" are the months of September and October, apparently the rainiest and most hurricane-prone months of Nicaraguan winter. I'm definitely bringing back my rain boots, but even those won't matter if there's flooding up to my waist. Fun times!

Some other projects for us to look forward to:

I really want to plant a garden when we return. We've already started a bunch of watermelon, cantaloupe and pepper seedlings. Those were all so easy to start that I think we could try a bunch of different vegetables. Gotta love that volcanic soil.

Ramón has already planted some fruit trees that will hopefully start flowering for next season!! Jocotes might be my new favourite fruit.

Another project is a chicken coop. Now that I am the proud owner of around 50 hens it's really important to get a coop going and collecting the eggs! We'll definitely need Ramón's expertise in this project. Who knows, by the time we get back he could have already completed building one!

I want to start some English classes at the local school and will bringing back lots of materials from Canada to get that started. Maybe even some music classes?

We need to get a better composting system started as well -- so much of our waste is organic and it makes absolute sense to use this for soil -- especially if I'm serious about a garden.

Some other improvements for the house in the future could be:

- A fridge/freezer
- Dressers for the bedrooms
- Better lighting
- New solar lights
- New batteries
- Cupboards/food storage for kitchen
- Artwork for the walls
- Large-scale collection of rain water
- Metal siding for Kyle's workshop

and so on...

As you can read we have lots to do, not even mentioning the turbines!! I guess this is why we're so anxious to get back.


Nicaragua, mi amor, hasta la pronto!!

Spring Time Update

Alright, well it's been a while once again since the last update but this isn't because of a lack of things going on in the research lab. The past month and a half has been a whirlwind of activity- First in Nicaragua and now in into Canada. We returned from down south as of June 15th and the time away from the land has really given me the chance to reflect on all we acomplished over our last "term" in Nicaragua from January to June. Truely, I feel somewhat overwhelmed with the progress of this very young project which really became a reality for me on the trip Jessica and I made to Nicaragua in April 2009.
It was during this trip that I installed the off grid system in the Venecia house and shared my dreams of living and working with turbines in Nicaragua to a great friend (and honourary Director of Costa Rican Affairs for Metric Motion  Renewable Energy) Julian Morales. His reaction and response really made me realize that these ideas were realistic and he told me that environmental conservation is a huge topic in Costa Rica with many people looking for practical renewable energy systems and this attitude is really growing in Nicaragua. Julian has helped me ever since from helping us set-up in the beach house, to transporting magnets from Costa Rica to the lab, spreading the word of our projects in Costa Rica. I feel grateful and lucky to have such great people working with us.  Later that night, standing there on the beach under the stars I decided I would move there and start this project. After that I began designing and researching the work which leads us to day. Here's a photo of Mendardo and I during the installation of solar panels for the Venecia house.