Gualpatara

All this week we had training for the locals operators in the communities that we serve.  That means we shipped in all the people from Monkey Point, Pearl Lagoon, Set Net Point, Punta de Aguila, and everywhere else that we have turbines set up, and had them sit through a week-long class training them up on all that is the blueEnergy system.  This was a really cool to finally get off the ground - it's something that we've been talking about doing for several years, and finally Marie made it happen.  We even have an official operator's manual and everything.

Anyway, as a result of having all these people in Bluefields, we gave the kitchen staff a break and ordered in catering from INATEC.  The catering service was cool (albeit rather un-inventive) but they made us go to the workshop in order to eat.  As a result, there was an unprecedented amount of mingling between operators, volunteers, and local workers.  Since Maya, the newest addition to our volunteer corps, also happens to be a super cute female, the two of us have become fast friends (partly as a self-preservation / protection technique, and partly cause she's super cool).  We got to talking with a bunch of the workers, and discovered (FINALLY) that there's a little swimming hole hiking distance from casa blueEnergy!  Who knew?!?!

Well, obviously Maya and I were sold on the idea of being able to submerge ourselves in clean, running, cold water seeing as it's hot and sticky here ALL the time, and dusty to boot.  We made plans to go with a bunch of the locals, but plans never really materialize, and we ended up just going with Lâl (he said he knew the way, and we didn't wanna wait any longer for the workers... "Nicaragua time" sometimes means "never").

Well, the hike was interesting since Lâl had been there before - but not this year.  The paths change every year depending on who's build a new house, or where the hurricanes washed out the trail the previous year.  We managed to make it there eventually, but we were definitely REALLY hot and sticky by the time we arrived.  Never before had clean cool water been so appetizing.

I stumbled upon an interesting cultural experience while enjoying the water as well.  The women here aren't big on using bathing suits.  They tend to swim in whatever clothes they have on instead.  I don't think this is a modesty issue as often their clothes are white, and when wet, entirely see-through (boys, they wear underwear... stop getting ideas).  I think it's more an issue of just not bothering with buying/owning/maintaining swim suits.  Who knows?  In any case, Maya and I found ourselves to be BIG attractions and conversation points for all the other swimmers at the swimming hole.  When I was down to my suit and standing on a cliff preparing myself to jump into the water, I had about 5 different camera phones focused on me with both girls and guys pointing, giggling, and chatting.  I never thought I could be that interesting.  Lâl mentioned that maybe I should swim with my clothes on too, but I was too hot and sticky and dirty to want to do that.  Maybe next time, I told him.

Anyway, an hour of hanging out in the water, jumping off the cliffs, avoiding rocks, and getting scared by locals swimming up to us under the water and nipping at our legs, we were sufficiently freezing enough to begin our journey home.  Lâl wanted to show us some other parts of the city, so we took a different route home.  This was the first time I walked around the city away from the roads, and discovered how much of Bluefields I had been totally unaware of before.  Bluefields has roads upon which the taxis and trucks run, moving people and cargo around the city.  Cement houses and shops line the streets on both sides, causing the city to appear as if it's all visible from the street.  In reality, however, there are little pathways that cut away from the road towards large plots of little wooden houses built practically on top of each other.  Every several houses or so is a well that is used communally.  Laundry lines criss cross your line of sight, and pigs, chickens, and dogs run around freely.  What appeared to me to be a decently set-up, quasi well-off city suddenly showed itself to be substantially poorer than I'd originally thought.  I could suddenly see the deficiencies in sanitation and water purity I've been reading about, and see right into the one-room houses filled with 7 children playing with a bicycle tire.  I became really self-conscious of the two-story nicely-painted cement sky-scraper that I live in here.  Gosh, even my bucket shower is a luxury.