thoughts on nicaragua from lima

once again in a cosmopolitan city such as Lima, peru i am able to reflect back on the experience and learning that nicaragua has provided me with. I can think fondly of the simplicity of life there as I gently clack away at the key board, listening to cars drive by on a street lined with brightly lit casinos and designer clothing shops. On my last days in Nicaragua Cody and I discussed all of the new skills I had aquired and foods that I had savored. When I turn these events over in my mind I recognize that I learned skills that are basic to the life of a woman living in a rural area of the world, skills that may appear quite different from those of the high heeled city woman. So in honor of all the rural women the world over, particularly those in Nicaragua that laguhed as I attempted to master the most mundane skills I dedicate this list of newly aquired knowledge:

-to pull water up from a well with a plastic bucket...easier said than done, its all in the wrist!
-to grate a coconut on a tool derived from a punched metal can and then make coconut milk...various scars on my hand to prove the sharpness of this tool!
-to light a fire with pine wood and charcoals for grilling food...this is without the traditional addition of fast lighting plastic
-to effeciently bath and wash dishes without running water
-to carry buckets of water without spilling too much
-to hand wash cloths on a grated cement block, hang them to dry, and remember to bring them in at night so they wont get stolen (ill admit that i only did it a couple of times and paid to have someone do it the rest of the time...its hard work!)
-to fish with a line and hook
-to descale, gut, and grill a fish (thanx to cody for that one!)
-to peel and cook bread fruit in a variety of ways
-to make cake out of quiquisque
-to make miskito tortilla both fried and baked (kind of!)

And to cody and his gastronomical passion a list of new foods that have touched my palate: quiquisque, jocote, bittensweet, naranjarilla, bread fruit, malanga, icate, chile congo & cabro, encultidos, rose apple, roscetes, rosquillos, rondon, wiya/ibhina wina/gibbnet, turtle meat, iguana eggs, bunnyhuevos, fresco de grama y avena, cuajada...just to name a few!

occassionaly as a modern woman traveling in the developing world you realize the delicate and difficult skills that we have lost as life has become paradoxically simplified and more complex at the same time! heres off to the Inka empire and other unknown skills....