The Simple Life

Buenos Dias (good morning)

I have been living in Somoto for 2 short days, and as I said before I could already write a book. So what I have decided to do is write about things in themes, if I told you exactly what I did everyday you would get bored and stop reading, if you havnt already. So today I have decided to write about my experiance with my host families and my day to day life here in Somoto. This is in no way a complete representation of their life, and definaty not a representation of Nicaraguans in general, but I feel their life is inspirational none the less.

My host family´s day starts between 4:30 (hey look found the colon buttton) and 5:30am. My host father generally wakes up around that time to go to work. I still do not know what he does as my spanish is not good enough to ask that question. Me and my host brother Luis wake up at 5:30am to go play soccer with the locals at central park. Central park consists of one basketball court and a fountain in the corner. We end up playing soccer on the hard court with two small nets. There is no diving here, because if you do you will pay the punishment of a bloody knee, this is real soccer!

We play soccer till about 7:30-8:00, back home I would still be asleep in my bed wasting life away. We then get back home, and by that time my host father is back home from work, and breakfast is waiting for us. I am very lucky to have such a caring host family, I am yet to even wash my own dishes. I really wish I could thank them properly, my thanks consists of alot of smiling and saying Gracias profucely, and I feel that is not enough for their hospitality. After breakfast it is almost time for the first world cup game of the day, and this is a full family ordeal. The whole family sits infront of the TV and watches, even Luis´uncle comes over to watch. Currently they are watching the Korea and Paraguay game, the score is 0-0 if youd like to know, and korea just had a really good chance.

Usually once the game is done Luis and I head over with the whole group of volunteers for meetings. Luis says hi to everyone he knows on the way, which is pretty much everyone. Cars even honk in salutation. It is quite incredible to see how tight knit this community is.

I find the people here very caring, and each of the vounteers from Somoto are very helpful and constantly trying to assist the Canadians to learn spanish. My spanish is getting better, so hopefully when this is done I wont sound like a complete idiota!

My host parents have an everyday tradition, at around 5pm they bring two chairs outside and they go out just to breathe the fresh air. This is something that many people do not do in Canada, we always have to be doing something, but in this case they enjoy the solitude of doing nothing. It brings about a calming air.

In Nicaragua all clothes are washed by hand and it is very rare for a family to have a washing machine. My inpiration for this post and the title came from something Luis said to me. He told me on the first day I moved in that he does not have a washing machine, which was what I expected. He then said that maybe in december when his family has a reunion they would get his mother a washing machine as a gift. Who would ever truly say in Canada that a washing machine is a gift. It is something that we expect. This truly shows how simple their lives really are. I have no doubt in my mind that my host mother would be extatic by this gift. This has brought me many appreciations for the things we have at my house.

Well here ends my description of ¨the simple life,¨ but as promised the picture of the day plus a little description...relax just a bit longer!


This picture was taken at a look-out point on the out skirts of Somoto. I have so many pictures from this spot that I had no idea which picture to pick. I picked this picture because I really think it really captures the beauty of this plae but also shows some of the living conditions. The building on the left is someones house, and the thing on the right is the washroom. I just think this picture says alotabout this place...what does it say to you?

Host Family

¿¡Que Nota Caballo!? (that means whats up dude)

Well now I am currently in Somoto in the cassa (house) of the family I am staying with. I have been in Nicaragua for 2 or 3 days now, weve been so busy that I honestly cant tell you the date right now without checking. In those three days I have gone through an orientation camp at a school with dorms, so both the Nicaraguan participants and Canadians have been staying there. We have gotten to know eachother, but it is very difficult to speak because of the language barrier. But it is increddible how much english the Nicaraguans can speak, it is almost embarassing how bad I am at spanish. Well i have only been learning for a few weeks now. I am living with a Nicaraguan guy named Luis Enrike and to describe him in short he is a soccer maniac. He is so crazy that he is waking up at 5:30am tomrow to play soccer, he is taking me with him, so hopefully I dont embarass myself too much. I am really tired right now and I dont feel like writing more, there is so much I could say right now that I could already write a book (not that I´m planning) Well one more thing, this place is spectacular, Somoto is right in the mountains and the peaks just graze the clouds. Since im not doing a picture of the day today you can google image Somoto and see for youself the beautiful scenery.

Buenos Noches!
Khalil

First Post From Nicaragua

¡Hola!

Guesss What? Im in Nicaragua, and this is officially my first post right here. We arrived in Managua, Nicaragua yesterday after a long flight from pearson airport. We left there at 11am and we had to stop over in San Salvador, El Salvador for a period of 5 hours. In that 5 hours we found out just how cheap the servecas ( beers) are. We finally arrived in Managua at 730pm...im using a spanish computer and I cant find the colon button :(

Any ways you might be wondering...well at least I hope you are where I have been the last 5 days, because didnt I leave 5 days ago? Well Id like to apologize, I didnt actually leave for Nicaragua on that day. Although I did start my journey. We spent 4 days at an orientaion camp at some camp ground in Halton. I have met incredible people, and in those 4 days I feel like i have known these people for years. These fantastic poeople I have met all share the same values about life and what we want to accomplish on this trip. And even though we share the same values, we all come from differnt walks of life, some of us are from toronto, ottawa, Vancouver, we even have 3 participants from Nunuvut and a Participant from NWT, and that shows how multi cultural we really are.

Now a little more about Nicaragua, well the second we stepped off the plane it was pouring buckets, well thats what you get from coming to nicaragua during hurricane season. Currently I am staying in a hotel called Maraca Inn, and on each and every wall you will definatly see a lizard. This morning the sun is out and birds are singing (a little too ,much I might add) and we will be leaving for Somoto in 2 hours to finally meet our host families and see the comunity we will call our home for the next 3 months.

Hope everyone is keeping well, sorry about any spelling errors I am writing really quick, Ill keep you posted

Buenos Dias, Buenos Tardes, y buenos noches (if you dont know what that means think truman show)

Khalil

Leaving Tomorow

Well the day has finally come...well almost, I am leaving tomorrow at 4pm, and after that you wont see me for 6 months. I know poor you! but remember you can always follow my travels right here on this blog. And for the days you really miss me and theres not a new post, you can read everything all over again, or just creep my photos on Facebook.

One thing I'm really bad at is taking pictures, so I have decided that I will take a lot more pictures then i usually do. What I plan on doing is hopefully I will take one meaningful picture a day and I will post it on my blog, and it will be called picture of the day. Knowing me I will get lazy and it'll end up being picture of the week then picture of the month, but hopefully that doesn't happen.

Lastly before I leave I'd like to thank everyone who donated, and for everyones on going support. I am grateful for all the positive comments I have received, and it really motivates me. (clearly not on this blog thanks Nirali for your one comment!) Also big shout out to Ayesha for checking this blog everyday even when theres no new post!

See you all on the Flip-Side (i think I need a better ending catch phrase but itll do for now)

New Orleans Trip

So this next post is quite unrelated to my trip to Nicaragua, but I have decided to blog about it just to get some practice and since it was an amazing experience.

On Thursday morning I had to wake up at 3:00am...yes am! to drive down to buffalo to catch our 6 am flight to New Orleans. We landed in New Orleans at around 11:15 central time, and the heat was incredible it was 40 degrees Celsius and more factoring the humidity. We then took a car to Morgan City, which is an hour outside New Orleans. For those of you who are following the Oil Spill crisis going on down there the city is one and the same. All hotels were filled with American Military who were there trying to fix this problem.

My first great experience in Morgan City occurred in a small local restaurant, called Sussie's. Their specialty was crawfish as some of you may know Louisiana is known for their seafood (is any one actually reading this?). For those of you who don't know what they are see picture below.

For us Canadians who have never seen crawfish, trying to eat one was quite a daunting task. This is when the quirky small town folk came over to help us. We were clearly and utterly confused as how to eat these delicious "critters" as we called them. They taught us how to properly peel and eat the crawfish, they even fed us. The meal was wonderful, and I advise anyone visiting morgan city to visit Sussie's to not only eat a delicious meal but to enjoy the company of the locals themselves.

My next big experience was when I arrived in Downtown New Orleans, when I was visiting Bourbon street. The sights and sounds were incredible. Out of every bar and club was music blasting for the world to hear. This is not just music played from CD, but live bands people with real talent. The streets were packed with people of all ages (well supposed to be 21+ but I doubt that holds true) some smashed out of their minds and others there to enjoy the sound of music all around them. One thing was for certain, the people of New Orleans love their music, but ill get back to that a little later.

The next day I took an early morning bus tour of New Orleans, this bus tour focused on the destruction Hurricane Katrina caused in the summer of 2005. It was amazing to see that its effects were still clearly visible and that they are still trying to build their city back up. We saw many houses who still had roofs missing on their houses. They say only 80% of residents have returned to their homes after the hurricane. Some of the houses do not even look safe to live in. It makes me fully and truly appreciate my messy apartment.

My most amazing experience of them all was in a little Jazz Café by the name of Palm Court. There I saw a trumpeter named Lionel Ferbos who plays there every saturday night from 7-12. The most amazing thing about this gifted man was that he is currently 98 years of age. He will be turning 99 this August. His music was incredible, and with every blast in his trumpet you could see the passion and soul he put into it. He even sang, and as frail as he looks his voice had the power and effect of a much younger man. This man should be an inspiration to us all, and I was truly inspired by him, and I hope to have as much verve for music that this man has. New Orleaners are known for two things, their sea food and their music.

During my trip I got to hear all sorts of music ranging from country to jazz, to blues, to rock. This is truly the passion that unites them all. This really rekindled my passion for music and for live performance, and it puts to shame what we in the Lady gaga era call music. This passion and love I saw for music in this city was genuinely beautiful and I hope to visit very soon.

I would like to wish Lionel Ferbos depicted below a very happy birthday, and hope to one day again see him perform.

Hopefully there is some one who made it this far down this long posting, and if you did I would like to thank you for being so patient. Also congratulations to Ghana for being the first African team to win a world cup match on african soil, hopefully Cameroon will be the 2nd tomorrow.

Hopefully the next posting will be direct from NIcaragua, only 5 more days till I start my journey.

Take Care!

Introduction to my Trip

About 2 weeks ago I decided to embark on a journey with Canada World Youth. Canada World Youth (CWY) is a volunteer organization which sends youth from all across Canada, to destinations across the globe, and to a domestic location.

On my journey I will be sent to Somoto, Nicaragua for 3 months to complete voluntary projects and assist the community as much as possible. I will be leaving for this leg of the trip on June 19th. Which is exactly 10 days from now, but those 10 days can't go fast enough. On the 2nd leg of my journey I will be going to Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, where I will be assisting a native reserve. I will be returning back home to Toronto around Mid-December. (Don't miss me too much!)

During my time in Somoto I will have limited access to internet, but I hope to keep everyone updated via this blog and Facebook.

Oh ya, World Cup is starting up this Friday so I would like to end this post by saying:

Allez Les Bleus!!!!