Yesterday in Las Comarcas

I was abruptly asked by my supervisor, Nelly, whom I greatly admire and respect, if I wanted to go to Las Comarcas with her and her team. I had no clue what she was talking about but she said I though you may like to come with me this afternoon. I though sure, if she thinks it is something I should see, then I am there- I totally trust her.
Somewhat later, I found out it is one of the poorest and most rural regions in the country. So we went in the camioneta, the truck that my organization uses for transportation (the driver´s name is Arnoldo, who I drive with every morning from CECIM to the school which is ten minutes away on dirt roads). So the truck in the back is full and the from car is full with 5 people and we head up to Las Comarcas.
They go every eight days to check on the progress of the adult literacy campaigns that the organization I work for created. So thirty minutes later of bumpy dirt roads and slow driving over pot holes the size of my body, we arrive to the poor houses spread out across the lush green land. It was interesting on the way there, I saw fields of crops, it looked like, with black tarps folded over with people shading themselves under them. I am not sure if people lived there or what, but Nelly (my supervisor and the Director of the school I work at) asked me if we have things like that in my country. I did not know how to respond. But, most of the homes in Las Comarcas are farm style. So we dropped off pairs of men and women to evaluate the progress made in the makshift classrooms and Nelly and I waited with some other people at a nearby family farm until their evaluations were done and we had to pick them back up in the truck in all the different places.
At the farm estate or finca, we stayed at, I saw so many animals. I saw the biggest pig I have ever seen in my life and its little piglet that were six days old. There were chickens, all sorts of dogs, maybe a dozen huge ugly cows and other animals. It was amazing to be at this farm aurrounded by the beautiful green mountains. While we were there waiting and talking, (though even when Nicaraguans are relaxing and not doing anything, it is never waiting, they have all the patience in the world because like I havce said before, their pace of life is just slower and everyone accepts that) Nelly joked that I coould ride a horse, since the man who just brought two cows home just came back adn the horse saddle was empty. I said I would love to ride the horse and the look on her face was great! I contantly surprise Nicaraguans, there are many things the think I don´t know how to do, maybe because I am American or because I dress fancy or something, but I love surprising them (for example everyone is always a little shocked when I tell them I know how to swim adn play soccer and play pool- which i guess people don´t alwaya know how to do or think only men can do those things). So point being I went for a horse ride and it was so amazing! It was a skinny horse, like all the horses in Nicaragua, which are all underfed, but nonetheless it was very exciting and I came back in my nice work cloths (because remember Nelly only asked me the day of if I wanted to go with her to Las Comarcas) adn it felt so good.
I met the Doña of the estate, Doña Eva who was kind enough to tell me a little bit of her interesting life story. She has lived there on that spot for 48 years...amazing. But she was also showing around two other Americans who were in the region working at an NGO called Canterra doing art therapy, however I noticed that they were using a Nicaraguan translator which surprised me. They are here for a week and neither of them speak spanish. Since I am surrounded by only spanish speakers everyday at work abd at home, I forgot how much I value my ability to understand and communicate somewhat in Spanish. It made me really sad for them that they don´t have the priveledge of communicating and learning about a whole nother amazing culture and country. Having learned spanish is definitly one of the best abilities I have and every year (out of maybe seven) that I have studied spanish has been completely worth it.
I am so lucky to be here in Nicaragua and to share my culture and learn about another so young in life. I feel like I have so much time ahead of me to learn!