Bluefields, Nicaragua

David and I arrived in Bluefields, Nicaragua Monday morning last week after a long haul from San Jose on buses and boats. I've been sweating ever since.

This city built on a lagoon connected to the Caribbean Sea is a fascinating mix of cultures and languages, influenced by both the Spanish and British in the colonial days, hugely impacted by the war in the 1980s, with a large indigenous population remaining and a predominant Creole (afro-descendant) culture as well. Here at the blueEnergy office we are a team of about 11 volunteers from France and the US, with Nicaraguan staff, both Creole and Mestizo. So it is a crazy mix of French, English, Creole, and Spanish being spoken. My new favorite French word (one of about 4 that I know!) is pomme du terre (not sure on spelling) which is the fancy word for potato (yes there is a fancy word and a colloquial word) and actually translates to apple of the earth. I love it! It reminds me of Pablo Neruda's poem, Ode to the Potato, and I think its beautiful!
So David and I arrived just in time for a week of operator training, which was basically capacity building for the community operators of blueEnergy's wind/solar systems in the four communities where they're currently working. We were there to learn along with them and start getting to know the blueEnergy people, workshop, and systems. It was a great opportunity to meet and get to know people from the communities where I'll be spending most of the summer, and to learn about how the systems actually work. One week ago I knew literally nothing about electricity, how a wind turbine creates it, how to do maintenance on batteries, or anything of the sort. After 5 days in the classroom and workshop I am no pro, but I am much more confident in my understanding of how electricity and particularly how renewable energy systems (wind and solar) work. And the people from the communities are awesome! I spent the week speaking Spanish, learning how to speak and understand Creole (English with some Spanish words mixed in spoken with a crazy accent and very different grammatical rules than the ones we know), and learning some words in Rama and Moskito, two of the local indigenous languages.
We're currently preparing for the first trip to Monkey Point, the community where David and I will spend most of the summer. This trip is just 10 days, which we'll spend helping conduct a survey on community organization and women's participation, and just getting to know the community. Then we'll come back to Bluefields for a week or 2 to prepare for a 2 month stay in Monkey Point (and to enjoy the May Pole festivities- crazy booty shaking, loud music, and fun increasing until the end of the month). Monkey Point is a few hours south on the coast, in Rama territory. Basically I'm going to be very out of touch throughout most of the summer. While in Monkey Point David and I will be helping to organize the energy commission, teaching adult literacy in the blueEnergy-powered school at night, teaching school kids about how the wind turbines work and the basics of energy and electricity, observing and documenting the community's use of the energy systems, helping with basic maintenance and operation, and brainstorming with the community on the potential future uses of the energy once families are able to purchase their own batteries with the help of a local micro-credit organization.
I'm also hoping to spend at least a few weeks in the nearby community of Punta de Aguila, which is a small Rama community that is hoping to use the electricity to teach the Rama language in the schools. The mother of the two directors of blueEnergy is a French linguist who has been working with the Rama to preserve and revitalize their language since the 1980s. She's going to be providing me with some materials to take to Punta de Aguila. I'm hoping to work with the local teacher to start teaching basic Rama to adults and children, and I'd also like to work on a dictionary that Colette (the linguist) has started, adding more words as well as ethnographic information. It's going to be exciting!