Into the Jungle-Cangrejo and the sewing center

Well where to start. The guys are off to do some "networking". Hopefully working the net on some really big fish. More about that when they return. We started our day by meeting all of Eric's friends from SJDS who were joining us on the trek to the jungle. We got the nice ride to the trail head with Kelly(an american ex-pat who runs a local coffee shop with her husband) in her what else...Toyota. The road was quite an experience itself. Kelly said that you have to change your tires and shocks at least once a year. She was a great tour guide, filling us in on local info. We arrived at the trail head and after await of a few minutes our ride arrived. The ox cart and a string of horses. It probably was a good thing that we were there first because it meant that we all got a horse and none of had to ride in the ox cart. We've been told that it's a little bumpy. We all got assigned a horse and we were off with Martin cowboy extraordinar as our guide. We had a wonderful ride through the jungle. When we arrived we found that Cangrejo isn't so much a village but an area sort of like Farmington. The central gathering point is Martin's house where the school, church and sewing center are located. We had a few minutes to walk around and get our legs back under us before Eric and the rest of the crew arrived. The amazing part of their arrival was the pickup(Ford F250) with the teacher's bed and dresser and 2 sewing machines and 6 or 8 people in the back. I'll let one of the guys describe the trail that the truck had to take. We unloaded all the furniture and goods,set up the teacher's room and the sewing machines. We had to do some belt adjustments and some tension fine tuning. A young lady from SJDS, Christien caame with us and she knew how to use the old style machines and the village elder DonaAnita arrived. This 72 year old dynamo stepped in and took charge immediately. I must admit that I was feeling a little protective of the machines but with these two ladies in charge I know that the center and the machines will be in good hands. Christien will be the front person in SJDS and sell the product the ladies make. Side bar: just looked up to see a motorcycle riding down the street with the driver dragging 4 or 5 twelve foot long pieces of rebar. If you don't have a truck you use whatever method is available. We had the official opening ceremony. Eric introduced us all and presented the plaque to the village and then George made Eric an honorary member of the DC Sunrise Rotary. He was extremely touched by this and a little choked up for a minute. He then translated for the people but I think they knew what was going on. Next in the celebration was a church service. An old fashioned tent revival event. Martin's wife and the ladies cooked us a delicious traditional lunch which we ate by ourselves. They all ate later or somewhere else. I went back to the sewing room with the ladies and Kris, Dennis and George were out making 1 teacher and a swarm of little kids very happy. Kris had Canadian flag pins, stickers and tattoos and once he broke the ice he couldn't apply tattoos fast enough. Dennis and George were pumping up balls. The only sad part was that there wasn't one for everyone. We had the flag raising-Nicaraguan, Canadian and Rotary. It was then time to load up and head for home. It's not great to be on the roads here after dark. Instead of riding back on the horses we all piled into the back of the pickup and headed for the trail head. I don't know what the record is and we probably were nowhere near but we had 22 people in the back of that truck. At the trail head the 4 of us got back into Kelly's 4-runner and headed for SJDS. The rest rode back in the back of the pickup. Before we left Cangrejo, DonaAnita asked me when I was coming back and I'm sure it is when and not if. After all I will need to check up on my sewing machines. What an amazing day!!!!!!

Lisa

As Lisa described we had a marvelous day at Cangrejo. It is undescribable how warm, friendly and welcoming they were to the Gringos from the North. We broke out the world map and found where we all lived. The smiles on everyones faces told it all, brings a tear to your eye when you think of it.

The road in was pretty exciting. Not sure of the distance, probably 15 klm of really rough rock/gravel then 5 klm of 4x4 rock, holes and hills. Great, now we are at the trailhead. Few little houses and big trees and underbrush. Could have been anywhere other than the types of trees and flowers. As Lisa said we were met at the trailhead, saddled up and off we went. The trail in was just that, a trail. We followed dried up river beds, some not so dry. The trail criss-crossed the rivers beds and followed the banks. Twisted through forested areas with big trees and through the banana plantations. A few monkeys on the way in. Black ones and light colored one. Very cool to see in the wild. On the way out there were many more monkeys. Ten to fifteen in any group of trees. The best was a very large sloth about 20 feet up in a large tree right beside the trail, great pictures.

Another interesting part of the trip out was stopping in a river bed to pull cedar trees. These are new growth and Francisco takes them home to pot and start and then plant as part of a reforestation effort. Just another little project Eric is pushing.

At any rate it is late Wed. and we are off to Managua tomorrow. As strange as it seems, after a full day in the jungle sleep did not come easy when I got back to the room. Just a way too many thing racing through the mind, wonderful people but so much that could be done to help. I wish I was a better writer as words do not describe this trip so far.

And yes my butt is still sore, I am standing to drink my beers!!

Dennis

Wow! It has been about a decade since I first heard about Nicaraguan Campesions and finally I can say I know first hand. What wonderful people. It was great to get to experience the pride and passion they have for their community. I must admit I was somewhat apprehensive about this part of the trip. I really had no idea what exactly to expect. But from the moment I saw Martin and his infant son Graby giggling at butterflies from the saddle the smile has not left my face. It was such a a joyous occasion out in the campos. After the ceremony and church service when I finally broke out my Canada flag pins and temporary tattoos I was swarmed by kids. It was easy to entice the young ones at first, pinning flags on there lapels and taking their photographs. They were all so proud in their school uniforms. The older kids, boys especially, played it kind of aloof, hanging back making jokes. When I showed them the temporary maple leaf tattoos they, then, got excited. It was a race to see how many of them I could imprint with that red leaf before I left. I even had mothers coming and asking for extras so they could tattoo the ones who couldn't make it. The entire day will certainly be one I remember forever.

Kris