Wonderful video of study-abroad cultural exchange on La Isla de Ometepe, Nicaragua: A chat with the filmmaker, Heather Croix

February 7th, 2010 | By Joshua | No Comments »

The description of the video is simple—”Carthage College professors lead a group of students on a trip to Nicaragua to learn about physical geography and health care”— but its message is far-reaching and it captures aspects of travel and volunteering abroad — the anticipation, the fear, the lessons, the humility — that I’ve rarely seen presented so well.

The 9-minute film, “Explore Nicaragua,” was directed and edited by Heather Croix and produced and directed by Paul Chilsen. Heather is a recent college graduate, currently working as a swimming coach and substitute teacher in Wisconsin. Her trip to Nicaragua to document a Cathage College study-abroad program was her first time traveling outside the United States. Watching the video, you can tell it was as a profound experience for the filmmakers as for the subjects. I asked her about the experience: (more…)

Awesome, low-tech success story from Nicaragua — Condega firefighters deliver water filters to people of Ducuale Grande

January 19th, 2010 | By Joshua | 1 Comment »

I thought I’d share this excellent video and news from friends in Nicaragua. Here’s the release from Rodney McDonald, Latin American director for Emergency Response Services for Latin America (ERSLA):

Water filters distributed to Nicaraguan families through local firefighters and US Organization

Ducuale Grande Nicaragua, Jan 18, 2009—More than 200 water filters purchased by individuals, U.S. church groups, and volunteer organizations were distributed to Nicaraguan families over the month of December as part of a project begun by a team of firefighters in Bend, Oregon. (more…)

Novelist Silvio Sirias Coming to Tranquilo Traveler this Thursday — Stop by to win an autographed copy of Meet Me Under the Ceiba!

January 12th, 2010 | By Joshua | No Comments »

Author Silvio Sirias is including the Tranquilo Traveler in his blog tour this Thursday, January 14, 2010. I’ll post a review of Sirias’s latest novel Meet Me Under the Ceiba, a book which offers wonderful storytelling, plus a remarkably vivid portrait of small-town Nicaraguan life (which is good news for those of us on a constant Nica nostalgia kick). There is a reason LatinoStories.com just named him one of 2010’s Top Ten New Latino Authors to Watch (and Read). Stop by on Thursday, leave a comment, and you’ll automatically be entered to win an autographed copy of Ceiba.

¡Suerte!

TIME article on baseball diplomacy in Nicaragua

December 28th, 2009 | By Joshua | No Comments »

I just saw Invictus, so sports-politics combo is on my mind. Here’s a recent piece by Granada-based journalist Tim Rogers on a related subject:

Can U.S. Baseball Diplomacy Get the Save in Nicaragua?

“I think the State Department is coming to realize, belatedly, that [baseball] can be a very effective tool in public diplomacy,” Callahan told TIME. In the case of the U.S. and Nicaragua, he said, “of all the things that unite us, I think the great sport of baseball is the most important.”

Where are they now files: DailyKos checks in on famous gringo prisoner of the 1980s

December 28th, 2009 | By Joshua | No Comments »

From the sketchy Reagan-Contra files, here is a fascinating flashback to the capture of Eugene Hasenfus in Nicaragua. “Shot down Oct. 5, 1986, while kicking crated cargo to anti-government terrorists from a CIA plane over the back-country of Nicaragua, his capture by Sandinista militiamen led to the exposure of what would become known as the Iran-contra affair.”

Be sure to read through the bottom where you get an update of this Nicaragua player: “Hasenfus … faded into his old life in small-town Wisconsin…. accused of indecent exposure … killed a bear without a license,” etc. LINK->

“The Art of Travel” Movie Captures Tranquilo Spirit and Features Hospedaje Santos in Managua

December 19th, 2009 | By Joshua | No Comments »

There are plenty of movies that take the viewer to beautiful settings around the world, but there are scant few films actually about the act of traveling, and fewer still about the hostel-slinging backpacker netherworld (”The Beach” being the most famous of these). I discovered these movies about international backpacking three years ago, then nuttin’—until The Art of Travel, released in 2008, ended up in my player.

Despite the movie’s clunky flaws (I didn’t think the whole jilted marriage/ honeymoon was necessary to set up the trip; the beginning is riddled with lame dialogue; and the star, Christoper Masterson looks too much like Neil Patrick Harris tripping on mushrooms in “Harold & Kumar” to take seriously), I’m a sucker for any film in this sub-sub-genre. Especially when the travel story in question kicks off in the backseat of a Managua taxi! (more…)

NYT on Living Abroad in Nicaragua

December 12th, 2009 | By Joshua | No Comments »

New article by Zach Weisberg on living abroad in Nicaragua:

A Retiring Life on the Beach in Nicaragua, Despite Risks

“Some might see an element of financial risk in the Schmidts’ purchase of the sort of property that one segment of buyers view as an investment, but Mr. Schmidt said that he and his wife were not driven by the profit motive. ‘We came down here really not as an investment per se,’ he said. ‘It was more of a lifestyle change.”

Those are the kind of people we hope are buying our book, Moon Living Abroad in Nicaragua, i.e. those who are NOT looking to cut up their lot, turn a quick profit, and leave — but foreigners who want to adapt to the tranquilo Nica lifestyle, learn Spanish, and have a positive impact on their new communities.

Novel Destinations, travel blog about literary places, mentions Mark Twain in Nicaragua

December 10th, 2009 | By Joshua | No Comments »

Shannon McKenna Schmidt and Joni Rendon, the authors of Novel Destinations: Literary Landmarks from Jane Austen’s Bath to Ernest Hemingway’s Key West, have set their sites on the Rio San Juan in this latest post on their blog:

Mark Twain’s Nicaragua

They write about the famous author’s “wild-eyed enthusiasm for the verdant Nicaraguan scenery he encountered along the way,” and include this great description from MT himself: (more…)

Buy a water filter for a Nicaraguan family—simple, easy way to save a life:

December 3rd, 2009 | By Joshua | 1 Comment »

My compañero (and fellow Returned Peace Corps Volunteer) Rodney McDonald would like to tell you about a worthy campaign in northern Nicaragua, administered by the organization he helped found, Emergency Response Services for Latin America (ERSLA). He writes: “…give the gift of health and life to one family in one of the most impoverished countries in the world. Your gift donation can help save lives. Local firefighters are teaming up with ERSLA to help identify the families most at risk and provide them with a simple water filtration system that will keep them safe and healthy. Simple, yet effective.”

They have to sell 84 more filters to meet the needs of the community and their goal. Learn more about these low-tech, low-cost, colloidal silver-enhanced ceramic water purifiers from Potters for Peace, who helped develop them.

(more…)

Radio interview with Silvio Sirias, a Nica author living in Panama who writes novels in English about Nicaragua

November 28th, 2009 | By Joshua | No Comments »

Silvio Sirias’s first novel, Bernardo and the Virgin (Northwestern University Press, 2007), takes the reader on a phenomenal journey to the village of Cuapa in Chontales, Nicaragua. The book fictionalizes the story of a campesino to whom the Holy Virgin appeared in 1980. Sirias’s new book, MEET ME UNDER THE CEIBA, from Arte Publico Press, which won the Chicano/Latino Literary Prize, is also a work of fiction, but based on a true crime that occurred in 1999 and on the very real intolerance of Nicaraguan culture to homosexuality: “Everyone knew that wealthy land owner Don Roque Ramírez wanted Adela Rugama dead. And on Christmas Day, Adela disappeared. It was two months before her murdered body was found.” (more…)