It’s hard to believe where the time has gone, one month in Sabana Grande, 6 weeks in Nicaragua, and over two months since I farewelled my family back in NZ.

At what point are you living somewhere, rather than just visiting? It’s a discussion I have had more than once so far in this trip, and I still do not have a definitive answer. But I think that that is just the point – there is no definitive answer, you just feel it – and to me now, Sabana Grande feels like home. That doesn’t mean it’s all sunshine and roses, no far from it – but it has that sense of familiarity, and community, that I feel makes a place home.

Being such an isolated community, and devoid of any other foreigners, we formed a close group pretty quickly – working together all week, and often travelling together in the weekends! But I feel now that we are starting to build closer relationships within the community as well. There’s the Mujeres Solares who are the backbone of the community, as well the smiling faces serving our lunch at the Resturante Solar. There’s Oscar and Jorge at the solar center, who are now becoming good friends as well as colleges  – inviting us around for the occasional rum, or joining in on a weekend excursion. And last but by no means least our host families, who really are starting to feel like family – it’s not an uncommon site around Sabana Grande to see a foreigner calling out “Hola madre “ to a middle aged nicaraguan woman.

Our first couple of weeks disappeared in no time, with orientation, and a few projects outside of the community. Following on from our installation at the coffee farm, Savanna, Sarah and I had another day trip, this time to conduct site inspections for new ecological ovens which the Mujeres Solar were to be constructing over the next few weeks – or at least thats what we thought.

It turns out that they just wanted to establish where the installations were to take place, which is incredibly difficult in a country which has virtually no street names or addresses in the city, let alone in  tiny rural communities. In the morning we drove through stunning countryside to a small village in the mountains high above Somoto, and the the afternoon endured an incredibly dusty and bumpy ride through a barren wasteland, and of course it was here we got lost several times. At least the women we were with got a laugh out of my wind-induced, dust-filled afro!

Friday brought with it another installation, this time only half an hour or so from Sabana Grande – what Jorge and Oscar failed to mention was the twenty minute walk up hill with all of the gear which followed… at least I didn’t have to carry the battery! This was a real taste of just how remote some Nicaragua communities are.

To top of a week of early starts we were at the bus stop at 6am Saturday morning, destination: Estelí. Originating just up the road in Ocotal, the old American school bus, still in its yellow livery, was fairly full when it pulled up in front of us – and when I say fairly full this by nicaraguan standards. the seats were all gone, and the asile lined with people, but you could still move. It wasn’t long though until the buss was well beyond double its capacity, and I was in contact with at least 4 other people – you soon loose any concerns about personal space on public transport here. Yet somehow the conductor still manages to work his way down the aisle to collect money, skilfully rearranging people as he goes.

After 70km, or two and a half hours of rubbing up against a bus load of Nicaraguans, and thanks to the low windows and our standing position views of nothing more than the road next to the bus we spilled out into Estalí bus station. Although basic by western standards, Estelí – the third largest city in Nicaragua –  was a world away from Sabana Grande, or even our provincial capital neighbour of Ocotal. That day we enjoyed such luxuries as fresh fruit smoothies, cafes with couches, espresso coffee and menu items which didn’t include rice or beans – and other foreigners apart from ourselves.

Obviously suckers for punishment we were up early again the following day, this time 5am. The journey on the old school bus started of like any other, although this one wasn’t too full, and we had seats so could enjoy the view. I dozed off as we drove along the highway, and  woke up a short while later, thrown back in forth in my seat to the sound of a struggling bus engine. In total we climbed over 1km along a deeply rutted dirt road which was so steep in parts we required snow chains, all in a bus designed for driving school children through suburban streets. I was starting to learn that getting to your destination in Nicaragua was always an adventure, weather it be in an old school bus, or the back of a pick up truck.

Our destination through was simply stunning. We had arrived in Miraflor Nature Preserve – the lush cloud forest, dotted with the occasional small farm felt like a different world compared to the dry grasslands of Sababa Grande. The golden early morning light we arrived in only accented this beauty. After spending the morning wandering under the forest canopy, we stopped off at a small waterfall for a picnic lunch, and a swim in the refreshingly frigid water.

The following week was a fairly low key affair, working with the local interns on a couple of community service projects, and tidying up some odd jobs around the solar centre. Thankfully funding had come available to repair / replace the non-functional PV system at the Solar Restaurant giving me a project to keep me busy. Starting of with a quick site assessment of the old system, and documenting everything in Spanish we were ready to get underway. I held a 3 hour design session on preliminary design for an off grid system, something I would have almost done in my sleep at my old job, except here I was running the session in Spanish. It still surprises my the mental exertion required to speak for a prolonged time in Spanish, I’m hoping it will get easier soon. But still this time two months ago when I was in Cuba, I could barely order my breakfast in Spanish, let alone run a 3 hour training session on the design of off grid systems!!

Last week we finally got around to building one of the ovens we did the exploration for earlier in the month. Same old routine, Maja and I were sitting by the side of the road at 3:50 in the morning, and an hour later our ride arrived with Savanna and the women we were to be working with. The pickup truck we were riding in had definitely seen better days, we were especially nervous when the driver got out every 20 minutes with his spanner to tighten the brakes. Once we got into the mountains above soot we learned that 6 people, and a few hundred bricks was just too much for it to handle. First it stalled going up a hill, a problem because it required a push start. Apparently rolling backwards down the hill was sufficient, the engine started, but we continued to roll into the safety barrier in a bend in the road and wedge ourselves in. After a bit of help from a couple of local passersby we were on the road again, only to repeat a similar process a few more times before we reached our destination. The ovens were a simple construction – a brick fire box topped with a steel drum, and encased in more bricks, all mortared together with mud. The three of us felt like kids again, covered up to the elbows in mud!

Well-settled, and having sorted out a few odd jobs, the last few days have been spent starting to get stuck into some of our own projects… exciting times ahead!