Caribbean Coast Superstitions: BABIES!

Throughout the past year I have compiled a mental list of interesting local superstitions about pregnancy and  babies. Strange and funny, maybe, but at the end of the day these superstitions reflect the genuine love and care that mothers here on the Coast show their children.

When you are pregnant and have a sudden craving for a certain type of food and don’t end up fulfilling the craving, your baby will get a birth mark on some part of their body.

When you are pregnant and talk about somebody behind their back, your baby could be born looking like that person.

When pregnant it’s bad for the baby’s health if the mother looks at other pregnant women.

Don’t let a pregnant woman look at young turkeys, because her stare could kill them!

If a pregnant woman looks at the full moon, her baby could be born with a birth defect.

When pregnant, never tell someone how many months you are along because they could use obeah (black magic) against you and your baby.

When pregnant the baby will only allow their mother to have intimate relations with the baby’s father. If someone other than the baby’s father tries making love to the pregnant woman, the fetus will push the trespasser’s “privates” out of their mom’s “privates”.

During the period a mother is breastfeeding, the mother must hold up their breast every time she eats or drinks so that the food arrives first to the breasts and then the mother’s stomach. This helps keep the breasts full with milk.

If someone who is drunk, sick, or who has recently had sex looks at your newborn baby, you must quickly wipe the sweat of that person’s forehead and put it on your baby’s brow. If you don’t successfully complete this process your baby will be “strained” for a few moments and feel uncomfortable.

The color red is good at deflecting people who could potentially “strain” your baby. Newborns should always wear some article of red clothing when in public. Copinol seeds are also good at absorbing “straining” vibrations and the seed, normally greyish, will turn black once it is full with captured “strains”.

When sleeping, babies dream about angels.

If you leave your baby in a room alone, evil spirits can disturb the baby. A good way to avoid evil spirits playing with one’s child is to sleep with the light on and place a bible opened to Psalms 23 next to the baby.

Babies shouldn’t look into mirrors. Although you may only see your reflection, your baby may see evil spirits.

If a bigger person steps over a baby, the baby will grow much slower than normal.

When a baby has hiccups it means they are growing faster. Every hiccup inflates them just a little bit more.

If a baby is constantly picked up, they will grow to be tall and thin.

It’s good luck if a baby pees on you.

You can’t cut your baby’s hair until they start to talk otherwise they will develop a stutter.

If you tickle your baby’s feet too much they will also develop a stutter.

If you don’t band down your newborn baby’s navel, they will develop an “outtie”.

If you don’t pinch the bridge of your baby’s nose every day, they may grow up to have a crooked nose.

A baby’s fontenelle (also known as a soft spot, “mole” in creole English, or “moldeamiento” in Spanish) can” lower” if the baby sneezes to hard. Basically, this means the baby’s skin on their skull sticks to the brain. The best way to “pick up” the baby’s mole is to rub a mixture of camphor and sweet oil on the soft spot. A quick fix to “bring up” the mole is to gently pat your baby’s rump.

If your baby’s hair turns amber red at any point, they will grow up to be mischievous.

To treat a baby’s hiccups, you should wet a small piece of thread and put it on their forehead. If you don’t…..your being mean to your baby.

Red Copinol seed bracelet and a piece of wet thread on the forehead. Ready for action!

Coconuts…..The War for Oil!

Since the creation of the last bici- coco-machine in April, I had been chomping at the bit to make a version 2.0 The community members of Rocky Point have been using the original machine for the past 6 months and along with the overwhelmingly positive feedback, they have also provided some pragmatic design changes to make for an overall easier coconut grating experience. Along with my monolingual French speaking sidekick, Roger, (tomorrow and hola were strangely the only words in his English and Spanish vocabulary) we invented our own langue and battled to reinvent a new and improved bici-machine. Our language involved onomatopoeia and tons of hand and facial gestures; Pictionary temperament. Luckily technical ability and ingenuity transcend verbal communication. What we came up with what a significantly improved machine. The second machine differs from the first in that the coconut-grating bit is now located on the right side of the contraption (although that sounds straight forward, it took days of tinkering and welding) and a gear changer to improve flywheel velocity. We also focused heavily on the precision of sprocket alignment and chain tension as well as operator safety regarding moving parts. The coconut-grating bit is also much sharper and fabricated to deliver a finer coconut shaving (what coconut oil snobs fuss over). The future vision for this machine is to engineer interchangeable appliances (coconut grater, corn de-sheller, corn thresher, blender, etc.) so that one bici- machine can be used to help promote the efficiency of ordinarily time consuming farm and household duties.  Bici-coco-machine 2.0 is currently being tested at the Wawashang Center, where normally 300 or so coconuts were manually chipped and grated daily.

it started with a little bit of this,

some of this,

lots of this,

hand gestures, hand gestures, hand gestures,

and we ended up with this!

its a bicycle you can’t ride? hmmmm

and, well blue just made sense…

she thinks it great!

him too!

she thought it was fun!

and he didn’t say much…. but I’m sure he liked it too!

Coast Living

I mean, how could you not vote for this guy? Come on…. even his campaign slogan is “He’s right for you!”

Solar install in Rocky Point. Mister Cecil and one of his 25 children. seriously though! 25 children @ the age of 65. way to go Mister Cecile!

I was told by the island’s watchman that I wasn’t to upload this picture with its location. At any rate, its some far off island, somewhere on the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua.

 

Miss Julia with her new efficient cook stove (no that’s not a 10 tiered cake behind her). Believe me, she was really excited. Smiling is a western way of saying “IM HAPPY”. In Nicaragua it’s not.

kahkabila @ 5 am

Early morning hog crossing, Bluefields

the neighbors participating in some sunday afternoon cock fighting

 

 

 

 

 

 

¡Costa Caribe!

“WINAMBA!” That’s the Miskito language cheer (something like “Charge!”) that recently led the Caribbean Coast baseball team to a national championship victory over its longtime Managua rival, the Boer Indians. It’s a rivalry akin to Red Sox vs. Yankees, exaggerated by its  roots of past civil wars, cultural tension and language differences.  Here is a short video of the subsequent  celebrations that took place in Bluefields last week: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhXChkB2Mlk&feature=em-upload_owner

a quick lesson in coconuts

Common coconut misconceptions:

1. Coconut milk is the water inside the coconut.

Once, while watching the food channel I saw a recognized chef chop open a dry coconut and use its few drops of water in a dessert dish, claiming it was coconut milk. It’s most definitely not, and more likely the stale coconut water he used had a fermented, carbonated taste to it. Coconut water is taken from green, young coconuts still on the tree. There are specific classes of coconuts that are used for their coconut water. Coconuts with developed and hardened shells should not be used for their water (unless your looking for a way to quickly flush out your boules). Coconut milk is made when the meat of a mature coconut is grated, soaked in water and then strained. The strained liquid is the milk and the discarded coconut meat is called the “trash”.  You can use the trash to make candies or feed your animals.

2. Coconut bread is made with coconut oil.

That would make for a heavy and blubbery texture, not the light and fluffy texture coconut bread is acclaimed for. Just like classic Caribbean soups, coconut bread uses coconut milk. Typical creole “rice and beans” are also prepared with coconut milk. Coconut milk adds a rich yet bright flavor to these dishes. Here on the coast of Nicaragua coconut oil is mostly used for frying plantains, bananas (plantains vs. bananas… yikes, now that’s an entirely different conversation) eggs, meats and sautéing veggies. Some people use it as a skin product as well.

3. Coconut oil is bad for your health.

And so is spinach. Coconut oil gets a bad rap from some uninformed critics for its high levels of saturated fat, when in fact it belongs to the group of good saturated fats, necessary for the cells in your body to function properly. These same fats are also required for providing energy to the heart as well as other organs in the body. The oil contains MTC (medium-chain triglycerides), which is directly converted into usable energy for the body to burn. Its nearly medicinal properties supply a rich source of fatty acids and antioxidant that help boost the immune system, help in weight loss, promote healthy bones and teeth and deliver the heart a healthy dose of MCT and lauric acid essential for its functioning. And get this….apparently coconut water has been used for intravenous rehydration and in WWII emergency coconut IVs were used by the British and Japanese!

4. Coconut sponge! (Well it’s not quite a misconception, just more of an unknown coconut jewel). So when a coconut has matured, turned grey and fallen to the ground it eventually starts to germinate. During this time the coconut produces a white sponge that grows from its meaty innards. Around the size of a large marble to a small lemon, the sponge has a fluffy texture and is super sugary. It tastes something like its counterparts, Ms. Coconut water and Mr. Coconut meat but with an altogether different feel. If you ask any Kriol or Indian person on the Coast, they’ll tell you that the coconut sponge is their favorite part.

Lets take a look at how some of these coconut things work:

Coconut water:

Get a long stick with a hook on the end, or tie some rope around your feet and climb a coconut tree. Once you’ve acquired your green coconut, chop the coconut through and through (about 2/3 up the coconut) and it drink one time!

Coconut milk:

Wait for a mature, grey-husked coconut to fall to the ground.

With a machete or sharpened stick, de-husk the coconut so that you are left with the only hard coconut shell apart from the husk.

With a machete, chop the brown outer shell off of the coconut. This step takes seriously precise machete skills.

Once the naked coconut is finally chipped, grate it down using a grater. In a large bowl, add water to the grated coconut and allow the coconut to steep for a few minutes. Then strain the coconut with a sieve. You are left with coconut milk and coconut trash.

Coconut oil:

Same process as applies for coconut milk. De-husk, chip, grate and soak in water. Now multiply this by 40 or 50. Boil the water soaked coconut in a barrel for an hour or two. The oil separates from the water and rises to the top of the barrel. Ladle off the oil and vuaa-la! There is, however, a second method of acquiring coconut oil, but it’s looked down on in creole /coconut culture. I wouldn’t go as far as saying a scandal, but it’s something analogous to the French-truffle vs. Chinese truffle conflict. In this second method of coconut oil extraction, instead of boiling the mixture in the barrel, it’s left out to “set” for a few hours in a large bowl. After the “cream” has separated from the water, its ladled out and fried in a pot. The oil separates and again, vuaa-la. The down side of this method is that after about a month or two this oil spoils and turns “rance”. At the time of purchase, looking at the two classes of oil side by side you could never differentiate between the two. Only until time has passed and the oil ages will you be able to tell the quality boiled oil from the knock-off “set” oil. The motive behind this “rance” oil is of course $$. It’s quicker to make and nearly impossible to get caught selling to a larger market.

Here on the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua people use coconuts. They grow everywhere. When you’re thirsty you can burst one open and drink its purified, super-fueled water. When you’re hungry you can eat its meat or grate it down to add some incredible flavor and nutrition to your food. When your chickens, dogs, pigs, cats or rabbits are hungry you can throw them a healthy dose of coconut trash. When its time to plant your crops, you can use the chopped coconut husks as organic compost.  When its time to head to the market, instead of having to pay an arm and leg for that unhealthy vegetable oil to cook your food, you can opt for the much healthier and more local, coconut oil. Más bien, you can make your own!

Coconut oil is hard work. On average it takes anywhere from 40-50 good-sized coconuts to produce a single gallon of coconut oil. That’s a lot of chipping and grating. In fact it takes a team of seasoned veterans about 6-7 hours from start to finish. And that’s for one gallon of oil, sold at around 20 USD. The Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua has immense coconut oil potential, but lacks the high-tech instruments and means of production to capitalize on its good fortunes.

About 75% of the coast lives in far off, isolated communities without access to electricity. So well, shoot something like this probably wouldn’t be much help, now would it.

industrial coconut grater. babylon buisness, bwoy…

After a year long obsession with the Guatemala based NGO, Mayapedal, and after 12 months of what I like to call “pedal-porn”, and trusting in my welding and metal work skills, I designed and fabricated this……

With the help of my buddies Wesley Greene, Alex Blayth and Linton Jospeh, we busted out brains to make the world’s first pedal-powered coconut grater. Arch burn, hot metal shards in the face and hours of digging through scrap yards, all worth the agony. It’s a low-tech machine constructed mostly out of old bike parts. The rational behind this being that bicycles are pretty universal and most people down here on the coast have access to a bike, even if it’s a broken and rusty piece of $h¡t. If a part breaks on the bike-machine, it’s not going to be a wild goose chase to track down an obscure piece of machinery only found in Managua. Every kid over the age of 5 down here knows how to bust and re-link a chain with a hammer and a nail.

Designed with a concrete flywheel, the bike-machine delivers mechanical force to a horizontally spinning coco/grating bit that munches up the innards of the coconut. The beauty of the flywheel is that it allows the operator to pedal for a few seconds, then cool off and take a break while the coco-bit is still being spun by the weight of concrete wheel. Instead of having to de-husk and chip the coconut, you can chop it through and through and grate the halves with minimal effort. The original coconut grating method takes around 10-15 min per coconut. With the pedal-powered grater it takes about 2 minutes.

Currently the machine is in Rocky Point, receiving a seal of approval from the community members. With their suggestions and critiques the bike-machine will be improved and brought to the next level and next community. Here’s to the 2013 coconut revolution!

rasta man approved

Deer Cay

Yesterday we took a trip to Deer Cay (Isla de Venado in spanish). It’s long and narrow island that separates the Bluefields Bay and the Caribbean Ocean, about a 20 minute canoe ride from Bluefields. A desolate strip of land inhabited primarily by optimistic drug mules scouring the beaches day in and day out , looking for precious packages to drift ashore. Tacho, an age-able yet rugged and rough cut man, is not one of the majority. Tacho lives in a small thatched roof house with his agreeable,  6-foot something creole sidekick, Carlitos. With a voice akin to James Earl Jones, Carlitos’ quiet and gentle presence is felt. Tacho and Carlitos work the land and watch over a few dozen Milk cows as well as a million chickens, 5 or 6 turkeys, 3 dogs and  2 cats. Every morning they wake up at 4 am to manually Milk the cows. In a small canoe they then send the few odd gallons of fresh milk with their son, Dexter, to the market in Bluefields. It’s hard work, but Tacho explains to me that it’s extremely gratifying. Carlitos says jokingly that with the light from their new solar system, “now we cyan see if we is tryin fa milk di  wuman cow or di bull”. Tacho and Carliots smugly approved of the news we brought them regarding the day-long blackout programed to take place Sunday throughout the entire region. “¡Vamos a ser las unicas personas con luz en toda la costa! / We’re going to be the only people on the coast with light!” chuckled Tacho.

Tacho with his buddy, Bella.

panel mounted on post.

Dexter making the battery connections.

battery box.

long day the office.

Liga Empresarial de Fútsala, Bluefields 2013

Business League Indoor Soccer. Bluefields, Nicaragua. 2013. Governmental Institutions, local private and public businesses and NGO’s. blueEnergy’s first year in the mix. We didn’t finish first, but nor did we finish last. By far the sexiest of all teams.

 

Team blueEnergy 2013. #5 Vladamir Pao (Bonanza, Nicaragua), #3 Chris Sparadeo (Vermont, USA), #7 Elvin Gúzman (Carazo, Nicaragua), #6 Gilles Charlier (Brussel, Belgium), #12 Quinten Nouvelot (Paris, France), #9 Linton Joseph (Bluefields, Nicaragua), #10 Guillaume Craig (Oregon, USA), #11 Jerome Darche (Versailles, France), #16 Yadder Peralta (El Rama, Nicaragua). Missing in the foto is #11 Guthry McCrea (Eagle Point, Nicaragua) and #15 Miles Hooper (Vermont, USA).

 

Rocky Point 2.0

Since 2011 blueEnergy has been working in the small farming community of Rocky Point, with efforts mostly focused in small-scale photovoltaic systems and rural electrification. In recent months, however, blueEnergy has teamed up with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) to support agroforestry production initiatives in Rocky Point.

Essentially, the idea behind the project is to allow Rocky Point farmers to provide added value products (jellies, jams, canned and pickeled foods, frozen goods etc.) to the local market. Due to a lack of access to electricity and modern day processing tools, the current supply of added value products is minimal. blueEnergy’s Renewable Energy Technicians devised a two-fold answer to tackle this problem. Water filtration and refrigeration.

With access to filtered water, farmers can guarantee fellow community members clean and sanitary products. Potable water can also be used to make smoothies, natural juices, teas, tinctures and other traditional drinks. Using a solar photovoltaic panel and submergible water pump, the water is pumped out of the well and run through a bio-sand water filter in which active, living bacteria purify the passing water. A second function of the solar water pump system is to supply ground water to a 5000 Liter holding tank ,4-meters above ground level, which then leads to a gravity fed irrigation system for use on horticulture during the dry months.

Nearly a kilowatt of solar potential powers the 8 sq. ft. refrigerator and a 5 sq. ft. freezer used for keeping perishable products and for freezing goods. Rocky Point’s weekly farmers market in the nearby town of Pearl Lagoon will now offer frozen fruit sorbets and ice-cold pinolio.  Local taste buds are happier than ever.

1.5 x 1.5 x 3.5 meter holes for the “zapatas” (tower base). I felt like I was digging my own grave.

The water tower tank is a 4 meter monstrosity of 1/2” and ¾” steel rebar engineered to support 3,000 – 3,200 PSI loads. This thing isn’t going anywhere.

Jorge and Miles plumbing the concrete forms. Nothing on the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua is exact, so when you get a board that “measures” 1″ x 12″ theres probably about an hour of saw and machete work until its somewhere around that measurement.

The tower taking shape.

Cezar, the Miskito Indian mason. This guy works harder than anyone I’ve ever met and does it with a smile. Here Cezar finishes floating the platform.

The 900 Watt PV array sitting atop the communal house.

Control Panel. 2 kW Inverter and 60 Amp Charge Control hooked up to a battery bank of four 200 Ah,12 Volt sealed batteries. POWAHH!

The finished product. 3 weeks of intense labor and tinker. Alex and I welded the top railings and ladder and Miles invented the water filter support bracket. It looks sexy in blue.

big chunes agwan

dancehall tunes from beenie and popcaan.

 

typical things

I recently had the opportunity to photograph a few prospective local home-stays for bE volunteers. As a result, I have a stock pile of  typical nicaraguan-isms.

Subject #1: The typical back patio. Note the cement “pila” front and center used to washing cloths, dishes and babies. Pieces of corrugated metal and wood cover the well. Water is hauled up with a bucket and rope and is used for manually flushing the toilet, taking baths and many times for human consumption. A pile of cement blocks is always common place, as people are continually upgrading their houses. Akin to the “fixer-upper” truck rusting away in the front lawns of many Vermont residents.

 

Subject #2: The typical bedroom. Plastic chair, mosquito net, possesions crammed into plastic sacs in the corner of the room, no sheets. Note the charred mark on wall next to the bed. Last bed apparently burst into flames after a spark from the neighbors welding project hopped the wall. Radiant heating!

Subject #3. The typical Bathroom. Beautiful crochet toilet seat cover of scenic New England lighthouse with dolphins jumping in unity. Wastebasket used to throw soiled toilet paper…plumbing down here (when there is plumbing) just cant handle it. Bags of clorox bleach on the toilet back used for everything from water purification, getting out those pesky skid marks to unclogging the toilet.

Subject #4: The typical shower. Water pressure depends on how long your arms are. Cold birdbaths make for quick, and water efficient showers! And if you bring some cloths along with ya, you kill two two birds with one stone.

Subject #5: The typical home security system. Meticulously designed and painstakingly welded gates around EVERYTHING. Windows, doors, small openings. No one is getting in and no one is getting out. Some opt for barbed wire or broken shards of glass on top of the house’s fence for good measure. Most have yappy dogs to deter drunk opportunists.

Subject #6: The typical living room. The brown multi-shelved entertainment center is as about as typical Nicaraguan as you can get. Everyone has one. Most have dolls and corky trinkets, large speakers that are always left on full volume, a TV playing cheesy soap-operas(missing in this case), family pictures transposed onto wood and most likely a picture or two of Jesus, Mary, Guadalupe or some other religious nugget. A true anomaly. Most houses have tiled floors.

Subject #7: A bunch of kids. No Nicaraguan household is complete without a gang of 4 or 5 kids running, screaming, laughing, crying, playing and fighting. The kids may or may not belong to the family, but either way have no reservations climbing on every piece of furniture in the vicinity.