Alpha 6´s long road to La Colmena

Exactly a week today, teams Alpha 2, 5 and 6 all set off on a big bus north of fieldbase in Turrialba to begin their projects. Your blogger, Gerry, was lucky enough to "deploy" with Alpha 6 for six days to a community project in La Colmena, Nicaragua. Despite a five hour journey on the hottest bus in the world (no air-con!) we were still excited to see so much of  Costa Rica´s dense, lush mountains and jungle.
After saying goodbye to Alpha 2 at the start of their Guanacaste trek in Costa Rica, we crossed the border to Nicaragua (grappling with the change from the Costa Rican Colon to the Nicaraguan Cordoba on the way). We´d heard Nicaragua was beautiful but nothing prepared us for the intense sunset we witnessed en route. Nicaraguan sunsets are awesome!

We set up camp at a school overnight where our two medics, Ben (Alpha 6) and Mo (Alpha 5) decided to stretch their backs in an entertaining fashion (not to be tried at home!):

After about four hours sleep we boarded our disco bus at 5am, so called because we were greeted by non-stop power ballads at full blast all the way to our destination Esteli. It´s worth noting that I haven´t heard a single post-80s song in the week I´ve been in Nicaragua. So my frizzy hair and bad fashion (standards have dropped since leaving fieldbase) fit right in. Eye of the Tiger and I Want To Know What Love Is (now Alpha 6´s theme tune) went down a storm.

En route, we, "carried a watermelon", or two, as presents for our new families in the communities:

They subsequently caused much amusement later when they threatened to bounce out of the bus rack every two seconds:

After a few games of footie while waiting for our next bus from Esteli to La Colmena:

we said goodbye to Alpha 5 who were continuing on to Achuapa.

We were now on the home stretch. The bus was steadily climbing up narrow, rocky hills, the views were spectacular:

and that´s when we got stuck:

Luckily it took some locals, who seemed used to such situations, just 45 minutes to lever us out using big rocks and the party bus was back on track. Hooray!

Our two day journey to La Colmena was worth every bump, drop of sweat and hour of lost sleep. Because when we finally arrived, all our families were out en masse to welcome us. We were showered with hugs and kisses from the community leader Doña Francisca who was to become my mum for the next six days while I stayed with project managers Dr Ben and Vicky.

We set up our radio as soon as we arrived so we could let fieldbase know we were ok. Amazingly it only took us half an hour (it can often take triple that to get a signal through hundreds of miles away).

Yes, Alpha 6 truly rock!

After a dinner of beans, tortilla and salty cheese (soon to become a major topic of conversation as it´s served for breakfast, lunch and dinner) we were in bed by 7.30pm in preparation for our 3am alarm courtesy of the cockerels (every morning, without fail, grrr).

The houses are built of wood, corrugated iron and perhaps the odd brick. There are holes in the ceilings. Cheeky pigs, chickens and dogs frequently find their way into the homes in the hope of a bean or two. Some of us have chickens under the bed, others are sharing their bedrooms with their new brothers and sisters, but all have been accepted as a son or daughter by their new families. The families may not have much but what they do have, they warmly share. And so the adventure begins!

Tune in soon for the next Alpha 6 instalment...