Kochani Rodzice
Today I miss my parents. So very different, both special in their own ways.
People here often ask me who I look more like, and I’m never really sure. Why don’t you tell me.
Mami, Daddy – Kocham i tęsknię za Wami bardzo!
Good night
Mimmi and I, 1992.
Occasionally, things work out.
“Wiseman speculated that what we call luck is actually a pattern of behaviors that coincide with a style of understanding and interacting with the events and people you encounter throughout life. Unlucky people are narrowly focused, he observed. They crave security and tend to be more anxious, and instead of wading into the sea of random chance open to what may come, they remain fixated on controlling the situation, on seeking a specific goal. As a result, they miss out on the thousands of opportunities that may float by. Lucky people tend to constantly change routines and seek out new experiences. Wiseman saw that the people who considered themselves lucky, and who then did actually demonstrate luck was on their side over the course of a decade, tended to place themselves into situations where anything could happen more often and thus exposed themselves to more random chance than did unlucky people. The lucky try more things, and fail more often, but when they fail they shrug it off and try something else. Occasionally, things work out.”
The fantastic David McRaney from one of my favourite blogs, You Are Not So Smart, writes about Survivorship Bias and Success in his latest blog post. A bit long but definitely worth a read, along with the rest of the blog. One of my favourite of his posts on how complicated the human mind is and how it plays trick on us is that of the Texas Sharpshooter Fallacy. I see examples of this almost daily since reading it in 2010. Everybody – just read it, please.
A month left on a very exciting contract. A month of roadtrip-photography-beloved friends in Mexico + exploring NYC. And then I’m probably on the market again.
So here you have me, reaching out, looking forward to opportunity surprising me with something new.
Wake up, Caroline, it’s water.
Suddenly, the sound of water. And my brain, always a little bit awake, starts shouting: “That sound is not a part of your dream and it doesn’t sound well at all.. wake up Caroline, wake up!”
I shoot up from my bed and into my bathroom, and get completely showered by water. “What is this? Is it even safe to touch the switch to turn the lights on?” The walls are wet, but not enough. I turn the lights on and find the pipe that supplies my toilet with water completely broken, the water is shooting straight out from it.
I guess these are things that happen when the pressure from the water is stronger than the pipes aimed to keep it under control.. the tap has been impossible to close completely for more than a week because of the pressure, and it’s always worse in the night and morning. Question: Does water pressure in underground water pipes have anything to do with the tide in the ocean? It’s a long shot but not completely impossible, and there’s that super moon coming up in just a couple of days.. I will google this! Haha.
So, after having the security guard run two blocks down to get the right tool to turn off the water completely in the house while I built a home-made tap consisting of 1 sponge, 1 hairband and 2 towels, (that didn’t really work but at least transformed the water-volcano into a smaller geizer) and spending more than one hour moving the water out of the house, I am having a seat.
The guard closed the pipe temporarily with a more ambitious MacGyver method involving isolation paste, a plastic bag and a stick.. (it works for now)
Today’s lesson learned: A broom is far more efficient than a mop if the aim is to move large amounts of water.
At least the entire house got a proper floor wash. At 4am in the morning. Ain’t nobody got time for that.
Twist & Panic
Details from Cultura Quilombo here in Managua.
León, you so funny.
León was the city of rocking chairs, no doubt, Renata was enchanted and wanted to try them all.
“They remind me of my grandmother and Santo Domingo!”
Two weekends ago, Renata, Den and I travelled to León on a Friday afternoon, with no plan other than relaxing, wandering around and spending time together. And so we did. And had great food. And made a lot of jokes. And met some fascinating people who invited us to their homes, told us about their ambitions and shared their pride in their background. I took a walk by myself to the Central Market where I met a mother who had hung up a mini-hammock for her three-year-old son, Darwin, to hang in while she was selling bananas all day, every day. A young man with impeccable English was fixing watches as life in Texas had become too difficult after the economic crisis and because he had never managed to feel integrated even after living there for more than 20 years.
León struck me as a very religious city, where almost every house had a little (or huge) altar, and a church could be found every three blocks. One of the most interesting places we found was the small game court where kids and adolescents were playing soccer, skating, riding bikes and hanging out. We took a seat watching the big group of quite talented 9-22 year-olds as they were taking turns in using the five skateboards. I had a talk with one of the boys as he was waiting for his turn, 14 years old with a beautiful afro and great skating skills, the boy was studying during the days and working at a car wash in the weekends and evenings to save up for a new skateboard.
“My old board broke so I have to work for three months before I can buy a new one. The skateboards here are very expensive, they cost at least 45 Dollars, but it’s great that I can borrow my friends’ boards to skate for a couple of hours every evening. At least until 8pm, if I stay longer my mom gets angry and comes to pick me up. Haha”
On our last day, Den and I managed to get hold of Daneff and have another one of our Skype reunions. It was great fun to have a talk all three of us again, and then Den, Renata and I took a million photos and laughed our heads off. All and all, we had good fun together and I felt that we were getting along really well as our preferences were always so aligned and as we all are so used to being independent, yet warm and open. It was really sad to leave Den in León and go back to Managua, and the next morning Renata took off to the airport as well. Seriously, I can’t wait to see these two happy-faces again.
Love you, girls! “We so funny!”
House full of Surfers
The international surf competition is ending tomorrow so there’s a big party tonight at Magnific Rock – the house is full of surfers.
There was an earthquake just off the coast earlier today, it took about 15 seconds and felt as if the whole ground was moving.. a very strange feeling followed by tsunami alerts and keeping a very close eye on the tide.
Tsunami alert passed, we took a walk on the beach, got into the back of a friends truck, and now we are in a huge house with young boys with sunbleached hair, people jumping into a pool and surf teams battling in dancing.
A good party. I’m celebrating that there was no tsunami.
Southern Pacific Coast
To all of those sending me emails and Whatsapp messages wondering where I have been..
Work here around Tola on the Southern Pacific Coast of Nicaragua has been very interesting and we have been working intensely these days. Mostly, also, we have been off the grid.
Sunset swim, then emails. I’m okay!
Guess who’s coming for dinner.
I’ve noticed you like nostalgia photos so here’s a really old one, from 2005. One of these girls is joining me for dinner tonight.
Alejandro Benito Cabrera
In León, many people have transformed the entrance of their houses to little shops selling groceries, rocking chairs and cooked food. People here in Nicaragua tend to engage in many forms of businesses at the same time, and most houses have their front doors open to the street anyway to let the breeze in. I was invited to many people’s homes during the walks around this charming city and at one point, we found a little grocery shop where a man was sitting in front of a canvas filled with little dots, creating a colourful image of Nicaragua’s volcanoes. The man’s name was Alejandro Benito Cabrera, and he has been painting for more than 20 years, selling his paintings internationally. Alejandro’s wife paints too, and he pointed out some of her works hanging on the walls of the little grocery shop while the wife stood outside going through the groceries.
“You can’t take photos of my pieces, but I will let you take a photo of this specific one.”
the artist said, adjusting a beautiful painting hanging behind us. It was a painting so full of detail and things going on that it became my favourite in the little room. Alejandro didn’t mind being in the picture with it, putting on a face that was both serious and proud.
“I will visit your website”
Alejandro said as we were leaving. I hope he does.
Visit Indigo Arts Gallery, to purchase paintings by Alejandro Benito Cabrera and his wife. Try finding the little grocery shop if you are heading towards the Subtiava church from the center of León.
Images from Indigoarts.com