Tobias' house

For the past few days I have been trying to visit the house of Tobias. Tobias is the old man who faithfully delivers ice to our farms thermals everyday. Literally everyday he climbs up to Totoco to give us ice. Since I have been here alone, he keeps trying to encourage me to spend time with locals. Not sure how leaving all my treasured belongings behind is any better, but alas, perhaps to them it is. Take the stuff, leave the girl?

In any case, after a lot of offers from him to come stay up at the farm to protect me, he finally came up with a new direction. He asked me to come see his house. I want to reiterate that this is an old man, with nothing more sinister motives than introducing the lonely foreigner to his family. He invited me to go to his house for the past two days, but for one reason or another it didn’t work out. Either it was due to pigs needing to be feed or the necessity of buying a weeks worth of vegetables from the once-a-week delivery truck.

However, today it finally happened. I found myself walking down with Tobias and his grandson to his house. Along the way I was asking him questions about his business. For instance, why he got into delivering ice to Totoco in the first place. But what I discovered is that Totoco is his only customer! And for the past four years, he has brought ice to Totoco after working at another organic farm run by expats in the morning.

As we walked along the main road leading to Totoco, Tobias finally diverted his path to a nearly invisible trail heading away from Balgue. We crossed the main highway into Balgue and then once again onto a seemingly hidden path behind several boulders left from some previous explosion of Volcan Maderas. Once through a small little fence, Tobias mentioned that this was the beginning of his property.

For Nicaragua, Tobias’ plot of land is large. Large enough seemingly to support his children, his children’s children, and probably more! We walked down this rocky path, until finally amidst the vail of greenery I saw the beginnings of houses. Up on the highest part of the property, also known as a hill, resides the homes of Tobias’ family. The structure which held the all important refridgerator, was a simple yet beautiful structure made out of the local caramel coloured wood, partnered with the rusty red bricks. To add to this, the standard star patterned blocks were placed near the roof to allow a fresh breeze to enter the home.

Inside I could see one of Tobias’ daughters watching a tele novella on a fuzzy screen. The fridge, while four years old now, looks brand new. Tobias showed me the ice being made inside, and told me that the bottom half was for food and juice for his family. After this quick tour I was introduced to Tobias’ wife and given a plastic lawn chair to sit in. I was quickly given a glass of water and two grapefruits which were grown on the property.

While I sat and Tobias introduced members of his seemingly large family, I was consistently interrupted in my usual politeness by the male turkey behind me. Apparently he is without a girlfriend, and therefore when new people arrive he puffs out his chest (with a horrid noise) and struts like a model on the dirt floor. Just when I was getting interested in the conversation in frount of me, the turkey would puff up again and my concentration was a thing of the past.

However, not even the turkey could save me from the following situation. While I was meeting more of Tobias’ family, some of his grandsons came running with bags of red kidney bean plants, freshly harvested. The last to arrive was a wizened old man, who was promptly offered another plastic chair to sit on. Within two seconds of him securing his seat he turned to me and asked me if I spoke some Spanish. I had just managed to get the words “Si” out of my mouth, and then the rant began.

While my Spanish comprehension is improving, it by no means is perfect. I will say that this man literally spent five minutes solidly talking to me about Jesus and how I needed to accept him into my life, while not enjoying cigarettes, alcohol or dancing, in order to save my soul from the devil and hell fires. I wish I had been in the presence of mind to laugh at this situation, but mostly I could not believe the ludicrous-ness of the situation. This man was trying to save my soul.

In fact, when Tobias finally asked me if I wanted to see the lake, I was more than happy to leave the old man and his talk of hell fire. I asked Tobias if that old man was trying to save my soul, and he said yes. I had to laugh, shake my head, and then return to watching out for foot holds on the uneven path ahead of me.

Tobias and three of his grandchildren showed me their access to the lake, which was an incredible spot! Two wooden canoes, clearly hand carved, held a vigil over the currently turbulent waters of Lago Nicaragua. This is where Tobias goes fishing for his family, when the water isn’t so rough. I managed to snap a few photos of his adorable grandchildren and Tobias, as well as the natural beauty of the lake, before heading to a different vantage.

We walked past the house of the old man and his hell fire rants, before reaching the other access to the Lake. This was the “beach” portion, which really meant that the rocks weren’t giant boulders, but instead smaller fist sized stones. From here, I was able to watch the beauty of Cocibolca (the local name for the lake) from my stone in the horseshoe shaped bay. While I sat in complete wonder, Tobias’ grandchildren played in the canoe painted with stars and stripes. They would beam anytime I threw a glance in their direction, which was often as they were playing around like little monkeys! Tobias also managed to ask me if Canada was covered in ice all the time, I told him no. He then asked if I would be sad to leave, I told him yes.

I sat and enjoyed some fresh coconut water and meat, lakeside, before realizing that it was probably time for me to go. When I left his family, after saying my final goodbyes and ultimately left Tobias at the main entrance to his home, how lucky I have been. I am so grateful to see these little glimpses of the daily lives of the locals here. I feel so lucky that Tobias took pity on me, and was kind enough to show me his home.

He looked so proud when he showed me the two pineapple tops I had given him the day before so he could propagate them. Equally he took so much delight in explaining the Nicaraguan terms for turkey and chicks, while he shook his head at the strange sounding English words for them. These moments, are the ones that make being so far from my family worth while.

Equally worthwhile was seeing Pablo take his midday break taking a rest in a wheelbarrow. Priceless.