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Do you remember? |
| Remember when we went to demonstrate outside the US Embassy? There were even quite a few Americans there too who were demonstrating in the American style i.e. walking around in circles chanting slogans. I gave this a try for a couple of circuits but felt stupid so reverted back to demonstrating in the traditional British style i.e. just milling about. - Peter |
An unbelievable coincidence. My sister is moving house and was clearing out some boxes she had in storage and came across one of the diaries I kept in Nicaragua. I haven't had time to look through the text but it appears to be little more than notes of boring meetings and lists, not the personal diary I kept, unfortunately!! However, it did contain one or two gems, the best being this -- cartoons by Mark, who depicts Piers, Ian (or is it Carlos Fonseca?) and companero Miguel. - Ilana  |
| We were having a Sunday lunch in the restaurant a goodly walk from La Gloria (surely not the fish soup and chips place mentioned by Anne � I remember it as being far more sophisticated than that!) During the agonisingly long wait for their delicious food I remember Chris remarking re the whole La Gloria experience - �I�m looking forward to having been here�. How true of so many of life�s rich experiences! - Gay |
| Clackers: Whilst we were there the revolution played out to a backdrop beat of little plastic balls on a piece of string being bounced against each other - Chris |
| Merle being asked, in rather patronising manner, by one of the British Embassy guys if she considered herself to be a subversive and replying that as she was from Greenham Common yes actually she did consider herself to be a subversive! - Chris |
| The little girl yamelie next door going INTO the cess pit under the tolet to retrieve the flip flop i had dropped . Despite all our agreements about not giving stuff to individuals I HAD to give her the flip flops then. - Alison |
| The unbelievable split-second timing (during the final party) that Graham accomplished when he walked into the 'Bodega' and managed to stop a glorious moment of ultimate fervour and revolutionary bonding between two loving Brigadistas! Could it be that this never consummated moment of political zeal & passion eventually led to the Sandinista collapse? - Piers |
| on our first day at the UPE, arriving tired and scared in Contra country, someone let off a gun and 30 terrified internationalistas jumping three feet in the air. - Anne |
| the 3 hour meetings to discuss smoking, bread supplies and hand washing facilities. Just when we thought we'd finished someone would put their hand up and say 'there's just one thing that no-one's mentioned so far' and it would all start again. - Anne |
| being very un-right on and sloping off to the restaurant down the road for fish soup and chips. They really did play 'La vie en rose' by Edith Piaf just as the food arrived. Then sharing the trowel on the way back as our revolutionary bellies got us back. - Anne |
| naked dancing in the sea with a selection of pleasure bunnies. - Anne |
| the taste of those tortillas. I have never tasted anything like them before or since and can taste them right now. The next time we visited the UPE we were offered brain stew.... - Anne |
| that fantastic shower with cold water after a long day at work. - Anne |
| Oona's wardrobe. How many swimming costumes? - Anne |
| my inability to get up in the mornings. Staying in bed untill the last minute, then having to wrestle with the bread warden, usually in vain. - Anne |
| Most of all, seeing the way a real life revolution worked with all it's contradictions. Living under Thatcher was a crap time and we were all pretty lucky to have experienced an alternative. - Anne |
| That dreaded early morning wake-up. Some people are sad & edgy & emotional in the morning (me) and only need a 5 minute warning! - Piers |
| The mid-morning sensation of the Ice Cream man arriving. Plastic bags of ice cream and on special days even on sticks! - Piers |
| Picking coffee in the pissing rain. Feeling grumpy because it was so slow it wasn�t worth it. Cries of �What are we here for?� - Piers |
| Too many women being in love with �Jairo� - the Nicaraguan version of Che! Where is Jude now? - Piers |
| Ken looking like death sitting under the coffee plants. "Red, Beans & Tortilla really screw you up!" - Piers |
| That dreadful flavour of their Tortilla made with �pig-maize�. I can still taste it in my mouth 15 years later. I remember making a �yummy� chopped-onion toasted version to hide that flavour and the locals thought it tasted revolting! - Piers |
| The shock of discovering a year later where our drinking water actually came from. Yuck! - Piers |
| The endless debate as to whether the �sickies� should get the �special reserves� (after all they just sat at home watching day-time soaps all day!!) or the people who actually got up at 5.30am & went to the fields. - Piers |
| Trying to crack the un-obtainable �3 latas� per person per day. Locals picked 5-7! - Piers |
| Marion�s infamous �bolt� out of the toilet before the overpowering smell made her chuck! - Piers |
| That terrible on-going stomach pain when you knew there was a deadline fast approaching! - Piers |
| In the peaceful & quiet coffee-fields, the mid morning desperate holler of "Who�s got the TROWEL?" !!! - Piers |
| Has Louise washed her hair since? I remember the excitement of her one & only farm hair-wash! - Piers |
| What about the delightful kid "Jamillay" who lived next door? - Piers |
| Trying to sleep while the family next door bounced on the boards, which vibrated through the wall, as they tried for even more children! - Piers |
| Remember the, sometimes, weekly treat of �Meat Soup�. The most disgusting, gristle-laden fatty liquid that tasted like the most delicious bouillabaisse that I have even tasted! I remember Sarwan & I trying to convince the veggies to give us their portions! YUM! - Piers |
| Matagalpa and 15 beers for less than 8 pounds! - Piers |
| At Casares beach Sarwan carried Ken across a river so that Ken could keep his infected foot dry. Ken then ran into the sea! - Piers |
| What ever happened to lovely Hector? - Piers |
| The pig who lived under the house on the lane up to the coffee fields - Kerry |
| The taste of beans and rice for breakfast. - Kerry |
| Marion's impeccable negotiations with the boss, in far from impeccable Spanish. - Kerry |
| Madeleine's tidy bed space next to my chaotic one. - Kerry |
| Those black and orange snakes that somebody said stung from both ends! - Kerry |
| Tony with amoebic dysentry. - Kerry |
| Piers laughing. - Kerry |
| The day we left the coffee farm we packed, gave stuff away and finally threw our 'rubbish' into the pit by the bunkhouse: a gaggle of women and children jumped down into the mud and detritus - to retrieve old plastic bags. - Kerry |
| Alison and Ann's 'upstairs flat' - Ilana |
| Jairo: our 'responsable' on the coffee fields - Ilana |
| Hector: Chilean NSC brigade coordinator - Ilana |
| Dave Thompson - I think he is still there - Ilana |
| The poisonous gusanos under the coffee leaves - as if I could forget! - Ilana |
| Learning to make tortillas and learning to love them! - Ilana |
| The weight loss The ron, Cerveza Victoria and Tona! - Ilana |
| Pleasure Bunny Memories: The "generalissimo" in charge of the Poneloya beach hotel Casares (later devastated by a Tsunami) and La Boquita beaches Bunny hop! - Ilana |
| British Embassy visit: They came expecting a jolly little chat but we sat them in the sun and gave them a hard time. - Peter |
| Sunday "strolls" into Matagalpa: For a couple of Victoria Beers and sizzling meat for the non vegetarians. - Peter |
| ...one of those Sundays when Graham, dehydrated and exhausted, was lying flat out on the cafe floor while the other Brigade members sat nearby merrily munching away and occasionally passing down some water. - Peter |
| Don Pablo: AK47 Toting Trade Union Rep and in particular the speach he made where he said that our presence showed that there were whole villages in the US that supported the revolution. Or that is how it was translated for me. - Chris |
| The Pleasure Bunnies: Members of the brigade who chose to celebrate the revolution through Bohemian lifestyle. - Chris |
| The Four Heads of the Apocalypse: Peter, Sarwan, Ken and Chris who slept with their heads together. - Chris |
| The Patang Yang Kipper Bang: White spider, the size of a fist, on the roof above Ken's bed. We worked on the assumption that it was dead. - Chris |
| Trevor MacDonald: Striding down the sunny hillside with a microphone in his hand. - Kerry |
Music clip taken from "Red Beans and Rice", by Spearhead from the album Home