Schoooooooool’s out for the summer

We’re in the last week of class right now, so I give you photo highlights from the 2009 school year: From my country school: Students singing the national anthem: Eighth Grade: The awesome picture my counterpart drew for learning body parts: And from the instituto: Some seventh grade girls: It’s a little difficult to see, but in this picture my students are playing baseball during recess using a paper ball and a seat plank from one of the desks: Singing songs in English: I like this one because it shows almost the entire 8th grade class hanging on the window bars to watch the 7th graders sing – clearly their teacher didn’t show up for class: Some of the best students from the 9th grade class singing I’m All Out of Love by Air Supply: Although they did get fewer points for reading, this group probably sang the best out of the 7th grade class:

Quinceñera

Saturday night I went to my first quinceñera, which is the big celebration thrown for girls when they turn 15 (quince). The girl, Keyling, has never been in any of my classes at the instituto but one day last year one of the teachers brought her to me with homework questions and since she studies English in Managua she regularly finds me at school or at home with questions. She’s pretty awesome and I was super excited when she invited me.

It was really similar to a wedding, except in pink. The quinceñera wears a fluffy pink dress and carries a bouquet of flowers and I think there were 12 pairs of damas y caballeros (ladies and gentlemen, kinda like bridesmaids and groomsmen in a wedding) who all wore their matching dresses and suits. The whole party gets ready and then walks down to the church, Keyling was escorted by her father but also had a younger guy escort who’s traditionally her cousin or some other family relation. I saw them walking down the main street, which is also the highway incidentally, but wasn’t fast enough to get a picture.



At the church, they did a pretty usual catholic mass with bible readings, a couple songs, a sermon, and communion. I was happy to see some familiar faces at the church, I wasn’t sure if I would know anyone but I don’t know why because this is a small town and of course everyone’s related or friends or something! None of my pictures are spectacular because I was way in the back at both the church and the reception, but you get the idea.

With the damas:


With the caballeros (you can’t see it well in this picture, but the guy on the left of Keyling was her escort guy and his shirt was pink to match her dress):


The Quinceñera herself:


Some of the damas, the one in the middle is in my 9th grade class:


From the church we all walked over to the dancehall for the reception, again the whole party walking down the middle of the highway which I find so hilarious but is totally normal here – most families don’t have cars and they certainly don’t rent limos like you might do for something this big in the US hence we walk, besides the town’s not that big anyway. I actually saw a wedding party doing the same thing past my house earlier in the day.



Clearly the theme for quinceñeras is pink – pink balloons, pink table cloths, pink cake, pink pink pink!

I should mention that this is probably on the fancier side for a quinceñera, especially in a small town (I’m sure wealthy families in Managua do much bigger than this). They rented the dancehall and paid for a band which a lot of families around here would not be able to do.

Once we were in the dancehall, all the guys and girls processed in and danced a couple semi-choreographed dance numbers including a waltz, bachata, and salsa. It was adorable and I wish I could’ve gotten better pictures but I doubt they would’ve captured it anyway. Here they are in the middle of a coordinated spin move:



Once the group dances were over, the band started playing and everyone got out on the dance floor and tore it up. I stayed long enough to dance a little bit, but since I was unaccompanied I headed for home before it got too sketchy to be out alone (around 9 or 9:30 on a Saturday night).

Camping and condoms and raindrops, oh my!

How’s that for a title, eh? Oddly enough, it fully encompasses my Friday and Saturday this week because I helped out at an overnight camp to teach family planning skills to a group of 36 youth (which in this case stretched from 9 years old to over 20). The camp was organized by that NGO I always talk about where I teach English but the facilitators included two from the health center, a German volunteer from the NGO as well as other staff, and leaders from the Club de Jovenes Ambientalistas (Young Environmentalist Club, mas o menos). The participants were members of the aforementioned club from two different towns in the municipality.

The two days involved various games/ice breakers, leadership activities, some environmental stuff, a bonfire, a hike, and talks about gender, sex, forms of contraception, and STDs/HIV/AIDS. Although the group got a little out of control sometimes and especially the second day didn’t always want to participate, there was definitely learning going on and most of the participants seemed to enjoy it.

Working hard


What would a sex ed talk be without putting condoms on bananas?
Some of the facilitators:


La Practica:


And of course, blowing up the condoms once they were off the bananas:


As always, the night was the most interesting part. Several of us were concerned about how the kids would be kept under control – especially keeping the boys and girls apart – but that was left up to the leaders. They set up three tents – two for the girls and one for the boys – a ways away from our center of activities while several of us facilitators decided to sleep under the shelter where we’d been working all day. We thought we’d get more sleep there.

Apparently the guys didn’t all fit in their tent so about half slept in the shelter with us, it didn’t take too long to quiet them down but then someone starting snoring like you wouldn’t believe so I didn’t sleep too well. Sometime around 1am the sky opened up and poured down rain and I woke up to find the folks who’d been sleeping down below in the tents running up to the shelter all wet and muddy. Turns out those tents weren’t water proofed by any means, so we accommodated all 50ish of us on the tarps in the shelter and lights went out for the second time just before 2am. Again I didn’t sleep well and before I knew it it was 5am and the kids were getting up already.

It was pretty cool to see something like this organized here – I didn’t think the topic got breached very often what with how religious people are and the especially high amount of Catholics (about 75% of the population). But they really reached a lot of people through the camp and another part of the project - organizing groups of kids to present short skits at local schools about family planning.

I intend to do my part by wearing my camp t-shirt to school so that while I’m writing on the board my students will read the back:



“A hero who helps you plan and really saves lives”

Phenomenon

A popular activity to do in English classes here is to do an English Song Festival where the kids pick songs to sing. Any English song festival would not be complete without the inclusion of one of the following: Rivers of Babylon, Eternal Flame, or anything by Air Supply. What most of us volunteers consider to be cheesey 80s music is still widely listened to here and I’ve almost gotten used to hearing Cindy Lauper on a semi-regular basis. And Air Supply recently performed a concert in Managua and the band stayed at the hotel where my friend Maria works so she managed to snag tickets to the concert and was super duper psyched.

So the 8th grade kids in my country school were performing their songs this week, there was Rivers of Babylon, Dust in the Wind, a song I didn’t know, and a reggaeton song that was totally inappropriate but since neither the students nor my counterpart understood the lyrics it was pretty much ok (if you don’t know what reggaeton sounds like, google Daddy Yankee or Wisin and Yandel). However, I was shocked to find that most of the students were really embarrassed to sing in front of everyone.

It might seem natural that high schoolers would be embarrassed to sing in front of their class, but I had generalized that all Nicaraguans love to sing, regardless of talent for the art, because I have seen so many people sing rather out of key in front of large groups of people and not blink an eye. My counterpart at that school never understands why I don’t feel comfortable jumping up and belting out the Star Spangled Banner all by myself. I’ve tried to explain to him that in the U.S. only people who sing really well sing in front of groups of people but he always shrugs and then belts out a couple lines from his favorite songs.

I think back to my friend Sarah’s wedding here, where one singer didn’t quite hit all the correct notes. The volunteers in attendance maintained composure but Sarah’s gringo guests who were new to Nicaragua were giving each other glances and even Sarah’s mom couldn’t keep a straight face. Meanwhile I’m sure the Nicaraguans were like “What’s wrong with the gringos?”

However, the person who takes the Singing Cake is one of my neighbors. This neighbor loves to sing at the very top of her lungs to the point that she’s yelling and not even singing, and completely out of tune. This clearly drives me perfectly insane on a nice Saturday afternoon when I’m reading in my hammock and find myself cringing every 10 seconds.

I don’t want this post to come off sounding judgmental and negative, I just generally find it amazing that people are able to get up and sing with abandon and not worry about what they sound like. Perhaps we gringos (or at least me gringa) are too uptight in expecting anyone who sings in public to be perfect and should learn to appreciate the sentiment behind song, rather than concentrate on each note.

Since I don’t have any pics from the singing this week, here’s the student who sang the inappropriate reggaeton song lip synching a different reggaeton song at a big presentation-type thing a couple months back:



And on a completely unrelated note, there have been some pretty major political developments recently. Major enough for the BBC to take notice at least.

El niño is Spanish for…. The niño!!!!

At this time last year I was pulling my hair out waiting out days upon days of nearly non-stop rain. Generally, September and October are the rainiest months of the year as hurricanes and tropical storms mostly swing through the Caribbean which causes a bunch of rain on the Pacific coast. However, Rainy Season 2009 has turned out to be quite the dud & the fact that it’s been raining every night since Sunday is a miracle & much-welcomed by all. The el niño effect is apparently responsible for our sequia (drought) – something about the ocean heating up and preventing clouds from forming. Algo asi (something like that).

At first I really had no problem with the lack of rain, it meant I could still make it out to my country school on a hilly dirt road that becomes nearly impassable when it rains a lot and just getting around town wasn’t such a pain. But after a while everyone started getting a little worried (my counterpart even told the kids to pray for rain, & yes that’s legal here for him to say that) because obviously no rain = fewer crops = higher food prices + economic crisis + no more aid money = Nicaraguans are hungrier & poorer. It’s pretty late in the season for the rain so I’m not sure if it’ll make a huge difference but I’m hoping so. It also means that I get to remember what it feels like to be cold & even sleep without a fan!

I don’t have any super exciting stories this week, yesterday I did go represent the department of Managua at the Site Fair for our soon to be TEFL volunteers. Wednesday they will find out where they’ll be living for the next two years & I’ll find out who will be my new neighbor (only 10km away!) for the next 9ish months (can you believe it!?).

A little of this… a little of that…

Sunday was the final final game in the local men’s soccer league (I say final final because the real final game was the Sunday before but they ended in a tie so they did it again the next Sunday). Unfortunately I don’t have pictures because based on what I’d heard (tons of people, fights break out, the usual soccer helter skelter), I wasn’t sure it would be a good idea to bring my camera. The two teams in the finals happened to hark from two different towns which made it all the more fun to cheer for our home team who won & were rewarded with a trophy that was taller than most of the players.

After their victory & some necessary victory dancing around the giant trophy – which was quite entertaining seeing as these guys actually know how to dance – the team walked down the main street (which is also the highway, but whatevs) followed by a caravan of screaming fans in trucks & hanging out of car windows announcing to the rest of the town exactly who won the league this year. It was muy alegre (very happy).

We are also counting down the days left in the school year (28 by my counterpart’s count today) which ends at the end of November. I don’t think I ever mentioned here the schedule change that was decided at the end of August so I will explain now. All schools run on two shifts, there’s the morning shift (7am – roughly 12pm) and the afternoon shift (roughly 12:30pm to roughly 5:30pm), in my high school here in town the morning shift is 7th thru 9th grades only and the afternoon as 7th thru 11th but there were only two sections of 7th, 8th, and 9th grade and they have tended to be smaller than the morning classes which is always nice. Although we started out with a good 50+ kids in each of those 6 sections, some had dwindled to as few as 20 students regularly showing up plus a few randoms who only came some of the time. This “problem” of smaller class sizes was most prevalent in 7th grade but also in 8th.

So at the end of August someone decided that those sections should be combined, which was feasible in 7th grade, kinda crowded in 8th, and overflowing in 9th – we still had more than 30 students showing up regularly so when combined the 9th grade section was at 60 to 70 students. Luckily they’re well-behaved and many of them actually like to learn English so it hasn’t been too much of a problem. Now, you don’t have to be a mathematician to know that fewer classes means fewer teaching hours sooooo several teachers got their hours cut, my counterpart lost three hours off his schedule & was told he would now teach Civics to these three sections. Needless to say, he was not happy being told to teach a subject he’d a) never taught before and b) knew pretty little about.

Now with the end of the school year within reach, even these combined classes are shrinking in size. In the old system, students could skip tons of class but still show up for the big final exam & feasibly pass the class, even if they didn’t there was always summer school & reparaciones – exams they could take before the next school year & a passing grade meant they would pass the class. However, this year we’re assigning points based on attendance, discipline, participation, & projects & small quizzes which means if they don’t show up to class they’ll probably fail. The word on the schoolyard is that they’re still gonna do reparaciones though. Should be interesting to see how many kids have to take them and if there’ll be pressure to make them “passable” - if you know what I mean.

Full Circle

This week, from Sunday to Wednesday, I found my role reversed as I hosted a trainee for her volunteer visit. After about a month of training, when they’re heads are juuuust about to explode, all the trainees are sent off to visit volunteers to see what their lives could be like in just a couple months. After my volunteer visit I remember I was excited to see how much freedom volunteers have compared to trainees but obviously the thought of living on my own in some random town was still scary.

Let me back up a moment & explain some more fun Peace Corps details. In Nicaragua, training groups come in three times a year in January, May, and September. Each year the same sectors come in at the same time, unless they decide to change things, which was the case this year. My group of TEFL volunteers came in May 2008 with the Small Business (SBD) trainees, but at some point the decision was made to bring the agriculture volunteers in with SBD so the new group of TEFL trainees this year came in September with the environment group (health is our last sector and they come alone in January). The group before ours left in July so we’re the only TEFLers in-country right now and assuming no new changes are made, we will be gone before next year’s group of trainees come in so this is my only round of training in new volunteers.

My goal was not to freak this girl out too much, but also to give her a realistic sense of what volunteer life is like and I think I did that. We went to the beach twice, she went to class with both of my counterparts and saw the different dynamics I have with both of them, and I feel like she came away with a somewhat better sense of what she wants to have in a site. And after hearing some more about the new group, I’m excited to go next week and present How to Teach Vocabulary and in two weeks I’ll also be presenting a nearby town at the Site Fair and come December I’ll have a new neighbor (keep your fingers crossed!)! Barring this town getting cut from the list or the chosen trainee going home, we will once again have two TEFL volunteers in the department of Managua. Que cool.

What were you expecting? Part II

When joining the Peace Corps, the advice I heard over and over and over again was “try not to have expectations.” It’s excellent advice but nearly impossible to follow, especially for someone like me who looooves to daydream. Those first months in training and as I was adjusting to my site, I built up an expectation that the first year would be difficult but once I passed that magical one year mark that my second year would be easy. I thought I would have it all figured out and have my life perfectly in place- I would be used to the language and the people, be comfortable with my friends and my work environment, and plugging along smoothly on those big secondary projects that everyone seems to do in their second year.

However, I recently have found myself dealing with homesickness greater than in those first six months of service and battling back the desire to just get through these next nine months whatever way I can. Instead of feeling at home in Nicaragua, I felt like I was half out the door already and it surprised and dismayed me.

Luckily I had a little visit planned to those cool, green central mountain highlands to teach a ballet class to the girls group another volunteer has organized. Although it was a quick visit, it made me realize that I’m not the only one who is mentally checking out, whether we want to or not. Stephanie also made me realize that maybe the best way to deal with that strong desire to be back home is to really get into work here – to find the projects I really want to do and keep myself occupied and just watch the time fly by. I’ve returned to site with a renewed desire to get something accomplished in these coming months and to enjoy the parts of Nicaragua that I truly love.

And the ballet class itself was a blast to do! I’ve hesitated and worried about trying to start a class here in-site because of the logistics of footwear, floors, time, music, and participation. To go and do one isolated class with a group of girls who showed up entirely inappropriately dressed, on a concrete floor, without music because the power went out is one thing and trying to establish an ongoing class is another. I’m more motivated to try now, but also especially concerned after watching this group of seven girls run up against something challenging and see almost all of them sitting on the floor, decidedly defeated by the end.

Here are some pictures, the non-participaters became the photographers:






And our awesomely posed group shot:


And the vistas around Esquipulas:


Ending note: when I started my blog I didn’t want to present a totally sugar-coated view of Peace Corps life. Reading blogs before I left, I rarely read anything negative but I felt that I really wanted to hear about the tough parts. So this is my attempt at being real about my service. However, the real Real Story is that I can now communicate easily and comfortably in Spanish, I AM comfortable in my site, in my house, and with many of the people I interact with on a daily basis, and while working in the public schools is and always will be a challenge, I do feel like I can do my job effectively and it doesn’t leave me completely drained at the end of the day like it used to. I’m trying to get some cool secondary projects going and although I often feel like I’m not doing as much as I could be, I don’t know how I would fit in much more without overdoing it. I’ve learned that the second year isn’t easy, it just presents different challenges than the first.

Boards & Bruises

To continue where I left off, I went volcano boarding in Leon with three visiting friends (Mateo, Curran, and Annie) and my volunteer friend Maria. I realize this might be a totally new concept for people, so let me explain: there are a couple ways to do it, but we went through a hostel that supposedly was the first to offer this crazy opportunity. They drove us and about 8 other adventure-seeking tourists out to Cerro Negro (in Spanish: Black Hill) which we climbed up and hiked around in under an hour. We had to carry our boards which consist of wood with a rope handle stuck onto some sheet metal and a piece of plastic under your butt to make you go extra fast. You’re basically sledding with a handle. We were also given sexy orange jumpsuits & goggles.

The group heading up the Black Hill


Geographers on a volcano (the three of us were all geography majors in college, so no, I’m not the only one)


Maria & me dancing on the volcano



Curran & Annie modeling their jumpsuits


Our guide was this Aussie guy who irked me by explaining for the ladies how to go slowly and for the men (who were told they weren’t allowed to brake or they’d be called pussies) how to go fast. This of course made me decide that I had to go as fast as possible just to prove him wrong. I ended up going first with Annie. My friend Curran ended up pushing me off, I couldn’t really think fast enough to try to steer like we’d been shown so I just held on and rode out the bumps and curves as best I could (this isn’t sand, mind you, but mostly small volcanic rocks so some parts weren’t exactly smooth riding). I made it all the way to the bottom before wiping out at top speed in the worst place to fall due to the larger rocks in the last few meters.

I tumbled a couple times, gathered my wits, got up, and the guy at the bottom showed me my speed: 68 km/hr (aka 42 mph)!! I was pretty stunned from the fall but he said good job and I limped off to check my wounds. I had some minor scratches on my left arm and right leg, but my crowning glory was on my left leg – clearly the pants had flown up leaving my leg exposed when I fell.



Everyone in the group fell at least once, except for Curran who actually slid to a stop halfway down the hill, but no one got scratched up as bad as me. In the end I had the top speed by more than 10kph for both men and women and got my name on the high speed list for women at the hostel: tied for #4!! Totally worth it.

Maria volcano boarding


Annie & me showing off our wounds (Annie does have one, you probably can’t see it though!)


Look at me, I have a record!


The rest of the week we spent in my site celebrating Central America’s independence from Spain and at various beaches. As if I wasn’t beaten up already, I tried surfing since Curran & Annie had done it before and wanted to get some wave-riding in. Nicaragua is actually a fantastic surf spot due to favorable winds created by the big lake. I picked up some more bruises from that adventure (including a beauty from getting whacked by the fin) but I did manage to ride in a couple small waves on my knees and kind of almost stood up a couple times!

I’ve never seen sunsets as beautiful as in Nicaragua


Sand castle triumph


Clearly I had an amazing time traveling and hanging out with my friends, but now it’s back to site for the last 2 months of classes and continuing to plug away on my random projects. Oh, and healing up – don’t worry, my leg is healing nicely.

All work and no play.....

I´ve been super busy the past couple weeks, culminating in presenting at a conference on Thurs and Fri in Managua. The conference is open to all English teachers in Nicaragua, it´s not free but there are scholarships and such available & while we initially were told about 600 people would be there the final tally after registration the first day was more like 1,100!! Awesome that so many teachers were able to attend, but it created problems for us who had been told to expect 30 participants per session (and therefore 30 copies of handouts) while in some sessions double that showed up.

I was nervous going in, I get anxious about speaking in public in general & yet had decided that I should do not only the one presentation with my friend Maria but a second one by myself which I ended up preparing only the weekend before. I thought it would be a good challenge for myself and provide good practice, but I was afraid that maybe it was too big of a venue to be ¨practicing.¨

Luckily all went well, Maria and I did our presentation on how to improve your English twice the first day - first to a group of 60 and then to a group of 40. On Friday I did my solo presentation only once to a group of 35. Both went really well, it´s probably the least nervous I´ve ever been before speaking before a sizable group of people. Not to say my public speaking fear is totally gone, but I¨m proud of myself for taking a risk and having it pay off.

After the conference on Friday I met up with some friends visiting from the states & headed up to Leon to see the sites and do some volcano boarding! So far we´ve had an awesome time, it´s nice to get a chance to relax and unwind after all that stress. Today we´re heading back to my site to enjoy the Fiestas Patrias festivities tomorrow and Tuesday celebrating Central America´s independence from Spain. I will post pictures as soon as I can but it might be till after my friends leave that I have a chance to post again.

Poder Ciudadana (Citizen Power)

When I was at PDM, my counterpart, Rafael, mentioned to me that his NGO was going to be doing a series of trainings with community leaders from the small communities around San Rafael about laws guaranteeing citizen participation as well as how to design a community project. He asked if I’d like to help out and obviously I jumped at the chance.

Those trainings were this past week and it was a very eye-opening experience. I had the opportunity to meet folks who live in some very impoverished areas, hear their thoughts and concerns, and see what projects they would like to see completed in their communities. One thing that caught my eye was how many women were in attendance – I guess that even in a country where machismo is the norm and women often don’t have the same opportunities as men, they still are the ones who are most involved in their communities. I suppose too that since the training was held during normal working hours that perhaps there were men who would have come but were working.

Groups working:




Rafael presenting:


Part of the agenda was for groups to make a map of how they want their community to look in five years, and then a list of projects needed to make it that way. Since CEDRU was going to take the lists to the mayor’s office to give them an idea of all the needs in the communities, we asked the participants to make the lists as specific as possible (exact numbers, distances, etc.). I was helping one group put more detail in their list – the project listed was for electrification so I asked how many houses were without electricity and they answered 22. Then I asked how many houses were in the community and they said 25.

I was surprised to see how many communities had electrification projects as well as drinking water & well building projects on their lists – imagine that, living only a couple kilometers from people who have lights, water, TVs, computers, the works, & you’re stuck carrying water from the river and burning candles. Living in my fairly large site with all its amenities, I something forget how poor Nicaragua really is. Other desired projects included repairing and paving roads, building health centers, fixing roofs for the poor, food programs for children and the elderly, libraries, classrooms, and parks and playing fields.

The idea behind the training was to educate these citizens about their rights to participate in local government and to get started on a project proposal to turn in to the mayor’s office to be included in the budget for next year. Many of the participants thanked the NGO for providing the training, they never knew anything about the laws guaranteeing their participation and even less about how to formally present a project. They were excited and motivated to participate, now let’s see if a) they turn in their proposals and b) if the mayor follows through and funds them.

Ciao Chele

Although I’ve never had a Peace Corps sitemate, I was blessed with a random white South African German dude named Bernd, or Bernardo as the case may be. He’s been here almost the entire time I have working in primary schools as a physical education teacher and training some soccer teams. This kid has one of the best dispositions I have ever seen, rarely in a bad mood, always ready for an adventure, willing to talk to anyone and everyone. We’ve shared good experiences (days at the beach, nights out, traveling, learning the difference between British and American English, & when to slip “cheeky” into a sentence) and bad ones (that time I kicked rebar into my foot and he helped me to the centro de salud, the general stress of living outside one’s country). It is entirely impossible to explain our friendship, so I give you Montage de Bernd:

I think this one photo sums him up:


Getting crazy in the truck:


Gangsta volunteers:


The beach!


Getting more crazy when the truck breaks down:


Excellent posture:


Training a soccer team on the beach – with Bernd I got to get a peek into the life of men in Nicaragua that I may not have seen otherwise. Since I can’t trust really any man in Nicaragua, it was nice to have one guy I could go places with and not worry if it “meant” something:


I can’t remember what they’re called in Spanish, but those things we’re eating are bull testicles:


Throwing around small children, as usual:


It’s not really goodbye, it just means that a trip to South Africa is in the works :)

More Alphabet Soup

Last week I went to a Project Design and Management workshop (aka PDM), which was conveniently held at a hotel on the beach not far from my site. We spent basically three full days discussing development, approaches to participatory community development (that is, getting the community involved as much as possible), and the steps of designing and managing a community-based project. The workshop is open to pretty much all volunteers in Nicaragua so we were a mixed bag of volunteers from all five sectors: agriculture, small business, health, environment, and English. The volunteers came from regions all over Nicaragua and everyone brought a Nicaraguan counterpart so I had the opportunity to meet some new and interesting people.

As my counterpart I brought Rafael, who manages the NGO where I teach English. They do a lot of projects in the rural areas outside of town so he came in with a lot of knowledge but he said he learned something so that’s good.

Here we are in our little work group with an environment volunteer and her counterpart who are working on building a bigger library in their town:


And here’s some of our work, PC-Nicaragua is probably the country’s biggest consumer of papelografo which are the big sheets of paper you see here. We basically wallpapered the room we were working in:


Although we did work our tails off, we also had some fun. The last night we had a bonfire on the beach and the hotel staff roped a bunch of us into doing a goofy competition. For being good sports (my partner Colin and I came in 3rd out of 4 teams), we were awarded these fancy shell necklaces:



But my favorite part was at the end each group had to present a creative review of the steps we learned. All the groups presented some fantastic and very creative summaries. My group did a fashion show, I put my Spanish to the test as the announcer while my group members strutted their stuff:

Stephanie showing El Sombrero de Visión (The Vision Hat)


Rafael in La Faja de Plan de Acción and Las Botas de Presupuesto (The Action Plan Belt & Budget Boots)


Go Team Mafael del Sillo (we named our team by combining the names of our two sites)!

Transportation, Nica Style

One of the things I’ve been trying to do with my teachers is to contextualize our lessons – that is, using familiar situations and everyday vocabulary for Nicaragua, not the U.S. The old English book they used before had all this stuff about airplanes and stewardesses and stuff that 90% of my students will never encounter. This month in the 9th grade we’re teaching about transportation and my counterpart brought in what he thought was an appropriate list of means of transportation. I thought I had done a good job by adding things like horses and trying to figure out the best way to translate “microbus.” Well, Joel came in with a list that included not only horse but mule and donkey as well as cart.

This post will require a part two because this doesn’t even cover all the forms of transportation in this country, but here’s a start:

Guy riding a cow (not common, but it happens):


Guys hanging on the back of a truck (very very common):


Launching boats in Masachapa, which is still done by rolling them out on logs:


On the bus:


Caponera, the Nica equivalent of a rickshaw:




Small child on moto, and no, she doesn’t have her license:


Horse cart:

I seriously think about this stuff ALL THE TIME!

The past couple weeks have been pretty uneventful. I tried to organize a meeting about doing a ballet class with a group of dancers at the instituto but that fell through because the teacher I was coordinating with wasn’t able to organize the kids in time. Some friends are trying to organize a general dance group in the community and want my help so I’m hoping that might work out, and if not I’ll try to organize through the instituto again. But the next month will be difficult to organize anything at all: next week I’m going to another Peace Corps training, the beginning of September I have a big English conference in Managua to present at and at the same time I have three friends coming to visit and the fiestas patrias, aka Independence Day. So despite feeling ready to get started on something new right now, I’m forced to wait in order to give myself the greatest chance of success. One of the frustrations of Peace Corps service.

Development work in general is just not easy. I find that I, and many of the volunteers here, often get bogged down in bigger questions of culture, gender, and the effectiveness and sustainability of our work. I had conversations about this with both Nicas and Americans this past weekend, so it’s been on my mind again. One of my Nica friends was expressing his frustration to me about how programs, groups, even businesses don’t last long in this community because the people lose interest & motivation really quickly. I found that was true with my adult English class, which started with 10 students and ended with only three. Although I think that it’s a common problem, he felt it was particularly acute here in our community.

So I brought up the conversation I had with a volunteer and former volunteer on Saturday, which is that development and religious mission organizations in the past (and often the present) created a Culture of Receiving in many countries. By coming in with money, materials, and resources & building, donating, and giving, these organizations broke the mantra of “give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day but teach a man to fish and he’ll eat for a lifetime.” Basically, people become accustomed to not having to take responsibility but simply wait for someone to come in and give them what they need. So when I came here with just myself and no money or resources, people were pretty puzzled about how I was going to help.

More recently development organizations are realizing this and trying to work for more sustainable change, but that often entails working against a culture that may have been created by the same organization in the past. And it’s difficult to find funding for long-term, sustainable projects that may not show results in the next five or even ten years. Donors (and the public) like to see the new hospital, the kids eating school lunch, and farmers planting and harvesting more crops. It’s the need for instant gratification and the do-it-yourself mentality so many of us westerners have. It’s a lot harder to go in and teach others how to do something that they may do imperfectly by U.S. standards, or never at all. And when you throw in the fact that the changes we wish to make (higher education standards, new agricultural methods, environmental awareness, gender equality) are based on our culture and not necessarily on the culture in which we are working and the ethical implications of that, my mind starts to spin so fast I have to sit down.

This all might sounds really abstract and weird to those of you who aren’t accustomed to pondering development in your spare time. So here’s my current, on-the-ground dilemma: I have had it hasta aqui (up to here) with machismo and a culture that directs large numbers of women down the path of dependence on men who many times don’t treat them very well. So right now I really want to start working more with my female students, through dance or a more explicit girls empowerment club, because I feel that it would be beneficial for them to learn skills such as leadership, family planning, self-esteem, etc. so that they can be successful in life – a success that is defined by my cultural standards, not necessarily those of rural Nicaragua.

So the question is, is this a change that is even desired by people here? Do women see something wrong with their way of life? Do men? And what is my right as a foreigner to come in and say, “Do it MY way! It’s better!”? Well, short answer, is that I do know a lot of women who aren’t happy with their lives, and most men don’t realize that it’s a problem. As for the rest of it, it’s a gray area. So, as far as I can decide, I hope to form a girls club that is formed around the wants and needs of the girls themselves instead of dictating it all based on what I think they need to learn. And it might fall apart, it may never even get started. I have encountered a totally new kind of stress in my work here, it’s not having too much to do (though I do have that too) but having ideas and goals and not being able to reach them. My biggest struggle has been taking an idea from my head and making it happen on the ground, but I’m still plugging away and hoping that in the coming months before I leave that it will be something I grow more and more confident with.

That was a lot. To close on a not so serious note, here’s a picture from back in June of some of my students who performed a socio-drama at an anti-domestic violence event. The group includes my most fabulous gay students (you can probably guess who they are) who were mostly dressed as women for the skit. I love these kids!

Revolucion

Just before the IST we passed a big political holiday here in Nicaragua: The 19th of July, which this year was the 30th anniversary of the Sandinista Revolution. I know that before I came to Nicaragua I had little or no clue about the history of the country other than a big war in the 80s and since I was born in the 80s I knew almost nothing about that either. So, based on my Peace Corps history packet, here’s some Nica History:

Basically, Nicaragua was ruled for many years by the Somoza family, who were generally backed by the U.S. government. I’ve heard varying reports of the prosperity of the country during that time but a lot of the people I’ve talked to tell me that Nicaragua was generally in good shape and that migrant workers in the region actually came here looking for jobs (today they mostly go to Costa Rica and Panama). In December 1972, a major earthquake virtually destroyed Managua and international aid money poured into the country. It was because of the misuse of those funds, which were largely distributed to rebuild and strengthen businesses owned by the Somozas instead of helping the people, that the revolution happened. Guerilla wars occurred between 1972 and 1979, and the Carter administration in the U.S. began to criticize Somoza’s human rights record in 1977, eventually suspending economic aid. On July 17th, 1979 Anastasio Somoza went into exile in Miami.

So the Sandinistas came to power and the current president, Daniel Ortega, was in charge of the country for pretty much all of the 80s. The Carter administration attempted to make things work with the new Nicaraguan government but when Reagan took over, he decided he didn’t like the new leftist government in his hemisphere so, with the help of Congress, he funded the Contras out of Honduras to re-start the civil war in Nicaragua with a little additional help from the CIA. That lasted until 1984 when Congress decided they didn’t want to fund the Contras anymore which then led to the fun-filled Iran-Contra Affair in which Reagan raised funds for the Contras by illegally selling weapons to Iran and I think we all know how that ended up.

In 1989, the first democratic elections were held and the Sandinista party lost. In fact, it wasn’t until Ortega was reelected President in 2006 that they returned to power. So on the 19th of July there was a big party in Managua, all buses were going that direction with Sandinista flags waving (the infamous red and black) and lots of fireworks & such things going off around town here. It happened to fall on a Sunday so we had Monday off as a national holiday so I ate sopa de mondongo (oh yes, that’s cow stomach soup!) and relaxed on my patio.

Here are some pieces of war history at the scenic look out over Managua:



For my non-Spanish speaking readers, the sign says: “The remains of the horse monument to General Anastasio Somoza that was in front of the National Stadium. It was constructed in 1954 and torn down July 1979.”

Alphabet Soup

Like any good government agency, Peace Corps is full of acronyms: PST, IST, COS, APCD, ET, SLF, VRF, PDM, the list goes on. So this past week we had our one-year IST which stands for In-Service Training. There was one three months in that I missed because I was still hanging around in Panama and then we get this one at a year in. I have officially made it through one full year of Peace Corps service!

For IST everyone grabbed a counterpart or two and headed to the lovely northern city of Matagalpa:

I originally was gunning for a site in this area because of its cooler temperatures. I brought a sweater, wore closed-toed shoes, and even wore my hair down! Craziness! And we were put up in a lovely hotel up on the hill that had hot water and cable TV – quite frankly they’re lucky we left our rooms.

But it wasn’t all hot showers and vegging out, we definitely worked hard for our nice accommodations. Most of us left our sites between 5 and 6am on Wednesday to be in Matagalpa by 10:30am and we started promptly at 11. We worked all day Wed and Thurs. Friday our counterparts left after lunch and us volunteers stuck around to do some more stuff and were cut loose on Saturday. We covered a lot of topics, largely pertaining to activities to use in the classroom, evaluation methods, planning teaching workshops, going over our new manual for the new curriculum, and learning a bit about Nonviolent Communication – which I think everyone should learn about! Here are Erin and Alli teaching everyone about how to resolve conflicts more effectively:

It’s challenging to get so much information in such a short time, but I know my counterpart, Axel, really enjoyed it. Here he is with a mango:

And here’s Axel with Matagalpa in the background, I guess he’s trying to look like a tough guy or something:

More photo highlights:

The lovely ladies of TEFL:

Enjoying a break:

And singing along to Eternal Flame, yes those microphones are markers – we were a little punchy by the end:

It was really great to see everyone and get to hear a little about what people have been up to for the last year. We also received our official COS date (that is Close of Service, when we’re done) and that is July 16^th, 2010. I know that the next year will fly by so I need to get on those projects that have been floating around in my head. Also, after April 16^th I can’t take more vacation so all you stragglers out there who still wanna come visit better take note!

Nica 51 Packing List!

This post is really for the new group of TEFL trainees who will be landing in Nicaragua in September. I figure at this point they’re starting to gather some of the stuff they’ll need for the big plunge so I present my list of necessary items:

Must Haves:
• Headlamp – for late night reading under the mosquito net/trips to the latrine/when the lights go out
• USB Memory Sticks – for taking to the ciber, backing up photos
• Camera - duh
• A good everyday bag – I actually found my good everyday bag in Panama, it has a strap that you can lengthen to wear crosswise or shorten to wear on the shoulder & it’s big enough to fit a couple notebooks & a water bottle
• Umbrella or rain jacket – it rains a lot, especially in October, I recommend the umbrella route
• Books – again, duh

Recommended
• Ipod & speakers – you can take them to school if you want, or just to play music at home
• Battery powered alarm clock
• Command hooks – esp if you think you’ll live on your own
• Cards/Uno deck – my host sisters really liked playing Uno during training
• Laptop & DVDs – aside from the obvious benefits, PC does a lot of communication electronically so it will save you money going to the ciber all the time to write reports, etc. Don’t bring a shiny new laptop though, it could get stolen, attacked by viruses from using USBs at the ciber, and most likely will be covered in dust after the first summer in Nicaragua. Mine is suddenly slow as molasses & I can’t figure out why. Be prepared to junk it when you leave.

If you have space
• Pillow – I brought mine and I’m sooooo happy I did!
• Spanish-language book, if you have one you like – I didn’t bring one & wish that I had
• Sheets – this is more for if you plan to live on your own, you also might just wait & have them sent down later or bring them back when you visit home which is what I did

Women’s Clothing – my advice is to pack what you can and leave a pile of clothes behind, some for hot climates & some for cooler climates & when you get your site assignment you can have your family or whoever send off a package – this goes for anything you wanna pack & don’t have space for.
• Look for materials that either absorb sweat or don’t show it, or bring camisoles to wear under your shirts if you sweat a lot
• At least 10 pairs of underwear, synthetic if possible
• 7 bras, including sports bras
• 5-7 pairs of socks
• Work-appropriate tank tops with wide straps – no spaghetti straps at school, but teachers here do wear sleeveless stuff, just make sure it’s tasteful
• 7 shirts/tank tops you can wear to work
• 5 shirts/tank tops for casual
• 2-3 long-sleeved shirts
• 1 going-out outfit
• 1-2 pairs of jeans
• 3-4 work pants or capris or skirts
• 1-2 casual pants or skirts
• 1-2 nice outfits or dresses
• 2 pairs of shorts for lounging around
• 1-2 swimsuits
• Pajamas
• A fleece or light jacket
• Tennis shoes
• Walking sandals
• 1-2 Nicer work sandals/shoes
• Flip flops

For guys, work dress is a lot more lax – nice jeans are acceptable for both sexes but the male teachers wear jeans a lot more than the female ones. And a simple button-up is good for work or whatever.

Toiletries – it is true that you can buy most any of this stuff in-country (except contact solution, which you can find but it’s tricky) but during training you get very little money so either pack it or bring money from home to buy it with
• Lots of contact solution if you use it
• If there’s space, a large supply of pads and/or tampons, pantyliners or bring a Diva Cup
• Pack Towel
• The usual: toothbrush, tooth paste, shampoo, conditioner, soap, hair bands, etc

Misc
• School supplies – markers, whiteboard markers, index cards, pens & pencils
• Special spices for cooking
• Sheet/blanket/sleepsack for hostels
• Sewing kit
• Sunglasses
• Moon Handbook
• Anti-bacterial hand stuff
• Flashlight
• Gatorade powder
• Yoga mat or other exercise stuff – I didn’t bring my yoga mat & was able to buy one here but I had to wait till the very end of training. I have started downloading yoga podcasts on my laptop to do at home & you can bring exercise DVDs or buy them here (only a dollar for bootleg DVDs!)

You’ll be given a big bag o’ books during staging as well so be prepared. It includes a Spanish-English dictionary & some more language stuff, as well as technical manuals & a notebook to use during training. I packed in a large backpacking pack, a rolling duffle bag, and my normal backpack & so far that’s served me pretty well.

And a word on staging in DC – a number of people in our training group had problems with the staff in DC in terms of clothing and piercings, but as far as I know none of the issues they brought up were actually issues in Nicaragua. Por ejemplo, my roommate in staging was told that her dress pant capris were too short (they kinda showed her knees a little) so she ran out and bought a bunch of new stuff before we left but I know she’s worn them here and never been told they were inappropriate. Same for piercings, some people were told to take out eyebrow and nose piercings in DC but when worn in Nicaragua they never have had problems. And not everyone with piercings was told to take them out. My recommendation is to wear your nicest stuff to DC and if you have a piercing to wear a small one. If there’s a real issue with something you wear, the staff in Nicaragua will tell you. Keep things tasteful and respectful while at the same time being true to who you are. We want to be good representatives for the U.S. while at the same time representing its diversity and ourselves as well – that of course is my opinion and has nothing to do with official Peace Corps policy :)

A Wedding, Nica Style

As you may or may not remember, there is a former volunteer who lives about 20 km away from me. Sarah left Peace Corps but she stayed in the country to teach in another school near Managua and this past weekend she got married to her boyfriend (now husband), Moises.




You may be thinking “woah, PC volunteer marrying a Nicaraguan!?! Craziness!” but it actually happens a whole lot – more often with female volunteers marrying Nicaraguan guys but it can go the other way too. Seeing the direction the rest of our TEFL group is headed in, I kind of doubt that anyone else will be taking the plunge before we leave.

I digress.



Six of us volunteers attended the wedding, and we weren’t really sure what to expect. Sarah’s parents and a group of friends flew down for the festivities but it was largely a Nicaraguan affair. First off, it started a half hour late :) All the gringos were firmly in their seats but the Nica’s kinda just rolled in whenever so although we started with a half empty church, it ended closer to full. There were also about a zillion screaming babies.



The actual service was what surprised me the most. It started out much like any religious wedding, but in the middle of it the pastor stepped down and a lady in a suit stepped up and took care of the civil part of the wedding. This involved reading off the full names, ages, professions, and birth places of the bride and groom and having them along with their witnesses sign some paperwork. When that was over we got back into the religious stuff and finished with the usual kiss. We all thoroughly enjoyed the part where the pastor was trying to pronounce English stuff and would make his attempt and then follow it with “algo asi” (something like that).



Then there was the reception with food and the best cake I’ve eaten in Nicaragua (Nica cake is different from American cake- especially the frosting which just doesn’t taste right and they put something between the two layers of cake that looks like it might be tasty but usually it’s not – the first time we got Nica cake during training everyone’s eyes lit up but that only lasted until the first bite when we realized that it’s not what we were expecting). Then my friend Maria caught the bouquet, the second one she’s caught in Nicaragua thus far:



Overall, really not that different from a wedding in the U.S. except for the civil part.

Fun with English-learning

One of my secondary projects (teaching in the schools is my primary project) is teaching English to the three person staff of a local NGO – I know I’ve written about them before. I love teaching them, partly for situations that arise that are absolutely hilarious. One of my favorite misunderstandings that came out of that class happened a while back. I asked one of the women “Do you have a cousin in Rivas?” and her attempt at translating before answering (“Eres una cocina en Rivas?”) actually means “Are you a kitchen in Rivas?” That might be one of those, “you had to be there” moments but we still laugh about it to this day.

Last week in class we were going over the homework which was to match the opposite adjectives in a list (small-large, deep-shallow, etc.) and the two women in the group had worked together and determined that “tall” didn’t match with anything on the list and so they had written in “bass.” I kept looking at it thinking “how in the world did they come up with bass?” With a little more thought I realized that they had taken “tall” which is “alto” in Spanish and knew that the opposite was “bajo,” which translates to both “short” and “bass” as in bass guitar. It’s like a little puzzle sometimes making the connections :)