New Address

I changed my mind and went in on a PO Box with a couple other volunteers in a nearby town. Gifts of chocolate, pens, DVDs, books, and anything else can now be sent here:

Apartado Postal 0141
Jinotepe, Carazo
NICARAGUA

I've had an interesting week, I had a cheerful blog post all written on my flashdrive and Blogger hasn't been loading on the computers at school so I haven't been able to post. Right now I'm at the office in Managua and am feeling lazy, so you all will have to wait a little longer to hear my joy of teaching moment from last week

Face Five!!

I´ve decided that my blog needs a point system, so 10 points if you get the Scrubs reference in the title. Keep track of your points and I´ll bring a hammock or something for whoever has the highest total when I come back to the States. I pulled out my Scrubs collection last week for the first time and I´m still reeling from the pure happiness it brings me.

In case you don´t get the reference, a Face Five is a Slap In The Face and I feel a little like that for a variety of reasons. The biggest one right now is that the woman who has been directing our program just resigned. This is difficult to swallow because we just started our service and I felt comfortable coming to her with any problems I might encounter, but now that´s up in the air. We do have other staff support from Peace Corps, but it´s not the same really.

Today I´m gonna start teaching!! This morning I coplanned with Teacher #1, he´s been teaching for 9 years and has notebooks filled with lesson plans so it wasn´t too hard to figure things out. I´ve already been thrust full-throttle into office politics, Nicaraguan-style here at my school. Nothing super negative, but there are natural alliances formed among the staff and teachers that are very politically driven at times. For example, the Ministry of Education (MINED) delegate for the area wants the teachers to sing/teach the students a hymn about President Ortega (or something like that, it´s not the national anthem I know that) and the director is supporting her on this despite many teachers being against it because they belong to different political parties. I´m trying to figure out the best way to navigate the social waters of the school, but for now I´m everyone´s friend because I don´t know anyone anyway.

Last week I meet a group of two Chileans, a Bolivian, and a German who are working in the area and with whom I will hopefully live for a couple months come September. Other than that, I still feel pretty disconnected from my site itself by living so far away so I´m hoping they can introduce me to some people, nonprofits, anyone really.

Peace Corps is trying really hard to cut costs right now and will soon be canceling their massive subscription to Newsweek, so my request to my general public today is for any of you news junkies to send me interesting articles about anything really. I used to read a ton of news in DC so now I need a new outlet. I know some of you still spend half of your days at work reading the Post, help me out here.

Lessons in Nica Culture

Although I'll post this at a later date, today is August 5th and that means that 3 months ago today I left Minnesota for the unknown... er, DC I guess. But still. Happy 3 month anniversary, self! (edit: Today's the 7th, which means that it's my 3 month anniversary in-country! I take whatever milestones I can get.)



This photo demonstrates two pieces of Nicaraguan culture: 1) pretty painted nails, and 2) pointing at things with your lips. My new host mom continues to make it abundantly clear that she has adopted me into the family, mostly by feeding me copious amounts of food. Sunday we spent the day at the beach and last night she painted both my fingernails and my toenails with tiny flowers. I've been instructed to let my toenails grow longer so she can fit the white stripe on the top because that's what makes it classy. After years of cramming my feet into toe shoes for ballet class, long toenails freak me out, but I'll give it a try in the name of refinement. Needless to say, things are going very well with my housing arrangement here.

As for #2, if you ask for directions, you may think you're being hit on but really you're being pointed in the right direction by a pair of lips. I haven't assimilated yet to the point of really using this tactic myself, but don't be surprised if I come back to the States pointing at things with my mouth.

I don't know if it made it on the news wherever you may be, but last week the Mercado Oriental in Managua burned to the ground. The Oriental is the biggest market in Nicaragua and also in Central America. I've been told you can find just about anything there, someone once said that if you wanted to build yourself a helicopter that you could find all the parts you want in the Oriental. It's also a fairly dangerous place where people get mugged a lot and as a foreigner, I'm supposed to avoid it at all costs. From what I can gather, illegal tapping of power lines is what started the fire and they couldn't get water in fast enough so it burned all night Thursday and through the day on Friday. Pretty much every one of the approximately 1,500 stores was destroyed. This will have a huge impact on prices here because so many goods are distributed out of that market. My host mom has a little clothing shop in our local market here and had actually been at the Oriental earlier on Wednesday to buy goods to sell. So one more thing on top of inflation and transportation costs that will make living in Nicaragua more expensive, joy!

Finally, the same address applies if you feel like sending something my way (just switch the PCT after my name to PCV since I'm not a Trainee anymore but a Volunteer!). That address will be valid the whole time I'm here, it's the Peace Corps PO Box in Managua, but if I decide to get a PO box at my site I'll let you all know.

Sweet Home Not Quite Alabama

I woke up this morning and laid in bed listening to Sweet Home Alabama and staring at the zinc roof over my head. I had to laugh at myself. That song always reminds me of the rural town I grew up in and here I am in the Peace Corps, in Nicaragua, listening to Lynyrd Skynyrd to ready myself for my day.

I've found myself turning on my iPod in the mornings more and more over the past few weeks. It's amazing what a couple upbeat songs can do for my mood, at any time of day really. Yesterday I turned on Ruby Ruby Ruby by the Kaiser Chiefs and reminisced about playing Guitar Hero with my girls in DC (miss you guys!). Sometimes thinking back helps to remind me more why I'm here than thinking about the present because at the present, I'm off by myself in my site and no longer have a giant group of gringos to lean on for support.

Since I arrived back here on Sunday, most of my time has been spent at the instituto observing classes (and sitting through a three hour staff meeting, gah!), walking around town, and laying in the hammock at home. Needless to say, it's been a slow week and anyone who knew me during college especially knows that I don't always deal with downtime very well, so this is a challenge. And because my home stay is a taxi ride out of town that I really can't afford to take more than once a day (or even once a day it seems like), once I'm back in my quiet little pueblo, I'm here for good.

There are definitely little successes and little (or big) frustrations everyday. The homestay thing is a big frustration, as is the general awkwardness I'm going to have to endure as I try to make friends and integrate into the community. But I am getting to know people and overall everyone's been very welcoming and nice. And I'm pretty excited about my teacher counterparts, the woman I'm working with is quiet but I think there's a lot I can do to help her with both her English and teaching methods. My male counterpart is pretty talkative and I believe he's motivated to improve his teaching, though he's doing a good job already. Oh, and I'm frustrated because I got bright pink gum on my white pants yesterday at school, but my host mom says she knows how to get that out :)

So that's what I've been up to, I hope to have more exciting stories than getting gum on my pants, but quite frankly I think that's gonna be the highlight of the week this time around. Oh, that and getting in a taxi and discovering that the driver is my neighbor. Send me updates, people, I have free time again!

Nica 47: Officially Volunteers!!

Yesterday we officially swore in as volunteers, all of 38 of us, sort of. We started out in DC as 39: 19 TEFL and 20 Business and so far we've lost two Business kids - one to a family emergency and one to not reaching the proper language level - and we've gained one TEFL volunteer who has already served two years in Eastern Europe. However, really only 37 of us swore in because one TEFLer is currently en route to the states for a shoulder surgery. He's welcome to come back after he's healed but that could take months so we'll see. He's one of the closest volunteers to my site so I've got my fingers crossed :)

My host mom, sister, and I at swearing in:

Our goofy TEFL picture that someone took with my camera:

So I'm spending the day in Managua at a nice hotel with wireless internet and hot showers before heading out tomorrow morning to really start my service. The following is a bit I wrote about our group a while back and hadn't posted it yet, enjoy:

Each training group in Peace Corps is titled with the country and a number, so we're the 47^th group of trainees in Nicaragua since they re-entered the country in 1991. A while back one of the girls meet a guy who was part of Nica-2. Whoa.

Basically Nica-47 rocks. And even moreso, Nica-47 TEFL really rocks (Nica-47 technically refers to both the TEFL and Small Business trainees but for my purposes, it only refers to TEFL). There are now 20 of us, a girl just transferred from the TEFL program in Georgia (the country, not the state. Yes, there's a country called Georgia, it was in the Soviet Union. Look it up.) and she'll be doing a 2^nd stint of 2 years with us here (she already speaks very good Spanish, in case you were wondering, which we all were, so she didn't have to go through all the training nonsense again).

Soooo, anyway, our group gets along amazingly well. We've been told this by many volunteers who have come to do training stuff with us. We're not all best friends by any means, and there can be tension at times, but in general I like everyone in the group and most people would say the same. We haven't broken down into smaller cliques, but this can make it complicated when 15 to 20 gringos want to hang out after class. But you know, that's not such a bad problem to have.

Again with the dorkatry, here are some geographic and demographic tidbits:

Home States

Oregon (2, the married couple)

California

Kansas

Minnesota (2)

Wisconsin

Illinois (2)

Michigan

Ohio

West Virginia

Pennsylvania

Tennessee

Mississippi

DC area (inluding NoVa) (3)

North Carolina

Arizona

Of our 20, we are 15 women and 5 men. That includes one married couple, two gay women, two gay men, one African American woman, 3 Hispanic women, and one Asian woman. The age range goes from 21 to 31, but almost everyone is under 27. There are several actual teachers and/or education majors among us, a handful of Spanish majors, some folks straight (or nearly) out of college and some have spent some time in the real world. It really is a mixed bag.

I wish it was possible to really introduce you all to my Peace Corps fam. I think the thing that freaks me out the most about starting my service as a real volunteer is having to say goodbye to seeing everyone several times a week for classes or just hanging out. These people have really kept me sane over the past 12 weeks (12 weeks!), but I look forward to getting together once we've got some more freedom as honest to goodness Peace Corps Volunteers.

Nicaraguan Cultural Adjustment #52: What did you expect??

It can be risky to have expectations for much of anything around these parts. This weekend I was planning to walk around town and take photos and spend time with the host fam and get some good pictures of them too. Well, I got a bacterial infection and spent almost all of Saturday in bed and Sunday I was still loopy. Ergo, no photos, no quality time.



Cut to Tuesday night, it's my last night with the host family, still planning on getting those photos and hopefully some quality time. Just as I finished my packing, the lights went out. I did get some good quality time sitting in the dark chatting, but there were no photos to be had.



Planning on taking the last bus home? The driver might not feel like driving that day, or someone told you the wrong time and that bus doesn't exist. Planning on working with your youth group? Oh wait! There's a concert/event/marching band that everyone is going to and no one will show up.



Some days I love the disorganization and craziness, like that I can just stand on the highway and wave down a bus at (almost) any time of day. And it never ceases to amaze me the condition the taxis were in in El Rosario (door panel? who needs a door panel? or a window for that matter?). And sometimes it's really frustrating. But, I have two years from tomorrow to get used to it all. My life as a Peace Corps Trainee is just about over, in the morning we will all swear in as Peace Corps Volunteers and on Sunday I will officially move to my site to begin my work.



Scary, exciting, overwhelming, amazing.... are all words to describe how I feel about this. I'm ready to be done with training, that's for sure. Do I feel fully prepared for this assignment? Nope! But that's life.

Si Dios Quiere

One of the dichos (sayings) that we've picked up here in Nicaragua is the ever popular “Si Dios quiere” which translates to “if God wants it.” For example:

Trainee: Bye, Host Family, I'm going to visit my site now. See you on Sunday!
Host Family Member: Si Dios quiere!

It can be a little disconcerting to be told that it depends on if God wants you to come back whether or not you actually will. This saying may be appearing on the t-shirts that may or may not be made for our group. Si Dios quiere.

I am extremely happy to report that it appears God wanted our youth group project to succeed, because it did! You may remember back a couple months when I talked about this youth group thing we were doing. Our group has had its ups and downs, but it largely fell apart right around our site visits when we were out of town and returned about as unmotivated as can be. However, this week we actually finished our project!

We had one last bit to accomplish: planting the trees. It wasn't clear how long this would take, but we scheduled a workday for last Tuesday morning only to find out that they were having a big celebrations to inaugurate the newly blocked road in town (the streets in the pueblos aren't paved like the highways, they're either dirt or covered with concrete blocks and it's a big deal when a street is finished) so we wouldn't be accomplishing anything. So we switched to Thursday. Unfortunately the woman we had been working with in the mayor's office, who really should get most of the credit for our project working out, was out sick so all efforts at communication failed: no trees, no workers, no nothing. We scheduled our last attempt for this past Monday and were able to plant 40 small trees with the help of a couple youth, some workers from the community garden, and our language facilitator who got dragged along in the process.

Here we are with our plants:


and planting:

and the finished product:


The cool thing about this project is that the mayor's office intends to continue working on it throughout the year. The trees we planted ring a basketball court and the plan is to put in some benches as well to make it a gathering place for the community. I hope to come back in a couple months and see all of our trees alive and healthy and hopefully with some shiny (not really, they'll be concrete) new benches around as well.

Si Dios quiere.

Just Call me Shel Wichmannstein

Less than two weeks of training left!! I knew the time would fly. It's kind of the same old same old, so here are a couple poems I wrote and some pictures. One of my personal goals for my Peace Corps time is to get back into writing so I hope I have a good batch of poetry and prose under my arm when I come back in 2 years (not saying it's gonna be good!). My attempts at serious poetry sound cheesy, so here are two of the goofy ones I actually like:

Nicaraguan Morning
Fireworks early in the morning at five
In my half-awake state that just doesn't jive.
Marching bands and excitement of an afternoon parade
and yet the night's moon is just starting to fade.

Enter now roosters with a cockle-doodle-do
and we always thought the the sun was their cue.
Reggaeton, Bon Jovi, the bass beats next door,
I shut my eyes tighter and wonder “What more?”

Morning isn't morning unless the baby is crying
then her sister starts up, you'd think she was dying.
The pigs, turkey, chickens, and cow at the neighbors
Along with the family begin their day's labors.

By the time my alarm cries in my ear
I feel as though I've been awake for a year.
Dragging myself slowly but surely from bed
I figure “What the hell, I can sleep when I'm dead.”

Ode to a Washer/Dryer
O Kenmore, GE, and off brands too
I never realized how much I love you!
You wash my clothes so quick and so clean
and even get out stains that are mean.
Now that I wash all my clothes in a sink
it has given me this special occasion to think
all about your spin cycle and ability to rinse
I would take you any day over a Nicaraguan prince.
We could live together so happy, so long
but only if you bring your friend dryer along.
You see, my dear washer, it's mighty humid here
so your clean clothes just won't dry till it's clear.
What good is a clean pair of jeans in the fold
if they stay wet and eventually mold?
So I need you both, my washer and dryer,
in order to keep my Peace Corps spirits higher.


And some photos from my site visit:

Here's my future workplace:


And a classroom:

The Parque Central:

And the beach! Come visit and we'll go here!:

Peace Corps Rollercoaster

Here´s the situation:

First time meeting one of my counterpart teachers, they´ve just done an overview of Peace Corps and the project areas. First thing my counterpart, Thamara, and her husband ask me: So what are you going to be doing? I was dismayed, but not surprised that she had really no idea who I was or what I was going to be doing. The school´s director basically told her to come to Managua to pick up an American who would be working at the school. So that was my Tuesday.

I´ve just returned from my 5 day site visit and I can pretty honestly say that at least once each day I felt confident, competent, and ready to do my job. And at least once each day I panicked and wondered what it is that I´ve gotten myself into and just how I´m going to survive two years here. I figure that at least the first 3 months will be like that, if not more.

I spent a lot of the first two days with Thamara. I watched some classes at the school, she took me around town, and introduced me to her family who are all quite nice. She´s a little on the quiet side, but very excited to improve her English. and she´s my age, so that´s nice. The town itself isn´t as big as I thought it would be, there´s a supermarket and a sizable indoor market as well. There are some NGOs that I want to check out as possible collaboraters and the school´s in pretty decent shape, they even have a computer lab with free internet for teachers (score!).

My big challenge will be meeting people in the community. I had been hoping for a smaller site because it´s easier to meet people and know everyone, but I´ve got a mid-sized site and I don´t even live in town. My homestay is very comfortable (except for copious amounts of mosquitos) and my host mom and sister are really nice. However, we live in a little suburb like place north of my site and commuting in will be a pain. I had been told it was bikeable, but I´m not at all psyched to bike on a hilly highway all the way to school when it´s incredibly hot outside. Nosireebob. I´m trying to prepare my host mom for me leaving after 6 weeks, but she´s already intent on me staying.

I already am finding myself wondering if I´m doing this Peace Corps thing right, but the current volunteers have passed on words of wisdom that I feel like I should tattoo on my arm: Don´t compare your service to anyone else´s. Really, every volunteer is different and every site is different. Even so, I get caught up in questions like Am I talking to my family enough? Have I spent enough time on the stuff Peace Corps told me to do? I read like half a book today, is that bad? I hope that I can have a successful service, but I also need to cut myself some slack and do things at my own pace.

In any case, I doubt I´ll be paying much attention in class for our remaining 3 weeks of training and trying to soak up as much together time as I can with my friends. We´ve been blessed with a really good group of people who I hope to see somewhat often during service and I think I should be able to do that pretty easily.

Happy 4th of July everyone! You all had better have watched some fireworks and eaten a burger for me :)

Answers to Commonly Asked Questions

Question 1: Do they have siestas in Nicaragua?
Answer: Sadly no, I think I could really use a good nap after lunch but I guess that tradition never got this far south from Mexico where I hear they do still do the siesta thing, at least in some parts.

Question 2: Do you have a latin lover yet?
Answer: Nope! We're thinking about putting together a pool to bet on who dates and/or marries a Nicaraguan first. So far, nada.

Question 3: Are you tan?
Answer: Yes! Well, my arms and face. My legs don't really see the light of day that often, or else I'll have lots of people wanting to be my latin lover!!

Question 4: Where will you be living for 2 years?
Answer: Ha! Not telling!

No, truly, I'm not going to post my whereabouts nor those of my soon-to-be fellow volunteers on the blog for everyone's personal safety. But I will say that I'll be living in the department of Managua, but closer to the coast than to the city of Managua itself. It's a mid-sized town, so I probably could post the name and not have to worry too much about some random person walking into town and asking “Where does the gringa live?” and getting the right answer (FYI: gringa, or gringo, is what us white, American types are referred to here. And yes, this tactic does work in small towns - we used it to find our friends in one of the smaller training towns once.)

Overall, I'm pretty happy with my site. In fact, it almost made it into my top 3. I'll be living with a woman who teaches at my school and her daughter who is somewhere around 12 years old. And their dog. I've been assured that they're lovely people :) I'll be working with two of the three English teachers at a good sized school, one man and one woman. They're highly motivated, according to my packet so I hope that's accurate. There are two other TEFL kids from my group who'll be living fairly nearby and a business volunteer from last year's group lives in the department as well. I should be pretty well connected by transit as well as phone and internet! I'll spend Wednesday through Sunday meeting people and getting to know the town a little bit and should have more interesting information to share after that.

Pretty much everyone is happy with their sites, some people got just what they wanted, most people got something they're at least happy with, and at least one person got a site that's almost the opposite of what he wanted but even he's not too upset about it. The only thing I'm disappointed about is that my closest friends are kind of far away, but they're also in areas I really want to visit and I should be able to do a weekend trip everyonceinawhile to see them.

Oh, and we definitely put together a betting pool on the site assignments. I only got 3 of the 20 correct, the girl who won got 6 right. Cheap entertainment :)

Another Peace Corps hurdle down!!

Oh! The Places You'll Go!

One of the fun (crazy) things about the Peace Corps is that not once, but twice you leave the very important decision of your place of residence up to someone else. The first time, I got Nicaragua. Next Friday I'll finally be able to tell you all where exactly in Nicaragua I'll be biding my time for 2 years! We received a packet of information on the 17 sites including population, services, info on the schools where the volunteer will work and opportunities for secondary projects. Yesterday, after talking to volunteers who are serving in the same area talk about the sites, we all were able to express up to three preferences. After final interviews with the boss-lady this week, the staff will choose sites for us based on our skills and preferences, in addition to medical considerations if there are any.

I'm trying not to get my hopes up for anything in particular but my preferences were for two mid-sized towns in the mountainous regions north of Managua (read: it's not so hot there!) and a rural town in southern Nicaragua near the big lake. None of the sites are places I feel like I couldn't live, but I'm gunning for a mid-sized city, or a rural area. I'd like to steer clear of larger cities.

I think much of the group is hitting a mid-training slump of some kind, at least I know I am. We're more than halfway through now and we can almost taste our site assignments so it's hard to concentrate on the tasks at hand. And despite now feeling much more confident on the transportation system and my Spanish abilities, I'm still not supposed to venture very far from my town without having a host family member present. It can be frustrating at times, but I know when training is over that I'll miss having my American safety net.

The good news is that I've been out seeing a little more of the country and the culture recently. Last weekend was busy as Peace Corps took us and the Small Business group to the Volcan Masaya (oh yes, that means volcano!) and on Sunday I went with my host sister to an Ipica a couple towns over. An Ipica is usually part of a town's fiestas patronales which is just a big party to celebrate a town's patron saint. An Ipica involves everyone lining one of the main streets in town, drinking beer, and watching people parade around on horses. It's a pretty good time :)

Photos from the volcano:

Alli and I as dinosaurs

And the Ipica:

Yes, this man is standing on his horse

One Twenty-Seventh of the Way Through!

As of Saturday I've been in Nicaragua for one month! I'm both amazed that it's already been a month and yet feel like it's been much longer. Now that my volunteer visit is over, I think the rest of training really will go quickly. In two weeks I'll get my site assignment (!!!) and then spend a week there getting to know people before returning for 2 more weeks of training and then we spend a few days in Managua before swearing in and being sent off on our own. Wowza!!

Anyhoo, I spent Sunday through Wednesday in a medium-sized city in the department (aka State) of Granada with a TEFL volunteer who's been here now for a little over a year. We ran around the countryside a little bit, visiting Masaya and the nearby Laguna de Apoyo with a group of trainees/volunteers on Sunday and then ran some errands and checked out Granada on Monday afternoon because classes were having exams that afternoon or were just canceled.

But mostly we talked a lot about life as a volunteer and what she's been doing this past year. It was really helpful to get an unedited and unsupervised perspective on everything and meeting up with the other volunteers meant I got more than one perspective on a few things. But no two volunteers have the same experience so I am now even more anxiously awaiting the second interview about site assignments and trying to decide what my preferences are for what kind of place I'd like to live and work in for the next two years. Some photos:

Here's Kristel and her dog Tye. It's hard to tell in this picture, but Tye's a tripod dog! He was rescued off the streets of Granada by an American vet and rehabilitated.

The Laguna:

and here are some shots of Granada:

We also had two work days last week with the youth group and have made some amazing progress, almost none of which is thanks to my machete-wielding skillz. Both times we brought a small contingent from El Rosario and were joined by some hard working guys from San Isidro (the barrio where the “park” is located) who came in with their machetes and cleared out more than twice what our group could accomplish. In our defense, I think they gave us the dull machetes so we wouldn't hurt ourselves because those suckers hardly did a thing! Anyway, it was good bonding time and also excellent exercise.

Our environment (medio ambiente) discussion with the youth group:

Here are some work shots:

And some not working shots:

A Word on Words

I've never considered language learning one of my strong points. After I fulfilled my language requirement in college, I was so sick of Spanish that although I felt I should have studied abroad somewhere where I could use it, the thought of speaking more Spanish was absolutely absurd to me. Now that I'm forcing myself back into it, I'm starting to see some of the more interesting points of learning another language.

There are certain words that don't exist in Spanish that we desperately want to be able to translate for our Spanish speaking friends here in Nicaragua. But the theory goes that if there isn't a word for something in a language, that the concept doesn't really exist there. Some of the words we've been unable to translate directly include embarrassed, creepy, nerd/dork, and awkward. If you slip up and tell someone “Estoy embarazada!!” then you've actually just told them that you're pregnant, which obviously just increases your embarrassment. And there's no way to tell someone that awkward is the new cool. I know my friend Allison has tried to explain the concept of creepy to a few Nicaraguans because this is how we feel about the men who spew out pick up lines despite probably not knowing what they're saying (por ejemplo: “I will love you for ember!” is my favorite of late).

As part of our youth group project we are expected to do particular activities that are supposed to help us get better acquainted with our sites and the needs of our future neighbors. This is all well and good in theory, until you're standing in front of a group of 15 to 20 year olds asking them to write a schedule of their daily activities or giving a “charla” (a chat) about the environment. This is when we all feel like huge dorks. However, we haven't yet found a good word of equal meaning in Spanish. Hence, a joke that I made up that made everyone here laugh (will it make you laugh too? I'm not sure):

Q: What do you call a dork in Nicaragua?
A: A Peace Corps Trainee aka an Aspirante

In completely unrelated news, I found the dancers of El Rosario!! I got semi-tricked into teaching a ballet class last Wednesday- my host sister knows this dance group in town and must have mentioned my ballet background so the guy who leads it asked if I would teach them a few steps. Well, they really wanted a whole class which I wasn't prepared for but I did teach them some steps and am coming back prepared with a real class tomorrow night. Their style of dance is called “ritmo” which I consider to be kinda like Latin-influenced jazz. They really are phenomenal dancers in their style and hopefully some ballet classes will just supplement that. They wanted me to teach everyday, but that's clearly impossible with my schedule so I agreed to once a week. Also, they know the choreography to Thriller, which I'm dying to learn! And hopefully I might get some salsa instruction out of this deal.

Our training projects are moving along. We had another youth group meeting last night and will hopefully be going out to clear out brush and weeds in an area that will be a park someday soon (hopefully) later in the week. I also had my first chance at co-teaching and I feel like it went pretty well. We've been struggling to schedule time to plan and teach with the one guy we can work with and it's not a very ideal situation. The class I worked with tonight is only about 20 people and they're adults who work during the day and take class at night (it strikes me as being similar to something like a GED class in the states) whereas most classes volunteers work with are upwards of 30 to 40 students anywhere from age 12 to 20+. But really, who knows what kind of a situation I'll find myself teaching in come August. Next week I'll get my first taste of a real volunteer's life when we all go out on volunteer visits. I'll be spending Sunday through Wednesday with a yet to be determined volunteer somewhere in Nicaragua, going to class and just seeing what day to day life is like. I'm excited and also nervous! I won't find out where I'm going to visit until Friday. And as far as I know, this has no bearing on where I'll be placed for my site- we won't find that out for another couple weeks.

It's warmed back up now that the big storm is gone, and there's another strike happening but this time it's only the truckers who are on strike so while it hopefully won't affect our ability to travel, food and commodity prices will start to go up again depending on how long it lasts. I hear cereal is expensive in the U.S. now. Otherwise, I'm trying to learn to walk slower. One of the host sisters was poking fun at us for how fast we gringos walk. Such is life in Nicaragua.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAlma

Wooo, tropical storms! Or was it a hurricane? I'm not sure, I've heard it called both. All I know is that it rained for more than 24 hours and we got classes canceled for it. It also caused a lot of flooding and at least one death. Here's what it looked like in the backyard. Those dark things obscuring the view are laundry trying to dry very unsuccessfully. Unfortunately much of my laundry was included and even things that were previously dry became excessively damp due to the high humidity.


I posted a bunch of photos on my Facebook page, but I've got a good connection today so here are some more:


This is my little host niece Alandy (though in my learning of the español, I keep calling her my grandaughter), she's 3 and completely crazy. Everyone agrees that she's the epitome of the word 'necia' which is basically a super energetic crazy child. She runs in and out of the house, leaving messes everywhere she goes, and only really stays clean for about 5 minutes after a bath. And pretty much everyday she hurts herself or just throws a tantrum or six. I still can't really understand anything that comes out of her mouth.


This is the view from El Crucero, a little place where we have some of our training sessions. I just took a panoramic photo from there today when it was completely clear that I'll try to upload soon too. You can almost see the ocean!!

ok, time's running short. I got mail today, thanks for the letters!! It absolutely made my day!

When they say don´t have expectations, that means the internet as well!!

Well, I jinxed the internet. Our cyber cafe has been inexplicably closed for several days now, so yeah. Hopefully it´ll be functional again soon, but for now I will only have access once or twice a week. I wrote most of this entry on Sunday.

Transpo!!

Anyway, the transportation strike is over so I've been learning to navigate the local transportation system. Because we live in the boonies, the first step to go anywhere that isn't within walking distance is to hop in a taxi. The taxis run a set route from here to Jinotepe, the departmental capital city, for 5 cordobas, about $0.25 per person. In Jinotepe you can catch a bus to pretty much anywhere in the area for cheap. Our group classes are held in Diriamba, so we know the right corner to stand on and wait until a microbus pulls up (they're little van like things that hold about 12 people comfortably and lots more uncomfortably).

Pretty much all the buses and microbuses have their destinations written on the windshield, so it'll say Jinotepe – Diriamba for example, but in case you don't see that part there's always a guy hanging out the window yelling the destination. It takes a careful ear to understand them sometimes, since Diriamba Diriamba Diriamba!! turns into Dyambadyambadyamba!!! Then they stop along the way to pick up more passengers or drop people off. Today I went with another sitemate and her host-mom to Masatepe to visit one of the small business volunteers and get more practice traveling around.

Pueblo Planning

Now that I've been to a few towns of varying sizes, it's become very clear that towns here are based on a particular system of the Central Park and Church. The central location is always a one square block park, generally with a play area for kids and possibly a basketball court or other sports area as well, and across from the park is the Big Catholic Church. In Minnesota they say you need a bar and a church to make a town, here it´s a church and a park.

Youth Whatnow?

I've gotten a few questions about what it is I'm doing with this youth group thing, so let me say a little more. We´re working on this independent of the school, so there are no teachers involved. The mayor´s office is helping us though, because they´re connected with some of the youth organizations in town and know everyone anyway. So right now we´re working on getting a project chosen and started. Looks like we might be helping to clear an area and plant some trees for a new park in a little settlement of about 50 houses not far from El Rosario. I go from being very optimistic to very pessmistic on this venture.

The Big Picture

Sometimes I feel overwhelmed by everything, and sometimes I feel good about it all. Changing our planned time for the youth group meetings will free up time that we can use to start co-planning and co-teaching at the school which is difficult to schedule. Training is intentionally difficult, much like the application process, to weed out people who aren't in it for the long haul. The days are long but I'm slowly adjusting more to the noise and I'm pretty used to the food now too. When I'm not exhausted, things are a lot easier to handle :)

The host family also continues to be good, the power was out this morning so I was chatting with my host dad who, much to my surprise, has read the autobiography of Isadora Duncan – the mother of modern dance!! Latin American men are famous for their machismo, and all I've heard so far about Nicaraguan men is that they're all liars and cheaters. Listening to some of the other trainees talk about how uninvolved the men in their families are makes me all the more impressed that my host dad and brother-in-law spend so much time with their kids/grandkids. The whole time we were chatting, my host dad had his little granddaughter playing in the hammock with him. And as soon as he gets home from work, my brother-in-law is playing with one of his daughters.

Sidenote: we do usually have electricity, but it's gone out two or three times this week usually as the result of a strong rain though I don't think it rained last night. It is, however, raining a whole lot right now, so we'll see what happens tonight. The water, on the other hand, comes and goes. I think it works more often during the day when I'm not home, but we keep two big barrels out back full of water for washing clothes, dishes, and ourselves. I did get to take a real shower last week for the first time when the water was actually on, but generally it's bucket baths (take a 5 gallon bucket of water, use a smaller scoop to dump the water over your head, wash, rinse. I can bathe using less than ¾ of a bucket!) and dumping water in the toilet to “flush.”

In closing, I missed two weddings this weekend, so congratulations to Rosie and Nic and to Steph and Burt on what I can only hope will be happy lives spent together!

John Travolta Nica

Nicaraguans love John Travolta circa 1970. So much so that there was a competition this weekend in Managua to find the John Travolta Nica that I was just lucky enough to attend. One of my fellow-trainee´s host brothers, Onis, is a dance teacher and Travolta fanatic so there was a whole microbus of relatives going to support him and I was able to hitch a ride as well. We had signs and noise makers and lots of excitment. I really didn´t know what to expect in terms of a venue, I was thinking auditorium or small stadium or something with sitting, but what we got was one of the premier discos in Managua, El Rio, and 30 odd Nicaraguan dudes dressed in leisure suits and shiney shirts and slicked back hair.

They did 4 rounds of 3 people dancing at a time, each time the more ridiculous and un-Travolta like dancers were weeded out. They all gave it their best, that was clear, but there were also clearly some way more impressive Travoltas and that included Onis who made it into the top three. With our hopes riding on him winning the impressive motorcycle sitting outside, we were all standing on chairs and tables (ah, so not the U.S.) chanting "Siete! Siete!" (Onis´s number was seven) at the top of our lungs. In the end, Onis came in second with a prize of $2,000 cordobas which is about $100.

After the whole shabang was over, we stuck around to dance for about an hour and enjoy a little more freedom and excitement than can be found in our little pueblo. I think that I will definitely look back on this as an incredibly unique and fun experience during my time in Nicaragua. However, I would be ok with not hearing either Stayin Alive or Saturday Night Fever for a year or more.

At 4am on Sunday morning, I was woken up by a marching band and fireworks. I kid you not.

In other news, we had our first youth group meeting yesterday and we were incredibly happy to have 22 people show up. Overall it went well, they participated in all the activities we had planned and maybe even had a little fun. Today we met with our teacher again to plan our when we can all co-teach with him, so next Tuesday I´ll be in the classroom getting my feet wet!

In case you hadn´t noticed, I do actually have decent access to the internet here. We don´t have a phone to call internationally from but there is a Cyber Cafe that´s only 50 cents an hour, so send me an email with an update if you have a chance!!

Buenas Tardes!!

Hola from El Rosario!! My host family has been really nice, & they're feeding me great food! Many Nicaraguans eat lots of carbs and not much for vegetables and fruits, but I've been getting a lot of everything so far. In addition to my host mom & dad, there are 3 sisters who live here, one is married and her husband lives with us along with their 3 year old & 4 month old, who are both really cute. I chatted with one of the sisters for a bit yesterday, her name is Gabriela & she's my age. She's studying international relations at a university in Jinotepe & wants to learn English & French. My Spanish is better than I thought and I can understand quite a bit, but it's still not great so conversing can be difficult and I'm still catching onto the accent. It's even harder to understand a conversation between two Nicas because then they aren't speaking as carefully as when they talk to us & their accents get stronger.

But I'm settling in pretty well here, it's hard to be away from the support system we all built up during the last week but I've been out walking a couple times with the other trainees & their host families so I'm getting more familiar with the town. My mama's son, who doesn't live with us, told me that there are about 5-6,000 people in El Rosario, but I think that probably covers the town & surrounding areas because it doesn't seem to be that big, but I also haven't seen the whole place.

Things are a little weird with the transportation strike, like Gabriela was supposed to be at school yesterday but couldn't get there & we were supposed to have classes as well but our language facilitators couldn't get to the sites either. They say that we'll have classes tomorrow, but I'm not sure how the facilitators will get here. Wednesday we're all supposed to take the bus into Diriamba to have class with the other TEFL trainees, but again, not sure how we'll do that with the strike (they're striking over the price of fuel, which apparently Ortega promised would be lower if he was elected).

They show the strangest dubbed American movies on TV here, so far I've seen Water World, Beethoven, and Indiana Jones. Looks like a lot of American TV gets down here, though they have their own stuff too. It also finally rained yesterday, it cools off when it's raining, but when it stops it's even hotter. It's not as bad here as in Managua- I'm sweaty but not too bad :) Though I keep getting bit by random little ants! Stupid things. We have a dog, a cat, & lots of animals wandering around the yard that may belong to my family, or maybe the one next door, I'm not sure. There are chickens & a rooster, a turkey, I've heard a cow but not seen it, and a couple pigs.

I'm still in disbelief that I'm here, I know that it'll be a day by day process because I just can't imagine 27 months of roosters crowing & reggaeton music blasting at all hours of the day. For now though, I'm still giggle to myself every time I hear the turkey gobble gobble and get the most entertainment out of watching the kids goof around :)

and now, fotos:

Our hotel in Managua, not bad eh?

Here I am with my two roommates, Kat in the center and Sam on the right (Sam was my roommate at the hotel in DC & was also supposed to go to Bolivia but with the Health group), at Peace Corps Headquarters in Managua.

Looks like those are all the photos it´s going to let me upload today! I´ll try for more next time. Hasta luego!

Fotos!!

Today is the first day I really feel like I live in Nicaragua! We were finally able to leave the hotel this evening & tour parts of Managua & we leave in the morning for our training sites and host families. I'll be in El Rosario, which is in the "state" (they're called Departments here) of Carazo, not far from Masaya which is probably the closest city that can be found on the map. I don't have my little info sheet with me, but I'll be living with a family that has 3 daughters around my age (like 20 to 25), also a 4 month old baby & I think a 6 year old. So I'm hoping that they all like me :) There are 3 other trainees in El Rosario & I was told that there's also a volunteer living there.

So this is our last night in the hotel all together, the business volunteers are training around Masaya & we won't be seeing them much during training, which is sad. But now it's time to go see the real Nicaragua & get on with what I came here to do. Thanks for the emails from those of you who have written me so far!! Keep them coming :)

The connection here isn't great, so I've only successfully uploaded one picture so far. Here are some of us doing yoga at the airport in DC on Wednesday morning:

Nica!!

Hola!!

We landed yesterday to a sunny and hot (90s) Managua in the midst of a transportation strike - the whole of Nicaragua actually - but since our hotel is across the street from the airport & we have nowhere to go till Saturday, the strike isn't affecting us much yet. For being across from the airport, it's surprisingly quiet, I think i've only heard planes a handful of times so it's not a super busy place.

Training is going fine, we do have AC in the hotel so it's a slow transition, & also this lovely wireless that I can only access by sitting next to a post out on a patio, but whatever!! I have some pictures I'll try to post later when I have time. Sounds like Skype is alive & well in internet cafes here, so if you have an account & I didn't find you, find me!! and I may wait till I get my site assignment to buy a cell phone, but the volunteers who are here with us say that everyone has a phone.

Tomorrow I'll find out my training site and also the 2-3 other people who'll be there with me through July. But it's approaching dinner so I need to go, hopefully post some pictures soon - maybe later tonight.

Staging!

Staging is a fancy name for orientation in the Peace Corps world. I arrived back in DC this morning & have been meeting my fellow trainees and getting oriented ever since. There are about 40 of us, both English teaching and business education folks. So far so good :) We fly out early on Wednesday morning for Nica.

Thanks to everyone for the words of encouragement!! Please keep in touch while I'm away, I look forward to reading emails & will try to reply as much as possible. These first couple weeks I probably will be out of touch, but I will do my best.