Free at last!!

On Wednesday I finally tracked down the counterpart I´ve had problems with since the beginning and, prepared for an argument once again, told her that I didn´t think we should work together any longer. Much to my surprise and complete happiness, she agreed! She said she´s too busy to plan, but she really wanted to work with me, but she´s busy with church stuff, but you know, she really wanted to work with me, but yeah, it´s better if we don´t work together anymore…. even though she reeeeeeeaaaally wanted to work with me (that's basically how the conversation went).

Thursday I had my second site visit, our Project Specialist, Karen, came down for the day to speak with the principals, my counterparts, and the woman in charge of the Ministry of Education in the municipality. Everyone was really positive and the visit went really well and hopefully no one from Peace Corps will have to come down here again until my final site visit in a year.

I was happy to have Karen here when I told my principal that I am finally ending my working relationship with the one counterpart. This particular principal likes to think she has complete control over my work and what I do. Mostly she just really wants me to spend all my time at the instituto so when I started working out in the comunidades I could tell she wasn't happy. In fact, she told Karen that she had given me permission to work at the other school when in reality I hadn't asked her anything and told her only after the fact. Anyway, I knew that hearing that I would be working even less at the instituto wouldn't be welcome news. She tried to tell me that she had to speak with the counterpart because she had a compromiso (basically a promise) to work with me. Karen spoke up and defended my right to drop a counterpart and the issue hasn't come up since.

I spent the weekend in Granada, catching up with some volunteers I haven't seen in ages and got to spend Sunday afternoon chilling on the shores of Lake Nicaragua at a nice little vacation house of one of the volunteer's girlfriend's family:





And when we got back home, we happened to catch the tail end of the hipica (the big thing with horses and beer that I always talk about)! I love hipicas, but at one time had been told that there wasn't one here, then I was told it was down closer to the coast and wasn't any good, but what I saw was pretty nice. Lots of people all done up in their boots, nice horses, and a sound system that pumped music clear to my house for most of the night:

Do not leave the dirty clothes you could wash today while there's water until tomorrow, because there won't be any water!!

I have discovered that water distribution in my town is ridiculously unfair. I had intermittent water last week till about Friday and then not again until Monday from sometime in the afternoon till about 6am on Tuesday and it hasn't come back since. Unfortunately I was having some stomach difficulties Sunday night and Monday so when the water finally did come on I didn't have the energy wash my clothes. I say it's unfair because up where my landlord lives they've had water every single day almost all day. Of course this morning when I finally called to see if I could just bring my monumental pile of laundry up there to wash they don't have water either. Figures.

In other exciting news, Nicaragua's phone system is overloaded so today all cell phones add an 8 to the front end and all land lines add a 2. Some volunteers have mentioned that maybe this will mean it'll be easier for international calls to get through, I guess we'll see.

Yeah, I don't have a theme for this week's post.

I've received a couple inquiries about a photo from my last post where I'm holding hands with a person of the male persuasion. In my tunnel vision I didn't consider the fact that not everyone in the world knows that that's my gay friend Moises and not my latin lover. Sorry!

Moment of the week: On Sunday I went with some friends to a river outside of town, in order to get to the farm and intended river we had to cross another river- as in drive through the river, not cross a bridge. (I guess I really shouldn't complain too much about my lack of water because just outside of town there are lots of people who have to haul their laundry down to the river to wash - though it might come to that point for me soon.) A couple guys had parked their truck in the middle of the river and were sitting in their underpants enjoying the cool water. My friend Bernd snapped a picture so I'll try to get a copy to share with you all.

That's all I've got this week, here are some pictures of a cool crab we found during Semana Santa:

I had so much fun it made me sick....

I have officially survived my first Nicaraguan Semana Santa. The first half of the week was pretty normal because most people were still working up until Thursday. Wednesday I went to the beach with a local NGO where I teach English. We fished, we cooked, we laughed, and I even played some soccer. It was a thoroughly awesome day.

This is the director, Rafael, wearing a ridiculous hat and showing off the catch of the morning:


Some shots of the fishing net:




Cute kid:


and the BBQ (this NGO is partnered with an organization in Germany so we even had super tasty German sausages, mmmmm):


Thursday I met up with some friends from Managua and we headed to the center of all things Semana Santa: San Juan del Sur. We spent the day on a nearby beach watching surfers and then enjoyed some of the night life.

The group at Playa Maderas:


A beautiful sunset on the beach:


Friday through Sunday was all spent running around the local beaches not far from my house. At one point I actually saw a temperature gauge and it was 40 degrees celsius which is, bum ba da bum, 104 degrees! Holy crap was it nice to be at the beach. More highlights:

Chillin on my back porch:


Lots of people at a beach that's normally deserted:


Out with friends:


Overall it was quite the week of celebrations. So much so that virtually no one showed up to school on Monday so we gave one class to a group of 8 students and then left. I also now have a cold. The week also ended on a bit of a sad note because one of my neighbors passed away on Saturday night, supposedly he fell and hit his head but that doesn't sound like the whole story to me. This guy lived next door to the NGO I mentioned above about a block from my house, he was always a little off his rocker but definitely quite the character. My first conversation with him went something like this:

Mario: German!!!
Me: No, actually I'm American.
Mario: Welcome to my country, here's a gift to remember it by (gives me a rubber band).
Me: Thanks.
Mario: Would you give me your ring to remember you by?
Me: Um, no, this ring is very important to me. I'll give you your rubber band back if you want though.
Mario: No, keep it.

That was quite some time ago, recently he took to simply yelling "Hola, Chela" (Hello, whitey!) at me when he walked past my house. He shall be missed.

Semana Santa

We are just beginning the big holiday week of Semana Santa (Holy Week) here in Nicaragua. School's are out all week (woohoo!) and pretty much the whole rest of the world (minus the service industry of course) will go on vacation starting Thursday. Almost everyone heads to the beach and I'm excited to see my local one llena de gente (full of people). I will write more next week when I have a good story or two and lots of photos, or at least I hope I will. For now, I'm on vacation!

Step into my aula....

A couple anecdotes, positive and negative from my various classrooms (aulas):

I'm pretty happy that my students have gotten comfortable with me and call me over to help them with the various exercises we do in class. Unfortunately that also means that when I'm working with one student I sometimes have two or three yelling "Profe! Profe! Profe!" (Teacher! Teacher! Teacher!) at me despite the fact that I'm clearly occupied. Usually I find myself saying, wait! wait! wait! right back at them.

This week, that manifested while we were trying to play a game that my counterpart suggested on the spot so it wasn't super organized on our parts. So I had the class in two teams playing charades with different emotions- each team had five minutes for people to come to the front, draw an emotion, and act it out, one team would go and then the second. I guess that part wasn't clear because these two girls on the team that was supposed to go second kept jumping up and yelling that they wanted to participate. I tried to explain a couple times, in Spanish, to wait until it was their team's turn but they just kept doing it! Finally, I got exasperated and yelled dramatically, in English, "For the love of god, wait!!" and they laughed and actually sat tight till it was their turn. Strange how that works out sometimes.

The other week we were teaching prepositions of place (in, under, next to, etc) using various objects in the classroom and had gotten to the point of asking, for example, "Where is the notebook?" and answering with "The notebook is on the desk." So I was trying to help this girl with the practice exercises in class which were to write maybe five questions and answers about the classroom. I offered a lot of help on the first one so I wanted her to pull her weight on the second. We got the question written but the answer was hard for her to understand and I was getting frustrated myself because I was running out of ideas of how to explain it. Finally, I asked her the question in Spanish and told her to answer me in Spanish and we'd translate to English. Very much to my dismay she just looked at me blankly, and despite all my encouragement and leading questions she couldn't even tell me "The window is next to the door" in Spanish. Then I had a very unteachery moment as I stood up and told her I wasn't giving her the answer and that she would fail if she didn't put in a little effort of her own. That didn't seem to phase her at all.

I have to say, though, that I had one of my prouder moments last week when I overheard one of my first year students telling my counterpart that when I'm not in class it's boring. That was pretty gratifying to hear after I had spent the better part of a one and a half hour class block (that's two 45-minute classes) bouncing around the front of the classroom doing goofy actions for them to repeat after me in order to learn things like open your notebook, silence please, and raise your hand. It can get really tiring teaching like that sometimes, but when the kids respond to it it's totally worth it and feeds the energy right back to me.

and some more pictures from the beach a couple weekends back:

A little more each day....

It's getting hot. Like so hot that I can't even find refuge in the afternoons by chilling in my hammock in the shade. And so begins the really hot time, awesome.

I received some truly sad news last week: it was in the national paper that a student at my school had been sexually molested by her uncle for at least the past year. My counterpart was the one who told me and he kept saying it was one of our second year students, but when he told me her name my heart fell into my stomach and I got a shiver in the afternoon heat because it was one of my favorite and best students who I've taught since I came here 8 months ago and now it sounds like she won't be coming back to school.

My most poignant memory of this girl, her name is Jasmina, is from one of the worst weeks I had in the beginning of my service, I was doubting what I was doing, not motivated, and feeling like the kids weren't even trying to learn so what was the point. Jasmina was always one of the smarter students in class and so one day I called on her to read aloud the paragraph we had been working with. What I didn't know at the time is that she also had some health problems and so when she stood up to read and got nervous, she looked like she was going to faint. We got her sat down and I told her not to worry about reading the paragraph, but once she was recovered she stood right back up and read the whole thing. I was so proud I was literally speechless. That little event helped me get out of my funk and remind me that even though some of the kids could care less about learning English, there are those who do care and will work hard for it. I just hope that even if she doesn't return to my instituto that Jasmina finds another school to attend and that maybe this horrible event in her life won't keep her from finishing her education.

As to not end on a sad note, here's a picture from Playa Coco which is where I spent part of last weekend in a big house with at least a dozen people from six countries. It was a good weekend:

Nica Tidbits

Last week my counterpart, Axel, came to class with some photos from the newspaper for the kids to describe in English. Several of my students, and Axel, agreed that I look like this exactly photo of apparently Nicollete Sheriden (needless to say I laughed pretty hard):



I have come to terms with the fact that in Nicaragua, I am every blond woman ever because in their eyes we all look alike. I've gotten pretty used to being mistaken for these Canadian twins who live here as Jehovah's Witnesses because they're blond - even though to me we look nothing alike because their hair is much lighter than mine and they don't wear glasses. But I hear they're leaving at the end of the month so maybe when that happens people will figure out that I'm not a Canadian Jehovah's Witness.

Just to change the topic a smidge, here's a bit about names in Nicaragua. Everyone here has the equivalent of a first name and a middle name followed by their father's first last name and then their mother's first last name- I get really confused sometimes when I ask kids their name and they rattle off four names at high speed. They also get confused because I only have one last name and no one can say it (of course I tell them that lots of people in the U.S. can't say it right either so don't worry). Luckily for me both my first and middle names are vaguely common here, just pronounced a little differently so even I find myself introducing myself as "Yenneefur."

Here are some of the more interesting first names (and spellings) I have come across in Nicaragua:

Milady
Elvis
Harlington
Jackson
Ingrid
Bertha
Elvira
Axel
Zuinglio
Ugeykar (even my Nicaraguan co-teacher thought that one was a little odd)
Hazel spelled as Heyzel and Hassel
Michael spelled as Maycol

But my personal favorite I came across very recently, and that is "John Kenedis" (slightly recognizable as John Kennedy) as a first and middle name. Maybe some day there'll be a little Barrack Obama Baltodano Gutierrez running around.

International Women's Day

As you may or may not be aware, Sunday was International Women's Day. I have no idea if this is celebrated in the U.S. but here in Nicaragua it was recognized in the schools and gave me yet another opportunity to see machismo rear its ugly head.

Machismo refers to the macho attitude of many men in Latin America which obviously can lead to gender inequality in these countries. Machismo can be anything from the large amount of catcalls I get whenever I walk down the street to women doing all the cooking, cleaning, and housework to just the general way that a lot of men walk around like they own the place and many women are simply trying to find and keep a man who may or may not actually do anything at all. Initially I was impressed to see how many women worked outside the home and/or were attending university, but more and more I realize that that's not necessarily the majority and for many women here their lives revolve around traditional female roles, whether or not that's what they want to be doing.

Friday we had a little lunch at school to welcome the new principal and also to celebrate International Women's Day a little early in the small town where I started teaching this year. In general I consider the counterpart at this school (his name's Axel- I need to do a post on the names I encounter here) to be somewhat more intelligent than the average Nicaraguan male. However, on this particular day we got into a discussion about what women can and can't do. When asked what men can do that women can't, Axel's two examples were driving a car and managing a company.

I told him that in the States everyone drives and tried to explain that it's not that women can't manage companies, it's that here in Nicaragua they haven't been given the opportunities men have to attend university and learn the skills they need and that in other countries plenty of women manage companies. He didn't say much to that but I'm hoping that maybe he thought a little bit about what I said, especially because he's a teacher and I would hope he encourages the female students as much as the males. When Axel asked me when International Men's Day is I told him "everyday is Men's Day in Nicaragua."

Si Dios Quiere Parte II

As much as I hate hearing people use the phrase "si dios quiere" (if god wants it) because it tends to imply a sort of hands-off, the lord will provide so I'm not gonna do anything kind of attitude, sometimes I think it can be right on. I have always felt that I had to work sooooo hard for stuff that for some people just seemed to fall into place. Now I can count two times that things have just fallen into place for me, or rather, stopped me on the street and changed the course of my life here.

The first time happened waaaaaay back in October when I had just started me search for housing. I had very few prospects despite having asked everyone I knew if they knew of a house for rent. Then one day a German volunteer I knew was stopped on the street by a woman asking if she was looking for a place to rent. Luckily my friend wasn't but knew I was so she brought me the woman's number. I have a tendency to put things off but for some reason I called up this lady right away that night and went to see the house the next day and it was perfect. That is how I found my house that even Peace Corps said was perfect. That is also how I became friends with my landlord and her cousin who I visit at least every other day for a chat or a meal. I was chatting with Linda, the cousin, one day about how lucky I was to find the house and she told me that god wanted it. I said yeah, I think you're right.

My second story happened only a couple weeks ago. I had been wanting to send an email to Peace Corps staff about a problem I'd had in my site but first the wireless on my computer went out and then the internet in the school wasn't working. I was starting to think I wasn't meant to ever send this email but I made one last attempt and walked up to the neighborhood cyber. On my way a young woman came running up to me and asked if I was the one who gives English classes at the high school (this is how a lot of people know me, not by name or organization but just that I give English classes at the instituto). She explained to me that she'd be going to Canada in June to work and wanted to learn English. I had recently decided that I needed more girlfriends so I said I'd do what I could.

I knew some other folks who had been asking for classes since January so I invited the people I knew and told this girl, Anielka, to bring a couple friends if she wanted. On Sunday night I scheduled an introductory meeting to talk to everyone about the class- Anielka showed up with seven friends and no one else I had invited came. We had our first official class last night and it went really well, it's a good group of people and I feel so lucky that it all just kinda fell into my lap.

And the counterpart I've continued to have problems with actually showed up at my house to plan for class! Granted she showed up about 4 hours late and in the middle of my class last night, but I still call that progress.

Back to Work

Tuesday night I realized that I had forgotten to tell my counterpart that I wouldn't be in class on Thursday because of Peace Corps meetings (we finally have a new director for our sector! glory be!). So Wednesday I went up to the school to tell him and instead I learned that there wouldn't be any classes on Thursday at all because we were going to have a workshop in the morning. That's what we call Nica Style.

My work situation this year is a little bit different from last year. I've started working with another teacher at a school out in the boonies and it looks like I'm gonna go out there twice a week to work with a young teacher who's already using some really great activities in his classes. The first class I taught with him we played Tic Tac Toe where the students had to turn a singular noun into a plural noun to win the square (we played boys vs. girls, always a motivator). When I went out this week I was looking at his lesson plans from the past couple weeks and saw that he used Tic Tac Toe in a couple of his classes! With the other teachers I work with I sometimes wonder if they'll ever use the stuff I show them ever again and here's this guy using it again right away. So awesome to see that.

My other errand at the school on Wednesday was to tell the counterpart I've had problems with in the past that I wouldn't be working with her in the classroom anymore. This has taken me some serious time and thought to finally decide to cut her loose because I hate giving up on anything and anyone. It became utterly apparent very quickly that, despite numerous discussions on the topic, she still does not understand why I'm here or what we're supposed to be doing together. Even though we haven't successfully planned a class yet this year due to her not showing up, she seriously told me that if we stopped working together it's because I don't want to work with her and not because she doesn't want to work with me. Somehow this rubbed me the wrong way to the point that I agreed to give it one last shot. I am clearly a glutton for punishment, but this time we're doing this right. I've written up a little contract for us and the principal to sign and I'm going to have Peace Corps call and explain for the umpteenth time why I'm here and why it's important that we plan together. I have no idea how this will go.

Here are some photos from my recent site-seeing trip in Managua with my friend Maria. Unfortunately, Managua doesn't have many sites to see.

Maria in the middle of the Plaza de la Revolucion. Note the large pink Ortega billboard in the background. They had one of these in each corner of the plaza and they all say the same thing:


Me standing near the ruins of the National Cathedral, it was damaged in the earthquake in 1972 and tourists aren't allowed inside due to falling concrete:


We approached the lake that borders Managua that I can never remember the name of, and that's probably because no one goes there because it stinks!! Seriously.

Viejita

I turned 25 this weekend and for the first time in my life I got to have a summer birthday. Growing up in Minnesota I was a little jealous of the kids who could have outdoor birthday parties in the summer while I was stuck inside in the middle of February. To make up for lost time, I invited some friends over and we hit the beach, and then we had a BBQ. It was definitely a birthday to remember.

Cumplí 25 el fin de semana pasada y para la primera vez tenía un cumpleaños del verano. Cuando yo era niña en Minnesota estaba celosa de los chavalos con fiestas de cumpleaños afuera de la casa en el verano y yo siempre estaba celebrando adentro por el frio en febrero. Pero este año invité a mis amigas a mi casa, fuimos al mar, y tuvimos una barbecua. Fue magnifico.

Here are my awesome volunteer friends who came over to celebrate with me:
Las voluntarias quien vinieron a celebrar conmigo:


and our whole beach crew, Nicas and volunteers alike:
El grupo en el mar, Nicas y voluntarios:


We feasted on ice cream on that night:
Comimos muchisimo Eskimo:


My friends showed up at my house around 3:00 on the afternoon of my birthday carrying a lit barbecue. Only in Nicaragua.
Mis amigos llegaron a mi casa llevando una estufa con fuego. Solo en Nicaragua.


On my back patio with my friend Maria:
En el patio alfondo con Maria:

The Vice Minister Comes to Visit

There are a lot of changes happening in education in Nicaragua right now, they are instituting a new curriculum this year from pre-school through the third year of high school (which is now 9th grade but we all still say third year like last year). Next year the plan is to put into place the changes for the last two years of high school which is supposed to focus more on technical education (mechanics, carpentry, hands-on stuff). I'm curious to see how the changes will go through, right now we're doing review and supposedly on the 20th the new materials will be ready (but I won't be surprised if they're not, we've already been told that if not in February, then in March, and if not in March then August, and if not August then next year. I really hope it doesn't get pushed back to next year).

Hay muchos cambios en educacion en Nicaragua ahorrita. Este año tenemos un curiculum nuevo de pre-escolar hasta tercer año (un cambio mas es que tercer año es noveno grado pero todo el mundo todavia dice tercer año). El proximo año cuarto y quinto año va a cambiar a programas tecnicas. Supuestamente vamos a tener las materiales nuevas el 20 y si no el 20 entonces en marzo, y si no en marzo entonces en agosto y si no en agosto entonces el proximo año. Espero que no necesitamos esperar hasta el proximo año.

Anyway, the Vice Minister came to visit because in addition to the instituto or public high school where I spend most of my time, we also have a tecnico or a technical high school program that's run in a different location. It's pretty new, only a couple years old, and there are only a handful of similar programs throughout the country. The V.M. came to see the tecnico so I headed out there to be among the small welcoming party.

La Viceministra de educacion nos visitó esta semana para ver el tecnico, un programa nuevo que tenemos y no hay muchos programas parecidos en Nicaragua. Entonces fuí a conocerla.

Here are some students working on motors and cars:

Alumnos arreglando un motor y un carro:








One of three girls in the program (in total there are 48 students in three levels):

Una de las tres muchachas en el programa (hay 48 estudiantes en total en 3 niveles):



From right to left: the Vice Minister, the delegate for the Ministry of Education (MINED) for the municipality, the director of both the tecnico and the instituto, and three employees from Cemex (Cemex is the cement plant just outside of town, they donated a giant motor to be worked on and generally provide a lot of support to community projects here):

De la derecha a la izquierda: la Viceministra, la delegada de MINED, la directora del ambos el tecnico y el instituto donde trabajo yo, y 3 chicas de Cemex (Cemex es la cementera, ellos donaron el motor y da mucho apoyo al proyectos comunidades):




A welding demonstration:

No sé como se dice esta cosa en español!



I think the program they have going is great, especially in an area like this where not everyone can or wants to attend university and people often depend on their skills to make a little money here and there. My high school in Minnesota had a huge industrial tech department and even though I never really set foot there I knew it was extremely helpful to a lot of the kids who might not continue their education or would attend a technical college for two years.

El programa me parece muy bien porque hay mucha gente aqui quien no quiere ir al universidad y depende en sus propios habilidades para ganar dinero. My colegio en Minnesota tenia un programa similar.

Although I didn't have a chance to speak much with the Vice Minister herself, before leaving she did thank me for my support which was nice of her. We'll see how this new curriculum works out, I know my one counterpart is hoping that I'll be able to help him with new lesson plans so I have my fingers crossed that the materials we're waiting for will come on-time so we can get started.

No hablé mucho con la Viceministra pero ella me agredezcó para mi apoyo en las escuelas. Vamos a ver como sigue este curriculum nuevo, uno de mis contrapartes esta esperando que puedo ayudarle con planes nuevos y yo tengo ganas de empezar el trabajo (si tenemos las materiales!).

Anniversario!

Today is my 9 month anniversary in Nicaragua, which means I'm roughly one-third of the way through my 27 months of service. Because the weather never really changes that much I have a hard time marking the passage of time, but even so, I feel both like I just left yesterday and also like my life in the States seems so far back. It gets confusing.

Ya llevo 9 meses acá en Nicaragua, y este es un-tercero de mi servicio de 27 meses. Pero no hay temporados como en Minnesota, siempre hace sol aqui entonces me siento lo mismo ahorrita como en julio. Y a veces me parece que salí de los estados ayer y otros veces que hace mucho tiempo que estaba allá.

School got off to a pretty good start this week. Tuesday was the first official day of class to which I arrived late because the pedal on my bike fell off. I stopped to ask some nice gentlemen for help but they couldn't do much because the bolt on the pedal was bad so I walked the rest of the way to school, got introduced to the students along with the other teachers, and then ran off to fix my bike. I came back in the afternoon, got introduced again (the school runs on a morning shift and an afternoon shift, I don't remember if I've explained that before), and then sat around planning the week with my counterpart teacher because the class schedule wasn't finished yet and he didn't have a homeroom class to do orientation with.

Clases empezó de nuevo esta semana. Llegué tarde a la primera día porque el pedal de mi bici se cayó. Pedí ayuda de unos varones pero el pedal fue malo entonces caminé al instituto, la directora me presentó a los estudiantes con los otros profesores, y después fuí a arreglar la bici. En la tarde hicimos lo mismo pero ellos no habían terminado el horario entonces planifiqué con mi contraparte.

I'm feeling good about the new school year, I'm a lot more confident than I was when I arrived in August and that goes for both in and out of the classroom and with both my students and fellow teachers. I'm working on getting to know the other teachers better and I feel like they're accepting me more as one of them instead of a temporary volunteer which is awesome. A lot of the same challenges remain with my counterparts and the educational system in general but hopefully I can make some headway at least with my counterparts.

Me siento bien con este año escolar nuevo, estoy más confidente que antes ambo en y afuera de la aula y con mis alumnos y los profesores. Me parece que los otros maestros piensan en mi mas como colega en vez de una voluntaria quien va a salir muy pronto. Todavia tengo las mismas retas con mis contrapartes y la sistema de educacion pero espero que puedo hacer algo por lo menos con mis contrapartes este año.

Lastly, I would just like the mention that right now my house is a neat-freak's nightmare! I have never cleaned so much in my life and still had such a dirty house. It's been really windy and since it's also bone dry the wind kicks up a lot of dust. Add into that the fact that we have a cement plant nearby that may or may not filter the dust from the processing and you get dust in and on everything. My attempts to clean have been further frustrated by the water going out the past couple days when I wanted to clean. But really, I'll take this over high temperatures below zero like Minnesota can be this time of year.

Al final, quiero mencionar que mi casa es una disastre! Nunca en mi vida he limpiado tanto y aun tengo una casa bien sucia. Hay mucho viento y sin lluvia el polvo esta increible. Juntos con el polvo de la cementera hay polvo en todos lados. Lo mas, cuando quiero limpiar muchas veces no hay agua. Pero prefiero esta situacion al frio que hace ahorrita en Minnesota.

El Güegüense

Here's some more about my weekend in Diriamba for the fiestas patronales. Diriamba is famous for El Güegüense, which is a dance native to Nicaragua that basically pokes fun at the Spanish. There are several characters and pretty much everyone wears masks and colorful outfits (I was hoping to have the story down a little better before posting this but I haven`t had time). I don't know the story very well but here are some photos:







The whole idea behind the fiestas patronales is to celebrate the town's patron saint and in Diriamba that's San Sebastian:



When they brought the saint out of the church it was like paparazzi madness, you can kind of see in this photo all the people crowding around to get the best shot:



Next the saint is taken from Diriamba in a massive, several kilometer-long procession including dancers, a marching band, and hundreds of people following behind to meet up with the saints from nearby towns Dolores and Jinotepe. Maria and I processed up to the big clock tower and then decided that we should get pizza instead. From texts I received from Maria I guess the three saints make a couple rounds through the streets since they passed by her house later on that week.

I think the fiestas patronales in my town aren't until July and they certainly won't be the spectacle that they are in Diriamba (we don't even get to have an hipica), but I'm still excited to see it.

School starts on Tuesday, should be interesting!

“Congratulations on your new President”

I missed the inauguration because I was giving exams to students who failed English class and this is their last chance to pass, but a lot of people were talking about it. I heard everything from how handsome Obama is to just flat out congratulations. Overall there's a lot of hope for our new president, not just on immigration issues which are obviously important to Nicaraguans but across the board.

Perdí la toma de posesion de Obama porque estaba dando reparaciones a los estudiantes quien dejaban la clase de ingles, pero mucha gente estaba hablando de esa. Escuche tantas cosas, como tan guapo esta Obama y felicidades. Hay mucha esperanza por el presidente nuevo y no solo por temas de imigracion.

I've been good and busy this week so I'm just going to post some photos from my trip to Diriamba and surrounding country this past weekend. It was their fiestas patronales in which they celebrate the town's patron saint San Sebastian. I wanna do some research to make sure I get some of the stories right so here are some shots from the finca (farm) of a friend the volunteer there and also the hipica in which men ride horses around and people drink beer and watch them. Good times.

Solo voy a poner algunas fotos de my viaje a Diriamba para las fiestas patronales. Voy a investigar algo de la historia entonces aqui son fotos de una finca y la hipica.

Maria (the volunteer in Diriamba) and I at the finca, Volcan Mombacho in the background.



Wildlife on the finca.



Streets of Diriamba before the hipica. You can just make out the clocktower in the distance which was a gift from Germany at some point in the past and has become the defining symbol of Diriamba.



Guys on horses.



One last thing. When I arrived home from Diriamba I was shocked to step off the bus and be staring directly into my living room (one way I've integrated here: some of the bus drivers know where I live and since it's right on the highway they drop me in front of my door). I knew the landlord was going to be doing some work on the roof but the project ended up being bigger than either of us expected and they replaced almost half the roof. Here's what it looked like from inside:

Una cosa más. Cuando llegué a mi casa estuve bien sorprendida a bajar del bus y ver directamente en mi sala (algunos de los choferes saben mi casa en la carretera entonces ellos me deja enfrente de mi casa). Yo sabía que la dueña quería arreglar el techo pero fue un proyecto muy grande.

Creepy Crawlies and other Creatures living (and dying) in my House

Last week I was quietly sitting in my kitchen when I heard a rustling sound. I looked up to the ventilation space between the top of the wall and my roof and saw a dark thing moving around. First my mind went to the small furry animal my landlord told me about that's common in the area but is completely harmless. Then I saw a tail, a loooooong tail and automatically thought: RAT! Luckily the thing moved its head into the light and this is what I saw:

La semana pasada estaba sentando en la cocina cuando eschuché un ruido y encima de la pared miré algo oscurro. Primero pensaba en algo que la dueña me ha dicho sobre un animal comun que no es una molestia ni nada. Proximo, ví una cola larga y pensé: raton! Pero el animal se movió y ví esta:



I was finally able to take a picture of my new iguana friend yesterday, he's been quite camera shy (or probably movement shy because whenever I went to get my camera he would quickly slip away). I think this is ridiculously cool. Iguanas aren't exactly dangerous animals and I've only ever seen him in the ventilation spaces in my house so I don't think he even comes down to ground level. It also explains some of the sounds I've heard in my house. Since I have a zinc roof, anything up there makes a lot of noise. I recognized the sounds of birds hopping around on the roof long ago but I was never able to identify the other critter that I could hear moving about. Now I can. I guess I should name the little feller, so any suggestions are welcome!

Pienso que esta iguana es super bien. Iguanas no son peligrosas y creo que queda en la pared entonces el es mi nuevo amigo. Tambien la explica ruidas raras en el techo que no fuera los aves. Si tiene ideas para un nombre, avisame!

I had a much less welcomed guest several weeks back. I woke up and stumbled into my bathroom one morning and was startled to hear plastic rustling, through the shadows (because I hadn't turned on my lights yet) I saw a spindly leg heading from a black plastic bag sitting on the ground for the wall. I slowly moved to turn on the lights and was horrified to find a large spider crawling up the wall:

Tenía otro visitante hace algunas semanas. Me despertaba y fuí al baño y un ruido me sorprendí. En el oscurro (todavia las luces estaban apagado) ví algo moviendo. Encendí las luces para encontrar esta araña en la pared:



The last time I saw a large spider (which was an enormous tarantula) I didn't have my camera so I was determined to document this one. I'm generally pretty good with bugs, but I don't like squishing large things that move fast so I got my trustiest weapon: the broom. I smacked it once and it fell into a pile of stuff, so I slowly pulled the bags away and smacked it again and again as it tried to hide behind the toilet and then threw a couple shoes at it just for good measure. By that time it seemed to be pretty well vanquished so I swept it outside and thought I was done with it.

While the spider itself was dead, its memory lived on. For a good week or so, every movement caught my eye. Every rustling sound made me jump. I was on edge waiting for another scary thing to enter my life. At this point, I'm pretty well used to cockroaches and random semi-large bugs that generally get swept out of the house or smushed or both, but that spider sure brought back every fear of scorpions and tarantulas I ever had in this country (knock on wood, I still haven't had to deal with a scorpion).

There's a little slice of life from Nicaragua. In addition to finding my cold-blooded friend last week, I also started my first community class with the staff at a local NGO and next week the teachers head back to school for workshops and such. My summer vacation is almost over.

Saqué la escoba y la pegué algunas veces y tiré zapatos hasta que estaba segura que estaba muerta. Desafortunadamente, por una semana o mas, cada movimiento o ruido me asustó. Ah, la vida en Nicaragua. Afuera de mis amigos con muchas piernas, expecé una clase con los de CEDRU, un ONG local, y proxima semana los maestros va a entrar en el instituto para tallers. Es el fin de mis vacaciones.

Feliz Año Nuevo!!

So it's 2009. Thinking back to January 2008, I think it's been almost exactly a year since a kitchen cabinet detached itself from the wall in my house in DC and kicked off a month of house repairs, roommate drama, and my last ditch attempts to get medically cleared by the Peace Corps. I really wasn't sure what I would be doing in a year at that point, I only knew that I wanted to move out of DC to somewhere abroad. I'm pretty happy to be able to say that in January 2009 I'm doing exactly what I hoped I would be, how often can you say that?

En enero 2008 tenía muchos problemas con mi casa en DC y con los compañeros. No sabía lo que estaría haciendo en un año más pero sabía que quería mudar de DC a un lugar fuera del país. Estoy bien feliz para decir que en enero 2009 hago exactamente eso!

New Years was pretty sweet. I was hanging out with my friend Maria in her store like I do pretty much every day and I asked her if there were any traditions for New Years Eve (I had already learned that wearing white is encouraged and most families will eat a pollo relleno- that is a chicken basically stuffed with vegetable mush) and she told me about how in the north families build a doll and fill it full of things about the last year to burn at midnight. So at about 8pm on New Years Eve we decided we had to build a doll to burn! Maria got her hands on some old clothes and we stuffed them full of dried leaves and then stuck an old doll in the top and this is what we ended up with:

El fin del año fue bien alegre. Estaba hablando con mi amiga Maria en su pulpería como siempre y le pregunté si hay costumbres nicaragüenses por el fin del año (ya aprendí que debo llevar blanca y que muchas familias comen pollo relleno) y ella me dijo sobre las regiones del norte donde las familias construyen una muñeca para quemar a medianoche. Entonces a las 8:00 decidimos que necesitamos construir una muñeca! Maria encontró algunas ropas viejas y las llenamos con hojas secas y pusimos una muñeca vieja encima. Mira:



After hastily constructing the doll, I went to my friend Moises' house as promised and hung out with his family for a little while. It was pretty much a typical family gathering: aunts and uncles, cousins, food, the usual. Except that instead of watching a football game or chatting for hours like my family likes to do, they cranked up the music and got to dancing.

Despues fuí a la casa de mi amigo Moises y pasé tiempo con su familia. Era una cena tipica: tías y tíos, primos, comida, lo normal. Pero en vez de mirar un juego de fútbol americano o hablar por horas como mi familia, ellos pusieron música y bailaron.



Then there was more dancing as we headed out to enjoy the nightlife for a little bit.

Próximo fuimos a bailar un rato.



Finally, we headed back to Maria's house to spend midnight in the street with her family and neighbors. For pretty much any occasion it's customary to set off fire crackers and just generally make a lot of noise so I figured New Years would be the epitome of noise and it pretty much was. Fireworks were going off all over, Maria's brother set off some stuff that scared the crap out of me and we tied the doll up and burnt it to the ground (I have a video that I might try to post when I have a fast connection to use):

Finalmente, pasamos medianoche en la calle con la familia de Maria y los vecinos. Había muchas bombas, el hermano de Maria me asustó con algo bien fuerte, y quemamos la muñeca:





And probably my favorite part was that everyone just walked around hugging each other and wishing a “Feliz año nuevo.” I would definitely put 2008 in my top 5 New Years Eve celebrations.

Me gustó mucho que todos en las calles les abrazaron y dicieron “Feliz año nuevo.” Fue uno de mis mejores fines del año.

I spent New Years Day with my other foster Nicaraguan family: my landlord and her cousin. These ladies have taken me in as the child they never had and invited me to go to the beach at La Boquita to spend the day. I went to this beach once during training and it was pretty dead, much like the beach near my site is, but on holidays things are different. It was totally full:

Pasé el primero con mi otra familia nicaragüense: la dueña de mi casa y su prima. Estas mujeres me tratan como su hija y me invitaron a la playa La Boquita. Fuí a esta playa una vez durante entrenemiento y no era mucha gente pero en días ferías todo esta diferente. Estaba bien llena:



and here was our small party, I don't think they were too excited that I wanted to take a picture of them :) From right to left that's Claudia (my landlord, she spends most of her year working in Costa Rica and will be heading back again this month), Linda (Claudia's cousin, she'll be my stand-in landlord while Claudia's gone), Danilo (Linda's brother), and Chico (they guy who drove us there).

Aqui esta nuestro grupo, pienso que ellos no estaban muy emocianados para mis fotos. De la derecha es Claudia (la dueña, ella trabaja en Costa Rica y va a volver este mes), Linda (La prima de Claudia, ella estará la dueña cuando Claudia se va), Danilo (El hermano de Linda), y Chico (el chofer).



Overall, not too shabby! And I have to say I'm pretty psyched for 2009.

En total, todo fue bien! Y estoy emocionada para 2009.