Adventures in Panama Continue

Went to see the doc on Friday and things are moving along well. Unfortunately my next appointment isn't until the 19th which means I have to miss our in-service training which starts on the 18th :( I was really looking forward to seeing all my friends but I'm hoping that with the holidays coming up I'll get to see people. Hopefully I'll be heading back to Nicaragua shortly after that appointment.

My medevac buddy, Andrea, is going home tomorrow so I'll be left to my own devices for a while. But we've had some good adventures, here's what we've been up to:

Made two trips into Casco Viejo which is where Panama City was started for the second time (after pirates destroyed the original settlement). It has some cool old churches and various forms of architecture. I could wander around there all day!












And we went to an island! Isla Taboga:











Lastly, here's a diablo rojo (red devil) as the Panamanians like to call the buses that run in Panama City. They're all colorful and I think they're pretty cool:

Freedom!

That title has more than one meaning. #1 I'm free from doctors for a couple days (and doing well, btw, thanks for the concern!) and #2 I like our new President/my boss.

I just got back from a fun-filled day of touring around Panama City and my tummy hurts a little from my dinner of a waffle with tons of Nutella, creme, and ice cream. It was amazing and totally worth the minor indigestion. My mind is continually being blown here, yesterday I went to a supermarket and probably stared at the cheese section for a good 10 minutes. There are American-style supermarkets in Managua, but cheddar cheese is really expensive and still doesn't taste quite right. This stuff was right on the money and is half gone already. Some more stuff I bought that I can't get in Nicaragua or is really expensive so I never buy it:



Grapes!!!!



There's a business volunteer here in Panama as well, so we hit up the Panama Canal today:







Then we went to a big mall. Not a big fan of malls in general, major overstimulation and the malls in Managua aren't that big so this one was a little woah for my brain. However, we kept ourselves entertained and sane (you be the judge) by taking pictures with the giant animal statues that marked the different sections:









I'm amazed at how similar Panama City is to any American City, it's so different from Managua which doesn't have tall buildings or a sensical transportation system, let alone a Dunkin Donuts. My next doctor's appointment isn't till Friday so I can't wait to go see more of the city.

Last night I happened to turn on CNN en Espanol right as Obama was named President-elect. As you may have guessed, I'm happy with the results. Part of me really wishes I was in the U.S. right now to join in the celebrations, but part of me is also really glad to be representing the United States in the Peace Corps at this moment. I don't expect Obama to be the perfect President, I'm sure he'll make mistakes especially considering the domestic and international situations he's inheriting. But I feel like America has shown both itself and the world that we're ready for something different. More than one person in Nicaragua told me prior to the elections that America wasn't ready for a black president and I can't wait to get back to my site to find out what they think of the fact that we apparently are. And it can't hurt that he might help us get some more funding for Peace Corps, which it desperately needs right now. *The opinions expressed are mine and mine alone, again*

I Corazon Panama

I arrived in Panama City safe and sound this morning. Unfortunately I spent way too long waiting to check in for my flight because I was stuck behind about a dozen Puerto Rican hunters with lots of armas del fuego (that's firearms) to check. But the flight was quick, only about an hour and a half on a small plane. I happened to get a window seat and snapped this picture of ships lining up to go through the canal:



I thought I was so clever until I realized that everyone else was looking out the windows on the other side of the plane at the striking skyline of Panama City. It's not quite a shot from the plane, but here's the amazing high rise-ness that now surrounds me:



Driving into the city I felt like I was in the US, a divided highway with signs with locations and distances and even billboards! And now I have all kinds of food and shops and mostly food at my fingertips! I'm quite excited, if you can't tell. But I'm also here for a non-food-related reason and saw the doctor right away this afternoon. My trip to the Canal and other interesting places around the city will have to wait till I get through some more doctory stuff the next couple days. But I'm definitely in good hands, there's a staff person here whose sole job it is to take care of volunteers here on medevac, so he picked me up and took me to my appointment and told me to think of him as my bodyguard. Later he said he'll take me on a little tour of the city/neighborhood so I'll have more pictures soon.

Panama!

In new and exciting news, I will be taking an unplanned trip to the beautiful country of Panama sometime next week for an undetermined amount of time to hopefully clear up some unresolved medical problems that I`ve been having since I got to my site. It isn`t anything dire or super serious (I don`t think) but so far all the tests and doctor`s visits here have apparently not been enough so Washington has decided that I should go see a Super Specialist that they don`t have here (Panama is where they send people when they`ve exhausted or can`t use the Nicaraguan health care system but it isn`t so serious that they need to go back to the States. Why Panama? Damned if I know.)

I should be online, but I know so few details right now that I refuse to promise anything to anyone. Quien sabe!!

Cake for Obama just doesn't roll off the tongue....

This is the cake we bought when I was in India during the last presidential elections: Cake for Kerry! We were convinced that buying a pastry and having a sleep over would win the democrats the White House again. With the time difference, the election returns came in in the morning so we talked our instructors into letting us out of class to watch the results. Subsequently, we all wandered into class late, sad, dejected, and saying we wouldn't go home to four more years of George W. Bush.

So here it is, four years later and I've managed to be out of the country again, largely missing the craziness and annoyances of campaign commercials, up to the minute poll results of who's ahead and who's behind, and words like Swing State. But whether it was India in 2004 or Nicaragua in 2008, I'm impressed and amazed at how the entire world watches the politics of America in a way that so few Americans will ever pay attention to the elections in even one other country.

In India, we were out in a rural area on a field trip literally driving around on dirt roads, at one stop a man approached the vehicles yelling “Bush or Kerry?! Bush or Kerry!?” Undoubtedly this man spoke no English and probably had a little jerry-rigged TV set in his earthen house, but he knew and cared about the presidential elections taking place on the other side of the world.

Now Nicaragua's not nearly as far away as India and the people here are much more intimately connected with the States, the majority of the people I talk to have family or at least friends who live or lived in the U.S. And their ability to get a visa to visit those family and friends, or to move themselves one day may depend on who calls 1600 Pennsylvania Ave home next year. I've met a lot of Obama supporters here and a few for McCain, but regardless of who they support it seems that most people think McCain will win. I sent my absentee ballot at the beginning of October and I think most of you can guess which name got my little black dot.

Here I am with my absentee ballot, ever so proud:




For lack of a television and intermittent internet access, it's pretty easy for me to forget about the elections. But I have my preparations made, my friend Maria has cable (you have to pronounce it in Spanish when you read that though, so it's more like cah-blay) and she said I can come over and watch returns on CNN en Espanol on the 4th.

And just as a friendly reminder, the opinions expressed in this blog are mine (MINE! MINE! MINE! - 20 points if you get the ultra-obscure Scrubs reference) and have absolutely nothing to do with the U.S. Peace Corps or anyone else for that matter. So there.

Teaching Update

When I'm not attending foam parties, lounging at the beach, or running around the countryside, I do still teach on occasion. The school year is winding down here. Only two weeks remain in October for new topics, then we review the first couple weeks in November followed by tests for the last part of the month. Then, vacation! So really I only have about a month of classes left.

Classes are still getting canceled on a regular basis for rain or random other events, and it seems like the class sizes are dwindling as well. My teachers tell me that at the beginning of the year you often can't fit all the students in the classroom but by this time a large number have stopped coming or only show up every so often so at least the size is easier to manage.

I've been having one of those rollercoaster weeks where one moment I want to crawl into a hole and hide and the next something fantastic happens to lift my spirits. On Tuesday, that something was a conversation activity that actually went well! I've done this activity with my first year classes, and the first time we did it it totally bombed because my counterpart didn't fully understand what I wanted to do and so skipped the whole preparation part, throwing the kids into speaking before they really knew what to say. That resulted in about half the class just not participating. However! This week we did it with the second year classes, had the kids write their answers to some questions and then got them up in two circles to ask and answer the questions with partners. They honestly loved it, I was amazed.

I feel like I've hit a plateau with both of my counterparts in some ways. Unfortunately I'm still having a rough time getting my one counterpart to work with me and may need to stop working with her altogether next year. The big idea behind my job is to co-plan lessons with my counterparts and so far I have successfully co-planned with her once, and I've been here for about 12 weeks.

My other counterpart has been pretty good, we get together every week to co-plan and he's open to doing my crazy activities. But we were talking one day and I asked him if he uses the activities I suggest in the classes I don't teach with him, and he said no. He's been an English teacher for at least a decade and has all of his lessons planned out already, so I don't blame him for not jumping to change them all right now, but I was definitely disappointed to hear that unless I'm there he teaches the same way he always has. But hopefully by the time we're done working together that will change.

So that's the update on my everyday life. The other thing that lifted my spirits this week is that I found a house I really like! Peace Corps still needs to come and check things out so I'll post pictures and share the awesome story of how I came upon this house once I'm all approved, official-like.

B-A-N-A-N-A-S

In Minnesota, the weather is constantly a topic of conversation. Most emails and letters I get, particularly, from my family mention the state of the weather at some point. And I love that! It's one of those things you can always count on. Life works like that because the weather in Minnesota is always changing between seasons or minutes.

In Nicaragua, it's hot. It's pretty much always hot. Unless it's raining and then it rains a whole lot (9 days in a row, I'm happy it stopped but now it's hot again. Sigh.). But people here talk about the weather all the time too, except it's a lot more limited than in Minnesota. Common remarks are “it's really hot today!” or “it rained a whole lot yesterday.” One of my favorite weather phrases is “Que rico!!” which literally means that the person thinks the weather is rich. This is perfect for the rare moment when it's not too hot but it's not raining either, it may actually be comfortable outside with a nice breeze and sunny skies. The first day without rain was totally rico, it was awesome.

I contemplated buying a real rain jacket before I left, but decided I would go it alone with my umbrella instead. My dad joked with me that I should take the “banana suit” which is probably the cheapest rain gear you can possibly buy- a full suit of pants and jacket in bright yellow, unbreathable plastic. This is the rain gear I usually have the pleasure of using on camping trips to the Boundary Waters area in northern Minnesota. I told him that they didn't wear banana suits in Nicaragua, so I'd just leave it at home, thank you very much. Had I been thinking logically I would have put together the fact that many people in Nicaragua get around on motorcycles and it rains for several months of the year so how do they deal with that? BANANA SUITS, that's how! Turns out I would be completely in fashion if I was wearing a banana suit during the rains, except that I wouldn't be on a motorcycle since that's all prohibited and all, so I might still be a little strange to be walking around in full gear. But no one really goes out when it's raining anyway so there would be no one to judge me. So sorry dad, you were right and I was wrong.

Now that it stopped raining, I'm going to the beach.

What were you expecting?

Expectations Confirmed
October is known as the rainiest month in Nicaragua. It has rained every single day so far, granted we´re not really that far in, but still. We also are apparently having a pretty bad season in terms of tropical storms, which is what is responsible for the torrential downpours that occur at least twice a day. Luckily there isn´t much for damage from the storms in my part of the country, but ironically the water service in the house has been spotty at best. That means that this week I have my fingers crossed for a couple of hours of sun in conjunction with functioning water.



Expectations Broken
When I signed up for the Peace Corps, I had come to terms with the fact that I would probably be giving up my social life as I knew it in exchange for evenings spent with neighboring families watching telenovelas and going to bed early. As it turns out, my pueblo has some impressive night life on occasion. This weekend I went with some friends to a fiesta being thrown in a disco not too far from my house. My Spanish skills failed me in reading the advertisements because I was unprepared for the “espuma” which apparently means foam! Around 11pm this machine in the ceiling started spewing out foam and I ended up being soaked for the last couple hours of the party. Never ever did I expect to attend a fiesta quite like that during my Peace Corps service.

As of today I've been in Nicaragua for five months! Somehow 4 didn't seem that impressive yet 5 seems like a lot. Thank you to everyone for the emails, letters, and packages (I had a windfall this weekend with three waiting for me in the post office!), I think all volunteers have some fear of people forgetting about them at home but so far I feel super loved and not that far out of the loop.

Bo-what??

Boaco!!



I spent this past weekend in the department of Boaco (pronounced bo-ah-ko) visiting my friend Allison in Teustepe, with a side trip into the city of Boaco as well. As you can see above, Boaco is really pretty! Since I grew up basically around farmland and forests, I think big hills and mountains are neat and never tired of looking up to see something other than sky.

It takes about 4 to 4.5 hours from where I am on the coast to get to Teustepe, which is in the central part of the country on the other side of Managua. I took a 1.5 hour bus into the west side of Managua, then a taxi to the Mercado Mayoreo on the east side which takes around an hour depending on how many other people the taxista has chosen to pick up and drop off along the way (that was 2 going and 4 coming back, and yet it took less time coming back, go fig) followed by another 1.5 hour busride out to Teustepe, oh and another taxi ride from the highway into town. As much as I'd love to go back and visit again soon, I doubt I'll be making that jaunt very often especially because taxi rides in Managua aren't cheap.

Allison just moved into her own little house but Peace Corps doesn't really give us enough money to get set up properly so it was still pretty sparse (we get a settling in allowance that really will only cover a decent bed and a few other items, so borrowing stuff from friends and neighbors is pretty common). This is how we ate dinner on Saturday night:



yeah, my viewfinder didn't open up all the way on that one. And since there was no TV, we spent a lot of time watching Alli's kitten, Smudges, train to be an attack cat by attacking my shoes or my backpack or trash or Alli's hand. She is also apparently training to be a thief because at one point she crawled into my backpack and when I fished her out, Smudges was clinging for dear life to my change purse. I may have to get a cat when I get my own house because there's just nothing like waking up to see a kitten crawling up the mosquito net to greet you in the morning. Here she is, caught in the middle of darting in and out of the holes in the partition for Alli's bedroom:



We didn't do too much other than talk a lot because it's been two months since we've seen each other and hung out a little with her former host family, who are all quite nice and they invited me to come over for Christmas. After hearing their usual menu which went on for about 5 minutes, I think I just might :)

The trip was vastly too short and before I knew it I was back on the bus. The last bit of excitement on my trip was on the way home when I was seated on the bus behind a man who was traveling with his chicken (not unusual) and occasionally would lift the bird up so it could look out the window or get some fresh air or something (somewhat unusual). Sorry, it's a little blurry, my flash wasn't on because I was trying to be ninja about taking pictures on the bus.




Lastly, as anyone who's had the pleasure of sharing sleeping quarters with me knows, I tend to babble either coherently or incoherently in my sleep. This weekend I made a breakthrough: sleep talking in Spanish! Apparently it wasn't coherent, but Alli said I definitely was going on in Spanish, which is pretty cool because I've been waiting for that elusive first dream in Spanish and this means that I've probably been dreaming in Spanish but not remembering it. This goes right up there with my conversation with my friend Kate when we were both completely asleep in High School and the time in India when four of us were sharing a hostel bed and I said “Fine, I'll get my own room!”

Despedidos

Nica 47 TEFL has officially lost its first person to a medical separation (holla, Ryan! Aka Gimpy McOwmyarmhurtspassmeanothertoña), and Nica 47 in general has had its first ET (Early Termination – shout out to David, we were once mistaken for the married couple by PC staff one of the first days of training in Managua). And just today an email went out from another business volunteer announcing her imminent departure (I don't think Kristen reads this, but in case she finds it in the future, heya chica!). It's hard to have people leave, but I cannot pretend like the idea of saying “Adios!” to Nicaragua has not crossed my mind, possibly even daily since I got to my site.

I was discussing my own motivational failings with my brother via email, and he brought up a good point: “The annoying thing about life, I think, is how we're trained to think we need to plan everything out ahead of time and then go and do it, when really it seems like more of a back-and-forth process of "Hmm, what do I want to do? Well, I have some vague ideas..." then "Oh look! An opportunity that might allow me to pursue those ideas!" then maybe "Hmm this experience is not as satisfying as I'd hoped... what do I really want?" "Oh maybe this is the chance!" etc...”

I think a challenge that is not unique to Peace Corps but is present in everyone's lives is deciding when something just isn't working, whether it's a relationship or a job or school or anything. Rarely do opportunities come along that are 100% what we want to be doing and so indecision or the refusal to address an issue keeps us stubbornly banging our heads against a wall, literally or figuratively. One of the questions I ask myself a lot if I´m having an extended bad time is “How will I tell when this changes from being challenging-good to being challenging-bad? How do I know when it stops being worth it?” Even though I'm disappointed to say goodbye to fellow volunteers, I also respect the fact that they were able to look at their situation and say “Not for me! Next?”

Definitely do not take this as a precursor to my own Early Termination, because I'm nowhere near that point yet. The first three months in-site are supposed to be the hardest, and even though I have bad days when all I want is to be baking cookies with my girlfriends in DC or BBQing with my college friends, I also have plenty of good days. I was just laying in bed last night thinking about all of this and just had to share :)

My Workplace

Now that the Fiestas Patrias are over and therefore so is marching band practice, I have one less thing to contend with in order to instill the minds of tomorrow with the knowledge of English. However, the instituto still does not exactly provide an excellent learning environment. Classrooms are set up around a central courtyard and don't have windows, so noise from other classes or kids out in the courtyard can be a lot sometimes (add to that marching band practice and you understand why I might be a little happy the holiday has passed).

Here´s the school´s courtyard:


What's that you say? Why are the students so noisy, aren't they in class? Funny you should ask. My first couple weeks I was amazed by the number of students just wandering around the schoolyard and no one seemed to be doing anything about the fact that they weren't in class. So I finally asked one of my counterparts and he told me that either their teachers didn't show up so they have a “free hour” or maybe they just aren't in their classes. And even if they're in class, sometimes it seems like the kids do about 5 minutes of learning and then literally seem to just scream for the next 45 minutes. I guess it's not quite that bad, but with 40+ kids in a classroom you can see how it can get real loud real fast!

The classrooms themselves, despite being without windows can get really hot, especially in the afternoon when the sun has been beating on the zinc roof for several hours and the breeze dies down. I don't even want to think about what teaching will be like come March and April, the hottest months of the year here- I'm already sweating up a storm during some of my classes. Ick. Even more ick are the two classrooms closest to the bathrooms, which are ironically called “hygienic services” but judging by the stench they are nowhere near being hygienic. Now throw in the fact that the walls are covered in graffiti, half the desks are broken, and most all of the lights are nonfunctional and that about paints an accurate picture of my current workplace.

Classroom:


Seeing conditions like that, I wasn't surprised that the teachers receive almost no resources to speak of – they buy their own white board markers, no paper or markers for making visual aids, and most definitely no copy machine – and the students don't even have copies of the decades old textbook. However, we do have a computer lab with donated computers from the local cement plant, and that has lights and air conditioning. And the teacher's lounge has lights and air conditioning. I still haven't figured out where the resources for that come from though.

I have a huge amount of respect for the teachers and students here, it is not easy to teach in such an environment let alone to learn in one. More than complain, my intention with this post is to draw attention to the challenges faced in education in Nicaragua. Only with the election of Daniel Ortega did school become free for all to attend, that's a big step and it was only 2 years ago. The importance of education is so immense and I really am glad to be able to work in the schools, last little tidbit I'll throw at you: 50% of Nicaragua's population is 18 years of age or younger, 60% is 24 or younger. That's how important this young generation is, if they can start out right then this country can grow in a whole new direction. And if not....

Fiestas Patrias

This weekend marks the 187th anniversary of Central America's independence from Spain. I know that number by heart now because they repeated it over and over and over again at the acto today. I don't really know what acto translates to, but it's basically a presentation of sorts. Despite having a long weekend, I chose to stay in-site to see what these Fiestas Patrias are all about.

Friday a torch that was being run through all of the Central American countries came through town. There was a parade and then some good ol' baile folklorico (folklore dance). I went with two German girls who are volunteering in town, Janni and Eva:



and we managed to sit up in the Important People Area because their boss was up there and signaled us to come on up! Here are some cute little girls in their traditional dresses for the baile (the middle girl is my neighbor, Erin):



and here's the alcalde (mayor) and the torch, I was sitting behind him so I didn't get such a good shot:




Sunday was the big parade and my friend Dianne was in town for the weekend, here we are clearly having the time of our lives:




and here are some shots of the flag girls and marching band from my school:








Watching the parade brought back dorky memories of marching band in high school and how awful our thick, polyester uniforms were- wearing them in a summer parade was described as being like taking a shower with your clothes on. These kids got significantly more comfortable uniforms but I'm sure they were still unbelievably hot marching in the hot sun, even if it was 9am. All the schools had dance teams in those short skirts and at least knee-high boots, and if that wasn't enough, their dance moves would scandalize most adults but that's par for the course in these parts.

Monday was, from what I can gather, the actual Independence Day. Although the acto didn't start till 8am I had been told by several people that the stadium would fill up really early, like by 6 to 7am. I showed up at about 7:10am to this:



Sooooo yeah. I chilled out till things actually got under way around 9am and the stadium looked more like this:



Each school from the municipality made their entrance, some people said some words, and by around 10am we were finally getting into the performances the schools had prepared. After several weeks of having to teach (or more likely not) above the din of marching band practice not so far away, I was excited to see the whole show. Here are some shots from the instituto's showcase:






Unfortunately things didn't go off quite without a hitch, being the biggest school there were both a lot of performers and also a lot of people who really wanted to see the instituto perform. This is a problem when the audience is standing on the field where the band needs to be and pretty soon people are throwing pop bottles and the the police are linking arms to herd people around while the announcer is yelling at everyone to move or else they won't finish the show. It took a good 5 or 10 minutes to get things back into order so the band could finish. All the bands did a great job and I think I saw the last one perform, but at 3pm I'd decided that I had had enough after 8 hours in the stadium and took off.

No class till Thursday! Hopefully planting trees today! The fun just never ends.

Anecdote of the Day

I hope to have an exciting and photo-filled post after this weekend's Fiestas Patrias (aka Nicaraguan Independence Day), but for now I thought I'd share a little story that exemplifies the weirdness that I encounter on a day to day basis.

This morning I was walking to one of the local NGOs when this man next door to my destination started calling out "Alemana! Alemana!" which basically means German girl (this is not surprising to me because this particular NGO has a lot of funding from Germany and I was actually on my way to see two German girls who are working there for a couple months, people rarely think I'm American). So I stopped and explained that I'm actually American. He then told me that he was going to give me a souvenir so I'll remember that I have friends here, or something like that, this is a random, old, semi-crazy guy speaking in Spanish so I didn't catch quite everything. Anyway, he pulled the rubberband off his wrist and placed it on mine.

I was actually pretty relieved to see that he was only giving me a rubberband, I'm still not very good at accepting the sometimes overwhelming generosity of some of the Nicaraguans I've met so I wasn't sure what he was going to give me. Then, in true Crazy Guy in a Rocking Chair style, he asked me to give him my ring as a gift. I kindly explained that this was a ring from a trip a long time ago and it meant a lot to me, but would he like his rubberband back? No, no, I got to keep the rubberband and my ring, win-win for me.

Mini-life update: Last week it rained everyday because of the passing tropical storms and hurricanes in the vicinity. My laundry didn't dry and that made me sad, but otherwise I enjoyed the cool weather. This week it's hot and dry and despite all the damage they cause, I miss the tropical storms. This weekend is the equivalent of Nicaraguan Independence Day so classes have been erratic with cancellations for band practice, as well as missing students due to torrential downpours and we've been doing exams as well so nothing has been happening like it should. Lastly, my “site mate” arrived this weekend, he's a South African soccer player who's going to be working with the phy ed teachers in the schools and who knows what all for the next year. He makes me feel unaccomplished as he's already gotten himself a spot on one of the Division I soccer teams, that's professional soccer here in Nicaragua, and he's only been here about 5 days.

Priscila Queen of the Pacific Coast; or Gay Rights in Nicaragua

I have a big soft spot in my heart for drag queens and have been known to frequent many such events, particularly while I lived in DC (might I suggest Drag Queen Bingo at Chaos on Tuesday nights, Drag Queen Bunch at Perry's on Sunday mornings, or the annual Drag Race on 17th Street at the end of October??). I thought when I came to Nicaragua that my days of rubbing elbows with men in drag would be over for the next 27 months, boy was I wrong!!!

In a show that rivaled John Travolta Nica, I was able to see two lovely drag queens sing and dance at a discoteca down near the beach this past weekend. Unfortunately I wasn't properly prepared and thus do not have any photos, but here's a photo of “Shakira” from Drag Queen Brunch last spring that I think adequately captures the event:

1678

GLBT issues in Nicaragua are complicated, as they are most everywhere, but the climate here is much more open than I had expected. I remember being surprised to see a man dressed in a tube top with make-up one day in my tiny training town, but it turned out he was Marisol, the local beautician that people really didn't pay much mind to. My impression is that for the most part gay men (who may or may not like to dress in drag) are left alone, but can still be a source of much gossip and are generally looked down upon by other men and often befriended by women. Not necessarily that different from the U.S. However, the definition of just who is gay can be another story. We were told Marisol had a boyfriend who was married with children, but he wasn't gay. Peace Corps staff explained this phenomenon to us with a local saying: “If the canoe gets wet...” And I'll leave it at that.

Gay women, I've been told, largely don't exist here. I mean, they may be out there but they are generally married to men and living a traditional female lifestyle regardless of their sexual preference. Who can really know if this will change anytime soon, the country has bigger fish to fry right now than thinking about gay rights. But, I'm still pretty happy to know that I might get to see some guys in 8 inch platform spiked heels and bad wigs doing cartwheels every once in a while for the next couple years.

With a little help from my friends....

I'm living a little higher up on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs this week. I wasn't sure I would blog about the situation I was dealing with last week but I think that I should more for the good that has come out of it than the bad.

The quick version is that my 13-year old host sister broke into my locked room and took some things that were later returned after I brought it up with my host mom. Needless to say, I didn't feel comfortable staying there any longer so I spent a couple days in bureaucratic limbo with the Peace Corps before I was officially allowed to move in with three volunteers from Chile and Bolivia who live in town. I had to be approved to 1) be exempted from the rest of the 6- week family stay (I was just over halfway through) and 2) have my new place of residence ok'ed by the safety and security coordinator. Luckily that all came through by Friday, but it was a stressful couple of days when I was living out of my backpack hoping PC would approve everything so I could move all the rest of my things.

I take this as a case of a 13-year old with problems, not a factor of Nicaraguan culture or the fault of my host family or even Peace Corps for placing me there. My host mom, Martha, has continued to be incredibly wonderful by bringing me lunch and other random food and offering to lend me a bed and any other furniture I might need. I can easily say that now I'm much happier to be living within walking distance of school, with people my age, but I still have a good relationship with Martha and I'm meeting more locals here in town. I have a very unique living situation, but it will only last until December at the latest when my housemates are finished with their year-long service. However, there's a German volunteer coming next weekend who I hope will be cool and a potential housemate since he'll be here for a year.

Yesterday I attended my first TEPCE, I don't remember what it stands for, but every last Friday of the month all the teachers in the municipality get together by subject to plan lessons for the coming month. This gave me the opportunity to meet the English teachers from some of the surrounding communities that I have yet to visit. I received a very warm welcome from the five new teachers as well as the four I already knew and I have plans to visit two of the teachers at their schools next week.

Last week I was concentrating a lot on me and my situation so it was a change to go back to thinking about my work here. I'm only required to teach 15 classroom hours a week at the instituto so I'd like to start teaching community classes or pick up other projects. I've realized how unique this independence/open-endedness is to Peace Corps because my housemates pretty much work a regular 9 to 5 with NGOs, with work plans and the whole bit. My existence here is much more of my own making and since I haven't had an influx of people asking for English classes like many volunteers told us we would, I need to do some more legwork to find students and a facility. However, one of the teachers from the TEPCE asked if I would be willing to teach a weekend class in his community about 4 km away so that's at least a start.

Changed my mind again

So maybe I will write a real blog post :) I happen to be bumming in the office in Managua at the moment, waiting for my friends to return from the grocery store so I've got some time.

I wanted to share a positive story because I feel like I've been pretty negative on here lately. This is a little ironic because this week I've been lacking some basics on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs but I'm still gonna share this story because I need some positivity in my life.

One thing I've noticed in the classes I teach is that, much like in the U.S., you have your good students and not so good students. When there are upwards of 30 or 40 students in a class, I really can't fault my counterpart for concentrating on the better students because in that kind of environment it's virtually impossible to make sure everyone is learning. However, I think some of the not so good students could be better with just a little attention. Positive feedback can go a long ways with these kids.

Anyway, the story: the 2nd year students were practicing reading a dialog and there were two girls who were clearly not interested in participating in any way, shape, or form. They were shooting hate beams out of their eyes, I think that's a cross-cultural way of saying "just let me be and no one gets hurt." But of course we couldn't let them be so instead I sat down with their group to decide parts and work on the pronunciation. One of the girls claimed she couldn't read any of it so we worked particularly on her part. I was so impressed when their group stood up to present and she did a great job! And all of a sudden there were no hate beams, she was smiling and happy to actually receive some praise for her work, something that may not happen very often.

This teaching bit is a challenge, but there are little positive moments like that to give me a little more motivation. Many days I'm amazed any of these kids learn anything in over-crowded, dilapidated classrooms that are oftentimes super hot and loud and in some cases very smelly (the ones next to the bathrooms, need I say more). I learn something here everyday.

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!