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.

Last Blog of 2008!

This was a Christmas full of firsts. This is the first Christmas I've ever spent outside of Minnesota and away from my family. It was a the first Christmas that didn't feel like Christmas because there was no build-up and bombardment of everything Christmas like in the States and it's hot and there's no snow = it's not Christmas. Finally, it's the first time I sang karaoke in public!

I give you, Navidad 2008: A Photo Montage.

John and his new kittie who I'm pretty sure is evil, but for now he fits in his pocket!


Being the multi-faith, open-minded, PCVs that we are, we celebrated Hanukkah with Avi and lit the menorah (also a first):


Singing Hey Jude, which is a favorite song of our group, but all those Na Na Nas get really boring to sing after a while:


Dianne and I singing Don't Stop Believin by Journey. Oh yeah.



I had the good fortune to meet up with my friend Sophia from Macalester who was vacationing in Nicaragua with her family:


Finally, here we are just about to devour an amazing Christmas Dinner:


Despite being far from my family, we had a pretty good Christmas here in Nicaragua. I'll be staying in my site for New Years though.

The Español:
Esta fue mi primera Navidad fuera de Minnesota y fuera de mi familia, sin nieve y con mucho calor. Y la primera vez que he cantado karaoke en publico! Pero pasabamos bien y voy a quedar en mi sitio para el fin del año.

Feliz Navidad!!!!

I didn´t write anything up to post, partly because the electricity went out this morning. But Merry Christmas to everyone, thanks for the support over the last year as I´ve started this crazy journey.

A mis amigos del mundo latino, feliz navidad y gracias por su apoyo en mis aventuras locas!!!

And then there was one...

Team Managua takes another hit as the volunteer who lives closest to me is ETing (early terminating). Although it's disappointing for PC to lose her, she's actually going to be staying right where she is since she took a job at a private school. That means that out of the three of us who originally made up Team Managua (basically the only volunteers in the department), I am the only one left until Ryan heals up and is crazy enough to come back or Peace Corps sends me some new friends.

As we once were:



Things have been pretty low-key seeing as I'm on vacation, but this weekend I got out and finally saw the beautiful beaches of San Juan del Sur. SJS is generally considered the best beach and surfing spot in the country and I can see why. It's a small town but very much targeted to tourists. It made me realize just how far the beach area near my site has to come before it can really compete.

Here's the beach in San Juan del Sur:



And the view of the beach from our room in our awesome hostel (Hotel Estrella if anyone's planning a trip):



Here I am with my friends Dianne and Katie with our newly purchased sunglasses after an intense round of haggling:



Surfers at Playa Madera:



Lastly, my friend Zara in San Juan:



It was a good and exhausting weekend. But not to have you all thinking that I'm doing no work and just hanging at the beach all day, on Monday I made plans with the staff of a local NGO to teach them English and then accompanied them to look at some schools that they are going to be repairing and/or adding on to. In January I'll be starting classes with them and also with a group of community members as well. I haven't taught since October so I'm afraid I'm gonna be a little rusty!! We shall see.

En Español
Tengo pereza entonces no voy a escribir todo en español. La voluntaria en El Crucero va a terminar su servicio ahorrita pero ella queda en Crucero para trabajar en una escuela privada cerca de Managua. Antes había tres voluntarios en Managua pero ahorrita soy la unica, así son las cosas.

El fin de semana pasada fuí a San Juan del Sur con Bernd, Vera, Zara, y dos voluntarias. Que linda las playas! El lunes fuí a Villa el Carmen con los de CEDRU para ver algunas escuelas en las communidades. Ellos tienen dinero para arreglar algunas aulas y para construir algunas nuevas. Voy a enseñar una clase de inglés por ellos en enero. Mas o menos este es todo que pasa acá.

Casa Dolce Casa

I'm all on top of things this morning and finally took some photos of my house. And since my Chilean and Bolivian friends that I used to live with have left I'm going to try to write some of my posts in both Spanish and English so they can keep up on the life here.

Finalmente esta mañana sacqué fotos de mi casa. Y porque mis amigos de Chile y Bolivia se fueron voy a escribir en ambos español e inglés para que ellos pueden saber algo de la vida acá. (Rafa, Paula, Felipe: Estoy bien triste que ustedes nunca podían visitar la casa, pero así son las cosas. Les extraño mucho!)



My living room (with maps of course!), I'm hoping to put a whiteboard on the blank wall to have English classes in my house.

Mi sala (claro con mapas), quiero poner una pizarra en la pared para tener clases de inglés en la casa.



The kitchen.

La cocina.



My bedroom, mosquito net and all. My clothes are all draped on a closet pole because I haven't found hangers big enough.

Mi cuarto, con mosquitero. Toda mi ropa esta un disastre porque no tengo ganchas.



Bathroom.

Baño.



The patio in the back.

El patio alfondo.



I still don't have a lot of furniture, but my landlady is going to lend me some more stuff soon I hope. But I love my little house and feel very safe here. Come visit!

Todavia no tengo muchos muebles pero la dueña va a prestarme algunas cosas más. Pero amo mi casita y me siento muy segura acá. Visiteme!

Happy Chicken Day!

I made it safely back to Nicaragua and promptly moved into my casita the same day- I promise to post pictures eventually but I figure it might be nice for there to be some furniture in this place first. I then left again to join some fellow volunteers for Thanksgiving celebrations and I couldn't have spent it any better.

After passing the initial challenge of fording a flooded road in a horse cart...



we were greeted by a brand new facility at this camp/retreat center place that a friend of another volunteer works at (connections connections) and this spectacular view of the Island of Ometepe and its two volcanoes:




We had 15 volunteers and the Assistant Country Director drove down with her husband to pass the day with us (and she brought pumpkin pie!) so we had quite a feast, though we had to substitute chicken for turkey. But we did have real homemade mac and cheese, broccoli casserole, mashed potatoes and gravy, salad, stuffing, cornbread, and cranberry sauce. Pretty impressive if I do say so myself:




I've said it before and I'll say it again, it just doesn't feel like Thanksgiving if there are leaves on the trees and it's warm, but that dinner sure did make it pretty close.

A large majority of the group was made up of TEFL volunteers from the group before mine and it was interesting to get their take on things now that they only have about seven more months of service left. Almost all of them are applying to graduate programs to start right after returning next summer and they definitely emphasized how fast the time will go (which is easy to say when you have 7 months left as opposed to being 7 months in, but I do believe they're right). But mostly it was impressive to see how close they all have become and how much they mean to each other, I really felt like I was part of the Peace Corps family.

My list of things I'm thankful for is about a mile long right now, but in general I'm thankful to have a very supportive family at home, amazing friends who continue to send me encouragement in the form of emails, letters, packages, and general good karma, and the opportunity to serve in the Peace Corps- some days I think back to when I didn't think I would or could be doing this right now and I'm proud of how far I've come. Happy Thanksgiving!!

In case you were wondering...

I made some changes to the layout of my blog, including a Wish List because people have been asking me what I'd like sent. Really any food-related item is awesome, my diet in Nicaragua is pretty much either rice or pasta with beans, a smattering of veggies, and some random fruits. There's not a lot for variety but really I shouldn't complain because I have a lot more variety than a lot of volunteers.

Anyhoo, flying back in the morning! wee!

Spoke too soon!

Another lesson in Don't Make Plans in Latin America: I may have been cleared to go back to Nicaragua by my doctor but due to violent protests in Managua my return trip has been delayed to Sunday, when Peace Corps Nicaragua believes things should be calmer in the capital so I can get in and get back to my site where everything is normal.

Two days doesn't seem like it's too important, but those were two precious days to me that I was planning to spend with roommates who will be leaving on Monday as well as buying the needed stuff for my house (aka Everything! Refrigerator, gas stove, bed. When they say 'unfurnished' in Nicaragua, they mean unfurnished) before we have to be out of the house, which would be Monday. And that means that I will need to use Monday to do moving and buying of things when I'd really rather be at school trying to organize some kids for a summer English class I had been thinking about before I left. Needless to say, I feel a little stressed and I'm sick of being here by myself so I'm just ready to go back to Nicaragua.

As for these violent protests, unless you've been reading the World section of the Washington Post or specifically looking for it, I don't think anyone knows what's going on. Municipal elections were held on November 9th to elect new mayors (Each department/state in Nicaragua is divided into municipalities that include many towns so mayors in Nicaragua have more responsibility than those in the U.S. Plus there is no equivalent of state government, so there you go.). The Sandinistas (the party of President Daniel Ortega) is claiming victory in about 100 of 146 municipalities and have been accused of voter fraud by the opposition, the US, the Catholic Church, the Organization of American States, and lots more people. The elections in Managua and Leon, two of largest cities, are particularly contested and protests have been violent at times, but from what I've heard things in the rest of the country are fine. Right now volunteers are supposed to avoid going to Managua except for emergencies.

That's the basic rundown. If you wanna read more, here are a couple articles I found online:

The Economist

This Washington Post article is a little sensationalist in my opinion, but it's got some good points

Adios a Panama!

I got the ok from my doctor yesterday to head back to Nicaragua, so that means that I will hopefully be flying back on Friday! Keep your fingers crossed that things go as planned because my roommates are moving out of the house this weekend so I'm cutting it pretty close for getting my butt back there. Since Andrea left last Thursday I really haven't done much that's worth writing about. Saw a movie, did some shopping (tons of cheap stuff in Panama!) to replace the clothes that have taken a major beating over 6 months of hand-washing, caught up on pop culture (watched TV), and ate some good food.

I'm excited to get back to my friends and my work, but school is ending next week so I won't have classes again till February. What will I do with my summer vacation? Hopefully teach some community classes, get moved into my house and meet my neighbors, and maybe see some more of Nicaragua. All I know is that I'm psyched to move out of this hotel!

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: