Christmas Day with Maritz, Ledi, and Terling.
Segovian Mountains
Monday, December 31, 2007
Niko the cat staying warm under the oven.
31 de Diciembre 2007
The last day of 2007 and I´m celebrating on ¨vacation¨. Myself and 3 other volunteers have taken a trip to Matagalpa and are enjoying getting to know this cool misty mountain town. We´re also greatly enjoying the variety of foods we get to eat, like granola batidos, coffee ice cream, hamburgers, french fries, and beer! And we´re really looking forward to italian food and wine tonight!
Living in the campo and being so far from a city, unlike some of the other volunteers, has its advantages. When the 3 of us living in Nuevo Segovia make the 2 hour or more trip to a city, we really appreciate the small things like a grocery store with chocolate and peanut butter, having a burger and beer for dinner, being able to shop for things we need, and indoor plumbing. And the best part is always coming home. Although I always look forward to my ¨trips¨to the city, I love stepping off the hectic bus after a few loud days in town, to the peace and quiet of my community and being able to say ¨adios¨to the neighboorhood kids greeting me.
The last few weeks have brought more activity than the first few in my site. I´m not quite sure if I´m just getting used to not having much to do each day or if I actually have more activities. I think its a combination of both. I´ve been busy sharing ideas with my new counterpart, transcribing gardening information into spanish, using my creativity to plan for my first womens group meeting, thinking of resourceful ways to ward off chickens from eating my worms in my vermiculture project, getting my hands dirty planting more vegetable and tree seeds (25 vivero bags the other day!), milking cows, riding a borrowed bike around ¨town¨, and attending fiestas.
As Mancho and I were navigating our bikes down a washed out steep dirt hill, I couldn´t help but smile and think how this mode of everyday transportation here reminds me of a weekend mountain biking activity. I realized I was in the perfect place when I thought of how my daily routine here required me to hike through forests, mountain bike, and ride horses. All activities I would go the extra mile to do at home. And I even love riding on the buses here. Even if it means being completely over-the-max stuffed into a bus with my skirt flipping up everytime the handle of the emergency back door opened to let out pasengers.
As for parties, I was lucky enough to attend a graduation party way up in the mountains at a beautiful hacienda owned by the mayor of a local town. The hacienda required 2-3 hours of driving up amazing twisting & turning dirt roads high up into the Segovian mountains, crosing creeks and cow pastures to get there. We arrived and were greated by the owner with a rifle in one hand and a hand out to shake with the other, plus a toothbrush and toothpaste tucked into his shirt pocket. We immediately got into the killing of that nights dinner-a peliquey (sheep-goat cross). My friend and I were lucky enough to get our hands dirty and take part in the skinning and butchering of the animal. I was more than excited, to say the least, and got to dissect the heart and try to remember all those anatomical words I learned this last year.
Surely thinking the 5 year old ¨sheep¨was going to be tough mutton, I was surprised to taste the best meat I´ve had yet in Nicaragua. It must have been that rum they gave it right before the killing.
The rest of the night was filled with lots of food, drink, music, dancing, and horseriding. My first time on a horse here in Nicaragua (finally) and after accidently letting a bull out into the cow pasture, I quickly herded him back through the gate and out of the cows. Then proceeded down the mountain with the old vaquero on the back, arguing in spanish with another friend about the proper noises to command a horse.
I guess my spanish is improving. Poco a poco.
Christmas here was different and pretty uneventful. The 24th is the more celebrated day and includes women spending the day making the classic nica food ¨nacatamales¨. I enjoyed hanging out in the kitchen with the women learning and helping to make these softer, moister versions of a mexican tamale. Rather than being wrapped in corn husks and cooked, they are steamed in banana leaves.
Although women spend most of the day cooking, like we do in the states, the day ended without a big family meal and rather individuals grabbing a nacatamale and eating it alone at different times. Giving gifts is also not a tradition, which is fine with me, as I´ve always thought this was an over-commercialized part of xmas anyways. However, I really did appreciate those xmas packages I received from my parents this year. Mmmm....ghiradelli chocolate and photos from home. Christmas here also included (if you´re catholic) lots of drinking and partying late into the night. There were many, many bolos running around those 2 days. One of which arrived at our house horseback. Myself being so enamorated with horses ran out to ride his horse, but was stopped by my host family who wouldn´t let me ride off with a bolo. There overbearing protection is good at times :)
Since I´ve been training for a half-marathon here in March, I´ve been diligently running every morning. I accomplished a 50 minute run 2 days ago that I never would of thought possible for myself a few months ago. I now have so much confidence and faith that I´ll be able to reach that 13 mile mark in a few months! Anyways, on my morning run through the pine forest I spotted a vacant house that just might be mine in a couple of months. It´s a cute little adobe house with dirt floors tucked back into the pine forest with a yard of lemon grass, banana and mango trees, and the perfect place to plant a garden. The floors are dirt and the conditions are a little rough, but the peace and tranquility of the location are amazing. Up and down 2 hills, cross a creek and you´ve arrived. But its all still only a 10 minute walk to the carreterra, bus stop, local store, and my host family´s home. There´s some repairs that need to be done and not sure if it´ll be approved by Peace Corps, but I´m keeping my fingers crossed.
Getting this new place fixed up, working on my spanish, and planting huertos with the ladies should keep me busy over the next few weeks.
Happy New Year to all and hope you´re enjoying the cold weather and maybe even snow that I´m missing here!
Living in the campo and being so far from a city, unlike some of the other volunteers, has its advantages. When the 3 of us living in Nuevo Segovia make the 2 hour or more trip to a city, we really appreciate the small things like a grocery store with chocolate and peanut butter, having a burger and beer for dinner, being able to shop for things we need, and indoor plumbing. And the best part is always coming home. Although I always look forward to my ¨trips¨to the city, I love stepping off the hectic bus after a few loud days in town, to the peace and quiet of my community and being able to say ¨adios¨to the neighboorhood kids greeting me.
The last few weeks have brought more activity than the first few in my site. I´m not quite sure if I´m just getting used to not having much to do each day or if I actually have more activities. I think its a combination of both. I´ve been busy sharing ideas with my new counterpart, transcribing gardening information into spanish, using my creativity to plan for my first womens group meeting, thinking of resourceful ways to ward off chickens from eating my worms in my vermiculture project, getting my hands dirty planting more vegetable and tree seeds (25 vivero bags the other day!), milking cows, riding a borrowed bike around ¨town¨, and attending fiestas.
As Mancho and I were navigating our bikes down a washed out steep dirt hill, I couldn´t help but smile and think how this mode of everyday transportation here reminds me of a weekend mountain biking activity. I realized I was in the perfect place when I thought of how my daily routine here required me to hike through forests, mountain bike, and ride horses. All activities I would go the extra mile to do at home. And I even love riding on the buses here. Even if it means being completely over-the-max stuffed into a bus with my skirt flipping up everytime the handle of the emergency back door opened to let out pasengers.
As for parties, I was lucky enough to attend a graduation party way up in the mountains at a beautiful hacienda owned by the mayor of a local town. The hacienda required 2-3 hours of driving up amazing twisting & turning dirt roads high up into the Segovian mountains, crosing creeks and cow pastures to get there. We arrived and were greated by the owner with a rifle in one hand and a hand out to shake with the other, plus a toothbrush and toothpaste tucked into his shirt pocket. We immediately got into the killing of that nights dinner-a peliquey (sheep-goat cross). My friend and I were lucky enough to get our hands dirty and take part in the skinning and butchering of the animal. I was more than excited, to say the least, and got to dissect the heart and try to remember all those anatomical words I learned this last year.
Surely thinking the 5 year old ¨sheep¨was going to be tough mutton, I was surprised to taste the best meat I´ve had yet in Nicaragua. It must have been that rum they gave it right before the killing.
The rest of the night was filled with lots of food, drink, music, dancing, and horseriding. My first time on a horse here in Nicaragua (finally) and after accidently letting a bull out into the cow pasture, I quickly herded him back through the gate and out of the cows. Then proceeded down the mountain with the old vaquero on the back, arguing in spanish with another friend about the proper noises to command a horse.
I guess my spanish is improving. Poco a poco.
Christmas here was different and pretty uneventful. The 24th is the more celebrated day and includes women spending the day making the classic nica food ¨nacatamales¨. I enjoyed hanging out in the kitchen with the women learning and helping to make these softer, moister versions of a mexican tamale. Rather than being wrapped in corn husks and cooked, they are steamed in banana leaves.
Although women spend most of the day cooking, like we do in the states, the day ended without a big family meal and rather individuals grabbing a nacatamale and eating it alone at different times. Giving gifts is also not a tradition, which is fine with me, as I´ve always thought this was an over-commercialized part of xmas anyways. However, I really did appreciate those xmas packages I received from my parents this year. Mmmm....ghiradelli chocolate and photos from home. Christmas here also included (if you´re catholic) lots of drinking and partying late into the night. There were many, many bolos running around those 2 days. One of which arrived at our house horseback. Myself being so enamorated with horses ran out to ride his horse, but was stopped by my host family who wouldn´t let me ride off with a bolo. There overbearing protection is good at times :)
Since I´ve been training for a half-marathon here in March, I´ve been diligently running every morning. I accomplished a 50 minute run 2 days ago that I never would of thought possible for myself a few months ago. I now have so much confidence and faith that I´ll be able to reach that 13 mile mark in a few months! Anyways, on my morning run through the pine forest I spotted a vacant house that just might be mine in a couple of months. It´s a cute little adobe house with dirt floors tucked back into the pine forest with a yard of lemon grass, banana and mango trees, and the perfect place to plant a garden. The floors are dirt and the conditions are a little rough, but the peace and tranquility of the location are amazing. Up and down 2 hills, cross a creek and you´ve arrived. But its all still only a 10 minute walk to the carreterra, bus stop, local store, and my host family´s home. There´s some repairs that need to be done and not sure if it´ll be approved by Peace Corps, but I´m keeping my fingers crossed.
Getting this new place fixed up, working on my spanish, and planting huertos with the ladies should keep me busy over the next few weeks.
Happy New Year to all and hope you´re enjoying the cold weather and maybe even snow that I´m missing here!
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
11 de Diciembre
After my last post, I got extremely sick again and spent the whole night and next day in bed. Today I´m still struggling with whatever it is I have and awaiting lab results, which like the veggies, are hard to get around here. After missing the bus this morning, I started the hour long walk to town with my sample in my backpack. Second time in 2 days and after arriving, found out that the doctor at the lab is on vacation! About ready to give up and just live with this bug in me for another week, I decided to try the health center, which normally doesn´t service foreigners. But being very friendly and courteous, they decided to run the test for me...thank you Centro de Salud de Jicarro! Hopefully this time I won´t have cryptosporosis, like my last bought of illness in Managua. Did I mention I almost missed my big swearing-in ceremony because I was trying to drop off a stool sample at the hospital in Managua and then racing across town, arriving with only 10 minutes to spare! But I made it and also made it onto nationally televised TV, with the rest of the PC group and US ambassador. And I was well enough to celebrate that evening with the PC group. Managua was a good trip...2 weeks of luxury and eating well. But I was definately ready to leave when it was over.
As for life here, things just seem to take longer around here. Kind of like the simple errand to get milk this morning. I remember back in Salem walking 4 blocks to the mini mart and picking up a gallon. Not here, my milk errand involved a 15 minute bike ride, 2 houses, a chat with a señora, and milking the cow myself by hand. It definately made it worth it!
Although I´m still struggling for things to do here, I´m starting to work with a guy in the community named Mancho. This week we are going to the homes of the different women for me to meet them and view their patios, which are actually large yards where they grow all sorts of veggies and fruits and plants and keep their animals.
Mancho is a great guy to work with, he´s really excited about working with me and trying new things, he already has tons of medicinal plants growing, a vermiculture project, he makes wine that he exports to Spain, and is in his first year of vet health worker training. Yesterday he showed me all his manuals and vet books, which were made by an american vet for the organization he works for here in Nicaragua. All of the books are in spanish of course, but I get the general jist of it and its great to be exposed to vet medicine again...it makes me so excited. In January, a team of americans are coming to finish construction on the lab in his patio, which I´ll be a part of and also helping him learn and work in the lab. I´m also really excited about this.
Also working on planting a garden with my host mom. It all sounds so simple but things take so much time here. For example, we have to build a fence for the garden to protect it from the chickens but finding the materials to build a fence without spending money they dont have takes time. And getting water throughout summer is a challenge, as is finding a container for the worms to make compost (I think I´ll be using an old tire that I learned to flip in training).
So I´m staying busy for the mean time and meeting new people each day and of course, improving my spanish.
And looking forward to the beach trip for New Years!
As for life here, things just seem to take longer around here. Kind of like the simple errand to get milk this morning. I remember back in Salem walking 4 blocks to the mini mart and picking up a gallon. Not here, my milk errand involved a 15 minute bike ride, 2 houses, a chat with a señora, and milking the cow myself by hand. It definately made it worth it!
Although I´m still struggling for things to do here, I´m starting to work with a guy in the community named Mancho. This week we are going to the homes of the different women for me to meet them and view their patios, which are actually large yards where they grow all sorts of veggies and fruits and plants and keep their animals.
Mancho is a great guy to work with, he´s really excited about working with me and trying new things, he already has tons of medicinal plants growing, a vermiculture project, he makes wine that he exports to Spain, and is in his first year of vet health worker training. Yesterday he showed me all his manuals and vet books, which were made by an american vet for the organization he works for here in Nicaragua. All of the books are in spanish of course, but I get the general jist of it and its great to be exposed to vet medicine again...it makes me so excited. In January, a team of americans are coming to finish construction on the lab in his patio, which I´ll be a part of and also helping him learn and work in the lab. I´m also really excited about this.
Also working on planting a garden with my host mom. It all sounds so simple but things take so much time here. For example, we have to build a fence for the garden to protect it from the chickens but finding the materials to build a fence without spending money they dont have takes time. And getting water throughout summer is a challenge, as is finding a container for the worms to make compost (I think I´ll be using an old tire that I learned to flip in training).
So I´m staying busy for the mean time and meeting new people each day and of course, improving my spanish.
And looking forward to the beach trip for New Years!
Thursday, December 6, 2007
06 de Diciembre
What´s new now? Trying to get out into the community and meet new people. Hard to do when my host family is so great. And especially hard to do when my communication skills are limited. But I started a community map yesterday, which means I have to walk around the community and plot all the houses and resources. The minute I stepped out my door, I ran into one of the kids I know who took me to the neighbor´s house. A little awkard to walk up to a strangers with no real reason to be there. But being the warm and welcoming Nicas that they are, I was immediately offered a seat and we chatted for at least an hour and I´m returning today to gift them some vegetable seeds and start a garden with them.
Also looking forward to the garden I will be starting with my host mom and the lombriculture project I´m starting also (a worm compost for the garden).
I now realize why Nicas in the campo dont eat very many vegetables, they are damn hard to get. The nearest market with veggies is 2 hours away. So unless you grow them, you´re limited to tomatoes and onions and the occassional truck that drives by and sells fruit.
I made a friend the other day that is about my age and shes super friendly and talkative and from Managua, which means her spanish is MUCH easier to understand. Also, I met the woman that bakes bread in the community and visited the nearby river for some jumping and playing with the dog and my 8 year old host brother.
And I´m lucky enough to have 2 other PC volunteers close to me, so we meet every week to express much needed feelings that are so hard to do in spanish with our nica friends.
Thats about all for now. One of these days I will post about my time in Managua.
Adios
Also looking forward to the garden I will be starting with my host mom and the lombriculture project I´m starting also (a worm compost for the garden).
I now realize why Nicas in the campo dont eat very many vegetables, they are damn hard to get. The nearest market with veggies is 2 hours away. So unless you grow them, you´re limited to tomatoes and onions and the occassional truck that drives by and sells fruit.
I made a friend the other day that is about my age and shes super friendly and talkative and from Managua, which means her spanish is MUCH easier to understand. Also, I met the woman that bakes bread in the community and visited the nearby river for some jumping and playing with the dog and my 8 year old host brother.
And I´m lucky enough to have 2 other PC volunteers close to me, so we meet every week to express much needed feelings that are so hard to do in spanish with our nica friends.
Thats about all for now. One of these days I will post about my time in Managua.
Adios
Saturday, December 1, 2007
01de Diciembre
Wow, December already. Its hard to believe when its hot and sunny outside. It just doesnt feel like its getting close to christmas.
So much has happened since my last entry, but I just never seem to have enough time at the computer to write. So this is a shortened version with more to come.
Ive been in my site now for 1 week and I´m much happier here than in training. Life is much slower...tranquilo. No more spanish classes (although I try to study a little bit everyday) and running around to different training classes.
Ive been spending most of my time this last week getting settled in and hanging out around the house, meeting different people that come by and those who live in the casas of the errands I run for my host mom. I do admit, though, that Im getting a little bored. The american in me wants to go, go, go. Im trying to enjoy this slower pace of life-reading in the hammock, chatting, and just relaxing. Its hard to just sit and chat, though, when my language skills only carry a basic conversation. Also, reading is not a common practice for Nicas. They prefer to just sit and talk.
I have done a few activities this week. I learned how to make mazapan, cuajata (a type of cheese) from fresh milk, helped milk a cow by hand, made my own coffee, dried marango leaves, played with the kids, attended a couple graduation parties (one of which was ended by drunk fighting and gun firing), met some new people, bonded with the cat, desgranared a lot of corn, and explored a couple new towns nearby. I also had the chance to watch a small bit of the bean harvest yesterday, which is all done by hand, and very labor intensive, using lots of hands, backs, and horses. And also ran errands by bike, by foot, and by ox cart.
Thats all for today.
So much has happened since my last entry, but I just never seem to have enough time at the computer to write. So this is a shortened version with more to come.
Ive been in my site now for 1 week and I´m much happier here than in training. Life is much slower...tranquilo. No more spanish classes (although I try to study a little bit everyday) and running around to different training classes.
Ive been spending most of my time this last week getting settled in and hanging out around the house, meeting different people that come by and those who live in the casas of the errands I run for my host mom. I do admit, though, that Im getting a little bored. The american in me wants to go, go, go. Im trying to enjoy this slower pace of life-reading in the hammock, chatting, and just relaxing. Its hard to just sit and chat, though, when my language skills only carry a basic conversation. Also, reading is not a common practice for Nicas. They prefer to just sit and talk.
I have done a few activities this week. I learned how to make mazapan, cuajata (a type of cheese) from fresh milk, helped milk a cow by hand, made my own coffee, dried marango leaves, played with the kids, attended a couple graduation parties (one of which was ended by drunk fighting and gun firing), met some new people, bonded with the cat, desgranared a lot of corn, and explored a couple new towns nearby. I also had the chance to watch a small bit of the bean harvest yesterday, which is all done by hand, and very labor intensive, using lots of hands, backs, and horses. And also ran errands by bike, by foot, and by ox cart.
Thats all for today.
Friday, November 23, 2007
Thursday, November 8, 2007
08 de Noviembre 2007
Just a quick update. I was lucky enough to go on a field trip to La Reserva Miraflor on Tuesday with some Peace Corps people.
A beautiful, large piece of protected land northeast of Esteli, communities live in this area and work the land, as they´ve done for years, except now they have certain limitations, as the land is protected.
Upon arriving, we had the chance to talk with a group of cooperative members, who happened to be Sandinistas. They told us their story of the war, as we sat inside the same brick building that these men had hidden out in years ago as contras threw grenades at them, and stared up at the grenade driven hole in the wall.
On a lighter note, we got to hike through mountains, touring and tasting organic fair trade coffee they grow and export.
A later hike through orchid filled forests, a few of us climbed up the center of the trunk of a 30meter strangler fig. A challenging experience for me (especially coming down), it was a lot like what I would imagine rock climbing to be.
And of course the day included lots of bouncing around dirt roads and coming within inches of buses sliding down mud filled roads in the PC land cruisers. Our tech trainer is kind of a crazy driver and likes to drive fast and aggressively, as were all packed into the back of those land cruisers, falling on top of each other, and hitting our heads on the roof. What fun....way better than the cube!
Today we had our last spanish class at our favorite restaurant, La Casita, owned by an english guy who serves homebaked whole grain bread, hummus, homeade yogurt and muesli, and hot chocolate (so yummy). I was even able to buy some garam masala to cook with when I finally get my own kitchen.
Tomorrow is our family despididas as we say goodbye to our training towns and host families.
Saturday a group of us are hiking to a waterfall for a last swim and jumps off a cliff and Monday its off to Managua.
A beautiful, large piece of protected land northeast of Esteli, communities live in this area and work the land, as they´ve done for years, except now they have certain limitations, as the land is protected.
Upon arriving, we had the chance to talk with a group of cooperative members, who happened to be Sandinistas. They told us their story of the war, as we sat inside the same brick building that these men had hidden out in years ago as contras threw grenades at them, and stared up at the grenade driven hole in the wall.
On a lighter note, we got to hike through mountains, touring and tasting organic fair trade coffee they grow and export.
A later hike through orchid filled forests, a few of us climbed up the center of the trunk of a 30meter strangler fig. A challenging experience for me (especially coming down), it was a lot like what I would imagine rock climbing to be.
And of course the day included lots of bouncing around dirt roads and coming within inches of buses sliding down mud filled roads in the PC land cruisers. Our tech trainer is kind of a crazy driver and likes to drive fast and aggressively, as were all packed into the back of those land cruisers, falling on top of each other, and hitting our heads on the roof. What fun....way better than the cube!
Today we had our last spanish class at our favorite restaurant, La Casita, owned by an english guy who serves homebaked whole grain bread, hummus, homeade yogurt and muesli, and hot chocolate (so yummy). I was even able to buy some garam masala to cook with when I finally get my own kitchen.
Tomorrow is our family despididas as we say goodbye to our training towns and host families.
Saturday a group of us are hiking to a waterfall for a last swim and jumps off a cliff and Monday its off to Managua.
Saturday, November 3, 2007
Picures from Site Visit
Views of Sabana Grande.
Kids and I at the "rock".
Sarahi and Orlandito in front of my host family house
Neigbors
Looking up at the "cell phone rock"next to the house with Chile, the horse.
Chile, Orlandito, and Enrique.
03 de Noviembre 2007
Happy Halloween to everyone! Although I didn't get to celebrate here, I explained to everyone what halloween was and got to take part in El dia de Muertes, which was Friday, Nov 2. For Day of the Dead, families visit tombs of their family members in advance and clean and paint them. Then on the actual day, they take flowers to the tombs. Its quite an event with ice cream vendors and lots of people at the cemetary all day, not a somber experience as we would think of in the states.
As for my site visit, it was awesome. I love my new site. It's up in the mountains, with pine trees, sprinkled with banana trees, a few coffee plants, and lots of corn and beans. The people are SOOO friendly and my host family is the best. My counterpart (who is also my host father) is actually not in vet school. He is a farmer of beans and corns, with a few cows, and of course a couple pigs and chickens and a horse. He also is secretary of a coop in the pueblo that gives credit for farmers to buy fertilizer, a project started by a japanese NGO a few years ago, and a student of finance too. Although not in vet school, I did meet the community member that is. We chatted for a few minutes one day, haphazardly running into him at the venta (little store), and he was full of energy and excitement as he told me about his projects building a lab in town and working with women in the community on small family gardens and small animal husbandry.
My nerves for counterpart day and site visit were calmed when I met my counterpart who is very tranquillo and speaks slowly for me and takes time to explain words that I don't understand. After a 6 hour busride last Friday, I stepped off the bus to be greeted by his family anxiously awaiting our arrival. My greeting was filled with hugs and smiles, quite the opposite reception than my training town host family.
My new host family house is beautiful and definately nicer than the house I'm in now in training. Although the amenities aren't all that much better, the cleanliness and attitude of the family make the difference. Still using a latrine, but the smell is masked with daily cleaning. Enjoying bucket baths now that I have four tall walls and privacy. Waiting for the bucket of water to warm in the sun, I take a shower about 11am, standing in the sun, looking up at the trees and bright flowers that surround the patio. It's lovely....I don't think I ever want to take a shower inside again. We sit on plastic chairs in the living room watching TV (yes TV with cable and a DVD player) but it's a quite warm family environment, instead of the training family with three toddlers constanly screaming. Garbage is still thrown on the ground in my new house, but it's neatly swept up everyday and taken to the "trash site". I've finally understand how to sweep a dirt floor with a homemade broom! And the kitchen has a ïmproved stove", which means that the smoke from the wood fire used to cook goes out a chimney instead of filling the windowless kitchen with harmful and dirty smoke.
My site has electricity, running water (every 2 days for a short period of time), is right on the highway with several buses a day, and I have my own room with fully contained walls and a concrete floor. Very nice, considering many of my compañeros slept in the living room with dirt floors and a sheet for a wall.
The first day at my site, I was greeted by all the neighborhood kids who took me to meet all the neighbors, whom are all somehow related to the family, before I could even change out of my pajamas. Then it was a day filled with climbing trees for oranges, jumping creeks, running through bean fields, lessons on the many different ways to say corn, jumping rope, and learning how to play jacks again. All of which brought on tons of laughter by the kids and adults at my mistakes and funny ways of doing things.
Sunday was spent dedicated to evangelical services, of which my host mother and family attends. Kind of crazy and can't say I'm a fan of two 2 hour long services in a day. Lots of screaming and singling loudly and getting down on their knees on the ground. And don't mind the bollo (drunk) staggering around the church. But hanging out at my host mothers families house in between services, I met a lot of the community and a got a chance to get to know them, and them to get to know me. All of which were friendly and welcoming.
The next few days, my counterpart/host father (Orland) took me around town, introducing me to the leaders of town, teachers, nurse, etc, who were all SOOO nice and welcoming. When told I was going to be living there for 2 years, the community leader exclaimed "perfectamente". Many difficult to understand, Orlando explained my role to them and kindly asked them to speak slowly for me. After all my anxiety about not knowing enough spanish, I felt perfectly comfortable and accepted by the community.
My host mother (Maritza) is very talkative and asked me tons of questions, which you can imagine helped my spanish. We talked about everything possible and shared lots of smiles and laughs.
The kids in town are equally wonderful. Everyday they came over after school to hang out with the "gringa"(which I'm starting to accept as my name) and play games or were just happy to have me watch them play games. My last afternoon in the site, I asked them to climb the hill with me to take pictures. The digital camera was an amazing fun toy for them and they excitedly posed for every picture, shouted with joy when the flash went off, and came running to me shouting ënseñeme"(show me) after each picture. We practiced some english and of course they helped me with spanish. By the end of the week, I was starting to understand some of what they were saying when they raced through their words as kids love to do. All the practice speaking with them and my eager and inquisitive host family left me feeling improved in my spanish after 1 week. I can't wait to be there for a few months!
My scene of my departure from my site on Thursday was me standing on the side of the road with my big purple "gringa"backpack waiting for the bus, flanked by about 10 children and the 20 year old neighbor that I've become friends with. Lots of hugs and waves good bye as I boarded the standing-room only American school bus converted public transportation. The 6 hour bus ride home was filled with sweaty people, chickens, and a pile of puke from a sick girl. Not to mention the stop at the bus station where hoards of vendors crammed onto the packed bus, pushing their way through the aisle selling all kinds of things from bread, to plates of chicken, to medicinal creams.
All in all my site visit was wonderful and I didn't want to come back to my training site. But I did and I'm back into the swing of things again. I have only 1 week left here, then it's off to Managua again for 2 weeks, where I'll become an öfficial"peace corps volunteer, followed by an all volunteer conference (all 150+ volunteers in Nicaragua), and thanksgiving dinner at the home of an American PC staff or US embassy home.
Take care all. Till next time.....
As for my site visit, it was awesome. I love my new site. It's up in the mountains, with pine trees, sprinkled with banana trees, a few coffee plants, and lots of corn and beans. The people are SOOO friendly and my host family is the best. My counterpart (who is also my host father) is actually not in vet school. He is a farmer of beans and corns, with a few cows, and of course a couple pigs and chickens and a horse. He also is secretary of a coop in the pueblo that gives credit for farmers to buy fertilizer, a project started by a japanese NGO a few years ago, and a student of finance too. Although not in vet school, I did meet the community member that is. We chatted for a few minutes one day, haphazardly running into him at the venta (little store), and he was full of energy and excitement as he told me about his projects building a lab in town and working with women in the community on small family gardens and small animal husbandry.
My nerves for counterpart day and site visit were calmed when I met my counterpart who is very tranquillo and speaks slowly for me and takes time to explain words that I don't understand. After a 6 hour busride last Friday, I stepped off the bus to be greeted by his family anxiously awaiting our arrival. My greeting was filled with hugs and smiles, quite the opposite reception than my training town host family.
My new host family house is beautiful and definately nicer than the house I'm in now in training. Although the amenities aren't all that much better, the cleanliness and attitude of the family make the difference. Still using a latrine, but the smell is masked with daily cleaning. Enjoying bucket baths now that I have four tall walls and privacy. Waiting for the bucket of water to warm in the sun, I take a shower about 11am, standing in the sun, looking up at the trees and bright flowers that surround the patio. It's lovely....I don't think I ever want to take a shower inside again. We sit on plastic chairs in the living room watching TV (yes TV with cable and a DVD player) but it's a quite warm family environment, instead of the training family with three toddlers constanly screaming. Garbage is still thrown on the ground in my new house, but it's neatly swept up everyday and taken to the "trash site". I've finally understand how to sweep a dirt floor with a homemade broom! And the kitchen has a ïmproved stove", which means that the smoke from the wood fire used to cook goes out a chimney instead of filling the windowless kitchen with harmful and dirty smoke.
My site has electricity, running water (every 2 days for a short period of time), is right on the highway with several buses a day, and I have my own room with fully contained walls and a concrete floor. Very nice, considering many of my compañeros slept in the living room with dirt floors and a sheet for a wall.
The first day at my site, I was greeted by all the neighborhood kids who took me to meet all the neighbors, whom are all somehow related to the family, before I could even change out of my pajamas. Then it was a day filled with climbing trees for oranges, jumping creeks, running through bean fields, lessons on the many different ways to say corn, jumping rope, and learning how to play jacks again. All of which brought on tons of laughter by the kids and adults at my mistakes and funny ways of doing things.
Sunday was spent dedicated to evangelical services, of which my host mother and family attends. Kind of crazy and can't say I'm a fan of two 2 hour long services in a day. Lots of screaming and singling loudly and getting down on their knees on the ground. And don't mind the bollo (drunk) staggering around the church. But hanging out at my host mothers families house in between services, I met a lot of the community and a got a chance to get to know them, and them to get to know me. All of which were friendly and welcoming.
The next few days, my counterpart/host father (Orland) took me around town, introducing me to the leaders of town, teachers, nurse, etc, who were all SOOO nice and welcoming. When told I was going to be living there for 2 years, the community leader exclaimed "perfectamente". Many difficult to understand, Orlando explained my role to them and kindly asked them to speak slowly for me. After all my anxiety about not knowing enough spanish, I felt perfectly comfortable and accepted by the community.
My host mother (Maritza) is very talkative and asked me tons of questions, which you can imagine helped my spanish. We talked about everything possible and shared lots of smiles and laughs.
The kids in town are equally wonderful. Everyday they came over after school to hang out with the "gringa"(which I'm starting to accept as my name) and play games or were just happy to have me watch them play games. My last afternoon in the site, I asked them to climb the hill with me to take pictures. The digital camera was an amazing fun toy for them and they excitedly posed for every picture, shouted with joy when the flash went off, and came running to me shouting ënseñeme"(show me) after each picture. We practiced some english and of course they helped me with spanish. By the end of the week, I was starting to understand some of what they were saying when they raced through their words as kids love to do. All the practice speaking with them and my eager and inquisitive host family left me feeling improved in my spanish after 1 week. I can't wait to be there for a few months!
My scene of my departure from my site on Thursday was me standing on the side of the road with my big purple "gringa"backpack waiting for the bus, flanked by about 10 children and the 20 year old neighbor that I've become friends with. Lots of hugs and waves good bye as I boarded the standing-room only American school bus converted public transportation. The 6 hour bus ride home was filled with sweaty people, chickens, and a pile of puke from a sick girl. Not to mention the stop at the bus station where hoards of vendors crammed onto the packed bus, pushing their way through the aisle selling all kinds of things from bread, to plates of chicken, to medicinal creams.
All in all my site visit was wonderful and I didn't want to come back to my training site. But I did and I'm back into the swing of things again. I have only 1 week left here, then it's off to Managua again for 2 weeks, where I'll become an öfficial"peace corps volunteer, followed by an all volunteer conference (all 150+ volunteers in Nicaragua), and thanksgiving dinner at the home of an American PC staff or US embassy home.
Take care all. Till next time.....
Monday, October 22, 2007
22 de Octubre de 2007
We made it back to our training towns safely last Wednesday and after program interviews in Managua, we had our site assignments last Friday. I received one of the sites that I was interested in and will be placed in a pueblo called Sabana Grande. With 2,000 people, it is a large site for the ag sector here, but I´m hoping it will still feel small. Sabana Grande is in the northern part of the country, bordering Hondurus, in a region called Nuevo Segogovia. I´m about 45km from the department capital of Ocotal.
The community leader, whose family I will be living with the first 6 weeks, just started his first year of vet school. He works with an NGO that supports sustainable and organic agriculture. This same NGO is also located in a site close to mine has had a volunteer working there the last 2 years with a community leader that just completed vet school and built a lab in their village.
So I am looking forward to working with them on animal husbandry projects.
This Thursday I leave for a weeklong site visit and will be staying with this family and learning more about the community. My nerves are getting to me a little, mostly because of my lack of spanish, but I´m reassuring myselft that they will be patient and friendly, and of course the fact that there´s others in my group that are in the same situation as myself.
We´ve been busy making up spanish classes since we returned and although I have a long way to go, it´s improving. We have a new teacher who is awesome and I´m learning so much from her, including the subjunctive. Do you even know what that is in english?
Our youth group decided yesterday to have a surprise despidida (going away party) and we all went to the pulperia and bought ingredients to make nica tacos, including the tortillas from scrath. Nica tacos are pollo wrapped in tortillas and deep fried, of course, with cabbage ensalada, and salad dressing (cream and ketchup) on top. They actually weren´t bad, but super unhealthly, like the fried cheese and french fries I received for breakfast the other day.
I also had a surpise swim in the creek yesterday. When a couple girls in my house asked me if I wanted to go down to the quebrada, I said ¨sure, why not¨, thinking we were just going on a walk. But they kicked off their shoes and joined the other kids swimming in the muddy small swimming hole. Of course I wasn´t wearing my swimsuit but I jumped in anwyays in my clothes and had a good time, until I about froze to death because it really wasnt that warm.
Well, I´m about to miss the last bus, so I will write more when I return from my site visit
The community leader, whose family I will be living with the first 6 weeks, just started his first year of vet school. He works with an NGO that supports sustainable and organic agriculture. This same NGO is also located in a site close to mine has had a volunteer working there the last 2 years with a community leader that just completed vet school and built a lab in their village.
So I am looking forward to working with them on animal husbandry projects.
This Thursday I leave for a weeklong site visit and will be staying with this family and learning more about the community. My nerves are getting to me a little, mostly because of my lack of spanish, but I´m reassuring myselft that they will be patient and friendly, and of course the fact that there´s others in my group that are in the same situation as myself.
We´ve been busy making up spanish classes since we returned and although I have a long way to go, it´s improving. We have a new teacher who is awesome and I´m learning so much from her, including the subjunctive. Do you even know what that is in english?
Our youth group decided yesterday to have a surprise despidida (going away party) and we all went to the pulperia and bought ingredients to make nica tacos, including the tortillas from scrath. Nica tacos are pollo wrapped in tortillas and deep fried, of course, with cabbage ensalada, and salad dressing (cream and ketchup) on top. They actually weren´t bad, but super unhealthly, like the fried cheese and french fries I received for breakfast the other day.
I also had a surpise swim in the creek yesterday. When a couple girls in my house asked me if I wanted to go down to the quebrada, I said ¨sure, why not¨, thinking we were just going on a walk. But they kicked off their shoes and joined the other kids swimming in the muddy small swimming hole. Of course I wasn´t wearing my swimsuit but I jumped in anwyays in my clothes and had a good time, until I about froze to death because it really wasnt that warm.
Well, I´m about to miss the last bus, so I will write more when I return from my site visit
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
16 de Octubre de 2007
Well it´s been an interesting 2 weeks or so since my last entry. I spent 4 days last week at a volunteers site with 5 fellow aspirantes, learning lots of technical skills and just seeing what it´s like in a small community similar to where I´ll be placed. I almost didn´t make it to ¨tech days¨as I finally got sick and spent the Sunday before last throwing up and wishing I had never drank that glass of water at the restaurant the previous night. Since I was one of the very few that hadn´t gotten sick, I started feeling pretty strong and invincible and let my guard down. I was definately regretting it the next day as I was packed onto a hot bus winding around small mountain roads with my stomach full of nacatamales (my first ever here). Luckily I made it home without losing the contents of my stomach, but not without being harrassed by local men making cat calls as I was about to puke.
The next morning I felt much better and made my way to the departing site for our tech days. And of course, what was the first meal served to us there??? Nacatamales (think rice and pork stuffed mushy moist version of a normal tamale). Let´s just say I cant even think of them anymore without feeling slightly naseous.
Anyways, during our tech days we made an improved stove out of mud, horse manure, and bricks, planted a protein bank, made cattle feed from scratch (picking and toasting marango leaves ourselves), went on a scavenger hunt for plants and people, planted coffee trees, vaccinated more chickens, visited a waterfall, crossed MANY quebradas (creeks) knee deep (those Keens really came in handy), attended a community bank meeting, and showered in shorts and a tshirt in front of all the others, while controlling the water with my finger as it shot forcefully out of a pvc pipe coming from the rainwater-caught water tank.
The constant rain that week meant that we were constantly crossing creeks and either covered in mud or wet. I ended the week with Keen shaped dirt stained feet, but well worth it.
All that rain also meant that 24 short hours after returning back to our training towns we were consolodated to the peace corps office in Estelí and told we were all being taken to Managua because of the threat of tropical storms. At that point last Friday it had been raining in Estelí for 15 days straight and a large part of the Pan American highway south of us had crumbled. When I say crumbled, I mean that a huge chunk of highway just fell to the ground like a crater had hit it. So with all that rain and more storms coming in, Peace Corps felt like we were in danger.
We spent the first day and a half at a terrible ¨training center¨ with dorm beds and fried bologne and a hot dog bun for breakfast. But after being in the campo for a month, the running water, dry bed, and cable TV was a luxury for me. But it wasn´t really set up for all 40 of us for a number of days.
So on Saturday they moved us back to the beautiful Best Western hotel that we stayed at the first few days in Managua. I can´t tell you how much I appreciated all these amenities that I missed. I was in heaven with a hot shower, a sink and running water and a mirror, air conditioning, food (oh how wonderful it is to have vegetables, meat, and chocolate cake again), and a dry bed. Back in my training site, the night before I left, my roof started to leak right over my face in my bed, and things were starting to get pretty moist in my room with the leaky roof.
On Sunday, it was hard to believe that we were in the midst of a tropical storm as I layed by the pool and swam all day. Oh I even got to run on a treadmill and use some weights! And to top it off, I watched Gray´s Anatomy, in english, last night!!! It´s funny the things I´m doing here. I never would have enjoyed sitting in a hotel room watching cable TV and drinking crappy sugar filled soda at home, but for some reason, I´m enjoying it now. Maybe because it´s a small luxury that I don´t indulge in often.
Most of us were enjoying our surroundings, but also feeling quite guilty for being gone from our sites and families and living this very lush, un-Peace Corps life.
And now day number 5 here and we´re all feeling ready to go. Word from headquarters is that we will be here until Thursday morning as long as no more heavy storms come in. There has been a lot of damage to the highways from flooding. Semi trucks turned over, bean crops lost, homes damaged, and people injured.
Apparently the precipitation seen from the last storm that came through was equal to the precipitation from Hurricane Mitch. So Peace Corps decision to consolidate us was not for nothing.
And just so you don´t think all I´ve been doing here in Managua is enjoying the good life, peace corps has been keeping us busy with charlas and interviews and language classes.
Today we watched a documentary (in spanish) about teenage pregnancy in Nicaragua and discussed ways that we can help prevent this during our service. Tomorrow we are going to visit the Agricultural college here in Managua to check out their lombriculture program. And Friday we have our site assignments!!! After my interview with my APCD (ag program director) today, I have a good idea of where I´ll be going. I´ll let you all know next week where my home for the next two years will be!
That´s all for now. Hope everyone is doing well back home.
The next morning I felt much better and made my way to the departing site for our tech days. And of course, what was the first meal served to us there??? Nacatamales (think rice and pork stuffed mushy moist version of a normal tamale). Let´s just say I cant even think of them anymore without feeling slightly naseous.
Anyways, during our tech days we made an improved stove out of mud, horse manure, and bricks, planted a protein bank, made cattle feed from scratch (picking and toasting marango leaves ourselves), went on a scavenger hunt for plants and people, planted coffee trees, vaccinated more chickens, visited a waterfall, crossed MANY quebradas (creeks) knee deep (those Keens really came in handy), attended a community bank meeting, and showered in shorts and a tshirt in front of all the others, while controlling the water with my finger as it shot forcefully out of a pvc pipe coming from the rainwater-caught water tank.
The constant rain that week meant that we were constantly crossing creeks and either covered in mud or wet. I ended the week with Keen shaped dirt stained feet, but well worth it.
All that rain also meant that 24 short hours after returning back to our training towns we were consolodated to the peace corps office in Estelí and told we were all being taken to Managua because of the threat of tropical storms. At that point last Friday it had been raining in Estelí for 15 days straight and a large part of the Pan American highway south of us had crumbled. When I say crumbled, I mean that a huge chunk of highway just fell to the ground like a crater had hit it. So with all that rain and more storms coming in, Peace Corps felt like we were in danger.
We spent the first day and a half at a terrible ¨training center¨ with dorm beds and fried bologne and a hot dog bun for breakfast. But after being in the campo for a month, the running water, dry bed, and cable TV was a luxury for me. But it wasn´t really set up for all 40 of us for a number of days.
So on Saturday they moved us back to the beautiful Best Western hotel that we stayed at the first few days in Managua. I can´t tell you how much I appreciated all these amenities that I missed. I was in heaven with a hot shower, a sink and running water and a mirror, air conditioning, food (oh how wonderful it is to have vegetables, meat, and chocolate cake again), and a dry bed. Back in my training site, the night before I left, my roof started to leak right over my face in my bed, and things were starting to get pretty moist in my room with the leaky roof.
On Sunday, it was hard to believe that we were in the midst of a tropical storm as I layed by the pool and swam all day. Oh I even got to run on a treadmill and use some weights! And to top it off, I watched Gray´s Anatomy, in english, last night!!! It´s funny the things I´m doing here. I never would have enjoyed sitting in a hotel room watching cable TV and drinking crappy sugar filled soda at home, but for some reason, I´m enjoying it now. Maybe because it´s a small luxury that I don´t indulge in often.
Most of us were enjoying our surroundings, but also feeling quite guilty for being gone from our sites and families and living this very lush, un-Peace Corps life.
And now day number 5 here and we´re all feeling ready to go. Word from headquarters is that we will be here until Thursday morning as long as no more heavy storms come in. There has been a lot of damage to the highways from flooding. Semi trucks turned over, bean crops lost, homes damaged, and people injured.
Apparently the precipitation seen from the last storm that came through was equal to the precipitation from Hurricane Mitch. So Peace Corps decision to consolidate us was not for nothing.
And just so you don´t think all I´ve been doing here in Managua is enjoying the good life, peace corps has been keeping us busy with charlas and interviews and language classes.
Today we watched a documentary (in spanish) about teenage pregnancy in Nicaragua and discussed ways that we can help prevent this during our service. Tomorrow we are going to visit the Agricultural college here in Managua to check out their lombriculture program. And Friday we have our site assignments!!! After my interview with my APCD (ag program director) today, I have a good idea of where I´ll be going. I´ll let you all know next week where my home for the next two years will be!
That´s all for now. Hope everyone is doing well back home.
Saturday, October 6, 2007
Well, here´s a picture from back in Managua during our orientation. I just got a copy of it and thought I´d add it to the blog.
Quick update...my spanish language interview yesterday went really well, I thought. And afterwards, I hung out on the porch of a fellow aspirante, speaking spanish with his family, drinking sugared up coffee, eating galletas, and waiting for the rain to pass to walk home. It was simple, but one of those moments that I´ll remember.
Finished the evening with a walk down the pan american highway in torrential rain after attending a youth group dance party and drinking jugos de guyanaba from plastic bolsas (bags). Good times!
Thursday, October 4, 2007
04 de Octubre
Hello all,
Coming to the end of week five in training and we´re halfway through! I can´t believe its been 5 weeks already. The days are long here, but the weeks fly by.
The last few weeks have been filled with lots of spanish classes with a new facilitator that I love. He´s very laid back and takes all the stress out of learning a new language. Afternoon classes often consist of us walking around and talking about trees and what the chickens and passerbys are doing. Class is now on my front porch and the mornings are always filled with some excitement as small herds of cattle pass by and dogs bark at the men riding by on horseback. I can´t wait to get a horse! (hopefully)
My spanish is coming along, but slowly. Tomorrow we have mid service interviews to access our language ability. Im keeping my fingers crossed and doing some studying too!
Today we had a great day of learning food processing. All hands on, we basically cooked all day, and learned how to use the local plants for medicines and soaps. Also learned about this amazing tree called the moringa. Some examples of its amazing properties....the leaves are edible by both humans and animals and actually taste good. They are high in protein, iron, and calcium (which most Nica diets are lacking). The leaves can be dried and ground up to a powder to add to all kinds of food or can be eaten straight in salads or salsas. The seeds can be used to purify water and the bark can be used to make rope. And the tree grows really fast!
I cant wait to get to my site and start a garden and cook with all these yummy veggies and hopefully turn some other Nicas on to the benefits of vegetables.
We´re in the height of rainy season now and its been pouring most afternoon. Unfortunately my room has a few leaks but nothing too bad. Luckily it leaks everywhere but over my bed and my clothes!
This weekend will be filled with youth group fiestas, nacatamales, and movie night with another youth group!
Last weekend, our small group of 5 in Santa Cruz gave a charla (informal presentation) to our youth group on contraception and sex ed. It went really well and I actually spoke and was able to help answer some questions in spanish. It was really fullfilling to see the teenagers writing down all the information we presented and answer their questions about STDs and fertility. Not a subject talked about much here with youth.
Next week is ¨tech days¨for my group, which means I will be visiting a volunteers site for 4 days and doing all kinds of interesting technical tasks. Looking forward to learning more hands on stuff and being at an actual site.
Take care all.
Coming to the end of week five in training and we´re halfway through! I can´t believe its been 5 weeks already. The days are long here, but the weeks fly by.
The last few weeks have been filled with lots of spanish classes with a new facilitator that I love. He´s very laid back and takes all the stress out of learning a new language. Afternoon classes often consist of us walking around and talking about trees and what the chickens and passerbys are doing. Class is now on my front porch and the mornings are always filled with some excitement as small herds of cattle pass by and dogs bark at the men riding by on horseback. I can´t wait to get a horse! (hopefully)
My spanish is coming along, but slowly. Tomorrow we have mid service interviews to access our language ability. Im keeping my fingers crossed and doing some studying too!
Today we had a great day of learning food processing. All hands on, we basically cooked all day, and learned how to use the local plants for medicines and soaps. Also learned about this amazing tree called the moringa. Some examples of its amazing properties....the leaves are edible by both humans and animals and actually taste good. They are high in protein, iron, and calcium (which most Nica diets are lacking). The leaves can be dried and ground up to a powder to add to all kinds of food or can be eaten straight in salads or salsas. The seeds can be used to purify water and the bark can be used to make rope. And the tree grows really fast!
I cant wait to get to my site and start a garden and cook with all these yummy veggies and hopefully turn some other Nicas on to the benefits of vegetables.
We´re in the height of rainy season now and its been pouring most afternoon. Unfortunately my room has a few leaks but nothing too bad. Luckily it leaks everywhere but over my bed and my clothes!
This weekend will be filled with youth group fiestas, nacatamales, and movie night with another youth group!
Last weekend, our small group of 5 in Santa Cruz gave a charla (informal presentation) to our youth group on contraception and sex ed. It went really well and I actually spoke and was able to help answer some questions in spanish. It was really fullfilling to see the teenagers writing down all the information we presented and answer their questions about STDs and fertility. Not a subject talked about much here with youth.
Next week is ¨tech days¨for my group, which means I will be visiting a volunteers site for 4 days and doing all kinds of interesting technical tasks. Looking forward to learning more hands on stuff and being at an actual site.
Take care all.
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Domingo, 23 de Septiembre
Hello all,
Another week has gone by and I´ve turned a landmark with 3 weeks under my belt in my training town. After 3 weeks we change language instructors and locations of classes to my casa for another 3 weeks. It still seems like I just got here and I have so much more to learn...which I do.
Spanish is coming along but Ive got A LOT more to learn. Our youth group is not doing so well, as its hard to get youth to commit to times and meetings each week and it seems it always rain at the time of our meeting. Since everyone travels by foot, rain and mud stop kids from coming to our meetings.
Im starting to get into the slow pace of life here. Yesterday I awoke at 5am (like normal) and made my way to the ¨kitchen¨about 6:30 to find Rosario making rosquillos (a pastry like food typical of Nica). I had my coffee, which is sooo good because they buy the beans fresh, toast, and grind them themselves, then helped make rosquillas. It was a big family affair, making 10 dozen or so and having to fire up the big horno (oven) out back. This oven is a huge dome that is literally fired up with wood and flames and is not used all that often because of the wood thats needed to use it. Spent the rest of the morning cleaning my room and washing my clothes and shoes, which takes an extraordinarily long time when a newbee like me is trying to wash clothes by hand without runnig water. Its very gratifying work and even though our families are supposed to do it for us, I enjoy helping out and having something to do.
Spent the afternoon lying in the hammock reading a book and hanging out with all the people that come in and out of the porch of my house.
Later on that evening, my Peace Corps friend and I decided to cut each others hair...a new experience for both of us. I figured it cant be that bad. Im living pretty basic here and rarely see a mirror, so I really wasnt too concerned with how it looked, just wanted some of it gone!
More about life here,I enjoyed the tranquility the other afternoon of sitting on the porch doing my homework and watching my host father husking corn in preparation for the daily tortillas and the soft sound of spanish-nica music coming from the kitchen.
But I also have many days of constant noise, dogs barking, roosters crowing, babies crying, everyone screaming. Its hard for an only child like me to get used to all this noise and people, so I savor the tranquil days.
Ive been running in the mornings on the muddy back roads behind my house. It rains almost every afternoon and the mud is seriously thick. I feel like Im always dirty! But its worth it for the amazing views (if theres not too many clouds) of the lush green highland hills I get every morning. I always pass a few cows and horses (which also pass my house several times a day) and if I time it right, I pass the morning milking that occurs down the road, right in the middle of the road...no stantions present here! Speaking of milking, I got the chance to milk a cow here during spanish class, by hand of course. Another day of spanish class, we spent coming into town and having to ask directions from people on the street and navigate ourselves around.
We had 2 days of technical training last weekend that felt like a retreat! The group of trainees (about 25 of us) started out on Sunday with a 2 hour hike to a waterfall where we swam and the brave few jumped off rocks and 40 foot high trees! The nica boys jumping were fearless and the few peace corps people that did it put me to shame with adventure. I chickend out at the last minute and could only watch my friend jump.
After our waterfall hike, we were taken to this beautiful and peaceful reserve that was also an organic farm and nursery. We had some ¨charlas¨about greenhouses and how to make organic pesticides. The next day we vaccinated chickens, helped transplant veggies, played with some cows, then moved on to another farm where we learned about dairy goat and cow production and management here. Very interesting for me to learn about the differences here. All hand milking of course. I was surprised to learn about their sanitary protocols for milking, which were good, and their regular use of the California Mastitis test!
We also learned how to make organic fertilizer and compost, then all piled into the land cruisers (and I mean piled in...I couldn´t feel my leg at the end of the trip) and bumped along the pot-hole filled dirt roads, stopping for some cows to cross every once in awhile, and made our way back home.
It was a long tiring weekend but lots of fun and learned a lot. Upon returning home, I decided to take the plunge and ask my host parents if I could feed the starving dog in my house that is nursing and not being fed. She is skin and bones and relies soley on food scraps, which she has to compete with 3 other dogs to get. We also dont eat much meat here, so she rarely gets protein. I just couldnt watch here suffering, so I went to town and bought dog food and have been feeding her ever since. I, of course, didnt want to offend my family, but they seemed to be alright with it and now I have a new friend that wags her tail and follows me everywhere!
Im gaining a little more independence here. Today was my first day that I came into town by myself and feel really good about it. The other day was not so successful. I took the bus to a training class and I got smashed in the middle of the bus and by the time the cobrador could get to me to take my money and ask where my stop was, we had passed it. So I tried to push my way to the door to get off at the next stop, dropping my wallet on the way and luckily the kind Nicas stopped me and returned it to me, then the bus miracously stopped. It had broken down 2 blocks before my stop! How lucky is that. Of course, I didnt realize where I was when I jumped off the bus and had to frantically ask people in my terrible spanish.
So, theres been lots of ups and downs here and I imagine it´ll be like that for my entire service here in Nicaragua. One things is for sure, its a different experience everyday and Im not so sure I´ll ever fully get used to it.
For know, I am trying to stay positive, learn as much as I can, and enjoy the little differences, like the banana licuados (yes...finally found my beloved licuados last week), the beautiful scenery, the kind people, and being able to be outside all the time.
Another week has gone by and I´ve turned a landmark with 3 weeks under my belt in my training town. After 3 weeks we change language instructors and locations of classes to my casa for another 3 weeks. It still seems like I just got here and I have so much more to learn...which I do.
Spanish is coming along but Ive got A LOT more to learn. Our youth group is not doing so well, as its hard to get youth to commit to times and meetings each week and it seems it always rain at the time of our meeting. Since everyone travels by foot, rain and mud stop kids from coming to our meetings.
Im starting to get into the slow pace of life here. Yesterday I awoke at 5am (like normal) and made my way to the ¨kitchen¨about 6:30 to find Rosario making rosquillos (a pastry like food typical of Nica). I had my coffee, which is sooo good because they buy the beans fresh, toast, and grind them themselves, then helped make rosquillas. It was a big family affair, making 10 dozen or so and having to fire up the big horno (oven) out back. This oven is a huge dome that is literally fired up with wood and flames and is not used all that often because of the wood thats needed to use it. Spent the rest of the morning cleaning my room and washing my clothes and shoes, which takes an extraordinarily long time when a newbee like me is trying to wash clothes by hand without runnig water. Its very gratifying work and even though our families are supposed to do it for us, I enjoy helping out and having something to do.
Spent the afternoon lying in the hammock reading a book and hanging out with all the people that come in and out of the porch of my house.
Later on that evening, my Peace Corps friend and I decided to cut each others hair...a new experience for both of us. I figured it cant be that bad. Im living pretty basic here and rarely see a mirror, so I really wasnt too concerned with how it looked, just wanted some of it gone!
More about life here,I enjoyed the tranquility the other afternoon of sitting on the porch doing my homework and watching my host father husking corn in preparation for the daily tortillas and the soft sound of spanish-nica music coming from the kitchen.
But I also have many days of constant noise, dogs barking, roosters crowing, babies crying, everyone screaming. Its hard for an only child like me to get used to all this noise and people, so I savor the tranquil days.
Ive been running in the mornings on the muddy back roads behind my house. It rains almost every afternoon and the mud is seriously thick. I feel like Im always dirty! But its worth it for the amazing views (if theres not too many clouds) of the lush green highland hills I get every morning. I always pass a few cows and horses (which also pass my house several times a day) and if I time it right, I pass the morning milking that occurs down the road, right in the middle of the road...no stantions present here! Speaking of milking, I got the chance to milk a cow here during spanish class, by hand of course. Another day of spanish class, we spent coming into town and having to ask directions from people on the street and navigate ourselves around.
We had 2 days of technical training last weekend that felt like a retreat! The group of trainees (about 25 of us) started out on Sunday with a 2 hour hike to a waterfall where we swam and the brave few jumped off rocks and 40 foot high trees! The nica boys jumping were fearless and the few peace corps people that did it put me to shame with adventure. I chickend out at the last minute and could only watch my friend jump.
After our waterfall hike, we were taken to this beautiful and peaceful reserve that was also an organic farm and nursery. We had some ¨charlas¨about greenhouses and how to make organic pesticides. The next day we vaccinated chickens, helped transplant veggies, played with some cows, then moved on to another farm where we learned about dairy goat and cow production and management here. Very interesting for me to learn about the differences here. All hand milking of course. I was surprised to learn about their sanitary protocols for milking, which were good, and their regular use of the California Mastitis test!
We also learned how to make organic fertilizer and compost, then all piled into the land cruisers (and I mean piled in...I couldn´t feel my leg at the end of the trip) and bumped along the pot-hole filled dirt roads, stopping for some cows to cross every once in awhile, and made our way back home.
It was a long tiring weekend but lots of fun and learned a lot. Upon returning home, I decided to take the plunge and ask my host parents if I could feed the starving dog in my house that is nursing and not being fed. She is skin and bones and relies soley on food scraps, which she has to compete with 3 other dogs to get. We also dont eat much meat here, so she rarely gets protein. I just couldnt watch here suffering, so I went to town and bought dog food and have been feeding her ever since. I, of course, didnt want to offend my family, but they seemed to be alright with it and now I have a new friend that wags her tail and follows me everywhere!
Im gaining a little more independence here. Today was my first day that I came into town by myself and feel really good about it. The other day was not so successful. I took the bus to a training class and I got smashed in the middle of the bus and by the time the cobrador could get to me to take my money and ask where my stop was, we had passed it. So I tried to push my way to the door to get off at the next stop, dropping my wallet on the way and luckily the kind Nicas stopped me and returned it to me, then the bus miracously stopped. It had broken down 2 blocks before my stop! How lucky is that. Of course, I didnt realize where I was when I jumped off the bus and had to frantically ask people in my terrible spanish.
So, theres been lots of ups and downs here and I imagine it´ll be like that for my entire service here in Nicaragua. One things is for sure, its a different experience everyday and Im not so sure I´ll ever fully get used to it.
For know, I am trying to stay positive, learn as much as I can, and enjoy the little differences, like the banana licuados (yes...finally found my beloved licuados last week), the beautiful scenery, the kind people, and being able to be outside all the time.
Friday, September 14, 2007
Friday, September 14, 2007
Well, I´m starting to settle in and become adjusted to my new lifestyle here. I´m enjoying doing pretty much everything outside, including bathing, brushing my teeth, washing my clothes, and attending spanish classes. The weather changes on a dime ehre during the rainy season (invierno). One minute its hot and sunny and the next its cold and pouring down rain. I´m learning to brink my rain coat everywhere with me.
Im also getting comfortable with the standard mode of transport, the converted american school buses. They are REALLY crowded. The other day, my fellow trainee, had to hang out the door for lack of room on the bus. It was an adventure!
My spanish is improving, or at least I´m losing my inhibitions of saying the wrong thing and I´m now trying to talk to everyone and ask them for help.
The family life is getting better and I´m starting to understand the connections. I live with an older couple and their 2 daughters and their children and children´s children live in 3 other houses next to us. My host mothers brother also lives in a house with some other relatives thats owned by another daughter who lives in the states.
Peace Corps has really been making us run around with lots of training. We´ve been so busy this last week with all sorts of training and in any free time I get, I´m doing homework or trying to start this youth group, which so far has been a disaster. Its really been a challenge to gather youth that I cant really communicate with and convince them that they want to build a garden with us!
My fellow Peace Corps trainees and I walk around town everyday to try to meet more youth but haven´t had much luck, so we resorted to a muddy game of frisbee the other day and it worked! Pretty soon, kids were coming to us and we were all slipping and sliding around in the mud! My host mom was not happy with me when she had to handwash the huge mud stains out of my khakis!
As for the ag training, last week we learned to build a square meter garden, compost, and identify Nica fruits, vegetables, and trees. Not as easy as it sounds.
One of our projects this week was to build a community map with the youth. We did two maps, one with the boys and one with the girls and it was interesting to see the different points of interest for each...nintendo and soccer fields for the boys and the names of people´s homes for the girls.
Another project I did was to interview people in my household about their daily activities. My host parents wake up at 4am everyday to start chopping wood for the fire to make coffee and breakfast, then work all day, my mom cooking and cleaning around the house, making candies called cajetas (sugar & milk...mmmm...really good) and going to town to sell the candies, my father working on a farm (finca), until they go to bed at 8pm. The youth go to school in the morning then come home for lunch and the girls help out with chores while the boys hang out and play soccer or nintendo (the nintendo is a collective place they all go to play). In free time, most people just sit and talk...the effect of a lifestyle without all the money and gadgets of an American lifestyle to keep them busy.
As for my diet, I´m eating rice and beans for almost every meal, mixed with some other random things. Cup of Noodles and a tortilla for dinner last night. A piece of meat for breakfast the other day...and once in awhile some vegetables. But, I must say I enjoy most of the food (even though its not very healthy for me) and it makes my host mother really happy when I tell her I like it (she hugs me everytime I say "me gusta").
On the job front, we had our first interview with our future boss (the APCD) for him to get to know us and our experience. The Peace Corps Nica Ag focus is on small farming and sustainability so cattle work is not really incorporated into that. Most people dont have enough money to own cows and the fincas with cattle are usually wealthier than our goals. However, my APCD thinks there might be a possibility that I can work at a site with cattle and pigs. Yeah!
Today and tomorrow are holidays here...patriotic days...so we´re in town watching the parades and enjoying the festivities. Sunday and Monday we´re hiking to a waterfall as part of our technical training (water quality tests and plant identification) and spending the night at a nature reserve. Should be fun.
Then its back to the grind trying to learn spanish and get this dreaded youth group going!
Im also getting comfortable with the standard mode of transport, the converted american school buses. They are REALLY crowded. The other day, my fellow trainee, had to hang out the door for lack of room on the bus. It was an adventure!
My spanish is improving, or at least I´m losing my inhibitions of saying the wrong thing and I´m now trying to talk to everyone and ask them for help.
The family life is getting better and I´m starting to understand the connections. I live with an older couple and their 2 daughters and their children and children´s children live in 3 other houses next to us. My host mothers brother also lives in a house with some other relatives thats owned by another daughter who lives in the states.
Peace Corps has really been making us run around with lots of training. We´ve been so busy this last week with all sorts of training and in any free time I get, I´m doing homework or trying to start this youth group, which so far has been a disaster. Its really been a challenge to gather youth that I cant really communicate with and convince them that they want to build a garden with us!
My fellow Peace Corps trainees and I walk around town everyday to try to meet more youth but haven´t had much luck, so we resorted to a muddy game of frisbee the other day and it worked! Pretty soon, kids were coming to us and we were all slipping and sliding around in the mud! My host mom was not happy with me when she had to handwash the huge mud stains out of my khakis!
As for the ag training, last week we learned to build a square meter garden, compost, and identify Nica fruits, vegetables, and trees. Not as easy as it sounds.
One of our projects this week was to build a community map with the youth. We did two maps, one with the boys and one with the girls and it was interesting to see the different points of interest for each...nintendo and soccer fields for the boys and the names of people´s homes for the girls.
Another project I did was to interview people in my household about their daily activities. My host parents wake up at 4am everyday to start chopping wood for the fire to make coffee and breakfast, then work all day, my mom cooking and cleaning around the house, making candies called cajetas (sugar & milk...mmmm...really good) and going to town to sell the candies, my father working on a farm (finca), until they go to bed at 8pm. The youth go to school in the morning then come home for lunch and the girls help out with chores while the boys hang out and play soccer or nintendo (the nintendo is a collective place they all go to play). In free time, most people just sit and talk...the effect of a lifestyle without all the money and gadgets of an American lifestyle to keep them busy.
As for my diet, I´m eating rice and beans for almost every meal, mixed with some other random things. Cup of Noodles and a tortilla for dinner last night. A piece of meat for breakfast the other day...and once in awhile some vegetables. But, I must say I enjoy most of the food (even though its not very healthy for me) and it makes my host mother really happy when I tell her I like it (she hugs me everytime I say "me gusta").
On the job front, we had our first interview with our future boss (the APCD) for him to get to know us and our experience. The Peace Corps Nica Ag focus is on small farming and sustainability so cattle work is not really incorporated into that. Most people dont have enough money to own cows and the fincas with cattle are usually wealthier than our goals. However, my APCD thinks there might be a possibility that I can work at a site with cattle and pigs. Yeah!
Today and tomorrow are holidays here...patriotic days...so we´re in town watching the parades and enjoying the festivities. Sunday and Monday we´re hiking to a waterfall as part of our technical training (water quality tests and plant identification) and spending the night at a nature reserve. Should be fun.
Then its back to the grind trying to learn spanish and get this dreaded youth group going!
Saturday, September 8, 2007
Saturday, September 8
Hello friends,
I haven´t written for a week because Ive been in my training site since last Saturday. I live in a small pueblo called Santa Cruz, just south of Esteli, in the northern highlands of Nicaragua. Luckily Hurrican Felix changed its course and headed north before hitting us in the west side of the country. My host family is really large...I still havent figured out whos related to who and everyones names and there´s always someone new showing up.
It was quite intimidating the first day and a half. I was dropped off alone at this house that is very different than anything you´d see in america. We have electricity but no running water. We pull water up out of a well for everything from cooking to bathing. I take bucket baths with cold water in a concrete 4 walled enclosure in the middle of the porch where everyone congregates. And because of my height, I can see everyone while I shower and I think they can see me. Goodbye privacy!
I have my own room-house-barn. I think its a converted barn that has 4 concrete walls with no windows and a tin roof that isnt attached to the walls so birds and bugs fly in regularly at night. I also have the pleasure of being awoken ALL night long by roosters that dont understand that they should only crow in the mornings. Because of the lack of enclosure, it seems like they are right inside my room with me and I havent been able to sleep past 5am yet. Theres also newborn puppies on the other side of my room that cry all night and a pig tied up outside another wall. He´s pretty quiet except when I wake him up in the middle of the night with my headlamp as I´m trying to find a plac eto pee outside because the latrine is filled with cockroaches at night.
Ah, what a life!
And the language is really rough. I don´t understand much that my family says but it gets better each day and theres definately a lot of people around to practise my spanish with.
We also have a couple days of technical training a week which gives me much needed time with other americans and where I´m learning basic ag skills for Nicaragua...mostly gardening and composting. Our big goal with Peace Corps Nica Ag is youth groups, so part of our training is to start a youth group in our community and build a garden, tree nursery, and commercialization project in 11 weeks! We´ve already had a group meeting which was difficult finding youth in one week in a new community!
Its been a hard adjustment the last week and I imagine theres going to be more hardships, but each day does get easier and things that I thought were totally strange at first become more normal.
Thats all for this week and hopefully I´ll have more stories for next week and maybe some pictures!
I haven´t written for a week because Ive been in my training site since last Saturday. I live in a small pueblo called Santa Cruz, just south of Esteli, in the northern highlands of Nicaragua. Luckily Hurrican Felix changed its course and headed north before hitting us in the west side of the country. My host family is really large...I still havent figured out whos related to who and everyones names and there´s always someone new showing up.
It was quite intimidating the first day and a half. I was dropped off alone at this house that is very different than anything you´d see in america. We have electricity but no running water. We pull water up out of a well for everything from cooking to bathing. I take bucket baths with cold water in a concrete 4 walled enclosure in the middle of the porch where everyone congregates. And because of my height, I can see everyone while I shower and I think they can see me. Goodbye privacy!
I have my own room-house-barn. I think its a converted barn that has 4 concrete walls with no windows and a tin roof that isnt attached to the walls so birds and bugs fly in regularly at night. I also have the pleasure of being awoken ALL night long by roosters that dont understand that they should only crow in the mornings. Because of the lack of enclosure, it seems like they are right inside my room with me and I havent been able to sleep past 5am yet. Theres also newborn puppies on the other side of my room that cry all night and a pig tied up outside another wall. He´s pretty quiet except when I wake him up in the middle of the night with my headlamp as I´m trying to find a plac eto pee outside because the latrine is filled with cockroaches at night.
Ah, what a life!
And the language is really rough. I don´t understand much that my family says but it gets better each day and theres definately a lot of people around to practise my spanish with.
We also have a couple days of technical training a week which gives me much needed time with other americans and where I´m learning basic ag skills for Nicaragua...mostly gardening and composting. Our big goal with Peace Corps Nica Ag is youth groups, so part of our training is to start a youth group in our community and build a garden, tree nursery, and commercialization project in 11 weeks! We´ve already had a group meeting which was difficult finding youth in one week in a new community!
Its been a hard adjustment the last week and I imagine theres going to be more hardships, but each day does get easier and things that I thought were totally strange at first become more normal.
Thats all for this week and hopefully I´ll have more stories for next week and maybe some pictures!
Friday, August 31, 2007
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