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.....
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