View of the highlands from the Continental Divide.
Making organic abono (fertilizer)
Dairy goat farm
Vaccinating chickensSunday, 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!
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