Buidling the huerto modelo
Working in the fields
And in the house laying cement
Teaching english
View of one of the areas of my morning run.Saturday, February 23, 2008
Some recent pics
Buidling the huerto modelo Working in the fields And in the house laying cementTeaching english View of one of the areas of my morning run.
23 de Febrero, 2008
Another week´s gone by and it seems like the time´s flying now. I gave my first nutrition charla to pregnant and lactating women to be followed by two more next week. The local nurse and I also visited the primary school where we recruited youth to join our adolescent club we´ll be starting in a few weeks.
Now that school has started I am being transformed by the lack of education they have here. The classrooms are basic, with zinc roofs and open spaces that allow air (and sometimes rain) into the classroom. Textbooks are rare, if even existent, and the students only have a notebook to study from at night. Receiving help with homework from parents is difficult, as many can´t read, and the ones that can often just do the homework for the kids instead of explaining it.
And then you have one teacher and one classroom for 2 grades of kids ranging from 11 to 16 years of age. The teacher teaches half the class while the other half waits until she´s done to learn their lesson. And to top it off, in the last week, they´ve missed 2 days of school due to one day of teacher meetings and another to clean the school that lacks janitors.
Although I don´t want to teach, I see a need there. Hopefully the help with homework I give to the family kids and the youth group can enrich these kids lives.
Our first meeting to work in family gardens started last week with a good turnout of both women and men, although women definately took the majority. A family garden may not sound like much, but providing nutrient-rich tomatoes, bell peppers, and radishes makes a huge difference in a diet of mainly rice, beans, and tortillas.
Also, building the idea of organization and regular meetings is important to strengthen the community and existing resources. After riding my bike around with my community counterpart for 3 hours last week to invite people to the meeting, I insisted that we set a date for the next meeting at the existing meeting. Mountain biking through dirt roads with beautiful views of pine forests and mountains is great, but 3 hours of it every month is a little unecessary.
I´m still amazed here by the beauty and how lucky I am to have my morning commute be a walk through a corn field, a jump over a creek, to climb up a banana tree forest, and arrive in someones yard with an "adios" and a chat. And to wake up everyday after a decent 8 hours or more of sleep (if I can sleep through the roosters crowing at midnight and dogs barking) without more of a routine than I dictate, is wonderful.
I try to remind myself of these things when the hard times come, like the constant cat calls from the men here or the day you show up for a scheduled meeting or event and the person casually says the dates been changed to tomorrow.
But life here is starting to normalize and I´m full of ideas for future projects and activities that are only waiting for my level of communication to improve to actualize.
Till next time.
Now that school has started I am being transformed by the lack of education they have here. The classrooms are basic, with zinc roofs and open spaces that allow air (and sometimes rain) into the classroom. Textbooks are rare, if even existent, and the students only have a notebook to study from at night. Receiving help with homework from parents is difficult, as many can´t read, and the ones that can often just do the homework for the kids instead of explaining it.
And then you have one teacher and one classroom for 2 grades of kids ranging from 11 to 16 years of age. The teacher teaches half the class while the other half waits until she´s done to learn their lesson. And to top it off, in the last week, they´ve missed 2 days of school due to one day of teacher meetings and another to clean the school that lacks janitors.
Although I don´t want to teach, I see a need there. Hopefully the help with homework I give to the family kids and the youth group can enrich these kids lives.
Our first meeting to work in family gardens started last week with a good turnout of both women and men, although women definately took the majority. A family garden may not sound like much, but providing nutrient-rich tomatoes, bell peppers, and radishes makes a huge difference in a diet of mainly rice, beans, and tortillas.
Also, building the idea of organization and regular meetings is important to strengthen the community and existing resources. After riding my bike around with my community counterpart for 3 hours last week to invite people to the meeting, I insisted that we set a date for the next meeting at the existing meeting. Mountain biking through dirt roads with beautiful views of pine forests and mountains is great, but 3 hours of it every month is a little unecessary.
I´m still amazed here by the beauty and how lucky I am to have my morning commute be a walk through a corn field, a jump over a creek, to climb up a banana tree forest, and arrive in someones yard with an "adios" and a chat. And to wake up everyday after a decent 8 hours or more of sleep (if I can sleep through the roosters crowing at midnight and dogs barking) without more of a routine than I dictate, is wonderful.
I try to remind myself of these things when the hard times come, like the constant cat calls from the men here or the day you show up for a scheduled meeting or event and the person casually says the dates been changed to tomorrow.
But life here is starting to normalize and I´m full of ideas for future projects and activities that are only waiting for my level of communication to improve to actualize.
Till next time.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
12 de Febrero, 2008
Its been a busy week or so and I'm very thankful for having something to do.
Superbowl with some friends was fun, but as always, I think I enjoyed being able to eat different food like hambugers and ice cream sundaes, more than anything else. And of course it was great to see some friends that I haven't seen from training.
Superbowl was followed by a few days in a friends community helping build an improved stove for a family. These stoves are made of the traditional mud mix that they seem to use to build everything here. But our design uses bricks and a few pieces of bent iron rebar for support. And the key difference is the chimney to funnel smoke out of the lungs of the women that stand over the stove all day and up into the sky and the special ramp built inside to use less firewood that is quickly being depleted in this country without much reforestation.
The stove building was a great learning experience for me. See pictures below of Maritza making a chicken for examples of how the stove looks.
As soon as I was back from these activities I got busy planning meetings with my counterparts to start our gardens with the womens groups and attending "controls" with the local nurse. This is a monthly event where she weighs children under 2 (using donated balance-like scales where children are hung in a sack) to track their growth and gives vaccinations and vitamins to pregnant and lactating women. I'm tagging along to meet the women in the groups (which helps me meet more of the community) and prepare to give nutrition presentations next month.
While attending one of these events, I got word of another house that is vacant. After looking at the cute, recently built house, complete with powerful electricity, glass windows, water, and a ceiling, I fell in love and hope to be moving into this place by March.
So along with work picking up, I'm busy getting organized for my move. Which requires logistics like bargaining for furniture so that I don't get too screwed on the gringo price and getting mattresses loaded onto an old school bus and trucked 2 hours to my house.
Also I have succeeded in finding a used bike and am now mobile, which is a wonderful feeling, to be able to whiz to town whenever I want.
My stomach problems have left and my perforated ear membrane has healed and been cleared by the doctor. So I'm on my way back from Managua today and heading back to dig into some "real" work.
And after a 2 week hiatus from running because of my illnesses, I'm back training again for the half-marathon in March. Amazingly I reached another goal this week and ran for a complete hour, so I am building faith that I'll make it to my mark by March 15th.
All for now, take care folks.
Superbowl with some friends was fun, but as always, I think I enjoyed being able to eat different food like hambugers and ice cream sundaes, more than anything else. And of course it was great to see some friends that I haven't seen from training.
Superbowl was followed by a few days in a friends community helping build an improved stove for a family. These stoves are made of the traditional mud mix that they seem to use to build everything here. But our design uses bricks and a few pieces of bent iron rebar for support. And the key difference is the chimney to funnel smoke out of the lungs of the women that stand over the stove all day and up into the sky and the special ramp built inside to use less firewood that is quickly being depleted in this country without much reforestation.
The stove building was a great learning experience for me. See pictures below of Maritza making a chicken for examples of how the stove looks.
As soon as I was back from these activities I got busy planning meetings with my counterparts to start our gardens with the womens groups and attending "controls" with the local nurse. This is a monthly event where she weighs children under 2 (using donated balance-like scales where children are hung in a sack) to track their growth and gives vaccinations and vitamins to pregnant and lactating women. I'm tagging along to meet the women in the groups (which helps me meet more of the community) and prepare to give nutrition presentations next month.
While attending one of these events, I got word of another house that is vacant. After looking at the cute, recently built house, complete with powerful electricity, glass windows, water, and a ceiling, I fell in love and hope to be moving into this place by March.
So along with work picking up, I'm busy getting organized for my move. Which requires logistics like bargaining for furniture so that I don't get too screwed on the gringo price and getting mattresses loaded onto an old school bus and trucked 2 hours to my house.
Also I have succeeded in finding a used bike and am now mobile, which is a wonderful feeling, to be able to whiz to town whenever I want.
My stomach problems have left and my perforated ear membrane has healed and been cleared by the doctor. So I'm on my way back from Managua today and heading back to dig into some "real" work.
And after a 2 week hiatus from running because of my illnesses, I'm back training again for the half-marathon in March. Amazingly I reached another goal this week and ran for a complete hour, so I am building faith that I'll make it to my mark by March 15th.
All for now, take care folks.
Saturday, February 2, 2008
02 de Febrero, 2008
Another month has gone by and I can´t believe its been over 2 months in my site. I´m assimilating and speaking the language better, but still have a long ways to go. At least now I am able to sit and have conversations with friends and neighbors. Although the majority of my time is still spent just hanging out with people and talking, I am working with my community counterpart and an aid organization to start ¨huertos familiares¨with a group of women in the community. I´ve already started gardens with a smaller group of women, but will be working in a more organized manner with more women in a larger group. Although I am the one that is supposed to be ¨teaching¨, I feel like I´m learning more from my counterparts and the group than they are learning from me! And for some reason my own personal garden is just going down the tubes, being attacked by all kinds of new bugs and diseases.
I´m also set up to work with the community nurse on maternal and child nutrition and health, giving ¨charlas¨and meeting all the women this month. And since school is starting this week, we will be trying to organize a youth group to teach life skills, agriculture, community banks, and relationship skills.
I´ve also started an informal english class with some neighborhood kids, that sometimes has 15 kids in attendance and other times only 1. And always be assured that they will show up 1/2 hour late.
An aerobics class is in the works, all I have to do now is remember enough moves to fill an hour!
And lastly I´ve been busy helping lay brick and perfecting my machete skills with the construction of the animal health lab that is being built at my community counterparts house. The director of the organization that is funding the lab came to our community last week to meet with the women in the group and I got a better chance to learn about the 5 year plan of this sustainable, organic agricultural organization that I am looking forward to working with over the next 2 years. They start with small garden projects for family self-consumption, then work up to chicken coups and goat production on a scale large enough to produce enough to sell.
And between all this ¨work¨I´ve been constantly sick. A terrible ear infection that perforated the membrane in my ear sent me to Managua last week and then was followed up by another round of stomach problems this week. All these enfermedades have put be in bed, kept me from running, and prevented me from socializing with the community more than I´d like.
I´ve also finally received approval for my little casita that I´ll be moving into the first of march. It still needs some work on my part, but not as much as I anticipated. Already, though, the word of me moving to a house alone and being separated a bit from the part of town I live in now has spread to everyone and they´re all talking. No one wants me to live out of their watch and can´t understand why Im not scared to live there. Hopefully with time we will all learn something different about our cultures and how living alone is normal for Americans and there is nothing to be afraid of.
I will be thinking about everyone at home as I´m watching the Superbowl from a Nica bar tomorrow. Who´s playing again?
I´m also set up to work with the community nurse on maternal and child nutrition and health, giving ¨charlas¨and meeting all the women this month. And since school is starting this week, we will be trying to organize a youth group to teach life skills, agriculture, community banks, and relationship skills.
I´ve also started an informal english class with some neighborhood kids, that sometimes has 15 kids in attendance and other times only 1. And always be assured that they will show up 1/2 hour late.
An aerobics class is in the works, all I have to do now is remember enough moves to fill an hour!
And lastly I´ve been busy helping lay brick and perfecting my machete skills with the construction of the animal health lab that is being built at my community counterparts house. The director of the organization that is funding the lab came to our community last week to meet with the women in the group and I got a better chance to learn about the 5 year plan of this sustainable, organic agricultural organization that I am looking forward to working with over the next 2 years. They start with small garden projects for family self-consumption, then work up to chicken coups and goat production on a scale large enough to produce enough to sell.
And between all this ¨work¨I´ve been constantly sick. A terrible ear infection that perforated the membrane in my ear sent me to Managua last week and then was followed up by another round of stomach problems this week. All these enfermedades have put be in bed, kept me from running, and prevented me from socializing with the community more than I´d like.
I´ve also finally received approval for my little casita that I´ll be moving into the first of march. It still needs some work on my part, but not as much as I anticipated. Already, though, the word of me moving to a house alone and being separated a bit from the part of town I live in now has spread to everyone and they´re all talking. No one wants me to live out of their watch and can´t understand why Im not scared to live there. Hopefully with time we will all learn something different about our cultures and how living alone is normal for Americans and there is nothing to be afraid of.
I will be thinking about everyone at home as I´m watching the Superbowl from a Nica bar tomorrow. Who´s playing again?
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!
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