Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Rain, Rain, Go Away...and Don't Come Back!

So it's still raining here in San Juan and it's not sunny, at all!  We are experiencing some interesting weather and we're not sure we like it.  There hasn't been a dry day in about a week or so and at first, it felt refreshing and a nice change, but now everything is damp in our houses, it's constantly raining, and it's actually pretty chilly.  Like I said in my last blog, it's cold here, which means 77 degrees.  However, that really is cold here.  Last night I wore pajama pants, socks, and a sweatshirt to bed.  That's cold!  It is apparently "winter" here, but the hurricane has screwed up the weather. 
I'm not sure if you can see it, but there's a lot of water in the roads here.  Oh, and there's a mototaxi (red).


Right now we're in a "standfast" where we are not allowed to leave our towns because of the current road/weather conditions.  We actually had a volunteer visit today before we found out about this, but we were with our tech trainer and language facilitator, so it was ok.  We went to Diriamba to observe a volunteer there in her instituto, but since it was so rainy, and pretty bad in her town, less than half of the students showed up for her first class and then they all had left by the time we arrived.  This was a bummer because I was really interested in watching her, but we did get to talk to her about her classes, her living situation, and how she creates materials for her classes.  She had some great ideas so I'm really glad we got to talk with her.  I'll be requesting some materials via mail from you all soon, but I want to wait until I'm in my actual site so I don't have to carry them around with me.  I will tell you some of the things though so you can get ready :)  She uses old/used magazines to cut out pictures to use as visuals for class, which is a great idea, because it's pretty hard to find pictures to use for class down here and printing is pretty dang expensive, especially if you're going to make copies for students.  Also, construction paper, markers, and crayons really come in handy.  Last, packing tape works really well for "laminating" papers or small posters because, like I said, it's wet here and there's a lack of resources, so any way to keep them in good condition in order to last more than a week is a good idea.  So, if you're wanting to help me out, please collect some of these to send, but please wait until December :)  I might have a new address by then, depending on where I am, but I'll keep you all posted.

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Hello Hurricane Matthew

Fortunately, Hurricane Matthew hit on the North Atlantic side of Nicaragua and apparently didn't do too much damage, but we've been experiencing a lot of wind and rain this past week.  Also, it is actually pretty cool here, and by cool, I mean chilly.  I actually was wearing a long sleeve shirt and a hooded sweatshirt this morning because I was so cold.  Granted, our house isn't sealed off from the outside, and our buckets were filling with drops of water, but it is cold in Nicaragua right now.  It's actually pretty cool to experience storms here, with the tin roofs and not very secure building materials.  I really thought our roof was going to blow off this morning because the winds seemed so strong.  I'm really glad they didn't though.  I even sat in my bed thinking what I should do if they had blown off.  Should I pack up my stuff and move to Kellie's host house?  Would they have to put me up in a hotel?  Ok, before I let my mind wander too much, I'll enter back into reality, where the roof is still intact and my bathroom is in the kitchen and there's no backdoor so the neighbor's dog and cat wander in whenever in search of food.  Yes, that's my reality and I'm learning to embrace it.  Well, I guess that's it for now.  I hope it stays cool for awhile longer because summer is coming soon and I've heard it gets real HOT...

Thursday, September 23, 2010

San Juan Beauties :)

This is my group in San Juan.  Kellie (Washington DC), Me, Jessica (Phoenix), and our profesora, Nidia (Managua).  This was our last day with Nidia.  We do 3 week rotations with our professors, so next we will be with Alvaro, whom we have not met yet.  Should be fun!

Ups and Downs

Not sure what exactly happened to me Monday night, but as it was getting dark and about the time I usually start getting ready for bed, I got the chills. I put on my pajama pants and a zip-up over my shirt and went out to the front room to continue working on my computer. It’s been a little “chilly” (85 degrees) the past few evenings, but this was strange because I was the only one who felt cold. I even put socks on! I decided to go to bed soon after. As I crawled into my sleeping bag (which is a sheet that’s been sewed into a sleeping bag form) I shivered and curled up, trying to keep any body heat from escaping. This was unusual. I also had a headache, which I assume was from the long day of going to Managua and back and waiting in the hospital. I fell asleep around 8:30pm and then woke up at 10:30pm feeling queasy and weak. I felt that I needed to go to the bathroom, but I didn’t know if I would throw up before I got there. So, I sat up slowly in bed, and waited a minute before climbing out of my mosquito net. I walked slowly over to the bathroom and my host mom’s sister and her daughter were still awake and their door was open. I used the bathroom and then told them that I didn’t feel well. My body felt hot, but my feet were cold. They woke up my host mom and she got out a thermometer. She was talking to her sister and said that I ate too fast. Ok, back up a little. Dinner was delicious so I might have been eating a little faster than usual, but I think they just eat really slow here. Also, I usually eat by myself, so I’m not having a conversation so eating goes a little faster… Anyway, after I ate too fast, my host mom commented on this and said that when you eat fast you get fat. Thanks. Then, now that I was sick later she said it was because I ate too fast. I’m pretty sure that eating too fast does not result in chills and a fever. Oh, yeah, I we found out I had a fever. Nice. I had a temperature of 101.3. So, I laid on the couch for a little while and my host mom brought me a wet towel for my forehead and she put blankets over me. At this time my headache was really bad—my head was pulsating. I’ve had bad headaches before and this was one of the worst. I would definitely classify it as a migraine. The back of neck hurt and right above my eyes the most. The light bothered me and sounds made the pulsating worse. Although my host mom was doing a good job taking care of me, she was talking with other in the kitchen which made my headache worse. I know she didn’t mean to, but it was crazy how little sounds affected me so much.


Later on I was drifting in and out of sleep and I suddenly felt something touching my sides and then my face. I opened my eyes slowly and realized that my host mom was putting a mini mosquitero over me and tucking it in around me and setting up pillows so it wasn’t lying on my face. This was precious. I didn’t even think about how I didn’t have my mosquito net out there—I really wasn’t thinking about anything besides my headache, which did not allow my thoughts to stray. I must have fallen asleep for awhile because a little later my host mom came and asked me to check my temperature again. It had risen to 102.2. At this time we called the PC medical office to check what we should do. She suggested taking Acetaminophen and putting a wet towel on my forehead. I had taken Ibuprofen earlier that day because of my headache, but she said it would be ok to take this now. FYI: This was midnight. My host mom asked me if I would be more comfortable in my bed rather than the couch and I thought that would be best since the tiny pillows on the couch I swear were rocks masquerading as pillows, and my 5’4” body could not stretch out completely. So, I retreated to my room and climbed inside my mosquito barrier—I feel like I live in a little bubble or something (side note). My host mom said we would check my temperature again later.

I woke up around 3am and went to the bathroom and my host mom came out and asked to check my temperature. We checked it and it had gone down to 100.4. Yay! This was still considered a fever, but I was making progress. I felt a little weak and hungry though, so I asked for something to eat. She pulled out some oatmeal and I thought that sounded awesome, and it definitely was! Why have I not been offered oatmeal before?! This was the perfect meal for this time—it was fairly plain (perfectly sweetened) and filling. I went to bed and my headache had subsided.

My alarm went off at 7:30am because of course I still had class. I really did not want to go to class even though I felt better in my stomach and my head, I was exhausted from not getting much sleep. However, I managed to get up and my host mom took my temperature again. It had gone down to 96.8! This was amazing! So, I ate breakfast and I still felt pretty miserable so I walked slowly to class. I didn’t have a fever for the rest of the day, but I didn’t feel great.



On a different note, we got to visit the Instituto (high school) again, but this time for an observation. We observed two of the English teacher’s lessons and we saw some interesting things and I’m looking forward to seeing what we can do to help her increase the use of English in her classes, and help her to become more confident with her English. She shouts a lot in class to “maintain control” and she told us we will have to do this too. Then, as we were meeting with her after class and sort of planning a little of what we would be doing with her she said, “well it’s your class, so you can do whatever you want. I’m just going to sit and observe.” Eeerrrrch! (that’s a car coming to a squealing stop). WAIT A SECOND. We then replied with “well, we’re co-teaching so we will be working with you” and she kinda laughed and then continued talking about the class. We then brought the conversation back to this because our job with PC is to be TEFL Teachers & Trainers, and our job description is that we are to CO-plan and CO-teach with English teachers. We are not allowed to take over classrooms because that is not the idea of PC. We are in an exchange, helping each other with strategies, etc. We told her again that we won’t be teaching by ourselves, to which she said “Oh, it’s ok, the first time I taught I was nervous too. You’ll get used to it.” Ok, that’s not what we’re saying. Talk about miscommunication. We were speaking in English together and her English is pretty good, but there was something going on that was not translating. This conversation went on for awhile and we left feeling that she did not completely understand us, but we decided we would just talk to our language facilitator and she could talk to her, because we were getting nowhere with her.



Although we were exhausted after all of this, we still had our youth group to get ready for. This actually went really well. We had about 8 jovenes, but it was nice to have a smaller group and it was more manageable. Tonight we taught some English and they had fun with it. We did personal information/introductions. They are a pretty goofy bunch but they are pretty willing to try out the phrases, which is good. I can tell we have differing levels of understanding, as a couple students are able to translate everything that’s in English into Spanish, when we’re checking for understanding, while others can’t read the reads, or are nervous to pronounce them incorrectly.

After the long day, I went home and had dinner and saw one of my host sisters sitting in the kitchen with her notebook. I realized that she had asked me to teach her some English, sort of teasing, but it was an indirect way of asking me, and, I had told her that I would, so I took this as a good opportunity to start. I asked her if she wanted to have an English lesson and she said yes. I was so excited, but a little nervous as to where I would start. I had written an outline of some things I could teach her depending on how much she already knew, so I started by asking her what she knew in English and we went from there. We made some small talk—greetings, what do you do/where do you work, etc. This eventually led into more details about her family situation, with her husband living and working in the States, and she is here with her two children, trying to provide for them. As our conversation continued, my heart broke for her as I listened to the struggles she is going through. Her English is fairly good and she tried hard to use as much as she knew, and her story came out clear. She desperately wants to learn more English so she can work in a call center in the capital because that’s where they pay big bucks (up to $1500/month). She wants to have a better life for her children and hopes to go to the States someday because the standard of living here is poor. I really appreciate her openness and honesty with me. I could tell she is hurting and she has been for awhile, as her husband has been gone for 3 years. There are more details to this story, but I’d like to keep them private for her sake, but I just wanted to share how incredible this was. I thought I was just going to teach her some English phrases, but I found out how important it was for her to speak English and how desperately she wanted to learn. Here, it is very expensive to take English courses, which she has tried before, but paying for the textbooks is beyond her budget. I hope that I can help her, at least gain confidence with her English and improve some, because I know she has great potential. This was truly the highlight of my time here. I felt so connected with her and felt how I can really make a difference in someone’s life.



Wednesday was another trip to Managua to meet with the doctor again in hopes of getting my medicine for my ear. This time I decided to take Dramamine before the bus trip and it actually helped. I did still feel a little dizzy when I was at the hospital, but it got better. I took the bus to the bus terminal in Managua (Huembes) and waited for one of the PC drivers and then he dropped me off at the hospital. By then I knew exactly where to go and what to do so I was fine by myself, but I missed having Roger (my BFF) with me to chat with. Roger came and met me later and helped me get my medicine from the pharmacy at the hospital. Fortunately at this pharmacy, I just show my PC ID and they don’t make me pay. The other places I have to pay and then wait for PC to reimburse me. This charge was about C$1600 which is about $80, which I definitely did not have on me. That’s definitely not in our PC weekly allowance haha FAR from it! Anyway, the pharmacist started putting the boxes of medicine on the counter and another PC volunteer that was there with us asked if that was all for me and I said I hope not because there were 3 large boxes and one smaller one. I assumed that the doctor was going to take something out of the boxes to give me, but nope. My prescription is to take 3 of these little bottles of liquid each day for 10 days and then take these pills twice a day (1 pill at a time). It’s a lot of medicine so I hope it works! It was kind of weird to have the bottles and to have to drink them because I’m used to getting ear drops so I felt weird putting the bottle to my mouth—the instructions were in Spanish and I knew my doctor said to drink it, but there was just something in the back of my mind telling me this was wrong. Well, I drank it and it was fine, and actually kinda sweet. I’m still alive :) I was happy too because I didn’t have to ride the bus back to San Juan this time because we were having meetings and Roger needed to drive there. Yay! So, I rode with Roger and Ashley (PC Trainer) back to San Juan, but this time we drove through Carazo because they had to drop off some paperwork to the Environment volunteers so it was exciting to see this region. Well, we finally made it to the meeting and we sat in a hot room for a couple hours…BUT, we got to eat Oreos and dipped them in peanut butter, which was AMAZING!

We didn’t leave the meetings until about 4:30pm and by that time we were pretty exhausted, but we still had to plan for our youth group that night. Ugh! Well, we had some ideas but we just hadn’t written them down or made our posters, so we had to get to work on that. Jessica had to meet with the English teacher from the high school to do some quick planning so I went over to Kellie’s and we got our materials out and then realized that there was no power. For some unknown reason, the power was out and we were unsure how our youth group was going to work because it gets dark here at 6pm, when our youth group starts. We saw one of the jovenes in the street and asked him what we should do and he said candles. Secretly, we were hoping for the night off, but candles it was. They set up candles around the room and Kellie brought her headlamp and there was light! We did a couple activities, practiced some greetings in English and played a game to review. It was a successful youth group, even though we were in the dark and I could barely see the jovenes to call on them. We had a great time.

I went home and searched for my headlamp. My host sister was cooking with a headlamp too. I ate dinner and did some homework in my room with my headlamp. It was pretty funny, but I guess you got to deal with what you have, right? The nice thing about having no power at night is that it’s a lot quieter at our house and everyone goes to bed earlier. It’s nice to have quiet. The streets are usually a lot quieter too. Peace.

Monday, September 20, 2010

No me gustan los buses

As the title says, I don’t like buses! Especially, those buses in Nicaragua, because even if they aren’t crammed full of a million people on a hot day, you still feel sick after you get off. Today I had another doctor appointment (follow-up) in Managua, but apparently I reached the limit of my “free Peace Corps rides” so I had to ride the bus instead of being picked up in my town. This was unfortunate because the bus ride is about an hour long and usually in the morning there are no seats so you stand, swaying against people for the entire hour. I was a little nervous to go by myself, but fortunately, the PC volunteer and her husband were heading out this morning on the bus. Yay! The PCV took a different bus to go another way, but her husband stayed with me so I was safe—what a nice guy. It really wasn’t scary, but the bus terminal can kinda be a little dangerous because there are a lot of people there and large buses that go in and out of the large gravel parking lot. I arrived to the bus terminal and saw the white PC jeep so I was relieved. From there, Roger (who is becoming my new best friend) drove me over to the hospital yet again. I know I’m supposed to be learning and practicing Spanish, but it’s a little frustrating talking in Spanish in the hospital because I’m now used to that situation.


I finally made it up to the right office with Roger, who has helped me immensely, and we waited. And we waited. And then the doctor came out and told us she would take the baby patient first because it would only be 5 minutes. Ugh! This reminded me of something I forgot to share about my last experience at the hospital. I haven’t quite figured out the hospital etiquette yet, or if it even exists here, but I ran into some interesting things. When I was here Friday, I was talking to the receptionist for my doctor and several people came up and just started talking to her while she was helping me. Instead of asking them to wait, she went along and helped them. Weird. Then, she was making a phone call for me and they started asking her questions while she was on the phone. Not sure about this. I don’t know if in the States a doctor would take a later scheduled patient first, but I don’t think so. Anyway, I can’t be mad at a baby and it did only take about 15minutes. My appointment however took about 45minutes-1 hour. I was extremely relieved when the doctor started switching between Spanish and English and then asked me if I prefer English. Oh my gosh it’s so much easier to explain this whole ordeal in English, talking about my inner ear feeling clogged… Anyway, we did a couple different tests to check things out. First she put these headphones on me (only one ear) and jammed this other thing into the opposite ear. It then made varying beeping sounds from quiet, to very loud. She then switched and did the other side. Although this was far from pleasant, she found that my left ear drum has limited movement, so it’s a middle ear problem, not something ear drops can take care of. She then proceeded to do another test where I had to sit in a booth and she pushed some buttons, I heard beeps, and had to put a control button when I heard them. Claustrophoebia started to set in a little as I was squished inside this booth wSo, weith two weird headsets jammed around my head and in my ears. If this wasn’t enough, the walls consisted of a million tiny dots, so I couldn’t focus my attention on anything, especially because I felt dizzy from the bus ride. It wasn’t too long in this booth and I started looking out the little window to make myself feel better. The next step was to go back to the other doctor’s office to give him the results and hopefully get a prescription for new medicine, pills, not drops this time. Well, what do you know, the doctor never came in today. Perfect. So, we had to reschedule for Wednesday. After my appointment, I told Roger he should have brought a book or a movie, and he chuckled. I told him that I will have to buy him a milkshake sometime because he’s been my personal chauffeur. We’re BFFs now haha

Just as the dizziness and bus yuck was wearing off, Roger dropped me off at the bus terminal. I got on the bus, but I had to wait awhile until it filled up. Tons of vendors came on and tried to sell their baked goods, pirated dvds, and bagged juices. A young girl came up and sat by me, which I thought was weird because there were a lot more empty seats. I immediately thought, oh great, I’m gonna be part of some scam. I decided I wouldn’t make conversation because I’ve heard too many stories about people scamming gringos on the buses and it usually starts out in a friendly conversation. I hate having to be like that because I’d like to think the best of everyone and take on the “innocent until proven guilty” mindset, but it’s just not possible in big towns and buses here. Fortunately, nothing bad happened on the ride home. She actually bought some candy from a vendor about 45 minutes into the ride and offered me one. I declined it politely because we are warned not to eat any homemade street foods. The candies here usually aren’t very sweet anyway.

I landed in the roundabout in Catarina, so then I walked to San Juan. By this time I felt absolutely miserable. I had been gone for about 5 hours and I was tired, hungry, and had a horrible headache. I hadn’t slept very well the night before because I kept worrying about the bus ride and missing my alarm, which didn’t happen. I arrived home and one of my “host sisters” asked me if I wanted to eat lunch, I and said, yes please! I felt sick to my stomach, but I had to eat. I ate some rice, beans, and chicken, which was delicious. I then took some Ibuprofen and laid down for a nap. Well, with all the kids here and the TV blaring cartoons, my nap didn’t go as well as I would have hoped, but I feel much better now.

Sorry this blog is a little bit of a downer, but I’m going to be optimistic. I’m just a little frustrated with these back and forth medical trips. I’m thankful to God that I’m not worse and that my ear seems to be getting better. I’m being taken care of and it’s a little cooler today because of the rain :) If you think hard, there are always several things to be thankful for, even on those down days.

Weekend News (Sunday, Sept. 19)

While staying in the hotel in Managua, I met some Peace Corps volunteers and got to talk to them about their experiences and service sites. I had breakfast with a volunteer serving in a town on the Pacific coast—he works a lot with people to improve their English skills directly involved with tourism, as 2 cruise ships arrive each month full of tourists. This was interesting to talk to him about.


I rode back to town with him and another volunteer who were giving a charla for us on sustainable development. This is a very big part of the Peace Corps—we don’t just show up in a country and try to change things and make everything “better”. We come to provide assistance, but the assistance we provide is usually not in the form of money or material things, but human assistance, equipping others with the skills they can use far after we leave. I enjoyed this charla very much because it really puts our work into perspective.

We also had a charla on safety and security which is always interesting because it usually ends up scaring us. They’re really trying to make us more aware of our surroundings and to not let our guards down just because we feel more comfortable in our communities.

I headed back to San Juan with Jessica after so I could buy some credits for my new Nica phone and get lunch. Let me know if you want to call me on that phone—you can use a calling card to call me so it’s not too expensive and it’s free for me to receive calls (I’ll have this phone with me most of the time). When I arrived home, I found another gringa in the house… She is one of my host family’s past trainees, currently working in the Environment sector and is almost done with her service (ends in October). I found out that she’s from Oregon too! She was really nice and we chatted a lot about Peace Corps stuff and great places to live/visit in Nicaragua. She actually married a Nica, I think this past summer, so that was a fun story to hear.

After a great lunch of traditional food (Indio Viejo), I headed over to the internet cafĂ© to meet up with Jess and Kellie. We hung out there for awhile and then walked over to Catarina to visit the other trainees. We met up with Julia Elena and Melissa and chatted. Of course our real motive to traveling to Catarina was actually to get ice cream… There isn’t an ice cream shop (Eskimo) in our little town, but there are TWO in Catarina! We wanted to get a big ice cream and we were NOT disappointed. I fell into ice cream heaven when I was served my banana split, complete with gummi bears on top haha I’m not a big fan of gummi bears, especially on ice cream so I passed those on to Julia Elena and Jess. However, I did finish every last bit of my three scoops of ice cream (coffee, cookies & cream, and Neapolitan), banana, and chocolate syrup. I unfortunately did not have my camera with me to take a picture of this lovely display, but we all promised ourselves this would not be the last time to have ice cream banana bliss. We were all in ice cream comas after that adventure. It was necessary to sit and chat for awhile before getting up and walking home. We had a great time together—I love how close our group is and everyone is so friendly.

Well, we eventually headed home after a little rain passed through and I settled in to work on some homework. I later had dinner, which was a little small, thankfully, because that ice cream filled me up earlier. For dinner I had gallo pinto with fried cheese—their cheese is very very salty and an interesting flavor, but I have come to realize that it’s more bearable when fried, which is nowhere near healthy, but it will do. I also had plantain chips, which are awesome! They are made by taking really thin slices of plantain bananas (length wise), then they fry them a little, and dry them. I’m not sure if there’s another step in there, but it’s pretty cool how they turn out. They are very thin have a chip like consistency and kind of curl from being fried and dried, but they’re made from bananas so it feels healthier ;)

It was pretty warm that night and I was pretty sweaty from the day, so I decided to take a shower, and fortunately for me, there was water so I got to take a real shower!! It was cold water and I have to wear my flip flops, but I’m getting used to that. I pretty much did homework and read some stuff for the rest of the evening. I wanted to take it easy and get things organized for next week. Things were pretty busy with our visitors so I didn’t go to bed until about 11pm, which is really late here! The TV was still on and there were loud guys talking/shouting in the street, but somehow I managed to fall asleep. I think I’m getting used to the noise and because I use an eye mask, I have been able to sleep better—I started using one of these in Mexico for siestas and it really helps!

Today, I’ve been working on my graduate research. I decided that I should get working on that because I want to send out surveys to teachers in the states soon. I’m actually really excited and passionate about my research, which is definitely a good thing. This makes it more interesting, rather than a chore. I brought out the crayons and paper to “distract” the little ones while I typed away on my computer and wrote notes in my spiral. (If you want to include a spiral notebook with a personal letter sometime, it would be much appreciated) I think I’m going to study some Spanish too, because I feel that even though we try to stay away from language drills and lots of grammar, I’m sort of missing that aspect of my learning. I need some practice with that and then hopefully I’ll make these phrases more familiar so they’re fresh in my memory for use with real people :)

Sorry I don’t have any new pictures right now to add, but you can continue to check my Facebook page. I added some pictures and videos on Friday.
 
Pics:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2048879&id=51701128&l=b618ef13be

Friday, September 17, 2010

Hotel Managua

Ok, well I'm not really at "Hotel Managua" and I'm not sure if that actually exists, but I am in a hotel in Managua just for the night.  The doctors wanted to bring me in to have my ear checked out AGAIN, but it was nice because I went to a specialist and it seems that things are improving.  He instructed me to stop taking the ear drops and he wants to check up on me once more on Monday.  Since my appointment was late this afternoon, Peace Corps put me up in a hotel for the night, and then I'm back to San Juan in the morning.  It's been a crazy adventure with this ear, but I'm looking forward to the day when I can hear normally again.  Right now though, I'm enjoying some AC, free internet, and I'm going to take a warm shower before I head to bed.  I know I'm getting great treatment right now, but please keep me in your prayers...also Jessica (from my town) is sick (stomach) so please pray for her too.

Ok, here are some other updates:

Youth Group


Our youth group (grupo de jovenes) is going really well so far. I’m going to call them jovenes here because I keep wanting to say kids or students, but they’re aren’t really that young, and they’re not really our students and I don’t want to say adolescents because it feels weird. The best weird is in Spanish so that’s what I’m gonna use to talk about this group. So, we had 15 jovenes Wednesday for our meeting and we practiced some questions and answers about personal information in English. It was fun to finally be teaching English and the jovenes are eager to learn more and practice. There are some challenges to our group, like any classroom, there are various ages and levels of English ability; however, for the most part our students do not know much English. It’s fun though because we have been talking a lot about what they want to learn and this is a unique situation where we get to cater to their needs, rather than following a specific curriculum. I really like this because it makes more sense and the jovenes will learn what they want and need to learn in English. So far what we have planned is to teach them introductions, greetings, interrogatives, how to give/ask about prices (there are a lot of little shops in our town selling basic everyday things, food, pottery, hammocks, and more), how to describe/promote their products, some idiomatic expressions (colloquialisms/slang), and of course lots of practice and review! I’m really excited about this and I keep thinking about how great this experience is and how it will build my teaching experience for the future.

 
Encouraging Quotes


“Nothing of significance is achieved without effort and hard work and weariness” –Max Lucado

I find this quote encouraging because a lot of times in our work, no matter what we’re doing, we tend to struggle or get frustrated, but if it’s always easy, than it probably isn’t significant. In order to accomplish great things, we must work hard, and if we aren’t willing to put in the effort, we won’t reach our goals. I read this quote the other day when I was lying in bed, exhausted from the day’s activities. It was perfect for that time, and it makes complete sense for the job I’m doing here.

Another quote I recently read and found relevant to my service here is:

“I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve.” -Albert Schweitzer

I really like this because I have a passion for serving others, and no matter this service is, various places in the states, or here in Nicaragua, it brings me happiness and peace. We were meant to serve. “For even the Son of God did not come to be served, but to serve others.” Mark 10:45

Thursday, September 16, 2010

The day I chased down the ice cream man...

Today is one that goes down in history...today is the day I chased down the ice cream man!  So now that we're a little more than 2 weeks into our adventure here in Nicaragua, we've been thinking a lot about the things we miss back home, especially the food.  Lately, we've been talking a lot about desserts and ice cream because they don't have much of what we consider desserts and we haven't seen a place to buy a pint of Ben & Jerry's yet.  There is the occasional ice cream man that cruises through the town on his bicycle though.  We have bought ice cream from him once before and we have missed him many times, but today in class, we heard the bells of the ice cream man and shouted "Ice Cream" to which our profesora replied "Go!" so we ran out to the main street to see where he was.  Well, he was about 3 blocks down the road already, but we didn't give up.  I actually started running, yes, I chased the ice cream man down the main street in our town for 3 1/2 blocks and yelled "Senor!" until he turned around.  I just started laughing, but told him there were two other girls who wanted ice cream too, so he turned around and pedaled back up the street.  Everyone was staring at me as I walked alongside the ice cream man returning down the main street ringing his bell, but we got our dulce de leche ice cream bars and all was good.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

What's been going on lately...

We’ve had a lot of hot weather and a lot of rain. It’s been pretty crazy with so many activities as well.

On Saturday, Kellie and I visited another trainee (Julie—Julia Elena) in the next town over (Catarina). It was nice to visit and just sit and chat. We were going to go see “El Mirador” the lookout over the lagoon in Catarina, but it started raining and was getting a little dark so we turned back. I got home and my host family was watching shows on September 11th. I joined them and although it was really sad, especially being in another country, it was good for me (and everyone) to remember those people who lost their lives, the people that risked their lives to save others, and the way the unfortunate event united our country. It was a good reflection, but made me sad to think about the continuation of disagreements and fighting going on. We watched various footage from that day and near 9pm, the power went out so I retreated to my room.

Sunday was really hot and there was activity from the morning on. We kept hearing what sounded like bombs or cannons, which I was a little accustomed to from staying in Mexico for six weeks hearing the cannons in celebration of certain saints. Here, we never figured out what they were for—I even asked one of my host sisters and she didn’t know. Anyway, later we found out that La Torcha de Libertad was coming through our town (this had nothing to do with the cannons because they were going off all weekend). La Torcha symbolizes freedom throughout Central America. It begins in Guatemala and goes down through Central America ending in Panama. I thought it was pretty cool that it actually went through our little town, but it was fun to see the students carrying the torch and Nicaraguan flags.  Later that day Kellie and I decided to go to El Mirador, and my host sister had asked me earlier if I wanted to go, so we invited her as well. We walked across the highway into Catarina and then headed up to the viewpoint. It’s a pretty touristy area—no gringos, but people from all over Nicaragua. They have a few restaurants there and lots of shops. We sat and enjoyed the view, where we could actually see Granada and Lake Nicaragua (where I took a boat ride while staying in Nicaragua). The lagoon (La laguna) is below and a volcano to the right. From my understanding, the lagoon is a crater from a previous volcano, because people were telling me that not many people go swimming there because the sides are fairly steep and there’s not much shallow water. I found out that a lot of people here don’t know how to swim which seems weird to me, but if they don’t have pools or anyone to teach them, then I guess it’s normal. Anyway, we got ice cream cones before heading home because it was hot, and do I really need a reason for ice cream? ;)

Monday was a regular day of classes for us, but all of the students in town have the week off for Independence Day festivities. With all the rain though, it actually cooled down a bit in the evening, getting down to about 85 degrees. It was refreshing :)

Yesterday we had the day off to participate in the festivities with our family because this is the day with the most celebrations. My family did not plan to go to the parades, thankfully, because I heard from other trainees that watching 3 hours of marching students, sometimes with music, sometimes without, in the hot sun, got very boring. I had wanted to go to the Laguna and had talked to my host family about this and my host brother planned that we would go this day and leave the house at 8am. Well, I’m still trying to get accustomed to Nica time, which is very different from the US. I got up at 7am, because I usually get up at this time for my 8am class. I started getting ready and waited for my host mom to make me breakfast. I told her that I was going to the Laguna with my host brother and sisters and she said they weren’t even awake yet. So, I ended up having breakfast at 8:15, by which that time I was starving! My host mom told her daughter that she didn’t want me going because the terrain is difficult to get down the bottom of the crater. I told them that I go hiking in Oregon and I had gone hiking in Mexico through a lot of rocky terrain so it would probably be fine. We finally left the house a little after 9am and walked over through the town, across the highway, and over toward the entrance of what would be a crazy hike down to the Laguna. We had three little ones with us (3, 5, and 7). I helped the five year old girl along through the rocks, mud, small rivers that crossed our path, brush, and beating sun. I’m glad I have experience hiking. I’m not a professional by any means, but I was used to this kind of hiking so I was able to get through it just fine, while helping a five year old as well. I wore my water/hiking shoes because I knew it would probably be muddy because it had rained a lot the night before and I didn’t know the conditions of the lake. I’m glad I wore these because I saw many pieces of various kinds of shoes left behind along the way to the Laguna.


Two hours later, we finally made it to the bottom and I had sweated more than ever—I was dripping, pouring, and I thought my hair was even sweating. I was so excited to just jump in the water and cool off. We walked around a little to find a good place to put our stuff and swim. We walked through parts of the water to get to another beach and the water felt pretty warm. Well apparently, since this is/was a volcano, there’s hot water spots bubbling up—which we found. It was almost boiling hot. Fortunately, we found a cooler place to swim and stopped there. We swam out a little to find some cool spots, but for the most part the water was warm. It wasn’t too bad because the sun was behind the cloud so it had cooled off a bit. We stayed there for about an hour before heading back.



We decided to take a different way back which was more like a road as it had two lines of cement slabs so a car could drive up and down the road. This didn’t necessarily mean it was easy. By the time we made it to this “paved” part, it was raining and it was pretty much like walking up a river. At one point, I asked my host brother if we were close and he said yes, the road was very close. We had to stop part way and seek refuge in a straw hut to wait out the rain. We stayed there, drank some water, and had some snacks. After about 45 minutes or so we wanted to get going, but I was the only one with an umbrella and the rain hadn’t stopped. When we heard thunder, my host brother said we had to go. So, we trekked out into the pouring rain and continued our journey uphill through the muddy “river”.


We continued on and my host brother kept saying “estamos cerca” (we’re close) to which I now replied “!Mentiras!” (Lies!). He laughed and we kept hiking. He said it again and I shouted “!Mentiroso!” (Liar!) and he laughed again—it became more of a joke throughout the rest of the way up. We forged on and finally made it to the top around 3:30pm (about 2 hours later). I took some pictures there because it was a little different view from El Mirador, then we took a mototaxi back home. I am amazed at how many people they’ll squish into those things! Mototaxis are basically a motorcycle that has a mini car built around it, so in the front is the driver, and then there is a bench in the back for passengers, and the whole thing is covered—I think I have a picture of one in a different blog, but I’ll try to get a better one. Anyway, my host brother squeezed into the front with the driver on the small bench, and then in went my two host sisters and I in the back, along with little ones on our laps. This means there were five adults and three little kids in one mototaxi. I just started laughing. While we drove on the highway we went about 5 mph—it was so silly. We had to climb some pretty big hills, but the driver did not give up. We did pass a man on a bicycle going up the hill, but everything else raced past us. I’m glad the roads aren’t too narrow, because there aren’t many rules about passing—you just pass when you want. We finally got home and I was so hungry because we had been gone for about 6 ½ hours and I only ate some granola bars for lunch and it was already 4pm. I took a shower first because of various reasons, sweat, dirty water, mud, etc. We actually had running water so I got to take a real shower too which was a nice treat :) Then I had a later lunch—it was pretty much gallo pinto soup, as it was beans, rice, onions, cilantro, and water I guess. It was really good though. I also had a cooked plantain, and of course fresh fruit juice. By this time I was exhausted so I relaxed in the living room with my host sister and a friend that came over. It was 5pm then and I knew I had the youth group at 6pm, but I just wanted to lounge for awhile. I did go to the youth group and we had 12 kids this time which was great! We had them make maps of their community to see what resources they had and things they need. We talked about reasons why English might be needed and what things they have in their community already that can help them learn English.





It was a long night and I got home around 8:15pm. I was so exhausted, but I managed to eat some dinner (fruits & veggies) and then read a little while lying in my bed.

Today I had classes in the morning and we’re having another youth group meeting tonight because our usual days won’t work with the students so we’re reworking that. Anyway, I’m excited for our youth group and to work more on teaching them English (which is the purpose of our group, among other subtopics).

Link to my Facebook Photo Album in case you don't have Facebook

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Masaya

My host brother and his wife invited me to go to Masaya with them this morning in hopes of getting my a Nica cell phone.  The bus ride there was of course interesting.  I thought things were not gonna be too crazy as it would be a short ride.  Well, we came around a corner and there apparently was a bike race taking place coming toward us.  The lead cars were only about 20 feet ahead of the bikes, not giving us much warning so we came to a quick stop and had to wait for the entire crowd of bikes to pass, along with lead cars and other vehicles pushing their way through.  So it wasn't too bad, but it was pretty crazy because I know in the U.S. there would be a lot more saftey precautions...  Anyway, we made it to Masaya which is a much bigger town that San Juan and it was really neat to walk around.  We went into the supermercado and I bought a few things that weren't available in my town, and then we went to the phone store.  I got a Movistar phone (there are two companies--Movistar & Claro).  Movistar is a little cheaper but doesn't have as good of service.  I'm not too worried about that though.  They all have Movistar phones so I figured it was fine :)

We met up with my other host sister and I went with her to head back to San Juan while the others went somewhere else.  She wanted to get something in the market so we walked through what seemed like a never-ending covered market.  It was crazy but really cool!  I want to go back--it's fun just to look at all the stuff.  We finally made it to the "bus depot" which is a large gravel parking lot outside of the market where buses crowd in to pick up as many passengers as they can.  We got on the bus and had to wait awhile because they wanted to get more passengers.  During this waiting time, several people get on and off the bus trying to sell bags of juices/water, snacks, etc.  It cracks me up how they drink everything out of bags.  There are bottles here, but they're seldom used.  This juice bags look similar to what frozen veggies come in in the States, but they're about half the size.  So, you buy one, bite the corner off, and then drink.  Some of them are clear plastic bags that are filled with juice and ice, then tied off around a straw.  I have yet to try these because we are warned not to and they don't look very safe for my stomach...

Anyway, we made it back home and I was glad for that because it was HOT!  SO HOT!  I felt like my face was burnt & I was sweating so much.  I felt hungry and started eating lunch, but couldn't eat much.  I think it was the heat.  I drank a lot of juice & water too though.  Now I'm at the cyber with Jessica & Kellie.  We might go into Catarina later (the next town over) to visit some other trainees.  We'll see!

A Little Sick (August 10th)

Well I told you all about my ear, right? I got water in it while swimming at the pool in Granada and it never came unclogged. The PC medical office prescribed some ear drops which I picked up in the next town at a pharmacy. The med office called me on Wednesday and asked me how it was going and it still hadn’t cleared up so they asked me if I wanted to come in to Managua. Well of course I decided to go because I had been trying to assimilate into a new culture with a plugged ear, making it difficult to hear/understand people, especially with them speaking in Spanish. Roger from PC came and picked me up and then we made the trip to Managua. Roger was very kind and chatted with me the way there and pointed out sights. It was a nice air conditioned ride, a luxury. We arrived to the PC office in Managua and it was a strange place…it was white and sterile, it had clean, private bathrooms with real flushing toilets. The office was air conditioned and I was sweating profusely and oddly felt comfortable. Was I not aware of the luxuries I was missing? It was strange, but nice to feel clean—I used real soap to wash my hands in a sink :)


After I settled in to this nice place, I had an appointment with one of the doctors and she took a look into my ears. She thought there might be bacteria in my ear so she prescribed a new medicine. Also, I told her that the day before I was feeling dehydrated, overheated, and weak. So, she decided to do some tests to see if I might have bacteria in my stomach…nice.

Well I’m currently taking drops in my ear for bacteria 3 times a day and in order to do so I have to lie on my side for about 10 minutes to let the medicine set and then insert a cotton ball…I look good ;) Also, I’m now taking pills for stomach bacteria as I received positive results today, and we all know in medicine that “positive” really means negative or not good :/

I had to wait until today to find out the results from yesterday’s tests, but fortunately I was going to Managua with the whole Nica 54 group for meetings. It was quite an adventure getting there though.

The two other trainees from my town and I were supposed to meet our language facilitator at the bus stop near the next town at 5:30am. Yes, you read that right, 5:30am!! We walked up the “highway” and there were several bus stops so we asked a man where the “empalme” was (where we were meeting our teacher) and he said “aqui” (here). So we stood and waited with several other people for about 10 minutes or so and didn’t see our teacher. We then decided to walk up the way a little and then found out we had been waiting in the wrong place and missed our “microbus” (smaller buses that are a little more secure and travel faster). The microbuses to Managua come through every half hour, so we waited a little and then decided to take the regular bus, which was already pretty full. We squeezed our way on where there was standing room only. These buses continue to pick up patrons until they are “full”, which I don’t think they know the definition of “full”. As we traveled, we continued to pick up people and the man collecting the fares yelled at everyone to keep moving back and to make two lines in the center aisle. Are you kidding me?!?! There were 3 people to a seat, two lines down the middle, and then the fare collector snaking through the sea of people to collect money. It was ridiculous. And when we finally thought we couldn’t possibly take on any more people, three or four squeezed on in. Then, even more came later. I thought they were going to start telling us to sit on top of the seat backs or lay across each other. I started feeling pretty queasy because I was standing for about an hour on an extremely crowded, uncomfortable, stuffy bus. Fortunately, one of the men opened another window so we got some fresh air :)

Finally, we made it to Managua, but our trip was not over. We walked around the bus terminal/market at Huembes and then caught a taxi to La Uca to meet up with the other trainees. It was so great to see our friends again! It had been a long week! We traveled to our destination in PC jeeps which are pretty cool and I trust the PC drivers much more than the bus drivers here. We had meetings all day, got rabies vaccinations, had snacks and lunch, and then I started feeling sick again :( I called the medical office and the doctor told me the results of my test and told me to get some medicine in Managua to start asap. Also, she told me to avoid dairy products and fried/spicy foods…well what I am going to eat in Nicaragua then?!? Hahaha Plain foods, which are good for me anyway because it will be better on my stomach, bacteria or not.

The bus ride home was less eventful and I was glad for that. Our PC driver solicited a bus which promised us 21 TEFL volunteers all seats so we wouldn’t have to stand on our long ride home. This was much better! I took my pill and we headed home. I had to tell my host mom all the foods I can’t eat, but the doctor suggested foods such as: vegetables, plain rice, bread, juice, and chicken without spices. I was actually looking forward to eating some plain food because lately I’ve had large portions of interesting flavors, not bad, just a lot. P.S. the cheese here is not good :( My host mom made me mashed potatoes (pure de papas), squash, and juice (de guayaba). It was a smaller meal which was perfect because I ate a lot today already and I feel bad wasting food. I’m not quite sure why, but my host mom always gives me such large portions and I always tell her it’s a little too much. I don’t want to offend her and she says it’s ok if I can’t eat it all. I hope she’ll make smaller meals from now on because they don’t really do “leftovers” here, which is unfortunate.

After this crazy day, I was glad to be home with my host family and finally relax after all the running around. The kids were pretty wild, but it becomes white noise to me. I’m really enjoying getting to know my host family more and we’ve been talking a lot more about all kinds of things. My host brother is probably my favorite because he cracks me up and is always asking me questions if I’ve heard of something or if I’ve tried gallo pinto (the favorite dish of Nicas), etc. But don’t worry, my friends, this man is married, so nothing will happen here hahaha I saw some of you seeing some potential, but nada At our orientation in Granada we completed a form for our “time capsule” and on there it asked “how likely are you to date (casually) a Nica, date (seriously), or marry a Nica”, to which I marked “no way” to all of the above. Sorry to disappoint you friends. But then again, you never know ;)

Anyway, I’m looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow…maybe 8am? That’s pretty good for me! I’ve always been a night person, but with my schedule here, I get sleepy around 8:30-9pm…yikes! I’m becoming an old person! Haha Until we meet again…

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

A Whole New World

No, this isn't Aladdin, but I will tell you about a whole new world...

I'm definitely enjoying my time here in Nicaragua, but there are some interesting things I have experienced so far and things that I realize I take for granted in the U.S.  Here are a few: they only have "running" water on certain days here, so we usually take bucket baths and use small bowls to scoop water from the pila to pour over our hands to wash.  I usually use hand sanitizer too because I never feel clean...something I will have to get used to.  Next, going along with the no "running" water, in order to "flush" the toilet, after going to the bathroom, you have to pour water forcefully into the bowl and then it just goes down.  I'm still learning how to do this, and I usually have to pour a couple times and my host mom says "con fuerte" (with force) hahaha  Well, on the topic of water, we don't have "clean" or purified water, besides my jug in the kitchen, so I have to be a little careful with hand washing, showers, brushing teeth, etc.  Ok, next on the list is electricity.  My house does have electricity, but my room is very dark because I have a single light bulb hanging from the ceiling and no windows :(  Fortunately though, the living room is bright and has many windows.  There are also a couple TVs in the house with cable--this surprises me considering the living conditions here, but it serves as good entertainment.  However, there are a lot of tormentas (storms) during the rainy season with thunder, lightning, and lots and lots of rain so the power often goes out.  This means no lights, no stoves, no TVs, no radios, etc.  Fortunately, this hasn't happened that often since I've been here, but it's pretty crazy when it does.  Privacy is a big thing here for all of us trainees and I've heard that it can be an issue, but now I understand why.  The walls to our rooms do not extend to the roof, so you can hear everybody's business and they can hear you.  This goes for the bathroom too, which is kind of in the kitchen...kinda awkward.  We share toilet paper too, so I always have to ask where the toilet paper is when I need to use the bathroom.  The "bathroom" is a combined area with a toilet and a shower with tiled floors.  So, it's always damp and not very clean, and when I brush my teeth, I spit in the shower and rinse with my bottled water.  I feel like I'm camping, but I love camping, right?  :)   Transportation is another thing I miss because I can't just hop in my car and go to the store or go to a friend's house.  Even if I could get in a car to one of the stores here (which are little pulperias and they're really close) they don't have many items, so I'm waiting for a trip to the "big city" :)  One thing my friend asked me about was AC...which does not exist here, nor did I think it would.  It gets pretty dang hot here and I am constantly sweating!!  I found out though if I take a shower at night it's better because sometimes it cools down to about 80 degrees so I can relax.  It's hilarious when it drops below 90 though, because my host mom says "oh, it's cold" and I'm thinking "oh, it's perfect" or pleasantly warm haha  Ok, last thing on the list for now is language.  I live with a family that only speaks Spanish (my host brother knows some English words when I try to ask him about some things, but very few) and I have Spanish classes 8am-noon, then 1-3pm.  Being forced to speak Spanish is great because I'm picking up more things, but it's hard because I can't always express my opinions.  It's so nice to have this outlet here to explode the English that's been stored up.  I talk to the other trainees after class in English (because we can't speak in English in class). 

Ok, I hope that you understand a little more of what I'm experiencing.  I have a funny story for you from today...as I have mentioned, we have class in one of the host family's houses and there is a lot of noise.  Well, this morning some men were helping one of the ladies in the house put up a large mirror on the wall in the next room.  They drilled into the wall for several minutes as our instructor rolled her eyes...it was hilarious!  Then, a man pulled up on his motorcycle with a propane tank on the back to deliver to the house.  He got off his motorcycle and approached the house, and then it happened...his motorcycle tipped over, spilling gasoline on the ground (this is about 15 feet outside our open door) and then propane tank came loose and rolled down the hill.  Yikes!  Well, he ran and picked it up, but left the gasoline on the ground and got his tank.  I was so scared when he got back on to leave because I didn't want him to start it and catch fire.  He rolled away and started it up down the hill and there wasn't a fire fortunately, but it was quite a scene. 

Ok, well I must go now, but hope you're enjoying my adventures...

Monday, September 6, 2010

Feeling Generous???

I know some of you have mentioned that you would like to send care packages to me.  I found out that packages can get through the mail system, just keep them smaller and light. 

Here are some things you can send if you need ideas (letters of encouragement are great too!):
-Non-scented hand sanitizer
-Tissues (travel packs)
-Baby wipes/wet wipes (good for a "shower" in these hot days)
-Small candles (for power outages)
-Coloring books & crayons for the kiddos in mi casa & in the neighborhood
-notebook/computer paper or spirals
*No chocolate as it would melt :(

Today we had our first long day of language class (regular schedule): 8am-noon, lunch at home, 1-3pm.  In the morning we have "formal" Spanish where we discuss phrases, verbs, etc. and practice with each other.  In the afternoon, we have "applied" Spanish, which is where we go out in the town and practice using Spanish in our community.  It's so funny with our classes because we have class at one of the volunteer's houses and switch every couple weeks.  Right now we are in Kellie's house and there are a lot of kids that make noise during class, watch tv, etc.  There are lots of noises outside, including a parade that passed by today.  It was all of the school children.  My language teacher thinks they were practicing for some presentation. 
Disruptions like these are completely normal and usually we just talk louder and lean forward to hear each other haha

This afternoon, we walked around the town to map out our community.  This was really neat because I didn't really know what all was around town.  We walked around and drew maps and wrote down important things, such as el instituto (the high school) that we will be working with later on, and the internet cafes ;)  We also met the police and talked to them briefly.  They wrote down our names and where we live, just for safety purposes.  They have volunteers in town all the time.  Also, we stopped and talked to some jovenes (high school age kids) because we have to form a youth group during out training period.  We set up a time to meet with them to introduce ourselves and get things started.  I'm a little nervous of course, but fortunately Jessica, Kellie, & I get to work together on this and we will be teaching them English, among other things. 

Now I'm in the internet cafe with the two other aspirantes (trainees) and it looks like it might rain soon, but I don't live far from here.  One thing that is funny about the rain here is that when it rains, people wait inside until it passes so they can go home or wherever else.  I just think about in Oregon how we just zip up our coats & run :)  I saw another interesting thing today: on the street in front of lots of houses there were piles of wood.  Apparently, on hot days people put their wood out on the streets to dry out so they can use it later to burn.  I thought maybe it was for sale, but they just throw it out in the street and then pick it up later.

Anyway, I'm signing off now, but hopefully there will be more pictures to come.  We're supposed to hide our cameras for the most part to protect ourselves from being targets.  !Adios!

Sunday, September 5, 2010

San Juan del Oriente

Im in San Juan del Oriente now with my host family.  Sorry for any lack of punctuation or misspellings--this keyboard is hard to navigate!  Im having a great time here besides not being able to hear out of my left ear still...I got water stuck in it from swimming at the hotel the other day.  Im taking ear drops so hopefully make it better.  Its not very fun not being able to hear out of one ear :(

I had a quick language class yesterday with the other girls in my town and our language teacher to practice some survival Spanish.  It started raining during class and we had to shut the doors because I was getting wet.  It was really hard to hear too because it was raining so hard! 

Here are some pictures of my house (mainly my room because I felt weird trying to take pictures of the house with everybody there haha).

Here is my "closet" and my bookshelf/toiletry cabinet
This shows how the walls are open to the whole house at the top so you can hear everybody all the time... Then my door opens to the kitchen nook.

This my light, which went out last night because of the thunder & lightning storm so I used a flashlight and for dinner my host mom lit a candle and said it was a romantic dinner haha Shes pretty cute :)

Here is the calendar my brother made me of pictures when we were young--so sweet :)
Here is our patio (backyard) with lots of fruit trees which my host mom uses to make fresh juice for me :)
Here is where I keep my shoes because I dont want any bugs to get inside of them haha 
Here is my host brothers daughter--she calls me "gringa" (white girl) haha  My family tells her to stop and call me Megan, so she says "gringa Megan".  I think its hilarious--shes just 3 :)

I was able to watch the OSU game last night so that was awesome, but unfortunately they lost :(



This is my bed with the mosquito net over it...I still have bug bites on my legs...I think it's from the daytime though.  My language teacher says I have sweet blood haha

 
This was my lunch today--rice, chicken, ensalada (salad), and platanos fritos (fried plantains) which are my favorite :)


Well, I have to go now, but just wanted to let everyone know I was ok :)  Miss everybody & Oregon!  Until next time!

Friday, September 3, 2010

Training Site

I found out my training site and host family today!!  I'll be in San Juan de Oriente, Nicaragua.  My host family consists of the senora who is 50 years old, her two daughters who are 25 & 27, her son (31) and his wife (24), and their two kids (3yr old girl & 5 yr old boy).  I'm really excited to meet them tomorrow and it seems like I'll have a lot of fun and be able to practice my Spanish with them a lot :)  We were given a picture of our family and a description so it's getting exciting!  It will be nice to finally unpack everything and settle in. 

For training, we will be living with our host families for 11 weeks and taking Spanish classes during the week (Monday through Thursday) 6 hours each day.  We will be organizing a youth group to work with in our community in order to teach them some English and also some life skills.  This should be pretty interesting and I'm sure kind of difficult at first, but hopefully I'll find some willing students to hang out with me and study English during their off time. 

Things have been so good here in Granada and it has been a blessing being with such a great group of people so I'm a little sad to leave this place and of course this nice hotel ;)  I do look forward to living with a family and practicing my Spanish more and immersing myself into the culture and language.  I'm here to learn and share my experience so I'm on the right track...

Tonight our Peace Corps training directors organized a little surprise for us.  We took a lake cruise on small motor boats around Lake Nicaragua, which is a huge lake, so we stayed on one side where the nearest volcano had exploded years before, creating islands near the shore where many wealthy people live or locals have restaurants.  During this boat ride, we found spider monkeys in the trees and as the boats approached the shore, a monkey jumped onto one of the boats and was walking around with everybody.  It was hilarious!  The monkey wanted to come on our boat, but our driver didn't want him to because he said they're too hard to get off the boat once they're on.  I took some pictures of the monkeys because it was too funny so I'll add those onto Facebook.  You should be able to click on the link from my last entry about Nicaragua. 

I'm heading out early tomorrow morning  for my training site to meet my host family so I'll post soon to update.  I'll have to explore and find out where there is an internet cafe.  I heard that in this city the people make beautiful pottery so that will be fun to check out :)  Don't forget to look at my pictures on Facebook!

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Good News!

Hey everyone!  So I'm in Granada staying at the hotel still and we have had the opportunity to speak with some current Peace Corps volunteers.  I found out from one of them that packages so arrive to the Peace Corps office.  She said that only one package was lost, but she wasn't sure if her friend put the right address or not. SO, I know that some of you were saying that you wanted to send care packages and I was hesitant because of past things that I have heard.  If you feel so inclined to send something, please send it via regular mail (USPS), not FedEx, DHL, UPS, or anything else of that sort.  Also, try to keep them small, and I've heard that there are flat rate boxes for international packages so check that out.  Anyway, letters are great to receive too and much appreciated :)

Today was a long day and filled with a lot of information!  We had meetings, language interview (thought I did fairly well and it wasn't too nerve-wracking), medical interview (go through forms, asked questions about any medical issues, etc.), and got our medical kits & mosquito nets!  We finally got to start our malaria pills, which I was really happy to do because I got a bug bite the first day here :(   I haven't gotten sick or anything yet, so hopefully no malaria!  Anyway, we also got to cruise around the town to check things out and get some ice cream. 

After dinner we danced to some music the hotel was playing--we were outdoors in an undercover area so it was warm and so fun!  I learned how the bachata which was fairly easy after practicing a little.  My friend Josue (ho-sway) taught me and we practiced.  Of course when you're dancing with a guy leading you who knows what he's doing, it's fun and becomes easy.

After being sweaty from the day and dancing, I came back to the room to cool off (shower & AC).  I organized all of my stuff because it was really bugging me how crazy messy things were getting and it reminded me how much I hate living out of a bag!!  I got everything together and picked out my clothes for the next two days so I don't have to rummage through my bags early in the morning.  I feel much better about my area of the room and I can sleep peacefully now :)

We find out about our host families tomorrow! I know I'll be in the state of Masaya, but I don't know which town yet.  Can't wait!  You can still send things to my address posted on my blog. !Hasta luego!

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

!Estoy en Nicaragua!

Hola familia y amigos!  Estoy en Nicaragua :)  I am safe and sound in Nicaragua.  We arrived late in the morning after our VERY early departure from DC, and now we are at a hotel for the first few days of training.  We are very fortunate to be in a hotel with AC, free wi-fi, pool, tv, and nice rooms.  Of course, we are absolutely exhausted!   I can't wait to sleep tonight because I did not get any sleep last night, and had some interrupted sleep on the plane.

Tonight is fairly relaxed, as our Peace Corps trainers know we are tired.  We will have dinner soon and then maybe a meeting, and hopefully bedtime soon after :)  I'm so excited/nervous/anxious for the approaching days!  I'm most nervous for our language interview because I haven't been using my Spanish in awhile, but I know that whatever I can do is what I can do, and I'll just improve from there.  I need to stay positive about it and not stress out ;)  Anyway, I am really excited and anxious to meet my host family and find out where I'll be living for the next few months of training.  It's crazy that I'm already here in Nicaragua, but it's also crazy thinking that I started this process 2 years ago!!  I hope that I can embrace every moment and look for the good in everything, not dwelling on disappointments.  Speaking of that...funny thing when we checked into the hotel.  Peace Corps had talked to us about losing luxuries, etc. and we know that Nicaragua is certainly not like the U.S. in forms of accessibility to electricity, clean water, internet, etc. but we experienced our first loss of luxury as we went to take our bags to our rooms and realized that our rooms were upstairs and there were no elevators.  This was pretty funny because it's something that we really take for granted, but in actuality, in many places, people have to walk up and down flights of stairs to get to their homes or apartments.  We weren't mad about this, it was just inconvenient lugging our huge suitcases up the stairs in an open-air hotel in the tropics :)  We managed to survive and the sweat has dried. 

Pictures from DC are on my Facebook page at:

Pictures from my first day in Nicaragua are here:

More pictures to come later...