Sunday, June 24, 2012

Sweet

Tomorrow I'll be leaving for Managua in the afternoon to stay in a hotel before we fly out to the USA but before all of that... today, some of my students from my community class stopped by my house and brought me a small gift & wanted to thank me for being their teacher.  It was so sweet.  Friday is National Teacher's Day here, but I'll be in the States then, so they wanted to make sure to thank me before I left.  It was a very kind gesture. 

I spent some time with my family tonight & of course running around with Dyland--gonna miss that little guy!  And, I got a few of the last minute items packed.  I'm getting really excited for the trip, but I still have a few fun things to do tomorrow before I head out.  I have Access class in the morning and I'm sure I'll get to play with Dyland too. 

Saturday, June 23, 2012

Community Service

Today I met some of my students at a nursing home to do some community service.  It was so cute when we walked up the stairs to the entrance and a man in the wheelchair exclaimed "Oh, so wonderful we have visitors" (in Spanish).  Made me smile and glad I went.  So today we were just there to meet with the lady who runs the place and ask her how we could help.  We worked a little--cleaned the paths and moved wood.  We were there for about an hour and a half and got a lot of things done.  My students talked about things they could do on their next visits such as reading to the older people, performing dances, etc.  I'm excited for them. 

We walked back into town after this and it reminded me of something funny Nicas say.  They also exaggerate things, but sometimes with distances, they underestimate them.  Well, this morning the students told me "Oh, it's not too far to walk back to town" so I agreed to walk with them.  It was nice out and the scenery was beautiful, but after the 25 minute walk through the country in 90+ degree heat, I was sweating profusely.  I bought the kids some ice cream since we were all sweating and tired.  They did a really good job too.

After I got home and cleaned up a bit and had lunch, I was off to the next community service activity at the casa materna (where pregnant ladies go).  My students gave another charla and this time it was about caring for babies.  The two ladies at the casa materna were sweet and participated in the charla.  My students even brought prizes for them--little outfits for their babies (I guess they had asked some one to find out that the ladies were having girls so they picked out pink outfits--so sweet!).

I'm really enjoying seeing my students learn about volunteering and helping others.  Volunteering is sometimes difficult to get high school students to do, but it's very rewarding once they get into it and see how they can make a difference for others.  One of the students actually said today that he was glad to be working. 







Friday, June 22, 2012

Dyland

Dyland reminds me every day how hard it's going to say goodbye in November.  Of course, he doesn't tell me this with words, but he shows me all the time.  This morning I was eating breakfast at my desk in my room and I heard something near my door.  I looked over and there he was leaning his little head in checking if I was there.  I said "Hoooola" like I usually do and he tottled right in to my room, came over to me, turned around and leaned on my legs.  When I'm at my desk and he comes in my room, I usually scoot my chair back and put him on my lap so we're just out of reach of the computer and all those small shiny things on my desk.   I didn't pick him up this time, but he knew the routine so he leaned on me and gazed into my eyes.  What a sweet thing.  His dad called him too soon, so of course I guided him out.  It really was the best way to start my morning. 

Some may say I'm obsessed, but this little guy has got my heart.  He brightens up my day.  Every time I come home and he's awake, he squeals and runs in my direction, or if I squat down and head his way, he runs off in the opposite direction laughing and almost stumbling to the floor.  I love my playtime with Dyland. 

Today the little neighbor girl was over and brought her little bird to play.  It was hilarious, until Dyland almost stepped on the little guy, on purpose.  Oops! haha  He was chasing after him, but when he got too close, Dyland got a little nervous.  I love just watching Dyland play, and especially interacting with others and discovering new things. 

Looks a little nervous with that bird on his back

Not so sure about this...

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Working late

Yesterday I went to the seminary again to teach English.  This time was much better because last week I met with the teacher and we planned some things together.  So, yesterday I met him in the park at 7pm, then we took a taxi out to the seminary, which takes about 20 minutes or so.  Then, we got out our materials and planned out the sequence of our lesson, which was even better than he suggested that :)  We didn't start until about 8pm and the students had decorated the whiteboard with "Welcome back Megan" and drew balloons on it haha  It was pretty cute.  When the teacher told me they were asking about me and really wanted me to come back, I was mainly thinking, well yeah, it's a group of young guys studying to be priests and a young white girl comes to teach their class.  For sure they wanted me back haha  Well, I think it might have been more than that, even though they were asking me for my phone number and Facebook last time...

The lesson and activities went really well.  We co-taught the class and the students participated more than last time.  Yay!  However, it was nearing 9:30pm and we still hadn't covered our last two activities.  The other teacher asked if I wanted to continue.  I did want to finish the lesson, but I knew with the 20 minute ride home after, I probably should get going.  So, we ended class and the students had plenty of material to study for the next class.  This time their truck was there with a driver, so I got a ride home.  I opened my front door at 10pm.  Ugh.  I was glad I took care of other things earlier in the day, because I was in desperate need of rest and I knew this morning was going to come quickly.  I felt worse about the teacher who I worked with though because he started working at 6am and finished at 6pm, then continued on with me.  Yuck.  He said today he only works two hours though.  I would definitely want to spread that out, but I guess he can't.

Well anyway, I usually don't mind working late, but not so far away and when I have to get up early the next morning it's not so fun.  Good thing that class is only about once a month!

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Pit stains

Well I knew I would be sweating when I came to Nicaragua, but I didn't know that not even a run through the wash would erase those sweaty days. 

Some of my shirts look sweaty before I even put them on, but I figure, well I'll be sweating in a few minutes anyway, so I guess it doesn't matter.  I feel like Nicas don't sweat as much, or I don't notice it as much.  They must be a little more glamorous with their sweat wiping abilities.  I feel like I'm constantly clearing the sweat droplets from my cheeks and above my lips.  I don't know why I don't carry a washcloth around all the time, but today I was smarter about that.  I blotted my face every few seconds while sitting in the classroom and felt a little less disgusting. 

I'll be glad when I finally get back to the States to buy some new shirts that won't be sweat-stained.  Many of these shirts I have here will be staying here in Nicaragua.  I should have brought more dry-fit shirts, but most of them look too much like workout shirts, so they're not too professional to wear to school, but I usually change my clothes when I get home anyway.  Well, everybody knows what I look like now and they'll just have to deal with my sweatiness for a couple more months :)

Apparently there are some remedies for removing pit stains from shirts--usually they're caused by the deodorant that's stuck to the shirt--but I don't feel like spending all that time to remove something that will be back the very next day...No vale la pena (It's not worth it).

Monday, June 18, 2012

Long weekend

It feels nice to be back in Boaco in my room and to sleep in my bed.  well, haven't gone to bed yet, but you get the idea.  I left last Wednesday for Managua for my charla and it was really nice meeting the new trainees.  They seem like a fun group and didn't seem too stressed out so that made my job easy haha   Anyway, I was in Managua for a few days, then went and hung out with Frank and headed up to Matagalpa for a going away get-together for one of our friends.  It was great to see so many people, but also a little sad to say goodbye to such a fun person.  I guess we'll be having to do similar things real soon...  speaking of which, I took off another link from my chain.  That leaves 21 weeks.  Crazy!  Also, just one week til mine & Frank's trip to Maryland.  Now, that's even crazier!  Time flies and I'm thankful for that right now because I'm really looking forward to this mini vacation :)

I can't remember if I've mentioned this before, but I started a new thing with my Access class, called Small Talk, which I borrowed from Gonzaga's international students program.  Anyway, we pick a topic, then the students are split into small groups (3-5), and they discuss the topic using only English.  It's been going pretty well so far and last week's topic was pretty interesting--equality.  They've just started reading about MLK Jr. so that book gave them a little grasp on that topic.  I brought up things in Nicaragua as well.  I like controversial topics for the reason that students are usually more interested and they are more apt to participate and voice their opinions.  I took some pictures and videos that I will try to post soon.  The topics are going to blend with the culture topics they are supposed to study each week, so I believe this week will be about freedom.  Let me know if you have any suggestions for some small talk conversations--any kind of topic is cool. 

Oh, and my mom was asking for my Dyland pictures, so here are a few :)


Apparently my roll of tape was plenty of entertainment for this little guy

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Hanging in there

Hmmm, well this weekend was nice because I was able to get a lot done with my research project, mainly lots of emails and such.  I also attended a community service project on Saturday with the Access kids.  Some of them were giving a charla (talk) to pregnant women at the casa materna (house for pregnant women).  The did a good job and I took pictures of course :)  They're working with Liz, the health PCV in town.  We're trying to get them started on their projects, but so far this is the only group really going.  Well, I do have 2 students that come to our community class in the evenings to hang out and help too so I guess that counts.  It's hard to get the kids motivated to do community service though.  My group leaders had pretty good ideas, but they're having a hard time organizing things.  They do have a lot on their plates though, with Access class for 2 hours in the morning, then regular school 5 hours in the afternoon and then homework for both, then try to fit in community service somewhere in their schedules along with extracurricular activities, family & friends time...I don't want to stretch them too thin, but this is part of their program.




Anyway, news about the instituto (public school) where I work: the principal was removed from his position as well as my counterpart so that's interesting.  Apparently it's for the same reasons.  They were looking for another English teacher and the vice principal took over for the principal, but I heard that he may teach at the school.  Hmmm, not sure if that's right, but whatever.  I usually try to avoid all of that stuff over there and do my other work.  I still meet with the lady English teacher, but things are slow with her.  It's hard, but she enjoys having me work with her so that's good :)

This week I'm giving a charla to the new trainees about "coping with stress".  I've given this charla to 2 other groups now so I'm pretty good at it haha  I like this one and it will be fun to meet some newbies.  I will be with the trainees from the small business group.  I actually met one of them because she is visiting Boaco on a volunteer visit with Kelli.  We didn't get to do that in training because of flash flooding during the hurricane, but I think it's a great opportunity to see how a PCV lives and works after training.

Also, one of the PCVs in Frank's group is leaving this month so we're having a little despedida (going away party) for her in Matagalpa so I'll get to say goodbye.  Bummer that she's ETing (Early Termination--leaving early), but she wants to get a job before the school year begins, since our schedule is weird and we don't finish til November.  It kinda makes it difficult for teachers...Oh well.  She's been here for about 2 years and has gotten a lot of good experience, so I'm sure it was all worth it and hopefully she'll get a job!

I think that's about it for now.  THANKS to everyone who has been passing my survey around to teachers!  This really helps me out :)  Just in case you need it again, here it is:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/globaleducationpcmi
And that's for U.S. K-12 public school teachers.

Saturday, June 9, 2012

Search and Send

I've been busy the past few weeks working on my research for my Master's project and it's a long, tedious process.  I'm searching for public school district contacts to send mass emails out with my teacher survey and research proposal in hopes that they'll help me out.  I wanted this survey to cover a lot of area and I got myself in deep and I'm trying to keep going, looking for the light at the end of the tunnel.  I know it's there, but right now Google is my best friend and my knowledge of US geography is increasing by the minute :)  I just wish school district websites were more organized and gave you the information you need.  It's interesting to see how different each district's website is and how easy/difficult it is to navigate.  I could probably change my research project to website navigation, but I think I'll stick to global education since I'm so involved already...

By the way, if you know any K-12 public school teachers in the USA, please ask them to take my brief survey: Global Education Survey

I'm just thankful there's power today since pretty much all day yesterday there was nothing and I wasn't able to get much done regarding my research. I'm really get my money's worth on this internet subscription :)

Friday, June 8, 2012

A modest request

So I was talking to the new Access teacher, who is pretty cool & a great teacher, and telling him about my upcoming trip to the good ol' USA when he asked me to do him a favor.  I said yes, hesitating a little and he looked at me almost shyly and said "Can you get me..." and I thought he was going to say a computer or a camera or something of that sort like many requests other PCVs have gotten) but all that came out was "newspapers in English".  I sorta felt bad for assuming he was going to ask for some expensive items, but instead just some newspapers.  Well, I had planned to grab some newspapers anyway to bring back for my Access classes because English resources are certainly lacking here and now that my students are at this level, reading in English is more attainable. 

I know all of you are probably starting to prepare birthday packages for me, right??? ;)  My birthday is August 3rd, just as a little reminder.  So when you get around to that and if you have a little extra room between all the chocolates (peanut butter and/or mint M&Ms, butterfingers, peanut butter cups), wheat thin crackers, girl scout cookies, peanut butter cracker packs, strawberry and/or apple nutri-grain bars, almonds, goldfish crackers, cheeze-its, fruit leather, just add water pasta packets, sun chips, etc. please try to include a newspaper or two :)  Also, store advertisements would be good too. 

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Veggies

Went to the market today to get some veggies since I've been scraping by on food lately and I got quite a bounty for about $2.50.  Check it out:

That's 2 potatoes, 1 onion, 1 cucumber, 1 bell pepper, 3 tomatoes, quarter wedge of cabbage, 1 squash, 4 heads of garlic, and 1 large carrot. 

Nica oddities

Now this isn't meant to criticize everything that Nicas do that must be wrong because they're different.  They're more of funny and interesting observations, and also some things that just frustrate/annoy me.  It's all part of being in immersed in another country.   And when I say "Nicas" I don't necessarily mean every Nica, but just many that I have witnessed. 

Something that drives me crazy is the lack of cleanliness in the kitchen.  This is where you make your food and there's so many things that could taint it that why would we take our chances?  Ugh.

My family, along with pretty much every other Nica family, uses their dish sponge or metal sponge to clean chicken before cooking it.  Um, yuck.  It wouldn't be so bad if the sponges didn't have bits of chicken stuck in them later because they didn't clean them out.  I'm just terrified I'm going to wash something with chicken bits instead of soap.  Great.  Today I pointed it out to my host sister and told her she needs to be careful because chicken has bacteria.  I really wish they didn't use the same sponge to wash the dishes, clean the counters, and scrub the chicken.  Not exactly sanitary.

Another thing that I find strange, not so disgusting this time, is that Nicas drink oatmeal.  Yes, you read that right.  They drink it instead of eat it.  And, it's cold, not hot.  So, what they do is pour about a 1/4 cup of uncooked oats in a cup, add water, sugar, and ice cubes, and drink.  Strange to have little floaties in your drink, but it actually doesn't taste too bad.  It took me awhile to get over the chunks in my drink, and today I actually made one for myself.  Shows how much I've integrated ;)  I dare you to try it too!  I did also teach my sister how to make oatmeal the real way (cooking it) and we found that Dyland really likes it so she has given it to him sometimes, but usually it's just the overly-greasy fried eggs and gallo pinto (beans & rice fried in oil).  Now, I've never been a mom before, but I feel like a 1 year old shouldn't be eating lots of greasy foods (well anybody for that matter), but here they pretty much feed the babies what they eat because they can't afford to make something special and not many people really like vegetables here.  It's unfortunate, but that's how they've done it for so long and people still live long lives so I guess it can't be too terrible.

Superstitions sure a fun topic here.  You'll hear some pretty crazy things from witch spells to cold water makes you fat.  Oh yes, that's one of my favs.  Nicas don't drink very much water in general, usually slurping down sugar-packed fruit juices, Coca Cola, and tons of coffee, but if they do drink water, they usually don't drink it cold because that will make you fat.  Hmmm.  If they're that concerned about getting fat from water of all things, maybe cutting back on the Coke & coffee wouldn't be a bad idea either.  haha  It's interesting though because so many people complain of high blood pressure, so many suffer from Diabetes, and so many complain of having little energy and feel lethargic.  I'm assuming those are all the results of loads of caffeine and sugar.  With it being so HOT here, I can't imagine skipping out on water.  I always have a water bottle with me and if by chance I don't, my mouth feels like cotton and I crave water. 

Another good superstition is that my host mom has told me is that she refuses to allow the rain water fill our pila (the water container that fills from city water and then distributes the water throughout the house) because if the rain water and the city water mix, it will do you harm.  Oh really?  Considering they don't drink the water from the tap anyway, because my host mom says its bad river water (even though it's chlorinated), I'm not exactly sure why rain water and city water would be bad for washing dishes/clothes/hands, and taking showers.  That one kinda drives me nuts though because the pila is empty some days which means no water flows through the pipes, but it could be rainy that day, so we fill up any buckets that are lying around and use that water to do the necessary things, for example: wash dishes, take a shower, wash clothes.  It's very strange I know. 

Oh, speaking of water, it's funny how Nicas sometimes don't like to use a washing machine (if they even have one) because of the reason that it uses too much water, yet they use about a gallon of water for each piece of clothing they wash by hand.  I only will accept the reason of using too much electricity. 

I don't know if there's a superstition about this one or not, but Nicas don't eat gallo pinto for lunch, only breakfast and dinner.  They will look at you like you're crazy if you ask for/make it for lunch.  I really don't know the reasoning behind this one--it's one of those "we just do" kinda things.

Here's something that sorta drives me crazy again.  So, Nicas like to point out the obvious, just in case you needed someone to tell you that you don't look so great today, oh they'll let you know.  Not necessarily in a mean way, they'll just let you know.  For example, pretty much every time I walk home from school or sometimes when I arrive other places from walking, my face gets red from how hot it is and the bit of exercise that it requires to walk there.  Well, Nicas find it very amusing to tell me my face is red.  Obviously. It's like 100 degrees out there and I'm walking up a giant hill.  I'm surprised my face isn't purple.  I think its because I walk fast though.  Apparently the students at the instituto told the principal that I walk really fast.  I just don't like to walk casually down the street with the sun beating down on me--I gotta get to my house asap and flip the switch on my fan and cool down. 

The refrigerator.  That's a doozy.  Covering food with any sort of wrap or even a lid doesn't quite happen here.  Things get stacked inside others (a bowl holding beans on top of/inside a bowl with rice--I'm sure that bean bowl wasn't clean on the bottom) and tipped over to spill.  Also, if the power goes out, they unplug the fridge and then often forget to plug it back in after the power comes back.  I understand that they're afraid that it might destroy an appliance when the power goes on and off, but leaving the fridge unplugged for that long cannot be good.

Here's another one.  Ruth doesn't want to take Dyland to preschool because she's afraid he'll get sick, which is pretty reasonable, but she doesn't quite supervise him at home and I've definitely seen him put a pile of dust in his mouth, carry around used 2 liter soda bottles and put them in his mouth, walked out to the back patio by himself where there are about 6 buckets full of water just his height...and other such things.  But instead, it's TV time for Dyland.  I feel bad for the little guy cuz he's glued to the TV all day while others go about their business.  They do play with him sometimes, but it's terrible how much I hear them say, "oh let's watch TV", plop him down, and walk away.  :(

My host mom has given up trying to prevent me from taking showers after exercising and/or too late at night.  Apparently it can make you sick if you're body is too hot and you take a cold shower.  Actually, it feels quite refreshing. 

You're not allowed to eat pineapple late at night either because you'll wake up with a cough and scratchy throat the next day.  Never has happened to me...yet.

Going to the pool or lake is not called "going swimming" but "going bathing", like the same word used to take a shower.  And, Nicas wear regular clothes right into the water, never swimsuits because they don't want to get dark, and probably that swimsuits are expensive.  I offered to let Ruth wear one of my bikinis when we went swimming one time but she said her husband would kill her if she wore one of those because other men could see her.  Ok, I know Nicas are not that conservative judging by their everyday apparel, so this one stems from jealousy and the macho culture.  She ended up wearing it after many giggles of embarrassment but told me I was not allowed to post any pictures on Facebook of her.  So silly. 

The fact that I can't say banana, cucumber, or any other fruit or veggie in that shape without people laughing at me is just plain annoying.  This is especially with students.  They even have several for the female anatomy just for extra laughs.  There goes the English food unit!  I also said "water the plants" when we were talking about household chores and they laughed because apparently that's slang for peeing.  Great. 

Well, nothing else comes to mind as of now, but I'm sure I'll share others later. 

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

The countdown

Today I decided to make a paper chain to countdown the rest of my time here.  I decided to do weeks because the days would be too many (and possibly a little disheartening) and the months would be too little--I mean how boring would a 5 link chain be, right?  Well, I counted off the weeks and I have about 23 weeks left so I will take one chain off every week (on Sundays) to count down the time until I finish my service.  It's not necessarily a countdown of how many weeks left until I get outta here (although I have thought that before), but more of like how many weeks are left until I complete my service, which is a positive thing.  I've been here for quite some time now and I've had small accomplishments (and failures or "lessons to be learned") along the way, but completing my service and ringing the bell in the PC office (a PCV tradition) will be so great! 


I used pieces of paper from my construction paper scrap pile, so don't worry about paper wasting here...and I'm sure I'll recycle my chain links (probably not gonna happen...).  But, the chain sure does look nice in all the different bright colors, right?  Something else that I like about the design is that I purposely made different size links.  Usually I'm all about uniform and organization, but as I began cutting strips, I thought Hmm, some weeks are probably going to be harder than others or feel longer and more difficult.  Some might breeze on by and feel light or short.  My paper strips don't necessarily align with what week will be difficult (can't tell the future yet) but I feel it represents it well :)

I've been feeling a little down lately, just missing home, family, friends, and everything comfortable.  Maybe the chain was some sort of therapy.  I like doing crafts and things with my hands to keep me busy, so I guess that's a good thing.  Although I have been feeling a little down and frustrated at the "common" things here such as buses, being overcharged or given the "gringo" price, no water, the heat, students, class stuff, etc. I have been able to find encouragement to keep with it. 

This past weekend I visited Frank and we decided to make some wine (something he has been talking about forever and now we finally went out and bought stuff).  I peeled 20+ mangoes to boil in sugar water so I didn't get to eat those delicious things, but fortunately, we saved all the meat and just drained the liquid for the wine.  So, cooked mangoes with some cinnamon (including the sugar it was cooked in) is absolutely amazing!  We mashed the mangoes and added the cinnamon and it tasted similar to apple sauce.  Yum!

Things were going well until Sunday when the bus came flying through town 20 minutes, which usually does not happen.  It barely stopped (sort of rolled) to let us on and drove on through town.  Unfortunately, even though it was driving very fast, I still missed my bus at the cut off for Boaco.  Fortunately though, I only had to wait for about 45 minutes for the next bus.  Sunday buses are pretty hit and miss and if that one hadn't picked me up, I would have had to wait for probably close to 2 hours. 

Well, I got home and this weekend my room didn't flood so that's another thing to be thankful for!  I'm looking forward to trying some of that mango wine after it's done fermenting.  I'm not a big wine drinker but I gotta try this since we made it :) 

Another countdown: just 3 weeks and Frank & I will be in Maryland!

Friday, June 1, 2012

Happy June!

So the countdown is definitely on!  About 5 months left of my PC service.  WOW!  I should finish up within second or third week in November and then the plan is to travel a bit before returning to Oregon for Christmas.  Oh, am I looking forward to being in Oregon for Christmas! 

I will for sure miss my family and friends here and things are starting to feel like we're really going to be leaving soon.  Just the other day my host family was trying to convince me to stay here in Nicaragua and get married (of course to Frank) and live here.  I told them my mom probably wouldn't like that so she suggested telling my parents to move down here too.  Yeah, not like they have jobs or anything haha  I love their planning schemes, but it also makes me feel really loved and that saying goodbye in November is going to be hard, especially to little Dyland. 

Anyway, happy thoughts!  This is the start of summer back home--lots of kids are graduating (or have graduated) and everyone is looking forward to summer activities.  I sure am looking forward to our lake trip to Maryland this month.  It's starting the rainy season here so I'm assuming more classes won't happen because of that, but the plus side is that it has started to cool down a little :)