Out and about

I left Boaco this past Thursday morning for Managua with another PCV from the Boaco area.  We got up to the bus terminal and the 7am bus didn’t come, then the 7:30am didn’t either, and then came the 8am bus… needless to say, I was late for my dr. appointment, but thankfully Frank got to the office early and was able to switch with me since his was scheduled at 11am (mine was 10am).  I finally got to the PC office at 10:45am and was able to get into my appointment and take care of things.  We are at our medical mid-term evaluations since we’ve been here a year now.  How exciting :)  Anyway, we had check-ups, dental exams, etc.  I also had a meeting the next morning so I stayed in Managua with a couple other PCVs.  Frank had to go home though.

The next day I had my meeting from 10am until 3pm…yikes!  I knew it was going to be long, but I was so exhausted by the end of it!  The day before I was going back and forth between different appointments (some out of the office) and then sitting in a conference room for 5 hours, ugh!  Well, I was on my way out and caught a bus headed north and stopped off in Dario to visit Frank for the rest of the weekend.  We had fun relaxing, hanging out, and watched a couple movies. 

Friday night we went grocery shopping and made stuffed cabbage rolls—a recipe Frank found online while googling “meals for two”—how cute is he? :)  Saturday night we went out to dinner at a local eatery and got a little dressed up just for fun.  

Waiting for Frank to finish the chapter he was reading...

Sunday we worked in his garden to fix it up and get it ready for planting.  Then we grabbed some quick food to go and Skyped with his parents.  We’ve been discussing Christmas plans—yay!  

This is the "before" shot.  Lots of rocks, weeds, etc.

Pile of rocks and cement pieces

Tarantula that Frank found and then fed to the chickens.

"After", but a little dark since we worked until it got dark. 

Compost pile

Tire pots--haven't planted yet...

This morning I had to say goodbye and head back to Boaco.  I caught a bus out and then at the point where I get off and wait for a Boaco bus I stood there and thought one would be arriving in about 10 minutes.  Well, apparently that bus didn’t leave Managua…so I waited for 45 minutes.  Man, I really miss having a car sometimes haha

I was so exhausted today from such a long weekend and then found out my counterpart wasn’t having class today because they were just turning in grades.  That was nice not having to go earlier.  I just have my afternoon class and then my adult English class tonight.  This week is gonna be kinda weird again, because there are more holidays coming.  No school Thursday-Monday!  I’ll be around Boaco through Friday morning though because I want to check out the festivities.  

Anyway, gotta run, but I’ll be back with more pics soon!

Reverse Psychology

I went to my class today to work with my counterpart and the students were working on a translation assignment in the computer lab.  My cp told them not to do the translations at home or out of class because they would be using a special translation program in class (by the way I do not agree with translation assignments because not much learning is taking place).  Anyway, when I was walking around helping some students, I noticed that some had typed a few sentences into the computers and were just coping from other notebooks.  Some students had translated the reading before class and they passed it around to copy.  Wow, even less learning taking place.  I talked to my counterpart about it and he said he told them not to do it before and then made a funny comment "but they never do their homework when I give them that to do at home."  Ha!  Why would they waste their outside free time translating a boring reading when they knew they were going to have time in class to do it on the computer?  Because they want to get it done and goof off in class?  I don't know, but whatever the reason, they did it.  My cp and I joked about tricking our students into doing homework by giving them an assignment and telling them not to do it at home, but that we would work on it in the next class to see who would actually bring their "homework".  It might not work out as well as we would hope though haha 

It's a funny situation here because I feel that there isn't sufficient class time anyway, and then students don't really study because they usually don't have quizzes or big exams (at least for English--and the grades don't really matter), and they never do homework.  Teachers don't really ever assign homework because they know students won't do it.  I think the students have a little too much rule of the school here...

Swimming Hole

This past weekend when Frank was visiting, one of my counterparts invited us to go to his daughter’s birthday party.  The original plan was to go to the hot springs place, but then they changed it to a swimming hole a little farther up the road.  They were taking their truck so we hitched a ride and went along.  It turned out to be a neat little place and it looked beautiful.  The water wasn’t exactly “clean”, but it was swim-worthy…there were lots of small fish too and some of them took some bites at the freckles on Frank’s back haha  He survived though.  

There was a little playground at the place and Frank was in love with the see-saw begging me to play.  We had some good laughs and thrills. 

Then it was piñata and cake time!

Birthday girl taking some swings

I think the piñata was bigger than him!

We had a great time—it was certainly nice to get out of Boaco and see something new, if only for a couple hours…

Frank's got me beat on that tan...

Pick-up truck owners beware

It's common knowledge that if you drive a pick-up truck in front of our instituto, you will soon inherit 10-15 high school students in the back.  Whenever school is out, the students wait around out front, chatting with friends and then when they see a pick-up, they go running.  I say it's the driver's fault for driving this way, but most don't complain and just give them a ride into town.  It's actually pretty funny to watch because there is a speed bump right in front of the school's gate so the cars all have to slow down.  It's inevitable that the students are gonna make it inside the truck bed.

Today, a truck slowed down and about 10 or so boys jumped in the back, half of them holding on for dear life to the back bumper.  This truck wanted to have a little fun with them so it took off fast and took the next corner sharp and a couple kids jumped off into the grass.  I guess it wasn't driving into town either so a couple of the kids were stuck for a little ways down the road while the others laughed at them.

As I was farther up the hill toward town, a truck pulled up, stopped and out jumped 10 kids.  This was that truck's destination so they had to get out.  But then the kids started yelling "here comes another one."  And they waited until another truck approached and had to slow down for the speed bump, and then they hurdled their bodies into the back.  I was laughing and so was the driver--glad he was okay with them weighing down his truck.  He even had to restart the truck half way up the hill haha  

I'm gonna try to get a picture or video of this sometime soon  :)

English

Today I went to the Embassy program class to talk to the new teacher and see the students.  I got there early because apparently they changed the time back to 8-10am from 7:30-9:30am.  Oh well.  It was nice to see all the students again :) 

When the teacher came, she seemed so bubbly--I've actually met her before.  She spoke English right off the bat and continued with it while speaking with the students.  I was so impressed!  It's not very common for English teachers here to use so much English in the classroom, whether they know it well or not, because of a few different reasons.  Some think that the students won't understand anything; some say the students ask them to speak Spanish or act up when they're not speaking Spanish; and some don't feel comfortable using the language.  I was so happy to see this teacher using English for the majority of the time and she was so confident.  I know she teaches English in another school--this might be a good opportunity to see if I can maybe work with her so we can learn from each other.  Anyway, I'm looking forward to helping out with the class so starting next week, I'll be teaching American culture again.  Any ideas for topics???? 

Happy Day!

This day marks 1 year of me being in Nicaragua.  That's right, a whole YEAR in country now.  It's been quite a roller coaster and at times felt reeeeallly slow, but it still doesn't feel like a whole year has gone by.  I feel a sense of accomplishment.  How many people have spent a year in a developing country, living with the people, taking bucket baths and cold showers, eating a limited variety of foods, and getting an incredible experience out of it?  I feel lucky.

There are so many wonderful memories from this past year and I'm so glad that I kept a blog so I can look back and reminisce.  I remember arriving in Managua this day last year at the airport, being greeted by some PCVs, throwing our bags in a big truck, and packing into some vans to head off to this place called "Granada".  Never thought I'd spend so many weekends back in that place.  I remember being in a pretty nice hotel and thinking, wow, I could get use to this, but then we were whisked away 2 short days later to live with host families.  Our first few days in country were a whirlwind and I remember going through so many emotions and a lot of uncertainty.  I met some nice trainees and was excited, but so overwhelmed at the same time.  I'm glad I stuck with it.

Something else to be happy about: today I have been dating Frank for 5 months :)  This, too, I can't believe.  It doesn't seem like a long time, but it's been so good.  I feel like we've been dating for much longer just because I feel we know each other so well and make each other so happy. 

Although it's raining and cloudy this morning, I have two specific things to be happy about today and so many things and people to be thankful for.  I am truly blessed.  Thank you Lord for protecting me (and my group here).  Thank you for encouraging me in rough times and letting me take joy in the celebrations.  Thank you for putting such wonderful people in my life here.  Thank you for the support I have from family and friends back home.  Thank you for growing me into a better person.