Another week has come and gone

I was sick this past weekend and it carried through Monday so I missed school that day, and then Tuesday morning as well, so no classes.  I managed to get to the school Tuesday afternoon to meet with one of my counterparts to plan for Wednesday and she was very excited to have me working with her.  I didn't see my other counterpart and found out he hadn't come to school Monday or Tuesday either--glad I didn't try going to his classes if he wasn't there anyway (P.S. nobody calls to tell me any of this...).  So, I met with another counterpart Wednesday afternoon to plan for the next week.  I asked him what he had planned for Thursday because I would be coming to observe.  Then he told me he wasn't going to be there because he had a dr. appt.  I told him thank you for telling me because I had been planning on going and he hadn't told me before that he wasn't going to be there.  He laughed and said, "oh you didn't ask me".  Hmmm...shouldn't he be telling me?  Well, he never has saldo (credit) on his phone to call/text, so he doesn't respond to my messages or call me back.  So that's a little frustrating...

Anyway, I was excited to finally start teaching so I headed off to the instituto but as I arrived, some students told me that the teacher wasn't there and so they were leaving... Ok, so I went and talked to the director (principal) and he confirmed that my counterpart didn't show up that day.   I waited a little while because it wasn't quite 4:30pm and I didn't want to leave before the class time started just in case she was running late.  Well, she never showed.  I was disappointed because I really wanted to teach that day. 

Apparently I should call my counterparts before their classes to make sure they're going to be there...one of my counterparts doesn't have a phone though so this should be interesting.  Just something I have to be flexible with.  I'm not as much frustrated with people that aren't able to make it to things because we all have personal things that come up, but it would be nice to get a phone call or a text message letting me know they won't be there so I'm not left wondering what's going on. 

Pinche

Pinche (peen-chay) is a common word among us PCVs because it means “cheap” as to say a person is pinche when they don’t want to spend very much. Well, with our PC budget, we usually end up being pretty “pinche”. It’s funny because things are really inexpesive here for the most part (unless you’re in super touristy areas). I’ve noticed this as I’ve had visitors pass through and hung out with other gringos on short term visits here. They’re always saying, “wow, that’s so cheap!” and I’m thinking “wow, buy me one then” ;) Haha No, not really… If I was here for vacation I know I would be saying the same thing. Just to give you a feel for how inexpensive things are, I’m going to make a list of my recent grocery store purchases. FYI: the local grocery store in Boaco, which is also a chain throughout Nicaragua, is called Palί and is owned by Wal-Mart.

These prices have been converted from Nicaraguan Córdobas to US dollars:
3 Bananas: $0.27
Bag of tortillas (10 small): $0.67
Yellow onion (½ lb): $0.37
3 Roma sized tomatoes: $0.20 (yes, that’s total, not each)
Cucumber: $0.23
Salad sized bag of spinach: $0.35
Green bell pepper: $0.45
Head of broccoli: $0.77
Yogurt: $0.39 (there aren’t as many flavors and the nonfat is a little more expensive)
½ lb of carrots: $0.30
Loaf of wheat bread: $1.15 (not so cheap)

The items that are most expensive are canned vegetables and fresh fruits that are imported: apples, strawberries, and grapes. Bacon is usually pretty expensive as well.

Now, I haven’t been in the States for about 6 months so I’m not sure exactly what the prices are for these things back home, but I’m pretty sure it’s a lot cheaper here. Correct me if I’m wrong. I know when I get back home I’m going to be so pinche and wonder why everything is so expensive.

Just for fun…
Things I miss from the grocery store back home: Honey Bunches of Oats cereal (along with many other cereals), apples (for less than a dollar a piece), strawberries (Oregon grown or at least ripe and decent priced), frozen foods (veggies, fruits, and the occasional pizza), cottage cheese, cream cheese, cheddar cheese (Tillamook is my fav), shredded mixed cheese, string cheese (I pretty much don’t like the cheeses they have here—too salty, spongy, or dry), deli meat (that doesn’t look like bologna or something fake), overwhelming amounts of yogurt flavors, flowers (I loved to buy fresh flowers to have on my kitchen table back home), and snacks (crackers, nuts, rice cakes, granola bars, etc.).

I think the thing I miss the most is having a more varied diet and a better selection of food. I just don’t like eating the same thing over and over, which is pretty common for Nicas. I’ve been trying to be creative, but it’s hard when I don’t have an oven. It’s definitely a challenge.

Uneventful Weekend

I was thinking of visiting some friends this weekend, but those plans changed Friday morning when I developed stomach cramps and yes, diarrhea. I went to the lab to do the test and had to come home and wait for a couple hours for the results. I hate that process—while feeling miserable, you have to go down to the lab and drop off the specimen, then wait anxiously at home for 2 hours to get the results (while still feeling miserable), then get the results and call the PC doctors to ask them what’s wrong. Well, my results came back negative for bacteria, but something about bad digestion…I’m still not exactly sure what it said as it was in Spanish and that was the best definition I could get from several people. Obviously it was some sort of bad digestion otherwise I would not be feeling so crappy. With no real diagnosis, I was left to “wait it out” with instructions to drink rehydration salts to keep hydrated. Ugh! I hate that stuff and it just reminds me of drinking those for 4 days when I had that horrible bacterial infection before.

The stomach cramps and (um) diarrhea continued through the next day so I went to the lab again and then got the same results. So frustrating! I called the PC doctor and talked to a different one this time and he pretty much had the same response, but I asked if there was anything that could help because I had stomach cramps and very low energy because I couldn’t really eat much besides crackers and a piece of toast. He told me I could get some pills that regulate bacteria…so it was off to the pharmacy for me!

I still don’t feel 100% but I have been able to eat more :) However, every time I start to eat something, even though I feel really hungry, my stomach tells me “No!” So, I’ve been taking it easy and eating small portions every few hours. It’s difficult too because I can’t eat any dairy products because those react badly with any bacteria related issues. So many things have milk in them…like my ice cream in the freezer that’s been calling my name since Thursday night :(

Well, what was supposed to be a fun-filled weekend with friends turned into a weekend of bed-surfing, endless TV sessions, and long naps (with frequent trips to the bathroom). Not what I wanted, but it could be worse, right?

I’m not sure yet if I’ll be going to school tomorrow since my stomach just doesn’t feel right and my energy is low. I think that 7am bus will come too early. I hate missing things, but I want to feel better before getting on that bus and being in a classroom full of students only to feel miserable and leave early.

Miscommunication

Today has been a day of a lot of miscommunication…I took the school bus and arrived to the instituto on time so that was fine. However, when I got to the school, my counterpart and I went to the classroom that he was supposed to be teaching, but he realized there was an error with his schedule (the one he copied from the master copy). So, he left the classroom and told to talk to the students for awhile. Hmmm. So, I introduced myself and asked them a couple of questions and told them they could chat amongst themselves. Several students came in and asked me if they could take some chairs for their classroom so I said yes since we had extras and then there was a flood of students coming in and taking chairs and our students were saying they couldn’t take them all because we were missing some students…All of this and my counterpart was nowhere to be found. I stood outside the classroom for a couple of minutes to watch for my counterpart and to prohibit other chair stealers from entering. Another teacher walked up and asked if I was teaching the class and I told her I was with my counterpart. Then, another lady (I think the secretary) came over and said there was an error with the schedule and that this teacher was teaching this class and my counterpart had another section. She looked it up on her schedule and showed me where his real classroom was. Oh, and guess what? My counterpart was there sitting in his desk. Apparently he thought I would figure it out on my own that he wasn’t coming back to tell me where he was. Nice.

Well, once I got into that class, they did the national anthem and then he left and told me to talk to the students while he was gone. Ok, why was he leaving this time? He came back a few minutes later with another chair so I could have a desk and he could have a chair. He got started by writing the verb “to be” on the board with all of the conjugations (I am, you are…) and told the class to copy it. I was a little upset because he had told me that he wasn’t really going to teach anything, but now he started into a lesson that we could have planned together and developed better. He had the students copying and repeating things after him. He wasted so much class time going around and checking EACH student’s notebook to see if they had copied everything and there were probably 40 students. I gave him suggestions while the students were copying and he just dismissed these and continued on with what he was doing. This made me very upset because he wanted me to be there in class, but didn’t involve me in any of the process. I tried talking to him at the end of the class to explain what my suggestions were in case he didn’t understand them during class, but he was in a hurry to get off to the next class so he wasn’t really listening and therefore I don’t think he understood me either. Ugh! This was very frustrating!

I already arranged a time to meet and plan with both of my counterparts tomorrow afternoon for the next week, so hopefully we can get things straightened out. I’m just afraid that this counterpart in particular won’t listen to my ideas and let me participate in the planning and teaching process. Vamos a ver (we’ll see).

There was something good I wanted to share though…last night I had dinner with the visiting doctors and they told me more about what they are doing here. They are performing surgeries for women to be sterilized. Apparently it’s what a lot of women want here, but are unable to afford the surgery and/or travel. They are also teaching the doctors here the new method of performing this surgery in a safer way. It’s interesting. They were very nice people and they treated Veronica and me to dinner :) They asked me about other restaurants in town and I told them about my favorite—pupusas. It’s Salvadorian, but they have Nica food too. So, we have plans for dinner tonight too. It should be fun! I got to do some translating for them last night which was fun and they said they’ll be coming back in September and could use some more translators. I’m excited!

English!

Well the first week of school does not actually mean there are classes here. Unfortunately, things are still a little unorganized. I went to the Instituto yesterday for the ´´official`` first day, but it was basically a large assembly introducing all the teachers and reading out loud what classes they will be teaching. There were speeches from the superintendent, principal, and vice principals. A priest also came and prayed. Fortunately I got to leave around 10am when they had a break. It was pretty boring.

I finally found out my counterparts´schedules today and we were able to talk about which classes I would be working with. I´m still trying to figure it all out because I´m not sure how many hours I should take. I was planning on just teaching 7th and 8th grade, but one of my counterparts teaches 7th and 8th, but the other teaches 8th and 9th (among other classes), so I will be working with 7th, 8th, and 9th grade. There are several sections of these classes though, so I need to work out my schedule to see which ones I´ll be teaching. It´s kind of weird the way they set up the sections here. They actually separate the students by their ability levels (not sure exactly how this is done). So, there is a 7A, 7B, 7C, 7D, and 7E. 5 sections of 7th grade and I bet you can just imagine how the 7E class is with all of the ´´low`` students together… I don´t like how they do this, but it´s country-wide. Anyway, I´m just glad to finally have the schedule so I can figure out what I´ll be doing. I arranged to meet with my counterparts Friday afternoon to plan with them for next week because they aren´t teaching this week. One of my counterparts said he was improvising and laughed. Hmm, I´m not sure that´s funny, but that´s just the way it goes.

On the better things…

Last night there was a concert in the central park and it was a group of gringos from Missouri on a mission trip. It was so fun to hear some familiar music (in English). I talked to some people in their group before the concert and I guess they´ve been coming to Nicaragua for a couple years now and they travel around and do concerts. It was neat and I´m glad they came to Boaco because not very many gringos come out here. As I sat down to listen to the music, a Nica asked me (in English) if I was going to sing, and I said no as I laughed a little. I guess it would make sense for him to assume that because I´m a gringa and there was a group of gringos here. We started talking and he realized that I spoke Spanish. He has a mariachi band and they travel around Nicaragua and he also spent 5 years travelling around the U.S. with his band so he speaks a pretty good amount of English. He was very friendly and introduced me to his family there. He said that his son wants to learn English too and he´s taking courses in the university. I told him that I would be starting a community English group and that I would contact them to let them know when that would be. He then invited me and Veronica (my counterpart´s daughter who was with me at the concert) to sit at a table at the restaurant in the park with him and his family. He bought us coffee and rosquillos (a cheese7corn biscuit type thing). They were so nice and it was getting pretty chilly so the coffee was perfect.

At the end of the concert, I was waiting around to talk to the gringos again and I saw some other white folks standing on the side. I went over and asked them if they were part of the group, but they were actually part of a group of doctors from Canada on a medical mission. They were very friendly and invited us to their hotel for some ice cream. They´re staying at the big hotel in Boaco on the side of a cliff that has a nightclub/bar on top with a great view. The other members of their group had already gone to bed, but we chatted with 5 of them and they invited us to come back tonight to go out to dinner with them. I´m excited! It was so nice to meet so many new people yesterday and I felt so good sharing what I´m doing and hearing about what the others are doing to serve Nicaraguans.

Water problems, breaking laws, meetings, and larger than life avocados

So, I’ll begin with the first thing mentioned: water problems. On Tuesday, our water pila ran out of water. What does this mean? Well, there is a large supply of water kept above the house in a large tank, which runs through all of our pipes and provides us with running water and allows our toilets to flush. So, since Tuesday (5 days now) we haven’t been able to use any water from the sinks (because nothing comes out) and haven’t been able to flush the toilets without pouring water in the tanks first to fill them up. We have a large bucket of water for drinking and several buckets of water lining the countertop to use for washing dishes, etc. Needless to say, the kitchen is a mess because the dishes have been piling up since there wasn’t much water the days before to wash and there has been food left out, counters not cleaned, etc. So, it’s been pretty inconvenient. I’m trying to keep a good attitude about it and realize that many places do not have running water. My house in San Juan de Oriente did not have running water, but they were used to that and things were set up to keep things running. I just don’t like when things are messy, like piles of dirty dishes and stuff all over the counters. Last night, after everybody went to bed, I washed several dishes by pouring water from a bucket over them, scrubbing with the sponge, and then rinsing. It was much more difficult to use one hand to wash and one to pour, but I felt better afterwards that many things were clean :)

The next thing on the list…oh yeah, breaking laws. So I went to Managua with my family on Thursday because they needed to run errands and take the grandma to a doctor’s appointment and I wanted to go to the PC office to get some things done. Anyway, on the way into Managua, we got pulled over by the police. Basically, the police stand on the side of the road and when they see something wrong, they direct you over to the side of the road. My family has a pick-up truck with a double cab that sits 2 people in front and 3 in the back, but we had 4 people in the back. It wasn’t exactly comfortable, but we fit just fine. I thought this was a pretty ridiculous law for Nicaragua as we sat there while other pick-up trucks passed by with more than 10 people in the bed. Really? Is that really safer than one extra person in the cab? Later on I saw a man on his motorcycle and he was actually wearing a helmet and the correct way, which is rare here. However, he also had a small child sitting in front of him, one behind him, and then his wife behind that child. This is not rare to see in Nicaragua. Somehow it’s ok to have 4 people on a motorcycle, and only one wearing a helmet. Not quite sure about the laws here… I guess I know why there are always so many people in the bed of trucks instead of inside the cab.

After a very long day in Managua, I had to go to the Instituto (high school) the next morning for their monthly TEPCE (meetings with all teachers in the district to plan for the month). They are usually pretty boring and the teachers often say this themselves. It was boring, but it was neat because I got to meet the other English teachers in the area. They were a little jealous of my counterparts to find out that I would only be working at the one Instituto and not joining them, but I told them I would be doing talleres (workshops) to help all of them. They then decided that for their next TEPCE, I would do their teacher capacitacion (training) and they told me what they wanted me to teach them. All right, I have some planning to do…

Today, Andrea came into town to hang out and run some errands. We went to the market and I was hoping to find some avocados, which have been difficult to locate. Well, I was pleasantly surprised. Although they were a little expensive, these avocados were the largest ones I’ve ever seen! Take a look for yourself.

Peace

I just started reading a book called “A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose” by Eckhart Tolle. It’s really interesting and philosophical. It’s one of those books that really makes you think—or as the author here says, it makes you go beyond thought… It’s intriguing and has kept me reading. It’s also about seeking peace and finding your inner self. Anyway, at the end of one of the chapters, the author is talking about in a tragic situation (or any tough situation really) you have two ways to react: resist or yield. Resisting leads to bitterness, but yielding accepts whatever it is for what it is. I especially like the last few lines: “If no action is possible, you rest in the peace and inner stillness that come with surrender. You rest in God.”

This reminded me of a quote that I like from Tony Dungy (former NFL football coach), "You can't always control circumstances. However, you can always control your attitude, approach, and response. Your options are to complain or to look ahead and figure out how to make the situation better.”