AVC, Thanksgiving, Farm Visit

Every other year, Peace Corps puts on an All Volunteer Conference (AVC) for all of the volunteers in the country (between 150 and 200 of us) to attend (used to be every year but was changed due to budget cuts). The conference gives volunteers an opportunity to attend different crosssectoral information sessions to help them in their service, including learning about biodigestors, community English classes, current events, HIV/AIDS projects, gardening, and starting a business, among many others. This year’s theme for the 2-day conference was “A Crosssectoral Approach to Food Security”.

Just to give a quick background, the standard definition of food security is when all people have sustainable access to sufficient food to lead a healthy and productive life. Personally, I feel that “food security” is the new “green”. It’s becoming a hot topic all over the world and especially in Nicaragua because of its importance in helping Nicaraguans have better access to, availability to, and healthy utilization of food, thus helping to alleviate poverty. The purpose of AVC, thus, was to get a dialogue going about where we as volunteers fit into the picture. As an environmental education volunteer, for example, making composts to improve soils and vegetable gardens have a clear connection to food security. Also, planting trees to protect the soil and water table help with food security. Agriculture volunteers clearly have a direct connection. Health volunteers help to promote a healthy lifestyle with locally available products. And so on… Also, there were tables with beautiful local products, recycled art and jewelry being sold that were made by different women’s and youth groups. Overall, I felt it was a really interesting and productive conference. It made me see how important my work is here and got me motivated to do some crosssectoral exchanges with other volunteers.

For Thanksgiving, volunteers had the opportunity to have dinner with an embassy family or with one of the Peace Corps staff members. I was put with a group of 30 that ate at the ridiculously expensive and beautiful house of a Foreign Service agent in Managua. For the exception of the turkey, the food was vegetarian and vegan, which I was really excited about since it’s not the typical Thanksgiving I’m used to. It was so nice to eat such a variety of vegetables and other foods that can really only be found at major supermarkets in Managua. We played “Apples to Apples” and chatted among good food and wine. Overall, it was an excellent night.

This past week, I spent a few days relaxing on a farm in my town. I rode horses (which I wasn’t very good at because I don’t like kicking the horse), did a little bit of hiking, swam in a river, ate some oranges and nectarines fresh off the tree, learned how to make cuajada, a type of cheese (ironically), and played some baseball. It’s such a different life out in the “campo”; it was a nice change to the somewhat faster-paced life in the “city”. I went to sleep at 7 PM and woke up at 5 or 6 AM. It got pretty chilly at night and I was cold for one of the very few times in Nicaragua. I wouldn’t say it was exactly a comfortable vacation since I still needed to use a latrine and was constantly covered in mud and smelled like a cow, but definitely a different experience.

This week my family comes to visit and stays until after New Years which I’m super excited about! My first visitors! It’ll be a nice change to last year around the holidays when I had just come to site and was feeling kind of lonely and not yet like a part of my community. It should be a relaxing and fun time visiting different parts of the country, and finally getting the opportunity to show my family where I’ve been living for the past year.

That’s all to report for now! Hope everybody has a happy holiday and new year! Will write again in 2010! ~Peace and Love~

Website

I fixed the website listed on my previous post. The site is: http://www.tourismatiguas.com/. It's still in its infancy but definitely has some nice pictures and information. Check it out!

Mid-Service Reflections: Main Accomplishments and Setbacks

Now that I’ve got a year of Peace Corps service officially under my belt, I’d like to take the time to reflect on what I’ve accomplished and what has gone wrong, so that I can learn from the good and the bad and do things better in my second year of service. We, as volunteers, are told over and over again that Peace Corps lasts for two years precisely for that reason. Here’s hoping for a productive and eventful year that will make a lasting impact for years to come…

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Successful compost production and vegetable harvest in two school gardens. Since making composts and vegetable gardens in the schools is one of my primary jobs here, I’m pretty satisfied with the results. The students in the rural areas were super excited to bring trash into school and make composts, and when all of our hard work gardening finally paid off (with the help of the rainy season), the kids were able to eat the delicious squash, tomatoes, and cucumbers they produced.

Establishing myself in my community, my neighborhood, and my house. I’m happy to say I feel safe and comfortable where I’m living. My house is cozy and inviting, and I’ve learned to accept what it lacks as part of its character. I trust my neighbors and feel welcome anytime in any one of their houses. I can now walk down the street and be identified by name and not just by “gringa” (although that, I’m sure, will never go away since the population size is about 25,000). Just being comfortable where you are and not feeling the need to escape in order to feel free or accepted in such a foreign place, I feel, is a major accomplishment.

Building lasting personal and professional relationships. Having lived in-site for a year now, I have made a substantial number of friends and professional contacts which will serve as great networks for future projects and ensuring their sustainability.

Not getting dengue (knock on wood). Recently there has been an outbreak of dengue in Nicaragua, a sickness with horrible flu-like symptoms transmitted by mosquitoes, hitting many of my fellow volunteers and even Nica friends in-site. With the help of my mosquito net, frequent town fumigations (though not the healthiest nor the most environmentally-friendly option), and nightly applications of (DEET-free) bug repellent, I have luckily remained dengue-free. Now that the rainy season is ending, it appears I *may* be safe…that is, until next year.

Making an environmentally conscious “campesino” contact for tree planting and gardening. I have been working regularly with a farmer in an outside community who produces all of his own food organically and plants new trees every year. Although I’m not really teaching him many new techniques since this is what he’s already been doing for years, I find him as a reliable resource to successfully carry out reforestation projects.

Fewer ducks killed on Dia de San Juan and Dia de San Pedro. You may recall my work with petitioning, talking on the local radio, and preaching in church about promoting an animal-friendly alternative to the cruel treatment and decapitation of what probably amounts to hundreds of ducks on these two holidays. Unfortunately, the tradition has not been altogether banned because, well, it’s tradition, and people are not receptive to such a drastic change. There were, however, significantly fewer ducks sacrificed as the awareness campaign had awakened people to the suffering that could easily be curtailed. The tradition, I had been told, had slowly been dying out anyway, so hopefully in a few years a more animal-friendly approach will be taken as a form of celebration.

Waking up in the morning and thinking in Spanish. Mi mejor logro!

SETBACKS

Having to start from scratch with new teachers. Our work as environmental education volunteers is just that: the environmental aspect + the education aspect. At the beginning of the school year, I had selected six teachers with whom I would be working, completing a two-year cycle of observation, demonstration, co-teaching, and observation again. However, every year the Ministry of Education makes changes, moving teachers to different grades and sometimes even different schools. These changes are inevitable and unpredictable, but they make it so that much of my work remains rushed and/or incomplete. However, I also see it as an opportunity to improve my teacher selection process in the following year so that I am only working with those who truly want to learn from and share their knowledge with me.

Secondary projects falling through. Among my English classes, eco group, youth group, and work with the women’s soccer teams, all of them have fallen through. The English classes had lasted a good nine months or so, but despite widespread interest in learning English, fewer and fewer people were coming to class on time, doing the homework, and even coming to class altogether. So I unfortunately decided to end the class when two weeks in a row not even one person had showed up. However, now I am giving private nightly classes to one person at my house and they seem to be much more promising. As far as my eco group, youth group, and women’s soccer teams, there was an overall lack of interest and people were not showing up to meetings/practices. The women’s soccer teams still exist, but I have resigned myself to just playing with them rather than coaching them. I lost the patience of getting up at 5 AM every morning to find only three people at practice who didn’t even want to exert any physical effort.

Low tree survival rates. I’ve successfully planted some trees, both in the schools and in different communities, but not as many of them as I had hoped had survived either their 3-month period in the nursery or their post-transplantation time. In one of the schools, they decided to fumigate the school grounds just weeks after we planted trees, killing virtually all of them. Unfortunately, many of those losses were beyond my control.

The environmental representative from the Mayor’s Office getting laid-off. Yup. And after all we were hoping to accomplish in the following year with eco-groups, starting a recycling program, ending trash burning, and working together with the Tourism Commission, the federal government decided to cut the Municipality’s funding, and so all recent hires and projects will be terminated by the end of this month. It’s going to be difficult starting from scratch and losing one of my most important contacts and collaborators.

FUTURE ASPIRATIONS

Ending trash burning a) in the schools, and b) (slightly more ambitious) in my site. Just shortly before I had learned that our Mayor’s Office would be losing its one and only environmental representative, we had written a letter together and delivered it to the Delegate of the Ministry of Education about how it is illegal in Nicaragua to burn trash (of course it isn’t enforced) and that schools are centers for learning that should be setting a positive example for future generations to follow. Many of the schools not just in the rural areas where there is no trash collection, but in the urban center, as well, where a truck passes by every week, continue to burn their trash right on school grounds where children run and play. If this practice could only be eliminated in the schools, when these students grow up and have their own kids, they’re going to remember what they practiced as children and do the same. Unfortunately I will be losing my main collaborator in getting this accomplished, but since the letter has already been written and delivered, the only thing left to do is to continually follow-up and wait. And as far as eliminating trash burning in-site, I know this is quite an ambitious task, but if it could first get eliminated in the schools, and perhaps be made into a pressing topic to be discussed on the local radio, much could get accomplished in just one year.

Collaboration with the Tourism Commission on making my town more ecotourist-friendly. Right now the Tourism Commission is working on promoting tourism in my town, starting with visits to a local organic coffee farm and day-hikes. A website has even been created, both in Spanish AND in English (because one of the main people in charge is originally from England), which shows great progress and a huge step in the right direction. I can only hope they see my willingness to get involved in the project and seek my help, even if it is just to get the project off the ground and running. Take a look at the progress they’ve made so far: http://www.tourismatiguas.com/.

Collaboration with my new site-mate on secondary projects. Starting the end of November, I will be joined by a Peace Corps TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) Volunteer in my site. I am hoping that between the two of us we can come up with some new ideas and collaborate on project-planning and completion. Maybe she can even give me tips on how to maintain interest and motivation to come to class with my English students.

Doing things better the second time around. Keeping in mind all of the above, I want to change the way I went about doing some of the less-successful projects this year so that they will be easier the second time around!

I’d like to finish by saying that I am so proud of my fellow group of environmental education volunteers with whom I came to Nicaragua, who is still 18 volunteers and going strong 15 months in! They have survived bus accidents, deaths in the family, dengue, and countless unsolvable illnesses, and yet they are all still here, ready and welcoming the new year. We are now the “senior” environmental ed group, so let the countdown finally begin! Congratulations to Nica48 Environment and Nica45 for finishing up – you guys make it all possible.

SEND ME FREE TEXTS!

I recently discovered that you can send me text messages from ANYWHERE in the world for FREE online! Just follow these steps carefully because the website is in Spanish:

1. Go to http://www.claro.com.ni/
2. Click the imagine on the right that says "Chatea con todos tus amigos"
3. Where it says "Destino" put in this number: 88304681
4. Where it says "Origen" write your name.
5. Where it says "Mensaje" type your message.
6. Where it says "Codigo" type in the secret code.
7. Click "Enviar" or send. If the message was successfully sent, you'll see a message that says "Su mensaje ha sido enviado". Then click "Aceptar".

Thanks!! I hope to hear from you!!

Profesora Mariela

I'd like to take the time to write about a teacher who really makes me feel like my time here has been worthwhile. There are many days when I just feel completely frustrated with my work, when the students just aren't paying attention, and when it seems like none of my work with the teachers is getting through to them. For example, spending three months tending a tree nursery, finally transplanting the trees in the schools, and then having them fumigate the lawn just weeks after, killing almost every single one of the trees, is not something that motivates you to continue with your service, living in a foreign country, away from your family and friends, for over two years. And then there's Profesora Mariela, without whom I would feel completely deflated.

Just to give you a little bit of a background, Mariela is an independent 25 year old, has been teaching for 10 years (no this is not a typo), has a 7 year old son, is divorced, and is college educated. She is one of the few teachers with whom I work who tells me how appreciative she is for our work together and is really applying some of the techniques I've shared. In her school, the kids are already keeping and mantaining their own compost, and plan on continuing with the vegetable garden and reforestation campaigns year after year. They've stopped fumigating the lawn, and instead are adopting more environmentally friendly ways of maintaining the school (cutting the grass, by hand, with machetes...tedious but effective). She tells me, too, that her son takes my class so seriously. He goes up to people on the street who are burning their trash and tells them that they're polluting the environment haha. He carries his garbage with him in his backpack instead of tossing it out the bus window like oh so many Nicaraguans. And he started separating his organic and inorganic trash to start making a home compost. When you ask him questions about the class, he spits out the information like a dictionary, word for word, like it was presented in the class. It's really cute :).

So thank you Profe Mariela and her son, David. Because of you, my work here has been worthwhile.

Updates from the Field

Hello to all my followers. Nothing that new and exciting to report, but I know I have a few devout followers of my blog so just for you guys, here comes another entry.

At the beginning of September (Sept 3rd, to be exact), I hit my one-year mark of being in Nicaragua. It was pretty exciting to realize I've made it this far and am almost half-way through my service. The volunteers in my group and I celebrated the occasion at a nice hotel in Managua and treated ourselves to an all-you-can-eat brunch. So far, our entire group of environmental ed volunteers that came in since Day 1 is still in tact, which is quite the accomplishment since many people do not make it through their full 2 years of service. We're hoping to keep the momentum going strong until November of 2010!

I've been getting involved recently with some collaborative projects with the Mayor's Office and United Nations food security program by giving some talks in a rural community within my municipality (it sounds a lot more official than it really is). The goals of the food security program are pretty much in-line with the Peace Corps environmental education program, so so far we've given talks on how to make a compost and garden and are looking to possibly do more in the future about organic pesticides and fertilizers, fruit tree nurseries, and seed saving.

(My "how-to" compost poster)

(Making a compost with corn husks, manure, and leaves)

I've really been enjoying them so far because I feel like as opposed to working in the schools where sometimes the students don't express interest in being there or don't understand the relevance of what you're teaching, the adults in the rural areas who are without jobs or have nutritional issues really value the information we're bringing to them.

(Making a seed bed for tomatoes and peppers out of an old tire)

(My partner in crime demonstrating how to make an elevated seed bed to prevent animals from eating your harvest)

Besides the talks in the "campo", September hasn't been the most productive of months. The schools have been spending weeks preparing for the mid-September independence day activities (marches, bands, dancing), so I haven't been able to get much accomplished in terms of secondary activities. I've also been in and out of Managua giving talks about the Peace Corps approach to development to the new group of environmental ed trainees so it's been difficult right now trying to start up new and/or continue old projects. I'm hoping, though, that before the end of the year and vacations begin I can at least get one other solid project in, particularly related to HIV/AIDS since World AIDS Day is on December 1st.

This weekend I will be having a PCT, or Peace Corps Trainee, come visit me in my site for a few days and shadow me in my job. This is something I did a year ago during training and it was really helpful to get an idea about what the volunteer lifestyle is like. So I'm looking forward to providing some insight and helpful suggestions so that someone else can benefit from my experiences.

So, that's all, folks! Please continue to keep me updated with your own lives and new and exciting things going on in the US! Take care.

New Mailing Address

Please take note of my new mailing address:

Apartado Postal 13
Boaco, Boaco
Nicaragua
Central America

I'll still have the Matagalpa address but will be checking this one more often.

Thinking of Finally Taking that Dream Vacation?

Been working your butt off lately? Tired of the same old routine? Thinking of finally taking that dream vacation? Then Nicaragua is just the place for you! Here you'll encounter beautiful, sunny weather and pleasant temperatures - guaranteed (disclaimer: months of February through November do not apply)! No need to pay any professionals - you'll have a free tour guide and translator who can meet you the second you arrive on Nicaraguan soil (I'll even throw in a free tour of my latrine)!

Still think you'll feel a little uncomfortable in a foreign land? Worried about losing your luggage? I can assure you that it will be safely guarded by someone who could easily be mistaken for spiderman on the roof of an old, American school bus moving at speeds close to 70 mph.

Upon your arrival, I can take you volcano surfing (just as long as the volcano doesn't erupt) and wildlife viewing, even inside my own home! Here in Nicaragua, you'll also be able to find cheap, delicious food on every street corner (stool test not included). But if you'd rather enjoy a safe, home cooked meal, I cook a mean gallo pinto (beans are good for the heart)! But if Nicaraguan food isn't your cup of oversweetened coffee, there's plenty of American food to be found - you'll even get your spaghetti with an extra side of ketchup!

And f you're single and got that special blond-haired, blue-eyed gringa charm, you could have the added benefit of leaving Nicaragua with a ring on your finger!

But if safety is still your #1 concern - tranquilo! God is big here - he's got your back.

No but seriously, though, Nicaragua is awesome. You can even refresh yourself with its awesomeness by referring to my "Top 10 Reasons Why Nicaragua is Awesome" blog post. Visitors are welcome anytime in my book! You can get to see all the beauty and culture Nicaragua has to offer, and if you're lucky enough, maybe live a day in the life of Carolina (if you dare, muhaha).

Hasta luego, muchachos!

This Boat Called "Earth"

As I approach my one year mark here in Nicaragua, I’ve begun to notice things that aren’t so apparent if you’re just passing through as a tourist. For example, it’s caught my attention recently how often people die in accidents here, mostly in cars and motorcycles. It seems like every weekend there’s a pickup truck with a loudspeaker passing through each neighborhood announcing the death of yet another person, usually under the age of 40. I think this is the case for a number of reasons: a) drunk driving, b) driving without a seatbelt, and c) riding a motorcycle without a helmet. I think there are laws against all of the above but rarely are they enforced. It’s just really sad to me how often young people die here. It makes it more apparent to me that someone I know here can die at any point in time. Granted, this happens anywhere, but it seems much more prevalent here. This observation is not meant to scare any of you, it’s just something I’ve realized is out of the norm.

I don’t know if the above is a problem of too few law enforcers, low budgets, or that the police are just preoccupied with other things, but this seems to be a theme with the environment, as well. Reading through a book of Nicaraguan environmental laws, I noticed that many things that have become common daily sights for me, like trash burning, are actually illegal here. But how can it be illegal if they’re even practicing it in the schools – a place that is supposed to set an example for future generations to follow? There are many species of plants and animals that are under protection by law also, but their numbers are still dwindling because nobody knows and hardly anything is enforced. Many people have a type of bird called a “chocoyo” in their houses that are kept as pets, and yet these birds are endangered in Nicaragua. My research group in Costa Rica found this to be the case, too, so it’s not just happening here.

Issues like these make it more and more apparent to me how important my job is here. Just improving the overall awareness of people about these laws and why they exist can make up for, in part, the lack of enforcement. Of course it’s hard to know if the kids I’m teaching today are going to remember as adults what it means to live sustainably, but I continue to treat my job as if they will. I came into the Peace Corps with big ideas and ambitions of wanting to save this environment and help its people, too. I’ve still held onto these ideas, but I know it’s something that will take many, many more years, with the help of not only outside organizations but also the Nicaraguan government and its own people. After all, how many years after scientists discovered global warming did it take for people to finally pay attention and actually do something about it? And we’ve STILL got a long way to go.

I highly suggest the book Collapse by Jared Diamond to anyone who’s interested in this topic. It’s not exactly beach reading since it’s about the size of a textbook, but definitely interesting nonetheless. And I want to remind you that we’re all in this same boat called “Earth”, and it’s sinking. And developing countries aren’t the only culprits – statistically, they’re actually less at fault. But keep positive – environmentalism is no longer all “gloom and doom” – it’s the new fad, baby! Anyway, I welcome, as always, any comments or feedback on my blog (I changed a setting so that now anyone can post – you don’t need to make an account first).

What I´ve been up to

Today in one of my schools we were transplanting the trees from our tree nursery. This school had one of my most successful tree nurseries, and gardens (I think because the soil is really good), and about 50% of the seeds sprouted (58 trees) and were able to be transplanted after about 2 months at the school and at the kids’ houses. 50% may not sound like a great outcome, but tree nurseries usually don’t have a very high survival rate, probably because it’s difficult to obtain viable seeds. In my other schools, like I’ve said, there have been some problems with the tree nurseries (destruction, not growing for whatever reason), so there won’t be many more trees to plant there. At least through all of this I am learning what to do and not to do for the following year and have taken from the experience what I can. I’m hoping the following year will be much more of a success, with the teachers already having the skills and hopefully the motivation to do these types of projects on their own.

English class has been going well. It’s been full of ups and downs, we’ve gone through a lot of overturn in the class, and attendance has been sparse, but recently I’ve had a couple of my friends join and between them and the devoted few, the class has been more fun and enjoyable, and I think my students are actually learning something. I enjoy teaching the class because it’s mostly adults and mature high school students, so I don’t have to deal with disciplining problems like I do all day in the elementary schools. It’s hard to grasp how much English the students are learning because a lot of them had come into the class with previous knowledge, but those who actually study I think are learning a decent amount.

In other news, the Peace Corps is planning on putting a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) volunteer in my site. I’ve been thinking a TEFL volunteer would’ve been appropriate here for a long time, especially because so many people here move to the States at one point or another in their lives, and with the unemployment rate so high, it’s a really useful skill to put on a resume and can help people get high paying jobs. As far as having another volunteer in-site, I kind of got used to being the only “gringa” in town, but I think it’ll be nice to have a fellow American around here and there. I have no idea if or when he/she will ever get placed here, but I’m keeping my ears open for any more news.

Last Friday I went to Matagalpa for a meeting with the Nicaraguan Tourism Institute (INTUR) and a woman who works in the environmental sector at our mayor’s office to learn more about ecotourism opportunities in Matagalpa and my town. INTUR has a program right now called “La Ruta de Café”, where it’s organizing trips for tourists to different areas in the department to visit coffee farms and learn more about coffee. I met a woman from my town who has been very involved with this and is trying to get something started here with her husband, who happens to be British. They own an organic coffee farm up in the mountains in town and are trying to set up hiking trips and visits to their farm (not to mention I buy their coffee – quite tasty!). I’m really excited that I’ve finally made these contacts, because doing something related to ecotourism has been something I’ve had in mind since I first got here because of my study abroad experience in Costa Rica, but it didn’t really seem to be of much interest at the time (or maybe I just hadn’t met the right people). I’m looking forward to anything that happens with this in the future. Hopefully by the time some of you visit, this will be somewhat more organized and we can take a trip to experience the fruits of all our labor (and drink good coffee)!

Besides that, I think everyone is well aware that I’m not a huge fan of the rainy season. Granted, it doesn’t rain all day, every day, but it makes it very difficult to be able to get things done, start meetings on time, and the biggest headache of all, wash clothes and clean the house. It’s frequent that I won’t have water for 3 or 4 days at a time, so the clothes I need to wash by hand just keep piling up and my house is not as clean as I’d like it to be. And when I run out of my huge 10-gallon jugs of purified water, all of the pulperias, or little stores, are out of them because everyone is out buying water. So buying little bottles of water can get really, really expensive, if it must be done on a daily basis. Can you tell I’m looking forward to November when the rainy season is over? However, one positive is all the great produce that’s ripening now. First came the mangos, then the avocados, then the elote and guilila, or corn on the cob and tortilla made with fresh corn (very tasty), and fresh red beans. I take full advantage when people walk by my house selling these tasty treats, or when students from the campo bring me fresh produce from their farms. So in this respect, the rainy season does have its benefits!

Other than that, not much else is new. I’ve been enjoying going out dancing on the weekends as a nice break from my hectic work week. I’m hoping that as the school year winds down and we have some days off I can get to visit some new areas of Nicaragua that I don’t yet know. It’s really a beautiful country, and the fact that there are volunteers in almost every department makes it easy and cheap to visit new places! I’m also already looking forward to and planning a visit to Guatemala in January to visit a certain Barbara in the Peace Corps, so we’re already getting excited about that.

Please keep in touch! I still like getting snail mail, email, phone calls - whatever floats your boat! And thank you for all of your continued support.

Back into the groove

Hey all,

I apologize for not writing in such a long time. I recently returned from a 2 week visit to the States so Im just getting back into the groove of work and Nicaraguan life. I was working myself way too hard before vacation, trying to plant as many trees as possible and meet with all my groups, so the vacation back home was much needed. It was nice to visit Burlington and Boston, as well, and it made me sooo happy to see everyone!

Coming back to Nicaragua was definitely not easy. My first couple of days back I was wondering how much longer Id make it here and whether or not it was such a good idea to go home. I came back to Nicaragua and immediately had to get back into the daily headache of manual labor and cooking from scratch. I also went 4 days without water, and started to resort to collecting rain water to wash dishes and bucket shower. I was pretty much in a pretty desperate state when it finally came back and I was able to fill up all my barrels again and get at least a few clothes washed. But this happens way too often in the rainy season, so Im going to have to figure out some kind of way to better prepare myself for when it happens again. There may come a time when I have to resort to washing my clothes in the river, but lets hope Ill never need to pollute the river any more than it already is.

Now Im back from school vacations and getting into the routine of things. Everything is pretty much back to normal. Unfortunately, Im having some problems with some of the projects Ive completed. The schools have been having many issues with robberies and unfortunately that includes some of the vegetables my students and I have worked so hard to produce. Also, one of the tree nurseries with 120 trees planted was completely destroyed by what we originally thought were pigs, but then realized were some careless people who entered the school and felt like doing some damage. And in my urban school, the limited space we did have to do the gardens have been hard to prevent from being damaged, and with all of the rain we`ve been getting, Im not sure if the gardens will produce any vegetables. We shall see.

Another problem Ive been having lately is with attendance of my English classes and youth group meetings. My English class has gone through about 4 different groups of people, with only a select few who have stayed with it since the beginning. I was assured by my students that it wasnt me, but that things come up and people may not really have the motivation to study. I think with me not being here for 2 weeks people may also be confused about whether or not the classes are still going on. Its really not that uncommon for projects to fall through, but hopefully in time things will work themselves out and go back to normal, so Im doing everything I can to keep it going.

Even with all these difficulties, Ive managed to stay fairly positive and have learned to take everything that I do here with a grain of salt. Im hoping to get involved in an ecotourism project with the Mayors Office and an outside NGO, but that, like everything, Im sure will take time. Otherwise, Ive just been keeping busy with my work in the schools and have begun co-planning and co-teaching with the teachers. It takes a LOT more time to plan classes now since I have to sit down individually with every one of my 6 teachers to plan every week, but I think as a result our relationships will grow and I`ll get to see who`s really motivated to work with me.

Other than that, I have some future visits and trips in December and January to look forward to! I know thats a ways away, but its incredible how things like that will keep you motivated and pumped to keep going. Time is moving fast, and Ive only got a year and 4 months left here. I hope everyone continues to stay in touch - snail mail is always appreciated! Enjoy the summer weather!

pics

Please see the pics I added to the previous post (sorry I´m a little slow).

Keeping Busy and Time Moving Fast

The rainy season has started here in Nicaragua, which means it’s time for gardens and tree nurseries in the schools! The tree nurseries I’m hoping to get done this month, and I’ve successfully made a garden in each of my three schools (well, we’ll see if they’re successes if we’re able to get any produce out of them) where we’ve planted different varieties of squash, carrots, tomatoes, peppers, and onions. We’ve also used the compost we’ve made in each of the schools in the gardens so I think that’s helped some of the plants grow. It’s really exciting because I only go to each of the schools once a week, so to see how much progress the gardens make every 8 days is pretty awesome. I’m also trying to help people with backyard gardens at their houses, one of which is the mother of one of my students. When I went to her house to see the space we were going to use, she showed me the seedbed her son had made with tomatoes and peppers after learning it in my class. Seeing that made me really happy because as an education volunteer, it’s often hard to see the fruits of your labor, or to know if anyone is really listening to what I’m teaching, whereas with agriculture or business there are usually hard products where you can say, “I did this.” So I’m glad my teaching is making a difference.

On May 30 of every year, Nicaraguans celebrate Mother’s Day, and every school celebrates and recognizes the students’ mothers in a different way. I was lucky enough to get invited to two Mother’s Day celebrations in the rural schools, both of which were celebrated with plenty of dancing, including traditional folkloric dances that the students have been learning in school as well as an open dance party for students, teachers, and parents (I of course participated). It was amusing how in one of the schools, this Mother’s Day party was considered to be this huge community dance party – the most happening thing on the block – so all these people started arriving on horseback and strutting their best Latin dance moves. It was pretty awesome. The students also read poems aloud and there were fun games for the mothers like balloon popping games, a pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey-type game, and a piñata. Lots of good times.

Something else that’s been keeping me pretty busy has been a campaign I started regarding the celebration of “El Dia de San Juan” and “El Dia de San Pablo” the end of June here and in the surrounding communities. In order to reenact the decapitation of San Juan, it has been tradition to hang ducks by their feet, ride by on horseback, and try to pull their heads off. This is obviously no easy feat, so the ducks are, what I consider to be, tortured, for hours, one after the next. Apparently the tradition has been fading out, and most people I’ve talked to don’t agree with it or like it. So I’ve been collecting signatures from people in the community (it’s good that I’ve gotten to know a lot of people in high places) to promote an alternative to the use and mistreatment of these ducks. The purpose is not to get rid of the holiday, but to celebrate it in another way that doesn’t mistreat animals. I’ve brought the signatures I’ve obtained to a meeting with the municipal heads, and to my surprise, was commended and able to receive the signatures of 9 of the 11 members present. They suggested that my next steps are to continue collecting signatures before the next meeting, raising awareness about the issue, and then it will be up for discussion again. I’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback regarding the issue and the insistence on providing an alternative, and managed to land a spot speaking at one of the radio stations here during the slot for the mayor’s office. It’s not like I have a regular show or anything (although that could be something to think about for the future – to talk about different environmental issues on a weekly basis), but I talked a couple of times and the people who called in were receptive and seemed to agree with me. So we will see what happens in the upcoming weeks.

Next week my women’s high school soccer team was supposed to be competing in Matagalpa for the title of Department champions. It seems like a really big deal, but there honestly isn’t a whole lot of competition in women’s sports, and the other coaches are pretty active in pursuing these kinds of opportunities. I’ve taken more of a backseat with the coaching because I’ve been super busy and haven’t been able to go to practices, but it’s actually part of my job here to slowly phase myself out of projects so that they’re sustainable and can continue long after I’m gone. Nevertheless, the date for the match was never finalized until last minute, and despite my endless phone calls to find out, no one told me that they competed on Friday. I always was more of an assistant coach/trainer, but for a while I was running the majority of the practices on my own, so Im annoyed that no one told me when they were going and I feel kind of sad it never really was “my” team, and that they felt that they could go to Matagalpa without me. I’ve also really wanted to start playing again, but the men over 30 league that plays at night that I’m planning on joining hasn’t started yet. Every so often I need to remind myself I’m on “Nica time” here, and that if I dont endlessly follow up on things I will miss out because no one will inform me.

Lastly, these past couple of days I went to my old training town to give a talk to the new trainees about sustainable and gender development with this new Peace Corps “Guia” committee I joined. I was happy to be there again and visited my host family. I’m looking forward to giving future talks to the new environmental group that comes in in September.

The more time I spend here, the more comfortable I’m becoming and falling into being myself again. It was a huge step for me to take action on the Dia de San Juan issue because it seems like every holiday is celebrated with some form of animal activity, whether it be horse parades, bull riding, or duck decapitation, and I felt it would be hard as an American trying to raise awareness about something that’s so commonplace here. But after spending 6 months in my community already, I feel I’ve gotten to know enough people and been involved in a variety of things that people respect my opinion and are more than willing to help me. It’s a really good feeling, and I’m thinking my service can only go up from here.

“The Whole Store’s Got the Flu”

I want to first preface this entry by clarifying that what I write is not meant to be offensive, but represent the realities and “My Cousin Vinny”-type moments (hence this entry’s title) that I face on a daily basis in Nicaragua. With that being said, let me tell you a little story about what a “typical” meeting is like for me here…

On Wednesday, I am invited to a meeting/training with two of the forestry governmental organizations here in town regarding an important Nicaraguan environmental law. The invitation states that the meeting will begin at 9 AM, but having now been here for almost 9 months, I know that “9 AM” really means “whenever you feel like showing up”. Let it be said that this meeting was originally scheduled two weeks prior, and when I arrived right on time and no one was there, I soon realized after talking to the kind (and slightly sketchy) police officer that works around the library that the meeting was probably changed and I failed to be notified. Awesome.

So, this time, in typical Nica fashion, I show up to the meeting at 9:30 (instead of 9) and only one other person is there, who isn’t even one of the people running the meeting. At about 9:45, some people start arriving and the powerpoint presentation (atypical for Nicaraguan meetings) is being set up. It is quickly realized that the projection can’t be seen due to all the light coming through the windows. So we close all the windows in what is an already suffocating-ly hot room, but the projection still cannot be seen. We then rearrange all of the furniture – a huge table, 15 or so chairs, some benches, and a whiteboard – so that the projector is facing a different wall. In the midst of all this rearranging, like clockwork, the rest of the group arrives exactly at 10 AM (I suppose we can call this “Nica punctuality”). The computer’s projection still can’t be seen, despite all of our manual labor. After I suggest we get some kind of sheet to cover the windows, a woman who works at the Mayor’s office finally runs off to look for something. In the meantime, people are still fiddling around with the projector, trying every different display setting.

So we finally decide, over an hour after the meeting is supposed to begin, to maybe try a different location. We move down to the 2nd flood of the library, find a place to set up, move some tables, then realize there’s no outlet. There’s no outlet on the entire floor. So we get up and move down to the first floor. Everything gets set up again (this time with an outlet nearby). The woman from the Mayor’s office finally returns with the sheets but we’ve already moved locations.

It’s about 10:20. We’re all ready to go, and suddenly the computer doesn’t work. The projector works fine, but the computer screen is blank and won’t turn on. After a few minutes of struggling to find out what the problem is, they ask for my help and I point out in about 3 seconds that the computer ran out of battery and needs to be plugged in. I state this in about 5 different ways (and my Spanish isn’t THAT bad) before it finally registers. So it’s determined that we’re going to plug in the computer. But where’s the cord to plug it in? It’s in their office in another building, of course. So we wait some more (at this point I’m actually quite amused and am having a good laugh with one of the other people at the meeting).

FINALLY, at 10:40, the meeting starts. Let me remind you that we have now wasted an hour and 40 minutes due to a lack of punctuality and preparation. And pretty soon, 12:00 rolls around and people are hungry, have to go to class (some teachers were there who only start work in the afternoon), and/or are falling asleep (me). So the rest of the presentation, which should have taken 4 hours, is rushed through and ends at 12:30.

The point of this story is that what seems like common sense to me (maybe preparing all of the technology before hand and trying out the room to make sure everything works well, bringing the essential parts of the computer with you to the meeting, having a hard copy of the presentation on-hand) may not be common sense to everyone (and these are directors with college degrees). I’m SURE there are things that seem like common sense to Nicas that are difficult for me to grasp (for example, if you can fit 10 people in a 5-person car, why bother taking 2 cars?), but the point is to demonstrate the frustrations inherent in getting things done here. This is not only the case with punctuality and preparedness, but also with having to return somewhere to meet with someone 4-5 times until you can finally get done what should’ve taken 5 minutes instead of 5 weeks (I’m not exaggerating). And this is exactly why I’m here for 2 years instead of 1.

So there you have it – a little taste of what meetings, classes, and practices have generally been like for me here. Is it frustrating? Yes. Does it sometimes feel like a waste of time? Yup. But these are the realities of working in a developing country, and I signed up for the Peace Corps with the expectation of having to be flexible and ready to deal with them. So here I am, with 1 ½ years to go, with the anticipation of hopefully getting at least one major thing accomplished in my time here…even if it does take the whole 2 years.

(Completely random side-note: While writing this entry lying in my hammock at home, a couple of cows decided to mosey on up to my front door, peek in, and say hello.)

Top 10 Reasons Why Nicaragua is Awesome

1. Its not a party if there isnt dancing.
2. La comida tipica (typical Nica food) is almost always vegetarian.
3. Love handles are cool.
4. If youre stranded without a car or missed the last bus, hitchhiking is always a non-sketchy, acceptable option.
5. Avocados, mangos, and all sorts of interesting tropical fruits, sometimes even right in your own backyard.
6. Hammocks.
7. If youre ever lost, hungry, or thirsty, just knock on any random persons door and youll be treated like one of their own.
8. Volcanoes, mountains, lakes, ocean, tropical forest...what else could you ask for?
9. Fun music blasting all the time.
10. Where else is it acceptable for a 7 yr old to walk around with a machete? (My personal favorite)

Hope you enjoyed that ;)

IST and Masatepe

These past few weeks have been pretty eventful and fun. For a few days a couple of weeks ago I had in-service Peace Corps training (IST) with my fellow environmental ed volunteers and our counterparts, or local school directors or community leaders that assist us with projects. Unfortunately, my counterpart was busy working on the literacy program that we have in the municipality and decided the last minute that he wouldnt be able to come. Regardless, it was a very useful training where we were able to brush up on gardening techniques and learned some useful new project ideas like using trash (particularly plastic bottles and bags of chips which are the most common) to make crafts. We also got to stay at a beautiful nature reserve in my very own department of Matagalpa.

Last week we had Friday off for Nicaraguan Labor Day, so I took the opportunity to go back to visit my training town for the weekend. Some fellow volunteers from my training town were also in the area so we had a mini-reunion with some local friends which was fun. I really enjoyed my visit and stayed with my former host family, who I feel is like a second family to me. I also went to Masaya for a few hours and spent some time in one of the 2 big markets, filled with vegetables, crafts, hammocks - you name it - and bought some exciting things that I have yet to find in my site (like black beans and ginger). It really felt like a vacation being back there, now that I feel like Masatepe is like Long Island compared to my town, which at times can feel like the rural south. So Im looking forward to future visits!

The rainy season has started in the area, which means its rainy, then its sunny, then its rainy, then its sunny, on and off all day everyday for the next 8 or so months (fun, right?). But one advantage to all this rain is that its time to start gardening in the schools. I am in the process of coordinating with the Mayors office and MAGFOR, a government agroforestry organization, too, to try to get ornamental plants and fruit tree seeds to be planted at each of the schools. Soccer practices, English classes, and eco-youth group meetings have been slow due to classes being cancelled, people not showing up, PC training, etc., but Im hoping they will pick up again. Sometimes its hard to get people motivated to come to meetings, which can be incredibly frustrating, but we will see how things go in the upcoming weeks. This weekend I have a retreat for a new Peace Corps committee I joined, called Guia, which is a gender and development committee that works on projects and talks to try to promote gender equality in Nicaragua. So I look forward to that, and hopefully getting back into gear in my site after all these trips and trainings!

Thanks, as always, for reading! And to all you phantom blog readers out there (you know who you are - you regularly follow my blog but I never hear from you), send me an email - let me know whats up (carolyn.smalkowski@gmail.com)!!

Semana Santa

This past week was Semana Santa, or Easter Week, here in Nicaragua. Instead of just celebrating one day, we make a week out of it. I had the entire week off from school so I decided to celebrate like 99% of Nicaraguans and go to the beach (or in my case, the riverside). My site has dozens of rivers and I was lucky enough to visit a different one everyday with some of my local Nica friends. I posted some pictures on my photo site so if you’d like to see them, let me know. Overall it was a fun and relaxing week, and I’m glad I got to see more of my site! It’s really quite beautiful the amount of nature we have left here. You can see in some of my pictures on the drive up to one of the rivers (Agua Fria) we saw some monkeys in the trees and were surrounded by shade-grown coffee farms. Unfortunately this area, like many others, is threatened by deforestation and my town is already starting to face water shortages as a result.

I’m hoping in the next couple of months to start making some tree nurseries in the schools (once the rainy season starts) so that in a few months we can plant the trees. My eco-youth group is also really adamant about planting trees so reforestation will be one of our main activities. Also, this month is “health month” in the schools so we are learning about the importance of gardens and will be starting one in each of the schools next month. Each of the schools has a compost in process so hopefully it will be ready for use in the garden. I’m looking forward to doing the gardens in the 2 rural multi-grade schools, but the urban school will be a bit of a challenge because the kids haven’t grown up in an agricultural environment and are showing less interest. We will see how it works out! In the meantime, I’m practicing making a garden in my yard, so hopefully I will have some lovely produce in a couple of months!

In the meantime, I’ve been getting up bright and early three times a week for my 5:30 AM soccer practices with my new women’s soccer team (if I didn’t enjoy coaching and soccer so much, you couldn’t pay me to get up this early)! I’d like to take all the credit for forming and starting the team, but really most of the work can be accredited to the Soccer Federation here in my town. The team is made up of students from one of the high schools, and eventually we’re hoping to have a women’s league with all of the high schools involved. Practices have been a challenge because we have minimal resources (few soccer balls, no cones, no pinnies, etc.), but even though many of the girls haven’t played before, they have a good attitude and there’s definite potential for improvement. In the meantime, I’m trying to coordinate with volunteers in neighboring towns to hopefully have some competition with teams from other towns (once they’re formed). I’m enjoying coaching (with the help of another coach who basically coaches all of the teams) and playing again. I’ve been dying to get out and compete myself and it looks like the Men’s Over 30 league that’s going to start up again 2 nights a week in the park may make an exception for a 23 yr old gringa ;). So I’m hoping that works out!

That’s about all that’s been new. Next week I will be spending a few days at a Nature Reserve in Matagalpa for In-Service Training with my fellow group of environmental ed. volunteers that came in September. I also may take a weekend trip to my training town in a couple of weeks to spend time with my host family and friends from training, as well as some fellow volunteers. I am enjoying all that my site has to offer, but it’s also nice to get out every once and a while and visit other parts of Nicaragua, as well as old friends.

Keep the mail, emails, and blog comments coming! I appreciate every little bit of correspondence I receive from anyone, because as much as I’m enjoying my time here, I do continue to miss you all! Looking forward to my 2-week visit home the end of June/beginning of July, but in the meantime, keep in touch and keep reading!

The Top 10 Things I *Shockingly* Don’t Have in My Nicaraguan Home

Since I know the Top 10 Lists have been such a hit and are in such high demand, here comes yet another Top 10 list…

1. A Refrigerator

I know, you’re probably thinking, “How does a person live without a refrigerator?”, or for those of you still in college-mode, “Where does she keep the beer?” Well, let me assure you, it can be done. I’ve learned from my fellow Nicas that you can keep food for several days just by reheating/boiling it 2-3 times a day. So I don’t have to cook everyday – I’ll usually make something that’ll last me a few days and just reheat it every few hours (ie: my favorite, rice and beans ;) ). The only downfall is that I can’t keep juice or vegetables for days, and if I want a cold drink, I need to buy ice (but I’ve grown accustomed to luke-warm beverages). But luckily, I have a market here so I can do my vegetable shopping daily if I want to. (As for the beer, well, that’s what bars are for).

2. 24/7 Water Access

I usually only have water access before 8 or 9 AM and in the late afternoon and evening. This isn’t so bad, as long as I get up in time to wash all my clothes and shower. Otherwise, I have water stored in large garbage cans and bucket showers are always an option!

3. Hot Water

This was an amenity I learned to live without in Costa Rica, so not having hot water here wasn’t as much of a challenge. Taking cold water showers here is pretty refreshing because it’s so hot during the day, but at 5 AM before I go to school, the temperature drops pretty low and taking an ice-cold shower…not so much fun.

4. A Toilet

I managed to get through all of training and my first 3 months in-site (living with a host family) with a toilet, and the idea of having to live without one was not something I was not looking forward to. But, eventually, I have grown accustomed to my latrine, or outhouse, and have even developed the “ganas” to sit down! It’s not so bad, except when I get up 1-3 times in the middle of the night and need to go (for some reason this only happens to me in Latin America). However, a small plastic pan does the trick ;) (TMI?).

5. A TV

Not having a TV was never really a big deal for me, since I don’t really have the time to watch it and would rather spend my free time reading or talking with friends than watching Brazilian soap operas dubbed in Spanish that I can barely understand anyway! I do miss my Oprah, though.

6. An Oven

I do all of my cooking on a two-burner gas stove that was handed down to me by the previous volunteer in my town. It does the job! And besides, I don’t think I ever used the ovens in my apartments in Burlington, either. Who says women need to bake pies (Sex & the City reference for all you fans out there)?

7. A Washer and Dryer

Yes, I wash all of my clothes by hand and dry them outside on a clothesline. It’s not so bad, as long as I have time to do it and it’s not the rainy season. I learned the hard way during training that too much rain = moldy clothes. Not fun. I only have until May to enjoy the sunny weather!

8. Regular News Access

This is something I deeply miss – waking up every morning to the crisp New York Times in my email inbox. But now, with internet access limited to my time at the internet cafe, and not a whole lot of money, I barely have this luxury anymore. Yes, there are local newspapers here, but they’re impossible to find because they’re only sold by people walking by on the street (and for some reason never in my neighborhood). Occasionally, though, I’ll get a glimpse of CNN in Spanish from the states at someone’s house who is lucky enough to have cable (like when my teacher-friend, Marisol, paints my toenails every couple of weeks).

9. A Couch

Just plastic, but still somehow expensive, chairs, a very cool-looking chair from the artisans in Masaya (how I miss Masaya) that I bought in Matagalpa, and a pretty awesome hot-yellow hammock that hangs right in the middle of my kitchen/living room!

10. A Pet

This, I know, doesn’t seem like an essential item. But for an animal lover like me, it kills me not to have an animal in my home, especially with all of the stray dogs that wander starving in the streets. Well, for me a pet is a huge responsibility, so if I got one, I would want to take it home with me to the states, and it’s doubtful I’ll be staying in one place and not traveling for the next 12+ years of my life (or roughly the animal’s lifespan). And I wouldn’t want to leave the animal with someone here, either, because frankly, people just don’t pamper their pets the way Americans do. However, I am happy to say that I do have plenty of visitors in my yard, including cows, horses, and the occasional chicken. So that pretty much does the trick.

I’m sure there are other things that I’ve grown accustomed to not having that I’ve just forgotten about. I guess you’ll just have to come and visit me and find out (although I’m sure after this Top 10 list, my chances of getting a visitor have diminished)! Other things that I think would be a given that I don’t have at home: internet access, a microwave, a DVD/VHS player (although I luckily have my laptop for that). For the entire 6 months that I lived with host families, the only time I could listen to my own music was on the headphones to my iPod. I know, I have an iPod and a laptop and I’m in the Peace Corps, I shouldn’t complain. But for me this was a big deal – not being able to blast my music at maximum volume on a stereo system with amazing sound quality. Up until last week, I managed to get by in my house with these teeny tiny speakers to which I could connect my iPod. However, I finally had enough and decided to splurge beyond my Peace Corps living stipend and get a decent stereo. It was well worth it, and now my neighbors will have exposure to American music beyond Celine Dion’s “My Heart will Go On” and cheesy 80s love songs.

That’s all folks! Hope you enjoyed this week’s Installment of “Carolyn’s Ridiculous, Yet Humorous, Nicaraguan Life”. Keep an eye out for new pics coming soon!

Fiestas Patronales craziness

Last week started the beginning of a 2-week party here in town called the Fiestas Patronales, or parties for the Patron Saint. This basically takes place in every major town/municipality throughout the country, and is celebrated with bullriding, horse parades, dancing, loud music, and lots of alcohol. Needless to say, not really my thing, but I did take the opportunity to go out dancing, since the fiestas are only going on a short walk from my house. In two weeks Semana Santa starts, which is Easter week. Pretty much everyone here goes to the nearby rivers to celebrate, usually with lots of food and alcohol (like every other holiday here). Ill probably end up going with some friends at some point during the week, and maybe taking a couple of days to travel and spend time with other volunteers since we have a couple of days off. Other than that, Ive started giving environmental classes and theyve been going well...the kids have been very receptive and well-behaved. We are trying to start making composts in the schools, and Im in the process of doing one in my own yard, as well as a garden, with some neighbors for practice (and hopefully some veggies to show for our labor!). Im also holding ecological youth group meetings twice a week with the high school in my neighborhood. The kids seem educated about environmental issues and motivated to plant trees and clean up the school, so Im glad that its something theyre passionate about. English classes continue to be going well. I have about 12 students who come to every class, maybe 15ish in total, but new people continue to tell me theyre interested so hopefully the class will grow a bit. A neighbor of mine told me she has a friend who is interested, but that she needed to ask her husband first for permission. This, surprisingly, is not uncommon here, and really infuriated me. The fact that the women here are basically condemned to a life at home while their husbands go out partying almost every night is no exaggeration. Im hoping to do something with the women, like have a womens group or cook together or something, ANYTHING. I just need to find a block of time, and a group of women, first. Hopefully itll be another future project in the making...stay tuned.

Birthday Fun and Weekly Update

Monday was my 23rd birthday, making it the second birthday I’ve spent in Latin America! The day started off in one of the rural multigrade schools where the kids sang me a variety of birthday songs and all greeted me with a hug and kiss. After a couple of hours of class, the teachers decided to make enchiladas with the students, which was exciting for me because I got to learn how they are made and enjoy their deliciousness. The school has a small concrete area separate from the classrooms where we cooked everything on a wood-burning stove. To make the enchiladas, first the tortilla is made with a combination of corn flour, water, and spices, flattened and shaped into a circle, then fried. The tortilla is then topped with refried beans and a cabbage and tomato salad = extremely tasty. The enchiladas were accompanied by fresh tajadas, or fried plantains, grown right on the school’s property – doesn’t get any fresher than that! I even got the added bonus of bringing home the plantain peels for the compost I’m making in my yard…very exciting stuff! After an exciting morning, I came home and relaxed/cleaned up a bit and went to my friend Griselda’s comedor, or small restaurant, for special birthday tacos with soy meat. I guess you could call it a romantic meal since I ate by candlelight, thanks to losing the electricity for a few hours (doesn’t happen too often but it’s not that uncommon). Luckily, it came back in time for me to go out with another friend of mine, Norvin, and celebrate with some local beverages ;). Overall, it was a fun day! I also celebrated the weekend before in the neighboring city of Matagalpa with some fellow Peace Corps volunteers at a laid-back bar with a hippie vibe. Matagalpa is fairly touristy/has lots of Europeans living there, so places like these and cafes with locally-grown coffee are plentiful.

Work-wise things have been going well. I am starting to plan with the teachers and give my own environmental classes this week and next. I’m not TOO nervous, since I already have a little bit of experience from training, and my trusty environmental teaching guide with pre-planned activities. Some of the challenges will be to figure out a secure place to put the tree nursery and garden at the school without interference from farm animals, robbers (some of the trees we’ll be planting are endangered and therefore incredibly valuable), and children playing. I’ve been in the process of getting materials to enclose my yard so random cows and horses don’t enter my yard (no joke), although the free manure they’ve provided me will make a great addition to my compost! I’m going to use tree branches, barbed wire, and plastic sacks (all locally available) and hopefully that will be sufficient! We’ll see…

Other activities that have been going on: On Sunday, I was cordially invited to participate in a parade for the beginning of the soccer league in town, so all of the teams (by neighborhood), plus the people involved in the soccer federation, the mayor, and other important people got to march (I felt pretty important, too :) ). My role is going to be working with the women’s soccer teams that I am working with the soccer federation to form (4 teams organized by neighborhood). We are lucky enough to already have a “select” women’s team in my town, since women’s sports aren’t really prevalent in Nicaragua, but hopefully now we will be able to have an actual women’s league, like the men’s, within town. Uniforms are apparently the big gimmick for getting players motivated to play, but we’ve been unsuccessful so far trying to get a local NGO from Spain to donate them. So we are searching for plan B…whatever that may be.

This week I will be having my first meeting with the high school ecological youth group I’ve helped organize. The school director wants me to have a discussion about not throwing garbage on the ground, since this is a huge problem here, and to propose some ideas about future projects with the kids (similar to what I’ll be doing in the elementary schools). Also, English classes continue, two nights a week. It seems that in the two weeks that I’ve had the classes, word has spread like wildfire and random people are coming up to me on the street asking me if they can join the class. Unfortunately, I am starting to turn people down because the class has reached about 20 people and if it gets any larger, I won’t be able to give each individual enough attention and people aren’t going to get as much out of it. But I’m enjoying the classes and am really glad that my students are motivated to study and continue with the class.

Overall, things have been picking up and going well. I am starting to really appreciate the little bit of free time I have to myself in the house, and have decorated it and made it a cozy little space I can call home (will post pictures as soon as I have everything hanging up). Although I’ve been busy with meetings and classes, I am enjoying being busy a whole lot more than the absolute boredom I experienced in my first two months. I am happy that things are starting to form, slowly but surely, and am excited to see what comes of it in these upcoming months.

So this is what service is supposed to feel like...

I´m happy to say that 6 months into my time here in Nicaragua, I am finally starting to really enjoy my service. Somehow everything has been starting to fall into place and some of my side projects are coming together. I started English classes this week and each class keeps growing in size as people hear about the free English classes with the gringa. In all honestly, teaching English was the last thing I wanted to do before coming here, but after seeing that it´s something that people really want in the community and could really use, since many end up living in the states at some point in their lives, I figured it would be a rewarding and productive thing to do. People seem to be enjoying the classes, both young and old. The previous mayor of my town is one of many enrolled, which makes me feel pretty important ha. I am also going to take the opportunity to teach this group a little about environmental ethics, just little tips here and there about conserving plastic bags, not burning trash, not throwing trash on the ground, etc., since this is the primary reason why I´m in Nicaragua. Other things that are coming together - the soccer commission here has been trying to form 4 women´s soccer teams by neighborhood and I´ve been kept somewhat in the loop until last night when I ran into them in a meeting. We are going to try to meet with the directors of each high school to recruit the women from there. Apparently the directors aren´t too fond of sports, I´ve been told, so we´re trying to meet with the mayor´s office, a local NGO from Spain who works with schools in a variety of extra curricular activities (and to see if they can donate uniforms too), and the main director for the entire municipality at the ministry of education. My role is to pretty much act as an assistant coach/trainer for all the teams, and also I´m going to try to take the opportunity to have discussions/talks with the players about life skills, HIV/AIDS, health, etc. This, I think, would be an additional incentive for the school directors to be more supportive of our efforts. Also, I´m trying to coordinate with a high school in my neighborhood to form a student ecological brigade to help with environmental projects in the community. With all this going on, and with more interest among the community, now that I´ve made the connections I need to get things done, I´m feeling a lot better about my service and am excited for things to finally materialize.

Continuing with the Top 10 List...

Not much new to report, but wanted to continue with the Top 10 List theme, since people seem to enjoy that....so here we go....

12 Random Things You Should Know About Nicaragua


1. When someone dies, a truck with loudspeakers drives around the town announcing the death and the details of the wake.
2. Getting up to catch a 5 AM bus is commonplace.
3. Blasting your reggaeton, ranchera, or Celine Dion´s ¨My Heart Will Go On¨at any hour doesn´t seem to bother the neighbors.
4. It´s not considered offensive to tell someone they look fat.
5. It´s okay to randomly show up unannounced at a friend/neighbor´s house around mealtime and expect to be fed.
6. It´s common to hitchhike for rides in the back of pickup trucks.
7. Women are expected to learn to ¨share¨their men, even when married, due to the enormously high rate of infidelity.
8. Wearing shorts signifies you haven´t showered yet.
9. It is a common belief that one will get sick if they a) walk around the house barefoot, or b) take showers at night.
10. People´s dogs, chickens, horses, and even cows randomly wander the street, and sometimes, your backyard.
11. Instead of being sold in bulk, most things are sold in small quantities: travel-size toothpaste, cigarettes sold by the half-pack and individually, cell phone minutes by the dollar (equivalent to about 4 minutes for a local call). But you can´t order a mixed drink or a shot at a local bar - you need to buy the entire bottle of rum (can you tell alcoholism is common here?).
12. Things that every Nica has in his/her house, no matter how rich or poor: a stereo (to blast your pirated music at maximum volume), a TV (to watch your soap operas), plastic chairs, and pictures of your kids with fake backgrounds of sunsets, beaches, and churches.

New House Excitement & The Start of Classes

Now that I´ve moved into my new house and have been living there for a few days, I am so grateful for all the new comforts I have that I´ve gone without for so long. I´ve gotten so used to living with families, having to live by their schedules, not being able to cook my own food, and being cramped into small living spaces, now I feel like I´m living such a posh life (even without a toilet, ha). It´s just really nice to finally have my own space, and it makes being here a whole lot more comfortable. I´ve incorporated some of my own additions to the house and am trying some new recipes with what local food is available...so it´s been fun. I spend most of my day just doing little things around the house like cooking, cleaning, buying what I still need, and observing in the schools. I´ve also had some friends visit me which has made me really happy and kept me busy. Overall, it´s been a very positive experience, and with the new living situation plus beginning my work in the schools, I feel like my real service is now beginning.

With that being said, with just a week of observations in 3 different schools, I´ve noticed many challenges to the Nicaraguan schools system. There are constant interruptions in the classroom, it´s hard to hear with all of the outside noise, curious kids from the neighborhood are constantly peeking in the windows/hanging out outside the door or on the floor of the classroom, teachers are unprepared because they find out just days before class begins what grade they will be teaching, and for this reason are often unmotivated, teachers and students don´t always have the books they need, classes end early/start late all the time, students lack discipline, attendance is low because students have to help out on their farms/selling food to earn extra income for their families...the list goes on and on. Fortunately, though, the students will hopefully begin to get more support from home once the new adult literacy program begins on Monday. With the changes to the curriculum, teachers now are giving an extra hour of class each day to adults, specifically parents, in the community who don´t know how to read and write. It´s hard, however, to get them interested in the classes because for people who spend all of their time on the farm or cooking and cleaning at home, to them reading and writing isn´t necessary. With all of these challenges, I´m excited to begin my work in the schools and will hopefully be able to make an impact to improve these people´s lives.