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.