Un Dia Tipico

Thank you for those of you who made suggestions for my next blog entry. I will be writing several to try to take into account all of them, since I know there's still a lot you'd like to know. This entry is about a typical day in Nicaragua...

I wake up between 5:30 and 6:30 to the sun rising brightly, illuminating the starfruit tree I have outside of my window. I take a refreshing, or sometimes less refreshing and more frigid, cold water shower, and if there's no water, a bucket bath from the water I have saved in my pila (large water storage area). I'll usually prepare myself a cold oatmeal drink of oatmeal, sugar, and water, but if it's a weekend and I have rice and beans on hand, I'll make gallo pinto (fried rice and beans) with a warm corn tortilla from one of the tortilla ladies down the street and a fresh avocado. To die for.

After I've gotten myself ready, I'll leave for school, umbrella in hand (for both sun and rain), and wait for the bus. The ride is between 20 and 40 minutes on either a paved or dirt road, depending on the school, and if reggaeton is blasting, the ride usually seems quicker. At the school, I'll co-teach the class to 3rd-6th grade collectively (multigrade) on a science-related topic that the teacher and I have already planned earlier that week using lots of fun, hands-on activities.

After spending a few hours at the school, I'll take the bus back into the "city" (sometimes standing), go home to relax, and heat up my lunch on the gas stove. This is usually something that I've already prepared a day or two before and continually heat up throughout the day so it doesn't spoil (since I have no refrigerator...I like to try to stay within the living allowance that PC gives us and since I was never able to save up enough to buy a mini-fridge, well, I don't have one).

The food I'll prepare is usually one of the following: rice and beans with malanga, quequisque (both in the potato family), or chayote (a type of squash) and fried green plantains; curried lentil stew with potatoes, chayote, and carrots served over rice; pasta with homemade tomato sauce, soymeat, and chayote; soymeat prepared with potatoes, carrots, and chayote served over rice; chickpeas cooked with Indian spices, carrots, and tomatoes served over rice; and if I'm lucky enough to be in Managua or another big city that day, I'll bring back some fresh eggplant, broccoli, or spinach to cook with garlic and oil over pasta.

Although this may (or may not) sound appetizing, it gets tiring eating the same things all the time, especially after almost two years. So if you have any simple recipes using any of the ingredients mentioned above, please, send them my way!!!

My afternoons are usually spent napping/relaxing, at the Mayor's Office planning, carrying out an environmental activity or eco-group session, and/or co-planning with one of my six teachers. The teachers with whom I've developed more "confianza" (trust) will usually have me over for a while longer to chat, offering me a drink or sometimes a meal. I feel like I've had much more success working with those teachers (more on that in a later blog).

I mostly get around by bicycle, but if it's raining or looks like it's about to rain, I'll walk. On the days that I go to my afternoon school in town, I'll spend the mornings sleeping in a little bit, hand-washing clothes for about two hours, sweeping and mopping the floors, and cooking one of the above-mentioned recipes. After lunch, I'll walk 25 minutes or ride my bike to the poorest neighborhood in town and spend my afternoon in class there. One night a week I give science classes there to enrolled adults, too.

Upon returning home at night, I'll eat dinner and relax, preparing materials for the next day's class, or watch DVDs of "Sex and the City" or the "Office" until I go to bed around 9 (I know, lame). My days of nightly English classes are over now that we have a new TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) volunteer in town, Jocelyn!

On weekends or days that I don't have class, I'll visit friends, have eco-group meetings, travel to a community to plant trees, catch up on household duties and chores, travel two hours to the closest city to get my mail and do some grocery shopping for some difficult-to-find items, watch local soccer games, use the internet, or just relax.

Really, no day is ever the same here because my schedule pretty much varies on a week-to-week, season-to-season basis, but now you've got the gist of what I generally do. If it seems like teaching for only half the day, three to four days a week is nothing, take into account all the wasted time spent making numerous trips to co-plan, meet with someone at the Mayor's Office or an NGO, or even school when I find that they are not there or are in a meeting, which makes planning things really fun for me. But what's great is that I always have the flexibility to move things around if I need to take an afternoon or day off, which is not so easy with a 9-5 job.

Overall, I try to keep myself fairly busy and avoid spending too much time alone in my house to prevent boredom and loneliness. I also want to be able to look back at my two years here and feel like I really did something positive for the community. I've got less than five months left, and time is moving quickly. Hello, U-S-A!