Christmas in Guisquiliapa

Merry late Christmas everyone! Well, this past week marked my first Christmas and birthday away from home, and I'm happy to say that I couldn't have asked for anything more. I spent the week back in my training town with my host family, and loved every single second of it (as expected.)

On the 24th, we spent the entire day making nacatamales, a traditional Christmas food here. Basically, in part of a banana leaf, we put ground corn (masa), rice, seasoned pork (fresh from the newly killed Christmas pig) fresh cut veggies, potatoes, and raisins. Then the banana leaf got folded neatly, tied shut around it's contents, and thrown into a giant vat over the fire to boil for the rest of the day. We made about 230 of them! This means that I woke up at 6 to go to the market with my host sister to buy the veggies. By 9am I had already peeled a mountain of potatoes, and chopped up tons of onions, peppers, and tomatoes all with a knife the size of my forearm. Next, I moved on to tearing banana leaves as the women in my family started putting together all the nacatamales. It was so much fun!

Ooops, I forgot to mention that the night before, they killed the pig they had been feeding for Christmas. Therefore, every single part it was cleaned, chopped and prepared the night before – some parts for the nacatamales (delicioso), others for the chicharron (fried skin and intestines, mmm), others for the consumido (combination of the innards and brains?? I don't even know what was in that, but BLECK!)

That night, we stayed up until midnight, just hanging out with family and whatever friends happened to stop by the house. I also got invited to the celebration at Katie's host grandma's house, which was equally “alegre.” 

Back at home, at midnight, it all began. There were tons of fireworks in the street (many of which were being set off out front by my host brothers), and we placed the baby Jesus into the manger scene they already had set up. People from all over town came to sing to the baby Jesus, and on their way out, they received a delicious nacatamal! After all the craziness, my entire family sang “las mañanitas” (the traditional birthday song) to me! It was the best!

Then on the 25th, we headed out to where my family's farm is to attend another Purisima (celebration of Mary.) Afterwards, when we got home, my host sister-in-law had already begun cooking my birthday dinner. They invited Jessi and Katie over and the best part was that whole family sat together at the table to eat for my birthday! I lived there for 3 months and had NEVER seen them all sit together to eat. It was so so special, and the food was amazing!! They even bought me a cake and ice cream and they all had gifts for me! They sang again before the cake too. It was the perfect birthday!

Oh and to top it all off? There was a DJed party in the town that night, so Katie and I headed out to dance with our host brothers/friends all night. Sure I woke up with a terrible cough from all the dirt we kicked up while dancing, but it was way worth it. 

Thanks so much to those of you who called me on Christmas and for my birthday! It was awesome getting to talk to everyone and see that I wasn't completely forgotten about on Christmas. Can't wait to come home and celebrate with everyone next year! Love and miss my fam <3

I Get Around

I've been here for just about four months now, and it occurred to me yesterday, while sitting on the bus in the station buying a plastic baggie of cacao fresco (an awesome drink in a bag – that I've finally figured out how to drink through the little hole you have to bite in the corner) that back home in the States, it is not a normal occurrence to purchase such a treat from a lady who walked onto the bus with her basin of homemade drinks on her head. Entonces (therefore), I decided I should probably share some stories about what it's like to travel city-to-city and campo-to-campo here in Nicaragua.

Taxis: We'll start off small by discussing the taxis that are available in pretty much any town that's big enough to have at least a few paved streets. Basically, picture the broke down hoopty you drove in high school...got the picture in your head?...now, add to that at least one window that doesn't open, one that doesn't close, a door that's tied shut with twine, an empty gas tank, and a door that you can only open from the outside. Oh, and a cracked windshield if you're feeling particularly rickety today.  And if your car in high school happened to be one of those huge old boats, then you'll have to adjust your thinking to something more along the lines of Civic or Corola sizes. Now, throw in a few rosary beads and bumper stickers about Jesus being your guide, and you've got the typical Nicaraguan taxi!  Of course the picture is not complete until you factor in how many stops you'll make on the side of the road to pack in just a few more people. You've got to arrive at your destination with at least two people in the front passanger seat - which is tricky when the driver is driving stick - and at least four in the back. The upside? The driver will usually play whatever kind of music you want, and you'll rarely be charged more than a US dollar to get where you need to be (unless of course you're in Managua where they charge you an arm and a leg). It's also a really great way to meet people and laugh about the complete lack of personal space between the two of you!

Expreso Buses: There are two types of buses here in Nicaragua. Expressos are the ones that supposedly don't make stops between city destinations (although they are nice enough to drop people off at different parts of the main road – which is perfect for me considering my town´s location.) Generally, these expressos are “astro-vans” or mini-buses, the ones that have a sliding side door with 3 or 4 rows of bench seating on the driver's side and a single seat in each row on the passenger side. You know, the church vans. We'll say the ones with four rows are meant to accommodate 18 people plus the driver. Here though, you can expect at least 25-30 including the person that collects the money and hangs out the window calling out the bus's destination for those who are walking and might be looking to squeeze into an already packed bus. Again, these little buses are great for meeting people, and since I've been lucky enough to not have to stand hunched over in the isle thus far, I consider them cozy. It's also such a team-building activity when it breaks down and everyone has to get out and push! (Haha that only happened to me once, but I've seen it multiple times. Don't worry, the guys here are super chivalrous and never let us ladies get our hands dirty haha.)

Rutiero Buses: These are converted school buses that make stops all along the way between cities, which makes for a long yet interesting trip. The buses are all super decorated and newly equipped with bars along the ceiling to hold onto, because of course there will always be people standing in the isles for the duration of the trip. I have had the pleasure of standing for more than two hours on the way back from Managua, but I happened to be standing between two extremely beautiful guys the whole way, so I sucked it up haha. Most rutieros have baggage racks put in above the seats, and when they don't the people in the seats always kindly offer to hold the bags of whoever happens to be stuck standing in the isles. Oh my and how could I forget?! The roof racks! While fixing up the buses, they always add a giant roof rack that can be accessed by the ladders built onto the sides of the bus. Now the best part of that is that when it's time for you “bajar,” or to get off at your stop, the guy that rides on top with the stuff gets your bag down for you while the bus is still rolling! (Somehow he remembers who's getting off where and which bags they will need.) He then helps you off because the bus never comes to a complete stop, and after wishing you a good day, he runs alongside the still moving bus and climbs back up to the roof.

Ahh yes, the rutiero. Here we are, back where I started, sitting on a converted school bus in the station in Rivas, ready to head out to the beach with one of my school directors. We decided to take the rutiero because it´s cheaper and wayyy more fun! In the station, which is located right in the middle of the mercado, all the people selling things are free to walk onto the parked buses and sell to the people waiting for the bus to leave. This is PERFECT if one is heading out to the beach for the day and needs some “comida” to stuff in her backpack for the day! I for example, bought that awesome fresco, as well as homemade cookie/pastry things, and two oranges. What could I have bought though? Earrings, flashlights, batteries, watches, razors, medicine/vitamins, fried plantains with salad and chicken (tajadas - in a baggie of course), candy, bananas, apples, water, chips, tortillas...the list goes on and on! I couldn't believe how many options there were! And we were only parked for about 20 minutes before leaving! That's the bonus of leaving from a bus station in the city as opposed to a bus stop or entrance to a town. 

I hope that none of this sounded sarcastic or cynical because I have to say that the bus rides are half the fun of traveling here, and I actually don't mind them at all! And don't worry, if you come to visit me, I'll accompany you on any bus ride you might have to take.

PS The last rutiero I was on had more than 108 people on it, based on my calculations of at least 5 people sitting in each of the 12 rows, and 4 people standing in the isle between each pair of seats. There's a very good chance this is an underestimate.

Scrub Scrub Scrub, Rinse!

There are few things more satisfying than watching a stubborn grass stain disappear from your jeans as you hand wash them out in the sunshine with a cool breeze blowing and tropical birds chirping in the background. Hahaha I realize that sounds hilarious to those of you who know me and know how much I despise any kind of domestic labor, but I really mean it! I actually find it relaxing to spend an hour hand washing my clothes here! It's an hour when I'm visibly occupied, and therefore don't need to justify where or when or why I'm going to be doing something. Depending on the hour, I either get to listen to the birds playing in the trees, or the neighbors blasting their reggaeton, or to the kids playing baseball in the street, but sometimes I just tune everything out and let my mind wander.

After my first one or two times hand washing, I started to get the hang of it thanks to my host sisters patience, even if they did laugh at me as they taught me. I didn't really start to like it though, until recently. Now, I continually impress myself with my ability to really get things clean. It's true what all the women here say, hand washing really does get your clothes cleaner than using a washing machine!

For those of you who are having trouble imagining what it's like to hand wash clothes in an outdoor lavandera (clothes/dishes washing contraption) I will try my best to explain it for you. Here's a picture of the one in my new host house, which is in my back porch area.

Generally, the right side is used to wash dishes, and the left side is used as a drying rack, as shown in the picture. In order to do laundry therefore, one must simply remove the dry dishes, and voila! a space for washing clothes! The water is (obviously) stored in the pila, or sink basin in the middle, and in order to use it, one must use the tupperware bowl to scoop and pour over the dishes or clothes. It then drains out of the drain in the corner, unless one is washing clothes and therefore plugs the drain with either a corncob or an old sock, depending on who's house you're at. For soap, there are a variety of options, but my families have both used powder detergent combined with bar soap, for those harder to beat stains. Then it's just scrub, scrub, scrub and rinse! Oh and then hang your clothes on the barbed wire in the backyard of course.

Side note: It's important to note that laundry is only enjoyable for me now because it's dry season. I remember despising it during rainy season because nothing ever dried, and it just wasn't fun spending an hour outside dealing with suds and water when it was rainy and miserable. There are still plenty more months left in dry season though, so I plan to enjoy it while it lasts!

What To Do When There´s Nothing To Do

When was the last time you had nothing to do? I'm not talking about an entire day with nothing to do, because we all know those are hard to come by, especially during the holiday season; but I mean, when was the last time you had a half hour truly to yourself? How did you spend it? You're obviously spending a moment of your free time reading this blog right now and will surely spend part of it on facebook or checking emails, but what do you do when you're not online? When there aren't any people around to socialize with, and there is really nothing that you have to be doing, what do you do? Is there ever a time when you don't automatically reach for something to distract yourself? When was the last time there was no ipod/internet/TV/book/sudoku/phone to turn to? What did you do then? Cook? Go for a run? Crochet? Are these all just distractions too? Not to get all deep on you, but when was the last time you just sat in silence with your thoughts? Where did they take you? It's probably hard to answer that because we are all constantly distracting ourselves with other “duties” or pastimes or other people's problems and we so rarely, if ever, really just stop. I've privately journaled about this before – about how we never allow ourselves time to analyze our lives, our hopes, our dreams, what we want to become, where we want to go, who we want to be – because we're always reaching for the next distraction. That was one of the many journal entries that led me to finally finish my Peace Corps application among other things.

I'm by no means on my way to saying that I've overcome this need to be constantly occupied here in Nicaragua. Don't let yourselves believe that just because I'm living in a developing country, that there aren't just as many distractions here. When I have downtime, which I've had a lot more of lately now that I'm out of training, I have plenty of ways to spend it. I can read, listen to music, practice in my Spanish workbook, prepare recycled materials projects, blog, go to the cyber, watch TV, plan out my weekly schedule...

I'm not exactly sure where I'm going with this, but it occurred to me this morning that I never quite know what to do with myself during those awkward moments in between distractions. It might just be because I'm not the most laid back person in the world, but I always feel like I need to at least look occupied when I'm doing nothing in someone else's house. Right now for example, my host father and brother are painting the house, a job that they won't let me help with, and my host mom is doing paperwork in her room. I therefore have turned to my laptop to make it seem as though I too have something I need to be doing. I've already done my laundry for the week, made about 5 different kinds of friendship bracelets as examples for my youth group kids, and planned out my next English class, which I won't be teaching until Tuesday. So, after my last bracelet and before typing this blog, I walked out of my room to see what everyone else was up to (even though I already knew), so as to not seem antisocial. In doing so, I proceeded to make awkward eye contact/exchange awkward smiles and small talk for about 3 minutes then hurried back to my room.

I think my original point in writing this was to address how hard it is to make myself go out and do things, when there is in fact nothing that I have to do. (It's summer vacation here.) It's actually really hard to walk around town without a purpose, which therefore makes it difficult to meet new people. If I don't have someone to walk around with, I'm generally too shy to just wander. I'm just not used to doing things without having a clear cut reason to do them. Sit in the park alone just so that I'm seen, hoping that some more outgoing people will come up and talk to the gringa? That seems so awkward! Maybe I'm just an awkward person? Ugh, I don't know.

I realize this blog jumped around like crazy and isn't very coherent. Sorry about that; I really did start out with what seemed like concrete thoughts worth sharing. I wish someone would just come invite me somewhere for the day so I'd have a reason to be out and about!

***OK NO LIE...I SWEAR to you all that not even ten minutes after writing this, one of my 21 year old host cousins came over and asked me why I wasn't at the fair in the park! (I responded that it was obviously because no one told me about it...ughhh I hate that my host mom never feels the need to tell me about anything going on in town.) So then I happily followed her there and bought some organic compost for the garden I have yet to start (maybe next week), ate some AMAZING fair food and drank some super refreshing cacao frescos...mmm!! All to the tune of a sweet Marimba band of course!
Maybe I really should just force myself to wander around at least once a day to make sure I'm not missing out on stuff like that. It's really way harder than it sounds though.

La Griteria – Dec 7th, La Purisima

December 7th here in Nicaragua is day filled with excitement and fun for those who practice the Catholic Religion, which is the majority of the population. At 6pm, the celebrations begin and they go up until midnight of the 8th, the day of the Immaculate Conception, a national holiday here in Nicaragua, which means no one works and everyone gets to rest from the prior night's celebrations (aka I get to blog on my laptop, but not post it because the cyber is closed).

Living in Belen is great because from what I've heard from other volunteers, our celebrations here were slightly more exciting than in the smaller villages. I guess I'll start by explaining what exactly goes on the night of the 7th. If I were to cheapen it and compare it to American celebrations, I'd say it's an awesome combination of Christmas Caroling and Trick-or-treating, followed up by 4th of July Fireworks. Basically, there are a bunch of houses that have altars for the Virgin Mary, or la Virgin (pronounced beer-hin) Maria, out front and the rest of the people in the community walk from house to house in groups and wait in line to sing to Mary. After singing, they get a treat and then move on to the next house.

Luckily, I got to participate in the hosting activities because the grandmother of my host family always hosts “La Griteria” at her house. This allowed me to see basically everyone in the community, without requiring me to walk and sing all night! The way it works is those in town who feel they want to “host” the celebrations put a statue of Maria outside their front doors. All of the altars I saw here in Belen were decorated beautifully with flowering branches of the national tree and different kinds of lights and other adornments. These families then prepare something to give to the people that will come to sing to their Mary. This means that we spent four or more hours combined on the 6th and 7th filling goody bags – and when I say goody bags, I mean the biggest variety of goody-filled-baggies I've ever seen. Some were just filled with cookies and candies, but others had amazingly cooked rice, or homemade frescos (I know I still owe you all a blog on frescos), fruit cocktail, whole bananas, corn on the cob, and even some with a shirt, or skirt, or little stuffed animal! It was so much fun! Although I must note that not every family that hosts has the means to provide such a wide array of goodies, it seems to me that this is a day for those who “have” to give to those who “have-not.” It was really a beautiful thing.

So at 6pm on the 7th, people all over the town set off their firecrackers (the ones that only make noise) and the celebrations began! Immediately a line started to form at the house I was at, and I, along with three of the other cousins in the family, was assigned the duty of handing out goodies to the singers. It was so fun to hear all the different songs, and by the end of the night, I basically knew them all since it went for 6 hours! Luckily, my host family has friends that play in an awesome Marimba band with a guitar, two cool kinds of drums, and an awesome wooden xylophone thing (I know that was a horrible description, but I'm not really an instrument person), so for about 4 of those hours, the singing was drowned out by some great Latin/tropical music that gave us and the people in line something to dance to.

At around 11:30pm, we ran out of goodies to give out, and the people started congregating up the block around a float with another Mary on it. Then, at midnight, the mini parade to the church started. Once we got there, there was an awesome fireworks display and we all made our way back to our houses to clean up and turn in for the night. The band even stayed and played for us while we cleaned up!

I have to say it was a pretty cool holiday, and everyone had a really great time. Now I'm down to two weeks until I can report on Christmas in Nicaragua, which I will be celebrating in my much smaller training town with my training family! Merry December everyone!

New Adventures Down Every Dirt Road!

Well, it's been just about two weeks here, and I'm finally starting to adjust to and almost like my site. The first week was really hard, what with having to adjust to a completely new house all over again, with new family members and new personalities. Then of course there was the fact that I'm the first volunteer to live here for the past five years, so we'll just say I get audibly noticed everywhere I go. Before getting placed, I thought this “stand out factor” would make my job much easier, and I'm sure it will eventually, but right now it just makes it impossible to walk down the street without bracing myself for stares and comments (even though most of them are friendly and harmless.) On top of all of that, my site is much different than my training town. My training town was a tiny 3 block by 3 block community made up of mostly farming families. There were only two buses and a handful of taxis in and out, and there wasn't even a secondary school. My new site however, is huge compared to there. I live in the “centro urbana” which means I have to walk pretty far to find the farming families with kids that will be willing to get dirty with me in my gardens. There's a Mayor's Office, a police station, two secondary schools and two primary schools, a huge church, a health center, a bunch of little commedors (smaller than restaurants, but places to eat) and even bars! Not to mention more buses and taxis than I've been able to keep track of thus far. Many families in the centro have motorcycles and some even own cars. There are still obviously tons of bicycles, and even a few horse or cow drawn carts, but far fewer than in Guisquiliapa.

I think some of my problem the first week was that I was resenting Belen for being so different than the other home I had come to love so much, but now that I'm adjusting and getting to meet some more people, I like it more and more everyday. There are tons of little towns on the outskirts of the centro that I've recently found out about. These “comarcas” have tons of awesome adventures to offer, such as rivers to swim in and mountains to climb! Yesterday for example, one of the professoras from one of my schools called me up to invite me over for lunch at her house. She came to my house to get me beforehand and told me to pack something to swim in because we were going to head to the river after lunch! So, we did just that. After the biggest bowl of soup I've ever had, she and I and two other guys from her part of town headed out to the river with her adorable five year old son. We walked a few kilometers out of the centro and followed a very hilly dirt road all the way to the river. It was just as beautiful as the other river I blogged about, but nowhere near as peaceful lol. There were a bunch of boys playing in the part that we arrived at, so we went a little farther until we found an awesome place to swim under a little waterfall! It was a perfect swimming hole (and yes, to those of you PCVs reading this, I realize I risked getting leptospirosis by swimming in a river that I saw a horse chilling in. I even went under! I was living on the edge haha).

After swimming for hours (with the younger boys that followed us from the other part of the river because there was “una gringa en el rio!!!”), we headed back to town. On the way though, we decided to take a detour because one of the guys said there was a sight that I just had to see. So in flip flops, wet shorts, and all – not great hiking attire, but who cares? – we hiked up a huge knoll (this is the direct translation of “loma” which is what we scaled.) It was super steep and covered in tall grasses and awesome wild flowers (some with thorns), but the view at the top was worth every single cut and scrape. From the top we could see all the way to Ometepe, the volcanic island in the middle of Lake Nicaragua that will get it's own blog, and all the way to Mombacho, the volcano in Granada. In the other direction, we could see the church in the middle of Belen, and all the way to the city of Rivas. It was gorgeous! AND the sun was setting! All in all, it was the perfect day...lunch with someone that reached out to me, swimming under a waterfall, hiking a (small) mountain, returning home that good kind of tired with Professora Francis who insisted that I stay for dinner as well.

A bonus? I had my first youth group meeting today and 12 kids showed up! They were great and are so enthusiastic that we have a whole schedule mapped out for their summer vacation.

Yeah, it's going to be a great two years.

A Breath Of Fresh Air

“Y que significa 'Mata de Cana?'”
“Es donde yo vivo! Quiere ir a mi casa?”
Translation for Tante:
“And what does 'Mata de Cana' mean?”
"It's where I live! Want to come to my house?”

Just when I thought I'd never meet anyone here in my new town, a fourteen year old student, Dayana, (who I was sure was at least 17) invited me out to her town to meet her family and get to know the area! I was so excited that someone reached out to me, especially after realizing my counterpart was not going to be so helpful in terms of introducing me to people in town. =/

So, after her last day of Saturday class (she works during the week, and therefore can't go to school everyday), we got on the bus together and headed out to her part of town.

The Bus: There are two types of buses here in Nicaragua, and they're definitely worth dedicating an entire blog to, but in the mean time, we'll just say that the bus I was on was an old school bus from the US, and it was extremely crowded. We were on it for an hour passing through tons of little towns, or “comarcas,” on the outskirts of my bigger “centro urbana.” It was so gorgeous passing through the hills and farms, that I didn't even notice when we started to cross the river. This may sound perfectly normal, a bus crossing a river, but I should probably mention that there was no bridge! We literally drove through the shallow part of the river - which was running pretty forcefully - in a school bus! Dayana, told me that during the rainy season, it's completely impassible, which means they can't get to school, or work, or anywhere aside from the “pulperia,” a corner store that's run out of someone's house. BUT, they're currently building a bridge, and since rainy season has just ended, they'll have plenty of time to finish it! =D

Anyway, once we made it to her house – yes the bus dropped us in front of her house on the only dirt road in and out of the town – we walked up to the front porch and she introduced me to her mother, grandmother, and uncle (none of whom had any forewarning that a random gringa was going to show up at their doorstep since there's no cell phone service there.) They were so welcoming and immediately pulled up a chair for me. Turns out though, Dayana had other plans. We only had an hour before I had to catch the bus back, so we hurried off to see the river. A short walk from her house was one of the most tranquil and beautiful places I've ever seen. We got to the river and found her two cousins on their way back from swimming in the deeper part. They were excited to show me where the best spots were, and I was happy to follow them. The icing on the cake?? There were MONKEYS playing in the trees right above our heads! They were literally swinging from tree to tree on vines like in the movies! I was able to get a few good pictures, but was trying not to ruin the moment. It was so so awesome!

After hanging out by the river for a little bit, we went back to her house where she insisted on making me an orange fresco. Ahh frescos...there will be a seperate blog about those too...but for right now, we'll say they're amazing drinks made from whatever fresh fruit happens to be around, water, and sugar. So I helped her get the water from the well with a bucket, and gratefully (yet nervously) drank the amazing fresco she made me. So far so good on the lack of side effects from drinking possibly not so sanitary water lol.

All in all, I'd say it was by far the best day I've had in site, and it ranked among the highest I've had here in Nicaragua. It was such a simple, carefree, relaxed day, and it came at just the right time for me.

Random aside: Watching Polar Express in Spanish tonight made me literally ache for home and for the holidays. Somebody send me some Christmas cookies, hot chocolate, and snow!
NEW ADDRESS!!
Krista Blasch
AP #129
Rivas, Rivas
Correos de Nicaragua
Nicaragua, Central America

Despedidas

Well it's official! I finished my training (AND met the language requirement!!) and I'm officially a Peace Corps Volunteer! YAY NICA 54!! Tons has happened since the last time I blogged, so I'll try to wrap it all up here, but let's just say the last week or two have been the best yet!

Last Monday, we had a closing ceremony with all the youth group members from the different training towns and it was so much fun! Each training town got to bring 5 of their kids to the city and we all presented our recycled materials projects. Our kids were absolutely amazing! They were the first ones to volunteer to answer questions about the projects, and they did such a great job presenting! It was just really fun to get to bring them all into the city on the Peace Corps bus and to get to see how proud they were of their work. I was so proud of them! Then we decided to bring them out for pizza which was even more fun. It was nice getting to just chill with them and not have to worry about meeting Peace Corps objectives for once.

Since we couldn't bring all 25 of our youth group kids to the ceremony, we had our own goodbye party, or “despedida,” with all of them later on in the week. We had one of our kids set up his music system, and we had a dance party on Katie's front porch. We hit pretty much every party game, from limbo to pinata to musical chairs, and then we all just danced and got to hang out. We bought them a cake, only to find out that they bought one for us too! After we thanked them for all their hard work these past three months, a few of them told us how much we meant to them and how much they were going to miss us. They said that even though they have trainees in their town at least once a year, none of them ever clicked with them they way they did with us. A few tears were shed, and we had to say our goodbyes. Luckily, my site is close by, so I'll be able to go back and visit them from time to time. =)

Leaving my training family was so unbelievably hard, and I don't know how I would have been able to do it if I didn't know that I was going back to visit for Christmas. The night before our Swearing-In Ceremony with Peace Corps, we decided to cook for our training families at Jessi's house. The four of us made a huge pot of spaghetti with meatsauce and garlic bread and invited our families over to thank them for making us feel so at home in their homes these past three months. I wish we could have really made them understand what it meant to us that they were willing to spend every second of everyday teaching us everything about life here: from language, to washing clothes by hand, to cooking Nica food, to how to take the bus...I could go on and on. I tried to give a little thank you speech, but of course I started to cry. I think they got the picture though.

This past Monday, we had our Peace Corps Swearing-In Ceremony and became official volunteers. The best part of this? Two members of each family were invited to attend! This meant my host sister, Claudia (26), and my host nephew, Alvaro (17), got to head into Managua to watch me “graduate.” It was so awesome to have them there and to get to see everyone else with their Nica families. After the ceremony, which included some amazingly inspiring words from the US Ambassador, we decided to take our families to get some food in the mall. It was my host sister's and nephew's first time there, and being from the “campo,” or rural part of Nicaragua, it was also their first time on an escalator! It was so much fun getting to be there for that! Of course Alvaro pretended it was no big deal, but Claudia made me hold her hand, and it was the best thing ever! We had such a great time, and I can't wait to head back to visit them in December. I already miss having them around to hang out with all day. That night, all of us volunteers were invited to the director´s house for early Thanksgiving dinner and it was DELICIOUS!

Well, if you're not tired of hearing about my goodbyes yet, I'll continue by saying that my last night in my house was better than anything I could have asked for. My ENTIRE family came over to take pictures and just hang out before I left. That day was also the one year anniversary of my would-be host mom's death, so we all went to the church for a Mass in her memory, and we had over a hundred people pass through the house afterwards to pay their respects. After helping to clean up the church and the house, we all had the evening to just relax and talk and laugh. I gave them a gift bag of little goodies to thank them for all the silly things I needed their help with (ie. soap to represent my failed first attempt at laundry etc), and they gave me a set of bed sheets so I can be comfortable in my new home in Nicaragua! We all cried, even some of my host brothers, but it was a perfect night. I can't wait to go back for Christmas!

Now I'm here in my new site in Rivas, and I'm slowly realizing this is really it. Hoping to integrate as quickly and successfully as possible, and hoping more than ever that I'll eventually feel as at home here as I did in Guisquiliapa.

Make New Friends, But Keep the Old

So I'm officially down to just over a week left in my training town, and I've already hit the point where certain moments I'm close to tears about it. I would never have guessed that it would be possible to reach this level of comfort in a world that was so foreign to me only two months ago. My family and I have reached the point where we're all completely comfortable enough around each other to be ourselves. We're sarcastic, we have inside jokes, we can comfortably sit in the sala with nothing but music on in the background and pass hours at a time just talking, laughing, dancing or watching the people outside pass by. I never thought it would be possible to feel “at home” in someone else's house like this. And it's not just in my house that I feel “at home.” Walking through my town, I may not know every single person, but I never make it all the way down the block without seeing at least 3 familiar smiling faces. I never used to buy it when I read people´s PC blogs about making real friends during their service, but that doubt just seems ridiculous now. I´ve only been here two and a half months, and I really do have people in my family and town that I would consider my friends. When I returned from my site visit, the bus driver asked me where I'd been, and the kids from my block ran up the street to give me hugs and ask when the next youth group meeting would be. Then, when Jessi and Katie, my fellow trainees, got home the three of us got to spill every single story/emotion/thought about our visits – in ENGLISH and it was amazing. I can't even describe how good it felt to “come home” after such a challenging and trying week away. Now we're down to pretty much one week, and I can't picture leaving at all. I hope with all of me that I'll eventually feel this way about Belén. Luckily, we still have a few fun events planned with our youth group, and we were told there's going to be a DJ-ed party in the “cancha,” or basketball court in our town this Saturday! Other towns have these kinds of parties all the time, but they never have them here! I'm so excited to get to go and dance!
Well, here's to soaking up every single second I have left!

PS My host cousin just rode past the cyber on his horse. Figured I´d share.

Challenging, To Say the Least

So I know it´s been a while since I´ve posted on here, but I´ve been super super busy. Last time I posted, I said I was waiting to hear about my site placement. Well I got it and I spent the last week visiting my new site, in.....drumroll pleaseeee......BELÉN, RIVAS!!! I was so excited when I found out where I got placed! It was my first choice and the Department of Rivas has so many positives, I can´t even list them all. Well maybe I can lol...

1. Super close to San Juan del Sur, an awesome beach on the Pacific Coast.
2. Perfect view of the island of Ometepe, which is composed of two volcanoes.
3. Fellow volunteers to visit on the island!
4. Just about an hour from my training town, so I can visit without too much trouble. =)
5. Less than 2.5 hours from Managua, the capital of Nicaragua.
6. Known for it´s 6 (or more?) different types of mangos!

Even with all of these positives, spending a week in my new pueblo, Belén, was way harder than I could have ever imagined. Training these past two months has been great for getting me accustomed to life in Nicaragua, and for improving my Spanish; however, it has meant I´ve lived in a small town with three other trainees in my exact same situation. In Guisquiliapa, my perfect bubble of a training town, everyone knows us and understands that we´re in training. They´ve had other trainees before, and therefore expect our Spanish to be disgraceful. They have tons of patience with our questions and with our funny American tendencies. Living within walking distance of other trainees has also meant that we had our own little support network for days when we wanted to just chill and speak English, or for when we wanted to escape to the ¨city¨ for pizza (or anything other than rice and beans.)

My site visit however, was unbelievably different and extremely challenging. To start with, Peace Corps gave us each two sentences worth of directions to our sites and left it at that. We all had to find our own ways to our sites, which was luckily for me, not too hard. I was told to get off the bus at the ¨entrada¨ or entrance to my town. So, when we got to the entrance, I got off with my huge suitcase, backpack, and sack of books from Peace Corps and proceeded to walk the 300 meter stretch to the school, rolling my suitcase behind me, and sweating more than I´ve ever sweat in my life. Rivas is way hotter than Carazo, and the fact that I was more nervous than I ever have been didn´t help things. I must´ve looked so ridiculous to the people passing me on their bikes, and to the people sitting on their porches, especially when I stopped to ask them how to get to the school.

Once inside the school with all my luggage, I was greeted by the sub-director, who told me that my host mom, (the director) was at home because she had taken a fall and was on crutches. She then cheerfully elected 4 kids to walk me to her house. The kids were so sweet and took turns carrying my things, and when we arrived at the house, I was warmly welcomed by my new host father and mother. They were as nice as I could have asked for, but after the quick hellos, it became insanely akward. What do you say to someone when you´re moving into their house? During training, there wasn´t much time for akwardness because we were always quickly shuffled into Spanish class and we therefore got to integrate into our families little by little. During the site visit though, I was on my own for creating a schedule for myself, which meant hours of time that couldn´t be filled due to the fact that it is literally impossible to fill 6 complete days with activities, especially when one is dropped into a new world, only half speaks the language, and is not the most outgoing person in the world.

So, to sum things up, this was by far the most challenging week of my life. I ended up having to present myself in front of a community meeting, on stage, with a microphone, in front of the mayor and all the teachers I´ll be working with - and no, I wasn´t given a warning about it ahead of time! I had to present myself to every single class in my 3 schools, to the police, to the people in the Mayor´s Office, to a million and one new family members...I could go on and on.

Luckily, my town seems great! It´s much bigger than my training town, which worries me a bit, but I know I´m going to eventually love it there. One of the teachers invited me to her house my third night, and her daughter gave me my first pedicure ever. Then her 5 year old son and I danced for at least half an hour on her compact dirt floor. Things like that make me realize that I´m going to eventually love it there. I just hope when I get back, the level of akwardness will quickly be replaced by comfort. In the mean time, please hope/pray/petition the universe for my ability to stop being so damn shy and akward. I need to tap into the outgoingness Peace Corps Volunteers are supposed to have.

Today though, I´m back in Carazo and couldn´t be happier to be ¨home.¨ I plan to soak up every second of these next two weeks, and hope they go as slowly as possible.

Exhausted, but Accomplished

So this past week has been all-around pretty awesome. I taught my second out of three classes in the primary school and my training group presented our survey results successfully to all the other trainees this past Wednesday. (I realize this feat would be much less impressive in English, but presenting 30 minutes worth of information and analysis in Spanish made us feel very accomplished!). We also had two youth group meetings, as always, and are preparing to give our last charla (lesson) to the older ones this Sunday about STD and HIV prevention. So, overall, this week was extremely productive! (Which unfortunately means I had absolutely no free time, and am therefore wayyyy behind on responding to letters and facebook messages =( Sorry guys!)

We did have a little time for fun this past weekend though. Saturday was El Dia de Santa Teresa, the patron saint of a town near mine, so they had a huge party weekend. Katie and I went to the club there with some of the guys from our families and it was soooo much fun getting to finally relax and get out of our houses! We danced for hours and then got to cram 8 people into a taxi smaller than my Corola to get home. The guys were so much fun and really looked out for us all night. The club was packedddddd and the dj played almost all reggaeton, which = perfect dance music! Needless to say, we had an amazing night.

On Sunday, I went with my host family to visit their farmland. The property is a little more then 4.5 kilometers from my house, and the once compact dirt road to get there has been completely destroyed by the rains. I have no idea how my host father and brothers get the cows down there and back every single day. It was nice getting to walk there with my host sisters though. It was so peaceful and I got to see a completely new part of “town” even farther off the beaten track. At one point we had an amazing view of a volcano in the distance, framed by the palm and mango trees we were standing near. It was absolutely gorgeous.

To end our week, we had our interviews yesterday about what sites we'd like to get placed in! I said I'd love to be placed in a small site, relatively close to a bigger city. I'm trying very hard not to fall in love with any particular department, because I really only know what I was told about them in the site fair, but based on that information, I think I'd love to get placed in Rivas (beachy and close to my training town), Boaco, or Matagalpa, (both of which are mountainous and have slightly cooler climates); but I'm sure I'd be just as happy in Leon or Chinandega (the other two departments where Environmental volunteers are being sent). Really, what's more important to me is that I feel comfortable and at home in my site. I wish I could just stay here in my training town since I've completely fallen in love with the people here. The kids in our youth group impress me every single day, and the people in my family have been so much more than hospitable. They've really made me feel at home here and it's going to be hard leaving my comfort zone behind. By this time next week though, I'll know where I'm headed at the end of November! Our project directors now have all of the information about our aspirations, skills, and preferences, and all that's left to do is impatiently wait while they match us to the sites' needs!

Nuestros Jóvenes

I don't care what any of the other trainees say; we have the BEST youth group in Nicaragua. Our jóvenes range in age from 12 (shh..they're all supposed to be 15 or older) to 21 and we always have a showing of at least 20 of them at every meeting. Regardless of the huge age range, everyone gets along and looks out for each other. The older ones all participate in all the ice breakers and games, no matter how embarassing they might be. The younger ones impress me daily with their abilities to make amazinggg bracelets and they all have such a genuine commitment to a group that formed so recently. At almost every meeting, we have someone that comes in with a new project he or she made from recycled materials. There's always someone who has an idea for a new game we can all play, and when we introduce new ideas to them, they jump on board with no need for promting whatsoever!

By far though, the best meeting for me was last week when these 4 guys (in their 20s) showed up drunk. Well that part was really uncomfortable at first because they tried to crash the meeting, and came in whistling and cat-calling at our girls. I immediately told them that unless they were there to participate, they'd have to leave. I said it wasn't ok to treat our girls like that. (In Spanish - picture that!) After that, three of them left with no problem. One though, refused to leave. So my host nephew (Alvaro, 17) and my next door neighbor (Jose, 21) helped us right away. They were so calm about it and told the guy he had to go because this was a meeting for the kids. They told him to look at all the kids and to not embarass himself and the town. They stood up for us (since none of us are comfortable enough to be assertive in Spanish) and for their fellow group members right away and it was sooo touching. Then two more of the teenage guys helped to walk him outside. They were all so good about staying calm and not letting it escalate. Once he was outside the gate, Alvaro walked with him for a while to make sure he wasn't going to come back in. I heard him saying how the group was doing really well and asking him not to cause problems.

The younger kids were so good and just continued to work on their projects throughout all the "action." Long story short, I absolutely love our jóvenes and I so don't want to leave my training town!

Just About Halfway Through Training!!

My tech trainer wasn't lying when he said the weeks are going to get busier and busier as training continues. These past two weeks have been so packed with Peace Corps Training requirements that I've barely had time to process everything, let alone write about everything. I guess I'll try to sum up the important things for now...

Last week, we gave our first “charla,” or lesson, to our youth group. (During the meetings before that, we had been solely focused on getting our recycled materials project going with them.) PCT requires us to give two charlas to our youth groups though, and our kids voted for one on drugs and alcohol. Overall I'd say it went pretty well! Our youth group kids are amazing, as I've said before, so we had some of them act out a socio-drama about what could happen to a kid that gets caught up in drugs and alcohol. Then we discussed the causes and consequences associated with such problems. I think it was much more effective to get their input, than to spew a bunch of “don't drink or you'll die” propaganda.

This past week, we also had to give the surveys we designed to the people in our communities. In our training town, we decided to survey the kids in 4th and 5th grade to determine what they have already learned as far as environmental education (since that's what we're all here to teach.) Again, I'd say it went really well. We each had to interview 5 kids and this coming week, we'll be analyzing our results and preparing a plan of action to present to our peer trainees from the other training towns. The kicker? Our presentation must be completely in Spanish, just like everything else.

I also taught in my first Nicaraguan classroom this week! I had to teach the fourth grade about the causes and consequences of pollution. I can't believe how well it went! The kids were awesome and they actually got a lot out of the lesson! We played a game at the end to let them show off what they learned and I was so pleased to see that I was able to get my point across!

To top things off, ALL of our seeds have germinated and are sprouting! We now have baby tomate, chiltoma (pepper), pepino (cucumber), pipian (squash), and ayote (bigger squash/pumpkin like thing) plants growing! Hopefully our barrier continues to keep out the school kids, chickens and dogs!

To finish off our week, all 42 trainees got to visit Volcan Masaya yesterday! It's an active volcano located in Masaya, Nicaragua, and was really cool to see! Unfortunately, we happened to be there during a “high alert” day, which meant we weren't allowed to hike anywhere around it because we had to stay close enough to the vehicles to get away if something were to happen! Crazy!! We did get to see the smoking crater though. So cool!

¡Hay MUCHO Lluvia!

(Written during the last week of September - Feels silly to post it now that it´s been sunny for over a week, but oh well lol. Sidenote...sun for a whole week in October is unheard of here, and is a huge problem for the farmers that are counting on their last month of rainy season. More to come on that topic in a later blog.)
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Well it´s true what they say...when it rains, it pourssss!! So Tropical Storm (or Hurricane? idk) Matthew has been wreaking havock here in Central America. Luckily, I'm currently in a region that´s only receiving tons of rain for now. Closer to Managua, and farther North, they're not so lucky. There are already many regions there that have been severely flooded and it's only just beginning.

Living here has allowed me to see how much of an effect rain really has on the everyday lives of these people. Since I've been here, I haven't ever left the house without an umbrella or rain jacket, no matter how sunny it might seem. The rains had generally only been in the afternoons or evenings during most of September; now though, with all the hurricanes in the area, we've had rain for 6 straight days! And I'm not just talking about little showers...I mean deafening rain that's enough to completely halt conversations when one is living in a house with a zinc roof.

The effects of such rain? Well obviously there is mud EVERYWHERE, but that's bearable. Walking back from class the other day with my raincoat and umbrella was a joke because I was literally soaked through and through by the time I got home for lunch. Needless to say, my jeans have still not dried. Again, inconvenient, yet bearable. The real inconveniences become apparent when you look a little deeper. Laundry, for example, is done by hand here. Therefore, one must have two necessities to wash ones clothes...available water (we havfe running water about 40% of the time in my house, the rest is saved in buckets for when the water is turned off), and sun. One without the other is not enough to get the job done. My idea of “dirty” clothes has greatly changed since I've been here. At home I always re-wore jeans a few times before washing them, but here I re-wear everything! There's just no need to go through the agony of washing and waiting days for things to dry, if one doesn't have to. Now though, aside from having an increasing pile of ropa sucia, I also have a room full of damp everything! Bedding, clothes, walls, books, papers for class. My cloth purse and the hat that I have hanging up are both beginning to grow visible mildew! GROSS!

My sisters can't wash clothes because there is no sun to dry them, but what makes things even more complicated is that my little niece is only 8 months old. She wears cloth diapers which need to get washed daily, regardless of the water and sun situation. Therefore, there are always cloth diapers hanging on the rope in my living room, and since they can´t dry in this rain, my sisters have to iron them to dry them enough for her to wear.

On top of the laundry situation, most of the men in my family here are farmers. Therefore, they work outside all day, regardless of the weather, and they have animals to drive through the deep mud. Their crops are constantly in danger of being flooded out during the rainy season. Even just in the case of our school garden, we were scared to plant our seeds because the rain has been SO strong that we thought they'd wash away. We ended up having to make seed beds in tires under a roof on the school property so that we'd guarantee not losing them.

It's just interesting to me how much I used to complain about rain back home in the States. One day of rain, and we'd all be depressed and complaining about how we just want to sleep and be all cozy. In reality though, we're not actually effected by it at all. We all have insulated houses where the walls touch the ceilings and cars/trains to get us pretty close to where we need to be without getting soaked. Even when we do get soaked, all we have to do is throw our clothes in the dryer, and we're back to being warm and cozy and dry. Here, that's just not possible. Of course people complain about the rain here too, but it's because there are real inconveniences that come with it. Here´s hoping for sun!

Officially One Month In!

Well, today marks one month for me here in Nicaragua! I can't believe how quickly time has flown! It seems like just yesterday I was freaking out over packing and preparing for my departure. At the same time though, I already feel so accustomed to life here in Nica. I'm so comfortable in my host family's home and coming back into my town after training in the city feels like coming home. (Well as close to home as possible considering I miss my real home like crazy.) I really love my training town though, and I hope my actual site will be something like this. It's small and quaint and pretty much everyone knows everyone else, yet it´s only a 10 minute bus ride into the city. The kids are absolutely amazing and I feel really safe here.

Anyway, I figured since I've been here a whole month now, I should share some of the things that have become norms to me. For example, walking home from language class yesterday, Katie saw a herd of cows walking towards us on the street and nonchalantly asked me, “are those your cows coming home from the campo?” and I just as carelessly responded, “yep those are mine!” and waved to my host brother who was guiding them home. It's completely normal to see a micro-bus, about 4 stray-ish dogs, a horse or cow or pig (or all three), and a bicycle with at least 2 people on it, all at the same time on the same street in my town! I love it!

It's also become normal for me to walk through the mercado (market place) in Jinotepe every weekend when we have Peace Corps training with the other trainees. Doing so is so cool because you really get to see all the different types of foods and there are so many other cosas (things) being sold. I actually made my first market purchase in my second week here, because I REALLY wanted a pineapple. It was fantastic!! Since then, I've also bought rain boots (for working in the garden during our monsoons) and flip flops since mine broke the other day. All together, those three purchases cost me 212 cordobas (or about $10.50). Unfortunately, on a Peace Corps training salary, that's substantial lol. It's become normal to think in cords rather than dollars here, because when one is getting paid in cords, thinking in dollars is just depressing lol.

Oh, and how could I forget?? Here in Nicaragua, instead of people saying ¨hi¨when they pass each other in the street, they say ¨adios!¨ It actually makes a lot of sense when you think about it. My host sister told me it´s because if you say, ¨buenas dias,¨or ¨hola,¨ people will assume you want to stop and have a conversation. I´m definitely a fan of it, and I´ve become accustomed to saying ¨adios¨ to everyone in my town as I pass them on the street. (With the exception of the little kids who love to say ¨hello¨ or ¨goodbye¨ to me in English lol.)

Random sidenotes ← yep that reminded me of u...

I played futbol in the rain with some of the boys from my youth group on Sunday and it was the most fun I've had in a long time (and I am NOT a fan of soccer!). These kids are sooo sweet and fun to be around. They just want to play and are so far from tainted and spoiled. The rain didn't phase them one bit. Even the older ones played with us!

I totally pretended to love the Yankees the other night because my brothers here all love baseball and we watched a Yankees/Red Socks game. They were so excited to tell me MY team was playing (since I'm from NY) so I was obviously to be delighted to watch “my team” with them. It was completely worth it.

Our school garden is officially up and running! Yesterday, we finished the barrier and finally got to planing! We now have tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, squash, and a bigger squash all planted! =D I´ll be sure to let you know how that goes. =)

All in all, it's been an amazing month, and I can't wait to see what's in store for October!

So many stories, so little time!

Well this week has been eventful to say the absolute least.

Last time I blogged, I was on my way out to a quince anos fiesta. It was sooo much fun! Before the party, we had to go to mass for Rosa, the girl who turned 15. We all paraded there with a mariachi band! My host niece, Melissa, was one of the girls leading the way in her gorgeous cream and red gown. Then came Rosa (who I think is a distant relative of mine?) in her beautiful pink princess gown, and then the rest of us. After she took her communion, we all paraded out to the closed down restaurant where the party would be held. My whole family sat together so there were about 13 or 14 of us at a huge table we made from all the little tables. The food was amazing and of course I got to dance! My host sisters didn't dance because their mom (my would-be host mom) died less than nine months ago, so they are still in mourning. =( Out of respect for her, they won't dance for a year. My family's very traditional in that way. Apparently it doesn't apply to the guys though, because my host brothers were dancing all night! (Thank goodness, or else I would've had to fend off the guys in the neighborhood that just wanted a chance to dance with the new “chelita” lol.) Being at the party made me realize how horrible my Spanish is though. I'm fine when I'm talking one on one with any of my family members or teachers because they all know that I need time to think and process, so they speak slowly and simply to me. Being at a table with 13 other people though, made me feel like I had never learned a word of Spanish before in my life! Thank goodness dancing doesn't require language!

Aside from that party though, this week has been nothing but work work work. Now I see why all the previous blogs I've read have said that training is insanely busy. I've had my usual 6 hours of Spanish classes everyday plus nightly homework. On top of that, we started our classroom observations this week. I'm going to be teaching 3 science lessons to 4th graders, but that doesn't happen until two weeks from now, gracias a Dios. We also had two youth group meetings, one of which was observed by our language facilitator and our technical trainer! Luckily our kids (all 22 of them!) are AWESOME! For our recycled materials project, we are making friendship bracelets (pulseras) out of plastic bags (they're multi-colored here.) You should see how into it they are! And I'm talking about teenage kids! I'll have some pics to post next time if these computers ever decide to work fast enough for that. We also had to prepare our charla (lesson) on drugs and alcohol, which we'll be giving to our youth group next week. And lastly, we had to write up our survey, another requirement of all trainees. We decided to survey the 6th graders in our school to find out what they already know about the environment and their natural resources. Keep in mind, ALL of this is completely in Spanish. I must be doing better than I think I am.

Unfortunately, I'm ending my week with a bacterial infection. (fever, extremely upset stomach – neither of which are fun during rainy season in a house with an outdoor latrine!) I'm kinda glad that's all it is though, because after all the charlas on dengue fever and parasites, I was expecting the worst. Thankfully Peace Corps has been awesome and I was able to get diagnosed almost immediately even though it's the weekend. I'm now on antibiotics that my host brother, Nelson, was kind enough to get for me. (Since we don't have a pharmacy in my town, he offered to ride his bike into the town over.) My whole host family has been taking care of me, so no worries. I'm doing just fine. =) I guess in the place of greisbri (I know that's spelled wayyy wrong) and The Princess Bride, I'll settle for tea, soup, and lots of rest.

Unfortunately being sick last night and this morning meant I had to miss the beginning of our school garden today. My three site mates and a few of the school kids worked all morning in the torrential rain to start up the garden. I'm hoping to go help out with the finishing touches tomorrow – assuming the entire area isn't under water. The rain is insane this weekend because of the hurricane nearby. Luckily all we'll be getting from that is rain though. It's bad news for our seeds, and also means that NOTHING ever dries! Literally everything is damp to the touch. Bleck. Well, at least it's relief from the heat! =)

In other news, one of my cows had a baby this week! Absolutely adorable!! Her name is Estrellita.

Just a Few Blog-able Moments

There have been so many shall we say “blog-able” moments this week, but I've been so incredibly busy with Spanish classes; gardening, composting, and organic pesticide practicums; medical talks about dengue and malaria; rabies and typhoid vaccinations; lesson planning discussions; and youth group meetings, that I haven't had time to write any of them down. I guess we'll see what highlights come to mind right now for those of you who have requested to hear about my day-to-day experiences here. Excuse the format though, since I don't have much time. In my youth group we had to have the “jovenes,” or kids ages 13-22, create a “lluvia de ideas,” or a rain of ideas, about recycled materials projects they would like to try out. (Similar to “brainstorming” in English I suppose.) Given my lack of cyber time at the moment, I shall now present you with my “lluvia de momentias blogables.”

*Watching chickens climb the mango tree while brushing my teeth in the backyard the other morning.* There's a ladder there that the chickens and roosters like to climb! They actually sit up really high in the branches of the tree! Pretty bizarre sight if you ask me.

*Sneaking food to my host dog when nobody's looking, only to find out he doesn't eat boiled plantains...boo!!* Dogs here are treated simply as pest control and guard animals, and are therefore not played with or fed very well at all. Generally the food is pretty good here, but one can only take so many tortillas and beans before one is willing to share with the sad eyed, hungry dog. He and I have a decent system worked out where he'll only come into the kitchen if I'm eating alone and have some scraps to spare; but the other day, to my dismay, I found out he hates boiled green plantains just as much as I do! Either he's not as hungry as I thought, or they're just that bad. I'm going with the latter in this case.

*Waking up at 4am to the sound of fighting dogs and roosters, sure that there was a bat in my room again.* Luckily, when I mustered up the guts to turn my light on (which I can thankfully reach from my bed without opening my mosquito net), I realized that it was only a HUGE toad (or frog?) that came in to escape the monsoon. The light scared him and I rustled around in my bed enough to convince him I was a threat. He decided to chill just outside my door instead. My host fam was quite amused by “mi amigo, zapo” as they called him.

*Getting poured on last night while brushing my teeth and admiring the sleeping chocoyos.* My family here has 3 small green parrots. It's sad since they used to live wild here in the rain forests in Nicaragua. Luckily laws have been put in place to stop the selling of wild animals such as them, but they are hardly ever enforced. Anyway, while I was watching them sleep and brushing my teeth, I could hear the rain starting up down the street. Within 3 seconds, it hit my “patio,” or backyard, HARD! I was soaked before I had time to rinse hahaha. Yet another moment for my host sisters and I to laugh about.

*Last but not least: Getting woken up by a mariachi band at 3:45 this morning!!* Apparently in Nicaragua, it is customary for a girl who is turning 15 to get serenaded the morning/night of her birthday! They were right on the corner of my block and sounded like they were in my bedroom! I´m headed to the quinceañera later on today, so that should be fun!

More to come soon, ¨si Dios quiere.¨ (If God wishes), as they say here all the time.

Getting Settled in a Completely New World

Well I made it to my training town!! I'm living with an awesome family in a small “barrio” outside of Jinotepe in the department of Carazo. I have a host father who's in his 60s and 8 host brothers and sisters who are all in their 20-30s. (Only 4 of them actually live in my house, but the others and their spouses and children are always stopping by.) =) My two host sisters are sooo sweet and always go out of their way to slow down everyone else's Spanish for me, and my 6 host brothers couldn't be nicer or more accommodating. =) One even wants me to teach him English!! They all love to make me speak because I make SO many mistakes, and they get to take turns correcting me lol. Apparently my Spanish isn't as bad as I thought it was though, because I wasn't placed in the lowest language group!! Who knew?? Regardless of what Peace Corps thinks I'm capable of, it is SOOOO hard living and breathing completely in Spanish. In the 6 hours of Spanish class we have a day, only Spanish is spoken because my teacher doesn´t speak English, and if I'm not there, then I'm at home with my host family speaking only in Spanish because none of them speak English! Luckily there are 3 other trainees in my training town, so we get to vent to one another in English on the way out of class each day. Jessi (one of the other trainees) and I have been running in the mornings at 6 which gives us English time too. Yes I can see the looks of shock about me running at 6 every morning. Lol whatever!

My house here is by far the most...shall we say, modest...of all the other host homes in the neighborhood. I'm the only one of the trainees that has an outdoor latrine, rather than indoor plumbing. I do have running water for the outdoor shower though, on the days it happens to be running (which it has been 2 out of the last 4 days =D). My “cocina” or kitchen consists of a room with 3 walls that houses a “pila,” or sink with no running water, a raised ¨fogon,¨ or fire pit for cooking, and a few shelves with heavy duty pots that can withstand the direct flames. The walls of my house don´t touch the roof, and there´s no glass or screens on the windows, so there are just as many flies and mosquitoes inside as there are outside. (Thank God for my mosquito net!!) The walls of my room obviously don't touch the ceiling either, so last night a bat flew through and left me a little “present” on the side of my net!! UGH!

The upside though? The rain sounds beautifullll on my tin roof, and the roosters out back will never let me sleep through my alarm. (Actually they start around 3-4am...way before the sun smh. Someone should tell them they're doing their job wrong.) I think in total, my family has 1 dog, 3 parrots, 6 cows, and 20-30 chickens. What's interesting about that is that we live in “el centro” of the community! We're directly across from the school and by no means out on a farm or anything. My block is right in the center of town. I don't mind all the animals and family members though. I love my new familia. They have character, and we all know I need a family with character. Melissa, my host niece is 8. I can't understand her Spanish at all, and she can't understand mine, but we exchanged necklaces yesterday, so we're obviously going to be best friends. =P She reminds me of Livi and Mary which does wonders for my home sickness.

All in all, I'd say everything here is as good as I could have asked for it to be. I had my first lesson in hand washing my ¨ropa interior¨(undies and bras) today, and I think it went pretty well, even if my host sisters thought it was hilarious that I didn't know the “right way” to hang my panties on the barbed wire that serves as our wash line haha! After that adventure, I ended up moving them to a line in my room anyway, since it started raining (which it does at LEAST once a day here during the rainy season.) I kinda prefer that to having them out on the same line as my host brothers' work clothes though lol. Now all I can do is hope that another bat doesn't fly through my room tonight and “soil” them while I'm sleeping. (PS my host sisters wash all the rest of my clothes and will continue to do so while I´m in training. SWEET!)

Right now, aside from improving my pathetic Spanish, my challenge is to master the art of timing my pre-sleep latrine run around the evening downpour. Lol gooood times. In the mean time, pray that I don't get sick because I'm pretty sure my host sisters have been washing my veggies in water that's been standing in barrels for days. =/ Don't worry mom, I feel fine so far! More to come next time I can get to the cyber when we happen to have electricity and free time (both of which are hard to come by in our busy little town.)

Nicaragua: El pais de brazos abiertos!

Hola mi familia y mis amigos!! I've arrived safely in Nicaragua and it.is.beautiful. I'm currently in the middle of my three day orientation retreat with 42 other trainees in Granada (the Nicaraguan city, not to be confused with Grenada the Caribbean island.) It's a touristy, colonial city located right on the coast of Lake Nicaragua, which is the biggest lake in Central America. It's absolutely gorgeous here! Some of us went walking through the town yesterday afternoon and we got to see the park, some market streets, and some awesome colonial churches and architecture. Then, during dinner out on the hotel porch, we got to witness our first intense Nicaraguan thunderstorm! It was so refreshing and beautiful at the same time (even if it did make the lights flicker a bit.) At 5:30 this morning, I awoke to the sound of church bells (which were quickly followed by my alarm) and a bunch of us met up to head down to the lake and take in the sites (those who were more ambitious ran rather than strolled with us.) The road we walked to get there was strewn with coconuts! <3 Have I mentioned I love it here?? Don't be fooled though, these past two days have been completely jam-packed with Peace Corps Orientation activities. We've had sessions on personal safety, received our medical kits, had medical interviews, received our training manuals, taken pictures for visas and PC IDs, anddd perhaps the most stressful part of my day today...had our language interviews. By this time tomorrow, I'll know what training group I'm in based on the recorded 20 minute interview I participated in (completely in Spanish!!) =O Without a doubt I will be in one of the lowest language groups if not THE lowest, but that's ok with me because Peace Corps has been training people in language acquisition for years and I'm hoping they'll be able to work miracles with me. =P

Perhaps my favorite part of one of our talks today was a quote we were given as our “guiding principle” with regard to Peace Corps Service:
“Go to the people. Live with them. Learn from them. Love them. Start with what they know. Build with what they have. But with the best leaders, when the work is done, the task accomplished, the people will say 'We have done this ourselves.'” -Lao Tzu
It reminds me that our purpose here is not only to share our skills and knowledge, but also to be sure that the cultural and educational exchange is mutual. We are here to impart sustainable activities and to give the Nicaraguan people the ability to continue what we've started together long after we're gone. I'm looking forward to beginning my service here, and I couldn't ask for a better group of people to be embarking on such an adventure with. The other trainees are great and the PC staff is so helpful and warm and completely dedicated to training us to be the most competent and confident volunteers we can be. Tomorrow is the last day of our retreat, and we'll all be moving in with our host families bright and early on Saturday morning!

Love and miss you all, and I'm so excited to finally be here and able to share stories with you! More to come next time I have internet access!

"What made you wanna do that?!"

Every time I tell someone new that I'm headed into the Peace Corps, I'm met with one of two responses. Half the time, the person I'm talking to gets immediately excited and begins explaining to me how badly she wants to travel, or how he wishes he was brave enough to take such a huge leap, or how she knows it will be amazing to live completely immersed in a new culture for the next two years, or how he hopes it will impact me in ways I can't yet perceive. Generally these people are super supportive and enthusiastically positive. They beg for pictures and stories and can't wait to see how it all unfolds. Needless to say, these conversations are sooo encouraging and exciting to have! =)

The other half of the people I talk to all respond exactly the same way: "Wow...the Peace Corps? What made you want to do that!?" Their looks of polite surprise typically fade to horror as soon as I tell them it's a two year commitment and that I'm willing to live at the standards of my new community in a third world country for that long on practically no salary. "But you'd be giving up everything you have here!" "But what about settling down? You'll be almost 27 when you come back!" "There are people here you can help, why not help them?" "Won't you get some horrible disease there?" And the one that everyone feels the need to point out..."Two years is a longgg time!" (As if I didn't fully consider all of those things before applying, during the interviewing process, and when I received my invitation.)

Depending on my mood, I generally respond graciously and try to assume that such discouraging remarks are the product of concern for my safety, rather than blatant disapproval of such a life-changing decision. The good part of those conversations though, is that I'm forced to really consider and discuss why it is that I do, in fact, want to join the Peace Corps.

To me, Peace Corps is the opportunity of a lifetime. The government is paying for me to live in a new part of the world - Nicaragua, The Land of Lakes and Volcanoes - while I am able to live my dream of making a difference in our global community. I'm going to receive three months of intense language, cultural, and technical training that will benefit me long after my two years of service in Nicaragua. I'll be teaching, which has been my passion for as long as I can remember, and I'll be doing so completely in Spanish! I'll come home a new person who's met and overcome challenges no one here has ever had to deal with. I'll have amazing grad school options and awesome job opportunities.

None of the above-stated benefits however, were what got me interested in joining the Peace Corps. Instead, it was my desire to positively impact the world around me coupled with my need to break out of the "normal" expectations of life after college. I've never understood how people can be happy just staying in one place and working in one job for their entire lives. I'm in no way trying to belittle those who are content in one place. All I'm saying is that I'm nowhere near ready for any kind of permanence in my life right now. I'm only 24! I want to travel and explore and really get to know what it's like outside of the NY bubble. I want to meet people with a different perspective on life, and gain a new perspective for myself. I want to learn about the world through my own experiences, rather than by watching or reading about other people who have traveled it. More importantly, I want to know that my daily work will have a lasting positive impact and that my skills are being used where they are needed most. I wish I could say that going into the Peace Corps is entirely selfless and that I'm doing it strictly to make a difference in the lives of the people I'm working with, but it's so much more than that. I know I'm going to be completely changed by the people I meet and the experiences I'll have there.

Sure, I know there are going to be real struggles and challenges. I know that living without many of the luxuries I'm used to will be difficult. I know that coming home without an established 401K will be a disadvantage. I know many of my friends may be comfortably settled down when I return. I know two years is a longggg time. I also know that this will be the experience of a lifetime, and I'd rather have that, than the security of knowing exactly how things will turn out. =)

To those of you who have been behind me this whole way, thank you so so much. It means the world to me and I couldn't have done it without you. You know who you are, and for your support I am truly grateful. <3 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In 1961, President John F. Kennedy established the Peace Corps to promote world peace and friendship.

The Peace Corps' mission has three simple goals:

1. Helping the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women.
2. Helping promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served.
3. Helping promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans.
http://www.peacecorps.gov/

Judge Walker Stopped the H8!

Today a Federal judge in California finally declared Proposition 8 unconstitutional!! For those of you who don't know, Proposition 8 made it illegal for same-sex couples to marry in the state of California. It was decided by a vote on election day in which countless conservative organizations scared people into voting to "protect the sanctity of marriage" and prevent same-sex couples from marrying. As a result, being that the majority of Californians (as well as the majority of Americans) are straight, many of them were convinced to vote for a law that had absolutely no effect on their own lives, and a detrimental effect on the minority they were voting against. Of course if we acknowledge the fact that their votes resulted in legalizing discrimination and intolerance, than we cannot say it had no effect on straight people - because as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. told us, "injustice anywhere, is a threat to justice everywhere."

Sooo...long story short...today, that law was declared unconstitutional! =D Judge Walker's conclusion stated, "Proposition 8 fails to advance any rational basis in singling out gay men and lesbians for denial of a marriage license. Indeed the evidence shows Proposition 8 does nothing more than enshrine in the California constitution the notion that opposite sex couples are superior to same sex couples." Umm obviously! Hence the uproarious disapproval country-wide when Prop8 passed!

Undoubtedly, this ruling will be appealed, because there are still so many people who feel it's their right to judge the lives of others. We can only hope that if it is brought to trial, the judges there will realize that true love and commitment should be celebrated and respected, rather than discouraged. It's 2010 and in a country that boasts liberty and justice for all, I think it's time we stop the hatred and intolerance and allow people to live their lives. Who does it hurt when two people in love are able to legally commit to one another? How would you feel if your son or daughter or even you were told you could not marry the person you loved? Hopefully today's decision is a sign of good things to come. =)

August has Arrived

It's officially August, and I've just booked my flight to DC for Peace Corps Staging and Orientation on the 31st!! Twenty-four hours after I depart New York for DC (on what happens to be my brother's birthday), I'll be departing DC for Managua, Nicaragua!! Then the adventure truly begins!

The closer I'm getting to my departure date, the more real it's becoming. It's hitting me how much packing and preparing I still have to do. No matter how many packing lists I peruse, I still feel like there are things I'm missing. Is it really possible to pack and prepare for twenty-seven months in a foreign country?? Not to mention how difficult (if not impossible) it's going to be to fit everything I need into the 80lb luggage restraint! Still though, I'm more interested in spending my last month here among family and friends. I want to soak up every moment I've got left with the people I love. I've always been a procrastinator and I know that I work best under pressure...therefore I know I'll be all packed and ready to go on the 31st regardless of how unprepared I feel right now. =P

Aside from the stress of packing for the unknown, I've also been realizing how hard it's going to be to face certain aspects of my service completely alone. I know I have the support of most of my family and true friends, which means everything in the world to me. I know that because of that, I won't ever truly be alone. But chances are, I won't be able to just pick up a phone and vent to someone about the frustrations of my day. I won't have someone with me to hold my hair when I'm puking my brains out because of some parasitic infection. I won't have someone to struggle through Spanish with and laugh with about how incompetent we feel(except of course during language training with my fellow PCVs =P). Missing those daily connections with the people I love is definitely going to be harder on me than missing hot showers, a critter-free bed, and all of my favorite fooooods. I'm more than confident though that I'll stay in close touch with those who are closest to me, and that's all that matters. Thank you guys so much for being behind me in this life-changing decision of mine. I'm so thankful and glad to have so many people to share it with. <3

Speaking of staying in touch, here's the address I can be reached at during training!!
Krista Blasch, PCT
Voluntario del Cuerpo de Paz
Apartado Postal 3256
Managua, Nicaragua
Central America

53 Days and Counting!

So it finally hit me today that I am really leaving for Nicaragua at the end of the summer. I've been so caught up in the excitement of my invitation, that I didn't even notice how quickly time's been flying. Aside from filling out the mountain of paperwork in my invitation kit and obsessing over current volunteers' blogs and packing lists, I've also been trying to spend as much time as possible with the people I love. I'm down to less than two months now, and it's starting to hit me that I'm really going to be away for two years. I know I'll be having the time of my life in Nicaragua, but it's impossible to think about being away from my family and friends for that long.

Right now, all I can say is that no matter how difficult it's going to be to say goodbye, I know this is what I'm meant to be doing. I've always wanted a chance to enact positive changes and to feel as though I've really worked to make a difference. This is my opportunity to step outside the box and break free of the post-college monotony I've come to dread. I'm going to see what it's like to live in a radically different corner of the world. I'll be completely immersed in a new culture, and I'll (hopefully) become comfortable communicating in Spanish. My daily work will be teaching children and community members how to preserve their natural resources. I'll be responsible for teaching environmental science in three primary schools, and I couldn't be more excited to pursue my passion for teaching there! Together we'll come up with sustainable methods of conservation and awaken community-wide environmental awareness.

I'm thrilled to be embarking on such an incredible adventure, and can't wait to see how I'll hold up under the pressures and difficult situations that are sure to arise. I'll be tested and challenged daily, but I know I'll come out stronger and more resilient than I can imagine right now.

Here's to enjoying every second of summer I've got left, and to preparing for the journey of a lifetime!