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!