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.
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Sunday, November 14, 2010
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.
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.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
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.
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.
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