I have received a few comments about the photo that apparently showed up on my blog. I was working with another volunteer on trying to figure out how to post photos on my blog and I guess we succeeded. I´ll try to learn how to do it with captions but for now, that is the couple, Alfonso and Concepcion ( she was born on Dec. 7 which is the day the celebrate Purisima, which I have learned is the day the Virgin Mary was supposedly conceived, and any female who is born on that date has the name ¨conception¨ in her name too. This is a photo I took of the back of their home, which is really very beautiful. I´ll try to post more of their home. They do have chickens and ducks as does almost everyone who has any space at all. They used to have pigs ( I think you can see the remains of the old pigpen) but not any more. They are in their 70s and have cut back on some of their enterprises. She was a nurse ( partera) which means midwife for 30 plus years and he worked in many jobs which included being a porter at one of the big hotels in Managua prior to the terremoto ( earthquake) in 1972. They had 9 children who were all at home in Guisquiliapa ( about an hour from Managua) when the earthquake hit on Dec. 23 or 24 and both parents were in Managua working at the time. Somehow they made it home in what I am sure was a very chaotic situation and their little town did not suffer any damage.
They also lived in that same little town during the late 70s when the Sandinistas were fighting to overthrow the dictatorship of Somoza. They told me that they saw planes flyng over their home at such a low altitude that they were able to see the faces of the pilots, on bombing runs of Jinotepe, the town next to theirs.
The people down here in Nicaragua have lived thru a lot. One of the reasons for the low number of older folks, ( folks over 50) is that many many thousands of young people were killed during the Sandinista war against Somoza and then another whole bunch were killed during the war when the Contras ( and I think we all know who they were) were trying to overthrow the Nicaraguan Sandinistas. Sooo much war down here.
And, to make things even more interesting, the name Sandinista comes from an old timer, Sandino, who in the late 1880s, I believe, led a small army of Nicaraguans to run the US Marines out of occupying Nicaragua, even back then. It goes way way back.
Enough of my rendition of the history of Nicaragua...of course there is a lot more but thats all I can put together right now.
Happy new year to you all.....if you pray, pray for peace....if you work,.work for peace....of course you can do both !!!
Love, Pat
Friday, December 31, 2010
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Christmas in Malpaisillo
I could be getting pretty depressed ....here in hot, sweaty, dogs barking all the time, over loud music, dusty streets Malpaisillo away from totally everyone I love, or even like !!!, but....I´m not, because...and this is the beauty of doing something like this....little things keep happening that remind me of why I am here and what this Christmas thing is really all about.
I came here to this Cyber to blog today because I had some really nice ¨bus¨experiences that I wanted to share but when I got here, I had this amazing email from a professor in the Social Work department at the University of Nebraska. Can you believe it !!! Well, I have blogged about the deaf kids I discovered here who needed some services and a few of the things I had done to get things moving. One of the women I had talked to here is an English language professor at the University of Nicaragua - Leon ( this is the state supported university and if kids pass an entrance exam, they can attend free, even get medical and law degrees for free) and she happens to have a deaf brother. She had made some contacts and so she forwarded some info about me to her contact in NE and so the prof. in NE and I now are in contact. They are trying to start a major in Special Ed. at the University of Nicaragua ( UNAN) and they are wondering what I might be interested in helping with. Gadzooks...what a small world. It sure would be fun being part of getting something started down here.....
More later on that, but now to my bus experience.
I was on the last bus out of Leon the other day, so it was dark outside. The bus was filled with the usual folks and trappings but now they had Christmas gifts with them too that they were wrestling around this already crowded bus. But, and this is the AMAZING part, no one was grumpy, no one was complaining, no one was acting put out or stressed or anything...just sqeezing one way or the other to let someone else squeeze by. The girl in the seat next to me was having the best time sniffing some skin creams her friend apparently had bought in Leon as Christmas gifts and they were having this huge animated conversation about the smells.
Just as I thought we were full, a smallish woman got on with a dishpan balanced on her head. She was short, so she was able to just lean over and slide the dishpan off of her head onto the luggage rack that is up there on buses, over the seats. So, she stood in the aisle and her dishpan was safely on the rack. Several other people got on so the dishpan got displaced and slid back towards the back of the bus while the woman was still near the front. We finally got full and left the parada. ( bus station) Several people got on, some got off, bags were loaded and unloaded, etc. We unloaded a family, husband and wife and a couple very young kids and several large bags with gifts, pulled away leaving them beside the road ( where buses travel in excess of 60 MPH I am sure), in total darkness ( street lights are few and far between) with smiles on all faces.
Finally, it apparently was time for this smallish woman to get off and somehow, thru some unspoken ( at least to me) series of signals or whatever, her dishpan was identified by folks at the back of the bus, ( they use our hand me down yellow school buses and this was a full sized one...big) ( I saw one the other day that had ¨Cherry Creek School District on it) it was conveyed/ passed / slid from the back to the front to where she was still standing in the aisle and was artfully slid off of the rack to her awaiting head and off she went into the night....intact, dishpan and all.
I hope I have said this in a way that conveys how beautiful the whole thing was.
I don´t know if I have told you this, but 70% of the population is under 30. Very young people here, lots of reasons I guess but its interesting to watch the dynamics of them all.
I´ll quit for now....Happy holidays....enjoy whatever and whomever you have.
I miss you guys....
Pat
I came here to this Cyber to blog today because I had some really nice ¨bus¨experiences that I wanted to share but when I got here, I had this amazing email from a professor in the Social Work department at the University of Nebraska. Can you believe it !!! Well, I have blogged about the deaf kids I discovered here who needed some services and a few of the things I had done to get things moving. One of the women I had talked to here is an English language professor at the University of Nicaragua - Leon ( this is the state supported university and if kids pass an entrance exam, they can attend free, even get medical and law degrees for free) and she happens to have a deaf brother. She had made some contacts and so she forwarded some info about me to her contact in NE and so the prof. in NE and I now are in contact. They are trying to start a major in Special Ed. at the University of Nicaragua ( UNAN) and they are wondering what I might be interested in helping with. Gadzooks...what a small world. It sure would be fun being part of getting something started down here.....
More later on that, but now to my bus experience.
I was on the last bus out of Leon the other day, so it was dark outside. The bus was filled with the usual folks and trappings but now they had Christmas gifts with them too that they were wrestling around this already crowded bus. But, and this is the AMAZING part, no one was grumpy, no one was complaining, no one was acting put out or stressed or anything...just sqeezing one way or the other to let someone else squeeze by. The girl in the seat next to me was having the best time sniffing some skin creams her friend apparently had bought in Leon as Christmas gifts and they were having this huge animated conversation about the smells.
Just as I thought we were full, a smallish woman got on with a dishpan balanced on her head. She was short, so she was able to just lean over and slide the dishpan off of her head onto the luggage rack that is up there on buses, over the seats. So, she stood in the aisle and her dishpan was safely on the rack. Several other people got on so the dishpan got displaced and slid back towards the back of the bus while the woman was still near the front. We finally got full and left the parada. ( bus station) Several people got on, some got off, bags were loaded and unloaded, etc. We unloaded a family, husband and wife and a couple very young kids and several large bags with gifts, pulled away leaving them beside the road ( where buses travel in excess of 60 MPH I am sure), in total darkness ( street lights are few and far between) with smiles on all faces.
Finally, it apparently was time for this smallish woman to get off and somehow, thru some unspoken ( at least to me) series of signals or whatever, her dishpan was identified by folks at the back of the bus, ( they use our hand me down yellow school buses and this was a full sized one...big) ( I saw one the other day that had ¨Cherry Creek School District on it) it was conveyed/ passed / slid from the back to the front to where she was still standing in the aisle and was artfully slid off of the rack to her awaiting head and off she went into the night....intact, dishpan and all.
I hope I have said this in a way that conveys how beautiful the whole thing was.
I don´t know if I have told you this, but 70% of the population is under 30. Very young people here, lots of reasons I guess but its interesting to watch the dynamics of them all.
I´ll quit for now....Happy holidays....enjoy whatever and whomever you have.
I miss you guys....
Pat
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Report from Malpaisillo
Well, gang, I have been here almost 3 weeks and it is amazing how much a person can learn, and how fast. The folks here are so unpretentious...so open,inviting, generous, humble, what other words can I use ? People walk by my house and call out, ¨Hola, Patri...¨even when my door is closed and they don´t even know if I am at home. It is really amazing. Almost everyone responds to Ädios¨ ( which, incidentally means ¨hello¨as well as goodbye¨) and some of the grimmest looking people, break into a wide smile and respond when I say Adios to them first. Really really feels good.
So, I buy the paper everyday to practice reading Spanish, and the headlines last week were ¨Wikileaks alla aqui ¨or something like that. Apparently our embassador, Callahan, as well his predecessors said some things about the Nicaraguan democratically elected government in their secret emails which expressed a sentiment different from what they were saying cara a cara( face to face) here in their daily activities. I have not heard or read a response from Nicaragua yet but....I keep buying the paper and looking for it.
Also, Nicaragua is in a dispute with Costa Rica about the rights to a river, Rio San Juan, which is on our southern border ( their northern border) . The reading has been interesting on that too as there are several treaties, findings, and even a recent ruling from the Hague which seem to control but that has not stopped the controversy. I read this morning that Costa Rica is asking the US to send troops. Great !!!!
I have set up Spanish classes with the woman who lives next door, she is a Spanish teacher at the local secundaria ( high school) She seems very very smart and her husband is the IT guy for a local ONG funded by Spain, Xochilt Acalt. Its a huge ONG ( NGO) employs about 85 people from the local area in its various capacities.
Its primary meta ( goal) I believe is to empower women and they work with women on farming practices, anti-family violence, manufacturing those red tiles for roofing and gobs of other stuff I have not yet understood.
School is out now until the end of January so I have had lots of time to roam around town and meet lots of other folks. I have met Nicole, a volunteer at Xochilt from Switzerland. She is very nice and we may go on a bike ride this afternoon after it cools off a little. I also met this really cool guy from here who is young, has dred locks and seems to know everyone. He had a call in/shout out music show on the local cable channel ( another contradiction) which has a little studio here in Malpaisillo but he needs funding....$200 a month for a two hour show, 5 days a week. He says he got about 30 calls an hour when he had his show so I am sure there is a formula by which I could extrapolate how many actual viewers he had. I am working with him to include some info about safe sex, HIV, adolescent pregnancy, etc. in his program once we/he can find a sponsor. These subjects are a world wide goal of Peace Corps so I can incorporate them in his show, and he is very willing, and he is willing to work with a young person on his show, as a secondary project. That idea needs some work, but I think it has lots of potential. His audience is exactly the demographic we are trying to reach. He has a degree in architecture but cannot find work in that field. . Its very very hard here...very high unemployment but lots of people with degrees as the state provides free college education.
I´ve spent quite a bit of time with the community educator at the Centro de Salud, its sort of a public health organization. Medical care is free here, more or less. If you need surgery or have an emergency, you are covered. You also can get your medication free if its something the state provides. But, there are a lot of medical expenses that are not covered so its very hard to understand so far. She, Marlene, is about my age and very very active. She has taken me to a couple very interesting meetings, one with young local girls who are pregnant. She, along with representatives of the Commission de mujeres y ninos ( women and children) of the local office of the policia nacional presented some very basic information on nutrition and danger signs but the girls were very attentive and had very sincere and thoughtful questions. I am hoping to get incorporated into that group and eventually provide some nutritional and enviornmental information. One of my obligations to PC is to work with a group of youth, so that might be my group in the making.
Dental is not covered and there seem to be a lot of dentists around. There are also a lot of abogadas ( lawyers) but they all seem to work out of their homes and seem pretty humble. There might be more fancy lawyers in Managua or Leon, but I have not seen them yet.
Last week we celebrated Purisima. It rated a day off from work for most people on the day following the celebration which is Dec. 7 but it is technically a religious holiday. I think it is the celebration of something to do with the virgin Mary and they call it ¨concepcion¨so I am guessing its the day she miraculously conceived....I just don´t get it. Anyhow, people set up altars in front of their homes, with a statue of the virgin mary decorated with blinking lights, often with regatone music playing in the background and then after dark, their neighbors come around, call out something about the virgin mary, the homeowners respond with some predetermined phrase, and then the neighbors all sing a predetermined song about the virgin Mary until the homeowner comes out with small gifts or candies for all the neighbors. Also, all the young boys seems to have unlimited access to fireworks and ¨bombas¨so they were exploding until late into the night. Its a lot like Halloween....but, not. Its really very sweet, and the locals love it, but not being a believer...its a little hard to figure out. I am told that Nicaragua is the only country that celebrates this holiday, and they even have another similar holiday, named the same thing, in August every year. One is called the ¨little purisma¨and this one was called the ¨regular purisma. I am told the celebration in Leon, the big city nearby, where the famous catherdral is located, is HUGE. I want to be there next year on Dec. 7.
I actually went to misa ( mass) right before the rounds started to experience that part of the holiday. There were only about 15 people there, counting me and the three music people and two priests. Its sort of sad how church attendance has fallen off...because the churches are so big and look so empty when there is no one in them.
A little about food...its somewhat of an issue..but not really in the grand scheme of things. I have found a local lady who sells fresh corn tortillas out of her front door two houses from me ( she has a dirt floor), and another lady across the street who sells guyaba ( I think that is how you spell it) cheese which she makes right there on her front porch ( her back yard , which they call their patio, abuts a huge field of peanuts.) I can buy eggs, one at a time for 3 cordobas each which amounts to less that 50 cents a dozen ( I usually buy 6 at a time since no one here refrigerates eggs, and the vol. from Switzerland told me they don´t either and that she thinks its odd that we do) There is a comedor ( small restaurant) on the corner of my block where I can buy lunch most days for a dollar and it usually consists of frijoles, arroz, ensalada ( shredded cabbage in a good vinegar mixture) sometimes pico de gallo ( which they call something else) and a corn tortilla on top to scoop it all up. I actually use a fork but most folks don´t. They have meat every day, but I have established myself as a vegetariano so I pass on the meat....just don´t have a good feeling about how they handle their animals when they are alive...or dead. So, I get plenty to eat and have not gained any weight so I am not worried. I buy water from another lady on my block ( the water is potable but we are told there are lots of residual chemicals in the ground water from when the farmers here were using chemicals to excess that were provided by an American agriculture co. with directions in English only so the farmers misused them to grow cotton for American consumption...of course) This area used to be one of the most fertile spots in Nicaragua but ....after the cotton fiasco ( cotton agriculture was outlawed in the ´70s due to the horrible consequences) the land has not recovered so now they grow peanuts and some other basic grains....and graze cattle. The other night , I boiled a pepian ( a squash that is a staple here), put it in the blender, added some powered soy milk and some olive oil ( you can buy some good stuff at the grocery store in Leon but it is unfortunately owned by Walmart), spun it around and used it as a sauce on some pasta. It worked. I bot my three burner gas stove, the blender, some dishes, a bicycle and some other small stuff from the previous volunteer who was here. At the time, I did not realize how lucky I was to have access to that stuff. It is hard to accumulate it all.
Whew, I am out of steam......One last thing. I am working with the families of two deaf/mute teenagers here in town who have had no training in sign language but who both seem to be perfectly intelligent, lovely young men. One of them has one sister who is a doctor, another who is a lawyer, another who lives in Wyoming and a 4th who is currently a student in biology in the state university in Leon. My spanish is not good enough to fully understand why they have not pursued specialized training for their brother, but I am getting there. I got him a dicionario of the Nicaragua sign language and he got very very excited. We are going to have little classes, just them and their families and me, to practice some of the signs and try to teach them to read a few words at the same time. I have contact with the Nicaragua assn. of Surdos ( deaf/mutes) and am hoping they will help me facilitate getting these boys some legitimate instruction. lots to do.....I love it.
Love to you all,
Pat
So, I buy the paper everyday to practice reading Spanish, and the headlines last week were ¨Wikileaks alla aqui ¨or something like that. Apparently our embassador, Callahan, as well his predecessors said some things about the Nicaraguan democratically elected government in their secret emails which expressed a sentiment different from what they were saying cara a cara( face to face) here in their daily activities. I have not heard or read a response from Nicaragua yet but....I keep buying the paper and looking for it.
Also, Nicaragua is in a dispute with Costa Rica about the rights to a river, Rio San Juan, which is on our southern border ( their northern border) . The reading has been interesting on that too as there are several treaties, findings, and even a recent ruling from the Hague which seem to control but that has not stopped the controversy. I read this morning that Costa Rica is asking the US to send troops. Great !!!!
I have set up Spanish classes with the woman who lives next door, she is a Spanish teacher at the local secundaria ( high school) She seems very very smart and her husband is the IT guy for a local ONG funded by Spain, Xochilt Acalt. Its a huge ONG ( NGO) employs about 85 people from the local area in its various capacities.
Its primary meta ( goal) I believe is to empower women and they work with women on farming practices, anti-family violence, manufacturing those red tiles for roofing and gobs of other stuff I have not yet understood.
School is out now until the end of January so I have had lots of time to roam around town and meet lots of other folks. I have met Nicole, a volunteer at Xochilt from Switzerland. She is very nice and we may go on a bike ride this afternoon after it cools off a little. I also met this really cool guy from here who is young, has dred locks and seems to know everyone. He had a call in/shout out music show on the local cable channel ( another contradiction) which has a little studio here in Malpaisillo but he needs funding....$200 a month for a two hour show, 5 days a week. He says he got about 30 calls an hour when he had his show so I am sure there is a formula by which I could extrapolate how many actual viewers he had. I am working with him to include some info about safe sex, HIV, adolescent pregnancy, etc. in his program once we/he can find a sponsor. These subjects are a world wide goal of Peace Corps so I can incorporate them in his show, and he is very willing, and he is willing to work with a young person on his show, as a secondary project. That idea needs some work, but I think it has lots of potential. His audience is exactly the demographic we are trying to reach. He has a degree in architecture but cannot find work in that field. . Its very very hard here...very high unemployment but lots of people with degrees as the state provides free college education.
I´ve spent quite a bit of time with the community educator at the Centro de Salud, its sort of a public health organization. Medical care is free here, more or less. If you need surgery or have an emergency, you are covered. You also can get your medication free if its something the state provides. But, there are a lot of medical expenses that are not covered so its very hard to understand so far. She, Marlene, is about my age and very very active. She has taken me to a couple very interesting meetings, one with young local girls who are pregnant. She, along with representatives of the Commission de mujeres y ninos ( women and children) of the local office of the policia nacional presented some very basic information on nutrition and danger signs but the girls were very attentive and had very sincere and thoughtful questions. I am hoping to get incorporated into that group and eventually provide some nutritional and enviornmental information. One of my obligations to PC is to work with a group of youth, so that might be my group in the making.
Dental is not covered and there seem to be a lot of dentists around. There are also a lot of abogadas ( lawyers) but they all seem to work out of their homes and seem pretty humble. There might be more fancy lawyers in Managua or Leon, but I have not seen them yet.
Last week we celebrated Purisima. It rated a day off from work for most people on the day following the celebration which is Dec. 7 but it is technically a religious holiday. I think it is the celebration of something to do with the virgin Mary and they call it ¨concepcion¨so I am guessing its the day she miraculously conceived....I just don´t get it. Anyhow, people set up altars in front of their homes, with a statue of the virgin mary decorated with blinking lights, often with regatone music playing in the background and then after dark, their neighbors come around, call out something about the virgin mary, the homeowners respond with some predetermined phrase, and then the neighbors all sing a predetermined song about the virgin Mary until the homeowner comes out with small gifts or candies for all the neighbors. Also, all the young boys seems to have unlimited access to fireworks and ¨bombas¨so they were exploding until late into the night. Its a lot like Halloween....but, not. Its really very sweet, and the locals love it, but not being a believer...its a little hard to figure out. I am told that Nicaragua is the only country that celebrates this holiday, and they even have another similar holiday, named the same thing, in August every year. One is called the ¨little purisma¨and this one was called the ¨regular purisma. I am told the celebration in Leon, the big city nearby, where the famous catherdral is located, is HUGE. I want to be there next year on Dec. 7.
I actually went to misa ( mass) right before the rounds started to experience that part of the holiday. There were only about 15 people there, counting me and the three music people and two priests. Its sort of sad how church attendance has fallen off...because the churches are so big and look so empty when there is no one in them.
A little about food...its somewhat of an issue..but not really in the grand scheme of things. I have found a local lady who sells fresh corn tortillas out of her front door two houses from me ( she has a dirt floor), and another lady across the street who sells guyaba ( I think that is how you spell it) cheese which she makes right there on her front porch ( her back yard , which they call their patio, abuts a huge field of peanuts.) I can buy eggs, one at a time for 3 cordobas each which amounts to less that 50 cents a dozen ( I usually buy 6 at a time since no one here refrigerates eggs, and the vol. from Switzerland told me they don´t either and that she thinks its odd that we do) There is a comedor ( small restaurant) on the corner of my block where I can buy lunch most days for a dollar and it usually consists of frijoles, arroz, ensalada ( shredded cabbage in a good vinegar mixture) sometimes pico de gallo ( which they call something else) and a corn tortilla on top to scoop it all up. I actually use a fork but most folks don´t. They have meat every day, but I have established myself as a vegetariano so I pass on the meat....just don´t have a good feeling about how they handle their animals when they are alive...or dead. So, I get plenty to eat and have not gained any weight so I am not worried. I buy water from another lady on my block ( the water is potable but we are told there are lots of residual chemicals in the ground water from when the farmers here were using chemicals to excess that were provided by an American agriculture co. with directions in English only so the farmers misused them to grow cotton for American consumption...of course) This area used to be one of the most fertile spots in Nicaragua but ....after the cotton fiasco ( cotton agriculture was outlawed in the ´70s due to the horrible consequences) the land has not recovered so now they grow peanuts and some other basic grains....and graze cattle. The other night , I boiled a pepian ( a squash that is a staple here), put it in the blender, added some powered soy milk and some olive oil ( you can buy some good stuff at the grocery store in Leon but it is unfortunately owned by Walmart), spun it around and used it as a sauce on some pasta. It worked. I bot my three burner gas stove, the blender, some dishes, a bicycle and some other small stuff from the previous volunteer who was here. At the time, I did not realize how lucky I was to have access to that stuff. It is hard to accumulate it all.
Whew, I am out of steam......One last thing. I am working with the families of two deaf/mute teenagers here in town who have had no training in sign language but who both seem to be perfectly intelligent, lovely young men. One of them has one sister who is a doctor, another who is a lawyer, another who lives in Wyoming and a 4th who is currently a student in biology in the state university in Leon. My spanish is not good enough to fully understand why they have not pursued specialized training for their brother, but I am getting there. I got him a dicionario of the Nicaragua sign language and he got very very excited. We are going to have little classes, just them and their families and me, to practice some of the signs and try to teach them to read a few words at the same time. I have contact with the Nicaragua assn. of Surdos ( deaf/mutes) and am hoping they will help me facilitate getting these boys some legitimate instruction. lots to do.....I love it.
Love to you all,
Pat
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Correction coming thru
OK, those of you who know Ramelle, also know that he knows just about everything there is to know. So...I have to correct my last post. After Ramelle pointed out to me that Oxen are usually driven by a stick,( I had posted that the cart driver had reins ( silly me) I went back and looked at the photo more closely, and sure enuf, that sullen looking man driving those oxen was indeed doing it with a long skinny stick. Like I said, they were not strolling, maybe trotting oxen style, and they made a hard left turn without slowing down. I don´t know what he would do if they did not do what the stick told them. Hope to never find out.
If anyone who reads this blog wants to know anything about anything, just post it here and I will forward it on to Ramelle...our living breathing encylopedia !!!!! :)))))
If anyone who reads this blog wants to know anything about anything, just post it here and I will forward it on to Ramelle...our living breathing encylopedia !!!!! :)))))
Saturday, November 27, 2010
First report from my site
Well, I am here amongst the folks I´ll be living with for the next two years. It is a great little pueblo with amazing people. Well, the guy I took a photo of this morning was not too ¨friendly¨looking. I live on a dirt street, in a part of a house that is on a corner. So, about 6 I went out to turn on the water ( the owner turns it off at night as she thinks there is a leak in the lines and does not want to spend the money to find it) and found a team of oxen pulling a load of firewood heading down my street at a fast pace. There was a strong looking guy standing on the wagon with the reins and a young boy on top of the load. I ran inside and got my camera and took a couple shots. Neither of them smiled but its a great shot. I still don´t know how to get my photos from my camera tothe computer but when I figure it out, I´ll post it.
So, here I am. We got sworn in as real live PC vols. on Nov. 22 in Managua and the Country Director had us all ( 43 in total) to her house for a turkey dinner that evening. She is a really lovely person. The dinner was great and they had a pumpkin pie made from a squash they have here , ayote. It seems if you add all the right spices and follow a recipe the PC has put together, you get a ¨¨pumpkin¨pie. It was incredibly similar and very tasty.
I got to my site on the 23rd but could not stay at my place as it was not exactly ¨ready¨for me. the owner claims she was not expecting me for several more days but......Anyhow, I got back on the bus and spent the night at a great hostel in Leon, the Sonati, for $17 for a private room with a private bath. The next day I had a meeting already planned with some other PC vols from last year to go over their triumphs and disasters in their classrooms, so it was not a wasted trip. We met at a Gringo cafe, Cafe Rosita, in Leon near the Claro ( one of two phone providers) building. I recommend visiting Leon for anyone interested in trying Nicaragua. It has the central american crazy market scene, mixed with some beautiful Spanish style buildings from when the Spanish had colonized here, and very friendly people. There are several European style hotels and some restaurants with good reputations and lots of small streets, crowded with taxis and people, lots of hustle and bustle, a good place to visit.
My daughter, son in law and their three girls are planning to viist here in April which is reputedly the hottest month of the year. Should be fun for all. The week they are coming is called Semana Santa, the weeks of the saints so they´ll be lots of festivals at night, lots of really loud music and dancers. Somehow scantily clad dancers and regatone music is appropriate at these festivals celebrating various saints....thank god !!! Schools are closed that week so I should be able to get vacation time to be with them.....in Leon and then for a few days in Costa Rica.
In addition to my encounter with the ox cart this morning, I have had several interesting encounters. I went to an end of the year ( they have off the months of Dec. and Jan ) teacher´s meeting and was very impressed by the things I heard the teachers saying. They are very poorly paid, about $200 a month ( 4000 cordobas) for hot work in crowded classrooms in conditions you can´t even imagine. I blogged earlier about a campo (rural) school but the situations in all the schools are challenging yet the teachers ( god bless 'em) hang in their and do a great job. The children all wear dark blue pants or skirts ( the girls wear white sox with black shoes) white shirts or blouses. They are beautiful. They run wild just like our kids even tho its beastly hot here. They have a promotion program next Tuesday which is quite festive, I believe, so I´ll be going to that.
The teachers all think its funny that I try to dance, they just giggle and shake their hips and say¨bailar.¨ But, its more fun than sitting around smiling and wondering what everyone is saying, which is my only other choice at this time. You can´t have a conversation, even if you can speak Spanish, as the music is always tooo loud.
Last night I went to the first Christmas program of the community held at the other school I´ll be working at. Its a public/catholic arrangement and the folks there seem great too and very excited to have me coming. I´ll be spending these next two months getting acquainted with the community and meeting people and the kids so I´ll be ready to start at school on Jan. 31. The program was outside, with huge speakers, they love really loud music, but the kdis were great singing and dancing to Christmas songs. We did not get rain so everyone was happy. There must have been a hundred people there. I was told that the money raised would go to pay the social security for the teachers. I will be working with a teacher there who teaches English, along with some other of their teachers for my environmental classes, and he is very very interested in speaking English with me. He told me about some other volunteers he works iwth, one group from some evangelical church in PA so I want to find out more about them. Lots to do and learn.
This school tried to plant a garden ( its required by the Dept. of Ed. in an effort to improve the nutrition of the school children) but did not have much success so they are looking forward to starting it again with me. I looked at their garden last night, there were a few sad looking chiltoma ( green pepper) plants standing there and then I looked up, its right under a huge tree. We´ll be moving the garden......
One of my schools has 3 deaf kids in a special ed. class with a teacher who wants more training to work with them so I have an appt. with the Nic. assn. for surdos/mutos ( deaf/mutes) in Managua next Wednesday ( its a 3 hour bus ride from here) so I´ll get to try my Spanish. I´ll spend some time this weekend writing out what I think I´ll have to say so I can practice certain words.
Yesterday I went back into Leon to buy a few things and get some cash. On the bus home, a really really crowded bus, I was sitting next to two other people ( on a two person seat) actually I was hanging off into the aisle and there were two people standing in the same aisle next to our seat, but I did not have it so bad, across from me were three people in that seat too and one woman was holding a toddler on her lap ( all in about 90 degree weather) and we were all sweating up a storm and standing or sitting cheek to cheek. No one complained, not even me, given the fact that I have it so much better than everyone else !!! Anyhow, as I was struggling to get my bus fare out ( 15 cordobas) and fumbling around with a handful of change and a 100 cordoba bill, the lady next to me, said, in Spanish that I udnerstood somehow, ¨let me see what you've got¨So I dumped my pile of change into her hand, she counted out what I needed, and dumped the rest back into my back pack. And smiled. Turns out she works in the kitchen in one of my schools and also rides the bus to Leon everyday to sell food at the bus terminals. Talk about working hard....she looked about my age...but she could have been a lot younger....works ages you.
One last thing, I was walking along one of our paved street the other day, with my umbrella up ( its not so hot in the shade) and a huge 18 wheeler came at me ( actually there were two of them) loaded with peanuts. It took up the whole street with only about 1 foot on each side, which means about 1 foot from the doorways. Crazy....but a good crop I guess. There is a lot of beautiful farm country around here, surrounded by volcanoes......lots of contradictions.....
Thats all for now.....hope all had a good Thanksgiving....my sweet daughter celebrated her birthday the same day.....I made my first phone call from Nicaragua to celebrate with her......what a girl she turned out to be.
So, here I am. We got sworn in as real live PC vols. on Nov. 22 in Managua and the Country Director had us all ( 43 in total) to her house for a turkey dinner that evening. She is a really lovely person. The dinner was great and they had a pumpkin pie made from a squash they have here , ayote. It seems if you add all the right spices and follow a recipe the PC has put together, you get a ¨¨pumpkin¨pie. It was incredibly similar and very tasty.
I got to my site on the 23rd but could not stay at my place as it was not exactly ¨ready¨for me. the owner claims she was not expecting me for several more days but......Anyhow, I got back on the bus and spent the night at a great hostel in Leon, the Sonati, for $17 for a private room with a private bath. The next day I had a meeting already planned with some other PC vols from last year to go over their triumphs and disasters in their classrooms, so it was not a wasted trip. We met at a Gringo cafe, Cafe Rosita, in Leon near the Claro ( one of two phone providers) building. I recommend visiting Leon for anyone interested in trying Nicaragua. It has the central american crazy market scene, mixed with some beautiful Spanish style buildings from when the Spanish had colonized here, and very friendly people. There are several European style hotels and some restaurants with good reputations and lots of small streets, crowded with taxis and people, lots of hustle and bustle, a good place to visit.
My daughter, son in law and their three girls are planning to viist here in April which is reputedly the hottest month of the year. Should be fun for all. The week they are coming is called Semana Santa, the weeks of the saints so they´ll be lots of festivals at night, lots of really loud music and dancers. Somehow scantily clad dancers and regatone music is appropriate at these festivals celebrating various saints....thank god !!! Schools are closed that week so I should be able to get vacation time to be with them.....in Leon and then for a few days in Costa Rica.
In addition to my encounter with the ox cart this morning, I have had several interesting encounters. I went to an end of the year ( they have off the months of Dec. and Jan ) teacher´s meeting and was very impressed by the things I heard the teachers saying. They are very poorly paid, about $200 a month ( 4000 cordobas) for hot work in crowded classrooms in conditions you can´t even imagine. I blogged earlier about a campo (rural) school but the situations in all the schools are challenging yet the teachers ( god bless 'em) hang in their and do a great job. The children all wear dark blue pants or skirts ( the girls wear white sox with black shoes) white shirts or blouses. They are beautiful. They run wild just like our kids even tho its beastly hot here. They have a promotion program next Tuesday which is quite festive, I believe, so I´ll be going to that.
The teachers all think its funny that I try to dance, they just giggle and shake their hips and say¨bailar.¨ But, its more fun than sitting around smiling and wondering what everyone is saying, which is my only other choice at this time. You can´t have a conversation, even if you can speak Spanish, as the music is always tooo loud.
Last night I went to the first Christmas program of the community held at the other school I´ll be working at. Its a public/catholic arrangement and the folks there seem great too and very excited to have me coming. I´ll be spending these next two months getting acquainted with the community and meeting people and the kids so I´ll be ready to start at school on Jan. 31. The program was outside, with huge speakers, they love really loud music, but the kdis were great singing and dancing to Christmas songs. We did not get rain so everyone was happy. There must have been a hundred people there. I was told that the money raised would go to pay the social security for the teachers. I will be working with a teacher there who teaches English, along with some other of their teachers for my environmental classes, and he is very very interested in speaking English with me. He told me about some other volunteers he works iwth, one group from some evangelical church in PA so I want to find out more about them. Lots to do and learn.
This school tried to plant a garden ( its required by the Dept. of Ed. in an effort to improve the nutrition of the school children) but did not have much success so they are looking forward to starting it again with me. I looked at their garden last night, there were a few sad looking chiltoma ( green pepper) plants standing there and then I looked up, its right under a huge tree. We´ll be moving the garden......
One of my schools has 3 deaf kids in a special ed. class with a teacher who wants more training to work with them so I have an appt. with the Nic. assn. for surdos/mutos ( deaf/mutes) in Managua next Wednesday ( its a 3 hour bus ride from here) so I´ll get to try my Spanish. I´ll spend some time this weekend writing out what I think I´ll have to say so I can practice certain words.
Yesterday I went back into Leon to buy a few things and get some cash. On the bus home, a really really crowded bus, I was sitting next to two other people ( on a two person seat) actually I was hanging off into the aisle and there were two people standing in the same aisle next to our seat, but I did not have it so bad, across from me were three people in that seat too and one woman was holding a toddler on her lap ( all in about 90 degree weather) and we were all sweating up a storm and standing or sitting cheek to cheek. No one complained, not even me, given the fact that I have it so much better than everyone else !!! Anyhow, as I was struggling to get my bus fare out ( 15 cordobas) and fumbling around with a handful of change and a 100 cordoba bill, the lady next to me, said, in Spanish that I udnerstood somehow, ¨let me see what you've got¨So I dumped my pile of change into her hand, she counted out what I needed, and dumped the rest back into my back pack. And smiled. Turns out she works in the kitchen in one of my schools and also rides the bus to Leon everyday to sell food at the bus terminals. Talk about working hard....she looked about my age...but she could have been a lot younger....works ages you.
One last thing, I was walking along one of our paved street the other day, with my umbrella up ( its not so hot in the shade) and a huge 18 wheeler came at me ( actually there were two of them) loaded with peanuts. It took up the whole street with only about 1 foot on each side, which means about 1 foot from the doorways. Crazy....but a good crop I guess. There is a lot of beautiful farm country around here, surrounded by volcanoes......lots of contradictions.....
Thats all for now.....hope all had a good Thanksgiving....my sweet daughter celebrated her birthday the same day.....I made my first phone call from Nicaragua to celebrate with her......what a girl she turned out to be.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
A little more info
My daughter asked about my ¨quarters.¨ Here is what I told her....
I have a three burner gas cooktop and a gas tank attached, a bike ( that needs a lot of tune up work which I´ll get done as soon as I get back, a fan, three tables, a rocker, a plastic chair, a bed frame, a place to hang clothes...and a bunch of pots, pans nad dishes all of which I bought from the previousl vol. for $75. Doesn´t sound like much, but most new vols. start out with nothing so at least I have a place to cook nad sit. My bathroom and shower are outside but are in little houses ( its not an outhouse but you have to throw water down it to get it to flush) and the shower is just a pipe that comes out of hte wall...the water is not heated but it comes out of the ground a little warm due, I guess, to all the volcanoes around here and the geothermic heat.
The total square footage is probably about 200 but thats enuf for me. I had a little trouble sleeping this past week as everyone has chickens and at least one rooster in their yards. And , of course, the ever present dogs that apparently do not sleep ever !!!!!
I expect to accumulate more stuff as I need it and am here for a while. Like, get this, I have wifi access in my hovel. The folks next door have it so my predecessor shared the expense with them and I said I would do that too. I don´t have a laptop yet but my daughter and her family plan to come down next April so I have asked her to bring me one. I am told not to trust the mail delivery system in Nic. ( specifically anything that has to go thru the Leon post office) with anything more than a flat envelope. I have gotten a couple boxes that came thru the Manaugua correa, but I´m not going to chance it with the Leon folks.
I have a three burner gas cooktop and a gas tank attached, a bike ( that needs a lot of tune up work which I´ll get done as soon as I get back, a fan, three tables, a rocker, a plastic chair, a bed frame, a place to hang clothes...and a bunch of pots, pans nad dishes all of which I bought from the previousl vol. for $75. Doesn´t sound like much, but most new vols. start out with nothing so at least I have a place to cook nad sit. My bathroom and shower are outside but are in little houses ( its not an outhouse but you have to throw water down it to get it to flush) and the shower is just a pipe that comes out of hte wall...the water is not heated but it comes out of the ground a little warm due, I guess, to all the volcanoes around here and the geothermic heat.
The total square footage is probably about 200 but thats enuf for me. I had a little trouble sleeping this past week as everyone has chickens and at least one rooster in their yards. And , of course, the ever present dogs that apparently do not sleep ever !!!!!
I expect to accumulate more stuff as I need it and am here for a while. Like, get this, I have wifi access in my hovel. The folks next door have it so my predecessor shared the expense with them and I said I would do that too. I don´t have a laptop yet but my daughter and her family plan to come down next April so I have asked her to bring me one. I am told not to trust the mail delivery system in Nic. ( specifically anything that has to go thru the Leon post office) with anything more than a flat envelope. I have gotten a couple boxes that came thru the Manaugua correa, but I´m not going to chance it with the Leon folks.
Monday, November 8, 2010
Report on my site
I have just finished a 5 day visit to my site in Malpaisillo. I head back to my little bario of Jinotepe tomorrow for a couple more weeks of entrenamiento ( training and language classes) then we swear in on Nov. 22 and then I am back here for 2 years on Nov. 23. This place is quite different from Guisquiliapa, my training town. Its more of an urban setting but there are only two paved streets. The suelo ( dirt) around here is very black, volcanic soil, I believe. The folks I will be working with are terriffic. One of them, Profe Adalayda, the director of the escuela ( school) que se llama ( called) 18 Junio ( thats the the date the town was liberated by the Sandinistas from the Somozo´s National Guard in 1979) There is so much political stuff that goes on. If the Sandinistas should lose the election next year, the name of the school will change back to what is was before the Sandinistas got elected a few years ago. Funny, actually the school still has the old name painted on some its walls. I´ll be working in that school with 3 or 4 teachers and in another school, Nuestra madre Fatima, its a catholic school but gets some public funding somehow, with 3 teachers there. This morning I met the English teacher there and he is all excited. His English is pretty good but he´s Nica so of course he has an accent. We are thinking that maybe we can combine my lessons on the environment with his English lessons and get both done together. The kids all want to learn english far more than they want to learn about the environment so maybe that will be an incentive.
Last evening, one of the profes from 18 Junio came by on her bike to take me on a little tour of the town. I bought the bike from the leaving volunteer ( whose little space I am also renting for $50 a month, more about that later) so I hopped on my bike and we took off. As I said, there are only two paved roads and they are paved only thru the busier part of town, they turn to dirt pretty fast and the dirt is pretty loose in spots - had to do some serious steering to avoid the cow poop, the running waste water and the many people who are out in the streets in the early evening. We had to take one detour as we saw some muchachas coming our way with a young bull on a mecate ( rope) egging him on to be rowdy. We found another route. We went looking at the few remaining trees from the old growth ( over 100 years old - I think we have found 5 remaining in the town) One is in the middle of the bus terminal which is a wide space surrounded by an authentic market, little stalls selling all sorts of things. There is a group of women who sell various foods and drinks to the buses as they roll in, always blaring their horns and going way to fast, but so far I have not seen anyone or anything squashed. There are lots of ¨tricicles¨ three wheeled carts, powered by a youngish male with a bench in front of him with a little roof. It is very cute to see them coming at you...today I saw three little kids in their school uniforms sitting in there on their way to preschool. Very cute.
So, my assignment is to teach about the environment in the schools, to work with the teachers to help them use more participatory strategies, to start a vegetable in as many schools as I can and to work with other NGOs ( ONGs in Spanish) on secondary projects whenever possible. I have met some other volunteers from a couple other NGOs with similar goals so I think that will turn out pretty good. One amazing thing I found out is that there is a public access TV station located in a little casita ( thats a nice name for a shack) about a block from me. Seems like a good place to put PSAs about discharging soapy water into the streets, trash in the streets, etc.
Oh, can´t forget this... The school, 18 junio, has a special ed. class. Not sure how many kids are supposed to be in but when I observed last week, there were 5. Two are deaf, one can hear but not speak ( they are all about 15) one girl who looks about 15 and maybe is down syndrome, and one about 10 whose looks did not reveal anything but the teacher says she can´t learn. So.....they were all stringing beads and making necklaces when I got there. There was not a book or paper in sight. The teacher has no training at all in special ed...she is in the class because she got anxiety attacks with the regular classes....while I was sitting there being chummy with the kids, an old man came to the fence and grunted...the kids all looked out and I learned that he is student in the class....he is 43 !! He is clearly severely impaired and they say he has no where else to go during the day, his mother died last year, and he does not harm the other kids so they let him come to SCHOOL !!!!! Can you imagine that !!! I have my work cut out for me in this regard....those deaf kids don´t have any signing skills, they could not write their names when I asked them all to sign my book, they are not behavior problems and they sure seem to me like they could learn . I know there are schools for the deaf in Leon but it is a 75 cent bus ride away and apparently the school district does not provide transportation. Work to do there !!!! The school summer vacation starts for all the kids at the end of November and they are out until the end of January so I´ll have some time to figure this out. Apparently there is a woman here in Nicaragua who was a PC vol. for a couple of years but then decided to stay. She is in her 60s and apparently is a sign language instructor somewhere here. I need to find her....fast.
And the other amazing thing is that last Friday, serendipitiously, there was a meeting at the school for the parents of the special ed kids. !!!! I got introduced but I didn´t say anything since I can barely speak to one person at a time, surely not a room full. But, it was nice to see those parents all together ....like old times !! Apparently, they have an ïnclusion¨law but I don´t know where it is or what it actually says so that will be a project for me too when I get back here at the end of November. MINED, Minister of Education, is in Managua so I´ll go there. Apparently, there is a special ed. office. Hope my Spanish improves fast !!!
It has improved a lot but I still speak very slowly and often has to rephrase what I want to say so that I can used words and verb tenses that I know.
One last thing before I go....yesterday afternoon, when I did not have anything to do and was sitting in my place reading ¨The girl with the dragon tatoo ¨( very good by the way) a cock fight broke out in the yard of the casita across the dirt street from me. I watched for a while from behind my wooden doors ( I have these two wooden doors that close in the middle behind one of those open iron work security doors). Apparently, cock fighting is against the law, but people train cocks to fight by coming togehter in yards ( across the street from me for example !!) and stirring up fights. They don´t have those awful blades on the cocks so there is no blood, just a lot of crowing and squawking. I got outraged for a while but I settled down. These people are so poor and have so few things to enjoy in their lives, I decided to let them do this in peace....since they´ve been doing it forever anyhow and I am not going to change them. Hopefully, their children will have more choices and make better choices.......
The birds were georgeous and the owners picked them up and stroked their feathers very lovingly and then shortly after that, placed them on the ground and egged them on to fight. Go figure !!!çç
One more last thing, I went to Leon on Saturday for the day of looking around. There is a huge mercado there with all kinds of scary and exciting activities and there is also a central business district that has a very European look in a central american sort of way. There is a huge cathedral in Leon, takes up an entire city block, has 5 colonades inside, very very lovely in a churchy sort of way. There is a museum of the revolution and of course many many universities. Leon is about 1 hour away by bus and that bus ride is an experience in itself.
So, thats all for now. I am getting closer and closer to actually doing some productive for the kids here. It is so funny, they gather around me and stare like I am Santa ( or mrs. Santa). They are beautiful in their little uniforms and georgeous hair and skin.
Thanks for the emails. Ellen, I loved all that info. I´ll respond soon. The cyber is closing now.
Love to all......
Last evening, one of the profes from 18 Junio came by on her bike to take me on a little tour of the town. I bought the bike from the leaving volunteer ( whose little space I am also renting for $50 a month, more about that later) so I hopped on my bike and we took off. As I said, there are only two paved roads and they are paved only thru the busier part of town, they turn to dirt pretty fast and the dirt is pretty loose in spots - had to do some serious steering to avoid the cow poop, the running waste water and the many people who are out in the streets in the early evening. We had to take one detour as we saw some muchachas coming our way with a young bull on a mecate ( rope) egging him on to be rowdy. We found another route. We went looking at the few remaining trees from the old growth ( over 100 years old - I think we have found 5 remaining in the town) One is in the middle of the bus terminal which is a wide space surrounded by an authentic market, little stalls selling all sorts of things. There is a group of women who sell various foods and drinks to the buses as they roll in, always blaring their horns and going way to fast, but so far I have not seen anyone or anything squashed. There are lots of ¨tricicles¨ three wheeled carts, powered by a youngish male with a bench in front of him with a little roof. It is very cute to see them coming at you...today I saw three little kids in their school uniforms sitting in there on their way to preschool. Very cute.
So, my assignment is to teach about the environment in the schools, to work with the teachers to help them use more participatory strategies, to start a vegetable in as many schools as I can and to work with other NGOs ( ONGs in Spanish) on secondary projects whenever possible. I have met some other volunteers from a couple other NGOs with similar goals so I think that will turn out pretty good. One amazing thing I found out is that there is a public access TV station located in a little casita ( thats a nice name for a shack) about a block from me. Seems like a good place to put PSAs about discharging soapy water into the streets, trash in the streets, etc.
Oh, can´t forget this... The school, 18 junio, has a special ed. class. Not sure how many kids are supposed to be in but when I observed last week, there were 5. Two are deaf, one can hear but not speak ( they are all about 15) one girl who looks about 15 and maybe is down syndrome, and one about 10 whose looks did not reveal anything but the teacher says she can´t learn. So.....they were all stringing beads and making necklaces when I got there. There was not a book or paper in sight. The teacher has no training at all in special ed...she is in the class because she got anxiety attacks with the regular classes....while I was sitting there being chummy with the kids, an old man came to the fence and grunted...the kids all looked out and I learned that he is student in the class....he is 43 !! He is clearly severely impaired and they say he has no where else to go during the day, his mother died last year, and he does not harm the other kids so they let him come to SCHOOL !!!!! Can you imagine that !!! I have my work cut out for me in this regard....those deaf kids don´t have any signing skills, they could not write their names when I asked them all to sign my book, they are not behavior problems and they sure seem to me like they could learn . I know there are schools for the deaf in Leon but it is a 75 cent bus ride away and apparently the school district does not provide transportation. Work to do there !!!! The school summer vacation starts for all the kids at the end of November and they are out until the end of January so I´ll have some time to figure this out. Apparently there is a woman here in Nicaragua who was a PC vol. for a couple of years but then decided to stay. She is in her 60s and apparently is a sign language instructor somewhere here. I need to find her....fast.
And the other amazing thing is that last Friday, serendipitiously, there was a meeting at the school for the parents of the special ed kids. !!!! I got introduced but I didn´t say anything since I can barely speak to one person at a time, surely not a room full. But, it was nice to see those parents all together ....like old times !! Apparently, they have an ïnclusion¨law but I don´t know where it is or what it actually says so that will be a project for me too when I get back here at the end of November. MINED, Minister of Education, is in Managua so I´ll go there. Apparently, there is a special ed. office. Hope my Spanish improves fast !!!
It has improved a lot but I still speak very slowly and often has to rephrase what I want to say so that I can used words and verb tenses that I know.
One last thing before I go....yesterday afternoon, when I did not have anything to do and was sitting in my place reading ¨The girl with the dragon tatoo ¨( very good by the way) a cock fight broke out in the yard of the casita across the dirt street from me. I watched for a while from behind my wooden doors ( I have these two wooden doors that close in the middle behind one of those open iron work security doors). Apparently, cock fighting is against the law, but people train cocks to fight by coming togehter in yards ( across the street from me for example !!) and stirring up fights. They don´t have those awful blades on the cocks so there is no blood, just a lot of crowing and squawking. I got outraged for a while but I settled down. These people are so poor and have so few things to enjoy in their lives, I decided to let them do this in peace....since they´ve been doing it forever anyhow and I am not going to change them. Hopefully, their children will have more choices and make better choices.......
The birds were georgeous and the owners picked them up and stroked their feathers very lovingly and then shortly after that, placed them on the ground and egged them on to fight. Go figure !!!çç
One more last thing, I went to Leon on Saturday for the day of looking around. There is a huge mercado there with all kinds of scary and exciting activities and there is also a central business district that has a very European look in a central american sort of way. There is a huge cathedral in Leon, takes up an entire city block, has 5 colonades inside, very very lovely in a churchy sort of way. There is a museum of the revolution and of course many many universities. Leon is about 1 hour away by bus and that bus ride is an experience in itself.
So, thats all for now. I am getting closer and closer to actually doing some productive for the kids here. It is so funny, they gather around me and stare like I am Santa ( or mrs. Santa). They are beautiful in their little uniforms and georgeous hair and skin.
Thanks for the emails. Ellen, I loved all that info. I´ll respond soon. The cyber is closing now.
Love to all......
Friday, October 29, 2010
Got my site assignment
For the next two years, starting Dec. 1 ( mas o minus) I will be living in Malpaisillo, Leon, Nicaragua. Well, what can I say. Its a city of sorts, 8,000 souls at last count but they have not taken a census in many years. The entire municipal area has 35,000 souls. It is surrounded by active, smoking volcanos. ( the word malpais means volcanic rock) It used to be the most fertile soil in the country but it is now ......well, not fertile due to overuse of chemical fertilizers to grow cotton during some very ugly years where the land and people were exploited for the benefit of a few ( you all know who they are ). Now former farmers have mysterious diseases, kidney and cancer are very common. They grow basic grains, at least and cattle ranching has begun to take a greater role in the economy. There are some small women´s artisan cooperatives which might prove very interesting. The dry season is a month longer than the rainy season and people living there now recall when the rainy season was longer than the dry season. Does not bode well. I will be working in three schools and at least one of them has two self contained special ed classes so that will be fun to work with those teachers on strategies. I don´t know what kind of disabilities I´ll be dealing with but hopefully I´ll know something that will be of help. They have electricity and water most of the time but there is no sewage system in the city so all waste water is either dumped into the street or into the suelo ( soil) on the property. There are times of the day that don´t smell so good. There is a public library and there is a vol. there now who is leaving shortly after I arrive so I´ll be able to pick up on some stuff she started. She also has written out a lot of stuff that she wishes she had done differently so that will help alot. Also, I´ll probably get to take over her house. I have to live with a family for the first 6 weeks but after that I am free to live on my own if I want, and I am pretty sure I will want to do that. I have met her at a training and she seems like a great person and a person in whose footsteps I will want to follow and in whose kitchen I will enjoy cooking !!!! Malpaisillo is about 45 minutes from Leon which the city I wanted to be near and there are buses leaving every 30 minutes from 5 am to 5 pm so I was real happy to get this assigmnent.
New paragraph.....for Ramelle. One last thing on this post. I just learned from the Senora ( age 70) with whom I am living that the first Somoza ( during the 40s I believe) freaking SOLD part of Nicaragua to Costa Rica. It is the part that is known as Guanacaste and has absolutely beautiful islands off the Pacific coast. I was watching the travel chanel the other night with my host family ( the have cable) and the Muriociegle Islands ( spelling is wrong) which were part of the sale are rated as one of the best 5 vacation cites in Central America. This country has sure been screwed six ways from Sunday, if that is a saying !!!!
Love to all Off to the land of volcanoes and a long dry season for me !!!! At least there is a lot of work to do there and I won´t get bored !!!!
New paragraph.....for Ramelle. One last thing on this post. I just learned from the Senora ( age 70) with whom I am living that the first Somoza ( during the 40s I believe) freaking SOLD part of Nicaragua to Costa Rica. It is the part that is known as Guanacaste and has absolutely beautiful islands off the Pacific coast. I was watching the travel chanel the other night with my host family ( the have cable) and the Muriociegle Islands ( spelling is wrong) which were part of the sale are rated as one of the best 5 vacation cites in Central America. This country has sure been screwed six ways from Sunday, if that is a saying !!!!
Love to all Off to the land of volcanoes and a long dry season for me !!!! At least there is a lot of work to do there and I won´t get bored !!!!
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Now I´m sweating
I have a few minutes before I teach my last class in the escuela in our little town. The topic is organic/inorganic basura and then we are going to put together an abonerra ( compost pile ) in back of the school where we have made a nice garden that seems to be growing pretty well right now. We don´t know who will take care of it once we leave and that is a little bit of a downer as the kids are really excited to be growing vegetables. They get very few, and less fruit, in their homes.
I want to report one thing before I run out of time. I got my first haircut in Nicaragua last Saturday. It cost 3 cordobas which is about $1.50 US. There is clearly something wrong in a world where I paid $90 for a haircut in Cherry Creek and only $1.50 for one here which is every bit as good !!!!
For the future, I will be asking for boxes of school supplies from anyone who wants to send them. Crayons, colored pencils, decks of cards, frisbies, note pads, so if you find any of these things or other little goodies that elementary children who have almost nothing might like for little prizes, in second hard or good will type stores, please get and them and hang on to them for me. I will eventually have an address in my site and I will find out tomorrow where I am going.
All for now.
I want to report one thing before I run out of time. I got my first haircut in Nicaragua last Saturday. It cost 3 cordobas which is about $1.50 US. There is clearly something wrong in a world where I paid $90 for a haircut in Cherry Creek and only $1.50 for one here which is every bit as good !!!!
For the future, I will be asking for boxes of school supplies from anyone who wants to send them. Crayons, colored pencils, decks of cards, frisbies, note pads, so if you find any of these things or other little goodies that elementary children who have almost nothing might like for little prizes, in second hard or good will type stores, please get and them and hang on to them for me. I will eventually have an address in my site and I will find out tomorrow where I am going.
All for now.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
update
Well, I am back in the cyber in Jinotepe this fine Sunday morning. It actually is ¨fresco¨which is what they call weather under 90 degrees. Actually, I am beginning to adapt to the weather and don´t feel so hot so much of the time. I learned the other day that body temperatures here are a few points, like 98.8, above what we call normal. I can believe it.
I am starting this new paragraph for Ramelle..Apparently, he likes paragraphs !!!
I have experienced a few interesting things in the last couple of days that I wanted to share. First, we are half way thru training and I am sooo ready to be in a community where I will stay for a while. I love my training site but it is hard getting comfortable knowing I´ll be leaving in a few weeks. We had a presentation from current volunteers who are living in sites where there will be a place for a new volunteer and next week we get interviewed/given an opportunity to express our desires. There is only one site that I don´t want and that is in a gold mining community that PC describes as very poor. I don´t think I could take any deeper poverty than normal and I have such a hatred of mine owners in general....well...I just don´t think they should send me there. I think I would like to be near Leon as it is a city described as ¨liberal.¨ Of course that relates back a couple centuries to when Granada was considered the cultural and conservative capital and Leon was considered the ïntellectual and liberal capital. Leon is more of a tourist town with lots of colonial ( thats another issue) Spanish architecture that has not been damaged by earthquakes, fires or volcanos. Anyhow, I think I would like to be near Leon but that means going to a place that is hot, hot hot !!! Good thing I have grown to LOVE cold showers.
New paragraph !!! So, the interesting things. First, I was just hanging out in the front part of the house and saw a little horse drawn cart coming down the road so I watched it approach. There were two youngish hombres aboard, drinking cerveza out of plastic bags. They sell things here, all types of things, in small quart sized plastic bags as it is muy carro ( very expensive) to buy a whole bottle of something , so they repackage it, like Coke and milk, into these very thin plastic bags, put on a twist tie, and people buy them, bite off a corner, ingest the contents, and then, unfortunatamente, throw the plastic bag onto the street. But, anyway, this was the first time I had seen cerveza in a bolsa...but, when you think about it...why not. I don´t think they have an open container law and if they do, it must not apply to horse drawn carts.
New paragraph. Another thing involved the Sandinistas. We all know about them from the late 70s and early 80s and the contra horribleness. Well, I have been reading a lot and know a lot more. First of all, there is still a Sandinista party, in fact , it is the party that is in power now and the Presidente of Nicaragua is Daniel Ortega who was a big player in the ´79 revolution to overthrow the Somozas and then continued to lead the country until the late 80s when he and the Sandinistas agreed to hold an open election and by some stroke of luck.....his party lost and the Liberal party took over. Anyhow, that is another thing and the whole Contra funding etc.that went on for at least a decade is another sad tale from down here. But, yesterday, I heard this loudspeaker and siren approaching our little town and then saw three vehicles race by with Red flags flying and numerous hombes standing the back of the trucks waving their arms. Some kids from my family, which is very very Sandinista having had many of their sons and one daughter who is now a lawyer fight with the Sandinistas against the contras in recent history, ran to get and fly our Sandinista flag ( which is black and red) in front of the house for when the Liberals returned. Very interesting and very passionate. One of the bloodiest battles of the revolution took place in this town where I am sitting right now and the Senora in my host home recalls the bombers flying very low over her house ( where she was raising 9 children) on their way to this town. Recent memories for this family.
And lastly, this morning I got a taxi to town ( 5 cordobas which I cannot even calculate but 21 cordobas is a dollar) so I could get a watch battery and on the road out of town I saw a whole crew of people and of course the ever present horse ( the horses here are actually large ponies - cheaper to feed) and cart working to fill holes in the caraterra ( road.) I recognized one of the kids from our youth group and asked the taxi driver if it was gente( folks) from Guisquiliapa....he said yes and we chatted about how they were not waiting for the gobierno ( government ) to fix their road...they just did it themselves. It was a wonderful thing to see.
Thats all for now. I am NOT sweating at this very moment !!
I am starting this new paragraph for Ramelle..Apparently, he likes paragraphs !!!
I have experienced a few interesting things in the last couple of days that I wanted to share. First, we are half way thru training and I am sooo ready to be in a community where I will stay for a while. I love my training site but it is hard getting comfortable knowing I´ll be leaving in a few weeks. We had a presentation from current volunteers who are living in sites where there will be a place for a new volunteer and next week we get interviewed/given an opportunity to express our desires. There is only one site that I don´t want and that is in a gold mining community that PC describes as very poor. I don´t think I could take any deeper poverty than normal and I have such a hatred of mine owners in general....well...I just don´t think they should send me there. I think I would like to be near Leon as it is a city described as ¨liberal.¨ Of course that relates back a couple centuries to when Granada was considered the cultural and conservative capital and Leon was considered the ïntellectual and liberal capital. Leon is more of a tourist town with lots of colonial ( thats another issue) Spanish architecture that has not been damaged by earthquakes, fires or volcanos. Anyhow, I think I would like to be near Leon but that means going to a place that is hot, hot hot !!! Good thing I have grown to LOVE cold showers.
New paragraph !!! So, the interesting things. First, I was just hanging out in the front part of the house and saw a little horse drawn cart coming down the road so I watched it approach. There were two youngish hombres aboard, drinking cerveza out of plastic bags. They sell things here, all types of things, in small quart sized plastic bags as it is muy carro ( very expensive) to buy a whole bottle of something , so they repackage it, like Coke and milk, into these very thin plastic bags, put on a twist tie, and people buy them, bite off a corner, ingest the contents, and then, unfortunatamente, throw the plastic bag onto the street. But, anyway, this was the first time I had seen cerveza in a bolsa...but, when you think about it...why not. I don´t think they have an open container law and if they do, it must not apply to horse drawn carts.
New paragraph. Another thing involved the Sandinistas. We all know about them from the late 70s and early 80s and the contra horribleness. Well, I have been reading a lot and know a lot more. First of all, there is still a Sandinista party, in fact , it is the party that is in power now and the Presidente of Nicaragua is Daniel Ortega who was a big player in the ´79 revolution to overthrow the Somozas and then continued to lead the country until the late 80s when he and the Sandinistas agreed to hold an open election and by some stroke of luck.....his party lost and the Liberal party took over. Anyhow, that is another thing and the whole Contra funding etc.that went on for at least a decade is another sad tale from down here. But, yesterday, I heard this loudspeaker and siren approaching our little town and then saw three vehicles race by with Red flags flying and numerous hombes standing the back of the trucks waving their arms. Some kids from my family, which is very very Sandinista having had many of their sons and one daughter who is now a lawyer fight with the Sandinistas against the contras in recent history, ran to get and fly our Sandinista flag ( which is black and red) in front of the house for when the Liberals returned. Very interesting and very passionate. One of the bloodiest battles of the revolution took place in this town where I am sitting right now and the Senora in my host home recalls the bombers flying very low over her house ( where she was raising 9 children) on their way to this town. Recent memories for this family.
And lastly, this morning I got a taxi to town ( 5 cordobas which I cannot even calculate but 21 cordobas is a dollar) so I could get a watch battery and on the road out of town I saw a whole crew of people and of course the ever present horse ( the horses here are actually large ponies - cheaper to feed) and cart working to fill holes in the caraterra ( road.) I recognized one of the kids from our youth group and asked the taxi driver if it was gente( folks) from Guisquiliapa....he said yes and we chatted about how they were not waiting for the gobierno ( government ) to fix their road...they just did it themselves. It was a wonderful thing to see.
Thats all for now. I am NOT sweating at this very moment !!
Saturday, October 9, 2010
October 9
Last Wednesday, we were all taken in small groups to visit a current volunteer in his/her site I went with 4 others to visit in the town of Nagarote, in the department of Leon. We started out at one of his 4 schools down a dirt road, crossed two large puddles by stepping on the rocks strategically placed by one of the helpful campo fathers. The school had no electricity because someone stole the cable that ran from the school ( escuela) to the pole, no water because some had stoled the mecate ( rope) that lowered the bucket into to the well and they had replaced it several times, the children used to go to the casa nearby to get water but they found a dead bat in their well so the teachers would not allow the children to do that any more, the preschool classs ( 6 kids) were meeting outside because there was a coral snake in their classroom hiding in the adobe blocks that were stored in there, there were no doors on the letrines ( all outside toilets) so the kids went in pairs and held the doors for each other, there were 4 grades in one classroom ( 3-6), and wasps were swarming around our heads the whole time ( I learned that if you don´t ¨molest¨them, they won´t ¨molest ¨you) , they had workbooks that looked at least 10 years old and do not match the current curriculum the teachers are required to teach, and you know what.......no one was complaining !!!!! It was so wonderful to see how happy the kids were and how well they accepted what they had to work with. We observed their science class and they all were working. The PC vol. teaches a natural science class in each school 1 day a week and he has 4 separate lessons to prepare for this one class, and then one for the other 3 schools. Despite this, he did not have any comlaints. He is a young fellow, chemistry major, from Miami, Fl. Hes been here a year and seems very comfortable in his situation. We spent the day with him, met his counterpart in the school system , a school director, who helped him get started when he first got there and who continues to help him out with school related needs. Anyhow, that was a very enlightening experience. We got a booklet with all the possible sites for our group ( we are called Nica 54) and I have been reading thru that. There are lots of good places but I think I am going to try to get placed close to Leon so I can take a college class on Saturdays. I hear there are a lot of colleges/universities in Leon, altho that is one of the hottest parts of Nica. We´l see. I don´t really have a choice - I´l get what they give me but I think I would like a small town where I could know a lot of people but still be close to a bigger town where I could continue to learn about Nicaragua´s history, etc. Thats all for now.......more later. Hot and dry right now, even tho this is supposed to be the wettest month of the year. Could there be climate change? ......hmmmmm now there´s a thought !!!!
Saturday, October 2, 2010
We survived Tormento Matthew
Matthew never became a full fledged hurricane but we sure got a lot of rain for several days. Parts of Nica were really badly affected but we were not. Just a lot of ¨lodo¨( mud), damp clothes, lost power etc. All things we can live with, considering..... We watched the news when we had power and there were lots of evaucations in Nica, most north and of course along the shorelines. We are continuing in our training, lots of great Spanish classes...I actually feel like I am a lot better already. We had some trainings from current volunteers yesterday and this morning and it is great to hear what their lives are like in their sites. Also, they are lining up Embassy families for us to spend Thanksgiving with. Usually, the volunteers are sworn in right before Thanksgiving and then there is a country wide conference for all volunteers but it has been cancelled this year. So right after swearing in we will go to our sites or stay in Managua to spend a day with an Embassy family. I am opting for the latter. I have been reading a lot about the history of Nica. Many interesting parts....I am amazed that they have survived as well as they have.....we Americans have a lot to be ashamed of when it comes to our involvement in their lives...but, somehow, they don´t seem to hate us. I finally had pinolo, or whatever. It is not my favorite !!! My favorite is made with the flower Jemica...it has medicinal value supposedly, is a beautiful color and tastes really good. They are calling for more storms to move in this weekend but so far....nothing. We are working in our garden this afternoon, putting up the barrera ( a fence to keep out wind, people and grazing animals.) It is located within the fenced school yard but people let their chickens peck where ever they want, there are always dogs foraging for anything they can find and yesterday I saw two pigs tied out near our garden. Why not, lots of good grass there for the taking. The Catholic church is nearby - an ancient one that has been abandoned, holes in the tin roof, windows out, etc and a new pre fab looking one is located right beside it. I´ll take a photo...another contradiction. Got to learn how to do PICASA. More later, adios !!!!
Saturday, September 25, 2010
A short post
This will be pretty short. I have been trying sooo hard to get itunes downloaded so that I can download a video of Rachel and Keith onto my iphone which has a lot of space but I just can´t seem to get it to work....so fustrating. So, just want to check in. we are experiencing the edges of tormento Matthew , just a lot of hard rain and some winds, but nothing too worrisome. This cyber cafe still has power and a signal so that says a lot. We worked all morning in a driving rain with a great bunch of muchachos plus one muchacha wielding machetes like pros to clear a space for our school garden It was sort of crazy working like that in the rain ( I could not even lift a shovel full of lodo ( their great word for mud) so I mostly stood around feeling like a third wheel. When I get to my site, I am going to hire local kids to dig my garden and I am not going to do it in a driving rain. I think the campesinos ( farmers) around here probably thought we had lost our minds. They would not do what we did - they would wait for it to stop !!! But, we are in training and my compadres felt compelled to power thru - so we did. I would have waited for tomorrow....but, I only had one vote. And they are all under 25. I had some great fish for lunch and the best pico de gallo you would ever hope for. My host Senora is a very good cook...and very very amable ( nice). I learned that 3-4 of her sons fought with the Sandinista muchachos in the war to depose Somoza. They have some very moving stories to tell. Lovin´ that part, for sure. Better go, lights are flickering........ Love to all.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
An update
I realized last night that I have not really told you what my peace corps assignment will be all about. Actually, am just getting a handle on it so it is good that I waited. Nicaragua is the 2nd most poor country in the world or central america, second only to Haiti. Many of the children here are basically starving - they describe it as extreme poverty...that sort of says it all. There are a lot of environmental issues that the country is trying to address ( deforestation being the major one) but mainly they are trying to keep their people alive. Many children have food, like those in this little town, but it consists mainly of rice ( not the kind that is grown in water), frijoles and cafe. The rice and frijoles are OK but when eaten with cafe, the cafe interferes with the nutrients taken in from the frijoles and rice. They almost never have vegies and fruit and if they do, it is rare. So, we are being trained to give elementary science classes on nutrition and the environment ( they are providing us with extremely good training) along with learning the language for some of us, and when we get to our locations, we are required to have a garden at our own houses, start a school garden in each of the three schools we will be working in and also have a couple youth groups during the week to work on projects that improve the environment in the kids´town. Here in the training site, we are practicing everything so we are teaching 3 classes in the local school, we have our youth group started and we are starting our garden next weekend. That is what the machete thing was all about. We have learned what it takes and now we need to pass that on to the students and teachers. Sustainability is also heavily emphasized so we are supposed to spend much time getting integrated into the community and finding the local folks who already have a garden and enlist their participation and hopefully, when we leave, we will leave more enlightened youth and families. Luckily, the Nica curriculum requires each class ( school maybe) to have a garden so the teachers have an incentive to work with us. There are many elementary school teachers here who are ëmpiricas¨which means they have OJT only. But, we all know, credentials do not necessaily make for a good teacher, so I am hoping to meet up with some good folks. The pay here for teachers, and school directors, ( and the policia, incidentally) is below the poverty level....so, that tells you a lot. My grandchildren want to have a penpal arrangement with one of my classes here but I won´t be able to do that until I get into my schools at my assigned site. I go to my site in Dec. but they are on vacation until Feb and then it will take me a few months to figure out which teachers will be working with me and who among them wants to do a penpal thing. So, Nicole, it probably won´t be until next year before I can really get a class going to work with your class. But, thanks for the offer and we will get it going as soon as we can. I think I told you, we have lots of talks (charlas) from current volunteers who tell us what to expect and what they are doing etc. So, as I said, little by little, I am beginning to understand what I will actually be doing once I get my assignment. That won´t be until early November and then I don´t actually go there until early December. So......more to come. Thanks for all your comments and emails.
Saturday, September 18, 2010
A post from the nearest ¨big¨town, Jinotepe
Helloall, I have been trying to do a posting for weeks but there seems to always be a problemo. The first time, no power, then no signal, then could not go out after dark ( still a little scary) and more and more. We have a cyber in our town, Guisquiliapa, but it is the one that has all the problemos. So, today, mi compagnera, Katy, whose mother, incidentally, is a PhD nurse from U of Md, ( Theresa Lynch) aged about 50 now so maybe, Peg, you knew her, and I made a special trip here to use the cyber. So far, its great but if I disappear in the middle of a blog, it will be the power or signal, probably. This little cyber is also in the middle of a mercado with taxis, ox carts, push carts, and mucho persons passing about 3 feet from me. Mucho ruido !!! but I am getting used to it. This morning, I had to admit to my host mother that I was no longer hearing the roosters in the morning and she laughed and said something about acostombrando. I think she is right. This morning I washed clothes, by hand, for about 2 hours in the laundry and cooking casita off the back of the main casa. Last weekend, they built a fire in there to cook the frijoles while I was washing clothes and the humo drove me out. I think they changed their schedule this weekend as they knew I would need to wash on Sat morning. My host family is very very nice and accomodating. They are 70 and 75 and have had long lives working hard. She was a private duty nurse for 30 years and he was a porter/bell boy at the Grand Hotel for many years ( I think until the tremblar in 1972 when all of Manuaga including the hotel was dstroyed) and then sold shoes for a number of years. They both still work very very hard. They have had at least 11 previous PC trainees. My Spanish classes are going very well and I find myself speaking much more easily. Still lots of words ( and verbos) to learn. We start working in the school next week and start our garden next weekend. We are supposed to tell the kids to meet us there Sat. at 8 and bring tools including machetes. They are like pen knives around here - the instructors laughed when I questioned whether we wanted 10 year olds to bring machetes- you know - liability issues....they laughed. We have had lots of ¨charlas¨¨ ( trainings) from current volunteers and MANY of them are extending for a thrid year. They all seems very satisfied with their various situations and in week 5, we trainees go to spend a few weekdays with ta current volunteer who is doing what we will do once we are trained up. Looking forward to that. We have formed our youth group and had 15 their last time. They are soooo cute and willing to do anything we ask. We played a couple ¨icebreakers¨¨ and they fully participated. Their ages range from 10 to 24. Amazing. And they get all dressed up and look like a million bucks coming from some pretty rough homes. Amazing. Last week, Nicaragua celebrated 2 days of patriotism, not sure of the technical name, but it included independence from Spain. Big doings...lots of parades with amazing outfits. The kids we went to see in the town of Ste. Theresa marched at least 20 blocks in 90 degree full sun playing their drums etc. the whole time. Each time they came upon a Nica flag flying from a home along the way, the leader alerted them and they turned, kept marching, and saluted the flag. Amazing !!! in light of how little their country can do for them. Oh, before I forget, we watched on TV a report of an assembly of the Policia Nationale and they march in the old goose step ( Nazi germany) manner. They also refer to themselves as socialistas without all the worry poor old Barrack has to endure. Thats all for now....thanks for your comments and emails Love em. I just wish I could get to the cyber more often......When I get an assignment, all this will change but for now, I have this access most of the time. Adios !!!Le vaya bien.......
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Sept. 12
Hello all and thanks for the comments and emails. This is a very interesting, I would not say exciting, adventure. I took a malaria pill last night and had the ¨vivid¨dreams they cautioned us about. I was lying there under my mosquito netting, the power was out, the Senora had just said it was ¨muy peligroso¨( I later found out that she was talking about walking on the slippery sidewalk in the dark but I thought she was talking about it being ¨muy peligroso ¨because it was dark and all outdoor lighting was out. Anyhow, I started having dreams of an emergency of some sort and not being able to explain what I needed or where I wanted to go. Obviously, it all passed and I amanacioed just fine ( that means got up) They have a wonderful greeting, which they also had in C.Rica upon rising , Como amanacio ? which loosely translates to ¨how was your awakening¨?¨ We had two days of training in Managua last week and will have two more this week. The other days we have Spanish classes, 7 hrs. a day, and usually homework which requires us to talk with locals and gain some sort of info. The locals are very nice about the whole thing, and patient. We have made friends with a taxista who drives a yello minibus with ¨TURBO¨ on it so we know its him. His woman rides with him and she is very very nice. When they see any of standing around looking lost or panicked, they stop and offer us rides. Its 5 cordobas ( 21 cordobas to a dollar) to the next town which is very very authentic and busy. It has a huge mercado with aisles that barely let two people pass so I have a death grip on my mochilla ( backpack for your gringos) when I pass thru there. On the days we go to
Managua, we all meet ( 22 of us, 4 in each town) in the centro to get the PC transport to Managua. Its looks a lot more challenging than it really is - mucho rubio and perros and caballos, etc. I have to go or my Senora will worry about me. I loaded the software for itunes onto this computer and I think I have to shut it down and restart it for it to work and I can´t explain all that to the owner of this cyber so I´ll just have to sign off now and try to come back tomorrow once it has been restarted to see if I cna get itunes. I really miss Rachel Maddow´s take on everything. We watched international news a little yesterday but it was in Spanish and it only had the US mosque controversy coverage. I am sure there was more, but I didn´t get it. Love to my sweet grandchildren who I miss so much. Love to you all.
Managua, we all meet ( 22 of us, 4 in each town) in the centro to get the PC transport to Managua. Its looks a lot more challenging than it really is - mucho rubio and perros and caballos, etc. I have to go or my Senora will worry about me. I loaded the software for itunes onto this computer and I think I have to shut it down and restart it for it to work and I can´t explain all that to the owner of this cyber so I´ll just have to sign off now and try to come back tomorrow once it has been restarted to see if I cna get itunes. I really miss Rachel Maddow´s take on everything. We watched international news a little yesterday but it was in Spanish and it only had the US mosque controversy coverage. I am sure there was more, but I didn´t get it. Love to my sweet grandchildren who I miss so much. Love to you all.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
From my training town
Hello for my second post. Still getting used to this keyboard and the whole idea a sitting in a ¨cyber¨Nica for internet cafe, sweating actual buckets with a chicken sitting right outside my door. Actually, yesterday, I chased a chicken out of the kitchen in my host family´s home. I am staying in what appears to be the nicest casita in our pueblo of Guisquiliapa, a barrio of Jinotepe. The Sr. and Senor are 70 and 75 and appear to own a whole lot of land in the area. They have two sons who are medicos doctors, two who are lawyers, a couple who have science educations and a couple teachers. It appears most people in this little barrio are not employed at all or who work at very menial jobs in the nearby towns. We are about 45 minutes from Managua, the capital. We have a lot of fruit trees in our yard and the Senora gets fresh fruit each morning for me and some vegetables throughout the day. There are chickens and ducks all over the yard and last night we had an egg for dinner ( along with some fine gallo pinto) and she told me it was from that day. Very fresh but all I could think about was salmonella - that was the news when I left the states. I have not had any news for a week and I think I miss that as much as any other tangible ( other than you guys, of course) We have Spanish class each day, 4 hours in the moring and three in the afternnon. Thursday night we get started with our community action by having a meeting with the young people in the community to brainstorm about what they would like to do as a project with us for the next three months. Actually, I don´t think any of them will want to do anything with me but my companeros are all in their early 20s and will get lots of response, me thinks.
Friday, September 3, 2010
my first blog entry
To begin, I believe my sister, with the help of her very savvy son posted that photo of me. It was taken about 30 years ago and was not exactly flattering then. I am far more beautiful than that. But, at least she posted something - I had not done anything so she is wayyyy ahead of me.
I am in the lobby of the Hotel Granada in Nicaragua. There are 42 of us, Peace Corps Volunteers in Training. We have completed 3 days of intense training hre and tomorrow we all go to our separate host families in little towns in the general area of Manuagua, the Nica capital city. This is going to be some adventure. We will get very very intense language training for the first 3 months, along with training in our assignments which will be teaching enviornment education in 3 schools, planting gardens and setting up youth groups to address enviornmental problems and start recycling programs in our assigned towns. We can have an English language group in addition, if we want to. I don't know a lot so far, but what I have learned is very very impressive. I don't know what access I will have to internet in the future but I know I'll be able to get to it at least one time per week, hopefully more often. We were treated to a special boat ride this afternoon around the hundreds of little isletas off the coast of Granada. Some of them are privately owned and have fabulous homes on them. Others have little shacks on them and others have nothing. The boat pulled up to one of them and a couple monkeys boarded our boat and created some havoc. That was exciting and I hope to post the video I took of the whole event as soon as I can figure that out. More later.
I am in the lobby of the Hotel Granada in Nicaragua. There are 42 of us, Peace Corps Volunteers in Training. We have completed 3 days of intense training hre and tomorrow we all go to our separate host families in little towns in the general area of Manuagua, the Nica capital city. This is going to be some adventure. We will get very very intense language training for the first 3 months, along with training in our assignments which will be teaching enviornment education in 3 schools, planting gardens and setting up youth groups to address enviornmental problems and start recycling programs in our assigned towns. We can have an English language group in addition, if we want to. I don't know a lot so far, but what I have learned is very very impressive. I don't know what access I will have to internet in the future but I know I'll be able to get to it at least one time per week, hopefully more often. We were treated to a special boat ride this afternoon around the hundreds of little isletas off the coast of Granada. Some of them are privately owned and have fabulous homes on them. Others have little shacks on them and others have nothing. The boat pulled up to one of them and a couple monkeys boarded our boat and created some havoc. That was exciting and I hope to post the video I took of the whole event as soon as I can figure that out. More later.
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