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. 

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.

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.......

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.

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.  

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.