Pat’s Peace Corps Blog: Variety is the spice of life

Today was one of the most diverse I have had so I wanted to be sure to log it, for my benefit at least and it might be interesting to some of you. I went to my public school, 18 de Junio, at 7 am to take some posters I had made that have the English words for most of the colors. The teachers were thrilled to get them and the kids just LOVE anything related to speaking English.    Then, I lost my patience with a water spigot that has been leaking for at least two days. It was clear no one was going to address it so I went to a local ferreteria, hardward store ( my counterpart's husband has one on their front porch - photo attached) and bought a "clave" spigot for 72 cords which is about 3.50, took it back to the school and the special ed. teacher fixed it.  My counterpart said that Paticia " esta sufriendo" about all the water that was just spewing out all over the playgroud unless someone tied the turning mechanism down. Anyway, it just amazes me how so many people down here can just NOT SEE so many things. I guess you have to get that way to stay sane when so many things are in such disarray. Its the third one I have replaced....I just can't stand to see water going all over the place when the dogs are walking with their tongues hanging out....

So, I left that school about 8 to keep a prearranged meeting. I had arranged over the phone in Spanish ( can you believe that ?) with the sister of the girl who is deaf go to Leon with me to meet some of those folks who work in the deaf community. The plan was that I would get on the bus in Malpaisillo and she would be standing along the highway and I would be watching for her and the bus would stop for her and we would go the rest of the way to Leon together . It worked. She was there and the bus stopped and so forth.

I had arranged ( or so I thought)_ to take her to Leon to meet some folks at a special education school who could get her connected with the right people so that she could hone her sign language skills, get some teaching skills and hopefully come back to Malpaisillo as a paid teacher and teach our many many kids who are deaf and currently have NO services. Most of those kids just stay home, but some go to school and just watch whats going on and look forward to recess !!!

So she, Jackeling, and I got to Leon, got a taxi to the part of Leon called Sutiavi where the school is located and got to the school only to find that there were no kids there, the main teacher she needed to see was at a training in another town and most of the rest of the teachers were in a training. She did get to see the three deaf teachers who were there but not at the meeting and they all knew each other from somewhere ( the deaf community here is very close, just as it is in the US) so that part was wonderful.

One teacher came out from the meeting and basically told us to come back on monday and we could see Martha, the lady we need to see. So, that means on Monday, after my morning in the school here , I'll get on a sweaty bus, meet Jackeling along the highway, and make another stab at Leon. If nothing else, I am gaining huge confidence in my Spanish when I have to talk to all the folks on various topicts.

Even our taxi driver was a treat - I spoke to him in Spanish about where we wanted to go and then, when the other guy got out, the driver started talking to me in English. He had learned it all in high school here and was now in his last year of college....driving a cab and finishing college. The odds of him ever finding a job other than driving a cab are very slim...but many of our young people are well educated with nothing to do with their education. Its sad.

So, Jackeling went home on the bus and I stayed in Leon to do some errands. Actually, I bought a dock so I could play my ipod in the house without earphones. Its wonderful. I also went to that french bakery, bought a tuna sandwich on a whole wheat baguette ( a big treat) took it to the super market where they have air conditioning and a few tables, bought a paper and sat there and ate my sandwich and read the paper. Yes, read the paper, I buy one almost every day and can pretty much understand it all. The politics are really heating up...we actually had a bit of a riot in one of the smaller towns in the northern part of the country.

I got home about 2:30. The bus ride was not all that bad...not at all crowded and no rain. Two of the teachers at my other school and I had agreed to be at their school at 3:30 to work in the garden. We had talked and they let me know, by text message, that this was the best date and time for them and it worked for me. So, at about 3:20 off I go with a bag of partially composted leaves and kitchen peelings in a sack in my basket behind my seat and a bucket of the same stuff hanging off of my handlebars. There were a few kids there , but NO teachers. The garden was clearly dry as a bone, as I knew it would be. The partially composted leaves were to mulch the plants to try to preserve some moisture. So, I spread the leaves around a couple of the plants and watered them in and they looked so much more healthy just with the leaves there instead of that dry powdery " soil" lying there. Notice I put quotation marks around that word...its not really soil...its dust.

By way of background, the Nicas use "basura" to describe anything they are not eating or wearing. For example, basura is either organic or inorganic but they rarely differentiate and that is something we are trying to teach them. So, basically basura means trash. This cute kid was standing there in the garden watching me mulching the plants and he asked, very genuinely and sweetly, " Why are you putting all that trash around those plants ?" It was so sweet and innocent. It was a teaching moment so that s what I did,. There are lots of them and the kids are so great.

So, a couple of the kids and I watered the garden and I took a couple of tomato plants to transplant and gave to Adalayda on the way home. She is my counterpart and I have mentioned her many times. She is fantastic. I am attaching a photo of her husband's ( the baseball player who just got home from living illegally in the US for 5 years working in Biloxi)hardward store on their front porch.

I am writing this about 8 pm, with my Ipod playing Jimmy Buffet songs on its new dock, I/m connected to the internet after having spent my day as I have described above.   So many contradictions....it constantly amazes me and keeps things interesting.

Well, as luck would have it. The lights just went out so now I am on battery, have a candle burning next to my computer, no fan, no tunes..   Gotta love it.

Thats it except for a couple photos