How to...

1. How to take a bucket bath: First fill the trough with water. Have your bathing supplies ready get a pan and fill it with water starting with your legs pour water on them then your chest arms and back. With a full pan of water pour it over your head moving your hair around to get it all wet. Get just enough shampoo to clean your hair in your hands and lather. With the pan slowly pour water over your head as you rinse the shampoo out. I stress the slowly because if you just pour you'll never get all the soap out. Repeat until hair is clean. If need be use conditioner and repeat process. Dunk your rag into the water and soap it up cleaning your body well you want all of that sweat and dust from the day off of you for at least 5 min. start from you top down and pour water over your body rinsing off. Grab a towel and from top to bottom dry off holding the towel in just the right way so that it never touches the dirty ground. get dressed in same fashion and continue with the day.

2. How to wash clothes without a washing machine: Make sure you have plenty of water or a hose near my. Get the pile of your dirty clothes and some bar soap to wash clothes. You can a. soak your clothes in a bleach mixture before hand or b. just wash them straight away. I do option b Nicaraguans do option a. take out one to two objects of clothes and once them are soaked rub soap on the front ,back, selves, legs etc of the clothes. then take part and begin to viciously rub it on a stone slab with grooves in it. (It can be made  by the handyman nearest you. Found in all towns of Nicaragua.)  Take other sections of the cloth and repeat process until front an back of clothing are clean. Begin to pour water on it while you squeeze your clothing with on hand moving it around and picking it up until the water coming from it is clean. wring it out and then shake it before putting it over the clothes line to dry.

3. How to put up a mosquito net: Take net out of back and find the four corner of the net. Lay it out to the best of you ability to find out which sides are the long side and which side it the short side. Tie a long piece of string, rope, cloth or what ever you have to each corner loop. Put up four nails, find for rafter, find for hooks what ever you can in the room that is on the far wall of the four corner of the bed. Lay the net over the bed it is not already and pull one of the ties to your nail and wrap it around before doing a loose knot but not puling the last sting all the way through this allows for a quick easy take down when needed. Repeat the process with the other corners. Then adjust the tightness of the stings until it is a comfortable height from the bed. Pull the sides around the bed and tuck in three of the sides leaving one side hanging over the edge to get you enter your bed.

4. How to use a latrine: Enter the latrine and pull the door shut firmly behind you. Put your lets on either side of the front of the hole with a cement seat and squat with your hips pointed towards the back of the seat. wipe and throw tissue into the hole. Close the door behind you so the animal won't get in. Wash hands in the pila. 

A day in the life of Isis

I thought I would give you a day in the life of Isis:

At 7:00 I wake up sitting up and taking out my earplugs and pull out the mosquito net. I place my feet into flip flops. I kick my cat out of the way and filling his food dish. I get dress and place my PJ’s under the mosquito net before tucking it in again. I leave to the latrine opening the door and squatting over a hole in the ground with a cement seat I go to the bathroom. Going to the pilla (a stone barrel that has a wash area next to it filled with water) I splash water onto my hands and look for some laundry soap. I wash my face and brush my teeth then go to eat breakfast of eggs and rice. Grabbing my bag I swing onto my bike and leave for my school that is 6k way. Putting in the headphones I put on some music to make the ride go faster.

I get passed by a man on a moto who slows down to chat with me and asks for my number I politely refuse and we go on our way. I get passed by a guy on a horse carrying jugs that will be filled up with water later and give the basic “Adios” greeting. About half way there I am passed by my teacher on a moto (motorcycle). Swerving to avoid rocks in the road I finally make it to the road that turns up into my school. I jump off my bike and navigate it from a path or huge rocks and bump my way, up a hill to the one room school house.

Class has already started as I park my bike at the front of the school and go inside. All of the students stand and say “Buenos dias” (good morning). I respond “Buenos dias, sientense” (good morning sit down). I greet the teacher and get the lesson topic in science for the day as they continue with Spanish. I look through the book and plan my lesson for one of the three grades 3^rd, 4^th, or 5^th grade. I stop to teach Math to one of those three classes and then begin the first half of my lessons which is one hour long before they have recreo (recess) that goes for over the allowed time of half an hour. I get dragged to play games with the kids until I get tired and go over the join la profesora in the shade. Class starts again and we continue with the lesson. Once school ends I get pestered by my teacher to ride on the moto back to site and I have to deny since it is part of the Peace Corps rules. She gets irritated and thinks I don’t like her and I begin the long hot ride to my site. I have to slow down for a herd of cattle that are coming my way and avoid rocks and poop again.

I make my lunch of tuna fish and rice with juice and maduros (plantains fried). I eat while talking with the kids in my house. After I finish I have descansa (siesta) which is when I go online or read from my kindle. Or I should say try to I have kids coming into my room trying to talk to me and if I go out of the room it’s worst. It can take a while to get anything done. After the hot of the day passes I would adventure out to plan lessons with my other teachers for the next day or go talk to my counterparte (counterpart). I begin to start dinner which is an American meal of pasta salad and fruit. I eat while talking to my mother.

I go to my room and give the cat his dinner while getting myself ready for a bath. I slip on my flip flops and grab my bath things and go out into the night to the bath house. I scrape the old bath water from the clogged drain and step over the wet area to get undressed in the small outhouse hut with a door that doesn’t lock. I hang up my clothes on some of the multiple nails on the wall. I take the pale (bowl like pail) that is in a corner stoned off area that has water filled from the hose. I pure it on my legs arms chest and back shivering from the cold water. I soak my washcloth in the water and begin to wash my body (once a week I would wash my hair by pouring water on my head slowly from the pale I would put the shampoo in my hair to slowly wash it out when I think it is all out I move to conditioner which I leave in until the end of the bath) I rinse off the soap and then the hair. I grab the towel and dry off wrapping it around me and rush to my room before people can see me. I finish drying off and get changed into sleep clothes. I go into the main house and watch some TV with the family as they cell hamburgers from their house. It’s more like a fried piece of meat that they put condiments and lettuces and tomatoes.

I return to my room turn on my fan if it is not already on which is usually is. I go pee on the ground outside my room because it is really dark and the latrine is on the other side of the yard. I climb into my wipe off the dirt and crap on my bed and tuck in my net. I read for an hour and put in earplugs and have my spray bottle of water with me to scare Miles off the bed at night. I turn off my headlamp and got to sleep at 9:30-10:00.

Samana Santa

Samana Santa also known as Easter was awesome! I went to Isla Ometepe with two other volunteers and had a blast. We kind of did a trip where we played it by ear. We left on Sunday and went to Rives and stayed that night there. We hung out in the hostel that we randomly found and ate some bad pizza and watched a movie with some sparkling grape juice. It was quite the party! The next day we got on the boat that was rockier than a baby’s cradle. They were showing Karate Kid in Spanish with Chinese subtitles and the movie was dubbed over in Spanish with a Chinese accent so no one could understand. It was a long one hour ride luckily I did not get sick. We finally landed in a not so busy port town and looked for another random hostel. We ended up with a good one. It had a private bath and a bunk bed set up where the bottom bunk is a double bed and the top a single. There was a patio that had a bunch of hammocks to read in and an upstairs area with tables, sofas and chairs. There was really good wireless but I didn’t bring my computer and I didn’t really care but my friends had fun with it. The people who ran the hostel were fun to talk to and were always joking with us. That night we went out to look for something to do but the town was dead so we ended up eating in one of the other hostels and had a fun meal chatting with the waitress.

The next day we went to the beach and met up with another volunteer that lived on the Isla. We were not out that long but we all got burned really badly. The sun here is really strong. I don’t burn easily so you know it must be strong. We swam around some and brought our own food to save on money and some amazing cheese sandwiches. That night we went to this hamburger place I got an amazing grilled cheese sandwich with lettuce, tomatoes, and grilled vegetables in it and for dessert we had hot brownies with whipped cream on top I was in heaven but that was before I knew what was to come.

The next day we traveled to the other side of the Isla and stayed at another hostel that was a 1k walk up the side of the volcano. It was absolutely gorgeous to see with beautiful flower everywhere and trails to walk through the woods and up to the top of the volcano. The accommodations were nothing to write home about but it was for the most part clean and comfortable. The day we went to a natural spring swimming hole name Ojo de Aqua. It is said to be the cleanest swimming water found in Nicaragua. It was cool but nothing that you couldn’t find in other countries. There was nothing very unique about but it was a great place to relax after traveling. We met up with other volunteers at a local restaurant which had the best food I have eaten in Nicaragua. I had a vegetable stir fry what had a wide variety of vegetables over the right amount of rice and rich flavorful sauce that was not too thick or strong. Heaven! It was so good that we went there the next day again. We chit chatted the night way before returning to the hostel for a nice night sleep.

We were planning to go Kayaking the next day only to be told that it would cause 50 US dollars. There was no busses running because of the Samana Santa and we ended up walked the 6+k to the beach before being told of the price. We stayed on the beach for a little bit before walking another 3k to the tourist part of town to eat turned around and walked halfway back before my feet died and we hitchhiked but to the hostel. By the time we got back my legs were numb and shaking I collapsed into bed after freezing my butt off in a ‘nice’ ice cold shower.

We went horseback riding the last day at the finca (farm) we thought it would be a two hour ride that turned into 6hrs. We rode to a path up the side of the volcano that led to a one hour hike up to a waterfall that the water was so pure you could drink. WE had to risk it since we ran out of water and were very thirsty with a whole ride back a head of us. Apparently he was right because I have yet to get sick and parasites and bacteria tend to show up pretty quickly. The ride up was on trails that were extremely rocky and I was scared that the horse would trip and hurt its leg. She did slip a few times be nothing bad happened. I was an amazing trip and one of my favorite parts of my vacation. We were told that there would be no hostels with room that day so we quickly went to catch one of the last boats out to the main land and stayed in Rives all over again. There we met up with a dad and his daughter that too were trapped they lived in Costa Rica and the boarders were closed. We had a lovely dinner with them and talked some of the night.

That Saturday we went to Granada to celebrate one of the other volunteers birthday we ate a ridiculously expensive lunch that was worth the end of the vacation party. Talked and caught up. WE had a blast but I was more than ready to head home and most of us were becoming grumpy and snappy. Unfortunately I could still not go home the busses were running but packed full and no reliable. I ended up staying with my only training host family.

There was a really interesting tradition in the town on celebrating the Samana Santa. Every day the week there was parades with a part of the death and resurrection of Jesus. On a huge detailed statue that they carried through the street. On one day those who want to repent their sins in a way would walk on the knees blindfolded from one part of town to the church with two people helping them. It was a big event and the town was packed. I never have seen that town like that even during the Independence Day parade. It was a very unique cultural experience one that only that town does. I am very glad that I stayed the night with them and even had some good conversation with my family which almost never happens. It is late and I must wake up early tomorrow. I will write more tomorrow I have an interesting idea of a blog to do for you all. Love you all and miss you. XOXO