One Year In Country!!!!

Well this week has been boring there has been little to no class. The kids are practicing for the the independence parrade. Also know as band practice and marching. With the little kids trying top copy the older ones. Very annoying very loud but the band is good and fun to watch. Testing is comming up so there is some reviewing and stuff. I have been jumping for class to class doing what i can. I have been asked to come up with a arts and cukture test. This should be fun. One of my teachers dad died so there hasn´t been class in my far school.

Things are going great with my family. I seem to be gettin g along well and learning more spanish every day. The dog had puppies three of them. They are so small and cute! They told me I can have one but I´m not sure if i want it. I have Miles and he is enough work as is. A horse also backed up into my fence to my garden and nocked out one of the posts and loosened another so I have animals in my garden. I will have to start over after the rainny season since the rain is also washing way my seads. But i do have some flowers on my canolope so hopefully i will get soemthing if the pigs don´t eat it all.

My counterpart has had her baby but it´s a premi about a few months early or something. I think people said it was a girl i am excited about seeing it. Don´t know what they are coming home though. not much more to report bye for now

Nicaragua vs USA

I have been thinking about this blog for a while  since I have time I figured I would write two blogs this week. It is the differences between Nicaragua and the USA.

1.       Pizza Hut is good pizza

2.       The sound of Roosters is a wakeup call

3.       Beans and Rice is almost all you eat

4.       Kisses on the cheek

5.       Cat calls

6.       Glue sniffers

7.       Overly packed buses

8.       Very skinny pets

9.       Mosquito nets

10.   Cleaning at least 4 times a day

11.   Bucket baths are preferred

12.   No running water or electricity for half or more of a day

13.   Latrines being preferable to toilets

14.   Most of food is bought in outdoor markets

15.   Only 5 TV channels

16.   School is half a day

17.   School is maybe 4 days a week

18.   Teachers can leave class rooms

19.   Clothes never dry

20.   Washing laundry on a wash board

21.   Very tight clothes that don’t fit their body

22.   There are only two religions catholic or evangelical

23.   Doors are left unlocked

24.   You are expected to walk into houses without invite

25.   Mode of transportation is a horse

26.   Roads turn into rivers when it rains

27.   Walk 6k to get to your house

28.   AC is too cold

29.   A fan is your new best friend

30.   70F is cold

31.   A rain storm sounds like the house is falling apart

32.   There is dirt yards not grass

33.   Horses are the main source of transportation

34.   All schools wear the same clothes

35.   Hitchhiking is welcomed

36.   Parasites and Bacteria are your babies

37.   Food on wood fire tasts better

38.   The oven is a storage place

39.   Dogs and cats are anorexic

40.   Traficlights are just for show

41.   What is a speed imit?

42.   All clothes are ironed

43.   Salt sugar and oil are their own food groups

44.   What is a trashcan?

45.   Not greeting someone is an insult

46.   Reading is not a pastime

47.   Hitting kids and animals is the norm

48.   Food, rent and utilities are only $65 a month

49.   There are no prescriptions just go and ask for what you want

Well this has been an interesting time. Let’s see I have 14 kids in my manualidades (arts and crafts) class. I have talked to the teachers about having SONATI a NGO from Leon come and do a class about the environment. They agreed on a topic and we are now having them come twice! The first time I will have to change because I will not be in my site. They will be doing the charla your responsibility to the environment and animal trafficking. Those are rough translations of the Spanish version. It should be fun and I can’t wait to see what they do. The best things is the only thing that we need to pay for is the transportation.

I have been having problems finding times to help the high schoolers with their projects. When they are out of class and doing most of the work I am in class. As well when I am out of class they are in class. I am still trying to figure this all out. I really want to work with them just haven’t figured out how yet. My English class had gone well and I think I am really getting the handle of things. I hope that all of the students show up again. I need to remember to get their numbers I have to be able to call them to tell them about any cancelations or changes in times.

Classes are going relatively well I have taught some cultural and art classes. They did a picture using three of more different types of materials. They could go out and look for the materials in the school then they had to make a picture using said materials and different colors. They were graded on the number of material their creativity and participation. They loved it and the teachers loved it too. I have fun doing it and did a really good job. I even had teachers bragging to the other teachers and I did in their classes too! It feels good to be appreciated.

I am also helping another volunteer with their youth group and we are having a blast doing it I can’t wait to help more. They kids are really nice and she is giving me a lot of ideas about things that I could do. While I am on the topic of helping volunteers I will tell you what I did this weekend. I went to my friend’s house and helped her with a fair she was putting on. It went great but I was so tired after it. We woke up early every day and worked for most of the day. The kids were great and they had a blast. She also lives next to a river so we got to go swimming something I really miss. It was nice to get cooled off and hang out with a great friend. I think I will do a fair of my own around the topic of malaria and dengue. It will be done after school gets out giving the kids something fun to do. Maybe I can get the help of other volunteers of community members.

I have a lot of new ideas of things that I want to do. I am planning for a baseball competition with HIV and AIDS theme. I am also working on the ecological brigade like I mentioned before. I think that it will cost will be a about 1,000 dollars so I think that I will post a partnership through Peace Corps that will allow friends and family to donate to the event. I will keep you updated if this is something that I will do and when I post it. Tell me who is interested in giving some money I need to know for the grant process.

Thanks and I love you all. 

This has been a very productive week and I am finally starting to feel like I am accomplishing something. I am beginning to feel like a real volunteer which is nice. Just as everyone said it will take a year and in one month it will be a year in country. Time as gone so fast it feels like I just started here. So let’s get on to the week shall we.

Monday classes were canceled so I cleaned my room and did a lot of prep work. I just printed off the syllabus that all of the teachers get about what they need to teach in a year and when they have to teach it. I was looking at that and making activities that would fit with the upcoming semester. I had a few ideas and wanted to see if they would fit into the year. They did so I had a lot of fun writing them down. I then played with my siblings and had some me time. I found out that my counterpart was worried about me because I forgot to tell her I was back from Managua. I called her the middle of last week telling her about the extension. She thought I was sick again and called Peace Corps to find out where I was. Peace Corps said that I had left all ready and she called me. It turns out that she has a project for me. I talked with her next day.

Tuesday I had class and helped out a lot with math class. I am now the official go to for answers and works checking when I don’t know the topic that will be taught. I also put in my own two pieces when I can. That afternoon I went to the high school to meet the new English teacher. The old one is in the US for 6 months. I introduced myself saying that I was interested in helping her teach some classes. We then hit it off well. She is my age and we seem to have a fair amount in common we talked all through recreo when I had to go and talk to the other classes. The project that my counterpart was talking about what helping the high schoolers do there senior/final project.  There are three classes and I will be helping each one. One is doing a garden of some sort in the school, second is making things out of garbage and the last one is doing some sort of trash pickup. I need to talk with the kids to get more information about their ideas. I ended up staying the whole day.

Wed is usually my day of no classes I went because I was to work with one of the high schoolers but no one was there. So I went to work with one of my teachers instead. He had me teaching almost every class, Language, Science and I helped with math and discipline. It was a great day went back and relaxed. I get a call from my assistant director of Peace Corps asking to come out to my site. The first thing that went through my mind was oh no what did I do! Nervous I gave him my schedule and would see him the next day.

Thur. I want up to my second school where we started the school garden it went well but we still have a lot of work to do. I get a call from the director saying that he would be there in about 10 min. I was a 4K walk from my site. He ended up picking me up at school. My fears were for nothing! All he walked to do was see how I was doing and see my site. So we walked around my site. I had an appointment with one of the neighboring volunteers and he drove me there. We did a youth group with manualidades (arts and crafts) and it wants over really well. I walked about her town and used the internet to do some research for tomorrow class. I get on the bus and go to the empalme (entrance) to my site. I was about 1 ½ hours early for the next bus so I decided to walk. And walk and walk. I finally hitch a ride for the last k maybe to town. I find out that it is 6k to my site. I was exhausted and in pain. I cooked dinner and went to bed. I figured out that I walked about 9k that day with is about 5.5m.

Fri. I was in so much pain it felt like I just did the marathon or something I dragged myself out of bed early to get to the early class at school. I was exhausted from the day before. I arrive on time after falling back to sleep. Just as class was about to start one of the students fainted, there was a ton of people to help her. I gave my water and phone to call her mom to come get her to the clinic. She was pretty bad I’m not sure how she is I will have to ask on Mon. Class starts and we were finishing up the abonera (compost) which is a lot of shoveling dirt into bags. We ended up with about 4.5 sacos (sacks) full. This is great because I can use them in the school garden. I then quickly went back to my house to get my forgotten computer and returned to school to teach my second class of the day ECA which is like an arts class. I did a wonderful job. So well that the teacher was boasting about it with the other teachers. I feel like I might end up doing it with other classes. I’m really proud of myself for this accomplishment. I was offered to go to their house later but I ended up falling asleep I will have to go day to make up for it. One the way back to my house I was stopped by my old host mother she wanted me to help teach her class that day. I politely refused and said I would do it next week and collapsed in my bed. I ate dinner and went to sleep.

It was a great week and I have a lot of things planned for the upcoming months too. I want to do a baseball AIDS completion where between the teams there would be information about HIV/AIDS. I am planning an ecological brigade involving tree planting and trash as well as some activities and a field trip.  I will be starting a manualidades class at my econ school every Mon. starting next week as well as an English class. My only concern now is to not overdo it and get sick I have to remember that I am only one person and can only do so much.  We get a new bunch of Environment volunteers soon so I will post likely be helping them with training I am excited to meet them. I don’t feel like I have much to offer them but I will do my best to make them feel welcomed and give as much advice as I can.

I hope that all is well and enjoying life as much as I am.  Love you all XOXO