My first Nicaraguan 4th of July has come and gone, along with my first dia del maestros, and semester break. All in all the past two weeks have been wonderful and full of great memories with my friends, both nica and american.
Dia del maestros was unlike anything I could have expected before coming to Nicaragua and exactly what I imagined since I´ve arrived. After living here for 10 months I knew enough that I should put on my best outfit, do up my make-up and rock some heels. So I got all decked out in my nica finest, met my counterpart and off we went! The party was being held by the alcaldia (mayors office) of LPC at one of our town´s discos. It started off with the normal actos, speechs, dances, , more speeches and some more dances, including a really funny one where the guy dressed up like a girl and the girl like a guy. Ok. it was way more funny if you are watching it then I can describe. But trust me, it was a good laugh. Following the acto, was lunch and then the dancing began. Of course being the token gringa EVERYONE wanted to dance with me and I´ve loved to learn here that no matter how ridiculous I look everyone still thinks I´m a good dancer. :) So we danced and then the rum came out and my teachers took on the mission of insuring I always had a full class of rum and coke. Have I mentioned how much I love this country? By the time I left at 5 (the event had started at 10), I was a little bit drunk, decently blistered and convinced I would move permently to Nicaragua to be a teacher, just for this party every year.
Happily, though the partying wasn´t over for me as the past weekend was the 4th of July! And we took it into our hands to show off the 2nd goal of Peace Corps and throw a good old 4th of July party Nicaraguan style! Nagarote (the town next to mine) was having a hipica (horse parade) and thus this became the site for our celebrations. So I bought streamers in red and blue (couldn´t find white..but then one of the neighborhood kids suggested we use toilet paper...haha) and we put up a huge fleece american flag blanket. I made deviled eggs, Rachel brought some chips and made french onion dip and Chris went all kinds of culinary and made soy burger and banana cream pie. So good. Bascially, we ate a ton of food, drank some beer and rum, watched the horse parade and did this all in the dark, since the lights went out! Then like true Nica-Americans we (well I) donned our (my) red, white and blue and went to the party in the towns cancha. So maybe we didn´t have any fireworks in Nicaragua, but heck we did have a mariachi band and that was almost as good.
So partying it up. I can´t complain at all and after a week of no school and a nice little vacation, I´m ready to get back to life. I was so excited to return back to LPC on Friday and even more exctied when I started playing kickball with my neighbors. It was an absolute blast even though I got placed on the boys team because they were short players and they were some of the worst kickball players EVER. But it was still really fun and the boys seemed to love me so much that when I asked them to pick up there trash, take it home and put it in the basurero (trash can) they did it with a smile. WIN!
And this week is going to be another great one! I can feel it! :)
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Monday, June 28, 2010
Mosquitos in my toilet
So I´ve reached the part in servive..i like to call "casi un año". As in whenever some one asks me how long I´ve been living in Nicaragua I can actually respond..."casi un año". And in this new whole..I´ve almost been in Nicaragua for a year kind of thing..I´ve decided to try blogging again. Mostly incase there really is someone who wants to hear about my life in Nicaragua! Or maybe because i feel like wasting sometime in the cyber. ¿Quién sabe?
Anyway, its the rainy season and they are not kidding about the rainy season. Even here in the dry, dry, volcanic land of León it rains almost everyday. I totally thought it would be fantstic and it mostly is (love not having to use a fan..well mostly becuase my fan is broken). But doing laundry is a pain as my clothes taking freaking forever to dry. I´ve started just kind of putting on kind of wet clothes if my drying laundry is an outfit I want to wear. At least its clean. And life stops when it rains (as does my electricity sometimes), which is fantastic for my reading skills, but not so much if i want the ice cream man to pass by. Or to have class at school.
This week is the last week of the semester at school btw, which means we get to celebrate día de los maestros, party, and in the case of one of my schools...go to the zoo. Yes. the zoo. Not sure if i´m going with them...but we´ll see. Otherwise, next week is semester break and then back to normal school life. I hope. This past month has been crazy in the schools with the rain, all the holidays, and me being sick. I have a couple of gardens going..but I´m afraid nothing will grow since I seem to be lacking the green thumb that I should have to be a successful volunteer. My self and another volunteer were joking that I should continue in service unitl I finally plant a successful garden. (or just get a plant to grow!) Haha..that might be years!
Otherwise, I had some horrible virus thing 2 weeks ago combined with a bacterial infection and it was like death. I´m trying to be careful of my fritanga (food sold on the street), but its so freakin tasty. Today as I was eating my tajadas and fried cheese all I could think was please dear street food don´t have a parasite in you. We´ll see in a week if it did or didn´t. :) Just hoping I don´t get dengue as there is a pretty major outbreak in my town supposebly..the MINSA people informed me their have been 100 cases in La Paz. This was of course after they told me I had mosquito larve in my toilet. Yup. My toilet. (of my new incredibley awesome house)
Oh, Nicaragua. Never a boring day!
Anyway, its the rainy season and they are not kidding about the rainy season. Even here in the dry, dry, volcanic land of León it rains almost everyday. I totally thought it would be fantstic and it mostly is (love not having to use a fan..well mostly becuase my fan is broken). But doing laundry is a pain as my clothes taking freaking forever to dry. I´ve started just kind of putting on kind of wet clothes if my drying laundry is an outfit I want to wear. At least its clean. And life stops when it rains (as does my electricity sometimes), which is fantastic for my reading skills, but not so much if i want the ice cream man to pass by. Or to have class at school.
This week is the last week of the semester at school btw, which means we get to celebrate día de los maestros, party, and in the case of one of my schools...go to the zoo. Yes. the zoo. Not sure if i´m going with them...but we´ll see. Otherwise, next week is semester break and then back to normal school life. I hope. This past month has been crazy in the schools with the rain, all the holidays, and me being sick. I have a couple of gardens going..but I´m afraid nothing will grow since I seem to be lacking the green thumb that I should have to be a successful volunteer. My self and another volunteer were joking that I should continue in service unitl I finally plant a successful garden. (or just get a plant to grow!) Haha..that might be years!
Otherwise, I had some horrible virus thing 2 weeks ago combined with a bacterial infection and it was like death. I´m trying to be careful of my fritanga (food sold on the street), but its so freakin tasty. Today as I was eating my tajadas and fried cheese all I could think was please dear street food don´t have a parasite in you. We´ll see in a week if it did or didn´t. :) Just hoping I don´t get dengue as there is a pretty major outbreak in my town supposebly..the MINSA people informed me their have been 100 cases in La Paz. This was of course after they told me I had mosquito larve in my toilet. Yup. My toilet. (of my new incredibley awesome house)
Oh, Nicaragua. Never a boring day!
Sunday, March 14, 2010
I'll definately write more later, i promise calli fronk. But i'm waiting in the PC office so I figured I would just write a little now!
Life here is all kinds of wonderful and extremely busy. School has been going strong for about 2 months and the weeks seem to be flying by because of it. The way my school schedule fell I am teaching pretty much all day (morning and afternoon) at different schools three days a week with the opportunity to do work the rest of the week on other projects in my community or at my schools. I started teaching last week and so far have given extremely exciting charlas about the digestive system, circulatory system, nervious system and why you should donate blood. Oh, fun times. Most of my classes and students are really amazing but at one of my schools the 4th grade class is really misbehaved. However, I'm hoping that as long as the teacher is in the room and we can work together to set some good rules and use differnet management techniques things will be better.
I've also started working with Muchachas Guias de Nicaragua, which is part of the World Girl Scout movement. I gave a charla last week in Chinadega and attended a culture day which was amazing. Then I've had my first meetings with my group in LPC and things are looking great! The girls were really into playing games and singing songs, as well as had plenty of great ideas about the activities they want to do! So hopefully things will turn out great and I'll be able to create more groups in my town, find nica counterparts and then make this a sustainable, fun, and exiciting project in my town!
Finally, i started a garden in my house and nothing grew. I was super sad. :( The plan is to restart my garden and get it growing soon...I really want a garden and to do gardening projects with my neighbors! I will have an amazing garden!
Life here is all kinds of wonderful and extremely busy. School has been going strong for about 2 months and the weeks seem to be flying by because of it. The way my school schedule fell I am teaching pretty much all day (morning and afternoon) at different schools three days a week with the opportunity to do work the rest of the week on other projects in my community or at my schools. I started teaching last week and so far have given extremely exciting charlas about the digestive system, circulatory system, nervious system and why you should donate blood. Oh, fun times. Most of my classes and students are really amazing but at one of my schools the 4th grade class is really misbehaved. However, I'm hoping that as long as the teacher is in the room and we can work together to set some good rules and use differnet management techniques things will be better.
I've also started working with Muchachas Guias de Nicaragua, which is part of the World Girl Scout movement. I gave a charla last week in Chinadega and attended a culture day which was amazing. Then I've had my first meetings with my group in LPC and things are looking great! The girls were really into playing games and singing songs, as well as had plenty of great ideas about the activities they want to do! So hopefully things will turn out great and I'll be able to create more groups in my town, find nica counterparts and then make this a sustainable, fun, and exiciting project in my town!
Finally, i started a garden in my house and nothing grew. I was super sad. :( The plan is to restart my garden and get it growing soon...I really want a garden and to do gardening projects with my neighbors! I will have an amazing garden!
Monday, February 1, 2010
The Little Things
So everyone always say that its the little things in life that are important. And since I´ve been in Nicaragua...I´ve really noticied how true that is! Just the littlest things here can make me happy! For example:
1) Getting a seat on the bus-Its an absolute pain to have to stand on the bus because people are ALWAYS moving around and your getting stepped on and accidentally stepping on others. However, once you have a seat here you are set for the ride...so i practically have a mini celebration when i finally get a seat (or get on the bus and its empty and i just automatically have a seat!
2) Being able to buy ice- Currently i´m in an absolute obsession with making sun tea. This is for two reasons, one...its good for the environment (solar power!) and so its like doing part of my job for PC (haha) and two..i currently don´t have a stove and i really like tea!! So go SUN TEA! And the fact i can buy ice for 1 cord from my neighbor makes me exceedingly happy because then i can have iced tea! YAY!
3) Having water when i want to take a shower- This one is pretty self explainitory...its really sad when you want to take a shower or wash laundry or just do anything involving water and its not on.
4) Having new clothes to wear- Ok...so i would be excited to get new clothes in the states. But for Christmas, my mom sent me an amazing package with some new clothes. I´ve been wearing the same thing for littely 5 months and having new clothes still excited me EVERY morning when i wake up! I´m like yay! I new outfit to wear!!!!
5) Walking by a group of men and not having them yell at me- This is the best one...I practially want to hug all of them when this happens!!!
Ok..so those are a few examples. I thought of some more tbe other day, but i forgot them! Oh well!!
Anyway, its been 2 months down in site and 5 months since I´ve arrived in Nicaragua! So EXCITING!!! I think its also been 2 months since i last wrote a blog post! Oh, well!!! Atleast i´m writing now!
Things in site are going pretty good! I´m really in love with my site now and couldn´t imagine living anywhere else for the next two years! I love my host family here in the LPC and would have lived with them for 2 years except they have dogs and I was sicky sick! So instead I now have a rockin house with 2 rooms and a bathroom and a patio with trees! It makes me happy and its super cute! Currently I have NOTHING in my house..but pretty soon I hope to get some stuff in it! YAY!
Otherwise, school starts tomorrow!!! WOO!!! So exciting to start working, get to know my teachers and meet my kids! Its going to be fun and busy..but I can´t wait. I´m also looking at forming a girls youth group..either based around girl scouts..or actually working with the muchachas guìas de Nicaragua to actually form a troop! Plus, i´m helping out with the environmental commision in my community and hopefully will have some decent projects starting with that! Bascially, the work is starting, i´m loving it, and the next few months are bound to fly by!
Ok..so writing this post wasn´t to horrible..or take to much time! It actually was kind of fun! I´ll try to post again soon because I have SO MANY CRAZY STORIES to tell.
So stay tuned for:
1) Elyse falls of her bike
2) Elyse´s trip to the Nicaraguan Centro de Salud
3) La Purisima (aka..Trick or treating for Mary)
4) Christmas in Nicaragua (or....How to drink beer out of a bag)
5) La Bruja (aka..the lady who sold us food at 3am)
6) Why you should never go to the beach with a Nica
7) And Elyse´s bad luck after breaking a mirror!
Yes..i will one day (soon) write these stories for you reading enjoyment..I promise!!!
1) Getting a seat on the bus-Its an absolute pain to have to stand on the bus because people are ALWAYS moving around and your getting stepped on and accidentally stepping on others. However, once you have a seat here you are set for the ride...so i practically have a mini celebration when i finally get a seat (or get on the bus and its empty and i just automatically have a seat!
2) Being able to buy ice- Currently i´m in an absolute obsession with making sun tea. This is for two reasons, one...its good for the environment (solar power!) and so its like doing part of my job for PC (haha) and two..i currently don´t have a stove and i really like tea!! So go SUN TEA! And the fact i can buy ice for 1 cord from my neighbor makes me exceedingly happy because then i can have iced tea! YAY!
3) Having water when i want to take a shower- This one is pretty self explainitory...its really sad when you want to take a shower or wash laundry or just do anything involving water and its not on.
4) Having new clothes to wear- Ok...so i would be excited to get new clothes in the states. But for Christmas, my mom sent me an amazing package with some new clothes. I´ve been wearing the same thing for littely 5 months and having new clothes still excited me EVERY morning when i wake up! I´m like yay! I new outfit to wear!!!!
5) Walking by a group of men and not having them yell at me- This is the best one...I practially want to hug all of them when this happens!!!
Ok..so those are a few examples. I thought of some more tbe other day, but i forgot them! Oh well!!
Anyway, its been 2 months down in site and 5 months since I´ve arrived in Nicaragua! So EXCITING!!! I think its also been 2 months since i last wrote a blog post! Oh, well!!! Atleast i´m writing now!
Things in site are going pretty good! I´m really in love with my site now and couldn´t imagine living anywhere else for the next two years! I love my host family here in the LPC and would have lived with them for 2 years except they have dogs and I was sicky sick! So instead I now have a rockin house with 2 rooms and a bathroom and a patio with trees! It makes me happy and its super cute! Currently I have NOTHING in my house..but pretty soon I hope to get some stuff in it! YAY!
Otherwise, school starts tomorrow!!! WOO!!! So exciting to start working, get to know my teachers and meet my kids! Its going to be fun and busy..but I can´t wait. I´m also looking at forming a girls youth group..either based around girl scouts..or actually working with the muchachas guìas de Nicaragua to actually form a troop! Plus, i´m helping out with the environmental commision in my community and hopefully will have some decent projects starting with that! Bascially, the work is starting, i´m loving it, and the next few months are bound to fly by!
Ok..so writing this post wasn´t to horrible..or take to much time! It actually was kind of fun! I´ll try to post again soon because I have SO MANY CRAZY STORIES to tell.
So stay tuned for:
1) Elyse falls of her bike
2) Elyse´s trip to the Nicaraguan Centro de Salud
3) La Purisima (aka..Trick or treating for Mary)
4) Christmas in Nicaragua (or....How to drink beer out of a bag)
5) La Bruja (aka..the lady who sold us food at 3am)
6) Why you should never go to the beach with a Nica
7) And Elyse´s bad luck after breaking a mirror!
Yes..i will one day (soon) write these stories for you reading enjoyment..I promise!!!
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Salve a ti Nicaragua
I totally told myself before I came to Nicaragua I would keep this blog up-to-date because I loved blog stalking during my application & wait to leave for country. However, it is sometimes really hard because during my limited internet time I really want to do things like facebook stalk/ skype/read postsecret/other random stuff. And during training I was so busy! But as a newly sworn-in volunteer...I am going to try to update more often and adjust my internet time so that I'm actually being productive (a little bit!).
So training is officially over and Monday was Nica 51 swearing in ceremony. It was such a great day and I couldn't stop smiling as I finally became an official Peace Corps Volunteer. The weeks preceeding swearing in were crazy, including our site visit, our final charlas, youth group ceremony, interviews, and random PC briefings...now I suppose its time to relax a little! :)
I passed my final language interview with flying colors! Coming in with such a limited spanish ability was challenging, but I am now so excited with how much I learned and achieved during training. Although I am by no means fluent, I can complete most daily tasks and hold pretty great conversations. Over the past few weeks I've learned so much about my host family from our conversations and I'm glad to have developed my relationship with them. Seeing them leave on Monday after swearing in was extremely sad. They were a great host family and really introduced me into the culture and life of Nicaragua. I will definately mantain a great relationship with them over the next two years and look forward to cooking food with american cheese, going to the beach, and being absolutely crazy with my sister and cousins!
Tomorrow morning I officialy leave for my site as an official PCV. Its very exciting and also a little bit nerve-wracking after 12 weeks of training. During training, everything is so structered and we spend so much time with the other trainees..its going to be strange really being out in Nicaragua by ourselves. Most of us in the training class are nervous, but talking to other volunteers about the first couple months and knowing they survived ensured me at least that I will make it though. Plus, after AVC (all volunteer conference) this week, I am very excited to get to site and start implementing some amazing ideas! Also, I'll be busy with promciones, PACA tools (YES! YES!), finding a house, and complete community integration! WOO!!
In some ways it really is crazy that I'm actually starting this journey. I swore-in as a PCV about 1 year after recieving my nomination to Peace Corps. Seeing this dream and reality come true is absolutely amazing and I am so excited to dedicate my next 2 years in service to Nicaragua!
So training is officially over and Monday was Nica 51 swearing in ceremony. It was such a great day and I couldn't stop smiling as I finally became an official Peace Corps Volunteer. The weeks preceeding swearing in were crazy, including our site visit, our final charlas, youth group ceremony, interviews, and random PC briefings...now I suppose its time to relax a little! :)
I passed my final language interview with flying colors! Coming in with such a limited spanish ability was challenging, but I am now so excited with how much I learned and achieved during training. Although I am by no means fluent, I can complete most daily tasks and hold pretty great conversations. Over the past few weeks I've learned so much about my host family from our conversations and I'm glad to have developed my relationship with them. Seeing them leave on Monday after swearing in was extremely sad. They were a great host family and really introduced me into the culture and life of Nicaragua. I will definately mantain a great relationship with them over the next two years and look forward to cooking food with american cheese, going to the beach, and being absolutely crazy with my sister and cousins!
Tomorrow morning I officialy leave for my site as an official PCV. Its very exciting and also a little bit nerve-wracking after 12 weeks of training. During training, everything is so structered and we spend so much time with the other trainees..its going to be strange really being out in Nicaragua by ourselves. Most of us in the training class are nervous, but talking to other volunteers about the first couple months and knowing they survived ensured me at least that I will make it though. Plus, after AVC (all volunteer conference) this week, I am very excited to get to site and start implementing some amazing ideas! Also, I'll be busy with promciones, PACA tools (YES! YES!), finding a house, and complete community integration! WOO!!
In some ways it really is crazy that I'm actually starting this journey. I swore-in as a PCV about 1 year after recieving my nomination to Peace Corps. Seeing this dream and reality come true is absolutely amazing and I am so excited to dedicate my next 2 years in service to Nicaragua!
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Ok..so I know its been a month since I last posted..so for a really quick update (I´ll do a better one next week when I´m in Managua and have free interent)
I have my site assignement! I will be spending my next 2 years living in La Paz Centro, León!!! More about this and my site visit later.
Life in Nicaragua is wonderful as always and my spanish is doing great! I´ve been able to travel more which is awesome..Nicaragua is such a beautiful country!
Swearing-in is in one week!! Yay!
I have my site assignement! I will be spending my next 2 years living in La Paz Centro, León!!! More about this and my site visit later.
Life in Nicaragua is wonderful as always and my spanish is doing great! I´ve been able to travel more which is awesome..Nicaragua is such a beautiful country!
Swearing-in is in one week!! Yay!
Thursday, October 15, 2009
¿Tiempo Libre? ¿Que es esto?
So training has been progressing along quite nicely and I´m crazy busy all the time! However, I´m learning tons and am getting more and more excited to finally be sworn in as a volunteer!
My volunteer visit was last week and it was absolutely fantastic! I visited a small, small pueblo (about 400 people) and about 1 hour away from Juigalpa. Not only was it a great chance to learn about the life of a volunteer, but I also was able to see more of Nicaragua, use the public transporation system, and also realize that one day I can cook my own food again! Although, I´m really going to miss my host mom´s gallo pinto and refrescos when I leave my training town!
Anyway, the trip to Juigalpa was absoluley crazy as fully expected. Myself and 3 other trainees left our training pueblos at 6am, took an Expresso to Manauga, a taxi to the other bus terminal, and then after being bombarded by men wanting us to get into there taxi or bus, we finally found the bus we needed to Chontales. 3 hours later (through which i slept during...waking up ocasionally to find a new seat mate) and I woke up just in time to see the sign for Juigalpa...I managed to used my ROCKIN spanish skills to ask my current seat mate where the final stop was (which we were at!) and ran off the bus! We met up with our volunteers, did a little shopping, ate pizza and finally Caralyn and I returned to her site. The next few days were filled with walking to schools, stalking the alcalde (mayor), teaching classes, hanging out at the library, cooking ridiculous amounts of food, cleaning up cat vomit, jamming to taylor swift, teaching kids how to use dictionaries, watching the office, and hanging out with some amazing Nicas. I had so so much fun and it made me so excited to find out my site, move there, and start working in my community!
Speaking of which, 2 weeks from yesterday we find out our site placements! Environment 51 recived our site packets yesterday and we have our site fair tomorrow. This is huge...one becuase it really, really means that we are halfway through training..and getting towards the end! And....I am looking at the 20 potential places I could be spending the next 2 years of my life! SO EXCITING! I took a look through the site packet and there are a lot of great sites...I definately want a small to medium sized site..not all about the big ones!
Otherwise, today we had our mid-training language interviews..I did pretty well...my spanish is crazy improving! Not sure when I´ll find out the results..but I know I´m certainly on the way to get to reaching Intermediate Mid!!!
Last Saturday we went to Volcán Masaya...amazing beautiful...however my camera chose to not be charged right when we got to the top. haha And then we went to the acutal city of Masaya...ate a ridiculous amount of food and then went to the market..where i bought a new pair of sandales for a fantastic $3.75! YAY!
So thats my life for now..One day I will get pictures up...someday!
My volunteer visit was last week and it was absolutely fantastic! I visited a small, small pueblo (about 400 people) and about 1 hour away from Juigalpa. Not only was it a great chance to learn about the life of a volunteer, but I also was able to see more of Nicaragua, use the public transporation system, and also realize that one day I can cook my own food again! Although, I´m really going to miss my host mom´s gallo pinto and refrescos when I leave my training town!
Anyway, the trip to Juigalpa was absoluley crazy as fully expected. Myself and 3 other trainees left our training pueblos at 6am, took an Expresso to Manauga, a taxi to the other bus terminal, and then after being bombarded by men wanting us to get into there taxi or bus, we finally found the bus we needed to Chontales. 3 hours later (through which i slept during...waking up ocasionally to find a new seat mate) and I woke up just in time to see the sign for Juigalpa...I managed to used my ROCKIN spanish skills to ask my current seat mate where the final stop was (which we were at!) and ran off the bus! We met up with our volunteers, did a little shopping, ate pizza and finally Caralyn and I returned to her site. The next few days were filled with walking to schools, stalking the alcalde (mayor), teaching classes, hanging out at the library, cooking ridiculous amounts of food, cleaning up cat vomit, jamming to taylor swift, teaching kids how to use dictionaries, watching the office, and hanging out with some amazing Nicas. I had so so much fun and it made me so excited to find out my site, move there, and start working in my community!
Speaking of which, 2 weeks from yesterday we find out our site placements! Environment 51 recived our site packets yesterday and we have our site fair tomorrow. This is huge...one becuase it really, really means that we are halfway through training..and getting towards the end! And....I am looking at the 20 potential places I could be spending the next 2 years of my life! SO EXCITING! I took a look through the site packet and there are a lot of great sites...I definately want a small to medium sized site..not all about the big ones!
Otherwise, today we had our mid-training language interviews..I did pretty well...my spanish is crazy improving! Not sure when I´ll find out the results..but I know I´m certainly on the way to get to reaching Intermediate Mid!!!
Last Saturday we went to Volcán Masaya...amazing beautiful...however my camera chose to not be charged right when we got to the top. haha And then we went to the acutal city of Masaya...ate a ridiculous amount of food and then went to the market..where i bought a new pair of sandales for a fantastic $3.75! YAY!
So thats my life for now..One day I will get pictures up...someday!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)