Winners!

I just wanted to give you all a quick update on Last Friday’s competition!  Our youth group took 2^nd place over all out of the 12 groups represented at the competition!  Better yet we received first place amongst the business sector, which was awesome.    The other groups had no idea what had hit them.  We even sold three out of the five candleholders that we had made for the competition.  The presentation went really well and I was so proud of our girls looking so professional with their PowerPoint and matching ensembles.  One unfortunate instance, or fortunate depending on how you look at it, was the fact that our girls were cut short by the timer during their presentation.  He made a mistake and even though they had 3 minutes left to present they had to return to their seats.  When the judges had realized what had happened they called the girls back up at the end to finish the presentation and obviously take home 2^nd place!  I can’t tell you the amount of frustration and emotion I felt at this moment for the girls.  They had worked way to hard to be cut short.  I think I amazed myself how much I actually cared and wanted success for these girls after watching them work so hard.  The judges were really impressed by the artistic work that was represented.  I must say, the gals are really talented.  My boss even bought one of the candleholders!  I will post some pictures of the finished product so you can see for yourself. 

It was great to work with three young women on this project because I could tell that they were taking this opportunity seriously.  All three of them are very adamant about bettering their lives.  They are the first three young women I have worked closely with in Nica and I can’t wait to be able to influence the lives of many other women here.

Needless to say it was a great last weekend in our training towns.  We all went to the Laguna one last time on Saturday to enjoy its beauty and indulge in fish tacos by the shore.  That night we all reunited for chicken wings(first time in Nica) and beers to celebrate the end of all our hard work with our youth groups.  Last night we took our three young winners out to dinner as a good-bye/congratulations dinner. Tonight I'm going to my Nica girlfriends' house for another good-bye dinner.  Let’s just say I’ve been eating pretty well ha ha.

Three more days here in Nandasmo for training and then I’m off to Managua for three whole nights in a hotel!  With hot water!  And all my friends!  With bars and clubs in walking distance!  Thursday we are meeting the new Ambassador and Friday we swear in as official Peace Corps Volunteers in Managua.  We will be raising our right hand and taking an oath to serve the goals of our country as well as Nicaragua’s.  We are also taking this opportunity to celebrate Peace Corps 50^th Anniversary, which means we get to go to the country director’s house(my bosses boss) for dinner and a fiesta!  Sunday I’m off to the big city of Chinandega and never looking back, well maybe, I guess I did learn quite a bit here.

I love and miss you all back home!  Thank you so much for your support over these last months!  You have no idea what it has meant to me.  Even though these posts may seem happy go lucky, there have been some really difficult times and it helps just knowing that you are all there for me.  The skype sessions, emails, phone calls, and gchats have gotten me through.  Mom you have been amazing sending me packages to keep me sane!  Much love!

Training is Winding Down

Training is coming to a close and everything is happening so fast!  I only have 8 days left in my training town, but quite a bit to accomplish still.

I know I have mentioned my youth group in prior posts, but basically we have been working with a group of youth from day one on starting their own business and producing a product.  After several weeks of 2 meetings weekly we are complete with three very talented and dedicated young ladies.  Our product is a candleholder with repujado, which is where a design is pressed in to aluminum and applied to the recycled glass candleholders.  The name of the business is Nandaluz, Nandasmo for our town and luz(light) to represent the candle light.  Our competition to market our product is this Friday so wish us luck!

On top of the work that needs to be done, I haven’t really been sleeping much as this weekend marked the day of the Samosa dictatorship expulsion some 30 years ago from Nica.  This meant constant celebration with fireworks and bands playing through the night.  Today I had off from Spanish class because it is the celebration of the victory of the Sandanistas who won the infamous Revolutionary war that terrorized Nica back in the 80’s.  All of the yellow school buses normally used for public transportation were excused from duty to carry thousands of Sandanista(current ruling party) supporters to Managua for rallies in the streets.   People were piled dangerously high on top of the buses and hanging out of their windows with drunken excitement.  I decided to avoid that chaos and head to the Lake with some other volunteers on my day off which had me up early.  Not to mention the all girls sleepover that occurred at my house last night due to the lack of school today.  I watched the first twilight movie in Spanish and ate cookies with 8 lil Nica girls under the age of 14 including my sisters.  I had forgotten that Bella was originally from Arizona and all the girls gasped and said “Kati es su estado”(it’s your state) like it was a big deal ha ha!  And yes I had to watch as they rewound the DVD to watch Bella and Edward kiss again!

We have been celebrating a lot of birthdays in our group which means I’ve been eating and drinking quite well.  That’s the one thing volunteers love to do when given an excuse, splurge on good food!  Me celebrated my buddy Leslie’s b-day dinner in Masaya where we bought our first bottles of wine at a “French” restaurant or the Nica version of one at least.  To celebrate Michelle’s b-day last Saturday we ate lunch at a Mexican restaurant where I splurged on Chiliquiles, horchata and chicken tacos!  I’m not going to lie; I also had a piece of cheesecake alongside the b-day girl!  That night’s celebration was complete with a bottle of rum and card games, you can imagine the rest.

Another highlight of my past week was making bread at my favorite bakery, Panaderia Esperanza, with its owner Antonio and his wife Raquel.  Our Spanish teacher thought this would be a more useful language lesson than sitting in a classroom and I totally agreed.  The four of us volunteers here in Nandasmo spent the afternoon learning the process of mixing, cutting, rolling and stuffing bread to bake.  The best part was that we got to take it all home!  I was on bread overload for about three days!

I have finally made a Nica friend!  Irma is 23 and attends an American university in Managua but lives in my small town of Nandasmo.  I get to practice my Spanish and she gets to practice her English, perfect! I met her during festivities here in Nandasmo and then attended one of her dance classes with her, which was quite an experience!  It was like Nicaraguan folk dancing meets ballet! I was also invited to her intimate birthday dinner at her house, which made me feel pretty special.  She’s been practicing yoga with myself and my other fellow yogi volunteers as well.  They say you’ve integrated when you can make a Nica friend.  I’m really going to miss her when I move to Chinandega.

Nica Culture 101

So I’d like to start this entry with sharing the realization that I have experienced culture shock here in Nicaragua.  I wasn’t sure if this would be something that would really be an issue for me and in reality it hasn’t been.  In fact I didn’t even realize I had experienced it until I read some PC materials about what culture shock is like.  So it’s taken me until now to be able to share it with you.  Part of my goal of keeping this blog is to share the Nicaraguan culture and now that I don’t find it as crazy, I can laugh about the weird things that I see here.

At first I just felt down right guilty about everything, guilty about everything that I did have or didn’t have.  For instance, I felt super guilty for having a laptop and bringing it out in front of my family.  Then I felt super guilty that my bed was hard as a rock and that I thought that I deserved something better than what the rest of my family slept on.  After getting over the guilt I was just plain angry about the poverty for quite awhile until I just started embracing everything Nica. This took quite some time, but now with three months here in Nica I can laugh at all the crazy and ridiculous things I see daily.

I’d love to share some of the things that led to my culture shock, but now I’ve accepted as part of my daily life here.

Oil- Every thing is cooked in massive amounts of oil.  I’m talking a fried egg is literally drowned in oil so it cooks on both sides without flipping it.  My stomach did not agree at first, but now I eat mostly just fresh food and cook my own eggs, thus avoiding the issue all together.

Beans- Red beans, not black, are served with every meal here.  We all know beans are a great source of protein, but black beans are better  for you than red.  Black beans are even cheaper than red here, but because red beans are such a huge part of the culture a family will not buy black beans in place of red unless they are 2 points off starving.  Frustrating!

Coffee- Some of the best is harvested here.  Unfortunately most Nica families can only afford Presto instant coffee and that is what most families will offer their guests.  The excellent coffee that is produced in the mountains is mainly exported to other countries before being sold locally because the coffee bean farmers can make more money this way.  One only has to splurge a little bit more at the grocery store to get it.

American Clothes- Since many fabricas(factories) for American brands are located here, Hollister, American Eagle and A&F dominate the population.  I wish I had some pictures, but everyone wears clothes with English writing and have no idea what it says.  For example I saw an older lady, probably someone’s grandma, wearing a hot pink t-shirt that read “looking for Mr. tonight”.  My all time favorite was the morning after our fiestas Patronales here in Nandasmo when I spotted the town drunk(Picado), still hammered wandering the streets with a bright orange t-shirt that boasted “I am the after party”, classic!

Noise- It’s constant unless you are purposely out in the wilderness.  Fireworks are a daily performance in the streets.  Trucks crawl through the streets announcing sales, fiestas, and other happenings via loudspeaker.  Churches play loud music religiously, ha!  My families TV is constantly on or we are blaring the radio, which I happen to love.  Bands will not hesitate to play in the streets until 4 or 5 am.  Loud and live music also makes for great fiestas!

Privacy and Personal Space- There is none.  People are literally on top of you on public buses.  People stand in your personal space at all times.  There is nothing private from your Nica family.  Everyone knows where you are in the house at all times, including the bathroom.

Transportation- The main mode of transportation is retired American yellow school buses that have been pimped out and repainted in bright colors.  There is a bus schedule and for the most part it is followed accept when a bus breaks down, there are political rallies, or someone just decides not to drive their bus that day.  In the isle of the bus there will be people selling food, drinks, or other random things and constantly yelling about the product that they are trying to convince you that you need.  How does one know what bus to take?  Well there will be a guy half hanging out the door yelling the names of the stops they are going to make of course!

Beaches- They are plentiful and have world class surfing .  Most Nicas don’t enjoy swimming, mainly because they can’t.  Come Semana Santa(like spring break here) Nicas will go all out and party relentlessly on the beaches for a week until they are physically destroyed.

Trash- Everywhere.  I’ve learned to control my rage when I see people throw trash in the streets.  Since there is no waist management system in many towns/villages, people will burn their trash in the street in front of their house.  Can we say toxic?

Ok, so that all probably sounds really negative, but there are many great things about Nica.  There are some beautiful Spanish colonial cities.  The people are very nice and the land here is absolutely gorgeous.  Some of the most beautiful volcanoes, lakes, and beaches can be found here.  As you can see the people need education more than anything.  I know the work that I have come here to do is appreciated and hopefully very effective in changing the future for Nicaraguans.

I hope I didn’t all scare you away from visiting because despite the lack of education here in Nicaragua there is a wealth of tradition, loving families, and a beautiful land awaiting you!

Chinandega Site Visit

I now know why Chinandega is labeled a very Nicaraguan city.  I entered the bustling commercial center through “El Bisne” which is the largest market and bus station that the city hosts.  Chinandega is a flat city, but the largest volcanoes in Nicaragua linger close and can be seen towering over the city in the distance.  The old and new money that keeps this community afloat comes from sugar, bananas, Flor de Cana rum, peanuts, sesame, soy and shrimp!  Chinandega is far enough north that it isn’t frequented regularly by backpackers or tourists, but serves as Nicaragua’s most important agribusiness center.  Travelers usually pass right through on their way to the untouched northern beaches of Chinandega where surfing is at its best.   The city doesn’t boast any fancy Spanish architecture and tons of hostels like it’s neighboring city Leon.  I love that I can walk through the streets and not hear a word of English.  Locals treat me like one of their own in the community and not as a visiting gringo.  The central park has an enormous beautiful yellow and white cathedral and various types of food to enjoy in the open air such as gyros, puposas, hamburgers and subs.  Each barrio or neighborhood sports a brightly colored colonial church whose steeples serve as a guide as I wander around the city. 

I’m not going to lie, its hot here in Chinandega getting up to 90 degrees during the day(and its winter).  The 32 volunteers that live in this department boast that we live in the hottest region and we love it.  Granted the Pacific Ocean is only 15 minutes by bus, which provides much needed relief from the heat.  The closest playa is Paso Caballo is littered with large huts made of palms called “ranchitos” where you can pick out your whole fresh fish to fry on the spot and drink cold beer after a nice swim in the refreshing waters.  This is an important aspect of the city that I’d like to point out- Nica’s largest fishing as well as export/import town Corinto is just down the road making seafood a part of the diet here, thank god!  I know you all know how much I love seafood!

The three institutes(high school equivalents) that I will be working in range from private, semi-private to public and are all on the outskirts of the city making them beautiful places to work.  One of my schools has an outside classroom under a cabana surrounded by tropical trees.  My other private school has passageways lined with palm trees and beautiful flowers.  I met all of my directors in the schools and felt very at home in each schools community.  All the teachers that I will be training and supporting with business experience are very dedicated and love their jobs which makes my job so much more enjoyable.  The head of administration at my private school has already asked me to motivationally speak about North American culture and our workforce with a dedicated group of students from all over Chinandega who have earned scholarships and have the chance to go to college.   I made an appearance at the nonprofit Promujer(see link on right hand side column), which helps women to realize their dreams of starting a business through micro loans and business advising.  I’m hoping that when I meet with the HR representative in a few weeks that there will be opportunity to get involved here.  There are ample nonprofits and cooperatives to work in and I look forward to starting relationships with micro finance institutions like FINCA and Fundaceon Leon.

My outdoor classroom

Entrance to one of my schools

I’m going to be living my first two months with an older lady who is very sweet.  She is actually the mom of one of the teachers I will be working closely with whom lives next door.  I’m getting upgraded to a huge room with my own bathroom(with septic) and ample space to practice yoga, which is huge!

I love that the city is lively and extremely social which perfectly matches the personalities of the volunteers that inhabit it!  Right away I clicked with another health volunteer Lindsey who has been here for three months.  Lindsey and I found ourselves salsa dancing by the second night I was in Chinandega.  I enjoy that my new city serves as a transportation hub, which means several volunteers are passing through at any time and creating excuses for us all to get together and cool off with some cerveza.  The city is large which means I walk a lot, but there are also options to take a triciclo(bike powered carriage) or taxis for a fixed cheap price no matter where you go in the city.  I’m looking forward to permanently moving there in 3 weeks when training is over!

Lindsey and I out Salsa dancing!

In the mean time I’m going to enjoy the last few weeks I have in Masaya and take advantage of the access to the artisan market and crafts, which is what this city does best.  That’s right, I bought my first Nicaraguan hammock!  Today we lounged on the beaches of Laguna de Apollo once again and kayaked its shores.  This is one little piece of paradise I’m truly going to miss.  On the flip side, Pacific surf here I come!

Where I ordered my hammock- pics to come when its finished!

Site Placement!

Now that I’m finally settled and comfortable here in my training town, its time to get moving again.  Isn’t that how it always goes?

I’ve gotten used to having a family around 24/7 and there fore no privacy.  I’ve grown to enjoy the pounding of the heavy rain on the zinc roof at night while I sleep.  I love the obnoxiously loud Latina music in the mornings as I dance around getting ready for my day.  I can’t say that I’m completely adjusted to the food, but I’ve learned to make things I really enjoy and I live to douse everything in lime.  I don’t know how I’ll ever get by with out my daily dose of mangos and home made peanut butter.  I’ve grown to adore the convenience of the moto-taxis and the fresh breeze blowing in my face, providing relief from the heat.  For quite some time I’ve enjoyed the cold showers I take after my morning run.  I’ve grown accustomed to a mid-morning snack of a fresh baked pico(bread with a bit of cheese and sugar) from Panaderia Esperanza where Antonio greets me warmly with a smile on his bald head.  I have developed a habit of treating myself to a chocobanano (chocolate covered frozen banana) at night. It’s also been fun learning guitar right along side my host dad.

As sentimental as I might sound, I’ll have you know that I am ecstatic to be moving to another part of the country and leaving behind the reins of training, which are sometimes held way too tight.  I’m looking forward to buying my own food and cooking my own meals again.  I’m also excited for my own space!

Drum roll for my final site placement……….I got my first choice Chinandega city, which is the capital of the department of Chinandega! This region is in the northwestern corner of Nicaragua boarding Honduras to the north and the Pacific to the west.   Chinandega city is the 3^rd largest city in Nica.  The climate is hot and dry compared to the rest of Nicaragua, but I’m not worried.  It makes sense to put the gal from AZ in the hottest region.  I’m very excited to be about 15 mins from some great surfing spots and close to Nicaragua’s largest volcano San Cristobal.  Corinto is only 15 mins away and serves as Nica’s only port town on the Pacific and also supplies ample amounts of seafood to the region.  I actually requested that my site have access to fresh seafood since we all know just how obsessed I am.  The city is labeled as the most “Nica city” in Nicaragua, which I will find out more about what that implies when I get to visit next week.  Chinandega is home to several nonprofits and microfinance institutions like Promujer, CE Solutions, and Fundacion Leon, which I look forward to working with.  There are 32 Peace Corps Volunteers who call Chinandega home and five reside in the city with.  I look forward to making new friends and collaborating on projects.   Chinandega has the highest incidents of HIV and therefore provides an opportunity to work with fellow Health volunteers.  The city also boasts several gyms, some which specifically cater to women’s health and I look forward to possibly teaching yoga here.  I was also told that there are ample places for dancing Thursday through Saturday nights, which has me very pleased!

I feel extremely fortunate to have gotten my first choice and what I deem a perfect fit for my work and personal life as a Peace Corps Volunteer.  I’m looking forward to meeting my counterparts, supervisors, new host family and my new city all next week.  I’ll let you all know what I find waiting for me in Chinandega!  I am a little sad that the group of 22 of us is going to be split across the country, but I do look forward to visiting my friends in their new cities too.  We have one month left to enjoy each others company and make some more memories before we all split off.  I’m looking forward to celebrating the forth of July with my fellow volunteers hopefully at the lake with some cold Tonas and good food.

Training is flying by…

I can’t believe I’ve been in Nica for 7 weeks now.  I only have a month left of training and then I’m off to start my two years of service.  This past week has been crazy busy with interviews. We had full on job interviews with our bosses to determine our site placement and qualification for the job descriptions in the available sites.  Last weekend current volunteers held a “site fair” to inform us about all the different areas of Nicaragua and possibilities for our site placement.  We get to pick our top three sites that we would like to work and live in for the two years.  My bosses will then pair my previous experience, current work requirements, and my interests to pick the best site for me individually.

My top three sites…mind you I have never been to these places, but have been talking about them with previous volunteers and I’m going off of work descriptions.

·      Chinandega- This north western region of Nica is hot and dry boarding Honduras to the South and the Pacific Ocean to the West.  There is opportunity to work with NGOs and Micro Finance Institutions(MFIs).  Organizations that support women in business through loans and advising exist here.

·      Matagalpa- is in the northern mountains featuring a much cooler climate and a reputation for being labeled as Cowboy country.  It’s also a large city famous for producing coffee and leather.  This site also has ample opportunity to work with NGOs and the MFI FINCA.

·      Rivas- This department borders Costa Rica and is very warm and tropical.  There is Lake Nicaragua to the east and Pacific Ocean to the west.  Once again I would have the opportunity to work with women’s groups and follow up on loan advising for small business owners.

All three sites are really different, but have great job descriptions and I would thoroughly enjoy all of them, if my bosses deem them suitable.  Basically they informed me thatI was recruited to work with nonprofits and I want to for fill that task along with supporting women in business and working with an MFI.  I find out where I’m going this Wednesday so I’ll keep ya’ll up dated!

Amongst all the work, I have also been having a lot of fun.  Last weekend we made the hour long hike down to Laguna de Apollo.  This lake was once an active volcano that filled with rain water after it became dormant.  The water is crystal clear and full of minerals.  We spent the day on the shores of the lake sun bathing and eating mangos.  It’s so amazing to have a secluded little paradise with in hiking distance of our training towns.  The scenary was breathtaking and we will be returning to take advanage of its beauty.

This Friday I attended the Fiestas Patronales in San Juan de Oriente where four other volunteers live.  My cousin David came with and a big group of us split a bottle of rum while we roamed the streets making new friends.  Around nine a Columbian band started to play and people crowded the stage while we drank and danced.  An hour later at the other end of the street where another stage was set up a Mexican band started to play.  The bands went back and forth like this until the early morning.  It was awesome to be able to speak Spanish the entire night and get some salsa in!  I had my latest Spanish interview this week and Im officially at theIntermediate Mid level which is where we need to be to swear in as a volunteer!  Im excited to see how much I improve in the next month!

Pearl Lagoon

Sounds like its straight out of a Disney movie no? Maybe there should be pirates involved? Well there was no Johnny Depp, but there were dreadlocks involved!

Before I go in to my visit to Pearl Lagoon I’ll quickly recap the last two weeks!  The Sunday before last, several volunteers attended an annual festival called Hipica in the neighboring city of Massateppe.  The famous festival drew people from all over the department to drink in the streets while a parade of Nica’s most wealthy horsemen gallivanted through the streets.  Everyone was completely hammered, even some of the horses.  Several of the stallions were trained to prance or “dance” as some like to call it.  The difference in wealth between the classes here in Nica is drastic, but this was a true display of street drunks juxtaposed to the wealthiest Nicas that could afford horses as a recreational activity.  I indulged in the cerveza and my first popusa, which was amazing!

The following week was extremely busy as I prepared to teach my first class to Nica students in Spanish!  Pedro and I taught an hour and a half of Entrepreneurship Curriculum to the equivalent of high school seniors here.  I couldn’t have imagined things going any better.  The students were completely engaged and able to regurgitate all the information we taught.  Success!

Finally I went on my volunteer site visit.  This is when you visit another volunteer at their site to observe their projects and get a taste of what volunteer life is really like after training.  Low and behold I was one of the lucky two that got to make their way to the Caribbean cost for my visit!  I traveled the farthest out of all the volunteers, and I mean far, about 14 hours total one way by bus and boat.

Imagine my shock when my panga(small boat) pulled up to the wharf in Pearl Lagoon while people of African descent spoke Creole, I struggling to decipher this strange dialect of english.  My attempts to communicate in Spanish were just returned by my new friend Amy with “gal you done reached here finally”.  The fresh water of the Lagoon surrounded the town on three sides while streets of white sand mapped out this small community.  A gorgeous Moravian white church stood erect in the middle of town while horses grazed freely with their colts.  The very first thing Amy and I did when I “reached” was go straight to Aunt Betty’s to drop my stuff and go buy fresh fish!  I thought I was going to die, it had been way too long since I had eaten seafood and I was in for a real treat.  Not minutes later Amy took me to her house to met her mom(Ms Velma) who insisted I indulge in some coconut water straight out of the coconut off the tree in their back yard!  By afternoon I had enjoyed fried fish, coconut rice and beans, coconut candy, coconut bread and coconut water.

Moravian Church

Amy cutting open my first coconut

I would compare the hospitality that Ms Velma and her household showed me to the deep south.  I was literally adopted for five days as they prepared amazing meals of fried seafood, plantain porridge, fried chicken, potato salad, Rondon stew, coconut delights and fresh baked goods. 

I enjoyed an afternoon with Nga(the volunteer that I came to shadow) and her boyfriend Cuyo eating pineapple and drinking coconut water while baby chicks,  a monkey, kittens, dogs and horses roamed about.  I have to say the Nica Atlantic coast is very different from the Pacific in the fact that animals roam free and are all well fed by their owners.  Cuyo, who is also the town vet, took me horseback riding through the Savannah for a few hours which was absolutely beautiful.  We traipsed through swamp, rivers and tall grass while I attempted to speak in Creole.  I’m kicking myself for not bringing along my camera.

Drinking coco water with Nga's boyfriend Cuyo

Sunday morning I visited a “farm”, which is the equivalent to a rainforest.  There were pineapples, coconut trees, breadfruit trees, banana trees and much more.  Amongst the towering trees I spotted a howler monkey and a baboon.  I also spent an afternoon walking along the beaches of the indigenous village of the Miskitos with their village leader, observing their simple lifestyle and learning about their history.   While we were there Nga bought fresh crab to add to our lunch of Rondon soup, which is a coconut broth with plantains, yucca, rice, banana, fish and crab.

Amongst all the fun I also taught classes with Nga in the local high school, observed vocational business classes with high school grads, attended a working women’s group meeting and observed her co-planning with her counterpart Amy.  Over all I’m really looking forward to life as a volunteer after training is over. I made some amazing friends and hope to return to the village of Pearl Lagoon where I feel I have a second home with Ms Velma and Amy.