Saturday, September 25, 2010

Despues Tres Semanas....

Niquinohomo, Nicaragua—My home for now and the next 9 weeks (-:

So in the short 3 weeks that I have been here, I have noticed and (hopefully) adjusted to many things. My town that I love is called Niquinohomo and is about an hour, hour and a half by bus from the capital city of Managua. There is a carretera (highway) that connects my town to a handful of other towns where other trainees, including Matt, are living. The highway is two lanes and often you can see horses wandering and hanging out on the side of it.

In my town there are probably about 15 streets that run east to west and 10 or so that run north to south (the main ones, I am sure there are more I just don’t know about). There are no street names and no addresses –I am use to the no numeral addresses, but the no street names makes it tough on someone like me who has such an awesome sense of direction to begin with (-: directions are given using how many blocks north south east or west from a point of reference such as the park or church or policia to get to where you want to go….

I am use to being surrounded by noise constantly, whether it be the newborn in my house telling us he needs something (-:, people just generally talking—which they do loudly here, roosters chickens dogs bird parakeets etc—storms, thunder lightning—and everyone’s favorite—the “baratas”—or old pickup trucks that drive around with a megaphone making various types of announcements at all times of night and day—these announcements can be about an event, a special at a store, people selling things out of the truck, or telling the town about a death of someone from the town or nearby (this is how everyone finds out when the funeral will be)—So far, my family has lost 2 close friends since I have been here—and there have been 2 funeral parades in my town—that involve everyone marching up and down the streets carrying umbrellas and playing lots of musical instruments—the music usually sounds pretty happy however. Another sound I hear a lot is just the people that walk up and down the streets carrying huge baskets on their heads selling bread, tomales, or other goods—I am pretty amazed at their ability to do this---and at the talent with which they call out what they are selling—joe tomales joe tamales joe tamales!!!!

I am accustomed to seeing moto taxis and 2-3 people riding the same bicycle in the same street as horse and ox drawn carts—also wild chickens and roosters freely roam the streets. I have also seen the BIGGEST pig of my life and a few others not so big kickin it on the streets. There are dogs EVERYWHERE and little kids running around playing soccer in the street sometimes with a small ball or bottle or whatever they have---there are a few basketball hoops in addition to the real court, or cancha, that my town has right next to the big stadium we have where they play soccer and baseball. I am pretty in love with ALLLL the little kids here and they often giggle and scream gringa gringa gringa! As you walk by---or sometimes they call out Hello or Goodbye, which is encouraging since you are here to teach English (-: I have also become accustomed to avoiding animal droppings of all sorts in the streets—which are all cobblestone-- and have taken to generally just walking in the middle of the street as most people seem to do…..there is no such thing as a stop light in my town….it is pretty tranquilo and I am quite fond of it and its peeps. People sell individual items out of their houses, like there is one house you go to for eggs, and another to rent plastic chairs, and another that sells beans etc. Some people, like Matt’s family, operate small stores out of their houses—pulperias, or may have internet cafes or sell shoes etc.

I have become accustomed to rocking chairs and spending most of my nights rocking and talking on my family’s patios as people stroll up to our house to ask about what we are selling that night—pollo hamburguesas, tacos, gallo pinto etc---I can even pass the order along to my mom or sisters who are usually busy in the kitchen. Matt and I are pretty convinced we will have lots of rocking chairs in our house in the future…I am used to a cold bucket bath every morning and filling up buckets of water to use to flush my toilet. I am getting use to doing my laundry by hand and the consistent smell of fire in my backyard…I am accustomed to tons of people passing in and out of my house—most of them family members and a lot of whom live right across the street…..I have become accustomed to going to bed around 830 or 930 and waking up around 530 or 600 without the help of any alarm…

I still have a lot to learn and need to practice my Spanish as much as I possibly can, but even just writing this helps me feel like I have been doing some adjusting over the past few weeks! I hope this helps paint a somewhat clearer picture of my town—which is a little similar to Matt’s—his is actually a little smaller, but cleaner because it has more tourists—a lookout point over the Laguna de Apoyo—it has a hotel and tons of arts and crafts stands and also tons of gardens and small plant nurseries.

As far as work goes, there is no lack of that—me and the 2 other people in my “group” have a youth group that meets twice a week to practice English, we are starting to plan a teacher workshop based on the requests of needs the professors at our instituto told us they wanted help with, and we will start co-planning and co-teaching classes (hopefully) this week—and we still have Spanish classes and usually on Weds and Fridays we have Peace Corps Training sessions in which all the other volunteers in my sector gather for formal training on different topics such as Building Strong School Relationships, Lesson Planning, and Materials Development etc---oh and to get vaccines—I am sick of shots! But understand they are muy necessario…I think we have received about 7 so far—and I thiiiiinnnk that may be it……

My host family is still amazing and they take care of me like I am one of their own for sure (still thinking about that warm water bucket bath I had when I was sick!) though they have begun to realize I am a little crazy (-: aka can be pretty emotional sometimes---I have earned myself the nickname “tranquila Julia” in my house bc I stress out too much apparently (-: but am certainly learning how to cope with a variety of tasks and adjustments while being “mas tranquilo”!

We miss you guys MUCHISIMO and have been getting random updates from some of you peeps up home that we LOVE even though it is hard to realize how much we are missing out on back home---it is way better to hear from ya’ll than not!!!!

Ok this has been quite the novel, we should be finding out our placement for the next 2 years sometime during the next few weeks so we will definitely let you guys know as soon as we do!!!!

TODO NUESTRO AMOR—

Tranquila Julia y Ya Tranquilo Mateo

Monday, September 20, 2010

Lil more than 2 wks in''''

And life is still FULL FULL FULL. We have now had 2 youth group meetings that I think have gone pretty well''tomorrow we actually start incorporating more English into the group''so we ll see how that goes!
Spanish classes are still in full swing, and at times I feel completely lost still and sometimes I sort of have more than a clue!
I spent the past weekend in Catarina with Matt{s host family and it was his host mom{s birthday which was SUPER fun'''there was a pinata and more food than you can imagine and bailando and a little bit of rum punch. The strange thing'''''even the adults went NUTS for the candy when the pinata broke'''to the point where one of my beautiful toes, some of you are familiar with, started bleeding and I got lots of attention from the fam''and many a photo was taken of my bleeding toe. His family is AMAZING and kind and BIG and I want to adopt some of the little ones already'''they are SO cute!
Tomorrow my group starts observing English class at our local institute''should be interesting and hopefully by sometime next week we start co planning and co teaching with the Nicaraguan teachers here''''and also keep having our youth groups, and start planning for a teacher workshope we are going to have in a couple weeks....never a dull moment!
Ok, hopefully an amigo is going to show me how to upload some pics so I can share some visuals with ya{ll soon!!! Love you and MISS YOU ALL A LOT. Let me know what you re up to please!!!!

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Saturday, September 11, 2010

First Week or So...

Pues, So,
Where to begin!?? I feel like it has been about 3 months already even though it's been about 10 days....
So in D.C. we had a crazy day of orientation and got to meet the other 40+ volunteers going with us--they are all awesome--we checked out of our hotel at 230 am to go the airport to catch our 720am flight to Miami continuing to Managua, Nicaragua. The day was a smooth day of travel--there were Peace Corps staff and a few volunteers who have been here a year already waiting for us outside with welcome signs etc. We all piled into a couple micro buses--and they threw all our bags into a giant truck. We drove about an hour to Granada, to the Hotel Granada where we had a really intense 3 day orientation--days full of meetings, language interviews, spanish classes, medical interviews etc...it ended with a trip out on the lake to look at all these little private islands where all the rich folks have built some crazy houses---and at one point, I literally had a monkey on my back...actually we had a couple different monkeys hop onto our boat from one of the islands...it was a little loco and an incredible whirlwhind...
In the morning of our last day, the group split in half, the Education and The Environment folks were loaded onto different buses with all our bags tagged with the addresses of our host families...and we were off...matt got off first and i gave him a quick peck and then for some reason when he got off i started bawling--it was really embarrassing! also bc i got off to meet his incredibly sweet host family and couldnt stop ! his host grandma is ADORABLE about half his size and hugged him tight and told me not to worry--he is her Hijo, or son (-:
I soon learned I only live about 4 mns away from Matt , who lives in Catarina, by moto taxi, in a town called Niquinohomo.
I LOVE my town and my host family is INCREDIBLE. I have a host mom, a sister of about 40, and 2 twin sisters about 19 years old. Also a niece and her baby and soooo many family members coming and going and living so close.....the baby stays at our house and he is almost a month old---Diego, and he often sleeps in his hammock! I take bucket baths every day and my mom runs a cafetin out of her house so there are even more people coming and going, which is great! and her food is muy rica!!!
I could go on forever but I will try not to---i also played awhile with my 7 year old...primo? i think, and we ran all over town his house etc.... and watched a soccer game and a baseball game
My typical day is like this
wake up around 6ish, breakfast of bread, fruit and instant coffee, walk to my friend Neha's house (another volunteer) where we have about 6 hours of intense Spanish class with another volunteer named Sam (from Oregon). They are my anchors here and we spend ALOT of time together. After class, we have about an hour until dinner which is more speaking in espanol and with whomever happens to be around, then a couple hours of homework and i go to bed often times by 8!!!! Repeat.
We had a meeting in Managua on Friday to get more vaccines and learn more about diarrhea (sp?) and also specifics to our work projects. It was a long day which involved getting up around 4 30am to get there in time...but we had presentations from the Nicaraguan Ministry of Education etc that were very interesting indeed. Soon we will start observing our local high school's classes and co planning and teaching with a teacher. We also had our first Youth Group meeting last Thursday and 12 kids came--we basically just played some games and introduced ourselves and our purpose and asked them what they want to do and gave a poll to find out more about their level of Spanish--the real question is, how many will return next week?? It was really interesting to facilitate something completely in Spanish, although Sam and Neha did a good amount of talking--thanks guys!!!
Some random things I learned from my family:
Some folks here think if you are sick you shouldn't eat fruit when you re sick bc it is cold. also cold water might make you sick. also when our baby has hiccups, they take lint and roll it into a little ball and stick it in his forehead center annnnd low and behold, it worked!!!
Ok, i really could go on but folks are waiting on me! My family is amazing and the twins are in Business School and my older sister works for City Hall and is studying to be a lawyer...their generosity has been AMAZING. ie. i have a giant room allll to myself and am not sure but at least 4 or 5 share another.....and i have 2 beds in my room!!! It's nuts. Life is full and good and busy. Matt and I miss each other during the week but honestly dont have much time to think on it---and he is spending the wknd w me right now! yay!
Ok,, time to try and post some pics! I love you guys sooooo much and miss you mucho!!! i have been reading a few cards at a time from the going away party--and I LOVE them!!!! will be trying to schedule some Skype times soon!!! (there is an internet cafe in my town)
Mucho Amor de Niquinohomo--Julia y Mateo!!!!
PS Sorry this was like a run on story! and for any errors--not going to preview!