Pigeons Power Outages and more fun stuff…
Always hard to remember where I left off…
Anyways, most recently there was a giant pigeon in my house…the space between the walls and the roof make it easy access and in our garage/house, there is the corrugated tin roof then a large space and then a layer of cardboard-like tiles. We have discovered the space makes a great home for all sorts of critters….like the pigeon. So my young, cute tiny counterpart is over working with me—and I am screaming about the pigeon and calling matt to come and get it out of the house….she laughs at me like I am the most ridiculous person on the planet and starts chasing the thing all over our house…in our bedroom, down the hall, there are feathers everywhere, before she finally catches it with her hands. She strokes it for awhile and talks to it, and enjoys shoving it in my face before I convince her to put it outside, where I firmly believe it belongs (-: So I didn’t exactly grow up on the farm…but I am SUPER grateful my counterpart, as all other Nicas I know, is so down to earth and comfortable with all things we like to classify as critters. Did I mention that while I was pointing my finger at the pigeon perched on our ‘fridge 2 small bats came flying out of the same space into my face!? It was a fun moment. Really, I am actually serious here; it was really fun and funny!
On another note, the power has been out SUPER SUPER frequently this month. Pretty much every other day for hours at a time. Now, I feel like a big brat of a PC Volunteer, because there are plenty of peace corps volunteers living in the world that NEVER have the good ‘ol “luz” or light (electricity)…but I am sort of accustomed to life here with it. Maybe I should try just never using it for a whole week to get some additional perspective? It really only bothers me when it goes out in the middle of the night and it is like 90 something degrees out still….and you wake up…sweating…thinking…why am I awake? Oh….then you hear the whir of your fan as it goes out….Usually I go throw some cold water from our bucket bath on me and try to go back to sleep in one of the hammocks when this happens….I mean, it is rainy season, sort of, and it is cooler, sort of. Meaning that it rains SOMETIMES but not always…and as soon as it STOPS raining I think it is actually HOTTER than it was before! In any case, the rain is welcome and needed to produce everything we depend on around here….
So work! The workshop, or “taller”, we gave at our last teacher conference went pretty well. That isn’t to say it didn’t start an hour late, teachers didn’t talk or text on cell phones during, and no one came and went from the room (hmmmm the students are oddly similar….), but we felt super happy with it at the end. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to do everything we had planned (recall we started an hour late) but the written, anonymous feedback we got from the English teachers was awesome…we heard things like “I didn’t even feel the time. I wasn’t bored and I actually learned something!” Yeah, so that might give you a picture of what these monthly or so teacher days are like…Everyone seems excited at the prospect of us giving more workshops during every conference=more work for us, but we are SOOO happy to do it…and ultimately, of course, we want to include our counterparts in the presentations and have them doing it on their own before we leave…..moments like these 2 years almost doesn’t seem long enough (;
Things at my high schools are sort of the same…I still struggle with the unpredictability of whether or not there will actually BE class every day….and it kills me that when my students ask me “Hey teacher, when is our exam?” I know I can’t really answer because that is subject to change on a whim too….makes it sort of easy to see why some kids lose faith in the system and simply stop showing up…Also, out in my community (means outside of city limits in Nica terms), the 7th graders are losing TONS of class time because of the rain—all the other grades have the normal classrooms made out of bricks —but the 7th graders (the youngest in the high school), have a classroom made out of wooden boards, the corrugated tin roof, and a dirt floor. When it pours, which it does a lot out there, their floor turns to mud….so they usually just go home instead of getting dirty---which if I haven’t mentioned before is pretty much a crime here. I constantly have students out there patting dust and chalk off me and fixing my shirt collar etc. I just got wind that a group called Builders without Borders is going to be working with Peace Corps in Nicaragua the next two years---they build things such as CLASSROOMS, letrines, etc. I was super excited thinking I might be able to work with them to get my 7th graders a classroom of their own out there….BUT one of their requirements is to be 4 hours from Managua on a direct bus……so yea…have I mentioned we live kind of far out there? Like 7 and half hours minimum from the capital of Managua---IF you catch all the right busses? Sigh, I can certainly understand their desire to be near good medical facilities etc. And they sound like a really neat organization if anyone cares to check them out---they are based in Connecticut. I will just have to look elsewhere to get the kids a room….if they really want one! (Peace Corps always warns, and it is good to think about, NOT to start projects WE think people need/want, but first find out what THEY NEED/WANT). There are zillions of examples of people just barging into a place, taking a look around, and deciding what people need for them---and then as soon as the project is complete, it fails. Because the idea wasn’t homegrown. (-:
Ok, lots of rambling! I know! Excited about training that is coming up in a few weeks…also have a friend from the States who is IN Nica-land already and we might get to see here in July too! I have been in site for a very long time without a break and it will be a few more weeks before I get one….let’s hope I don’t get the Q La Li Crazies. (That’s what I call it anyways…)
Love you guys….Miss you guys….SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH!!! XOXOX
THE VERY NEXT DAY
On a personal level, a good friend of ours’ lost her dad this morning—well she is the wife of one of my principal’s..and she is in our adult English class. I still cant get over how quickly people form friendships with us here, well some of them, and how you are immediately considered family. I spent my hour break between classes at her house sitting with the rest of the community, and then sitting on her bed holding her hand and just talking. She insisted on feeding me and making me coffee before allowing me to go back to work…..matt and I refer to her as our fairy godmother, because she really is like the fairy godmothers from Cinderella. We talked about how when someone dies, we have similar traditions in the States, ie. the whole family usually comes together etc., but of course, how some things are different. I talked about my grandparents---living and deceased--- and what it was like when they passed away and about various friends and family members whom have suffered losses recently and in the past….It was kind of a sad moment, but one of those human moments, where you know that people feel the same things no matter where you are in the world….It really made me miss my family…..and friends….I really can’t wait to hug all of you.
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