Monday, my training group went to Managua to meet with a prominent Entrepreneurship scholar here in Nicaragua. Our day started as we ran to catch the minivan/microbus we needed to take to get to Managua. After we boarded, they closed the doors and we were off. Not long after, one of my group mates noticed the driver was a little surprised and then started to pump the brakes. It turns out they had gone out on us on a rather hilly and curvy part of our drive. Fortunately, the driver just downshifted on the hills, using the slowing of the engine itself to keep control of the van (it sounds a little more scary than it actually was considering I was sitting in the front seat next to him and I didn’t even notice his distress). So when we arrived at the next town we pulled into the first mechanic shop we saw. And then I saw it. Our savior (or the guy who was going to put on the new brake pad) was wearing a Chuck Norris T-shirt. I laughed the entire 10 minutes we were waiting to have the break pad changed, as we all slowly and jerkingly moved up in the van as it was jacked up on one side to access the brake pads. I laughed when it was lowered again in a very fast and singular drop. Chuck Norris, the international hero. Ha ha.
We then arrived in Managua where our very kind driver, Salvador as I would later learn his name, gave me directions to our final location where we were to meet our new friend Arnulfo (the scholar). We had a wonderful meeting, talked about the entrepreneurial spirit here in Nicaragua, asked some tough questions to help us figure out our research project topic, and had a generally good time. After, since we were in Managua and at least a good 2 hours from our training town between all the travel and walking we had to do, we decided to treat ourselves to a little happy right next door. McDONALD’s. Now I probably eat Mc D’s on road trips in the states and that’s about it, but there is something about the familiar taste of a quarter pounder with cheese that just makes my heart soar. It was so good that it warranted a picture that I will post shortly. The rest of our trip was fairly uneventful except when we were able to wave down a bus heading in our direction we discovered it was the same driver as before, my buddy Salvador, and we all listened to the ever-classic “We Are the World” on our way back home. It was truly a great day.
Then Tuesday, we had a different experience all together. As it commonly happens here in Nicaragua classes were cancelled at the Instituto today (even though we were there yesterday planning for classes this week and no one seemed to mention this fact to us), meaning the youth group session we had worked so hard on was possibly going to be cancelled. But I am happy to report we prevailed and three of our group members showed up to participate. We had a great talk about their lives in 10 years and how they hopefully see themselves in control of their lives, and that their actions have consequences, etc. We had punch and cookies, and I think they were able to take something from it, even though it was such a small group. It ended up great although I think we all learned the importance of flexibility in order to make things work!
And now for the site placement announcement...
I will be in Matagalpa, Matagalpa for the next two year! Book your tickets now!
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Countdown to Site Placement, Rain, and the Masaya Volcano
So I had my site interview on Wednesday, and now I just have to sit back and relax and they will tell me where I will be spending the next two years of my life this coming Wednesday. SIT BACK AND RELAX? Yeah right! So on top of every trainee trying to figure out where they will be, there is a certain amount of note comparing, interview comparing, and well to be honest we are all just as much in the dark about where we will be as we were before. Although, at least we know we will be in 1 of the 20 sites they have outlined for us. The good news is that normally we are all so busy with training classes, activities, etc. that I don´t have much time to sit and dwell upon the site placement; except at night, when I am trying to sleep and it keeps going through my head. Haha. Anyway, I will let you all know where I will be going on Wednesday or Thursday this week.
We have been having some beautiful thunderstorms and downpours for the past 4 days straight. I finally understand what the rainy season is like here in Nicaragua. Very different from what I experienced in Peru, where it would rain sometime during a day in Cusco. But as one of my fellow trainees put it, "I love the sound of the rain on the tin roof... because it drowns out the noise of everything else here" Which is true. The roosters don´t crow at 2:00am when its raining, and if you are napping in the afternoon, you can´t hear the TV on its loudest setting. It just washes everything away. And for that (sometimes brief) period of time, I can think, and relax. And its amazing.
Today we went to the Masaya Volcano for a diversity workshop. It was a great time, I learned a lot about my fellow trainees and we were able to go up to the top of this active volcano. Now we couldn´t see down into the crater because of all the clouds of smoke that it was producing. I think it had something to do with the hot gas being released from the volcano coupled with the rain that stopped us form having a better view and burned our lungs as we tried to breathe. But it was a very cool experience to have and was my first visit to just one of the MANY volcanoes there are here in Nicaragua. I will post pictures soon.
I hav enow officially taught 4 classes at the institute, and have a much bigger appreciation for my elementary and high school teachers. For every hour of class taught, I think we are putting in about 4 to 7 hours of planning, and material development. It is a lot more work than I ever thought. But luckily I am enjoying teaching, and enjoy hanging out with the students. Although, I am not convinced I will be ready to teach in the US after this experience haha.
I hope all are well, and are making good choices! Love you all!
We have been having some beautiful thunderstorms and downpours for the past 4 days straight. I finally understand what the rainy season is like here in Nicaragua. Very different from what I experienced in Peru, where it would rain sometime during a day in Cusco. But as one of my fellow trainees put it, "I love the sound of the rain on the tin roof... because it drowns out the noise of everything else here" Which is true. The roosters don´t crow at 2:00am when its raining, and if you are napping in the afternoon, you can´t hear the TV on its loudest setting. It just washes everything away. And for that (sometimes brief) period of time, I can think, and relax. And its amazing.
Today we went to the Masaya Volcano for a diversity workshop. It was a great time, I learned a lot about my fellow trainees and we were able to go up to the top of this active volcano. Now we couldn´t see down into the crater because of all the clouds of smoke that it was producing. I think it had something to do with the hot gas being released from the volcano coupled with the rain that stopped us form having a better view and burned our lungs as we tried to breathe. But it was a very cool experience to have and was my first visit to just one of the MANY volcanoes there are here in Nicaragua. I will post pictures soon.
I hav enow officially taught 4 classes at the institute, and have a much bigger appreciation for my elementary and high school teachers. For every hour of class taught, I think we are putting in about 4 to 7 hours of planning, and material development. It is a lot more work than I ever thought. But luckily I am enjoying teaching, and enjoy hanging out with the students. Although, I am not convinced I will be ready to teach in the US after this experience haha.
I hope all are well, and are making good choices! Love you all!
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Rio San Juan Trip Picts!
So to make things short, the first two pictures are from the drive to El Almendro, the third is Jane´s Monkey and puppy, yes I said monkey, and the last is me on a walk during the first and only sunny day there! As you can see, Nicaragua is a beautiful country!
Volunteer Visit to Rio San Juan and Site Fair"
So I made it back on the 7.5 hour bus ride from the very rainy Rio San Juan Region of Nicaragua on Wednesday. I then proceeded back to my training town about an hour outside of Managua, and tried to rest up for Thursday which was packed, but more on that in a bit.
So last Friday after technical classes, I headed to Managua with some of my fellow trainees to stay the night to catch our early buses the next day to visit fellow volunteers all over the country. And LOVED my night in Managua. Not only did we get to see the Peace Corps office, but we got to hang out with other volunteers, get some great advice, check out a new book at the PC library (The Bourne Ultimatum!) I also got to eat Quiznos, a Buffalo Chicken Salad for dinner (that later I regreted) and a hot shower and a room with air conditioning. It was a lovely little break from training. The next day I boarded my 6.5 hour bus ride to El Almendro alone (since this was a direct bus to my destination) and luckily had taken a Pepto before I boarded so I was good to go! (Travel I mean)
The views along the way were beautiful, (I will post some pictures next) and the ride went quickly due to my new reading material! When I arrived in El Almendro, I met Jane, the volunteer I was visiting as well as three other volunteers who either were a site mate, or ag. volunteers visiting to build a cleaner burning oven for the Casa Materna. A casa materna is a public boarding house where women who live far from medical care can stay for the last 2 weeks of their pregnancies so that they can receive the appropriate medical care when giving birth. And now with the addition of the oven, these women can bake bread and sell it in the community to generate some income while there. Its a great win win for all.
Unfortunately the rest of our plans to go visit nearby waterfalls, and some class activities were cancelled due to the following three days of rain that ensued my arrival. But alas I had a wonderful time because I was able to see how a volunteer lives, what type of autonomy she had and make some great home cooked american food as well. I always forget how much I love pasta haha!
So I returned to my training town on Wednesday and prepared for my crazy day on Thursday that looked like this:
Wake up, shower, wash clothes, go to market, make two prototype for the youth group, conduct youth group meeting, run to San Juan de Oriente (about 45 minutes away) for a coping with stress training session, then run back to my training town to co-teach my 90 minutes class (which only had 45 minutes left) then go to a yoga class (that was actually cancelled).
It was a long day but a pleasantly good one. Friday was also a great day, I was able to review the 20 sites where I might possibly be placed for the next two years, got fed Pizza for lunch (SUPER SCORE!), listened to some great talks given by current PCs, and then had a great happy hour with some fellow trainees. I think I haven´t laughed that hard in a long time. Overall great day!
Today we had a site fair where some volunteers came from different regions to tell us about the available sites. I have decided that I would like to focus more on teaching and teacher training then possibly working with NGOs (trying to gain new experiences here right?) and so I have narrowed down my search by quite a bit. I will share with you my choices a little later when I have them confirmed.
I hope all of you are doing well! Keep putting one foot in front of the other and make good choices. I know I am trying to do so! Love you.
So last Friday after technical classes, I headed to Managua with some of my fellow trainees to stay the night to catch our early buses the next day to visit fellow volunteers all over the country. And LOVED my night in Managua. Not only did we get to see the Peace Corps office, but we got to hang out with other volunteers, get some great advice, check out a new book at the PC library (The Bourne Ultimatum!) I also got to eat Quiznos, a Buffalo Chicken Salad for dinner (that later I regreted) and a hot shower and a room with air conditioning. It was a lovely little break from training. The next day I boarded my 6.5 hour bus ride to El Almendro alone (since this was a direct bus to my destination) and luckily had taken a Pepto before I boarded so I was good to go! (Travel I mean)
The views along the way were beautiful, (I will post some pictures next) and the ride went quickly due to my new reading material! When I arrived in El Almendro, I met Jane, the volunteer I was visiting as well as three other volunteers who either were a site mate, or ag. volunteers visiting to build a cleaner burning oven for the Casa Materna. A casa materna is a public boarding house where women who live far from medical care can stay for the last 2 weeks of their pregnancies so that they can receive the appropriate medical care when giving birth. And now with the addition of the oven, these women can bake bread and sell it in the community to generate some income while there. Its a great win win for all.
Unfortunately the rest of our plans to go visit nearby waterfalls, and some class activities were cancelled due to the following three days of rain that ensued my arrival. But alas I had a wonderful time because I was able to see how a volunteer lives, what type of autonomy she had and make some great home cooked american food as well. I always forget how much I love pasta haha!
So I returned to my training town on Wednesday and prepared for my crazy day on Thursday that looked like this:
Wake up, shower, wash clothes, go to market, make two prototype for the youth group, conduct youth group meeting, run to San Juan de Oriente (about 45 minutes away) for a coping with stress training session, then run back to my training town to co-teach my 90 minutes class (which only had 45 minutes left) then go to a yoga class (that was actually cancelled).
It was a long day but a pleasantly good one. Friday was also a great day, I was able to review the 20 sites where I might possibly be placed for the next two years, got fed Pizza for lunch (SUPER SCORE!), listened to some great talks given by current PCs, and then had a great happy hour with some fellow trainees. I think I haven´t laughed that hard in a long time. Overall great day!
Today we had a site fair where some volunteers came from different regions to tell us about the available sites. I have decided that I would like to focus more on teaching and teacher training then possibly working with NGOs (trying to gain new experiences here right?) and so I have narrowed down my search by quite a bit. I will share with you my choices a little later when I have them confirmed.
I hope all of you are doing well! Keep putting one foot in front of the other and make good choices. I know I am trying to do so! Love you.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Volunteer Site Visits Announced!
Ok so I still have no idea where I will be living for the two years, but I did find out I get to go on a little vacation/training mission to visit a current business volunteer in her site in.... RIO DEL SAN JUAN! Here´s a link to a google map of it: Map of Rio San Juan I will be in a tiny town called Almendro which if you zoom in a few times you can see on the map! I will be heading to Managua for the evening on Friday then off to Almedro on Saturday and will return to my training town on Wednesday. I hope to be able to update you then and with pictures if possible.
In the meantime, here are some pictures of my room during training:
In the meantime, here are some pictures of my room during training:
Hope you all enjoy the pictures! Love you all and make good choices!
Monday, June 6, 2011
Tailgating... Nicaragua style
Yesterday, my training town had its big horse parade event of the year, la hipica. It is essentially a big parade of people riding their horses through the main streets of town and then into the central park where there are judges to see who has the best saddle, best horse, best dance, etc. Before the event started, some of us trainees went over to where all the riders and horses were getting ready. Before we knew it we were with the mayor of our town, some of the more prominent riders, and the embassador of Taiwan. Needless to say, their tailgate was a little more upscale, and before we knew it, someone offered us a beer... OLD MILWAUKEE from the USA. How funny is that? I had to think for a moment, where am I? Am I tailgating at a Packers game? no no, I am in Nicaragua. From there we went to visit some other friends nearby and watch the start of the parade. I have video of some of the riders and their horses dancing so if I can figure out how to post it I will.
Oh and Saturday we went to a research farm where we saw lots of fruit trees and learned how to make some products like soap, cough syrup, fudge, chocolate, and dried herbs. Hopefully it will inspire us to make some new products with our youth groups. I am excited to see what everyone comes up with.
Well I need to get going, but I will post some pictures and hopefully video later. Love you all and make good choices!
Oh and Saturday we went to a research farm where we saw lots of fruit trees and learned how to make some products like soap, cough syrup, fudge, chocolate, and dried herbs. Hopefully it will inspire us to make some new products with our youth groups. I am excited to see what everyone comes up with.
Well I need to get going, but I will post some pictures and hopefully video later. Love you all and make good choices!
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Time flies... when you are busy
So this week is not even close to being over as we still have two more days of classes and I am giving my first solo class at the Instituto today, but I thought i might as well give an update since there has been so much going on this week. First think I learned this week is that it is very unlikely I will get Malaria. Woo hoo! and that I can use a Deet product every day and not worry too much, although I am using the natural repellent i brought with me at least 1 day a week.
So I wrote the above part earlier today, let me fill you in on the class I taught and the youth group meetings we had today. Well I am glad to say that I have gotten over my fears of teaching in Spanish in front of 55 Nicaraguan teens. And I also now understand why teachers are always so tough the first couple of classes. I went in and laid it all out for them, the class rules, my credentials and where the door was in case they didn´t want to participate. And amazingly, and our counterpart told us after that the kids acting up was what she was most worried about, the kids were great. I just hope that they can get something out of the class. I would love to see at least one of them start his or her own business. Did I mention that in my third week of training I SOLO taught a class? Amazing. Talk about an ego boost. Sure I let them walk off with their homework, but I was just happy to still be standing and speaking by the end of it all.
Also I got my cell phone yesterday. I will be able to send and receive texts from abroad in both SMS and MMS forms! Woo Hoo its the most advanced cell phone I have had in a gew years and it was still really cheap. I mean it has a 1.3 mega pixel camara that is soooo grainy that a picture looks more like a bunch of pixels than anything else, but still its a step up.
Oh and our youth group meeting went awesome. We were even observed today by Peace Corps staff and we were given top reviews. What a difference I feel from week one to week three. Granted this is not the typical PC training experience, most trainees stay in Spanish classes until the end, but since I am in the Native speakers group (sigh of relief) I am off and running on projects, teaching classes to fellow trainees, and hopefully can get into some research while still in training. We will be given special activities I am told. Wonder what they will be.
Well, I will update more this weekend, we have a class on food preservation (I´m hoping to make some pickles hahaha) and Sunday is the Hipica here. From what I understand its a big festival with cowboys and horses and stuff like that. I wonder if I will feel like I´m in Texas or something. I´ll write more when I have experienced it. Love to you all, and keep making the best choices possible.
So I wrote the above part earlier today, let me fill you in on the class I taught and the youth group meetings we had today. Well I am glad to say that I have gotten over my fears of teaching in Spanish in front of 55 Nicaraguan teens. And I also now understand why teachers are always so tough the first couple of classes. I went in and laid it all out for them, the class rules, my credentials and where the door was in case they didn´t want to participate. And amazingly, and our counterpart told us after that the kids acting up was what she was most worried about, the kids were great. I just hope that they can get something out of the class. I would love to see at least one of them start his or her own business. Did I mention that in my third week of training I SOLO taught a class? Amazing. Talk about an ego boost. Sure I let them walk off with their homework, but I was just happy to still be standing and speaking by the end of it all.
Also I got my cell phone yesterday. I will be able to send and receive texts from abroad in both SMS and MMS forms! Woo Hoo its the most advanced cell phone I have had in a gew years and it was still really cheap. I mean it has a 1.3 mega pixel camara that is soooo grainy that a picture looks more like a bunch of pixels than anything else, but still its a step up.
Oh and our youth group meeting went awesome. We were even observed today by Peace Corps staff and we were given top reviews. What a difference I feel from week one to week three. Granted this is not the typical PC training experience, most trainees stay in Spanish classes until the end, but since I am in the Native speakers group (sigh of relief) I am off and running on projects, teaching classes to fellow trainees, and hopefully can get into some research while still in training. We will be given special activities I am told. Wonder what they will be.
Well, I will update more this weekend, we have a class on food preservation (I´m hoping to make some pickles hahaha) and Sunday is the Hipica here. From what I understand its a big festival with cowboys and horses and stuff like that. I wonder if I will feel like I´m in Texas or something. I´ll write more when I have experienced it. Love to you all, and keep making the best choices possible.
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