I need to start blogging more often. My last post was from September 5th, our one-year anniversary of being in Nicaragua. And now, we're coming up on our one year in-site anniversary in a little over a month. Crazy stuff.
General consensus from my fellow Nica 60 environment volunteers is that we are ready for the school year to be over. We've learned a lot this school year, and at this point are tired and ready for a nice long school vacation. Almost all of the other volunteers from my group are heading home to the states for Christmas/New Years, so they have begun their countdown. Some claim to be making lists already of things to do/buy/eat while they're home. Because I went home in May, I'm going to be spending another Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years away from home. However, I'm going to be having some visitors in December and January, so I'll be taking vacation, just not in the states. I haven't begun the countdown yet, but I'm sure I will soon.
Work has been nothing special. My gardens have all kind of stopped producing or become overrun by weeds or had all of the vegetables stolen by neighbors or plants ripped out by kids. In the schools I've been focusing on science classes, co-planning and co-teaching. I've got a good rhythm going with a few of my profes, and the kids look forward to the days that I come in.
In September, because of Independence Day and giving some training sessions in Managua for the new group, I feel like I barely spent any time in the school.
Here are some highlights since my last post:
Celebrating one year in-country with some Nica 60 friends in Leon. Ate some yummy, non-Nicaraguan food and went to the beach. Also got to celebrate my birthday a few days late with some good friends
I opted out of this year's Independence Day celebrations and took a weekend trip to the Laguna de Apoyo- a huge, beautiful lake near Masaya and Granada. I used my birthday money (thanks mom and dad!) to spend a few days there. Relaxed, went swimming, and had a great time.
2 of the trainees from the new group came up to visit me for a few days. Trainees do a visit to current volunteers in order to see a new place and learn more about what the daily life of a volunteer is like. They came right after Independence Day, so there were a couple of days without class. We spent one day off climbing up to the cross in Jinotega and they helped me co-plan and observed my classes in my rural school. It was kind of funny answering all of their questions and seeing how fascinated they were by small things like the wood stove my host mom cooks on and some big avocados that we bought across the street.
I gave a training session to the new volunteers at the end of September. Got to hang out with some other volunteers from my group. We had a lot of laughs hanging around the Peace Corps office, ate Papa Johns pizza and saw a movie (pizza is a big deal).
On October 4th there was a big celebration here. Why do we celebrate October 4th? Well, La Concordia celebrates the birth and death of General Benjamin Zeledon (strangely, he was born and died on the 4th of October). The day before, there was a "carnaval" at the school where I work, which is named after General Zeledon. The kids showed up in crazy costumes and we paraded around town. On the 4th, there was a parade with the bands from here in La Concordia and some from neighboring towns. In the park, each band performed with their scantily-clad dancers and there were also musical groups and impersonators. There were tons of people, even more than the fiestas patronales back in February. I was glad that I got to see the band presentations because I had missed them on Independence Day. At night, there was a party in the recraeativo, and those are always interesting.
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| carnaval costumes |
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| gross carnival costumes- apparently made with paint, flour, water, and rice. |
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| dancers from the primary school where I work, marching in the parade on October 4th |
That's all for now! Thanks for reading!
