Friends, Ovens, and Fiestas

This past week, I got a chance to see my NICA60 Environment friends as we received a training on how to make improved ovens.  The oven project is a part of the ECPA (Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas) Initiative.  In Nicaragua, volunteers work on 3 different types of projects: improved ovens, improved stoves, and biodigestors.  The improved ovens and stoves are "improved" because they use less firewood and produce less smoke than traditional ovens and stoves. Therefore they're better for people's health, as well as the environment.  Biodigestors use animal manure to produce gas that can be used to cook with. 

We arrived in Managua on Thursday, and got a chance to meet together as a group.  We went around and shared 1 success story and 1 funny story each.  It was nice to reconnect with everyone.  Despite the fact that we are all on a phone plan that allows us to call and text each other for free, I haven't been very good at keeping in touch with everyone.  I spent Thursday night in the hotel with some of the other girls, just hanging out and catching up. 

Friday we had breakfast at the hotel and headed out early to a restaurant in Catarina, where we had a charla from our program specialist, Lisette, the PS of the agriculture sector, and 2 volunteers who have worked extensively on ECPA projects.  We learned more details about ECPA, how the funding works, and talked through the process of constructing the ovens step-by-step.  After eating lunch, we headed to Pio XII, one of the towns where some of the other environment volunteers in my group lived during training.  The group was split in two to build ovens in two different houses.  Each group had a PC staff and experienced volunteer to guide us through the process.  Building the ovens was a lot of measuring, leveling, and getting dirty.  The mixture used to hold the bricks together is made of dirt and horse manure mixed together with water and sap from the dragonfruit plant.  We had to mix it all together (kind of like the way we mix cement in Mexico when I work with Simply Smiles) and use it to put the bricks together, all while carefully measuring and leveling to make sure we're building a sturdy oven.  We built a few levels of bricks, installed the barrel (where the stuff you're baking goes), leveled that (so that the cakes won't come out crooked), build up around the sides of the barrell, and then put on the roof.  The whole project took us over 4 hours, but we were able to walk through every step very carefully so that we will be able to replicate it in our sites.  I'm hoping I'll have interest in my site so that I can do an oven project here.  The family has to put in 25% of the money for the oven, and the ECPA grant funds the other 75%.  I'm going to start to see who's interested, and hopefully I'll be building some ovens in La Concordia!

after a long day of work, we finally finished (mas o menos)

After building the ovens, the other mud-covered, tired volunteers and I headed back to the PC office for pizza and then to the hotel, where I spent another night hanging out with my friends in our hotel room and watching TV (in English!!!).  The next morning I headed back to my site, where the Fiestas Patronales are beginning.  It's basically a week-long celebration with parties, rodeos, drinking, and lots of people.  Unfortunately, the party Saturday night was empty, so I didn't end up going, but the 10th is the hipico (drunk cowboy and horse parade) and another party, with a band that's coming to perform.  Yesterday I checked out the rooster fights and the rodeo.  I will never go to a rooster fight again.  That's all I'll say about that.

I'll post again once the fiestas are done to tell you more about it!  I also started working today.  There's still no kids in the school, but the teachers will be going around this week and registering kids, as well as doing some professional development.  Classes start the 12th!

Sitting, Waiting, Wishing

School starts on February 12th...we have a date!  In the mean time, I'm still here, hanging out, trying to not get too bored, reading a lot of books, still waiting on the cow poo for my garden, and making cool recycled crafts (thanks to the wonders of the internet, I somehow keep managing to find new ideas each week).  I am very ready for school to start!

I had a visit last week from the PCVL (Peace Corps Volunteer Leader) from Jinotega.  She's also an environment volunteer who's in her third year, and her role is to support all of the volunteers in the department.  We sat and chatted in the park for awhile, and she had a TON of questions to ask me.  It's nice that PC is checking up on us, but how many times can I say "I really like my host family," "I don't have any problems with my site," and "No, I haven't had any security issues."  Mostly the meeting made me feel really good.  I've been slightly worried that I'm not doing enough to integrate.  Mostly it's just me being a perfectionist and always thinking I could be doing better than I am (being in the Peace Corps has made me much more self-aware of these kinds of things).  However, she kept telling me how great it looked like I was doing.  Apparently, one of the guys that works on the bus knew my name and told her which bus stop to get off at.  Some ladies that she walked by knew where I lived and pointed her in the right direction.  My buddy Napoleon, who works for the alcaldia and is in charge of cleaning the park, had a nice chat with us and told her about my craft group and how he helps me collect trash for our projects.  One of the profesoras from the school walked by and told her how excited she is to work with me this school year.  My counterpart's grandson ran past us in the park and said hi to me.  So, check me out...integrating into my community!  woo hoo! 

I just got back today from a trip to Niquinohomo.  I got to go to Granada and check out Volcan Mombacho.  It's a huge, dormant volcano that overlooks the city of Granada, the isletas, and Lake Nicaragua.  The original plan was to walk up, which I was told takes 2-3 hours.  However, we got a later start than expected, and walking all the way up and back down would have meant getting home pretty late.  So, I decided to pay for us to go up and down in the pickup trucks that are used to transport people.  Somehow, we lucked out and they charged us for 2 Nicaraguans instead of 1 Nicaraguan and 1 extranjero.  It costs $15 for foreigners, but I ended up paying just $12 for the two of us.  The trip up the volcano, which would have taken at least 2 hours on foot, took just 10 minutes in the truck.  We walked around on some of the trails at the top that go around the crater and checked out the view before grabbing some tourist-priced sodas and chips and heading back down in the truck.  I definitely hope to go back there and hike another one of the trails which says it takes 4 hours and requires a guide.  Luckily I have almost 2 years left here, so I'm sure I'll have the chance to go back, and maybe I'll even save some money next time and hike up.

the crater

the isletas of Granada, formed by the volcano erupting

Laguna de Apoyo

Coming up next: At the beginning of February, Nica 60 has an in-service training on how to make improved stoves and ovens!  They use less firewood and produce less smoke, which makes them an environment and health-friendly alternative.  Hopefully I'll be able to build some in La Concordia eventually!

Holidays and More

The holidays have come and gone, and they were pretty low-key here in Nicaragua.  I spent Christmas here in La Concordia with my host family and then went to Niquinohomo for a few days to spend New Year's with my host family from training. 

Leading up to Christmas, I kept asking my host family what they do to celebrate, and never really got much of an answer.  Mostly they just said that they don't do much of anything.  Leading up to Christmas, the people from the Catholic church celebrate the posadas.  This means that they wake up at 4 a.m. every morning (which isn't that hard when there's loud Christmas music playing and fireworks going off) and go to a different person's house every morning.  They start at the church and bring figurines of Mary and Joseph with them.  They also all carry little plastic tambourines, which they make noise with while singing (and none of them have any sense of rhythm haha).  They knock on the door, and sing back and forth with people inside the house, a song about why they should let Mary and Joseph in, and the people inside give excuses why they can't.  Finally, at the end of the song, they are let in to pray, sing, and drink coffee.  The first day of the posadas was at my house, so I decided to wake up for it.  After that, I usually was woken up by the music/firecrackers but rolled over and went back to sleep.

posadas

our Christmas tree

On Christmas Eve, I went to church.  When I was a volunteer in Honduras, I used to go to Catholic church with my family in Sulaco almost every Sunday.  There was something about that church that I really liked.  It seemed like a big community, it was pretty informal (stray dogs and children wandering around), and I usually liked the sermon that the priest would give.  The priest would usually walk down from the pulpit and stand in the aisle, talking about things that the people would relate to, often asking questions and getting people to participate.  It was very different than what I pictured in my head when I thought of Catholic mass.  On the other hand....here in La Concordia, Catholic mass is exactly what I picture in my head.  Really boring.  Priest constantly telling people that they are terrible and do terrible things.  Stuffy and formal.  To make a long story short, I left mass on Christmas Eve after being there after maybe 15 minutes.  This was the 3rd time I had gone to mass, and I just decided I wasn't going to try any more.  Sorry, Catholic church in La Concordia, it's not gonna happen.

Later on, I had a nacatamal at my house and then went out to the bar with my host brother.  My town has various bars, but only one of them is a place that's acceptable for women to go to (or at least that I'm comfortable going to).  It's a cute little bar-restaurant on a dirt road fairly close to my house.  So, I spent the night of Christmas eve at a bar---definitely a first for me, but I can't say I hated it.  The drunker people got, the more they decided to talk to me instead of just staring at me from across the room.  I was grateful that my host brother was there with me, and it was hilarious how all the guys would come up to talk to me every time he went to the bathroom and then go back to their tables when he came back.  We shared quite a few liters of beer and then headed back home at 12:30.  Merry Christmas!

A few days after Christmas, I headed back to Niquinohomo to visit my host training family.  I was met with the warmest of welcomes, especially from Diego, the 2 year old that is probably the cutest thing ever.  I spent a lot of time just relaxing and hanging out with the family.  At midnight on New Year's Eve it was crazy all of the fireworks and loud noises.  Everyone was out in the streets laughing, yelling, and lighting things on fire.  There's a tradition to make scarecrows filled with fireworks "el viejo" and burn them at midnight to symbolize the end of the old year and a fresh beginning for the new one.  I did a little drinking and a lot of chatting with some other family who I hadn't met before and didn't get home until around 4 a.m.

What else have I been up to?

Not too much! haha.  Like when I was in Honduras, I have to get used to a certain level of boredom that comes with living in a small town in Central America.  And I have to stop feeling bad about not really doing much. (at least I'm pretty self-aware when it comes to this, I can't help it that I'm a work-a-holic!)  Awhile back, I started working on my garden, which I'm doing at the uncle's house who lives across the street (because there are tons of chickens at my house that would eat EVERYTHING).  I asked the grandmother, who lives a ways away and has a bunch of cows, if they could bring me some sacks of cow manure because the soil here doesn't look all that good for planting.  This was probably a month ago.  I keep reminding them.  Apparently there are 2 sacks there, ready for me to use, someone just has to drop them off.  I've been really patient, but I NEED to get things planted in my garden.  This may mean me walking over an hour and then lugging sacks of poo all the way back to my house...stay tuned for that story.

The other thing that I've been doing twice a week is meeting with a group of kids in the park to do crafts out of recycled materials.  So far we've made chains out of chip bags (which can be made into bracelets, belts, or purses), flowers out of plastic bottles, paper beads out of magazines, and bracelets out of magazines and plastic bottles.  There's a solid group of 3 or 4 girls that always shows up, and then any other kids that happen to be around usually join in.  However, at this point I'm really running out of crafts, so if anyone has ideas let me know!  We're working with minimal materials.  So far the only things I've bought are a couple of glue sticks....crafting on a Peace Corps budget :-)

So, that's about it so far.  Next up...another visit to Niquinohomo (next weekend) and hopefully hiking Volcan Mombacho.  Then in February my town celebrates their fiestas patronales!  There's going to be a hipico February 10th (parade of horses, lots of people dressed up like cowboys, and drunk cowboys on horseback!) and the party is on February 11th.  Looking forward to it!

Nicaraguan Myths, Legends, Beliefs, etc.

Sometimes people believe weird things.  There are people that believe you have to throw salt over your shoulder if you spill it, that you have bad luck on Friday the 13th, or that you shouldn't open an umbrella indoors.  Usually we just call those people superstitious and let them believe what they want.  Here in Nicaragua, there are so many weird beliefs that almost EVERYONE believes and NO ONE questions (except maybe a brave Peace Corps volunteer).  Here's just a selection of some of them.

• You shouldn't bathe while you're "agitated" (like after being outside when it's hot or exercising) because it will make you sick.
• I've also heard something about not bathing after exercising that has to do with your pores and the soap that you use causing problems when your pores are open
• If you have a cold or cough you should not drink anything cold, only hot beverages
• You should not bathe at night, it will make you sick
• If you are eating nacatameles, you must accompany it with bread or tortillas (even though it's already a big huge hunk of carbs) and coffee.  No cold beverages.
• A change in climate can make you sick (as if there's really any changes in climate here...warm or warmer?)
• Tomatoes and tomato juice cure diabetes....but insulin makes you blind (from my host mom in training, whose husband passed away from diabetes)
• If your baby hasn't started walking yet, you should rub goat fat on his knees
• My host uncle here at my site had some kind of eye infection.  My host mom said he needed to put a woman's breastmilk in it...and she was serious.
• My friend Chelsea's host mom in training always made her drink Coca Cola when she was eating eggs because "it helps with digestion"
• You should not bathe after eating, you'll vomit (seriously...when are you allowed to bathe?)

I'm sure there are more that I'm forgetting, but that's a pretty decent list for now.  Just gives you an idea of some of the crazy stuff I've been hearing all the time since I got here in September).  Because I'm a gringa, I'm allowed to violate most of these rules whenever I want and just say I didn't know any better or that "I'm used to bathing after exercising" (because, seriously, who isn't?). 


On a serious note, my home state was hit by a unimaginably terrible tragedy a week ago today.  As soon as I heard about it, I called my friend Emily who is also a Nica60 Environment volunteer and also from Connecticut.  We both were on the internet at the same time and in complete disbelief, but it was nice to have someone to talk to.  Since last Friday, I have seen the story on the news here in Nicaragua multiple times.  I used to get strange looks every time I told someone what state I was from, because no one had heard of Connecticut.  Now they've heard about it, and unfortunately for a awful, tragic reason.  I still have all of my Connecticut friends and family in my prayers and all of those affected by the shooting in Newtown. 

"In the hard days to come, that community needs us to be at our best as Americans, and I will do everything in my power as president to help, because while nothing can fill the space of a lost child or loved one, all of us can extend a hand to those in need, to remind them that we are there for them, that we are praying for them, that the love they felt for those they lost endures not just in their memories, but also in ours." -President Obama

Random Thoughts and Happenings, Volume 1

So, a lot of times stuff happens or things pop into my head that I think would be cool to share, but not cool enough to write a blog post about.  I figure every so often I can give you some completely random tidbits for your entertainment or to make you think.

• Last night was the "purisima" here in Nicaragua.  That means people decorate altars to the virgin Mary in front of their houses and groups of people walk around singing songs.  Some houses, like mine, give out little packages of candies.  Picture tons of kids, adults, and old ladies scrambling and pushing just to get a few lollipops and hard candies.  We also gave out a traditional drink...agualoja...which is made of ginger, fermented corn juice, and dulce (kind of like brown sugar, but made from sugar cane).  Fermented=can get you drunk.  According to my host sister, there were quite a few tipsy children on Thursday night after the mayor's office gave out their purisima gifts.  There are also fireworks and a lot of drinking.  My host uncle made a concoction of about 3 gallons of guaro (really gross, strong rum), a couple bottles of coke, and a liter of beer.  It was pretty awful, but he insisted that we give it out to the people "so that they can sing better" haha
• At the 6th grade graduation yesterday, they called me up to sit on the stage as a special invited guest.  Which also means I had to kiss all 21 of the graduates and their parents on the cheek as they received their diploma.  Luckily most of the dads opted for the handshake or awkward Nicaraguan upper-arm-grab instead of the kiss. 
• Nicaraguans, when talking about people, a lot of times will put "el" or "la" in front of the name.  This is something that I have noticed here that I never really noticed in Honduras.  For example they'll say "La Sara" (The Sarah) instead of just using the plain name.  I think it's kind of cool.  Makes you feel like one of those celebrities that just goes by their first name, like Madonna.
• People are really into taking medicine.  When I have a cold, sometimes I'll take a decongestant or something if it's really bothering me, but mostly I'll just rest and drink lots of water.  If a Nicaraguan notices that you're sniffling, coughing, or sneezing, their first reaction is to tell you to take something for it.  Here, injections are just as common as taking pills for things.  I've started to just lie and tell people that I'm taking pills for things when I haven't (because I know that there's no pill that will cure a cold!).
•  My host family is obsessed with asking me if I'm bored.  It seems like they ask me every hour or so, every single day.  Yes, of course there are times when I'm bored-- I'm living in a very small town where there's not much going on most of the time.  I just keep telling them I'm not, but I'm not sure how convincing I am.
• The use of nicknames here is out of control.  Everyone in my extended host family has a nickname and rarely goes by their real name.  In fact, I don't even know most of their real names...Pucha, Paco, Pucho, Pulga, Pelota....  and until this very moment, I hadn't realized that almost all of the nicknames start with P.  Interesting.
• In case you were wondering, I now answer to Sara, Sarita, Chela, y Chelita.  Even people who know my name still call me Chela when they see me on the streeet (chele and chela are terms for men and women with light skin)
• I started my garden yesterday-- the soil kind of sucks, so we decided to dig out big trenches so that we can mix the soil we dug out with cow manure and then put it back in and plant.  Apparently that's not how it's done here, and I had to explain my reasoning multiple times.  I also may have gotten a neighbor in trouble.  He was helping dig out the trenches (which I thoroughly appreciated, because what he did in 10 minutes would have taken my host sister and I 3 hours) when his girlfriend/wife/mujer comes over yelling.  The only part I caught was her saying, "Candil de la calle, oscuridad de la casa," which is a Nicaraguan dicho which means "Lamp of the street, darkness of the house"---referring to people who help other people but don't do anything in their own home....woops!
• Last, and most importantly....I now have an address of a post office box in the departmental capital that's only about an hour away from me.  So, instead of sending stuff to the PC office in the capital city (4 hours away), I can get my mail a lot easier there.  I posted the address on the right side of this page!  I brought a couple of photos from home, but I'd love it if you threw in a few photos if you're going to send me a letter.  That way I can brighten up my tiny little bare-walled, cement floor room!

Getting started...

So, I did it!  I officially made it through the 11 weeks of training (for the second time) and got sworn in as a Peace Corps Volunteer (for the second time).  Last week was a rollercoaster.  We finished up training with a trip to the embassy and a couple of other training sessions.  On Wednesday morning, I headed into Managua where we had our last day of training at, ironically, the same place we had our 3-day orientation when we arrived in September.  While in Managua, we stayed at a hotel near the Peace Corps office.  Thursday we had an excellent Thanksgiving dinner at the PC director's house.  Last year I celebrated Thanksgiving with a couple of my Peace Corps Honduras friends with a hamburger at TGI Fridays in Tegucigalpa.  I loved being able to have a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, and I especially liked being able to sit outside to eat it :-) 

Friday was our swearing in ceremony.  It was held at a hotel in Managua, and Peace Corps invited 2 members of each host family to come.  My host mom is too cool for school and decided that, because she's probably hosted more volunteers than anyone else, she's allowed an extra guest to the swearing-in ceremony.  So, she brought both of the twins with her.  We started out with a more informal ceremony to recognize the different host families and thank them for their help over the past 11 weeks.  Later on, we had the more formal ceremony where we had to sing both the Nicaraguan and U.S. national anthems, took the "promise of service" in Spanish, and were officially sworn in by the ambassador (promising to defend against all enemies, foreign and domestic.)  Here are the words to the promise of service, which is something that is unique to Peace Corps Nicaragua:

En el nombre de Dios y por la comprensión y la amistad entre la gente y las naciones, solemnemente me comprometo a trabajar con dedicación y entusiasmo en las tareas que me señalen, durante dos años o durante el tiempo que dure mi permanencia en el país.

Prometo esforzarme por afianzar vínculos de afecto y solidaridad con el pueblo nicaragüense, mediante el respeto mutuo y una verdadera vocación de servicio.

Por Dios, por la Patria, por la Paz.

In the name of God and for the understanding and friendship among people and Nations, I solemnly promise to work with dedication and enthusiasm in the tasks that are assigned to me, during two years or during the time that I may stay in the country.

I promise to strive to secure bonds of affection and solidarity with the Nicaraguan people through mutual respect and sincere vocation of service.

For God, for Country, for Peace.

My Niquinohomo Family

All of NICA 60-- Environment and TEFL Volunteers

So, then, we officially went from being Peace Corps Trainees (aspirantes) to Volunteers (voluntarios).  We had a chance to celebrate on Friday night, and in the morning we said our goodbyes and headed out to our sites.

My first few days in site have, overall, been very positive.  I've mostly been spending my time in the school observing classes and with my host family.  Yesterday I got to meet the mayor (alcalde), who welcomed me to the town and invited me to work on projects with his office.  He also said that they have some funds for environmental projects, so hopefully I'll be able to take advantage of that.  My host family is great, and there are constantly people coming in and out of the house, so I've been meeting a bunch of community members.  My next task is to work to ensure that I will stay busy over school break, which starts next week and goes until February.  My project director wants us to start  small gardens to practice for when we do our school gardens and to start youth groups right away.  I'm also going to visit the health center and talk to a nurse there who mentioned the possibility of working with a youth group aimed at preventing teenage pregnancy.

So, all's well here in my site.  I'm loving the climate here.  I'm in the mountains, so it's cooler than where I was during training.  I've actually been chilly a couple of the days that I've been here, but I think I've lost all sense of temperature.  It probably hasn't gotten much below 70 degrees :-)  Hope you're all staying warm!

I'm thankful for...

This is my second Thanksgiving in a row that I won't be at home with my family.  It's a little bit sad, but it helps to remember all of the things I'm thankful for....

• my family and friends at home: I've been awful at keeping in touch over the last 3 months, but the occasional phone calls and messages have kept me going through training.
• my new Nica 60 friends:  I have a pretty awesome training group and have made some strong friendships over the last 11 weeks that I know will be absolutely essential to me making it through the next 2 years here in Nicaragua.
• health:  ok, so I've actually been kind of sick over the last week, but I'm grateful that overall I'm healthy and so are my friends and family
• hot water at the hotel we're staying at:  when you've been bucket showering with cold water at 6 a.m. for the past 11 weeks, hot water is AMAZING!
• the Peace Corps staff in Nicaragua: they're supportive, realistic, and super generous.  Especially the Country Director, who's hosting us all for Thanksgiving dinner today
• my host family from Training:  This is a big one for me right now, and it makes me tear up just thinking about how fabulous they were for the past 11 weeks and how much I am going to miss them.  My mom took the best care of me-- made me great food, washed my clothes, and just supported me in every way possible.  My host sisters Ana and Maria-- for being my first genuine Nicaraguan friends, hanging out with me, going to the gym with me, and making me laugh.  My "nephew" Diego-- who my host sisters started calling my Nicaraguan son because he got so attached to me-- for making me laugh with all the adorable things he says and greeting me with a hug, smile, and screaming "Tia Sara!" every time I walked in the door.  And Luis-- for hanging out with me, talking to me like a friend and not like a gringo, and being there for me.  Gosh, I'm going to miss them all.  Even though I'm already planning on seeing them for New Year's, it was still really hard to say goodbye.
• this opportunity:  Just a year ago I was spending Thanksgiving in my site in Honduras.  I never would have thought that this year I would be spending it in Managua, Nicaragua, one day before being sworn in as a Peace Corps volunteer for the second time.  I know it's cliche to say that everything happens for a reason, but I couldn't be happier where I am right now.  I love my new project (environmental education), my training group, and I know I'm going to like the site where I'll be living and working for two years.  I would have never imagined I'd be here, but I'm so glad I am!

Hope everyone has an amazing Thanksgiving surrounded by their close friends and family.  Don't forget all of the things that you have to be thankful for.  Living in a developing country definitely makes you appreciate all of the things that many people take for granted, but it also helps you realize what's really important-- the relationships that you build with people, being together with those you care about, and enjoying life despite its hardships and challenges.

Love and miss you all.  Have a great day!