September

Ok! So I thought about breaking this up into smaller chunks, but then we had Internet problems for 3 days straight (typical Nica time), so I am just going to throw it all up here and happy reading! Morale of the story for this month is: Be gentle! It is a marathon of a service, not a sprint! And OOS (out of site) days are beautiful things!

Blog September

Or end of August first- had a successful first game day with the youth soccer teams-apart from everyone argueing about everyone else’s ages. My local communities of Cuatro Esquinas and Corozal, played really well and with minimum drama. Rushed to the cooking class at the cooperative where all the mother’s and sisters of the players wanted the recap of the game. Also got awesome milk cake-good day to be a PCV! Finished my day transplanting some mmore of my tester plants with my superstar youth and one of the captains of the 4 Esquinas team, Juancito.

Happy September! Had Corozal soccer practice, but cancelled when only 6 kids showed up. They seemed a little disappointed, but we agreed at the first practice that if they couldn’t field a full team within 15 min of practice starting, there is no practice. I also suggested combining practices with Cuatro Esquinas which they agreed might be a good deal. We’ll see. It may seem harsh to cancel practice, but it is also a lesson in discipline and commitment. The kids also know that if they tell me they won’t be at practice beforehand, I take that into account and do a headcount in my head of the kids who could even come to practice. Several other PCVs made the suggestion for the attendance rule and, from my experience with sports too, I have to agree with it.  Anyway, had time after to try to bake brownies but they didn’t rise very well (darn you unwarmed oven! And you metric conversions!) And today’s movie selection on the cable: Toy Story to Serenity to Green Mile to Kung Pow:Enter the Fist (I  know, quite the range!).  Most importantly, had my first PACA meeting. For those of you following at home, PACA is  Participatory Adult Community Assessment (or something like that) that all the PCVs are encouraged to do (especially Aggies who do work directly in the schools or hospitals). They include a community map, seasonal calendar and daily schedule. The idea is that you work with the community to complete it (they participate) in order for you all to assess what the community needs the most, which becomes the skeleton of your work plan as a PCV for the next 6- 12 and so on months. The warm-up activity I planned inadvertently showed that there is a literacy  gap in the community, but the community map and discussion about improved ovens went really well. So on average ok.

September 3^rd- First OOS (out of site) day and wow!! We are allowed 3 OOS days every month of service. These are mental health days or whatever we want to use them for (medical and tech transfers don’t count towards the OOS days- they are just for us to recharge our batteries).  I just went to Jinotega and spent the night in one of the PCV-recommended hotels. There was a real freedom being able to walk around in the anonymity of a city scape. I had a few notes of places to see and eat at from Lonely Planet, but otherwise I just wandered (in the daylight) and hung out in my hotel room for the night. Felt a lot like how I discovered all the cool nooks and crannies to NYC. There are also a lot of good souls in Jinotega- Ricardo, the hotel owner, the lawyer who helped me find the Centro de Salud, and Dona Angela who has a little no-name fritanga, or fried food shack, just one block from the hotel. It is also definitely cooler here- there was a breeze the entire time, like real air circulating with motion and the like! I almost cried when Ricardo opened the door to my room and showed me the real bed with a real tv with a real shower with real hot water. And I got mail!! Does it get any better!? Also met up with some other PCVs from Training, and underestimated the psychological break of speaking English and speaking Peace Corps with other gringos. Turns out we have a Volunteer Meeting on Friday, so I get to do it all over again. Parting image: a grandmother with her granddaughter sat next to me on the way home. They were headed to Wiwili (another 2-3 hours after my 2.5 to Praderas) and they didn’t have exact change for a snack, so I paid it and we started chatting the whole way back. She also shared all her food with me and I showed her granddaughter how to make the basic friendship bracelet. Peace Corps in a nutshell!

OK so something jumped on my bed and touched my foot last night and I had a super hard time getting back to sleep. Lidia says it is probably a rat or the cat that sneaks in from our neighbor’s at night. Why do we have rats if there is a cat that prowls at night?! Walked to the school to find out the professor wasn’t there, so they don’t have the art class. This is typical apparently.  Spent the rest of the day working on compost and garden with Juancito and Ruesbell, my youth superstars. We’ll see if the chickens can finally be stopped from invading the garden space. Both youth entered into a very philosophical conversation on impressions of the United States and why I don’t like being called gringa (in Nicaragua it is culturally appropriate to call to someone or get their attention by shouting out some physical trait, especially if you don’t know their names—imagine “Fatty, Blondy, Chinese”. I have told my youth that if you know my name, use it, and if you don’t know my name, I will introduce myself).

Went to the Centro de Salud to get a rash checked out. After looking away from his iTunes account for about 5 seconds, he determined it was scabies (which the PCMO or Peace Corps doc decided against). Was a little impatient after that fiasco, so ended the Charcon soccer practice early. Luckily biking the 7 miles round trip to Chacon is balancing out the rice poundage J Definitely getting a gallo pinto gut, of maybe a fried cuajada gut, but there is definitely a gut.

Got a little frustrated today with my host mom when she told me I could only use water to wash my laundry and it was just that there wasn’t any soap in the house. It felt kind of like lying, especially since we all know how clean plain water gets clothes. Laundry here is an aerobic activity, pushing and pressing the clothes against a concrete slab with corrugated concrete smaller ridges.  Picture coming soon. Had the first combined practice with Corozal and 4 Esquinas to resounding success. Able to do more drills and have a better game with more kids. And the community rivalry doesn’t seem to be too bad. After the rash and the laundry issue, it is hard not to think of all the different ways in which everything can, and probably is, getting contaminated, but c’est la vie! Also makes you realize how sterilized everythi9ng is in the States. It is also incredibly hard to self-advocate for your health when you are the only one in the household getting sick.

VAC meeting- Friday in Jinotega!! And even better, got to meet up and chit-chat with other PCVs. All of them are also in Jinotega from all different sectors. We met up for dinner after the meeting and I started to develop a sense of norms and actual expectations from those who have more experience in PC. Got back just in time for the 2^nd PACA meeting. The seasonal calendar is pretty sweet!! To address the literacy issue, I offered to scribe for the group this time and we discussed seasonal factors for the community (think crops, availability of money and materials, school calendar, etc.) for about an hour and a half. The care packages and getting to see other PCVs definitely was a huge pick-me-up. My other host-sister, Lidia Jr., is off to Spain. Apparently she is going with a tourist program, which confuses me even further as to the socio-economic status of my family. But the other PCVs, especially Sarah and the Health ones, were like meeting big sisters.

Taking a tip from all of my academic life and a couple of the PCVs and keeping a to-do list for the week and an up-to-date calendar. No water for the last couple of days. My family is a little superstitious since both times I’ve left, water or electricity has gone until I get back. Freaky! The guys actually took the truck with big buckets and rain barrels down to the river to fill up. Apparently, a truck drove over the one pipe that connects the whole system, but the pipe also wiggles out of place when there is a lot of rain and the river overflows. Back to bucket baths! Good news-at least one dead mouse down!! Hung out at my grandma’s house for most of the afternoon after church. My host grandfather has been in and out of hospitals for the last several weeks and it was an all too familiar sight of family surrounding his bed and checking on him. Also getting used to the IOU system of the pulperia-small-town business! I think my host mom is a little less stressed now that her father is home and her daughter is safely in Spain. Going to admit I am also relieved, but moreso because I won’t have to worry about walking in on her and her boyfriend on my way to my room. Also got to shadow Edwin, my host dad, while he did his bookkeeping for the corn harvest, so I have a rough idea how that works now (ag finance 101 of profits, costs, inputs and outputs). Also starting to answer and ask questions with the same curt and short style that I receive. It’s actually culturally appropriate.

Still no water, but most everyone has returned to their routine before they had running water. The power went out for about an hour around 5PM, but I took that time to do some yoga outside. The darkness let me see the whole of Praderas in the distance, sporadically lit by camp and kitchenfires and a lot of lightening bugs. Have been learning to be easier on myself by taking the last couple of morning to catch up on the New York Times Dad sent. Even cut out some pictures to tape-laminate later for a potential English class. After watching how my host brother did it, I made an awesome egg omlet mixed with rice and melted cuajda. Talked to one of the neighboring women about moving into the house next to the CICO, or preschool, to the tune of Power Rangers and her daughters playing in the background. And for the 100^th time, “you don’t have any children? Or boyfriend? Fiancé?”

09-11: The head of the church for Nicaragua was in Praderas today, so I stayed far away from the sardine act that was church this morning. After a week of preparing my own food, 7 days is now my new record for health. Planted another almacigo with Juancito and Dona Coco, his mom. They are awesome, patient, tolerant, easy-going, and I wish they lived closer to the rest of town!! Also worked with the son of one of the cooperative members who needed emergency English help. The TEFL program in Praderas is mainly giving out paragraphs, lectures and essays to be translated with little vocabulary support or scaffolding, so the students usually go home and huddle around a collective dictionary and look up each individual word. Frustrating to say the least. I just made a word list of basic prepositions and this student was flying with new-found confidence. Note to self- investigate helping teach English classes in Praderas a few days a week!

Learned something new-apparently you have to guard corn at night. The bags of corn that have been harvested must be watch from dusk until about 9 so no one steals them. The whole collection and shucking process is pretty amazing to watch- the guys methodically place bags all around a given area close enough that they can talk but far enough that each is responsible for a different section. Young guys pick up the corn the others have bent and ripped off the stalks. I cut my finger on just one (don’t have Nica working hands!) but they do this for about 7 hours with food included. They get money per bag, so they are constantly asking each other how many. They then get a huge shucking machine similar to the industrial ones in the States, that spits the husks high into the sky into a pile that they just leave in the field. The cows are then let loose to eat whatever they want of what’s left, with the red and white line of bags of corn lining the ridge.

On another note, I have become addicted to leche con café: still not a huge fan of the flavor or frequency of café, but there are people who have figured out the leche, or creamer, with a little bit of coffee, is the fastest way to my heart, or sweet tooth. Sad note though, I decided to cancel the Praderas and Charcon youth soccer teams. The last two practices for both no one has come and I am sitting around the field for 30 minutes before having to bike back to 4 Esquinas. It’s great exercise, but not a good use of time with a group that is not my direct community.

Have had two successful ECA or art classes with the 4-6 graders. I have showed them how to draw animals and modes of transportation and they love it. Based on the teachers reaction and facial expression, she likes it too. Feel like there is definitely a raport building there. There is also an overlap of students and soccer youth which helps. Still is too funny watching my players forge the river on the horses on the way to practice. I snapped when one of the dogs stole a tortilla out of my hand, moreso because I really don’t want to have to make the trip to Managua for rabies shots.

09-14 Actually got the courage to ask my host-mom if she was mad at me or if there was a reason she hasn’t been talking to me for the last couple of days (girly sounding I know, but culturally this could be the beginning of a landslide). Fortunately she said nothing is wrong, but unfortunately culturally she probably won’t come right out and directly say anything to the contrary. One PCV told me this is one of the most frustrating aspects of the NIca culture, but I would argue that this happens in the US all the time. Gender stereotyping for a second, it’s more of a girl thing. After the guys shucked all the corn, they piled the bags onto a caretera, or ox drawn cart, and dragged it up the hill to be weighed. I walked to Praderas to pick the bus up to Tamalaque, where another PCV lives, for a seed swap and just to visit too. I will never complain about the accessibility of my site again. There is only one bus to Tamalaque and it is at 11 and the last bus to leave is at 4. You only have about 2-3 chances to go anywhere, and these are relatively new given that they just built a bridge within the last year to the community (they had to forge the river like Oregon Trail before that).

09-15 Rained all day!! Really quite impressive!!Parade today!! All the kids from all the schools gather in Praderas in groups for their respective schools or band groups and perform up and down the streets of Praderas. Officially, today is the festival celebrating independence from Spain, but let’s be honest, shaking your spandexed booty and beating a drum is shaking your booty and hitting a drum. Loud and fun! Nicas love their marching bands! Most of the kids, including my host brother, had missed the last two days of school to prep with extra band practice. But they were all soaked by the end. Got up with Sarah, the volunteer from Wale (40 min away) and we are both thinking about doing oven projects. The whole setting reminded me of some local 4^th of July celebrations, with the sketchy ferris wheel and the adults attempting to commemorate the event while the kids are looking around every which way because no one can really understand the Charlie Brown teacher voice on the microphone. Funny! 

And then there is the transportation

 So I didn't get a picture of one of the buses, but here is a rather blurry one of the town map in the mayor's office. Praderss, the big town, is in yellow and to your left you can see my town, 4 Esquinas.

 In the back of the truck for the second time, with members of the cooperative and another credit cooperative on the way to meet with Project Concern International, the NGO that has worked with the cooperative from the beginning.

 The big truck (yes there are different trucks) that half the people ride on top.

and others ride underneath. The camion (versus the smaller camioneta) is usually saved for transporting the tons of crops, but in the off-season peole earn a few extra getting others back and forth. These are an experience!

Projects for the first month

 Some snapshots of the projects that I was able to do, or start, in my first month. This is the almacigo, or nursery, for some of the plants I hope to put in a garden space by my house and my uncles' house. Thanks to Mom and Peace Corps for the seeds and Mom and Dad for the newspaper, which I rolled into biodegradable containers for the soil. One of my players, Juan, has been super helpful with planting and the soil prep. He's one of my rockstars! We've got some cucumbers (pepino), tomatoes (tomates), and sunflower (hierrasol) that we are trying.

 The finished trash bracelets. Both classes made these out of recycled chip bags. Usually the bags just go on the ground like the rest of the Nica trash because there is very little trash collection, but since this project, I have seen several students picking up chip bags. It's a start!

 Hard to read, but this is one of the community bank accounting sheets. Everything the banks do by computer in the States, the community leaders do by hand. The Bank was started by Jessica and is still going strong! It is a lot of calculations and it's a little more complicated because there is no fixed rate and a lot of flexibility with paying back with this group so the numbers get a little funky- but we are probably going to have a math confidence workshop in the community.

 My host dad and host brother-in-law working on my shelves! Yay!!

The chip bags drying for the bracelet project. Needless to say, they serve as their own publicity and I am officially the crazy gringa who picks up trash.

Some of those fun people

 These will seem a little random, but they are selections of some of the great moments here. These are two of the students, and two of my players, in the local school showing off their new bracelets we just made out of recycled Dorritos bags. The best part-they all brought their own materials and showed me more they made after the class!

 The gang! All except for the 2 youngest are on the Cuatro Esquinas team. They hang out playing fubol barefoot or by the hammock and talk to me, asking lots of questions and trying to learn English (sometimes)

 Lobo, the cutest and whiniest puppy. Everyone keeps stepping on him, and then he screams, but I protest that dogs have some of the best hearing, so he should be able to move, but none of the dogs here do. He is really cute though, so it's hard to be mad at him-even when he pees inside!

 This was my first back-of-the-truck excursion. My uncle is on the right (with the Boston hat!!) and one of the baseball players and cooperative members is on the left. And yes we are in the back of a truck and yes it rained on us. But it was so much fun!

Kids from both Corozal and Cuatro Esquinas playing pick-up fubol after the official Youth League Meeting.

Baseball pics

Good morning all! After a few lovely meals and a lot of walking around yesterday, I think I'm finally getting the hang of Jinotega. And I was able to load more pictures this morning. This is the Cuatro Esquinas baseball team, Odorico!

 First Game: very official in Cenizabu. There is a real field that only a few cows and horses run graze through.

 The snack stand: women and young kids make refreshments at their houses and sell them around the half-point since most games are double headers.

 My uncle, Juan Gadea, on the right. He actually called me to come to the Opening Day Parade-since I have the camera and "need to take a picture of everything and everyone." :)

 The parade!: the community wanted me to be the one in the middle in the dress, but I respectfully declined. All the teams in Pantasma line up and walk the streets of Praderas with a marching band to the big field.

 Carlos! The son of one of our catchers, and just an all-around sweet kid, he loves every sport and is one of my youth soccer players!

The fan club!: Some of the siblings and wives of the baseball players. In the red tank is Linda, she works at my grandparent's pulperia; then there is Aracelly to her right, who is one of the assistants at the cooperative, then Blondie, who is one of the players' girlfriend.

End of August: More Travel and more germs-going to have a stomach of iron!

More pictures to come later (found out the blogger can only do about 10 at a time). This, in addition to the first official community meeting (we did the community map) and the first official Friday tournament for the youth soccer teams (Cuatro Esquinas and Praderas won-followed by arguements about how old each player was--how American! :) ), concludes August. Hard to believe it's just been one month! Hopefully getting the hang of it. Big hug to everybody back home!

8/21: Had my first official meeting with all the socios of the cooperative. Wasn’t half bad. Spent the whole morning redoing all the posters I had done earlier that week and saving my energy with the antibiotics. Need to get a crash course in everything that has to do with the empressa and cooperative. Didn’t have any power so Edwin took us down to Dona Socorros house to watch the telenovellas. They are very serious about telenovellas here! Bought some oil and grease while in Praderas yesterday and Ariel took care of my bike while I was at the meeting. Thanks! There is a huge red moth engulfing my deodorant right now! Wow!

8/23: Got up early to get to the road, to get to the truck, to get on another truck to Jinotega. Back of the truck again by the way. All this with the board of the cooperative to get to a 10AM meeting with FIA (Foundation InterAmerica- a development agenciy from the states). My understanding is that the board asked FIA to fund a secadora and empacadora –basically a very expensive drier and packer that would empower my community to handle another step of the commodity chain for their basic grains. Right now they are at the mercy of the prices and collection and distribution schedule of  the AgriCorps middle man.  FIA basically told the cooperative that they need to come up with a more multi-tiered financial approach and that they currently do not have the land rights for the machine. Most of the land in Pantasma is originally indigenous, but through the wars land rights and redistribution have gotten rather sticky. The rep from FIA, Patrick Ahern, turns out was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Panama in 1972. At least it was fun chatting with him. And got orange juice and fried chicken! Got a crashcourse in the cultural difference between what the development agency wants to hear for it’s constituents and what the local community members need and want, trying to fit square pegs into round holes more or less. The guys and I had an informal English class the whole trip back in the back of the truck.

8/24: Had to cancel the other practices while I was sick, but had practice with Cuatro Esquinas today.  Also started frying onions and cuajada for meals, with minimal questioning from my family. Lined the garden area with secos, or grain bags, to keep out the chickens and anchored them with rocks- very high tech! Transplanted the kale, cucumbers and sunflowers that were getting too big for the shoebox. We’ll see if they make it in the shallow soil.  Isi and Lidia kept pointing out spots that I had missed where the chickens could (and did) get in. I probably looked crazy chasing chickens out of my garden with a stick, but they were stupid enough to leave the same way they came in, so I was able to figure out the culprits. Shucked and pulled corn with Edwin and got a blister on my thumb. Ow! Still have delicate, non-worker hands. Made torta de leche (milk cake) with the cooking class today. Always feel better after cooking class and practice. These women and youth are smart, tough, hard-working and motivated. 

Happy Birthday Isi! and more bacteria

08-17-Third week down. Successful meeting with the youth of Charcon and Praderas. One of the Charcon parents wants representatives for the teams to help work out any issues. Mavin, the parent, is actually the rep for the Charcon baseball team, so I understand that he is trying to replicate an already exisiting system of organization. Not entirely sure what to expect but vamos a ver. Rewarded myself with a bike (1855 cords) and a fried egg omlette for dinner. Biking was hard-I am way out of shape and my but bones need to get accustomed to the lovely terrain that only has a few rocks J It is the faster way to get from Point A to Point B, but on one stays in the seat for the whole trip. Rolling hills would be an understatement.  On another note, apparently my great-aunt died a year ago today and custom says that we do the reso thing again, but you only do it for the one-day anniversary.

08/18 Happy Birthday Isi!! Slow morning watching CARS in Spanish and reading the New York Times. Corozal had it’s first official practice today. Only one kid showed up on time and I was about to leave after 30 minutes, when suddenly everyone showed. They have a smaller field (it’s actually the concrete basketball court in front of the school). The school was having an activity for the parents at the same time, so we had several spectators measuring me up to see how serious I was. Different subject: Isi has a hicky! Also had the Community Bank meeting in the afternoon. The women need a financial math booster. They know the facts, but they are not very confident and the added stress of it being money doesn’t help. Still impressed that the Bank has succeed for at least 2 years without the help of a PCV.  Successfully made chocolate chip cookies for Isi and gave her a bottle of lotion with a friendship bracelet for all her help and patience. She looked rather flustered and shocked at first, like she was thoroughly surprised that I would give her a present. Wasn’t sure if maybe that wasn’t kosher (but I had seen Lidia give her a blouse). Technically the cookies were made with a candy called Botonetas (chocolate coated lentils) but they still came out great. Edwin and Vladimir wanted to eat them all, but I told them they would have to ask Isi. This was a completely strange concept to all parties involved, and the men just laughed it off. Written recipies are still a relatively new thing, so Isi and Lidia grilled me trying to memorize the recipie verbally even though I offered to give them a copy of the recipie. They do the same thing for the cooking class; even though they write it down, they can also tell the other women who didn’t attend verbatim what the ingredients and instructions are without looking.

08/19 Double header for baseball in Charcon today. Arm feels good sore. More acceptable to trhow around with the youth between innings towards the side of the field. Biked the whole way there and back. Was scolded severely by Lidia and Edwin and Ariel for not having greased my bike beforehand, which was why, apparently, the wheel wasn’t centered and I felt it every pedal. Luckily, Edwin and Ariel and Jackson (cousin) are fix-it handymen. The little kids who live next door caught about 40 tiny fish that they brought back from the Cenizabu river. They were incredibly practiced and precise descaling and gutting each one.

8/20: Bacteria :2 Me:0. Woke up every 3 hours, slept in until 6:30 then kept dozing. Lidia all but forced me onto the bus to go to the Health Center in Praderas. Nurse Mayra said no parasites, but given that I almost got sick and fell asleep in her office at the same time, she was worried it might be dengue or a bacteria.  The Doctor reminded not to eat nacatamales (oops) or raw cuajdad (oops). It is impossible to guard against all the germ vectors here, but I think this is a particularly key time to start preparing more of my own food. Lidia was very nervous when I told her I couldn’t eat anything but veggies and rice for the next couple of days. She takes it as her personal responsibility to make sure I have enough food, but it has been mostly the same thing that the rest of the family eats. Slept in the pulperia until the bus came at 2. Two little kids kept coming from across the street to try to talk to me. There was also a group of gringos from the GE Build On group- they are here to build a school in Soledad. They looked very green, and probably though I was crazy as I got on the back of the truck with all my Nica community members.

Casa Materna and Fubol Practice!

08-15 Finally figured out the cyber café schedule in Praderas (the only source of Internet in town). It’s 7 cords for 30 minutes (it was 5 in Masatepe). There is only one woman who has the key and it took two or three trips to Praderas to figure out that it’s not open on the weekends and there is an online class on Tuesday and Thursday. The other days it’s up for grabs, but there are only 4 computers and only 2 have Internet and one is always used by the key-keeper to monitor the pay-time. You do the math. The high school students wait forever in line outside the café to check their Facebook. Very American.

Also visited the casa materna. Very new and needs a lot of work. There are no Health PCVs (Peace Corps Volunteers) in Pantasma, just Aggies. The Casa Materna already has an outstanding looking garden bed, but it is at the base of a hill so all the water from rainy season has made it exceptionally sticky right now and mosquito central. There were about 4 very pregnant women when I visited and they were more than interested in having an improved oven or stove much closer to the house than the current kitchen set-up. They have a water gutter to jump over right now to get to the elevated ceramic stove and that is weather-dependent. Otherwise there is a small gas stove inside. In true OCD fashion, I have started writing out the questions that need to be answered and things that need to be done for the region specific projects like the ovens and gardens and other projects that might pertain to my community. The trick is to not get too tunnel-vision with just the projects that they want, or think they want.

Also visited a MINSA (government health group) workshop, where some youth recognized me form the soccer meetings. Also bought the soccer balls and got a free needle to inflate them. 220 cords and with the 5 cord quotas from the youth I only paid about 50 cords. You should have seen their faces when they saw the new balls. By the way, these are essentially dodgeball material with painted soccerball design. The real soccer balls cost about 350 cords a piece and with the intense level of play, I wanted to start with material that would be easier to replace. And again….they just want to play! Also finished filling up the two nurseries with super suave (smooth) soil from my host-uncle’s house. He and his youngest son, Juancito, were particularly interested in seeing how this new paper bag version of their black plastic bag nursery works.

08/16- Second day observing Profesor Julia. She explained that the school would not be able to have a garden because the whole place is crawling with sanpopos, which are an incredible kind of ant that can break down a tree in about 3 days. You can see the worker lines of them carrying the straight-edge pieces of whatever building material they are using. They are incredible to watch, but a sure sign of defeat if they are in a garden. My grandma (Dona Socorro) treated me to some amazing boiled milk with a little bit of coffee in it- AWESOME stuff! Also discovered that Linda, the sweet quiet girl who helps run their pulperia (general store) needs help with English and math. The older kids don’t get English until they are about 14 or 15 and then it is for about 2 or 3 hours a week.

Had my first practice with the boys of Cuatro Esquinas! So Much Fun! 20 boys showed up. We trained for an hour (ran, push-ups, sit-ups, planks, stretching, etc.) and they worked their bodies in ways that were probably completely foreign to them. But, I have the ball, and they trusted that I would hold up my end of the bargain and they could play for the 2^nd hour of practice, so they do it. Felt a lot like Keewaydin activity periods. They still want to know if they will get a trophy (the girls Jessice worked with got a massive trophy) or uniforms. The kids got absolutely filthy and dove into the very full river on the way back from Cenizabu. Because that’s what you can do in Nicaragua-you can take a bath in your clothes in the river after practice. 

Good thing I had all that education practice

08-13 Can officially say I have touched base with every house on the main road. Two weeks and one day- it was a blitz! Several  Volunteers suggested the blitz because , they spoke from experience, after the first couple of months you will too shy to visit or talk to people you didn’t meet in the first couple of weeks. And they will also be too shy or insulted to approach you, wondering why they didn’t get a gringa visit. I actually happened across two young girls who had been part of Jessica’s youth group and soccer team. They are very independent and talk to me for about an hour about what they were up to now (working on their degrees for accounting and nursing). They have started looking for a house for me to live in after the 3 month host-family mandatory period that is much closer to them or at least more central to the whole community (right now my house is one of the last ones before Coroazal). They also offered to help with soccer practices and expressed interest in English classes. Got back in time for a late lunch. Isi has started letting me serve myself which I greatly appreciate. It’s partly a health thing and also partly and independence thing. Finally had the incredibly awkward sit-down with Lidia about paying the host-family stipend. Peace Corps gives Volunteers about 1500 cords every month that is specifically to supplement the host family income for food and utilities for the volunteer. Lidia really did not like this and almost refused the money. With only two weeks under my belt and mixed reviews from more experienced Volunteers, it was hard to tell if I was flirting with cultural norms concerning money and hospitality or if my family was just especially generous. I knew that Jessica had paid the first 3 months too and leaned on that as a Peace Corps policy that I just had to follow. Very informal, hand-written agreement that we both signed essentially saying I would pay her every month for the food, utilites and occasional use of the kitchen and we would revisit this agreement in 3 months. Finished the day giving myself a small blister on my thumb while hoeing and cleaing the area I hope to put a demo veggie garden. My host dad says I’m crazy and that the ground is too sticky and everyone waits until after rainy season. Can’t tell if this is true or if he thinks I’m trying to make a commercial scale veggie plot (NO) or what, but it’s a pet project that really can’t fail because it’s engaging the youth around my house and I’m going to learn something about growing conditions and seasons no matter what.

First day observing Profesor Julia in class today. Very similar to field placement and teacher training classes in college and that familiarity actually helped me situate myself. Like most classes, it’s organized chaos. Any given day, there might be 30-60 students in one room with another 30-60 younger students learning in the other room only separated by a concrete wall. You can hear both classes at the same time. Lots of rote memorization and repetition. They apparently have all the same classes everyday from 8-12 or 1. That means about 30-40 min classes, but it completely up to the teacher too. There is a national curriculum and the classroom is covered in colorful posters with rules of the classroom, all of which are the Spanish equivalent of what you would see in a Kindergarten or first grade classroom. They have manualidad class (arts and crafts) on Thursday and Phys Ed on Tuesday. I will be helping out with these two classes. Still a little nervous about it. Super sore after just one hour of kicking the ball around with the young boys around my house. They picked up volleyball really quickly and even Isi came out of the house to pass the ball around a few times. This was huge because she rarely leaves the house and I have never seen her play a sport. She is super self-conscious because she has a very strong lisp that everyone in the community has told me about. It makes any language harder to understand, but I think we have just fallen into the habit of having her repeat anything she says to me twice. The first time is usually just to figure out that she is talking to me. I am starting to pick up the most frequent question and phrases she uses. Also tried and completed a bracelet made of folded recyclced Ranchitos (Dorrito) bags. Yet another example of being stared at and trying to explain something I was learning for the first time too. Luckily, once I was done, the interest in collecting the chip bags exponentially increases. The picture of the finished product was definitely worth a thousand words. To back up for a second, we are collecting these bags because Nicaragua has a huge solid waste problem and no real official trash collection system. There are pockets of areas (like Praderas for example) that half oil barrel drums cut in half with painted messages on the side that this is where you “botar su basura” (throw your trash) but the typical sight is all sorts of trash lining the streets and front yards. And what was even more frequent in Masatepe was to sweep the trash up everyday it was dry enough and burn it. Toxic plastic fumes-yum! My host family here uses less so wastes less, but will still burn the trash pile if it’s dry or looks like it has collected enough. More often than not, the women will also use the plastic bags and other trash bits to help start or feed the cooking fire, thus breathing in those fumes. Starting to see the room for improvement?

Baseball and other adventures

08/10- I have shelves. Edwin stayed home and made them from scratch with Ariel, my host brother-in-law, and Jackson, the farm hand. Also played soccer with the youth and gained respect points for still being able to keep the ball out of the goal. Having never officially coached soccer before, the important thing to realize is that the kids just want to play. They already know way more than I do about soccer and all the youth here learn by watching and participating. All informal education. All sandlot. All the time! Had the official soccer team meeting to the tune of 50 youth from Corozal and Cuatro Esquinas combined! The school professors came too because, apparently, these communities (or at least select youth) don’t get along-hopefully not jets and sharks level. Isabel and other adults were Godsends, helping coral the youth and translate what I was trying to say in Spanish. The kids were very receptive to the signing a contract guaranteeing their responsibility and good behavior as well as a due of 5 cordobas to raise fund for a ball for each team. Prepping for the meeting was shades of lesson planning; you can prepare as much as you want, but you are still going to have to roll with it. Also planted an almacigo, or plant nursery, using rolls of recycled New York Times newspapers (thanks Dad!).

So I think I’m finally figuring out the frontier town that is Praderas. I spent the whole morning just walking around, getting my bearings. Actually went to watch the baseball parade; picture all the teams from the Pantasma area (around 15 overall) in their uniforms lined up and walking a big loop around town to the tune of the local high school marching band. Very American. Reminded me of Opening Day (which is exactly what it was) and also a bit of 4^th of July. I got a call from my host dad asking where I was since I had my camera. I was given very specific instructions to take pictures of everyone and everything from every angle. My host uncle is one of the coaches. The Cuatro Esquinas team is called Odorico (still don’t know what that means) and they have bright red uniforms with blue lettering. It’s very  official. After they parade that ends at the big field in Praderas, they say a group prayer and stand for the National Anthem and receive speeches from the Comissioner of Baseball in Pantasma and the Alcaldia. Finally, they receive bags of donated gear (mostly gloves and spare balls with maybe one helmet). A glove here costs about the same as a bike (1,800 cordobas for a family that usually lives off 30-60 cords a day-you do the math). Felt very much at home watching the whole ceremony with the team and the female fans too. It felt very familiar and comradery-building. While in Praderas, decided to make pizza when I got back to the house. All the ingredients were about 100 cords total and it made about 16 pieces.

 I have gotten a little touchy with the food dynamics in my host family, which are a little harder to discern than I originally thought. Assuming machismo, the men get the biggest helpings of whatever they want whenever they want. Please and thank you do not exist, it’s “dame” or “gimme.” Food is also communal, in the sense that just because you bought the ingredients and made it, doesn’t mean it’s yours. I have just found that I need to step it up in being incredibly proactive and transparent in saying key phrases like “If you would like some, just ask.” This is in part because I’m straddling some gender roles. I’m a woman and I’m cooking, but I’m also a gringa who gets sick if I don’t eat food that I feel more comfortable preparing. Also, I’m more than happy to be sharing my cuisine culture, but am not going to tailor the food to the sweet or salty Nica preferences. It takes constant patience and communication. And my host father has a bit of a sick sense of humor mixed with an even stranger eating habit. He’ll eat all of everything but then say it didn’t have enough salt or he’ll jokingly say that all these cookies must be for him and I have to puff up my gringa chest and explain that I’m not joking and he can ask.

Edwin and I skipped across the cow-pie riddled short-cut to Cenizabu and cautiously walked over the man-made bridge to the baseball field to watch the team’s first double header. He and I are on the same page when it comes to baseball. The bridge, by the way, is two long pieces of tree probably cut from the surrounding forest and machete cut to be “relatively flat.” It’s an optical illusion to say the least. Was the ONLY girl at the game. Couldn’t tell if I was getting stares because I was the only girl, the only gringa, or both. Brought my glove and a softball and they let me throw around with them in between innings. By the way, all the vocabulary for baseball is the same with just different pronunciation. Home run is honrun. After throwing, and after several of my throwing partners dropping the ball to the resounding appeal of their teammates, I think I started to make some progress.  At least, on my way home, two of the players asked if I was coming to the next game. Got home before the worst of the heat and rain started up. Ariel’s mom, Rosaria, showed me how to make guerilas, which are like corn dough crepes. She and Isi chatted it up in the kitchen. Isi told me later that she loves her mother-in-law and whenever Isi leaves the house (which is rare) it’s usually to go visit Rosaria. She lives right by the baseball field in Cenizabu. She has the traditional calm quiet confidence that I have come to notice in Nicaraguan women. Finally, ended the day watching the Closing Ceremonies for the Olympics-what a blast from the past with Monty Python and Spice Girls! Thank you London 2012!

Traveling Everywhere

08/06

Walked to Praderas with Leyla, Edwin’s sister, today for a brigadista meeting. Brigadistas are almost all women health workers who are local community members. They are like the local extension of the Health Center. Leyla showed me where the shortcut is through the rice paddy. Bought myself a parasol for the sun (excellent decision!!) but still difficult to be out during 10-2. Should take the hint from the locals, who stay inside unless they can’t avoid it during this time too. Thought I had a fever until I saw everyone else sweating inside at the reso. Apparently we are in the canicula, a three to four-week period of summer heat conditions in the middle of the rainy season. Thunder and lightening knocked out the power, but cooled everything off considerably. Was then that Lidia told me this community only just got electricity about 10 years ago. It’s things like that that remind you of the situation.

Decided to check out the Health Center after 3 days of crackers. Went in the bus with my little sample in a jar. The lovely nurse even showed me in the microscope that I had worms! Yum! Mayra, the nurse, said she wants to steal my name fore one of her grandkids. The medical staff are interested in a garden and nutritional classes for the casa maternal, a house for pregnant women from the farthest communities to come to until they have their baby so they can be monitored. There was also a random woman at the reso who came up and asked me for an oven. Last reso seemed to have a song for every one of the 9 days. By the way, this is not quite like a regular wake. Every prayer is a race to beat out the person next to you, blending all the words so they eventually just form a line of sounds with regular inflections.  Not the easiest for trying to learn church vocab.

08-08 Tried walking to the other side of the community, on the other side of the corn fields. Turned out walking all the way to the turn for Praders since it just comes back to the same road. Got there just in time to watch my boss turn in the PC ambulance and drive past me! Oops! After phone tag, we finally met at the house. I got scolded a little bit about letting people know where I was going and told under no circumstances should I eat raw corn ever! It was nice to sit and digest and reflect with a familiar Peace Corps face. Feel rather materialistic, but did feel much more comfortable with all of my luggage in my room for once. Thanks to Bayardo for bringing my stuff and my filter!! Yay water!!

My host mom from Training called me to check on me and make sure my family and experience was ok. I love her!! Had an intense day carpooling from Praderas to Jinotega to Sebaco to San Isidrio to Matagalpa and back. Oh-and this was all in the BACK of a pickup truck. Changed brakes in Jinotega and then met with the Agricorp middleman vendor in San Isidrio then checked every sports store on the way home for helmets for the men’s baseball team. Riding in the back with a wooden plank for a seat in the rain with a plastic poncho wrapped around me and the other 3 passengers was certainly solidarity building to say the least. It’s terrifying traveling at night in Nicaragua; there are no street lights. You are dependent on the rain or mist and the strength of your own lights.  Any time I was quiet for too long, my copassengers asked me if I was bored. Also picked up the uniforms for the baseball team and the guys were like kids at Christmas!

Tamales and Parasites

Visited the school in Corozal, a neighboring community up the road from my house. There was a lot of interest in a youth team for this community. Friday is the reposteria, or cooking, class with the women of the cooperative. Watched the richest pizza I’ve ever seen cook (a whole stick of butter and cream too in the sauce!) My grandmother gave me some rice with cut up pieces of elote (baby corn). Awesome stuff!! The class was a fascinating study in women small-talk and girl-talk about everything from the intimacies of child-rearing to food preferences to dating. More chisme. It really is a group of peers. Felt really unprepared when they asked me on the spot to talk to them about ovens. Everyone wants one!  Highlight of the day was sitting the hammock with the youth looking through my family photo album. And I got to milk a cow!

Big Congrats to Sean on his Black Belt!! First time talking with the family. Was nice to debrief the experience so far. More house to house and made it down to the CICO. Met a male AVON representative and the head of the Community Bank. Sat in on the Bank meeting. The women need a confidence booster in math; it is especially stressful when money is involved and these are some of the poorest members of the community. 

 Rosaria, who is the mother of my host brother-in-law, making tamales, which are the sweet or plain version of nacatamels. She has to cut all the corn first.

 Then make the masa/dough. More hand-mixing. Also have to get all the half-ground kernels out.

After wrapping the tamales in corn leaves, you put them in a boiling pot of water over the raging fire!

First round of bacteria or parasite in site! Stayed close to the house all day and got to watch the whole nacatamales (different from regular tamales) process. Nacatamales have meat in them, in this case freshly killed duck and chicken. The duck kept bothering the chickens, so Lidia (host mom) tied it up and said it was not long for this world. There was actually a big bruise on it when we defeathered it from where she hit it with a rock. Found out later from the doctor that Nacatameles are kind of a crap shoot as to whether or not they cook through all the way. It was still amazing to watch my grandmother, mother, and sister, 3 generations of women working in assembly line fashion for hours for more than 30 nacatamales. I got to cut potatoes (failed at cutting tomatoes the Nica way!) The potatoes and rice are added to one or two pieces of meat on top of basic masa and then wrapped and tied in steamed plaintain leaves and put to boil and cook in a huge pot. It’s a whole day process!

Nacatamales

I really do live on a farm. Animals are everywhere, the roof leaks when it rains sometimes and the fresh food lasts all day. It is possible to have too much corn. Had tamales (made from sweet corn masa or dough) as well as regular corn on the cob and tortillas. The community of Cenizabu, where the big baseball field is, decided they do not want a youth league.  Walking back and forging the river, had to recognize that not everyday is going to be perfect with a big success story. Everyone in Cuatro Esquinas wanted to know what happened-it’s like a bad game of telephone. It’s called chisme or gossip. Met my immediate neighbors. 4 of my youth live there, but with their aunts because their mother’s work in Managua. It is very common to have a family member in each family work in Managua or Costa Rica- the pay is better and more consistent. They have no other source of income and need to buy all their food since they do not technically have land.

So you have to do what nature intended with the chicken first. And the duck (apparently the duck was bothering the chickens- so he had to go too). My host mom got a big kick out how I already knew how to depluck both-thanks MERCK Forest!)

 Grandma Zoccorro taking care of business! The duck and chicken are barely recognizable in a few short minutes. She is older than 80 by the way. And bones- they get wacked really hard with the machete.

 Choice cuts of both birds. The innards go to the dogs and pigs. Got a 101 anatomy lesson for poultry.

 Both Lidia and Zocoro taking care of the duck.

 Mixing the masa (dough)-corn dough of course. Everything is literally done by hand. Nica women have the strongest hands in the world!

 Nacatamales-corn dough, rice, potatoes, piece of meat, sauce, wrapped in a steamed plaitain leaf-done!

Got to watch how tamales are made. First cut the kernals off a lot of corn, then grind into dough, then wrap in steamed corn leaves. The trick is to pour the dough in and fold the leaves over so it all doesn’t spill out before you put it over the fire in a big pot. Sticking to only planning to do 2 things at the most everyday. Also bucked up the courage to ask Edwin for shelves for my things. 

Pics from last days and First Few Days...I can do this

Dad’s package got to Managua just in time! The penguin is a Godsend!! Best pillow ever!! And helping fill the hole left by Training host family. I gave the thank you speech to the Training host families for the Swearing In Celebration and I meant every word! Will try to find it to translate, but along the lines of a huge thank you for all the things big and small with lots of funny anecdotes. The whole ceremony was surreal. Felt very much like graduation; I got a little misty and even cried after hugging Dona Lizeth as she and Melissa walked away to get back on the bus to Masatepe. Somehow, a certificate of appreciation from Peace Corps to the host moms does not seem like enough at all! Won’t forget running by the Ambassador to go to the bathroom before we started- still had to say “good morning Madame Ambassador.” We had speeches from the US ambassador (very cool lady) and members of INTA (our government counterpart) and then shook hands with everyone, received our Peace Corps pins, and that was it- we are finally volunteers!! Let’s all go to the Food Court for lunch! Seriously, a salad never tasted so good.  I even splurged on Indian food (it was only three blocks from the hotel!!) as well as saw Dark Knight. A very American day. The other volunteers celebrated all night long and heard several literally fall into the pool around 4. I just enjoyed the Olympics, mattress beds, and air conditioning.

Got to Praderas to sit and be stared at for 30 min before lugging my stuff to a bar, that was really a house, to use the bathroom. Waited outside with some little kids rifling through my luggage and asking incessant questions to the gringa. My brother, Silvio picked me up. We stopped at the cemetery where the entire community was attending a funeral. My host-cousin had died in a motorcycle accident the Saturday before.

First full day in site and three square meals of beans and cuajada, or cheese (literally means curdled). Already planning menu complements. Went with Edwin, my host dad, in the BIG (really Big) truck and wound up visiting my uncle, don Juan, father of the dead youth. Immediately swept up into helping prep the house for the reso, a 9 day event where everyday at 3 everyone in the community comes to the house of the dead youth to say a rosary and a mass service (minus Communion). It concludes with regrerio, or snack and then everyone goes home to come back again the next day. It reminds me of the Irish wakes in that you’re never alone and the whole family, in this case the community since everyone really is related somehow, descends to help with food and support. Everyone thought I was crying, but I think I’m getting over the initial adjustment to the dust, sun and new plants. Two of the youth have already approached me about forming a soccer team. They remembered verbatim my visit during site week and my asking if they wanted to form a youth league. Good memory! It feels strange trying to integrate during a tragedy, but my simply going to the same events and saying the same words at the same time seems to be satisfactory.

Visited the school and checked in with the Professor (Julia). She wants me to have a manualidad, or crafts, class for both classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Bought myself some time asking to observe how she taught and handled the students for a few weeks. Worried about my Spanish level for a class.  Literally spending the first several weeks just walking up and down the carretera, main road, walking up to each house and introducing myself. It gets easier with practice. There were definitely houses that were more welcoming then others. Also found 2 or 3 socios, or members, of the Community Bank that Jessica formed when she was here. The Bank is still going on two years later! Turns out Isabel, the head of the Bank and also keeper of the CICO, preschool building, keys, was also Edwin’s first wife and they have 2 kids. There were houses that didn’t offer coffee or a seat and it felt particularly forced. I had to remember Lindsey’s advice about going through the steps the first time and then working with those who want you during your service.

 Last day in the Jardin Botanico community and we got a pinata (the head is now on this chica)

I'm going to miss Manuelito, my host-nephew! This is the recycled plastic hat/bag I made out of the plastic bags I found around the neighborhood.

The best host-mom ever!! Dona Lizeth and Melissa with me after the Swearing In!

I know these pictures are placed weird but oh well. We finally made it NICA 59!! We're official with a cake and everything!

8/01- Happy August! So I’ve noticed that the telenovellas all of the same type casts and the same general plots, and, similar to Nicaraguan social norms, it’s ok to have multiple women, affairs, children, and rather physical relationships with lots of ridiculous drama and romantic lines in between. The reso actually helps me plan my day out and not overbook. It also provides a moment to reflect and almost medidate. Intense Spanish day- went downtown to Praderas and listened in at the Comdedor (Restaurant) Blandon where they were having the monthly meeting with all the mayor’s staff. The vice mayor is actually the one who I feel gets stuff done. The mayor just doesn’t have the same people skills or presence. Also got a free lunch and got to ask about funding the soccer team. The meeting was very informative just to observe. Initially thought it seemed very childish, the way every little detail of every solicitation was argued out, but in reality, it’s a sign of the local level of government and the overarching desire to be transparent. They could play with their cellphones a little less, but then so could Americans. Also worth seeing how the whole process works of filling out the solicitation forms and petitioning the local government for funding or to take up a project. Projects include funding a team to investigating a new bus route, to confirming a new vegetable vendors right to sell. Had my first informal English class when I got back-literally me and 8 youth in a hammock talking about fruit. Salad and elote (sweet baby corn) for dinner.

Questions

The questions, the questions, the questions. They don’t stop, no matter what age or occupation. Did you buy that? Is that yours? Where are you going? Are you going to leave today? Where are you going today? When is practice? Are you going to eat? Are you going to wash your clothes? Why are you doing that? And my least favorite How much did that cost? Initially, it’s frustrating. I already went through 3 months of Training where I had to explain myself, and I was fortunate that my host family kept it pretty simple, even tolerating my weird shower and exercise habits. If you take the time to reflect, you might see that it’s a different way of trying to understand a stranger. Most of the time, it’s easier to directly question an act that’s happening right in front of you, then buck up the courage to ask about a cultural norm. To ask or question in general or actively requires confidence, and when you have lived with the same people in the same place your whole life, you have absorbed most standards and norms. And there is this person. I have to admit to having forgone asking a question, hoping that pure observation with answer my query on its own. Culturally, it’s more appropriate in the States to be passive and just accept; this is what we are taught in most schools. You don’t know, but you are going to be taught, so just wait. Since my community and I are not on the same page culturally, they are not guaranteed that I will explain myself. And they may have waited to see if my actions would explain themselves and found that I’m just too weird and whatever I’m doing is just too out of sync. And the repetition of the same questions simply reinforces the degree of the weirdness of whatever I’m doing, or it’s age appropriate for the youth who just don’t always listen the first time.  I should be glad there are questions; questions express interest and curiosity and, most importantly, caring and a desire to understand. When the questions stop, then I should worry.

Corn

The Inuit have more than one word for snow

Nicas have more than one word for corn; there’s elote, or the baby of the family, Chinese corn

There’s chelate, just as sweet as it’s States counterpart

There’s maiz, the crop itself derived from the original latin species name

And the products vary too;

There’s tortilla, every morning, noon, and night, pat pat pat flat

There’s guerila, sweeter corn crepe style

There’ atoll, cream of corn (with sugar of course)

And tamales, both dulce and nacatamales, the heart and soul of Nicaraguan cuisine

Is an ear with two leaves stalk standing tall, until doubled over in the field to dry

It feeds everyone and everything, little kernels of gold

y, and Fried or the Fried the Salty and Everything in Between

The Sweet, Salt

Rice has salt, beans have salt, cuajada is salt

Rice can be fried, beans can be fried, cuajada and platano too

So can eggs and every kind of meat

You also get soup on the warmest days of the week

Salt in the soup, which is already instant

My host grandfather has a heart condition and the medico says no more salt: good luck

And then there’s the sugar: every drink has sugar

Coffee flavored, tang flavored, fruit flavored sugar,

But the amount I put in cookies is too much

And if you have it sin azucar it’s simple