End of September

9-19: Read a whole book on the bus traveling to Jinotega and then Managua. In case you wanted to know how PCVs read so much, the bus trips alone do the trick. Read The Climb about the terrible expedition to Everest. Coincidentally all about knowing and admitting your limits, which is also the number one stresser for the first 3 months as PCVs. It was great to see fellow Aggies in Managua, but it still feels like I’m the new freshman in college and everyone else is settled and comfortable with the PC staff and knows where to go for the best deals on food and room and whatnot. The Volunteer Room is also like a yard sale, with the lending library and stuff left over from volunteers who COS’d (closed their service-sorry for the PC jargon). It was a little relaxing to actually introduce myself to all the staff who are responsible for medical information, reimbursements, and other important things. Also want to go on record saying that the staff, from Medical Officers to the Agriculture Staff, really mean it when they say we are a family. I walked into the office a brand-new volunteer basket case and left much more relaxed and with a renewed sense of confidence in my job description and limitations and the short and long-term goals of an Agriculture Volunteer. Contrary to the stereotypical image of PC as uncaring or blaming the volunteer for problems or abandoning the volunteer in the middle of nowhere, PC Nicaragua staff made it very clear “it supposed to be hard, but acclimating is not supposed to mean suffering.”  The honeymoon period is definitely over, but we worked together to form coping mechanisms and strategies to increase my community social network within the community. The biggest lesson for this month was how to self-advocate and find the balance between being an ambassador of your own culture or your own personal preferences and also assimilating into this different culture. Pretty much living while straddling two worlds. Everyone handles it differently, but admitting it is the first step.  PC is a resource and I am an asset in an agency; it’s not like Survivor (which along with Fear Factor is one of the top shows Nicas love to watch so guess how they form their image of Americans?!)

Started looking for a house to live in by myself at the end of the 1^st 3 month period and found 2. One is across the street from one of the girls who was on Jessica’s soccer team (the previous volunteer). My host dad doesn’t like the house though; says it floods in the rainy season. There is also a Western washing machine in it-not sure what that is about. The other house is next to the CICO, or the abandoned preschool building. The priest owns it but he lives in a different house in the neighboring community. Read through some of the Returned PCV articles I found in the Office in Managua and wow-they seem like a joke right now because I am so far removed from that point in my service. Can’t believe I even looked at the ads for grad schools that offer Peace Corps Fellows. Ha! Today’s cooking class made malletas de carne, a kind of Hot Pocket if you will. Also, one of the women is pregnant!! Due in January or February!! That group is so low-key and comforting. I am starting to get their names and families and houses down too. My youth had their own friendly soccer match (I loaned them the ball) and 4 Esquinas beat Corozal 9-2. Ouch.

Let it be known that I can finally heat the improved oven to more than 200 degrees-350 what now!?! Made a double batch of banana bread for the community meeting. There were so many more people. Not sure if it was because I made invitations (at the suggestion of two PCVs) or because I told them we would also talk about the ovens, or because I made banana bread. Unable to separate the variables. Oh well! Came out of the meeting with an agenda for completing the initial interviews for ovens and a junta, or board, to handle the overall oven project with me. Ended the night staying up late trying to beat Vladimir at watching Titanic-seeing who could stay awake longer.

Had to turn my clothes and bedding out in the sun again. That’s how we kill all the creepy crawlies here without hot water-hot sun instead! It’s a game of Russian Roulette though because it is still in the middle of rainy season so it could rain-hard- and then be super sunny again. In the tropics, it is even hotter after the rain. Also go to meet the priest who owns house #2 and he showed me inside. It’s a fixer-upper but everyone who I’ve asked in the community says it’s the better of the two options and he is a good guy (messenger of God, has to be right?).

OOS in Matagalpa: Out of Site(OOS for PC jargon again) for 2 days in Matagalpa. Quickly helped with Health Department baby weighing in the morning and then hopped the bus. The trip is super pretty, going in and around the mountains. Matagalpa is still fresco and cool like Jinotage because it is still relatively mountainous in comparison to the Pacific side. Matagalpa also has the tourist market pegged; there are tons of tourism companies with hikes, trips, coffee tastings, etc. There is a big German population too from the coffee community. There are also tons of shopping opportunities for goods that I thought I could only find in Managua. It is amusing that the trip from Jinotega to Matagalpa is half as long as the trip to my site. And the Buena Onda Hostel is awesome, with free filtered water, coffee, wifi, and tv, and a lending library. I wound up getting the last bed in the place, in a room full of guys doing a gap-year program. It was a tonic to be around mature college kids who were in the beginning of their cultural adventure, asking me tons of questions about the history, geography and Nica culture and the role of Peace Corps. Also splurged and got Italian food!! So good! Pesto!!! And played the tourist to visit the Castillo de Cacao (that’s right-Chocolate Castle!!)-so good!! Picked to do one hike to Ocote solo and happened upon a community in the mountains that has had 3 PCVs in the past and wanted to know if I was one and would stay. Luckily worked my way down to the mountain and back to the hostel, but it was so great to hike again in and out of forest!

How to do Laundry the Nica way: there will be pictures with this soon. Picture a concrete washing board. You rinse your clothes beforehand in soap and water and then pour more water over the soapy clothes as you run each article of clothing over the rivets of the washboard, back and forth, hard with your hands, squishing and pressing the dirt out. You pour water until it runs clear, wring the clothing and hang to dry. Repeat until there are no more clothes. Exhausting and when you are taller than the average Nica women you wind up leaning over the lavadero (washing board) quite a bit. Also rub your fingers pretty raw if you pull when you should push or press when you should wring, etc. Learn by doing definitely. Ended the day with more laundry after a very wet and slippery soccer practice that was more of a giggly slip-and-slide. Also took tons of pictures of the kids playing trompo, their spin-the-top game, and jumping in the corn-husks, their version of leaf-jumping.

Ok-so it is at least Amoebas/Bacteria 4 and me 0. Will spare you the details, but according to my host-mom this is why Nicas don’t eat grilled veggies. Or whatever it was that was the only thing I made for myself. Literally stayed in bed all day in PJs just reading. Those of you who know me understand what a challenge this was (cheated a little and read some project-related stuff). Good side-got to try sopa de albondiga, which is Nica dumpling soup with little spiced bits of dough and a lot of veggies. Host mom was super worried and gave me enough for a small army. Worst part was cancelling the youth soccer game for the day because I was sick. Had to explain 10 or 15 times that I was sick and couldn’t leave the house for very long, but there were still long faces.

Corn

So when you don’t have a huge machine to do all the work, the whole corn process is quite complicated. First, the corn is doblar, or the stalk is folded over to allow the corn to dry on the stalk. Then the workers collect each ear by hand. The corn that is too be used in the house is degranar, or degrained from the ear and put out in huge blankets to dry by the sun. This is all weather-pendent as the slightest rain can affect the humidity level and quality of the corn kernels.  The stalks left out in the field are cut down and burned to make room for the oxen pair that pulls the furrow-maker for the next round of corn seeds. It’s harder than it looks to get two very big animals to move anywhere let alone where you want. It is like Oregon Trail, but real life. There is a lot of huffing and puffing and shouting, with the planters following behind with their buckets of planting seeds and their partners shuffling dirt over the seeds in uniform fashion. 

 The massively overweight or over-fluffy conejo at the Buena Onda Hostel. Conejo=Bunny for those following along at home.

 "Everything the light touches is ours..." haha no seriously, Parque Morazon, one of the two in Matagalpa, but this one has the statues of the 2 famous people (whose names are escaping me at the moment). There are also several fritangas, or fried food stands (eat at your own risk), but it is best for people watching.

 One of the many churches, this one is to the side of the other park, Parque Diario (everywhere in Nicaragua has a Diario something after Rueben Diario the famous poet.)

 And then there was the tourist trip of the day, the Castillo del Cacao...the Castle of Chocolate!! How can you resist that?!

 It's a real castle!! Some Holland guy took an interest in the whole cacao process and brought additional technology and equipment back to Nicaragua to set up a small chocolate business. There is a little tour and an incredible chocolate library of wrappers and molds.

And they have a couple of dogs-one is super evil and mean and this one is such a sweetie!!

And you get chocolate samples and coffee at the end of the tour!! Dark chocolate, chocolate with coffee bits, chocolate with cashews, it's all good!!!

The look out from the Castle to downtown Matagalpa

I hiked up a little spot from the road to a small community called Ocote. It was great to hike again. You just go in and out of shade and up a bit into the mountains. And lucked out with an awesome day of weather too!

There was even a herd of horses just grazing peacefully when I came out of the woods and into the fields of the community. Turns out Ocote has had 3 Volunteers in the past, so the kids all wanted to know if I was coming to work.

These the huge spiky plants that several Nicas have as live fencing around their property. You don't want to touch it-bad things happen. According to a Health Volunteer, you can distill the pulp for alcohol. Supposedly...

Another great outlook coming down from Ocote

Look Aunt Wendy!! You're famous!! The first restaurant sign I saw down from the mountains.

The big white cathedral in front of Parque Morazon. I don't know how they keep it so white, but it's gorgeous and the saint sculptures inside are incredible.

Like I said, inside is incredibly beautiful and clean.

And then there is one more monument to the rebels and the movement. Matagalpa definitely has more artwork and more monuments then Jinotega.

Back to site; heading back to Pantasma in the bus. You can see how the heat makes my site a little hazier and how the agriculture plots have been carved out of the mountains.

And then I found this little devil in the bus station in Praderas. His name is Pelusa and he is a puppy!!

Next day after I got back, the farm workers had moved all the left-over cornhusks into the space the kids use for soccer. Melvin and the other kids used them like we jump in leaves. They were such fun to watch kicking and throwing the dried husks and rolling around so happily.

And of course posing for the camera...

Melvin, Magale (the girl), and Kevin (one of my soccer superstars)

The boys: left is Vladimir, my host brother, other Melvin, Kevin again, and Eliar Geobani. Everyone but the other Melvin is on the youth soccer team.

Playing trompo: a spinning top game where they draw a circle in the dirt, handwind the string around their wooden tops and throw the top to spin while pulling the string, like a yo-yo and Beyblade. The idea is to knock your opponent's out of the circle after you have regained control of the top.

Lobo!!!

The corral snake we found in the bodega where all the rats and corn bags are. Why can't he eat the rats and mice that I hear munching all night? For those of you following at home, corral snakes are poisonous. According to my family, they are common out in the fields, but it's ok if you wear boots. The kids threw it out into the road and watched as every truck that drove by tried to run it over.

It's a really dark picture, but my youth are working a community map with the names of the other youth in Cuatro Esquinas and where they live.