Final Peace Corps Photos

November 16, 2010 I made it! Yes, hard to believe that two years passed so quickly, but I am back in the grand old US for the foreseeable future. I left Nicaragua on the fourth with a heavy heart and a lot of mixed emotions. I of course was glad to be coming home to family and loved ones, but was and am still terribly sad to have left my community and the people who have loved me like their own family for the past two years. My projects wrapped up perfectly. The washboard project was a huge success. A total of thirty-six were purchased and transported to El Charcón. I never thought they would arrive, but they did and they were perfect. I think this is one of the best projects I did, because it had such an immediate effect on the quality of life for the women in my community. All of the people who bought grain silos from project last year repaid, and we were able to buy more materials. By the time I left an additional ten silos had been ordered and more people were interested in buying them. Two of the banks closed and reopened for another year. The interest rates on the savings were between 20 and 25% and the committees were very organized and ready to continue. The third bank I work with decided to continue working with this year’s bank and will open closer to Christmas. I was fortunate enough to be able to spend almost the entire last month in my site without leaving. It was such a treat to be able to spend that time with my community and it reinforced how important the people are to me. With the help of some of the girls from the soccer team, I organized a big going away party with a DJ and food for the entire community. About three hundred people showed up and we danced the night away, me in my brand new Nicaraguan cowboy boots. My final day was wonderful and horrible at the same time. By 5:30 in the morning people started showing up at my house to say goodbye and from then until I left on Don Mario’s Ox cart it was a steady procession of tears and hugs. I waited for the bus at Doña Marco’s house and was an emotional mess. Saying goodbye felt awful, because I am not sure when I will see those people again, and when I do I know it will be a totally different situation. My strongest feeling having completed Peace Corps is gratefulness. I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to live with so many great people for two years. It might be a cliché, but its true that the people of El Charcón gave me more than I could ever have given them. All of the community, but especially my host family and Doña Marcos, opened their hearts and homes to me and shared their families with me. That level of hospitality is something that doesn’t exist here in the states where we have so much, but seem to be so afraid to share. I am sure I have lots of adjusting to do here in the states, mostly to the cold, but I do also want to express my gratitude to the people who supported me through Peace Corps. I received tremendous support from my family, through letters, packages, and phone calls. My friends were amazing and I look forward to reconnecting. Concetta stuck with me through an incredible experience and I am truly thankful for her being so understanding while I followed my passion. I was so lucky to have so many people visit me: Mom & Wayne (twice), Dad, Blair, Concetta, Bert, Aaron, Sean (twice), and Eli. It meant so much to be able to share my experience with you all. Also, the St. Lukes community: which has always been supportive of my family, and me, I thank you all. I don’t have a cell phone yet, but you can reach me at my email: austinfturner@gmail.com. I will be in North Carolina until at least the middle of January, after which time I will be looking for jobs in the New York area. Again, Thank you all and take care. Austin PS: There are a lot of photos so you might have to change pages.

Tatiana and Marlivia Wearing My Clothes

Me and Host Sister Marling

Erwito Next to Complete Silos

Kids at my Party

Final Banco Gonzales Meeting

Final Banco Gutierrez Meeting

Playing Card with Chilo and Roger

Community Kids Helping Me Set Up for Goodbye Party

Me and Michael

Chilo and Janet with silos

Roger and Orlando making silos for project

Erwin, Alonzo, and Don Mario

Doña Cholina grinding corn by hand

Chicken foot soup

Mireyda and Diana

Tatiana Peeling Orange with Machete

Marlivia with gifts sent by Concetta

Doña Lorena's New Washboard

(She washes for her family of nine plus to additional families)

Doña Lorena and daughters Darlín and Marlivia,

and nieces Ivbeth and Tatiana

Darlín and Marlivia on the washboard

Host Sister Sherly

Host Family Kids

Doña Rosa

Host Brother Erwin

Marlin and Erwito

Erwin and kids

Erwito and Indira

Playing with Ducks

Myself and Don Apolinar

Dancing on Heritage Day

Nolvia and Nelgyn

Diana

Marlivia and Tatiana on Heritage Day

Mireyda and rare grindo indian

The Indian population of El Charón

Indian Couple

Students going to Heritage Day Celebration

Marlivia and Barak Obama puzzle.

(This puzzle took weeks to complete & she was the only one who stuck with me the whole time)

Indira and Erwito

A new El Charcóquerña

Dancing Girls for Day of Independence

Darlín Drumming for Independence Day

Mireyda, Diana and Nolvia

Doña Lorena's Family

Tatiana and Marlivia

Tatiana's First Communion

First Communion and Confirmation

Site Visit by Peace Corps and Community Leader Don Apolinar

World Map Lesson to Fourth Graders at Primary School

Doña Marcos, Carol and Erwito

Me and Doña Marcos

Erwito before marching for Independence day

Kids playing on new washboards

Unloading the new washboards

Juinyleka's Quince Años with Marina and Evelyn

World Map Orientation with Fourth Grade Class

Don Apolinar and Doña Cholina with paint donated my Mom, Wayne & Blair

June 8, 2010

El Charcón is once again living up to its name as the “Big Mud Puddle.” Starting a couple weeks ago my little valley went from drought to monsoon, and the whole area exploded with greenness. The humidity of June makes me wish for the heat of April, well almost.

These past three months have been terrific. Thirty women bought the concrete washboards and they are almost completed and ready for transport. I am nervous about getting them through the mountains and will be relieved when this project is over.

A month ago I went up to Honduras to visit my friends Stacey and Harrison, who is the Peace Corps up there. It was great to see another Volunteer’s site and spend time with good friends. I doubled on good friends on my way back as I met my friend Eli at the beach in Leon. He came back to my site and we had a very busy week. We replanted the garden at the primary school, visited with everyone in my community, and Eli coached the girls’ soccer team every afternoon. This was the week the rain started and the field was a disgusting combination of mud and cow manure, and of course none of the girls had shoes, but it was the best turnout for a practice I have seen in my time here. All of the girls fell madly in love with Eli and even got him to dance with them at a celebration for Mother’s day. My host mom was trying to convince Eli to marry one of them and stay forever. It was sad to seem him go, but we had a great time.

The banks are still going well, and we are hoping to build some more silos around harvest time in September. Life is pretty quite here. I have gotten into a pretty good routine and feel great being here. I am going to Costa Rica the end of June and Mom, Wayne, and Blair are coming for another Nicaraguan adventure in July, all great things to look forward to. Hope everyone is doing great.

Take care,

austin

Final Bean Workshop

One of the silos of the silo project

View from Finca Esperanza Verde

Training on Yellow Traps

Growin Beans

Graduation

Drying Cacao

Closing of Banco Benavidez

Closing of Banco Gutierrez

Planting the Beans

The Team

Cleaning Up The Field

El Charón Softball Field

March 8, 2010

Hey yall,

Again I apologize for the long lapse in between writing, but here I am, back in Nicaragua for the past two months after an amazing visit home. It was great to be back around family and friends and the snow was fantastic, although I had forgotten how cold it can be. I also got a chance to go back up to New York (also cold), which was a great trip too.

These past two months have been both exciting and tough. It was kind of tough coming back from Christmas, but exciting because my work has taken off in the past few months and is going great. The three community banks all closed well at the end of the year. The average return was about 25% on the savings. I wouldn’t mind having a bank account that earned that in the states. Granted that 25% was usually between ten and twenty dollars, but I could tell it was a real boost for these families around Christmas time.

The grant that I wrote for a series of workshops on growing beans for the production of seed was approved in December and went pretty well. Our last training was this past week and although the harvest was not very good, the entire country has been in a drought, we harvested enough for each producer who participated to have seeds for next year. I also had the distinct privilege of picking some of the beans, and I can say that I have decided there is no romance in being a farmer, especially if you don’t have a tractor. We started picking at 5:30 each morning and the 60-year-old man picked twice as fast as I could and his 20-year-old son picked about four times as fast. I wish I could say my pride was what hurt the most but I honest to goodness couldn’t walk straight for a week. Never again.

The silo project started by the former volunteer ran another cycle and we produced eleven silos for producers, allowing storage for a total of 9.4 tons of grain. I think this is one of the best projects I am involved in because the results are so tangible and the benefits so far reaching. I have pictures of the silos, but I lost my memory drive so I will have to get them on here the next time.

The washboard project looks like it is finally going to take off. I have a list of about twenty-five women who are interested, we have a man who is going to give us a good deal and thanks to some much appreciated support from back home we are going to be able to subsidize each washboard to a truly affordable cost.

In February my Dad came to visit and we had a great time. It was fun to have him in my site, another big gringo. The most common response was “oh he looks so young,” which if you know my dad is far from the truth and the best thing I heard was “oh austin he’s not too ugly.” I am not sure why they were expecting him to be ugly. I guess that says something of what they think of me.

Two weeks ago I had the opportunity to meet up with a group from my high school. They were down here studying Nicaraguan history, coffee production, and the dynamics of coffee in the fair trading market. They graciously invited me to visit with them at this spectacular ecolodge founded by two former Peace Corps volunteers and managed by another. It was fun to be back around science and math kids and feel that sense of community. I also got to see monkeys and more birds that I get to see in my area.

All in all I am doing pretty well here, and I hope yall are doing great. I am embarrassed by UNCs performance against Duke, I didn’t get to see it luckily. Take care.

austin

December 2, 2009

Hey Yall

I feel bad its been so long since I have written, but its been because I have been so busy with work which has been a great thing.

Lets see, back in October my buddy Bert came to visit and we had afantastic time. His plane landed in Managua in the middle of one of the biggest thunderstorms I have seen here. Right after touchdown the power went out to the whole city, including the airport, so it was a great entrance with even better timing. We drove through about a foot of water to our hostel and then made our way to a resturant where one of the better looking Nicaragua girls I have seen hit on Bert and told him to dance with her. Bert of course speaks no Spanish, but there he goes dancing with this Nicaraguan, just the two of them in this upscale resturant in Managua. I have been her for fifteen months and that has never happened to me, I cant explain it.

The rest of our trip was pretty uneventful. We went to Esteli and visited with my old host family and then to the beach which was deserted. We were the only people in our hotel and the hostel that is normally full was empty as well. I guess it was hurricane season that scared everyone off, lucky for us El Niño happened and devestated Nicaragua with a drought. Anyways, we were left alone to catch up and watch some amazing sunsets.

The rest of October was kind of a blur. In the first week of November I took part in the annual HIV/AIDs Task Force workshop representing the Agriculture sector of Peace Corps Nicaragua. The task force serves to promote HIV/AIDs project throughout the five sectors of Peace Corps using funds from PEPFAR. Its a great group of people and I hope to get some of our aggies to do an awarness project this next year.

One of the biggest problems facing the producers in my community is access to affordable and quality seed grain. I have been working like a crazy person to get a proposal turned in for a Small Project Assistance Grant from USAID for a bean seed production project for my community. For the project we are going to plant and manage a demonstration plot of beans for the production of seeds. We will have a series of five training sessions to capacitate around twenty producers in the production and management of bean seed. The demonstration plot will hopefully produce enough seeds for each participant to be able to purchase enough seed to plant their own manzana (around 2 acres) and maintain their own plot for the production of seed for either personal use of to sell within the community. If it gets approved and goes well, I think it will could make a big difference in the lives of the families by improving crop yields and lower the costs of imputs, thus improving thier food security. Say some good thoughts for the project to be approved.

Lets see what else. December is the time of year for graduations here and although they are brutally boring, two hours for less than twenty students, it is nice to see the accomplishments of the students. I have two for the high school next week, one of them over one hundred kids, so we will see how nice I think it is next week.

And the great news is that I am coming up to the States for Christmas. I will be there the 20th through the 8th with a quick trip up to New York to see Concetta. My mom has a lunch planned for the 20th at Galileos on king street from 3-5. Its nothing formal but if you want to stop by and say hello come on by. Alright, I hope everyone is doing great. I miss you all and will hopefully see you soon.

Take care

Austin

November 12, 2009

Hey everyone. I am going to just throw up some photos of the the last couple months and try and write the post later.

Austin

The Teachers of El Charcon

The Band and Dancers

My host sister and kids

Hank

Drawing buddies

My work shop crew

Fun at the beach

September 15, 2009

Hello everyone,

I hope yall are enjoying the last days of summer. It’s supposed to be winter down here, but you could have fooled me. Temperatures are still up in the mid-90s everyday, but it is cooling off a bit at night. El Charcón is in the middle of its corn harvest and unfortunately the prices have plummeted, down to about seven dollars per one hundred pounds (quintal). I would say on average the smaller producers are harvesting between 20 and 50 quintales. Minus what they need for household consumption as well as inputs and it quickly becomes evident how tight things are for the people here.

On top of this we have entered into a drought. Normally people immediately plant another crop of corn after this harvest, but many people are holding out for rain. Apparently this is an El Niño year, although I am unsure, either way the hard times seem to be here to stay.

In good news my Project Design and Management workshop was a great success. I took two guys from my community, Juan and Adolfo. Adolfo is one of the guys I worked with on his English presentation, and Juan is the President of the El Charcón Water Project. I think that they both learned a lot, and hope to see them implement their new skills here in the community.

I had a great time getting to know each of them better. Adolfo had never seen the ocean and Juan had seen it once, so playing in the waves was great entertainment. Juan couldn’t figure out how to duck under the waves, and kept getting hammered, but he always came up smiling, and Adolfo boogie boarded until his arms were raw.

We stayed at a top-notch resort. It was a little difficult for me to adjust to it from being in my community, so I can only imagine what it was like for my guys. Juan lives in a two-bedroom house without electricity with his wife and five kids. He was so into the television that he woke up at four a.m. to watch. I thought that was going to be end of our friendship. Adolfo won the dance contest on our last night beach party and Juan sang so much karaoke that they took the microphone from him. At one point they didn’t have the song he wanted, so he just sang without music. Great memories and it was overall good trip.

Back in my site things are going well. My banks are winding down, and although I am little nervous about a few outstanding loans, things seem to be going pretty smoothly. I think I have finally got enough interest to start a youth group through the girls’ softball team. They have one glove between the whole team, no ball, and no bat. They have to borrow the other team’s gloves to play. So anyway, we came up with idea vaccinating pigs for a fee throughout the community. Their idea is to use that money the through a community party from which they hope to be able to buy some equipment. They are excited and I hope that we can see it through.

The 14th and the 15th of this month were national holidays here in Nicaragua, the 14th to commemorate a famous battle and the 15th the day of independence. On the 14th all the schools in the municipality send their students to Las Praderas, the municipal head. There was marching, drums, poetry, a torch, and folkloric dancing. It was a colorful event, with each school having their own troupe of dancing girls, some in traditional outfits, some dressed as cheerleaders and others in a sort high-boot short-skirt get up.

On the 15th each school had its own acto in the smaller communities. Ours was great. I was proud to see all of the students I work with. The ones who do the best in class get sashes say Excelente! There was more poetry and folkloric dancing and refreshments for everyone.

Overall I am doing well here. One of my best buddies is coming down in a couple of weeks and I cant wait to seem him, and my Dad is making a visit later next month, so I am just happy as can be. Again I hope everyone is well, I miss yall.

Take care,

austin

Rice Workshop with Nicaraguan Counterpart Organization

The Valley of Pantasma during the raining season

The boys selling chickens

New flower garden

Making raised beds

Papaya planting

August 17, 2009 Hello, I am back in Nicaragua, and after a tough readjustment period, (coming back was much more of a shock than leaving) things have been going great here. Everyone in the community has been doing well. The weather has behaved and it looks like the harvest will be good this year. I have been doing my best to keep busy by continuing to work in the school. I only have a couple of countries left in South America to present on, and I have been impressed with how excited the kids have been about learning about new places. At the first presentation I asked who knew where Nicaragua was and it took a couple of minutes of searching for them to find it on the map. They can now, as a group, name every country in Central America and all of the ones we have covered in South America. This week the same class of fifth and sixth graders started a school garden. It is small, but I had a great time working with the kids and hopefully we will have some veggies in a couple of months. Peace Corps sent another agriculture volunteer to my area and I think it is going to be really nice to have another friend in the area, both for projects and for fun. Last week we got together with a couple of volunteers from another department and made an improved oven for a volunteer’s host family, it was nice to be able to work on something as a group. Some of the high school students I worked with on their English projects, the guys now refer to each other as “backstreets,” invited me to come to a fair at the high school this weekend. Every class had a separate tent where they were selling everything: baked goods, enchiladas, fruit, organic coffee, mahogany seedlings, and chickens among other things. It was not only a good time, but I think it could be a great opportunity to work with the students on food processing and value added goods. I have been working on hot sauce and mango wine, so maybe this could be a market. They only have the fair once a semester, but it is encouraging nonetheless. I am heading to Managua tomorrow for a workshop on Project Design and Management, which I am hoping will help me to get my act together on a grant proposal to USAID. The workshop is at the beach, another plus. Overall, I am doing pretty well, but I am not going to lie, I am looking forward to visiting in December, seeing everyone and trying to put back on some of the 35 pounds that I have lost. I wish everyone well and hope to hear from yall soon. Take care, austin

July 12, 2009

Hello everyone. I apologize for not having written in so long, but I lost my zip drive and recently got a replacement. Things have been going great here in Nicaragua. I am loving my site. It feels like home now.

Since I wrote last the rainy season has come to Pantasma and everything is very green.

The cows are fattening up and the whole valley has turned into a mud puddle. The best thing though is that it has finally cooled off and I am actually sleeping with a blanket nowadays.

My work is going great. I am a little all over the place, but it keeps me interested in lots of different things, so I like that. There is grant available through USAID and I was thinking about applying to do a chicken coop project. I figured I would do a experiment or a test run to see how much it all cost and to see if the families would use the coops. I provided all of the supplies to make, if I do say so myself, an incredible chicken coop. I also trained the family how to make chicken concentrate to boost the protein in the chicken's diet. One of my volunteer friends brought four improved race chickens, and we instructed them on proper care, we went all out and it was awesome. Its been about a month and a half and there are currently two chickens living in the coop and zero eggs being laid. I was pretty disappointed with the whole thing, but I did learn that if I want to do a big project, I might should look at other options. I am thinking about an improved oven project, we shall see.

Other than that, i am still working in the school. I have worked with a lady to make a hot sauce to sell, which I think is going to go pretty well. I also made oatmeal raisin cookies and mango and pineapple wine. All and all things have been going great.

Oh big highlight was getting to see my English groups perform there songs. It was awesome. They were two of the best groups, thats not saying too much, but the made me very proud.

I am currently on the way to New York City to see Concetta and am so excited. I will only be there for ten days, but its going to be great.

I love you all. Take care.

Austin

Hey Everyone

Happy late Mother’s. I hope everyone had a good one. I have been super busy this past month and I am doing great.

Mom and Wayne came to visit for Easter, and it was so nice to see family again, and also for them to see the family I have come into here. Unfortunately, they chose the hottest week of the entire year to come to visit. It got up to 114 degrees while they were in my site, so we sat in the house and drank a lot of Cokes. For Easter we went to the morning mass and then went to my host family’s house for an Easter Egg hunt. They had never heard of such a thing and it really didn’t make sense to me either when I tried to explain that every year to remember the resurrection of Jesus we search for candy filled eggs, supposedly hidden by a giant rabbit. Nevertheless, the family got really into it, especially my host mom, Doña Marcos, who I had to repeatedly remind that it would be good if she hid the eggs so that the kids could find them. When the hunt actually began the my host sisters were so excited they would just run and grab the eggs and give them to their kids. It wasn’t exactly what I had in mind, but it was perfect.

Other than sweating a lot, Mom and Wayne also got to milk cows, make tortillas and drink freshly pressed sugar cane juice. We also spent two nights at the tiny beach town of Las Peñitas. It was a wonderful trip overall.

The week after Mom and Wayne left we had our first In Service Training, focusing on animal husbandry. We stayed at this little ranchero and worked everyday with animals. It was great, because most of the instruction was hands on and I feel like very applicable to our work in site. During the week I milked goats, tattooed bunnies, gutted a rabbit, saw a piglets being born and pig castrated. Some of it kind of gross, but overall very useful. The week after that was a Spanish workshop, which was pretty uneventful.

I finally made it back to site about a week and a half ago and my work here has just taken off. I don’t know if it’s that my community really missed me (doubtful) or if it’s the coming rains, but people are ready to get to work and so am I. This past week the committee of the silo fund that was started by the previous volunteer finally agreed to start funding silos again, and the guys who make them are ready to go as well. The community banks are still chugging along and there seems to be a lot of excitement for the raffles we are going to do for el día de las madres here on the 30th of May. I have been talking with my community leader about possible big projects and we have been coming up with a couple of possibilities. I also found out that the goats that ate every single thing in my yard belong to him and that he doesn’t milk them so we have a date with the goats this weekend to see what we can figure out.

Probably my favorite thing I am doing right now is working with one of the high school students and a group from his English class. Their semester exam is to perform a song in English in front of the class. I let him borrow a bunch of Cds to find something suitable, and he came back and said he picked Backstreet Boys “I Want it That Way,” which for the record was not in my collection. This guy is a really big guy for a Nicaraguan and pretty tough looking, already has a kid and wears cowboy boots and everything, so I was kind of shocked at his choice. Anyways, today I spent about three hours trying to teach this group of guys how to sing this song in English. It was fantastic, and this weekend I am working with another group who chose “Eternal Flame” by the Bengals. Should be a hoot.

Alright I hope every is doing great, and congratulations to everyone who just graduated. I miss yall a lot, but am doing great here, loving it.

austin

Greetings Everyone

I apologize that it has been so long in between posts, but I have been running all over Nicaragua in the past month. Concetta came to visit me along with two buddies, Sean and Aaron, a couple of weeks ago, and we had a great time. We went to the beach and visited with my Esteli host family. They really pulled out all the stops. My host mom made a meal for them that was 10 times better than anything I ate the whole time I was there. They even got to try and eat oranges the way Nicaraguans do, which is to peel down to the white level, cut of the top and suck out all the juice. It takes some getting used to, and I think they got more juice on them than in their mouths.

Concetta was here for two weeks so she got to spend some time in my site. We had a wonderful time. She brought bubbles, sidewalk chalk, and other goodies for the kids in my host family, all and all she was an absolute hit and they haven't stopped talking about her yet. We were really excited because she was going to give a presentation on Vietnam to my kids at the school, with pictures and an amazing poster, but unfortunately the teacher canceled class so that was a bummer.

Back in my site after she left, and I stopped weeping, I have been trying to organize some projects for the beginning of the rainy season, coming soon in May. I met with my Agriculture counterpart and he said he could get me some seeds for a school garden, and I have been discussing some bigger project ideas with my community leader, but am having trouble coming up with something that could be presentable in a grant proposal. Concetta also came up with the idea of making a mural on the side of my house, which will become a sort of preschool when I leave, so I have been trying to get the kids to come up with ideas of what to paint.

My mom and stepdad are coming today and I am really excited about it. We are going to do an Easter Egg hunt with the kids, which I tried to explain, but it really doesn't make any sense why a giant rabbit would hide eggs filled with candy, so we will see how it goes. It was really nice having Concetta see my work and my life here, and I am looking forward to showing it to them as well.

Ok hope everyone is well, and how about them Tar Heels. I was able to watch the last two games, they were great, but I really missed watching them in Chapel Hill. That sure was something.

Austin

Hey everyone.

I hope yall are doing great and getting ready for spring. I am in Managua to meet up with my friends Aaron and Sean, and my girlfriend Concetta, who is flying in tomorrow. I am so excited to see familiar faces, its going to be great.

Site has been going well. I have a routine going and I like it. Hank is growing and doing well, he is chewing on everything now. I went the other day and watched these men press sugarcane and make sugar syrup and also this stuff call afanequi, its kind of hard to explain, but it seems like a combination of cotton candy and brown sugar. It is really tasty, but very very sweet. Sorry for not having written much but I am off to the airport to pick up my visitors.

Austin

The New Puppy

Neighbor Kids

Sunset Behind My House

A Good View of the Valley

February 9, 2009 Greetings everyone, Big news here in El Charcón, if you can’t tell by the pictures, I got a puppy. His name is Hank, I don’t really now how old he is or what he has in him, some German Shepard I think, but we are going to be great friends. The owner of a little venta down the road gave him to me, and when I got him he was filthy and covered in fleas, but I have bathed him, the fleas are under control, and I am doing my best to fatten him up. Peace Corps stuff is going exceptionally well. The three banks are up and running. Two of them have some members from last year who have decided not to rejoin and I was a little bummed about it, but I have decided to be excited to work with those who are really interested and to not try and drag the others to the meetings, so I hope that goes well. The community is in a really tight spot right now because the bean harvest was almost totally destroyed by the drought we have been having. The luckiest farmers are getting about a quarter of their normal harvest. The community banks would be really helpful for the people if they could come up with the savings, but many are struggling to make ends meet. The whole world seems to be coming apart financially, good time to be in the Peace Corps I reckon. I went last week to talk to the teachers at the primary school about working with the world map that the previous volunteer painted, and that myself and another volunteer worked to finish. It seemed like the teachers now had this great resource, but weren’t really planning on using it, or didn’t really know how to incorporate it into their lessons. The vast majority of these kids don’t even know where Nicaragua is, not to mention anything about world geography. My idea is to go once a week and give a brief presentation on a different country each time. My first presentation was today, and it went about as well as I expected, which was incredibly awkward, but I got through it, so we will see how it goes next week. The other project I have been working on is building a bathing area at my house and putting in a concrete floor in my bedroom. As it is now I have to bike about twenty minutes to bathe everyday, and by the time I bike back I am just as sweaty as I was before. To get the sand for the concrete I went with my neighbor by ox cart about 45 minutes away and dug it out of the creek bed. It was a very interesting and heavy experience. Of course when the mason came this weekend he said “oh no we are going to need at least double that.” The community is really growing on me, and it feels really good to be busy and to feel like I am making process, no matter how slow, or seemingly insignificant. The people are starting to open up to me more, and I am actually understanding what they say when they do, so I am feeling more and more a part of the community. One thing I learned this week after going to church every Sunday with two of my host sisters is that there is one side of the church for the women and the other for the men, and they both neglected to tell me this and allowed me to sit on the women’s side every time. They thought it was just hilarious. I hope everyone is doing great and keeping warm, I hear its getting really cold up there. I came into town in hopes of catching the UNC-Duke game, I have only seen one game all season but I am still nervous. Come on boys!

Austin

My first Nicargauan Cake

Indira´s Baptism Dress and My Host Mother

Mike, my best friend

January 10, 2009

I hope that everyone had a great holiday season and is enjoying the new year. I apologize for not having written in so long, but was out of my site for a while and have been pretty busy when I was here, it has taken me a while to slow down.

My Christmas was pretty good, I really missed being with my family back home and to be honest, I am really glad the holidays are over. The host family here didn’t really do that much. We had a chicken dinner on Christmas Eve and tried to wait up until midnight, but we made it until about 9:30. On Christmas Day we went to mass and the two year old girl in my family was baptized. There were about twenty little kids being baptized and none of them were happy about it, but it was really cool to see how proud all the families were. I opened the packages that ya’ll sent from the states and they were great, thank you. I gave the Santa hat and the Christmas decorations to the family and had to tell them what the snowflakes were. I think it’s been a while since Nicaragua got snow.

I spent New Year’s at a beach in the department of Leon with a group of Agriculture volunteers. It was beautiful, I wish I had taken my camera, but I was worried about it being stolen because we were staying in a hostel. Turned out my feeling was right on because I was pick-pocketed on the way home in the city of Matagalpa. They took all the money I had just withdrawn to build a bathing area for my host family, my Nicaraguan debit card, identification, and U.S. drivers license. It was really frustrating but I am just trying to think about it as contributing to the Nicaraguan economy.

As most of you know I was really excited about my horse and my new life as a cowboy, so I figure I should tell the story of my first experience with my trusty steed. One Sunday morning in December I walked over to my neighbor’s, where the horse is cared for, to talk about the possibility of riding my horse, which the previous volunteer named La Gringa. Sunday is the day when many Nicaraguan men chose to drink very heavily, and this Sunday was no different, as my neighbors porch was filled with a handful of Nicaraguan cowboys who decided to get an early start on their drinking. These guys were real cowboys, horses tied to trees, spurs, cowboy hats, man beards, the works, and here I come, awkward and white, asking if I can ride my horse.

My neighbor asked if I knew how to ride a horse and I said sure, I have done it before, I am sure I can do it. He must have been unconvinced, because he told me to get on one of the vaquero’s horses and ride around the field. I should tell you that this field serves not only as pasture but also as a sports field for soccer and baseball games. On this particular Sunday there was a baseball game going on, so there were about forty men and spectators on the other end of the field.

So I mounted one of the vaquero’s horses, it would be considered small by American standards, but was fairly good sized for a Nicaraguan horse. After walking around in circle for five minutes the men were satisfied with my ability to sit on a horse, my neighbor sent one of his kids to fetch my horse. What he brought was in fact no horse at all but a tiny pony. This little thing might have come up to my nipples if it stood up straight and arched its back, and the onlookers from the house were really helpful in pointing this out.

Undaunted, I hopped on up, my neighbor handed me a length of rope and told me to use this to hit her to make her go, I didn’t really like the idea of whipping my horse and was sure I could manage without it, but took it anyways. So I turned the horse, put my heels into her, and started to make my way out of the field. Much to my embarrassment, I found that this horse went about as fast as she was tall. As all the men on the porch laughed and shouted God knows what, the men on the baseball field all turned to watch me plod out of the field. My arm was tired from using the whip that I was determined not to use. To make a long story short, it got no better. The road from there to my host family’s house, which takes me 30 minutes to walk on foot, took me and my little pony 45 minutes to stumble. I really thought I was going to kill that horse and she acted like she was on her last leg. I returned the horse later that day in shame and have not asked about her since.

Other things in my community have gone much better. The previous volunteer came back for about a week to close up his community banks and divide out the money. I had always been skeptical of these banks, but of the three banks, two of them had about a 35% return on the savings and the other had a 68% return. The most incredible example was Doña Elsa, and elderly lady, who managed to save and earn over one hundred U.S. dollars, an incredible amount in a country where a man’s full day of labor earns around 2.50 USD, and whats more, Doña Elsa is illiterate.

I am working to restart the banks again for this year. We have a meeting for one of them today and the other two next Saturday. There seems to be more interest in joining them and it looks like there will be about 100 people total between the three banks, about a ninth of the total population of the community, an incredible testament to the need of credit in the community and the work of the previous volunteer.

I am looking to move into my house sometime next week. I am going to be sad to leave the host family, because they have been so caring, and to be honest I don’t know what I am going to eat, but it will be really nice to have my own space and some peace and quiet. I have been looking for a dog, but haven’t had any luck yet.

I saw that the basketball team lost last week to Boston College and I am really glad I didn’t have to watch it. Yall need to do a better job of cheering them on. I am going to try and watch the Duke games at least, but I don’t know if that will happen.

I miss you all a lot and have appreciated hearing from you. I hope you all are doing great and having a good start to the new year.

Preschool Graduation

My Lovely Host Mom

My Youth Group and Our Huevos Claus

December 1, 2008 Greetings all, I am now in my second week in El Charcón, and things are going great. Training wrapped up very well. I was really glad to be done with the monotony of a very structured schedule, but also sad to leave a host family and a community that cared for me so well. After we left our training towns, we headed to Managua for some final training sessions before our swearing in ceremony on the 22nd. It was a very interesting time to be in Managua as parts of the city were being engulfed in riots daily over the outcome of the Municipal elections, held earlier in the month. The opposition claimed that the Sandinistas stole the elections and the Sandinistas called their forces to the streets to defend the votes. There was never any danger to us but every night you could hear the motors (think big fireworks) going off. Our swearing in ceremony was held at the U.S. Embassy and due to the current state of the city was not televised as we had been told and was much smaller. It was still very nice and I felt really proud of everyone as we finally swore in as Peace Corps Volunteers. I arrived in the town of Praderas, about 2.5 km from my host family’s house, last Sunday in the afternoon. I had called to let them know I was coming, but as I got off the bus with about eighty pounds of luggage I didn’t see anyone that I knew. So I began my trek to my new home, up a huge hill, with everyone staring at me and struggling mightily with all of my bags. When I got about halfway there two girls came up from behind on a bike and said hello and asked how I was, but I didn’t really recognize them. They then offered to help me with my bags and as I saw them driving off with half of my possessions I began to wonder who they were and whether or not I would see my stuff again. Fortunately, they turned out to be part of my enormous family, and I settled in nicely that afternoon. There are about 17 people who live in the house with my family and numerous others who take their meals there, so it is always a bustle of activity. There are lots of little kids who have finally accepted me and have begun to want to play constantly. This past week I spent mostly hanging out with the family, meeting people around the community, and attending community bank meetings. The previous volunteer set up three community banks that I hope to start anew in January, and formalize a little more to make them more sustainable, since I will be the last volunteer coming to this community. I have also been working on the house where I will be living come January. There is a water project that will hopefully be bringing water to my back yard and I have plans to put in a shower area and put down a cement floor over the dirt in the bedroom. I haven’t ridden my horse yet because she was on loan to someone else but I have plans to do that very soon. The people here have been really nice so far and I am really looking forward to getting to know them better and diving into more projects with them soon. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving, I really missed all the great food, I have had beans and rice every meal for eight days. Take care, Austin

November 8, 2008 Greetings all. I just returned from a weeklong visit at my future site. My home for the next two years is a place named El Charcón, or a large mud puddle in English. El Charcón sits in the very bottom of an enormous ancient volcano crater. Located in the department of Jinotega, one of the most temperate, mountainous, regions of Nicaragua, one would think I would have scored the jackpot as far as heat goes. Unfortunately, that is not the case as the crater serves as a sort of greenhouse, making the whole area very very hot. Obviously, this was not my top choice, not by a long shot, but after visiting I think that it is a good site, with lots of opportunities to do good work. The area itself is beautiful. As you drive along the road literally falls out from under you and the crater expands in all direction as you snake down the narrow road. The walls are a beautiful patchwork of fields and forest where farmers on the margin try to eke out a living out of the rich volcanic soil. My host family seems very nice. The house is modest, and full to the brim. There are about fifteen people who call it their home, with many more in and out as the whole extended family lives within a couple hundred yards. There are lots of chickens, ducks and couple of pigs in the yard, which will make sure I don’t get too much sleep. My host dad has a farm of around thirty acres where he grows coffee, bananas, corn and beans. I will be living here for the first six weeks before I move into my own house, built by the previous volunteer. I am the third and final volunteer in El Charcón, which has its advantages and drawbacks. The community is already very familiar with Peace Corps and many projects are already in the works. On the other hand, for the first little bit I am committed to continue the previous volunteer’s projects, luckily they seem really great. My main focus for the initial months will be working with three community banks and one silo project. I will also be inheriting most of the things left behind by the previous volunteer, including a house, a bike, and a horse. So my dream of becoming a cowboy looks like it will be coming true, although, the horse is tiny and I think my feet will be about a foot off the ground, but that’s alright. The house is nice, two rooms, spacious and safe. I will be working to put in a cement floor in the bedroom and a front patio, as well as building a showering area and planting a garden. I am optimistic about going to my site, while nervous at the same time. My site is about 3.5 hours from the nearest city, so it is quite the trek, but there are a couple of volunteers about an hour away. We are entering our last week of training in Esteli before we go to Managua for another week and then swear in on Thursday the 20th. I have a new address, don’t be afraid to use it: Austin Turner Apartado Postal 8 Jinotega, Nicaragua, Central America Congrats everyone on electing Obama, I am so excited for America now and kind of jealous I wasn’t there for all the excitement. Yall take care. Austin

The city of Esteli

My sister´s class

My neighbor helping me make some jam

My first pinata

A Sandinista political rally

The Papaya farmer

October 25, 2008

Howdy! I apologize for so long in between writing but these weeks have been busy and the internet frequently goes out in Esteli. Last week we went to our final tech day in a town named La China. We spent the day speaking with various producers about how they started and managed their now successful agribusinesses. One man was a papaya farmer who worked with a grant from USAID to receive training on greenhouse management and papaya plantations. He began with only a small amount of land but now has a fairly large sized field of trees, selling to large markets all over Nicaragua.

We also met a man who man who worked with worm composting. He started out very small using just work boxes, but as he earned enough to build a new house, he turned his old one into a massive system of worm boxes. He can sell the worm fertilizer for about five dollars a sack, not much but a hefty profit margin considering his only inputs were the worms, which he only had to buy once because they reproduce like crazy, and fresh cow manure, donated from a local feed lot. The fertilizer is also the most rich looking dirt I seen in Nicaragua.

The final producer was a lady who started mong bean production when she was living as a single mother in a plastic house. She worked with her family to produce the mong beans and then transported them to Managua to sell to Chinese and Korean restaurants. She worked her way up, eventually paying her way through business school. Taking out a $6000 loan to buy a truck, a loan she paid back in six months, amazing. She now carries produce from other producers in her community and sells to the largest supermarket chains in the country. It was incredible to hear her tell about her life and how much she had over come. She has been the only woman producer I have encountered and by far the most innovative, very inspiring stuff.

Training has been flying by. I will leave my training town on the 17th of November and swear in on November 24th in Managua, apparently we will be on national tv! This Tuesday I will find out where my site will be. I requested the cool mountain highlands, some really neat communities, so yall pray for me not to get sent to the western lowlands where I will bake away to nothing. After we find out on Tuesday, we will travel for a week long visit on Friday. Needless to say I am excited and anxious to find out where I will spend the next two years.

How bout them tar heels by the way, and its not even basketball season yet, wow! I miss yall lots and hope you are well. I have gotten surprisingly few letters so how bout we step it up folks.

Austin Turner, PCT

Voluntario del Cuerpo de Paz

Apartado Postal 3256

Managua, Nicaragua

Central America

Much love

austin

Hey yall, Our group spent this past week at the site of an Agriculture Volunteer doing more hands on technical training. We learned how to build an improved oven out of an old 55 gallon oil barrel and bricks. This oven significantly reduces the amount of wood needed to cook, in hopes of easing the incredibly high rate of deforestation in Nicaragua. We also learned how to graft trees which makes growing better fruit trees possible and can help with soil erosion. During the week we were also able to talk with other volunteers and get a better idea of what being a volunteer is like. I am almost halfway through training and feel as though I am learning lots but still have a ton to learn. I hope yall are safe and well. Take care, Austin

I have included some photos of our oven building endevours.

Mixing our concrete: dirt, horse doodoo and water

The base layer

Putting in the barrel

Finishing touches

El Fin

A chicken about to get vaccinated

The gardening team

Making rosquillas

Little helper

An ¨aparatus A¨ used to find contour lines for planting on slopes An inverted tire, used to plant in patio gardens, keeps out nasty leaf cutter ants and reuses tires that would otherwise be burned

March for National Day of Independence

Our vegetable garden.

September 23

We have finished our second week of training and it certainly was a long one. They keep us pretty busy from sun up to sun down with Spanish classes and other trainings. This week we learned the basics of patio garden management and planted our very own garden. So far some beans and radishes have popped up and we are waiting to see if anything else will grow.

We also spent a day learning how commercialize basic agricultural products through value added processing. In other words, we made jam, spaghetti sauce, and a couple of medicinal balms and syrups. It was pretty neat to learn how to cook in this environment and it made me feel better about living on my own. We are beginning to work with a youth group at an agro-forest technical college. I think this will be one of the most challenging tasks of training because these are youth who have been studying agriculture for years and we are expected to teach them.

Over the weekend we went to an organic farm way up in the mountains. We learned how to make organic pesticides and herbicides as well as how to protect ourselves from the commercial ones that are sprayed here frequently. The men wear huge pump sprayers on their backs and spray without masks, boots, or even shirts. Most of them mix the chemicals with their hands and use the old bottles to carry water. Scary stuff.

My family is great. Every night we watch a telenovela called Siete Pecados (Seven Sins) and I have come to really enjoy it. My host dad got stuck with a spine from a Carbon tree and had to go to the hospital because it went all the way to the bone, which sounded painful. I also killed a giant tarantula in my room, pretty exciting stuff.

I hope everyone is doing well and I miss yall lots. Take care.

We just finished our first week of training and I am glad to be done. The have kept us pretty busy this week with Spanish classes, medical sessions and technical instruction. Today we planted our first garden. My family is really nice and I am enjoying living with them. The house is modest, but very nice for Nicaragua. There is no running water so we have a great latrine and all the cooking is done by wood stove. The people have already lived up to their reputation for kindness and generousity and seem geniunely glad to have us here. I hope that all of you are well and hope to hear from you all soon.

Greetings,

This week has been full of training both in Washington and in Managua. It has been tedious at times, but we have a great group with lots of positive energy. Tomorrow we leave for our training towns, where we will live with families while learning Spanish and receiving technical training for the next three months. The name of my town is Subtiava and it has a reputation for a cool climate which I am so thankful for. I am feeling anxious but very excited to be with a family and to begin getting down to work.

I will be leaving the country on Wednesday the 3rd of September. If you want to write me letters my address until November 20 will be:

Austin Turner, PCT

Voluntario del Cuerpo de Paz

Apartado Postal 3256

Managua, Nicaragua

Central America

My skype user name is austinfturner.

Take Care