The Peace Corps kids are all right

I whole heartily agree with this young PCV who is now serving in Guatemala.

I am posting an article I wrote for my local neighborhood newspaper the summer of 2008. After graduating with my degree in biology and minor in philosophy from Colorado College I participated in a very neat border immersion experience on the Mexican/US border with my college catholic community members. Below are my insights and observations as well as thoughts on sustainability and border issues! Enjoy!

FOR THE HILL AND LAKE PRESS

“A Border Awareness Experience: Solidarity and Sustainability on the Border”

By Nicholas K. Halbert

Nick has been a resident of the CIDNA Neighborhood since March 1989. He graduated from Benilde-St. Margaret’s High School in June 2004. On May 19, 2008, he received the degree of Bachelors of Arts from Colorado College. Nick majored in Biology, minored in Philosophy and successfully completed the Pre-Medicine requirements.

From May 31 to June 6, 2008, Nick and three of his peers from the Catholic ministry program at Colorado College and UCCS (University of Colorado at Colorado Springs) and the director of social concerns for Catholic Charities participated in a B.A.E. – Border Awareness Experience, an educational immersion program conducted by the Women’s Intercultural Center in Anthony, New Mexico, http://www.womensinterculturalcenter.org/bae/bae.htm. Nick wanted to share some of his observations from the trip with you.

************

During my trip to the U.S.-Mexico border, I learned about support systems that help immigrants. I learned about globalization, NAFTA - North American Free Trade Agreement, and their effects on the socio-political and economic inequalities immigrants and people living along the border face every day. In addition, I learned all of the aforementioned while consciously viewing the issues from a moral and religious perspective. My motivation for going on this B.A.E. was two-fold. First, I wanted to be immersed in the unique and vibrant border culture, which is found on either side of the Rio Grande. Also, I wanted to become a well-informed advocate for social justice and human rights issues that exist along our border.

A few take home observations I found important from my trip were in regards to the women in Juarez, sustainability, the environment and our future as an evolving species. For me, the most educational and valuable part of the B.A.E. were the two nights spent in a colonia in Juarez, Mexico. A colonia is a rural, unincorporated settlement along the border, which is economically disparate, having an underdeveloped infrastructure.

While in Juarez, Mexico, I had great admiration for the women of our host families. They unmistakably displayed a gracious and non self-righteous mentality. This mentality was an inherent part of their Mexican culture, something, which focused on the creation of personal interactions driven by relationships. With the support of the Women’s Intercultural Center, these women have defied traditional patriarchal gender roles and have become independent, self-minded, well-educated and emotionally and psychologically strong with a sense of high self-worth.

Another admiration for the good people living in the colonia in Juarez was their concern for the environment and living a sustainable lifestyle. One of the first social roles of the women in this colonia was the creation and installation of ecological toilets in their homes, many of which had no running water. The idea of the ecological toilet is to provide sanitation for the inhabitants of a colonia, which does not have a reliable sewer or septic system. The ecological toilet does not need running water to function and is environmentally safe and healthy.

Another sustainable practice involved the re-use of water. These same humble, simple and wise people are learning to re-use water – in a land where with luck, rainfall occurs only two months of the year. The women in the colonia developed flower pots and gardens outside their women’s center and around their own homes, which could filter water. Common places for naturally filtering plant boxes would be at the outlet for sink water, the washing machine, or the base of the rainwater runoff from the roof. These plant containers have a carbon-based filtering system embedded at the bottom. This allows dirty water to be filtered naturally, through the soil and roots of the plants as well as synthetically, through carbon films. At the end of the filter system there is an in-ground concrete catch-box that gathers the water for re-use.

This border immersion experience has made me aware of the economic inequalities and disparities in human dignity that exist between two populaces separated by an artificial boundary/border. Furthermore, it has given me great admiration for the good people in the colonias such as the women of our host families. People, who economically have so little in comparison to the majority of their neighbors to the north, and yet, are able to genuinely appreciate the little they do have, by respecting each other and their environment, in a sustainable fashion. It is this idea of sustainability and the notion of interconnectedness in our environment that I hope will be a unifying principle for current and future generations.

In conclusion, I remain hopeful that one day the U.S.-Mexico border will be a place of true solidarity instead of a place of disunity, inequality and hardship. In ridding myself of self-righteous and willful thoughts and by turning within, I hope to find a universal Spirit, a Spirit that dwells within all human beings and derives the hopeful realization that, ‘what we do to others, we are doing to ourselves.’ Only when we as Americans can unite with all human peoples of the globe and strive for this end goal with all of God’s creation – humans, the environment, and all other organisms – shall we willfully declare progress, sustainability and solidarity in this world.

I am posting an article I wrote for my local neighborhood newspaper the summer of 2008. After graduating with my degree in biology and minor in philosophy from Colorado College I participated in a very neat border immersion experience on the Mexican/US border with my college catholic community members. Below are my insights and observations as well as thoughts on sustainability and border issues! Enjoy!

FOR THE HILL AND LAKE PRESS

“A Border Awareness Experience: Solidarity and Sustainability on the Border”

By Nicholas K. Halbert

Nick has been a resident of the CIDNA Neighborhood since March 1989. He graduated from Benilde-St. Margaret’s High School in June 2004. On May 19, 2008, he received the degree of Bachelors of Arts from Colorado College. Nick majored in Biology, minored in Philosophy and successfully completed the Pre-Medicine requirements.

From May 31 to June 6, 2008, Nick and three of his peers from the Catholic ministry program at Colorado College and UCCS (University of Colorado at Colorado Springs) and the director of social concerns for Catholic Charities participated in a B.A.E. – Border Awareness Experience, an educational immersion program conducted by the Women’s Intercultural Center in Anthony, New Mexico, http://www.womensinterculturalcenter.org/bae/bae.htm. Nick wanted to share some of his observations from the trip with you.

************

During my trip to the U.S.-Mexico border, I learned about support systems that help immigrants. I learned about globalization, NAFTA - North American Free Trade Agreement, and their effects on the socio-political and economic inequalities immigrants and people living along the border face every day. In addition, I learned all of the aforementioned while consciously viewing the issues from a moral and religious perspective. My motivation for going on this B.A.E. was two-fold. First, I wanted to be immersed in the unique and vibrant border culture, which is found on either side of the Rio Grande. Also, I wanted to become a well-informed advocate for social justice and human rights issues that exist along our border.

A few take home observations I found important from my trip were in regards to the women in Juarez, sustainability, the environment and our future as an evolving species. For me, the most educational and valuable part of the B.A.E. were the two nights spent in a colonia in Juarez, Mexico. A colonia is a rural, unincorporated settlement along the border, which is economically disparate, having an underdeveloped infrastructure.

While in Juarez, Mexico, I had great admiration for the women of our host families. They unmistakably displayed a gracious and non self-righteous mentality. This mentality was an inherent part of their Mexican culture, something, which focused on the creation of personal interactions driven by relationships. With the support of the Women’s Intercultural Center, these women have defied traditional patriarchal gender roles and have become independent, self-minded, well-educated and emotionally and psychologically strong with a sense of high self-worth.

Another admiration for the good people living in the colonia in Juarez was their concern for the environment and living a sustainable lifestyle. One of the first social roles of the women in this colonia was the creation and installation of ecological toilets in their homes, many of which had no running water. The idea of the ecological toilet is to provide sanitation for the inhabitants of a colonia, which does not have a reliable sewer or septic system. The ecological toilet does not need running water to function and is environmentally safe and healthy.

Another sustainable practice involved the re-use of water. These same humble, simple and wise people are learning to re-use water – in a land where with luck, rainfall occurs only two months of the year. The women in the colonia developed flower pots and gardens outside their women’s center and around their own homes, which could filter water. Common places for naturally filtering plant boxes would be at the outlet for sink water, the washing machine, or the base of the rainwater runoff from the roof. These plant containers have a carbon-based filtering system embedded at the bottom. This allows dirty water to be filtered naturally, through the soil and roots of the plants as well as synthetically, through carbon films. At the end of the filter system there is an in-ground concrete catch-box that gathers the water for re-use.

This border immersion experience has made me aware of the economic inequalities and disparities in human dignity that exist between two populaces separated by an artificial boundary/border. Furthermore, it has given me great admiration for the good people in the colonias such as the women of our host families. People, who economically have so little in comparison to the majority of their neighbors to the north, and yet, are able to genuinely appreciate the little they do have, by respecting each other and their environment, in a sustainable fashion. It is this idea of sustainability and the notion of interconnectedness in our environment that I hope will be a unifying principle for current and future generations.

In conclusion, I remain hopeful that one day the U.S.-Mexico border will be a place of true solidarity instead of a place of disunity, inequality and hardship. In ridding myself of self-righteous and willful thoughts and by turning within, I hope to find a universal Spirit, a Spirit that dwells within all human beings and derives the hopeful realization that, ‘what we do to others, we are doing to ourselves.’ Only when we as Americans can unite with all human peoples of the globe and strive for this end goal with all of God’s creation – humans, the environment, and all other organisms – shall we willfully declare progress, sustainability and solidarity in this world.

Happy belated Thanksgiving and Black Friday to all my faithful blog readers! I hope all of my fellow patriots enjoyed a lot of turkey and gave thanks for all the gifts that we are fortunate to have including the basics of food, home and a loving family. I took a bit of a respite for a few months from my blog but I feel the thanksgiving break is a good time to resume adding blog entries for the last 4 months of service! Wow, the two years and three months of PST have flown by and now before I know it I will be in the reintegration process in the states trying to define myself as a professional looking to begin a career or perhaps post graduate study.

Thanksgiving is an American holiday so here in Peace Corps Nicaragua we volunteers find ways to give thanks and enjoy our mutual company by getting together in Nicaragua our home away from home. Last year 20 other Peace Corps volunteers and I enjoyed a great dinner with the deputy ambassador to Nicaragua at his lovely home in Managua where the embassy families live. This year I got together with about 10 other volunteers in a province that borders Honduras called Jinotega. This was an exciting experience for me because I had never been to this town before. It was a potluck affair where everyone brought a drink or dish to share. We ate ourselves silly with stuffing, pork loin, rotisserie chicken, chili, corn bread, green beans, salad, and more. We all stood in a circle before feasting and shared with each other what we are thankful for. I am thankful that I have completed 19 months of service in San Isidro and 3 months of training in Sta. Teresa, Carazo in good health and safely without getting robbed. I am also thankful for my fellow Peace Corps volunteers and my host families in San Isidro and Sta. Teresa who provide the emotional support that has helped me get through the 22 months while being in country. I am also very thankful for the support of my parents who were generous and gracious in buying my plane ticket home to spend the holiday season and ring in 2011 with them and the rest of my family and friends in Minneapolis!

I am sure most of you are wondering how my work has been going in the past months. I have been keeping fairly occupied and will be putting pictures of what I have been doing in my facebook page and in my Picasa web album. In July, the “comedor infantil” was inaugurated and open to “business”. I was included in this inauguration ceremony, the only inauguration ceremony that I have been included in during my service here in Nicaragua. It was quite interesting with the national television news channel there as well as the mayor, vice-mayor, and other important political figures. I was involved in the ceremony because I had been actively involved in the planning process for this “home” that provides lunch, tutoring and homework help, as well as life skills classes for the poorest most vulnerable children ages 6 to 13 and for their single mothers. I specifically have helped with tutoring the children as well as giving them basic lessons on personal hygiene, malaria and dengue, nutrition, the environment, etc.. In addition I have given like skills lessons to the single mothers in hygiene and birth control.

There was a “leptospirosis” outbreak here in Nicaragua with 19 deaths and 520 positive cases of people sick from the bacteria called leptosira. These bacteria can get into the water supply and infect people who drink, bathe or cook with the contaminated water. The main vector transmitter of these bacteria is rats, mice, dogs, cats, cows and other domestic animals whose urine is infected with leptospira. So as a health promoter, the health center had me helping nurses and doctors go house to house handing out prophylactic antibiotics to help prevent the further spread of leptospira in humans. We gave the prophylactic antibiotics mainly to the rural communities; as a result I have gotten to know about 30 of 42 rural communities that are in the city limits of the municipality of San Isidro.

Lastly, I learned a great, albeit disheartening lesson about international development. Peace Corps had a workshop on HIV/aids for health volunteers in my group and their counterparts with whom they work on a regular basis. In this workshop I was fortunate enough to meet a representative of an NGO that works in AIDS education and prevention. His regional office is in Ocotal, a town about 30 km from the Honduran border; about a 2 to 3 hour ride on the Pan-American Highway from my site. He and I coordinated two workshops on HIV/aids prevention and homophobia for the taxi drivers and the adults from the gay community in my site. I printed 75 formal invitations with the Peace Corps logo and the logo of the NGO thinking that with a paper invitation there would be a better chance of having a good turnout. Unfortunately none of the taxi drivers, not one, showed up and only about 8 participants from the sexually diverse community showed up to their session. This was a little upsetting for me to see that it is difficult to promote HIV/aids education with the adult male population but it is a reality to face and a challenge for all of us to take upon ourselves and try to overcome.

I always like to end my experiences on a positive note. International development work might be challenging when talking in terms of Aids education with men, but in terms of trees and Marango (moringa oleifera) and working with elementary students, development work is easy and it is always exciting when one can see their results. I will post on facebook as well on this blog page a few pictures of the trees that I planted with the students of 6th grade in the backyard of the public elementary school. To remind you readers from the previous blog this tree Marango, is a great tool to combat global malnutrition because the dried or fresh leaves on the adult tree can be harvested and integrated in to recipes. These leaves have immense nutritional value such as 7 times the vitamin C than 1 gram of an orange, 3 times more potassium than a banana, 4 times as much calcium than in milk, 2 times as much protein than in milk and 4 times as much vitamin A than in a carrot.

That is all for this year 2010, and hope all my readers have a great Holiday season and a blessed new year!

As I have said in a previous blog there are many fiestas “parties” in celebration of patron saints. This past June 24th was the patron saint day for Saint John the Baptist. I cannot speak for all the people of Nicaragua but I can share my experience that I had in “celebrating” (observing) the patron saint festival of Saint John in my site San Isidro. I have attached photos on Facebook and on Google’s Picasa web photos to view this celebration. It was quite a bizarre celebration where in the United States and many other developed countries I imagine it would be illegal or at the very least culturally unacceptable to do. This tradition involves hanging a live duck by its feet upside down on a rope in mid-air about 8 or 10 feet above the ground. A person waxes the areas of the head and neck of the duck and men on horseback begin “racing” or running their horses one at time in a single file line, in the area under where the duck is hanging. The horseback riders (in this case there were about 8) take turns, continuously pulling on the duck’s neck until it is physically disconnected. The winner of this “race” is the last horseback rider who successfully yanks the head free from the body of the duck. The winner’s prize is to take home the duck and cook it, most likely in a soup. This is considered animal torture in my book but when I asked why they do this, a Nicaraguan told me that it is to commemorate the way Saint John the Baptist was killed (hung or beheaded, I am not a Catholic historian, so I could not tell you how exactly St. John was killed or martyred). I know you are probably asking right now how does duck taste? Well, I still have yet to try duck, but perhaps before I leave Nicaragua I will have tried this delicacy.

On a brighter note, there are also pictures of elementary school students helping me transplant the Marango tree (which I spoke about in a previous blog) in their schoolyard. We transplanted four tree seedlings and now the hope is that the improvised barriers we made around the seedlings will keep the students from accidentally destroying the trees. Also, when Mother Nature does not provide adequate irrigation for these plants the students and I will need to be responsible for watering the trees. Speaking of mothernature, we have made it through about half of Nicaragua’s rainy season (or winter), it began in May and will end in the month of November, when the dry or summer season begins. In the photos you can view that in developing countries at least in the smaller towns, infrastructure like street sewers and underground drains for rain water does not exist, hence many people get inundated by the rain. The street that I live on floods every time there is a substantial rainfall due to the rainwater that comes down from the hill/mountain that is outside of the town uphill from the urban area of San Isidro. Luckily for the people on our street the homes are built up from the street level about 3.5 feet preventing the rain water from entering the homes.

Photos and there are more on Facebook

It has been over a month since I have last updated my blog page. It is time to update but I have so much to tell. Perhaps on this coming Monday, July 12, the new “Casa Infantil” (house/center for the most vulnerable of children from 6 to 13 years of age) will open. This house has been in the planning stages at least since the beginning of this year. The center for youth is for the children of single mothers and other children who are the most vulnerable to malnutrition, poverty, and whose destiny appears is headed for a life on the streets. I have been actively involved in the planning process of this house for youth and it is finally coming together. The three paid staff members are a psychologist, social worker and the administrator in charge of the finances. This center for youth is being endowed by the local mayor’s office. I have committed my time and energy to giving lessons in the area of health to the single mothers as well as the children in addition to playing with the kids and making sure they are staying on top of their homework and not falling behind in their academic studies.

In addition to the planning of the center for youth I have been actively involved in a collaborative project between the ministry of health in San Isidro and an NGO called JICA (An institution similar to the Peace Corps that sends Japanese citizens to poorer countries to help in their development). This project is preventing and medicating a disease called Chagas. Chagas disease is caused by a vector infected by a parasite protozoa called Trypanosoma cruzi. This protozoa is found in the feces of the vector insect which feeds on human blood when sleeping. (view picture). After biting the person the insect will lay excrement on top of the wound. When the person itches the wound or touches their eyes the parasite from the excrement can enter the blood stream of the person via their eye or an open wound. The symptoms of this disease are vey general, such as pain in the joints and fever. There is only a cure or treatment for this disease in children older than 3 months and younger than 13 years. Afterwards the disease has a chronic phase where the liver, intestines and brain are effected until cardiac arrest may take the life of the person at an early age (30 or 40 years old). I helped educate the population to be aware of this insect and to capture in a plastic bag if they encounter one and to bring it to the laboratory in the health center to have the feces examined for the parasite T. cruzi.

There was a provincial meeting between all the community health volunteers in each province, the health project supervisor and sub-supervisor of Peace Corps Nicaragua and the director of the ministry of health. These meetings occur annually with the exception of last year when at this time Nicaragua as well as the rest of the world was distracted by the epidemic of influenza type A H1N1 and they did not have time to meet. This meeting was very helpful and informational for the PCVs to meet the other volunteers from their sector and region, to share their experiences and comments or complaints they might have with the Peace Corps as well as with the ministry of health and to get a better grasp of the state of health in their region/province.

A welcomed change of pace in my work came with the arrival of a U.S. medical brigade from a Catholic Church in Michigan. They came for one week to give consults and prescriptions for medications brought from the U.S. to selected towns in the province of Matagalpa. They recruited the help of the PCVs in Matagalpa to serve as interpreters between the patients and the doctors. It was a new experience and I enjoyed it. I also went to the nearest hospital which is 10 minutes away in a town called La Trinidad to give a small workshop on HIV/Aids to the patients and employees of the hospital. The workshop covered what HIV and Aids, how it is transmitted and how to prevent it. In addition I showed a video demonstrating the social factors and consequences of HIV as well as how a Machista culture is an obstacle to the eradication of aids. It was a success.

Lastly, I have been helping another NGO from the US that is doing development work in Nicaragua and in other countries throughout Latin America called “Amigos de Las Americas”. This organization recruits high school students (juniors and seniors) who are on summer break to spend 6 weeks working on small projects (fences, community houses, kitchens) as well as giving short classes on the environment to grade school students. The themes of the classes vary from reforestation, watershed management, water and soil conservation, basic community health and risk and disaster management. Specifically I have donated about 40 seeds of a tree called Marango or Moringa Oleifera. You can easily Google this tree and read about the plethora of benefits that the leaf of the tree has as well as the many nutrients and vitamins that come from simply eating the leaves. This tree is a miracle tree that could combat the millions of malnourished people in the world. With the help of grade school students from my community I have planted about thirty of these seeds and they have successfully sprouted and are growing as I type this blog entry. Happy Belated Independence day to all!

click here for pictures

Nicaragua has always been a predominately Roman Catholic society. It is interesting to see the rise of the Evangelical Christian Church and its impact on some of the Nicaraguans who have converted from Catholicism to more conservative Christian churches. Despite a growing number of converts from Catholicism to conservative Evangelism the history of the Roman Catholic Church in Nicaragua will always play a pivotal role in the culture of Nicaragua. For example, every city and town in Nicaragua has their own patron saint. In many cases, the patron saint might be the name of the town (for example my training town-St. Teresa or my current site San Isidro), or if the name of the town is not a saint then there is always a chosen saint somehow promulgated from the history of the town. In San Isidro, the patron saint is Isidro, for whom the town is named. This saint is known as “Saint Isidro the Laborer” in recognition of the strong agricultural influence that is the basis of the rural “campo” habitants of the municipality of San Isidro. In San Isidro they farm rice, corn, beans, and grains. Once a year Nicaraguan towns celebrate and honor their patron saint in a 17 to 21 day event called “Fiestas Patronales” (Patron Saint Festivities). In every town this epoch of fiestas varies depending on the day the patron is celebrated. In San Isidro, it is celebrated in the middle of May with the principal Saint Day on May 15. During these two to three weeks of fiestas a fair is put up in a temporary location that includes a ferris wheel, a merry-go-round, other amusement park rides as well as a temporary arena/stadium where the riding of the bulls occurs. I have put a few of the notable pictures on my Picasa web album on Google and more on Facebook. Every weekend there is a riding of the bulls, where as many as 10 bulls are rode in one night. During the weekdays for three days during this period of festivities, younger adolescents get to ride baby bulls or calves. The bull riding area (barrera) is mostly a place to socialize as well as get a bit of non-traditional entertainment from bull riding (if that turns your crank, for me personally, I do not get any enjoyment from watching bull riding). There is also a horse race, but very informal as well where two lanes are marked in chalk in a straight area of dirt about the length of half a football field. Then bets are placed on the horse and horse rider (who rides bareback) who will cross the finish line first. Also part of the festivities includes two parades. One parade on the principal day of the Patron Saint, with a float that carries the icon of the saint, as well as other floats in the parade to commemorate the Virgin Mary and other saints from neighboring municipalities. The second parade occurs on a Sunday to put a conclusion on the entire epoch of that year’s festivities. This second parade is called “Hipico” because cowboys with their horses on horseback come from all parts of the rural country to celebrate their municipality’s saint.

Another important holiday that happens once a year in Nicaragua is Nicaraguan Mothers Day. This year it was Sunday May 30. For this holiday the schools are given a 4 day weekend and many stores and services are not open during these days. In Latino culture the mother plays a very important role in the family structure because it is the mother who predominantly is in charge of raising the children and taking care of the home, where as the father is in charge of working and bringing home the salary for the home. Where I live the mother and owner of the house lives in Miami and was not able to come down to celebrate with her two sons for mother’s day. Instead her sister and brother-in-law came down to celebrate Nicaraguan Mothers Day with their two nephews. This was a very happy and busy time for the family and our house because the aunt and uncle comes down about two to three times a year not only to visit with their Nicaraguan relatives but also to check and monitor there farms and properties, which they have invested in and are owners of. This is a very common situation for the majority of Nicaraguans, having direct remittances or money transfers or gifts from relatives in the states. This is the second time since I have been living with this second host family that the aunt and uncle have come from Miami. In both trips they bring the maximum checked baggage (2 per person) allowance and each is packed full with gifts for friends and family in Nicaragua. In Nicaragua the term “cousin” or “brother or sister” is used more loosely or informally than in the U.S. Here there are many “cousins” that in reality are not family at all but are good family friends and these family friends end up receiving benefits such as remittances (direct or in-direct) when “family members” are in the states or when they come back to visit in Nicaragua. This is the reality of living in a developing country that is economically dependent on a developed country or countries aid for their people’s economic and societal well-being.

Click here to View Photos

Earth Day 2010

The celebration of 40 years of the commemoration of Earth Day was on April 22, 2010. In my site of San Isidro, I helped with an environmental awareness campaign by inviting 5 students from my health center’s youth group to attend training with 50 other high school students and youth to form an environment and global warming awareness brigade. The youth received training on the differences between organic and inorganic garbage, recycling and the topic of climate change and greenhouse gases. The next day I supervised (taking pictures) my group of youth as they went from house to house giving 5 minute education talks on the importance of separating your organic and inorganic garbage as well as on global warming. The week long campaign ended with a march that originated in the bus station and ended with a closing ceremony in the municipal city park. I have posted pictures on facebook as well as on the google “picasa web pictures” link. During this same week (April 12), the ministry of health began their annual national vaccination campaign. I helped by giving children oral doses of vitamin A (droplets) and polio vaccine as well as handing out anti-parasitic medications. Pictures of this campaign have also been posted.

I have been giving night classes at the local public high school with the latest subject on Machismo, Gender roles and domestic violence and abuse. The high school students seemed really perceptive and enjoyed these classes because I showed them a 20 minute Nicaraguan soap-opera (called Sexto Sentido or 6th sense) or dramatization video, which covered the themes of male dominance in a relationship, domestic violence, rape, unwanted teenage pregnancy and homosexuality. The video demonstrated how victims of these incidents of violence can overcome and overpower the unjust circumstances and situations these people found themselves in as well as how to combat and fight against this culture of violence.

Lastly for 4 days and 3 nights I attended a workshop at a lovely Pacific Oceanside conference and hotel called Hotel Vistamar (Oceanview). The workshop was called Project Design Management and included in the 4 days everything from the steps of “how to design a project” to community development and participative research of needs and wants in a community. About 20 volunteers attended and each was required to bring a project partner who was a native Nicaraguan. This Nicaraguan counterpart either had worked in collaboration with the volunteer before or had plans to work on a project together in the future. I also have included pictures from this workshop which was conducted by Peace Corps with the funding given by USAID.

March-April, 2010

I started a series of Sexual and Reproductive Health classes in the high school. This series of classes includes themes such as self-esteem, communication, leadership, puberty and adolescence, the reproductive system, teenage pregnancy, birth control/family planning, STDs and HIV/Aids, Gender, domestic abuse and sexual and reproductive rights. I have decided to give these classes to the students of the night school from 1st year through the last (5th) year in the local public high school. My rationale for choosing the night school students for these classes came from the results of a sexual and reproductive health survey that I gave last year in November. The results of this survey indicated that the majority of the students who lacked awareness of sexual health issues were those that took classes in the night. These students are also generally older (17 through mid 30’s in age) who work during the day because there families are poorer and need the extra income. Some of the results in my survey included: only 37.5% of the 80 surveys filled out knew that abstinence is a method of birth control, whereas 94% knew that condoms are a birth control method. This information suggests educators of sexually health should not forget or ignore the fact that abstinence can always be an option for younger students who do not want to be sexually active. Likewise, only 32.5% of the students who responded in the survey knew that abstinence is a way to prevent STDs, whereas 84% knew that condoms can prevent STDs. Oftentimes it is assumed that all adolescents are sexually active and so sexual health educators ignore the option of promoting abstinence education. I believe that it is important not to ignore abstinence education and to include this option in sexual health classes. Another question from the survey asked, If you have initiated sexually relations and 48% of the 80 contestants responded yes, with the average age of these respondents being 18.5 years old. This further justifies the need to talk about the option of sexual abstinence or at least the option of delaying your first sexually encounter for as long as possible in addition to promoting the other birth control methods such as condoms, the pill and injections.

My health survey also included questions on HIV/aids knowledge. 80% of the survey respondents knew that HIV can be transmitted via blood, 74% semen and 71% through vaginal sex, and 66% knew that the virus can be transmitted during the pregnancy from the mother to baby. Only, 49% knew that the virus can be transmitted through breast milk; only 21% knew that it can be transmitted through vaginal secretions, and only 55% knew that the virus can be transmitted through anal sex. The survey also asked if the person has been tested for HIV or for any other STD. Unfortunately these numbers were extremely low with only 10% for the former and 9% for the later had been tested for a STD. This information suggests that the ministry of health needs to promote the tests for HIV and other STDS more strongly.

In regards to other aspects of my work that does not have to do with boring numbers (yet numbers with great significance), I fortuitously met a retired medical doctor who has an hour radio show on health themes on Sundays, in the nearby town of Sebaco (about 10 minutes away from San Isidro). Upon introducing myself and my role as a PCV, he invited me to be a guest on his radio show to talk about public health issues. I told him that I would like to bring along some of the high school students who were in my youth group from last year to impart their knowledge on health. He obliged and we did our first radio show a two Sundays ago with Jose Ramon a 19 year old 4th year high school student and Juana a 16 year old 4th year high school student. We talked about domestic and intrafamilial violence and the systems of support which exist especially for teenagers in regards to this topic. At the end of the hour show the co-owner invited and encouraged me and my youth to solicit our own hour of youth programming. We agreed along with the doctor that this would be a tremendous idea and I am now looking for funding to make this a reality.

An overwhelming amount of Nicaraguans are Roman Catholic and so one can only expect for the Easter holiday to be a heartily celebrated occasion. Well, this assertion is correct and they transform the whole week beginning the Monday after Palm Sunday through Easter Sunday into daily masses and many hours of confession and sitting or kneeing on hard, wooden uncomfortable pews. 6 other PCVs and I took this week to see the sights of Nicaragua as tourists. We went to view and witness the beautiful San Juan River which serves as the Costa Rican/Nicaraguan border. The mouth of the river originates at the southeast end of Lake Nicaragua and it empties into the Caribbean Sea. We had ambitious (perhaps as my parents hinted in a phone call, overly ambitious) plans for spending the 4 days on the river canoeing and kayaking from El Castillo to San Juan del Nicaragua (the port town on the Caribbean coast). Needless to say we only lasted one day of kayaking and canoeing making it to the town of Boca de San Carlos (appears to be a little less than half-way to the sea). There were multiple factors that impeded our advancement and actualization of our plans. I did not want to continue after my partner and I capsized in the very first minutes of the trip as we tried to navigate the rapids and rocks of El Castillo. I was the only one to have my backpack and all my clothes in our canoe and everything get wet with water despite the plastic bags that lined my backpack. My camera also got soaked despite the ziploc bag, which it was in. So after the first night in Boca de San Carlos, I returned to a hotel with Craig who was badly burnt and in pain from extreme sun exposure, and with another PCV who had lost desire to continue as the odd person out (had to kayak alone in a 2 person kayak for part of the 1st and only day of kayaking). Needless to say it was a great learning experience and I was able to get about three days of photos, mostly of our long trip getting to the river, as we crossed the huge Lake Nicaragua in a Ferry boat that took 14 hours from Granada (45 minutes Southeast of Managua) to San Carlos (the mouth of the San Juan River).

P.S. Canon digital cameras (PowerShot SD 1100 IS) seems to be a resilient brand because my camera seems to work and function almost as good as new after a week of drying out in the sun!

Follow this link for photos

P.P.S. I also posted two photos at the end of the makeshift Weights that I lift with a friend from my town..I haven't been real regular in my lifting routine.. but at least Im trying to stay in shape. There is no "gym" in my site.. there is one 10 minutes to the north... but I find it a good socializing activity to lift with my friend's makeshift weights! I also admire his creativity for making the weights!

There are approximately 180 Peace Corps volunteers in Nicaragua separated through 5 sectors: Community Health, Small Business, Environment, English, and Agriculture. Every 4 months a new group and sector/s arrives to Nicaragua. The newest group, Health 52 arrived on the 20th of January. After the 12 week pre-service training they will be the 52nd group of PCVs to serve in Nicaragua the land of lakes and volcanoes. From Sunday Feb. 21 through Wed. the 24th a trainee came to visit me in my site to get a real glimpse and perspective of the life of a PCV. Unfortunately the trainee might have gotten a “too real glimpse” of a day in the life of a PCVs experience when the 4 wheel drive ambulance that we were riding in broke down, leaving us waiting for 2 hours. We were riding with the male chauffer and another male employee who works in the malaria and dengue fever department. Both of these men (a bit too stubborn and too machista or “macho”) were convinced that we had run out of gas and that the gas tank needle that was showing a quarter tank of gas left was inaccurate. So we waited 2 hours for a health center employee to bring us a few gallons of gasoline on his motorcycle, while the “muchachos” were “playing” under the hood of the ambulance trying to figure out the problem. Well, to the surprise of the two male health center employees (and not so much a surprise to the trainee and me) the addition of gasoline didn’t fix the problem with the ambulance and it still didn’t start, so we ended up waiting about 1 more hour for a large truck to tow us with a chain (like a makeshift tow truck from the States) back to the main highway where we waited another 30 minutes for the friendly mayor’s garbage truck to tow us the rest of the way to San Isidro. The main reason I took the PCT-Peace Corps Trainee up with me to the rural community was to get a pretty view of the municipality of San Isidro as well as to know the process of picking up pregnant women. We were dropping off a mother who recently gave birth and her new born to her community about 3,500 feet above sea level and picking up another pregnant woman who was close to her delivery date. Part of the Ministry of Health’s battle against maternal and infant mortality rate is to bring pregnant women who live in rural communities that are located far from any health clinic or hospital (who are a few weeks from their delivery date) to a “Casa Materna” a house for pregnant women (most municipalities with a health center have in Nicaragua have a Casa Materna) to provide the pregnant woman easy access to doctors and access to the health center or ambulance to give birth. The idea is to discourage women from giving birth in their homes, since many complications can arise when giving birth in a home far from the human and medical resources that a hospital or health clinic can provide.

On Friday, February 5th, I gave a lesson on “teaching health in the classroom” with a fellow volunteer who is also from Minnesota. We covered how to get started in your site teaching classes such as getting to know the school superintendent, how to plan and make a class on a health theme (self-esteem, nutrition, birth control) and how to make these classes dynamic and participative. It was fun remembering back to my Pre-service Training (PST) and realizing how far I have come in my life experiences and Peace Corps experience within one year of being in Nicaragua.

There is a logical and natural sort of seniority or rank that exists in any business, government or institutional setting. In the Peace Corps, I am now about half way through my 2 year service, which means I have gained enough experiences to be able to train and give advice to new groups of future Peace Corps volunteers. After the training lesson, I was able to experience my first Cinema Experience in Managua, in a mall called “Las Galerias” a very shee, shee, upscale mall only for the most wealthy and upper class of Nicaraguans. It had very comfortable seats just like any cinema you might go to in the United States. We watched “Sherlock Holmes” featuring Robert Downey Jr. The movie was in English with Spanish sub-titles, so the experience was not hindered in anyway. When compared to the prices of movies in the United States it’s a lot cheaper (75 Córdobas or $3.50), but when taking into account the reality of living in Nicaragua, where everyone earns in Córdobas not dollars (even us PCVs), it’s pretty expensive for the average Nicaraguan.

I also applied and got accepted to be a Peer Helper (Peer Support Network Facilitator). This is a group of volunteers who have received trainings on active listen and on the specific support resources that the Peace Corps and the U.S. government provide to volunteers in Nicaragua. They also are a resource for other volunteers who are going through trying times during their service to look to and help them cope with their problem and move forward to have a successful service. We have our first PSN training retreat coming up this month in March.

Link to Photos from rural community 3,000 feet above and from Cerro de la Cruz, overlook of urban area, San Isidro

http://picasaweb.google.com/nick.halbert

I also have recently posted photos on my Facebook.

I had a revitalizing 19 day vacation in Minneapolis, MN with my parents and friends. Now, I feel ready to resume my Peace Corps service. The transition from vacation back to Nicaragua has been a “sprinting, off to the races" kind of start because I have actually been quite busy since returning to the Augusto C. Sandino International Airport in Managua, Nicaragua at 9 PM on Thursday, January 7. This past Friday, I went to Rio Blanco, Matagalpa for two reasons: a billiards tournament to help raise awareness in the male population on HIV/AIDS and for the quarterly VAC – Volunteer Action Committee meeting (all the departments in Peace Corps Nicaragua have a reunion about 3 to 4 times a year to welcome and get to know the newest group of volunteers as well as talk about Peace Corps cross-sectoral general issues or problems). I took a few pictures of the beautiful terrain and foliage that can be found in Rio Blanco, Matagalpa. Photos

Rio Blanco is the site where the VAC coordinator, a health 46 volunteer who will terminate his 2 year service in March is finishing his service. Rio Blanco is a site considerably larger in population than San Isidro, perhaps having 20,000 people and it has a Bancentro Bank! If you are a volunteer that has a bank in your site, that usually means you are in a medium to large site that has supermarkets and all the necessities that one would need right in your backyard, including the means to easily withdraw money from the Peace Corps bank account. Like I said, the volunteer in Rio Blanco is a community health volunteer like me and on Friday night before the Saturday reunion I along with about 12 other PCVs from the department of Matagalpa helped and gave moral support to Mike as he conducted his billiards tournament. Unfortunately I did not take any pictures of this experience but it was a success and the Nicaraguan men who played in the tournament seemed to have a lot of fun, while at the same time learning about HIV and how to protect themselves and others from this terrible disease. I helped Mike with the tournament by asking pre-scripted questions to the pool players after the player made a ball on the table on HIV/AIDS. The way the tournament works is Mike or whoever is organizing the tourney will present a small lesson on HIV/AIDS before each round of pool play. The HIV/AIDS lessons begin with simple facts and move on to more complex processes of the disease. In the end, the first, second and third place players (out of 24 players or however many players you start with) win a cash prize, with first place getting the most and third the lesser amount. In addition to asking questions and giving lessons on HIV we handed out free condoms as well as giving and observing condom demonstrations. On Tuesday, I woke up at 5 AM to catch the 6 AM bus to Managua for the mandatory one year in country medical examinations (physical and dental cleaning/prophylaxis). Fortunately, I am very healthy with no problems with my body or teeth for that matter. I am now ready to charge on and finish my service.

Hello, and I am soo sorry that it's been over a month since my last post. Wow, so there are a plethora of blog topics to write about.. but since we are in the Holiday season (I can't believe it is almost 2010) I will talk about Thanksgiving (TURKEY DAY) with the embassy families and the "Purisimas" or the festivities that the Roman Catholics particpate to recognize the Immaculate Conception of Mary, a holy day in the Catholic Church.

Before I go any further I posted a few photos of the "purisimas" or "shrines/altars" that people make as devotional acts to Mary the mother of God and if you are Catholic, the mother of us all through her son Jesus Christ. The website for these photos is

http://picasaweb.google.com/nick.halbert

Bueno, first I will talk about Thanksgiving. Part of being a Peace Corps Volunteer brings a benefit that throughout the year we volunteers are able to have relations and are invited to events through the US embassy office, which is in Managua. For Thanksgiving a number of various Foreign Service workers and their families extend invitations to host anywhere from 1 PCV to as many as 30 PCVs in their home to bring the American tradition of Thanksgiving to the PCVs as they are serving their tour in whichever foreign country they are in. 19 other Nicaragua PCVs and I were invited to enjoy Turkey day with the deputy embassador from the United States to Nicaragua, Richard Sanders. He has a beautiful house with a pool (which we did not have time nor the desire to swim in - it didn't help that we all stuffed ourselves to the gills with turkey and all the fixings). We all enjoyed great conversation and food with Mr. Sanders and talked about the political situation in Nicaragua and the diplomatic relations with the U.S. We ate the traditional Turkey day meal with Turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, green beans, sage stuffing, pumpkin pie, with additional non-traditional fair of meatloaf, eggplant casserole for those die hard vegetarians.. and much much more.

Okay, well I hope you folks did not salivate too much with the last description. Now, we will move on with my visit to beautiful Leon, Nicaragua. Leon has at least 4 beautiful Catholic Churches with Colonial architecture found throughout the city. You can see pictures of a few of the churches through the link posted above. For nine days from the 1st Sunday of Advent through the Holy day of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, all Nicaraguans celebrate and devote time in prayer to the conception of Jesus Christ. On the night before the Immaculate Conception of Mary, many Nicaraguans go out house to house yelling (Griteria, is what the custom is called in spanish) "Quien Causa Tanta Alegria? (who causes so much happiness?) and the person in the house responds "La Concecpion de Maria" (the conception of Mary). Then the person in the house hands out candy, salt, sugar, plastic pans or whatever seems to be useful for Nicaraguans in their everyday lives. This tradition is very much like the tradition of Halloween in the United Sates, where people go door to door with large bags or sacks yelling out the question who causes soo much happiness instead of yelling out Trick or Treat. I participated in this tradition with a Nicaraguan friend from my site who has family in Leon. I received many things such as sugar, coffee, a flute or recorder made of bamboo, a doll, candy, gum, and many boxes of matches. They also handed out a baked good called "Gofio" sort of like a pastry that contains corn ground up into a flour, with sugar, honey.. .and is baked... I enjoyed this tasty little snack as I moved from door to door, questioning who causes soo much happiness.

This is all for this post. I will be going home to the States for Xmas and New Year's.. I am very excited to have hot running water for bathing and to see my parents and friends!

So, I felt really sick for the first time in my service while in Nicaragua. It took almost 10 months for me to really feel ill, like maybe I should go to the hospital. Long story short, I am now under treatment taking an anti-parasite tablet by mouth, 2 in the morning and 2 at night. My symptoms all started Sunday night, while I was watching game 4 of the World Series and cheering on my hopeful repeat world champions, the Philadelphia Phillies. The symptoms hit me hard and suddenly with fever and chills. I decided to go to bed early and let the Phillies fend for themselves... (in retrospect, it was a good choice, since Joe Blanton and the Phils, would go on to lose game 4). It's important to let you all know what I had for dinner that night. Two fellow Peace Corps Volunteers and I gorged ourselves with a double hamburger... But this wasn't your typical hamburger. This hamburger could have been the largest piece of food I have ever tried to put my mouth around. The patties of ground beef were fairly skinny, but there were two of them along with two bottom pieces of a bun with the top and tomato, onion, lettuce, ketchup and mayo. (I know, Nicaraguans love to add Mayonaise to everything.. there was no mustard). It was very large, and very greasy but I was hungry so I ate the whole thing anyways. An interesting sidenote is that this hamburger was from a vender (who was recommended by a local) in the park.

I went to bed that night at my friends house with chills, sweats, and a fever. I woke up Monday morning feeling no better and with the added symptom of diarrea. I made it home to my site in San Isidro later that day and now highly value having a toilet in my own room very, very much. AS foreigners and PCVs we are not entitled to much privacy just from the context of our situation. But I am very fortunate and lucky to live with a host family who has a house large enough that I am able to sleep, shower and use the toilet in my private room with a door that locks, while the rest of the family shares the two other bathrooms located in the house.

I went to sleep on Monday at 7:30 pm (early) still with diarrea and still prayering that the next day, I would feel better. On Tuesday, I didn't feel much better, still had diarrea, but by the afternoon the chills, sweats and fever had subsided. Not until Wednesday (yesterday), did I finally get my stubborn ass to give a stool test (which physically was very easy because I still had loose, watery, diarrea-like stools about 4 times a day). In hindsight I should have given a stool test to the local lab to figure out what was causing my diarrea sooner then wednesday, but I didn't.. and so that's water under the bridge. So, after getting the results of the stool test, the PC medical officer told me I have a parasite and will need to take Tinidazol, 2 tablets twice a day for three days, and after another pill for 10 more days to kill any remaining Cysts that the paraiste left in my intestine. O, THE wows, and follies in the life a PCV.

I can't wait to celebrate Christmas and New Year's with my family and wonderful Gringo Friends in the Twin Cities!

Life as a Peace Corps Community Health Volunteer in Nicaragua has for me consisted of a lot of health education and promotion in my site of San Isidro, Matagalpa, Nicaragua. This past Tuesday, I went from house to house with a brigade of nurses and nursing students in one of the neighborhoods in my site taking a census of people who were suffering from acute diarreal symptoms and giving a brief 5 minute lesson on personal hygiene and how to prevent diarrea as well as how to eliminate mosquito nests to prevent vector borne diseases such as malaria and dengue. Part of the rationale for the health director to demand this census was a result of there being 4 cases of acute diarrea from the same neighborhood. This seemed to be unusual and out of the norm according to the health center director.

On Wednesday I gave a class on the environment, the importance on conserving and protecting sources of water for human consumption as well as a class on the preventive measures of malaria and dengue. On Thursday, I went to Las Cidras, a rural community in the mountains and gave short lessons on how to prevent malaria and dengue. Here in Nicaragua, especially in the nation's capital of Managua there is an outbreak of Hemorragic Dengue fever, which is a virus transmitted by a female mosquito that bites primarily during the day, that is able to cause death, especially in children less than 12 years of age.

On Friday and Saturday I got to know a new location near the department capital of Matagalpa. It is called "La Cartuja" and is a pastoral diocesan retreat center. Here the ministry of health for the department of Matagalpa held a workshop aimed at health educators and community facilitators in all the municipalities throughout the department of Matagalpa covering "preventive health promotion and education".

I will try to post fotos of the department capital of Matagalpa and the retreat center below... Need to scroll to the extreme bottom of the webpage after all of the blog posts to view photos.

Now, the pictures from the presentation of the marching bands are up on the blog, along with a picture of me on top of a hill that overlooks my site of San Isidro. The band pictures are on the right hand side of the page after scrolling down past my mailing address, desclaimer, blog archive etc...Enjoy.. This weekend is the celebration of the day of independence of Nicaragua that occurs on Tuesday, September 15. Yesterday, I witnessed the passing of a Torch from a community called Las Mangas (about 12 km away from Sn. Isidro) to San Isidro. This was part of a Torch Relay that in theory begins in Guatemala and passes through all of the Central American countries ending in Costa Rica to celebrate the Independence of the Central American Countries. But this year with the military coup in Honduras, the torch bypassed that country and so, the torch relay that I watched was more of a symbolic gesture for the patriots of Nicaragua. Unfortunatley, I did not have my camera when I observed various youth (high schoolers) running with the torch down the highway from Las Mangas and through three other smaller rural communities before arrving at the central park of San Isidro, but nonetheles it was a thrilling experience, as I rode in the ambulance from the health center leading the torch and flag bearers as they ran. Here are some links to learn more about the Torch Relay of Central America.

http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/90852/6744940.html

http://worldfocus.org/blog/2008/09/15/central-american-countries-celebrate-independence/1085/

I just finished my first in-service training for the peace corps. We received classes and interesting ideas for potential projects we could do in our sites for the remainder of our service. We (volunteers) brought along one of our main colleagues whom we have been working in collaboration with and supporting while serving in our sites. Along with our colleagues we shared our successes and challenges that have occurred during the first 5 months of service, received tips on how to be an effective and proactive volunteer, learned ideas for working with youth groups and pregnant women, learned about starting community banks, and how to apply for grants and money for realizing small projects.

I also went to a marching band presentation (similar to drum and bugle corps). Below I have put a few pictures of the experience. The bands were high schoolers and there were dancers, base drum, snare drum, xylophone, trumpets and other percussion instruments. One of the differences between the marching bands here in Nicaragua and in the United States is that here all the instruments are drums and percussion, with a few chimes and trumpets and dancers. For this reason, I got a little bored listening to the percussion beating for a whole morning, but it was a good experience overall.

My main colleague from the health center and I have started a youth group or club of adolescents which meets every other Saturday from 9 am until noon. The objective of this youth group is to give capacity training to youth who are motivated and have the desire to become youth leaders/promoters of community health in their communities. My colleague who has the position of community educator, the doctor and director of the health center and a few nurses and I have all contributed to the training of these youth. I have given training in the areas of self-esteem, effective communication, nutrition, and the influenza pandemic. The other health center personnel have given lessons on family planning, and first aid and vital signs such as how to take temperature, blood pressure, give injections, respiration rate and pulse. It is excited to see how motivated some of these Nicaraguan youth can be, seeing that being a member of this club for three hours every other Saturday morning is a voluntary commitment of time and there are no tangible or materialistic rewards for attending. In total about 45 youth had signed up to be a part of the group but only about 25 showed up to the first meeting and for subsequent meetings, the enrollment has decreased consecutively to about 14 who attended this last Saturday. The ages of these youth range from 13 to 17 and all are in 3rd, 4th, or 5th year in high school. This week, I have been busy accompanying the team of doctors and nurses on visits to the rural and outlying communities. Generally speaking these outlying communities are 30 minutes to 1 hour away by ambulance and many of these roads are not paved and very rocky. Therefore, the ambulance has 4-wheel drive and is an S.U.V. In these visits I have gone to the elementary schools and given short talks on how to prevent malaria and dengue fever, personal hygiene and how to prevent common illnesses such as influenza and diarrhea. Also, along with one other health center employee, we have distributed a chewable tablet to each student that is supposed to treat the intestine and stomach for parasites and other protozoa. In Spanish the names of these chewable tablets are Mebendazol or Albendazol. I have another observation in regards to the diet of the Nicaraguan people. They grow an enormous quantity of corn and beans here and as a consequence there is some form of corn derived food in every meal. For example, they make a drink that is called “pinol” or “pinollilo”. This drink has ground-up corn, water, and chocolate or cocoa powder. I have tried this concoction and think it is okay, but that hot cocoa in the states is more pleasing to the palate. In addition, it is impossible to find a tortilla made of flour here in Nicaragua and with every meal, three times a day, it is custom to eat your meal with a corn tortilla. Also, they eat “elote cocido” or “elote asado” which is basically like boiled corn-on-the-cob in regards to the former or cooked on the grill without the husk in regards to the latter. I have grown a liking to the latter but still prefer good old Midwestern (MN or IA) sweet corn with butter or sweet corn grilled with the husk on. In other words for me the way corn in the US is prepared is superior to the way Nicaraguan people prepare it. One aspect of the corn diet that I do like very much is the addition of baby corn to their chicken or beef soup. This “baby corn” in Spanish is called “chilote”. In the U.S. it is rare to eat this non-mature form of corn, with the exception in Chinese cooking, where one can find it in chow mein. Before arriving to Nicaragua, I had never realized that the baby corn one can find in their chow mein is actually corn, but it has just been harvested really early before the cob in the middle can mature and become hard. For this reason you are able to eat the baby corn in one whole piece, cob, husk and all because the husk is not yet matured either. Also, they have good ole Tamales which is ground corn wrapped in a leaf with meat or cheese inside as well as the “Nacatamal” which is not as dense as a Mexican Tamale, and usually has pork.

This past Friday night I enjoyed a tasty and very satisfying meal of Papa John’s Pizza in an upscale mall called “Las Galerias” (by upscale, I mean it’s a mall that reminds me of a mall in the U.S.) in Managua, the Nicaraguan capital. While in the U.S. I never thought Papa John had “special” pizza when compared to Dominos, Pizza Hut, or any other of the countless pizza chains in the States, but that was before I arrived to Nicaragua. The Nicaraguans idea of pizza is to use ketchup in place of the normal tomato sauce that people in the U.S., Italy and I assume many other countries use as a layer of sauce underneath the cheese. Therefore one of the foods I have sorely missed while serving in Nicaragua has been pizza from the States.

I was in Managua this past Friday night for a Spanish language workshop, which began Tuesday, July 14th and ended on Friday, July 17th. This workshop was intense, where we had Spanish class with either two or one other volunteer and one language teacher who is Nicaraguan. The classes actually took place in the department of Masaya, a neighbouring department to Managua. We had class from 8 am to 4 pm on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and from 8 am to 3 pm on Friday. The Peace Corps paid for our stay Friday night in Managua, since most of our sites are in the north or in Rio San Juan to far to travel in one night.

Yesterday, the 7th of July I accompanied a doctor, hygienist, nurse and two nursing students to an outlying community of San Isidro called Carrizal de La India. It is a very pretty community located in a valley with a creek/river with many trees and foliage. Kind of reminds me of the northwoods in Minnesota or a valley in the Rocky mts. of Colorado. This community has electricity but no running water. They get their water from three wells dispersed throughout the community and the people wash their clothes in the river, taking advantage of the randomly placed rocks that are dispersed throughout. I accompanied the hygienist to take water samples from the wells. This was quite an interesting process. The hygienist was taking water samples from the wells to test for bacteria, to make sure the water is safe to drink. The whole sampling procedure needs to be sanitary so he washes his hands with soap and water before filling a plastic bag with about 6 oz. of water and then adding a substance (powder) that after 24 hours will turn the water sample black if there is bacteria in the water.

Also, today, the 8th of July I finally discovered a specific food that disgusts me and I am not able to eat without being disgusted. For lunch I was given a plate with cow tongue and rice. The sauce that the cow tongue was cooked in was delicious, but the consistency of tongue just doesn’t appeal to me. Now, I am pretty sure that eating cow tongue is not solely a characteristic of Nicaragua, because I do believe I have family and friends who enjoy eating cow tongue in the States, or at the very least can tolerate it. Also, I have found that in my Nicaraguan diet, I rarely eat fresh fruit or produce unless I purchase it myself. This is because almost every kind of fruit you can think of is blended into a drink or in Spanish a “refresco”. Of course there is refresco made of lemons, cantaloupe, beets, carrots, mangos, star fruit, tamarindo, seeds of jicaro, pineapple, oranges and other fruits which I cannot think of right now. I am sorry but I do not know the translation for tamarindo and jicaro but they are fruits native to Nicaragua. A few fruits and vegetables that you rarely see or can find because they cost too much are grapes, apples, green beans, artichoke among others.

My assimilation into the Nicaraguan culture is moving slowly but surely and I am starting to make friends of all different ages. Although, I have found it difficult to find anyone who is my age, (female or male in their 20s) who is not married or does not have kids. This is one of the realities of living in Nicaragua, where many people get married or have babies during their adolescent years and end up having very large families. It´s sad to see that many of these large families in reality cannot afford or financially support all of the people of their nuclear family, but this is one of the reasons Peace Corps and I am here to reduce adolescent pregnancy through health education and promotion and through training native Nicaraguan health promoters. In other words, I don´t have a whole lot of news to talk about, so I decided to share a little of my culture shock here in Nicaragua. Everyone in Nicaragua who is Nicaraguan calls me “Chino”. In Spanish, Chino is used to refer to someone who is of Chinese descent. If they don´t call me Chino they call me Taiwan, because there are people fulfilling their foreign service duty here in San Isidro, from Taiwan and their organization is called Mission Taiwan. In other words the world view of almost every Nicaraguan seems to be a bit skewed and very narrow. That is not to say that these Nicaraguans’ who call me “Chino” or “Taiwan” are doing so out of hate, they are doing so because in their worldview everyone who appears to be Asian must be Chinese, or at the very least be able to speak one of the following languages: Chinese or Japanese. That reminds me of another experience I have had. A few times I have been walking down the dirt street and hear a person or two trying to greet me in what appears to sound like an imitation of Chinese or Japanese. This does offend me, but usually I just ignore it. What I have not been ignoring are the opportunities I have been having with Nicaraguan´s who are truly interested and curious in what my ethnic background is and where I come from. In this respect, Nicaraguan´s have been very open and conducive to learning and listening to my unique story of being born in South Korea, becoming an orphan, being adopted, and moving to the United States where I have lived my last 20 years and 4 months. This part of the cultural exchange is exactly one of the goals of Peace Corps to introduce U.S. culture (in this situation the diversity of the U.S. as a “melting pot”) to a developing country and for the volunteer to reciprocate a cultural change of the developing country´s culture when they return to the U.S. In closing, for Nicaraguans´ it is very hard to conceptualize who Nicholas Kyuyeob Halbert is. When I tell them I am from the United States, they will repeat the question, (asking where am I from) in disbelief that a person with my appearance could be North American. Then they will assume that I speak Chinese or Japanese. But this is one of the realities of living in such a large and diverse world and this is one of the reasons that Peace Corps exists, to be used as a vehicle or means to build world solidarity and strive for world Peace.

I taught my first class in the primary (elementary) school to 5th graders on diarrhea. It went well and I think the students understood everything. It’s a simpler topic so that helps. I noticed an interesting difference between the public elementary school in San Isidro and the private evangelical school. I will be delivering my first class at the private school on the same topic of diarrhea this coming Tuesday. But as I did with the public elementary school I observed the class and the professor before I gave a class to get a feeling for the conditions of the classrooms and the behavior of the students. It was interesting to see that the students in 6th grade in the private school were a lot more disciplined and well-behaved than the students in 5th grade in the public school. This could be attributed to the slight age difference of one year, but I highly doubt it. I will know for sure, when I start teaching the same grade level at both schools.

I don’t want to generalize but perhaps this trend of better disciplined, more serious students in the private, Christian schools versus the public schools is something to take not of. I am not a teacher but it would be interesting to hear the opinions of teachers in the United States to see if they think there is a difference in discipline between private/parochial and public school students.

My next class at the public elementary school will be next Thursday to a different group of 5th graders. I talked to the professor to see what topic she would like me to deliver on and she told me HIV/AIDS. I asked her if she was sure and she seemed quite determined that her 5th grades learn about Sexually Transmitted Diseases especially HIV. So, I will be diving into this topic and preparing for it in the coming days.

After one month of service as a Community Health Educator, things are moving slowly, but surely. I am beginning or at least trying to get a weekly schedule and routine down. I have planned on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays to help the personnel of the Health Center out and perhaps give short health lessons to patients in the waiting area as well as to the place where pregnant women stay a couple weeks before their expected delivery date. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I plan on being at the elementary schools. To begin with, I am trying to give 2 health classes a week, one at the private, evangelical school to 4th or 5th graders and the other at one of the three public elementary schools here in San Isidro to the same age group. I will begin with simpler and easier topics to teach such as diarrhea, personal hygiene, nutrition, upper respiratory infections (Colds), self-esteem, malaria and dengue, and the importance of conserving the environment. Later in my service I will give health classes to the high school students on sexual and reproductive health, HIV-AIDS, and STDs.

Within the last two weeks, I got a new colleague who I will be able to work with in the health center. He is an employee of the ministry of health and his title is community educator, which is exactly what I am striving to become. This is a huge and exciting development for me because my other colleagues at the health center are nurses, doctors, and a personal hygienist who have no prior experience working with a Peace Corps volunteer before. They are hard to collaborate with because they are so busy with their own work, which sometimes relates to my work as a Community Health Educator and sometimes not.

I will give you an example of the work I have been able to observe and contribute to with this new community educator. This past Monday, two doctors a nurse and a nursing assistant along with the new community educator and I went to Soledad de La Cruz. A small rural community under the auspices of the municipality of San Isidro, which has a health post, that is only manned periodically, when there are doctors and nurses available to support it. The Community Educator and I gave a lesson and helped facilitate a meeting with about 17 community health promoters, who live and work near this rural community of Soledad de la cruz. These community health promoters are volunteers and do not get paid (in Spanish they are called “Brigadistas”). I was quite impressed by the amount (17) of volunteers who showed up to this training meeting to be briefed on influenza, and on the preventive measures that the ministry of health wants the community health volunteers in all regions of the country to take. These measures include posting large posters in public places where people congregate (created by the Ministry of Health) that explains with words and pictures what Human Influenza is, how it is spread, who is most at risk, and how to prevent it. Also, the brigadistas received instructions on how to record when there is a suspicious case of influenza in their community and how to advise a doctor.

Until the next post....Nick

I have spent about 10 days in San Isidro, as a Peace Corps community health educator. In my first week, I spent my days accompanying the health center nurses and nursing students on the national vaccination campaign, which ends today and started two weeks ago. I have gotten to know really well some of the outlying, rural communities around San Isidro and one of the health posts, which is operated under the auspices of the larger health center in San Isidro. Throughout my service, I might be able to travel once a week or once every two weeks to give health lessons in the 7 health posts located in rural San Isidro.

One thing I did learn was just how traumatizing it is for practically every Nicaraguan child who is 7 years old or younger to receive any type of vaccination or medicine. Most of the children who got a tetanus booster, oral polio vaccine, a vitamin A supplement, MMR vaccine, dpt vaccine, or rotavirus, cried hysterical before and after the administration of the medicine and most had to be physically restrained by another nurse or family member. Another interesting fact is the amount of human resources (time and labor) the ministry of health invests in having their nurses walk from house to house in rural communities as well as in the urban area of San Isidro to conduct family and health censes, to check for vaccination cards, check for recently born babies and women who are currently pregnant, as well as give vaccinations. This is somewhat surprising to me because in addition to the house-to-house campaigns the Ministry of Health goes to the public and private schools to double check vaccination card histories and administer vaccines. One would think that this system is a bit redundant in the fact that most of the school aged kids who are seen in the house to house visits will or already have been seen at the schools and usually for children too young for school, they and their parent will be seen at one of the health posts or the health center in San Isidro.

Another exciting passage of events is the “pen-pal”- correspondence, volunteer-school, match program that I am involved in. I have already written my first email to a high school Spanish teacher in Spring Valley, Ill and she and her students have replied with a list of 14 questions that they would like me to address sometime during our two-year correspondence. One of the questions is How much does a movie cost? How long does it take to get new movies there and are they subtitled when they first come out? Unfortunately, I believe that the average Nicaraguan has never seen or knows what a movie theater looks like or how it feels like to watch a movie on a 60 foot wide big screen. This is because as far as I know, the only cinemas in Nicaragua are in Managua and the majority of the population either can’t afford a ticket or can’t afford the travel expense to get to the capital city. It is interesting though that with the massively expanding world of technology, Nicaraguans’ can purchase in many large Markets pirated or illegally burned DVDs, usually of the latest new Hollywood releases before the majority of the U.S. population can purchase these online or in a video store. This must be taken with a grain of salt because usually the quality of this illegally adapted movie is very poor and surprisingly most of these videos are in English with poor or inaccurate Spanish sub-titles.

This is just a taste of my first week of service. I will update you all shortly.

Hello everyone,

I have posted a few pictures from the Swearin-in ceremony from last tuesday, the 14th that officially made me a community health educator in San Isidro, Nicaragua.

I am currently getting settled-in to my new community-getting to know the personnel at the health center and preparing some health lessons that I will give to the health center, schools and youth group.

Talk to you all soon.

Hello all,

There is not much to mention besides training is coming to an end. I officially become a PCV and get sworn-in on Tuesday, April 14. I plan on going to my site the next day. I have posted pictures of my new site, where I will be for two years. You have to scroll all the way down to the bottom of the webpage to see them!

I can’t believe I have already completed 8 weeks of training. Time sure has flown by. I am sitting in a cyber in my new site, where I plan to serve as a community health educator for two years. The name of the city is San Isidro and it is in the department of Matagalpa. The ambiance and topographical landscape is something to be forgotten. San Isidro sits on a plateau, surrounded on three sides by hills (mountains, as they are called in Nicaragua). The climate here is a little cooler then the typical climate of Nicaragua, say Mangaua, but March to May are the hottest months of the year in Nicaraugua wherever you are. The climate and topography of San Isidro reminds me a lot of my training town St. Teresa, just with pretty views of hills. I took some pictures and I will try to post them on the blog in the coming week.

So far my site visit has been going pretty well. This past Friday, I met one of my colleagues that I will be collaborating work with during my two years of service. He’s 25 and his specialty is in working with the Ministry of Health to educate the people of San Isidro and reduce the number of vector borne disease, such as malaria and dengue. The host family I am living with now during my 6 day site visit, and which I will be living with for at least the first 6 weeks of my service is very nice and welcoming of me. My parents are quite young, my father is the pastor at a local Evangelical, Pentecostal church he is 49. My mom is 37. My parents have 3 boys, ages 13, 10 and 8. Like many Nicaraguan families, there are many cousins, nephews and nieces in my host family because my mom is one of 11 children and most of the relatives also live in San Isidro.

Today, I got my first glimpse of the Health Center in San Isidro. It is quite large and seems to get ample resources, human and capital, because it is well kept and the staff seem very competent. I am planning on spending at least a part of my days during service here in the health center. Right next to the Health center is a newly inaugurated house for pregnant woman. San Isidro´s health center serves 52 outlying rural communities and when a women is ready to give birth it is very difficult for her to get to the health center in San Isidro let alone the nearest hospital that is in La Trinidad, about 17 km away from San Isidro. Therefore, about 2 or 3 weeks before the due date for the baby, pregnant women from rural areas near San Isidro can come stay and make food for themselves in the house for mothers to be, similar to a hotel. I also believe that the health center is staffed to deliver babies as well, so it is convenient and a good thing that there is a house for mothers to be now. I plan and giving lessons to the pregnant women on risk factors and warning signs of pregnant women.

All in all I am quite impressed with my new site, where I will be stationed for 2 years. I am nervous and excited at the same time, in figuring out how I am going to inititate all these great ideas I have learned in training, my own ideas and how I can help the people of San Isidro realize their own wants and needs!

This past week was HIV-AIDS week and was very exhausting. But, it was well worth waking up at 0600 most of the mornings. I learned an incredible amount of information from how to frame HIV-AIDS into a simpler presentation for 15 year olds in a classroom for a 45 minute period, to creating a fun and dynamic HIV-AIDS presentation to adult, male firefighters who´s age range from 18 to 50. Before this past training week working with how to promote HIV-AIDS prevention, I did not think I was that interested in the topic. From the States´ I have always known that HIV is a world-wide pandemic and a serious killer of many people, but I had always viewed the virus and the latter stages as a biological issue very scientific in nature. But after this past week I dscovered that one can promote HIV prevention and awareness and make a difference in combating the virus, even while doing it in a foreign language. It was mostly work, but we did manage to have some fun. On Wednesday afternoon, we were able to swim in the Pacific Ocean for the first time since our arrival in Nicaragua. It was in the port town of Corinto and the water was comfortable and spending time in the Ocean and beach is always worth the time.

On Monday, March 16 at 3:30 in the afternoon I will find out where I will be placed for my two years of service. I am waiting with grand anticpation. I also know that I should be able to adapt anywhere they decide to place me, so I have a sense of security in that feeling. Then, on Friday, the 20th, I depart for Managua, meet my Collegue, the main “official” contact, I will be working with, who is a native Nicaraguan, for two years, and we will visit my new site for 5 days. During this time, I also anticípate meeting the current volunteer, who´s service is expiring and who I am replacing (assuming I will be a direct follow-up PCV).

I return to my training town on the following Wednesday (25th of March). Monday, April 14, 2009 is the day of my swearing in and will be here in the blink of an eye. I can´t wait!

The 2nd language proficiency interview went well along with my first lesson on nutrition in the schools. I taught a group of 6th graders. In the beginning of the lesson I was hesitant and uncertain trying to speak commands (for group work) in Spanish, but by the end, I was told by my peers that I really began to “loosen-up” and have fun, as a Profesor (teacher). My language facilitator and the three other PC trainees observed the lesson.

Most of this upcoming week, all the PC trainees will be in Managua, and from Tuesday thru Friday in the department of Chinandega for HIV-AIDS week, Chinandega has the second highest rate of HIV behind the most populated department of Managua. Therefore, Chinandega, which is north of Managua, and borders Honduras with a Pacific coast line, receives a lot of funding from NGOs and the U.S. government and the world development communities that are trying to address the global issue of HIV/AIDS.

Some of the activities that are on tap for the week include observing a Billiards tournament that has the sole purpose of raising awareness of condom use for men, in groups of 3 giving a lesson to secondary school students on HIV/AIDS, and in groups of 5 giving a lesson on HIV/AIDS to firefighters or naval base men, in the Pacific port city of Corinto, Chinandega.

Also, in less than two weeks, PC trainees will receive their site assignments where they will spend their two years serving. There are only 4 weeks of training remaining and it is as a current PC volunteer told me, it is a “sprint to the finish” in the second half of training to prepare as much as possible for the two years after!

The volunteer visit was very helpful and informative. The volunteer I visited serves in a small town called La Playa with only about 900 people. The terrain is very hill and the 900 habitants are spread out a lot, so a volunteer in this site needs to walk a lot. This site is not being replaced since there are 2 more sites being vacated than trainees that can fill them. I do not know the rationale for why La Playa was not chosen to be replaced.

During this volunteer visit, I discovered that I prefer to be placed in a site that is medium in size, maybe about 4,000 to 8,000 people. I also came to the conclusion that I would like to have running water. With my luck, I ended up visiting the only Health Sector Peace Corps volunteer in Nicaragua, which needs to carry their water from a well every other day for their cooking and bucket bathing needs. Since it is difficult to carry lots of water from a well over a large distance, the volunteer I visited is also the only health volunteer in Nicaragua that needs to wash her clothes in a river. So, during my stay I used a latrine (which I could get accustomed to, but would not love using one for two years) and an outdoor three-walled receptacle that does not have a roof, for bathing from a bucket.

Yesterday, we had a site fair. A current PC health volunteer from each of the 6 potential departments that we could be assigned came and gave a pitch as to why their department is a great place to be a volunteer in and answered our questions. At the end of the fair, I had narrowed my site possibilities to three. Villa Nueva, Chanandega; Yali, Jinotega: and Quilali, Nueva Segovia. All these sites are in the northern portion of the country. The final say of placement of course comes from the PC staff in-country who know the needs of the Nicaraguan people, specifically related to health.

This week, I give my first solo lesson to a group of 6th graders on nutrition. Also, we have our second language proficieny interview, to track if we have improved in our language abilities since our arrival to Nicaragua.

That´s all for now.

I ended another successful week of training. With my fellow trainee, I completed my first "charla", lesson, in the health center in the training town of St. Teresa. Our topic was on Malaria and Dengue, what it is, how it is transmitted, how to treat the disease, and how to prevent its transmission. This lesson to give in a health center would be difficult to do in the U.S. in English, let alone trying to do it in Spanish. But my partner and I did present in Spanish and it was a success.

Starting in week 6 of training we will have to give a "lesson" on a desired topic, such as personal hygiene, nutrition, diarrhea, HIV/AIDS prevention and awareness etc. This will have to be done in the Escuela Primaria, or the school for grades 1 thru 6. Also, we need to do this charla and subsequent charlas (lessons) in the health center and schools solo, by ourselves. Sounds a bit daunting of a task, but this is what training time is for to practice this before we are on our own in our site.

I am also very excited and just about all packed to depart at 0630 tomorrow morning (Sunday, Feb. 22) for Managua, then to Somoto, Madriz. From Sunday to Wed. the 25th, all the PC trainees in Health sector 49 will be on individual volunteer visits at various sites in Nicaragua, "shadowing" and learning more about what a Peace Corps Volunteer actually does and how we might try to get started when we start our service in the end of April.

I will be visiting Leanne, a current PC health volunteer who´s service expires this April. This means that her site could possibly be replaced by one of 20 of us who are currently training as health volunteers. There are 22 possible sites for health volunteers to begin at the end of April and only 20 trainees currently. Somoto is the department capital of Madriz and I will be visiting Leanne in the pueblo of La Playa, which is about 15 km west of Somoto. “Playa” means beach in English, but there is not actually a beach in the town of La Playa, only a river. Madriz is a department in north central Nicaragua. North of Madriz is the department Nuevo Segovia which borders Honduras.

It rained for the first time, since I have been here yesterday. Rained pretty heavily around 2 pm and only lasted a couple hours and afterwards there was a beautiful rainbow. The second double arched rainbow I have seen since my time here.

Tomorrow I begin week 4 of training. I believe that I have gotten past my initial culture shock phase of being in Nicaragua and training for the Peace Corps because training days are starting to become routine and I now know what is expected of me.

Last Sunday, I had a couple of interesting experiences with my host family. First, for the very first time I saw a chicken get plucked of its feathers and subsequently get gutted and cut up. I was watching an American movie with my host brother, sister, and Elisa, a fellow trainee who lives with the host family who is neighbors with my host family (Elisa is also from MN) when my father, Juilo walks in through the front door holding a Gallo (rooster) by its feet with its neck bloody and broken. Elisa who grew up on a farm near Northfield, MN told me that the way you pluck the feathers off a chicken is to dip it in boiling water, which makes it easier to pull out the feathers. Since I had never seen this done, I decided to watch my mom and dad as they plucked the gallo. For some reason, I felt grossed out by this dipping of a still very fresh and bloodied chicken in boiling wáter. I think part of my adversion to this scene was the awful smell of blood and wet chicken feathers. It also didn´t help that my host family is very poor and all they could afford was the scrawniest rooster i have every seen that barely had any meat. And the meat it did have i knew would taste very chewy, gamey and nothing like golden plump from the u.s. After all the feathers were plucked off, I proceeded to watch my mom hack the chicken up into pieces with what seemed to be a very dull kitchen knife. My mom told me that she uses all parts of the chicken except its inards, so I went on to witness, my mother tear out the chicken´s heart, lungs, intestines etc. Two days later, I ate the wing of this chicken that on Sunday I had witnessed massacred to death. It was prepared by boiling with onions, tomatoes, and a few other ingredients. Normally, I would have an appetite for this type of fare all the time. But this time, I think it was a combination of the wing still retaining a few small “hairs” on its skin and the fact that there was hardly any meat on this very skinny rooster wing that I was served, but I had a tough time eating the animal. I still had this mental image, very fresh with very real blood, in my mind from when I witnessed the plucking of feathers two days before. Since this incident I have not turned into a vegetarian by any means, but I have a newfound appreciation for vegetarians.

On a Little lighter topic, also on Sunday night past, I sat down and watched Blades of Glory, a very funny American movie starring Will Ferrel. I found it very amusing that this Hollywood movie with Spanish dubbed voices, could be so hilarious for my Nicaraguan host family. I don´t even think, they could understand, some of the conversational humor, but nonetheless, they mangaged to find every 30 seconds of a visual scene the funniest they had seen in years. I think my host family´s amusement with U.S. cultura is fed two fold. One, by their previous conceptions of U.S. culture and people and two, their own cultura conditioning, which in many ways prohibits the behavior exhibited in Hollywood movies. Therefore, they find it comforting to see actors acting in ways that would never be culturally accepatble in Nicaragua.

"A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves"

I found this quote on the internet. It is not verbatim for the Leadership quote that is in our Peace Corps training manuals, but the last 5 words does sum up the gist of what we learned in our Peace Corps 3 day orientation in Managua. The philosophy for Peace Corps is to help people help themselves so that those in developing countries can become self-sufficient and our work is sustainble.

Training in St. Teresa is going very well. On Sunday, all 21 trainees went to a fellow trainees host family´s house who hosted a super bowl viewing party. It was very exciting to experience a "taste" of U.S. culutre again, at least for an evening.

Today, at 4 pm my three fellow trainees and I conducted our 2nd Youth Group meeting. About 8 girls and 1 boy was in attendance. All are in the age range from 11 to 20. This training practice is to prepare us for what we will need to do once at our site for 2 years. The Peace Corps emphasizes sustainble education and in our sector (health promotion) by focusing attention on the youth (ideally 15 to 20 years old) so that our work as volunteeers will be maintained and continue for future generations. Today in the youth group meeting we picked a project that we will work on for the next 9 or so weeks. The youth in St. Teresa and we trainees will create and "publish" a community newspaper that will have educational subjects such as on helath promotion in the community and actiivites in the community that support healthy living.

Through a language assignment I also learned how to ask my host family in Spanish about their family and their family tree or geneology, as well as being able to share my family geneology with them. I found out that many Nicaraguan family are extremely large, for example my mother is one of 4 siblings and my father one of 5 sibilings. Also, there are many, many cousins and nieces and nephews since most everyone in Nicaragua gets married and has chilidren before age 20, or so it seems. It also appears that many of the extended relatives live in the same town or very near their close relatives. For example, 3 of the 4 siblings of my mother have many kids and grandkids of their own and all live in St. Teresa.

That´s all for now. I found out that my 25 yr. old brother has a computer and he will let me download my pictures from my digital camera on to his computer so I can subsequently transfer them onto a USB memory stick. I can then plug the USB memory stick into a computer in the cyber cafe and hopefully have pics for you all! I will need to figure out how to upload pics on to this blog site though.

Nicolas

I am writing from an internet (Cyber) cafe in my training town of Santa Teresa. There are 6 computers and the internet is quite slow compared to High Speed in U.S. price is 15 cordobas per hour. Exchange is 20 cordobas per 1 u.s. dollar. Peace Corps Orientation in Managua ended on Saturday, Jan. 24 in the evening. During orientation I was assigned to a novice- high level of Spanish proficiency after language interviews. 3 other PCTs all female were assigned to spend our 12 weeks of training in the small town of Santa Teresa.

There are a total of 21 peace corps trainees, all health education promoters. 5 male, 16 female. on a nicaraguan map, all 21 trainees are spread out between 5 cities in the department, Carazo, just south of Managua and Masaya. 5 pepole in Diriamba, 4 in Dolores, 4 in Rosario, 4 in St. teresa and 4 in La paz.

I love the town and my host family. My mother is a nurse for the town´s community health center (the town is too small to have its own hospital) and my father is a security guard for the same center. I have a sister who is 30 years old, brother who is 25, sister who is 11 and carlitos who is very cute and 6.

My diet consists of a lot of carbs. Gallo Pinto - rice and red beans on a daily basis if not for two out of three meals. typical breakfast is fruit with pan (bread) or eggs if im lucky. for lunch or dinner i will usually have steak with gallo pinto. Nicas love there white bread here. and for me is not nutritious (in reality for everyone) but oh well diffferent strokes for different folks as they say.

I use a mosquito net over my bed. My room is quite samll about 8 feet by 8 feet and the bed is (never thought i would find a bed too short for my liking, since im soo short) is a bit short! In comparing my host family´s house with the other three in santa teresa, mine has the least amount of money or comfort and the smallest footage of house. but my family treats me very well and they live comfortably for their means and are very happy and warm towards me as a guest.

our first day of language class was today. it feels like college because i have morning lecture from 8 am to noon go home for lunch and have an application (lab) from 1-3. this afternoon consisted of walking around to all 4 host families and mapping out their homes in santa teresa. Interstingly in santa teresa there are no street names but everything is located and directions given according to their proximal location to the Iglesia de santa teresa.

weather wise it is very humid, but not as hot as i was anticipating. actually from nov to april is their dry and ´´cooler´´ season. i don´t know the exact temp. but at night by 5 am it gets chilly enough to use a blanket. the sun is very bright and closer than in mn.

learning about all the technical skills and things we need to do such as form youth groups to educate about adolescent health, and techniques for decreasing undesired teeen pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, and malaria/dengue is very overwhelming from the implementation standpoint. but that´s what trainnig is for. it is a mirror for us to use when we are solo at our site beginnning april.

love to everyone and i will try to update again soon.

Nicolas

I am beginning this blog today because in less than 8 days, I will be in Miami, FL officially registering to become a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) in Nicaragua. This official orientation to the Peace Corps will occur on Jan. 21, 2009. Subsequently, on Jan. 22, 19 other Peace Corps trainees and I leave for Managua, Nicaragua to begin training.

I am personally filled with mixed emotions - anxiety, nervousness, excitement - regarding my Peace Corps service. I have waited since graduating from CC in May 2008, for this day to come and I am ready to begin a new chapter in my life.

My next post will have much more detail after training commences in Managua.