A while ago I wrote to you all about a special workshop I put on. It was a one day course taught to 20 young women in a rural community hours away from any health services. No one travels to these people. The police don´t make it out there. The closest doctors forget about them during national vaccine campaigns. Even the closest school forgets to go out there and recruit students for the next year. Obviously these women were in need of attention.

A local agriculture volunteer found funding and invited me up for the day. We spent the morning talking about health education and the afternoon sharing stories about our rights a women. It was a wonderful experience.

Well, 2 months later, I finally have photos. WOOOOOOO

Learning about HIVaids (VIHsida).

Vulvas. Enough said.

Talking about how the immune system works. I like to add in a little dance.

A serious, and pretty fun, conversation about what we deserve.

Happy New Year!

The holidays have been a whirlwind. After Purísima I left Nicaragua and headed back to the US for a short and sweet Christmas. I arrived in Houston on a Saturday and left just over a week later. Enough time to see the lights, go to Christmas Mass and open presents the next morning.

After a day in Nicaragua I hopped on a Tica Bus and headed out to Panama for the New Year. Two days later Julie (a TEFL volunteer in my department), and I got in a taxi in Panama city and for $4 finally arrived! FINALLY. *For those PCVs in Panama, I have one word for you- JEALOUS. The city was gorgeous. The people were charismatic and warm. The prices weren´t that bad. It is amazing there.*

We celebrated New Years till the sun came up.

At the Panama Canal we behaved like tourists and read our way through the museum.

In Casco Viejo we drank wine and danced.

We visited the National Art Museum to see the Da Vinci Exhibit.

We loved the Panamanian life fully.

Vista of downtown Panama City from the Casco Viejo.

Me at the Panama Canal watching the ships pass.

A research vessel from Norway passing the locks.

Julie and I on our last night in Panama.

Now back in Nicaragua I´m ready to celebrate the new year with my close of service conference, youth groups, and women´s month in March. Let´s do this.

Sorry I haven´t written in a while. Life has been a little crazy as of late. I have been to the States and back: visited the boyfriends family in Georgia, had a med school interview and was almost stuck in the US unable to fly back to Nicaragua. For the cherry on top, I gave a workshop the week before the trip to a group of 20 young women out in the mountains, 3 hours away from the nearest health post (not even health center).

Now that I am finally back in Nicaragua I am ready to take is slow. Yesterday I took a bus out to a TEFL volunteers site, walked 40 minutes through the coffee fields to get to her house, crossed two rivers and arrived to a plate of rice, beans and tortilla. It was great. As I arrived another volunteer came in. Looks like we both had the same idea. Get a free lunch at Julies house!

Today will be relaxing too. It is a national holiday, Purísima. We are celebrating the Virgin Mother.

(In a loud call and response)

¿Quíen causa tanta alegría?

La Virgen.

La Virgen.

It is something like a mix between Christmas and Halloween. Gifts are involved as well as going house to house and collecting candy. I love it.

Off to celebrate.

Love you all.

A friend of mine recently forwarded me an article from Ms. Magazine Blog. It is outrageous, horrifying and awesome in the literal sense.

Take a look at what is really going on behind closed doors.

http://msmagazine.com/blog/blog/2011/11/04/five-more-years-of-ortega-may-be-dangerous-for-nicaraguan-women/

Rubbery, deep fried cheese- A year ago I could not stand the sight of it let alone having it in my mouth. It was like taking the sole off your tennis shoes, cutting it into perfect squares, then smothering it in boiling corn oil. It was the worst. Fast forward to the present, I don’t eat fritanga (street food) without it. Fried cheese with a nice sweet plantain, YUM.

Washing my laundry by hand- I spend about 40 minutes every morning washing laundry. It has become a meditation of sorts. Repetitive. Back and forth. Not so bad really. That said, I cannot wait to use a machine when I get back the States. No more of that fire, burnt bean smell in my dried clothes.

Bucket showers- Ok well I don’t really need to take bucket showers here but, I do. The water that comes from my faucet is freezing. It comes from the water treatment plant in the mountains. It smells of chlorine and something else you just can’t put your finger on. It is worth my time to boil water on my gas stove, and use that the shower. So worth it.

Dia de los Muertos- I guess I never really celebrated Day of the Dead in the US. Halloween kind of overshadowed Nov 2nd. Here though it is amazing. Families go out to the local cemetery and dedicate themselves to painting tombs for their loved ones. The cemetery comes to life with colors. Flower venders line the street to sell everything from real flowers to bags of plastic confetti to cover the ground in. Little boys come out, each with their own machete, to sell their labor; hacking weeds off of tombs. Old women have their great-grandsons arduously wheel then to their families grave site, all the while laying out specific details of what needs to happen when they die. It is a beautiful holiday. Quiet, colorful and full of purpose.

Beans- There are two main foods in Nicaragua, rice and beans. I like rice, but I love beans baby.

Rocking chairs- In the US a rocking chair is for two purposes: babies and old ladies. We rock and sing our babies to sleep. We see old ladies on their porch, rocking back and forth, while they heckle neighborhood kids. That is it. Here in Nicaragua though, everyone has rocking chairs. In fact, everyone who can afford it has multiple. Like 6 or more. I’m not kidding. Living rooms have rocking chairs instead of sofas. I have two. They are the BEST!

Jump ropes- The last time I used a jump rope in the States was probably 2nd grade, in P.E. Here, I use one almost everyday. Braden brought me one from the US and my youth groups love it. They aren’t so good at it, but they are learning. And, like I said, they love it.

Big sheets of paper- Every presentation or class I give includes at least 4 or 5 huge pieces of paper. We call them papelografo here. Who wouldn’t like a vast sheet of white you can write anything or draw anything on?

Electricity- I love having electricity. Do I need to say it again? I love light at night time, having a charged computer, a phone that works, having a fridge that keeps my food edible for longer then a day, even watching telenovelas. The phrase se fue la luz, is so common here that I am scared when I get back to the US I will hoard batteries and make myself anxious of possible electricity blackouts. Ridiculous.

Christmas- Well, I loved it before but I love it even more now that I don’t really have it. Holidays like Dia de los Muertos and Purisima are celebrated more here in Nicaragua then Christmas. Pretty much, I am a sucker for the music and lights in the US. I love the peppermint lattes at Starbucks. I love waking up in the morning and digging through stockings. I love cooking breakfast in the morning with my family. I love Christmas. Enough said.

Elections are coming up this weekend and life in Jinotega has been full of music, parades and general festiveness. I can’t say elections in the States are the same. I went to work on Monday and arrived to find the health center closed and all of the staff dressed in FSLN memorabilia. There were hats, shirts, flags and even stickers for your moto (that’s motorcycle if you don’t speak the lingo).

Anyway, I left and went home. As a Peace Corps Volunteer my job is be a-political. If that is a word . . .

But, I did take some photos.

Last Friday I held my last meeting of the year with the older girls from Circulo de Amigas, a local NGO. We closed the year with a class on “behavior change” and a Circulo de Amigas/ Peace Corps evaluation. It was really an amazing get together. We had 61 girls and 1 boy, ages 9 to 28 with over 75% of them between the ages of 12 and 18. At least 12 of the older girls are in university and wonderful help in these monthly meetings. They have really become leaders in their own right. In fact one of the girls got up at this last meeting and announced how proud she was to be a woman. She said it was our responsibility to be informed and strong, to change the way woman are seen and treated. It was something special. Then a group of girls, contagiously laughing, got up and did a condom demonstration with one of the girls using her mouth to put the condom on the wooden dildo*.

The evaluations were great as well. Each girl was asked a variety of questions including what was the most important thing she has learned in these classes, does she understand how to use birth control, is she happy that she is a woman and what other questions does she have on sexual and reproductive health. The answers were empowering to read. A 9 year old (a girl who is not affiliated to CdA but recently started coming with a friend) wrote that the most important thing she learned is that men need to use condoms when they want to have sex with her. A 13 year old wrote she learned she could actually say no to sex. A 21 year old wrote she learned how to talk to her pareja about birth control, family planning and using a condom and asked if we could teach her how to talk to her mother as well.

This experience has been inspiring for me and I know it has been for these girls too. I have never once left a meeting and not been tracked down by a young women with a question. It is eye opening to know that many of these young women have no place to go and feel like they have no one to talk to about violence, sex, babies and men. We are changing that at Circulo de Amigas and opening the doors for conversation.

* Many issues that come up with condom use are focused on insecurities. Men and boys say they are too big for a condom, they feel nothing with one on and, condoms are not sexy. I have talked to boys and asked them to actually demonstrate how to use a condom. Many of them have no idea what to do. If we can teach girls (and boys) how to properly use a condom and feel capable of asking their partner to put one on we may make a small change. So, I have been teaching the girls to combat “I will NOT use a condom, it isn’t sexy” with a few different responses: “I can put it on with my mouth”, “no glove no love”, “if you love me you will use one.” Of course this is all accompanied with a serious discussion on relationships and open conversations with your partner.

The first day of our camp for youth on HIVaids was amazing. Our students were participative, excited to teach the subject to their peers and trusting. Peace Corps Volunteers from the entire department came to support us. It would have been just great if it ended there BUT it didn´t . . .

That evening we closed the day with an outrageous Condom Fashion Show, the first of its kind in Nicaragua.

Eight outfits were created, and they were fabulous. 

Our week of preperation went off, not without a hitch, but we did it! Eight condom outfits were created. Space was donated, taken away, donated by another organization, taken away and given back again. Mattresses were donated, undonated and then donated again. Everything threatened to fall apart. But we did it!

All 40 youth arrived, on time, to the Cruz Roja by 9:00 am sharp.

The first day was full of leadership activities, learning how to teach your peers and of course . . . talking about healthy sexual and reproductive lifestyles.

This week we finally put on our northern regional HIVaids PEPFAR workshop. As the point person, I am glad to say WE ARE DONE!

We spent months putting together presentations. I spent months organizing. A big part of my heart and soul went into this project. Thank you to everyone who participated. We did good.

Every participant was given a bag with our logo. Inside we gave out condoms, dildos, pamphlets and instructions on how to give a condom demonstration. We are changing the face of HIV in Nicaragua.

Speakers from ASONVIHSIDA, an organization of individuals who are HIV+, spoke and gave their testimonials.

Nicaraguan counterparts who have never worked in HIVaids got up infront of the entire workshop to present their thoughts on discrimination and stigma and how these influence HIV rates.

We even had an all male youth group from Esteli come. For an evening activity they produced and performed a play on HIV stigma in a typical Nicaraguan community.

Shout out to Jenny Tighe- I have haircut envy! Someday I will have the balls to do it too. For now, I guess I will just go with a simple bob.

I love my work.



I love it even more when I feel like I am doing something not just good for me, but something good for the people around me- good for Nicaraguans.

At the end of last year I found out a bit of sad news. One of the young girls I worked with was not eligible to apply for a special scholarship to the States. She was bright. She graduated high school with perfect grades. The only thing was she had no money to pay for college. (While her mother had a job, it paid for running water in the house, food, clothes and maintenance of their tin roof and dirt floor.) We thought a scholarship to the US would be the perfect thing, until it wasn´t an option anymore. Then, in January I got a call from Georgetown. They had read her application along with a note from aPeace Corps Volunteer from Nicaragua, me. Her application was back on the table.

Eight months later she moved to America.

Why am I bragging? She wrote to me from the US today. She said thank you for everything I had given her. On Monday she starts her first classes- Algebra, English and Informatics. She is living with an American family that doesn´t speak Spanish, but they already treat her like a daughter. I helped her get there. I am proud of her. I am proud of myself.

YEAH!

Last Friday I had my first tech exchange. This is very exciting stuff. Peace Coprs paid to have another Peace Corps Volunteer come up to my site and help me teach a group of women about childhood nutrition and personal hygiene.

I work weekly with an NGO called Aldeas SOS. They are loosely affiliated with Orphanage Outreach in the US. Here in Nicaragua they do a wonderful service. They provide very inexpensive day care to single working mothers. It costs a cordoba a day to drop your child off and have them fed 2 snacks and luch. In $1 there are C$22. I would say that is a very good deal.

As a community health volunteer in Jinotega, I help Aldeas teach their staff about health. Once a month I go to each of the 6 centers in town and help the municipal pediatrician check all the kids for parasites, hepatitis and anything else that might be wrong. In the afternoon of the same day I meet with the mothers and teach them about the pap smear, birth control, early childhood stimulation, that sort of thing.

Well, recently we have been having a problem with Hep A break outs. So, I got together with Lucas Alamprese, a PCV in Matagalpa who is in graduate school for nutrition and asked if he would help me teach the women in charge of each center in a 1 day workshop. I would open up the day with a small class on the importance of hygiene and Lucas would continue with nutrition.

Check out our pictures!

I am teaching a hand washing game to the women. It involves vegetable oil, coffee grounds, water and soap.

If you assume the coffee grounds are bacteria and parasites and you try to wash them off your oily hands with just water it does not really work. In fact, you just end up spreading your bacteria to other people when you shake hands and touch them.

But, if you use soap and water . . . well I am sure you can guess the outcome.

I have been very lucky in Peace Corps. I live in a small department capital, there is running water in my house, the city has electricity (luz) and I have pretty regular access to internet. All of this said, the most amazing part of my site is Daina.

Daina, a small business volunteer, has been in Jinotega for the last two years. I see her at least once a week. When I have health fairs she comes to support me. When she has business competitions I go to support her. We started a girls club together that we meet with every week. It has been more then amazing.

A few days ago we had a going way away part, una despedida, for Daina at Círculo de Amigas with our girls group. There was crying involved, small girls with flowers, letters and pin the tail on the donkey. I would say it was a successful party.

I´ll miss my site mate. But, she has left me with a wonderful group of girls. I could not asked for more.

In the city of Jinotega, Jinotega´s department capital, there are not enough doctors or nurses to see to all of the sick patients. Many people come in from outlying communities to use the cities one health center or the department hospital. To address this shortage the Ministry of Health has for years been training community volunteers to see patients in the neighborhoods and refer them to the health center only when necessary. These volunteers, otherwise known as brigadistas, are minimally trained. Many brigadistas do not read or write. The average brigadista has completed a third grade education. What these community members do have though is devotion to their neighbors and a drive to help others.

As a community health Peace Corps volunteer in Jinotega, I have been working with these brigadistas for over a year. We meet monthly and learn about rehydration salts, general nutrition, domestic violence and pressing health issues. Recently I realized how important knowing first aid and CPR was to my service. If I had the need to use these skills so often, the brigadistas I worked with could surely use the information and skills.

On June 25th we invited a previous Peace Corps Volunteer now living in Estelí to come teach us about first aid. Patricia Hernandez served in El Salvador several years ago. Now, she works with Emergency Response Service in Latin America and teaches community volunteers including health workers, fire fighters and police officers how to use first aid.

In a one day workshop we were able to train 31 health volunteers in the city of Jinotega first aid. The funds from the church of another PCV covered transportation costs of many brigadistas, lunch and snacks for everyone and materials for the workshop. Every volunteer will receive a packet covering the information they learned and copies to train their community members with. Hopefully this skill set will be transferred to many people in the community and provide neighborhoods with reliable resources.

I want to thank the congregation that provided all of this support. This could not have been done without your help.

Pictures coming soon . . .

This past week a medical group arrived in Jinotega ready to see patients. Not too many of them knew Spanish. Thank God for Peace Corps Volunteers!

Trinity Medical Brigade comes every year to the department of Jinotega. They are based in New Orleans Louisiana, Trinity Church. With them are dentists, Ob/Gyns, pediatrics, general med physicians and laymen happy to help in any way possible. They bring experience, knowledge and boxes of medication.

Why do Peace Corps Volunteers help? Well not many of the physicians speak Spanish. But, there is another reason we readily sign on. The Trinity Brigade is AWESOME. They put up volunteers who live outside of the department capital in a hotel with hot running water. We are fed 3 whole meals a day which include peanut butter and jelly sandwhiches for lunch and cereal for breakfast (this is serious). And, we get to help the communities we live in and work in.

I had a great week translating and meeting everyone. Maybe someday I´ll be able to come back and help.

I didn´t work in the dentist office but a few of the other volunteers did and had a blast . . .

I think I might have giardia. Woke up last night with incredible stomach pains. Sat on the toilet (thank God I have a toilet in my house, that flushes) and hung out. I feel like a science project. I can drink a glass of water and in more or less 2 minutes I´m ready to let it out. My breath smells sulfurous. I´m just pretty lovely right now. Good thing Peace Corps has set us all up with oral rehydration salts. I´m going to need them. And, I guess I´ll need to make a trip to the lab.

Good thing is now I can sit in bed all day and work on med school applications with out feeling guilty about missing work.

Life of a PCV.

Rainy season has started. I hadn´t remember how hot rainy season can be. It rains during the night and you wake up in a humid mess. All morning it is hot and sticky. Thankfully, it also usually rains in the early afternoon. So, the evenings are amazing. However crazy rainy season may be it is worth it.

A few days ago this was the view from the front of my house.



Can you see the double rainbow?

18 May, 2011

Día de Solidaridad de Personas con VIHsida

In solidarity of those with HIVaids I held my first ever pool tournament.

In Nicaragua over 6,900 people are HIV+, and those are just the people who have recieved the blood test. Over 7% of those with HIV are men.

Nicaragua is the size of NY.

That means there are a lot of people in this country with HIVaids. We project that this number will not be decreasing any time soon. There are no national or regional hotlines focusing on HIVaids. Condoms are not necessarily easy to come by. And, the test which is meant to be anonymous it hardly that.

So, with the help of four other volunteers in my department, I held the first ever pool tournament in Jinotega to spread the word. We organized a tournament including 16 men (with over 90 observers), prizes and mini-classes between each round. We taught them about what HIVaids is, how it spreads, how it doesn´t spread and prevention techniques.

So, for the past year or so I have been writing to a class in Duluth Minnesota. We were connected through a program called World Wise Schools. Every couple of weeks I write to them about what I´m up to. I write about what my house looks like, cultural differences between the US and Nicaragua, how this one pesky cat crawls into my house at night between my walls and ceiling and scares the you know what out of me. And, this class always writes back- in Spanish. You see, they are a high school intermediate Spanish class. It is pretty awesome.

Anyway, I thought I´d share the last letter I wrote. You can check my grammer!

For those of you who don´t speak semi-campo Spanish I wrote about an activity I did with my youth group.

A new type of environmental clean-up we are promoting as Peace Corps is using trash to construct buildings. The class in Duluth has been reading about this process. They have learned all about Guatemalan PCVs who have basically built walls out of plastic soda bottles filled with other non-degradable trash. This has become a popular project among PCVs and small communities interested in cleaning up their towns.

Although I didn´t build a super cool community house using trash from the streets I did teach my youth group a cool way to help the environment. We learned how to collect used trash bags from neighborhood roads and make them into jump ropes.

This month with the girls group at Circulo de Amigas, a local NGO, we celebrated Semana Santa with easter egg decorating and finishing James and the Giant Peach.

Confianza- The dictionary translates confianza as trust, in confidence or friendly. I can´t say we have a word in English that truly means the Nicaraguan sense of confianza. When I use it here I mean that I have a bond with someone, maybe the girls in my youth group for example, and I believe that they know they can ask me anything at anytime. We have confianza. With confianza comes trust. As a Peace Corps Volunteer I think confianza is probably the single most important thing I need in order to really do community development work.

So, when do I know I have confianza?

When someone tells me, ´´ando preparada.´´

Bored and not ready to buckle down and study for the MCAT yet, I wandered over to the Casa Materna. I was there on an errand; pick up laundry*. But, I also knew I could blow off an hour or so chatting up the women. Marta and Luci love to talk! While sitting there whiling away the morning, Marta looks around the room, giggles and pulls her purse behind the desk. Shifting in her seat she looks at me, wide eyed. ¨Lorena,´´ see says, ¨ando preparada´´ and then she proceeds to pull out a string of condoms from her bag. ´´Lauren, I´m prepared.´´ All I can say is fabulous! This is what I work for.

I think maybe this is confianza.

*I do most of my laundry by hand. Sheets and towels are unruly horrible things to wash in a sink though. Thank God the Casa Materna has a washing and drying machine!

Cell phones, everyone has one. You may be a low income Nicaraguan, living on the Honduran boarder with no electicity and no running water but, you have a cell phone. Once a week you walk three hours to the closest major city and charge your phone in a store selling rice and beans, and soap. You have a cell phone. You may be a fisherman working off the coast of southeastern Nicaragua in a cove town with no cell signal. You have a cell phone. You may be 14 years old with six brothers and sisters and you all live in a plastic house with no latrine. You have a cell phone. Cell phones are the way. Over 84% of all the teenagers I work with in Nicaragua have their own cell phone. Many of them live in communities without signal. But, for some reason or another they all have one.

What do we do with this? Use it to communicate. Use it to educate.

When I say the words “hotline” here in Jinotega, the first thing people think of is sex. When I say “crisis line” they dont know what Im talking about. Nicaragua has no nationwide hotline for HIVaids, for sexual or domestic violence for nothing. Nicaragua has no hotlines for any advocacy. But, we have the most basic infrastructure- cell phones. This year I plan to start a department wide hotline based on sexual and reproductive health, and connect all community health works on an internet based cell phone system, only to be used in case of emergency. I have only recently started working on the health worker network. The hotline for sexual and reproductive health is another matter. I have written a work proposal and PP presentation. I have a plan and I know the funds I need. Now, I need to present my idea to the Jinotega community and get their support. I am still working with youth groups, groups for mothers and pregnant women and health volunteers. But, I can see what a resource we already have here in Nicaragua. I want to use it. If you know anyone who has experience putting together cellphone based projects or lines please send them my way, vice.lauren@gmail.com. I would love the help, support and ideas.

I have been a Girl Scout of America since, well forever. When my family moved to Saudi Arabia in 1991I jumped or was more thrown into Daisies. And, I´m sure you can guess, my Mother was my leader from day one. Years later I graduated high school as a Cadette with a Silver Award and was well on my way to planning my Gold Award project. Needless to say I believe Girl Scouts helped me become a strong independent woman ready to take on the world. So, when I became a PCV and moved to Nicaragua I knew I wanted to start a girls group; reproduce my Girl Scout years, obviously. And that is just what I am doing!I work with about 16 girls, 7-13 years old. We meet once a week at a local NGO, Circulo de Amigas. Every once and a while a few boys turn up. What can I say, our meetings are outrageously fun.This week we focused our attention on International Women´s Day, March 8th. To celebrate we talked about what self-esteem is, if we have it and in what kind of quantity and how important it is to feel like a strong woman able to do anything. Check out the pictures!

Health fair, feria de salud, in barrio Sandino! I work with a group of 20-ish women in this neighborhood. So, when ever MINSA, the Ministry of Health, goes to work in the area I like to tag along.

For the average health fair we bring a general practitioner, a dentist, a few nurses and a gynocologist.

You can see the line of people waiting outside the school to see a doctor. I like to talk to the people waiting in line. Maybe give a small class to the children about how to wash your hands. Maybe give a class to the adults on HIVaids. We bring speakers, music and handout with information on them with us. So, it makes it a little bit more fun for the people waiting. A little bit more fun for me!

Check out my white board art! Cholera . . .

Hello everyone! So I thought it was about time I got down to it and let you see the health center I work in. If you happened upon the mountains of Jinotega and found yourself with Dengue perhaps, you would come here! And, I very well might be giving a small lecture to you, the patient. Check it out!

Twice a week I give a 10 or 15 min class to the patients waiting for thier appointments. I like to cover themes like HIVaids, Dengue, Malaria and Cholera.

Let’s back track to a year ago in Nicaragua, January 20, 2010. I wake up in Managua for the first time, lying in the bottom bunk sweating profusely. With 23 other soon to be Peace Corps Trainees I wonder what one earth I have got myself into. I don’t speak Spanish. I don’t want to be a way from my friends for two and half years. I like hot running water. At 6 am I decide it’s a good time to get up, not too conspicuous. In fact, maybe I should take a run around the compound Peace Corps has put us up in? Get my blood flowing? Get ready? As I run the loop the guard at the front gate yells out, ¨Buenos Dias.¨ I yell back ¨Buena Dia,¨ check that out, I’m speaking Spanish. Present, January 16, 2011. I’m walking down to the local fritanga in downtown Jinotega. An enchilada, some gallo pinot and a maduro sound like a great way to end the day. I can plop myself down on my front steps, eat dinner and maybe play some games with the neighbor kids. I get there and the woman running the street barbeque stand says, ¨your usual?¨ Why yes, my usual! I’m walking home one hand in my pocket on hand holding on to a black plastic bag full of some good Nicaraguan street food. A child runs by and says, ¨adios Lorena.¨ I pass an old man on the street and stop to talk. He asks why my boyfriend isn’t with me. Because, if that white boy doesn’t watch out he will have to date me, he just needs to find a way to be 30 years younger. If only right? When I finally get home, sit on my front steps and pull out a fork, Badher, my next door neighbor, pops his head out the window. ¨Lorena, are you going to play with me?¨ Obviously his six year old self can’t see that I’m eating and that is higher on my list of things to do then play ball. I tell him to sit down next to me and tell me about his day in the market.

It´s been a while! The holidays swallowed me up, in the best possible way. Let’s see if I can give a brief summary of all the fabulous/super cool things I´ve been up to while on vacation.

Vamos a empezar en diciembre de 2010. So, in early December Braden and I decided to kick it in Chinandega and begin our winter holidays. We traveled all the way to northern Chinandega, almost to the border of Honduras, to a small beach town named Jiquilio. It was beautiful. Warm water, cool breezes, baby sea turtles. It couldn´t have been better. We rented a small hut with a palmfrawn roof. And, we spent our few days lounging in hammocks, swimming, walking on the beach or chatting up other backpackers. In the evenings we ate from a vegetarian menu provided by Rancho Tranquilo, our hostel. Turned out that around lunch every day we would vote for what we wanted to eat for dinner. The most voted upon meal was then prepared for everyone that evening. Super communal feel.

And, one evening while we were there we were lucky enough to help release baby sea turtles! Baby sea turtles, did you get that? Baby sea turtles! It was amazing. Turtle eggs are a delicacy here in Nicaragua. Because of this the population is now close to extinction. So a hand full of conservation efforts, big and small, have begun to sprout up all along the western coast of Nicaragua. Most of the time I´m assuming you can´t touch the turtles if you don´t work there. But, in this case the people who owned the hostel had just started their sea turtle conservation work and welcomed the help. Take a look.

After our trip to Jiquilio we both flew our separate ways back the States for the holidays. Side note I saved all of my vacation days from the entire year of 2010 for this vacation. I flew straight to Houston, Texas, my new home! Lucky for me a flight from Managua to Houston is just around 2.5 hours. Not bad at all.

Being home for the holidays was amazing. Good food, turkey and stuffing, the Nutcracker, Christmas lights. I´m basically a junky for Christmas. Oh, and hot showers, obviously!

Those of you that I saw during my vacation, it was great to catch up. I loved seeing you and can´t imagine another year and half without you.

Guess you´ll just have to come visit me!

So anyway, I´m back in Nicaragua. Back to my little Nica house, back the permanent dust on my floors and best of all, back to the cold cold showers of Nicaragua.

"Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive." - Howard Thurman

A PCV from Rwanda recently asked me about the health fairs we have here in Jinotega. Reading her note on my blog was amazing. And, being able to share my experiences as a PCV half way around the world felt great. I hadn´t realized how rewarding being a part of the PCV community could be.

Christmas in the States is big, really big. Everyone who´s celebrating has a tree in their house, lights on said tree and on said house. Lights in their front yard. Really, the list goes on. If you ask me, it is amazing. I love Christmas! Here in Nicaragua, it´s a little different. Some people have trees in their homes. And, they do have lights on their trees. But, their houses don´t have lights, their stores aren´t full of lights and they aren´t nearly as Santa Clause crazy as we are. In fact, if you ask a typical 8 year old who Santa Clause is they´ll likely respond, ¨he gives gifts at Christmas and wears a big red suit but, he is not real.¨ And if you ask if they ever believed he was real, their answer will definitely be, ¨NO.¨ I understand. Christmas is expensive. In the second poorest country in the western hemisphere, Christmas is just not practical. So of course you would teach your kids that it is a time of giving, even a time to put up a tree in your living room and decorate it but, you wouldn´t teach them that Santa Clause was a jolly old man who reliably gave gifts every December 25th. Don´t worry though, Nicaragua has plenty of other fun things to do during December, mainly Purísima. On the 8th day of December everyone celebrates the Virgin Mary´s Immaculate Conception of Jesus Christ. Celebrating Purisima though is not limited to just the 8th. Everyone (at least where I live in Jinotega) celebrates daily for 10 days before the 8th. Every afternoon mass is held in front of a Virgin Mary. At the end we all yell, ¨Virgen Maria SI, Virgen Maria SI . . . ¨ And, they give out oranges with bags of candy. This doesn´t happen only in the cathedrals. In the health center I work in we have mass in the courtyard. My landlady holds a service in her house. Purisima is bigger than Christmas in Nicaragua. I´m into it.

Día de Acción de Gracias Pues, aquí en Nicaragua no hay Día de Acción de Gracias. Obviamente. Pero, como voluntarios de Cuerpo de Paz es un día especial para reunirnos, divertirnos y celebrar nuestra cultura. Entonces, este último viernes de Noviembre nos reunimos en Jinotega. Era una cena rica. Abajo tengo el menú-

Roast Pork Rositary Chicken Chili Stuffing Mashed Potatoes Gravy Cranberry Sauce Salad Green Beans Bread Rolls Real Butter! Apple Pie Cookies and Brownies Honey Mead Wine No era igual que los EE.UU. pero para una cena en Nicaragua era perfecto. Gracias a mi familia en los EE.UU. para su apoyo. Gracias a mi familia de Voluntarios de Cuerpo de Paz aquí. Y, gracias a Nicaragua para su amistad.

So after almost a year in country I have been craving a good reason to dress up- put on a fabulous pair of schoes, a gorgeous dress and just strut my stuff! Well, I was in luck. This past weekend the Small Business sector of Peace Corps Nicaragua put on a fundraiser for their up and coming national business fair. It was a a nice evening cocktail party held at the Holiday Inn in Managua. Needless to say . . . I went!

Cassie and I on our way back from Managau. Obviously we had a great time!

Ive been working a lot lately at a local NGO called Circulo de Amigas. Long story short it is located in the city of Jinotega, in the neighborhood Linda Vista del Sur, and gives scholarships to girls from the neighborhood. Theses girls are outstandingly smart, outgoing and really driven. A lot of them end up going on to University . . . that is incredible.

Anyway, I recently started a reading circle with some of the younger girls at Circulo. They read a lot of picture books. I want them to see that when you are 8 years old, Harry Potter can open your eyes, Narnia can be a whole new world for you.

We have been meeting weekly, a group of 5-16 girls around 8 years old. We are working on the first Narnia book. They love it! After the reading circle we do an activity (crafts, fun science experiments, geography or cooking/nutricion). The picture from this week are crafts. Halloween masks anyone?

I am lucky. I have not only one but, three site mates that live here in the city of Jinotega with me. Two are English Volunteers and the third, Daina, is a Small Business Volunteer. Daina has been in site for over a year. She works in the local high schools teaching them how to start up their own business, be ingenuitive and most of all believe in themselves. This year she completed her first year of classes and had a fair for her kids. They worked in teams of 5-6 the entire year building their business plan.

Check it out.

Here area few groups that did particularly well.

And . . . this group not only won 1st place in Jinotega . . . but they went on to win Regionals in Matagalpa . . . and will soon be competing at a national level!

Oh, did I mention I was a judge? Very cool.

Every year October 15th it is the International Day of Washing Your Hands! How fabulous. It may sound a little bizarre and different, but I can not tell you how important this day is. A lot of people are not taught what washing your hands can do for you. That a little bit of soap, running water and a clean towel can keep away your horrible constant bathroom visits. It can keep away that nasty cold. The list goes on.

So, this year in Jinotega MINSA got together with all of the local NGOs to set up a huge fair focusing on the wonders of washing your hands. Check out the fabulous posters I made . . .

So Nicaragua is known for its used American clothing. In Jinotega alone there are over 54 shops that sell only used clothes. I have no idea where they get them from but, I´m OK with that!

Sometimes there are amazing finds. Not very often, but sometimes . . .

Like this for example!

Kids from the barrio performing dance numbers for the fair.

Don Fidel, one of my MINSA counterparts.

A mural competition with the youth. Task- draw a picture that promotes healthy lifestyles. Kids love this kind of activity. Paper, crayons and markers are a little expensive here.

Also for my birthday Braden helped me paint my bedroom in my Nica house! Before my room was a terrible salmon pink with bright blue borders (not really my colors). Now, it has three white walls and a beautiful red accent wall. I love it!

I was really lucky and did celebrated my birthday on the 1st of September. Unfortunately it has taken me a month to post pictures. A bunch of Peace Corps Volunteers took me out to Italian food in Matagalpa. It was amazing. What can I say . . . I got a cake, a mariachi band and a gin and soda. Fabulous.

I´m having a great day, so I thought I´d write a blog about it!

Tropical Strom Mathew has hit Nicaragua hard. So hard in fact that they thought it might even turn into a full blown hurricane. Luckily though, Nicaragua is having none of that. What that means for me though is that parts of my house are flooding, all of my toilet paper was soaked ahh and my hand washed clothes are refusing to dry.

But, I promised good news right? Hear goes . . .

1. I purchased a super gangsta electric burner in Matagalpa this weekend (my last one died, mind you it only cost me $10). Anyway, this burner is made of a metal base, a clay top and visible wiring spiriling into the center. I have to pull the plug out of the wall to turn it off. And, as you can guess absolutely no way to change the temperature. But, it works and cost less then $2. Check that out!

Picture soon to come.

2. I´ve started a youth group in a community about an hour outside of the city in an agro community named Datanli. I have about 40 some youth that meet up every other week, we watch movies and documetaries about health, gender, domestic violence etc. and talk about it. They are great and I´m having a fabulous time working with them. Hopefully this will make into the new year.

3. A woman from SILAIS (the Ministry of Health´s main office for the Dept . of Jinotega) came into my office last week. She wants to start a pregnant womens group in the outskirts of the city, with me! I´m pumped. Finally fabulous work is coming my way on a semi regular basis.

4. I found out that cut up tomatoes, olive oil, salt & pepper, cumin and chile is out of this world.

5. Last Friday I had a health fair for the local university, focusing on HIVaids. We had games, posters and banners, condom demos, speakers, the HIV rapid test and the opportunity to give blood to the Red Cross. The fair was amazing (especially because I was given 3 days to plan it). And I donated blood.

Picture soon to come.

6. Mmm I haven´t showered in 3 days. Se fue el agua.

I’m having some trouble completing all of these things I would like to do here in my site, Jinotega. So, I think I’m going to write them out here on my blog. Maybe knowing that you all are reading this and expecting outcomes will give me a little bit of umph.

Here goes . . .

- HIVaids billiards tournament

Giving little ten minute classes on different topics of HIVaids in btwn each round.

Prizes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd donated by local businesses

- A garden of Marango (a super nutritious plant) in the Casa Materna

Teaching cooking classes on how to use the leaves of the plant

Keeping up the garden and maybe giving out seeds to the women when they home. Maybe they will do this in their communities!

- Starting a reading circle at Circulo de Amigas

Read fun books like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Get kids excited about reading

- Program and have a two month work shop on sexual and reproductive health with the girls from Circulo de Amigas

- Start a Hotline on Sexual and Reproductive Health in Jinotega

Create a survey for teenagers finding out what kind of phone service they have, what they know about sexual health and if they would use this kind of hotline.

Get a phone company to donate a phone with unlimited texting

Run the hotline via text

Train individuals, hopefully teenagers/20 somes to continue to hotline

Run another pilot program in a small community in Chingandega

Spread this to all departments of Chingandega

- Write a grant and actually get money to sponsor an afternoon at a local high school on Dec 1st on HIVaids

Get money

Have a day workshop for the teachers of a local high school and teach them about HIVaids and how to teach their classes

The next week have the teachers all teach the same class to their students on HIVaids

At the end of that week have a school wide fair and a competition between classes or students on what they learned

Give everyone T-shirts

Have some fun activities too!

- Teach yoga to the pregnant women in the Casa Materna

- Have a basketball or soccer tournament in the city with education about sexual health

Bring in kids from communities outside the city

Find a sponsor to give jerseys to the players

Get youth to help organize and present the information

OK, there it is. Now I’m going to get it done.

Yesterday I met up with another PCV, Cassandra, so we could travel together on our way to Robyn’s site, San Rafael. We were going to a Nica prom!

The bus we got on, a yellow school bus from Illinois that had previously lived in Honduras, was packed with people. I mean three people to a seat, people squished together in the isles, people sitting on top of the bus and Cassie and I sitting on bags of corn and rice in the far back. Typical.

We struck up a conversation with a woman (sitting on a sack of rice next to us) who had known the previous business volunteer in San Rafael. They had taught a small business class together in a local high school. This woman was great.

The man standing above me thought he wanted in on the conversation too. Soon enough we found out he was a Policeman from Managua on vacation visiting his family in San Rafael. He was pleasant enough. In fact, maybe even a little entertaining.

And then . . .

He pulled out his phone and took a picture of me! It didn’t even seem real. Really, did you just do that?

So I said, “did you just take a picture of me? What are you going to do with it?”

He says, “people here in Nicaragua are the most reliable, safe and friendly. We never have problems. Nicaragua is safer then Guatemala.”

“OK, so what are you going to do with that picture?”

No response.

“Give me your phone; I’m going to delete it."

Hesitantly he handed me his phone. I deleted the awkward picture of me, sitting on a bag of rice talking to the woman across from me. Then, I gave ut back to him.

Here in Nicaragua it is common, no expected that you keep your front door open when guests are over. This is even more important when you (a female) are being visited by a male. Who knows what could be going on behind shut doors? So, as a foreign woman in Nicaragua I usually abide by this social rule. When my few male friends do come to visit, mainly David, I keep my windows open and I keep my doors that way too.

But, with front doors open comes any number of lovely experiences. First off there are heartbreaking starving street dogs that come in search of food. They are skin and bones with inflamed sagging nipples (you just never know how many litters they’ve had). Second, small children usually end up sitting on your door step. They usually need a bath, have tangles in their hair and have a sack full of corn or beans in one hand, “daleme un peso.” Give me a peso they say.

Give me a peso? What will you do with that peso? Where do you live? Where is your mother?

Give me a peso? NO.

I know a peso is not much. In fact it is about 5 cents U.S.A. The thing is, I don’t really have the money to give every kid that comes to my house a peso. And, I know where some of them live, their mothers and their grandmothers.

Tell me this, how many of my pesos do you buy street fireworks with?

Daleme un peso.

Nope.

Teaching some jovenes about HIVaids. Love it when they take notes!

We organized a Peace Corps Nicaragua wide Assassin game (I'll explain soon). We're just preparing with our water guns.

I’ve already written about Los Pipitos. But, a little refresher is in order because now I have pictures!

On Thursday mornings I help facilitate a class in Los Pipitos. Los Pipitos is a Nicaraguan NGO that works with disabled youth and builds centers in all the departments to meet their needs. They generally are run by volunteers (mostly mothers). They have speech therapy classes, sign classes, youth groups and support groups. Anyway, I help teach a class on autovalidismo, something like a ‘how to function on your own’ class.

We open each morning asking our students, ‘como estas el dia de hoy?’ and wait. They each take their turn, go up to a box on the ground and pull out a face depicting how they feel.

This is Lenin, a young man with Downs Syndrome illustrating our morning activity. Although he does not talk much he is becoming fairly adept at signing simple phrases. Our favorite is, ‘a mi me gusta bailar,’ me, I like to dance. When ever either one of us signs it we inevitably end up dancing around the classroom. Wonderful if I do say so myself!

So I’m alive. The full body, itchy, welty rash thing has gone away. It has been replaced by another less irritating chest rash. But well, I think maybe this is part of the Peace Corps experience . . . strange tropical illnesses that come and go and no one knows exactly what causes them?

Outside of said skin stuff work is fabulous. I recently started working with an NGO connected to the group Orphanage Outreach in the United States, they are called Aldeas SOS. They have created free kindergartens in low income neighborhoods of the city. These are available to working mothers as long as the mothers attend monthly classes held by Aldeas. Sometimes the classes are about financing, sometimes they are about opening up a new small business and sometimes (this is where I come in) the classes are about health. This past month I have been visiting each center and teaching a class on cervical cancer and the PAP smear. It is absolutely wonderful, seriously. Usually class begins and no one wants to talk to the strange gringa holding a laminated picture of a vagina. Slowly, very slowly though, they start talking. Someone wants to know if she can get a PAP while pregnant. Another wants to know if the exam will take her daughters virginity. Have I already told you I love my work? Anyway, after I gave this class to 60+ women I organized a day when they could go into the health center and get a PAP without having to wait in line, get an appointment or have a male doctor. More than 80% of the women turned up. Completely gratifying.

Sometimes in health work, especially educational health work, you can’t see immediate results. But, every once and a while something like this happens. It’s awesome.

Anyway, I found this PAP charla (class) to be so great, that I also taught it as the Casa Materna. They didn’t all go out and get a PAP (every single one of them is in her late 3rd trimester), But, they did convince me they would get the exam in the near future and they invited me to dinner!