Wow what a long time since my last blog. Much has happened this past month or so. I don’t even really know where to begin as I don’t even remember where I left off. I think I will start with the great American holiday of Thanks Giving; no I will start with a very embarrassing and fulfilling moment.

The women’s group that I worked with was graduating from their program. The president of the microfinance bank that sponsored this program invited me to come to the ceremony at 2pm on Saturday to view the festivities. I arrive at 1:45 to find a room packed with family and friends of the soon to be graduating group of women. 150-200 on-lookers made it impossible for me to grab a seat so I shuffled my way to the back where I was immediately tapped on the shoulder by a man who said ¨that lady is calling you,¨ while pointing to the front. I looked to the front of the auditorium which had a stage with the mayor, the super intendent of the school system, the president of the bank, and 2 other important people sitting on it, to see a lady just to the side motioning me to come up. Naturally I waved her off until her incessant hand motions convinced me to fight the sweaty and stinky crowd. I walked up only to realize that one of these chairs on the stage was mine; the first chair was mine. This was really awkward with the local news videotaping me and a hundred cameras taking pictures. The ceremony started and I had to hand out the diplomas to the women and even a 1st place award to the best performing student as they walked accross the stage.

As if all this wasn’t enough, Samuel, the bank guy goes to say a few words and calls me out, jokingly I hope, about showing up late. Then he rants about my name being easy and just drawing as much attention to me as possible before the jab to the chest. The jab came 1 minute later when he looked at me and gave a ha-ha smile as the announcer said ¨and now a few words from Jeff.¨ Are you kidding me? I have to speak Spanish to all these people with 0 time to even think about what I want to say. Basically I sounded like a complete ass hole, for 20 seconds I rambled. They laughed and clapped at the same time, ohh well. This was the most embarrassing and flattering moment since I arrived to this funny little country. I was so moved that I had a seat with these important people after a very short and unaccomplished work session with these ladies.

I was mandated to Managua for a training session that began on Monday of the week of Thanksgiving; this couldn’t have worked out better for a number of reasons. The first of which was that I was able to reunite with my entire training group in Managua at a relatively nice hotel, well it was more like a run down 1970’s cottage resort. It was old, underused and wonderful with a plethora of little 2 room cottages spread out over a large area. We were the only ones there which meant a little party was to ensue. Fun night!

The next day, Tuesday, about 8 of us went to Leon city. This was my first time to this old colonial city. It feels like a larger more bustling version of Granada. After a nice few hours walking around I received a call from my friend Kevin Crabtree. This tranquilo specimen is on a 12 month adventure that began in Guatemala and will end in Argentina. He flew into Managua from the Corn Islands around 4:40 pm. He went all out and decided to just take a taxi direct from the airport to the bar we were all at about 2 hours away and 75$ later. What a pleasant sight that was, especially since he was traveling with my beautiful baseball glove and seeds for my garden.

Side note, at this moment in my life I had a pretty substantial beard and long curly hair.

We spent that night in Leon, enjoying the wonderful nightlife and relatively cheap entertainment. The highlight of the trip in Leon had to be the Baseball game on Wednesday night. All of us headed over to watch Leon play Granada; a heated rivalry to say the least. There are only 5 teams in Nicaragua’s top tear professional baseball league, including these two teams. For $2.50 we purchased great seats behind the plate where we sipped ice cold beer with the occational shot of rum. The highlights included, a questionable call that led to the 3rd base coach of Granada kicking dirt at the umpire and subsequently getting ejected. Later both benches cleared after another questionable call which made the crowd go nuts. We were freaking out as if we were all die hard Leon fans. The game ended with Leon holding on to a close 5 to 4 lead with bases loaded. My friend Dino Kallas who speaks Spanish fluently immediately went to the press box and started chanting the government in power’s rally chants to illicit a favorable response from most of the crowd.

Thursday morning we took a bus to the beach for a thanksgiving party that will not soon be forgotten. To my surprise when we arrived there were about 30 Peace Corps volunteers already celebrating America with cocktails and beer at this magical beachside love palace. This American owned hostel provided us with a full thanksgiving turkey dinner and a bed for $15, well worth it. We hung out at the beach partying, watching Detroit lose, making bonfires, and playing in the waves till 3am. I didn’t participate but apparently there was a 15-20 person skinny dip extravaganza as well. Ha-ha.

Friday I had to wake up at 6am which as you can imagine was really fun, to drag Kevin to Managua for my first physical therapy session on my shoulder. We made it to Managua in time and feeling great! After which we took a 7 hour but to El Propio Rama.

This friends, is the time that I had to start moving into my new place. That’s right; I found a brand new incredible house that is on the hill providing me with a comfortable breeze throughout the day. I pay less then my last set up, although that included food and laundry, so it all evens out, but now I have a mansion. I have running water in my toilet and sink provided by a pump from a well. Hard wood covers the floors and I’m blessed with a fully screened in front porch where I enjoy my hammock. My host mother was sad, but understanding when I told her about the move, but no worries, I will visit.

Front entrance

View from front door

My favorite place - the big porch where I put my hammack

At this moment I shaved my beard into a mustache and I cut my hair!

Me holding fireworks before a going away party I hosted for my Spanish friend

We enjoyed El Rama, and all that it has to offer for a few days before I had to return to Managua for another round of physical therapy. Kevin stayed in Managua with me before heading off to Granada. I returned to El Rama for a few short days of work. That Saturday, the 4th I went to Bluefields for a conference before heading on a panga to Kukra Hill to advise a small business.

My friend Jessa who lives in Kukra moved into a new house that was built by the government for her Nicaraguan roommate. This sounds nice of them; however they forgot 2 important things, number one, a latrine, and number 2, a shower. While I was there I felt bad for the girls peeing in cups, finding neighbors for usage of their bathrooms, and showering in the living room, so I built an outdoor shower with 4 posts, a wood floor, and thick black plastic walls.

I came back to El Rama at about 5:00 on Monday afternoon. At around 6:00pm my really great friend Adam arrived in El Rama to keep the string of friends coming to visit alive. He came up from Costa Rica to come see me and enjoy a bit of Nicaragua. We slowly but surely started to fill my house with the few things that I could afford. I still don’t have a refrigerator and that triggered a feeling of generosity for Adam or something, because he gave me 100 greenbacks to help fund my refrigerator. How incredible was that?

Once again I had to go back to Managua for a rehab session. These F-ing buses are getting annoying every week, however it gave me a paid way out to meet the last 2 friends that came to visit as well as a paid ride on thurs to meet friend number 3 in a row and 4 total, as Liam from England will arive today to Managua. Adam stayed in a hostel Thursday night so we could go to Granada after my Friday appointment. Thurs night we got a burrito and went our separate ways. My friend Amanda and I walked towards our Peace Corps paid hotel when 2 guys appeared behind us. I became aware at an instant since I have traveled a bunch and heard stories in Managua. As we walked faster and I kept my eye on them, a 3rd guy rushed from in front of us and across the street. They surrounded us in a fury, and I immediately threw one guy from my right to my left while a second guy grabbed me from behind and the third guy stuck a knife right to my neck. At this point I said ok, ok, tranquillo. They took my iphone and turned around, at which point I took out my knife and chased the three guys through traffic across the street and behind a fast food chicken place where they ran into a large, 4 foot diameter sewer system. I waited outside for the police who never showed. I only lost my phone, but it was an iphone! At least they didn’t stab my neck!

The next day we went to the police for a report before heading to Granada. Granada was Granada, Fun, Fun, Fun, Expensive, Expensive, and Expensive. My friend Jessica was there with her parents which was fantastic because they bought Adam and me a few delicious Dinners.

I returned to Rama, broken, financially, physically and somewhat mentally. Although after working for 12 hours yesterday on a 10 page report for my bosses I feel much better and more accomplished.

I still have a mustache! Liam from England arrives to Managua right about now. Liam, Kevin, maybe Adam, all the volunteers on the coast, my brother Jason and his wife Anna, as well as my Nicaraguan friends will enjoy my new house for what will definitely be an incredible Christmas in the tropics.

I apologize for those of you that care, for not writing sooner, but as you can tell

I have had zero time for anything.

I take donations by the way!

Round 3 of the out of site chronicles continues with the language taller and the fundraising party!

After a leisurely, stress free and overall inconceivable time at the finca, I returned to normality in a little pueblo called Nandasmo. Nandasmo is located in the pueblos blancos, not more than 5 minutes from where I did my training in Masatepe. Our entire training group minus the 5 or 6 people that were highly advanced at Spanish, returned to the training towns for a 4 day language workshop. We stayed at the houses of the trainees while they were on their site visits. The two sectors in training right now are Tefl and Environment. There are some overlaps with families from our training group, but for the most part these kids have new families. The environment group does their training in communities about 45 minutes away and Tefl is in the pueblos where we did training and thus our group was split between the two sites. The good thing is the Peace Corps mixed agriculture and business volunteers.

I had an incredibly warm welcome from my host family of 4 days. They were super accommodating, nice, and relaxed about rules and regulations. My learning was limited due in part to 2 Managua trips. I was required to go in for an ultrasound and an X-ray on Wednesday. This resulted in some pretty clear pictures of a bankrupt shoulder. The doctor immediately ordered an MRI which resulted in my second half day of training on Friday, what a shame!

As of today, I still don’t know the results. On Saturday after the last class everyone went to Managua to enjoy a night at the Holiday inn. The business sector hosted a fundraiser for the national business competition that will be held in the very same hotel on the 30th of this month. There were volunteers from all over the country and in every sector there. What a treat indeed. I had a nice conversation with the ambassador before parading around the party mingling with as many new people as I could find!

The week went by with a swiftness that could overpower any pessimist. I took a bus back on Sunday afternoon.

Monday thru Wed consisted of a weird unhappiness and drowsiness. All the time away from site really wore me out. I think I was a little depressed that pretty much every other one of the 200 volunteers has a site mate or someone within a day trip away. I am very isolated and it was hard to realize that I will once again be without any American company. Well for a short bit at least. We have to go back to Managua on the 23rd for a re-connect conference.

On a side note I have 11 people coming to visit me between now and April; a pretty astonishing number really. Hailing from 3 different countries to boot. The first visitor, Kevin will be here any day, followed by my friend Adam on the 29th of November.

San Juan Del Sur Sunset

Hi!

I get burnt and I peel after extreme sun exposure in the tropics. Fact!

It’s 5:00 on the dot in Managua! I am on a bus that is creeping towards the entrance to leave for Rivas, a truck stop of a town that is mostly frequented by people who can’t wait to leave on their way to San Juan del Sur. For those of you who like survivor, that’s where the current season is taking place.

I am frantically calling on the phone my friend Jessa as she has not yet made it from her incredibly long 13 hour journey from Kukra hill. She entered Managua not 15 minutes previously, the problem however was that she came into another bus stop and had to make a mad dash in a taxi to catch the bus I was waiting on. At 5:01 we pull out and I see Jessa haggling with the taxi driver for a better rate. The bus, which mind you was the very last bus to Rivas that night, was pulling away faster and faster. This sent me into a craze, I was screaming through the window to Jessa to just pay that ass hole and hop on, while simultaneously screaming at the bus driver to stop and let her on.

The situation escalated rapidly! Jessa took her 500 cord bill from the taxi driver because he didn’t have change and started to chase the bus. The taxi naturally followed. The bus driver wouldn’t open the side door for her probably just to be a dick about it! This made my voice raise higher and I screamed until they opened the back hatch. She eventually climbed in through the back of the school bus. The taxi at this point is still following us and is now yelling to a primo who worked on the bus. We drove a bit side by side until i just said F*#$ you and threw his money out of the bus window.

The bus is pretty full and I have my brand new softball bat in hand that I had just purchased in Managua. Picture that situation.

We get to Rivas and pay a $10 taxi to take us to what would turn out to be like the Nicaraguan version of Neverland ranch. A place for all the kids to enjoy! Thanks to Jason, and his wonderful friend Mel, we were able to stay on a 400 acre organic sustainable farm. We show up to the front gates, situated 4K from the beach to check in with the gate workers. There are pet monkeys and sloths hanging around just so you don’t forget where you’re at. Chris, the guy who runs this place picked us up and took us to Mel’s house, or Mediterranean beach villa!

Not until waking up in the morning can we fully appreciate the awesomeness that is Finca de las Nubes! Check it out at fincalasnubes.com really check it out, this place is incredible, there are something like 60 workers, on site American doctors to take care of the staff and a plethora of interesting projects! He even has a wood shop producing top notch furniture on site as well as a fish farm and livestock!

The house is spectacular, but the person chef put it over the top! Waking up to their own home grown fresh delicious coffee, omelets and the infinity pool really does wonders for whatever stress you might have.

This is a pet monkey!

View from the master bedroom private balcony.

View of the city from another house

We went to the beach about 25 minutes north with some surfers to enjoy more seclusion, beauty and larger waves! I also enjoyed some beers and a fruit smoothie. To cap the night off we had a cheap dinner, for 7$ I ordered garlic lobster!

crabs

Fire man

So let’s just say round 2 of this 3 part series was probably the highlight! A phenomenal time rite nea da beech!

the beach

the house

Still no word on my shoulder because in true Nica form the machine broke that prints the films of the MRI’s so who knows what the hell is going to happen. I’m really pushing for surgery now. I figure if the government will pay for it, I might as well suck em dry! Just kidding boss!

I'll put more pics up when I feel like sitting here for 4 hours while they load, so you might have to wait a bit!

It has been a little bit since my last blog entry and much has happened in the last 2 or 3 weeks! I will break this blog up in to a few entries so as not to bore you too much, as well as to extend the reading pleasure for you, my loyal followers.

The adventure began 2 weeks ago when I decided to help my friend Luis with his regional business competition! This guy likes to live it up, and has the means to do so. This resulted in me blowing many American greenbacks on some pretty delicious and outrageous activities during the process. We ate at Kathie’s frequently; this is an American owned gem in Granada. The western omelet would rival anything I’ve eaten in the states. Food I have come to find is something that I as well as most other volunteers miss the most about the United States of America.

For the competition I was in charge of many operational facets including negotiating for 20 tables, 20 pizzas and making sure the sound system was all in working order. I did my job and more. This competition was much like the one we had during training. There were about 15 teams from all over the departments of Granada, Masaya, Rivas, and Managua. Each team that participated had already competed at the local level and won a spot in this regional competition. The venue for the event was spectacular. We had each team set up a table in the courtyard of a beautiful old building right on the main square of Granada. Art and local photography adorned the surrounding walls, as well as our own balloons and decorations. After the initial showing each team went to the buildings gymnasium type room where they presented a PowerPoint to a panel of 5 judges. 3 of these teams were selected to go to the national competition that will be held on the 30th of November in Managua.

We had a Halloween party to cap off our extremely difficult week of work on Saturday. People from our group came in from all over to join in the absurdities. I was dressed like a jackass. I had a garbage bag on that people could write on and sign their names, with balloons coming off of my severely long hair. I also gelled my hair up in the front for an added twist. After the house party at Luis house the good majority of partygoers continued the night at a club that was featuring an American DJ. This was really fun, and I was dancing up a storm. The only problem is that when you dance in Nicaragua if you are not a Nicaraguan, you tend to sweat through anything you have on at a rapid pace. The party was highly successful to say the least.

Also I found out that I have a torn tendon in my right shoulder. So all my complaining afterall wasn´t for nothing. I had an MRI done and I am now waiting on the results. I might need surgury, so says the Nicaraguan doctor. This would mean a free trip to either Panama or Washington DC. Lets hope for Panama!

The best part about the week was that I was able to see some people that I hadn’t seen in over 3 months. I returned to My site for just a day to get some clothes before heading out on adventure number 2….

Go to this Website http://s860.photobucket.com/home/anderlitej for more pictures!

Friday night was filled with birthday love and Jesus Love. My grandmother here turned 59 years old, relatively young really. This happened to coincide with her weekly cult meeting. That’s right I said cult meeting because that’s what they call it. Although the connotation with the word cult is generally not the same here, I associate it as if I would the word cult in the United States. They sing and chant and pray in the name of Jesus Christo! Well I was a little uncomfortable by the situation but not too much since most of my life here is uncomfortable so I am pretty used to it. It was fun and we ate delicious cake to end the festivities.

Praying season

Speaking of cake, look out! I had my meeting with the women’s group all day Saturday. They split up in to two groups in two rooms in different buildings across the street from each other. The first group was the reposteria group, or the group that makes deserts and baked goods. The second group makes artesenias. I walked back and forth at the beginning of their sessions which consisted of formal class work pertaining to starting and maintaining successful businesses. Needless to say I spent the majority of the day with the reposteria group so I could reap the rewards of their hard work. I received a piece of cake bigger than my head. I ate it all too! They were very nice and at the end of the “school year” in November, they will receive a diploma for the completion of the equivalent of 6th grade. Earlier I ran into Samuel the president of the Microfinance bank that sponsors this program. He told me that he talked to the board of directors and they gave me clearance to officially be able to give consultations to their clients. I thought that was pretty cool!

The ladies hard at work

At roughly 6am on Sunday morning I woke up, a little tired but relatively in good spirits for it being a Sunday morning and all. I refrained from going out that Saturday night so I could be in tip top shape for the upcoming softball games. I was taking it seriously, like I thought all my teammates were. I arrive at the designated meeting place, (a bar next to the bancentro) at 8:15 am, 15 minutes later than I should have. We waited and talked for not longer than 7 minutes before our catcher opens his bag to pull out Nicaragua’s finest clear rum. The team, minus me, proceeded to take a few pulls off the bottle, you know for the pain and what not. I kept hearing in background conversations that some big truck is going to pick us up. Sure, I can dig that, the field we were going to play at is a 20 Córdoba ride away, so I was stoked.

I was way more stoked however when to my pleasant surprise, an enormous cow transport truck pulled up. This is a big wood cage strapped on to a huge truck, not quite a semi, but its no pick up. There were only 2 available seats which meant only one thing. Hop on! Meanwhile we have been receiving non-stop rain since I woke up. While riding to the field, my 6 teammates and I on top of the truck are dodging cable lines, branches and banners, all while navigating blindly through the fierce pellets of rain. 10 minutes down the road we decide to slide through the wood slats to the cargo area, shit covered floors and all. Here the fellas continue their pain reducing medication treatment, doctor ordered of course.

This is one of those moments where I laugh inside and say, this is why I’m in the Peace Corps. Look at these F#c%ing guys I met and what we’re doing right now.

Absolutely hilarious!

We lost our first game in the last inning. We decided we all deserved a beer while waiting for our second game; so that’s exactly what we did. The second game went to extra innings where we decisively blew it for the second straight time. After the game I was recruited to play for a team that was advancing to the playoffs. Due to my swollen quad, my gimp foot, and my useless shoulder, I am going to have to pass and wait for summer league.

The ride chronicles continue as we fit 12 people standing in the back of a pickup truck on the way home. Again I had a huge smile on my face in the midst of my uncomfortable riding position.

Alabama won. Way to lose the Ohio St.

Tomorrow I will take a Panga to one of two aptly named ports in Bluefield’s: port Bloodington or port Garbage pile. Bloodington is named after the murder that took place while we were there a few months ago, and the other one shouts Garbage Pile when you get off your Panga, both the people and the actual trash. We have a security conference there, go figure, in the most dangerous place.

Here are five fun facts of the day!

1) In el Rama there are sword fights! I don’t know how many there are a year but with the amount of drunk people walking around with machetes it’s a guarantee that they occur!

2) No matter how full any form of transportation is here, there is always “room for three more.”

3) The quickest and cheapest way to get high in Nicaragua is to follow the smoke! I mean to say that every one burns their trash and plastic so you have that option or you can follow the fumigation guys that walk around and bombard your house with potent chemicals to kill bugs that will undoubtedly return before 24 hours has passed.

4) The gringo will never know how to cook. My friends and I have realized that if we cook and don’t soak whatever it is we are cooking in oil, we must not know what the hell we are doing.

5) I spell better in Spanish than many people here! This is outrageous considering I don’t even speak the language well nor can I remotely spell words in my mother tongue properly.

Adios!

It’s around 10:30am on a lovely and breezy Wednesday morning. After a comfortable and leisurely stroll I arrive to my intended destination. Just when I peak my head draped with long, flowing, golden locks of love into my favorite Cyber, I realize that the Power had gone out. ¨Damnit¨ I screamed in my head, ¨now what am I going to do until 11:30¨ at which time I am supposed to meet my Dutch friend Patrick to see his NGO in action.

Just when I step out from the drearily dark computer room I hear a ¨aye Jeff what’s going on.¨ Well alright, its Patrick. He was downtown buying some printer ink. He asked if I’d like to just come on by right then. Absolutely, I didn’t have anything else to do except slowly get my t-shirt more wet from sweat. We hiked up the famous hill a bit to reach his haven for children. He came to Nicaragua a number of years ago traveling, met his wife, and realized after seeing such poverty that he wanted to give back. He admirably didn’t want to give his 10 dollars, or Euros or whatever, and call it a day, so in his words he ¨got off his ass¨ and did something about it.

He started an NGO from Holland with a few friends. He has 7 employees here that help out in various functions from cooking, cleaning to teaching. He built a nice new building on the side of the big hill with gorgeous sweeping views of lower El Rama. In this building he helps 65 children in 2 shifts (morning and afternoon) in a variety of ways. He gives lessons, advice, playtime, toothbrushes, but most notably, food.

Since we arrived early before the food was ready, because I was going to dominate some food of his, we went on a tour of his property that encompasses a large portion of the surrounding hill side. After this he asks me if I have seen where they ¨break rocks¨ to which I replied ¨nope.¨

We walked along the hill to a part of town that was completely new to me. Let’s remember folks that this is the hill I have climbed 2 times before with my family, and with my friend Jessa, yet I had never been to this side of the hill. The side we climbed is a relatively gradual grade, making it accessible to hikers. The other side, which is visible from the entering highway and much of the town, is a sheer faced rock wall. We enter a poor, even by El Rama standards community led by one of the students from Patrick´s eatery where we delicately navigated rocks and ferns before emerging into Rock City.

Upon entering this other world I feel slightly overwhelmed by the stark difference from the rest of the town. From town the rock face is visible, but banana trees and other tropical vegetation mask the base of the hill. On this base lies a community of people that have set up meager little shelters for working. It consists of 4 poles and a piece of plastic overhead to protect from rain. Under their own canopy people sit down with a mallet, a small 8 inch diameter tire(where they put the bigger rocks to keep them from flying all over the place) and pound away. They collect fallen rocks that have been blown from the hill with dynamite and crush rocks by hand to produce small enough, and of high enough quality rocks, (because some of the rock is not sufficient) that will be used for concrete and other building applications. They can make about 1.5 cubic yards a week which they can sell for about 600 Cordoba’s, or 30 dollars. Nobody dares interfere with each other’s rocks and everyone respects each other’s space.

I talked with a lady who had been doing this for some years; she was the mother of the little girl who brought Patrick and me there. She said the government was going to bring in a machine to crush rocks. What a conundrum. I love efficiency, but these people will be out of work. The conditions are harsh but uneducated Nicaraguans have little to no chance of finding other work around here. The Government says it will let these people run the machine but let’s be honest; there will be little need for that many people to run a machine. I am thinking of making a machine for them if the big machine doesn’t fall through. I have some simple easy ideas for a gravity and pulley machine that could crush rocks with ease. At least the kids are no longer working there like they had been 3 years previously. Now they get to enjoy Patrick’s hard work at the school, daycare, eatery, fun palace.

What a crazy place, this rock city!

Adios

We have no rain! usually on this side of the country during October we are inundated with water almost constantly. The west coast on the other hand is far less effected by torrential downpours. Well not this year my friends. I have been luck enough, or unlucky enough to not have rain engulfing my town. I don't like rain, but here with the sweltering heat, it brings a nice refreshing feel to the air. The west coast has had flooding for what seams like months now, taking out road, services, cultivating weird diseases, and generally making problems much more daunting for people who really don't need any more obstacles in their way. So today is hot, no rain.

last week was normal. Round 3 of the softball diaries is still having profound effects on the city of El Rama and the person of El Jeff. After missing last weekends game due to my trip to Kukra Hill, my team was in dire need of winning these 2 games in order to qualify for the next weeks games. Apparently without me they crumbled. Well look out, because I was 7 of 8 with 2 home runs, 0 errors and 3 diving catches. needless to say after such an all star performance, we won both games soundly. I am more physically in pain from these 2 games then i ever was after a football game. I am fully scraped on my arm and side from one diving catch. On another catch over my head I stepped on one of the million rocks the comb our majestic fields which has either bruised a small bone in my food, or given me a stress fracture. I bruised my heal of my other foot on an unknown rock just a few plays later. My right quadriceps is strained from my first home run, I really should stretch first. Then to top it off I cant move my right shoulder that i re-injured after anther outstanding diving catch over the 3rd base line. Oh well, my game will be talked about for months here in little El Rama. haha, but in all seriousness, I am hurting bad, I hope my shoulder isn´t to bad, but if I cant move it in a few days, Ill get a free trip to Managadad!

This week should be a busy work filled adventure as it always is. I was stood up today by doña Blancita, the tortilla lady that I'm supposed to consult. I took a taxi 20 min away to meet her at the time she specified only for her to not be there. Pretty typical Nica style though really. Ohh well.

ALABAMA NEEDS TO GET ITS HEAD OUT OF ITS ASS! That being said, if we win out and don't make it to the national championship game because of Boise state I will be livid!

Adios

There are many things that set the Peace Corps experience apart from other international experiences; the most notable of which is the 27 month commitment. When one is faced with such a great and overwhelming decision, all subsequent feelings and experiences are thereby compared to the time that is left in ones service. My colleagues, friends really, and I have had numerous discussions relating to our various situations before entering the Peace Corps. We came from particular and equally fantastic backgrounds and places. I have had the great fortune of meeting some individuals that I can at this moment say will be my dear friends for many years to come; and all this after only about 5 months. This brings me to how I feel during the average day.

We as volunteers have incredibly different experiences even within the same country. We are in different sectors, teaching and working with different people on different subject matter. We live in different communities, with different living conditions and with a varying group of local friends. Every day I wake up here in my “Propio Rama,” with the mindset that I’m going to be happy and do the best I can. I think for the most part I have a good work ethic. I rarely wake up on the wrong side of the bed, as my friends can attest; I usually send a friendly and predictably ridiculous message at the ass crack of dawn just to see what they are thinking at 5:30 in the morning. So what am I talking about?

Well trials and tribulations that we go through can easily break people. I think there is only around a 50-60% rate of full service completion within our country. This means that of all the talented, adventurous, silly, nerdy, athletic, and generally phenomenal pool of people that enter into this commitment only around 50% finish their 27 months to their close of service. All these daily troubles that one faces take tolls on the volunteers. I for one have faced many instances that I know would have sent most of my friends back home packing a long time ago, No offence friends! I have a long time to go before my close of service, but I wanted this long intro to tell you that I’m as happy as ever, and as long as they don’t kick me out, I will be here the full service.

I’m starting to really love it here. For instance, I went to my Wapí school today, only to find out that there was no school. The ruta was overcrowded and I had to sit on top of this huge truck. Really it was one of the best rides of my life. Well best 2 rides since I chose to ride on the top of this ruta on the ride home even though I could have squeezed in. The only downside to this fully wasted day of travel was that at the end, I came away looking like a tomato! So here goes the legacy of the every evolving farmer tan! This would have infuriated me a while ago, but now im just hanging out, smiling at stupid shit that I encounter at all moments. I also went to some farmer down the road and asked if I could take some fresh cow shit for my worms to eat, this was after asking a carpenter to give me free wood so I could build a sifter to make my huerto dirt better. I mean seriously I would have nothing to do with such instances in the states. These situations make me smile, and I love almost all of them.

This last weekend I went to visit my good friend Jessamine in here community of Kukra Hill. I traveled 5 hours in a bus on a dirt road to see what she was doing and what life was like on the coast where a mix of Spanish, black Creole, and natives live in a muddled up, culturally confusing community. People speak English, Spanish and moskito, or a jumbled version of the three. Walking down the streets, this girl is as famous as anyone could be in 2 months. The white and I mean white, blond hair blue eye girl sticks out like a sore thumb, but has the respect of so many people. She does not hesitate to walk up to anyone to say “hi, what are you doing?” She is on a Caribbean booty shake dance team that will participate in a parade, the softball team, aerobics class. She has a craft class and a group of free laborers that make a huerto in the local high school. This has motivated me even more to dominate in my town. I have in the last 2 days since getting back, been on a rampage meeting and talking with people to be an Icon in my city.

While in the hill, we made outrageously delicious homemade chunky peanut butter. This will not be the last time this tasty treat will be made, guaranteed! We ate Pineapple and drank a piñacolada with fresh pineapple and a coconut we cut up from her back yard. I received some advice for my huerto along with some worms to start a worm reproducing/shit converting to perfect dirt factory. I also am the proud recipient of some onion, watermelon, and tomato, chiltoma, and cucumber seeds; let’s hope I can produce some goodness. On Saturday we went swimming in a little watering hole! Overall the company, fun activities and food made this a great trip. On the way back, I was supposed to leave at three on Sunday afternoon, but the bus driver decided he wanted to leave at 2:00 so I had to stay an extra night, but all was copasetic.

On Monday, during my rampage I met with the guy at the microfinance institute to expand my contacts and find meaningful work. It was a success. On Sunday I am going to observe a women’s group that makes arts and crafts as well as food products to someday sell. Since this is set up through the microfinance institute when they get their acts together and have good ideas, they will be able to relatively easily obtain funding. My job for this will be to further their opportunities and develop their ideas regarding their ideas for income generation. I will for sure bring up my peanut butter as an incredible way to make some cash, hell they already have one huge customer. My work will go beyond that. I will also be advising the clients that receive loans from Samuel, the boss. I will be his “Time.” I start slowly with just a tortilla maker this week, but this is just the beginning. I plan on working with the bigger fish as I gain some experience and my Spanish improves.

During football season, I will conclude all my blogs with a little blurp on the beautiful Alabama Crimson Tide. We absolutely annihilated Florida this past weekend 31-6 I believe, for those of you that have been living under a rock. I was not able to watch the game, but Jessa has espn somehow so I got to see Oregon comeback and smash Stanford. Good work Ryan, Jesse and all my other friends that graduated from there. Oregon and Bama in the championship sounds good. I would like to beat a team that has some connection to someone I Know.

My Spanish is improving daily, but I still need to either shoot up ginko baloba or something to get my memory better, because I can’t remember words unless I say them over 50 times. It’s garbage really. Bing bong.

I love hearing from all of you, via email, Anderlitej@gmail.com, facebook, or messages on my blog. I don’t write messages back as often as I should, but don’t let that deter you from writing me because I truly love hearing about what is going on over there in the Land of opportunity. I will try to take more pictures and put them up soon. Take care, love you all!

An interception saved my sanity! I was at the internet café drinking a rum and coke watching the number one ranked University of Alabama play at the number ten ranked Arkansas Razorbacks this last Saturday. We were losing the entire game until our safety Robert Lester saved my sanity. You see, without that spectacular interception with around 3:00 to go in the game to propel Heisman Trophy wining running back, Mark Ingram’s game winning touchdown, I could very well have gone insane. However I am as cool as the bricks on an igloo at this moment after a 24 – 20 come from behind victory.

My Famer tan is a work in progress, however after this Saturday’s softball extravaganza that had me on the cow pasture / softball field for 7 hours, It certainly is on its way to being legendary. Speaking of softball, we played again this weekend. This is how the softball organizational structure is set up here. First after numerous encounters and reconfirmations, my cousin’s boyfriend and I go to the designated 8:00am meeting spot on Sunday at the town park so we can all go together to the Port to play again. We wait for 1 and good healthy chunk of an hour before deciding that everyone must have got smashed the night before and not wanted to play. While we were sitting there a fun little event unfolds right in front of our eyes.

This park that we are waiting at happens to be situated at the feet of the big catholic monstrosity of a church. I say monstrosity because in tranquil little Rama, a church of this grandeur doesn’t belong, however being in Central America, one sees such things frequently. After about 1 hour of waiting at the little fritanga (sell fried food and fresco juices) stand in the park, a deafly loud roar came creeping up from around the church. A procession of what must have been thousands of folks waving flags and following in the chants led by the lady with the microphone walked towards us before entering the church. Then right behind these people was another procession with outrageously loud music coming from stadium sized speakers mounted on top of the 3 wheeled imported from India mototaxies. This procession went around the block to what I’m assuming was their own church. Then came another, and then came another, and so on and so forth. What turned out to be the day of the bible really was a competition between church groups to see who could be louder and more obnoxious? Because Jesus is happier the louder you chant and sing his name, Fact! I thought it was great though really, I love watching these people do their thing!

Anyway, back to softball. We walked to the baseball stadium in the midst of all this madness because we figured we would watch a baseball game if we can’t play our own game of softball. While in the stadium, we encountered a guy claiming that we were going to play the Alcaldia after his game at a completely different field. We agreed to check this claim out especially because the new field was 2 blocks behind my house. We get to this cow pasture, softball diamond gem of a sports facility to see a horde of hombres playing catch getting ready for their game. See ladies and gentleman, each pair of teams plays 2 games during the “first hour” and then another set of teams follows in the “second hour.” We thought we were first hour, but really unsuspectingly to us had been designated second hour. There were 5 of us waiting for an hour before in true Nica-time, the first hour started 2 hours late. This is where the farmers tan really is starting to shape up. After the rotation of kids finishes shoveling cow shit off the entire diamond, the teams commence. These guys finish their two games and luckily we are able to accumulate a substantive team to go against the most formidable opponent in all of the great Rama.

The Alcaldia (Mayors office) scare its foes with blindingly bright White and Red Professional looking uniforms. Stitched numbers and names make them intimidating. They warm up with rocket launchers for arms and sound footwork and ball technique. We had guys taking pulls off the cheapest rum plata and smoking cigs during our warm up! Anyway we start, they think the gringo has game, because I start at short, and leadoff hitter. My first at bat was robbed, I hit a hard grounder up the middle, and while the shortstop made a great play, the ball reached first way after my foot, but alas, the gringo was out. We jump to a 2 to nothing lead in the 3rd inning, I’m up to bat, with 2 outs and men on first and second. The pressure is on at this point for me to come through. I hit a monster of a shot to left center, my ill prepared, tennis shoe covered feet slide along the bases to a stand up triple. Easy home run if not for the snail like rounding of the bases due to lack of traction! By far the furthest hit of either the four games I saw. We won the game in a shocking 5 to 4 clash of softball fanatics.

The second game we started out loosing. We never lost our heads, and with a few genius coaching adjustments and player position changes, we were in position to retake the lead. Once again, after a terrible little pop up, I’m up to bat with 2 outs and men on 1st and second. I deliver in the clutch a solid line drive over the short to drive in a run. We never looked back from there and delivered a crushing 10-5 slaughter over the then highest ranked team. For all of you wondering how my throws were, impeccable, couldn’t have made them any sweeter.

I almost got a triple play as well. With men at first and secont the batter hit a hard grounder up the middle found my glove, and in an instant I tagged the guy at second, hit the bag, and attempted to throw to first. Now at this point after some rain and 0 traction I hit the guy on 2nd, the guy coming from first in what looked like I was playing running back in a football game. That is to say I leveled these two guys, and when I fell over them, I lost the ball. This resulted in only 1 out although it should have been two because I dropped the ball about 3 seconds after touching the bag. “El gringo es muy furioso, super agresivo,” is what I heard from the opposing bleachers. They were just joking, I think.

I walked off the field feeling pretty good about my performance. Even the Alcaldia were telling me that I need to get cleats though. My mother here told me that kid’s walked by and said the gringo was the best batter of the day! I came home and looked in the mirror before entering the shower to see a partially burnt farmer folk. I have begun what could be one of the most awesome farmers’ tans in the history of El Rama. I will keep you guys updated on the status of this development.

Today is Monday, September 27, 2010. I have no school this week due to the TEPCES teacher training that I thought was last week. I will study a lot and work in my garden. I will also frequent the internet and meet that guy at the microfinance institution to see about some jobs that I can help out with.

I hope all is well over on the part of the world where it dips below 78 degrees Fahrenheit during the night!

So, i´m walking down the road on Monday, minding my own business, when I stumbled upon that last drum competition. Woo, its over! There were people from various other communities flooding the streets with costumes and odd Nicaraguan facial expressions. The street facing the gymnasium where the competition was held was inundated with tents and venders selling food and arts and crafts and other knick knacks. I’m caught in the middle of all this mess, a little dumbfounded by recently unexpected sensory overload, when a herd of gringos stampedes towards me. The leader of this wild pack was none other than the United States of America´s Ambassador to Nicaragua. We literally almost hit each other due to his rapid pace and my stagnant confused standing position. I hastily did a one two shuffle to get out of his way – walk with him. Ambassador Callahan extended his hand and said ¨you’re a Peace Corps volunteer aren´t you? ¨ We chit chatted for about 30 strides when I was shuffled to the back of the pack by his entourage. The lady next to me was his public relations staff member who promptly struck up a nice conversation. She was friendly and gave me her business card, as well as the rest of her fried plantains. Umm, Delicious! I must be Famous! The ambassador recognizes me and I get free fried treats.

I thought that there was no school this week due to the end of the month TEPCES planning session that all the teachers participate in on the last Friday of every month. Since 3 of my four schools are on Friday I really don´t have class or planning sessions during TEPCES weeks. Well I was misinformed. I have class this week as well as my designated planning sessions. Oops. No biggie, I responded with a quickness to tackle any task that is at hand. I called those counterparts and made moves.

I also had the first of hopefully many meetings with Samuel Mejia Peña. This is the guy who can get me all the prime jobs here. I guess he used to be the mayor of El Rama in the 80´s. His office has 5 rooms with air-conditioning. I hope I can smooth talk my way all the way to a desk with internet.

That’s all for now, the huerto looks superb.

No school for 2 weeks has its benefits and its disadvantages. This last week there was no school for the parades and festivities relating to Independence Day, September 14th. Have I told you funny people about the constant drumming that has been going on right across the street from my house, and according to my colleagues, all around Nicaragua? Well if not, these kids pound on their drums like it’s their favorite sport. It really gets on your nerves after about a month. The point of all this ear harassment is to practice for their competition that was held on Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday up until about 4pm, I was like, shit yea, I can hear myself think; that was until the pounding commenced and I learned that there was to be another competition held with students from other parts of Nicaragua this Monday. I don’t really mind too much, I have really grown accustomed to this sort of obnoxious behavior, and really with my lack of stereo etiquette in college I really should not have any qualms with an hour or two a of this in the middle of the day.

This is the Drum Competition

As I said last time, I am making some vegetable gardens. This has proved to be very difficult work, especially because of the earth that I am working with. My backyard is a lovely space that is conducive to a nice garden of sorts. The only problem is that after I removed a few trees, their roots started to rear their ugly little tentacles. The mud is saturated with water making it heavy and extremely sticky. This has made it quite a work out for me in this brutal sun. I melt like gummy bears in the microwave! Can you say farmers tan! I wore no shirt the last two times, and luckily was too tired to continue for extended periods of time which almost certainly would have brought on massive burns on my ill equipped gringo skin. I bought almost all the necessary materials for my bocashi compost. These include:

1) .5 % yeast

2) 27% Cow manure

3) .5 % molasses

4) 2 % semolina – feed for animals

5) 2 % ashes from wood

6) 27 % soil

7) 14 % Carbon (I’m using burnt corn husks)

8) 27 % un burnt corn husks

This mixture hopefully will make the soil good enough for my thumb to be super green; although I think I have a natural knack for growing things! This should take 2 more weeks, at which point I will be able to plant my seeds. I still don’t know yet what exactly I’m going to plant, but I think cantaloupe, watermelon, and chili peppers are essential, maybe some pot, just joking, Peace Corps wouldn’t like that.

the begining

Day 1

It was Hot, plus i thought you´d like some eye candy

all cleared

I played soccer 2 times this week across the street from my house at the school. I just joined one day and to my surprise I had a sweet gol. The next day was a different animal. It was muddy and raining; everyone was playing barefoot and sliding around, myself included.

On Saturday my host mother climbed 5 ranks in her police unit for her soon to be completion of nursing school. She skipped 9 years of work by obtaining her degree. You’d think these benefits would be more apparent to the majority of the population of Nicaragua, but education really isn’t looked upon the same way we look at it. At the after party lunch event I met a perfect contact.

My Peace Corps job description dictates that I should take on various other secondary jobs. The recommended jobs include but are not limited to: working with youth groups, tourism, women’s groups, microfinance institutions, and advising small business. Well holy mierda, guess what this guy does. He owns a microfinance institution that gives consultations to its clients, has a youth group, a women’s group that makes jewelry, helps with a nature preserve to bring in tourists and to top it off this guy has a few books, and my favorite I think will be his book of jokes. Anyway I hope to really take advantage of this guy, so I am going to meet with him this week to be a nuisance until he hooks me up with some jobs I want. I mean lets be serous for a minute, I’m free educated labor, who doesn’t want that?

Today I finally was able to participate in some softball. We took a cab to the fields 25 minutes away only to find out that our team was playing at the big river port that is about 5 minutes away. While there are limited sports venues in this country and especially in the Branch, (El Rama) I thought this shitty little softball field was quite cool. It is inside the national port of El Rama. We had to go through a security checkpoint before proceeding to our game. We were late of course and missed the first game, but luckily we were playing a double header. There were cranes and huge boats 30 meters from third base with hills and the river in the surrounding views. I sat the first 2 innings being the new guy and all. Then I was subbed into second base. I thought I was a pretty good baseball player in high school and a good softball player in college, but today I showed that practice really makes perfect and lack of practice makes you like me. I was 2 for 2 batting with a double and 2 runs. The highlight was my pickle going home with a guy on first and a grounder to the shortstop I decided to go for it. I went home and faked back to third before my cheetah like dash home. I had a great inside slide with my right foot dragging across the corner of the plate just evading the catcher’s high tag. It was controversial but in the end I was safe for the run. In the field, I didn’t let any ball by me. What I did do however was heave the ball into the ground 3 times. I was furious with my inept throwing abilities. The hat saw the dirt on 2 separate occasions! I blamed it on me not playing for 4 years, but seriously 3 times is uncalled for. In the end it was a blast and I can’t wait to keep playing with these older guys that named the team, el juventud (the youth). Haha. We lost the game 13 to 8. The other teams had legit uniforms and we were a scattered bunch with half the team smashing cigs on the sideline. I wouldn’t want to be on any other team.

The day continued with a fun outing at our local baseball field, to watch a game between the El Rama Indios and some other team from a small community out in the middle of nowhere. I left early to study some Spanish, but it was fun none the less. Also, best part of baseball here; beers are the same price in the stadium as they are anywhere else in town. I was really happy to see how into the game the community was; the stadium was packed with a few hundred people.

Did Alabama dominate once again, yep! Roll Tide.

Hope the beautiful Bay Area is treating you well, and the south and Midwest. Where ever you are at really! I miss Jamba Juice and Tombstome pizza. So if you want to send some money so I could make up for this deficiency with the only thing that could possibly fill it, Traveling around Nicaragua, I am all for that!

Adios!

And a very merry Christmas to you!

Well it feels like that anyway with all the church celebrations that are going on at all times. But no, its just the same old celebration everyday. Gracias a Dios!

This last week was nice and tranquilo. School has been canceled this week and next week for various reasons, or at least on the days that I have class. Therefore I wanted to make sure last Friday the students received their full dose of business acumen. Counterpart 1 didn´t show up. And she had the class plan, so I was blessed, gracias a dios, to improv an hour and a half class. I'm a pretty relaxed teacher, but when they wont stop talking I tend to raise my voice pretty high. That will teach them!

I have some free time, so i thought it would be a great idea to start a huerto in my house and at 2 of my schools. A huerto is like a Little vegetable garden. I figure this would be mutually beneficial since I would choose what will be planted, and thus get to reap the rewards of our efforts, that is the students and mine. To get this plan off the ground, I solicited the help of one of my AGGIE friends, Jessa, who lives 4 hours north in a town called Kukra Hill. She came on a 5 am ruta, remember folks, these are the covered wagons that I take to Wapï. The trip lasted for 4 hours, absolute nonsense. I set up meetings with the principals of the schools so Jessa could explain how she is doing her huerto at the school in Kukra. Things went smoothly, I mean the principals like me and so I can pretty much do what I desire.

My goals with the huerto are to:

1) eat some tasty foods.

2) Learn how to grow a veggie garden and start a compost

3) Teach the kids how to do the same

4) Implement the garden into my entrepreneurship class in various ways

a. Have them do studies on feasibility of larger production within the community

b. Pricing calculations of production

c. Local demand for our products

d. Effective marketing strategies to sell these products

e. Also i want to sell the harvest to raise money because the students will be starting their own companies next year in the class, therefore they will need some initial capital.

So we hung out Saturday and went to the Internet café to watch the Alabama Penn State collision of football Goliaths. Jessa is a Penn state fan so I thought that this would be a great chance for me to really get in to football mode to demoralize a fan right in the flesh. I was nice to her considering the thrashing that Alabama unleashed on the out manned opponent. There was a glitch however. In true Nica fashion, the power went out in the 3rd quarter so we were forced to leave the game. Fortunately there was Little wondering to be done as a significant lead had already been built. We went to eat and have a Toña before calling it a night.

Sunday rolled around, but before Jessa had to take a 9:30am ruta back to Kukra Hill, which to my understanding is more like Kukra Plateau, we decided to hike up El Rama´s very own majestic hill – Mountain. We did this in the early morning, because frankly, its been hotter than hell recently; i feel like I'm slowly melting away. Gracias a dios for water bottles and ice cold beers in my favorite air conditioned bar, la costa verde!

Yesterday, Sunday the 12th of September was my host moms birthday. I didn´t know what to get her so i said i´d work my ass off in the huerto in her back yard and produce some delicious vegetables and other goodies for her. She said what all mothers say, ¨ohh son, as long as you are nice and kind and thought full, that's all any mother wants, I don´t need anything.¨ This kind of conversation happens frequently, although she just completed 31 years of life. That detail changes everything as I really feel more like her brother than her son. Although she does cook for me, and take care of me like a mother, so I guess ill go with that.

Adios!

Back to work! After a week of being a degenerate bum for a week, I was able to be pretty productive this last week. On Monday, like every Monday, I did my hours of Spanish study. I have to admit that I have been pretty diligent about trying to learn this language, but to no avail. I feel like for the effort that I have put in, I have not seen an equally proportional result in language improvement, however I will continue; I am determined this time around to conquer Español.

Tuesday of this past week was another fun day adventure to Wapí. So I take the taxi to the entrance to Wapí like usual and wait there for about 45 minutes until the Ruta, as they call the wagon, comes by. When it does, I get on a little frustrated about my circumstances, and how on a weekly basis I have to deal with this shit and wait and wait only to sit on a covered wagon that takes 2 hours each way to go to a school where I don’t really teach, and my counterpart doesn’t do the reading before I get there. Then about 20 minutes into the ride thinking about the same circumstances I had a little epiphany. I’m sitting on a wooden plank that makes me about a foot higher than the rest of the passengers; I’m also facing the back of the Wagon while they are on side facing benches, and I’m listening to some fun music when it hits me that this is hilarious. I’m being bounced around on this silly little wagon with intermittent sprinkles of rain on my face and an entire Ruta looking at me as the weird Gringo going to some remote community in the middle of Nicaragua. So I just started to smile and enjoy it for what it was.

Wednesday came around rather quickly as it has been lately. The weeks are flying! This is already my 6th week in site. I cant really believe it, and it makes me realize that this 2 years really will pass me by. So the day starts off at 8 in the morning with a planning session with my counterpart at the local Catholic school. I really like this counterpart; she is on top of it. I am then free to do more studying, which I do like a good student of the language would do. At 2 and 3:30 I have 2 more planning sessions with the other 2 schools that are around me. Or that is what I thought. At 12:36 my counterpart from the school right across the street walks over to inform me that we will be reviewing the equilibrium point class to the high school seniors because they are having trouble with the material. Absolutely fine with me, I was excited to be able to impart some knowledge on these youngsters. Then I get to the class only to have them present some equilibrium point project, which was done completely wrong by the whole class. Furthermore, when I tried to correct them, I was informed I had to wait till they had finished presenting before I could share my wisdom. This of course frustrated me because I couldn’t stand sitting in my little seat listening to these kids present improperly the subject material for so long. Well I got through the day, a little more patient. I have been noticing my patience level climb, which I’m sure most of you know is probably a virtue that I was lacking completely before my Peace Corps journey.

The following morning I did what I have been doing for the last 2 weeks now. That is 250 to 300 sit ups and 200 to 250 pushups. I feel a lot better about myself considering I eat mucho fried rice, beans and anything else that can be fried really. I complete my work out routine and you guessed it, I studied. I study on average about 4 to 6 hours daily. I was informed by my fried Sarah Jessamine that our friend Joe from a small site about 4 hours away called Rocky Point, was in El Propio Rama selling coconut products with his Host Family. They found a Nicaraguan NGO in El Rama that set them up for a night, paid for their travel to and from El Rama, and gave them a table at the little vendor market to sell homemade products. Joe´s family didn’t do so well but I imagine it was fun none the less. Joe and I enjoyed a large cup of Joe before I had to head off to a meeting I had at 2. I also gave him my old phone now that Im super flashy with my iPhone.

Fridays are my long days. I had class from 7am till about 4 pm at 2 different schools. Nothing exciting happened, just more 14 year old girls asking for my number. Ohh and when I say no, it doesn’t matter, because someone from the school will give it to them so they can harass me with texts and calls anyway. Que Barbaridad!

Time: 2am. This is the moment when I must wake up to take a bus to Managua for my host brother from Masatepes wedding. I get the bus with no problems, and arrive in Managdad at around 8 am. I had nothing to do, so I walked around the mall trying to find a present, but that didn’t happen, I figure my presence is present enough, right? I drank a beer or 2 while watching the Notre Dame game at a bar to pass the time, then I head to a hostel I had heard about that only costs 8 dollars a night to shower and get ready for what was to become an epic fiesta. After arriving to the Brides families house and conversing for 2 hours, the family heads to the church. WOW, I didn’t know my brother had so much money, because it had to cost a pretty penny to pay for the church, band, candles, and incredible blooming flowers that were engulfing the room. The ceremony was beautiful; however it was way too long, and had way too much praying and singing and religious content for my liking. Then came the Fiesta. The place they rented out was phenomenal. Top notch in all aspects. Flowers were everywhere, silver plates and smoked salmon and cheeses for appetizers. They had all types of liquor you could ask for as well as champagne, and wine. The band-Dj was really great as well. The food was delicious, and it was served at around 10pm, right when you needed it. At 12am there was an announcement, all people put on your straw hats and take a shot of tequila, or a few as most people did. Next thing I know, some waiter is passing out coconuts filled with rum, while his waiter buddy was passing out Cuban cigars. Overall, a spectacular wedding.

The next day was not so fun! I asked the bus company when I arrived what time the buses leave to go back to El Rama. He said 1 and 2pm as well as some other times. I decide to get to the bus station at 1:30 so as not to be late for the 2pm bus. Well I get there and they told me straight up like this ¨No siry bob. ¨ I was like great, next one leaves at 6 what should I do. I see a bus that leaves in 3 minutes to a town an hour and a half south of my town and decide to hop on. Then I realized I only had 160 cordobas, the normal bus to El Rama costs 150. I get on not knowing where I have to get off to catch a second bus to El Rama, and not knowing what the combination of the 2 bus tickets will be. Well the first ticket was 100, Excellent! Then after 4 hours they say if you’re going to El Rama get off here to catch the second bus, I couldn’t believe it, but right in front of us was the second bus, just waiting for us to hop on and go direct to the Rama. Next the guy says, that will be 40 cords please. I was flabbergasted, it all worked out perfect and I had some extra cash to spare. What a great Sunday! To top it all off, when the internet cafes are all but assured to be closed at 7 pm on a Sunday, I passed by one that was still open, and I had the extra cash to enjoy looking at the stories of glory and excellence about the University of Alabama Crimson Tide. Roll Tide.

Hope your all Tip Top. If you get this as an email go to the blog webpage because I will try to have some photos and even a movie clip!

Happy Thursday! New Pictures are up - link is on the blogpage

Have I ever told you that it´s all for the kids? Well I just told myself that for the first time in a while, which led me to my most recent endeavor. I just got in contact with Las Lomas High School today, my former school for those of you out of the loop, to ask them if they would like to be paired up with me in a program that is facilitated through the Peace Corps. The program is called WorldWise Schools, and the focus of this program is to match Peace Corps Volunteers in the field with U.S. classroom teachers. The result? A vibrant two-year exchange of ideas, stories, pictures, and artifacts that helps U.S. students in the classroom learn about the people, geography, environment, and culture of the world from the direct experience of Volunteers living in other countries. Well, I talked to some people in the office, surprisingly, they all remembered my name, except for the student who answered the phone, but she has probably heard of me. haha. I think I will be placed with a 12th grade AP economics or geography classroom. I was going to pair up with my little 8 year old brother, but I decided I didn´t want to dumb down my inquisitive excerpts.

So what else is going down in the Rama you might be asking yourself? Not a whole hell of a lot. So every last Friday of the month, there is a meeting among teachers called TEPCES, it stands for something in Spanish that you wouldn't understand. How this affects me is simple, 3 out of my 4 schools teach my class on Fridays! So Tuesday when I am supposed to go to Wapí, the school really far away, I just plan, but since the TEPCES is across the street from my house, and my counterpart will be there, I did´t go because I will just plan with her Friday. My other 3 classes are obviously canceled so I don´t have class, nor do I have the need to prepare for class like I usually do during the week. This has resulted in a week filled with nothing but time. What have I been doing?

Studying ze Spanish. Literally 6 hours a day learning about subjunctive and catchy phrases. Today I went to talk to a local university about giving some entrepreneurship lectures to the students. In about 7 minutes I will be at one of my high schools, talking to the English teachers to see if they would be interested in my help. Shit, if they don´t want my help, they don´t want their kids to learn, fact!

By the way, Ramalama has many pretty women, the only problem is that once they turn 18 they also start turning out babies. ohh well!

I forgot to tell you last blog post that 10 minutes before my friend Jessa, Joe, Nga and I arrived at the port in Bluefields to come home, a man was fatally shot. The body was gone, but I literally walked over his massive pile of blood. 2 men came by panga, (little outboard motor passenger boat) jumped out, chased another panga driver and shot him to death. They fled on their boat, only to be apprehended by police on a much faster panga in no more than 20 minutes. Pretty riveting to say the least. I had a little goma, so I was out of it, and didn´t really care. I was more concerned with drinking my Coca Cola classic and relaxing in the shade then about the dead guy.

See Ya

Muy Buenos Dias America,

I have had a pretty interesting 2 weeks. After Ryan left to continue his fun journey to the north, I got back to work, spreading my knowledge to a pretty uninterested selection of misfits. I had my site visit on Wednesday, that was semi-fun. My boss, came into town to check in on me and make sure that I am not loosing my mind. I assured her that in fact, my mind was flourishing in the Rama. I had appointments set up with all my counterparts, and the head lady at the ministry of education so that we could all sign a letter of intent and purpose for me being here, dedicating my precious time. All the appointments went off with a hitch, and the best part about it was that I specifically neglected to make an appointment with the school that is 2 hours away so that I wouldn't have to deal with that garbage. Needless to say, i think my boss was in accordance with my decision.

On that Friday of last week, the 13th, I found out that there wouldn't be school at 2 of my schools for some absurd reason. It is very common here for teachers to not show up and for school to get canceled at the drop of a dime. Speaking of teachers not showing up, one of my best counterparts told me that she would not be in class that day, in the only school that actually still was supposed to have classes. That's fine and all, because lets face it, I can dominate these kids easier without her being around. Just joking, but anyway, it was the class on equilibrium point, so i just taught my first solo class here in my site, and I have to say it went well, besides the heaps of sweat engulfing my face.

The weekend was super duper tranquillo, I watched muchos programas on my computer, thanks for the 24 mom, excellent choice.

So, Jeff does the Bluefields for a second time. That's right folks, I was in Bluefields from Monday till about 2 hours ago, aka 3:00 pm on Saturday the 21st of August. I have to say this trip made Bluefields a much better painting in my art gallery. We had the whole week filled with lectures and meetings with literally every famous and or important person in the city. We definitely receive special treatment being the pioneers of the Autonomous region and all. By the way, read about it, the history is crazy here, its supposed to have autonomy from the rest of the country because of all the crazy indigenous and African cultures.

We had terrible beds, no water, and 1000 bug bites while staying at the dorms at the university that we used for the week to host many of our lectures. The week was just plain fun. We had boring nonsense, followed by a slurry of fun. We would go out every night and eat phenomenal food, for cheep. I ate a Turtle on Wednesday for 4 dollars. Now before you freak out, this turtle is not the endangered species, but I have to be honest, it probably will be soon. So it was legal to eat, and it was delicious. It is a red meat, something in between cow, lamb, and alligator. Very nice indeed. I also devoured shrimp 3 times, fish, and 2 steaks, every meal was under 7 dollars, get out of here!

Last night, the gang went out for cocktails on the town, we had fun = now I feel like a pile of garbage. I had to take the panga ride today in a boat with no top = Im freekin Burntski. Ohh another fun thing we did is try some Drop Draws. This is a weird cocktail consisting of Turtle fin, Rum, Milk, Spices, and some other things I probably don´t want to know about. Over all it was a medium at best drink. However the name alone incites happiness. Kriol in the coast is hilarious by the way! Read About it, Rite Nya Da Beech, Boyee!!

Its all for the kids

1 week in the Rama and I already fell like I am home. My family is absolutely hilarious. I went to my school in Wapi on Tuesday which was every bit as long as I thought that it would be. It took me a total of 11 hours to get about 2 hours of work done. This mostly includes travel and waiting time.

On Thursday one of my best friends, Ryan Spiegel came into town from Granada, Nicaragua. He has been traveling up from Colombia and was able to spend a Few days in the Rama. Thursday night we relaxed, because I had to teach at 3 different schools on Friday. Friday, I went to all the rest of my schools to see what the teaching experience is going to be like. HOT!! I mean I was literally drenched in sweat at one of my schools, it was gross and I felt ashamed to be there so disgustingly wet from sweat.

Ryan came to my last school to see what a day in the life of Jeff will be like for the next 2 years.

Friday night was fun! The whole family, mom, cousin, aunt, uncle Ryan and I went to some reggae clubs to festejar Ryan´s arrival. We danced the night away, actually better than I thought I was capable of doing, until around 1:30 am. The next morning was rough, as we were to embark on a journey to the infamous Bluefields.

Bluefields is a city on the Atlantic Coast that is so isolated the only way in is a 2 hour boat ride down a river from El Rama. The people are of African decent, and speak primarily creole and English, as well as Spanish and other indigenous languages. I have a friend that got placed there as his Peace Corps site, so we were able to hang out with him as well. The city gave us a good time and great, cheap sea food, but it also gave me the reassurance that I was placed in the right site. Why? Well no offense Dino(my buddy there) but, the city is really ghetto and dangerous with way to many people begging for shit all the time. It got to the point where a guy would wait for 3 hours outside of a club for us to try and re-beg for money. Overall we had a good time but after 1 day I was ready to get out of there.

Sunday was my cousins birthday. We celebrated by eating really tasty ice cream that they sell here. I bought here a nice nepolitano cone, while I myself had the Strawberry. A delightful treat indeed. Anyhoo, Ryan left today, and I'm back at work sweating profusely all day long. Ohh and the Eskimo Ice cream shop nest to my house has an old BAMA football welcome matte. Roll Tide, I'm going to buy that for sure.

Hope all is well Everyone!, MOM send me 3 work out rubber bands, they sell them at sports authority. with all the ice cream that will be consumed I need to work out.

Love Jeff

This week has been tremendous. Let’s start with Sunday. So if you remember, I have been working with a group of students from a local high school to make a mango flavored hot sauce and commercialize it. For 5 hours Kate, Amanda (my group partners) and I worked with these kids to get the final labeling, business plan and presentation details finished before our competition that was held this Monday. We cooked our product and bottled it in old beer bottles that came with tops that some lady was selling. This really worked out spectacularly and solved our weeks old problem of not being able to find proper bottles.

Monday morning came around, and we met the kids at the bus station where the Peace Corps drivers came to pick us up to take us to a nice hotel about an hour away to have the competition. To our amazement they showed up decked out in school uniforms, brandishing a large Nicaraguan flag, a school flag, as well as bringing a table cloth and ingredients to help with the table presentation of the product. We set up shop and it looked great, our table was by far the most impressive out of the 13 teams. Each team had to present their product to a 3 person panel of judges for 10-15 minutes. The judges would then ask some relevant questions to see what the kids really know. The criteria for judging was based on, presentation, packaging, labeling, taste or quality, depending on the product, and creativity.

Well the third place team received 86 points out of 100 for their bean sweet treat. The second place team received 89 points for their homemade shampoo as well as winning best overall packaging for their hand crafted bamboo painted containers. Finally, the first place team received an astounding 96 points for their incredible mango hot sauce. Haha, that’s right, we dominated and also won best labeling. Our kids received new backpacks and cell phones. They were so happy!

Then on Tuesday we all left our host families for good to go to Managua for the last few days of training before being sworn in. It was sad to say good bye to a family that has been so kind and generous to me over the last 3 months, but it was equally exciting to start the next phase of this Peace Corps Experience. We are split up into 2 hotels by the Peace Corps office in Managua, the Agriculture volunteers in one, and the business volunteers in the other. It has been phenomenal eating at restaurants and sleeping in a comfortable bed, and taking hot showers for the last 3 nights. Especially because when I get to El Rama, I have no running water, so I have to take bucket showers.

Throughout the last few days, we have had some seriously boring lectures and presentations. However, On Thursday, we went back to the U.S. Embassy to talk with and meet with some interesting and intelligent people. The U.S. Ambassador, Robert J. Callahan spoke to us for a while, and did a Q and A session as well. He was a really great guy – Funny, humble, intelligent, firm, diligent, and detailed, all the things that would make you a good leader. He told us some great stories, including experiences with the current president of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega. We also met with some people that worked at USAID, the world’s most preeminent international aid organizations, and people from the Foreign Service. I really thought that Thursday was a pretty cool day. That was a nice lead into today, Friday July 30, 2010.

Today we all woke up around 6 am to get ready for the big day. Everyone was dressed in their Sunday best. I wore a nice light blue tie and a white shirt, the tie was done flawlessly and I must say Donald Trump himself couldn’t have done it with more precision and excellence. We were driven to the Intercontinental Hotel for our swearing in ceremony at 8 am. This has been a very long 11 weeks of highly intensive training, so needless to say, we were all ecstatic to be finally sworn in. 42 of the 45 original aspirants (trainees) were actually sworn in. Throughout this process there is a lot of stress and people looking over your every move so the freedom that comes with this is incredible. The Ambassador came by the hotel for 2 hours to do the swearing in. Our host families, all the language facilitators, and the other Peace Corps workers participated in the ceremony.

Tonight we will have dinner at the director of the Peace Corps house. On Sunday I will leave for good to El Rama to begin Stage numero dos. I’m feeling better but I think I still have some bacteria growing in my stomach so I have had to take round 2 of the antibiotic treatment. I hope I get better.

Take Care.

Hello,

I just now am getting of a sickness my friends. A really shitty sickness, pun intended. I had a bacterial infection in my stomach. I started feeling a little off wednessday morning, but really i was feeling like i was getting a cold, nothing more. In fact i was kind of scared I was to become the 9th member of Nica 53 to get Dangue Fever. Ohh yea, thats right, 8 peaple in my group have already contracted Dangue fever, aka Bonebreaker disease. Luckily I was not the 9th unlucky person. I woke up wednessday night at about 3 in the morning, and in an instant, I was vomiting and peeing out of my but at the same time. Gross I know, but I thought you should really know one of the very frequent sicknesses we as Peace Corps trainees, and soon to be volunteers go through on a very regular basis.

Speaking of almost volunteers, In 6 short days from now, we will be sworn in finally. Well thats the plan at least. It will be really nice to finally be done with this stuff that we have to do during training, but at the same time I will miss being able to see gringos and speak the occational english language. Im excited to be a ramero however.

Oh mom, rob garrett and cruzer, thanks for the box. It was delicious, I ate all the peanut butter filled pretzles the first day. All of you can follow suit and sent me tasty treats as well.

Love you guys. Adios

Hola Folks,

So I arrived from the Rama Today. Whoohoo, I took a marcopolo Mercedes Bens bus on the way back. For those who are not accustomed to long bus rides, this is as you can imagine from the name, one of the comfortable ones. Now in true Nica fashion they were really cheap about it and would not utilize the air conditioning or the built in tv screens they had, but none the less it was a much improved ride from usual.

So how was it? Tremendo as my counterpart would say. On Monday I met all of the Directors, AKA the principals of the schools I will be working with in Managua for a conference type meet and greet. One of my counterparts is a Nun at the Catholic school. Guess what question was the first to come up in conversation with all the counterparts. What religion are you? Do you believe in god? Well that was semi awkward, but I held my beliefs firm and told them the truth, that I thought it was absolutely ridiculous and that god is fake. Haha, no but I did tell them that I am not religious. This brought on ohhs and awes, and "wow gringo you are lost,” to which I replied, “no, I’m just as sure as you are of where we are at in this world.” Anyway the Nun actually stood up for me and said that she was totally fine with all my beliefs and basically that the other guys hounding me should get off my back. Good job Hermana!

We stayed in a hotel with A.C. internet hot water and nice beds, this was fantastic. The next morning I woke up at 4:45 to get ready to take the 6:00am bus to El Rama. I showed up at literally 5:59 with the bus departing and me jumping on with all my bags. We get to the Rama in about 7 short hours, a nice ride in reality. The first day I meet the chief of police just to get acquainted with him, followed by the visit to my future house for the next 6 weeks at least.

The Peace Corps requires us to live with a host family for 6 weeks. My new host mom is a lovely young lady that happens to be a national police woman. She is tranquillo though so im fine with it. The only problem is there is no running water, and the bathroom faces the kitchen. This is of great concern because there is only a transparent sheet as a door, and constantly people in the kitchen. I like to poop more or less in private. She really wants me to stay the 2 years I think because she told me that she would put a door on and connect an electric pump to the well so we could have a running water shower and not take bucket baths. Now of course I didn’t ask for this, but if she followed through, I would definitely be more inclined to stay longer than the required 6 weeks. My room has a nice big bed and a door to the outside so I don’t have to come through the front door if I come home late; huge plus.

The next day, I visited Wapi. This is the school that I have to travel 2 hours on a dirt road in an ex military canvassed covered wagon each way to teach my class. No big deal. The school is nice and small and my counterpart is really awesome which helps a lot. I then journeyed back to visit my second school which is about 7 km from my house. This is a fine school. The funny story here is that during my introduction to the class, the principal had me write my number on the board for the students. This has led to a constant prank calling and messaging from girls that say “hola mi amor, donde estas?” This by the way is much more acceptable here than in the land of opportunity.

On Thursday I checked out the remaining 2 schools that are write in my town. I found out that 3 of the 4 schools have the entrepreneurship class only on Fridays, so there will be a scheduling conflict with that. Wapi has the class on Mondays, so it looks like Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday I will have some hammock time.

I came back today with an overall good vibe from El Rama. It really is like the Wild West. Cowboy hats and machetes galore! That’s all here. 2 weeks from today I will be sworn in – at least I hope, nothing is for sure, so send me money, I mean good thoughts.

Adios

As my family knows I’m not a big fan of getting haircuts. I have a weird fear that they are going to make me look ridiculous. This fear was amplified about 1 year ago when my mother Joanne decided that my stepfather Rob and I had to save 3 dollars apiece to get our hair cut at the Paul Mitchell school for people who obviously need more school to learn how to cut hair. Anyway I left with what looked like a drunken college prank on my head – that is to say I was butchered. So how this plays into today’s blog is very simple; I don’t like getting hair cuts in general. In another country I’m almost guaranteed to get the minimal amount of haircuts I can while still considering myself halfway respectable due to the fact that I can’t effectively tell them how to cut my hair. Moreover, while I’m traveling I don’t really care. Here however I’m a “professional,” so I took the plunge and got one.

I start the day by doing a pretty significant amount of work for a Sunday, when suddenly I look at my greasy - wild – long - lions mop and decide I’m going to go to a barber. No don’t get me wrong, I think my golden locks of love look as good as they ever have, I just thought that I would tame the beast for tomorrow, when I have to meet all my counterparts from El Rama.

So I walk to the family recommended joint which looks really respectable and clean to find that it was packed full. The World Cup was about to start to I walked around the block to where I was positive was another Barber. Sure enough I find Roger in his absolutely filthy shack with hair covered floors and 3 happily waiting clients watching the pregame show for the Cup. I sat down anxiously waiting my turn, noticing the other client’s hair is much more simply cut with a combination 2 to 8 high top fade thing. This kind of freaked me out because not seeing his shearing skills in action before I sat down gave me some reservations. Any way I get in the chair and say please sir give me the same style just a little shorter, but not too short. He said nothing but, “so not with a machine then?” I said you got it buddy and he started my hair cut in a frantic and erratic fashion, I mean this guy was going crazy with the scissors, but when I looked in the mirror I found the half way respectable Jeff that I was looking for. He cut my neck hair and around my ears with a strait blade for good measure. Roger didn’t say much but I respect that as I never like talking to the people that cut my hair anyway.

So I had a pic but I can't find a way to place it so just imagine me even more handsome then ever, I only had to cut a few stragglers, but for the most part I think it looks pretty decent. Anyway I’m watching the game in overtime right now, I hope Holland wins. I don’t know why but I just do.

IM now really excited about el Rama. we have had another busy week like usuall. we are starting to wrap up all of our projects which is really nice. Today we are cunducting interviews with owners of companies that make dried fruit candies in our town. We will be presenting our findings to the peace corps, this will be focusing on an external analysis of the factors that affect this little industry in our area. we are also wrapping up our youth group. They still need to find bottles to package their hot sauce, but we will be finishing up the business plan with them today. On monday 26th the kids will get driven to a hotel where a competition will be held between them and the kids in the youth groups from all the other peace corps trainies.

So on monday we all go to managua to meet our counterparts, or the principals from the schools that we will be working with. I have four schools that I will be working with in El Rama, and since I'm going to a new site, they invited all the principals from the schools. I don't know how many will come, but i hope all of them so I can get to meet them. I guess the day is very awkward from what i have been told. They make us play games with them before we know who is our counterpart, then we guess who we will be working with. We will then spend monday night in Managua at a hotel, SWEET. I will get hot water for the first time in 3 months. Then in the morning we leave for the Rama on a nice 6 hour bus ride.

Once in El rama I will be visiting all my schools, the teachers I will be working with, and planing my schedule for when I return, like the hours and days that i will help teach and plan with my counterparts. I will also have to go around town and talk with the mayor, police chief other people, all of this will be really awkward as well since im still not fantastic at spanish. Oh and i will be living with a national police woman for the first 6 weeks, but i heard my room has its own entrance so I dont have to go in the house to get to my room which will be really nice.

I have started to like El Rama more and more since learning about it. I will be in a bustling river port town which sounds fun. I will be a 1.5 hour boat ride from bluefields which means i will likely be frequenting the beaches there. i will have access to really good and cheap fish and sea food. It does rain a lot there but I also hear monkeys hang out like cats and dogs, although they might be shit throwing monkeys, so i might have to be carefull. I will likely buy a maskot monkey. I know i will have at least 2 fantastic hammocks so company can hang out as well.

I will return next friday for my final 2 weeks of training. I cannot wait to get that done. Im supposed to teach another class but I dont know if i will be able to.

I hope all Is tremendous.

Well people,

who ever guessed i would go to a site i didn´t want was right. I am going to none other than El Rama. Jason this is a site you would want me to go to. Good news is im a 2 hour boat ride from Bluefields, bad news is im not in bluefields. Im serously in the middle of nowhere. My town is pretty big - 20,000 people so thats a plus, and its said to be a bustling city which is fun.

I thought when the called me I was going to Bluefields so i was supper excited and gave them a hug, then I read my site and it said El Rama and I almost had a heart attack.

Im going to be positive, but on sunday my camera broke, and i just lost my only rain jacket. Other than that Im great. Its really good to finally know where we are going.

Well happy tuesday.

Hay

This week went by really fast considering we have all been constantly thinking about where the hell we´re going to be living for the next 2 years. We find out on Tuesday by the way. We had an interview on Wednesday to help the ladies figure out where they want to send us. Of course everyone had their own strategy to coerce the ladies to send them where ever they wanted to go. I truthfully don´t think I will get one of my top sites, but at the same time I don´t really care. I’m sure it will be fine where ever I go.

We have a Saturday off for once, what a treat that is! I think I might go to the beach for the fourth of July, but I’m not sure about that yet. We only have four more weeks of training left; it has both flown by and crept at a crawl. Next week will go by fast because we have our site selection and other fun activities, the next week we go visit our sites, and then we only have 2 weeks left. The last week is pretty much a chill fest in Managua from what I have been told.

I have been trying to really study my Spanish skills, I know I am learning many new words and phrases but still I struggle with complex sentence structures and tenses. On a positive note, the Netherlands beat Brazil today. I hope Argentina wins.

If you love me you will send me things. I found a better panaderia that sells bonettes which are like the previously described Pico´s only better. Plus this place has great customer service which is nice. I have even got their schedule down so I always know when they are fresh out of the oven.

Speaking of Customer Service, I taught my 3rd class in the Public institute about Servicio al Cliente. I did a good job, and the best part is, I feel better about teaching in Spanish so when I get sent to a site that is completely dominated by classes with no time to advise businesses, I will be better off.

Remember Kids, if your not to big of cheap skates you can call me down here for a few minutes once in a while. Hope all is well.

Muy buenos Dias,

We received our packet that states all the sites that we can possibly go to for the next 2 years. We have 23 sites and 24 people because 2 people are going to be placed in the city of San Carlos, half way to Lesotho, behind Lake Nicaragua. I have to admit I have heard really good things about San Carlos but I can’t truthfully say that’s where I would like to go. En Realidad, I wanted to go to this site named Laguna de Perlas on the Atlantic coast. It is a small fishing village that speaks Spanish, Creole and English. The more I think about it though, I am going to be super open to where I get sent, because lets be honest folks, If I tell them I want to go somewhere Ill probably get sent somewhere completely different. They gave us 2 forms that we will need to fill out by the time we have our next interview, which will be sometime next week. One of these forms requests us to choose 3 sites and give reasons for why we are the most qualified to be sent there. The other form has a bunch of silly questions that ask us to rate from 1-5 our preferences and abilities. From these forms, the input from our language facilitator, other volunteers, and the technical trainer, we will be assigned our sites by Georgia and Emily, the decision makers.

Let’s Play A Game. You guys guess where I’m going to live and select it on my front page! I have set up a poll. I guess other. Then we can look back and see how everyone did. P.S. the sites vary considerably from 200,000 people to 1,500. Some work with 17 sections of school (exactly what I don’t want to do) and others such as Laguna de Perlas works with minimal schools but also with NGO´s and perhaps microfinance institutions.

Here is a list of the 24 sites:

1) San Marcos, Carazo

2) Corinto, Chinandega

3) Cinco Pinos, Chinandega

4) Tonalá, Chinandega

5) Estela, Estela

6) Granaga, Granada

7) San Rafeal del Norte, Jinotega

8) Yalí, Jinotega

9) León, León

10) El Jicaral, León

11) Nagarote, León

12) Somoto, Madriz

13) Masaya, Masaya

14) La Conception, Masaya

15) Veracruz, Masaya

16) Ocotal, Nueva Segovia

17) El Jícaro, Nueva Segovia

18) Bluefields, RAAS

19) Laguna De Perlas, RAAS

20) San Carlos, Río San Juan (2) persons

21) San Miguelito, Río San Juan

22) El Almendro, Río San Juan

23) El Rama, Zelaya Central

The Italicized Cities are where I don’t want to go.

I am open Minded and will do the best where ever I go because I am a Dominating machine. I hope all is well. Ohh we also had our second Spanish test the other day. I hope I did well so I could move up to intermediate medium (the lowest required level to make it past training.)

Its also hot as shit, I’m sweating mucho right at this very second. I’m supposed to teach class Monday, but it might be canceled due to dia de maestros.

Take it ease folks

http://photobucket.com/jeffanderlite

I will try to put more up soon, it takes forever! I do have more, so you'll just have to wait for the excitement. Although i don't really have any good photos.

I was told volcanoes were pretty stinky places yesterday. I didn't find that to be the case at all. There was some sulfur in the air for sure, but overall i felt the volcano had a pretty nice aroma. We went to visit volcan masaya today, Pretty Spectacular. We did have a nice diversity Charla before, just so we were all still aware that we were in the Peace Corps.

I am going to go get a Pico in a minute. A pico my friends is a fantastic pan dulce with 2 main flavors; pineapple and my favorite, with cheese. For a pico the size of half of your face i pay 2 cords, or roughly 10 cents American. I eat a pico pretty much everyday, although I have ventured quite a few times. The best bread in town is at a shop not far from my house, on the way from my Spanish classes actually. They sell this bread that is braided with melted cheese on top. There are 3 problems i strugle with every day when thinking about this bread. 1) It is very large and i know i will eat it all, but i don't want to be a fat ass. 2) It costs 8 cords - 40 cents, this just seems astonishingly high, although it is a big hunk of bread. 3) the lady that works there has a terrible attitude and that makes me want to go to the other place that sells the tasty pico.

Anyway, I hope America Dominates the world cup!

Our youth group is making mango hot sauce. I havent tried it but apperently its pretty damn delicious, which makes me happy because that will give us a better chance to beat the other business volunteers, and consequently make us look good!

...

...

...

1)Draw these dots just like you see them on a piece of paper.

2)connect them all using 4 lines - this means four movements of the pen, you cannot go back and forth over a line to get to the next line you want to draw.

3) the lines must be strait

4) you cannot lift the pen from the paper. Good luck!

See ya!

Greetings,

I Went to Jalapa this weekend. People that I have traveled with can attest to the quality of buses south of panama. They are not quite the same here. I had an 7 hour ride on an old school bus to get to the volunteer, named Diego, that I was visiting. On the way there i was smart, thinking ahead to the possiblility that the driver wouldn´t stop, thus giving us a chance to get out and relieve ourselvs. Well i was right in my forthought. The town is nestled amongst beutifull little mountains that compliment the refreshingly cool nicaraguan air. I arived to a grand welcome with Diego and the principal of one of his schools along with an english teacher. We ate a typical nicaraguan rice and beens plate with some carne de res. I took my stuff to a little Hotelito owned by a guy named Edgar. We hit the town for a little bit, but called it a night quite early due to the fact that a nice hour long bus ride was waiting for us at 6 am the next morning.

We left for school the next morning to a school mear feet from the Honduran boarder. Now for those of you not familiar with recent nigaraguan history, here is a little breifing. IN the late 70´s early 80´s Nicaragua went through a civil war, well actually a lot longer than that, but for our porposes we will focus on the early 80´s when good old Regan was in office. You see, we supplied the contras that were living in the mountains in hounduras to fight the Sandinistas. Well this led to much anti american sentiment in this area. Anyways, I say this because the first school we visited was ravaged by bullet holes from the war.

The next day, tuesday, we had 12 hours of school. Well, In reallity we only had about 3 hours, but because of the bus schedule we found our selfs waiting at 2 different schools for an estimated 7 hours, not including class time of travel time.

On the last day I left early to return home. The bus actually stopped, which was a miricle because I really needed to pee. Also, i bought some tasty Nica snacks that i needed to munch on.

Last night was spent preparing for today, My second day of teaching the class. this is not to get confused with our yourth group that we meet with every week that we help to create a product, no, this is me infront of 45 17 year olds teaching a class in some foreign language with 2 people from the Peace Corps eyeing and recording my every move. It´s very nerve racking. I was told that I did a poor job the first go around, which really pissed me off. So I tried my best again, but with more visual aids, and was told that I had taught a successfull class.

Now Im going to relax, I have been stressing about teaching those kids since friday. On saturday we all go to volcan Masaya for a little field trip.

I hope your all good.

HI

So just a quick little tidbit because I am tired - On Wednesday we found out where we are going for our volunteer visit. This is not where we will be for the next 2 years, but rather just a short 4 day stint with a current volunteer so we get the feel for what being a volunteer is all about. I of course, am being sent as far as I possibly could. I am going to Jalapa, Honduras, I mean Nicaragua, but in that general vicinity. Anyway, I´m actually glad because I get to check out more of the country on my visit, and I met the hombre that I will be visiting, He was at the conference making tasty treats; he make the jams and jellies. I leave Monday morning and will be gone till wed night.

Also, as if I wasn´t busy enough, yesterday I received a call from the technical trainer with instructions to go to the local public school to ask permission to teach a class on next Thursday. So with this weekend completely full and my volunteer visit till Wednesday I won’t really have that much Time to prepare. But no worries, I will do well. I taught a class this Wednesday day that went alright in the Private school. I was told that I need to not read from my note cards so much, and I need to use more visual aids, so that’s what I’ll do for round numero dos.

Today was pretty tranquilo. We all went to Managua for a little lesson from volunteers about classroom management. They served a slider with mayonnaise for brunch and, as all of you who really know me could imagine, I refused. After that I went to America. We went to the U.S Embassy to hear a lecture about food security from this expert. He had a fantastic job, and by my count had been an advisor in Guatemala, Egypt, Peru, Azerbaijan, and Hungry. These are just the places mentioned in his speech that was quite informative and interesting. He basically stressed that when we work with the producers of food and the consumers while we try to increase wealth we should focus on the demand side of the equation. We have a conventional wisdom, especially when thinking about malnutrition and food scarcity, to think solely on the production side, i.e. we only need to produce more to fill the needs of the hungry. He preached that we need to focus on connecting potential suppliers with concrete buyers at this level so the risk of production is diminished and when the buyers are identified the potential suppliers can start to produce and if need be this is when these NGO´s can help with capacity building and expert advice pertaining to production, quality control and distribution. I have to say I agree with him. Now there are many more points he made that would probably make this a lot clearer to you the reader, but overall it was pretty Twany.

Well, I have to go do some stuff as usual, PAZ-Out

Hello,

This week was busy like usual. We had to do workshops on Friday and Saturday. The workshop on Saturday included a guest speaker that was a former volunteer in Nicaragua. He spoke to us about the business climate in Nicaragua and the foreseeable trends, political functions relating to trade and commerce and what he considers should be the main focus for this country to lift itself out of poverty. The workshop on Saturday included both the agriculture and small business groups. The workshop was to promote inter group resourcefulness and cooperation and collaboration. We worked on food processing and storage techniques that included: canning, dehydrating, sterilizing, pasteurizing, smoking among other techniques. I found this to be a pretty interesting and useful class. the remaining 3 hours of class were really fun. We made jam from the local fruits, crushed peanuts, salt, honey, sugar, and oil to make incredible peanut butter, homemade pesto from some leaves that apparently grow anywhere in Nicaragua and are scientifically one of the healthiest plants on the face of the earth, gram for gram when looking at nutritional content of potassium, iron, vitamins b, c, d, calcium and others I'm sure, but cannot remember. We also made banana fritters and some soy products. The day was a tasty treat.

Today - I'm going to do homework, since I have to prepare for a class on wed. I meet with my counterpart on Monday. Other then that nothing out of the norm. On Wednesday we find out where we go for our site visits. This is not where our future sites will be, but rather the sites of current volunteers that we will follow for 4 or 5 days so we can see what being a volunteer is all about.

Que Tal,

This past weekend was interesting. I did some form of running with the bulls on Saturday. If you remember, fiestas patronales lasts for 3 weeks; well this week’s event was a running with the bulls. Now, don´t get me wrong, it was fun and exciting, but it was nothing like the Pamplona version. The fun consisted of 4 bulls being released in intervals, with people throwing rocks and hitting them with sticks to get them mad and go crazy. They were tied to men on horses to avoid any deaths or other serious injuries. Overall the experience was very fun, and I enjoyed it, although I was a delicious tomato after all the sun.

On Sunday, may 30th, we celebrated mothers day, witch was correct as it was mothers day here. It is a very large spectacle here, everyone talk´s all day and gives presents to their mothers; I gave my mom a fun little care package from the little tienda by my house that consisted of lotion and some other spay-smell good stuff. We proceeded to go to dinner, although we never ate a thing. My family ordered bottles of Flor de Caña rum with soda water. I was worried all night because I had homework which wasn’t yet complete, so while they partied, I drank coffee. Overall it was a fun event though. Ohh also while I was there, I saw another volunteer in my group named Jessica who had a bad reaction to the food and had to through up in the garbage can in plane view of everyone at the restaurant because the bathroom was occupied. HAHA

This week has been going great for me. It has gone by fast and I have been less busy. I talked with my shoemaker business that I am advising, as well as the group of high school seniors that we are teaching entrepreneurship classes to. The business advising is going pretty slow, I am just gathering information right now. The class however is in full swing. They are not quite as creative as I would like them to be, however they are great students that go out of their way to come to class after school so they can learn. I really appreciate that. Ill keep you updated with the class, because we have our competition at the end of our training and I want to dominate the other business groups with out students work.

That’s all Folks - Hope you all are doing well.

Buenos Dias,

So Its the rainy season here. It will rain about 23 hours a day for the next month and a half. I usually don´t like the rain, but with all that HOT that has been going on, i really don´t mind getting wet as long as there is some coolness.

We went to managua today, what a complete pile of sh·$ that city is. I´m sure like everywhere there are nice parts, but over all the city is very dirty, scattered(there are no street signs in Nicaragua by the way, they give directions by point of reference, like go 1 block north of the main cathederal and 2 blocks west) and it is dangerous. Anywhoo, we got back late, and we had a meating with our youth group to work with them on their creative business class. They are going to start a company and present it at a fair in 8 weeks with our help, they best company wins prizes. We showed up 45 minutes late, and they were gone, but miraculously after we left, a kid ran us down and told us to come back, and when we arrived at the school there were 8 of them ready to learn. So anyway, I had to teach in spanish a lesson about being creative when thinking of ideas to start a company, not an easy task, but I thought I handled it really well.

The fiesta patronales was very fun. party on the street all weekend. I went with my family and we danced to all types of music. When I say my family, I mean like 20 cousins and nefews and brothers.

Im learning spanish which is nice. I should have been better before I got here but ohh well, im learning now...

I hope all is well. training is very hard, And im working like 5 to 6 12 hour days a week or more.

Paz - Primos

Buenos dias,

So i read my blog for the first time, (Im too lazy to reread what i write) and i realized its not that great. I cant use my computer to write thoughtful or funny material so i go to the cybers and quickly through soming on the world wide web. I get so frustrated in there and want to leave rapido so i apologize

any whoo, my town of Mastepe is begining the fiestas patronales today with bigtime parties in the streets, although at night its suposedly super scetchy. ohh well. and the peace corps told us that everyone will be looking at us so we cant do anything stupid, which as you all know i wouldn{t do anyway.

today, in the jewish religon is the sabbath, observed from sundown on Friday until the appearance of three stars in the sky on Saturday night. well for me not soo much, not because im anti'semetic, but because we had to do our 6th long day of work in a row for the peace corps by attending a conference.

this included us learning how to start and run our community micro'finance banks. pretty cool and interesting stuff if you ask me. Brievfly this includes us finding people to participate that will elect 4 members, president, box keeper, secretary and auditor. all members will put in a weekly, bi weekly or monthly allotment of money into this comunity bank. this capital will be used for the lending of micro loans to people in the comunity who will then have to pay back the loan, usually in a months time, with a set interest rate that they decide upon, usually 5 to 10%. after a year or 6 months of putting money into the bank and aquiring interest through loans, the money is liquidated and divided acordingly to the people that participated in the bank. The idea is to promote savings and fiscal responsabilty to people in a culture that are not accustomed to doing so. this process will comence again imediatly after the funds are dispersed. they restart this process so people can realize the potential of their savings, and not have it just sit in the box forever, also all 3 head members each get a key so the box with the money can{t be opened with out all 3 present.

on a side note, it rained so im not sweating as much. also im gettting a phone tuesday, ill put my number up so if anyof you feel like im worth 20 cents a minute you can all me.

I hope all is well over there, and p.s. can somebody f'ing stop the oil spill. im come on this is getting a bit rediculous. where are the nasa engineers when you need them.

Ohh and ill put up pics when I take some!

peace out suckas

Hello My friends,

So As I said or havn´t said, i live in a little town called Masatepe. Every day I wake up at around 6 in the AM sweating and completely greasy. I have a mosquito net over my bed finally so i don´t contract bonebreaker disease(Dangue Fever). I get up, read a little from my over 1500 pages of peace corps materials until about 7. I proceed to go to the kitchen, say hi to my mother Adilia and take a shower.

Hold on - first let me tell you how luck i am. My house has electricity all the time - I have water in the mornings and in the afternoons - I have my own room which is really nice and grande with my own bed and my own bathroom.

Anyway, after i take a shower, i eat either fruit, which is rediculously tasty - mangos the size of my face, melon and pinapple. Today i had fried eggs, and always drink strong coffee.

I then walk 15 min to the house of a girl in my group, which is where we have our classes. we do silly spanish lessons till noon. I then have to walk home 15 min for lunch - at this time Im Sweating Like a Chancho. When i get back from lunch, still sweating like a chancho, we do more class till 3. After class we walk around the comunity doing exersizes to practice our spanish.

I then go home do homewook and reading, talk with the familia and fall asleap by 10:30.

This is my life as an aspirante = Trainee. The whole time I am sweating Like a Chancho = Pig

How Is everyone doing? Email me at anderlitej@gmail.com.

Oh yea, so this weekend starts the Hipica, a festival that lasts for a long time, so im excited about that, and to see some other gringos that should be coming to town to celebrate. adios primos

Hi All,

I can´t talk much because im in an internet cafe, but I moved to my small town in Masatepe, Nicaragua. Population 10,000. It is nice and pretty, I have a good host family, and we have had a good time. Last night, my family and i went to the house of my Tia, and her sister along with another volunteer who is living at her house came over. We drank flor de cana and cerveza. I was le tired so i went home at 10¨00 but it was fun none the less.

At 7 am this morning my father and brotehr hugo, who is about 6 foot 5 and 300 lbs went to some random ladies hose to get some treats for breakfast. these included pig skin fried, blood saucage and fried beaf. I got my self into this by saying i like the blood sausage last night to one of my primos.

I hope all is well. Ill call or write as often as possible.

Leap year was a predictably terrible movie. I am on a plane right now flying to Washington DC to start the journey that has taken so long to commence. Somewhere in mid July of 2008 I pulled the trigger and sent my application to the Peace Corps. Somewhere along the way I had heard of the patience it takes to deal with the application process, let alone the 27 tough months that would follow in service, but I had no idea that 2 years later I would be sitting here on flight 540 from SFO to Dulles international airport to begin my staging event with approximately 45 other potential Volunteers. The Peace Corps has combined 2 groups, the small business development, and either the environmental or the agricultural group (I forget).

Everyone has been asking me how I feel and if I’m excited; to tell you the truth, I have no idea what I feel. I am so terribly sad to say goodbye to my beautiful girlfriend Brittany, and at the same time, I know this is a once in a lifetime journey that has the potential to propel me in life in many ways. I expect to gain a wealth of knowledge, fluently speak Spanish, and most importantly to my mother, gain much needed patience. So I guess I feel a mixture of emotions that at the moment I can’t decipher from one another, but be assured that I am excited to see what will become of me and my life in the next few years. I only know what the government has told me, which understandable is not much.

So, you may be wondering, what the hell am I going to be doing for 27 months in some far away land that some of you may believe is in Africa. Well Ladies and gentleman, I will be deployed to Nicaragua (Central America, in between Costa Rica and Honduras) as a Small Business Development Volunteer. There are many different positions and duties of volunteers around the globe. Depending on the individual’s skill sets of the volunteers and the needs of the countries, the volunteer can work in something like 8 different sectors. In Nicaragua there is agricultural, environmental, TESL (Teaching English as a Second language), and Small business Development. There might be more, anyway, I will be in the Small business development group. I will complete a small orientation in DC, and then I will fly to Managua, the capital of Nicaragua on May 12th for another in country 2-3 day orientation. From there I will hop on a bus to a city named Masaya, or a smaller outlying village, to begin my 11 week training. At this point I am not yet an official Volunteer; I have to complete the training and be sworn in by the ambassador to receive that title.

What does this 3 month training consist of?

1. Mucho training de Spanish. Now I know some of you think that I should know Spanish, seeing as how I obviously conned the University of Alabama to give me a double major in International business and you guessed it, SPANISH! Oh, and I lived abroad for a year in a Spanish speaking country, (Buenos Aires, Argentina). Seriously though, I need help, and this is the aspect of training that I am most excited about.

2. Technical training. This will probably help me learn how to teach the high school kids about starting or improving a small business. Additionally, I will learn how to be an effective business consultant to the small businesses in the community.

3. Health and safety in Nicaragua

4. More fun stuff that I don’t know about, or forget.

On another note, I just had to spend $139.00 to get this customer service for my software on my new computer because I cannot get wireless internet. I had to board my flight in the middle of talking to a technical support specialist so I have to wait till I get in to DC to finish the evaluation on my computer and hopefully get my computer fixed so I can get internet when I go to Cybers in Nicaragua. I suppose you will know that I got it all figured out if this gets posted by May 11th, 2010.

See you later!

Well Ladies and Gentlemen, Today is March 11th, 2010, or exactly 2 months until my scheduled departure date to start my service as a Peace Corps volunteer In Nicaragua. I have much to prepare in these coming weeks. I have nerves and anxiety about this adventure. The hardships in front of me will be daunting to say the least. I only know that the rewards will far outweigh any hardship I may face.

So in this first little tidbit about my future expedition, I would like to state that subsequent blogs posted while serving shall only be taken for what they are. My thoughts will only be thoughts expressed on this medium for other curious cats to enjoy. I will not be complaining or bragging - because hell, I will be talking to myself - you will just be in my head as well.

I hope you all enjoy the next 25 months

Jeff