To all my loyal followers my deepest apologies for such the long lapse since my last blog post. Time just got away from me. I will try to be more regular from now on.

Since my last post many things have happened as you can imagine. I mentioned at the end of my last post that La Dalia’s Fiestas Patronales or Patron Saint festival were coming up in August well it was actually the 23rd anniversary of the founding of the town. I thought it was pretty crazy to be older than a town; however I learned that people have been living in La Dalia for about 50 years. It became an independent town 23 years ago, before then it was considered like a suburb of a town of another town close to Matagalpa. It was pretty interesting learning a little about my community here.

As for the party the town put on a good show. It reminded me a lot of the country fair back home. There were carnival rides, concerts, vendors selling cotton candy and candied apples, and a lot drinking! It was just like I was back at the Douglas County fair. The one thing different about the fair here and there was the safety standards on rides. I had the pleasure to experience a Nicaraguan Ferris wheel earlier in the year and while I didn’t kiss ground when I got off I was very very happy to be back on solid ground. So when the carnival came to La Dalia despite my students’ begging for me to get on I wasn’t about to go through that harrowing experience again. The ferris wheel in La Dalia like mostly everything else here looked pretty rickety as if it had been donated from somewhere in the 80’s. One during the carnival I am sitting in the cyber across the street where the Ferris wheel is set up and then all of a sudden there is a loud bang. Everyone looked across the street to see that the one and only chain that connected the motor to the ferris wheel had snapped, leaving the people stranded! With no way to slow down the wheel one of the operator used his bodyweight to counteract the rotation by hanging on to outside of the chairs. Slowly but surely they were able to get everyone off by physically pulling the wheel. Needless to say this event only entrenched my beliefs more to never get on one of these death traps again. All in all the town’s anniversary was pretty fun the only the bad that happened during that week was some drunk guy kicked me really hard in the leg when he tried to take my beer and I pushed him away.

September was another important month in Nicaragua because of their Independence Day on the 15th and the celebration of the victory in the Battle of San Jacinto on 14th. It is just pure coincidence that these two dates are together since the battle and the granting of their independence are several years apart. It was interesting to see how independence day was celebrated in La Dalia in comparison to Niquinohomo. Independence Day was the first Nicaraguan holiday that was able to witness upon my arrival in the country just two weeks before. What I didn’t know was how much time the schools in town practice every day before the big day. I am pretty sure that the schools started band practice 6 weeks in advance. Every day the same drum routine. The funny thing about Nicaragua is that class gets cancelled for a variety of reasons that one wouldn’t even think of in a US school. I have just learned to laugh about and say “Oh Nicaragua you never cease to amaze me!” Band practice is one of those reasons. The school day during the month or so before Independence Day is cut back an hour for both the morning and afternoon shifts taking an already short school day and making it even shorter so that the students will have two hours to practice their drumming dancing and marching. I tried to suggest a different time so that we wouldn’t miss so much class, but to no avail. The thought of dedicating time after school to practice is just ridiculous to a Nicaraguan. Oh well if you can’t beat them join them. Since I had extra time I spent a lot of time watching the students practice. Although even when I wanted to take a break from the drumming I couldn’t because I live just a block away from an elementary school that practiced in the afternoon. Let me tell you after 6 weeks of drumming I knew that beat by heart and I was even in the band!! Another big event that happens in September here is the corn harvest festival. Very similar to local festivals back home like the cranberry festival everybody is out selling freshly made corn products everything from corn bread to corn tamales to sweet corn tortillas. Everything was so delicious I had no idea how much good stuff could be made from corn! Every town has its own corn festival were they elect a corn king and queen It was pretty fun to watch because their outfits were made entirely out of corn husks.

September was also a very important month for me as it marked one full year that I have been living in Nicaragua. It’s incredible to think that it has been a whole year since I said goodbye to my family at the airport and headed off on this adventure. At my one year mark I was feeling pretty good I had had ups and downs with class, counterparts and projects but that is to be expected and except for some bronchitis and a few bouts with bacterial infections I had been pretty healthy. I was really excited to go and see my friends when I made my one year medical appointment. It was really fun I went down a couple days earlier and saw my friends hung out with them in Masaya. The actual day of my appointment I felt like crap, like I was in the midst of a flu. The Peace Corps doctors took my vitals and had me get a blood test which is standard protocol here. When the test results came back they showed that my white blood cell and platelet levels were below normal. This meant only one thing…the dreaded Dengue Fever. I had made it a year through my time here until my luck ran out. Having Dengue was as miserable as everybody says it was. In my case my legs hurt so much it was difficult to walk and I had a sharp pain behind my eyes that made it very painful to move my eyes from side to side. Absolutely miserable I hope I never have it again.

The biggest thing that happened this month was that I asked by my Peace Corps boss if I could give a presentation on effective ways to teach speaking in the Nicaraguan classroom. It was a fun experience to go and meet the new group of TEFLers. My presentation when well although it was weird being look up to as a veteran volunteer when it seems like I just got here sometimes. Not much else really happened in October just a lot of gearing up for the Presidential election that will take place on November 6th. I am pretty excited to be here and be able to witness a Latin American election first hand. So far it has been very interesting to watch the events unfold and read the newspaper stories. However as a Peace Corps volunteer I am to remain completely apolitical so I won’t get discuss it on my blog. If you would like hear about some of the crazy stories here feel free to contact me privately and I would be happy to share with you. So far the only real local action that has happened in La Dalia is a road block that the Liberals set up outside of town because the Sandnista government was supposedly not giving them their identification card so that they could vote. This made travel to Matagalpa much more difficult since it is the only road out of town to the south. However since I had no reason to go in Matagalpa nor did Peace Corps want me travelling the road block didn’t really affect me.

Today is the Day of the dead here in Nicaragua so there is no school in observance. Although in the week before the election class is not really in session because the government is going to be using the school as a voting center. So I have been spending a lot of time at home puttsing around my house working on fixing and cleaning up things. I was one three volunteers chosen to help out at a US Embassy English camp in December. I will be teach fourth and fifth year university students about the importance of protecting the environment. I am really excited to have this opportunity to work with other Nicaraguan English teachers and volunteers outside La Dalia.

Only a few more days until the election may the best man win!

Monday, August 01, 2011

July was a pretty good month all things consider. Being that is my birthday month didn’t hurt its standing at all. To start off the month I met up with a group other Peace Corps friends and celebrated Independence Day in Ocotal the department capital of Nueva Segovia. It was as my friend said the closest big city to the US, what better place to celebrate? We went to bar that an American ex-patriot owns and had wonderful time, it was just like being back home the only thing missing was the fireworks. We had a competition to see who could find the most patriotic t-shirt or outfit. I found a t-shirt at a used clothes store here in La Dalia with a big flag on the front with Land of the Free Home of the Brave underneath. I didn’t win the contest but it lots of fun! I also got see a lot of my friends and celebrate a little of my birthday with them as well.

I came back La Dalia after a fun filled weekend. Since the actually 4th of July was Monday I had my evening community English I told my students the importance of the day they were interested in learning the Star Spangled Banner. So I brought in the lyrics in Spanish and English and the music and we practiced singing it Monday and Tuesday but they all agree that it was too long and that the Nicaraguan anthem is much shorter and easier.

My birthday fell on a Wednesday this year so I went to class in the morning and had my students sing happy birthday to both in Spanish and English. It was a new experience to be at school during my birthday. Although I must say that I like being on summer vacation during my birthday. After class I went home and got ready for a birthday dinner that I was organizing. I bought all the supplies and my neighbor and her friend cooked up a grand fest of meat and veggies with rice and plantain chips, plus lots of rum and coke!! My friends surprised me with a birthday cake it was very delicious!!

The next week was a week of vacation for the ending of the semester. I spent most of the week in Esteli for an in service training with my counterpart Luis and fellow TEFL volunteers it was pretty fun to see everybody again and catch up. We learned a lot of good skills about how to keep our teaching up beat and interactive. Luis came with me to this IST although it would probably have more useful for Mariling she had just come back from maternity leave, so I thought she would be busy with her new born baby. Oddly enough she was quite upset and offended that I took Luis to another IST and complained about to the school principal. I told both of them that I wasn’t playing favorites; I honestly thought like anybody else that she would have been busy with a new born baby to leave for 3 days, apparently l was wrong. I told not to get her knickers in a twist that I would take her to the next IST that we have in January.

Also during my break from school I was able to spend some with my host family in Niquinohomo. I went down for my host sister Ana Alicia’s 15th birthday party which like the sweet sixteen in the US is a pretty big deal here. We got all dress up although I missed the church ceremony because I was rushing back from Esteli; the reception in the house was lots of fun. As is the norm in the party there is always lots of eating dancing and drinking so we all had a great time. It was fun because the other volunteer that my host hosted the current trainee and I were all there so it was a kind of like a host family volunteer reunion.

I also went out on date with Nica girl from Niquinohomo while I was down there. Her name is Jenny I met her through another Peace Corps volunteer Neha that I trained with in Niquinohomo and now lives close by. She is really nice but we are just friend just now until she graduates from college in October, then we will see if anything more happens.

I realized the other day when I was changing my calendar that I had been here for 11 months I will have been here for one year on September 1st. I can’t believe the time has gone by like it has it has been a year of ups and down but looking back on it, it has gone by fast. The TEFL group before me is getting ready to leave this month and will fly home in November. While the new TEFL group is coming the beginning of September just I did a year ago. It has been an interesting year I feel like now I have a pretty good grasp of the Nicaraguan education system and culture of education which I don’t want to go into right now for fear of sounding overly negative. However I do want say something that just happening to me while I was writing this here in the public library. A student from another school in town came up to me while I was sitting here with my counterpart Luis and a few of my Nica friends who are studying English. This student first asked Luis if he would translate a short paragraph he had written into English that had to do for homework for his English class. Luis said he charged 50 cordobas for his services. Then the student asked me if I would do his homework for him and I said I would help him free of charge but that I want him to make an effort to do it himself first. I explained to him that I could easily do it for him but if I did he wouldn’t learn anything. He didn’t like my idea so he asked my friends who did it for him for only 10 cordobas. I told my friends my teaching philosophy and mission here in Nicaragua is to help improve the level of English here. This student was so lazy that he didn’t even want to try and make an effort. I feel that this is the biggest problem with the students here is that they are too lazy to even make an effort to try and learn. Even though my friends did his homework they improve their translating ability and thus their English level through his laziness. I realize I can’t overhaul the school system here, but I feel like if I can change just one small aspect of the students’ behavior here, I will feel like I have climbed Mt Everest!. We’ll what time brings…

Up deck for August is the Patron Saint Festivals in La Dalia. It will be a new experience so I am excited to see how the town celebrates.

More to come soon.

Last week marked 6 months of services in La Dalia. Things are going pretty well over all. In these 6 months my outlook on my service has adapted to life in Nicaragua and the reality of the education system here.

It’s difficult to motivate some of students to study English or even copy today’s lesson in their notebooks. At the beginning this was very frustrating for me but now I am focusing on helping those students who want to learn, and helping my counterparts improve their English. Right now Mariling is still on materiality leave, so currently I’m working with Luis and Ishmael who both have good levels of English I just help with improving their speaking. I am not sure what will happen when Mariling returns but I am hopeful things will improve.

Over this pass month I have been working with my sitemates to on cross-sectoral projects. A few weeks ago a couple other environment volunteers from Leon came over to help out Alison build a improve stove for one of her rural schools. This was the first time I had help a project of this kind but I really enjoyed it. This type of stove is good because it has two chambers and uses the heat more efficiently and therefore uses less firewood. The mothers of the students will use this stove to cook food for students at the school instead of having to bring it from home. With my other health sitemate Lauren we are planning to do an HIV/AIDS pool tournament for the men in town. I am excited to start that.

School has been going pretty well. Lately class has been cancelled a lot recently for teacher trainings and student performances. May 30th was Mothers Day here so there was no class that Monday. Class was also cancelled the Thursday before for a student performance dedicated to the mothers of the students. It was pretty fun a lot of mothers came to the school and the students sang, read poems and did traditional dances for all the moms watching. Then later that week it was children day and so class was cancelled again for student performances. I have told that this is the norm and to expect it more this year because of the Presidential elections at the end of this year. So I am just taking every day as it comes. Lately I have been feeling a little stir crazy. I don´t know why exactly because I am starting to develop friendships here and whenever I am gone my friends always ask me when I am coming back. I really like that people are missing me when I am gone, it gives me a since of purpose here. I have taken a few weekend trips here and there with friends or to visit friends which I feel is very necessary for my mental health, but I am always glad to be back in my house sleeping in my own bed.

Six months in my Peace Corps service is not going exactly how I thought it would, and its definitely different from what I learned and did during my first 3 months of training. I know this is normal real life can never be replicated over again so I am just going with flow and trying to make a difference any way I can.

Next month during our one week of vacation from school TEFL will have a in service training for 4 days in Esteli. I am really excited about the IST but not terribly excited that they scheduled it on the one week during the where we have a week off from school. All the other sectors didn´t have to sacrifice their vacation to go to an IST I don´t understand why we do. In any event complaining about won´t change the date what done is done. I am looking forward to it to get some extra motivation to help me make it through the raining months

That´s all for now, hope you are all well!

Hola a Todos!!

It’s time for another update from Nicaland! The last couple weeks have been pretty eventful. In my last blog post I talked about my plans for Semana Santa (Easter Week), it was really fun and relaxing I didn’t end up going to the Miraflor nature reserve but I did get to spend an extra day in Esteli a neighboring department capital with my friends. Esteli is a thriving city similar to Matagalpa well known for its cigar factories. My friends and I wanted to take a tour of one of these factories but unfortunately because of Semana Santa the factories were closed. I thought that was pretty odd because everybody travels during this week, I would think a touristy city would be open for business but apparently not. I have learned to never assume anything in Nicaragua because this country and it people are full of surprises. That being said my friends and I still had a good time. We went out to this all natural homemade restaurant, and had some of the best non-Nicaraguan food I have had in this country. I had fresh whole wheat rolls with a big chunk of brie cheese and a plate of vegetables along with some homemade yogurt and honey. Everything was to die for!!!

The next day our group split up. Some people when home, some went to Miraflor and the rest of us myself included stayed at the hostel. Just by chance one of the girls in my group ran into Ali a Nicaraguan friend that she had met at an embassy English in December. He invited us out to go swimming at a nearby natural reserve called Tisey Estanzuela. It was super fun and really scenic, but man that water was cold!! We brought fresh fruit, drinks and some chips and had a little picnic. Later that day Ali took us out to lunch at a place whose specialty is carne asada. You can never go wrong with grilled meat in my opinion. It was delicious! Then he invited us back to his house and we had more barbeque. I tried grilled kidneys which had an interesting and familiar taste from something that I had eaten while in Spain.

Afterwards I returned back home to meet up with my friends to fix my leaky water tank. We spent most of Tuesday morning breaking up the leaky parts and then sealing it was cement. It is much better now there is no longer a stream of water that is running off my roof! There is little dripping from the inside but only when it’s really full.

The rest of my week was really quiet came back here expecting some kind similar processions that I saw when I in Spain but in Nicaragua at least in La Dalia that doesn’t really happen. Everybody just leaves town to go to their farms and goes swimming. As a result the entire town shuts down from Wednesday and does open back up until Monday. I went swimming a couple times but I picked up a cold after leaving Esteli so I wasn’t really in the mood to do much swimming. (Fortunately I recovered.) So I spent a lot of quality time in my hammock resting and watching movies. Not a bad way to relax at all, but next year I think I'm going to go somewhere outside La Dalia and explore more.

The following day people were slowing coming back to work but still in the vacation mood. The following weekend was a 3 day weekend for Labor Day here. I took this opportunity to go down and visit my friend who lives down in Rio San Juan in the south of the country. Just getting there was quite an adventure! My plan was to take the early morning express bus from La Dalia to Managua then get on another direct bus from Managua to El Almendro, where my friend lives. I had never taken the Managua expresso before so I asked 3 of my Nicaraguan friends what time the 4:30am bus gets to Managua since I had to catch the 9:10am bus to El Almendro. All of my friends said and I quote” if you leave here at 4:30am you will get to Managua between 7:30 and 8.” Great that will give me plenty to catch me next bus I thought. So I get to bus stop a 4:15am to find no bus. Not good, not good at all I thought. Turns out the 4:30 bus actually leaves at 4am, which my friends failed to mention. So I got on the 5am bus to Matagalpa hoping to still make it. As luck would have it on the way to Matagalpa we passed the express bus on the side of the road with a flat tire. I actually made it to Matagalpa before the expresso did. I took a taxi across town to catch another express bus to Managua that left 7:20 and was scheduled to arrive Managua at 9:20am. It was going to be close. I called my friend and asked her if she thought the bus driver who she was friends with could wait ten minutes. She told me that she doubted it but that I should get off in this suburb of Managua that both buses pass through. So that is what I did as soon as I got off there was a non-direct bus to Juigalpa a city where her bus took a short rest stop. So I got on that bus because she wasn’t sure if her direct bus would stop and pick me up because she couldn’t get a hold of the driver. It turns out not ten minutes after I got on the bus her bus driver friend said he would pick me up. Oh well I was ahead of that bus and scheduled to arrive Juigalpa before the express bus. Everything was going great I was enjoying the ride passing by a lot of towns where other volunteers from my group live. That was until about the last half of trip to Juigalpa when a large coach bus went sailing pass us as we were stopped picking up people. Not good I started to panic again. My friend said not to worry as long I got there before 11:30am I was fine. We got in to town at 11:20 and I started to relax a little bit, but then proceeded to stop at every block in town! We are never going to make it in time I was sure of it at the crawl we are going at right now. We got to the bus station just as the express bus was pulling out. I made it just by a hair, but I made it!! I sat down and took a big sigh of relief.

The bus was one of the most comfortable buses I have been on in the country; it was an actual coach so my legs actually fit even the seats reclined! That is really nice given that the trip is 7 hours long. I arrived at my friend’s town around 3:30 exhausted but happy to be there.

This weekend was the Patron Saint festival so there was a big celebration. Some other volunteers had come down for the festivities as well. It was really fun, we went to fair the first night and watched some local guys try to climb up a greased telephone phone to get 2000 cordobas that were sitting up at the top. It was pretty comical watching them try to climb up on each others’ shoulders. My friend and I commented about the safety standards of this event, with combination of grease and heights it was a miracle that nobody slipped and hurt themselves.

We spent the rest of the weekend swimming a nearby rivers and waterfalls during the day and going out to eat and drink in the evening. It was a lot of fun! Rio San Juan didn’t look like what I pictured. Before going down I was expecting hot humid jungle like landscape that I had read about in my guide book but I think that is closer down to the actually San Juan river and Costa Rica border. La Dalia and Matagalpa are more lush than El Almendro, although her site was much warmer than Matagalpa so I definitely sweated a lot more than I usually do. She told me that it a more of a cattle and dairy farming area. These farmers were doing very well for themselves because there were lots of nice elegant houses in a country town that had mostly dirt roads. It was a very interesting juxtaposition. Another thing I found very interesting was the in town's central park you had the Catholic church on one side with the devout followers attending the patron saint mass and on the other side was the rest of the town enjoying the patron saints festivities to drink and party.

My favorite part of her site was all the fresh fruit right off the trees. For breakfast I went out and picked mangoes and coconuts right off the trees. It was amazing!! The availability of fresh fruit and vegetable is definitely one my favorite things about Nicaragua. In La Dalia there is a wide selection in the market which just as cool.

Everything else is going well there is not much to report on school life I’m still working out the best time to plan with my counterparts because they are both really busy. It’s a slow process and I am trying to keep upbeat and not just go through the motions. I am thinking about planning a HIV/AIDS pool tournament with my new health sitemate. I think it will be a good project for the raining season.

Well that’s all folks! Until next timeCheck out this link for pictures

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.920114506106.2437878.11521764&l=2fa0e4bbb4

Hey everybody!

How’s life up north? Last time we talked I was getting ready to head to Niquinohomo for my 3 month Spanish language check up. It was a lot of fun to go back to Niquinohomo and meet up with my old training town friends. Spanish class itself was not terribly exciting we just review over grammar structure that we learn while in training. For the most part it was just a review but on the last day we did learn some more complex verb structures which was cool. The nicest thing about was having a week off from school and being able to relax with friends. While I was down there I went to Masaya a couple times went to the beach in Carazo and went to Catarina and the mirador with my friends. After the language workshop a bunch of my friends came back with me to La Dalia. We had a dinner party and then the next day we went into Matagalpa to take in some stuff that the big city has to offer. It was a lot of fun showing my friends around my site and my house. Although I was glad to get back and just relax by myself.

As for life in La Dalia things are going ok. I have had some hiccups like having to move out the house I was renting. Last week my landlord just showed up at my front door and the said there had been a family emergency and that she needed the house back. I wasn’t terribly excited to move out and go through the whole process of finding another place to live especially after we had an agreement that I would live there for two years. Apparently contract law here is not what it is in the US, oh well. I was able to find another place to live with the help of my neighbor without much difficulty. I just had to spend a few hundred dollars to furnish it and it good as new. The house its self is in the same neighborhood as where I lived before, so it’s the same style the only real difference between the two is that this one is less finished unlike the first house this house doesn’t have a second floor and more of the brick is exposed.

In other news last week just by chance I ran in to some Swedish volunteers who were helping out with handicapped children in the area. The group was made up of 5 teachers and 5 mentally handicapped students. My friend Ishmael, the university English professor and I and helped translate for the Swedes while they were in La Dalia. It was great to meet them, and to be able to help them out.

This week I was anxiously awaiting the arrival of Luis and my site visit from my boss. However I called Luis Sunday went he was back in the country to find out that the Ministry of Education hadn’t paid him for the month of March; he wouldn’t be starting back at school until the first week of April. So as a result I had to cancel my site visit until both counterparts were available. To make matters more complicated Mariling is going to be leaving on maternity leave within a week or two. Trying to coordinate a time that is acceptable for all 3 people is proving to be harder than expected. I am really looking forward to working with Luis when he gets back to La Dalia. There will apparently be a substitute taking over Mariling’s classes while she is gone. I am not terribly crazy about that idea although I realize it is necessary. I feel like I am just a revolving door for teachers, who haven’t received any Peace Corps training. With all these teachers coming and going the periodic trainings that my counterparts and I receive don’t do any good. For instance in July after the semester end there is a in-service training which is supposed to gauge how things have been going with my counterparts and I, but I will have been working with only one of my counterparts for the past 3 months so it very confusing. Oh well when it comes to Nicaraguan school every day is an adventure! I could write an entire blog post on just the chaos in school.

As for my new site mate Lauren, she sent me a text saying that she didn’t pass her final language interview and will have to stay in language classes for one more week until she is able to come up to La Dalia. The same thing happened with the trainee that was living with my host family in Niquinohomo. He like Lauren just barely missed the cut off level and has to stay back another week. I don’t quite understand why Peace Corps is being so strict with this group because in our group there wasn’t anybody held back. In any event Alison and I are excited to welcome Lauren to La Dalia. I was joking with Alison that we just need a small business and an agriculture volunteer here and we’d have a whole set. La Dalia has traditionally been solely a health post I am the first TEFL volunteer here and Alison is the first environment volunteer in El Tuma. El Tuma is technically part of La Dalia but it’s more like a neighboring village 20 min down the hill since it’s not actually attached to La Dalia. Lauren however will live in the actual town of La Dalia and work at the maternity house with mid-wives there.

In two weeks is Semana Santa, Holy Week in English. It’s kinda like spring break in the States but with a religious twist. Here everybody usually just goes to the river and hangs out and swims. April is the hottest month of the year so relaxing at the nearest body of water is usually what the locals do. My friend Sara and I are planning to explore some of the natural reserves around La Dalia and then up in Estelí and surrounding area. Alison and I and some other friends were going to make the trip down to the southern part of the country to check out some islands and the San Juan River which is supposed to amazing with all the wildlife and jungle like landscape. However because April is the hottest month of the year here, Sara and I decided explore the mountains instead of going to the jungle where its certain to be hot and humid…my favorite type of weather.

Everything else is going pretty well just living the Nicaraguan dream haha. As some of you may know I have a slight addiction to peanut butter. My favorite lunch is a PB&J sandwich. I like the real peanut butter none of the artificial Skippy or jif stuff. I brought a 5 pound jar of Adam’s peanut butter with me but sadly it recently ran out. Yesterday as I was walking home from school I stopped by the open air market to find raw peanuts for sale much cheaper than the knock off skippy type peanut butter for sale in the supermarket in Matagalpa. I bought two pounds and took them home found a recipe for homemade peanut butter, which said roast them in then take to them to have them ground. Imagine that I would have delicious peanut butter in only a matter of time. However when I took them to have them ground. The ground peanut substance that came out was more the consistence of cookie dough than peanut butter. If any of my readers have any suggestions how to improve upon this please let me know.

I wanted to give a quick update to my loyal blog followers. Not much has happened since my last blog post, but I think short frequent updates are better than long spread out ones.I guess the most noteworthy thing was a visit from the Peace Corps Nicaragua Country Director. It was kind of out of the blue Alison was visiting me Friday when I got a call from our country director Carol. She is very nice; she hosted my entire group of Nica 54 over at her house for Thanksgiving. Other than that I have really had much contact with her. So as you can imagine when I receive her call on Friday I was a little surprised. She told me that she and her daughter were heading up to La Dalia to stay an eco lodge for the weekend, that was nearby and wanted to stop by and say hi to Alison and I. Alison and I cleaned up my house for her visit, which was very nice. She loved my house and the area where I lived especially the cooler mountain air. After chatting for a while she took us out to lunch at a nearby restaurant. Alison and I both really enjoyed her visit.

Other that not much is going on. My community English class is going really well. This week I broke up the class into two groups, a beginner group and an intermediate/advanced group. I will teach each group two nights a week. Last night was the first night of my beginner class we spent the evening practicing the English alphabet out loud and spelling our names. We finish with a few basic introductions and salutations and then put it all together with a dialog from our textbook. It’s a good dialog because it covers everything that we learned but I think it was little too long and caused a bit of confusion. Although I am glad that I split up the class because I feel the students will actually learn more now. Tonight is the first night with the intermediate/advanced students, who are mostly just the university students that have been coming from the beginning. I plan on doing more conversation activities to help improve their speaking skills. I’ll be sure to let you know how it goes.

I am still having difficulties with my counterpart, unfortunately. I have talked with her but she is still not really listening to me. This as I am sure you can imagine is very frustrating. I have tried different approaches to talk with her but she doesn’t seem to want to change her teaching methodologies or accept a different role for me in the class. I feel like I’m living the proverb “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink”. She is not rejecting all my ideas but majority of them. Another really frustrating thing is when I make suggestions about planning and grammatical corrections she always gives some excuse about how it is my fault for why something is wrong or not working. It is a real constructive working relationship as you can see. However I am hopeful that things will change by the end of this month. Luis my other (fluent) counterpart will be back from his two month training in Atlanta so I am sure he will be anxious to share all he has learned. I have worked with him before and get along with him great.

Also I will have a site visit from a 3rd year TEFL volunteer at the end of the month as well. She will talk with both my counterparts and also my school principal. So I am hopeful she can help straighten out the problems with my female counterpart. My boss was supposed to come up and visit but apparently that fell through so the 3rd year volunteer is the next best thing.

Next week I will be heading back down to Niquinohomo for a week for a 3 month check up our Spanish. It will be nice to see all of my friends from training again! Then afterwards a group of friends is coming up to La Dalia with to check out my house and site as kind of a homecoming party. It’s going to be a lot of fun! That while I am gone a new health volunteer is coming up to La Dalia for her site visit, she will be working with maternal house and giving talks to the pregnant women here. Alison and I are really excited to meet our new sitemate…there is even a rumor that she could be from Oregon! I’ll be sure to keep you all updated to what happensHope everything is going great up north!

Hey everybody, sorry that so much time has passed since my last blog post. I have been busy the last couple weekends and time just got away from me. I’m going to try and write shorter posts more often so it is easier for everyone back home to follow what I am doing down here.

So what have I been up to since January? Well I have got all moved into my house and settled with all my things set up the way I want. I bought some plastic shelves things last time I was in Matagalpa, one for my kitchen and one for my bedroom. I took my pcv friend’s advice and took down the all the creepy pictures and other knickknacks that are my landlords and boxed them up and put them under my bed. I am really happy with the way the house is looking now. I’m going to have a house warming party later in March so my friends can see my new house and La Dalia

Other notable events in February:

I went to Matagalpa and watched the Super bowl with other PCVs it was pretty fun to hang out with everyone; I didn’t really care about the game although I almost won some money in score pool. Unfortunately since the game was broadcasted in Spanish I didn’t get to see the commercials which are honestly my favorite part.

I put on an English teacher workshop the second weekend in February for all the teachers in the La Dalia area. I had requested some money from a grant available at the US embassy but for some reason there was a breakdown in communication and I didn’t get the money in time. We still had a pretty good turnout though; I think not having the money made the logistics much easier. I just focused on what I was going to be teaching and didn’t worry about the other stuff. I was afraid that I had bit off more than I could chew but I was happy the way it turned out. Alison came up and helped me out and I had the assistance from Ishmael the Matagalpa university professor. The teachers all gave positive feedback so I think I will do another one later in the future, but now I will know what to organize better.I’m still doing my community English class in the evenings, it is going pretty well. I was co-teaching it with Ishmael but he is now working more at the university in Matagalpa so I have taken over as the sole teacher of the class. I was a little hesitant at first about the class but now that I am in charge I like it much better. We are using an English textbook that I borrowed from Ishmael which gives us a good guide and base to go from but I am starting to do more dynamic activities so that we aren’t just reading out the book the whole night. I am also still working on the students’ punctuality. It’s an uphill battle but I am determined haha so will see tonight if there is any improvement.

The biggest event of this month has been the start of the school year last week. If had to choose two words to describe school and the whole start up process here, I would say chaotically unorganized. We had a bunch of boring teacher meeting where I did absolutely nothing except get introduced then sit around and listen to rest of my teachers shout and argue with each other about various topics concerning their new schedules. Organization is not a strong point at Nicaraguan schools it seemed every day last week the schedule would change and the teachers would let the students go a few hours early so they could re-organize the schedule. I don’t know exactly why it took several tries but after talking with my fellow TEFL volunteers I learned that they were experiencing the same thing. In fact I learned today that the teachers are still working out the kinks in their schedules.

One interesting fact I learned at one of these boring meetings is that I got a new teaching counterpart. The one I had before that had gone through all the Peace Corps training and that had several years of teaching experience got moved to another school about an hour away from La Dalia. My new counterpart’s name is Mariling she is 23 and in her last year of university to be an English teacher. Her English is ok although she doesn’t understand me a lot of the time when I speak in English. She unfortunately didn’t receive any of the Peace Corps training just a quick call from my boss telling her what our role together is. I don’t feel that she quite understands what I am in the classroom for. So far I have just been sitting on the side while she does the teaching and then I read words off the board for the students to repeat back to me and proof read her lesson plans. When I called my boss for advice she said that I was right this was not my role and that is a common mistake that Nicaraguan teacher make when they first get a volunteer. When we plan together next I am going to bring this up so we can figure out how I can best be of service. I also want to talk to her about classroom management, because in my 7th grade classes they students are out of control. I am confident still that we can work out a solution.

Well that I all I have to say right now. I am going to post this today before the library closes. I will keep everybody updated on how things go at school more regularly from now on.

1/18/11

Well a lot has happened in the first weeks of the New Year. After I got back from Niquinohomo, I had chat with Alejando about when I was moving out. It wasn't the most welcoming conversation but I had told him before that I planned to move out after my obligatory six weeks were up, so it wasn't completely unexpected. It did catch me a little by surprise though. I told him that I hadn't had the opportunity to look around as much as I had hoped given the fact that I had been sick in Managua for the better part of December, but I would get right on it. So the next day I hit the streets looking for places to rent. I talked to some the other teachers in town to see if they knew of anything and got a few leads. I ended up going down to the Barrios de los the Maestros (Teacher neighborhood) and asking around just about a how much the average rent is. As luck would have it, one of the teachers I know, knew of a places that was for rent. She said would talk to the owner when she got back to town and see if I could rent it. Great I thought this is working out wonderfully. The Peace Corps had told us that it was better to find a Nicaraguan who could help with the negotiations because you'll end up getting a better price. Sometimes people like to aprovechar de los gringos as they say here because people see a gringo immediately think they can take advantage of him and make some extra money. Not something that is unique to Nicaragua obviously. I told my teacher friend I had to go to a conference but I'd be back in a week.

The conference that I went to was a counterpart training conference. My two counterparts Luis and Marlon from La Dalia came with me to the Vistamar beach resort. It was awesome place to have a training being right on the beach, but also a cruel torture being so close to the water and being stuck in a conference room all day. It wasn't all bad though we had a decent amount of time to relax in hammocks and go swimming in the ocean and pool. The water was lovely!! Nice and warm nothing like the Oregon coast where you feet go numb after the first ten minutes. During our free time my friends and I went swimming,body surfing and picking up shells. It was a lot of fun. We also learned a lot in the conference as well. We talked about teaching strategies, American and Nicaraguan values, the difference between Nica and Gringo time and the importance of communicating and working together. I think my counterparts learned a lot and had a good time. All the counterparts left the day before the volunteers did, because we had more session planned with TEFL 51 the group that came in a year before us. Although we had met them all in training charlas they really hadn't met us. We played some getting to know games and then had more sessions about various topics.

After a nice all expenses paid retreat at the beach it was time to head back to site. I was anxious to get back because Micheal the PC safety and security coordinator was coming on Friday to check out the house that I was going to be renting. The landlord upon seeing that I was gringo raised the price from 800 to 2000. Everybody including myself was surprised that she was taking advantage of me to such an extent. Needless to say I didn't get the house so Micheal and I went to look at some other possibilities that weren't quite as nice. I was pretty depressed over the weekend and worried about finding something in my price range. Monday I went out with Alejandro ready look again. He said he knew of a few people that might have something available. After looking around in the morning we found a teacher in the Teacher Neighborhood that was going to rent me a room in her house for 600. I was really excited to move. Today as I was packing up my stuff I got a call from another one of the teachers in the same neighborhood who said she was moving in with her dad and would rent me her entire house FURNISHED FOR ONLY 1000 CORDOBAS!!! I couldn't believe how lucky I was the house it great two stories and with a tv 2 beds a fridge and even a hammock all though I think I'm going to use my on hammock. The only thing I need to buy is a cooktop and gas tank! In the backyard there is a mango tree and mandarin orange tree!! So if anybody wants to come visit me I'd be happy to host you! You just have to make it up the miserable road from Matagalpa, although it much better in a SUV that in a school bus, haha.

In other news yesterday was the first day of my community English class. It was a good turn out of about 8 or 9 people. Most were English teachers a few university students and one actual first time English student who was completely lost. I am working with a university professor to start a Dalian English Teacher Association (DETA) to improve their methodology and pronunciation and other topics that they want to work on. I'm excited for the prospect of DETA because if everything works out will I leave DETA will continue without me. We'll see in two years from now.

More pictures to come of my house but you can get an idea of what the house looks like in my site visit photo album on facebook

Well that's all for now, hope 2011 is treating everybody well so far!

12/27/10

Merry Christmas everybody! I hope everybody had a great Christmas. Sorry for the long lapse in updates, I had come down with a bronchitis-like lung infection. So I ended up spending two weeks in Managua. There wasn't much to report since I spent most of my time going to see the PC doctors, hanging out in the PC office chatting with all the volunteers who were going back to the States for Christmas and watching A LOT of tv. I was kind of sad that I missed the Purissma festival which celebrates the virgin Mary on December 7th Although I did get to see some cool fireworks from my hotel. It was nice to stay in the hotel I had hot showers, free wifi and was able to watch American TV channels. Just by chance when I was channel surfing I saw that On the Rocks the A Capella group from my university was competing on The Sing Off on NBC. It was pretty cool to see the guys I went to school with and used to listen to every Friday in the student union, on national television. Unfortunately they didn't win, they got eliminated in the semi-finals. I personally believe that they got robbed because there was a group of washed up 60's era soul singers that had a professional career but “fell on hard times” according to them. I don't think they should have allowed them on the show since the rest were college and amateur groups but oh well I'm not a tv producer.

After returning to my site after my extended absence I picked up right were I left off … not doing much. Everybody is still on vacation but the town is hopping just like back home. Everybody is out shopping and selling everything from coffee beans to clothes and backpacks. I have lately been spending my mornings sitting on the porch with a cup of coffee that I have made myself (big thanks to my dad for coffee filter he sent me!) reading the newspaper trying to improve my Spanish and watching the world go by. Its really nice way for me to ease to the morning, since Nicaraguans are much more morning people than I am. I don't if this a real common thing for Nicaraguans to do but I think its not that unusual however I usually get a few visitors usually trying to sell me something because I'm a “rich gringo” sometimes I buy their stuff sometimes I don't. Another interesting thing I have learned is that Nicaraguans in general like their coffee super sweet. My host family adds like a cup of sugar to the pot and think its odd that I don't add any sugar to my coffee. But seriously what they are drinking is more coffee flavored sugar than sweeten coffee.

Recently I have met this Nicaraguan guy Milton through Alejando. He is around my age and has been pretty nice showing town and introducing me to his friends. Unfortunately he is introducing me as “This is Sam his a Peace Corps Volunteer teaching English, he doesn't go to church.” By that he means I'm not Evangelical like he and his friends are. I have mention before that my family in the US is Protestant a type of Catholic, but it doesn't seem to matter. I don't want to get into a religious debate with them, (even though Catholicism is a much older and historical religion than Evangelicalism before they split off, that is a bag of worms I don't want to open) because its pointless and their religious fervor is much stronger than mine. However in a town that appears appears to be very religious/Evangelical I don't want to be introduced and known as a godless heathen. For two obvious reasons, one I'm not and two it could make the next two years very uncomfortable and difficult to get work done in the community. So I'm going still hang out with Milton but I think I am also going to go by the Catholic church in town and see if I can meet some other friends who aren't quite as judgmental.

Right now I am spending the Christmas holiday with training host family because my host family in La Dalia doesn't celebrate Christmas, not sure why but it has something to do with their belief that Santa Claus is a pagan devil. I can accept that but since I don't share that belief I came down south and have really enjoyed my time here. It has been really nice to see them and catch up with. Christmas is celebrated much differently here. The majority of the celebration are done on the evening of 24th. We had a nice dinner with chicken stuffed with vegetables and other meat, it was really good. For dessert we all had rum cake called sopa borracha drunk soup and couple other delicious things. The rest of the evening we spent hanging out with family and shooting off fireworks and waving sparklers. Unfortunately something I ate did not agree with me and I spent most of Christmas day resting in bed or in the bathroom. I am still recovering I don't want to travel back sick to my stomach but I'm feeling a bit better than before I think in a few more day I'll be good as new.

My host dad's brother and his family came down from California to visit and we went to a quincera a big coming age birthday party for girls when they turn 15. We eat, drank a lot and danced late into the night. It was a lot of fun, the first one I have ever been to.

Before I came down to Niquinohomo I went to a coffee plantation with my counterpart Luis. This coffee plantation is out in the middle of nowhere about an hour outside of La Dalia. The owner of the plantation has set up a summer camp for the children of the coffee pickers so that they don't have to work in the fields with their parents. I was really impressed that he was so socially conscious avoiding child labor. At the camp I played soccer with the kids in the morning and then in the afternoon, we had an English class were Luis and I taught them some basic introduction phases and a little about family members. It was pretty fun, I am planning on going back with Alison in January.

Well that's all for now I hope everybody back home is having a great holiday season!

So my first week in site has been pretty slow. I have had a lot of free time, a lot of free time! In my daily fight against boredom I have spent the majority of my day reading, listening to music and NPR podcasts and playing solitaire. I haven't been couped up in my room the whole week, today was actually the first day since I have been here that spent at all home. I have been hanging out a lot with my sitemate Alison, she is really cool and I am sure I would go stir crazy during these vacation months if I didn't have her company.

Monday she and I went to the City Hall and met the mayor, city manager and an environment official. They all seem really excited to work with us, which is great. Alison has already worked some with the environment official because she is an environmental education volunteer. Other than the people at City Hall I have had a bit of difficulty getting to know people around town. When I was here during my site visit I met this very nice lady who worked at the library she seems interested in working with me in the future. However when I went back she wasn't there, I have introduced myself to other couple people in the library which I think would be a good place to possibly do some community English classes but they seem kind of apathetic. I told another Peace Corps friend of mine who is on her second tour with Peace Corps, she told it more likely that they don't know much about Peace Corps or what to make me and not take it personal. I think this good advice which I am taking to heart. Right now I'm less concerned with get secondary projects started and more concerned about just meeting people and making friends. Once I make some friends I know won't be so bored.

On Tuesday I went to visit Alison at the school where she and my host dad work they had a little graduation for the students and then a secret Santa party where they give each gifts. I didn't get a gift because I wasn't part of the school but it was fun to watch. Later that night I went to a family gathering with my host family for some family member high school graduation. The power went out shortly after I arrived so the family chatted and ate dinner around a single candle, it was pretty interesting.

Wednesday Alison came up to visit me and we went back and talked with the city manager about renting a house here in town. He said he knew a few places he would check on and get back to me. It really nice to have his help since there is no real estate agent or even classifieds here it all by word of mouth and occasional signs on houses. The rest of the afternoon we spent at the internet cafe. I found another internet cafe which is much faster than the one in library. Its a little more expensive but totally worth it because I can Skype with my family and download podcasts much easier. My counterpart Luis came up from Matagalpa to visit with me and finish up a group essay the he and Alejandro are working on for their university class.

Today I haven't really done much I just hung out some with my host family and watched movies with the little kids. Nothing to exciting. Although this evening another English teacher Ishmael came by to talk about the community English class we talked about during my site visit. Ishmael is a really cool guy. His English is amazing he has almost a native accent which is even more impressive considering that he has never been to the US. He teaches English at the university in Matagalpa and with works with various NGOs around the department. What we are planning on doing is having a English teachers class where we focus more on advanced topics class discussion and other things the teachers want to work on. The second class would be for community members who are not English teachers. I am really looking forward to working together with him. He also might have an house I could rent which would be really nice as well. I won't be moving out until the first week of January so I have some to check out my options and get my final choice approved by the PC Safety and Security officer.

Tomorrow I'm going into Matagalpa to run some errands and meet up with fellow PCVs for lunch it will be a nice break. Sunday Alison and I have been invited to help cut coffee as a fundraiser for my host family church. Its going to be an interesting experience I am sure I'll be sure to report on how it goes.

11/26/10

It's official! I am finally a volunteer I finished my 3 months of training and now I am setting off my quest to improve Nicaraguan high school students' knowledge of English. All 43 of us came down to Managua on Sunday to get ready for the swearing ceremony the next day. The ceremony was great very similar setup to college graduation without the gowns. We had two people from our group give valedictorian speech in which they thanks the training staff and our host families for all their hard work and congratulated us for making it through training to become full fledged volunteers. I am really grateful for my host family. Especially after the problems I had with first host family, my second family took me in as own of their own family members. In fact my group of Nica 54 half environment and half TEFL is one of the few groups that made it through the entire training without somebody having to return back the States for medical or behavior reasons. Although I had nothing really to do with that I'm very proud of my group overall, and it was great to see all the same faces at the swearing ceremony that were in Granada.

The ceremony was held a super nice hotel in Managua. In attendance was the American Ambassador, as the keynote speaker, our Peace Corps Country Director, Training Director, and Program Directors. They all gave motivating speeches congratulating us on the progress we had made so far inspiring and motivating us for the challenges and successes we are going to have during our service. I really enjoyed the Ambassador's speech. He is a 30 year career diplomat and has worked around the world and he told us that no matter what projects and aid the US gives to developing countries, the most effective way to facilitate change and serve the people is by doing what we are doing. By living amongst the people we are serving we are showing them another side our American culture. His speech give me chills it was definitely on of my proudest moments. I really hope that I can improve my community stereotype beliefs that American are only good for their money filled wallets. I know there are already a few English teachers in La Dalia who have seen the professional and economic benefits of learning a foreign language, my only hope is that I can plant that seed it my high school students' heads.

After the ceremony I took my host mom out to lunch to thank her for all love and support she has given me, I wish that the rest of the family was able to come but they were busy with school and work. After lunch I returned back to the hotel to get ready for an early Thanksgiving dinner at our Peace Corps Country Director's house. The food was amazing!! I wasn't really expecting much since Nicaraguans don't celebrate thanksgiving and so probably wouldn't have all the traditional supplies. I was just happy to spend it with friends. I was dead wrong this was an amazing Thanksgiving with all the fixings you could possible imagine! Everything from sweet potatoes with marshmallows to cranberry sauce, green beans, and of course lots of mashed potatoes stuffing and turkey. I was very impressed it was so much fun the perfect send off for us all.

I was really excited to get to my site and start getting settled except I ended having to stay in the hotel in Managua for a week and get over my bronchitis that has been with me for about 3 weeks. Its been kinda boring especially after most the volunteers left on Tuesday. Fortunately there were other volunteers who were sick and so we were able to keep each other company. As infirmaries go the hotel the we were put up in was really nice. Wireless internet, cable tv with american channels and a pool I felt kind of spoiled and a little a sad to leave. However I made it back to La Dalia today (on saturday) I am just as glad to be back to my site. Managua is in nice to visit but like any big city its expensive and much more dangerous than my site.

I had hoped to get back before Friday so I could attend the last TEPCE teacher conference of the year, and introduce and establish myself, but it didn't work out. I don't really know what I am going to do over the summer break. I don't start teaching until the end of January. Its kind of a weird feeling having all this free time. During training we were always scheduled to do something, attending charlas, co-teaching and planning and daily Spanish class. There was always something to do and now we are really on our own, I am both excited and nervous about being on my own. As result I don't know how much I will have to write about until school starts but I will try and keep up on the weekly schedule. This week I am going to meet the mayor and police and librarian so I can start reading more in Spanish. I am also going to go visit my site mate who lives down the road. She is and environment volunteer and so has more of a to do list before school starts so maybe I can help her out with that.

Well that's all for nowHasta pronto!A rainbow of Peace Corp PolosThe new Matagalpans!Ambassador Callhan and I

The new TEFL Volunteers

For more pictures check out my facebook page. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2397380&id=11521764&l=c56394a9cc

11/12/10

I wanted to post this update earlier but I have been battling a cold and just haven't had the energy to do much. It seems that even in the tropics I can't get away from the winter cold. However I talked to the Peace Corps doctors and they are giving me some medicine that will hopefully help kick this cold to the curb. So while I'm feeling ok right now I wanted to update everybody on how my trip to La Dalia went. The bus ride is not particularly long. The longest leg is only two hours but from Niquinohomo there are 3 legs making the whole journey just under 5 hours. It’s a bit of a trek but not nearly as long as some my other friends so I'm not going to complain. I also had the company of my site mate Alison so having someone to talk made the time go by faster. Alison is in the Environment Education sector and is living in the neighboring town just down the road from me. I imagine that we will be collaborating a bit on projects together over the next two years. Overall the trip is very scenic especially once you get to Matagalpa you start to get in to coffee country and are able to see the many different stages of the coffee harvest, it’s very interesting.

I really like La Dalia overall as I said before. Upon my arrival I was met by my counterpart Luis he is very nice and seems anxious to work with me. He is 25 and speaks English very well. My other counterpart is Marlon he also speaks great English and is in his early 30's. Both of my counterparts live in Matagalpa which is just over 90 minutes south of La Dalia. The both teach all week and then take English class at the university in Matagalpa on Saturday. I don't know how that is going to affect my co-planning relationship with them, but I imagine I am going to be making weekly trips in to Matagalpa for shopping and banking purposes so I'm sure I can work out some schedule with them. Also noteworthy Luis has won a scholarship placement to an international teacher conference that will be for 6 weeks in Washington DC. He is very excited because this will be his first time in the United States. He wants to see some of the sights and ride a subway which I clarified for him that he won't be able to see anything from because it’s underground. This is a great experience for him because I'm sure he will come back with a lot of great ideas, however I am a little nervous because his conference will take place during the first 6 weeks of school. This means I will be working with a substitute for my first 6 weeks teaching at the school. It’s going to be interesting – that's for sure. My school has a sister school partnership with a high school in Boden Sweden. So my counterpart Marlon has been working with them a lot both in Sweden and in La Dalia. There is a good chance that I will be involve in part of this sister school relationship however I doubt my Peace Corps bosses will let me take trip to Sweden if the opportunity arises, but you never know ….right?

On Friday I was invited to a workshop on classroom discipline held at the school, a very important topic in my line of work so I went along. It was actually pretty interesting. The school principal was talking about the importance of proper behavior especially when the graduating students go to university. He introduce me and shared what my role would be, then after some more talking the students broke up into groups to work on a survey. During the break I went to join some students and teachers who were getting some refreshments. I was sitting with my counterpart when some girls came up asked him for some pronunciation help for their final group project, and he referred them to me. I was happy to help in any way I could. The girls' project was to sing a song in English, the song they had chosen was “Down” by Jay Sean. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUbpGmR1-QM So we listened to the song on one of the girls' cell phones while reading the lyrics and practicing the pronunciation of some of the words. Afterwards the principal came around and called us all back to the classroom for the rest of the workshop. At the end the principal said “to close Sam and some girls are going to sing for use”. I was caught by surprised, but anybody who knows me knows I have never been a shy karaoke singer. I was not nearly quite embarrassed as the girls were but with some coaxing they finally came up and we sang together, it was pretty hilarious. A lot of students took videos so I'm going to see if I can get a copy.

My new host family is a nice young couple. The dad Alejandro is 26 years old and is a high school English teacher in a nearly by town and the mom Diana is 23 years old, she is a stay at home mom who looks after their 4 year old daughter Michelle. She is very cute and like most children that age very curious she told me on a nearly constant basis that I was very tall. There is also a large extended family that is over at the house on a daily basis so there is a never dull moment. My host family here in Niquinohomo is young but a little older than me, however in La Dalia my host family and one counterpart are all around the same age as me so it’s a different relationship. On Sunday Alison and I went out with my whole family to the river for the day. It was a lot of fun we drove out to this spot then hiked down to the swimming hole. There were rock cliffs that were around 20 feet high that we climbed up and jumped off. Alejando and his friend were climbing up as high as they could to do flips off the rocks and nearby trees. There were also other less dangerous places to play around where I spent more time, I did not want to fall and break some and have to spend a long uncomfortable ride to the hospital. We took a picnic out there and had a great time. I am anxious to explore the rest of the Peñas Blancas and Piedra Luna area.

However due to some unforeseen circumstances I planning to move out as soon as my first 6 weeks are up. As of now I haven't really done much in depth investigation of other housing options but I have some a few leads that I am going to investigate when I get back. One of which is a subdivision like neighborhood called Barrios de los Maestros it’s a neighborhood of about 50 identical houses that were built by a Spanish NGO so that the teachers of La Dalia could have adequate housing. In my opinion they are far more than adequate. My counterpart Luis showed them to me and said that a lot of the teachers from my school live there, and that they were subsidize so the teachers could afford them. So I hopefully I can afford to rent one on my budget.

My work schedule at school is going about 16 hours a week I believe so I imagine that it will be split up between morning and afternoon sessions with both counterparts. When I wasn't at school I was walking around town trying to meet as many of the important people as possible. I met my local Ministry of Education delegate and Sub delegate they are in charge of the school’s curriculum so they were very interested to learn what my role as Peace Corp Volunteer would be as well as my role in the classroom. I also meet the librarian and some other local English teachers who are interested in starting an English conversation group as well as a constructing an English audio lab in the school. I'm excited that I already have some projects to work on before over the summer break. Although I know the audio lab project is going to take a long time. I wasn't able meet the mayor or the police chief but I am planning to meet them with my site mate Alison when I get back.

I am swearing in just about a week I can't believe how fast training has gone by. I am really going to miss my Niquinohomo host family but I am anxious to get back to La Dalia and get started on some of my projects. When I get the school will just be getting out for the summer/Christmas vacation, although I will have a chance to meet and greet some of the other teachers in the area at the last TEPCE of the year.

Tomorrow my Niquinohomo group is finally giving our presentation of communicative speaking activities at the Regional English Teacher workshop. So I have to go meet with my group to put the final touches on our presentation.

Hasta Pronto

See this link for my pictures from La Dalia http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2394688&id=11521764&l=b16e236861

Hola Todos!

To all my loyal followers I haven't really had time to write a full post I have been doing a lot of meeting and greeting. I like my site I'm up in the mountains and its really nice and warm (Oregon warm, not Nicaragua warm). I met my teachers and students at my school and everybody seem really excited to work with the new gringo!

More soon!

10/30/10

I finally got my site placement! I'm going to be going to be living in La Dalia in the department of Matagalpa. I am a little disappointed that I didn't get any of my preferences because I had my heart set on of a department capital. However it does have some of the important aspects that I told my boss that I was looking for in a site It is up in the mountains, it not a one horse town and there is going to be several NGO's and an environment Peace Corps volunteer that I can collaborate on projects so that will be nice. The only thing I wish is that it wasn't 2 hours away from Matagalpa my department capital where I will have to go for the bank, post office any big shopping that I want to do. Oh well I sure it will all work out fine. I have this weekend to pack up half my stuff and take it with me. I am planning on taking the majority of my clothes and Peace Corps books in my rolling suitcase then I take up the rest of my stuff when I go up after my swearing ceremony. I leave Tuesday morning for Managua spent the night there then get up the next morning and make the trip up north. I think the trip is about 4 hours long, a little longer than I would have preferred but as long as I don't have to standing the whole trip it should be fine. If I am lucky I can get an express bus to Matagalpa then catch another regular bus to La Dalia from there .

Yesterday was pretty fun though we got up early and were picked up by the Peace Corps bus and taken on a secret cultural field trip. I think our Peace Corps bosses have an obsession with secrecy because almost everything we do is shrouded in secrecy up until we do are on the way there. Anyway we are on our way down the highway when we are finally told we're we are going to go see the historical battlefield at Hacienda San Jaciento. This is where one of the most important battles in Nicaragua's history took place. Back it the mid 1800's this crazy American named William Walker invaded Nicaragua with about 60 other mercenaries and tried to take over the country. He burnt down the city of Granada and declared himself president of the country. It didn't end well Walker he and his men lost at San Jaciento and Walker was later executed. This day is celebrated on September 14th along with the 15th of September during their independence festivals.

After we left San Jaciento when went to the Peace Corp office. which is in a nice neighborhood of Managua surrounded by nice houses and hotels. From the street the office though seems kind of out of place. It just a high light blue wall gate with just a simple sign Cuerpo de Paz sign outside. There's no flag or Peace Corps symbol visible anywhere from the street, all for security reason I imagine. The way we found out our site a was fun but a little stressful. We all filed into this conference room to see a map of Nicaragua one side of the room and a bulletin board with a bunch of balloons taped to it on the other side. We had to throw a dart a balloon which had a name and site in it then read it off. It was a lot better than just reading off a list I thought.

Well that's all for now I let you know how La Daria is when I get back from my site visit

Hasta Pronto!

War MemorialHanging out in Giant Tree

At San Jaciento Hacienda

:La Dalia Here I come!

10/24/10

Practicum Week was incredible! I loved Jinotega and didn't want to leave. Last Sunday I headed to Managua with the rest of my Niquinohomo crew. We met up with the rest of the TEFL group at the bus station where a Peace Corps bus picked us up and took us to a nice hotel. We were super spoiled there we had wireless internet, hot showers and AIR CONDITIONING! It was so nice and to top it all off we had pizza from Pizza Hut which tasted amazing after eating mainly rice and beans for the past several weeks.

We left bright and early the next morning for Matagalpa and Jinotega. We dropped of half the group in Matagalpa and continues up to Jinotega. The drive up was very scenic as we climbed up into the mountains. It reminded me a lot of Oregon with all the greenery and rolling hills. The city of Jinotega is really nice for a department capital. It had all the big city things likes supermarkets and banks and a variety of other things but not the chaotic big city feeling, which I feel my current department capital Masaya definitely has. The weather was heavenly not too hot and not to cold. It rained a little the first night we were there but afterward I was sunny and warm. It was really nice to give my sweat glands a break since the have been working over time since I arrived in Nicaragua.

Upon our arrival Jinotega we went directly to meet our counterparts at the house of a 3rd year volunteer who had helped to organized this week for us. My partner Megan and I were introduced to our counterpart Edgar who taught at the biggest high school in town, Instituto Benjamin Zeledon. In Nicaragua because there usually more students than there are schools, there are morning and afternoon sessions. Megan I and I were were assigned to the afternoon session, which was nice because it meant we didn't have to get up at the crack of dawn to be at school by 7am. Having the afternoon session which started at 12:30pm, also meant we were able to do any finalizing to our lesson plans which was also nice. After talking with Edgar about his classes and what he had taught already Megan and I split up the class schedule. Edgar only teaches 9th,- 11th grade, I was eager to get as much teaching experience I could so I took his 10th and 11th grade classes and Megan took his 9th grade classes. I was a little worried that I had bitten off more than I could chew but in the end it all worked out well and not a single class got canceled. Rather than co-teaching the classes,as is the norm for the PC Nicaragua TEFL program, our role for the week was to ‘take over’ the various classes of our counterpart teacher and teach them individually. The non-teaching PC trainee Edgar were to observe each class and at the end of the day a reflection session was held so as to provide feedback and suggestions for improvement before the next day’s classes.

On Tuesday I went to give my first class, the topic was natural disasters. I had been told by Edgar that they had been given the vocabulary and that he wanted me to review that and help them write a small description of each natural disaster. It would have been nice to be able to start the class from the beginning of the lesson instead of dropping in, in the middle but, it all worked out in the end. I started the class with a warm up. I had the students stand up with me and sing the first two lines of “I feel the earth move under my feet, I feel the sky a tumbling down, a tumbling down.” I did a little dance that mimed the lyrics so I was moving my feet and shaking my hands. Some of the students did the dance with me but most just stood and laugh at me wondering what this crazy gringo was doing. After that I ask if anybody knew what natural disaster this song was about, and one of the student answered correctly with earthquake, so I accomplished my objective. The rest of the class went pretty well first I give them an example of how I wanted them to describe the natural disaster. After I was pretty sure they understood the instructions, I broke them up into groups where they worked on an assigned natural disaster then they presented to the class. I was pretty happy how it went but need to improve my instruction giving and clarity.

On Wednesday, I had two back to back classes of 11th grade. The topic was comparing American and Nicaraguan children and households. We talked about things like how American children usually move out after they graduate high school and go to live on their own. While in Nicaragua students that go to college usually go to a college near to home so that they can come home at night, or if its far away they stay with family members. Or how they usually stay at home until they are married working to support their parents while Americans don't. After working together we had a handful of comparisons, I then assigned each group one and they had to come up with pros and cons. I helped translate things into English that they didn't know. The class went surprisingly well the students were engaged and participated in the class and group activities. I was very impressed because I was afraid it wasn't going to be an interesting topic. I was very excited for the second class because it was the same grade and same topic and one of my teaching directors was coming to observe me. So I wanted to repeat the success I had had in my earlier class. Unfortunately the second class BOMBED! I don't know exactly what happened but it was like I was speaking Chinese to them. They were stone walling me. Unlike the earlier class where there was a lot of participation, in this class only two students out of a class of nearly 50 were answering my questions. Needless to say my planned discussion activity did not go well and I still had 80 minutes of my 90 minute class to kill. Instead of having them discuss the differences between the two countries like I did in the earlier class I just had them talk in their group about the pros and cons of having a lot of freedom. After we broke up into groups things seem to pick up a little while they were working together and by the end I was surprised how many ideas they had come up with. In the end it wasn't a complete failure and I did a lot of things well my director told me but he said the student were like zombies. The moral to this story is even though the classes sections are the same grade and same topic taught by the same teacher don't have preconceived notions that they will be the same.

In addition to all of the other things going on this week, we also had our second round of site selection interviews. In our second weeks of training all of the TEFL trainee had preliminary interviews with the director of TEFL program in Nicaragua . Among other questions about our professional and educational backgrounds, she asked us about our preferences in terms of our permanent sites. I know I have talk a lot about my preferences before so I won't go into depth about that again. We just talked about my climate and site size preferences. I told her the I prefer cooler climates and bigger cities and why. I felt the interview when pretty well, its different than a job interview where you may or may not get the job. I know I'll be placed somewhere and my director understood that the reasons for my preferences were more that superficial, so we'll see. I find out my site this Friday I can't wait, this shroud of secrecy has been killing me!!

All in all, I really enjoyed practicum week and the experience was extremely rewarding. Having missed the opportunity to teach in Niquinohomo, I appreciated both the opportunity to manage a classroom of my own, not having to mind stepping on the toes of a co-teacher, and also the insight, and critiques of my colleagues. I am going to try and improve the clarity of my instructions. Edgar it turns out is the president of the Jinotega English teachers association, so if I end up getting placed there ( which would be amazing! fingers crossed!) I hope to would work with him on that.Lastly because it worth mentioning Jinotega has amazing coffee! They produce they majority of Nicaraguan coffee. Unfortunately the export their best stuff out of the country because the Nicaraguans don't drink it mainly because of the cost it think.. Unfortunately the drink mainly instant coffee that you just stir into you cup. Good coffee is one the thing I really miss from back home and especially from Spain. So I bought myself and my host family a bag of the best kind made. It was great I went to a cooperative where they made it and sold it in the coffee shop next door. Just one of the many reasons I loved Jinotega.Central Park in Jinotega

View of from my hotel roomMountains view More pictures to come!

Practicum week is here!! I am going to be spending a week in the mountain city of Jinotega! I couldn't be more excited, from everything I have read in my guidebook it sounds amazing. Plus it will nice to give my sweat glands the week off. With the help of a 3rd year TEFL volunteer we will be shadowing a Nicaraguan teacher for a week. We will be teaching at least 3 of our counterpart's classes (hopefully more) while our counterpart and TEFL partner observe us and give us feedback. When we aren't teaching we are observing or planning with our partner for the next class.

Other than the cooler climate and amazing coffee that I have heard so much about, what I am really looking forward to is the opportunity to teach. I don't know if I have mention briefly before but I have not had the best of luck teaching here. I have not taught a single class here, which is frustrating to say the least. I have gone to school like 5 times with my lesson in hand and struck out every single time. The causes vary from rain storms and school being canceled. Band practice in which all the students are practicing for some important parade during school hours and class being canceled. Surveys and census taking for my grades and so student are not in class. Unfortunately the last day I went some student from the class I was going to teach had committed suicide and so understandably class was canceled.

There is an interesting phase that I have heard a lot since I have been here and that's Sí Dios Quiere which in English is literally “if god wills it” but I think we say more god willing. This is a very strange concept for your typical American myself included. I am not a church going person but I know a lot people who are and I have never heard anyone say anything like I'll come to that meeting or we'll have class at this time god willing. Maybe that is just because of the importance of time in the American culture, but those are things I hear often here. However I think its so much more than time conflicts happen which everywhere, but the number of times and reasons my classes have been canceled is astonishing. It really makes you think that the phrase is true and maybe the big man upstairs is just not on your side. It's disappointing but I don't let it get me down I just shine it on and look forward to the next opportunity. Apparently god has a lot more power in this neck of woods. So sí Dios quiere I will teach class in Jinotega and I will teach 3 days at my instituto when I get back back to Niquinohomo.

I'll let you know how everything goes when I get back.

10/9/10

So we have reached the halfway point of training YAY!! Sorry for the delay of last week's entry I don't have the luxury of having internet in my new host family's house. Its not a huge inconvenience since during the week I walk past two internet cafes on my way to Spanish class. Its just means I have to be more organized and plan my trips out better.

Week five has flown by just like every week is now. The new host family is great! They are actually having conversations with me which is nice. In addition to that I am having to turn away food because it too much as opposed to having to ask for more.

On Friday we received the list of sites where we'll be placed for the next two years. The site list has about 20 different sites in almost every region of the country. This year they are even putting a couple brave volunteers on the Atlantic coast in Bluefields which is a first for TEFL. That should be exciting its apparently like a whole different country and culture over there. Unfortunately its also takes an all day journey to get there from Managua, because you have to take a combination of buses and boats. Sounds like a cool place to visit but definitely not the place for me. Being the native Oregonian that I am, I don't think I have ever sweated as profusely as I have here with little to no physical effort. Sometimes I'll just be sitting in class, but by judging how sweaty I am, you'd think I just finished running a marathon. So when I read about sites up in the mountains where the climate is a little cooler I knew that was the place for me. Ideally I'd love to be in Matagalpa or the immediate surrounding area. My main priorities are climate and distance from Managua both which a favorable. Our site descriptions don't actually mention the sites by name but give enough descriptive clues that its pretty easy to figure where the are. Matagalpa seems nice because its up in the mountains surrounded by trees and coffee plantations. Ideally I would like a site that is close enough to Managua that I don't have to spend long journeys on small cramped buses in order to get to meetings and doctor appointments. In addition to that the big city sites all say that the ideal person would be ready to hit the ground running, which I feel fits me well because I am anxious to put all my training knowledge to work.

Today we went to the Masaya volcano which was amazing! Also really cool was that we were able to meet up with the Environment half of our group which is always fun because we don't get to see our friends from that group often. This volcano is active so you see lots smoke billowing out from below, I looked over the ledge hoping to see the bottom and some molten rock but wasn't able to . The funniest thing about the volcano was the safety precautions, they had everybody park their cars facing the exit in the event of an eruption. Given the fact that you are allow to drive up to the top of the volcano and park within a few yards of the ledge. In the event of an eruption did happen I seriously doubt the direction car was parked would really matter. Another contradicting warning said that in the event of an eruption hide under your cars to protect yourself from flying debris. I personally believe you're chancing of living are not high in either situation.

That all the news I have for right now. Monday we have a site fair where we will talk to current volunteers about what their sites are like and then turn in our top 3 preferences. After that we have to wait another two weeks while our program directors make their final decisions. In a week from now we will be traveling north to Matagalpa or Jinotega to shadow a Nicaraguan English teacher for a week. This is going to be a great opportunity for us a trainees to see what a day in the life as a real English teacher is like. I am really hoping for Matagalpa so I can check out the city before I make my final decision about preferences.

So I will have lots to report on soon!

Nicaraguan landscape looking out from the volcano veiwpoint

Looking into the fiery pit

My Environment Amiga Sara and I

Funny curbs alterating in English and Spanish

TEFL 54 minus 3 girls who were sick so we wrote their names on the papers so they'd be still with us

10/4/10

This is my one month anniversary of being in Nicaragua now only 26 more to go haha. Said like that it sounds like a prison sentence which is not what I intended. My fourth week of training went pretty well nothing really exciting to report on that front. We had some interesting technical classes about needs assessment in the community another about gender roles and stereotypes. It was very enlightening because we talked about cultural norms in the US versus Nicaragua. We as one month old trainees have come that point in our culture shock/adjustment that we are more surprised by things that don't fit the Nicaraguan cultural norm more than the American norm. For example seeing the packed buses with people hanging the back is still remarkable but now its just a way of life. What is more surprising is seeing a husband cooking or cleaning around the house. I found that to be an interesting change in perception of culture. Also of interest, last Friday some other PC trainees and I went to observe and occasionally offer our opinion at the monthly TEPCE teacher conference. TEPCEs are when all the high school teachers in your school district come and talk about the past months' topics and plan for the upcoming month. The Nicaraguan English teachers were all very happy to have us participating in the conference and sharing ideas. One of the main debates among the teachers was about the topics they are learning, such as climate change, which is a very important topic but is English class the right place to learn about it? They asked would class time be more beneficial for the students to instead focus on building a stronger base with the most important verb tenses and grammatical structure? On the other hand is it better to teach advanced topics to improve vocabulary, despite whether or not they understand the grammatical structure? We were able to come to an agreement that they are both important. Having a large vocabulary doesn't do you any good if you can't express your ideas, and put them into sentences. However English grammar like grammar in general is boring, so it important to introduce new topics so that the students stayed interested. I have really enjoyed learning about how someone learns a foreign language. Its completely different from how we learned English as children. The big news events of the past week are first my volunteer visit got canceled. Curse you Hurricane Matthew!! Because of the excess amount of rain that fell during the week the hurricane was here a lot of the roads, highways and bridges around the country got flooded and or washed away as a result. The Peace Corps didn't not want to send us out to different parts of the country, and take the risk that some of us would be stranded in route or at site and not be able to get back. In fact one of the current volunteers that came and talked at one of our technical sessions last week had been stranded from her site for close to a week because the only bridge the goes into her town was under water. Fortunately the Peace Corps office paid for her to stay in a hotel in Managua until she was able to return. That being said I completely understand and agree with their judgment call, but I was still disappointed. Ironically now today was very sunny and there isn't a cloud in the sky. Although I don't have any how conditions outside of Niquinohomo, because were told not to leave are training town except for training classes which we were picked up and driven to.

My other big new of this week is that I have changed host families. I am still in Niquinohomo just on the other side of town and much closer to the high school which is nice. Early Saturday morning a Peace Corps driver came by in the standard PC big white land rover and picked me up and took me over to my new family. It was kinda of weird because got to my new house quickly shook hands with my host family members, dropped of my bags. Then got back in the car to catch up with the PC bus that was taking everybody to the neighboring department for a training session with the environment half of Nica 54.

The back story on why I changed host families is this, it all boiled down to 3 main issues. Firstly , before me my host family had only hosted girls trainees which is not bad thing, but some Nicaraguan women and girls as a result of their cultural up bringing are very quiet around men. This isn't the same across the country or even towns as I found out talking with other trainees' host families. However in my host family which was comprised of 5 females and 2 two males the only person who really talked to at any length was my host mom. The rest of the family was kinda apathetic that I was there. Most conversation I had with them was small chat that stopped shortly after “How was your day?” I found this to be very odd because I meet the girl who lived with my host family before me at the training orientation in Granada. She told me that they were a great family, very sociable and that she still goes by and visits when she is in the area. I unfortunately did not have the same relationship with them I believe that it mostly has to do with the cultural issue, that being said I don't know why the husband of the oldest daughter or my host dad rarely talked to me. The second and third issue was about food quantity and variety. One of principle expectations of Peace Corps is flexibility, so I knew when I came to Nicaragua that things would be different, and I was OK with that. A normal breakfast for me included two pieces of semi-stale bread and a glass of juice. For lunch and dinner it was usually a variation of a meager portion of Gallo Pinto( fried rice and beans) or regular rice and beans with boiled plantains and super salty cheese for lunch and dinner. Not the greatest but I was adapting to the Nicaraguan cuisine and trying to be as flexible as possible. I knew there was more to the Nicaraguan cuisine because I had seen people selling it around town. After hearing stories from other volunteers and seeing in person the big disparity between what they were eating and what I was eating, I knew there was a problem. I knew it wasn't a financial problem because they had internet and satellite TV in addition to getting a relatively large bi-monthly stipend to host me. So I talked to my Spanish teacher and he gave me some tips about how to change my meal situation.

An interesting side note here in Nicaragua if you are trying to change something indirect communication is the key. For example a lot of the volunteers here myself included don't like the boiled plantains they are very starchy and have a texture similar to an undercooked baked potato but worse taste. Instead of saying I don't like these boiled plantains I said when I was eating fried plantains one night that fried plantains were much better than boiled plantains. It worked wonders and I stopped being served boiled plantains. It took a little longer to get the message across that I didn't like the salty cheese but after 3 or 4 attempts I was able to get my point across more directly than indirectly. Saving face is very important in Nicaraguan culture so anything critical is said indirectly.

Anyways so after I talked them my meal situation improved slightly the biggest improvement came after I mention something to one of my PC trainers not only about my small portions and lack of variety but about that lack of conversation. They agreed with me that was odd and went to talked to them in more of a direct manner than I was expecting. After my host mom talked with the Peace Corps suddenly I started to receiving more food and more fruits and vegetables. I was much happier. A week later I received a call from my training director asking how things were going. I told her that the food situation and had improve and my host mom was really making an effort to talk to me more but the family conversation level had not improved. That is when she decide to move me because she wanted me to have a family where I could talk and improve my Spanish skills. I was hesitant at first because I wanted to avoid any awkward situations that involve the question “Why don't like our family” as I have experienced before. My director say that Peace Corps would take the bullet, so to speak and leave me out of it. However I was inevitably asked by my host mom and dad at separate time “Peace Corps says you are moving why don't you like our family?” I started with the excuse that I wanted to stay but they were making me moved, but at the end of the night I finally had an honest direct conversation with my host mom about the issues at stake. It felt good to get off my chest that it wasn't personal she had made a great effort to improve my food situation and that I really appreciated that however the rest of the family wasn't talking to me and Peace Corps felt that it was really important that I was in a more talkative family. I understand the importance of indirect communication and saving face but sometimes its just easier to put your cards on the table and say what you need to say, instead beating around the bush.

It has been almost a week now since I moved and I am very happy I took Peace Corps advice and moved. My new host family is much more open and talkative. Meals are great I have much greater variety of food and quantity so much that I had to tell my host mom to serve me less because I can't eat some much. They are in their mid 30's and have to young daughters and so far everything is going great. My host dad just got home from work so I am going to sign off and go talk with him and the family.

Until next time stay classy!!

9/25

Bienviendos

Just to let everyone know in case you were worried Hurricane Matthew has made landfall in Nicaragua but it came a shore on the northeastern coast, and I'm living on the other side of the country. So this weekend Niquinohomo has just received a lot of rain and a little wind, sometimes it comes down in buckets sometimes in a little mist but its almost always raining. Saturday I walked out in my raincoat, rubber boots and shorts that stopped short of the top of my boots, (I know what your thinking, and yes I looked pretty amazing I'm sure the fashion trend will catch on soon.) I wanted to take some pictures of the flooded streets and to document my first hurricane. While I was out despite what I had heard from there were still quite a number of people out. There were people on bikes people in moto taxis, a group of soccer players trudging their way in the torrential rain up the small river that was flowing down the street. I have noticed that games here don't really get call here on account of rain like back home but maybe they made an exception just this once. Its kinda funny with all the cooler weather and rain. I feel like I'm back home in Oregon for the start of fall. Its been really pleasant in the high 70's I'm still in shorts and a t-shirt and not constantly sweating which is nice for a change. My host family on the other hand is bundled in long pants and layered sweaters and walk around the house and constantly talking about how cold is. They are quite surprised I am not cold even though I have told them that being from Oregon I'm use to this weather, they however are certain I am going to get a fever and a cold. The Peace Corps has been giving all volunteers daily updates about flood dangers but luckily Niquinohomo is in hills so there isn't a big danger of flood or landslides from what I can tell. I don't want anybody back to worry the Peace Corps is talking very good care of us.

Other than the recent weather excitement three weeks into pre-service training (PST) is going pretty well. This week has just flown by it seems. I have started to observe classes at the high school in Niquinohomo which has been really interesting. I also have been able to start co-planning English with my Nicaraguan counterpart Juan, and from what I have seen he seem like a great teacher very full of energy. In the class that I observed Juan was teaching his students about the greenhouse effect and it's harmful effects on the environment all in English. I was very impressed both with his vocabulary level and that his students were able to understand such an advanced topic taught in a foreign language. I never did anything close to that in my high school Spanish class. The only time Juan spoke in Spanish was to give a translation of vocab or a concept check, otherwise it was all in English. So I am looking forward to working with him next week. We planned to incorporate more activities that get the students talking instead of just copy down notes from the board. I had scheduled to teach with hm on Thursday but I just found out at my weekly Friday TEFL training class, that next week's class has been moved to Thursday. I'm going to have to work out that wrinkle because I'm required to co-teach at least 4 classes, by a certain week. The only problem is PST is so full with Spanish class, training classes plus working around Juan's schedule makes scheduling a little difficult. If I am unable to fit in a class this coming week then I just have to do it next Thursday or in week 6. I am confident it will all work out.

During week 5 I get to go visit another TEFL volunteer in their site for few days. All the trainees will be out visiting current volunteers Sunday 10/3 – Wednesday 10/6. I'll find out where I'm going this Wednesday during my TEFL training class. I am really looking forward to that! I will be really cool to get out of my training town and see how life as a real Peace Corps Volunteer is.

In other news I went to Masaya (the departmental capital) on Thursday with my Spanish class to check out the city. Masaya is a old Spanish colonial town similar to Granada where I had my training orientation. Granada's colonial building have been kept up in a little better condition for the tourists though. However the main attraction in Masaya is the Artisan Market it was built during colonial times and is still running. At the market there are lot of vendors selling sells a lot of tourist nick-naks but a lot of other cool stuff as well I'd like to get when I get to my site. Number one on that list is a hammock, two is a rocking chair or silla abuelita grandma chair as they are called in Spanish I have been told that Masaya is that artisan craft capital of Nicaragua and that Masaya is particularly famous for its hammocks. That being said when I get to my permanent site in late November, school will have just gotten out so I'm looking for to spending to quality time laying in it and relaxing some after 3 months of intense training. We'll see if that actually happens. I also got a cell phone which is really nice for obvious reasons. I can receive calls and texts from the US at no cost to me and little cost to you. I have been told that its cheaper to call the US and to call another Nicaraguan cell phone that uses the other service provider. I'm not quite sure why that is but whatever. Anyway please feel free to call or text me its always nice to hear a familiar voice on the other side of the line. I put my number up on the side panel by my address.

Until next time!

Outside of Market in Masaya

Inside of Market

Fruit stand with the amazingly delicious pitaya!

My backyard during the Hurricane

Intersection at the bottom of my hill. As you can see much more water.

9/19/10

Welcome back to this installment of Sam's Nicaraguan Adventure!

This week has gone by pretty quickly. Even though I have been here for only two weeks, it seems like I have been here much longer. I guess the orientations in DC and Granada have kind of distorted my concept of time. In any event I have so been super busy that I have hardly had time to stop and think.

New this week I've learn some interesting Nicaraguan body language signals. The two that are most different from the US are the Nicaraguan way indicate someone having some having sex. This is done by making a fist with one and punching the palm of your other hand. This same gesture we make if we are going punch someone. Luckily I haven't made any cultural blunder using this, but another Peace Corps friend of mine here has. The other which I think is hysterical is that Nicaraguans use their lips to point at stuff just like we use our fingers. They make a kind of kiss face with their lips to point to stuff. Sometimes they do it while talking which looks really funny. My host dad was pointing to his daughters lunch while calling her name.

In other exciting news I had my first bout of Nicaraguan food poisoning. I was in the neighboring town Catarina watching a pretty interesting marching band competition with some other Peace Corps friends. Some lady was selling potato chips only made with plantains instead potatoes it came with some fried cheese and cabbage stuff that from now on I will be sure to stay away from. Anyway I asked my friends if they had try them and one of my friends said that she had eaten them a number of times with her family and also bought some from a neighbor lady. She said she never got sick so I took my chances. I was not so lucky, I felt fine the rest of the day ate my standard dinner of rice and red beans with some small side then went to bed. The next morning I when I woke up I had a healthy dump but afterward it when from solid to liquid, not good. I thought it was just a one time thing since I was on the toilet for a good 15 minutes. I don't want to go into too much details but I felt like I had nothing left, so I took some medicine for my upset stomach and went over to regular Friday training session. Luckily there Peace Corps doctors were there giving us another vaccine and chat about Malaria, Dengue and other undesirable bugs the we want to avoid. As I was sitting there listening I was feeling progressively worse and worse. So I got up and told one of the Peace Corps training staff members that I had diarrhea, felt sick to my stomach and was afraid I was going throw up and faint. They took me outside to get some fresh air which helped my light headedness a lot because I was sweating like crazy inside. They then gave me some oral re-hydration salts. This stuff come standard in our big med kits, in little fruit flavored packets however like dentist toothpaste flavors taste absolutely terrible! But I quickly drank a liter of rotten orange mixture and started to feel a lot less weak. It was kinda like an energizer bunny feeling I was surprised how quickly it took effect. The Peace Corps doctors take such good care of us. They were primarily concerned about controlling my dehydration which apparently is a pretty big danger when it comes to diarrhea I found out. After I had drank my stuff I got to poop in a stool sample cup so they could see what I had. Turns out it was just some common bacteria infection but boy did it knock me on my ass. Within a couple hours of pooing in the cup I was back at home taking some antibiotics, more nasty drink and sleeping off the infection. The next day I felt so much better. I'm still talking the last of my drugs to make sure its killed for good.

Other than that everything thing is going well. My youth group is going well out of the 13 that were there 9 came back. We did a anonymous survey of what they wanted to learned and it was almost entirely pronunciation and speaking. Next week we will be having meetings on Tuesday and Friday and will be doing a lot of activities that help them learn to speak. I plan on us some of my favorites that I used in Spain and some others I have learned from others and my PC books.

9/14/10

This week has been action packed! I have successfully made through my first week of training in Niquinohomo. I have Spanish class Monday – Friday 8-4, when we are not in class we are walking around the town getting to know it and how to find our way around. My 2 other classmates and I made a map of the town after walking around and trying to mark a rough sketch down. However in country that doesn't have street names or house numbers making a map is much more challenging. Just giving someone directions to your house can be difficult. We learnt that the people here use reference points to the direct people to places, such as 1 block north from the central park and two blocks west. So we all practiced giving directions and picking out two reference point for direction to our houses.

I am still adjusting to the heat here . When I get home I am usually pretty exhausted due to a number of factors first and foremost is the heat. We are in the rainy season right now so I'm told this is the cooler season but It not cold so I guess it all relative. Being from Oregon I am use to the rain but when it rain here it pours, and I mean pours!! It rains so hard that the streets flood and there is small raging rivers going through the middle of town. Last night I was over a friends house and we could see the water quickly rising, it was even breaking over the top of the sidewalks which are about a foot high. Luckily my host family's house is on a little hill so our street doesn't flood as badly as it does at the bottom of the hill. These thunderstorms can be short or up to 2 hours long then as quickly as they start they stop; the water drain away into spillways and the sun comes out again and I start sweating again. Its not the heat some much that is making me sweat as much as the humidity, I feel like I am in woman is menopause with hot flashes haha Sitting in class I go from comfortable to sweating profusely in a matter of seconds sometimes. I'm told that I will get more used to it as here longer so I am anxiously awaiting that moment.

Thursday we had our first Peace Corps mandated youth group. We were all pretty nervous about organizing it and if anybody would come, since we were unable and go to the school to invited the students in person, due to bureaucratic reasons. So we made a big sign advertising it and talked to a local church group and we end having 13 students show up. The girls and I were very pleased. We told the kids who we were and what the Peace Corp was all about. Afterward we did a icebreaker, talked some about what the students wanted out the group and what our goals were and then played a couple more games to judge their level of English. I was very impressed. We are having another this Friday and I hope it goes just as well.

Friday we got up at the ass crack of dawn at 4:30am for and all-day training session in Managua. My biggest qualm about the mornings here is all the noise. My host family has so many freaking birds you'd think it was a bird sanctuary!! The ones I hate the most are the roosters and the parakeets! They are always make an ungodly squawking noises at ungodly early hours of the morning. This morning was no different. The sun wasn't even up and the birds were already crowing. The funny thing is that my host family seems obvious to this racket the penetrates even through my earplugs.

Anyway I got up and walk to the bus stop to catch the bus with the girls and our Spanish teacher. In Nicaragua there are 3 main types of public transportation and I have had the pleasure to ride all them in my short time here. Public transportation here is really cheap comparable to other things here. For example a trip to Managua depending what kind of bus you take ranges from 15-23 Cordobas ( $1 = almost 22 cords) While a 20 oz coke is 10 cordobas I find that very interesting that or about the price of two cokes you can take a 90min bus ride. As for the types first you have the the moto taxi, identical to the Thai tuk-tuk the moto taxi is a 3 wheel golf cart like vehicle on steroids. They are good for getting around town and visiting nearby towns. They are quick and cheap and not bad as long as you hold on tight so that you don't fall out while you are weaving through traffic. The second is the Expresso mini-bus which is basically a large mini van packed with like 4 rows of car bench seats, there is even fold down seats in the aisle so that no spot is wasted. Not bad though not the most comfortable ride but much better that the last option, which is the school bus. These brightly painted buses are old school buses that have mostly like been donated or sold super cheaply from American schools districts because they were old, unsafe for school children or some other reason. At 6'3” I have never enjoyed riding in school buses under the best conditions. Here in Nicaragua they take that to the extreme. Similar to the Expresso buses the goal is cram as many people as possible into the bus. The only modification made to the bus other than in the bright exterior colors is two bars that run down the length of the ceiling. Unlike the expresso bus there is no limit to how many people can get on, if you can find a place to stand or hang on you can ride. When we left the Managua bus station the bus was full and there were a few people standing, as we made our way out of town the bus got fuller and fuller. I was amazed how many people they crammed in just on the way out town. When we finally made it out of town the bus was stuffed to the rafters and I was sure they would not be able to fit anyone else in.....I was wrong. Between Managua and Niquinohomo at least another 15 squeezed on. I had the pleasure of not only experiencing house cattle must feel but riding and hour and a half with some guys ass cheeks just centimeters from my face. When I got home and told my host mom she sympathized with me and said that farm animals in this country travel better than people and I believe her! The most amusing part about the journey is the ayudantes they are the bus driver's helpers they collect fares and shout off their destinations like auctioneers in both expresso buses and school buses. While we walking through the bus stations the ayudantes were shouting off their destinations over the tops of their competitors, as if we choose are destination depending on their sales pitch haha, When we were on the road the guy would hang out the door and shout the destination if someone rose the their hang then bus would slow down enough to make a rolling stop, the person would jump on and the bus would continue on its way. Safety and traffic laws in this country are truly just suggestions, its always interesting to see if the person is going to make it on the bus. Other the cramped bus ride the trip to Managua was pretty fun I got to catch up with the other PC trainees and get the first of my many shots as well as learn about was is in store for us for technical TEFL training.

As the title says today is Nicaragua's Independence Day. In celebration of today I walked down to the center of town with my older host sister and watch the parades of elementary and high school students march, dance and play instruments it was pretty fun. The school children have school off all week but I only have today off Thursday – Saturday are going to be full of TEFL training and I get to get another shot. Fortunately I don't have to go all the way to Managua this time.

That's all for now until next time.

9/4/10

Its finally hit me that I am in the Peace Corps! I am lying here under my mosquito net on my first night of my three month training. Listening to the rain fall on the tin roof of my host family's house I can't believe I am actually here. But more on that later.

Let's start at the beginning which was unbelievably just 5 days ago. I said good bye to my Mom and sister on Monday morning at Portland airport, and took the first steps on an adventure that I am sure is going to be life changing. After an uneventful flight to DC I arrived at Peace Corps staging. I went out to dinner with a few of the other west coast trainees. It was great to meet other people like myself and hear their stories. There is one girl in our group who was trying Peace Corps again. She had just finished her training in Guinea when a coup happened and riots ensued. Fortunately she was not hurt and the Peace Corps evacuated her out of the country. I really admire her perseverance to try again. Hopefully that won't happen here. The government is pretty stable so I doubt it will. The next day we had the morning to kill before our orientation started. So we got up early and went out to the National Mall and saw some of the historic sights. It was pretty fun I hadn't been to DC in over 10 years so I really enjoyed it, I only wished we could have stayed longer. We got back to the hotel just in time for our orientation. As orientations go this one was pretty cool. I got to meet the other TEFL andenvironment trainees. We did a bunch of ice breakers and activities about our fears and hopes. Everybody was pretty much the same they were afraid of getting sick from bugs of all kinds, and they hoped to make a difference in the town where they were going. The Peace Corps staff did a good job of easing our fears but not sugar coating it. After the orientation we all went out for our last American meal before we flew out the next morning. I along with a small group of trainees chose Old Glory All American Bar and Grill and had some great barbequed beef brisket and a Widmer Hefe! I was very impressed. After dinner we went back to the hotel and pack up our stuff and tried to get a few hours of sleep before getting up at 2:30am. Our flight wasn't until 7:30 but when you are traveling with a group of 43 people you need extra time. Everyone thought it was over kill but it worked out well. We all got checked in and through security with out any problems. Once we were on the plane everyone was out like a light.

As we landed in Nicaragua my first impressions were that it wasn't as rugged as I imagining. I landscape was flat and dotted with trees. Not exactly the lush jungle I was expecting but still very green. After we got through customs we were greeted by Peace Corps Nicaragua staff and current Peace Corps Volunteers (PCV) It was really nice to see everybody cheer us as we walk out the doors. They gave big bottles of water and we got on a bus for our hotel in Granada. It wasn't as hot as I was expecting but still very humid.

Our three day staging in Granda was wonderful! We stayed at a great old colonial hotel which had marvelous A/C. The food was good but kinda of a blend of american and nicaraguan cuisine. However the juices here are amazing!! There is this on called Pithaya and its a fuchsia color it has a very nice sweet and tangy flavor. After lunch we had short meeting welcoming us to Nicaragua then I went back to my room to catch up on my zzz because I was exhausted. Over the next two days the PC staff just went into more detail about what to expect and logistics of language training, health service and how to be safe here. The PCVs were great because we were able to ask them questions about things they had first hand experience with. Our last night in Granada was great! After we finished our meetings. Our training director had a suprise for us, it was a evening boat ride on big lake next to Granada. It was lots of fun. It was more of the jungle I was expecting. We rode pass lots of little islands some of which had houses of famous people in Nicaragua. Others had Spider monkeys on them as we were stopping next to the island to take pictures, one of the monkeys jumped on to our boat and everybody was laughing had a great time. The monkey wasn't on my boat but I still got some great pictures. When we return to the hotel we had a delicious traditional Nicaraguan meal of corn tortillas chorizo, morcilla shredded beef and different salsas. The chorizo and morcilla wasn't like the kind I had had before in Spain but still just as good! Our last night one of the trainees (who is from Puerto Rico, which I think is very cool) talked to the hotel staff and our training director about having a pool party at the hotel. It was a win-win for everybody and we all had a great time. I tried the Nicaraguan beer Toña and the local rum Flor de Caña which is delicious! It blows every other kind of rum I have had out of the water.

The next day we packed up our things and got on a bus to meet our host families that we will be living with for the next three months that we are in training. It was fun to see everybody name called one by one I don't when the next time the I will see the other trainees who are not in my town but, sure it won't be long. When it was my turn to get off the bus I said goodbye to my friends and met my host family. They are very nice! My family has two little girls and two older girls my age one of which has an adorable 10 month old baby. My room is smaller than my dorm room in college. It was a very interesting putting up my mosquito net with my host sister last night since the wasn't really room for the two of us and chair but we got it up and so far no bites. I couldn't be happier. My host family even has internet at their house which is an unexpected bonus.

Tomorrow I start my classes so I'll let you know how that goes.

Until next time take care Adios!Old Colonial Cathedral in Granada

This tree looks like is floating

With my Peace Corps Issued Medical Kit and Emergency Diarrhea bag I can take on the world

That's right folks just 14 more days! By this time 2 weeks from now I will have already boarded the plane head for DC for pre-departure staging. My anxiety and excitement levels are only increasing. I can't believe that the summer has gone by so fast. I have been reading up as much as I can on Nicaragua as well as blogs and packing lists. I think I have pretty much everything I need and what I don't have I hope to have by the end of the week. plus a few last minute purchases in Portland.

For anybody interested in Nicaragua and their tumultuous history, I recommend reading Blood of Brothers Life and War in Nicaragua, by Stephen Kinzer. I have never been a big fan of history books but this one reads like a spy novel. Kinzer was a New York Times Foreign Correspondent there during the 70's and 80's, so he has an eyewitness account of everything from the Somoza dictatorship to the Sandinistas and Contras rebellion. I picked it up at the library because it was on the Peace Corps recommended reading list and I'm glad I did it has been a real page turner. Before I started reading I didn't know much about Nicaragua's history, other than like many Central and South American countries the US government meddled in their country's affairs for our own benefit regardless of outcome. So I figured that I would educate my self more on the topic in the event it came up in conversation, I didn't want to be perceived as an ignorant American.

Well that's all for now more soon!

Welcome to my first ever blog!!!

I have been reading the blogs of other PC volunteers already in Nicaragua ever since I found out where the Peace Corps would be sending me. So I figured that I should probably make one of my own. After a lot of trial and error I was finally able to set up a blog for myself. I got a lot of inspiration from other PC volunteers and their blogs but there is still design and formatting stuff I'd still like to do but have yet to figure out. In any event I'm sure that I will get plenty of practice blogging in the upcoming months.

As would be expected I'm both excited and nervous as hell about my newest adventure. I think it is just because I have been stressing out about packing and the different seasons....or lack there of as I have found out from my online research. Hot and rainy or hot and not rainy, depending on the time of year haha. That among many other things I'm sure I will adapt to. Being from Oregon I am more accustomed to temperate weather, and no rookie when it come to rain just like any other native Oregonian. However from what I've read these Nicaraguan rainstorms sound much more intense that your average Oregon rainstorm. We'll see.

I am ready to expect the unexpected and take on challenges head on as they come. This will be my 3rd time away from my family and friends for a long period of time and probably won't be the last. Although its never easy I am getting better with practice. Comes with the territory of traveling I guess. Right now I'd much rather do this than sit behind a desk or in a cubicle.

"20 years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain

I love this quote I think its very true and is how I want to live my life. They say being a Peace Corps volunteer is the toughest job you'll ever love. I say BRING IT ON!!