Class Interruptions

Class cancellations and interruptions are part of the daily life of every teacher in Nicaragua. This situation might be slightly different if you are working in a private school but because I only work in public schools, I couldn’t tell you from personal experience.

First of all, there are A LOT of holidays in Nicaragua. This is the number one cause of class cancellations. Then you do have class scheduled normally, you have people from brigades/campaigns coming in and out of the class to make announcements or give lectures, classes being cut short because of staff meetings, etc.

In one of my schools, the principal decided to give half of our class time each week to a group of university psychology students so that they can work with my students to fulfill their internship/clinical requirements. This means, that for the past two months, we have been trying to teach the students the entrepreneurship material in one hour instead of two each week.

Today was another great example. I woke up to a text message from one of the teachers I work with saying that class was going to be cancelled today (Wednesday) because the school was going to celebrate Father’s Day, which was on Monday. To most of us from the U.S. this would not make any sense, but in Nicaragua it makes perfect sense. On the bright side, my teacher is kind enough to let me know these things before I show up at school to save me the trip. I also have some more time to take care of some very important things today, like updating this blog. 

“Turkle Meat Dun Reach” (turtle meat has come)

Semana Santa is holy week in Nicaragua and all over the Pacific Coast there are all types of celebrations and traditions in honor of holy week. I had already experienced “La Judea” during training in Masatepe. This year, a few friends and I decided we were going to explore the Atlantic Coast!

The Atlantic Coast is completely different from the Pacific side. You honestly feel as if you are in another country. The majority of the population speaks Creole but you can also find Spanish speakers as well as a handful of indigenous languages such as Mikito and Garifuna. This is because the Atlantic Coast was conquered by the English while the Pacific Coast (where I live) was conquered by the Spanish.

The food on the East coast is very different and absolutely delicious! They utilize a lot of coconut in their dishes. One of my favorites was Run Down, a traditional soup that is full of seafood (sometimes made with turtle meat) and vegetables that have been cooked in coconut milk for the broth. Among other things such as coconut bread and even their beans fried in coconut oil. Needless to say, I ate very well during my time there. Below: Run Down being prepared over a wood stove

We stayed in Pearl Lagoon and a small farming community outside of Pearl Lagoon. Both places were sites of other volunteers and they were great about setting things up for us with places to stay and activities to do. The first few days spent in the farming community were awesome. We had no cell phone service, no electricity and had to bathe in a nearby creek. During the few days we spent there we rode horses, relaxed, cooked Run Down (I learned how to make coconut milk from scratch), made chocolate and played in a local golf tournament! The golf course was set up by the volunteer working in the community and it had 9 holes that was spread between a few acres of farmland. It was a short course but we had to overcome many obstacles, such as cows, and bizarre terrain, like you hitting a big rock with your ball which bounces back towards you instead of getting closer to the hole. All the while we are playing with local Creoles who are barefoot and shirtless on the terrain with dreads hanging down to their butts and saying things like, “I dun shit it up, man” when they hit a ball badly.  It was an absolute blast! Below: Best looking golf team the Atlantic Coast has seen!

During this trip we also took an overnight trip to the Pearl Keys. Which is a stretch of little islands outside of Pearl Lagoon with stretching white beaches and crystal clear blue water. The islands look exactly what one would picture to be a deserted island paradise. Some smaller than a city block with just a few palm trees on the island. We found a small island that we had all to ourselves and spent the night in fisherman’s shacks which had beds that were no more than a wooden boards held 3 feet above the ground. With the full moon and great company it was an absolute dream. 

One Year in Nicaragua

In March, the new group of Business and Health volunteers joined us in Nicaragua. My bosses asked that I be one of the volunteers to hang out with them during their first few days in country while they are receiving their orientation to Nicaragua, taking language exams and getting assigned their training towns. It was an interesting experience because exactly one year before, I was in their shoes feeling excited, clueless, and anxious to begin the training process. Woot woot! So glad to have made it this far J I cannot believe how time flies!

Shortly after the orientation, I came down with strep throat. One of the worst experiences I’ve had so far in Nicaragua. It was a full week of battling extremely high temperatures reaching over 104 some days (still not sure I believe my thermometer) and I am extremely grateful for my host mom who took care of me during that time and my volunteer friends who talked me through it. Of course, all of my counterparts noticed right away that I had lost some weight as a result of being sick (even though it was only maybe 5lbs  that I could afford to lose) and their first reaction is “oh my gosh, you are soooo skinny. Here, let’s get you some food to fatten you up”. It’s hilarious because they believe woman are more beautiful when they have more weight on them. It can be difficult sometimes because as Americans we have it ingrained in us that skinnier is better and here it is the opposite. They even use the word “hermosa” (which means "beautiful") to describe a woman who is heavier.

As soon as I was feeling better I went on a trip to Somoto Canyon which is located in the department of Madriz. A fellow business volunteer set up the trip for us because Somoto is his site and he works with the company who sets up these excursions. We hiked up the canyon and camped out one night at the top. Some of us had tents, I (stupidly) chose to sleep in the hammock because I thought it would be cool and ended up freezing my butt off all night long. You live and you learn! In the morning, we walked over to a local farmer’s house who made us a typical Nica breakfast of scrambled eggs, gallo pinto, cuajada (type of cheese), tortilla and coffee. They also let a couple of us have a try at milking their cows which was more challenging than it appears to be. They always make it look so easy!

Then we headed to the ledge of the canyon to do some rappelling. I had never gone rappelling before and to be honest was a little nervous while gearing up. If you know me well, you know that I have never been afraid of heights and love extreme sports but it seems that as I’ve gotten older, I am becoming nervous in such situations, Gah!!! Is this what happens as you get old?? But it was a lot of fun and not as scary as I had anticipated. We were lucky to do it in such a beautiful place as well. Once we made our way to the bottom we spent a few hours swimming in the river and made our way to a ledge (about 40 ft tall) to jump off of into the river.

Youth Leadership Camp - Vida Joven, Jinotega

February 4th - 7th, 2014

                A few volunteers and I organized a Youth Leadership Camp for Nicaraguan teenagers. We brought 60 youth from all over Nicaragua to spend four days in a retreat hidden in the cold, hazy mountains in the north of Nicaragua in the department of Jinotega. When I say cold, I mean cold. Everyone told us to pack sweaters and socks and maybe even scarves because it was going to be cold in this region of Nicaragua but of course I didn’t take anyone seriously and was shocked to find out that it was possible for Nicaragua to get that cold. The first night I only had one blanket and couldn’t sleep all night because I was freezing! The next morning, I am waiting in line to use the shower behind all these teenage girls and as each girl enters the shower, there is a short scream that leaves the stall when she gets under the shower head. When I took those ice cold showers, all I could think was that I will never complain about my “cold” bucket showers in site again. They do NOT compare to the icy cold waters of Jinotega.

During the retreat, the kids attended presentations, worked on team building activities and made friends from all different parts of the country. The purpose of the camp was to seek out youth that had already demonstrated some leadership skills and improve those skills to later share their knowledge with their communities after the camp.  The leadership areas we focused on were to promote: professional development, environmental awareness, living healthy lifestyles, and assessing community needs/resources to do projects. The whole camp was put on by 12 volunteers representing different sectors (Small Business, Environment, Health, and TEFL) and because all of us volunteers are from the United States we made sure to keep our down time busy with activities that you would easily find at any summer camp in the U.S. We played ultimate frisbee, basketball, american football, and even kickball. One of the counselors found a super soaker water gun at the facility (I hadn’t seen one of those since I was a kid) and ran around terrorizing the kids and other counselors with it, which was a blast. We made s’mores and even did a photo scavenger hunt one morning before the presentations started. The last night another volunteer led a Zumba class and we ended the night with a dance. Perfect opportunity for us volunteers to make fools of ourselves with our awesome gringo dance moves.

                I personally brought two teenagers with me to the camp from my site and one of the kids took me aside the last day to thank me for bringing her. She said she felt that she had learned a lot of relevant information that she could take back and use to help her community. She said that she made so many friends and never would have had an opportunity to do something like this otherwise. She was almost in tears and made me feel like this project really was a success. 

Birthday, Dengue, and Graduations

   On December 6th, I turned 25 years old. I decided to stay in my site for my birthday and spend the day with my host family. The day began at 5.00am when I woke up in the dark to the sound of "La Mañanitas" (the birthday song in Spanish) blasting outside of my bedroom door. I walk out of my room and my host mom, sisters and 1 year old niece are standing outside my door with a little portable radio blasting the birthday song, ready to wish me a Happy Birthday. This is a very common tradition in Nicaragua. Once the, incredibly LONG, song finished we all crawled back into bed to go back to sleep. The remainder of the day, I spent hanging out with my host family around the house. At one point, my host sister tells me that we are going next door to her aunt's house. We walk in and everyone jumps out and yells SURPRISE! They actually put together a surprise party for me with the extended family and all. My host mom had made one of my favorites dishes called "Vigorón" which is fried pork with yucca and a cabbage salad. They even bought me a birthday cake which is a huge compliment considering they aren't exactly cheap here. We ate great food, played games with the kids and overall it was a really great birthday. I was completely caught off-guard and enjoyed the day spent with the host family.
   Two days later I came down with a fever of 102.6. I was sick all week battling a fever and all the bones in my body severely ached. After getting a number of blood tests done, I found out that I had Dengue! It's an infectious tropical disease  transmitted by infected mosquitoes and very common in Nicaragua, especially during the wet season. It turns out, that I was bitten by the mosquito on my birthday. I remember specifically because I hadn't been bitten by a mosquito in almost a month and thought that it was weird to have a mosquito bite. During the wet season, I was constantly eaten up by mosquitoes and then when the wet season was over, I get bit by one mosquito and catch the fever. What luck is that?!
   The school year in Nicaragua begins in February and ends in December. That makes December a time for high school graduations. I was invited to go to the graduations of all four of the schools that I work at. Between being sick with Dengue and schedule conflicts I was only able to attend two. One of them was at the school in my rural community and it was a great event. They had me sit on stage and help hand out diplomas to the kids. I didn't feel so great because I was still battling the dengue fever and I was having hot flashed because of the fever and was breaking out in a slight rash from it as well. Needless to say, I wasn't all there. During the principal's speech, he starts talking about how proud they were to have their students make it to the Regional Business Plan Competition and began thanking me for assisting them in the process. At this point, they start handing out awards to students and I suddenly hear my name called. I was extremely confused but approached the principal's podium and they gave me a gift. It was a doll that represents a character from the famous "El Güegüense" dance from Diriamba. The teacher I work with said that it was the kids' idea to give me a gift and they all pitched in to buy one of these expensive dolls for me. They wanted to thank me for working with them. Even through the haze of the fever I was extremely touched! I felt so lucky to have worked with such awesome kids and at the same time was sad because I know I wouldn't be working with them anymore. This was definitely a rewarding moment in my Peace Corps experience and one that I will never forget!
   A few days later, I also met up with some fellow PCVs in our old training town of Masatepe. During training, all 5 of us promised the kids from our youth group that we would return in December to attend their graduation. They were so excited to see us there. One of my favorite girls even began to cry when we greeted her. She invited us to her graduation party where they played music, gave us delicious food and cake! Being in Masatepe brought back a lot of memories of when we still had no clue what we were in for and we all enjoyed hanging out with the kids who shared our first experiences of it all.  

Figure It Out

   Once again, I'm having issues updating this blog. November was an extremely busy month as is expected of a Small Business Volunteer. As a volunteer working in this sector, my main project is to train teachers how to teach the entrepreneurship curriculum in four local high schools. This is a course that is required for all seniors in high school to take in order to graduate. The purpose of the course is to teach the students how to write a business plan but while writing the plan, they actually create this business. They create a product or service, implement market studies, establish a budget and even calculate their break-even point. As we progress through each portion of the business plan throughout the year, they apply what they learn in the class to the business they are actually creating!
   Towards the end of the year, the competition season begins. Peace Corps volunteers and staff organize business plan competitions for the students so that they can demonstrate their hard work throughout the year and have the opportunity to expand their business if they wish to do so. The competitions are organized at the local, regional, and national level. If a student group qualifies at the national level, they have the opportunity to participate in workshops to improve their business/business plan and receive seed money to expand their business as well.
   Because I am the only business volunteer in my site, I am responsible for organizing the local competition from collecting funds to finding a venue and judges from the community. Then the group of volunteers from my region and I work together to organize the regional competition as well. Once the local competition is over, I have to help prepare the students (who placed at the local level) for the regional competition. All the while, I am still co-teaching and co-planning with my teachers from the high schools as usual. Needless to say, I am extremely busy during this time of year.
   It was extremely overwhelming because I was doing it for the first time and you just have to figure it out. Two groups from my school that is in a rural community outside of the city made it to the regional level. One group's product made hats out of recycled plastic bags. Below is their display table at the competition.

Eko - Creaciones Plasticas (the name of the student business)

The other group made a candy from one of the group member's family recipe. It was very similar to toffee, which is not common in Nicaragua.
   Both of the groups did an awesome job with their presentations. Unfortunately, they were competing against 10 other groups and neither placed high enough to move on to the National competition. Overall, I was extremely proud of them. They worked really hard and I was glad that I was able to witness their growth throughout the process.
   The competition was held in a city called Rivas which is located right next to the largest lake of Nicaragua and Central America. The lake contains two volcanoes in the center that make up the islands of Ometepe and is also known for containing freshwater sharks. So after the competition the students talked the teacher into taking us all to the lake for a swim. The students talked me into getting in with them, Peace Corps polo and all. It is very common for Nicas to swim in clothes. Most don't own bathing suits and just go to the beach in shorts and a t-shirt.
   I ended up getting to know these kids really well because of all the time we spent working on the project together. Although we didn't win, it was an awesome experience that I will never forget. I felt very privileged to have worked with such great kids!