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.