Christmas and Ovens

December 24, 2011

Happy Christmas Eve.  It's raining today and I'm just kind of spending the morning reading a book and updating my blog.  My host family isn't really doing anything today, no big feast that I know of, no epic journey to the church in the evening and food and festivities until after midnight.  So I'm spending the morning to myself just hanging out.  This afternoon I'll head down the road for a birthday party/Christmas Eve party at another family's house, so hopefully that gets me in the Christmas spirit.  As for tomorrow, their are two baptisms I'm invited to but that's all.  No one does anything big on the 25^th like we do in the States. 

Yesterday I spent the day trying to help make nacatamales at a neighbor's house, but mostly I just sit and watch because they already have their solid routine down and I feel like it would be awkward to try to adjust the order of things.  So she did the prepping and cooking and I helped tie the nacatamales with string.  At least I get to help eat them later.  I helped her make a pizza earlier in the month and did a lot of the prep for that, so I don't feel out of place all the time.  And a few days ago I helped make a carrot cake and sugar cookies with a different neighbor who already had an improved oven built for her when the last volunteer lived here.  The desserts didn't turn out as yummy as I hoped they would.  I think most all flour and margarine baked products here end up tasting the same, I don't know how to alter the recipes enough to make them taste like they would back home.  I'll have to attempt to bake with real butter when I can find it, I think that would help, but margarine is just so commonly available here and everyone uses that instead.  

The school year ended on December 9^th and the local primary school had their graduation ceremony for the pre-schoolers and 6^th graders.  I of course had my camera and was taking pictures, which turned into everyone and their mother (no joke!) coming up to me and asking to take pictures for them.  I've made the mistake of taking pictures for people and printing them in Jinotega when I go to town, so now everyone thinks I'm the local photographer and asks me to come to every birthday and graduation party to take pictures for them.  I told them all they have to pay me ahead of time so I can afford to print them when I go into town, so now I have about a hundred pictures to print, all pre-paid, the next time I go into Jinotega.  The problem is, when I last went to Jinotega, the color printer at the photocopy place I usually go to is broken and being repaired.  So now I have to wait until it's fixed, which could take who knows how long, meanwhile having to explain to everyone I run into why I haven't been able to print their photos yet.  And there aren't many other options in town to print color photos.  I will have to just tell people 'no' next time when 20 of them approach me about taking “just one more photo” of their baby in her best dress.  At this one graduation party a girl (yes, girl, like teenager) had just had her baby and asked if I could take a picture of her.  I said sure, so we walked outside and I took a couple photos, and that turned into another girl asking if I'd take of picture of her.  Next thing I know there's a line of people coming out of the house one by one with their kids in tow, frantically slapping on the fanciest dress they could find to get a quick photo while I was there doing it.  I kept telling people, “okay, this is the last one, NO MORE! I have too many photos I still need to print for other people!”  But then one more person would approach me and ask for “just one more”, and if I told them yes then I would have to tell the person after them yes too, and it got so frustrating I just had to be rude and tell them I wouldn't take any more photos for anyone, sorry.  They all look so disappointed that I took photos for other people but wouldn't for them.  I've learned my lesson and will now just have to tell people that I don't have my camera with me.  It's great that I can take pictures for the families I know sometimes, but I'm not here in Nicaragua to be Wale's personal family photographer, okay? 

On the subject of the school garden, it is growing and producing, but since there's no one really tending to it very closely (my fault for not figuring that out before school ended), some of the plants are dying off without having been watered in weeks.  But it has been raining lately, so the tomatoes, which are still doing really well, are hopefully going to continue to do well.  Last week I picked all the cucumbers that had grown, most into small ball shapes or C's since they weren't properly cared for, and also pulled out the radishes and beets.  Only one beet made it to a size smaller than a ping-pong ball, and the radishes barely looked like anything, but I handed out the vegetables that I could to the families that  helped me get the garden started.  Since school's out I can't give the harvest to the school for food, so I figured the families would appreciate a cucumber or two.  For the next garden I will attempt to be tougher and create and enforce more organization with the students so they do most of the work and maybe actually care about the garden.

I build my first improved oven at a neighbor's house on the 15^th.  Paul came and helped along with two other volunteers Alicia (Ag from my training group) and Lenka (Health from a previous group).  We started a little late, like at 10am, since we were waiting for their buses to come in, so Alicia and Lenka couldn't stay to the end to finish the oven since they had to catch their buses home, but Paul stayed and helped me finish it.  It went pretty well considering Paul and I were the only ones who had ever made one previously during tech week in training.  I remembered more than I thought I would.  Some of the bricks were a little off their measurements, but I think it looked good in the end and as far as I know is still standing.  Since we were running out of time towards the end of the day we didn't put a final coat of mud all over the whole thing, but the woman who we made the oven for wants to put a nice white layer of mud on it like most of the women do here to their ovens and stoves to have a pretty finished look.  So that's left for her to do.  Next week I have two more ovens to build.  I was supposed to have done one last Thursday, but on my way to the owner's house I ran into him and found out that they didn't make the mesa for the oven to sit on like he said they would.  His worker was unavailable that day apparently, and he didn't tell me, which was annoying because what if I had more volunteers coming from out of site to help me?  They would have left their site and paid for the bus trip and back for nothing.  Of course we could have hung out for the day, but the point was to build an oven.  Luckily no one was able to help me that day anyways and I was expecting to make the oven with the owner and his worker, but I made sure he knew that he needed to contact me when his plans changed in the future.  So hopefully this next week the mesas get made by the next two families and I can make both ovens. 

Also this past week, I bought 12 bags of cement to start the rest of the construction on my new house.  I got a quote finally from a local worker who says he can do the rest of the work for me, and he told me he could start setting the cement floor in the kitchen today (yeah, working on Christmas Eve or even Christmas doesn't really phase anyone here).  But, I haven't heard from him yet and it's already midday, so who knows when he's actually going to get started.  Santos, the owner of the house, is due to come into town today from his job, and he told me last week before he left that he has plans to get the bathroom installed (cement floor, toilet, and tiles—yeah he's fancy and wants to put tiles in the bathroom!) during his weekend here for Christmas.  Yeah, again, we'll see about that.  As for moving into this house, it definitely won't be until January or (I'm dreading) even later, depending on the construction and someone from Peace Corps making the trip up here to give the house one final official safety check before I relocate.  On some good news though, the woman who I baked sugar cookies with last week has a 3 burner stove (the table top kind) and gas cylinder she's not using due to high gas prices that she said she'd lend me for the rest of the time I'm here.  So that's awesome and will save me some cords for sure.  That way I can put the money that I was going to buy the stove with toward a table for the kitchen or a small fridge.  Every little bit helps! 

December 28, 2011

So on Christmas my host mom did end up making a special dinner of gallina rellena, which is a pork stuffed chicken, but she never filled me in on those plans and I had already planned go to a neighbor’s house for a baptism and the party afterwards.  I went with them to the Catholic church in Praderas for mass, which was an hour long and of course all in Spanish, so it was kinda boring, but the baptism was nice to experience and I’m glad I went to the church finally to at least see what is looks like.  After church we went back to their house and ate dinner and did some dancing in her small kitchen.  But for me it was finally fun to dance since there weren’t a ton of drunks swaying around trying to get me to dance with them.  But mostly the past few days I’ve been catching up on some movies that I haven’t watched in a while, as well as some older TV shows like Friends and 30 Rock, which is hilarious and I want more.  It’s been a little lonely this holiday, honestly, and I do miss my friends and family, so watching some American entertainment has been a nice break.  Another nice break was actually getting out and doing some work with my hands, like building an oven.  I built my second oven yesterday with another neighbor and it went really well.  Next week I’ll be making my third one. 

As for the house, the guy working on it didn’t start until Monday, two days after he said he would, and then only worked in the morning.  So it’s going to be a really slow building process, I fear.  Again, hopefully I can move in January, if all goes well.  Right now I’m spending a few days in Leon, which is one of the oldest cities in Nicaragua, close to the Pacific coast.  It’s hot here all the time, and known for its volcanoes.  There’s a group of volunteers getting together for New Years, some people staying at hostels in the city of Leon, and some have hostels on the beach which is about a 30 minute drive west.  I’ve never been to Leon, but didn’t want to spend a whole bunch of money for 3 or 4 nights, so I decided to come for a couple nights and head home on the 31^st to make gallina rellena with a neighbor who will teach me how to make it.  I hope everyone has a great New Year’s! 

Love Sarita

Thanksgiving and La Purisima

November 27, 2011

Thanksgiving was good and I'm glad I went to Managua.  I got to meet many volunteers that I hadn't met before, and the meal we had was delicious.  The Chargés house is huge and beautiful and has a pool, so most everyone was swimming before we ate.  I didn't bring my bathing suit so I just dipped my feet in the pool, but it was nice.  We had a full on traditional meal with two turkeys, stuffing, potatoes, green beans, cranberry sauce (canned and fresh), sweet potato pie, bread rolls, and salad.  Desert was a mixture of things, including fruitcakes and marble cake, and of course pumpkin pie with whipped cream.  There were two servers complete with bow-ties that walked around the table during the meal and made sure that everyone's wine glasses stayed filled.  The house can make free phone calls to the US so we all got to make a free call home if we wanted to.  Overall it was good food and good company.   

That night I stayed at the house of another employee of the Embassy, and got to make pumpkin pancakes for breakfast the next morning, using her modern kitchen with a sink with running hot water, a stove that lights itself, and a fridge that's actually plugged in all the time.  That day about 25 of us volunteers went to the Embassy to hear a career panel from 3 employees who work in different areas of the Embassy.  Lots of volunteers have expressed interest in foreign service jobs and so the Embassy held this panel to help answer some questions.  It was an interesting discussion and I'm glad I went to listen, but I think having a career in foreign services is way too political for me.  Not really my thing.  After the panel we went to the mall in Managua and I ate my first McDonald's meal since arriving in country, a Big Mac and fries.  It was really good, tasted just the way it should.  It cost 99 Cordobas, about $4.34, about what I would expect at home.  Then we got gelatos for dessert.  It was just overall a super yummy filled food weekend, and I felt super spoiled.  This next week I have In Service Training (IST) in Esteli, where my whole ag group will get together to learn about more ag subjects, like starting seed banks.  I'll be there for 4 days, then hopefully when I get back to site I can start making ovens!  I have 4 people who have already bought their metal barrels and bricks, and need to get the rest of the materials so we can start.  I'm super excited about starting some ovens.  I hope they turn out well and that people get good use out of them. 

December 7, 2011

The week of November 28th—December 1^st was In Service Training (IST) for my ag group.  We all met in Esteli and had 3 days of charlas, including how to start community seed banks, how to fill out our volunteer quarterly work report, recognizing the life cycle of the volunteer, and sources of funding for our projects.  For the life cycles part, we discussed the changing emotions and routines of a volunteer throughout service, and drew graphs of how our emotions have fluctuated throughout our first 4 months in site.  Everyone's is a little different, of course, but the point is to show that we go through quite the roller-coaster of emotions through this experience, depending on our health, our family relationships, social relationships, community integration, living situation, work motivation, etc.  They gave another charla on changing behaviors, because essentially development work aims to change the behavior of a community to work towards something different and new.  If we want to give a health charla on cleanliness and personal hygiene to avoid spread of germs and illness, but the community has never developed the habit of washing their hands after using the bathroom, then we must try and change the behavior of the community to understand the connection between spreading of germs and illnesses.  They have to understand and accept the truth in the behavior and ultimately adopt the behavior as routine.  That's something that's very difficult to do. 

After the IST I came back to site to get crackin' on trying to improve the community bank I'm working with.  We had a meeting where I guided them in making a new set of rules and routine for the bank.  They also chose a new committee (president, secretary, treasurer).  Everyone seemed ready for change and willing to try a more organized way of running their bank, but one big problem with the bank is low attendance to meetings, so only about 6 people showed up for that meeting.  That means the people who don't show up didn't have any say in the rules.  So if they disagree later with the new way of running the bank, they'll just have to show up more often so they can have a say, or they won't be able to continue with the bank.  It's tough love.  I'm still hoping to start more banks in the community.  I haven't given up on the other people I had previous meetings with, I just need to go visit them again to sell the idea better and schedule a meeting time when everyone (or at least more people) can show up. 

As for the ovens, there are three families that have all the materials ready.  Next week I'm going to start the first oven with Paul's help, the other Ag volunteer that lives close to me.  Two more volunteers who live about an hour bus-ride away want to come to help too.  So hopefully the first one goes well and I can get the other ones done soon.  My hope is that these first ovens turn out really well and that the rest of the community sees them and creates more interest.  Usually when one person has something new the neighbors want one too. 

December 7^th and 8^th is the time to celebrate La Purisima here, or the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary.  The tradition is to parade through the community carrying a statue of the Virgin,stopping to sing at the doors of houses to receive gifts of food or candies (at least this is what I've been told, maybe it's celebrated differently in different countries).  Or sometimes people gather at a church or a house around an alter of the statue and sing songs.  There was a celebration of La Purisima at the primary school this past Sunday that I was invited to.  The teachers and some parents helped fill little baggies with cookies, candies, and balloons to hand out to everyone who participated in the event afterward.  They set up an altar with a statue of the Virgin Mary, vases of flowers, and Christmas lights, and everyone gathered around and sang traditional songs of La Purisima.  I of course don't know the songs so I just watched and took pictures and some video.  The 7^th and 8th are the most celebrated days of this event, so I'll hopefully get to see what some families will do to celebrate the event tomorrow.  Although, I've found out that families will celebrate La Purisima at any date during December. 

December 10, 2011

Last night a neighbor family celebrated La Purisima in their house.  They set up an alter with the statue of the Virgin Mary and some flowers and Christmas lights.  Neighbors and friends showed up to sing and listen to some religious words spoken by someone that I guessed was a pastor or someone affiliated with the church.  Afterward they handed out baggies of goodies filled with gofio, which is like a corn meal cookie, candies, and noise makers.  The fresco that's traditionally made is called agualoja, which is a strongly flavored drink consisting of ginger, cloves, cinnamon, and other flavors I didn't recognize.  I couldn't drink the whole thing, it was too strong for my taste.  I actually didn't participate in the whole Purisima celebration because I was at a graduation party of the nephew of Gloria in the nearby town of Las Praderas.  There were very little people that showed up by the time we got there in the evening, so we just kind of sat around eating the meal and listening to music.  The house the family lives in is connected to a bar, so there were random bar-goers in the eating area.  One guy kept bugging me to dance with him, which was so annoying.  I got up to dance once earlier in the evening with a neighbor friend that drove us there, but it was really annoying and awkward because we were the only ones dancing in the middle of this open dance floor, and of course once we started a whole crowd of people gathered around to watch.  I like dancing, but it's absolutely no fun if no one else is dancing and you're the only one who is bombarded by people bugging you to dance with them.  Plus, all people want to do is stand around and stare while I'm dancing.  I hate being stared at, especially when I know all the guys are just waiting in line to get their turn to dance with the gringa.  It's really annoying and it gets to the point where I won't dance at all because it's just no fun.  It's an unfortunate situation. 

The new house situation is getting stressful because time is running out. I ideally would like to finish the work on it so it's liveable and I can move in before January.  But there's only 3 weeks left in December, and I still need to get money to pay for the rest of the construction.  The PC office paperwork slows down considerably in December due to everyone taking their vacations, so I don't know if I'll have time to get my future pay in time to get the work finished.  It's really stressing me out because I don't want to have to pay another month's rent in the house I'm currently in if that money can ultimately be used to move.  Yet another frustrating aspect of my life right now. Here's a pic of what the front looks like:

I hope to blog again before Christmas to let everyone know how the house project goes!  Have a good vacation from school and work everyone! Miss you all.

~Sarah~

Coffee picking and chicken plucking

November 18, 2011

Some interesting things have happened these past few weeks. I spent the past two days “corteando cafe”, or picking coffee beans. It's that time of year where all the coffee plants have red, ripe fruit on them and are ready to be picked and processed. But not all the fruit is ready to be picked. So you have to pick only the red ones amongst the greens. Then about 15 days later the green ones have turned red and are ready for picking a second time. Women often help pick coffee, so I went to learn. I got up at 5am, put on my work clothes, and hiked into the campo where Esmeralda's coffee plants are located. I was with some of the brothers of the family, but did my picking along a row next to Idalia, the girlfriend of one of the brothers. She showed me how to pick correctly, leaving the green ones and trying to avoid picking the little stems with the berries (which I found difficult). Each worker ties a wicker basket to their waist and works their way down the rows, picking the fruit. When the basket's full, you pour your pickings into a large sack and start anew. The coffee berries look like grapes, but grow bunched really close together and are really hard, so my fingers very quickly got really sore pinching off hard berries over the span of 8 hours for two days in a row. My fingers today are still sore. What's also painful is standing on a steep incline where the rows are planted, wearing non-supportive rubber boots, and trying to support your weight in the slippery mud while reaching up over your head for the berries at the tops of the plants. My feet were killing me from awkwardly perching on the hillside with my feet slipping and sliding in the mud and inside my boots, sometimes jamming my toes into the tip of the boot. Luckily the plants are really flexible, so it's easy to grab a far away branch and pull it to where you can reach it, or pull down the top of an 8 foot plant to reach the berries at the top branches. 

My greatest fear was slipping and falling, not because it would hurt or I would tumble town the hillside, but because I would spill all the berries that I'd spent the last hour slaving over with painful fingers. I felt like I was moving at a snail's pace. Idalia was picking at twice the rate I was, and filled her sack completely the first day. The second day she filled 1 ½ sacks. I only filled my sacks half way. They measure the coffee in “medios”, which is one full 5 gallon bucket full of berries. I picked 2 ½ medios the first day, and 3 the second day. There was one guy who picked 10 medios in one day! Talk about experience. But hey, it was my first time, I didn't expect to be great at it. Workers get paid 45 Cordobas ($2) per medio picked, and 35 Cordobas if food is included in the day. I told my family I didn't expect to get paid, that I just wanted the experience. But it is really nice to get food delivered to you during the workday. We'd be out there for a few hours, picking away, and one of the brothers would show up with his goodie bag of Tupperware and plastic spoons. We'd stop, set down our baskets, and take about 15 minutes to eat before picking the basket back up and going back to work. The second day I was working on a really steep section and didn't want to haul my ass up the hill to the flat part, so I just leaned against the hillside with my heavy basket still attached and enjoyed my meal of gallo pinto with crema and two tortillas. Esmeralda had sent with the food my bottle of lemon-lime Tang that I always drink during meals, which was a nice surprise. Esmeralda's little dog Mimi was with me so she got some creamy tortilla bits while I ate. The more you work, the more berries you pick, the more money you make. They don't get paid hourly, so it's worth it to take short breaks. No mandatory 1 hour lunch here! 

After the coffee berries are picked and measured in medios, they get put through a machine that separates the seed inside from the fruit shell outside. The fruit part is cast to the side and usually left to rot and ferment wherever it lies, which smells really bad. The seeds are dried out in the sun for a few days then bagged into sacks again to be sold to coffee buyers who in turn toast the seeds and sell them again.

Every once and a while I'd have to stop and look around me and take in the scenery. It was a dewy rainy day the first day, so the hills and valleys had a mystical look to them as it rained off and on all day. There were oropendulas and woodpeckers chattering in the trees. Sometimes I felt completely isolated and alone in the wilderness of Nicaragua, but then would hear Idalia two rows over from me picking her pathway of berries. Occasionally one of the other workers from far down the hillside would hoot or whistle their special call to someone else, who would hoot or whistle back to state where they were. I haven't tried hooting at people yet, but it's something that people do here to respond to their name being called. Instead of answering “what?” or “over here”, they simply let out a high pitched “hoo”. It's kinda cool, but I feel weird doing it. So that was my first Nicaraguan coffee picking experience, and I'm not sure if I'd do it again considering how sore I was after, but I'm glad I finally did it and got to enjoy the good parts. The next time you sit down to enjoy a cup of genuine Nicaraguan coffee, just think, it could have come from one of the 5 ½ buckets of coffee picked by yours truly! 

Moving on to other news, I have been offered a much better housing situation than the little casita I was considering before. There's some friends that live down the street that I hang out with often. One of the couples have been building this house for the past 3 years, but haven't finished it yet. The husband is a construction worker and so works in the cities, meaning he only comes home about once or twice a month, and the wife, Gloria, doesn't want to live in the house alone with the kids. Since they knew that I was looking to move and am able to pay to finish some construction, they offered that I move into their house. It sounds like they don't really have the money at the time to finish the kitchen in the back, which still needs a cement floor and doors and windows. Plus the bathroom needs the toilet installed. Yes, I said toilet, not latrine. They have already bought a toilet, it just needs to be installed in the bathroom when the cement floor gets put in. The lot already has a water spigot, so I don't have to have that installed, and the wiring for the electricity is bought, it just has to be installed. I think I'd be paying a lot less to finish this newer, bigger house, than the casita that didn't have anything but four walls and a roof. Plus, this new house has a double bed in it already, which they said I could use, so I don't have to buy a bed, which would have cost me at least my full month's pay. It's also completely surrounded with a chain link fence, which gives me more security at night. And there's a front and back yard, with plenty of room to plant a garden and maybe build a chicken coup for my own eggs! Yep, I'm dreaming already of the way it could be. My plan, once Peace Corps clears the house as satisfactory, is to have the construction done during December so I can move into it in January. I will have to have my future pay lent to me ahead of time to afford the work, but it'll be worth it to have my own private house. It will feel a lot different not having a family in the house with me, and maybe a little scary at first, but I'm sure I'll get used to it once I've been there a while.

Last week I officially killed my first chicken. It was Gloria's birthday, and she was making “sopa de gallina con albondigas”, or chicken soup with dumplings. I told her I'd come over to help and wanted to learn to cook. So she had me prepare the chicken, meaning dispatch it and pluck it and everything. I'm not a huge fan of doing the killing part of butchering animals, but I knew it'd come around at some point. We debated on how I should do it, by cutting it's throat, like the men usually do, or by wringing it's neck, like the women usually do. I found it hard to imagine taking its neck in my hands and breaking it, so I chose the knife method. I wasn't given clear instructions, so after it was hung from it's legs from a tree branch, I simply took it's head in my hands and quickly sliced it's head off. The nerves always react terribly when its head is severed or neck is broken, so the poor thing flaps around violently making it look painful, when really it's just the nerves reacting and the animal doesn't feel a thing. As I stood there disturbingly watching it flail around, Gloria's brother came out of the house to see how it went. His first reaction was one of surprise, and chuckled and said something along the lines of “wow, Sarita, you didn't have to cut it's whole head off, just slice the throat”, and so I felt kinda stupid. But he didn't tell me that part! I just figured you'd cut the whole thing right off and call it good. It sounds much more painful to try to just slice the thin little neck. All I could think of was my trip to Tanzania when my friend Jodi cut off a chicken's head so we could eat him for dinner. I saw nothing wrong with it. 

So after the chicken calmed down, Gloria came back out (she had left to hide in the house while I did the dirty work) and helped me process the chicken. We put it in a boiling pot of water to make the feathers easy to pluck out. I did all the plucking myself, then held the carcass over an open flame to singe off all the extra little hairs. Then it get's washed with soap and rinsed well so the butchering can start. She showed me how to cut it into the different pieces. I find it interesting that they don't really see the breast meat as the best part. It just gets cut in half through the bone without thought of keeping those pieces intact. One of the favorite parts of the body is the “piedra”, or the rock, which is the meaty part around the stomach sack that holds all the food bits. Looked gross to me, but when properly cleaned it's a nice piece of meat. I never new. Not something I remember from poultry class at Cal Poly.

After the chicken was cut into pieces, it was put into the soup first to cook and flavor the broth. Later we added carrots, onion, chaya, which is a green vine vegetable that's really tasty, and malanga, which, like chaya, is similar in texture and flavor to potatoes, but is white and purple in color. Both are delicious. The albondigas are made with corn masa and cuajada, the common cheese here. They're delicious, and cooked separately and added last to the soup so they don't fall apart. I absolutely love this type of soup, and hope to make it for the lucky ones who come to visit me! Incentive!

Gloria's brother often butchers cows for meat in the community, and to make some extra money, so that's an option for me if I ever want to see how that's done here. I honestly don't think I could do the dispatching of a cow, but I'd be interested in seeing how he processes the animal and compare it to how I remember doing it in my meats class at Cal Poly. I'm pretty sure the cuts of meat we obsess over in the States isn't taken with such seriousness here. People simply stop by the house the night before to get their request in for 5 pounds of beef or parts with the bone, they don't know to ask for brisket or a sirloin cut. Same goes with pork. I'm pretty sure people don't request baby back ribs or a pork loin. But as much as I'd like to see how the process is done here, part of me still feels really bad for the cow and the pig. Also, people start the butchering process at 3am so the meat is ready early in the day for selling, and the lazy part of me finds it really hard to get up in the pitch dark, walk down the street and watch a cow get butchered. I'll have to get over that, because it's just one of those things that I need to do while I'm here. I'm an Animal Science major dammit!

So my Thanksgiving plans are to go to Managua and spend dinner with a family that works in the US Embassy in Managua. There are about 20 other volunteers who were invited to spend Turkey day with an American family in the capital, including one of the other volunteers I've met in Jinotega. So we're catching a bus together to go eat Turkey in Nicaragua! I'm so excited for the big meal. Lots of volunteers get together during US holidays to spend time together celebrating and cooking traditional meals, but cooking a turkey amongst volunteers is difficult considering ovens are expensive as well as the gas needed to bake for 4 hours, plus turkeys aren't commonly found among the domestic livestock. So the chance to have a full-on Thanksgiving meal is pretty exciting. At least that's what I'm expecting.

I'm hoping within the next few weeks to have started my first oven projects in my community. Building improved ovens and stoves is something aggies are trained and known for, and I already have 6 families interested in getting theirs done soon. At least three of them want them done and ready for baking for Christmas. The ovens are made out of 55 gallon metal drums and adobe bricks. We make the mortar with horse manure, dirt, sap from sticky plants, and water, mix it with our feet, and build the oven one layer at a time, measuring meticulously the whole way. The outside ovens use less wood and take up less space than the traditional huge domed ovens used here. The stoves are for inside the kitchen, and also use less wood for cooking and funnel the smoke through a chimney to improve the health of the women using them. I'm excited to start my first oven! Four of the families have already bought their metal barrels and bricks, and are in the process of collecting the other materials. I'm hoping to get them started the beginning of December, about the time I'd like to get working on the house too. Lot's to do in December! I haven't started any large projects yet. I've attempted to hold two meetings with houses in different parts of the community to discuss starting community banks. The first meeting had a very small turnout, with only 10 people, but they acted interested and agreed to discussing the idea with their neighbors so I could hold another meeting for a larger group. So far I've heard nothing back from them, so I don't know how much convincing I'm going to have to try to do. The second meeting was even more frustrating because not one person showed up. The woman who's house I wanted to hold the meeting at told me that it was a bad day since everyone was out picking coffee. Then why did you pick this day to hold a meeting?! I wanted to ask her. I have them choose the days for meetings since they know when they best have time to attend. But sometimes they're wrong too. Honestly, overall it's just really hard to organize people. It's one of the most frustrating things I deal with. How am I supposed to spread information if no one shows up to listen?

November 21, 2011

Today I'm recovering from the past two days of being sick in bed. It started last Saturday with terrible stomach cramps and diarrhea. I had to cancel my English class for the day I felt so bad. I went to bed and woke up later in the evening with a fever and chills. I could barely sleep that night with all the sweating and shivering, not to mention the frequent outings to the latrine in the middle of the night. The next day I felt no better, but decided not to call the med office since it was Sunday, and they would no doubt ask me to send a fecal sample to the laboratory (which is 2 hours away in Jinotega), and the lab's not open on weekends. So I slept through another sick night, which was luckily way better than the first night since the fever had lifted by then. I called the med office this morning, and based on my symptoms the doctor told me it sounds like I have a bacterial infection. Luckily I already had the pills needed to take for a bacterial infection from the last time I had one way back during training. So the symptoms are diminishing and I think I'll be fine for my trip to Managua for Thanksgiving on Thursday. I would hate for a bacterial infection to ruin my chance at a traditional Thanksgiving meal!

Even though I had a good reason to, I felt bad for canceling my English class. Last week was the first class I had given in 3 weeks since I was gone for the Spanish language workshop, so only 4 people showed up to class last week. I hope my students don't think I've stopped giving classes. It's just that sometimes I have to leave town on weekends for PC stuff. The class I gave last week was about numbers. I taught zero through twenty, then one hundred, one thousand, and one million. To test them, I wrote really big numbers on the board, like 2,457,801, and had them write out the spelling in English (two million four hundred fifty seven thousand eight hundred one). After a few tries, I realized that the younger kids didn't even know how to say that number in Spanish, since they were only in 3^rd grade. So that lesson partly failed. I decided to move on to just saying their phone numbers, by having one student tell another student their phone number in English and that student would write it on the board. That went better. My plan for this past Saturday was to continue working with numbers, but then I got sick. And I'm not sure if I'll be back in time this coming Saturday to have class, so that will further delay classes. It's hard to keep class attendance up when I'm not even there myself sometimes.

November 23, 2011

Yesterday was super interesting. First of all, I have to update that my bacterial infection is gone, even though I'm still taking pills for it, but last night I came down with a cold, so now I'll be coughing all during Thanksgiving dinner in Managua instead of running back and forth to the bathroom. Lame. I hope I don't gross people out. So yesterday, I went over to Gloria's house for an invitation to eat pork, but when I got there she hadn't even left the house to buy the meat yet. So I went with her to the house where they were butchering the hog. Turns out when we got there that they had just killed it and were about to start cutting it apart. So I got to watch the whole process. It was really interesting. I felt stupid for not bringing my camera for the occasion. But I know there will be more pigs to be butchered in the future and am interested in helping out next time. They sell the sections of meat by the pound, and I had my eye on the ribs and the “Easter ham” rump section. Although I'm pretty sure I could never bake myself anything similar to a Honeybaked ham. I don't have a spiral cutter either. But at least I know that fresh meat is never too far away. Gloria bought some bone pieces from the spine (bone sections go for 20 Cordobas a pound, less than $1, the meatier sections are about 45 Cordobas a pound). So we had a super tasty pork vertebrae dinner with rice and yuca. It was so good.

Today I'm hanging out in Jinotega, catching up on some internet time (irritatingly trying to figure out what happened to my blog!), and will be heading into Managua tomorrow on the 6am bus. After spending Thanksgiving with an Embassy family and about 20 other volunteers, I'll be heading to the Peace Corps office on Friday to see if I can get a medical appointment to help me with this dry cough I've had since the last time I got sick a month ago. Then I'm heading to the Embassy to attend a panel presentation by three speakers discussing their careers. One of them was a volunteer in Peru and now works for USAID. Hopefully that will be interesting.

Well, I think that's an earful for now. Everyone have a great Thanksgiving! Love and miss you all!

~Sarita~

Election and laziness

The Nicaraguan presidential election finally came and went this past Sunday. I spent pretty much the entire day watching the local news that was following the progress at each large voting center, but mostly in Managua. Everything seemed to go really smooth, no fighting or rioting, just nice quiet lines and order in the voting booths. There wasn't any sign of fraud or mishandling of the voting system, from what could be seen on the news. There were observers from the U.S., OEA (Observadores Electional de America, or something close to that) that were placed in the larger voting centers in Managua to make sure everything was fair and equal, with no funny business. The next morning it was revealed that the FSLN (Sandinista) party had won with 63% of the votes. So Daniel Ortega will continue to be this country's president for at least the next 5 years. So far everything has been really calm. Of course the Sandinistas are celebrating here and there in the streets, and there have been a few protests here and there, but nothing huge.  The next day on the news the question of election fraud was a big one, but I haven't really heard any serious accusations.  

About what I've been  up to, I actually don't have much to report. This past week I've been extremely lazy. I got back from my week in Diriamba and weekend in Matagalpa and just did nothing. I got home on Halloween and spent the night watching “Thriller” that I had downloaded earlier that day, wearing an “I (heart) Halloween” glow in the dark t-shirt that I bought a few months ago in Jinotega (that's actually too small for me, it's a kid shirt but I didn't realize it when I bought it) and ate candy corn (thanks Elisa!). Yeah, it was totally dorky, but it's all I had. Hopefully Thanksgiving will be more active. Not sure what I'm going to do just yet. I have the choice to spend it with an American Embassy family in Managua, or with some other Jinotega volunteers at one of their houses. Then Christmas is next! It all feels right around the corner. 

I did go visit the school garden to see what state it was in after a week of me not being there. Things are growing, which is good, but so are the weeds, so I spent part of the afternoon weeding with a small group of kids from few classes. Then the next day I helped the 2^nd grade class write their second letter to the class in California that they're exchanging letters with. This month the theme is traditional food, so they wrote their favorite Nicaraguan dishes and provided the recipe for Nacatamales. Then the next day I went to a neighbor's house to watch her make Nacatamales. I wanted to help make them, but she never really offered, so I just sat and watched. I did at one point ask her if I could practice wrapping one of them, since it looks like a tricky process. Sure enough, it takes some practice. The banana leaves are big and can be cumbersome when trying to wrap a liquidy mixture in the middle. Hopefully I'll have more practice in the future. They're very common during Christmastime here, so I should get my fill. 

Well, hopefully the next blog will be way more interesting, if I can get my act together and get out of bed and go do something this month.   Sometimes it's just so easy to stay at home and read a good book or catch up a movie on my computer.  Plus, my family just upgraded their cable, so now we get 60 channels, including National Geographic, Nat Geo Wild (all about animals!), Animal Planet, History Channel, Discovery, MTV, VH1, BBC World News, and NBC and ABC!  So I watched the last two days' Live with Regis and Kelly in the morning (so I know Regis only has 7 days left on the show), and sometimes, if I'm lucky, I get a peek at who's on Dancing with Stars.  But I don't watch too much TV since it feels weird taking control of the remote in this house.  They like to watch other things, of course, and some of the US news and entertainment channels are only in English, so that's not fair.  I try to get a peek at some stuff when I can when no else is using the TV.  If and when I move I won't have access like I do now, so I'm taking advantage of it.  I just can't get too involved!

Don't forget to keep me posted on what you all are doing in your lives!  I miss everyone. . .

~Sarah~

Amoebas and hostels

So the title of this blog sounds misleading.  I didn't get an amoeba from the hostel I'm staying in.  I already had the amoeba before staying the hostel.  I don't know where I got sick from, but luckily it only lasted one day.  But I'm still going to take the pills they gave me anyways since apparently there are baby amoebas that stick around unless you treat them. 

So the week of the Spanish taller (workshop) is over.  It was actually good to have more lessons, because this time the focus was all grammar, which I really needed.  My host family was super nice told me that their house is my house if I ever come back to visit.  The last night I was there they took me out for pizza and we just sat in the restaurant chit chatting for a while.  The flat screen TV in the restaurant was playing music videos, including a medley of Lady Gaga videos, the new "We are the world" mix and the original one right after it, and part of a Backstreet Boys concert.  Interesting.  I had to explain to them what "poker face" means in Spanish.  But it was good times.  They're a young couple and they are super friendly.  We ended up talking about Carebears and Lionel Ritchie, but also about teen pregnancy. 

After that a group of us headed to the city of Matagalpa to spend the weekend in a really cool hostel.  I'm not supposed to go back to the city of Jinotega due to a potential closing of current presidential party festivities, so I'm here for the weekend just hanging out and getting lots of internet time.  They also have a big flat screen TV with cable so there's some good movies to watch.  Last night we went out for dinner in the pouring rain.  It had been dry all day and all of a sudden started pouring and within a half an hour the streets were completely flooded.  We didn't realize how much water had accumulated when we starting running out the hotel, so by the time we got to the restaurant we were soaking wet.  The streets and sidewalks were completely swamped with water, cars were practically floating away (not joking), and the streets were literal rivers that we had to wade across.  It was crazy.  I wish I had my camera with me to record the moment, but of course glad I didn't have it since I was soaking wet.  So now my only pair of closed toed shoes are wet for my journey back to site.  Good times. 


Hope everyone has a Happy Halloween!!!

~Sarah~

Spanish taller in Diriamba

I'm currently back in my original training town of Diriamba, Carazo, for a Spanish workshop that all the aggies were required to attend since our final language interview after training put us at an intermediate mid speaking level.  They want us to continue improving, so we had to come back for more classes.  But before I could come down for the taller I was invited to a wedding!  One of my Nica friends in my community has been with her "marido", or the person she's sleeping with, for 16 years, and they have 4 kids, but they never got married.  So they had  a civil ceremony at their house and had people over for food and dancing.  I found out last Wednesday, three days before the wedding, and I had already made plans to head into Jinotega on Saturday to stay over so I could cut the trip to Managua in half.  Well, there was no way I was going to miss her wedding, so I ended up having to take the first bus out of Pantasma at 5am on Sunday morning so I could catch the earliest bus possible to Managua.  Well, once I got to Jinotega I found out that the next bus left over an hour later, so I really didn't have to take the earliest bus after all.  Lame.  But I met up with another volunteer and we had a good breakfast so I guess it was okay after all.

So the wedding: she had specifically told me I had to stay in Wale on Saturday so I could dance at her wedding.  How do you say no to that?  So I did stay, and it was fun.  The ceremony they had was really simple.  They just sat down at a table in the living room with two witnesses and the officiator (what do you call them?).  They were read some info about legally being married and the expectations involved, which are all about the same types of things they say at American weddings, that they must respect and love their partner for the rest of their lives, and stuff like that.  They each had to stand up and raise their right hand as they replied "yes" to the contract.  Then they were married!  Real simple, short and sweet.  They did give each other a little kiss at the end, but seemed embarrassed about it.  I made sure to hoot and holler at them to make it a little more fun, since most people there were super quiet.  Then the food was served, which was some delicious stewed beef with rice and a typical Nicaraguan salad of shredded cabbage, tomatoes, and cucumbers.  I felt kind of out of place just sitting around waiting for food, so I got up to help serve the plates of food to the rest of the party.

After eating, people were just kind of sitting around staring at each other while the music was blasting.  It was obvious people wanted to dance but no one wanted to be the first one on the dance floor, including me.  So we all just waited for something to happen.  Then the groom came over to me and asked me to dance, which was a nice surprise, so we hit the dance floor while everyone starting really gathering around to see the gringa dance with the groom.  I wasn't embarrassed, I was actually glad that someone did something to get the party started.  I did some funny moves and people were laughing and the mood started to change a bit, and after that people started getting up to dance.  Which basically meant that from that point on I was the hit of the dance party with all the men, who kept coming up after every single song to force their hand into my face to ask me to dance.  It was a repeat of the "Nica dance party" I attended a month or so back.  I couldn't sit down for one second without people bursting my personal bubble to ask me to dance.  It was actually really annoying and I had to leave and hide in the kitchen a few times to get a break.  Men are pushy here, and won't take no for an answer, at least when it comes to dancing.  Don't worry, I won't get myself into any dangerous situations, if that previous statement sounded a little scary.

I had asked Esmeralda what a proper wedding gift was here in Nica, and she said dishes for the woman, which was expected I guess.  We do that in the States too.  So I bought her a set of white tea cups and plates with red flowers on them.  She called me after the wedding to say thanks and that we would use them for Christmas Eve, which in Nica is a bigger day than Christmas Day, so she must have liked them.  So overall the wedding was fun and I'm glad I stayed to be there to dance at her wedding.

So on Sunday I took the bus into Managua to spend some time at the Peace Corps office.  We were all given reservations at the hotel there so the whole ag group stayed there and got to catch up a bit before starting the taller on Monday.  We had to take an early bus to Diriamba since classes started at 8am.  I arrived at my house right on time, but when I got there the lady of the house was on the phone, and I wasn't sure if it was the right house, so I just stood in the doorway like a dork until she would acknowledge me.    Then all of a sudden she handed me the phone and said it was for me, which totally caught me off guard, but made me realize that I had indeed found the right house.  The woman on the phone was the head language trainer telling me that Paige's home-stay family for the week had just had a death in the family, which was where we were going to have our classes, so we would have classes at my house instead.  They also had to scramble to find another family for her to stay with.  She ended up going back to her original family for training at the last minute.  So when Ryan, the other person in my group, showed up to my house, it had at that point been decided by our language facilitator that we would have more space having class at his house instead of mine, so after he walked half way across town to get to my house, we all walked back to his house, and are now having classes there.  So it was a crazy, confusing start to our first day of the taller, but it all figured itself out.  And the house that he's staying in is actually really nice, very American in it's layout, which is a weird sight.  The layout of the kitchen with the counter tops and the toaster oven and microwave and glass-paneled cabinets is not very Nica, but very American.  The living room also has a nice formal sitting area of couches around a coffee table that faces the TV, also very American in appearance.  Plus, the master bedroom has a big plasma TV, which is so not typical of the setup in Nicaragua.  She's got a nice place!

The house I'm currently staying in is much different than the past house.  I prefer the setup of the past house, to be honest.  I was super spoiled with my wireless internet, private bathroom and bedroom in the back of the private patio.  In my current house, the bedroom walls don't reach the ceiling, so there's absolutely no sound barrier to the rest of the house.  It has been raining a ton here in Diriamba for the past few months, which means it's hard to do laundry since nothing dries when it's rainy.  And I think the bedding they had to wash for me for this week didn't dry all the way, so my bed smells like mold and mildew, especially the pillows.  I couldn't sleep on them they're so bad, so I make-shifted a pillow from an extra blanket I found and my sweatshirt.  The one bathroom of the house shares a wall with my room, and also has no ceiling, so EVERYTHING can be heard while you're on the john, which is terrible when you have really bad diarrhea, like I do right now.  I got sick with something yesterday and woke up at 3am having to run to the bathroom more than once before getting up for the morning.  I was super nauseous and thought I was going to throw up, but never did, so I just felt terrible all morning lying in bed trying to fall asleep again.  Plus, I've got the sulfer-burps, which means I probably have giardia.  Yuck.  I called the med office and they had me drop off a stool sample at the local lab.  Trying to poop in a cup without crapping on your hand is a disturbing experience, let me just say, and virtually impossible as well.  So that was fun.  I still haven't heard back the results, however, so I guess tomorrow I'll see what kind of remedy of pills they'll subscribe me.

Well, I've gotta go eat some dinner with the new fam, so I'll cut this short here.  Love and miss you all!

~Sarah~

3 month meeting

October 20, 2011

So yesterday was my big 3 month meeting, where Felix, the Ag program specialist, came to listen and help clear up information for my community if needed. I had a ton of posters to show the results of each one of the meetings I've had up until this point. There were actually almost 30 people that showed up, so I was feeling pretty good about it. There were a ton of people I personally invited that didn't show, which was annoying, but let's just not think about that part. So I basically just presented the needs list the community has provided me through the various meetings we've had. The most common issues that came up include potable water, better overall health (improved diets, access to a health center), latrines, school improvements (better materials, better attendance, a pre-school center, better school health/meals), improved roads and bridges, access to credit, and reforestation (or also better use of firewood). So I presented some ideas I have of types of projects we can try to start, including building improved ovens and stoves that use less firewood and produce less smoke, starting family gardens to improve family health and variety of produce, latrine building projects, a school garden (which I've already started and hope to successfully maintain), and starting more community banks. The hardest part of the meeting was just getting people to talk. That's the toughest thing about meeting here, is the amount of pena, or shame or embarrassment that people have. They'd rather say nothing and get nothing done sometimes than speak up in front of a group and be heard aloud. Really frustrating when you're trying to get the opinion of your community about what types of projects are most important to them. But after a little bit the group warmed up and spoke up about some things. I made two future meetings with some ladies to give a presentation at their houses for the people that live near them about starting a community bank. Many people were interested in building stoves and ovens, after Felix stepped in to help me explain the logistics of it, so I got a list started for that. I had no one speak up about starting a reforestation group so we can start a tree nursery. That was frustrating because everyone stated how important that topic is to them. So why don't you want to help then!? They know what they want and what needs to change but getting them to show up and take action is the hard part.

After the meeting Felix congratulated me and said it looks like things are going well for me, and that my Spanish is really good. I know there's tons of improvements to be made in the Spanish department, but it felt nice hearing that from him. I walked him down the road to the little casita I'm thinking of moving into and had him take a look at it to give me his official Peace Corps say. We talked a bit with the woman who owns the house, and afterwords he told me it's a possibility if I wanted to go for it, but there's a lot to do, which I'm aware of. I need to put in a cement floor (not because I have to, but I want to), put in a latrine and a shower, somehow hook up a water source, buy or otherwise acquire a lavandero for washing clothes, hook up electricity (I'd really like a mini fridge), buy a gas stove for cooking, and some more furniture, like a new bed and larger table for eating and whatnot. Not to mention other odds and ends that I have provided for me now, like dishes. That all comes out to lots of cordobas. But luckily Peace Corps allows us to take out loans from future paychecks to help pay for larger housing issues. Some volunteers build their houses from the ground up, so you can imagine they'd need more money sooner. They say it's tough having less money later, but having your own place is totally worth it. So I'm going to start looking into prices for cement floors, a latrine, and a shower. Those three at least will have to be installed before I can move in. But I get ahead of myself; first I have to talk to the committee of FUMDEC, the womens group, because they actually have an agreement with the owner to use the house for meetings when necessary. But I don't think they'll have too much of an issue since in the end I'll be fixing up the place anyways, and they'd benefit more in the end when I leave them a nice updated house. So we'll see what they have to say.

I want to say thanks to all the awesome people who have been sending me packages filled with goodies. It means a lot to me, and I definitely use every ounce of every item that I get. Since I'm letting my hair grow out these days it's always in my face, but it's luckily at the length that I can tie it back. So hair-ties, the nice ones without the metal band, are a good package-stuffer if you feel the urge. Plus, I've been pinning my bangs off to the side so if you see any cute hair clips, the kind that just bend and snap open and closed, I could use some options for nicer occasions. The hair items sold here are usually really cheap quality. Also, “Airborne”, the citrus flavored cold-preventer pills, are a good idea, since it sucks being sick, and maybe, just maybe, if I could prevent a cold coming on, it would make my week so much better. These are just ideas, of course I don't expect anything because mailing packages can be expensive. But hey, if the holiday spirit is just bursting out and you can't resist sending me Halloween candy, I'll gladly accept! And don't forget: you MUST send me (e-mail is fine) pictures of your carved pumpkins! Me faltan las calabasas! (I'm lacking pumpkins!). I also want to mention that simply sending photos is super awesome. Like my friend Tina recently mentioned in an e-mail (who's currently in training in Peru), sending photos means you get displayed on the family and friends wall in our rooms, which is a good place to be! So they're super important :)

Well, next week starting on Monday is our 3 month language workshop for my whole Ag group. We're going back to the town of Diriamba, in the department of Carazo, to stay with the same families we stayed with during training, since the current group (environment) in training is going to be at their sites visits, so we get their rooms for the week. However, my training family apparently didn't get a trainee this time, most likely because this current training group is smaller than my group was. So I'll be staying with a new family for the week. But I'd like to go visit my old family again and check in with them, especially since I feel my Spanish has improved a bit. So we'll be in our same language groups as before, having class from 8-4pm Monday through Thursday. I'm sure we'll be making time to socialize with everyone again, since this is the first time we'll all be back together again. It'll be nice to see some faces again and catch up on how everyone's sites are treating them.

I hope everyone's doing well and staying healthy.  Sorry, but I've been lazy with the Spanish lessons lately.  Don't forget to check out my pictures: sarahinnica.shutterfly.com

~Sarita~