So the Ag group attended a presentation today by Dr. Emilio Perez Castellon at the local Museo de Historia y Cultura. He gave a power point on basic info about Nicaraguan Rural Society that I thought would be interesting to share. This is great info to know when planning on living and working in this country for two years:
Nicaragua has about 5.5 million habitants in a land mass about the size of New York state. The West coast/Pacific region was earlier inhabited my Mayan natives moving south, and the East coast/Atlantic region was earlier inhabited by black slaves, Caribbean natives, and the British. All of the volcanoes are found in the Western region, which has the most fertile land.
Stats about rural area families:
Average 7.6 children per woman in each family
Women start the wife/mom role at the range of 14-19 years of age
54% of couples are legally married
34% of homes are led by women
Single moms are common in rural areas
Traditionally men are the landowners
Over 50% of the farmwork is done by women
Women don't have access to credit or banks
75% of rural families live in poverty or extreme poverty
Schools are mainly attended by girls
~60% of the population doesn't have access to piped water (must use rivers)
And farmers love baseball!!!
Production Activities:
Main crops - beans, corn, squash, sorghum, bananas, fruits, roots
Main animal products - dairy products (cheese), poultry, swine, sheep, goats
Common modes of transportation: horses, oxen, buses, and boats (some Atlantic regions can only use boats)
I could get more in-depth but I don't want to bore people with all the facts.
As for me so far:
My Spanish has probably improved just a bit, but it's still only been like a week, so I expect more improvement in the coming weeks. We had our first official meeting with our youth group yesterday, and the total went down to 5, from 12 the initial meeting. And we only had one girl, so we still have more recruiting to do. We still haven't solidified a garden spot just yet, but it will most likely be at the nearby elementary school (which is like 4 houses away from me) since there's a good space and a teacher who could help maintain it during a couple weeks in the future when we'll be gone for training reasons.
I attended my second dance class last night with my training buddy Paige. It started about an hour late (they say it starts at 6) because there was initially another neighborhood meeting that everyone went to, so we left, but then went right back when my dad showed up and said that the girls in the class were looking for us since the meeting was already over. But when we got there, the instructor still wasn't there, so we dilly-dallied around for a while till he got there. In the end, I didn't get home until about 8:30, had to bathe first cause I always sweat uncontrolably in class, and then ate dinner at 9pm. It was embarrasing cause my mom always waits until I'm home to eat herself, so she had waited until 9 to eat. I felt really bad, and told her I was sorry I was late due to the class being so behind, and that in the future she shouldn't wait for me to eat. I told her I wouldn't go to class if it started that late, or that I would just leave early to make it to dinner on time. She was really nice about it, cause she's just a super nice and quiet person, but overall I felt really bad.
My little informal interview today with our training coordinator was interesting. I was super nervous at first cause it was during Spanish class that he showed up, and I thought we were gonna have to do it in Spanish, so I was freaking out like it was a language test. But no, it was all in English, to my relief. He mostly just introduced himself and described his education and past experiences. He's a super educated person! He has degrees in areas like crop science and animal production and a master's in foreign policy. He's been working with the PC for the past 4 years, and at first knew very little English, so he's been in our shoes! We talked about my past experiences and why I decided to join PC. He seemed super impressed in all my animal experience, especially all the animal production classes I took in college. But I had to make it clear that most of my animal experience is with exotics in a zoo experience and that I don't really know much about swine production, for example. He assured me that when it comes to PC and volunteers here in Nicaragua, not many people have ANY animal experience, and that I'm a pretty specialized (I like to think "special") volunteer because of my experience. And there are lots of people living in the rural areas of Nicaragua where ag volunteers are placed that have some kind of small animal production, whether it's pigs or a few chickens. Also, which really excited me, he mentioned that there's a former Nica volunteer that had animal experience like I do, that comes back to Nica every once and while to help with animal husbandry/production projects, like vaccinating chickens, and that he'd give her my e-mail if I wanted to get in contact with her while she was here for her next project. How cool is that! That's totally something I'd want to do after PC, if I can only get through PC first! Plus, it doesn't help that there was another Sarah Robinson who was PC Nica volunteer who was apparently a superstar volunteer. She had a very successful service, extending for a 3rd year, and also married a Nica. No pressure!
So overall, things are still hard, but good. I'm frustrated every single day, but also look forward to a lot of things too. So far nothing's holding me back. We've already lost 2 ag volunteers that have gone home. It's sad, but I know they must have had good reasons for leaving. If it's not meant for you, then you shouldn't be here.
Nica Spanish lesson for this blog: When approaching someone's house or front door, you say "Buenas!" Ususally they say buenas back, or "ya voy!", like "i'm coming!", or "ya va!", like "wait!"
Tune in next time for another lesson :)
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Sunday, May 22, 2011
My weekend in Nicaragua
So weird that I'm watching Linkin Park's new video for "Burning in the Skies" right now. It's the first time I've seen it, and I'm in Nicaragua. Turns out (at least during training) that I may not miss out on everything US. That's only cause my family has cable TV, and my sister and brother watch music videos a lot. No complaints here! Turns out I may also get to see "Pirates" 4, if I'm lucky. Let's keep our fingers crossed people!
So yesterday our whole ag group met at an INTA training site (Instituto National de Technologia Agropecuaria) which is our ag counterpart while we're here as volunteers. Check out my shutterfly page, I posted all the pics from yesterday. We learned how to start a compost pile, build different types of fences, and how to plant various types of seeds. It was nice to actually get out and do something physical for once. So many people got sunburned! But not me! I was prepared with my sunscreen (don't worry Mom!). We planted some more delicate seeds (tomatoes and peppers) to bring home to take care of before planting in our garden in our neighborhood. This week we're also going to officially meet with our youth group to start brainstorming on a product to make and commercialize. I'm totally nervous about this. My Spanish is not nearly good enough to be leading youth groups on commercialization projects! I've never even done this myself, let alone had to teach it to others! So it'll be interesting.
Today (like in 30 minutes) my family's house is hosting a political neighborhood get-together outside in the street. Should be interesting. My mom said she's expecting like 100 people, so I've got to get my act together to start talking to more people and introducing myself. I've got integrate! That's like one of the biggest goals PC pushes on us to accomplish. No pressure.
On a lighter note, I took a dance class last Thursday! Turns out that the house directly behind me is a dance studio, and has classes everyday for kids and adults. So Paige and I went to one last week to see what it was all about. I guess there's a guy that comes down from Managua to teach. The class was not what I'm used to. I'm used to some kind of warm-up, a lesson on some kind of choreography to a particularly popular song of the times, and then a warm-down. Not the case here. It was more like an aerobics class, where he just danced in front of the class and everyone followed him, doing the same moves to each of the 5 songs that were on repeat like 3 times. Don't get me wrong, it was a lot of fun, I liked the moves (a lot of salsa-style stuff in place with some other fun twists and turns and rolly hip stuff), he could dance REALLY well, and the music was totally fun. I'm just hoping that other days he switches it up a bit. We, of course, were the only non-locals there, totally discustingly sweating all over the place, while everyone else seemed just fine. It was pretty funny. Half way through the class he told us to come up to the front, so we had to dance side-by-side with him! Basically making everyone stare at the white girls who came to visit. Well get used to it ladies! I'm going to go more. We actually went again the next night, but after an hour of waiting for people to show up (I forgot to mention that no one's really on time to anything here) we just left cause we had to get up early the next day, and our families were probably holding up dinner for us. We've been told by PC staff that showing up late 15 minutes is actually considered being on time, and so people will generally show up 30 min late, since to them that's right about on time. I have a feeling that's gonna drive me crazy. It's one of the many things I'll have to become accustomed to.
More later. . .
So yesterday our whole ag group met at an INTA training site (Instituto National de Technologia Agropecuaria) which is our ag counterpart while we're here as volunteers. Check out my shutterfly page, I posted all the pics from yesterday. We learned how to start a compost pile, build different types of fences, and how to plant various types of seeds. It was nice to actually get out and do something physical for once. So many people got sunburned! But not me! I was prepared with my sunscreen (don't worry Mom!). We planted some more delicate seeds (tomatoes and peppers) to bring home to take care of before planting in our garden in our neighborhood. This week we're also going to officially meet with our youth group to start brainstorming on a product to make and commercialize. I'm totally nervous about this. My Spanish is not nearly good enough to be leading youth groups on commercialization projects! I've never even done this myself, let alone had to teach it to others! So it'll be interesting.
Today (like in 30 minutes) my family's house is hosting a political neighborhood get-together outside in the street. Should be interesting. My mom said she's expecting like 100 people, so I've got to get my act together to start talking to more people and introducing myself. I've got integrate! That's like one of the biggest goals PC pushes on us to accomplish. No pressure.
On a lighter note, I took a dance class last Thursday! Turns out that the house directly behind me is a dance studio, and has classes everyday for kids and adults. So Paige and I went to one last week to see what it was all about. I guess there's a guy that comes down from Managua to teach. The class was not what I'm used to. I'm used to some kind of warm-up, a lesson on some kind of choreography to a particularly popular song of the times, and then a warm-down. Not the case here. It was more like an aerobics class, where he just danced in front of the class and everyone followed him, doing the same moves to each of the 5 songs that were on repeat like 3 times. Don't get me wrong, it was a lot of fun, I liked the moves (a lot of salsa-style stuff in place with some other fun twists and turns and rolly hip stuff), he could dance REALLY well, and the music was totally fun. I'm just hoping that other days he switches it up a bit. We, of course, were the only non-locals there, totally discustingly sweating all over the place, while everyone else seemed just fine. It was pretty funny. Half way through the class he told us to come up to the front, so we had to dance side-by-side with him! Basically making everyone stare at the white girls who came to visit. Well get used to it ladies! I'm going to go more. We actually went again the next night, but after an hour of waiting for people to show up (I forgot to mention that no one's really on time to anything here) we just left cause we had to get up early the next day, and our families were probably holding up dinner for us. We've been told by PC staff that showing up late 15 minutes is actually considered being on time, and so people will generally show up 30 min late, since to them that's right about on time. I have a feeling that's gonna drive me crazy. It's one of the many things I'll have to become accustomed to.
More later. . .
Thursday, May 19, 2011
First week nearly complete!
Hey everyone,
So I've kinda started a routine of checking my e-mail each morning during breakfast (yay for wireless internet in my house!) and sometimes during lunches if there's time. However, blogging tends to take more time since I have to sit and describe what's going on, vs. simply answering e-mails that I get daily (dammit Tina! Why is it that you STILL take up most of my time even countries apart! :)) So here's a quick one to catch everyone up while I'm eating lunch:
Today's the last day of language classes for our first week with homestays. We have Spanish classes Mon-Thurs, then Fridays are training days with the whole Ag group, in a bigger town where everyone can meet. Tomorrow it's in Managua. Then on Sat this week we are meeting again but in Jinotepe, the closest bigger town to Diriamba, my digs. Today in class we took a bus to Jinotepe (it's only 3 km away) to practice asking directions with the locals. Directions here are different in the sense that there aren't any house #'s, just points of reference, like a school or church or store. So my house address is "From the primary school, one block to the south", but in Spanish of course, and with the specific name of the barrio (El Recreo) and the School name. And usually for "east" and "west" they use "down" and "up", or abajo and arriba, cause that's the direction the sun rises and falls. Weird huh? It'll take some getting used to.
Anyways, things are going well so far. I'm still completly frustrated with my Spanish most of the time, but I can only improve from here (I'm really trying to think positively ALL the time). Yesterday was the first meeting of our youth group, where we introduced ourselves and told them (or tried to explain in our broken Spanish) the goals we have here with making and maintaining a garden, integrating into the community, and inventing a product to commercialize with the youth group. At the end of training there's a competition amongst all the trainees, ag and business, with these youth group products. Yikes! No pressure!
I'll keep you all posted!
So I've kinda started a routine of checking my e-mail each morning during breakfast (yay for wireless internet in my house!) and sometimes during lunches if there's time. However, blogging tends to take more time since I have to sit and describe what's going on, vs. simply answering e-mails that I get daily (dammit Tina! Why is it that you STILL take up most of my time even countries apart! :)) So here's a quick one to catch everyone up while I'm eating lunch:
Today's the last day of language classes for our first week with homestays. We have Spanish classes Mon-Thurs, then Fridays are training days with the whole Ag group, in a bigger town where everyone can meet. Tomorrow it's in Managua. Then on Sat this week we are meeting again but in Jinotepe, the closest bigger town to Diriamba, my digs. Today in class we took a bus to Jinotepe (it's only 3 km away) to practice asking directions with the locals. Directions here are different in the sense that there aren't any house #'s, just points of reference, like a school or church or store. So my house address is "From the primary school, one block to the south", but in Spanish of course, and with the specific name of the barrio (El Recreo) and the School name. And usually for "east" and "west" they use "down" and "up", or abajo and arriba, cause that's the direction the sun rises and falls. Weird huh? It'll take some getting used to.
Anyways, things are going well so far. I'm still completly frustrated with my Spanish most of the time, but I can only improve from here (I'm really trying to think positively ALL the time). Yesterday was the first meeting of our youth group, where we introduced ourselves and told them (or tried to explain in our broken Spanish) the goals we have here with making and maintaining a garden, integrating into the community, and inventing a product to commercialize with the youth group. At the end of training there's a competition amongst all the trainees, ag and business, with these youth group products. Yikes! No pressure!
I'll keep you all posted!
Sunday, May 15, 2011
First full day with homestays
Wow, what did I get myself into?!
Let's just say things have been exciting, but harder than I imagined I guess. Today is Sunday, my first full day with my homestay family. Yesterday morning all the trainees gathered their belongings (which took up 1/2 our bus, for just one town!) and they drove us all out to our respective barrios, or neighborhoods. My barrio is El Recreo, in the town of Diriamba, in the region of Carazo, Nicaragua, if that helps anyone get an idea on a map where I am. I originally thought all the aggies would be training near the town of Esteli, but that's apparently not the case. Because we will most likely be working together with business volunteers, both programs are training near each other. So the aggies all went to Carazo and the business trainees near and around Masaya. We each got dropped off one at a time at our new homes for the next 11 weeks, with Martha, my group's language facilitator, walking us to our doorstep. It was so exciting seeing the others before me get off the bus, but so nerve-wracking at the same time! I was coming up next! The two other trainees in my group, Paige and Ryan, live a few houses away from me, so Paige got dropped off first, then me, then Ryan. I recognized my new mom's face as soon as we drove up, because we had photos and a brief info sheet about our new family. Turns out I have a mom, dad, grandma, sister, and brother. They didn't list him on the sheet I received, so that was something new when I sat down in my new living room and saw everyone for the first time. My dad introduced everyone (I'll leave their names out for privacy sake) one at a time, very formally, and then I introduced myself. My mom's 51 years old (I guess the info they gave us is a little dated), my dad's 50, my grandma's 70, and my sister and brother are 14 and 18, respectively. My sister's in 9th grade at the local high school in Diriamba, my brother goes to college in Managua, my dad works as an instructor of technical sciences, I believe, and my mom's a docent at his work.
After an awkward pause in the living room, my brother suggested my dad take me on a tour of the house. So I followed him around, everyone following me, and saw where my room was to be, which is a lone room across the patio in the back, with my own bathroom. It has a shower, but the water is off almost all the time during the day. It comes on at night, anywhere between 8pm and 7am, but the times vary. So they have a huge water tank that fills at night, and that water is available to all the faucets in the house during the day. So basically, bathing during the hours of no water require a bucket bath since the shower head won't work. But the spigot in the bathroom and the sink work from the tank. So last night was my first official bucket bath here in Nicaragua. It'll take some getting used to. I did bucket bathe here and there in Tanzania, but it's not like I excelled at it! My grandma kept telling me to let her know when I wanted hot water to bathe, but it was so hot and I was so sweaty all day that I was looking forward to a cool wash-down. But by the time I actually bathed, it was dark out and had cooled down. So it was a little chilly, but felt good nontheless.
So. . .Spanish. Hmmm. Well, let's just say it's a lot harder than I thought! I can definitely get by, but I am definitely struggling. To the point that I feel totally stupid sometimes in class. Let me back up a bit. After settling in a bit in my new home yesterday, like starting to unpack some of my things in my room, I had lunch with my sister at the table, which was a warm cooked banana, some white rice, and a piece of fried fish. But it was really short and I had to scarf because I only had 10 minutes to get to my first "survival Spanish" class Ryan's house (for 3 weeks at a time we have our language classes at one of our 3 houses, so first we're starting out at Ryan's). I didn't realize that he literally lives like 5 doors down from me. It was the job of my mom to walk me over there so I knew where I was going. It started to lightly rain while we were eating lunch (and by the way, my sister is really quiet and shy, so it's sometimes hard to engage her in some kind of conversation. Plus I just usually don't know how to say what I want to say. I did ask her if she thought I needed my umbrella since it was starting to rain). By the time we got to Ryan's house, like a minute later, it was a complete downpour! I forgot to mention earlier that this is the very beginning of the wet season, which is usually May-November, the wettest months being Sept/Oct. So all 3 of us met at Ryan's with Martha, and sat on his enclosed patio for our first lesson/discussion. Honestly, I've never seen it rain so hard, so suddenly, as I did yesterday. Plus, all the roofs here are metal, so it was impossible to hear each other talk until the rain slowed down a bit. Which was like 5 solid minutes of complete noise while all 4 of us just kind of sat there laughing at how loud it was. Martha said she'd try to keep it real informal at first until we could hear each other better. Our lesson lasted from 1 until about 3 or so. We practiced greetings ("saludos"), and she brought out Ryan's brother to practice with us. We kept forgetting what to say, it was rediculous. I felt so dumb! This should be so simple, but they're new phrases I've never used before, like "Le presente mi amiga, le conoce? No, no le conozco, mucho gusto, me llamo Sarah. El gusto es mio. Es un placer conocerla." After our lessons we had to walk around to each of our houses and introduce our fellow trainees to our moms. So funny! We kinda ended up doing the short-and-sweet versions of what we learned since we forgot all the details. We also had to leave with the 'goodbyes' that we learned, like "Nos vemos. Que le vaya bien." I'm telling you, these things are so basic, but so scary when you have to go out and actually do them! Even if it's just with our families, cause I feel so silly when I mess up.
Yesterday I actually sat down and talked quite a bit with my dad. I'm finding he's the easiest one to talk to because he speaks slower than everyone else and will repeat himself without trouble because he senses this is hard for me. We sat down at the chalkboard they have in the house and wrote down random things we discussed so I could see the spelling of certain things. I told him the names of my family members back home and tried to explain what they do for a living (mom, I tried to explain ultrasounds, as you can imagine how weird that is. "Fotos del corazon en una computadora"). Both my parents said they thought I spoke pretty well, I guess considering. Oh, and get this, I'm the first PC trainee to live with them! Actually, El Recreo has never hosted trainees before, so all three of us are new to our families. So we're both experiencing some changes to our lives. But so far everyone's been really nice. I feel kinda bad for my siblings. It seems like I'm just something their parents signed up for, like they got dragged into it. Especially for my brother. He's 18 and tends to speak quicker than I can follow. I feel bad asking him to slow down, but this is hard for me! Imagine a college aged American kid that had to deal with a new person in their house who could barely speak his language. I can imagine how frustrating that would be, I mean, I'm living proof right here! It's a learning process for all of us.
So today I have free time. I went with my mom to the market to see where she buys groceries. Plus, one of my assignments is to buy and carry around with me a roll of toilet paper ("papel higienico"), since you never know when you're gonna need to use the bathroom, and whether or not it'll be stocked). So we took a mototaxi into Diriamba. First we stopped at a pet food store! Huh! Apparently some people actually feed their dogs Purina brand pet food. Nice! I forgot to mention that they have two dogs: Bruno, a small scrappy-type mutt that resembles Benji, and Susie (or Suzi, not sure), who's quite possibly the cutest little puppy I've ever seen in my LIFE!! I took pics and I'll try to load them soon. She's only a month and a half, this little curly-eared something. I don't know what she is, but she doesn't look real, she's so cute. Like some little doe-eyed stuffed animal I just wanna squeeze to death. Unfortunately they're typically not allowed in the house, so Bruno spends all day sitting on the front porch or patio, keeping watch. And, yeah, he barks a lot when I come to the door, so I'm hoping he'll get to know me soon enough, cause I sure as hell don't want to be bit by a dog when I'm here.
Anyways, we first stopped at the pet food store for some kibble, then walked the rest of the street to buy various fruits and vegetables from vendors out on the curb. Then there was the bigger market with permanent stalls, like gigantic pig heads hanging in the meat stalls, shoes, shoe repair, papel higienico, (yay! which cost me 14 cordobas, or less than 50 cents), clothes, food, and all sorts of other stuff. I just basically followed her around with my notebook, taking notes on new words I needed to learn.
This post is already so long, but I feel I've just barely scratched the surface. Right now my bro just asked if I want to go out and walk around, and my battery is dying, so I'll add more later.
Bye for now!
Let's just say things have been exciting, but harder than I imagined I guess. Today is Sunday, my first full day with my homestay family. Yesterday morning all the trainees gathered their belongings (which took up 1/2 our bus, for just one town!) and they drove us all out to our respective barrios, or neighborhoods. My barrio is El Recreo, in the town of Diriamba, in the region of Carazo, Nicaragua, if that helps anyone get an idea on a map where I am. I originally thought all the aggies would be training near the town of Esteli, but that's apparently not the case. Because we will most likely be working together with business volunteers, both programs are training near each other. So the aggies all went to Carazo and the business trainees near and around Masaya. We each got dropped off one at a time at our new homes for the next 11 weeks, with Martha, my group's language facilitator, walking us to our doorstep. It was so exciting seeing the others before me get off the bus, but so nerve-wracking at the same time! I was coming up next! The two other trainees in my group, Paige and Ryan, live a few houses away from me, so Paige got dropped off first, then me, then Ryan. I recognized my new mom's face as soon as we drove up, because we had photos and a brief info sheet about our new family. Turns out I have a mom, dad, grandma, sister, and brother. They didn't list him on the sheet I received, so that was something new when I sat down in my new living room and saw everyone for the first time. My dad introduced everyone (I'll leave their names out for privacy sake) one at a time, very formally, and then I introduced myself. My mom's 51 years old (I guess the info they gave us is a little dated), my dad's 50, my grandma's 70, and my sister and brother are 14 and 18, respectively. My sister's in 9th grade at the local high school in Diriamba, my brother goes to college in Managua, my dad works as an instructor of technical sciences, I believe, and my mom's a docent at his work.
After an awkward pause in the living room, my brother suggested my dad take me on a tour of the house. So I followed him around, everyone following me, and saw where my room was to be, which is a lone room across the patio in the back, with my own bathroom. It has a shower, but the water is off almost all the time during the day. It comes on at night, anywhere between 8pm and 7am, but the times vary. So they have a huge water tank that fills at night, and that water is available to all the faucets in the house during the day. So basically, bathing during the hours of no water require a bucket bath since the shower head won't work. But the spigot in the bathroom and the sink work from the tank. So last night was my first official bucket bath here in Nicaragua. It'll take some getting used to. I did bucket bathe here and there in Tanzania, but it's not like I excelled at it! My grandma kept telling me to let her know when I wanted hot water to bathe, but it was so hot and I was so sweaty all day that I was looking forward to a cool wash-down. But by the time I actually bathed, it was dark out and had cooled down. So it was a little chilly, but felt good nontheless.
So. . .Spanish. Hmmm. Well, let's just say it's a lot harder than I thought! I can definitely get by, but I am definitely struggling. To the point that I feel totally stupid sometimes in class. Let me back up a bit. After settling in a bit in my new home yesterday, like starting to unpack some of my things in my room, I had lunch with my sister at the table, which was a warm cooked banana, some white rice, and a piece of fried fish. But it was really short and I had to scarf because I only had 10 minutes to get to my first "survival Spanish" class Ryan's house (for 3 weeks at a time we have our language classes at one of our 3 houses, so first we're starting out at Ryan's). I didn't realize that he literally lives like 5 doors down from me. It was the job of my mom to walk me over there so I knew where I was going. It started to lightly rain while we were eating lunch (and by the way, my sister is really quiet and shy, so it's sometimes hard to engage her in some kind of conversation. Plus I just usually don't know how to say what I want to say. I did ask her if she thought I needed my umbrella since it was starting to rain). By the time we got to Ryan's house, like a minute later, it was a complete downpour! I forgot to mention earlier that this is the very beginning of the wet season, which is usually May-November, the wettest months being Sept/Oct. So all 3 of us met at Ryan's with Martha, and sat on his enclosed patio for our first lesson/discussion. Honestly, I've never seen it rain so hard, so suddenly, as I did yesterday. Plus, all the roofs here are metal, so it was impossible to hear each other talk until the rain slowed down a bit. Which was like 5 solid minutes of complete noise while all 4 of us just kind of sat there laughing at how loud it was. Martha said she'd try to keep it real informal at first until we could hear each other better. Our lesson lasted from 1 until about 3 or so. We practiced greetings ("saludos"), and she brought out Ryan's brother to practice with us. We kept forgetting what to say, it was rediculous. I felt so dumb! This should be so simple, but they're new phrases I've never used before, like "Le presente mi amiga, le conoce? No, no le conozco, mucho gusto, me llamo Sarah. El gusto es mio. Es un placer conocerla." After our lessons we had to walk around to each of our houses and introduce our fellow trainees to our moms. So funny! We kinda ended up doing the short-and-sweet versions of what we learned since we forgot all the details. We also had to leave with the 'goodbyes' that we learned, like "Nos vemos. Que le vaya bien." I'm telling you, these things are so basic, but so scary when you have to go out and actually do them! Even if it's just with our families, cause I feel so silly when I mess up.
Yesterday I actually sat down and talked quite a bit with my dad. I'm finding he's the easiest one to talk to because he speaks slower than everyone else and will repeat himself without trouble because he senses this is hard for me. We sat down at the chalkboard they have in the house and wrote down random things we discussed so I could see the spelling of certain things. I told him the names of my family members back home and tried to explain what they do for a living (mom, I tried to explain ultrasounds, as you can imagine how weird that is. "Fotos del corazon en una computadora"). Both my parents said they thought I spoke pretty well, I guess considering. Oh, and get this, I'm the first PC trainee to live with them! Actually, El Recreo has never hosted trainees before, so all three of us are new to our families. So we're both experiencing some changes to our lives. But so far everyone's been really nice. I feel kinda bad for my siblings. It seems like I'm just something their parents signed up for, like they got dragged into it. Especially for my brother. He's 18 and tends to speak quicker than I can follow. I feel bad asking him to slow down, but this is hard for me! Imagine a college aged American kid that had to deal with a new person in their house who could barely speak his language. I can imagine how frustrating that would be, I mean, I'm living proof right here! It's a learning process for all of us.
So today I have free time. I went with my mom to the market to see where she buys groceries. Plus, one of my assignments is to buy and carry around with me a roll of toilet paper ("papel higienico"), since you never know when you're gonna need to use the bathroom, and whether or not it'll be stocked). So we took a mototaxi into Diriamba. First we stopped at a pet food store! Huh! Apparently some people actually feed their dogs Purina brand pet food. Nice! I forgot to mention that they have two dogs: Bruno, a small scrappy-type mutt that resembles Benji, and Susie (or Suzi, not sure), who's quite possibly the cutest little puppy I've ever seen in my LIFE!! I took pics and I'll try to load them soon. She's only a month and a half, this little curly-eared something. I don't know what she is, but she doesn't look real, she's so cute. Like some little doe-eyed stuffed animal I just wanna squeeze to death. Unfortunately they're typically not allowed in the house, so Bruno spends all day sitting on the front porch or patio, keeping watch. And, yeah, he barks a lot when I come to the door, so I'm hoping he'll get to know me soon enough, cause I sure as hell don't want to be bit by a dog when I'm here.
Anyways, we first stopped at the pet food store for some kibble, then walked the rest of the street to buy various fruits and vegetables from vendors out on the curb. Then there was the bigger market with permanent stalls, like gigantic pig heads hanging in the meat stalls, shoes, shoe repair, papel higienico, (yay! which cost me 14 cordobas, or less than 50 cents), clothes, food, and all sorts of other stuff. I just basically followed her around with my notebook, taking notes on new words I needed to learn.
This post is already so long, but I feel I've just barely scratched the surface. Right now my bro just asked if I want to go out and walk around, and my battery is dying, so I'll add more later.
Bye for now!
Friday, May 13, 2011
Homestay family assignments!
There's so much to say about the past few days here at the retreat site! I wish all of you could experience this with me, minute by minute, to know exactly how I'm feeling right now. But this is just the best I can do:
Today we were finally assigned our host families for training! That's the latest news; let me try to start at the beginning. Yesterday was a day full of assessments, paperwork, pictures, reading the training manual, etc. We were given language assessments individually with our future facilitadores, or facilitators, which are the language trainers we'll be studying with all throughout our 11 weeks of training. They are all Nicaraguan (I believe), who don't speak any English. They will ONLY be speaking Spanish with us during training. So we sat down with one of them and had a simple conversation, led by them, so that they could place us in a language level category, such as Novice, Intermediate, Advanced, and Superior, with each category containing low, mid, and high breakdowns. In order to successfully complete training for swearing in on July 29th, we must all be at at least an intermediate mid speaking level. (We find out this Monday which level we start at based on yesterday's assessments). I think my "interview" went pretty well. I spoke pretty freely with my facilitadora, understood and answered all her questions as best I could. At one point she pulled out a laminated card and asked me to read the statement, which was something like "You've arrived late to a meeting. Explain why and appologize to your counterpart" or something along those lines, and we did a little role-play based on that situation. Man! I hadn't even really been late to anything but that made me feel all nervous like I really had been! Yesterday we also did our medical interviews, recieved our malaria pills, and signed paperwork opening our PC bank accounts.
So today, based on our language assessments yesterday, we were placed in groups of 3 to 8 people, my group being 6 people. This was the group that's all about at the same level of speaking. After some more language sessions with this group (like Spanish musical-chairs, where the loser had to pick a card about a simple category to talk freely about like movies, books, traditions, and other self-discussion topics to make us talk comfortably in Spanish). We found out that my group of 6 was later going to be split into two groups of 3 based on that session, and that that would be our 'training group' companions for the next 11 weeks. So, later that afternoon it was revealed to the whole group of aggies and business trainees who are final groups were, which towns we'd be living in, who our first language facilitators will be, and, drumroll please! who our host families are! So last but not least, my two PCT (peace corps trainees) companions who will live in my same community are Paige and Ryan. My training community will be El Recreo near Diriamba, south of the capital of Managua. My host parents are both 45 years old, and I have a host sister who's 14. How crazy that my sister back in Santa Barbara is the same age! Parallel universes. I also have an abuela (grandma) who's 70. Plus there'll be more families in the community who I'll be interacting with during this crazy 11 weeks.
Trainig's literally going to be like a college semester of 18 units. Non-stop language training, classes on gardening and composting, community banks (where the community organizes a bank of money that they all contribute to to raise money for projects), youth groups, and community integration. Plus there's tons of reading. They gave us a sack of like 10 books/pamphlets to read. And we have to keep a journal on top of that to turn in to our training staff so they can see how we're progressing. And on top of all of that, we still have to live and communicate with our family and practice our Spanish with them.
Oh jeez, there's just so much more! If anyone has more questions please comment and I'll try to respond. Hopefully I can find time later to keep up on blogs and pics. Hope everyone's doing well back home. Sam, good luck on your play! I wish I could see it!
Today we were finally assigned our host families for training! That's the latest news; let me try to start at the beginning. Yesterday was a day full of assessments, paperwork, pictures, reading the training manual, etc. We were given language assessments individually with our future facilitadores, or facilitators, which are the language trainers we'll be studying with all throughout our 11 weeks of training. They are all Nicaraguan (I believe), who don't speak any English. They will ONLY be speaking Spanish with us during training. So we sat down with one of them and had a simple conversation, led by them, so that they could place us in a language level category, such as Novice, Intermediate, Advanced, and Superior, with each category containing low, mid, and high breakdowns. In order to successfully complete training for swearing in on July 29th, we must all be at at least an intermediate mid speaking level. (We find out this Monday which level we start at based on yesterday's assessments). I think my "interview" went pretty well. I spoke pretty freely with my facilitadora, understood and answered all her questions as best I could. At one point she pulled out a laminated card and asked me to read the statement, which was something like "You've arrived late to a meeting. Explain why and appologize to your counterpart" or something along those lines, and we did a little role-play based on that situation. Man! I hadn't even really been late to anything but that made me feel all nervous like I really had been! Yesterday we also did our medical interviews, recieved our malaria pills, and signed paperwork opening our PC bank accounts.
So today, based on our language assessments yesterday, we were placed in groups of 3 to 8 people, my group being 6 people. This was the group that's all about at the same level of speaking. After some more language sessions with this group (like Spanish musical-chairs, where the loser had to pick a card about a simple category to talk freely about like movies, books, traditions, and other self-discussion topics to make us talk comfortably in Spanish). We found out that my group of 6 was later going to be split into two groups of 3 based on that session, and that that would be our 'training group' companions for the next 11 weeks. So, later that afternoon it was revealed to the whole group of aggies and business trainees who are final groups were, which towns we'd be living in, who our first language facilitators will be, and, drumroll please! who our host families are! So last but not least, my two PCT (peace corps trainees) companions who will live in my same community are Paige and Ryan. My training community will be El Recreo near Diriamba, south of the capital of Managua. My host parents are both 45 years old, and I have a host sister who's 14. How crazy that my sister back in Santa Barbara is the same age! Parallel universes. I also have an abuela (grandma) who's 70. Plus there'll be more families in the community who I'll be interacting with during this crazy 11 weeks.
Trainig's literally going to be like a college semester of 18 units. Non-stop language training, classes on gardening and composting, community banks (where the community organizes a bank of money that they all contribute to to raise money for projects), youth groups, and community integration. Plus there's tons of reading. They gave us a sack of like 10 books/pamphlets to read. And we have to keep a journal on top of that to turn in to our training staff so they can see how we're progressing. And on top of all of that, we still have to live and communicate with our family and practice our Spanish with them.
Oh jeez, there's just so much more! If anyone has more questions please comment and I'll try to respond. Hopefully I can find time later to keep up on blogs and pics. Hope everyone's doing well back home. Sam, good luck on your play! I wish I could see it!
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Arrival in Managua
I made it! Safe and sound. Staging in DC was fun and interesting, in terms of learning about the future adventure we're about to embark on. Tuesday morning before official PC stuff began, I met up with a business volunteer Chalin (who's blog link can be found on this page) and walked around to see the sights: The White House, Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam and Korean War memorials, and walked around the National Mall. So cool to finally see these sights, but so tiring!!! I'm still in some serious pain from walking around in my flat, not-arch-supporting shoes.
Staging was a lot of ice breakers, info sessions, skits about volunteer issues, craft time (yes, we used colored markers to draw pictures on butcher paper), and logistical stuff like money and travel. We HAD to check out of the room at 2 AM! So needless to say, I only got one hour (maybe) of sleep last night, seeing as I had to go out and have my last US dinner (baby back ribs!) and re-pack both my bags for the future two flights to Miami then Managua and retreat here in Managua for the first 3 nights.
Let's just leave it at this: I'm super tired from no sleep and lots of heavy bag carrying, plus it's hot here, and that tires you out. The retreat sight is really nice. Hostel like rooms with bunk beds, prepared meals, air-conditined classrooms, electricity, and hot running water. Although the hot aspect is unnecessary, really. Cool showers are a must here.
This afternoon mostly just consisted of meeing current voluneers at the airport who will be staying with us for the next 3 days/nights during the retreat, and having some early introductions/orientations to what's coming ahead in training. Tomorrow's vaccinations and language assessment time! Woo hoo! I'm more nervous about the language than the shots, to be honest.
So tonight's plan is to catch up on some much needed sleep! Haven't really seen much yet, just the bus ride from the airport to our retreat site, but it's the end of the dry season here in Nicaragua, so mostly everything (except the bigger trees) are brown and crispy. Coming up real soon is the rain, for the next 6 months. Lots of it, it sounds like. But that makes everything green and beautiful, and clean and cool.
More later. . . we have interent here so I'll try to post again before we leave for our training sights on Saturday. Love you all, and miss you too!
~Sarah~
Staging was a lot of ice breakers, info sessions, skits about volunteer issues, craft time (yes, we used colored markers to draw pictures on butcher paper), and logistical stuff like money and travel. We HAD to check out of the room at 2 AM! So needless to say, I only got one hour (maybe) of sleep last night, seeing as I had to go out and have my last US dinner (baby back ribs!) and re-pack both my bags for the future two flights to Miami then Managua and retreat here in Managua for the first 3 nights.
Let's just leave it at this: I'm super tired from no sleep and lots of heavy bag carrying, plus it's hot here, and that tires you out. The retreat sight is really nice. Hostel like rooms with bunk beds, prepared meals, air-conditined classrooms, electricity, and hot running water. Although the hot aspect is unnecessary, really. Cool showers are a must here.
This afternoon mostly just consisted of meeing current voluneers at the airport who will be staying with us for the next 3 days/nights during the retreat, and having some early introductions/orientations to what's coming ahead in training. Tomorrow's vaccinations and language assessment time! Woo hoo! I'm more nervous about the language than the shots, to be honest.
So tonight's plan is to catch up on some much needed sleep! Haven't really seen much yet, just the bus ride from the airport to our retreat site, but it's the end of the dry season here in Nicaragua, so mostly everything (except the bigger trees) are brown and crispy. Coming up real soon is the rain, for the next 6 months. Lots of it, it sounds like. But that makes everything green and beautiful, and clean and cool.
More later. . . we have interent here so I'll try to post again before we leave for our training sights on Saturday. Love you all, and miss you too!
~Sarah~
Sunday, May 8, 2011
The adventure begins!
Well, my bags are all packed (HUGE thanks to my girl Tina!!! Miss you already!) and I fly out of Santa Barbara tomorrow (May 9th) at 9:45 am to Washington D.C. for a day of staging. Tina's been with me the past week helping me tie up all my loose ends, like accompanying me to Best Buy twice (the 4th time for me!) to get my hard drive fiasco figured out so I can take pictures and music with me on my new netbook (it's a long story, all I'll say is that I sometimes really hate technology and how confusing it is, and if you know a computer savvy friend or family member to give them a big fat kiss for being able to help you for free!). We had one (okay, it ended up being TWO, so annoying!) last shopping trips to CVS to gather all my toiletries and whatever-elses for the big packing-up-of-all-my-stuff endeavor. It took two days to get it all organized, packed, and weighed, then unpacked and re-weighed, then unpacked and re-weighed again. Yeah, you can guess how frustrating that was for me, having to leave stuff behind that fit just fine the first time! It's the weight that really counts in the end (damn airplane guidelines!). So that just means lots of family members will be mailing me some pre-stuffed care packages :) Thanks everyone ahead of time for mailing those!!! I finally signed up for personal property insurance for all my expensive electronics (let's hope nothing happens to those!) and set up a Shutterfly photo sharing page (check it out: sarahinnica.shutterfly.com) to post photos during my service to share with whoever's interested in looking.
Today's Mother's Day, so Happy Day to all those mothers who are reading this! It's a bumber that I have to fly out the day after this particular holiday (sorry Mom! Not the best gift, I know) but I really have no choice on when I'm sent. It's gotta happen eventually! And it's finally here, after almost a year of applying and waiting and waiting some more. I applied for Peace Corps online at the end of June 2010, and am now finally departing tomorrow! So crazy. It's been kind of a whirlwind this past year, leaving Fresno and the memories there, moving back home with my parents because my aunt's house had flooded on March 20th during the crazy rains. It was under construction for 7 weeks before I could move in with her. My cats have had to move with me, twice, getting used to two different houses. But they're finally in their right place here at my aunt's house in Solvang for the next 27 months. So far Charlie's warming up to the place and his new mom. He'll approach her and let her pet him, and this morning was the first time he actually jumped up on her bed to get a morning petting session. So yay for Charlie! Tallulah, on the other hand, is her bitchy self as usual. She'll take more time to let anyone new get close to her, but I'm sure it'll happen.
So this is the second and probably last blog I'll write from the states (unless I find some down time during staging, which is highly unlikely). Next up: Peace Corps training in Nicaragua!!! I truly hope to keep this blog updated with the happenings of my life the next two years. Everyone please keep in touch, send me letters, postcards, care packages (I'll probably make lists of things I need, hehe) or just a hi once and a while. Contact with family and friends will be super important in keeping my mind sane and keeping me up to date with the world back home. I look forward to hearing from you all! And hopefully seeing some of you too!!
Here's my address during my 11 weeks of training (which starts Monday the 16th) for mail to be sent:
Sarah Robinson, PCT
Voluntario del Cuerpo de Paz
Apartado Postal 3256
Managua, Nicaragua
Central America
Brazos y Besos a todo!
Today's Mother's Day, so Happy Day to all those mothers who are reading this! It's a bumber that I have to fly out the day after this particular holiday (sorry Mom! Not the best gift, I know) but I really have no choice on when I'm sent. It's gotta happen eventually! And it's finally here, after almost a year of applying and waiting and waiting some more. I applied for Peace Corps online at the end of June 2010, and am now finally departing tomorrow! So crazy. It's been kind of a whirlwind this past year, leaving Fresno and the memories there, moving back home with my parents because my aunt's house had flooded on March 20th during the crazy rains. It was under construction for 7 weeks before I could move in with her. My cats have had to move with me, twice, getting used to two different houses. But they're finally in their right place here at my aunt's house in Solvang for the next 27 months. So far Charlie's warming up to the place and his new mom. He'll approach her and let her pet him, and this morning was the first time he actually jumped up on her bed to get a morning petting session. So yay for Charlie! Tallulah, on the other hand, is her bitchy self as usual. She'll take more time to let anyone new get close to her, but I'm sure it'll happen.
So this is the second and probably last blog I'll write from the states (unless I find some down time during staging, which is highly unlikely). Next up: Peace Corps training in Nicaragua!!! I truly hope to keep this blog updated with the happenings of my life the next two years. Everyone please keep in touch, send me letters, postcards, care packages (I'll probably make lists of things I need, hehe) or just a hi once and a while. Contact with family and friends will be super important in keeping my mind sane and keeping me up to date with the world back home. I look forward to hearing from you all! And hopefully seeing some of you too!!
Here's my address during my 11 weeks of training (which starts Monday the 16th) for mail to be sent:
Sarah Robinson, PCT
Voluntario del Cuerpo de Paz
Apartado Postal 3256
Managua, Nicaragua
Central America
Brazos y Besos a todo!
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