Nicaraguan Rural Society

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 :)