Intermediate Mid!!

Hello there,

Today was our mid-training language interviews to see how far we've improved so far during training.  To clarify, there are 4 main language proficiency levels (forgive me if I've already explained this): Novice, Intermediate, Advanced, and Superior.  Within each level (except for superior) are 3 sub-levels, low, mid, and high.  The goal for every trainee at the end of training (in order to swear in to be a volunteer) is to be at least at an intermediate-mid speaking level.  At the beginning of training my group started out at intermediate low, which means we at least had to improve by one sub-level.  Well, after our interviews today, our language facilitator, Maritza, said that our language interviewer said she thought we all did really well, and she felt we are now at an intermediate-mid level!  So yay! Now we just have to focus on learning even MORE so we can creep up to the advanced level by the end of training!  No, really, just hope to jump another level to be intermediate-advanced by the time I swear in.  I think that's a realistic goal.  Maritza  said she'd be willing to work with us the next session (weeks 7-9) after our normal Spanish classes to help us advance even more if we want to.  And I want to!  As if training isn't hard enough. . .

On another note, this past week the whole Ag group spent a night in Managua in a hotel. For two days we had classes on leadership, negotiating, community groups, and teamwork.  We had a ton of charlas ("talks", or little workshops) on each subject, but the funnest part was doing teamwork activities outside.  I didn't have my camera with me (SO unlike me!), so I don't have pics to post, but I'm hoping to get some from another trainee who took a lot.  Stay tuned.  One of the activites was to pour a bucket of water from one circle in the ground into another bucket of water in another circle on the ground, about 10 feet away.  The catch was you couldn't enter the circles to pick up the buckets, you had to work together to pick up the bucket with this rubber band aparatus that had about 10 long strings attached to it.  But the people who touched the strings were blindfolded, so they couldn't see where they were going or what they were doing.  The people not touching the strings could tell them where to go and how hard to pull on the strings to open the rubber band to place around the bucket to pick it up.  I was one of the blindfolded ones, which was trippy.  And we had 25 minutes to complete the activity.  Literally, we got the water poured into the second bucket with about one minute remaining.  It was cool.  The second activity was also with half the people blindfolded, and the other half couldn't talk.  Those that couldn't talk, but could see, had to communicate to the blinded ones that we all as a group had to step up on these two planks of wood, connected like two 25 foot skiis, and walk unified as a group across the patio.  It was hard, but super hilarious.  The third activity was a spider web rope that was connected between two trees.  The whole group had to pass from one side to the other without touching the rope, but the holes of the web were all different heights, so we had to pick each other up and pass each other through.  I was one of the people passed through; it felt crazy having all these hands support your body and pass you through. 

The next day the whole group went to El Laurel site in Managua, which is the company that holds these leadership and team building conferences, and we did two obstacle courses!  I've never done anything like it before, so it was super fun.  The first exercise was a rock-climbing wall.  We were strapped into harnesses and shown how to hold the rope of our partners as they climbed the wall to whatever height they felt comfortable.  The wall was probably about 2 stories high, and was split up into three vertical sections.  My personal goal was to make it up two levels, which I did, but it was scary.  I don't love heights.  Plus, this whole obstacle course day was a surprise, and they didn't tell us to bring pants and tennis shoes for our two day trip to Managua, so I only brought a skirt and little slip on shoes.  Luckily I had stretchy pants on underneath my skirt, so I could wear the harness without exposing myself, but the slip on shoes thing was really hard when climbing the wall.  This place was kinda out in the 'jungle', with lots of trees and beautiful greenery.  Plus, the mosquitoes ate the hell of my legs and ankles, so needless to say, I'm suffering big time.  It looks like I have chicken pox, and the itch is sometimes excrucitating.  I'm going to wear pants and socks the whole next week, regardless of temperature.

Speaking of next week, we're being split up into groups of 6 to spend Monday-Saturday at another volunteer's site for Tech Week.  We're going to all be staying in a volunteer's house with about 4-5 volunteers total, learning how to make improved ovens, drip irrigation systems, and biodigesters (don't ask, I don't know exactly what that is yet).  We're also having Spanish classes during this time, and the volunteers are going to try to teach us in Spanish the whole time.  Yikes, talk about putting the pressure on.  So my group is going to (pull out your map!) the department of Matagalpa, in a small barrio called La Sidra, near the city of San Isidro.  It's north of where I am now (in the city of Diriamba, in the department of Carazo), and also north of Managua and Lake Managua.  I hear it's hot there, so I'm not looking forward to that, but the week should be super fun and eventful.  I'm going with 5 other trainees, Brittany, Sarah K, Spenser, Paul, and Maclaine.  Should be good times :)

Okay, Spanish lesson of the day:

Cool = "tuani" in Nica.  If someone asks you how you're doing, how you slept, how you feel, etc, you can answer tuani.  It's like saying, "I'm cool". 

Until next time. . . hopefully I'll have some fun stories to share about tech days. . .

Va Pues

~Sarah~