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 1st 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 7th and 8th 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 7th 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~
What a beautiful house!
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