No-bake cookies and thunderstorms

Today marks my first official self-organized community meeting.  I’ve spent the last three days walking around Wale, sometimes to houses I already know, but mostly to new locations in the community, with either my host dad Pantaleon or my community counterpart Pedro, inviting the community to come listen to the new gringa of Wale talk about herself.  My INTA (Nicaraguan Institute of Agriculture Technology) counterpart Isaac was also there to help introduce me officially from his side as well.  I had printed out 40 invitations and handed them all out except for one, and 28 people ended up showing up.  “Mas de la mitad” I was told by Filomena, the local school janitor, but more appropriately known as the ‘best cook in Wale’.  More than half that I’d invited had shown up, which was not bad considering it was my first attempt at trying to organize the community.  I had made “No-bake” cookies for the occasion, partly to entice people to show up (they’re more likely to if food is promised), and partly to reward those that actually did show up.  I made two batches, about 80 cookies in total, thinking there wouldn’t be enough since Wale is a big community, with well more than 80 people for sure.  So I told people to come early (which means being on time, which is something Nicaraguans are notorious for never being), and they could get first pick at a cookie.  Turns out I had more cookies than people in the end, so those that showed up were rewarded with seconds, plus the recipe, hand-written and explained by their local Peace Corps volunteer, since they were so successful (let me know if you want the recipe, it’s really easy and they are delicious!). 

                

Back to the meeting itself, I had prepared by making three papelografos, or posters, with info about the Peace Corps in general, PC in Nicaragua including goals of the Agriculture and Sustainable Food Security sector, and information about future meetings I wanted to set up with groups of the community to help me get to know community needs and potential projects.  I wore my official 50^th Anniversary PC polo shirt and a nice skirt (I even put on some big earrings and mascara, a change from my more recent complete-lack-of-decoration-whatsoever style I’d been rocking this past month).  So you could say I dressed up for this first meeting.  It was set to start at 2pm, hoping that people would show up by 3pm, which they did, so that was a success at least.  My INTA counterpart was 30 minutes late, the guy who was there to officially introduce me, to give you an idea of how time works around here.  To kill time waiting for him and others to show up, I tried to do my part to walk around and greet people as they showed up, shaking hands, learning/memorizing names, and handing out cookies.  The meeting started, Isaac talked a bit to introduce me (he even had my resume on hand to talk about my degree and previous experience, which was a nice surprise), and then he turned it over to me to show off my fancy multi-colored papelografos of information that I had so tediously drawn.  I said my schpeal, actually had the attention of the group, and was even successful in getting actual dates and times for the future meetings I had so hoped to be able to schedule with various groups in the community.  There was even one older community member video-taping the whole thing, and when I asked him later what he was taping for, he said it was for the local news channel to be played next Monday.  Wow, so maybe my information will make it out further than just the few that showed up.  We’ll see, I’ll be checking the news next Monday, that’s for sure. 

                 

Overall I felt it was a success, and I feel much better about my abilities to speak Spanish in front of a group in my community.  People are generally respectful, although it can be hard to get anything back from them, even a simple question here and there.  But I felt better when I left the meeting, hoping that people got the impression that I mean business and am not here just to enjoy the scenery.  I really want to make some progress here and leave a good impression in my community.  I truly want to help the community and bring a positive outside perspective.  The last two volunteers that were assigned to Wale left early, the first one only after a month or so, and the second one after a year.  I don’t want Wale to think that Peace Corps can’t stick it through.  I’m here for the long run, si Dios quiere, as they all say here. 

                 

In other news, my host dad and brother had asked me a few weeks ago if I’d be willing to be the new baseball team’s madrina, or Godmother, more or less.  The madrina basically accompanies the team during the parade in the nearby town of Praderas the Saturday before the new league season starts.  I felt pretty special to be asked to take on this role for the baseball team of Wale, but also kind of nervous.  Do I have to say anything?  Do they give me a microphone before the game to wish the team well or something?  They say no, that I only have to walk with them during the parade (apparently I have to dress up really nice, paint my fingernails, my host mom tells me, and I get to wear a sash, like Homecoming) and maybe accompany them to the first game or something like that.  I’m not sure if the duties continue from there, but I’ll let you know how this all unfolds. 

                 

The storms here are fabulous, I must say.  I’m pretty sure I’m the only one in the entire country (or at least in Wale) who loves thunder and lightning storms.  They’re just so exciting!  They tend to come out of nowhere.  It’s hot and sunny one minute, and the next thing you know there’s a huge white wall of storm slamming the doors and windows shut.  The winds get pretty fierce, and actually rip trees out of the ground.  Last week I experienced my first tree-uprooting Nicaraguan storm.  It was great fun, but my host mom was scared out of her mind.  We could see the storm approaching us through the valley, but had only minutes to prepare closing windows and doors before it hit us full-force.  I thought she was over exaggerating just a bit when we saw it coming, with all her praying (“Jesus Maria!” and “Sangre de Jesus!”), but it was a lot stronger than I expected.  We stood outside on the back porch watching with the youngest son of the house and a younger neighbor kid who happened to be visiting when the storm hit, her hands clasped tightly around my waist, flinching and outwardly praying with every lightning strike and strong gust of wind.  Then the trees actually started toppling over, to my surprise, because they were so tall and looked so permanent in their shade-providing positions in the back yard.  But once they fell, I could see how shallow the root systems were, just a foot or two, and that made me feel a little less worried about the possibility of the house getting shredded to bits like Dorothy in Kansas.  At one point she yelled at the neighbor kid to get the machete, and wondered what the hell he was going to do with a machete in the middle this storm.  I also noticed that the youngest son was holding a cup full of ashes from the wood stove, and asked what he was planning to with that.  She told me it was to make a cross on the ground in front of the house for protection, but alas, there was no time before the strong winds came to make the mark, so he was holding the cup of ashes throughout the whole ordeal.  A bit later during the storm I noticed the machete had been stabbed vertically into the ground in the back yard, and when asked what that was all about, she told me it was to make the wind stop blowing.  I didn’t ask.  Superstitions, was all I could think, and made a mental note.  I was glad to have provided physical stability and emotional support to a highly frightened Nicaraguan woman during a type of storm that seems to frequent these areas, but bummed at the same time that I couldn’t shake her off to run and grab my camera to video the whole experience.  We all laughed about it later.  They all think it’s so weird yet funny that I love the storms here and that most Nicaraguans are terrified of lightning, even though they undoubtedly experience more of that kind of thing here than I ever have back in California.  Maybe that’s why it’s so fun for me.  I hope I never get used to it.  

This is the first blog I've pre-written at home first, then cut and pasted when I actually have internet.  Way better than trying to rush through my internet time in Jinotega or Praderas.  I'll try to write more often to keep people updated with more info.  

I'll skip an official Spanish lesson for this blog, since I already gave you some random words in this blog, plus some jesus words to say when you're frightened by something.

More later. . .

~Sarah~

First week living in Wale

So I'm officially a volunteer!  The swearing in ceremony was held on July 29th in Managua.  All the agriculture and small business volunteers got dressed up and sang (or tried to sing) the Nicaraguan national anthem, as well as (attempted to) repeat the promesa del servicio in Spanish in front of an audience of about 300 people.  We almost weren't volunteers due to the the mumbling and fumbling through the Spanish phrases (none of us memorized it) from of the majority of us.  We also repeated the English version of the promise to serve, but at times even that was hard to follow.  So embarrasing. 

We said good-bye to our host families that had been taking care of us for 3 months during training.  It was bitter sweet.  Time to move on and start what we came here for, but sad to leave what we had become accustomed to also.  My parents showed up and gave me a going away gift of a little woven bag that says Nicaragua on it.  Really cute.  Leaving the house for good was weird.  My host mom actually cried a little and couldn't look me straight in the eye.  I had given her a hug, which is totally popping the personal space bubble, but come on, I can't not give eveyone a hug!  She accepted it but it was still awkward.  Luckily they both came to the ceremony the next day so I could say good bye a little better.

It's also the year of the 50th anniversary of Peace Corps (which was started by Pres. Kennedy in 1961), and the 30th anniversary of PC in Nicaragua, so the ceremony was even longer than usual, seeing as the country director, Carol Barrick, presented awards to all the Nica staff and training families that had worked for PC for 10 years or more.  In other exciting news, we had been personally invited by the president, Daniel Ortega, to visit him at la casa del presidente, which was a big building in Managua where he works, I suppose (I'm not sure if it was actually his house).  It was the first time in history that the president of Nicaragua had invited PC to speak with him, so it was big, BIG news.  None of us really knew what to expect.  We all showed up in our fancy swearing in clothes and were shown into this big press conference-type room with multiple cameras.  There were microphones on the tables in front of us, which made me super nervous!  I kept thinking, there's no way we're going to talk.  That would be crazy.  We had been told that one of the business volunteers who spoke at our swearing in ceremony had been recommended to speak to Daniel also, since her speech was so good (plus she's a native Spanish speaker so she communicates super well).  So I'm thinking Carol, the PC Nica director, would say some stuff about PC and then Yessica, the business volunteer, would do her thing and impress Daniel with her awesome speech. 

Well, we waited around for about an hour in this freezing cold air-conditioned room (we weren't given a heads up to bring a sweater, and had to leave our cameras in the cars).  Then Daniel and his wife Rosario finally showed up.  Daniel walked all the way around the room and shook every single person's hand.  One of the business volunteers, Zac, had a baseball that he asked Daniel to sign since his dad collects signed baseballs.  And Daniel signed it for him!  Way to go Zac.  Then he sat down and the chit chat commensed.  He had a list of all of our names; all the PC staff that were present, plus the 3rd year volunteers and all of the trainees' names that had just sworn in.  He started calling out the names of the 3rd years and asking them simple questions like where in the states they were from and what type of work they'd done here in Nica.  I started getting nervous because he was actually calling people out and asking them questions!  Turns out, he called on every single volunteer in the room and asked where we were from, where our site is, and what work we would be doing.  I was so nervous!  My part was super short, thankfully, and I only answered a few questions and then sat down.  He asked me if I liked the coffee here, and I said "por supuesto", which means of course.  So I kinda lied to the president of Nicaragua.  I don't love coffee, but have actually been drinking more of it since I've been here since it's all everyone drinks besides sodas. 

In total, he spoke to about 50 volunteers, pretty much asking the same questions over and over again.  Occasionally he'd go off in a tangent about a certain region of the country or telling a story about his experience with certain topics that came up.  We were there for 3 hours!  Freezing cold and sometimes bored with the monotonous repetetive conversation.  But honestly, it was a really cool experience, and I think it's great that regardless of all our levels of Spanish, every single ag and business volunteer in my group can say that they had a conversation in Spanish with the president of Nicaragua.  Never thought I'd do that in my life!

So now I'm here in Wale.  I've moved what stuff I have into the room I'll be staying in for probably the next 6 months at least.  I'll be asking around for potential private casitas to rent so I may eventually have my own place, but I've heard it's slim pickins, so we'll see.  I need to buy a table and something to put my clothes in for my room.  It's small, but the house is big, especially the kitchen.  I've pretty much started preparing my own meals.  Esmeralda, my new host mom, has kinda trained me to just feed myself.  Or really, to just help myself to food when I want it, which is good, because I don't have to wait to eat if I'm hungry and can make my own portions, but also kinda bad since I have to scrounge for food sometimes. Plus I can't really cook very much just yet since I don't have many groceries or talents cooking Nica food.  There's pretty much always a pot of beans and some freshly made tortillas sitting around, so that's a given.  PC has given us a monthly stipend to pay our families for food, so if it turns out that I'll be buying and cooking most of my own food, I'll have to tell her that I need to pay her less rent since we're not really paying for the room, just the food they provide for us.  This morning she had me try and form my own tortilla, which was hard, but it turned out and I ate if for breakfast.  Most women hand make their own tortillas every single morning.  I've gotten used to the sound of her pounding out the masa every morning starting at 5am.  And they're delisious, especially when heated over the stove just before eating. 

So far I've attended a few community meetings this week.  The first one was the second day I got here, last Monday, at the local Empresa, or small community business cooperative consisting of the local farmers.  I asked the president before the meeting if I could introduce myself, which I did.  It was awkward, because everyone pretty much just stares and says nothing at all, even when I ask questions.  But at least I made the move to introduce myself in front of 40 people.  Later in the meeting the president had me get up to help him pass out certificates to people who had contributed a certain number of hours working.  So I got up and read off the names on the papers while they each came up and took their reward. One guy, instead of just shaking my hand, gave me a big fat kiss on the cheek, which had everyone rolling in laughter.  Glad I can please :)

The other meeting was the local community bank that was started by the previous volunteer.  The people in the group are really nice and I hope to work with them a lot more in the future.  In the first three months we're supposed to go through a checklist of items/activities to try and get our progress started in the community.  After the 3 months we're to hold a community meeting with our INTA counterpart to present to the community our findings of the types of projects the community could benefit from and our 6 month plan to start those projects.  No pressure!  I'm so nervous about going out and about and trying to ask people what they're problems are and how I might be able to help them with that.  Communication here can be difficult.  It's a lot different that the direct communication we use in the states.  I have to get the hang of just showing up at people's houses and getting to know them and gaining their trust before jumping into "what are your problems?" questions.  Scary. 

I think it's good that I've attended two meetings this first week, but I feel like I really need to try and get out more.  So far I've done a lot of washing clothes and other around-the-house chores.  I do have to move into the house and get my room settled, so I'm not so concerned about the amount of time I've spent shopping for things for my room and getting my stuff settled correctly.  But overall I feel like I've been avoiding going out into the community to just go to people's houses and introduce myself and get to know them.  It's so scary.  Tina, I know!  You don't have to tell me to just do it, you were here once, and will be here again, so you know how scary it is.  One issue I'm having is that my home-stay family isn't really helping me with this.  I don't want to expect them to walk me around all over the place introducing me to people, but at the same time, it's not always the best idea to just walk around by myself, especially if I don't know the families.  So it's a fine line of taking the iniciative to get out there and do things myself,  and relying on help from the community to hold my hand in the beginning.  I did make a bold move and asked my host dad if I could go with him to the baseball field this past Sunday to watch the game and overhear the meeting he was going to have regarding picking uniforms for the new league that will start early Sept.  The Empresa is helping pay for their new uniforms, and he's part of the Empresa, so I tagged along to see if I could meet more people.  I knew I'd be the only woman there, seeing as all the players are men, but I wanted to try and make an impression that I'm here in the community now and want to get to know people.  I ended up sitting on a rock watching some of the players practice while a huge group of guys huddled in a circle on the other side of the field discussing the uniforms with much passion.  I felt way too uncomfortable walking over there to try and listen, and no one really beckoned for me to come over (which I sometimes need to feel like it's okay to listen in to a group conversation which I'm not involved), so I just sat on a rock for a few hours watching the macho guys practice baseball.  I ended up walking back home by myself, partly because I was bored and felt defeated, and partly because I knew I was getting sunburned.  Which I did, but only a little.  And it actually started pouring down rain about a half hour after I got back home anyways, so the game (if they were ever actually going to start a game) ended anyways, and I was already home nice and dry.  It was good that it rained though, because it was super hot that day. 

On some bad news, the kitten that was at the house during my first site visit week had since been killed by the german shepard that lives at the house.  So I'm again lacking in the cat department.  I had a feeling it wouldn't be there when I came back from training, seeing as cats don't have the best lives here.  So I'm on the lookout for a kitty friend. . .

Well, have I bored you all enough?  I hope not.  There's always so much more to report, but I'll try to keep these blogs filled with the important/interesting stuff as best I can.  Overall, it's hard.  I do get lonely and miss American things and American friends and family.  But when else am I going to have this chance in life to live and work in Nicaraguan community?  I try and tell myself that every time I'm down and bumbed out that I didn't understand anything my neighbor just said, or when I feel like I learned nothing in the last Empresa meeting, or when the peppers that I just bought two days ago are already mushy and rotting on the table when I'm ready to put them in my eggs for breakfast that morning, or when I feel like a burden to the host-brothers in my family that their mom always makes one of them go with me into town to show me where that one store is, or when I find that I didn't leave the house at all that day because I was too nervous to go meet a new neighbor and used the excuse that I needed to do laundry instead, etc. etc. This is going to be a slow, difficult process for me, but I'm here.  I'm here, in Nicaragua, and I came here to overcome the challanges that I knew I'd face, socially, mentally, and physically.  I do at times wonder what the hell I've gotten myself into, and think about what it'd be like to leave.  That's when I stop and realize how rediculous that would be.  I've only been in site a week!  I knew there'd be some backpedaling and some down moments during the first few months in site.  It's something everyone goes through. 

On a mailing note, I sent out an e-mail with my PO Box address in Jinotega.  I'm not going to post it on the blog for obvious reasons.  If you didn't get it or want it, e-mail me to let me know.  If you want ideas for things to send, I've been getting candy from some friends (skittles, sour patch kids) that have been a huge success!  I've been sharing some (just a little) with my family, and I think they like it.  Also, if you're willing to send liquid body wash, that'd be awesome.  I can't find any here, and I love using my loofa!  I'm doing good on clothes (plus at the moment I don't have anything to put them in!).  Letters and postcards are always good, I love getting hand-written stuff.  And pictures are good to, that way I can show people physical pictures of home instead of pulling out the computer and the hard drive.  Last night I ate one of those freeze dried camping meals that you just add boiling water to, and it was actually really good!  I know they can be kind of pricey for the size, but they're lightweight to mail and usually compact.  It's good to have some food options since I'm cooking a bit now.  I also LOVE the oriental flavored Ramen noodles (the blue package).  They sell chicken and shrimp flavors here (they call them Maruchan here).  Plus, anything from Trader Joe's that's mail-able is fantastic, especially the indian flavored meals that come in a box.  You can take the pouch out of the box and mail that to save room :) Just some ideas (plus I'm hungry right now).

Alrighty, what shall I leave you all with?  How about some bus etiquette?  When traveling on the buses here, people usually yell "al suave!" to tell the bus driver to stop.  That is, if they didn't stop where they were supposed to, considering many know where everyone lives and just stops at their alhouse anyways.  I always have to tell them where to stop since many don't know I'm living in Wale.  Suave in some situations means soft, or slow, in the bus case.  I don't know exactly why it means stop in this case.  That's just how it is. 

Love and miss you all!  Write me back!

~Sarita~