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~