General response to comments and questions

First of all, thank you for your interest in my adventures!  It's great to hear your stories as well as your comments and questions. Because there was such a variety of questions and some were repeated, I decided to write a blog with some general topics that will hopefully answer your questions :)

Weather: It is pretty hot and humid here and we are getting near the end of our “winter”.  Summer begins in the end of November/early December.  It’s supposed to be a little warmer, but dry instead of humid, so it won’t feel as bad I think :)  My new site is supposed to have a little cooler weather, so I’m looking forward to that.  Here in Nicaragua we basically have two seasons, the winter is the rainy season and it’s in the 80’s and humid.  The summer is the dry season and it is still in the 80’s but dry, so I probably won’t sweat as much.  Nicaragua does not get snow, and I haven’t seen any hail before, but we do get strong rains, and some cool thunder and lightning storms.  

Houses: The houses here are usually made of cement for the exterior walls, and wood or carton for the interior walls.  The inside walls usually do not extend to the top of the roof and they are not insulated so noise travels throughout the house.  The roofs are made of tin and echo.  When it rains, I can’t hear much because it is so loud, but it does sound pretty cool when I’m in bed getting ready for bed.  Most of the trainees here love listening to rain on the tin roofs; it’s a comforting sound.  The exterior walls are not completely closed to the roof so it is a like an open-air house, so bugs can get in pretty easily.  We have a lot of lizards that are always climbing on the walls, but I don’t mind them because they eat bugs :)

Here's a little lizard in my room.

This is our living room.

This is our kitchen.

TV:  Most homes here have TV’s, but not everybody has dvd players.  My family has a few TV’s and a dvd player.  We watch TV a lot in the evenings and there are some English channels, but I try to watch Spanish shows to practice.  I haven’t seen Survivor Nicaragua on TV here and I can’t get it online either.  They are filming Survivor near San Juan del Sur, which is about 3 ½ hours south of where I live.  I have not been there yet, but I really want to because I’ve heard they have nice beaches.

Food: My favorite foods here are gallo pinto (cooked beans and rice, fried with onions), platanos maduros (plantain bananas cooked or fried), tajadas (thin slices of bananas that have been dried fried so they taste like chips but look like strips of bananas, flautas/tacos (chicken and vegetables rolled up in dough that has been fried), and Eskimo ice cream :)

Holidays: Nicaragua has a lot of holidays and celebrations.  Because there are a lot of Catholic people here, they celebrate the Catholic holidays, which include a lot of days for saints.  The schools also follow this schedule and are closed for a lot of these celebrations.  They have a holiday similar to Halloween here called Aguizotes, where people dress up as dead people or zombies and parade down the streets of bigger towns.  I went to see the parade in Masaya and it was pretty cool.  A lot of people also celebrate Halloween here, but they don’t go trick-or-treating.  They just dress up and have parties.  They celebrate Christmas here, but I’m not sure if it’s similar to how we celebrate in the U.S., but it’s coming up soon.  I have seen some Christmas tree displays in malls.  I don’t think they celebrate Thanksgiving here, but that’s a U.S. holiday anyway. 

Animals: I haven’t seen many new animals, just animals in places I wouldn’t expect them to be.  For example, I have seen goats, cows, roosters, and chickens walking down the street.  I have seen monkeys in the jungle area when I went hiking to the lagoon.  There are dogs everywhere and they’re all really skinny and dirty.  Most of the dogs here do not live inside people’s homes; they live outside and search for scraps of food anywhere they can.

Trips: I have been to Granada for 3 days in the very beginning of my time here.  We went on a boat ride on Lake Nicaragua and saw monkeys on that trip.  I have visited the capital of Managua several times and it’s pretty big and there are a lot of people.  I’ve seen some familiar restaurants there, such as: McDonald’s, Subway, Pizza Hut, Papa John’s pizza, Quizno’s, and Burger King.  I haven’t gone to any of these, but Peace Corps has bought us pizza a couple times.  I have been to Masaya a lot to visit my counterpart teacher, to go shopping because they have a large market there, and to hike the volcano one time.  I have been to Matagalpa where I stayed for a week in a hostel and taught 7^th grade English classes.  I have visited friends in Niquinohomo (this is pronounced without the “h”, so <knee-key-no-mo>), Masatepe, and  I go to Catarina a lot because there are other trainees there and it’s a good place to get ice cream or check out the shops.  Catarina is very close to San Juan de Oriente, where I have been living for 2 months now.

Clothing: The clothing here is very similar to the U.S.  Most people where jeans and t-shirts.  There are a lot of second-hand stores with used clothes from the U.S. that people buy.  Not many adults where shorts, but some kids do.  I’m surprised that more people don’t wear shorts because it’s so hot here!  A lot of people wear sandals and flip flops.  They also use umbrellas to shade themselves from the sun because the sun is a lot more intense here as we are much closer to the Equator. 

Internet access: Not many people have internet at their house—only a couple people have those cards that you can plug into a laptop to get internet, but most people use the cybers.  These are buildings that have computers for people to use and they pay by the hour.  I usually take my laptop to the cyber to use the internet and talk to my friends and family on Skype.  Most of the time I type up blogs or emails at my house because I can still use Microsoft Word, and then when I go to the cyber, I copy and paste them onto the webpages.

Teaching:  I am working in an Instituto (high school) which has 7^th-11^th grade.  There are two seventh grade classes because there are a lot of seventh graders, and I teach one of those classes.  There is only one English teacher in the school, so she teaches all of the levels of English classes here.  She lives in Masaya and travels to San Juan everyday to teach.  Masaya is only about 15 minutes away.  I really enjoy teaching English and sometimes it is challenging, but I just need to make sure that my students understand what I’m teaching, or I need to explain things in a different way.  I sometimes use Spanish to translate directions for assignments or activities.

Transportation: I ride buses to get to different towns almost every week.  We take mototaxis too which are a little more fun and you don’t have to squish against people you don’t know.  Mototaxis are like a combination between a motorcycle and a small car.  

The little car that is red with a black top is a mototaxi.  They have one wheel in the front and two wheels in the back.

Language: Here in Nicaragua, the majority of the people speak Spanish, but on the east coast, English is the main language.  I have studied Spanish before, so I knew a lot before I came here, but I am still learning and it is of course challenging.  To say Nicaragua is Spanish, it is like this: <knee-car-og-wa>.

Water and electricity: The water here is on a schedule because we don’t have main water lines going through our town.  So, when there is water, my family fills up large, plastic barrels to store the water.  If there is running water, then I can take a real shower, but if there isn’t, I have to take a bucket shower.  A bucket shower consists of filling up a big bucket of water and taking it into the shower.  Then, you use a small bowl to scoop water out of the bucket and pour it on yourself.  Oh yeah, and the water is cold!  Sometimes the electricity goes out because of storms and it might stay off until the next day.  It hasn’t gone out that many times since I’ve been here though, but more than it the U.S.

Family: My family here is very different from my family, mainly because there are so many people that live in our house.  My host mom has 3 daughters and 2 sons, but not all of them live here.  Two of her daughters live in Costa Rica, and one of her sons lives in Texas.  Her son that lives here lives in a separate house, but it shares the same yard as us.  He lives in a small house with his wife and 2 little girls (2 years old and 5 years old).  My host mom’s daughter that lives with us has a 3 year old girl.  My host mom has a daughter-in-law who also lives here with her 7 year old son and 5 year old daughter.  My host mom’s sister lives in our house with her daughter too.  Then, I have my own bedroom with a bed (and mosquito net), a rocking chair, table, bookshelf/dresser, and shoe rack.  We have a dog and cat that come in and out of our house, but they’re not supposed to be there because they get into things, such as the trash!

My family in the U.S. is just my mom, dad, and my twin brother.  My parents live in Keizer and we have a dog, 2 cats, and lots of fish.  My brother is in graduate school in Tennessee.  He is doing research to study cancer.  My grandparents live in Salem and Albany, most of my mom’s family lives in Salem.  I have an aunt, uncle, and cousin in Florida, some cousins in New York, and an aunt, uncle, and many cousins in Arizona.  My parents and brother are planning to visit me in March and then maybe next Christmas—maybe you can write letters and give them to your teacher to send with my family.  We’re not allowed to have visitors until March because we have been in training and then we need to spend time with our new families and counterparts for the first 3 months in our new sites.  My family also plans on visiting me for Christmas next year.  I hope some of my friends will visit too.  I don’t plan on going back to the U.S. during my two year service because I want to really get to know Nicaragua and the people here, but who knows what might happen.

More about me: I am 23 years old. My favorite color is pink.  I like to read, write, exercise, watch movies, hang out with my friends here, dance, explore new places, and meet new people.  My favorite foods back home are mashed potatoes, pizza, and garlic bread.  Why Peace Corps? I love to travel and I love to teach.  I have my Oregon teaching license, but I wanted to get my Masters degree before I started my teaching career.  I also love to serve people (volunteer experiences, church activities, tutoring students, etc.).  So, my friend was telling me about Peace Corps and the opportunity to travel somewhere in the world and help people in other countries who are less fortunate than I am.  I then found a program called Peace Corps Masters International (PCMI).  This is what I am doing now.  I took Masters classes for a year at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington last year and now I am serving in Nicaragua to complete my degree.  Here I am getting teaching practice for my degree.  I am so happy that I was able to find something to combine the things I love.  I hope that you will all consider the many options you have when you are finishing high school and looking at universities.  I believe that you can do anything if you work hard and focus on your dreams.