Sunday, October 31, 2010

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 7th 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 7th-11th 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.

Saturday, October 30, 2010

My Site!

I just found out my site yesterday afternoon...for the next two years starting November 24th (approximately) I will be in Boaco, Boaco.  This is known as the city of two floors because part of the city is on the hill and the other part is below the hill.  I've heard it's a bit cooler than other places in Nicaragua, which will be nice :)  Next week I'm going to visit my site so I'll get to meet my new host family and my teaching counterparts.  I'm going to be gone for a week on the visit so it might be awhile before I get to post again.  So, don't worry; I'll be back soon! 

The Amazing Race!

I was working on my lesson plans the other night and I realized I needed to print something before I could create the other part of the materials.  It was already 7:30pm and my host mom was cooking my dinner, so I told her that I was gonna go to the cyber really fast.  Well of course I decided to run because I don’t like walking sometimes and I needed to be fast.  I had flip flops on, but what the heck.  So I took off running down the street and it was pretty dark, but the street lights were on.  There were a bunch of young boys in the street playing and they started shouting “Corre! Corre! Corre!” which means “Run! Run!”  So, I shouted back “Vamos!” which means, “Let’s go!” and they started running with me down the street.  It was hilarious.  I turned the corner and headed down the main street to the cyber and the race evaporated.  I then realized that I get plenty of attention being a gringa walking down the street, but now that I was running (which no one ever does here) I got a lot more attention.  I didn’t really want this extra attention, but I also needed to travel quickly, so whatever.  I just ignored it.  So, I got my copy in time because the cyber was still open yay :)  On the way back I decided to run as well because it felt good.  I need to exercise more and it felt great to be running again.  Anyway, I ran down the main street and then rounded the corner onto my street and there were a couple little boys sitting on the sidewalk and they started shouting at me again, so of course I encouraged them to join me by saying “Vamos!” and they took this as an invitation to a race.  The next thing I knew, I was in a full on sprinting race down the cobblestone street in the dark with little 8 year old boys in my flip flops.  I kept thinking I was going to trip or run through dog poop, but fortunately neither happened.  The race did have to end because my house was at the corner, and sadly I don’t think I would have won if it had continued, but I blame my flip flops and the cobblestone.  These kids have the advantage of playing in these streets every day.  This is one of those experiences that I’ll never forget.  I’m glad I’m still able to be free and have fun being myself :)

Monday, October 25, 2010

Hello from Rain Drenched Keizer

Thank you Megan for responding to the students. Back at home it's cold and raining. The kids are all hoping for snow this winter. In fact yesterday it snowed at Mt. Hood 15 inches in 24 hours.

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Responses


Thank you for interest in my adventures.  Here are responses to your questions:
Ryan,
It was a cool trip and it was pretty hot up there by the volcano!  I’m sure sometime in your life you’ll get to visit a volcano :)

Morgan,
Matagalpa was really fun and we were in a hostel, which has different things than a hotel.  The major difference is that you usually share rooms with other people and you just pay for your bed.  We walked around the town a lot and saw the parks and shops.

Cole,
The volcano was cool, but the ground didn’t rumble.  It wasn’t erupting, but it is active and we saw the steam coming out of it.  I haven’t seen any animals that are different, but I’ve seen monkeys in the trees, which I’ve only seen in the zoo back home.

Morgan,
I am enjoying my 7th grade class.  Right now we’re working on community places and directions on a map, so locating places and telling where places are on a map of their community.  My classroom is not that big, but there are about 28 students, which is a small class size for this country.  Usually classes have between 35-60 students.

Taylor Ann,
I wasn’t scared being that close to a volcano and I was only there for about an hour to look around and take pictures.  It was a pretty cool experience though.  Being an exchange student would be a great opportunity for you.  My service is a little more than 2 years long, but there are a lot of opportunities to travel abroad for shorter periods of time.  I hope you get to do an exchange!  The main things that I eat here are rice, beans, chicken, and vegetables.  Oh, and ice cream ;)  I usually get up around 6:45am for class and I go to bed around 9:30 or 10pm.  We have internet cafes here where there are a bunch of computer stations that you pay to use and it is about 60 cents an hour.  I do sometimes miss my family and want to go home, but I know that I am safe here and I’m helping a lot of people.

Jassy,
The weather is usually pretty hot.  I sweat every day!  I’m not sure the exact temperature, but it’s usually in the high 80’s to low 90’s.

Cam,
There are a lot of kids here!  Kids are always playing in the streets and I see them everywhere :)  I’m not teaching small kids, but working in a high school with 7th grade students.  They know a lot, but we’re working on English and they’re learning a lot of that too.  This experience is really fun.  I don’t think I ever get bored because there is always something to do.

Zach,
I did not see any lava at the volcano, but I heard that you can take a tour in the evening and see the magma.  I might do that sometime to see that.  At the volcano it was pretty hot, but it’s usually hot here, so it wasn’t too much of a difference.  It doesn’t really get cold here. 

Cyria,
Things are going really well here and I love being here.  It is really hot, but I’m getting used to the weather.  My favorite food to eat here is fried plantain bananas.  You can try some at Los Dos Hermanos restaurant in Keizer—ask your parents :)

AJ,
It was pretty hot that day by the volcano and fortunately, we did not have to walk up there.  Our trainers drove us up the rode in a jeep.  I took some pictures and posted them on the blog, so you’ll have to ask your teacher for help.

Ethan,
The volcano was steaming so that was cool, but I couldn’t see any lava.  We have internet cafes here where there are a bunch of computers and you pay to use them.  We do have ice cream here, which I am so happy that we do because I love ice cream!  There are some rivers here, but I haven’t been to one yet, only to a lagoon and a lake.  I live in a pretty small town (about 6,000 people) and I’m kind of in the middle of it. 

Jazzy Marie,
I was staying in a hostel so we had internet there.  There is actually internet all over here.  Not many places don’t have internet here.  The schools are not as nice as most schools in the U.S. and most schools don’t have textbooks for their students.  I haven’t seen any snakes and I hope I don’t see any!  I’m scared of snakes and spiders! 

Thursday, October 21, 2010

A fun trip!


Right now I am in the department (state) of Matagalpa.  Our group was split in half, so half of us came to Matagalpa and the other half went to Jinotega.  My group is in the capital city, Matagalpa and we are staying in a hostel.  A hostel is kind of like a hotel, but there are rooms with bunk beds and you share them with whoever else is traveling through the town.  We each get a closet to lock up our things, but we share a big room and we each get a bed.  We met a lady from Canada, a girl from Belgium, and a girl from Australia.  It was really cool to talk to them about their travel experiences and to tell them about what we are doing in the Peace Corps.

This week we worked with teachers from the high schools here and taught classes.  It was a fun experience to see a new place and meet a lot of new students.  I taught two sections of 7th grade, so 7A and 7B.  There were 36 students in 7A and 28 students in 7B.  This was a lot of work to plan lessons for these new classes and try to work with so many students, but it was a good experience.  Part of this time at the school was to help the English teachers with ideas for teaching English in their schools.  They liked having us there, especially because we speak English as our first language so we could help with pronunciation of words.

We got to Matagalpa Monday morning and we are leaving Friday afternoon to go back to our training towns.  I have really enjoyed staying here and I hope my permanent site will be like this place.  My permanent site is where I will be living for the 2 years of my service.  We will finish our training in November, and then become real volunteers.  Then, we will serve 2 years in our sites, teaching in high schools and training English teachers.

In my Spanish class the other day, we were talking about things that we have done in Nicaragua or had never experienced since we got to Nicaragua. This was very interesting and I thought I would share some of them just for fun. Here are some of them:
Before coming to Nicaragua…
-I had never taken a bucket bath.
-I had never sweated so much in my life.
-I had never slept under a mosquito net.
-I had never not been able to take a shower because the water “se fue” (went away)
-I had never been on public transportation where men were riding on top of the bus to hold onto passengers’ bags.
-I had never been on a school bus with 3 to a seat and people crammed into the aisle.

Responses


Carol,
That would be great to set up a time to do Skype.  Usually, the afternoons work best because I have classes in the morning, so around 3:15pm, so 2:15pm Oregon time.  What time does the school day end?  I might be able to be a little more flexible depending on my schedule coming up.  When I move to my permanent site, my schedule will change.  We can do a test Skype session maybe on the weekend because my schedule is usually less hectic then.  Thanks for your interest!
Megan

Jeremiah,
We have water on a schedule, so the water runs on certain days, at specific times during the day and we fill big barrels to use during the week.  If we do not have running water when someone wants to take a shower, they take a bucket bath.  This means they need to fill a big bucket of water and take it into the shower with them.  Then they use a small bowl to fill with water from the bucket and pour on them to wash.  It’s usually very cold water so I don’t like doing this.  Even when we can take a regular shower using the showerhead, it’s still cold, but I get used to it :)

Cassandra,
I went to see the volcano last weekend and it was a really cool experience.  I’m glad you got to see my pictures and read about it.  We only went there one time, but I have climbed a volcano in Mexico before.

David,
I actually didn’t walk up this volcano because our trainers drove us there, so that was nice because it was really hot that day!  I did see some monkeys near my town too.

Ash,
I love teaching!  My students do understand most of what I teach, but they are still learning English, so it takes time.  They do not have many ways to practice English outside of school, so it’s difficult to improve.  I can understand most of what they say, but I’m still learning Spanish too.  Sometimes it’s hard because we can’t understand each other, but we try to use different words and explain what we want in a different way.  It’s fun to figure things out this way.  I do really like it here and I’m getting use to life here in Nicaragua.  It will probably change a little when I move to my permanent site in November, because I will be in a different town with a different family, but I am really enjoying getting to know Nicaragua and the people here.

Bianca,
The weather is pretty hot here.  I’m in Matagalpa for the week and it is much cooler here, which is a nice break from the hot weather in Masaya.  I have eaten a lot of beans, rice, tortillas, chicken, and cheese.  My favorite is platanos fritos, which are fried plantain bananas (they are bigger than the regular bananas in Oregon).  My least favorite is the cheese which they serve with a lot of meals.  The cheese is very salty and I miss Tillamook cheddar cheese!

Lisette,
Living down here really had made me appreciate what I have back home in Oregon.  Things are very different here, but the people have learned to use what they have.  We have a stove that is connected to a propane gas tank, so we are able to cook things on the stove.  We have a large, outdoor oven that uses firewood to cook our bread and one time we made pizza :)  We have water on certain days, but it is difficult to get water to all of the homes, and it can be expensive.  We do have electricity, but if there is bad weather, it might go out and stay off until the next day.  We use candles if this happens.  Oh, and the people here are called Nicaraguans.

Evan,
Yes, it is very hot!  It is the winter season right now, but really they just have a dry season and a wet season.  The temperature in Nicaragua is about the same throughout the whole year because it is so close to the equator.  We are in the end of the rainy season, which is usually hot, rainy, and humid.  The dry season begins in December, which is summer.  It’s usually really hot and dry then.  I would love for Frosty the snowman to come visit me to cool off this hot weather!

To the student who posted after Evan,
Even though it’s hot here, we do have some cold and rainy days.  Our cold days are not really that cold, just in the 70’s, but this does make it hard for clothes to dry.  It’s been pretty hot lately, and I am wishing for rain to cool off. 

Trytan,
My favorite thing to do here is to walk around the town with my friends.  I love looking at all of the different things here and seeing new people.  Even though I have lived in my town for 6 weeks now, there are always new things to experience.  We like to go to the next town over, Catarina, to visit other friends too.  A special place that I have found is in Matagalpa.  We are staying at a hostel and it is so cool to meet people from all over the world.  I am having so much fun in Nicaragua, but I am also very busy with my Spanish classes and teaching.

Matthew,
The food is really good here.  There are a lot of things that we have in the U.S., like rice, beans, vegetables, fruit, chicken, beef, soup, tortillas, potatoes, and more.  However, the meals are sometimes made a little differently and we usually do not eat foods from cans or boxes.  Everything is made fresh.  We do have ice cream here, which is very good because I love ice cream!  The big ice cream brand here is called Eskimo and it is delicious!  My favorite flavor is coconut because it has real pieces of coconut in it :)

Kyleigh,
I love living in Nicaragua even though it is very different from Oregon!  I told some others about the water, but it usually takes a whole day for my clothes to dry if it is sunny outside.  If it is not, it takes much longer.  Sometimes I hang up my clothes on the strings in my room that hold my mosquito net.  It’s like having three clothes lines across my room, so it’s pretty funny.  We usually go to bed before 10pm here, because we have to get up early for classes and work.  I get up at 6:45am and leave at 7:45am for class.

Jake,
I have gone out on a sunny day and then was surprised by pouring rain.  Usually, I can stay inside and wait until the rain stops, but sometimes the rain will continue for hours, so I have to walk in it.  It hasn’t been very rainy lately though.

Carol A,
I wasn’t scared to go to the volcano because I had climbed a volcano in Mexico before.  It was pretty cool though.  I really love Nicaragua and I will be here for another 2 years teaching English.  I will write a little more about this in my next blog.

Cody,
It was pretty hot by the volcano but I wasn’t scared.  I climbed a volcano in Mexico before, so I knew what the experience was like.  The food here is really good.  Sometimes there are meals that I don’t really like, but that’s just because they are different from what I am used to eating in the U.S.

To the student who posted after Cody,
I have only worn a sweatshirt one or two days when we had the stormy weather from the hurricane.  Besides that, it has been very hot here, so I never need to wear a jacket.  The food is good here and I’m enjoying trying new things.  I’m not sure exactly how many people I have worked with, but I have a class in San Juan and a teacher I am working with, and then in Matagalpa I worked with a teacher and two of her classes.

Shelby Marie,
I have been to Granada, where I spent my first 3 days in Nicaragua for an orientation.  I live in San Juan de Oriente and I have visited Managua, Masaya, Masatepe, Niquinohomo, Catarina, Nidiri, Diriamba, and Matagalpa.  My room in San Juan is pretty small, but it is the perfect size for what I have.  I don’t spend too much time in there because it gets really hot, so I usually study in the living room.  There are 21 people in my group of English teachers, but 3 of us live in San Juan de Oriente (Jessica, Kellie, and me).  I’m glad you like my pictures—I don’t know which one is my favorite, but I love taking lots of pictures!

Joe,
We always have food here, it’s just different.  We have a lot of similar foods too, such as rice, beans, tortillas, chicken, beef, vegetables, and fruits.  I really like fried plantain bananas, but I do not like the cheese here because it is very salty!

Tyler,
I use a lot of English is my classes so my students hear new words and get to listen to me speak my first language.  This helps them to practice pronunciation and understand things they know in Spanish, but are learning in English.  Sometimes I use Spanish when my students do not understand what I am asking them to do in class, but I try to use English most of the time.