Friday, September 28, 2007

Long week

Wow what a long week! My heat is pounding as i sit here staring at this screen, but i have to write and tell how great things have gone this week. First, thank you soooo much Aunt Nancy for the care package, sooo sweet and the coloring books, crayons, and stickers are a big hit with my sobrina. (the other aspirantes loved the peeps) My fav was the pictures tho, and the crystal light packets. For future reference, anyone who would like to send me things, chocolate is always good, preferably something sealed well b-c it will melt, pictures, and crystal like packs, or emergen-C packs. there are other things también, but i can´t think of them right now. plus i really can get a lot of things here, but finding good quality markers and crayons has been impossible.
teaching went well. i didn´t make any huge mistakes. the lesson was simple. its amazing how much i underestimed the amount of time they would need. i definately went like 15 min over. but the teacher was cool with it, she is great, already asking when i will be back. best behaved 5th grade class i´ve been to (with the exception of Mrs. Foster´s class of course ;) who i miss dearly!)
sunday i go on my volunteer visit, and return on wednesday. will finally get a chance to see what its really like and what i´ve really signed myself up for. i´m actually going to an area that they say gets fairly cool at night, so should be interesting. i have a good 6 hrs to spend on a bus, so plenty of time to think. lol
will write again when i return!

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

1 month today!

One month today! Don´t have much time. But wanted to say happy B-Day thomas! love and miss you of course. hope you got my voicemail! Also, today marks the 4 week point that i have been here. crazy. i teach a class tomorrow! can you believe that, i can´t. I really hope i don´t screw up and end up cursing at the kids instead of telling them to raise their hands before they speak. lol wish me luck.
So far things are going well. really really busy this week with planning my lesson and our meeting and preparing for my volunteer visit! will write again soon! love you all!

Friday, September 21, 2007

Attempting to be Nica

Felt like writing in this color b-c i feel that it describes my mood! hahahahah today was long, and busy. and i definately went through some different moods. but all in all the day ended so positively. We had training all day. Which is good b-c we get to meet current volunteers and pick their brains apart about every possible scenario that could happen in the schools or at our sites in general. the meetings (charlas) always run long, i´m sure they love us! hahahaha. I also met the volunteer that I am going to be visiting in a week! YAY! I could not be more excited to see how things are at a site. It is definately really really far from where i am now, but hopefully i´ll be able to travel most of the way (4 hr bus ride) with another aspirante and then she will meet me in the department capital and we will ride another 2 hrs by bus to her site! That is definately going to be an adventure! hahahha. I am really hoping to go shopping tomorrow! hahahahha yeah im defintely roughing it huh. hahhaaha actually i have not been yet, and its not like i am going to be going to a mall. definately some outdoor markets. Hasler, you would definately appreciate it when i say that i times i feel like i am living in the Suzanna y Javier book. hahahhaha
All in all i have no complaints. I just hope that my spanish is improving more than i can tell. As my facilitator (spanish teacher más o menos) told me, we are each our toughest critic. But i know that i speak easier than before (out of necessity as well as practice) but i am wondering how much vocab i am really truley remembering and how much just comes in one ear and gets lots in translation.
This is week has been the longest by far, and from what i can tell they just get busier. I am slowly but surely gaining confianza with my new family, i truly do love them all dearly. I have one mom (her husband passed away 5 years ago, but was dearly loved, and i wish i could have met him, he was an agriculture engineer and new everything about the environment from what they tell me) I have two older sisters. One is in her late 20s and the other only a few years older than i am but has 2 children. So I have two neices, ages 8 and 2 1/2, that i absolutely adore! And all of her friends as well. But they are great, have a great sense of humor, and are extremely patient with me - and love to talk with me which is extremely important.
Nica people are definately some of the most hospitable i have ever met! Its amazing how i can walk up, introduce myself and they will invite me to sit in a rocking chair with them (b-c everybody has at least 4 in their home) for hours literally and are all patient with my broken spanish. It rains at night, which reminds me of the rain in florida and tends to get me missing the beach and my family at moments, but then i wake up in the morning to a new day, some coffee and pinapple and look out the front door at the street and realize that this is where i am supposed to be!

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Week 3!

So i´m in my third week! wow this is going by fast. In like 1 week i´m going to be doing my volunteer site visit! that´s just crazy!
K, sad thing, i totally forget the really funny story i was going to tell in my last blog. hahaha, typical huh. no worries, i´m sure it wouldn´t have been nearly as funny for you all to read as it was for me. But lots has happened since my last post. I am totally loving my new family, not that i didn´t totally love the last one as well, and i still talk to my sister from my other family so that is great :) But yes, things are going well at home, i am starting to wonder how much weight i am going to gain considering 75% of my meals are fried, hahaha. gotta love that. at least i get fruit for breakfast everyday, which i totally love! And i went on a hike with some of my fellow aspirantes that live in the surrounding pueblos. we hiked all the way down to Laguna de Apoyo. OMG was that long, it took us 30 min to get down there, and it is one steep hike, and a good hour and 20 min to get up. I thought i was going to lose my legs they were so tired. But i´m totally stoked b-c i learned that there is a place to rent kayaks on the laguna!!!!!!!!! A friend and i are hoping to go soon! Oh i miss kayaking soo much. And the laguna is beautiful. Crystal clear and deep blue. Its really deep too, but calm and beautiful. After the hike, we went to the Mirador in Catarina, which is a huge tourist spot and i totally understand why. You can see the city of Granada from the mirador and lake nicaragua! It´s amazing! The three days of body pains is totally worth the swim in the lake. It was so refreshing! And i definately recommend that if you come to visit me you have to see this!
We also had our first meeting with our grupo de jóvenes last night. oh the joy, actually it was fun. we made a community map and talked about this saturday when we get to make our Vivero! Going to be soo exciting, i can´t wait! We had all the kids volunteer to bring tools, i couldn´t believe how many kids were like, i´ll bring a machete! I was just standing there thinking, guess its better you than me considering i have never even held one of those things before! Guess that will be changing soon tho! Wish me luck b-c next week i am giving my first charla to a classroom in the elementary school! ahhhhhhh i hardly feel like i am capable of doing that, but i guess i´ll find out soon. Well i think we are going to go get some icecream tonight! which i am totally stoked about!
hope you are all doing well and enjoying the beginning of fall! the weather is still the same here, hotter than you can imagine or cool and rainy. Keep up the comments, i love them!!

Saturday, September 15, 2007

El día de independencia

Today is independence day for Nicaragua. And this is a new thing for me, obviously. Yesterday was a celebration of winning a battle, can´t remember the name b/c i am horrible, but from what i learned it was against what i believe were american marines, and the Nicas won. (they were out numbered and fought by throwing rocks, so that´s kinda of a big deal, i´d probably celebrate too). But yesterday was huge, parades in everytown, traditional dances and the works. Today, nothing.No parades, no festivals, no fiestas, nada. And i wwas really hoping to get to go to a fiesta or two. Guess I´ll just have to wait :)
Anyways, life is going well with the new family. They are very kind and hospitable. They are always home and spend lots of time talking with me (well more like talking and i try to catch what they are saying so that i can say something in return.) Its actually not that bad, just the different accent is hard to get. i need to talk with lots of different ppl so that i get used to it. Oh, but i have a huge room! seriously think it is bigger than the last one, and definately bigger than my room in my last apartment! Crazy. I have an inodoro, so in that since i have very lucky that i do not have to use a latrine. It doesn´t flush, I have to poor a huge bucket of water into the bowl to flush it each time, and this my friends is a science. You have to raise the bolde high enough in the air that it has enough force to flush the water, but not so high that you splatter the water all over yourself and the entire bathroom. lol, which of course it has taken me many attempts, along with an instructional lesson from my sister. oh the joys! it´s a good thing i´m not shy. hahha. oh and i finally get to take bucket baths. i actually prefer them. i can take my time and not feel that i am wasting water. and its honestly not as cold. I wish i had more time b-c i have an hilarious story. but i will have to wait until next time.
love and miss you all!

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Buenos!

Hey fam and friends, sorry this is short. Don´t have much time, have to go to an interview. I just wanted to let ppl know that i have changed to a different house. I´ll explain more later, nothing wrong or bad happened, just found a family that would have more time to spend with my during the day which is uber important especially when practicing spanish is my job right now. Anyways, don´t call the old number i gave you. I will let you know when or if i get a new one. i hope to buy a cell this weekend or next week ;)
love and miss you all!
p.s. i´m doing great. love the new family' it´s bigger than my last one, and i love nica!

Monday, September 10, 2007

Week 2

Oh my oh my oh my. I am here, i guess it hits you when you are sitting in the cyber and 2 perros walk in off the street. hahaha. That´s where I am and I love it. Last week was great, getting adjusted to the new place. This week is going to be fun, boy are they keeping us busy! This week we are having our primera reunión with our grupo de jóvenes! Its going to be soo much fun. We are going to do fun environmental projects, like a vivero (tree nursery mas o menos) and it seems like we are going to have a pretty good turn out. there is a mandate to the schools in Nica that each student in the last year of high school has to have 60 hours of environmental community service. so we there are a lot of kids interested. also we are going to be working with the elementary school too.
Things are going well so far. On saturday we all (18 of us) went and visited a self sustainable ranchero that is located not too far from here. it was soo cool, we learned about composting, worm boxes, and so much more! We finally got to play in the dirt! All this classroom time had made me anxious and was definately happy to plant some trees.
On sunday I went to visit the laguna, which is apparently a huge tourist site as well, but it was pouring down rain, and i kid you not it was soo foggy that i could not even see the shore of the laguna, much less the water. hahaha, it was an experience none the less, and i´ll just have to go back another time.
I have definately been learning alot, but i can´t help but feel like i will never be fluent. Then again it is only my second week here, so i guess i should not get ahead of myself. Hopefully at the end of training i will look back at this and laugh - HOPEFULLY.
Thank you all for the great notes of support. I have written some cards and letters to send home, but have yet to be successful in locating a mailbox or post office. Hope you all are doing well! Take care!

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Hola de Nica!

Hi everyone!
I hope you are all doing well and benefiting from the Hurricane. It is close by, but not too close, it hit the atlantic coast, North east of where I am and is headed to Honduras. We have recieved a little bit of rain, but not more than should be expected during this time of year. Today was a regular day, Spanish class until 3pm. We are making a map of the town so that we know our way around (always a good thing :) and so that we can have it when we work with our youth group. After spanish class i learned how to wash my clothes, oh mother and father you would be so proud, I know how to wash my clothes by hand!

My host family´s house is beautiful! The entire yard is a garden, with hundreds of types of plants, Grandma Mix, you would love it!

Besides that I have just been trying to learn alot of spanish. Which is not easy, but I think that it is coming along, slowly but surely. Wish me luck!
I´m so excited b-c tomorrow I get to see the rest of my friends from the Env. Ed. group that are living in the towns nearby. We are all going to learn about an environmental project that is taking place near us. Well I need to go get some cena, i´m starving! Adios!

Monday, September 3, 2007

My new hometown

Buenas!
That´s the most common word i hear everyday. So i am finally in my new home. Well actually right now i am in a Cyber down the street. But things are going well. Of course I miss my ppl back home. And things are slow b-c we are still learning how to communicate but besides that things are going well. I have two new sisters and a new mother, and according to her i have a whole new extended family that lives near by. I met a few of my new cousins, but now worries kate and jill they´ll never be able to replace you ;) I am doing well, a little under the weather, but well. I have eaten lots of beans and rice (gallo pinto when they are mixed together), and pinolillo. Pinolillo is actually a drink that is really good. You mix it with sugar and it tastes kinda like chocolate coffee, but it is actually made from corn and something else.
The ppl here have been very welcoming and patient. Apparently I am part of the 3rd or 4th group of aspirantes to live in this pueblo, so that is good that the ppl aren´t completely caught off guard. My house is beautiful. The entire yard is a jardin with more than 100m plants that my mom sells to the universities and other merchants to sell.
Well time is money, and i have run out. LOve and miss you all!