Saturday, December 29, 2007

Life is still life, no matter where you live it.

So I have had a lot of time to think lately. Being that I am not doing much. And that it is holiday time, and got a few days off to hang out with some other volunteers. I had some good times over the christmas holiday. Bought some cute gifts for ppl here, and also bought myself some good times as well. I have decided that i need to journal better, and then that way my blog wouldn´t be quite as random and boring.
The reason I am even in the cyber right now is that I am sick, again. hahaha, oh the joys of being sick in nicaragua. THis time was worse than before, and i didn´t think that could happen. To save you all the not so pretty details, lets just say fate has a funny way of making you miss your last bus so you get to stay in a house that has a REAL toilet in the room less than 6 steps from your bed so that when you are running to the toilet every 5 minútes in the middle of the night you don´t have to leave the room, much less the house. And thank god that we don´t flush the toilet paper here and you have to have a trashcan in every bathroom, b-c vomiting while having diarrea is not convienient. So maybe I didn´t spare the details, but that´s because without them it would sound like i had the flew, not some bacteria that caused me to expel all liquid that i had ingested in the last 24hrs. Gracias a dios I had amazing ppl here to help me, including other volunteer friends who brought me suero (rehydration salts) and dramamine. It was a long 2 days, but i´m better now, well i have a cough, a very loud, annoying cough, damn that asma. Asma and chinandega dust don´t exactly "le cae bien" as they say here. So I´m going to Managua on Monday to get my lungs looked at.
But I couldn´t be luckier. The family that has taken me in here, has been amazing. They are making sure that I am getting everything i need and don´t let me do anything to help out around the house. But there is definately something to be said about Nicaraguan Hospitality. I really think that it has no borders. I don´t know what i would do without them.
It´s funny how similiar things are here with the US and oh how different they are at the same time. I mean, for instance, the transportation system in the country is amazing. Sure you may only have a bus that leaves your town 2x a day, but you can get literally anywhere in the country simply by bus, and you usually don´t have to wait too long. Not to mention the fact that you can move anything you want on the bus with you. (that can be a pain when you are just another passsenger on the bus and people decide to move a whole living room set and you have to wait for them to get it secure on the top of the bus). Speaking of living room sets, one would think, that this being nicaragua and all, they probably don´t have them here. Considering this is the 2nd poorest country in the western hemisphere, but that thought would be incorrect. Because while 90% of the population can´t afford it, some can. So they do have them here, and just like in the states, they have furniture and electronic stores, that you can pay monthly on the things you buy (with an extremely high interest rate). But i have come across alot of people that have refrigerators, some have microwaves, blendors (liquadores) are all the rage (anything cold is good in chinandega) some people have toasters, and even rice makers (they prefer to fry their rice tho). There are degrees of wealth here just like in the states, its just that there are even fewer people in the middle class. And the middle class here is not equivalent to that in the states. I hope to be able to expand more on this with time i´m sure i will. I guess the point i am trying to make is that just because it´s nicaragua, doesn´t mean i can´t get just about everything i could in the states, you just have to pay a hell of a price for it, and more than likely go to managua to buy it. But that doesn´t mean that even 15% of the people can afford to buy it. Nor make the trip to Managua. Sadly enough, I have seen more parts of this country than a large majority of the people that I have met. Including the families i have lived with.

Sorry to end so abruptly, next post will be more cohesive, and i´ll try to have pictures. Thanks, mom, for the rechargable batteries!
Well i hope everyone back home is having a wonderful, bacteria-free christmas and new years.

Friday, December 21, 2007

I´m Dreaming of a White Christmas...not a dusty one ;)

Well I hope those of you that have it are enjoying the snow! I can´t believe all the snow you´ve had! So i don´t have snow here, but i do have dust! hahaha and believe me, it´s not nearly as cool as snow. Can´t ball it up and throw it at people as they pass, can´t make a fort out of it, can´t make a man out of it, you CAN catch it on your tongue, but that would be gross, and i´m just sure if every dust particle is unique like snowflakes are, i would guess not.
But minus the snow, christmas time in Nicaragua is beautiful. I can´t tell you how many times i have had people ask me, so you dont celebrate christmas there do you, and then when i say yes, people are like,¨"the same day and everything?" it´s fun to share things about our cultures that are alike. They were also suprised we celebrate New Years the same way. ;)
I have been doing well. I have a tos, but that´s the dust´s fault, not mine. The packages i got were from G&G Logan, and Dad & Jamie, thank you guys soooo much! G&G Logan, I absolutely love love love the shirts! and all the other goodies of course, my sisters were laughing at me as to why i had so much miel (syrup, but they don´t really use syrup here so we just call it honey) y jelly. I miss you all very much, Things have been busy, but good. I can´t wait to get my own place, I love living with a family, but I want to start living my way, which sounds selfish, but all that really means is i want to be able to decide when the music gets blared, and when i want to sleep in. Also i want to make a compost and worm boxes, and i can´t do that with all the pigs running through our yard. I might be getting a puppy! We´ll see. I haven´t really decided, i just wish they ate cochroaches like cats do! hahaha. I haven´t found a house yet, but i´m looking.
For christmas i will be going back to masaya to spend xmas eve and day with my old host family, and the 23rd i am spending with other people from my group. so i am very excited!
I wish i had something more profound to write, I always think of good topics when I am at home, but after taking the 1 1/2 hr ride to get into the city, I end up losing them. Merry Christmas everyone! I hope that you get everything you wish for and more, just keep in mind that even if you don´t you still are living in a country with clean streets, clean water, reliable electricity, more than likely are living in a house or apt. that has a ceiling and a roof, not just the latter, and that your house is sealed from the rain, and your walls are not made of thin tree branches with black plastic nailed to the outside. Not to bring you down, just to share some things that have opened my eyes in the past few weeks of living in Tonalá, oh and did i mention how lucky we are to live in a country that has a waste management system, however flawed it is, it is there and we use it and don´t burn our trash. I cannot begin to describe the smell and feeling of breathing when all of my neighbors burn their trash. I would say I can´t blame them, but I can´t. There is a trash truck that comes by to collect, and it costs 10 cords a month i think, which if that is the case, probably only about 40 - 50% of my town could afford it, and 10 cords is roughly 50cents, but it can also buy you 1/2 lb. of beans, and a whole lot of rice, which is the staple diet here.
well merry christmas all! miss you, cuidense!

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Christmas in July

I cannot believe that it is almost christmas! I guess what makes it so hard to imagine is that i am sweating my butt off everyday. I have yet to see snow. lol don´t think that will be happening for the next 2 years. But things are going well. I hope you all enjoyed the pictures i posted last time. It was a lot of work, so you better have! But i have been really busy lately, suprisingly enough. (Just let you know that¨"shake it like a salt shaker" is playing in the cyber that i am in right now. hahaha) For it being their summer vacation, i figured i would be bored out of my mind for the next 2 months. but actually my site-mate invited me to help her teach english classes. In total, we are giving 7 classes a week. Which doesn´t seem like much i know but if you figure that each class is 2 hrs long, and that two of the communities that we give class to are roughly 1hr away from our home, by bus :) that´s 4 hrs a day just for one class! then we have planning, and on mondays and fridays we have 2 classes a day. plus these classes last until april! so we will be giving them while we are teaching in our real classrooms after class starts in february.
But being busy is good for me. I hated just sitting around. But i´ve quickly discovered that there really is no "happy medium" it´s either you´re really busy with a lot of projects, or you´re bored out of your mind. I still have a lot of people to meet, and i also need to find a house to live in b-c i get to move out of my host family´s house in enero, but i dunno with all the other stuff going on if i will find a house by then or not. who knows. well i would have posted more pics, but my camera is not sirving me well (no me sirve) and keeps eating up all the batteries i have and they are not cheap here, so i will have to wait until i get my packages with my rechargable batteries. i have 3 packages waiting for me, i´ll let you know whose they are when i get them, but probably won´t be for a few days, maybe weeks.
take care everyone!
¿Feliz Navidad!

Sunday, December 9, 2007

Primavera Azul!

Ok guys, i finally figured out how to do the whole photo thing, so here are a few. i´ll try to post a few every blog from here on out. ¡Disfrútenlas!

(una foto de mi cuarto en la casa de mi familia anfitriona en Masaya)
¡Qué linda!
(una foto de unas casas que están ubicadas en la carreterra entre mi pueblo y la cuidad)

(una familia que está alistándose entrar el bus. sí, el barrón está llevando un pollo en el bus)


(la parada de buses en el mercado viejo en Masaya, look at those beautifully repainted school buses from the states! the smaller ones are called microbuses and they are really not all that safe but people manage to fit about oh 15 ppl in a micro)



(el altar que mi prima hizo, ella pasó como 5 horas haciéndolo)


(la promoción del sexto grado (lo que discutí en la ultima blog)


(Beautiful Granada)



(esta foto es de mis amigitas. de la izquirda: una amiga de mis dos sobrinitas, mi sobrinita Mayoling y mi otra sobrinita Josmely)



(esta foto es de una baile que se llama "el viejo la vieja" y las personas que están bailando son dos muchachos! hahaha ellos eran alumnos del instituto de mi pueblo en Masaya)


Hey everyone! I hope things are going well in the snow-covered land of Indiana, and the oh so warm and sunny FL! It´s hot here, as usual. but now is the fresco time if i haven´t already said that. All that really means is that you don´t sweat.... as much, but you still definately sweat. the shade is a beautiful thing though, so are hammocks, maybe my two favorite things in nica (besides the beautiful views of course.) But all in all there is little to complain about. I know i was a little upset about my new cucaracha friends but well, that happens. and while i wouldn´t say i am acostombrada, i´m getting there) things are slow now so i am going to hopefully be starting a community english class with my sitemate (who teaches english at the highschool) and probably in two other communities as well. we´ll see. she isn´t gonna be here much for the next month, so in that case i will be doing them solo! (entonces, wish me luck!)

So the graduation ceremonies have come and gone, and so has the purisima, oh how fun that was. lets just say its sortof like halloween, but without the costumes, and instead of saying trick-or-treat, people sing hymns to altars of maría that people put in their front porches and then the people give out candies, and tupperware, glasses, plates, ya know the typical stuff ;-)

But after the graduation ceremonies and for the purisima, there was fiestas/discos in town. the fiestas were after the promociones and they were free. i had to pay 30 cords to get into the disco after the purisima. and it was fun but i was a little disappointed in music choices. i mean you know how much i enjoy dancing, but i am not a fan of merengue AT ALL, machata i love tho but when i go to a disco i want some reggeaton! and instead oh about a good 30% of the songs they played were horrible 80´s songs in english! (of which i am not a fan).

But i was called up on to the stage infront of everyone by this guy that used to be the mayor and lets just say, i was extremely embarrassed and didn´t know what to say, i swear the moment i hit the stage i forgot every spanish word i know, luckly i remembered no se :-) those nerves. hahaha well i am going to try to put up some picks now. i hope people are doing well back home. things are a little boring at times, but i make it into the city once a week on the weekends, and i am con suerte in the sense that i do have someone in my site that i can communicate with fully.