Hello again! Here I am with a baby raccoon for sale (along with apples) on the side of the road on the main bustling market street of Chinandega. Unfortunately I couldn't take this little critter home with me because 1) I'm pretty sure I couldn't take him back to the states no matter how many rabies vaccines 2) I didn't have the dollar fifty on me to buy him.
Anyway, I've been sick for about 2 months now. I had been feeling great for the better part of 6 months (no parasites, bacterial infections, food poisoning, unusual rashes or fungi, etc) but I suppose it had to come to an end sometime. It could be the climate change (freaking hot to freaking hotter) but I've had at least 3 full blown respiratory infections recently (we're talking starts in your throat, moves to your sinuses, and ends in your lungs). And then about 3 weeks ago I got this mysterious bug bite while I was in the shower. It was on my butt of course, the best place for a mysterious bug bite that you have to show everyone so they can try to figure out what kind of bug it was. I went to the public health center and dropped trou at least 7 times. PIC: First aid cart at the health center. Notice betadine and rubbing alcohol in Powerade bottles.
Anyway, the thing gets infected so badly that I could hardly sit or lie down, so they gave me an oral antibiotic, which I promptly had an allergic reaction to. I had welts all over my thighs and back. So then I started rounds of benadryll and prednazone, which is a steroid. All I wanted to do was go to the gym and eat like 6 times a day. Unfortunately, the more I sweat the worse the rash got, so I just ate like 6 times a day. Oops. Long story short, I guess my defenses were already down when I tried to eat a cashew fruit for the first time a few days later (fyi I only licked it before I realized there would be extremely undesirable consequences if I were to ingest the thing completely) and my tongue fell asleep for 2.5 hours and the top layer of skin peeled off my lips over the course of a week. I vowed not to try anything new ever again. Maybe it was just "after shock" of the cashew fruit, but a week after the exposure I broke out into the worst hives of my entire life. And believe me, I know hives. I was allergic to "Runts" candy as a kid. Especially the banana flavored ones. I outgrew it, thank goodness. OK, back on track. So I have hives and weather.com says Chinandega is at 99 degrees "feels like 109". I get on the bus to Managua to have the PC doctors check me out. I suspected the doctors at the public health center were tired of seeing my ass every other day (literally) and they probably would have just told me to put lime juice and salt on it (in Nica that seems to cure everything from minor scrapes to diabetes). I was quarantined in an air-conditioned hotel room for 2 days with a friend from a neighboring department who had dengue for the second time during her service, which prompted me to count my blessings. A week later, I'm still a little blotchy, still on Prednazone and Allegra, but the desire to skin myself has decreased slightly. PIC: My tattoo is swatting away the hives.

Moving right along, last Saturday I went to a quinceanos (Latino version of a Sweet 16 birthday party). It was only my second quinceanos in almost 2 years, and very fancy. They slaughtered a cow for the occasion. And I'm telling you, the girls were dressed to the nines. I kind of felt like a bum...I mean I know I looked fine but almost all of these chicks looked like they came straight out of a music video with their stilettos and trendy tube dresses. I don't know what it is about Nicaraguan girls but they must have a genetic immunity to frizzy hair. I haven't even bothered trying to straighten mine lately because it turns into insta-mop before I even walk outside, but they were dancing around and everything and still looked like exotic little Farah Fawcetts! I wish I had pictures, but unfortunately I thought it might look a little weird if I were 1) the only white person, 2) the only person who didn't know a soul besides her date, and 3) the only person frantically taking pictures.

In other news, about 3 and a half months left of Nicaragua. Sometimes I can't wait to go home, other times I feel tears coming on just thinking about leaving. Is it possible to miss a place before you've even left? As annoyed as I am daily by little inconveniences and cultural discrepancies, will my life ever be this carefree again? Work is relatively stress free, for the most part strangers treat me like a princess, the food is cheap and delicious, my aerobics/ethnic dance class costs less than 50 cents a pop and I'm addicted, and I'm finally making good, solid friendships. But on July 16 give or take a week, the proverbial Peace Corps plug will be pulled. More thoughts to come.
For now, random pictures:
1: Jimmy, a student student from my community English class, fetching me a coconut to drink.
2: Prehistoric treadmill at Woman Gym, my muchachas-only gym in Chinandega.
3: Iguanita. Tried to keep it as pet but it got away and I think it's raising a family in my ceiling. I guess I did keep it, in a way.
4: Flor de Abispa at my school (not sure if that's spelled right)... is that Hibiscus in English?

Napoleon "The Rubber"

Well, I just had my first sports-related injury since my peak as a tennis player at age 14 when my tennis coach made me clean my knee-skin off the court. I've been going to the gym ("WOMANGYM", it's called) to step aerobics class 5 days in a row for 3 weeks now, so when I got to the beach this Friday to help chaperone Amanda's youth group field trip my calves were a little tight. Don't get me wrong - I'm not doing much heavy lifting or traditional training. Most of my calories get burned dancing around with 3 lb hand weights to the beat of some Ace of Base or Celine Dion techno remix. Anywho, that particular Friday we'd finished up the class with a little ethnic dancing (Palo de Mayo) as a treat to congratulate ourselves on a full week of attendance. Fast forward about an hour and a half and I'm at the beach kicking around a soccer ball with 12 year olds. I didn't think I needed to stretch because I figured I was loose enough after all that booty shaking to tie my legs in a knot around my neck backwards. WRONG. Maybe it had something to do with being barefoot in the sand but I started to run towards the ball and heard a "POP"! Ouch.
The 12 year old who usually sells me fried fish and plantains at the cabana bar was nice enough to lend me a chunk of ice out of her fish cooler to put on my leg to slow the swelling. About an hour later, coconut in hand, I hobbled across the road to wait for the next pimped-out school bus to take me back to civilization. Now, a gringa with a gimp leg is apparently quite a sight to see. I kept having to answer questions about what had happened. The Nicas on the bus were quite generous with advice and suggestions for home remedies. The most recurring piece of advice that I got was: "tienes que ir a que te la soben". Which is essentially: "you have to go find someone to rub it". As a matter of fact, I learned that "leg-rubber" is quite a popular trade for Nicaraguan men, especially over the age of 60. Go figure.
So I ended up at the bus driver's dad's house because apparently he is a renowned "rubber" in Chinandega. We knew he lived near the Rosario Cathedral and that his name was Napoleon. Napoleon "el Sobador" to be exact. So as we approached the church, the taxi driver slowed down and asked a woman sitting in her rocking chair, "Are we getting close to Napoleon's house?" "Napoleon 'the Rubber?'" she replied. "Yeah, Napoleon "the Rubber." "Three doors down on your left."
We see a tiny, hunched over, wrinkly little raisin of a man sitting on a stoop drinking out of a plastic bottle of rum. You might have already guessed. It was Napoleon, my bus driver's 83 year old dad. He sat me down, asked me what happened, found the knot in my leg. He sent his grandson (great grandson?) down the street to buy some Vicks' Vapor Rub which he then slathered on my leg. The best part: he whipped out a glass Coca Cola bottle and started pulverizing my leg. Excruciating. This lasted about 15 minutes. Then I paid him a dollar went home.
It's Sunday, and my leg feels better. I'm almost walking normally. I probably won't make it to aerobics tomorrow, and it will be the first class I've missed in over 3 weeks. Boo.

<3
Elizabeth

Howdy! ...from Cowboy country, Nicaragua

I'm writing to you from Esteli, Esteli which is absolutely BEAUTIFUL and buried in the mountains of northern Nicaragua. I've been doing quite a bit of traveling lately (maybe a little too much, my land lady would never admit it, but I think she's tired of taking care of Jennifer Lopez...) I came here because they custom make cowboy boots! I haven't been to the shop yet, but supposedly it's this little old guy that has been in the business for years and years... I'm pumped! They say you can get snake skin for $100! I do see the irony of this, guys, for all of you who know that I have a pet snake at home... But I figure the snakes that are used for boots probably bite people and could even be poisonous, unlike Rose, who is pink and is more like a Barbie doll than a cobra.

Anyway, let's do a quick update on my vacaciones. I fiiiiiinally made it out to Esquipulas, Matagalpa, to visit my friend Steph. It was great! She has such a cute house with a great view of the mountains from her backyard and the weather was beautiful. On the last day of my visit, I went with her to school, and on the way home I saw a MONKEY, yes that's right, MONKEY, chained to a trash can in front of someone's house. Here's a pic, or a video, depending on which I can get to upload. They don't have that in Chinandega, at least not in the city.

So from there I went home for a few weeks to chill out and finish up the school year before the annual ::drum roll please:: All Volunteer Conference. It happens once every 2 years (used to happen once a year before budget cuts) and all 180+ volunteers from all the nooks and crannies of the country reunite in the capital city of Managua. We go to lots of workshops and work-related training but we also ended up doing lots of drinking, dancing, and sitting by the pool. Rough life, huh? So that was last Tuesday-Thursday. It ended on Thanksgiving. It seems like only yesterday that we were at Adam and Lara's in Leon (I talk about them too much!) rolling pumpkin pie crusts with a can of RAID...but this year for Thanksgiving I went to a US Embassy family's house to eat. It was AMAZING. Great group of people, very funny, driven, and last but not least, they fed us 6 different types of pie for desert. I feel like I should enumerate: 1) Pumpkin 2) Apple 3) Apple with cranberries and raisins and walnuts and all kinds of crazy things 4) Blueberry 5) Chocolate 6) Gingerbread cookies (ok, not a pie, but still delicious). We were wined and dined for sure, but on top of that I got some insight into what life in the Foreign Service is really like. I duno if I'd mentioned before that I am in the process of studying to take the Foreign Service Officer test, which would mean I'd work in a US Embassy somewhere. Supposedly the test is similar to playing Trivial Pursuit, so lately I've been kind of discouraged. But it was really motivating to see what life in Nicaragua can be like when you make more than $250 a month and live in the country capital. Ex. they can afford to send their kids to private school and buy the bags of rice that you don't have to pick little rocks out of. Oh, and P.S. I got to play a Wii for the first time, ever. This is me bowling.

So, that was great. Next stop: Somoto, Madriz. I had my mind made up after the volcano climbing disaster that I was just not cut out to be a hiker or an outdoorswoman or whatever. I mean, it's not like I wear make-up to sleep at night or won't go anywhere without my manicure kit but seriously, there was a point on that volcano where I wondered why a helicopter wouldn't come air lift me off the thing. But due to an unforeseen chain of events, I went with a bunch of health volunteers to hike the Somoto Canyon. I heard someone say that it was so easy that you could do it in flip flops if you wanted to. They said that it was about half hiking and half floating/swimming down a river. I was still nervous, but that sounded doable enough. So I popped a Valium (just kidding, mom) and got on a bus up north. Turns out, I could do it! It was challenging in some places not to slip on wet mossy rocks in the riverbed, but I broke no bones and came out with minimal bruises and all toenails intact. Only bad thing: I didn't bring my camera. I'm going to have to jack someone else's pics when they put them up on Facebook some day.

After the Somoto weekend, I spent roughly 5 days back in site and now, here I am! Up north again... As it turns out, I can't be kept far from the mountains these days. There's a breeze, it's green, and the people seem to be a lot more even tempered. All the bus stations are really nice and clean too, and a couple of them even have TVs! It makes the bus station in Chinandega seem like someone took a baseball bat to a beehive. Tomorrow I'm going with a friend to place my order for the boots, and hopefully they'll be ready before I go home in 2 weeks! I doubt it, but it doesn't hurt to ask. If they will be ready, that would mean 3 trips up north in 3 weeks!

Well, I'm going to get some work done. Send me a message if you'll be in Charleston for Christmas!

Elizabeth

Pasa!

Hello there! I'm having a case of writing block right now, so I'm hoping that if I just start typing, the creative juices will begin to flow.
aoigaguh apdghakojf;kalwe nrkwjbfpaid hgfa sdfkas dfkhf asdfkjhd fawernkxi wejeokherewego. This is a picture of my lover and I asleep on the patio at Adam and Lara's house. Her name is Pasa, which means "raisin" in Spanish (refer to the big black spot on her head). The official story is that Adam and Lara were skeptical about having a dog here in Nicaragua because of the responsibility, but Adam's Nica counterpart's dog had puppies and they couldn't say no to one. Off the record, it was destiny that brought them together. I couldn't imagine Pasa without the Clarkhelms or the Clarkhelms without Pasa. They saved her from a dim future as a street dog, and now she's house trained and does lots of tricks.
I'm in Managua right now for a meeting this afternoon, and then tonight is the annual Small Business Cocktail party fundraiser. Lots of volunteers are going, so it should be a good time. We're staying at the Holiday Inn, and that's where the party is too. I'm going to take lots of pictures because we're going to get all dressed up (to the best of our ability). So be on the look out!
More to come soon!! (or later....)
Elizabeth

Secuestro Expreso

I'm back in Managua, writing this from a hotel room that the Peace Corps put me up in last night. Here's the deal. On Monday when I was traveling from Granada to Managua on a bus, I was targeted for an express kidnapping. Express kidnapping is when you get in a taxi, and the taxi driver and accomplices blindfold you and rob you and then leave you on the side of the road (ideally). It's been happening quite a bit lately in Managua, probably now to at least 4 or so volunteers within the past 6 months. You have to be really careful when using public transportation because most of the time the kidnappers get on public buses, sit next to foreigners, make conversation, and then convince the traveler to share a taxi with them. So, I was on the bus and there was a Spanish backpacker sitting behind me. We both had seats open next to us, so when the kidnappers got on (2 girls and a guy) a girl sat next to me and the other two sat next to the Spaniard. It was REALLY obvious what was going on. The girl was SO nice to me, complimenting my hair and my Spanish, and taking an unusual interest in my life. She wanted to know where I worked, where I lived, if I had friends in Managua, if I were traveling to Leon next, if I were going to get off the bus at the final stop or before...etc. RED FLAG! So I immediately called the dude from Peace Corps who's in charge of our "safety and security" and asked him to meet me at the bus terminal in Managua. Well, after that the girl suspected that I knew what was going on, so she got off the bus fast. Her two friends were still trying to woo the Spaniard into a taxi, so I turned around to tell him in English that he should watch out and quit talking to these people. As it turned out, he didn't speak English and couldn't understand me but he already suspected something was up with those people. Soon afterward the two remaining kidnappers gave up on us and got off the bus, but the guy had the nerve to call me a "stuck up gringa." Um, excuse me. I've made it a point since pre-school not to talk to strangers and so far it's worked out fine. The moral of the story is: I went to the police station outside of Managua yesterday to identify mugshots of the crooks and actually identified the girl who sat next to me. Cool, huh!!! Turns out she has a criminal record. Even though her attempt at me was obvious and pathetic, apparently she's done this before. So, travelling gringos beware: don't share taxis with people you meet on buses. Just don't. It doesn't matter how well they're dressed or how helpful and friendly they seem. Punto.

Moving on...here's a picture of me on a horse! I realize that for many Peace Corps Volunteers, riding horses may be part of the daily grind. However, we city girls who have various public transportation options including but not limited to taxis, intracity buses, and tricycle taxis (even though we can't always afford them) are still wildly entertained and enamored by the idea of horseback riding. So here I am with the tour guide at Selva Negra, Matagalpa. I mentioned last time that mom and I went to the mountains for a couple of days to escape the heat of Chinanega. We rented horses for an hour to give us a tour of a coffee plantation/farm/mountain lodge that's buried in the beautiful hills of northern Nicaragua. Mom's horse was a type A personality so she stayed ahead of us most of the time while I chatted with the tour guide. He started his career as a professional cowboy at the age of 10 when he learned to lasso. Intense, huh? I told him to prove it and show off his skills by lassoing my unsuspecting mom and her overachiever of a horse. He agreed, but fortunately narrowly missed. Here's the pic if you don't believe me.
In other news, I turned 23. Had a great birthday for the most part...I stayed in a nice hotel in Managua with my friend Amanda and we went dancing. I feel like I celebrated my birthday continually for 2 weeks though while my mom was here. She brought me lots of stuff from home ranging from shirts, toothpaste and chocolate to books to study for the FSOT (foreign service officer test) and a bird ladder for Jennifer Lopez. We spent quite a bit of time together in very close quarters but in the end I felt sad to see her go. But I'll be home to visit in December for 2 weeks! So clear your calendars. :) Also - yesterday my landlady/Nicaraguan mother gave me a belated birthday present. She got me a set of sheets!!! Dude, I could not have asked for a better gift. The sheets that I've hand scrubbed on a concrete washboard every week for a year and 3 months are almost transparent. And did I mention they were from the 70's? Mom didn't want to part with any nice sheets from the house (obviously) since we were pretty sure they'd stay in Nicaragua forever, so she gave me the sheets that she and Dad bought when they got married. Anyway, I think my landlady got tired of seeing through the same sheets every week when they were drying on my clothesline, so she got me new ones!!! SCORE.
What else...the school year is almost over! Here in Nicaragua school gets out for the "summer" from the end of November to January. So that means I'll have a little more free time than usual to go to the gym and study. Maybe I'll do like an English summer camp or something for some kids at my school. Or I could climb the volcano again (not). The possibilities are endless.
Either way, October and November are going to be relatively busy. I'll be in Managua a lot to plan this year's All Volunteer Conference that's scheduled for the end of November. All 180 or so of us will go to a hotel in Managua and participate in training workshops, eat lots of food, and fraternize. It falls right before Thanksgiving, traditionally when Embassy families invite Peace Corps Volunteers to have Thanksgiving dinner with them and stay the night. Otherwise, Thanksgiving can be a pretty lonely holiday here since obviously no one celebrates it.
Lots to look forward to, huh? I officially have only 10 months of service left. That's out of 27 total months in country. I think I might be having the time of my life. I'm not always happy and I'm never not sweating, but so far I've learned more than I've taught and gained perspective on a totally different way of life. Two years away from my comfy cushy life in the U.S. is a small price to pay for what I'll take away from here next July, including a sweet tan. *tearing up*
Well, I'm going to grab some lunch and head home for a tranquilo night in Chinandega. Maybe I'll catch up on some reading, watch the news, cuddle Jennifer Lopez...here she is trying to crawl up on my pillow. Check out that black tongue.
Thanks for reading! Leave me a comment so I know you're out there....

Elizabeth

Live Grenades

<--- Picture with my "son" at the market (not really my son, people just say he's my son because he looks kind of white).

Hola, hola!! Mom's in town! We're in Matagalpa right now, which is in the cooler, mountainous region of Nicaragua as opposed to the desert where I live. It's AWESOME. I can actually wear pants.... as opposed to shorts.
Spent the better part of last week in Managua (the country capital) for a special conference of English teachers from all over the country. My friend Stephanie and I did a presentation on the use of nametags in the classroom (sounds lame but it's really not!) Then I stuck around in Managua an extra night to pick up mom from the airport. We stayed in a nice hotel and then made the trip to Chinandega the next day. We stuck around Chinandega and went to the gym, the park, the plant nursery, etc. before we skipped town on Thursday morning to go to Leon. Friday I was due back in Managua again to help train the new group of English volunteers that got here a few weeks ago. From Managua we caught a bus to Matagalpa, and here we are! Ok so enough of the play-by-play...
New things I've learned:
1) Peace Corps Volunteers (and all other federal "employees" affiliated with the U.S. Embassy are not allowed to go to this one market in Managua because on top of just being plain old dangerous, they actually sell live grenades.
2) Some Peace Corps Volunteers who live in more rural areas suspect that volunteers who live in urban areas lead "close to normal" lives. I may steal cable television and have a semi-functioning shower instead of a bucket bath, but my life is in no way, shape, or form NORMAL. I can't walk down the street without being harrassed, even my neighbors aren't really sure what my job is here, and I'm constantly confused for being a regular old tourist. Few people recognize me or take the time and energy to say hi to me on the street. My rent is 100 dollars a month, as opposed to the country bumpkins who may pay 30 to 50 dollars a month. If I don't want to eat rice and beans 3 times a day, I have the option of going to a fancy supermarket and buying whole wheat bread and romaine lettuce, but does that fall within my Peace Corps living allowance? Don't think so. Ok, got that off my chest. Phew.
So, my mom almost drank a scorpion/dragonfly cocktail the first night she was here. It happened like this. A few weeks ago I had more "roommates" than normal, so after killing a scorpion and a dragonfly I saved them in a plastic cup to show her when she got here. So she's brushing her teeth at the sink and I handed her the cup with the critters in it, not thinking, and she filled it with water and started to put it to her mouth to rinse. "AGHH!!!!!" I screamed. She dropped the cup. So, close call. We had a good laugh about it. Or at least I did. Hers was more nervous laughter.
I have quite a bit more to write about our trip to Matagalpa, but I haven't had a chance to upload pictures onto the computer yet. I actually rode a horse for an hour today on a coffee plantation. Pretty neat. Anyway, I'll save that one for next time. Adios!

Elizabeth

Quick update from China-town

The Chinandega crew (or at least half of us) at Pizza Hot. Josh Berman, the author of the Moon guidebooks to traveling and living in Nicaragua, came to do some research for an update. Who better to consult than we PCVs? He's an ex-volunteer himself actually. So, he picked our brains on bus schedules, pretty places, and nightlife (or lack thereof) and in return took us out for pizza.

I'm on the far right.

Umm.... updates. Well, over the past two days I've probably spent 10 hours cleaning my house and washing clothes. I'm glad I got the laundry out of the way though because it's been raining for the past hour and half. Definitely not conducive to drying clothes on a line.
I seem to be hosting an extended family of mice. So far I've had to throw out 2 unopened bags of pasta, half a bag of whole wheat bed (I cried a little), a bag of tortilla chips, powder soup mix, countless vegetables (good excuse not to eat salad), and various articles of clothing that contained holes and urine staines. SWEET!!! I had a little breakdown. I scrubbed my kitchen counters and applicances with bleach until my hands were raw because seriously, there was poop all over the place. I wish I could bring my pet snake down here for the remainder of my service...

This weekend Dianne is coming to visit. Next week should be pretty busy. I've got a new community English class that will start on Monday and Wednesday evenings. Will be in touch!

Elizabeth

P.S. Reminder to all that the address to my pictures changed. The new one is http://picasaweb.google.com/elizabeth.p.slack/
I just put pictures of my new house up!