quick...

I updated my photos today...take a peek. I´ve got the ones up from the volcano. Gotta run.
Elizabeth

another exciting Saturday night in Dolores...

Here´s a pic of me and my #1 chica, Iris. She doesn´t look very happy, it´s true, but that´s cause we just finished a round of English homework.

She wanted me to help her transcribe a song in English because here, kids in high school can choose to do a song-dance routine (in English) instead of taking their midterm English exam! The other day I got to go observe a class where this was happening...it was really bizzare. The kids from first-fifth year all divide up into teams of about 5 and pick a song, choose costumes, and correograph it (don´t know how to spell that) , and perform it for a grade in front of the whole class. The winning teams from each of the grades perform against eachother, and then the winning teams from all of the high schools in the department perform against eachother, and it eventually turns into a national competition. CRAZY. Anyway, I think my fellow gringos and I have been invited to judge the final competition between the grades in the high school here. The hardest part is trying not to laugh...One of the teams did ´we like to party´by the venga boys, except for when they sung it it sounded like they were saying ´we look sporty´...obviously the entire meaning of the song was lost. Other teams chose songs like ´man i feel like a woman´by shania twain, and other pop-rap songs by people like nelly and ashanti. verrrrry entertaining.

Today we had our site fair in Diriamba (which is actually a future site for one of the trainees in my group!). My top picks were Leon, Leon... Matagalpa, Matagalpa... and San Rafael del Sur, Managua. They are all very different from eachother. Leon, Leon is a huge college town...lots and lots of students come from all over to study there...the architecture is beautiful...there are some beaches relatively nearby...lots of rich culture...some tourism...but it is HOT HOT HOT. Matagalpa, Matagalpa is a little bit cooler, and a really big city. I´d be working with a big school with lots of counterparts. The really cool thing about this site is that it is a big coffee center (real coffee, not the instant kind), and people work there as coffee tasters. These people really want to learn English as it relates to describing and marketing coffee, and I feel like I´d be pretty good at that (cough cough, Taylor Books 4 life, cough cough). The third site is San Rafael del Sur, which is a beach town. I´m not sure if it has a port or not, but it´s hot, and has ocean. And opportunities to work with youth. They also just recently discovered oil there, so that means lots of money, resources, and opportunity for speaking English in the near future (SUSTAINABILITY!!).

There are at least 15 different other sites though...I´m making a conscious decision not to be upset if PC doesn´t put me in any of my top 3...it´s bound to happen... It´s really hard to say that you have a preference about where you want to spend the next 2 years of your life when you´ve never been to any of the places you get to choose from. But, I´ll keep you guys posted - we find out next Friday afternoon.

Well, I guess I´ll go sit in the rocking chair outside my house.

Elizabeth

hey der guys

so, it´s definitely been a few weeks since i´ve written. the thrill of being here (in other words, the first stage of culture shock) has officially worn off. everything is no longer new, different, and exciting. it´s just...well, it is what it is.
it didn´t help that i had a little bout with e. coli (or its evil step sister) and was in the hospital for a few days. i´m totally fine now though. but i am never making fun of anyone with diarrhea again. ever.
so, lets see. tidbits...

- i got to hike a volcano (volcan masaya) the other day. it was more like a crater than a volcano, i thought. it didn´t seem like it was up really high, and didn´t smell as much like sulfur as i thought it would. i took pictures though, and i´ll upload a few this weekend when i have a little bit more time.
- i got to visit a current TEFL volunteer for a few days last week. she lives in corinto, chinandega, which is the only international port in nicaragua. corinto is pretty and there´s enough stuff to do, and she lives so close to the beach that she can walk there in about 3 minutes. on the down side, it was SUPER hot and i got eaten alive by mosquitos! i think that just goes to show that there really is no perfect place to live here (duh). there really is no springfield, nicaragua.
- on the same note, we have our site fair this saturday. we are going to learn about all of the different departments where they´re going to send us to do our 2 year service. then, they want our input. i think that all i´m really going to say is that i don´t want to be put somewhere that has previously been a training town, and that i´d like it to be medium to large. since we´ve never been to any of these places they´re going to be putting us, i feel like it´s better to just leave my placement up to fate. they say that they put us in places based on our work priorities and personalities that they´ve already observed. but at any rate, only about a week til i know where i´ll be living for the next two years!!! crazy.
- so i never thought that moving to nicaragua would have a significant effect on my english..or at least in this way... this is funny - i´ve been hanging around a bunch with one of my site mates who is from wisconsin, and i´m starting to pronounce my long o´s differently!!! it sounds very midwest. i´m starting to localize it more in the back of my throat than in the middle...dontcha know. it´s contagious! mom, you should research why this is happening...it happened to me a little bit too when i went to school in ohio...weird.

well, it´s about six thirty and i´m sure that i have a hot plate of rice and beans waiting for me at the house. i´m going to go devour it.

elizabeth

ENTRY 4

Today is my host sisters birthday. We were supposed to go out dancing last night...that definitely didn´t happen. They guy we were supposed to go with had to work this morning at 8...and around here girls don´t really go out with guys...so...we´re supposed to do something this afternoon. We´ll see. It just started raining. Apparently another tropical storm-hurricane is supposed to hit tomorrow. YAY!

I got up around 9 today to get a head start on some laundry... When the sun´s out in the winter you have to take advantage of it and do all the laundry you can so it will actually dry and not smell like mold.

I´m eating chicken again. Being a vegetarian was just not worth being bombarded with questions and sketchy-confused looks. It´ll be fine...the chicken here is pretty safe it seems... If you´re not eating one of your own then it probably belonged to one of the neighbors. One of the guys in our group has like 10 roosters in his backyard. They wake him up at 2:30 every morning. The other day his host mom served him rooster soup. He said it tasted sweet...like revenge.

I have yet to teach (or even coteach) an actual English class. I´ve been able to coplan, but class keeps getting cancelled for reasons like Mother´s Day...rain...meetings...etc. That´s fine by me for right now. I´m just trying to go with the flow.

I´ve even had enough time to watch a couple of movies that I burned onto my computer. Krista - I got a chance to watch Fur. It was strange and creepy but very awesome. Also watched Cloverfield, Party Monster, and the Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie. Poor me, right?

Well, I´m going to do a bit of reading. A friend loaned me the Kite Runner. Seems like a worthwhile read.

Elizabeth

ENTRY 3 - 5/31 - 7:00 am
Am having some serious issues getting out of bed this morning. I woke up to a mix of roosters and the neighbor blasting ¨Wonderwall¨by Oasis. Thought about you, Kel! I haven´t been running all this week....every morning at 6 it´s been monsooning so I´ve slept in...thought about going this morning, but I just don´t feel like it. I´ll start over on Monday.

So...in an hour and a half we all have to be at Casa Mision, El Crucero for a PC workshop on Culture Shock. Bleh...it´s Saturday! It´s really pretty there though...it´s this house-lodge that´s buried in the mountains between Dolores and Managua. I´ve taken pictures of it and will post them soon....They´re the pictures of the blue house and the misty mountains and pretty hydrangeas (sp?)

Well, time to get moving.

Elizabeth

This is my training group from Dolores, Carazo. From left: Ryan, me, John, and Lara.
We all get along great and work/play well together. :)

OK, so I think that I finally might have gotten my laptop hooked up to the internet. It's super slow, and goes in and out, but here we go. I've been working on some blog entries in Microsoft Word so that I don't have to spend forever on the internet...the first one that I wrote is all the way at the bottom.

ENTRY 2 - 5/16
It’s malaria pill Friday! Every week we have to take two 250 mg pills of chloroquin. Apparently they give you really crazy scary dreams, and sometimes they make your hair fall out. I’ll definitely keep you guys posted.

The transportation strike is over!!! Ortega gave a speech tonight at 8 pm...he said that he’d lower the price of the “combustible” (fuel) from 95-100 cordobas to 75 cordobas. That means that quite a few positive changes will happen. There will be fresh produce in the markets again! We will be able to GET TO the markets! We’ll start using public transportation (microbuses and taxis) to get to Jinotepe, Diriamba, and Managua for official training meetings. And oh, yeah, people will stop blowing up tractor trailers and shooting rubber bullets at each other in Managua.

So...I’m sitting in my bed right now with the fan on full blast...trying to think of some interesting stories.... here’s a list of tidbits.

Today we traveled to Managua (by Peace Corps bus) to meet with the Peace Corps medical officers and heads of Nica dept. of ed. officials. I learned how to recognize symptoms of common ailments such as scabies, pinkeye, conjunctivitis, bronchitis, and...diarrhea!!! I’m over my respiratory infection now...I’m pretty proud of my immune system actually. I could feel it moving from my throat to my sinuses then back to my throat and then a little to my lungs. But, nothing a little Benadryl and Sudafed couldn’t fix. Done deal. I would be doing just peachy, but the neighbors up the street have this habit of BURNING THEIR TRASH in their front yard which is on the main drag of my pueblo. Today I got some Visine...and I think I’ll definitely leave my contacts out for a few days.
I haven’t had a cigarette since last Friday! So... it’s been a whole week. I’ve been getting up to run 2 km every morning, too. Hopefully I can keep it up and take this chance to form some good healthy habits. And I finally communicated to my mom that me being a vegetarian doesn’t mean to constantly feed me rice, beans, fried plantain, fried tortilla, fried cheese, fried ______, etc. It’s hard for people down here to imagine just eating a salad for lunch or dinner... they think that I eat like a rabbit. One day for lunch I actually ate Spaghetti with tomato-ey liquid sauce and a side of RICE. They’re trying hard, I know...they want me to be happy and well adjusted. And now that the “paro de transporte” is over, we’ll be able to get to the market super easy for some fresh produce.
Yesterday at around 6:45am (I was already back from my run, HA!) I was catching up on some laundry outside when the neighbor girl, 17 year old girl named Iris (pronounced Eedee, more or less) came over and gave me a handmade friendship bracelet!!!! I’d casually mentioned to her the other day that I wanted to know where people were getting these really neat colorful bracelets, and she remembered and gave one to me!! I almost died I was so touched. She tied it on my wrist and everything. She helps me a lot with my “street spanish” and occasionally my goofy homework activities and I help her with her high school English homework. I’ll definitely have to post some more about her and her family...they’re the ones with the Chancho pig named Duk-ey.
Well that’s all I can think of for right now. Might skip tonight’s reading and just pass out. It’s about 11:15 and I’ve been up since 5:45. I’ll sleep in tomorrow till about 7:30 or 8 then probably go run while it’s still a little cool out. Talk to you guys soon!


ENTRY 1 - 5/12
So I landed in Dolores, Carazo. It’s about a 15 minute powerwalk from the department capital, which is Jinotepe. I’m still getting used to things, of course. Don’t get me wrong. I’m doing great. But thank goodness for Benadryl. I am like a fountain of snot. Since carrying around tissues here doesn’t work because a)there aren’t that many trash cans and b) they’re expensive, I have a designated sweat/snot rag that I carry around 24/7. I use the teal bandana that I brought from home...and today it matched my outfit, which was nice.

I’ve gotten in the habit of washing my clothes (and snot rag) once a day. The “laundry facilities” are right next to my bedroom, which is in the “fondo” or concrete space behind the house that serves as a storage/laundry area. It’s very secure. I’ve been washing my clothes on a concrete washboard that is connected to a sink, then I hang them up to dry, which takes anywhere from 2 hours to 2 days depending on the weather and the fabric (the linen shirts/skirts are great). I’m getting pretty good at handwashing, although I have been reevaluating how many times I can wear an article of clothing before it gets really “dirty”...dirty is relative to how often you want to do laundry.

So here’s a surprise. Yesterday I learned what a “chancho” is. I thought the neighbors just had a cute pet piglet. As it turns out, a chancho is a pet that you eventually eat. They bought a pig about a month ago so that they’ll kill it when it gets big enough. Its name is Duke and they say that it bites, but it hasn’t bitten me yet. It hangs around with their doberman...I think they’re friends. WILLLLBURRRR! BAAAAAAAAAABE! Speaking of wildlife, I saw two tropical birds just hanging out on a roof. They looked like maccaws. There are lots of real palm trees here, too, and they actually have coconuts!

So, did I mention that it’s hot? I would say the average temperature here is between 90 and 95 (in the shade) but it’s still not as hot as it was in Managua, which is known for being intolerable. The heat is probably the most common topic of conversation around, which is a scary thought because these people have lived here their entire lives and still not adapted completely to it. So, I guess it’s going to be a long steamy two years. And having a sinus infection makes it worse, but I’m not the only one...lots of PCT’s have sinus issues when they get here because of the climate change.

Yesterday I went into an internet cafe that’s down the street from where I live. They charge 12 cordobas for an hour of slooooow internet, but the good news is that that’s only about 60 cents. But, I got lucky this evening while dando un paseo (taking a walk) with my hermana (sister) and we talked to her friend who is setting up wireless access points in the nice parts of town, and he said that he’d connect my computer to his wireless for 10 cords per hour!!!! How amazing...we’ll see if that works out. P.S. - mom- when I went to the cafe to try to call you, we tried several times, but the connection was bad. I might try again tomorrow. But, I am trying to get in the habit of budgeting my money, because my daily allowance here is 35 cordobas (which translates into about $1.50. Cool, huh...not.) My host family has a phone here in the house which they said that I can use to have people call me. I’m not sure how expensive it is to call here from the U.S. and I’m not even sure how to do it, but I can give out their local phone number if you e-mail me. They said that the last volunteer they had (Shawn, I hear about him alllllll the time) had his mom and sister calling twice a week.

So...in other news... lets see. So there’s a country-wide transportation strike right now, which means that the daily routine here is even more slow than it was to begin with. Hopefully it’s over soon, because it is making things pretty difficult since not many people have their own cars. I took a “tricycle taxi” yesterday to Jinotepe, which consists of sitting on a little bench/cart pushed by a guy riding a bicycle. Unique experience.

I’m getting along really well with my host family, especially my host sister Karla. She’s 25 and has a 1 year old boy. Yesterday we went running to Jinotepe and back at 6 am. That’s about the only time of day that the heat is tolerable. We got back to the house and she said she was going to teach me how to ride her exercise bike. It looks like its about 30 years old, rusted, and missing the chains that once enabled you to change gears and resistance. She rides that for 10 minutes (with no resistance) then does squats with her equally antiquated 25 pound dumbbell bar. I am a little embarrassed that there was an i-pod compatible elliptical cross trainer in my basement for the last 3 months i lived at home in the US, and i used it 3 times. enough said.



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