Good night!

Hey everybody! So tonight I got to go to the circus! It was called "Renato's Circus" or something like that, and it was based out of Mexico. They had elephants, camels, zebras, horses, llamas, and lots of trapeze artists and gymnasts. It was pretty neat! It only cost like 5 dollars to get in and to tell you the truth it was a pretty good show. Right now I'm at my friend's house and we're getting ready to go salsa dancing. That'll be my exercise for the day for sure.

I got a pet kitten! Last weekend I went to Granada to visit some other volunteers and ended up taking home a kitty cat. He's a boy and he's about 5 weeks old. I've decided to name him "Chelito" which means "little white guy" in Nicaraguan slang because he is orange and white with blue eyes. The poor cat has parasites right now but I've started giving him medicine to get rid of them. I can tell he doesn't feel very good, but he still loves to play and likes to try to wake me up at 5 am every morning to play. This morning he attacked my face with claws and all. I swatted him off the bed hoping he would get the picture. This is kind of what it's like: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0ffwDYo00Q <------check it out

Well, my apartment/house is coming along. I'll be putting pictures up soon. Now, not only do I have a big comfortable bed and a double burner stove top, I've acquired a table and chairs and a refrigerator, along with a double-bed sized cot for when people come to visit. I also bought a 14 inch television and a hammock. It's pretty comfortable! It was hard to get by without a fridge because not only did I not have access to cold water during 95 degree days, every time I wanted to cook, I had to eat all of it or it would go to waste! I feel pretty spoiled now, to tell you the truth. The married couple from Chinandega finished their service, so Danica and I "inherited" a lot of their things. The refrigerator and table/chairs were theirs, and I also got a bunch of forks, spoons, knives, buckets, Raid (for scorpions), a fan, etc.

Well, I think we're about to head out. Take care!

Elizabeth

 

Parade in the Sun

For the record, today was the first time in 22 years that I´ve ever had to put on SPF 55+ sunscreen (that I know of, at least since I was an infant). And I STILL got cooked. Today, I got up at 5 am to go to the Chinandega high school band parade. It lasted from 6 am to 12 pm. It was pretty fun except it was LOUD. And really hot, of course, and there was no shade. I got a tan though, thats for sure. I feel like a slow roasted rotisserie chicken. A deaf slow roasted rotisserie chicken... I took lots of pictures, so be sure to check out my flickr website (flickr.com/epsnica).

This is me with my counterpart from Instituto Tomas Ruiz. Her name is Olga. She´s great.

Gotta run some errands.

Elizabeth

This is my buddy Wilmer from Ninos Angeles, the orphanage I was talking about. We blow eachother kisses all the time. I´m trying to teach him how to catch them, too, but he prefers to be on the giving end rather than the receiving. He´s very generous. I´m not sure what condition he has, but he´s a lot more with it than a lot of the other kids. He can´t speak or walk but he knows a fair amount of sign language.

News from Chinandega

So, I finally figured out how to change the setting on my blog so that anyone can post comments. Before, you could only post a comment if you were a registered user of blogspot, which I didn't realize, which I wish I had because I was sad that no one posted comments. Oops. My fault.

So, not much as been going on. I moved out of my host mom's house in Chinandega. I have my own little place now. I say little by American standards, but in Nicaragua it's huge for one person. It's basically a long, rectangular room that is divided into 3 rooms (living room, bedroom, and kitchen) by two big bureaus placed perpindicular to the wall. It's cute, minus the bugs. The walls are painted yellow and I actually have a tile floor, which is super classy here. I bought a "kitchen" which consists of a portable double burner stove top and a tank of propane gas to cook with. I've been eating lots of pasta, cereal, salad, and drinking lots of water (tap water!) and tea. One of the nice things about this house is that it's about a 3 minute walk from a big market where I can easily buy cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, limes, pineapples, mangos, etc. REALLY cheap. I made a huge salad of onion, tomato, cucumber, lime juice, and salt for about 50 cents.

As far as safety and security is concerned, I feel pretty good. I bought two masterlocks the other day for the iron gates in front of my front and back door and there are bars in front of my window that looks out onto the street. But I think the trick to staying safe is just not to go out at night by yourself, especially on foot. Even when I walk around during the day I don't like to carry more than five or ten dollars or my cell phone. That explains the lack on pictures I've put up on the internet - I don't ever carry my camera! I am trying to get into the routine of getting my errands done during the day to be home by 6 pm when it starts getting dark. It's a lifestyle change...I've never really had to worry about being "street smart" before. Ha! In Charleston, WV? Not so much. But I'm learning.

My classes are going ok. I'm in the schools on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday co-teaching with my Nicaraguan counterparts. The classrooms are SO HOT!!! And noisy. And the worst part about it is probably that the school bands practice RIGHT outside the classroom. So, I can barely hear myself scream over top of the drums. I know for sure that the students are distracted, and if I can't hear myself, how can they hear me, or much less understand my English or even my gringo Spanish. But there's a huge parade coming up on Sept. 14th where all of the high schools in the area compete in a dance/band competition. I have to march with one of my schools (I teach in two different schools) and I don't know who to go with! They both want me to go with them. This thing starts at 6 am in the morning and lasts for hours and hours rain or shine.

I'm also going every Friday morning to an orphanage for disabled children to help with physical therapy. After Danica and I get a little more acclimated, we're going to start reading to them (in Spanish of course) and doing other activities because neither one of us have a lot of experience with physical therapy. This Friday we're bringing nail polish to paint the girls' toenails! :)

I'm also looking into volunteering with an organization here called Xochiquetzal which focuses on educating the public about the realities of sex trafficking (huge problem in Chinandega because there is an international port as well as the border with Honduras) , as well as AIDS and STDs and responsible sex.

On a lighter note, September is mine and Danica's birthday month! Hers was on the third and mine is on the 25th. So our friend Dianne, who lives in Granada, came up last weekend to celebrate with us. Here's a pic.

We're at a dance club called Dilectus. We love to dance. And everyone loves to watch us dance. Apparently it looks pretty funny. But we have fun.

Dianne stayed with me on Saturday night on Sunday morning we made a nice breakfast and went to the beach. She helped me line my drawers and get my kitchen set up a little bit because I had just moved in a day or two before she got there!

What else...it's still hot. I don't know why but it hasn't rained at all the last couple of days. That's good in the sense that clothes will dry nicely outside on the line, but the rain really does cool things down a lot.

Well, I'm going to go try to find some lunch. Miss you guys!

Elizabeth

HOT

Hey there...just though I´d check in real quick. It´s a little after 3 pm this Saturday afternoon. It is SO hot outside I don´t even know what to do. Luckily I found this little internet cafe that´s semi-airconditioned.
So, my host mom killed a giant scorpion in my bedroom last night. This thing was so creepy. It was bigger than any cockroach I´ve seen down here (which is saying something). I had my umbrella opened in my room so it could dry out and the scorpion had somehow gotten trapped inside it...YUCK. So of course I took lots of pictures of it, then called John and Danica to see what I should do, then sat down and stared at it a little bit more, then finally went and got my host mom. I didn´t know what I was dealing with.
What else...I´ve got another cold/sinus infection. I´m back to using a sweat/snot rag on a regular basis. But I´ve been taking ibuprofen and sudafed to try to get it under control so I can go out tonight. I think we´re going to try to go dancing, so I need to rest up.
I think I´m going to head to the market to do a little shopping. I need some shampoo and conditioner...my 3 month supply finally ran out.

Elizabeth

So, I'm officially a Peace Corps Volunteer! I'm at the hotel in Managua right now trying to get my stuff together to make the move to Chinandega...and feeling refreshed and energetic after having a tranquil evening in the hotel room. I have lots of pictures posted from the ceremony so you should check them out...including one of me shaking hands with the ambassador. Neat-o. Well, as soon as I can find a good internet cafe in Chinandega, I'll post again. Might take me a bit, I think I'll be pretty busy right at first but I guess that's good. --Elizabeth

Me and Katie...about sums it up for day #2 of meetings in Managua.