It’s amazing how much your life can change in a week. There’s so much to write about, so this post might seem a bit disjointed, but I’m going to try to hit all the topics I’ve been making notes about.
First, I am not a volunteer yet. I am an aspirante, or a trainee. I don’t get to be a volunteer until I make it through training and get sworn in. In training, I have a LOT of classes where we do language studies, but it’s integrated with technical and cultural studies. So we learn about family members and then come home and interview our families and make a tree. I must be honest and admit that I am in the lowest language group, but I am learning so much so fast already, that while I am terrified about giving charlas and having to round up a youth group, I feel like I just might be able to do it with the other trainees in my village. We make a good team, so here’s hoping. Our language instructor for the first three weeks is wonderful. She is amazingly patient, which is good since I’m sure we sound like a bunch of three-year olds, maybe, on a good day. After three weeks, she will move on to another group, and we will get a different facilitator. That’s so that we can hear different accents, and interact with multiple people.
I have also discovered that there is one training class per sector each year, so I am the 2007 class of Environmental Ed, and we get done with training in November, just in time to relieve the Env Ed volunteers who will be nearing COS (close of service). There’s a lot of jargon to learn in the PC as well. The goal is to be ready to move into a site and function at a reasonable level in the community by that time. PC training is set up in such a way as to reach certain competencies by the time we “graduate” from training. We have technical competencies, cultural competencies, language competencies, etc. These are basically certain things we have to be able to do, which is a little nerve wracking because we have to reach so many goals in a short time, but there are multiple interviews with different people who gauge our progress and give us help figuring out where we need to go from where we are.
Enough about PC, how about some details about Nicaragua?? Well, first and foremost, I love it. It is hot, but no hotter than South Carolina has been lately, although I have been assured that this is winter, so who knows if I will be ready for summer. I heard my first rain while we were in Managua in training, but it was nothing compared to what we received on Saturday. I say heard because storms here are different than in the US. Here it is very gray and then suddenly, the whole sky seems to fall at once. It’s incredibly loud because many of the buildings have aluminum or tin roofs. This happens for about 15 minutes, and then it stops. It might start again or it might not. Then the sun comes out. I need to buy an umbrella, but really, when it rains the best thing to do is just find shelter because it really pours.
You may have read about the electrical crisis Nicaragua is in the middle of, and it’s effects can be felt here in Masatepe. In Masatepe, we don’t have lights or running water from about 7:15 to about 2 (I think). I am in class when the lights come back on and we usually have class outside, but I think it’s 2 when they come back on. Amazingly, it doesn’t seem to affect everyday life that much. Places like grocery stores tend to have generators to power their freezers and such, and in the houses people just store water for the hours when there is none. Luckily, the power is only out during the daytime, so we have lights at night.
The food is amazing. My host mom is a great cook, and today at lunch we had Red Snapper with a kind of homemade ketchup. We have gallo pinto at every meal, but I’m not sick of it yet (of course it’s only been 3 days). And my favorite part of every meal, all the different drinks. I have had juice from 4 different fruits, café con leche, and an indigenous drink that is milk mixed with a kind of corn flower and chocolate. It’s like drinking cereal. It’s not bad, but it is different than anything we have back in the states.
And finally, it’s noisy here. Most of the time. The expectations are different though. In the US, there’s an understood right to quiet. Here, there’s a right to make noise. Luckily, this doesn’t seem to affect me very much, since our house growing up was also pretty noisy most of the time (thanks Mom and Dad!). The best noises though, are the students practicing drums for the Independence celebration. You can hear them all afternoon all over Masatepe. The independence celebration is the 14th and 15th of September, and apparently it’s quite a shindig.
I’m very excited about being here for it. I’m excited about everything these days, and I expect in another week or two, I will be hit hard by the homesick blues. I’m missing everything now, but it really only hits me when I check email or when I get really tired. Then I just have to cry, but it passes quickly and I’m okay. I expect there will be a period of time when I feel sad all the time, and when I just want to go home. I keep telling myself when it hits that I can make it through. It helps to know you’re all at home rooting for me!
I am going to take a bunch of pictures sometime this next week and get them up, but so far this week has been spent mostly figuring out how to function.
First, I am not a volunteer yet. I am an aspirante, or a trainee. I don’t get to be a volunteer until I make it through training and get sworn in. In training, I have a LOT of classes where we do language studies, but it’s integrated with technical and cultural studies. So we learn about family members and then come home and interview our families and make a tree. I must be honest and admit that I am in the lowest language group, but I am learning so much so fast already, that while I am terrified about giving charlas and having to round up a youth group, I feel like I just might be able to do it with the other trainees in my village. We make a good team, so here’s hoping. Our language instructor for the first three weeks is wonderful. She is amazingly patient, which is good since I’m sure we sound like a bunch of three-year olds, maybe, on a good day. After three weeks, she will move on to another group, and we will get a different facilitator. That’s so that we can hear different accents, and interact with multiple people.
I have also discovered that there is one training class per sector each year, so I am the 2007 class of Environmental Ed, and we get done with training in November, just in time to relieve the Env Ed volunteers who will be nearing COS (close of service). There’s a lot of jargon to learn in the PC as well. The goal is to be ready to move into a site and function at a reasonable level in the community by that time. PC training is set up in such a way as to reach certain competencies by the time we “graduate” from training. We have technical competencies, cultural competencies, language competencies, etc. These are basically certain things we have to be able to do, which is a little nerve wracking because we have to reach so many goals in a short time, but there are multiple interviews with different people who gauge our progress and give us help figuring out where we need to go from where we are.
Enough about PC, how about some details about Nicaragua?? Well, first and foremost, I love it. It is hot, but no hotter than South Carolina has been lately, although I have been assured that this is winter, so who knows if I will be ready for summer. I heard my first rain while we were in Managua in training, but it was nothing compared to what we received on Saturday. I say heard because storms here are different than in the US. Here it is very gray and then suddenly, the whole sky seems to fall at once. It’s incredibly loud because many of the buildings have aluminum or tin roofs. This happens for about 15 minutes, and then it stops. It might start again or it might not. Then the sun comes out. I need to buy an umbrella, but really, when it rains the best thing to do is just find shelter because it really pours.
You may have read about the electrical crisis Nicaragua is in the middle of, and it’s effects can be felt here in Masatepe. In Masatepe, we don’t have lights or running water from about 7:15 to about 2 (I think). I am in class when the lights come back on and we usually have class outside, but I think it’s 2 when they come back on. Amazingly, it doesn’t seem to affect everyday life that much. Places like grocery stores tend to have generators to power their freezers and such, and in the houses people just store water for the hours when there is none. Luckily, the power is only out during the daytime, so we have lights at night.
The food is amazing. My host mom is a great cook, and today at lunch we had Red Snapper with a kind of homemade ketchup. We have gallo pinto at every meal, but I’m not sick of it yet (of course it’s only been 3 days). And my favorite part of every meal, all the different drinks. I have had juice from 4 different fruits, café con leche, and an indigenous drink that is milk mixed with a kind of corn flower and chocolate. It’s like drinking cereal. It’s not bad, but it is different than anything we have back in the states.
And finally, it’s noisy here. Most of the time. The expectations are different though. In the US, there’s an understood right to quiet. Here, there’s a right to make noise. Luckily, this doesn’t seem to affect me very much, since our house growing up was also pretty noisy most of the time (thanks Mom and Dad!). The best noises though, are the students practicing drums for the Independence celebration. You can hear them all afternoon all over Masatepe. The independence celebration is the 14th and 15th of September, and apparently it’s quite a shindig.
I’m very excited about being here for it. I’m excited about everything these days, and I expect in another week or two, I will be hit hard by the homesick blues. I’m missing everything now, but it really only hits me when I check email or when I get really tired. Then I just have to cry, but it passes quickly and I’m okay. I expect there will be a period of time when I feel sad all the time, and when I just want to go home. I keep telling myself when it hits that I can make it through. It helps to know you’re all at home rooting for me!
I am going to take a bunch of pictures sometime this next week and get them up, but so far this week has been spent mostly figuring out how to function.
Comments
Thinking of you lots - thanks for sharing through the blogs, we're learning this whole blog-concept, us old fogeys.
thoughts and hugs to you,
Briana, Philip and the girls
We miss you and will do better with the emails since you said snail mail is so slow.
We love you and miss you and yes we are routing for your success. I mean this has been in your mind for so long and now it is coming true. You have mastered everything you ever put your heart into, so success is the only possible outcome for this adventure. No pressure to succeed, just stating a fact. You are who you are and have always been a source of much bragging for me. First off I get to claim birth rights. You didn't get your smarts from me, but I did give birth which makes me feel really special for having such a special child.
So glad to hear you are OK. We were a little concerned when we saw the hurricane heading your way. Now you'll have even more houses to build! HA!!
I am reading your posts when I get a few minutes rest from Zoe. It's amazing how demanding little 5 week-olds can be. But I am totally in love with her.
It sounds like you are improving your competencies, which is great. The food sounds interesting. Did they happen to call the red snapper "mero?" When I was in Mexico (Cancun) I had a fish that looked like snapper that the locals called "mero." I had no idea what the Emglish word was for that yummy fish.
Do Nicaraguans like hot food? Hot--burn your tastebuds off--hot, like in Mexico. Again, when I was in Cancun I tried some salsa and bit into this tiny green pepper that almost sent me to an early grave. The Mexican man I was eating with just picked them out of the salsa and popped them into his mouth like candy.
Anyway, I am glad to hear you're doing well. I'm looking forward to seeing more pictures when you can post them.
Take care and enjoy EVERYTHING!!
Lisa
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