Hello world! My laptop is no longer just a doorstop, it is also an ipod charger. I´m working on that situation, which also means working on how to shrink my picture quality to make them suitable for upload. However, in the meantime, you´ll just have to make due with my rapier wit.
This has been one of those weeks that is both a challenge and a triumph. Kind of like climbing a mountain I guess. This week I have completed the following activities:
1. Had interview with my boss about potential site placement. We discussed what my preferences are, what skills I have to offer, etc. I am very excited about the possibilities, but won´t find out my site until next Wednesday. I will post this information as soon as I have it because it´s like finding out if I got into college or something.
2. Went to Managua for medical stuff. Along with the tropical flowers, my allergies have blossomed here. It could also be that it is one of the two wettest months of the year, and we are having a doozy. As a result, whole towns are flooded, a bridge washed out in Matagalpa, and my clothes refuse to dry and therefore smell like mold. Therefore, I could also have developed a mold allergy. Either way, I am now hooked up in the med department, and breathing free and easy. Sidenote: One of the other aspirantes is keeping a grid of all the illnesses we´ve had. The categories are bacteria, amoebas, horrible flu, asthma, nerve damage, allergies, and worms. Yep, one lucky volunteer got Ascaris. Don´t you all want to run out and join Peace Corps now? The good news is that the medical staff is great, and I´m positive we get better care here than I ever got in the states.
3. Gave a presentation about our community encuesta (read survey). One of the things I think is cool about training is that we are basically learning to use all these tools that will serve us once we get to site. One of these tools is a survey. There´s also different types of calendars, community maps, and there are others. The idea is that these are tools for community analysis, but you do them with the community and analyze them with the community. You are actually helping the community identify it´s own needs and goals, and I can see these tools being so useful in so many settings. For training, we had to make, administer, analyze, and present an encuesta. We´ve also made community maps with our youth group, used a project matrix to choose a project, and done daily activity schedules to examine differences between how males and females spend their time.
4. Gave a school charla. It was about ecosystems, and we did the activity where each kid gets a card and they form an ecosystem. Then you introduce pollution and see what happens to the web. I thought my charla went really well, and I´m enjoying working with the elementary school kids a lot more than I thought I would.
5. Helped conduct a youth group meeting in which we had an activity to examine good communication skills and started on our second youth group project, which is making these really cool bamboo planters. I have pics, I just have to figure out how to get them on the computers in the cyber.
6. Went to the ministry of education local office to find out where are the multi-grade schools nearby and to get permission to visit them. More about multi-grade schools later.
As I said, it has been a busy week, but it´s also a lot like that point in puberty where the pants that fit yesterday are too short today, and suddenly there´s hair in crazy places. It´s like I can feel myself growing. I know so much more today than I did a week ago. How many times in your life can you really look back on a week and affirmatively say, I became a better person this week? I hope things are going as well for you all at home as they are going for me here.
P.S. I also write this stuff on the internet so that when I´m sad and lonely in my site and depressed and I have to wash my own clothes and figure out how to cook gallo pinto, I can read this and think, these are growing pains!
This has been one of those weeks that is both a challenge and a triumph. Kind of like climbing a mountain I guess. This week I have completed the following activities:
1. Had interview with my boss about potential site placement. We discussed what my preferences are, what skills I have to offer, etc. I am very excited about the possibilities, but won´t find out my site until next Wednesday. I will post this information as soon as I have it because it´s like finding out if I got into college or something.
2. Went to Managua for medical stuff. Along with the tropical flowers, my allergies have blossomed here. It could also be that it is one of the two wettest months of the year, and we are having a doozy. As a result, whole towns are flooded, a bridge washed out in Matagalpa, and my clothes refuse to dry and therefore smell like mold. Therefore, I could also have developed a mold allergy. Either way, I am now hooked up in the med department, and breathing free and easy. Sidenote: One of the other aspirantes is keeping a grid of all the illnesses we´ve had. The categories are bacteria, amoebas, horrible flu, asthma, nerve damage, allergies, and worms. Yep, one lucky volunteer got Ascaris. Don´t you all want to run out and join Peace Corps now? The good news is that the medical staff is great, and I´m positive we get better care here than I ever got in the states.
3. Gave a presentation about our community encuesta (read survey). One of the things I think is cool about training is that we are basically learning to use all these tools that will serve us once we get to site. One of these tools is a survey. There´s also different types of calendars, community maps, and there are others. The idea is that these are tools for community analysis, but you do them with the community and analyze them with the community. You are actually helping the community identify it´s own needs and goals, and I can see these tools being so useful in so many settings. For training, we had to make, administer, analyze, and present an encuesta. We´ve also made community maps with our youth group, used a project matrix to choose a project, and done daily activity schedules to examine differences between how males and females spend their time.
4. Gave a school charla. It was about ecosystems, and we did the activity where each kid gets a card and they form an ecosystem. Then you introduce pollution and see what happens to the web. I thought my charla went really well, and I´m enjoying working with the elementary school kids a lot more than I thought I would.
5. Helped conduct a youth group meeting in which we had an activity to examine good communication skills and started on our second youth group project, which is making these really cool bamboo planters. I have pics, I just have to figure out how to get them on the computers in the cyber.
6. Went to the ministry of education local office to find out where are the multi-grade schools nearby and to get permission to visit them. More about multi-grade schools later.
As I said, it has been a busy week, but it´s also a lot like that point in puberty where the pants that fit yesterday are too short today, and suddenly there´s hair in crazy places. It´s like I can feel myself growing. I know so much more today than I did a week ago. How many times in your life can you really look back on a week and affirmatively say, I became a better person this week? I hope things are going as well for you all at home as they are going for me here.
P.S. I also write this stuff on the internet so that when I´m sad and lonely in my site and depressed and I have to wash my own clothes and figure out how to cook gallo pinto, I can read this and think, these are growing pains!
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Love from the gang!