A Picture Update

Lists

As I sit here with less than one month left in my service as a Peace Corps volunteer, I seem overwhelmed with that hair-pulling, skin-itching desire to snap my fingers and be home. A similar feeling to when Thanksgiving, Christmas, and summer breaks were only a few long exam weeks away during college. Luckily, I have many going away parties and brother/cousin visits to look forward to, so the weeks will fly, but just in case, I have a constant list running in my head of the things I am looking forward to once back in the good ol’ US of A. Likewise, I have a list running of some of the things I won’t miss quite so much...I will share both....

The two year and still growing list of things I won’t miss:

• General disregard for personal space (this applies mostly on buses)
• Music blasting at all hours, particularly in the early morning, often bad (can also come from cellphones and be played on buses, in restaurants, meetings...doesn’t matter)
• Answering your cellphone no matter what...your wife is giving birth, doesn’t matter wouldn’t want to miss that call, and make sure to put a loud and obnoxious ringer on it...
• Tardiness...while I have adapted to this and will need to remember not to show up an hour late to everything once back in the states, it kills when you have any kind of plans.
• Sweeping and mopping my house daily, as well as washing dishes and laundry by hand
• Latrines
• Buses (more specifically, school buses being used as public transportation with no limit as to how many people can be shoved on)
• Showering after working out (especially with soap) will give you the flu...hmmm
• Showering with a headache can cause a heart attack or a brain embolism...again, hmmm
• During a lightning storm you can’t sit in a hammock that is hung from the rafter beams and ALL mirrors must be covered by a towel (my hammock is hung with rope not metal poles)

There are more, but let’s end it there and think more positively...

Things I am looking forward to:

• Having Mary as a housemate! 
• Living at home for more than a month, first time in a long time! We’ll see how I do!
• New clothes...giving it all away here, not much has come out without holes, bleach marks, or completely stretched out from scrubbing...
• Technology...Yes, I admit, I’m a snob and I’ve got my eye on the IPhone5...I also put DVR in this category because I have really missed the ability to tape trashy TV shows...ahhh TV that is not telenovelas
• Christmas at home...in which we will be eating a Thanksgiving Day feast (as I won’t be home in time for Tday)
• Triple Bday with my Mom and Mary...Ideas? Mary gets to pick the cake and there are rumors of a princess theme?
• My bathroom...enough said
• My bed...doesn’t sink in the middle and doesn’t have the faint scent of mold
• Walking around barefoot in a clean house...not that I don’t work insanely hard to keep my Nica house clean, but it is freaking impossible
• Freedom to get in a car and go where I want when I want
• TRIPS...can’t wait to travel and see everyone!
• Delicious food of all types...Thai food yummm
• Seeing Neil at SLU...finally

Of course, there is so much more I am looking forward to, and undoubtedly I will be wildly overwhelmed my first few weeks home. Soon to come is the list of things I will miss about Nicaragua, because as much as I say there are things that drive me crazy, my stomach clenches up when I truly imagine leaving (perhaps why I haven’t started packing or cleaning out my house...yikes). 

Just to give an update or two, my work in the schools has slowed down as I’ve been getting busy with end of service business. I have been in Managua much more than desired doing paperwork and medical visits, and unfortunately, was home recently due to the passing away of my Grandma Mary. This is another big reason that I am very ready to get home and be with my family. 

So, in order to finish up life here in Nicaragua, I am preparing to bring a NEW volunteer to Posoltega! So exciting! Everyone here is nervous and hoping that it is another girl, but I secretly think that a male volunteer would be better, so as not to be compared to me and involved in all of the female-teacher drama. I was lucky to have been asked to give two technical garden trainings to the new group of volunteers in September and get to know them a bit better, and they are a great group. They would all be excellent here in Posoltega and I look forward to seeing who gets placed here on October 29th. Coming up so soon!

My biggest concerns now are applying to graduate school and, like I said, counting down the days ‘till I get home! Hope to see everyone in the near future.

Lots of love!

School Gardens

Tree Nursery - Marango

Plantain Trees

Getting ready to plant carrots

School Garden in Jose Dolores...two types of squash, green beans, corn, cucumbers, (tomatoes, peppers and spinach coming soon)

Cleaning up weeds to plant cucumbers

Brand new plantain tree

The students of El Trianon with their cucumber plants

Por Fin

Well, friends, I think it’s time for an update. It has been long enough. 

Frankly, it was the e-mail update of a fellow Peace Corps volunteer and ranch friend, who made me realize that even though I may not have good news, you all want to know what is going on down here...so here it is...the good and the bad...

As I come down to the last six months of my service, I can’t help but compare my current feelings to those I felt at the end of senior year of highschool and even senior year of college. I look forward to the coming changes, but at the same time dread leaving my friends and habits formed over the past two years behind. The life I have built here will be undeniably hard to leave, and the thought of abandoning so many people who I have come to love and depend upon is a terrifying thought. Of course, there are inevitably many aspects of my Nicaraguan life I look forward to leaving behind (sweeping and mopping daily, hand-washing clothing, cold showers, etc)...How am I managing the giant mood swings which have me ranging between sad and depressed at the thought of going home to suffocated at the idea of spending even one more minute in this country? Well, quite honestly, it’s not going so well. 

Suprisingly, my work is going well. Unlike this time last year, I already have all three of my schools’ gardens planted and growing. We have an even wider range of vegetables and the students are really enthusiastic. I feel like I am working relatively well with my teachers, and I think they have learned something from my time here. But, I’m bored. I am ready for my own classroom. Ready to teach the way I want to teach. Rules, routines, games, books (other than textbooks)...As much as I have tried to impart my teaching style on the teachers I work with, there is only so much to be done a few hours each day. It is hard to change a system, and that is what I’m up against. 

So what do I do when depression kicks in? Well, I have a few options, and I admit that sometimes faking sick and staying in bed all day wins (sometimes the thought of cleaning my house is enough to keep me watching The Office reruns all day...cleaning here really sucks). My healthier options are thinking about the future. Currently, I am looking for grad schools. I would like to teach in a Bilingual classroom and, therefore, need a masters/certification in Bilingual/Bicultural Education or ESL (English Second Language). The Mercedes Benz of programs is located at Teachers College, Columbia University, and the Peace Corps offers a Fellowship perfectly tailored to the College. Of course, this is all way competitive and quite possibly way out of my league...but it’s good to go big, right? All of this requires lots of essays and time, so it is a good distraction when sadness comes knocking. Equally helpful is simply getting out of town...going to Leon and staying in air condition is a wonder cure. Shocking what a little air, and even a movie, can do for a bad day. 

An even better distraction is a good vistor and my most exciting vistor lately was Stephanie Harrison! Winner of most packages and now first friend to come and visit! Thank you! Next up are my parents and cousin Mary, who will be coming for a week, and will be taking me to the Island of Ometepe for the first time...CAN’T WAIT! And shortly following, the lovely Heather Zeman! July will be jam-packed and incredible...I am really so excited. 

So as is obvious, I avoid thinking about my short time left here by writing grad school entrace papers and looking forward to visitors (OK and sometimes spending long periods of time watching reruns on my computer). Although my work here has started to lose my interest, I still love my students and the teachers I work with, and need to try and remember to take advantage of every minute I have with them. Please send me lots of updates, and start thinking of things to do when I come home in December!!!

Lots of LOVE to everyone!

Picture Updates

Small Business Volunteers' Cocktail Party: Masquerade theme, with my best friend, Krista...real feather masks!

Teachers took me out for my 24th birthday!

Fun group!

Graduation from sixth grade. My camera died or I would have taken more pictures :(

Update from Leon!

Happy almost Nicaraguan Independence Day! If you have access to a drum or tambourine start banging it from dawn to dusk and you will know what all of Nicaragua has sounded like for the past two months (you could also ask your local high school band to play obsessively for you, as well). Of course, the school bands here are gearing up for the traditional independence day parade, so their incredible amount of practicing is fully accepted by everyone around the country and doesn't seem to bother anyone except for the gringos. In fact, the people in my town analyze their playing and comment on their improvement as the weeks go on, looking forward to the upcoming parade. I look forward to the upcoming parade because it means a thankful end to band practice. Four days to go, phew.

Otherwise, all is going well in site. No more ear infection (woohoo!), garden FINALLY planted in the smallest of my schools, a couple of days of vacation coming up do to the parading and celebrating, and I am currently hanging in Leon with my best bud Krista! Krista and I were in training together but placed in opposite ends of Nicaragua to live, so we are both pumped that she was finally able to visit and we are here hanging in Leon. We even went and saw a movie and the nights plans probably include dancing and general Nica fun.

Looking forward to meeting the new group of volunteers who have just arrived in site...now that I am over ONE YEAR in Nicaragua, a new group of Environmental Education volunteers have been brought in, and I get to help present their new possible sites (where they will live) to them....very excited to be a part of their training process, and to present my part of Nicaragua. Hopefully they are a good bunch.

Also, very proud to announce my volleyball team continues to be the champions of Posoltega! Finals happened por fin and we came out on top : )

Not to many other updates at the moment, but I'll leave you all with one of my more embarrassing moments of the last few weeks...

So in order to reach the smallest of my three schools, I have to cross a decently wide, always muddy, and really dirty river...Due to the start of rainy season the bank of the river is insanely muddy, to the point were it is uncrossable...little did I know all of the Nicas had stopped using the normal entrance to the river and had started using a passable side path...so anyway, in my need to cross the river (on my bike) I decide that the best way to get through the initial muddy (we're talking mix of mud and cow poop up to your knee) river bank would be to just pedal hard right through the middle....well as I get into the middle of the large mud pit I realize there's a slightly better part to the side, so I attempt to turn my bike and pedal over...you can imagine the turning my bike in knee high mud not only killed any momentum I had going in, but got my incredible stuck...in my desire to not place my clean sandaled foot into the mud disaster I wavered there on my bike for about five seconds realizing I was going nowhere and going to fall if I didn't put a foot down and walk through the mud and out to the grassy side...well as I'm sure you are all picturing...thinking took to long and clearly ended up losing my balancing, attempting (too late) to stick my foot in the mud and falling over...completely and fully on my back into the mud...I looked around, laughed it off, and biked home looking like a disaster...naturally I saw everyone in the world and they all stared...luckily after changing, and on my second attempt that day to cross the river I ran into the preschool teacher also crossing to get to school and she kindly clued me in to the new path....duh...what are you gonna do?

So that's all for tonight...I'm off to get my salsa on...lots of love!

Why the Heck Not...

Might as well throw in another update while I'm here in Managua and have the internet...Went to the ear doc today and have been officially been given the thumbs up...looks like my ear is getting better and I don't need to be making the tedious trip into the capitol city every few days anymore...Whoa good news!

This is definitely grounds for celebrating, which I will be doing tomorrow night after a reunion with a few other volunteers in Chinandega tomorrow at lunch time. We plan on doing some dancing, and perhaps even introducing Jello (cough shots cough) into Nica culture. This will be very tame and on the DL, however, as I am not known for drinking in site and plan to keep it that way. The Jello is more of a flashback to the college days really.

On that note, with my one year in site coming up, I have noticed that quite a few volunteers have started looking into their post-PC lives. What?! I have somewhat thought about what I would like to do or where I would like to live, but for the most part I still feel insanely accomplished for have gotten as far as I have up unto this point. The idea of begin the application process all over again and thinking about new  jobs is overwhelming...so point being, help me out! If you can think of an interesting job for me let me know!! Thanks!!

Ok don't have many other updates for now, but as usual, keep me updated on your lives! Love love love!