Going Pro

Heading to a Pro Nica baseball game today!! So excited...Essentially the World Series of Nica baseball and my department (state), Chinandega is in it...and good!! Pumped...we are playing the team from the capitol city, Managua. Baseball is serious here and they can definitely play, so this should be fun...going with a group of volunteers too, so get a slight break from Spanish...

Went to the river again yesterday...Don't know if I've mentioned this before in previous blogs...it is common here to build concrete "pools" into the center of the rivers, where water can flow in and be slightly cleaner than the water outside of the pool...it is a lot of fun and really beautiful...about 20 of us went so we took up the whole pool...when we got back we played volleyball in the park pretty late into the night, but unfortunately didn't have a net, so it wasn't anything too serious. Unfortunately, it is hard to get all of the equipment necessary here to really play...but, oh well. We had a tournament last weekend that was a lot of fun (I played with a boys team and a girls team because I'm the one that got the stupid boys team together so I wanted to play...). Hopefully we can make more tournaments happen, but that all depends on support from the mayor's office...vamos a ver.

Also, the house hunt is finally coming to a close...A family is moving to the United States and needs someone to "cuidar", care for, their house while they are gone. I happily volunteered, and hopefully in the next week or so they will be out of here and I will have my own house. They are super relaxed and leaving me basically everything (bed, fridge, couch, etc...). I only have to pay water and electric, as well, so that is a huge benefit.

Ok so that's a brief update before baseball! Everybody think winning thoughts for Chinandega!! Lots of love!

Long Time No Talk

Wow! Sorry it has been before Christmas since I have gotten on. Well, I will just do a brief Christmas and New Years update...

For Christmas, since I still wasn’t feeling completely at home in my new site (Posoltega), I went “home” to my training town, Guisquiliapa. Krista and Jesse, the two girls who I had trained with also went back at this time, so it was a really great reunion. Our old youth group started the break of great by throwing a surprise birthday party for Krista and me, as my birthday was the 7th and hers was Christmas day. Jesse even made us rice krispie treats...doesn’t get much better than that. Definitely proved to us that we had made an incredible group of friends in Guisquiliapa and found a home we can always go back to in Nicaragua.

So for Christmas Eve, my host grandparents had a big dinner and invited all of the family to celebrate. We listened to and sang Spanish Christmas carols (which are not nearly as good) and did lots of holding and praying to baby Jesus (awkward). Santa Claus even showed up to provide balloons to the kids AND there was a dance-off amongst the younger children. My little host brother even got his first bicycle on Christmas morning. Very happy Christmas in Nicaragua.

I spent the New Year, on the other hand, in my site. I have grown very close to a fellow teacher’s family here, so I was excited to spend the holiday with them. Their family is huge, just like my host family in training, so they have tons of teens and kids to hang out with and use for manual labor in my garden. I tend to walk around with 5 or 6 of them wherever I go, as we are usually headed for dance class, the garden, or something of the sort. It is nearly impossible to be alone here in Nicaragua, which I love (most of the time). So anyway, I started New Year’s Eve off with a gift swap and pinata with the family that I am living with. I gave socks and received a body splash. It’s hard to work within a 50 cord limit (roughy $2.50). Oh well. Next, I went to mass at about 9:00pm...there is a mass for everything. After that I swapped families, to hang out with all of the teens. There was a party in the center of town, but after walking by a few times, we concluded that it was full of drunk men and would not be much fun. So, we did what all Nicas do on New Years and burned a doll at midnight and set of fireworks. I’ll explain. The days preceeding New Years, Nicas create lifesize dolls, that look a lot like scarecrows, and dress them with things that represent that bad characteristics of the old year. For example, ours had old ragged clothes, a liquor bottle, cigarettes, etc. They then burn this doll at midnight to represent burning the old and starting clean in the new year. Pretty cool tradition. So that was New Years, nothing too crazy, but a good time.

So needless to say, things took a little while to get going after the holidays. Everyone was on vacation after that and no one had much interest in gardening and such (myself included). Before the holidays the kids and I had gotten the land for the garden cleared, but that was it. Likewise, I had started giving English classes to a great group of girls, and started attending dance classes. Right before the holidays, I was asked by the youth group leader to start giving English classes to everyone in the group, so we put that off until after the holidays as well. So...where I am I now...

Finally got my garden planted. After lots of procrastinating and talking, I got the chavalos y chavalas (teenage boys and teenage girls) out of bed early every day this past week to dig and plant. Success!! The garden looks great, and although I let my gardening principles slide a bit and did things more the “Nica” way than the Peace Corps way, I think things will grow. Mainly, we didn’t sift all of the dirt...oops. So far there are the tiny beginnings of my squash plants, so I need to get moving on a barriar against the chickens. 

As for English classes, I now give two classes every day. One to a beginning group and the other to a more advanced group. This has definitely been a learning experience, as I have only ever worked with students who have some understanding of beginning English grammar, and am now working with people who have ZERO understanding of English. My plans get changed midsentence as I realize that no one is following what I am saying. I will be more prepared next time, and I at least feel confident that the few men in my class will no longer say “I love you baby” to the gringas in the street....now they will say “Hello, how are you”...better. 

Likewise, dance classes are still SO MUCH FUN...I admittedly don’t dance every song, as there are some that I just don’t think I do well, but I really do try to dance most of them. My favorite latino dance is easily the bachata, but this is only because I can do it confidently and without watching my partner’s feet. I can do most all dances in class when I know the steps and am watching the teacher, but in fiestas when my partner changes things up on me...I’m done for...I really hope dancing will come to me within two years...like Spanish...or something...

I almost forgot!! I now have earthworms! I brought back earthworms from my host father in Guisquiliapa. I not only carried my bucket of worms back on the bus with me from my training town to my site, but arrived in site and needed a place to put my worms. Now, worms need a decent amount of space to live in, as you have to provide them with dirt to move around in and cow poop or fruit and veggie peels to eat. So I arrived with my worms and started asking if anyone had a large wooden crate or tractor tire for my worms. No joke, within 20 minutes, my worms were happily situated in an enormous tractor tire in my host grandmother’s backyard, with a host brother shoveling them cow poop and dirt. So gross, I know, but awesome. The purpose of my worms, you might be wondering, is organic compost. Rather than using chemicals and buying compost for plants, the dirt which passes through a worms system comes out full of nutrients and other stuff which is way better for plants and people than any chemical ever could be. So, I feed my worms, they produce great compost, and I use it in my garden. It’s more fun than a regular compost and the kids like helping me with it because they get to play with the worms (regular composts just smell, although I eventually have to have one of those too). Also, water contamination from the chemicals used in farming is a huge problem in my site, so turning farmers on to organic farming is a long-term goal...

So that’s the not-so-brief brief update of the past month...

To end...the things I am currently looking at...

Well, I am all alone in the house right now, so Manchita, the dog is chillin on my floor instead of tied up in the hot sun...she and I are buddies because she keeps an eye out for me when I come back late at night or use the latrine at night....my fan is also on cause it’s about 100 degrees out...outside, the wind is kicking up the dust and there is also smoke blowing over from next door where it seems to be trash burning day....the chickens are in a mission after something...as long as it’s not my garden they’ll stay alive today...otherwise the trees are still beautiful and green, and the flowers are still bright and lovely...I hear things will start dying soon as dry season has officially kicked in...vamos a ver (we will see)...I’ve got a little Michael Jackson playing cause that’s what we danced to in class the other night...stuck in my head...about to hang out my laundry and take a shower.

Thanks for reading...lots of love! More updates soon!!