So Much To Tell You All!!

As usual sorry for taking so long to update!!! I'm just going to get it all out there because I don't even know where to begin...

First off, had my first visitors!! Thanks Mom and Aunt Jeanne for making the trip down! We had an incredible time (at least I think so haha) hanging out in my house and traveling around in a Rent-a-Car (whoa big time). I'm sure they were a little overwhelmed at first by the attack of Spanish speakers and lack of indoor plumbing, but in the end I had them pumping out cakes and rice crispy treats and going to parties...Mom even learned how to dance! I'll get Aunt Jeanne the next time...Hopefully the went home with glowing reports of Nicaragua so that everyone else will now come and visit...hint hint...

Unfortunately, one of our excursions leads me to the second most eventful thing that has happened to me since we last talked...blew out my eardrum! Ouch is an understatement...I think this was a result of a bat cave tour that I went on with Mom and Aunt Jeanne, where there was definitely some unsanitary water dripping from the ceiling of the cave, but really could have been from any water that got into my ear...The doc told me the bacteria/infection got so strong it just went and blew out my eardrum...simple as that...yea right...month and a half later and here I am in Managua still going to ENT docs getting new meds because this dang bacteria just won't go away...luckily my eardrum has healed and I have full hearing once again (was deaf there for awhile in my left ear which made speaking Spanish all the more exciting)...so I shall keep everyone posted, but for now just hoping this next dose of antibiotics does the trick...

Gardens are mostly up and running...officially planted two types of squash, cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, and green beans in the largest of my three schools (finally, phew)....I am about to replant all of the squash in my smaller rural school, Trianon, as they have given all the fruit they shall give and are ready to be replanted, as well as tomatoes, peppers and plantains....and still need to get my final garden in my third rural school going...struggle.

My personal garden is looking awesome (no thanks to me; rain, Aunt Jeanne and my mother are behind it really). I've got tomatoes flowering, spinach with leaves the size of my head (no joke) which has taken over my laundry line (spinach is a climber in Nicaragua, who knew), sunflowers about waist high at this point, and plantain about shoulder high...I hope that rainy season never goes away as daily watering of plants was truly the vane of my existence...

Volleyball is also going...we are waiting for the finals to happen...there is a current turf war as the ref wants the hold the final tournament on his court in his neighborhood and the playing teams want to hold the tourney on the court where we have been currently playing...it should be held where we have been playing and where there will be no problems, but because someone decided to steal one of the metal poles that holds up the net we have this current dilemma. However, no one is willing to move to the proposed court as the gang-ish boys/men who hang out there will inevitably cause problems with the gente from another neighborhood...ridiculous. We'll see what happens.

Soo some cRaZy things that I just can't get out of my head:
1. My one year anniversary of being in this country is coming up any day now!!!! I flew into Washington DC on August 31st and landed in Nicaragua on September 1st...HOLY CRAP! Getting close and the festivities are being planned...looking forward to it and can't quite believe it...this time last year I was packing!
2. It's almost Christmas time again! I mean not really almost...but kind of almost...woohoo!
3. Puchona, but dog, is pregnant! I'm not really that excited because that means there will be tons of little puppies running around and they are going to make a mess, but it's still exciting kind of...
4. I hope everyone celebrated Peace Corps' 50th Anniversary...Congrats PC
5. Election time is coming up...Who's everyone voting for? What are the options? I'm so out of the loop...someone fill me in...

Ok that's all I can think of...love you all!! Start planning trips! I've only got a year left! You're time is running out people! xox

Picture Updates

Group of my good friends just hanging out - from left, Sixto, Gaudy, Enoch and Ingrid

My AWESOME rural school, Trianon, that has it's act together...teachers, kids and parents are really amazing

Squash plants growing in the school garden in Trianon...they are covered by thorns so that the chickens wouldn't eat them while they sprouted

Can't believe I forgot to mention I became a Godmother!! Here in Nicaragua you get two...one when you are baptized and the other for first holy communion/confirmation, so I am Yubelky's second...definitely an honor.

Rain, Rain and More Rain

        Happy to report that life in Posoltega is finally cooling down...to a somewhat bearable temperature, that is. That’s not to say I don’t still sweat in the shower, but what’s a girl to do. This is in large part due to the rain that has finally reached us, after nearly 5 months without a drop. It is definitely a relief.  The plants all look healthier and the people seem to be thankful that it’s not so dang hot anymore. 

But, with the rain comes quite a few negatives. For one, the mosquitos are out of control. Despite trying to prevent any water from sitting around my house, the mosquitos are able to find plenty of places to breed. Now that rainy season has started I am religious about my Malaria medication and the mosquito net has gone up, but when it comes to Dengue Fever I am unprotected and would really hate to suffer through that one for an unhappy 7 days. The best I can do is tons of bug spray and pants (although I am admittedly sitting in shorts and a tank top right now...it’s just so dang hot). Perhaps my bigger issue with the rain, however, is that it likes to come inside of my house. The roof of my house is made with old-fashioned tejas, or shingle type material, with plastic sheets underneath. While this is better in the hot season, because the tejas are more breathable than the more current zinc roofs, in the rainy season they leak like crazy. In the first big storm I woke up soaking wet and in a lake of water. Turns out the biggest hole was right over my head. This flooded the whole house. Luckily, I have since gotten this hole mostly fixed and have moved my bed, so I now just put a small bucket below it to catch the one or two drops that sneak through. There are also a few leaks in my living room, which I rotate my remaining buckets between, but for the most part I just move the furniture out of the way and figure the water won’t do much damage. As for my kitchen...it essentially rains in there as if outside, so I just shut the door and mop it in the morning. As my dad would say, it’s incredible what you can get used to. 

I would like to admit though, that the rain has helped me immensely in my quest to balance my life here. With tanta lluvia I don’t have to tell people I’m too tired or have too much work to go out at night, because everyone is simply stuck inside. Although it is a definite buzz kill when our volleyball games get cancelled or I can’t get out to plan a lesson with a teacher, some nights it is a blessing when I can just hang out on my hammock, read a book and not have to socialize. I’m not gonna lie, the rain makes for a great scapegoat. And on that note, for anyone who hasn’t read Dave Egger’s “What is the What”....get one it...seriously, an incredible read. If you come visit me I’ll lend it to you : )

So as far as projects and being a good volunteer, I would probably get a B right now, but I’m working on it. So in one of my rural schools where we continuously recieve parent support and the teachers kick ass, our squash are growing like mad, the peppers have sprouted and we even have plantains and banana trees planted. I could not be more excited about working with this school and really love the people in the community. The government is even sending a volunteer from their own agriculture sector to help me out...COOL...I just wish I had this kind of support in my other rural community. Two of the teachers are brand new, 20 years old, and not recieving any support in the community. The opposite, in fact. At the most recent parent meeting the teachers were attacked for letting students out early, punishing students too much, holding too many raffles that parents couldn’t pay for, etc, etc. Needless to say, when I asked them to come help me clear land for the garden they said yea yea and quickly went back to arguing. Not to mention, they are extraordinarily poor, underfed and in the middle of nowhere. Daily, the governemnt provides the children with rice, beans and tortillas to eat, which the mothers are asked to prepare. They rotate this responisibilty, so that each mother cooks at least once for the students. Unfortunately, in this particular community, mothers either don’t cook some days or collect the food and simply cook it for their own families, leaving the schoolchildren without their meal (which was most likely their one meal for the day). I don’t buy that some days the mothers are too lazy to cook; but rather, that in most all cases they use the food for their own families, demonstrating the desperate need of the community (which only hosts about 15 families in total). This school will clearly be my biggest challenge. 

So to change the tone a bit I’m going to let you all in on some of my personal goals for my time here in Nicaragua...

1. Dance salsa as well as I dance Bachata...So not as well as a Nica, but pretty dang good.
2. Visit at least as far as Hondurous and Costa Rica
3. Get inside the Flor de Cana factory in Chichigalpa (World famous rum made right next door...gotta get there)
4. Hike a volcano (I hear it’s actually a pretty miserable experience, but it’s sounds really cool to say you did it)
5. Get to the Atlantic Coast

I definitely have more goals than these, but I can't let you guys in on all of them...so that's it for now...lots of love and come visit me already!!! 

Going Batty

Well, it’s been an eventful few weeks back in Nicaragua. I am definitely happy to be back in my town, but it has been an adjustment. It was nothing less than a shock landing in the Managua airport and feeling the overwhelming heat slam into my face as I walked out of customs. Despite have friendly faces waiting for me and eagerly asking how my trip went, I could do nothing but slump into the backseat of the car and chug my water bottle. The heat was killer. 

Once back in town, I was a hermit for my first day or two, camping out in front of the fan and taking it slow. I used to make fun of Latinos for their slow pace of life and get to it when I get to it attitude, but frankly the heat and conditions of life in Nicaragua make you slow down or your body just can’t keep up (at least mine can’t). I visited my close friends, got my house back in order, and handed out some of the goodies I had brought back (LOTS of chocolates). That first weekend of taking it slow has come and gone now though, and I am fully back into the swing of life here x100. Since I had been fairly sick before leaving for vacation I felt behind and therefore came back ready to jump into my projects 110%. That being said, here are some updates:

Huertos (Gardens):

I am happy to report that I have at least broken ground on all three of my school gardens. Phew. With much begging and pleading on my part for parent help, after realizing that I can only force young children to do manual labor in the hot sun for so long, each school has at least cleared the land for the gardens and put of fences. We even planted already in one school!!! Yay! The kids all seem thoroughly excited to be working with my on these projects, as do the teachers and parents. As far as keeping up with the work throughout this year and in future years, only time will tell...On a personal note, I have a lovely lime tree in my backyard which the street drunks love to take advantage of for their 24/7 cocktails...I also just planted spinach, which is growning like wildfire.

Volleyball:

Still one of my favorite parts of my community life. My team obviously still rocks and the girls I play with keep getting better and better. Unfortunately, as is always the case when you put teenage girls together, there tends to be some bickering, generally revolving around blame when a ball drops...but this hasn’t seemed to cause too many hurt feelings, and if anything, just makes us look silly on the court. Considering most everyone on the team is playing volleyball for the first time and I am the only one who knows where anyone actually should be on the court...I think we’re doing OK....

English Classes:

After being gone for so long, english classes have turned more into previous students stopping by my house when they need help with a homework or things of that nature. So, I am trying to get a new group going. As of yesterday and today, I headed over to the highschool, which is always daunting, and presented the two uppermost grades with a new group idea. I offered them English classes twice a week in exchange for help on my environmental projects. They can also recieve the crucial environmental volunteer hours they need to graduate. A lot of kids were very interested in the idea and over 100 signed up. Who knows who will actually show up for the first meeting, but even having around 20-25 would be perfect. I already know a lot of the highschool kids from around town and hanging at the park, so I am excited to work with them and see where the group leads.

Life:

Well, as far as life goes. I still feel like I am getting over Mono. I am on my bike a lot going to my two far away schools (crossing rivers, long dirt/rock paths) and frankly, by the end of the day I am spent. I love my work and love the schools I am working in, but the heat, sun and travel definitely get to me by the end of the day. It is hard to drink enough water because if I finish my water bottle when I am outside of town, I cannot refill it in the smaller communities. This means I often come back feeling way dehydrated. I don’t mean to complain here because when I wear myself out it is my own doing. I agree to go to too many meetings in one day, or plan to work in the garden in one school the same day I am going to work in the garden in another and end up traveling and in the sun all day. I just have trouble saying no without feeling like I am being a bad volunteer. The balance is often very hard to find in my day to day life. I find that I sometimes don’t get work reports of papers handed in on the exact due dates for the Peace Corps, not because I am not an efficient person, but because my day is so full and other people demand so much of my attention, that I simply don’t have minutes alone in the day to sit down and do anything. Even though I may seem like I am just hanging out at someone’s house, that person would be very much offended if I told them I had a report to do and couldn’t come over that night. My job is as much about sitting on people’s front porch as it is about writing reports, and this is one of the many things that I am still learning to balance. 

So enough whining, how about another short latrine horror story? I will keep it brief and you can let your imaginations run wild. So, I’m taking a shower. Remember: the shower is connected to the latrine all under one roof. A bat flies in. OK, I think. It will stay on one side, I will finish my shower, no big deal. Take my shower, no problem, get dressed, come back later to use the latrine. Bat is gone. Where did it go, I wonder? Must have flown away. No chance. I am going to the bathroom worry free....I’m sure you all see where this is going and knew just what flew out from the depths....needless to say, it was terrifying.

Llorona, my cat, is growning nice and fat...expensive cat food seems like agree with her just fine...the neighborhood cats also seem to like it as I tend to find them in there feasting at all hours of the day and night....great....I think they are pretty interested in her, as well...seems I have the only female animals on the street, hence why every male animal comes to my house...again, great. I must not inspire much fear in animals because they don’t run very fast when I yell at them and they always come back...

So since we (youth group) are hosting a Nica-style birthday party tomorrow night in celebration of all the May birthdays, as well as one lucky girls trip off to study at the university in Manangua, I am going to let you all in on the secrets to throwing a Nica party...because it is a science...

1. There must be balloons and some type of party decoration
2. If it is a child’s party their MUST be a pinata and a special birthday rice
3. There must be oversized speakers blasting music so that no one can speak or hear anything
4. Chairs must be arranged against the wall so that you sit around in a circle staring akwardly at one another waiting for things to get going
5. No one can dance or do anything fun until after food and drinks are served
6. Drinks are served first followed by food and are served by the hostess of the party...You can’t have fun until you eat.
7. It may seem awkward at first, but there will be musical chairs and dancing...all age groups included.
8. If men come, offer them liquour. 

That’s all for now, folks. Love you all!

A Small Collection

Living Room

Latrine on left, Shower on right (water runs in shower...not too bad)

Llorona and Puchona

Volcano View from my town...San Cristobol...Yes, it is smoking...

Yari (cutest kid ever)

Playing Catch Up

Hi everyone! I was about to apologize for how long it’s been since my last post, but I really should stop apologizing since that probably leads to some false hope that my next post will be more timely...So for some updates...

I am currently sitting in air conditioning in the United States!!! What?! I know! I am home for Easter Break...Actually, I am about to head back to Nicaragua in 3 days, as I am at the tail end of my lovely two week stay in Florida. It has been incredible visiting with family and friends, eating as much cereal as I can get my hands on, and basically just laying around. I told myself I would go to the beach everyday, but when it came down to it, staying inside in the air conditioning and watching American television has really been more appealing. What can I say, I am a bum (and OK with it). 

Aside from being ready to see my parents and eat some good food, my vacation did come at a very lucky point in my service. Apart from my jam-making day which ended with a bacterial infection, I have been very healthy in Nicaragua, so far. No dengue fever, malaria, dog bites, etc (knock on wood). So, it seemed about right that in March, with the stress of finally finding and moving into my own house, starting to really get down to business with my schools, and really feeling the pressure from the Peace Corps all accumlating, I started getting sick...but, not just any sick, Mono sick. After spending days at a time going to and from the doctors’ offices in Mangua (the capitol) and getting so much blood drawn from my arms they were bruised and akin to those of a heroine addict, I was finally diagnosed with Mono just as they sent me home to the States. By this point, I was probably about 5 or 6 weeks in and starting to feel better. Unfortunately, most of the month of March was spent either in Managua, laying sick in bed, or just feeling so weak I can’t imagine I was much help to anyone. At a training session right before the Easter week, I was reunited with my training group, which is always a spirit booster. Finally feeling better, I loved the opportunity to see everyone and discuss Easter plans, but it was also a harsh reminder of how much progress everyone had made in just the one month that I had been sick. I had definitely not planned on missing practically a month of work PLUS two weeks of vacation....even if I was on doctor’s orders...guess I will just have to kick it into full gear when I get back. 

On the bright side (sorry for the gloomy post), there is an overwhelming amount of support in my community. In fact, when all I wanted to do was lay in bed, not eat anything, and not see anyone, I got more visitors, phone calls, and meals than I could handle...a little LESS attention would have been nice...but I am not complaining for a second that there are people around me who love and care for me...thank goodness ‘cause I don’t think I could do it alone. My closest friends have even continued to call while I have been here in the States. These calls given me a frightening look at my parent’s future trip to Nicaragua and inevitable interactions with Spanish speakers...the conversations tend to go as such:

Mom: Hello!

Nica: Hola...giggle...Kah-tie??

Mom: Ughh...Hello? 

Nica: Giggle giggle Kah-tie Kahtie por favor

Mom: Ohhhh hahaha Katie? Katie?

Nica: Kah-tie?

Mom: Katie?

Me: Oh for crying out loud, Mom! If they don’t speak English it’s for me! Stop talking and give me the phone!

So, in the end I am sad to leave my nice comfy house and constant flow of snack foods, but I am excited to get back. I finally feel better and am truly ready to get going on my projects which got left behind when I became sick. Hopefully, next time I write I will be back in Nicaragua and all will be going smoothly! Keep your fingers crossed that the rain is starting when I get there and things are cooling down. Love you all! Thank you for reading!

The Home Life

So I finally found myself a house! If you believe that everything works out in the end, then I guess my house hunt would prove you right (at least so far). Remember the family moving to the states? Well, they are currently proud citizens of California, and I am happily cuidaring (caring for) their house. Despite drunk nephews trying to charge me waaay to much rent, and some safety issues with the house, I am now loving the new place. After a literal hosing down of the house, inside and out, and some furniture rearranging, I am living comfortably with a TV, fridge, some rocking chairs, full and single beds, and a fully tiled house (WOW). Que fachenta...I know. 

Not only did they leave me a house, they left me a dog too. A dog, you might be thinking? Yes. They left me the dog. After a full day of cleaning and moving furniture, I happened to notice a dog laying in a hole dug next to my latrine (just WAIT for my latrine story...). Luckily, she is not brava towards me (brave or mean), as the Nicas say, so she and I have been getting along just fine. In fact, she is a lot of fun to play with and is good protection in the night. As the drunks who hang out on my corner told me, “she is BRAVA in the nighttime!!!”...good to know...and good thing they know...they also told me her name: Puchona...which I think is something of a play on a Nica word word for pudgy....which is exactly what she is not. My very skinny pup has a lot of fattening up to do, especially since she can still escape between the bars on my doors, and underneath the gate to my patio. I do not like the she is in the habit of heading out with her boyfriend dogs at night, as she is definitely going to get pregnant...it also makes for some embarrassing situations in the morning when I have to go retrieve my dog from other people’s patios. Unfortunately, she still responds to the lure of male dogs more than me yelling at her, so I shamefully have to chase her out of neighbor’s patios as Nica’s watch on and tell me I should really just tie her up and smack her some more so she knows who is boss...if one more boy dog pees on my doorstep on her account she just might get tied up...just kidding...

I have also adopted a kitten. She is orange, white and black and has just been given the name Llorona. She has been given this name on three accounts: (1) I think the word just sounds beautiful, even though it means someone or something who is always sad and crying. (2) She actually does cry all the time. She is still a very tiny kitten, but she follows me around the house and cries constantly unless I play with her, give her food, or let her ride around on my shoulder. (3) The lyrics to my favorite Nica song are “Si queres llorar, llora llora” ... If you want to cry, cry cry” ...it’s a great song. Luckily, the dog does not try to eat the cat...in fact, the Llorona is much more brava than Puchona. Puch jumps in circles around her and wants to play, and Llorona does the typical arched back hissing business until Puch gets bored or scratched and gives up. Pretty funny to watch. 

So my new animals lead me to the latrine story. Before I tell the story I just want to say that I am NOT the only volunteer who has made this mistake......

Spending most of their time in my outside patio, my cat and dog naturally had flees. In order to get rid of the flees, I went to the town veternarian and asked for a flee bath. As he was bored and I’m a town attraction, he offered to come with me to my house and give the animals the flee bath for me...Actually, he just showed up at my house 20 minutes after I bought the flee bath, and since everyone in town knows where I live this isn’t hard to do...Anyway. He was actually very helpful, as giving a squirming, sharp clawed kitten a bath is very hard, and the dog was equally unhappy. He also told me that I could sprinkle the poison all around the yard to get rid of any fleas/bugs living in the patio. GREAT! He ALSO told me that I could put it down the latrine to kill the cockroaches...EVEN BETTER! What he failed to tell me...and here I put all blame on him, as he is the Nica and should have known better, was that I should have covered the top of the latrine...instead, I innocently left the latrine hole wide open...what happens when you pour poison down a latrine??? I’ll tell you. About twenty minutes later giant cockroaches come flying...not crawling...FLYING out...we’re not talking one or two, but upwards of 50 or 60...Thankfully, they flew out and died...but they died everywhere...in my shower, all around my patio, and in my clean clothes hanging up drying...I then attacked my latrine and shower area with chlorine and cleaned it like it’s probably never been cleaned. On the upside, my latrine is now bug free...I don’t know that it was worth it, though. 

So, now that you have gotten the good and bad updates of what my new home life has been like, I will leave you all with some of the changes between how I used to “clean” in the states, and how I have now gone back to the Oregan Trail days...that may be exaggerating a little....

1. Used to use a washing machine...I know hand scrub everything...about once a week a lady comes and helps me wash for 20.00 cordobas (about 1 dollar) for twelve items, but I generally have a lot to do throughout the week 
2. Sweep and Mop daily (only every used to do this when I was getting paid on the ranch...) ... mops here are also metal poles with whatever leftover tshirt, blanket, or whatever you want to use as the mop head...I am using an old blanket which works great, but is a bitch to wash out each time
3. Dust everything, all the time...my roof is made of shingle-type things, so it has lots of holes for dust to come in, as well as black pieces of burnt sugar cane, which falls like snow in my area.
4. I now sweep and water the dirt...yea I know I used to make fun of that, but I really do have to water my dirt or else it all just swirls up into my house later in the day when it gets really hot and windy...and also it keeps my patio cooler and I have to dumo my sink water somewhere...dang Nicas were right.

Eh so that’s all. More updates soonish, and I really will get pictures going ASAP. Thank you all for the incredible packages that have been coming! Love you all!