Me with my awesome Halloween socks that Auntie Jeannie sent me!
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Fatima crew!
Me and Icia celebrating Halloween
My Nica friend Luis
My brother hiding from the picture, but this is where we wash our cloths
My sister sweeping the kitchen
Well I will be a sworn in volunteer in just a couple weeks. I can’t believe how fast training as went by. It is a bittersweet time. I am really excited to start my service but am sad to leave my fellow Peace Corps Trainees and even more my family here in Fatima. It’s going to be another culture shock to readjust to being on our own in our sites. Luckily I am fortunate to have a great site. Last Tuesday we met our counterparts. I was pretty nervous because I have a male counterpart. My the volunteer I visited had trouble with hers, because he was always busy and didn’t really give her much advice or guidance. Most of our counterparts, including mine, are directors which means they are in charge of the base school and all the neighbor schools which could be a total of at least 10 schools. So as you can guess they are pretty busy. Well my guy is 34 and used to be a teacher. He kinda creeped me out at first because when asked by our training director what he thought about me his answer was “PRECIOSA” and the training director was like “Ummmmm….I hope that is with respect” So I was a little nervous as to how things were going to go. After seeing him interact with the other teachers and what not I realized it’s just his personality and wants to be well liked. This will work out in my favor because he wants to go the extra mile to make sure everything works out for me. He took me to meet all the teachers, the leaders of the community, counsel of parents like a PTA, the head of the education in matagalpa, heads of two of the main NGOs I will work with, showed me around Matagalpa, took me to the post office, bank, the mayors office, to meet the police and let them know that I will be staying in Quebrada Honda for 2 years, ect. All in all he really made sure everyone knew who I was, that they respect me, that they know I am not coming with hands full of money, that they know my primary jobs, to take care of me, to visit me, show me around etc.
Quebrada Honda: My first thought when entering on the bus is that I thought I was in an “up north” atmosphere. The plants seem less tropical and more like WI plants. The town is surrounded by beautiful mountains. It is a lot like my training town in its small feel aspect. Just a lot of houses on dirt roads. The “center” of the city is the school and a health center. The people are mainly coffee growers. Which might I add they have the BEST coffee! There are also farmers. It isn’t uncommon to see cows being herded down the street or men riding on their horses. ( I already talked to my host mothers father who is the cutest old man with his cowboy hat, boots and belt buckle and made him promise to teach me to ride a horse!) On the farm across the street from my house is a pool! I guess it is about a dollar to swim in it, but I am going to try to make friends with the owner and see if I can offer a monthly rate for unlimited use.
Schools: I am working in 3 schools. The base school is in Quebrada Honda. They have high school in the morning and elementary in the afternoons. They have high school for adults on Saturdays so they can work during the week. The other school I work in is about 3 km up the road in a community called Villa Kokomo. I fell in love with this little community. There is only primary that is divided into a morning and afternoon group. I then will be working in a multigrade school 3 km up the road the other way. I didn’t have a chance to visit it. But from the sound of it, it’s just a room with 1st-6th grade all together and one teacher. Just like your typical one room school house, should be quite the experience.
Teachers: It is Nicaraguan culture for people to nod their heads and say “yes we would love to work with you and make gardens” but really not have any intention of actually doing it. I have been able to gauge peoples reactions and body language and I think the teachers are truly excited to work with me…it’s just going to be hard to choose the six teachers I will work with. I already went to three of the teachers houses in Villa Kokomo. The one thing I absolutely love about Nicas is that they are the most generous people you will ever meet. I went to one of the teachers houses which was literally a shack with two beds in it, one for her and one for her two sons. She sent her sons to go buy some soda to share with us. No matter where you go they offer you coffee, bread, soda, whatever they have. Sometimes it’s hard though because you visit three houses and have to drink three huge glasses of soda and then have to pee! That’s the other thing here, there is no such thing as a quick visit. Every new house I go to visit I sit and chit chat for at least an hour. It really builds the confianza with them.
Students: The kids here are all just dying for love and new fun things to do. I went to EVERY classroom to introduce myself and tell them a little about myself and work. They had already heard I would be coming and they had poems, songs, dances, letters, cards, and speeches all prepared for me. After one hour of being in the school they are all yelling ADIOS PROFE KAREN and holding my hand to walk me to the bus. They are all kids from smaller towns and therefore I feel are much more respectful and maybe a little calmer too. It’s just going to be great working with them all. Two of the girls from the high school came up to talk to my counterpart after my presentation to ask if they can pick me up at my house to take me around the town. Turns out they had a meeting of GUIA which is basically Girlscouts! They are a new group with about 12 girls that are 14 and 15. The leader is 24 like me and they sing songs, dance and play silly games. They are attempting to reforest and plant trees at the health center. Although, right now they are buying the saplings from a store. I told them we could make our own tree nursery and they are just super excited to work with me. I had the opportunity to go to two meetings. I even led a few activities. They are going to be a great group to work with.
Organizations: There seems to be so many problems in Nicaragua, or sometimes things seem so helpless because it is an endless vicious cycle in certain aspects. But then there are some programs that just blow my socks off and are working so great. Such as the Quinchos for example. In my new site there is an organization called Infancia sin Fronteras (Infancy without borders) and it is funded by Spain. It is basically a soup kitchen for children. They have these soup kitchens in Quebrada Honda and Villa Kokomo. They offer lunch to 300 kids a year, offer daycare services and preschool, medical attention, have a garden, arts and crafts classes. I met the head of the program in Matagalpa and he is a very enthusiastic man that is happy to have extra support.
House: My new house and family is pretty great too! They are pretty well off for the community. They own a little store which is nice because people are always coming and going so it is easier to meet people. My host parents are both very involved in the Catholic church in the community and were really happy that I am Catholic. They own a vehicle and have a maid which is quite a big deal. There is the mom, dad, a boy that is about 14, a girl my age, and then they have another daughter living in Spain. Their nieces and nephews are always over as well.
Experience: So the Saturday before I left it was the confirmation of 32 youth of the community (two are from my GS group) and the bishop from Matagalpa came to confirm them. After the dinner the bishop and the people accompanying him dined at my house. There was an extra spot open at the table and my host parents insisted I sit there (even though its THEIR house) They said I was special. So I had the opportunity to dine with the bishop of Matagalpa, quite the privilege huh! He was very kind and gave me his blessings and said he was very happy to see such an enthusiastic person working in the community.
All in all my site visit was great, and I think it will be a very successful two years! Now I just have to deal with the craziness that is the end of training…..and having to leave my host family….
