Por Fin - A New Post!

It’s been quite a while since I’ve written. There’s no real reason…unless work counts. What I mean to say, is there’s no excuse. I apologize to my many, many dedicated readers.

So, it’s December. Just less than 8 months left in this adventure. I’ve definitely enjoyed it so far. In Peace Corps, there’s this interesting phenomenon of days taking FOREVER to pass, where the months fly by. I have no hypothesis as to why this happens; I just thought I’d share another little piece of my life with you.

I realize I haven’t really clued you in to what it’s actually like to live here: there is constant noise in this country. I’d say for the most part, Nicaragua sounds like a mix between unnecessary car horns, cat-calls, the non-clink of beer bottles being set on plastic tables, food frying in far too much oil (ckckckckckckckckc), motorcycle engines, Daddy Yankee being played through static-ky cell phone speakers, the deafening thud of mangoes falling on tin roofs, the background music from telenovelas, the scuttle of cockroaches at night, dogs barking in the streets, the pitter-patter of tortillas being made at 4:30 each morning. Oh, and excuses.

My description may seem less than comforting, but it’s actually quite endearing. Not the cat-calls, but I’ve begun to get a little sassy and talk back.

General Update:
School is now out for the year, and we’ll be starting back up again in the first week of February. Overall, the year went well. There have been some changes purposed to our curriculum by the Ministry of Education that will be tough to handle next year, but overall, is a step in the right direction. We’ve been teaching the business class to 4th year students, and one of the changes is to switch the course to 5th year. It makes more sense to have the class in the last year of high school because of the level of math required to understand the concepts, but the transition won’t be quite as flawless as we’d hoped – I’ll be teaching the same students the same class next year. Although this isn’t ideal, the class will also be required by every single high school in the country (with or without a volunteer). This shows that the Ministry of Education supports our work here, and recognizes the validity and importance of our entrepreneurship course.

I’m heading back for Christmas 2 weeks from today. I’m very very VERY excited for the break, for snow, for good food, my family, for friends, for Jason. Once I get back to Nicaragua, I’ll have just over 6 months left in my service. Plans for after Peace Corps: I don’t know.

Miss you all!

I can’t believe I’ve been living in Nicaragua for a year. When thinking in quantities of cold bucket baths, gallo pinto and struggling with learning a new language, it definitely feels like I’ve been here a while, but I’m still in shock at how quickly time moves no matter your location.

Peace Corps Volunteers live in this strange time continuum, where each day feels like it lasts about 72 hours, but the months seem to move at a regular pace. Maybe it’s the language barriers or the lack of Jimmy John’s subs, but when my work day lasts a full 10 hours here, I feel so run down, tired and cranky. In Chicago it was normal…Monday through Friday.

Well, it’s May again, which means rainy season has already begun AND is in full swing. It’s like clockwork – on May 1st there was a storm, and it has rained each day since then. I’m not looking forward to my 25 minute walks to school when it’s pouring (horizontally), but I am going to buy a pair of rubber boots and spray paint them yellow, which is definitely something to celebrate.

Not much is new here. I’ve been working on the website for the class that all of us business volunteers teach. When it’s a bit more presentable, I’ll post the link.

I’m heading back to the States for the first time in July. I can’t wait to eat good food, shop with my mom, see all of my family, and be in one of my friend’s weddings. I know it won’t be a relaxing vacation, and I’m sure I will be extremely overwhelmed with everything…American, but I’m definitely looking forward to it.

Miss you all!

Spring Break Nica Style

Last week was Semana Santa – it’s the equivalent of spring break in the States, with more of a religious intonation. That’s not to say the activities taking place are any more pure than a typical high school or college Cancun trip, it just means that Jesus will forgive the sinners BECAUSE they’re taking time off from school/work to celebrate Good Friday and Easter (by getting really drunk) instead of taking a hiatus because “it’s that time of year.”

For the first part of Semana Santa, Jason and I went to the Island of Ometepe to hang out with some of his friends. The island is in the middle of Lake Nicaragua – the only fresh-water lake in the world that has fresh-water sharks. Cool, eh? I didn’t see any though. I guess the Japanese came in a while back and had permission to kill 25,000 per year, and now the sharks only exist in the dark depths in the center of the lake. Anyway, Ometepe was formed by two volcanoes (one of which is still very active), and now has a relatively sizeable population…well, for Nicaragua. To get to the island, we took an hour-long boat ride from the port of San Jorge in Rivas. We stayed at this really cute hotel with fantastic breakfasts, and even though they don’t have AC, I’d stay there again just for the hash browns. During the days we kayaked in the lake, we went to a pool that was fed by a fresh spring, and by night we watched with NCAA tournament and drank Toña. We missed the championship game though, because we decided to head over to Rio San Juan by boat (12 hours), across the other side of the lake. I felt really nauseous for the first few hours of the boat ride. Jason and I had a bet on whether or not I would actually get sick. I won (of course). I was also awake all night, while Jason was fast asleep in his hammock. I can’t complain though; the sunrise was beautiful. We arrived in San Carlos very early the next morning, and immediately jumped on another boat heading to El Castillo. There’s nothing much to do in San Carlos. It looks cute from the water, and then you get off the boat…

El Castillo (the castle) is a beautiful little town about an hour east of San Carlos on the river. There actually is a castle (more like a fort), that was used by the Spanish to prevent the advance of the English up the river/further into Nicaragua. This little town is void of cars, taxis, cat-calls, white people and unfortunately, TV in English. We stayed at a really cute little hotel at the end of the road that had accidental entertainment of turtles and crocodiles directly off of the balcony of the restaurant. The crocodiles were more annoyed by the turtles than interested – there was no level of desire to consume the hard-shelled creatures. The turtles, on the other hand, like the free ride on the back of a crocodile, until we’d throw a banana peel in the water…then the fight for dinner ensued. It shouldn’t be too surprising, but I never would have guessed that turtles would get really excited about eating banana peels.

It rained just about every night, but during the day we were pretty lucky. We went horseback riding through the jungle and saw monkeys, we took a boat to a national reserve for a hike and saw those poisonous red…dart…tree frogs..? I can’t remember what they’re called… We woke up at about 5am one morning to see the 200-pound tarpon fish jump. Overall, it was one of the best vacations I’ve ever had. Until the bus ride back - 6 hours on a highway made of rock and sand the day after horseback riding.

That's all for now. I miss you guys... Can't WAIT to be back in the States for Katie's wedding in July!

I know I haven’t written for quite some time, but to try and recount the past 4 months in a blog would be nearly impossible. Here are the highlights:
1) At the end of October, I had 2 parasites, 2 amoebas and giardia at the same time. These 5 friendly attackers equal a not-so-friendly Nikki. I was sick for about 9 days…and not the sneezing sick, if you know what I mean.
2) I was stabbed with a screwdriver and mugged in Managua. It happened in that order, as well. I would expect that he would’ve tried to steal my purse first, but no, the stabbing component was somehow pivotal to his plan. Luckily the screwdriver was only able to penetrate my jeans once, so I have a single scar that resembles cellulite instead of a cluster resembling cellulite.
3) December in Nicaragua is interesting…and by interesting, I mean uneventful. Everyone uses Christmas as an excuse to do nothing the entire month. I can’t complain too much – it was a nice break to get to know my city a little bit better and to do a little bit of traveling on the weekends.
4) My friends and I celebrated New Years in San Juan del Sur. We had a lot of fun - I love the beach.
5) My school year began here at the beginning of February, and although we’ve started out rather slowly, things are starting to pick up. I’m excited to get rolling with my students. I’ve added another school to my workload – it’s a vocational school about 25 minutes from my house. I’m looking forward to working with these students (average age: 15-25, average education: some high school) because they are applying themselves and actually want to be a part of the program. I’m also trying to work with the office of tourism in Ocotal, but I’m not quite sure how my skills will be utilized. Because of the high demand, I’m also starting an English-speaking conversation circle with the English teachers in and around Ocotal.
6) It’s March! I’ve been here for 10 months – only 16 to go!
7) My sitemate will be done with his service on March 27th. Although I’m very VERY very sad to see him go, I’m excited for him to have hot showers every day and good food. Not to say gallo pinto isn’t great, but, uh… Anyway, I’ll have a new sitemate in April, and 2 other new volunteers that are within about 15 minutes of my site. I’m excited to meet them and see what kind of dynamic we create together for the next 16 months.

I think I’ve recapped the major events in the past few months. I promise I’ll get better about writing here. My goal is once every couple of weeks. I think this is doable unless my computer dies.

Miss you all!

Yo...

I’ve been really busy lately with quite a few things. As you all know, I’m teaching business classes in high schools. In these classes the students have to form their own businesses (8ish students), create a new product and make a business plan with all of the facts/figures and intentions of the business. The culmination of the class is a competition between all of the student businesses in the country. First there’s a local competition at the school level, then a regional, and ultimately a national. The local competition was in September, and right now we’re in the midst of scrambling to piece together the regional competition. I’m in charge of the activity because I’m the only business volunteer living in the city where it’ll take place. It’s a lot of work, and among other things, we’re struggling to get funding to pay for the auditorium we’re using. Every day when I’m walking down the street, I have at least 2-3 people ask me for money. It's really tough being perceived as wealthy (because I'm white) but having to ask various businesses in the community for money...

That being said, I’m really looking forward to the competition. Because my students have only had a half a year of the class, they won’t be participating until next year, but the other students (from the volunteer that I replaced) from Ocotal definitely have a lot of potential.

I’ve only experienced one other student competition here in the OC – a science fair. I know I’ve already mentioned this to a few people, but I think it’s interesting enough to write about here as well. So, here goes: I show up to plan with my counterparts in one of my schools for class the following day and there’s a science fair underway. Out of curiosity (and lack of natural disasters in Nicaragua – the land of lakes and [active] volcanoes (not that I’m complaining)), I climb the steps to the classrooms where the projects are on display. I honestly expected to see the standard mix-this-chemical-with-that-and-poof!-a-volcano!-type projects, but what I got was beyond my wildest dreams. A solid 70% of these students, my students, had made home-made booze. I wasn’t brave enough to try the rum, but the 6 kinds of wine made out of various types of fruits were all too intriguing. I can’t say I’d buy it if it was in a store, but it honestly wasn’t all that bad…

On another note, I’m living in my new place a loving it. I live with 3 old women, 2 cats and a dog. It’s awesome. Some may say my future has presented itself about 30 years early… Anyway, the dog’s name is Suki, the dark grey cat’s name is Negro, and the light orange cat’s name is Chele (translates to ‘white person’).

Pitaya: awesome fruit
Guyaba: good fruit
Pineapples: we can still buy ‘em here for about $.50 US
Avocados: mmm mmm mmm…


I just got my absentee ballot in the mail. I was out of the country (in Ireland) for the last election, so I know how this all works…if there is a big enough spread between the candidates in the state of Minnesota, the absentee ballots won’t even be looked at. Hmm…assuming I’m living in the US for the 2012 election, I’m probably going to need a coach when I go to vote – I’ve never voted in the States.

Miss you all!

Pizza and Cheeseburgers

I don’t like spiders. I don’t like the way they look, I don’t like the way they move, and I especially don’t like the way they hide in the crevices of my windows:

This spider may not look big, but he is…or, uh, was, the size of my outstretched hand. I didn’t have the heart (guts) to kill him so I had to ask the woman that cleans the house for help. I was standing on my bed screaming while she was attacking it with a broom.

I went to San Juan del Sur last week for a few days with my girls, and we had such a good time. None of us have had any type of break since we started in May, so it was amazing to sit on the beach and do NOTHING. San Juan del Sur is the most exploited beach destination in the entire country of Nicaragua, with specific beaches for surfers (we hung out there a lot checking out the Australian boys). Because I’m so far north, it takes me at least 7 hours by bus to travel down south to enjoy the beauty of tourism, but it was worth every minute (standing on an over-crowded school bus).

The second we got there, we immediately went for mushroom and swiss burgers with curly fries. I can’t buy hamburgers in Ocotal, so I was in heaven. After we ate, we decided we should probably look for a place to stay considering it was the weekend of the Nicaraguan Independence Day and we didn’t have reservations anywhere. We ended up at a little hostel in a room with a beachfront balcony (there was barely enough room for 2 chairs on the balcony, but we made it work). We headed to the beach with full stomachs and our swimsuits and got a ride with a Swiss couple who had a car and a house close to one of the beaches. They dropped us off and we walked to the beach expecting to see it full with young vacationers, but there wasn’t a soul. Since we’d semi-hitched out to the beach, we had NO idea how we were going to make it back to town (it’s about a 25 minute car ride). We decided we should start walking up the beach to try and find people, and after about a kilometer, we discovered Playa Madera, or ¨the surfer’s beach.¨ We tanned for a while and once it was close to dinner time, we got a ride back to San Juan with some surfers.

The next day, we expected two more girlfriends to join us but we didn’t want to miss out on valuable beach time. We went back to the same beach and tanned until the last shuttle was heading back to town. We met up with our friends and went to this Italian restaurant that one of my Nica friends had recommended. It was a great suggestion – the pizza was fantastic! The pizza would’ve been great anyway, but it was especially delicious because pizza in my city is made from bread, ketchup, bologna and Nicaraguan cheese, so this was quite a step up.

More beach time the next day...and more pizza for dinner.

All in all, it was a much-needed escape from the realities of Nicaraguan life. Unfortunately, we still couldn’t spend money like tourists…

Funny story: there was a guy that offered me $200 US dollars for sex. Regardless of the fact that this is more than my monthly salary, I declined.

Miss you all!

I never thought I’d be riding my 6th grade school bus again...

Here in Nicaragua, the public transportation is oddly reliable, especially the punctuality of the buses. Nothing is on time in Nicaragua (yeah, make the joke, I fit right in), so this phenomenon is still beyond me. Along with the time-wise reliability, the buses really hardly ever break down. And this is strange why, you ask? These buses are retired school buses from the States. On short 30 minute journeys, the ride isn’t so bad, but when you are hungover and have to be on these buses for hours with no restrooms and it’s at 45 smelly people beyond capacity, like many prescription drugs, it can result in nausea, vomiting and blurry vision. Here’s a joke I heard the other day: Q:How many people can fit on a Nicaraguan bus?
A: Two more!

So needless to say, the bus rides can be really interesting…

Washing clothes here takes so much time. Like…to do an average load-size amount, it takes a minimum of 2 hours. It’s not easy work either – my arms are always super sore after a day in front of the stone washboard. You can look at an entire family and immediately determine which woman washes the clothes by the definition of her arms (notice I said “woman,” because men don’t do any work around the house in this country). As I’ve mentioned before, the food here is really unhealthy (triple-fried EVERYTHING), and I find it comical when I see women with arms that could clearly win just about any arm-wrestling match, with big round bellies to complement.

Just when I thought I could get away from Wal-Mart, they go and buy out Pali. It is just a grocery store, but you cannot walk into this store without seeing the sign for the lowest prices...ugh.

I think I’m going to move houses. I was out of town this weekend and when I came back, someone had gone in my room, worn one of my shirts (it smelled of beer/BO, there was glitter on it, and it was hanging the wrong way on the hanger), unplugged anything I had plugged in, and, what’s worse, is someone had eaten some my food. You all know how I feel about my food, so besides living with the racist dog, I think I have plenty of ammunition to dip out. Unfortunately, it’s far too expensive on my “salary” to live alone, so I’ve been in search of another room around the city, and I think I’ve found one. It’s on a dirt street that acts like a river the second it starts raining, but the room is really cute and I think I can paint my walls. I keep telling myself that I’m not turning into my mother, but I can no longer deny it: I’m excited to paint.

Here are a couple of other pictures of Ocotal:

Miss you all!