Double Post!!

La Playa La Boquita (from a couple weekends ago)

(Jess)
Matt and I just returned to our training towns on Thursday, having spent a few days visiting health volunteers in the field. I visited a volunteer living in the mountains south of Somoto, a city in the department of Madriz, which is in the northern part of Nicaragua, near the Honduran border. Matt traveled 12 hours south of Managua to San Carlos, Rio San Juan. As a result, we hadn’t seen or spoken to each other for a week prior to Valentine’s Day. So it seemed logical that on Valentine’s Day, after class I would hop on a bus and ride the ten minutes to see him in Santa Theresa (I had also heard from PC staff member that he was sick so I thought it would be good to go visit). Again, the inability to communicate in Nicaragua was evident, when I arrived in Theresa only to find that he had the same idea and traveled to Rosario to see me! We finally met up with each other, but it was pretty comical (and not to worry – his stomach was upset, but he is fine now).

My visit with a volunteer was a wonderful break from the structured, at times frustrating, schedule of training. I really enjoyed the town that I visited, and enjoyed seeing first hand what volunteers are doing in the field. It was our first experience outside of our training towns and it was a welcome opportunity to see another part of Nicaragua.

Below are a few pictures from the trip.

I learned a few things during my visit. Number one, the Peace Corps experience is open to much interpretation – while there are defined goals for the program, what you do with yourself and your community is very much up to you and your projects are entirely the result of the amount of work that you put in. I also learned that while volunteers can be lonely at times, the volunteer network in country is solid and volunteers can see other frequently if that is the experience that they wish to have (there are currently 162 volunteers in country, in 5 different sectors, including environment, agriculture, teaching English as a foreign language, health and small business development).

I learned how to make soy milk from scratch and I showered for the first time outdoors in very cold mountain water. I experienced first hand what it is like to live in a town where everybody knows who you are. I saw wonderful Nicaragua hospitality. And I had my first real experience with Nicaraguan public transportation, aside from the routine microbuses that we frequently use between training pueblos. My mother, as a recently certified trainer of bus drivers (congrats mom!), would be horrified by the way in which the buses are driven here. And when I say buses, I mean school buses – straight from the school yard to Nicaraguan roads (with a break in the middle for some colorful painting and decals the likes of ‘Jesus vive’). I am not sure how to describe the experience other than to say that as we were climbing the mountain, the only thing between me and immediate death was yellow caution tape along the edge of the road that had washed out during the rainy season. While I feared for my own life, I was more concerned about the 10 guys that had climbed on the top of the bus once they realized that it was full (yes – they still paid for the ride).

All in all, I had a good time and learned a lot. Tomorrow is our ‘site fair’ where we get to hear all about the available sites. Matt spoke today with the director for the health program and he said that because we are a couple, they pretty much know where we will be going, but we won’t find out for a few weeks now.

(Matt)

My visit to San Carlos was great. The bus ride, however, was not so great. The way down was a brisk 12 hours with only 2 stops, none for longer than 20 mins. The way back was “express,” which means that we didn’t stop for nuttin’. People getting on and off the bus had to literally run to catch it or nimbly dismount while we kept moving at about 5 mph. We stopped for about a minute twice to remove cargo from the top of the bus, and that’s when a bunch of salesmen types climb on board. One gives you a story about needing some life-saving surgery, then shows you his humungous tumor. Another shouts over the crowd of passengers about a miracle cure for arthritis. He hands out samples to everyone on board, then recollects them all from people unwilling to pay 25 cordobas to give it a try. Ah…the bus.

San Carlos is talked up in all of the tourist books as the next hotspot for visitors to Nicaragua. I’ll be frank in saying it still has a long way to go. Outside of the 10 most central blocks the roads are dusty dirty ox-cart paths. The city only has water 5 or 6 hours a day, so I had my first experience with a bucket shower. It was actually quite invigorating and by the 4th or 5th time I really had it down to a science.

Enough negativity, San Carlos is a very beautiful town. It sits at the bottom of Lake Nicaragua, right where two rivers split into Costa Rica (only a 2 hour boat ride). In fact, our first night we had a beer right on the shore of the lake and watched the sunset over 3 of Costa Rica’s largest volcanoes. Picturesque, to say the least.

I shadowed a volunteer named John who is about to be returning to the States in March. In fact, someone from our group is going to be replacing him in his site. It might even be Jess and I. John showed be the ropes of working with the local health center. We also gave a bunch of talks in a local primary school on personal hygiene. Below are a few pictures of our charlas (talks). Overall, the visit was a great experience. We were able to spend some time with current volunteers, see how they live, and begin to plan for our own experience. Perhaps next time I’ll post on what I would like for our site and work, as I’ve now been able to better formulate my aspirations.

On a side note, my English is getting worse and worse. Jess and I have been vigilant in speaking Spanish, which is definitely improving language skills. On the other hand, every time I type to y’all it becomes more and more difficult to come up with the correct word to express myself. Who knows, after two years you might be corresponding with a caveman…

Photos of Rio San Juan!