Semana Santa & Swearing In

Lago de Nicaragua and the Island of Ometepe in the distance (it´s an actively volcanic island)

So this week is Semana Santa in Nicaragua. We haven’t had training classes since Wednesday, because most of the country shuts down for Thursday-Sunday; those people with cars go to the beach, those without stay at home and observe the religious processionals through town. Matt and I have been spending the time in Rosario with my family. Its been interesting – we haven’t had much to do, which is really a first for us here because we are usually busy every minute of the day in training. Matt has been spending a lot of time reading and playing guitar. To be honest, I’m not entirely sure what I’ve been doing.

On Thursday, we went with the family to the beach at San Jorge, on the western side of Lake Nicaragua, an enormous lake in the middle of the country, (just slightly smaller than the Island of Puerto Rico). From the shore at San Jorge, you can see Omotepe, a volcano island:

We also went to visit the basurera in Rosario (the dump). Its about a 20 minute walk outside of Rosario in the campo, and apparently it’s a pretty progressive program for Nicaragua. The mayor pays for a guy to go around town and collect garbage in town. Then they take it out to this place and sort it into organic and inorganic garbage. The organic is used for composting and they have an absolutely beautiful garden next to the dump (in the middle of nowhere…):

Here´s where they do the composting at the garbage dump.

We found this is the ¨garbage section.¨ It´s bonafide LEGO, so we thought we´d post this picture in honor of my brother, Scott. Sorry, Scott, we didn´t think it was worth salvaging, so we left it there...

Other than that, as I said, we have been doing very little aside from observing, and occasionally accidentally partaking in, religious processionals. And spending time with the family, because this is the last week in Curacao….

Bridge to Service

Next week Jess and I will be swearing in as Volunteers! It’s hard to believe we’ve been here close to three months, although sometimes it feels like years. Anyway, we’re going to be meeting with the U.S. Ambassador to Nicaragua. He comes to our swearing in ceremony, presides over it, and even gives an address to the audience. Since our training families are invited, the entire ceremony is in Spanish. We also will be singing the Nicaraguan National Anthem (in Spanish, of course) and saying the Peace Corps oath (also in Spanish, although originally in English). We’ll be sure to post the oath later this week – maybe even in Spanish and English… After the ceremony we have a night of celebration in Managua and then we’re on our own. We’ve talked a lot on this blog about the lack of independence and autonomy over the past three months like it’s a bad thing. Now I have to admit I’m a little scared to be out there on our own. I know as soon as we board that bus to Somoto all those fears will disappear, but taking that first step will be difficult.

Anyway, I’d like the readers’ feedback on a current dilemma I’m having. As you know, I have been sporting a beard for the past 2 or 3 years. A few of the clean-shaven male trainees came up with the idea of growing mustaches for the swearing in ceremony, as this is a traditional look amongst Nicaraguan men. They had to make the commitment weeks ago to ensure a formidable ‘stasch, and therefore have come terms with the look and are ready to face the U.S. Ambassador with a caterpillar above their lip (figure of speech, of course). For me, on the other hand, it’s an issue of “downsizing” and I consequently don’t need to deal with the thought until the wee hours before the ceremony. My question to all of you is, should I do it? Should I shave the beard for the sake of fraternity? Should I risk embarrament in front of the highest serving American official in the country? Even more importantly, should I risk a serious case of razor burn? Your thoughts, please…

Things Matt misses from the U.S.

Borders

Free Internet

Malls

Movie Theaters

Tuna Fish

American Cheese

Cheese Variety

Driving

NOT knowing where my food comes from.

Monthly cell phone plans

Law & Order

Diners

Things that Matt doesn’t miss from the States:

Winter

Things Jess misses from the U.S.:

Warm showers

Snow (at times)

Whole wheat bread

Cheddar

Reruns of Sex and the City and America’s Next Top Model

My Cat

Washing Machines

Wegmans

Bagels

Seasons (At least, I think I will – ‘hot’ and ‘rainy’ just aren’t the same as ‘winter, spring, summer, fall’).

Independence (that will change after training…..)

Jess´s Host Mom with ¨Jesus¨ during the Holy Friday processions.

Life and Times in Somoto

What a week. We returned from Somoto on Thursday after several days of whirlwind introductions and new sites to see. It is now safe to say we are absolutely in love with Somoto. The city is much quieter than expected (quieter than our tiny training towns) and the people are friendly as can be. The current mayor (on his way out in November) has spent the last 5 years really pushing Somoto forward. For his efforts, we arrived to find a new market, new public pool, new soccer stadium, a beautiful tree lined boulevard into the center of town, a new mayor’s office, and, most importantly, a city immaculately clean and fresh. Things definitely seem on the up and up in Somoto. The progress, coupled with the incredible efforts of all of the charitable orgninzations, tells us our time in Somoto will only lead to more good things.

Our host family is great. Akhnaton and Silvia, in their mid-thirties, are great cooks, keep a beautiful house, and have a collection of movies that would make my dad blush. Their two kids, Adriana (10) and Ana Sophia (4) are a handful at times, but they are an incredible resource for clear, accurate Spanish. Our room is comfortable, cool, and has just the right amount of privacy. Peace Corps mandates we live with them for 6 weeks before finding our own “casita”.” Who knows if they’ll be able to get rid of us after that.

As for work opportunities, we found ourselves striking out on our own to start relationships with non-profit organizations in the area. Officially, Jess is working with the State Health Department and I’m working for the City Health Center, but we have the freedom to pick up projects all over the city and outlining communities. Peace Corps calls these “secondary projects,” which really only means we need to put aside at least a few hours a week with our official project colleagues.

Jess and I visited a local extension of the University of Leon and sat in on an English class. We feel this is going to be a great resource for us when we start our youth groups or when we need volunteers for other projects. The extension is only 2 years old, so hopefully we can grow with it and help build the bond between the university and the local community.

Thursday morning we visited The Canyon of Somoto, one of the few draws for tourists to the city. Let me tell you that this canyon alone is worth a plane ticket from the States. Unfortunately, it’s quite a hike from the Carretera Panamericana to the mouth of the canyon and Jess and I found ourselves struggling just to make it back to Somoto in one piece. That’s probably the main reason the city hasn’t been able to really develop the location as a tourist spot: it’s incredibly inaccessible. At the same time, for those who are able to make the hike, the reward is well worth the trouble. The Canyon is a beautifully clean, tranquil place where a true adventurer can find enough nooks and crannies to get lost for hours, if not days. It’s sad that it’s inaccessibility is probably the main factor keeping the Canyon so much more perfect than other points of natural interest in Nicaragua.

All in all, we couldn’t be happier, and we invite anyone and everyone reading our blog to book that plane ticket, reserve a room at the Hotel Panamericano, and come experience beautiful Somoto!

To enter the canyon you have to take a row boat. The walls are two steep to walk.

Jess made a friend during our time in Somoto. Here is her friend examining a piece of orange she gave him. I won´t include the photo of her friend realizing it was an orange and not something more exciting....like a graham cracker. He didn´t like bananas either.

Sandinista rally as the country prepares for mayoral elections on November 4th, coincidentally. Somoto will be sad to see it´s current mayor leave, but law dictates that no one can serve back to back terms, although can be reelected after a 1 term haitus.

Isn´t she lovely? Free liquado to the person who can guess what she´s doing in this photo. Another free liquado to the person who can tell me what a liquado is.

Somoto Or Bust

It’s official! Jess and I will be spending the next two years of Peace Corps service in Somoto, Madriz, Nicaragua. Somoto is the department head and has a population 137,000 people. It’s located 200 km north of Managua and only about 50 km from the Honduran border. Apparently, the majority of the population works in basic grains production (corn and beans), but there is fledgling coffee production throughout the area as well. Somoto is called “The City of Donkeys” and I honestly have no idea why. It’s known for it’s rosquillas, which are kind of like round Cheeze-Its. Jess likes them, but I have yet to acquire the taste. The climate in Somoto is considerably cooler than the majority of Nicaragua – we’ll see just how cool this weekend.

We are meeting with our future work colleagues this week to discuss how we’d like to organize our work week. Jess and I will be working completely independently from each other, in fact for different organizations. Jess has been assigned to SILAIS, the department level government agency that handles health promotion, program level planning, epidemiological research, and MINSA (see previous post) policy implementation. I’ll be working in the Centro de Salud, which is the place people go to get medical attention. Health promoters in the Centro de Salud actually go around the community giving health talks, participating in baby weighing sessions, and working with already established groups (church groups, farmer’s co-ops, etc.) to promote healthier living.

There are several non-profits with offices in Somoto, as well. I’m most excited to find work with the World Food Programme and a Spanish NGO that focuses on food security named Accion Contra el Hambre. Jess would like to work with PROFAMILIA, a local NGO working with youth on reproductive health issues, as well as Horizonte 3000, another youth organization that does radio and TV spots promoting healthier living practices.

The great part about this is that while our home bases will be SILAIS and the Centro de Salud, we are free to work with any group or organization we’d like. For instance, there is a small NGO working on solar energy in Somoto. If we like the work they’re doing, we can take 5 or 10 hours a week out of our Health Center time and work with that NGO. Really, our only boss is the Peace Corps, allowing us to circumvent the normal power structures needed to get things done in Nicaragua.

Needless to say, Jess and I are extremely excited about this site. There is plenty of working we’re interested in. All of the amenities we will need (cell phone, internet, good restaurants) will be readily available in Somoto. Also, it looks like there are some beautiful spots to explore right outside of town, namely the Canyon de Somoto. It’s going to be great!

The church at night in Santa Teresa. It is in the process of being remodelled.

Here´s a burning sugar cane field up in Chinandega. They do this on purpose, but I´m not sure why. We stayed in Corinto, about 50 kms past this farm and the city was covered in the ash from this fire. Needless to say, respitory illnesses are a huge problem in Nicaragua.

Here´s Matt eating a pastry. Jess has such a good eye for great pictures.

Hey Dad (Dave)! This guy was wearing a Lafayette College shirt in the Corinto Health Center. Pretty much every week one of us sees a shirt from a place in the States. They are all donated down here and end up with people who have no idea what they say. Jess saw a shirt from a Barbeque place outside of Rochester. One guy in our group saw a shirt from a water polo tournament he participated in 5 years ago!

What a wild week. Jess and I came back from Chinandega on Friday. We were up there for an entire week of HIV/AIDS training. Chinandega has the highest rate of infection of HIV in Nicaragua. The first case of HIV in Nicaragua was documented in 1987 and since then only 3500 have been reported. However, the rate of infection throughout the 90’s and early 2000’s hovered around 2 or 3 per 1000 people. It shot up in 2005 and 2006. The 2007 numbers collected show an infection rate of 14 per 1000. Clearly, this is becoming a serious problem in Nicaragua, just like the rest of the world.

Some attribute this drastic increase to transient workers traveling to Honduras and Costa Rica seasonally. A fairly large prostitution business has sprung up on Nicaragua’s two borders, as well. To add to the situation, fidelity is a seldom practiced characteristic here. While men living with HIV still outnumber women living with HIV (2.3:1) the demographic group with the highest rate of infection right now are “amas de casa,” or housewives. The bottom line is this is a growing emergency in Nicaragua and the men of the country need to be informed of their role in the spread of HIV. I hope to focus a good amount of time working with men, spreading knowledge about sexually transmitted diseases, and promoting abstinence and fidelity in relationships.

The brighter side of the fight against HIV in Nicaragua is that the any efforts to combat the spread of HIV are readily accepted by the institutional powers. There are a ton of NGO’s from the US and Europe just pouring funding into Nicaragua to address the issue. Additionally, MINSA (The National Health Department) has made the HIV rapid test (results in 20 mins) available for free in the majority of health centers across the country. Even more, drugs that might cost an HIV positive person in the US thousands of dollars monthly are provided free in Nicaragua. While Jess and I don’t plan on spending all of our time on HIV/AIDS work, it’s encouraging to know that we will be supported in whatever projects we start.

On to other news: Thank you all so much for reading our blog and responding so regularly! Unfortunately, Blogger doesn’t allow us to write back to all of you when you ask us questions. We’re not ignoring you! Please feel free to email us directly (emails can be found by clicking our names on the right) if you’d like a specific question answered, and we’ll be sure to write back! We have noticed a bunch of questions about money, how we get paid, etc. I’ll try and write a little bit about that:

For our first month in Nicaragua we received a weekly stipend in Nicaraguan currency (the Cordoba). Very clandestine like, we got about 250 cords a week in cash in an envelope. So you have an idea of how much that is in US dollars, the currently conversion rate is hovering around 19 cordobas for every dollar. The way our money breaks down is about 35 cords daily for what Peace Corps calls “walk around” money. Because we are living with host families, this amount is dismally low, as we aren’t paying for food or lodging. On top of our walk around money we have money added in for travel and meals, as we are leaving our training towns at least twice a week. If you do the math it’s easy to see Peace Corps keeps us on a pretty tight budget, but hey, we are volunteering.
At the start of our second month we received bank accounts in a local bank. Peace Corps automatically deposits our money into the account weekly. We have access to it by debit card, which we can even use in a few stores and restaurants. The 35 cords a day never changes, but the net total changes based on our many times we’re out of our site during a given week, how many meals we’ll need to pay for, etc. All in all, it’s nearly impossible to save up any more than 100 cords in the account. Honestly though, that’s ok by me. The International Peace Corps budget is so miniscule, I’m still amazed at how much bang they get for their buck.

Once we’re sworn in we’ll receive a much larger bi-monthly stipend that will cover housing, food, transportation, extras, etc. Jess and I are in a great spot because married couples are treated like two separate volunteers, so we’ll be receiving two full paychecks and only paying for one apartment. Once we get to this phase we’re assuming we’ll be able to save a little bit of dough for traveling around Nicaragua, maybe splurging every once in a while for some mozzarella cheese or extra virgin olive oil.

OK, that’s how we do it down here in Nicaragua. I hope that fills in the gaps for those of you who’ve been asking. Let’s see if we can post those pictures from the last post:

Look Mom! We´re swimming in a South American River! Not a leech in site!

Jess at the beach in Chinandega.

Just Matt and a few cows in this field. Plenty of space to practice his Thai Chi. Or was that Chai Tea...

Here´s a view from the top of Volcan Masaya. It was truly incredible. Matt´s first volcano, but Jess is a veteran of these kinds of things.