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.

Week 6

So another week has passed in our training towns. Time is such an interesting contradiction for me here – at the end of ever week, I feel as if our training experience is moving so quickly. But every day feels like an eternity. Not in a bad way, just as if I every minute of my day has been devoted to learning or doing something.

So what has happened in the past week? We had our site fair last weekend – a day when all of the aspirantes/trainees get to hear people talk about how good each potential site is. Current volunteers talked about the work that needs to be done, what the climate of each site is like, which sites have internet or cell phone service, which are in the country and which are more urban.

It was an interesting process for us because, as a married couple, we have little choice in the matter. Peace Corps has known for some time now where we will be living because with two people in the same site, they needed to make sure there were two work opportunities, a host family willing to have two people live with them, etc.. But of course, they can’t tell us where we are going before the other volunteers find out. We‘ll find out this coming Friday.

We also had another language proficiency interview this week to find out how far we have come with Spanish in the last 6 weeks. Both Matt and I entered at ‘Novice High,’ according to the system that Peace Corps uses to evaluate language level. Matt has been doing amazingly well with his language progression, and while I am a bit slower, I think that things have been going well for me too. We’ll see. They tell us on Monday where we are at right now.

Other than that, things have been moving along well. Last weekend we visited the river with other aspirantes from Matt’s town and some host family members. And yesterday we visited Volcan Masaya, near Managua.

Sorry, but our pictures are not uploading right now. We´ll try to post them again soon!

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!

Week 4 Frustrations

So for me, week four has been a bit of a trial. First of all - I haven´t been feeling well. My stomach has been upset for about a week and I was worried that I might have a parasite. It looks like that isn´t the case - its probably just adjusting to a completely different style of cooking. And my ear has been bothering me - the doctor thinks that it is likely alergies, but at times I have a hard time hearing, and when you are speaking a new language, that makes things difficult.

Second, I experienced my first frustration this week with the communication options in Nicaragua. Up until now, I have lived a pretty routine life in Rosario, with little need or desire to reach the outside world. But on Wednesday, I was supposed to meet with another aspirante in the nearby town of Jinotepe to travel with her to Managua. She only lives about 10 minutes from me by bus. On Thursday night, she tried to call me to coordinate travel. The cell phone died. I tried to call back, but the house phone can´t call a cell phone. My mom has a cell phone, but she has a movistar phone, not claro - the company that the other aspirante´s family has. So, I had to guess about what time she might be going to Jinotepe. It worked out and we made it to the University bus stop in Managua. But there was a bit of a miscommunication with Peace Corps and we thought we were being picked up, but ended up walking to the office (not far, but an interesting experience in Managua, a city infamous for residents who give bad directions when questioned about nearby sites).

And I am a bit sad. Because Matt is going so far away for his volunteer visit, he has to leave early and we can´t spend any time together this weekend. I suppose that it is not a big deal - we do have two years to become sick of each other. But having had a fairly trying week, I wish that I had a bit of time to process it with someone.

But, that said, I think that this is all part of the Peace Corps process - adjusting, adjusting, adjusting - learning, learning, learning. And I am still really happy that we are here.

I´m sorry that I am not posting any pictures. Matt has our computer in Santa Teresa and the pictures are on my camera. I thought that I could download them directly from the camera, but the person operating the cyber cafe in our town didn´t know what the password was to use new hardware on the computer. So, sorry, there won´t be any pictures of the beach until at least next weekend (we won´t be back from volunteer visits until next week).

I recieved a nice letter in the mail from my parents last week - also sealed by the Nicaraguan post office when found ópen´ - very kind of them. Thats all for now!

Off to see the Volunteers!

Santa Teresa and it´s church at dusk.

It has been quite a crazy few weeks. Jess and I have been very busy and internet availability has been spotty, but it looks like we’re back on track now. A lot of people have been asking about our daily schedule here in Nicaragua. Well, here it is!

3 days a week we have Spanish class in the morning in our training towns. Each town has 3 or 4 people living in it, so the classes are small and discussion based. During the afternoon we have “applied Spanish,” which gets us out and about Santa Teresa meeting local people and practicing our lessons from the morning. About once a week we’ve been learning a Nicaraguan recipe and cooking it in one of our host families’ houses. Last week we made “bunuelos” which are kind of like fried dough, although the main ingredient is yucca root and cheese. They are fried and coated in honey. Quite delicious. This week we made “Sopa de Queso” or Cheese Soup. Interesting, but I probably won’t make it again.

2 days a week we travel to a central location where we meet up with our entire training class and have technical sessions, where we learn about Health Promotion here in Nicaragua. Right now the sessions are focused on learning how to work with specific populations we’ll encounter in our service (youth, pregnant women, macho men). These sessions get kind of long, but they are taught by volunteers currently serving, so we’re able to get a good sense of what life will be like after we swear in.

That’s been the schedule for the past 4 weeks. Week 5 is about to change all that, however. We’ll be visiting currently serving volunteers for about 4 days. I’ll be heading south to San Carlos, at the southern tip of Lake Nicaragua. It’s about a 10 hour bus ride from Managua. That’s a school bus, not a charter bus. It will be interesting, for us. Jess is headed in the exact opposite direction, almost to the border with Honduras. Her ride is about 4 hours. She’s heading into the cool mountains, and I’m heading into the rain forest. It will be an interesting 4 days, for sure. Hopefully there will be plenty of pictures to follow!

OK, here are a few pictures from last week’s Fiestas Patronales. We’ll be sure to follow them up with our trip to the beach as soon as Jess has internet access!

By the way, we received two letters today. One from the Bunnells, and one from Jeff and Marie Lyttle (and even a drawing from Megan). Thanks for all of your thoughts. It’s a great feeling to know so many people are keeping up with these posts. Gracias y Adios!

Un hombre at the Hipico (the big horse parade)

This picture brings a whole new meaning to good parenting, doesn´t it? By the way, that was the biggest bull I´ve ever seen, and I don´t think he was happy about having painted horns. Would you be?

Cute little girl on her first pony. I like this picture because of the smooch she´s getting from the giant man in a donkey cart.

Week 4 of Training

Today marks the 4th week we´ve been in Nicaragua. 1 whole month. Jess and I are having a spectular time, but this last week was insanely busy. It looks like the next two are going to be just as ¨loco.¨ I´ve got a bunch of pictures to show you all, but unfortunately don´t have the time right now.

We´ll be sure to post a very detailed update by the end of the week!

¡Fiestas Patronales en Santa Teresa!

Jess and I went to El Crucero again this week, so I made sure to bring a camera. You’ll find some pictures below of the view. It is really a beautiful spot.

Two pieces of news in this blog.

1. Jess and I received our first pieces of mail on Friday! Thank you to the Coxes out in Oregon and my parents! It took about 2 weeks for both to get here. There are a few interesting things about the Nicaraguan mail system. Everything makes it to your door opened and emptied. There’s a stamp on the letter that says it was received by the Nicaraguan Post Office already opened and that they taped it up for you. How nice!

I don’t know where it happens along the line, but the word amongst volunteers is that the letters are opened in transit to check for money, valuables, visas, etc. Packages are apparently worse, as everything is rifled through and anything that looks valuable or enticing is kept as a handling fee by those doing the sorting. We’ve learned a few tips from other volunteers about receiving mail intact from the States. I’m posting this for those of you who will be sending things, but to the rest of you, please don’t feel obligated.

TIPS FOR MAILNG TO NICARAGUA
1. Add the title “Padre” or “Hermana” in front of the recipient’s name. If the sorters believe that the package/letter is meant for a person of the cloth, they probably won’t open it.
2. Mail any kind of larger items in manilla bubble padded envelopes available at any post office or Staples. The sorters are less likely to open an envelope than a box that they can re-tape.
3. Draw crosses on the outside of any envelope to instill a sense of guilt in the sorters.
4. Include cards of different saints in packages (see number 3).

Of course, anything sensitive or valuable shouldn’t be mailed through normal mail. Most volunteers have important things sent to the U.S. houses of other volunteers who are soon to be returning and can bring more valuable things back to Nicaragua.

2nd piece of news:

Today, for the Fiestas Patronales de Santa Teresa, Jess, myself and a few other aspirantes went to “El Rodeo.” The rodeo here is exactly the same as the rodeo in the US, just a whole lot more dangerous. Jess and I paid 20 cordobas (about 1 dollar) for the cheap seats. However, at a Nicaraguan Rodeo, the cheap seats are actually the closest to the action (kinda makes sense, doesn’t it?). We were actually under the bleachers, with about 6 feet of clearance with only a few fence posts between us and the bulls. The people above were throwing garbage, spilling beer, and spitting through the slats on the “cheap seats,” but I none of us were hit.

At a Nicaraguan Rodeo anybody who wants to ride a bull is able to. Also, anyone who wants to jump into the ring and taunt the bull is able to. Such freedom is not always a good thing. One guy broke a collar bone and had blood coming out his ear. We thought he wasn’t going to make it, but he came to as soon as someone gave him a can of beer. Who knew that’s all it took?!

I also made a friend at the event, as we shared a common interest in the incredible size of the bulls. Although he was covered in tattoos, he seemed like a nice guy. An hour later, while sitting in front of my house, I saw the police march him by in hand cuffs. Apparently he’s a local “ladron,” which means pickpocket or thief. Oh well.

When I write these posts I always make it seem like we’re living in a lawless, dangerous land only seen in Spaghetti Westerns. This place is actually incredibly beautiful and the people here are friendlier than any other I’ve met. After talking with Jess last night we both agreed we haven’t been happier in a very long time. This is absolutely the best decision (joining the Peace Corps) we’ve made together as a couple, besides getting married. Thanks to everyone for all of your support!

The views from La Mision. Enjoy!

Here´s Jess, another aspirante, Jess´s Mom (Reyna), and me on our way to a volcanic laguna! Que Bueno!

Here´s a shot of Jess´s room. Gotta love that mosquito netting!