Some reading recommendations...

I have read a good amount of books since I got to Corinto. Peace Corps Volunteers have a great informal book exchange system going so I almost always have a supply of recommended books to be reading. Whenever we get together we usually bring a book or two we have just read and trade with others. Since most Peace Corps volunteers in Nicaragua dont have TVs (although most Nicaraguans do) we end up doing a lot of reading! Anyways, since its the Christmas season and people are thinking about what they want to give or recieve I thought Id put down the books that Ive read in Corinto for some ideas. I honestly liked all of the books Ive read except one.

Here are the books Ive read, in order of when I read them (and yes, I do keep a list):

The Blood of Brothers by Stephen Kinzer
This is a book about the war here in Nicaragua during the 1980s between the Sandinistas and the Contras (aka U.S. Government). Its a really good read for anyone that is thinking about visiting me or is curious what exactly happened here in Nicaragua during the 80s.

The Best American Non-Required Reading 2006 by Various Authors
This was a gift to me before I left for Nicaragua and I really enjoyed it. Editors pick out random reading material such as newspaper articles, short stories, graduation speeches or blog entries and compile them into this book. The 2006 edition was great and Im sure the 2007 edition would be just as good. Its great as a book to just pick up and read whenever, you dont need to read them in order.

Confessions of an Economic Hitman by John Perkins
This book is really interesting for anyone interested in international politics, especially U.S. work in developing countries. It is the true story of a guy who says he ended up screwing over a lot of developing countries while working for the U.S. government all in the name of helping developing countries. Im not sure I believe everything in the book, but nonetheless it is a very interesting read.

Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
This was also a gift before I left. It took a while to get into but turned into some of the best writing and storytelling I have ever read in a novel. Its such a unique story thats written in a wierd style but I would definitly recommend it to anyone interested in something a little different.

Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder
The best book that Ive read here. It is the story of a Harvard doctor that opens a clinic in rural Haiti. It is very well written and the story solidified my desire to get a Masters in Public Health and work in international public health when I am done with Peace Corps.

Lost in Transmission by Jonathan Harley
Ive been told this book is out of print, but if you can find it, its definitly worth the read. Its about an Australian journalist that gets posted to the Indian subcontinent in 2000. As the events of 9/11 unfold he is assigned to Afghanistan and other countries in the area. He weaves the current news stories of the day with his own struggle as a person adapting to living and working in India and Afghanistan. Since its written by an Australian, it also offers a different perspective on those events.

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
Ive been told there is a movie from this book. The book, although a bit depressing it is a very well written and well informed novel about an Indian family that has moved to the United States. Maybe I just like all the books that are about foreigners adapting in a new country, but the story and characters are very real which make this a very interesting read.

Naked by David Sedaris
A typical David Sedaris book with different disconnected stories about his life growing up. It is definitly funny and an easy read. Its a good beach or brainless book, but it doesnt have a lot of meat to it.

Dreams of my Father by Barack Obama
This is the first book by Obama before he hit the national political stage. For that exact reason it is a compelling book. His words are not glossed over by fears of how it might affect his campaigns. He talks candidly about his views, angers and drug use. I feel like I got an idea of how he thinks which is an important thing to know about a presidential candidate. And besides all that, his story of growing up is just plain interesting with a Kenyan father and a Kansan mother and growing up in Hawaii, Indonesia and L.A.

The Things they Carried by Tim OBrien
I had wanted to read this book for a while and Im glad I finally did. It is about the Vietnam war. OBrien is a very skilled writer and writes this book not as a continuous story but different fragments of one big complicated story. OBrien is a Vietnam veteran and I feel like I got a better idea the experience as a young man in war and now as an older man struggling with his memories. Its a quick read and I definitely recommend it.

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Housseini
This is the second book by the author of The Kite Runner. I cant say if this was better or worse than the Kite Runner but its woth the read. It follows the story of two women in Afghanistan and the impossible lives that they are leading. It gives good insight into the history of Afghanistan although much of the story is very depressing.

The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
Since I work trying to convince Nicaraguan adolescents to live healthily, I thought that this book was very useful. It describes the phenomenon of how trends or behaviors change. It is very anecdotal so its an easy read and the information is valuable to anyone, no matter where you work or live.

Hawaii by James Michner
This book was 1034 pages so its a bit of a time investment. That being said, I am super glad I read it. Michner writes historical novels that are full histories of a region. In this case he starts in Hawaii with how the volcanoes were formed, moving to the story of the first inhabitants of the islands and how they got there. The majority of the story involves the missionaries and other immigrants that came to the islands over the years between the early 1800s and 1900s and how they shaped the history of the islands. I read the first half of this book, set it down for a couple of weeks and then read the second half. Its a committment but well worth it.

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
Anyone that lives in Chicago should read this book. It is the true story of a serial murderer in Chicago during the time of the worlds fair in Chicago. I have lived in the Chicago area my whole life but didnt really know anything about the worlds fair or this murderer. They both are fascinating stories. Larson did tons of research and writes this book like a novel using dialogues from the real life diaries of the people in the book.

All I really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum
This was the one book I didnt really like. A little corny for me. But I read it because I picked it up to see what it was about and when I realized it was crap, I was on page 50. The book only had 190 pages so I thought, what the hell, Ill just finish it. And thats how it got on this list, but I dont recommend it. Unless of course you like corny, which some people do and thats ok...

Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone by J.K. Rowling
I had never read a Harry Potter book nor seen a movie so I felt like I was finally in the loop on pop culture. Everyone knows about this book so Ill just say, if youve been avoiding Harry Potter, dont, you should read this, its a fun read.

Friday Night Lights by H.G. Bissinger
I hear that this is a popular TV show in the States now. But I guarantee the book is better. It follows a west Texas football team through a season in the 80s. It talks about race, economics and the dynamics of a football team. A good read that kind of made me want to play high school sports again.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
Ditto.

The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger
Ive never seen the movie but the book was great. Apparently the commercial fishing industry is really interesting and I never knew! It is a very interesting story of a boat lost at sea but it also give info on storm systems, rescue operations, the fishing industry, and the ocean.

The Kalahari Typing School for Men by Alexander McCall Smith
Quick easy fun read. Its about a womens detective agency in Africa and small simple stories that result. It is a book series but you dont need to read them in order.

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
Im not going to lie, I borrowed this book because it had the word elephant in the title and I love elephants. It doesnt have much to do with elephants but the story is still great. It is about an old man in a nursing home who is recalling his memories as a young orphaned man working with a travelling circus. The world of a travelling circus in the 1930s is really fascinating and the author definitely did her work finding out all the details about that life. This is one of my very recommended books.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
If you want to know what using all sorts of crazy drugs is like but dont actually want to use them, just read this book. It is written as one big trip in Las Vegas in the 70s. I enjoyed reading it but Im not sure everyone would.

The Firm by John Grisham
A page turner. Somehow Ive never read this extremely popular book but Im glad I did! Ive read other Grisham books and he always knows how to weave together a great story. Also recommended, but everyone has probably already read it!

Anyways, those are my recommendations for Xmas gifts. Im trying to be in the christmas spirit here, but 90 degree weather makes it tough. But Im not complaining, Im worried about the freezing cold when I get home! See everyone soon!

La Griteria

One of the biggest celebrations of the year just took place yesterday, December 7th. They call this day La Griteria, or in my crudely translated Spanish, The Shouting. It celebrates the Virgin Mary on the day before the religious holiday celebrating the Conception of the Virgin Mary on December 8th.

I had been waiting to see what this holiday was like for a long time. For the past 3 months Nicas have been telling me, ´Youve never been here for the Griteria, its so alegre, so alegre. Its so happy´. I figured it was a good holiday, but its hard to get excited about a holiday that youve never seen and isn´t part of your tradition growing up. My neighbors and co-workers were anxiously awaiting this day but I was indifferent; I was just happy I was getting a half day off work to do some long needed clothes washing. But, after participating last night, I think this holiday won me over.

The holiday is similar to Halloween except that it celebrates the Virgin Mary instead of all things freaky and devilish. But the main idea is that kids and adults go around ´shouting´ to peoples houses that have an altar of the Virgin Mary set up and yell ´Quien causa tanta alegria? ´ which means, Who causes so much happiness? Then the person inside the house responds with ´La Concepcion de Maria´ or The Conception of the Virgin Mary. Then the people visiting the house start singing various songs praising the glory and sanctity of the Virgin Mary. As the visitors are singing, the people inside the house hand out presents to the people singing. These gifts can be anything such as candy, juices, laundry detergent, matches, whistles, plates, buckets, ice cream, firecrackers, or balloons. Really anything goes, and it obviously usually depends on how much money the family has. When a family gives out plates or buckets or ice cream there is usually a huge crowd outside the house, everyone shouting and singing. It can get kind of crazy!

I think I like it better than Halloween for a the folloing reasons. First, everyone participates, not just kids. Second, its not just candy, its random stuff. I received a hand sewn matchbox holder to hang on my wall, I never even knew they existed, and now I have one. What a nice surprise! Third, the timing of the holiday couldnt be better. Families giving out presents to whoever comes to their door all in the name of the Virgin Mary, it put me in the Christmas spirit!

Here is a website that talks a little bit more about the traditions of the holiday:
http://www.vianica.com/go/specials/8-december-celebrations-nicaragua.html

And here is a passage I found that apparently explains the history of the holiday:

The story goes that Bishop Monseñor Isidro Augusto Oviedo y Reyes made a promise to the Virgin Mary as he sought her protection from the violent eruptions of the Cerro Negro volcano in Leon, Nicaragua that occured from late July and early August of 1947. The volcano had been sending rivers of lava down its slopes and raining sand and ash down upon the streets of Leon with increasing fury for weeks. For her protection of the city, he promised that Leonesas would celebrate her assumption with city-wide processions every year on this day.

This celebration of penitence is also referred to as “Purísima de Penitencia” or “Virgin Mary of Penitence.” This particular day is unique to Leon while the rest of the nation (and Leon again) celebrates the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary on December 7th.

Here are some pictures of the La Griteria in Corinto:

The altar of the Virgin Mary a family friend put up.


Kids shouting and singing to the altar.


You cant see this well, but it is the central park in Corinto, complete with Xmas tree and Xmas lights.


Here are the family friends kids in front of the xmas tree. I went with them to go ´shouting´ as they call it.



This is one of the houses that gave out plates so there was a crowd in front.


Thats all I have for right now. Ill be heading home in less than 2 weeks, I hope to see people then!

The pics finally...

I finally got some of the pictures loaded.



This is a pic of some youth group kids putting an HIV awareness poster on the back of the buses that go between Corinto and the big city, Chinandega. As I have mentioned before these buses are old school buses from the U.S. Unfortunately this one is not painted interestingly, some of them are painted really bright colors with cool designs.



This was during the pool tournement. I was teaching them how HIV is transmitted. The girl with me is someone that works with me, otherwise you probably wouldnt see any and women in the picture.



The guy who just shot the cue ball is the eventual champion.



Me with the champion and owner of the Billiards hall. The champion won about 15 dollars and a soccer ball.

December 1st

December 1^st was a lot of things for me this year.

I completed eight months living in Corinto on December 1^st. Since I have a 24 month commitment here, I am a third of the way done. Time is flying by, a little too fast if you ask me.

December 1^st was also the day my $50 monthly rent on my house was due. Not super important, but noteworthy.

It was also the start of December, the month that I go home to visit my friends and family in the States. It was the first day that this trip felt close and when I thought about it I got a very excited/anxious feeling in my stomach.

And, as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the health sector, December 1^st also meant that it was Dia Mundial Contra SIDA, or World AIDS Day. We as health volunteers are encouraged to organize our own activities or help with the organization of community activities on this day. Since my community is in an area of Nicaragua with a high incidence rate of HIV/AIDS, we have a Municipal Commission for the Fight Against AIDS. The main organizers of this committee are myself, my counterpart (who works at the health center in Corinto), and another Nicaraguan who is the head of a human rights NGO. The three of us are supported by representatives or volunteers from local schools, the Red Cross and other NGOs.

We organized three different events throughout the whole day. From 10am – 3pm we had informative booths with information in front of the supermarket, bus stop and in the central park. Members of my youth groups and members of the Commission were in charge of manning these booths. It was pretty successful because we got the information distributed but a lot of people were really embarrassed to approach the booths and take the information. So, the resourceful youth group members took the brochures and went in search of people, passing them out to taxi drivers and people who passed by but didn’t stop at the booth.

Then at 3pm, I planned a pool tournament at one of the local pool halls. One of the new focuses of the Peace Corps health program in Nicaragua is targeting men to encourage safe sex and healthy practices. Seems obvious right? But, in a strained health system like Nicaraguan, the country-wide health focus immediately goes to women and children, the most vulnerable. Since Peace Corps works directly with the Nicaraguan health system, our focus used to also be on women and children. Men get their health information from their friends or not at all and they rarely ever see a doctor except for emergency situations. Peace Corps still has a big focus on women, children and adolescent but we are also trying to go to where the men are and educate them on things like HIV/AIDS. Pool halls are pretty much exclusively the domain of men and most women are afraid to go in them. Men go there to drink and play pool for 5 cents a game.

The pool tournament was an idea that I learned in my Peace Corps training and it goes something like this. Sixteen participants in a single elimination tournament and after the first round I give a 10 minute talk on what HIV is and how it is transmitted. Then the guys play the second round and afterwards I give a 10 minute talk on how to prevent contracting HIV. They play the third round then I give a talk on the correct uses of a condom and passed out condoms to the players. Condom use is not common here and many men have never touched a condom let alone used one even though they have very questionable sexual practices. At that point they play the championship game and after a player sinks a ball, they have to answer a question based on the talks that I gave. If they get it wrong the ball comes out and is put back on the table. If they get it right they continue. These questions reinforce the information for the players and also for the audience that has gathered to watch the championship. Our tournament had 16 participants and about 25 onlookers that couldn’t help but also learn about HIV and its prevention. I was a little nervous about going in and doing this tournament because the guys that go to billiards halls (especially in a port town like Corinto) are usually pretty rough around the edges. I was going to be this clean cut gringo walking in and interrupting their good time. But the reality was that the guys gave me respect and really enjoyed the tournament. I had a great time doing it and hope to do the tournament in other billiards halls around Corinto in the next couple of months.

The third activity was a movie in the central park about HIV. A Nicaraguan NGO made a soap opera series (as you may know, Latinos LOVE their telenovelas) about social issues such as HIV, teenage pregnancy, violence and other important issues. So we showed an episode of that series that was about HIV. There is rarely “something to do” out of the norm in Corinto so we got a pretty good audience for it.

I think it ended up being a really good day and in the end everything came together. We had big problems in the beginning with organization. We had a truck organized to pick up the materials and drop them off at their respective places at 8am. The truck arrived at 10:45am. We told the people who were helping us to arrive at 9am. They started trickling in at around 10:15. You always hear about working with other cultures and how they aren’t punctual and you think, ¨if someone shows up to a meeting 30 minutes late, it’s not that big of a deal.¨ But it starts to get really difficult to work with people when you depend on them for a big event and they aren’t responsible about it. I would say that this is the biggest challenge I have here. Not just people being late, but people not taking their commitments seriously. Anyways, in the end all the events turned out great. But between the hours of 8am and 11am, I wanted to pull my hair out and scream because it seemed like our entire event was going to fall flat on its face. The Nicaraguans I was working with were also frustrated but not as worried as I was. I guess they are just more used to working like that. Although, all in all, it was a great work day.

I tried to post more pictures but I could only get a few to work. Here is one of some of the participants in the tournament listening to my talk. I´ll try to post more pictures later.

Pics

This is one more pic I could load. They are some of my youth group kids with a representative from the red cross. They are manning a table in front of the fire station which also happens to be where the bus stop is

Baseball Fever

Baseball season has started here in Nicaragua and its impossible not to notice. All the kids (and adults) that usually play soccer in the streets or on the beach have traded in their soccer ball and stick goalposts for a bat and glove. The end of the World Series and the beginning of the Nicaraguan national baseball league coincide and it gets everyone baseball crazy. People claim that baseball is the national sport in Nicaragua but if you ask anyone under 30 they’ll tell you that soccer is by far their favorite sport. A lot of kids will follow the major leagues because they play the games on TV here. Usually, the favorite team is the Yankees, presumably because of Daddy Yankee the famous Reggaeton star. Although, generally, even the biggest baseball fan here still puts more weight into who wins the Real Madrid vs. Barcelona game in the Spanish soccer league.

There are a handful of baseball players that make it to the big leagues from Nicaragua, but usually no one famous. The most famous player to come out of Nicaragua is Denis Martinez. The Nicaraguan national baseball league only consists of 4 teams that continually play each other ( http://www.lnbp.net/ ). Luckily there is a team from the nearby big city, Chinandega, and I hope to go to some of the games this season. This league consists of mostly Nicaraguans with a few washed up Americans and other Latino players. The start of this league and end of the World Series gave me the opportunity to play some beach baseball with the neighbourhood kids and their newfound enthusiasm for baseball.

The field we played on was the sand on the beach. Corinto has an interesting beach where there is a sand wall, or cliff, 10 feet high about 30 feet from the shoreline. Behind the cliff is a big flat field of sand. In front of the cliff is the 10 foot drop, 30 feet of sand, then the water. So we played on the big flat field of sand. As you look down the beach, you can see 3 or 4 other beach baseball games going on, whereas only last week, you’d see3 or 4 beach soccer games. The catch about the field location is that left field has a cliff down the middle of it. And I, of course, was lucky enough to play left field. More on that later. A neighbourhood boy’s dad has a collection of 8 or 9 gloves for when a Corinto league sometimes gets organized. He is nice enough to lend them out for the afternoon to play the beach baseball games. Luckily he had a left handed glove for me to use. Unluckily, it was made for a 7 year old, but it worked well enough. We used metal bats and a ball that looks like it was made from wrapping a golf ball in a LOT of electrical tape. We played with home plate, only two bases (made by a pile of sandals), and no catcher. The teams consisted of about 3 adults (me being an adult), 3 teenagers and 3 kids.

I was a little nervous when we first started playing because this was my new neighbourhood and I didn’t want to make a fool of myself in front of the new neighbourhood kids by making errors and striking out. But luckily that faded when on my first at bat I hit a home run (or jonron). After living my life being the ¨small kid on the team¨, I forgot that I was the big kid on this team and playing well would be easier than I thought. I only made a fool of myself once when I forgot about the whole ¨cliff in the middle of left field¨ thing. I was going for a fly ball that was going to land before the cliff drop. I was aware of the cliff, but forgot that by chasing the fly ball full speed, my momentum would carry my over the 10 foot sand cliff. Well that’s what happened, Paul going nearly full speed over this sand cliff. No damage done (the sand is soft at the bottom) except a few scrapes from broken shells. I climb over the wall and everyone is telling me, ¨Pablo, you don’t need to try that hard, you don’t need to jump over the cliff!¨ I just looked sheepishly and said I forgot about the cliff.

Anyways, that game, and the game the next day, were really fun, and I hope the baseball fever continues so I can play some more beach baseball. It has been a good way to get to know other people in the neighbourhood and have a good time hanging out at the beach.

I hope all is well with everyone else…I’m sure you enjoyed hearing about me at the beach while you guys are experiencing the November cold settle in. Remember, you can always take a vacation down to Corinto to play baseball, we’ll put you in left field and see how you do!

House Pics

I moved into my new house about a month ago and I thought I´d show you guys some pics. I tried to post these earlier but the website wouldn´t let me. But now I´ve got them so here they are:


This is my front door and window. That tree is an almond tree but I have no idea when it actually produces almonds or how they taste.



This is the house directly across the street from mine. I think its really funny because they have a painted Santa Clause, two American flags, two xmas candles and a pink door with an xmas bell on it. I´ve got a house with a great view!

This is a picture of my street taken from in front of my house to the left.

This is the front part of my front room. The front window and door are there on the right and my bookshelf with novels and workbooks is there on the left. And of course, my hammock and bike.

This is the corner of my front room. It is in the corner opposite of my front door. That doorway leads into my bedroom. I have my two hammocks for louging around and the table and chairs for eating or planning classes.



This is a pic of my bedroom. On the left there is my ¨closet¨, a bar with clothes hanging on it, straight ahead is my bed. The door at the end is the door into the kitchen. And that yellow and green thing in the foreground, is a cot, but I use it like a table when I don´t have visitors. The two doors on the right go out to my patio but I usually just keep them closed.




This is my kitchen. You may recall that at my other house my kitchen was outside in the patio. This is completely closed in so it is a big step up. I have my fridge on the right, stove straight ahead, and sink and clothes washing station in the bottom left. That doorway goes into my bedroom.



View from the back of my patio. My clothes are hung there after a morning of washing. The first door there is into the kitchen, and the second two doors are into my bedroom. That little box thing in the ground is a well. I don´t use it but my neighbor who doesn´t have running water comes over and gets water from it.




Thats all. Thats my house. I really like it, its a lot bigger and nicer that my other house. Plus I like the neighborhood a lot more. I´ve had a chance to make some new friendships so overall the move has been a great thing!

Update...

I´m going back home right now. The rains have mostly stopped and supposedly are not going to start up again. In fact, I´ve even heard that the rainy season is over which would be fastastic so all the stuff in my house would stop molding. Anyways, back to the real life...

Still here...

So I mentioned in my last blog that I was stuck in a hotel in Chinandega...

Well, thankfully they let us leave and go home on Wednesday. I went back and explained to everyone why I was absent for the previous 5 days and started to get myself settled back in. But of course, Saturday morning I receive a phone call telling me a tropical storm is coming towards Chinandega and that I have to head back to that same hotel. I was not happy about it but I grudgingly packed up and went. On the positive side I got to watch the Illinois vs. Michigan game last night. Although they lost, it was a fun game to watch and cool to see the pics of Memorial Stadium and Kams. Also, the hotel is going to do some of our laundry which is fantastic becuase we cant do our own laundry on account of the rain (and not really being home to be able to wash).

In other words, Im still in the hotel with nothing new to report. Hopefully the rains stops and the sun comes out so I can go home! (but not until after tonight so I can watch the Boston v. Cleveland game on cable tv!)

New House

So unfortunately I’m still stuck in a hotel wasting the hours away watching TV and using internet. The rain has calmed down a lot but the Peace Corps has still not allowed us to leave. The say a tropical storm is headed our way, but we’ll see if it actually shows up.

Anyways, since I have some extra time on my hands I figured I would write about the new house that I moved into. I feel like 50% of my blog entries are about me moving or my house, but I have been moving around a lot. Hopefully, this will be my last.

So I moved to a different house in Corinto a week and a half ago. With the evacuation thing I have only spent 5 nights there but I really like it so far. I enjoyed the old house I lived at but I always knew that I wasn’t going to stay there my whole two years. My old house was right in the center of town and not on a very residential street. I always knew I wanted to live in more of a neighborhood area and away from the chaos of the center of town. Also, the walls in my old house were paper thin and didn’t reach all the way to the ground, so I could hear EVERYTHING that my neighbors said and did. And I shared a shower and patio with my neighbor, so I lacked a lot of privacy. So in the past couple of months I have been casually looking for a new place to live.

My best friend here, Manuel, told me about a house that his mom owned in a neighborhood that I really like. He told me that the current tenant was going to move out soon and I would be able to move in. I decided I was ready to move and that this was good timing. So last weekend, I paid a guy $5 to come with his pick up truck and help me move my stuff from my old house to my new house. Moving wasn´t too difficult but it was a bit tiring. The day after I moved in a bought a few new things for my house including a CD player which is awesome to finally listen to my own music! (anyone that wants to send me interesting CDs, that would be great!)

The new house is about double the size of my old house. It has a really big living room when you walk in. Then I have a decently sized bedroom and an indoor kitchen and bathroom. My old house had a kitchen and bathroom in the patio so having it indoors is a big improvement (think bathroom trips in the rainy season, much better to not have to leave the house).

The other great thing about my new house is that I live really close to a lot of my students from my 6th grade classes. The classes have recently ended with them so I still get to hang out with them. Believe or not I really love hanging out with the 6th grade kids here. Before I came to Nicaragua, working with middle school kids was my nightmare, but these kids have won me over. Anyways, I live by these kids and a bunch of other kids since this is more of a residential family neighborhood. I wanted to live by a lot of teenagers because that is the population that I work with.

Anyways, overall I am really happy about the move. I have a mango and lime tree in my backyard which is pretty awesome to me. I´ll try to post pictures soon of my house and the neighborhood but since I am not currently in my house I cant take the pics. Soon though...

RAIN!

Sorry I haven´t written in a long time, I have been busy in the past couple of weeks. I´ll write about that in a blog later today, but right now all I can think about is RAIN.



I wrote about rain in a blog earlier in the year, but the rainy season really kicked it up a notch in the past week. Since this past monday, it has rained continuously pretty much every moment of the day and night. I vaguely recall a thursday afternoon break from the rain for about an hour, but thats it! Is this what a monsoon is? Anyways, in addition to this, I conveniently left my rain coat in the office in Managua, good work Paul. So basically I just have to wait for the times when the rain slows down to be just a drizzle to go anywhere I need to go.



This rain has been irritating for many reasons. First and foremost, when its raining all the time you can not hang your clothes out to dry. I desperately needed clean clothes (as did the rest of Corinto/Nicaragua) so I had to wash and dry my clothes inside, which leaves everyone smelling fairly mildewy, gross. The other thing is that everything is just wet. The air is wet, you can feel it. My bed and clothes feel moist. My matches wont light which means its difficult to light my gas stove (after 20 failed tries with 20 different matches, lucky number 21 finally lit). My patio flooded. My shoes and bottoms of pants are always wet. Its just gross. Thank goodness the rainy season is over in another month.



But this irritating rain might, and already has, turn into a bigger problem. There is a lot of flooding all across the country. Peace Corps office in Nicaragua has consolidated all the volunteers in their nearest big city or in Managua, the capital city. Which means I am currently in Chinandega with the other volunteers from Chinandega waiting out this rain in a hotel (not bad, it has a TV and three free meals a day). Supposedly there are a couple of tropical storms headed our way so they are afraid if they dont get us out of our sites now, the already saturated ground will completely flood when these bigger storm systems come and we´ll be trapped in our sites. As of yesterday there were a few volunteers that were stuck in their sites and Peace Corps went to get them in their cars with snorkel gear (air intake above the roof of the car so it can pass through deep waters). I think all the volunteers are safe in their consolidation points now. Us volunteers don´t think anything serious will happen but I guess its better to be safe than sorry. The staff of Peace Corps Nicaragua is really great about keeping us safe. They may be overcautious, but they are responsible for 150 some volunteers so it makes sense.

Anyways, thats my life right now, wet and on hold. I´ll write later this week about my new house and the project I´m working on. But, I want to take pictures of my new house (hopefully not flooded!) to post on here. I hope all is good and dry with everyone!

More parade pics...

I just posted about independence day, see previous post. Here are some more pics.

Cute little girls in traditional dresses.
I thought this girl was funny. Despite the fact that all other participants got hot and tired after 2.5 hours (temperature in the 90s and long sleeve and marching, yikes!) this little girl did not stop dancing the whole time.

More traditional dress...

This is my host sister in Corinto, Karen. All the girls from her school braided their hair like that the night before. This is also taken very close to my house.

Independence Day...Nica Style

September 14th and 15th Nicaragua celebrates its independence from Spain. When they gained their independence in 1821 it was as part of a coutry that comprised of all of Central America. Central America would later break apart to the independent countries that exist today; Nicaragua gained its complete independence in 1838.

In Nicaragua they celebrate independence day with a big parade, similar to the United States. The parade consists of representatives from each primary and secondary school. Each school has a Banda de Guerra which is basically a marching band, but with only percussion. Each school somehow obtains drums (I think they borrow them from somewhere, but I´m not sure where) and then for the 3 months leading up to independence day they practice how to play the instruments. Also, each school has their own band uniform. Some are just variations on their school uniforms, and some are much more elaborate marching band uniforms. Because they have to pay a neighborhood lady to make their uniform, usually only the rich kids can play an instrument (but I guess thats not much different than the U.S.). Accompanied behind the band are the best students of the school (who don´t have to pay, so there is some justice). In front of the band are the dance group. Most of the schools also have some students in traditional dress that will carry the sign saying which school they are representing.

Today (14th) they did a parade around Corinto with each school all dressed up, dancing and marching and playing their percussion heavy songs. The dancer girls would dance scandalously in front of them. Even though I´ve never seen the movie, I couldn´t help but feel like I was on the set the movie Drumline. It was really fun because I know a lot of the kids that were marching so it was fun to see them all dressed up in uniform and playing an instrument. Plus, marching bands are just cool.

Tomorrow they are going to have a competition between the secondary schools for best band. Should be pretty great to watch.


Here is a picture of one schools dancing girls.

This is the public high school of Corinto, and also the biggest secondary school in Corinto.

Another one of the marching bands, with possibly the most extravagant uniforms. The two kids playing the xylophone things are my students. This also happens to be right in front of my house, with the ice cream shop in the background.

These are some of the girls in nicaraguan traditional dresses (but people only wear them for nostalgic occasions like this, you won´t see any random woman on the streets like this).

This is the group that especially reminded me of Drumline. The girls shook their stuff in 5 inch heel leather boots during a 2.5 hour long parade. Now thats pride for your country.

Hurricane Felix

I got a few questions if I or any of my friends were affected by Hurricane Felix that passed through the eastern coast of Nicaragua and parts of Honduras. Luckily, no one I know was affected. I am on the western coast of Nicaragua and the hurricane never passed here. Peace Corps Nicaragua doesn´t have any volunteers on the east coast (for security and logistical reasons) so there were no Peace Corps Nicaragua volunteers were involved. Some volunteers in the northern Nicaragua border areas were evacuated as a precautionary measure but the hurricane did not end up passing through there.

The northeastern Nicaraguan coast was hit pretty bad as well as parts of Honduras. Since I don´t have a television or recieve the newspaper I get sometimes get unreliable information, but I´ve been told that 90% of the roofs in that region of Nicaragua were torn off in the storm. On Monday, my site Corinto, the biggest Nicaraguan port town on the Pacific, is doing a fundraising event to to support the relief effort in Puerto Cabezas, the biggest Nicaraguan port on the Atlantic. Hopefully, Puerto Cabezas, and the rest of the towns affected, will recieve the support they need to rebuild.

You can read (perhaps more reliable information) about the Hurricane Felix in this New York Times article sent to me by a friend:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/05/world/americas/05hurricane.html?em&ex=1189137600&en=4199cd261ec85c76&ei=5087%0A

Paradise

A week and a half ago I had the great opportunity to go to San Juan del Sur with a couple of friends from my training group. My friend Danielle (who was my neighbor in my training town) had her parents visiting Nicaragua for 2 weeks and her parents rented a villa in this beautiful Nicaragua tourist destination. You may have read about this beach on the south western coast as ¨the next Costa Rica¨ and the ¨great new place for Americans to retire¨. There is a lot of development going on in that area, but luckily it isn´t overrun by tourism...yet. There are a lot of foreigners around in this small town which is nice because it causes coffee shops and english language bookstores to exist (whereas they are non-existent in the rest of the country).

Anyways, these pictures are part of my response to the people that said ¨Why the hell would I want to go to Nicaragua?¨ when I tried to convince them to visit me.


This is our ¨family dinner¨ cooked by Danielle´s stepmom. As you can tell we had bottles of wine, nice dinnerware and delicious chicken cacciatore. It was a nice break from rice and beans eaten alone at my plastic table and chairs on Winnie the Pooh plastic plates (that makes my life sound really sad, but honest, its not!).


This is me, Danielle, Lisa and Jonathon in the wonderfully American kitchen.

The villas are built into this hillside. The brand new Villas de Palermo are only $130 a night (two bedrooms, two bath, kitchen, living room and a gorgeous pool...do you see my future as a travel agent?)

This was our view from the villa. You can see the reception/restaurant and pool are in the bottom left corner. You can see the ocean in the background. The only drawback was that the ocean (and town) was a 5 minute drive away. But to us it wasnt a drawback because the pool overlooked that beautiful green landscape so we were more than content to spend our time lounging by the pool.

The PCVs poolside.

As you can see it was a beautiful spot and we were very lucky to be invited by Danielle´s parents to spend the weekend with them. It was also a great chance to just relax with some of my friends here. Usually when we see each other we are in a big group and rushing around somewhere so this was a nice break. Anyways, your trip to Nicaragua to visit me can clearly be as luxurious as you want (as long as you´re paying). Think about it...

p.s. for you future retirees: these villas are also for sale and San Juan del Sur is supposed to be a good investment right now. I´ll even offer my services of ¨taking care¨of the villa during my time here...

My Routine

Some people have been wondering what exactly my job or day-to-day life looks like here in Corinto, Nicaragua so I thought I’d share an average week.

Monday and Tuesday are generally what I call my free days. This means that if I need to make any meetings, work on any side projects or plan my classes I do it on Monday and Tuesday. This isn’t to say I do nothing on Mondays and Tuesdays, I just don’t have any consistent obligations on those days. Mondays and Tuesdays I go to the health center in the morning and work in the nurses’ office. Sometimes I’ll have meetings in the mayor’s office or in the schools, so I’ll go there. But my home base for those days is the health center. I hang out, chat it up with the nurses and doctors and do my work. I’ll usually eat at a small café right next to the hospital that serves rice, beans, and some sort of typical Nicaraguan meat dish.

Wednesday’s and Thursday’s are my busiest days. In the mornings of each of these days I go to elementary schools and give health classes to 5^th and sixth graders. Right now I am at the end of a twelve week series in two different schools, so I know the kids decently well. This might be my favorite thing because its fun to hang out with kids of that age. My classes have been topics such as self-esteem, puberty, effective communication, and preventing HIV and teenage pregnancy. I have a good time with the kids but my level of enthusiasm for teaching goes on a week by week basis. Some classes go really well and others not so well. But overall I really enjoy teaching in the schools.

Wednesday and Thursday afternoon I also meet with two separate youth groups. About 3 months ago, my counterpart, Xiomara (in charge of community outreach and education for the health center) and I went around Corinto looking for adolescents in different neighborhoods to form youth groups. Right now we have 3 different functioning youth groups. Sometimes Xiomara and I meet with them together, but since she is busy with other duties, a lot of times I meet with the youth groups alone. I plan ahead of time games and a topic to talk about. The topics are generally the same as the ones I cover in the schools.

Friday’s vary. In the afternoon I meet with the 3^rd youth group. In the mornings sometimes I go to the hospital or have another meeting. But a lot of times I wash clothes Friday mornings. Washing clothes by hand takes time so in order to catch up with my mountain of laundry, I’ll wash on Fridays (to supplement my Saturday and Sunday morning washing).

Weekends also vary. I usually go out for some beers one night of the weekend with my friends Manuel and Vilma. They are two Nicaraguan friends my age who have been great friends to me since I moved to Corinto, they helped me find my house and helped me get acquainted to Corinto so I’m lucky to have them. In the mornings I’ll wash my clothes and in the afternoons I’ll clean my house, go to the beach, go hang out with the other volunteer that lives in Corinto or go into Chinandega (the closest big city) to buy things or meet up with other volunteers. Another things I like to do that surprises people is keep myself up to date on movies. They sell bootleg dvd’s here for $1 (fairly bad quality but still watchable) so I’ll buy them or borrow them and then my neighbors and I will watch them on their dvd player. I have seen The Simpsons, The Departed, and Ocean’s 13 among other in the past couple of months. I’ve probably seen more new releases here than I would have in the U.S. Anyways, I also read a lot to keep myself entertained. I read about a book a week, and Peace Corps provides us free Newsweeks (we can pick them up when we are in the PC office in Managua) to entertain ourselves.

Along with this, I try to go running at least 4 times a week. Now that it’s gotten a bit cooler here in Corinto I run at 5:30pm along the beach and it’s fairly comfortable. Plus I get to watch the sunset every day which is added motivation to go run. All of this routine stuff added in with the random obligations of life keeps me fairly busy.

That’s my week in a nutshell. Any questions?

This is a picture of a couple of the girls in one of the youth groups. This particular youth group is all female. The other two are coed. It wasn´t our intention to have an all female group but they were the only ones that maintained interesting in attending the group meetings. The woman on the right is my counterpart, Xiomara.

Interesting news article

This article was sent to me thanks to my mother. I think it is an interesting article describing the political situation in Nicaragua. It talks about some of the power outages in the capitol city, Managua. These problems are affecting the energy supplies here and causing all areas of the country to ration electricity. Here in Corinto, we don´t have power between 7am and 3pm. Every part of the country has its own schedule of when the power is off. Anyways, here is the Chicago Tribune article, (thanks mom!)

Chicago Tribune Article 8-13-2007



Everyone have a good weekend!

for the record...

My family that just came and visited me and saw me in person say this after reading my blog:
¨I don´t know why people say you´re fat, you didnt look fatter to us when we saw you.¨

Regardless, i do need to cut back on that delicious fritanga...

Bats and fat.

I thought I would share two quick stories about adapting to life in Nicaragua.

The other day I was working on some of the materials for a youth workshop in one of the offices of the health center and was really hot. I ride my bike to the health center so often times I arrive and I am hot. It doesnt help that the offices are small and usually have only one small window to fresh (hot) air. So I´m sitting, sweating, making these materials in the office, when something big flies past my face. A bat. My reaction should have been, ¨Holy crap, a bat!¨ But instead my reaction was, ¨That little breeze felt soooo gooood!¨

I´m being a good adapted Peace Corps volunteer by using local resources (a bat) to make up for what I lack (electrical fan)!

My other story is in regards to food and my weight. When I first got to Corinto and showed some of my new friends pictures of me and my family people would always tell me that I ¨looked much skinnier in person than in the pictures¨. I thought that this was a good thing, perhaps I would return to the States skinnier just as my friends had predicted. But then came the reality of living and eating in Nicaragua. Let me explain.

In training, we were fed 3 small meals a day and didn´t know many Nicas outside of our host families. So fast forward to me arriving in Corinto after training (skinnier because of three meals a day in small portions) and discovering the amazing world of fritanga! Fritanga are little stands that women have in front of their houses where they sell all the fried delicacies of the Nicaraguan diet. I´m not going to lie, I became addicted. I craved Dona Blanca´s fried enchilada and gallo pinto every night. So from eating dinner most nights at a fritanga I put on a lot of the weight I had lost. And when I walked into rooms people would say, ¨Hola Pablo, you look fat today!¨ (Oh thank you! Good day to you too ma´am!) Anyways, the fritanga alone didn´t beef me up.
I found myself eating 4 or 5 meals a day because people kept giving me meals. I would eat a sizable lunch and then about 30 minutes later someone would come stop by with a plate of food and say ¨here we made this for you!¨ and I would say to them, ¨oh thank you so much but I just ate!¨ But then they would get a really sad look in their eyes and just kind of stand there with the plate not knowing what to do, so finally I´d say, ¨but I guess I can eat more...¨ So then I would dutifully eat a second lunch. Then dinner time would come around and the same thing would happen. Thus, two dinners and two lunches. This didnt happen all the time, but once or twice a week is enough to beef me up.

Anyways I have a few strategies to combat this:

1. Running

2. I bought a fridge. This way when I have gifted food or leftover food I can put it in the fridge and save it for another day.

3. Stop buying from fritanga.

In the past week I have implemented all of these strategies and we´ll see what happens. I dont mind having a gut, I´ve had it my whole life (it seems). But I would like to avoid people greeting me with ¨Wow you´re fat!¨ We´ll see what happens...

Pictures of the trip...

Here are some pictures from my family´s trip to visit me that I should have put up weeks ago.

This is us hiking through a cloud forest in Selva Negra.




This is a great picture taken by my sister. It captures the beautiful church in Granada with one of the painted school busese in front which is a primary mode of transportation here in Nicaragua.


This is my host family´s house from training when I brought my family there to meet them.


A picture of my family with my host Aunt and two cousins.


Here is my Nica family and family family all together at my host family´s house.

First visit from the states

So I have been bad about updating this blog lately but it is because I have been busy. I just got done with a wonderful weeklong visit with my family. My mom, dad and sister Laura came to Nicaragua last Wednesday and gave me my first chance to be a tour guide, be a translator and really tour Nicaragua. The tour was whirlwind but great! I´ll cover some of the highlights.

We first went to Selva Negra, an eco-friendly coffee farm in the mountains. This is a self sufficient farm that groes coffee, livestock and makes cheeses. It also has difference cottages and rooms for rent for a nice rustic getaway in the leafy green mountains of Matagalpa. It is a very peaceful spot to chill for a couple of days and thats exactly what we did. We ate our meals at their outdoor restaurant overlooking a lake and the mountains with ducks waddling by our table and howler monkeys sreaming in the distance. We spent a little less than 2 days there and we all agreed that it was the type of place you could just stay and relax for a week. (sidenote: Selva Negra, which employs over 200 Nicaraguans, just got a contract with Whole Foods to sell their coffee. The coffee is great and the cause is good, try to support it)

After the relaxing and cool mountain air we moved into the high gear and hot portion of our trip. We headed to Granada, the colonial Nicaraguan city on the lake that U.S. newspaper travel sections love to write about. The city itself is beautiful and the most prepared place in the country for tourists. It has fancy restaurants, hotels and a beautiful central park. A huge volcano looms in the distance and off the edge of the lake are over 100 tiny islands that you can boat through. My favorite part was the food (surprise surprise). I earned my reputation as a two plate eater by gladly finishing my mom and sisters half eaten plates. I´m not going to say that I only eat rice in beans in Corinto, but I dont really eat any delicacies such as Spanish style seafood pasta or french fries. Needless to say I thought it all was delicious.

While in Granada we visited the Volcano Mombacho which is in a cloud forest. It had a great view of Granada and great vegetation because of the almost constant moisture in the air. We also visited a lake that was formed on the inside of a crater of a volcano. It was a beautiful spot to swim and relax at an outdoor restaurant until a huge storm came in a blew over all of the tables and chairs. We also did the boat tour of the small islands where rich people build pretty houses. I couldn´t help but think how I was going to get myself invited to a Granada island party sometime during my 2 years here.

After the first 4 days of tourist Nicaragua, my family was ready for real Nicaragua. On Sunday morning we set out for one of the longest but most rewarding days of the trip. We left for Santa Teresa, my training town so that my real family could meet my Nicaraguan family. I imagined much awkwardness because of the language barrier between my family and my nica family. But in reality, both my families got along great and had no problem talking through me as translator.

We continued on and met up with a group of Peace Corps Volunteers I am friends with and my parents took them out to pizza. We proved our love/lack of pizza by consuming 4.5 pizzas and two orders of breadsticks between 10 people. From there we drove (stuffed) to Corinto and immediately after arriving went to dinner at one of my Nica friend´s house.

I spent the rest of their time in Corinto showing them what its like to live and work there. They had a good chance to see some of the interesting challenges I face. For example, for about 38 our of the 48 hours that they were in Corinto there was no running water. Also my interesting neighbor situation where our walls inbetween us are made out of plywood and dont quite reach the floor leaving a 3 inch gap between the wall and the tile floor. While we were sitting and talking in my living room, my neighbor, who was in his house, says to me through the wall, ¨Paul, my girlfriend is pregnant.¨ Myself, not thinking that this was a ¨through the wall¨ conversation topic, was unsure how to react so I just said, ¨Really? Congratulations.¨ Privacy is fairly nonexistent at my house because sometimes they participate through the wall in conversations that are going on in my house. Also, we have many through the wall conversations that would probably be more appropriate face to face. But anyways, my family got to see the places I work, live and hang out in Corinto.

I´m very glad that my family got to know Nicaragua and Corinto. There are certain things that you just have to experience to fully understand and I´m glad that my family now understands. My family got generally the same impression that I first got. The scenery and vegetation are beautiful, the people are great, and its not as poor as you would think the second poorest nation in the western hemispere would be.

But more than anything else, I was just happy to spend time with my family. Growing up my whole life in Glen Ellyn, always living/being close to my family and maintaining the same friendships since I was young, it made me take for granted the importance of having people around that just know you. One big thing I miss here in Nicaragua is having people around that know everything about me and having family and friends that know where you come from, your goals, your personality and your quirks. My family visiting me for a week was a chance for me to be around the people that know me best and I enjoyed that break. I love meeting new and different people here but sometimes its nice to have those people around that know what you´re going to say before you say it.

Anyways, now that I have tour guide and translating experience I will charge my next visitors a higher fee (read: more leftovers at fancy dinners). And I hope I have more visitors here because I really enjoyed sharing my experience here.

I´ll try to write more often now that I´m back from vacation. Write me updates, I always like hearing whats going on back home. Take care everyone!

Mini-vacation...Miraflor

I just got back yesterday from my first mini-vacation in Nicaragua and it was an overall success with a few interesting stories along the way.

The trip was to Miraflor, a nature reserve/coffee farm/pretty place in the mountains, to spend the weekend with my training group discussing the good, bad, and funny of our first three months in site. The trip from Corinto to Miraflor took about 10 hours on 5 different buses. The buses were either minivans packed with people, or old discarded yellow school buses from the U.S. packed with people. When you get on these buses there are vendors that come on selling a variety of things such as tomatoes, beverages, enchiladas, books on how to learn English, or bananas. This always entertains me because these buses are super cramped with people and these vendors try and pass through everyone yelling out what they’re selling. Once the bus gets going, there is always people getting on and off, we pass through villages and sometimes stop briefly for vendors to get on and try to sell stuff again. In other words the bus rides are definitely uncomfortable, hot and cramped but the time usually passes quickly in an entertaining way.

We all arrived to Miraflor on Friday after everyone had long busrides. Mine was one of the longer bus rides, but one girl in my group rode about 15 hours to get there. It was great to see everyone and find out about their sites. We stayed at Posada la Sonada in a cabin that had about 14 beds.


This is a cabin where the 14 of us stayed. Thats me standing in the green shirt there.


The owner was a sweet lady who cooked all our meals for us (delicious I might add) and arranged for a guide (read: 22 yr old neighbor boy) to take us on a hike to the nearby waterfall on Saturday. The hike was great because I finally had a chance to walk around in the mountains in Nicaragua.

The weather in Miraflor was a lot cooler than what I am used to in Corinto because it is in the mountains. I slept with my jeans on, two long sleeve shirts, a jacket, and a heavy blanket. In Corinto, I sleep in boxers, with a sheet and a fan pointed at me. The hike was great because the weather was still fairly cool, even at midday. Despite the cool weather, when we arrived at the small waterfall we decided to go swimming. There was a small cliff overlooking the waterfall where you could jump off of into the water below. We all took turns doing the cliff diving into the frigid cold water.

Thats me jumping into the water...I jumped from where the girl in the pink shirt is.

This is part of my group posing for a beautiful pic in front of the waterfall.

Later that day we returned to the cabin played cards and hung out. Most of the weekend was spent exchanging stories. For example, a guy in our group who lives in a very rural site was taught by his Nica friends how to make a chicken poop any time and any place. It involves spinning the chicken and spitting on its stomach and he says it works every time. Then he proved to us that it works every time by grabbing one of the chickens where we were staying. But the question we all asked was, “First off, why would you ever need a chicken to poop, and second off, who figured out that this was the way to make a chicken poop.” I guess you can never underestimate the lack of “normal” entertainment in farming communities.

This is our buddy showing how to make a chicken poop. Another one of the many valuable life skills we pick up in the peace corps.

On Sunday, we all said our good byes and left again to our sites with plans to meet up again in September. I left with my two friends that live close to Corinto and we hopped on our series of buses. The trip back was a bit exciting because about 30 min into our third bus it broke down in the middle of nowhere on a dirt road. We had already paid and we were in the process of getting our money back (of course not in full, but about a 70% refund) when another bus passed by and picked up some of the passengers from our bus that were standing on the side of the road and had already gotten their refund. That other bus started to leave and so we are trying to hurry up our refund process so we can chase the bus. We finally get the refund and start chasing after the bus yelling “Suave! Suave!” or slow down. Keep in mind that we are running with big backpacks on, the stupid Americans chasing after a bus full of Nicas. They finally slow down enough for us to jump on in the back door (remember the back door of school buses?). Well, there are three of us, and since the bus just picked up a bunch of new passengers, all the seats and the aisle were completely full. There was room for about 1 more person in the back there, but somehow we managed to squeeze the three of us on, barely being able to close the door behind us. Anyways, we spend the next three hours standing in the back of a packed old school bus, on dirt roads, holding our backpacks and bags. When finally arriving to our destination, we were exhausted but also felt lucky because if we didn’t get that bus, we may not have been able to get home that day.

Its times such as those that remind me that I’m in Nicaragua. Corinto is fairly developed, I have internet a block away from my house, almost always have running water, electricity, and cell phone service. So sometimes I think that my life here isn’t much different from life in the states. But riding on a school bus on dirt roads standing up makes me think, I’m probably in country a bit different than home. Then I learn the definitive way to make a chicken poop, and I know I´m a long way from Chicago.