I have a bunch of things to write about but not enough time (the power went out in the big city, so my hour long internet session got cut down to 15 min).
Here is whats been going on with me in the past week:
Myself and the three other volunteers at my training town formed a youth group in town and had our first meeting yesterday. We were all a little nervous about how things would go and whether our spanish speaking and understanding skills would be able to handle 15 teenagers. Anyways, things ended up going great. We invited about 20 kids in town (went to their houses and personally invited them to come) and 13 showed up. We considered that in itself a big success because if i was 15 and a random foreigner invited me to a youth group, I probably wouldnt have gone. So we introduced ourselves at the meeting and had everyone else introduce themselves. Then we divided the group into girls and guys and had them each make a map of Santa Teresa. Its a really good activity for young people to see the differences in perception of the town between genders (especially in a country with concrete gender divisions like Nicaragua). We kept the first meeting short but have plans to go play soccer with them tomorrow afternoon, should be fun...I hope our group still shows up.
Other than that not much is new. It is fiestas patronales season here which means that each town has a small festival to honor their patron saint. Ours is this weekend which means lots of live music and dancing in the street. I´m excited about it. This past weekend I was at the fiesta patronale of another training town. I was walking with a group of 5 other peace corps volunteers down the street. During these fiestas there are random groups of people with instruments or costumes that make a haphazard sort of parade down the streets. Its sort of spontaneous and the people all get on the sidewalk and watch them go by. Well this particular time while we were walking a ¨parade¨came by. Except this time everyone that was in the parade and was watching the parade just stopped and started staring at us. We were only standing on the corner watching the parade but suddenly we became the entertainment. I thought it was quite amusing. This happens all the time here though. I get tons of stares wherever I go so I make sure that I say hello to everyone that stares at me, because then they realize that I´m a person and become really friendly. It seems to work so far.
Classes are going well so far. They are held at one of the other volunteers host family´s house. This happens to be my next door neighbor so my walk to class is about 14 steps. In the next couple of weeks we are going to be getting more involved with our town health center. In two weeks we will be giving our first ¨charlas¨which are basically health talks in the health center to the people waiting in the waiting room (more of a hallway). Since nicaraguans dont have much access to health education and the doctors are too busy doing the essentials (shots, giving medicine, etc.), a good way for the people to get information regarding preventing diarrhea, breast feeding, malaria and dengue, hand washing, HIV and other STIs is by giving little talks to the people waiting to see the doctor. A main part of my job in PC is to help the health center with these mini education session. When I am in my site I will be able to branch out and do education in schools and other places but talks in the health center will sort of be the bread and butter of my service.
I´m sure I could say more but I have to get home to eat my Gallo Pinto (rice and beans). Although you would think that eating rice and beans every meal since I´ve been here would get old...it hasn´t. I love it. If anyone has questions about anything else I´m doing or about Nicaragua, just email me, I´ll try to write about it next time.
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Saturday, January 20, 2007
Some Pictures
This is my host family...only Dayris and my host dad Julio are missing from the picture. Its Karen, Carlito, Me, Athzyri, and Lourdes.
This is my house...its all painted lime green which i really like.Postal Address
Some people have been asking about my postal address here, so here it is-
Cuerpo de Paz/Paul Fleming
Apartado Postal 3256
Managua, Nicaragua
That will be my address until March 30 when I move to my site town and get a new address.
Cuerpo de Paz/Paul Fleming
Apartado Postal 3256
Managua, Nicaragua
That will be my address until March 30 when I move to my site town and get a new address.
Thursday, January 18, 2007
My new life...
Sorry I haven’t posted sooner, I’ve been very busy adjusting to my new life! Let me explain a little bit about what’s happened (a lot!) since I left Chicago a little over a week ago…
I arrived in DC and stayed in a hotel in Georgetown and got to meet everyone else in my group. There are twenty of us that are all going to be volunteers in Nicaragua in the health sector. I was very surprised to find out that everyone was between the ages of 22 and 24. I was expecting some people in their late twenties or older. Everyone is from different backgrounds and different experiences and it’s great because all of us are pretty much at the same place in our lives. Those two days in DC were full of meetings on Peace Corps policy and other mostly boring things. But it was amazing how quickly you can make good friends in such a short time!
Early on Wednesday morning our group flew to Miami and then to Managua, Nicaragua. I wasn’t that nervous getting off the plane but I did have the realization that “Whoa! This is really happening!” We were whisked away by a Peace Corps bus to the tourist friendly town of Granada, an hour south of Managua. January 10, the day we arrived was a very important day in Nicaragua because they inaugurated Daniel Ortega as their new president. He was a Sandinista leader in the 80’s but claims to be a changed man. From what I gather he plans on bring more equality to the poor people of Nicaragua. I still don’t know enough to comment on the situation but some Nicas (what Nicaraguans are called here) like him and some hate him. We shall see what happens… Anyways, while in Granada we stayed in a hotel and had meetings all day about what to expect from our training and how to deal with certain situations as they arise. It was much more interesting than the more general DC orientation. Also, we got vaccinations. I told some of you that I thought I didn’t have to get any vaccinations, I was very wrong. So far I have had three, and I have 7 more to go. Also, during these meetings in Granada, the training instructors evaluated our levels of Spanish. I expected to be more advanced in the group but I ended up placing just below average. That’s fine with me because almost everyone had a strong background in Spanish. A lot of people have studied abroad in Costa Rica or other Latin American countries so I feel like they have a bit of an advantage because the Spanish here is very different than Spain.
On Friday we received our training site placements and host family. There are five training towns all within about 8 miles of each other. Our group was divided into five levels of Spanish and so each town hosts one of the levels. I got placed in the town of Santa Teresa which is right outside of the city of Jinotepe, which is an hour south of the capital. I think that there are about 4,000 people that live here (I’ve asked 5 different people, but no one knows the population). The family that I moved in with is absolutely wonderful. My host mom and dad (Lourdes and Julio) are both in their 50’s and are super accommodating and nice. They have three children, Karen is 28, Dayris (male) is 23, and Athziri (it’s a girl, and is pronounced at-zee-ree) is 9. Also, my favorite part about the house is Carlito, he is Karen’s son. He is four years old and the cutest kid I have ever met. He is always dancing and singing around the house and rolls around on their dirty floor. It’s great. When I don’t know what to be doing or saying with the adults, I just go play with Carlito. The first three hours in their house were a little awkward but since then I have felt completely comfortable with everything.
I know everyone is wondering about what facilities I have here so I will explain. We have running water and electricity in our house. The running water only functions from 7am-8pm. The electricity is fairly spotty. Yesterday the lights kept going out for a minute at a time. But in other words, the majority of the time we have running water and electricity. The only concern of mine is that there is only one bathroom for the seven of us that are living in the house. This is problematic to me because Peace Corps keeps telling our group about all the gastrointestinal problems that we will be having. I guess I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it. Also, there is only one sink and it is in the kitchen so I have to brush my teeth and shave in the kitchen with everyone else around. I guess I have been spoiled thus far in my life because I have almost always had my own bathroom. My room is pretty basic, the walls are made of particle board and the ceiling is the tin roof. The room is more or less open air because walls don’t always reach to the ceiling so I can feel the wind shake everything. I am told that January and February are the “windy season”. All day and night there are huge gusts of wind that feel as if you are in a tornado. It really puts the Windy City to shame. Because of the wind it has been fairly mild here. Sometimes during the day it will be really hot but it cools down at night.
I have had a chance to do some really cool cultural things with my host family since I have been here. My first day I went to a “Quince Anos” party of a girl that was turning 15. As you may know, in the Latin culture the 15th birthday of a girl is a huge deal. This party had about 100 people at it. It had the formalities you would expect from a wedding, a mass, a special dress for the girl, dinner for everyone. It was impressive and very interesting. Also, on Sunday I went to a basketball game with Dayris and some of his friends. The game was between the Santa Teresa team and another local town. After the game we played some two on two and then some other game that was like “21”. I think I may have won, but I didn’t really understand the rules so I’m not sure. On Sunday night I went with Dayris out to the local bars. There are three restaurant/bars in Sta. Teresa. When I have a beer in me it’s much easier to understand and talk so it was a very fun night!
As far as the classes part of training, those are going well so far. I have Spanish class every morning from 8-12. In the afternoons we have different activities depending on the day. For next week, myself and the three other volunteers have to start a youth group and talk about some topic regarding health. It will be hard to organize and recruit youth, but I think it will be a great experience. I think I will get better at Spanish very quickly because there are only four of us in the class and we have class so often. Also, I talk a lot with my host family so hopefully I can improve quickly.
I guess those are the basics of my life so far. I’m sorry if this was written poorly, I’m already struggling transferring between English and Spanish. It looks like I’ll have internet access about once a week so I should be able to update this site weekly. If anyone has any questions for me, just email me!
I arrived in DC and stayed in a hotel in Georgetown and got to meet everyone else in my group. There are twenty of us that are all going to be volunteers in Nicaragua in the health sector. I was very surprised to find out that everyone was between the ages of 22 and 24. I was expecting some people in their late twenties or older. Everyone is from different backgrounds and different experiences and it’s great because all of us are pretty much at the same place in our lives. Those two days in DC were full of meetings on Peace Corps policy and other mostly boring things. But it was amazing how quickly you can make good friends in such a short time!
Early on Wednesday morning our group flew to Miami and then to Managua, Nicaragua. I wasn’t that nervous getting off the plane but I did have the realization that “Whoa! This is really happening!” We were whisked away by a Peace Corps bus to the tourist friendly town of Granada, an hour south of Managua. January 10, the day we arrived was a very important day in Nicaragua because they inaugurated Daniel Ortega as their new president. He was a Sandinista leader in the 80’s but claims to be a changed man. From what I gather he plans on bring more equality to the poor people of Nicaragua. I still don’t know enough to comment on the situation but some Nicas (what Nicaraguans are called here) like him and some hate him. We shall see what happens… Anyways, while in Granada we stayed in a hotel and had meetings all day about what to expect from our training and how to deal with certain situations as they arise. It was much more interesting than the more general DC orientation. Also, we got vaccinations. I told some of you that I thought I didn’t have to get any vaccinations, I was very wrong. So far I have had three, and I have 7 more to go. Also, during these meetings in Granada, the training instructors evaluated our levels of Spanish. I expected to be more advanced in the group but I ended up placing just below average. That’s fine with me because almost everyone had a strong background in Spanish. A lot of people have studied abroad in Costa Rica or other Latin American countries so I feel like they have a bit of an advantage because the Spanish here is very different than Spain.
On Friday we received our training site placements and host family. There are five training towns all within about 8 miles of each other. Our group was divided into five levels of Spanish and so each town hosts one of the levels. I got placed in the town of Santa Teresa which is right outside of the city of Jinotepe, which is an hour south of the capital. I think that there are about 4,000 people that live here (I’ve asked 5 different people, but no one knows the population). The family that I moved in with is absolutely wonderful. My host mom and dad (Lourdes and Julio) are both in their 50’s and are super accommodating and nice. They have three children, Karen is 28, Dayris (male) is 23, and Athziri (it’s a girl, and is pronounced at-zee-ree) is 9. Also, my favorite part about the house is Carlito, he is Karen’s son. He is four years old and the cutest kid I have ever met. He is always dancing and singing around the house and rolls around on their dirty floor. It’s great. When I don’t know what to be doing or saying with the adults, I just go play with Carlito. The first three hours in their house were a little awkward but since then I have felt completely comfortable with everything.
I know everyone is wondering about what facilities I have here so I will explain. We have running water and electricity in our house. The running water only functions from 7am-8pm. The electricity is fairly spotty. Yesterday the lights kept going out for a minute at a time. But in other words, the majority of the time we have running water and electricity. The only concern of mine is that there is only one bathroom for the seven of us that are living in the house. This is problematic to me because Peace Corps keeps telling our group about all the gastrointestinal problems that we will be having. I guess I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it. Also, there is only one sink and it is in the kitchen so I have to brush my teeth and shave in the kitchen with everyone else around. I guess I have been spoiled thus far in my life because I have almost always had my own bathroom. My room is pretty basic, the walls are made of particle board and the ceiling is the tin roof. The room is more or less open air because walls don’t always reach to the ceiling so I can feel the wind shake everything. I am told that January and February are the “windy season”. All day and night there are huge gusts of wind that feel as if you are in a tornado. It really puts the Windy City to shame. Because of the wind it has been fairly mild here. Sometimes during the day it will be really hot but it cools down at night.
I have had a chance to do some really cool cultural things with my host family since I have been here. My first day I went to a “Quince Anos” party of a girl that was turning 15. As you may know, in the Latin culture the 15th birthday of a girl is a huge deal. This party had about 100 people at it. It had the formalities you would expect from a wedding, a mass, a special dress for the girl, dinner for everyone. It was impressive and very interesting. Also, on Sunday I went to a basketball game with Dayris and some of his friends. The game was between the Santa Teresa team and another local town. After the game we played some two on two and then some other game that was like “21”. I think I may have won, but I didn’t really understand the rules so I’m not sure. On Sunday night I went with Dayris out to the local bars. There are three restaurant/bars in Sta. Teresa. When I have a beer in me it’s much easier to understand and talk so it was a very fun night!
As far as the classes part of training, those are going well so far. I have Spanish class every morning from 8-12. In the afternoons we have different activities depending on the day. For next week, myself and the three other volunteers have to start a youth group and talk about some topic regarding health. It will be hard to organize and recruit youth, but I think it will be a great experience. I think I will get better at Spanish very quickly because there are only four of us in the class and we have class so often. Also, I talk a lot with my host family so hopefully I can improve quickly.
I guess those are the basics of my life so far. I’m sorry if this was written poorly, I’m already struggling transferring between English and Spanish. It looks like I’ll have internet access about once a week so I should be able to update this site weekly. If anyone has any questions for me, just email me!
Saturday, January 06, 2007
About to Leave...
Hi Everyone!
This is where I am hoping to post updates throughout my two years as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Nicaragua. I am still unsure how often I will have access to the internet to post on here but I am hoping that I will be able post at least twice a month.
My flight leaves from O'Hare at 9am on Monday so I am less than 48 hours away from leaving! I have been getting all of my things packed up and tying up all my loose ends. Its been a tiring process but my excitement about everything has kept me energized. I'll explain whats going to happen in the next couple of days because I have been getting a lot of questions.
On Monday I fly to DC to meet up with the rest of my Peace Corps group (about 20 other volunteers that are doing Community Health Education in Nicaragua) to have a two day orientation. While we are there we go over some paperwork, Peace Corps philosophy, and the basic details of getting to and living in Nicaragua. On January 10 our Peace Corps group will all fly together to Managua, Nicaragua where we will stay in a hotel for a couple of days and get adjusted to Nicaragua. After the brief stay in the hotel we will each move in with a host family. We will stay with our host family for the duration of our training (about 3 months). During training I will take classes on cultural adjustment, safety, the Spanish language and most importantly, how to be a health educator.
I also have had a lot of questions about what I will specifically be doing in Nicaragua so let me explain a bit. I am a Community Health Education Volunteer and will be working out of a Nicaraguan rural health clinic. My primary job will be to give talks to local community groups and schools about topics such as HIV prevention, clean water, general nutrition and sex education. Right now I know very few specifics about my job but I should find out more in the next week or so. I will not get an official assignment concerning where in Nicaragua I will living and working for the next 2 years until March.
Hopefully that information explains a little bit more about what I am doing. Any other questions anyone has just email me, although a lot of things are still up in the air. I hope to hear from all of you soon! I'll try to post again shortly after I arrive in Nicaragua...
This is where I am hoping to post updates throughout my two years as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Nicaragua. I am still unsure how often I will have access to the internet to post on here but I am hoping that I will be able post at least twice a month.
My flight leaves from O'Hare at 9am on Monday so I am less than 48 hours away from leaving! I have been getting all of my things packed up and tying up all my loose ends. Its been a tiring process but my excitement about everything has kept me energized. I'll explain whats going to happen in the next couple of days because I have been getting a lot of questions.
On Monday I fly to DC to meet up with the rest of my Peace Corps group (about 20 other volunteers that are doing Community Health Education in Nicaragua) to have a two day orientation. While we are there we go over some paperwork, Peace Corps philosophy, and the basic details of getting to and living in Nicaragua. On January 10 our Peace Corps group will all fly together to Managua, Nicaragua where we will stay in a hotel for a couple of days and get adjusted to Nicaragua. After the brief stay in the hotel we will each move in with a host family. We will stay with our host family for the duration of our training (about 3 months). During training I will take classes on cultural adjustment, safety, the Spanish language and most importantly, how to be a health educator.
I also have had a lot of questions about what I will specifically be doing in Nicaragua so let me explain a bit. I am a Community Health Education Volunteer and will be working out of a Nicaraguan rural health clinic. My primary job will be to give talks to local community groups and schools about topics such as HIV prevention, clean water, general nutrition and sex education. Right now I know very few specifics about my job but I should find out more in the next week or so. I will not get an official assignment concerning where in Nicaragua I will living and working for the next 2 years until March.
Hopefully that information explains a little bit more about what I am doing. Any other questions anyone has just email me, although a lot of things are still up in the air. I hope to hear from all of you soon! I'll try to post again shortly after I arrive in Nicaragua...
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