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!