This past week was very busy for me. I moved into my house this past weekend, which was more exhausting work than I thought it would be. Between the moving, cleaning, and arranging all day Saturday and Sunday, I was spent.

Then this past week I was working a couple of projects for the Dia de Solidaridad, or Day of Solidarity. This is an international day of recognition for the rights of people living with HIV and support for a cure. In typical Nicaraguan fashion, there was three different days that this was celebrated because no one was quite sure of the exact date.

I was told by various people that it was this past Wednesday, so I decided to do a red ribbon campaign in the high school. I had some of the neighborhood kids and coworkers help me make about 900 red ribbons. Then on Wednesday I went to every class in the high school to distribute them and give a 3 minute talk on the meaning of the red ribbon and importance of non-discrimination against people living with HIV. It was the first project that I have done here and I was pleased with how it went. The students wore the ribbons and listened to what I had to say. It was the first time that I have worked in the high school but I hope to work with them more in the future.

On Wednesday we also had a meeting with some youth leaders in Corinto about the significance of the Dia de Solidaridad and how they can bring that message to their classmates. During that meeting, a man who works with human rights came and told us that the Commission on AIDS in Corinto was going to start up again (I had been told that it hadn’t functioned for a couple of years) with a meeting on Thursday to plan activities for the Dia de Solidaridad on Sunday. So at the meeting on the Thursday a couple of the community leaders planned a small event in the center of Corinto to promote the Dia de Solidaridad. Then on Friday some of the Doctors were going around to schools saying that day, Friday, was the Dia de Solidaridad. Then yesterday, Sunday, we had the event at the Corinto Museum celebrating the day. Fiestas here are never just one day, and apparently neither are days of remembrance. So in other words I was busy with all of these events. They all turned out really well so I was happy.

This was the event on sunday in front of the Museum in Corinto. It is the nicest building in Corinto so there are a lot of events inside and around the building. We had an information table and some music playing.


These are some of the youth leaders (wearing the red ribbons I made, I might add) working on posters for their schools. Nicaraguan tradition is to never smile in pictures, the youth do sometimes because I think they have caught on from American culture, but still in every picture you get some faces that look angry/awkward.

Living alone is working out fantastically for me. I was worried about being lonely but it turns out that I live next to a great family that is very welcoming and generous so it is almost like I still live with a family, but have all my own space and stuff. The family next door isn´t a traditional family. It’s a 22 yr old mother, her 3 yr old son, their house worker a 40 yr old woman, and her two kids, a 12 yr old boy and 6 yr old girl. The house worker doesn’t technically live there but her and her kids spend the day there every day from 7am – 8pm. The kids will hang out in my house with me a lot and I chat it up with the women often. It’s been a great situation in the short amount of time I’ve been living here. I’ve also met some of the other neighborhood kids who are fun to hang out with. One of them really wants to learn English and he often comes over to do his homework so I can help him with his English. (Quick little story about the 3 yr old next door, he’ll come over to my house and just point and stuff and say “What’s this?”, he’ll point at a chair, then the wall, then my bottle of water, then the floor, always saying very inquisitively “What’s this?”. The best part is that he’ll come over every day asking the same thing about the chair, wall, floor, etc. I’m glad I have a cute Nicaraguan toddler in my life again!)

My ¨house¨is two rooms, one is like a living room and the other my bedroom. This is my living room with my bedroom in the background. I have plastic chairs which is typical of every nicaraguan household. My hammock is the colorful thing there on the right hand side. I love it. Oh, and the best part about my house is whats hanging on the wall next to the doorway, a machete. Another staple of every nicaraguan household.


This is a picture of my ¨kitchen¨. It is outdoor which is common in Nicaraguan households. That door is the door to my bedroom. I have some clothes hanging there because it was threatening to rain so I put them under that roof. The lavandero is the sink thing against the wall which is where I wash my clothes, dishes and hands. The little table in the middle has a stove on it, its like a gas powered hot plate. And the other table with the sheet over it is where I keep my dishes and spices. The sheet protects it from bugs and the ash that fall from the sky here (from the burning of the sugar can fields close by, apparently thats how you harvest sugar cane).


I thought this was a good picture of my patio. I share the patio with two other houses. I took this on a saturday which is typically the big clothes washing day. Those different colored little towels are my neighbors sweat rags (every single person here carries around a sweat rag to wipe their brow because everyone is constantly sweating!) I have some clothes hanging to the left hand side and in the back. That turquise thing in the back is where the bathroom and shower are. In the bottom left hand corner you can see the little cement block path I have to take to get there. This pic is taken from my ¨kitchen¨.

Thats all for now, keep me updated on how the Chicago spring/summer is going!