Adoption Day

On Friday, we finished training classes and did more language assessments after being put in smaller groups with other volunteers of similar level.  In one of our activities we had to dance with a broom with taped on lips… I don’t want to elaborate.  But I really like our language facilitator (teacher), Blanca.  PC uses the term facilitator a lot, apparently that’s what we as volunteers will be in our communities. We’re not the primary teacher ourselves, but the facilitators for the local teachers. Our primary goal is to teach the teachers how to teach. (Haha, I know how redundant that sentence is but I’m leaving it!) In other words, we’re here to teach about sustainability in the environment as well as creating sustainability in the local education system.

In the afternoon we were given the placements in our training towns. We are grouped with three other volunteers in a region specific to our sector (for environmental education, it’s Masaya).  We each live with a separate family, whose main task is to feed us and talk to us in Spanish, but in a broader sense integrate us in their family, community and Nicaraguan culture.  The family is compensated for feeding us and sharing their home with us (they even do our clothes). We were told most families want to do this as a service to their country, since we are here to help make it better.  That really renewed my sense of purpose here.

Getting our host families was really exciting and felt a lot like being adopted.  We all sat in the room and on a big projection screen they put up a picture of each family, where they lived and who was in the household. Then they announced the volunteer who as was going to that family. As soon as they put the picture of this one little town, I thought “Oh! I want to go there!”  And what do you know? The third family in that town was mine.

I will be in a pueblo pequeno (small town) in the west of Masaya, close to Lake Nicaragua and Lake Appoyo.  It’s best known for being an artisan village where they make beautiful, intricate pottery. Mi mama nicaraguanse (my Nicaraguan mom) is Luisa and she has a 16 year old daughter and a 30 year old son, his wife and a grandson.

We will live in the town for the next 12 weeks and receiving community based training. This is one of the few (or only) countries in which Peace Corps has implemented this method.  There are many advantages to living in a community, like the one we will be serving in later, as opposed to being sequestered in some training compound for 3 months with other English speaking volunteers. We are going to have classes six days a week, in different host families’ homes; classes in morning and “applied” Spanish in the afternoon.

Another volunteer in my training group, John, said we’re probably the special kids of the larger PC Nica group.  I can’t confirm this but evidence points to the affirmative… even though it was one of my fears before coming here, I’m not really worried now.  A lot of the current and previous volunteers that talked to us knew almost no Spanish when they started and we only need to be at an Intermediate level to pass training. Right now I’m a mid novice level and apparently the majority of volunteers placed around this level.  Apparently, even the fluent speakers had problems in their language assessments, so we all have a lot to learn. Even if I am one of the slower kids in class, there’s at least four of us, so we can suffer growing pains together.

The contents of this website/blog do not reflect any position of the United States government of the Peace Corps. All names have been changed.

Managua Retreat - Continued

Managua Retreat Continued

Right after lunch, we dove right into classes. We have classes for three days here, from 8am until about 5 or 6pm. The training has a lot of really useful and pertinent information from people living here on the ground.  It’s kind of overwhelming and there’s a lot to learn in a short time as well as tons of paperwork (it is the US government!).  A lot of the staff running the sessions (Charlas in Spanish) are Nicaraguan locals. We’ve had safety/security sessions as well as medical/health classes.  I got my typhoid vaccine yesterday; Hep A and B  and rabies to follow. I already had several vaccinations done back in the States. I also got my first dose of anti-malaria prophylaxis, which I have to take twice a week for the next 2.5 years.  Supposedly it has a well-known side effect of “enhanced” dreams, i.e. nightmares so vivid you won’t know when you’re awake or asleep. Think Matrix.

We received a sturdy medical kit with all sorts of helpful items (yaay Tylenol and antibiotic ointment!) as well as an emergency diarrhea kit with rehydration salt tablets, electrolyte mix, and a stool sample container. Apparently it’s REALLY common and taking a stool sample to the PC medical office is considered pretty routine.  And when it comes out both ends, it’s called the “Double Dragon”- spread the word.

The medical sessions are pretty extensive and it’s hard not to get a little freaked out.  Volunteers do die in service but as long as we do what we’re supposed to and follow the medical guidelines (preventative and curative) we should be fine.

Most of us took a siesta before dinner, despite the oppressive humidity. I needed a shower when I woke up but it felt like I’d just had one, eww. We sleep in book beds, four girls (or guys) to a room, on thing foam pads. There is no A/C but it does cool down some at night. We have running water and electricity on the site but there are only three shower stalls for 20 something girls and there is no hot water. An ice cold shower is no more pleasant in the tropics, but by the second night it wasn’t as bad.

So, there are a series of three language assessments and they’re a big deal. We have to meet a minimum standard to pass training (as well as other criteria). After the first assessment we are placed in groups of four in our training towns, somewhere in the Masaya region. I’m not too worried about it- some of the staff and PCVs here said they had little Spanish starting out. The country director even admitted she had zero Spanish when she began training as a volunteer. I know we’re going to learn a lot being immersed in a Spanish-speaking environment for 12 weeks. Even our host families speak no English, so our lingual trials should be a source of amusement for them over the next three months.

I don’t know how the idea got started that Peace Corps drops volunteers off in the middle of nowhere, says “Good luck! See ya in two years!” and drives off.  This is some of the most structured, informative, relevant training I’ve ever had… and it’s only been a few days!  Who knows how far we’ll come by November 25? (End of training and my birthday- a good omen?)

The contents of this website/blog do not reflect any position of the United States government of the Peace Corps. All names have been changed.

Managua Retreat - Uno

I have arrived! I am officially on Nicaraguan soil. We checked out of our hotel and left for the airport at 3am, flew out of Reagan to Miami at 7am and left for Nicaragua at 11:00am.  Almost everyone was zombies but I feel asleep almost right after the orientation (don’t even remember my head hitting the pillow!) and was pretty unconscious during the flight to Miami.
It’s a pretty surreal experience to run through airports and take flights with a large group of people you’ve just meant. But what a great group!  Everyone really helped each other and my luggage was overweight so some other volunteers let me put some of my things in their bags (shoes are heavy!).  We had our own dedicated check-in line at American Airlines counter- imagine getting 35 people through check-in and security!

We arrived in Managua, Nicaragua at 1:30pm EST (11:30 local); the scenery from the plane was incredible! This place is very aptly named “the land of lakes and volcanoes”. We all went through customs and immigration and we greeted at the door by PC volunteers and staff with big welcome signs… and huge bottles of water.

It was HOT. I don’t think I’ve stopped sweating since I got here. (one of the current PCVs says she takes bucket showers three times a day). While  we were all standing outside the airport waiting for the bus,  I talked to a very nice woman who answered a lot of my questions. I found out at the end of the conversation that she is the Country Director for Nicaragua. So she was the perfect person to answer, as she’s everyone’s boss!

A big yellow school bus arrived to transport us (doin’ it Peace Corps style) to the training facility. It’s a large, fenced off (we’re talking concrete and barbed wire) compound with armed security guards. (Managua has become increasingly dangerous over the years and volunteers are not currently placed in the city. ) The compound is pretty nice, tile floors and palm trees, but there are bars and gates on the windows and doors even on inside buildings.

We went straight to a seating area with a straw thatch hut roof but no walls (like on a tropical island) and ate a simple lunch of baked chicken and plain rice. Nothing was seasoned except with a little salt- Nicaraguans don’t use much seasoning and spices.  We get three meals a day, each one has plain rice and usually a corn tortilla. The food here is simple but good, though the portion sizes are kind of small… or maybe that’s my American portion distortion (can we say weight loss?).

The contents of this website/blog do not reflect any position of the United States government of the Peace Corps. All names have been changed.

The Capital City

On Thursday night, we were taken in to the city in the two non-descript white Peace Corps vans. Our drive, Don Douglas, is a very nice man who apparently wears a hat that says “MOM”. He is the delivary driver for any of our packages and letters, I gave him a letter for my parents earlier that day since they don’t use the internet.

Managua is a pretty dangerous city at the moment. There are special peace corps taxis we take when doing PC business in Managua; no volunteers are placed in the Capital city. At one point we came to an intersection and one of the staff asked us to close all windows, if we could stand the heat.

Riding through the city, I noted it had a very Latin feel, with the bright colors and Spanish everywhere.  It was pretty impoverished, with the dirt of big cities and small, close-together houses. There are a lot of large “rotundas”, or BIG grass circles making rounded intersections, and they all have statues of some famous historical figure. Most have to do with the revolution that ended not 10 years ago after 30 years, a time which defined Nicaragua as it is today.

Even though it’s a “modern” city, we are still a long way from the world of industrialized, first world nations. I saw a herd of about 20 goats crossing a main street, being herded by a man on a bicycle. Oh! There are Christmas light EVERYWHERE and it’s September… they weren’t put up early, we were told the lights are kept up all year round and then taken down in November and put back up in December. No one knows why; this I have to see.

We stopped at a nice park area with a huge statue of Sandino (leader of the Sandinista rebels and current party still in power) overlooking Managua and its lake. The mountain vistas in the distance and the palm trees… standing at that lookout is when I really felt I was in Nica. I was seeing things I’d only seen in pictures.

Later, we went to another little touristy spot on Lake Managua, with little grass roof tiki huts and a bar. At both locations, we had to pass through a gate with one or more armed guards. I saw soldiers throughout the city, but there were private security. A beer cost 20 cordobas, which I think is the equivalent of a dollar. We were given 200 cordobas spending money for the week, which may be $10. Good thing I’ve always been a good at budgeting! When was the last time you survived on $10 a week, just for fun spending money?

The contents of this website/blog do not reflect any position of the United States government of the Peace Corps. All names have been changed.

Peace Corps Staging

Location : Washington, DC

Local time: 2:15 am

Alright, ladies and gentlemen - let the adventure begin! Today marked a huge milestone in my life and my Peace Corps service. I am no longer just an applicant/invitee but officially a PC Trainee. This successful benchmark comes after a VERY long application process. I made it through the application, essays, interviews, medical/legal/security reviews and the UNKNOWN (especially about where I was going).

I am currently sitting in my hotel room in a nice hotel in Washington, D.C., having just woke up from a little nap. I leave in less than an hour to Reagan airport for a flight to Miami and then on to Managua, Nicaragua. Everything is kind of surreal right now but that could be due in part to diving all day yesterday from NJ, staying up all night to pack and then driving all moning to DC, followed by an intense 7 hour orientation.

I arrived at the hotel at noon and put my bags in my room (why did I bring so much? those two checked bags are HEAVY- I might have the most luggage). I went right to the check-in line. It was kind of like a buffet of paperwork; as you move down to each successive person there was a bunch of info and papers on like student loan deferment and life insurance. I stood next to another Jewish girl (she was talking about how she was on birthright and I mentioned I had just come back from Israel). We started to sing the song "Whereever you go, there's always someone Jewish" and awed over the fact that the Jews in the room always seem to find each other.

The next seven hours were spent in conferences about the nitty-gritty stuff, like security, pay allowance, and expectations.. and "nerdy get-to-know-you" activities, as another volunteer put it. They were actually kind of fun- including a skit we had put on in groups of six. The staging has been both informative and comforting. (Though I kept hearing the phrased "over the next couple years" WHOA). It's nice to be in a gathing of people who share the same fears and aspirations. And as the coordinator said "for the first time, you're with a large group of people and you don't have to validate your decision to anyone- they all made the same choice).

I feel so blessed I was able to see friends and family before I left and stay with my great aunt and uncle in Virginia. I feel equally blessed to have been able to spend the last year in Israel, growing spiritually, mentally and strengthening my relationship with G-d. I feel ready for this next stage in my life.  I have to go check out of the hotel and get off to the airport - on to Nicaragua, my home for the next two years!

If anyone would like to write, email me at poeticjustice_2001@yahoo.com or comment here and I'll message you back with my address (all mail and packages go to the Peace Corps office in Managua).

AlI look foreward to sharing my experiences with ya'll.

The contents of this website/blog do not reflect any position of the United States government of the Peace Corps. All names have been changed.