¡Matagalpa!

D-day finally came and passed... I am going to Matagalpa. I am beyond excited and cant believe that the stress has finally been lifted from my shoulders. I will be living in the center of the country which is hillier and cooler. While it will still be hot, about mid 80s it is considered fresco or cool compared to the North and Chinandega. I will be in an area that is famous for its chocolate and coffee. I guess I have to get in touch with My Colombian roots and grow a sense of appreciation for coffee.

It may not look that far, and you have to remember the entire size of the country is the same as New York State, but I am over 5 hours away from Managua. It seems pretty rough, but I am quickly getting used to the time here where 1 hour is considered just around the block. I guess I cant complain when I really wont have that much to do and time is just a measure and not as important as it is in the States.

Anways more about my site. I am being placed in San Dionisio. It is a medium sized community of about 5000 people. You can see it here on the map of Matagalpa, it is in the lowerhalf kind of on the left. I know it is really vague, but then again I am not exactly sure if that is the exact location on the map. From there it says I am about two hours from the departamento capital, Matagalpa, but it looks so close and isnt that far in km. I do have to take into consideration, and what I am really excited about are the mountains. I get to be a real country boy and cowboy. The area is knkown for the horses and as my description says, ¨horses for everyone¨. You know I will have one and I am thinking of giving it a dog name like Spike or Bud, but I will have to wait and see. The other good piece of information is that there is internet in my site. Even though it is small I can still go to the ciber and wont have to travel 2 hours, even though I will have to if I want to see a supermarket or bank. Right now this site sounds right up my alley. I get to rough it in a fairly small site, I am in the mountains, I still have internet, and here is the kicker... I only have water once every two weeks! That might not be so much of a plus, but I promise I will get real good at bucket showers with only a gallon of water. Like they say, ¨someone will look at a glass and say it is half full, another will say it is half empty, a Peace Corps volunteer will say I can take a shower with that¨. It wont be so much of a hurdle, I just have to plan carefully and regardless of where I go I would have to buy purified water, I just might not be able to shower regularly, not anything unusual for me.

That is all I know for now, I still have the rest of the week here in Masatepe and I am off to Managua on Tuesday. I am so excited, but I still have a week until I get to actually visit my site. In typical Peace Corps fashion, there has been a lot of confusion and we all at first thought we were leaving on Sunday. Then we learned we had counterpart training on Monday, which is now actually on Tuesday and Monday is just a normal class day in our training towns. Regardless, now we will be in Managua on Tuesday and either leave that afternoon or stay the night and leave early on Wednesday. I am positive beacuse I will be a replacement volunteer and will get to meet the current volunteer on my visit and pick up some tips about how to best work with the community.

Either way it looks like even with my campo site I will not be completely lost to civilization. I will have internet in one way or another and that means more updates and hopefully skype dates.

Jeronimo... You crazy fool!

I just had quite the experience. I vaguely remember my host mom telling me I had a commitment this morning, but I didnt remember it being anything like I just witnessed. Basically, we all know that almost every other country in the world besides the good ol US of A likes to party and will find any excuse to do so. Be it religious reasons, government holidays, or just a lack of creative reason to have a three day weekend. Well today I witnessed that even the Catholic Church likes to find a good reason to get drunk.

Today was the festival to celebrate the Saint Jeronimo. I have never heard of him and to be honest I thought it was a cowboy term used when you were making a suicidal run towards a bunch of angry Indians. Well I guess the church beat me to it and Jeronimo is an old saint that was known for being a drunk and womanizer. I never knew this side of the story but I guess he was such a drunkard and flirt that he eventually went out into the mountains to ask for forgiveness. Somehow this translates into people now getting ridiculously trashed and deciding to dress up like Halloween. I went down to the neighboring Barrio with my host mom and witnessed a mix of Halloween, drunkness, and marching band that I have never seen before. Basically it is a long procession with a drum and brass band and a bunch of dressed up people dancing behind them. Then there is the crazy idea of creating a huge float out of bamboo and living plants. A float seems like a good idea, but to add a Nicaraguan flavor it has to be carried by at least 20 people and they of course chose the hilliest part of town. It was interesting to watch, but you couldnt help but think why. I mean there are so many flat parts of town, but they chose the hilly side. To tie back in to the story of Jeronimo there were many people along the way that you would find passed out or just walked over. I guess they are on their way to the mountains to ask forgiveness. Either way, it was a funny time and perhaps the most ridiculuous. Did I forget to mention that they chose the hottest part of the day to do this in?

One Step Closer

The weeks just have a way of flying by. I remember waking up on Monday morning dreading the upcoming week and next thing I know it is Thursday night and I am basically done work wise. It was a very busy week and perhaps that is why it flew by. I even slept in two of these days and instead of waking up at 5am to go to the gym I slept late, ie 630. I remember rolling out of bed on Monday at 630 and my family thought I was sick. They kept asking what I was doing sleeping so so late and if I should go to the doctor. I still run into this dilemma every Sunday when I like to forget about the alarm clock and just rest. I think back to when I was in the states and my friends thought I was crazy for getting up at 8am. Look at me now 5am is the norm and anything past 6 is considered midday. It has been a little difficult getting used to but I guess it makes sense since I am usually in bed by 9pm.

Besides the new sleeping schedule it has just been an overall good week. I was expecting this week to be full of anxiety with our new professor, me teaching my last class, our youth group, and the dreaded placement interview. In fact, the big to do of the interview was perhaps the most miniscule part of my week. The interview was nothing too note worthy. I talked about my preferences and work style and basically got no hints about where I might be going. I am anxious but felt pretty calm all week. Perhaps the trigger that has made me nervous is that many of the directors are saying that my town is the most calm about this whole process.

I felt like this week I was back at home or maybe I felt like this is now my home. Who can tell, but anyways I felt comfortable and in a good routine. I continuing to stay busy with a gym routine and I am even making friends there. I have been hanging out with my little brother and I know it is rubbing off when I eagerly await the next episode of Ben 10 and hastely ask him for quick summaries of what I have missed. I hate to admit it but I love watching cartoons now and I was super excited when I got to watch the Naruto movie last night. To go along with my inner child I also hung out with one of the guys from the gym this week by going to a Nintendo or an arcade. It is pretty hilarious since it is basically someones house that they have gutted and retrofitted with about 30 tvs and videogames. Now I am used to xbox 360 and consider that a fairly old system. Well I got to play the newest and latest which was a PlayStation 2 and most people were still using Nintendo 64s and Game Cubes. I of course being a nerd found it hilarious but it was fun playing an archaic shooting game in the middle of Nicaragua.

On the work end of things I taught my final 5th grade class here in Masatepe. I had a blast and taught about ecosystems and the abiotic and biotic components. I have been slowly making my lessons more active and we played two games with my class of 45 students. They did great and I really got lucky with my group. I have observed some classes and heard about others where the kids are just animals and it is craziness. I started off on day one by kicking a kid out of my class and requiring they raise their hand. I think it really paid off because I never have to worry about discipline and the worst I have is an occasional shout of an answer. Also, I had my second and final youth group charla today about gender roles. It started off a little dissapointing when only 5 kids showed up, but they did great. We originally had a power group of 13 jovenes, but we noticed that some drama has been surrounding our meetings with boyfriends and girlfriends and today we only had 5. Yet, they did great and we actually had a lively conversation about what boys and girls are expected-able to do. I am not sure how much they will take away from it, but I know they at least had fun.

The final part of all of this is I am again thinking about what I want to do when I get back to the states. I have done some research already and I think I am going to tour the country. Basically I am piggybacking off Dans idea but it looks like too much fun to pass up. I found some old Honda Oddesseys or Volkswagen Microbuses for under 5000 dollars and now my hunt is to see if any of them are diesel. I dont know how practical it would be but I remember hearing about kits you can buy to transform diesel engines into engines that run off of vegetable oil. I think it would be fun to travel that way, possibly cheaper, and I wont feel like I am just burning gas. Since I only have limited internet time feel free to do this research for me.

Its already October?

I cant believe that is is already the middle of October. The pacing of time has definitely picked up and only two more weeks until I get my site assignment. As quickly as I am adjusting to my current town, things are already starting to wind down. I am teaching my last science class this week, I only have two more weeks of language class, and we are starting to wrap up our youth group projects. I remember just starting and being overwhelmed with all the work and it is quickly behind me. I have already done the whole gauntlet of PACA tools from a community map, daily activities, matrix, and interviews. I have a consistent group of 13 teenagers for my youth group and we already have a bopping garden, did a recycling project, did a life charla, have another one in the works, and played more games than I can remember. I guess I can sucessfully pat myself on the back looking at the list of things I have already accomplished, but there is so much more to still do.

I dont want it to seem like I am already on my way out. I forget at times that I still havent even started my two years of service. I have been so caught up in the timeline of training, that I forget that this is just the tip of the iceburg. Dont get me wrong, I am very excited but I just lose perspective some times. It has only been 6 weeks of training, but it has already been that long. I am well over halfway and there are realistically only two weeks left. This upcoming week is broken up with me teaching, a youth group life charla, movie night, and site interviews. I am hoping that these new events will break up the week and make it fly by. Best of all is that the following week we find out our placement on Wednesday and I am basically banking on the anticipation and excitement of visiting my site the following week to carry me through. Another factor is that we change professor and location of our language classes every three weeks. We just finished with our last professor at my house this week and it is for the better. We didnt really get along with her, and it seems harsh to say I didnt like her, but I wont shed any tears that she is gone.

The biggest news I have is that yesterday we had our site fair. Basically a volunteer came to represent every region of the country and talk about why their region is the best. We learned about our four possibilities: Chinandega, Leon, Matagalpa, and Chontales. We also learned what it is like to have a small site or big site, be a replacement volunteer or be new, and to have a site mate or not. It is hard to say that I want a specific thing, but I am right now leaning towards a small site. I also want to be more secluded which means I will most likely have to travel over 1hr to get to a city to use internet. Also, I am split over wanting to be a new volunteer but I think I would like to have a volunteer nearby to work with on projects. I am prepping for my interview on Tuesday and am ready to commit to wanting to do more Agricultural type work in small sites which I think will help place me in my favored sites of Leon and Chontales.

Thats about it for the work report. I missed going to a lagoon today because I was at the gym and it was a shame no one came to get me, but that meant I got to bond more with my family. I spent most of last night and this afternoon in the bakery and I am becoming quite the baker. I can now make different types of pan and I even taught my sister today how to make cinammon rolls. She was obsessed and wanted to learn because they are just so different from the pan simple they sell here and will probably go fast. Well tomorrow I am going to bake some sourdough bread and that will be about it for the week. Also I have a big finca party with all the volunteers in my group which should be fun. I like most people in my group and it is fun to spend time with them, but I have noticed I dont go out of my way to be with them. I kind of like the solo deal, but it is good to connect every once in a while. We basically get a farm to ourselves tomorrow to cook, play games, and just relax.

Hope all is well back in the states. I heard about the Sox getting knocked out and it looks UConn is starting to pick their game up. Also, looks like it is getting pretty cool up in the North.

I want to be a farmer

So I am finally reading a book that has been on my reading list for way too long. It is by Barbara Kingsolver and I am in love with it. I know it is a major influence on my life when I just want to rush home from whatever I am doing to continue reading. This book as well as an article I read in Newsweek has shifted me to wanting to be a vegetarian or at least more concious of where my meat comes from.

Basically the concept is that the food we eat as Americans is very wasteful and inefficient. We too often get our vegetables from all across the globe and when they are out of season. As a result we are hurting our local farmers and local economies. We instead should be buying from local farmers markets and coops. It makes a lot of sense and who cares if it costs more, you are helping a fellow neighbor. I know Stella and I were doing this in Cambridge and I dont see why everyone can at least try in their own lives.

As for the meat subject, I am starting to feel really horrible about how many of the animals are treated. Not the fact that they are killed, but that chickens are often packed so close that they either peck each other to death or have their beaks removed. Pigs have their tails cut and are shot up with so many meds they dont realize they are alive. And many of these animals never see the light of day their entire lives.

I instead suggest that rather than polluting an area with super concentrated animal factories that create too much waste and destroy an area that we return to how animals are supposed to live. I would rather pay more for free range meat. It is not only more humane but healthier. These animals are often not the homogenized genetic beasts, but classic breeds with their own flavor and traits. Also, they dont need to be pumped with many different drugs to keep from getting sick because they have the space to live. Furthermore, these animals are eating their evolutionary diet rather than being force fed corn which only increases medical problems and puts more fat in the meat we end up eating.

I am not saying that I am giving up meat, only that I believe that free range is more humane and in the end healthier for the animals and for us. Also as for being a farmer, I want to keep one going where ever I live and there are just so many to chose from. In my journal now I have a growing list of 26 different species and that is not even getting into different variations of fruits or vegetables. I could spend my whole day working in the field and this thought makes me happy. Maybe I need to think, rather than having my garden as a hobby, it could be a lifestyle.

Site Visit and Climbing a Mountain

So much has happened in the last couple weeks. I am already on week six of my training, have visited a volunteer for a week, gotten better at Spanish, gotten worse at Spanish, learned to bake, climbed a mountain, got drunk, and ran a road race.

It may seem like a random collection of events and it is. Nicaragua and especially the Peace Corps makes no sense. My life is split between being a small child again, yet being an adult with more than enough responsibilities and obligations. I probably mention it too much, but I am trapped as a middle school student. I have to tell my parents here when ever I leave, I have to ask permission to stay out late, and I try to hide my breath if I dare go out to get a beer. It is not all bad, it is kind of exhilerating to escape at night and feel that rush of heading home knowing that you were supposed to be back before dark. I love being able to walk down main street at night and think I am breaking a rule.

So enough of that, last weekend I got to go visit a volunteer up in Chinandega. It is the northern most part of the country and also the hottest. It is right before the Honduran border and next to the Pacific Ocean. We started the trip off right and went straight to the beach. It was a blast to just relax and live the life of a real volunteer, no more being watched over and just getting to relax. The beach wont make it onto any postcards, but it was just what I needed. The water felt like a warm bath, the waves were big, but the water was brown, and the sand was like CT. It was a good stress reliever and then I was off to my volunteers town. She lives in a small community of about 5000 called Rancheria and it only has one paved road. I spent the week with her teaching english to her youth group and visiting the three schools she is in charge of. It was a lot of fun to see how our projects are actually going to come together and to see that you arent under as tight a time table as we are now under training. Also, it is ok to have some failure. Her community group is three people and all her gardens havent made it, yet she is still in Peace Corps and not in trouble. Perhaps the best part of training was the fact that she had her own house. That meant we cooked every night. Now I am no chef, but I fell in love with cooking these last couple days. It was amazing to just saute some vegetables and do it all yourself. I made stir fry, pasta, pancakes, tuna salad, and eggs. It was great and I cant wait to do it everyday. As for sleeping arrangements I slept on a wicker bed which I found humorous. It was a wood frame bed with a tight wicker weave in the middle which was my makeshift mattress. I wont say it was comfortable, but it was basically like sleeping on the floor. Now I wont sleep on the floors because I saw way too many tarantulas and scorpions to risk that.

Finally for that trip I read the entire first Harry Potter. I am sorry for making fun of all those who read the books, it is addicting. I will never say they are great works of art, but they are fast and quickly addicting. I am curious to read the next six and if anyone is bored and wants to send a package, Harry Potter would be perfect.

Now up to modern times. This week flew by since I got back to Masatepe on Thursday. Yeterday I headed off to Volcan Masaya for group training. We got to see the TEFL crowd again and it was fun to catch up. It was actually a great day to be outdoors and I have some great shots of the giant crater and the rolling landscape around it. Also afterwards I got to go out with a bunch of fellow trainees and relax at a bar for a while.

Lastly, today I learned I am no longer in high school or on a college sport. I am not in the same shape I was in college or even last year. I ran a road race today that was only 7km and about half was up a huge hill, but it hurt. I was tired and to make it worse i didnt win. I was heartbroken and to rub it in we had to max out in pullups, dips, pushups, and squats and I couldnt even keep up in any of those. It is motivation and I plan on training again here, but it will be hard once I get to a site to stay motivated.

Besides my little physical backstep it was a great day for cooking. I made vegan banana pancakes for my family and they really enjoyed them. I also had a fellow trainee come over and she taught me to make sourdough bread and cinammon rolls. I wrote down all the recipes and hope to be able to cook them once I am at site and on my own.