San Dionisio

It has only been a week, but it feels like and eternity since I have used the internet or been in a world I am familiar with. This last Tuesday I left Masatepe to attend counterpart day in Managua and then head out to my long awaited site. I started it off in style by cramming into the usual 18 passenger expresso buses with 25 other people and my 80 lb bag. I then had to play real life frogger to cross a 4 lane high way to get to the meeting point and then sit through about 8 hours of charlas where we were supposed to meet and socialize with our counterparts. It is a great idea in theory and many people took advantage of the opportunity to plan their schedules, set priorities, and familiarize themselves with the project. I on the other hand sat around twittling my thumbs because I, of course, was the only one whose counterparts decided they were too cool for school. I was pretty bummed but they did show up eventually, about 8 hours late and not in the talking mood. They brushed off being late like it really wasnt that big of a deal and that it wasnt even their fault. I wasnt too worried becuase I did have a nice 6 hour bus ride with them to plan, but when I went to bed that night I was still unsure about what time we were even leaving in the morning.

That morning I was awoken by a Nicaraguan woman yelling JIM in a high pitched voice. All the guys had to pile into one room because there wasnt enough space and it is true, guys really do stink. It was a good night because we had AC, but I did not appreciate waking up at 5 am when I didnnt leave with my counterparts until 730. The ride itself was fine, we took a taxi to the station, had a 2hour ride on an old US school bus to Esquipulas and then had to switch off again to another retrofitted school bus. The fun part was that once you hit the border of the Matagalpa department the highway turns to dirt and the road narrows to about one lane. That means travel is slow and bone jarringly bouncy. Also, the bus drivers all think they are rally racers and love to fly around blind turns and pass where it clearly isnt allowed. Their only safety measure is they beep the horn as they approach and pass a turn. About 6 hours later our bus finally hit pavement and we were in my town. I am living in San Dionisio, a small town of about 5000 in the middle of the mountains. The town is a little urban oasis in the middle of rolling hills and clearcut fields. We have such luxuries as paved roads, comedores, cantinas, billard halls, and a basketball court and baseball stadium. I was surprised and it reminded me of the city of Brigadoon.

I wont recap every little event that I had while I was there, but it was an overall positive experience. The one running thought I had going through my head, was I am going to be bored as hell at times. I mean, there are comedores if I want to eat out and I already joined the baseball team, but it is a huge transition going from training to out on your own. I always complain about having every minute of my life planned, but I grew used to it and kind of like the security. I mean once I am there, I will have no one looking after me, no reason to travel, and no american within one hour of me.

So a little about my family. The house itself is pretty fachenta. I mean it is high class regarding Nicaragua standards. We have tiled floors, a tv, a radio, a stove, and even a refrigarator. Given tehre are the down sides: a latrine that reeks, ice cold bucket showers, a shower where I have to squat so I dont hit the ceiling, and random chickens and cats that run through the house. I see these as minor problems, but I guess I am just getting used to life here. The mom works at the mayors office and is one of the remaining liberals there. I guess the town has always been liberal until the last election when it changed to Daniel Ortegas party, the FSLN: She therefore has to keep a really low profile, but is really nice. The main person I talk to is her neighbor and sister who mantains the house and does all the work. She is really nice and has two children, a daughter who is a little older tahn men, and a 13 year old son. I also have a 13 year old sister. The two girls belong to a volleyball team that plays every night infront of the house ont he court and I went all the time to watch. I also went with my brother to play baseball and decided to join the baseball team. As anyone who knows me will agree, I am not the most coordinated and baseball was proof of that. I was stuck at 1st base, but surprisingly made some good plays and even at bat I had one RBI, but struck out twice.

Besides the family and me joining the baseball team I got to visit my three schools. Each is about a 40 minute walk out of town along some prety rural roads and it will be a good opportunity for me to just relax and enjoy the views. It really is beautiful overlooking all the hills and one of the roads is on a ridge so I can see my town off in the distance. Each school has about 2 to 4 teachers and anywhere from 60 to 130 kids. That means I have some nice small classes and they all seemed pretty excited to work with me. One teacher especially already has huge plans of planting .75acres of crop including fruits, grapes, and beans. I am a little worried because I have absolutely no idea how to do that and some of the other teachers just seemed confused why I was even there or the directores were trying to say I would be working with the whole school. I did however travel with one of the English teachers to his instituto and promised to help teach english. It was a good experience where I got to take part in the school party for the end of the year and just socialize with some of the students. Everyone is pretty optimistic about me showing up and I think I will really be able to make an impact in my community.

Anyways, it was a good couple days adn I am excited and anxious to get to my site for the next two years. I am definitely not counting down the days, but I knwo that I can make it work. Other than the site I had a technical training charla today about compost and worm farms. It only got me more excited about starting my own gardens and composts with my kids at my site. Also, I have a lot of fun activities to look forward to with swearing in, nights at a hotel, the all volunteer conference, and dinner with an american family. Finally, I will get to have my first hot shower in three months and possible my last for the next year.It will be an interesting next week and I just have to hold on for the ride.