What I've Been Doing

Okay, so I’ve already written about my family, my companeros, and my town. Now on to what we’re doing here. The first three weeks of training are dedicated almost exclusively to language classes…or so we thought, based on the calendar we were given. Class takes place in one of our homes, so last week we were at Maiya’s home, where we would set our rocking chairs up in a semi-circle facing Maritza and her white board in the living room. Our only disruption was school children coming to the door and asking for ice cream, which Maiya’s host mother makes and sells. So we come into class on Monday morning and settle down into our rocking chairs with our notebooks, ready for a relaxing day of Spanish. This was not to be. I can’t remember if I’ve complained about this yet, but as much as I am impressed by how incredible organized the Peace Corps Nicaragua operation is, they fail to tell us volunteers anything about what we’re going to be doing. So Maritza announces that we will be going to Colegio La Salle to meet the English teachers and figure out a time to get together and co-plan lessons. So off we went and met the three English teachers who work the morning shift at the school: Milton, Luis, and Claudia. Since there are more of us than them, we had to double up according to geographical convenience; as such, Caroline and I will be working with Claudia, who lives just around the corner from us. We had talked to a volunteer who had done his training in Diriamba, and he said Claudia was the best. We had the opportunity to observe her class a few days later. I was surprised that the students actually paid attention. They weren’t continually talking like my Chinese students, or listening to music and staring off into space like the high school students I worked with in Chile. The classroom had just a whiteboard and markers; I expected this, but I still sighed a little when I thought back to my power point days in Hangzhou. Claudia conducted almost the entire class, which was reviewing comparatives and superlatives, in Spanish, and the students were able to regurgitate the rules, with some assistance from their notebooks. Claudia was handing out monopoly-esque money to students who participated, and she explained afterwards that they were required to earn a certain amount over the course of the semester. I’m not sure how I feel about this approach; it has the obvious effect of creating participation, but I think it would make the goal of making the students self-motivated almost impossible. My big criticism of the class was that there was a ton of wasted time while the teacher wrote sentences on the board, or while a handful of students wrote their answers and the rest had nothing to do. We also got to observe one of Milton’s classes. Milton has been teaching English both in the school and at a private institute for many years now, and is clearly very proud of his English abilities. He talked a lot, and I’m sure the students understood only a fraction of what he said, thus causing them to lose interest. Our intelligence sources tell us that he won’t listen to any suggestions for improvement, so good luck to Bryan and Maiya in that regard.

The Nicaraguan school schedule is a little different from elsewhere. Classes start at 7:00 and end at noon, then there is another rotation in the afternoon that goes roughly from 12:00-5:00. I think a lot of the schools also have a night session, which is good for those who have to work during the day. The only break is a 20-minute recess in the morning, though the students don’t actually go to their classrooms until at least 10 minutes after that, a practice that will not slide in my classroom. I’m still brainstorming punishments for tardiness; ideas include extending the class to make up for lost time when possible, or making students sing/dance/recite something in English. I’m open to suggestions. Anyways, Claudia studies in the evenings, so Caroline and I will be meeting with her on Saturday afternoons to co-plan our classes. Though the Peace Corps wants us to plan individually with her as much as possible, so we’ll see how that works out.

The same day of our surprise visit to the school, we had another surprise visit to another school, Colegio Emanuel Bautista, where we will be doing our Youth Group. We have a huge advantage in this venture as compared to other groups. Usually volunteers need to somehow recruit students to participate in the youth group, by going door to door, making invitations, etc. In contrast, we simply talked to the headmaster, who poked his head into two classes and told the students they would be participating in our youth group, that it was mandatory, and that they would be taking attendance. Done. Thank goodness, because I was not looking forward to the recruiting process. We’ve only done one meeting so far, and it was short because the students had to study for exams the next day. Basically we introduced ourselves, made name tags, and played a name game called “Fruit Basket” that Alba knew from her days working as a counselor at Spanish Camp. I believe that the plan is to divide up into two, possibly three groups in the future, as there will probably be 40-50 kids if they all show up. Our plan for next week is to have the kids complete Community Maps that we will begin working on this weekend. This is a strategy advocated by the Peace Corps’ PACA strategy that helps communities identify what is important to them, where they spend the most time, what their resources are, and how they can use their resources to improve their lives. Our project won’t be nearly so insightful I’m sure, but it will make both us and the kids think about what’s important to them in the community. Hopefully. Beginning the week after this one, I think we will also be doing a Youth Group on Monday with kids that the principal rounds up. That’s all I know, stay tuned. Though we do have a booklet that gives us a rough idea of what we should be doing in Youth Group each week, such as teaching English, doing a fun activity, or presenting a talk on some subject of interest. Though the guide doesn’t cover two classes each week, so we’ll have to improvise.

And have I complained yet about how much homework we have? We usually have an assignment for Spanish/Cultural Integration, such as asking our host mothers how to make Cheese Soup, or making a family tree to get to understand our host families better. Then we have to come up with 5 new vocabulary words every day, which I find challenging. And then the Peace Corps has a whole slew of technical readings about TEFL, and more readings about medical stuff, and an entire PDF book called “The History of Nicaragua”, which is the least important and the one I enjoy the most, naturally. I’d done almost all of them by the time our first group meeting rolled around on Thursday. The location of this meeting changes every week, but fortunately for us this first one was in our community, so we didn’t need to travel. It was good to see everyone and hear their stories and compare them to our own. Chelsea  is living in a home she claims is nicer than her own at home (and it sounds like it is, she has a flatscreen!) and completely doted on by her family. Alba had chickens that fly onto the roof of her room every morning at 4AM and start making a ruckus that even earplugs can’t block. Many only took bucket baths, or had a situation similar to mine where there was running water, but the water would come and go at unpredictable and usually inconvenient times. I had to thank Sarah (who served in the Peace Corps in Honduras for 6 months before being evacuated after a volunteer was shot) for explaining during orientation the proper technique for how to flush a toilet when no running water was available. Other Chelsea’s family fed their pet pig coca-cola (because they had some extra, and what else would they do with it?) late at night, which caused it to freak out and run around the kitchen like crazy. Tara had some unfortunate food experiences involving fish that had probably started to rot, while Sarah received comical portions from her host mother. I’ll insert a note here about my food situation, which is working out splendidly. Luisa, one of Dona Yaya’s daughters, is doing the cooking for me since she isn’t working during the day currently. The volunteer who stayed with them last year was a vegetarian, so they were totally prepared for me, soy meat at the ready. Everything I’ve eaten has been fantastic, if a little low on vegetables. There is one type of cheese in Nicaragua that is eaten daily and is a little saltier than I would choose, but I’ve already learned to love it. Fresh-squeezed juices called frescos are served with every meal, though I recently requested milk for breakfast since I assessed my diet to be deficient in calcium. I was sad to hear that the avocado system is wrapping up as we speak, but not before I was served Nicaraguan guacamole, which has the distinctive characteristic of being prepared with a hard-boiled egg mixed in. Delicious. I also have a 1-kg (that’s about 2 lbs…) bag of manjar from Chile that I have been enjoying with my plantains for breakfast. Lunch portions are always so huge that I can barely finish, but dinner is fairly light and I’m usually still full from lunch. A big cultural difference is that families will eat in groups of 1,2, or 3, but never all together at mealtimes. I still don’t really enjoy eating alone, especially because it makes me feel like a guest since Luisa always serves me. But someone will usually sit and chat with me while I eat, which is nice. I still haven’t kicked my instinct to look for a piece of chocolate after every meal, though I guess that will pass with time. But I digress.

Anyways, it was good to finally get an overview of what we will be doing in the Youth Group and in the classroom. I alternated between feeling excited to have the chance to have an impact, and feeling overwhelmed and completely incapable of meeting all the expectations set forth. It’s going to be a delicate balancing act between enacting change while not completely upsetting the students’ expectations and comfort zone. We were told that we should try not to speak Spanish at all in the classroom; this is one of the basic principles I learned when I got my TEFL certification, but I had always envisioned myself conducting the majority of the class in Spanish, probably because this is what I observed in Chile. But our trainer pointed out, correctly, that the main goal of speaking Spanish would be to create rapport, and that this would benefit the teacher way more than the student. Sigh. And offering translations also creates a sort of learned helplessness and apathy in the students that we of course do not want to foment. I also found out that we are expected to turn in a bunch of stuff at the end of training, including 3 journals (well, one is shared among our group) and 3 essays. Yikes. But I did learn a lot in one day, and I look forward to acquiring the knowledge I need to complete my service in these weekly meetings.

In other breaking news, I bought myself a guitar! I had heard that there is a lot of free time during the first few months (AFTER this super-intense training period) so I brought my trusty "Guitar for Dummies" book with me and decided this would be a great time to realize my dream of learning to play. I was planning to wait until I got to my real site so I wouldn't have to cart it around with me, but Alba has one with her, and when I passed "Musikworld" in the center of town right before a long weekend with nothing to do, the temptation became too great. I really like it, it has cute palm trees on it, and I'm sure I got it for a much better price than I would have in the US. I'm currently working on "Let it Be" and "La Bamba", and am hoping to find some easy Spanish folk songs. I also just discovered that the local library offers free guitar lessons every Monday. Unfortunately I missed today, but next week I'll be there! 

 This is my street! I live in the red house.

This is the iconic San Sebastian Basilica in Diriamba, with patriotic flags to celebrate Independence Day.

Keep in touch!

Diriamba

As predicted, internet access is scarce around here. Well, two of my group members have wifi in their homes, but then a whole other issue arises because, with so many people coming in and out of the house each day, you don’t want to sit around and advertise the fact that you have a laptop. No one in my family owns a computer, so I keep mine hidden away and only use it at night in my room to do the required Peace Corps readings which are on a pen drive (yay for saving paper!) I’m okay with this situation, as I’ve barely had any free time and it encourages more interaction with my host family and the community.

I’m living in a community called Diriamba; I’m not sure of the exact population, but it’s pretty large as far as towns go. It’s laid out in a fairly straightforward grid pattern than centers around the San Sebastian Basilica and a small central park. A few blocks south is the San Jose church, and since street names and numbers aren’t really used around here, my current address is: 1.75 meters south of the San Jose church. I don’t think this is accurate, but it got me here somehow. There is no space between the homes, which are distinguished from each other by different colors of bright paint. The streets are half paved and half cobblestones, and it is not unusual to see a horse and cart pass by. The horses here are so small and adorable, I bet I could jump on one from the ground…oh the temptation…Though the downside to so many horses is that I have to constantly watch my step wherever I go. The majority of vehicles on the streets are moto-taxis. I could try to explain, but I’ll have to just take a picture I think. There are 5 of us here in the Advanced Spanish group for TEFL volunteers, I’ll share a little bit about them because they will probably come up a lot in my blog entries from the next few months. The first is Caroline, a southern girl from a small town in northern Alabama whose accent I love and who lives for Crimson Tide football. She loves running, and we have been meeting at 5:30 (since I go to bed between 8-9, I am awake and feeling refreshed by this point in the day) every morning to run together; I thought I was in pretty good shape, but I now realize I have a lot of work to do. Brian, the lone male in our group, lives pretty close to me as well, though I’m still not entirely sure how to get to his home. He’s from New Mexico and has an interesting family history since his father was “adopted” into an indigenous family as an adult. He has a lot of experience working with Mexicans, and spent some time in Spain as well. Maiya is the oldest of our group, hails from San Francisco. She´s doing the Peace Corps Masters International Program, so she has one year competed toward a masters in TESOL, and her time here will count as well. She’s the best at always speaking in Spanish, which is good since if it were up to me I would speak English when no other Spanish speakers were around. Last but not least (I’m going geographically) is Alba, coincidentally from a town very near Caroline in Alabama, but without the accent. Her real name is Katie, but Alba is the name she used as a counselor at a Spanish camp for years. Since there are 2 Katies in the TEFL group, it works out. She brought her guitar with her, which is exciting for me because one of my Nicaraguan goals is to learn how to play the guitar; I even brought my book “Guitar for Dummies” with me. All I need now is the guitar, but I’m thinking I might wait until I reach my site to buy one, both so I don’t have to transport it and because I don’t think we’ll have a lot of free time here. Our Spanish facilitator is named Maritza, a lady from Diriamba who is probably in her forties. She is very nice (except for assigning way too much homework, which I suppose is an occupational hazard), and it is a little funny to me when she teaches us bad words in the nica dialect (only when they come up, of course). I thought initially that she was only going to be responsible for our language learning, but it turns out she is guiding us through everything we have to do while in training.

Now for my family. My “mama” is nicknamed Dona Yaya, which I find ironic since “Yaya” was my nickname for myself as a small child. She is in her mid-60’s and works during the day at what seems to be a day care center in the next town. Her husband passed away just a few months ago. The design of the home is very open; you enter through the gate into the patio, which serves as an outdoor hallway onto which the doors of all the rooms enter. There are a bunch of rocking chairs outside for conversation; rocking chairs are a way of life in Nicaragua, and it was one of the first new words that I learned. The kitchen is adjacent to the dining room / living room, which has more rocking chairs and a TV. I watched my first soap opera last night, called “The Clone”. Apparently these shows only run for a few months, as opposed to the interminable ones in Chile, and I am going to make an effort to watch every night. My room is next to the kitchen, followed by Dona Yaya’s room, the bathroom, and her daughter’s room. The one bad thing about this set up is that I can’t get to the bathroom without going through one of the bedrooms. It hasn’t been a problem yet, since Dona Yaya doesn’t spend very much time in her bedroom and is always awake before me, but it still feels like an invasion of privacy. We do have running water, but it comes and goes without rhyme or reason. There are always buckets in the shower that we keep filled with water, so I switch between showers and bucket baths. To my great pleasure, we have two dogs: Toti is a big, mixed-race male who is tied up during the day but allowed to roam at night. I understand why, since he is intimidating to people he doesn’t know and dogs here do their business wherever they please. Luna is an adorable, if sometimes annoying, 3-month-old boxer who is sometimes allowed to roam during the day. I’ve been taking her out for walks in the evening, something she is not yet accustomed to; we move at a very slow pace, there are so many new smells! We also have two green birds with clipped wings who roam about as they can, one of which will just hang out on your finger or shoulder, though he sometimes bites.  

Dona Yaya lives with her eldest daughter, Bertha (37) who is married to Victor and has a 3-year-old daughter named Ana. Ana is absolutely adorable, but seems to be spoiled from being the only child in the house; her favorite and most often-used word is “mio” (mine). Which reminds me of those seagulls from Finding Nemo…Also in the house is Yaya’s second daughter, Luisa (34) with her two daughters Andrea (14) and Yelba (11). They have their own one-room house complete with kitchen on the other side of the narrow courtyard, and Luisa is the one who does my cooking for me (thank goodness!). Yelba is my best friend in the family, as we talk a lot and sometimes play Monopoly (fun fact, the new versions of Monopoly don’t have bills, but instead use a credit card machine! Heck I’ll volunteer to be the banker now). I also met Yaya’s youngest daughter, also named Yaya (30), her husband Humberto, and their 4-year-old daughter Jimena, who is adorable and very talkative and outgoing. They live in Managua, which is about an hour away, but come to visit every weekend if they can. I think they will be arriving soon, since Friday is a holiday to celebrate Independence Day! Unfortunately I have not yet gotten around to reading “The History of Nicaragua” so my knowledge of this historic event is a little fuzzy. The Nicaraguans I’ve asked aren’t even sure which year it was. But I’m sure my next blog post will be full of details on how it is celebrated. The family tree (which I had to complete as a Spanish/integration assignment) gets more complicated, since the father of Andrea and Yelba lives around the corner, and is the host father of Caroline. Whoa. The grandmother is in town for a few weeks, visiting from Miami, and she took me, Caroline, Andrea, Yelba, and their 3-year-old half-brother Gustavo on a sight-seeing tour on Sunday. We went to essentially a huge souvenir/handicraft market, which was good since I could take notes on which souvenirs I want to acquire before I head home. We also went to a viewpoint over a beautiful lake (argh I forgot the name) beside a mountain, which was absolutely stunning. I’m itching to get out and do some hiking and camping, but I probably won’t have the time to do it for a while. We’ll see, I guess. 

Here's a picture of our group here in Diriamba: Maiya, Alba, Bryan, Caroline, me (duh).

Well, the photo is actually taken overlooking Managua.

Some of my family on our outing to the Laguna de Apoyo: Yelba, me, Caroline, Lillian, Andrea, and Gonzalo.

Well, this is way less comprehensive than I intended, but I don´t want to bore anyone, so I will post a blog later detailing what I have actually been doing with my time. Keep in touch please!

Orientating

I’m in Nicaragua! Any trepidation or borderline regret I may have had before arriving has vanished, and I am totally confident that joining the Peace Corps was the right decision for me. It’s all about the incredible people, just like I knew it would be, but it was tough to really believe it when I hadn’t met said people yet. Even knowing that the people I was about to meet would probably become lifelong friends, walking into the 12:30 meeting at our hotel in Washington, DC was still really intimidating. We were all put at ease somewhat by Maureen, a former Peace Corps volunteer who was leading the staging event. She was all smiles and happiness and enthusiasm for our upcoming service. Then as I stood in line to hand in (still more) paperwork, I began chatting with the people around me. Then in the meeting room we did an ice breaker activity, a standard “find someone who…” activity. The only one I missed was “find someone who is from the same state as you”. I’m surprised I’m the only one from Massachusetts, I feel like I usually find fellow “Massholes” everywhere I go. Anyways, this was a good opportunity to chat with everyone and find out a little about their background…though of course it’s impossible to remember details for 27 people, so we’ve all asked and re-asked the same questions. I do know everyone’s names now, after less than 36 hours together, and could say where almost everyone is from. It’s fun for me because there are a bunch of southerners in the group, and as I haven’t spent a lot of time with people from that part of the country, I am enjoying hearing the southern drawl. There are several people who have spent time in China, and one who studied abroad in Santiago. Overall it’s an incredibly well-traveled group, and each person is fun to talk to and grill about past experiences. We’re a young group; I think the youngest is 22 and the oldest is 29. We have two birthdays to celebrate this Friday. It’s amazing to think how short the actual time we’ve known each other is, but I already feel like we’ve known each other forever, and I know we’ll only grow closer as the time passes.

But back to the narrative. Staging was boring. We spent like 5 hours going over some general logistics. Honestly, I don’t even remember what we talked about. We got our new special Peace Corps passports (why they decided to put the photo on the second page instead of the inside cover is beyond me) and a debit card with $120 to cover our staging expenses such as food, transport to hotel, etc. It’s good because the US dollar is used in Nicaragua, along with the Nicaraguan cordoba, so we don’t need to worry about changing any extra money. We were also informed that we would be checking out of our hotel at 2:30 IN THE MORNING for our 7:15 flight. This still seems incredibly dumb to me, but we did it and I slept in the waiting room and on the planes (my companions were impressed). This early departure was a shame, since the hotel was far and away the nicest I’d ever stayed in, and the beds were awesome. Some parts were excessive, like the fact that half the bed was covered in pillows and I needed to fling 4 of them on the floor before I could even enter my bed. Oh well, I guess that’s how the other side lives on the road. Before bed we wandered around en masse to find a place for dinner, then split up for logistical purposes. I had Mexican, and I couldn’t have asked for a better last meal: mushroom tacos and a huge bowl of house guacamole, plus a tasty margarita of sorts.

So fast forward past departure at an ungodly hour, two plane trips, and many naps later, and we were in Nicaragua. Everyone’s excitement was both palpable and contagious; we all exchanged huge grins, cheers, and some happy dances when our plane touched down in Managua. 

Nicaragua and China could not be more different (duh); I don’t think any building in Managua is over two stories high. Actually, the level of driving is probably comparable, so there’s one thing they have in common. Also, props to Snickers (what company is that, Mars?) for having colonized the entire world. This is very fortunate for me, as I am comforted by knowing that no matter where I go in the world, I will never have to go without Snickers for too long. If only Reeses would catch up…

We were met outside customs by a group of people holding large signs saying “Welcome to Peace Corps Nicaragua!” etc, and they cheered loudly when they saw us coming. There were 4 current volunteers and our orientation leader, a sizeable welcoming committee to be sure. They took our things, loaded us into a van, and brought us to the center where we would eat and have our afternoon welcome/training session. We met Naomi, our friendly orientation leader with a wonderfully crazy head of curls, and Carol, our country director, and Ashley, the training supervisor. One thing we have learned is that the Peace Corps, probably due to its affiliation with the government, absolutely loves acronyms. It makes your head spin at times, particularly after back-to-back days of sleep deprivation. So the PCV’s and the COD talked to us PCVs about various logistical things…again, I can’t recall exactly what, but I’m sure it was important and I responded appropriately. Tomorrow we will have our Spanish assessment, the results of which will be used to divide us into groups of about 4 for our 11 weeks of training. I forgot to mention that there are two types of volunteers in our groups: the TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) group, which I of course am a part of, and the environmental education group. So I won’t be seeing very much of the environmental people once we split on Saturday, which is too bad, though it will be nice to have a smaller group; getting to know 27 people is a little overwhelming.  

Day 2 brought a more formal introduction (which we were much more awake for), the Spanish assessment, more info on our respective projects, handing in of health forms, 2 shots, the distribution of mosquito nets and med kits, and a safety presentation. We learned how common theft and pickpocketing is, and what we need to do to prevent it, such as: no sleeping on buses, tying our backpack zippers together with twist ties, and locking our possessions in our suitcases when we left them in our homes. I’m pretty sure I will be a victim of this at some point, since I’m usually way too trusting.

So I guess I just wanted to share some stuff I’ve been learning about the Peace Corps. First is this poem by Lao Tsu of China, written in 700 BC and used by the Peace Corps as emblematic of their mission:

Go in search of your People;

Love Them;

Learn from Them;

Plan with Them;

Serve Them;

Begin with what They have;

Build on what They know.

But of the best Leaders

When their task is accomplished,

their work is done,

The People all remark:

“We have done this Ourselves.”

I really like this idea of empowering people to the point that they almost don’t realize you’ve done it. I hope it’s something I can achieve. I’ve enjoyed talking to the current volunteers at our orientation about their work and the side projects they’ve done, such as organizing events to teach high school students skills like writing resumes and interviewing, and introducing them to universities in the area and the programs they offered. The leaders of the TEFL program also told us about camps that past volunteers have organized, and told us that materials for these camps are available if we’re interested. Past TEFL volunteers have also compiled collections of activities to use in the classroom, that apparently has been endorsed by the government and distributed to all English teachers.

So the plan is to receive our host family assignments tomorrow. Everyone is super excited for this…it’s so cool to be with a group of people who feel the same way I do about everything. The trainers put a lot of effort into matching us with the best family for our personality and wants, so I think it will be a pretty good match.

Here I Go!

My departure date for the Peace Corps is 3 days from now! It's a little anticlimactic because my "big trip" is actually only a 90-minute flight to Washington DC for a day of "staging" before flying out to Managua, Nicaragua the following day. I will then be in Managua for 3 days of what I'm calling "pre-orientation orientation", after which we will be split into groups and sent to various communities an hour outside of the city for 11 weeks of orientation and training. There will be 28 of us, but I don't know how many groups we will be divided into.

My trip preparations are going remarkably well, apart from the fact that I can't locate the packing list I was sent a number of months ago. I suspect I may have recycled it. I have a lot of things packed already, and have assembled a full "business casual" wardrobe as mandated by the Peace Corps from various sources such as my closet, my sister's closet, one of my grandmother's clothing catalogs, and a local consignment store. I've seen all my family members and friends that I can in my limited time frame, including a visit to a family reunion that I hadn't attended in years. And I spent 3 weeks at my beloved China Lake, to which I had to bid a sad farewell. This time, when I say I'm not coming back next summer, I actually mean it. I've had to say a lot of farewells to people I love...two years has never seemed longer than when I use it to measure how long it will be before I see friends and family again. Everyone has an open invitation to visit me in Nicaragua! I searched on kayak.com and a round trip ticket to Managua showed up for $500, but I think special offers for way less can be found. And no jet lag! Come visit!

So for those I haven't had the change to brief on my assignment, I will be working as a "TEFL Teacher/Trainer". Past Peace Corps volunteers have warned me that post realities often differ from the descriptions, but here is the overview: I will be co-teaching a high school English class with one or more Nicaraguan teachers. The Nicaraguan education system, like China's, is based on a lot of memorization and rote learning, so the idea is that I help show the teacher new methods of teaching English that stress interaction and communication. I am also looking forward to experimenting with new strategies that I learned during my online "Building Strong Classroom Communities" course this past Spring. This will be the first time I have "control" (albeit shared) over a classroom, so the first year will most likely be more of a learning experience for me. I am grateful that I had the past year of experience in a Chinese public school dealing with classroom realities; I think that experience made me a lot more prepared for this new challenge.

Well, I guess that's all I have to report for now. Please keep in touch while I'm gone!