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!