Year One on the Books

Merry Christmas to all my loved ones, and best wishes for a 2014 full of happiness and joy!! I’m writing from my kitchen table at home in Princeton, a place I have not been for 16 months. In a true Christmas miracle, the entire family is together this holiday season, something that has not happened since 2010 due to various globetrotting adventures. My plane landed at Logan during a brutal cold snap – Dad greeted me at the airport with a jacket, hat, and gloves, and I was still shivering in the 8 degree weather as we lugged my sacks of stuff to the car. I brought a lot of stuff home with me; gifts, yes, but also a lot of things I’d never used in Nicaragua. I remember talking to a returned Peace Corps Volunteer before I left (RPCV, in Peace Corps lingo), who gave me these instructions: “Pack all the clothing you’ll think you need. Then take out half of it.” I did not follow this advice. Convinced I would spend 5 days a week in a classroom wearing professional dress, I raided my sister’s closet and hit up consignment shops for dresses, skirts, blouses, and the like. Come to find out, in Nicaragua the standard dress for professionals is jeans and a polo shirt. So home came all of the borrowed clothing, the rest I will probably give away before I come home. I also brought home my hiking boots, because I had only used them once (see hiking “adventure” up volcano during rainstorm) and they are big and bulky. My flannel shirt also came home due to lack of use, with the result that I was dressed slightly like a lumberjack for my flight home. Oh well.

Lumberjack headed for home

It’s been so refreshing to be home. I thought I would be unable to sleep past 6, but this has turned out to not be a problem once I bury myself under a pile of down comforters. We had a good amount of snow during my first week home, so we took advantage by snowshoeing and cross country skiing almost every day. Unfortunately, all this exercise was no match for the amount of delicious food I’ve been eating, mostly exciting forms of cheese and chocolate. (My experience can be summed up in the following conversation: Mom: You’re eating BREAKFAST dessert? Me: I’m on vacation!) So I’m avoiding the scale for a few days, and belts. I’ve also gotten my fill of Christmas music through a steady diet of Christmas concerts and performances, all of which I’ve enjoyed immensely (I love Christmas music oh so much!) I’ve taken advantage of my mother’s Netflix membership to catch up on some movies and TV shows I’ve been missing out on, and using the wifi to skype with some sorely neglected dear friends. I was also pleasantly surprised to find that our piano, previously loaned to friends in my absence, has returned to our home, and I have been plunking out some simple songs. And of course just spending a lot of time with my family, basking in their presence and the unconditional love and acceptance (and bad puns, naturally) of family, something I will never take for granted.

Reunited, finally. Let the bad puns begin!

I think I’ve run into the same problem that every person who returns from a trip abroad inevitably faces: how to adequately respond to the question, “How’s Nicaragua?” I think all who have been reading my blog have something of an idea of the ups and downs I’ve been through. You know I love my work and find it rewarding, and that I’ve met some amazing people, but that I’ve also been very challenged emotionally and psychologically, struggling to gain acceptance and understanding a lot of the time, offending many people despite my best intentions. Sometimes I respond to the question by describing the beautiful place where I live, or by explaining my work. I hoped that I would use this time at home to reflect on the past year, and define some goals for what I want to change and accomplish in the upcoming year. According to Peace Corps mental health experts, volunteers usually become depressed around the one year mark, as we reflect and feel like we’ve accomplished very little in the first half of our service. So far I haven’t fallen into a wallowing depression, but every day seems to hold a different emotion for me, so my perspective on my life in Nicaragua changes drastically depending on what day you talk to me (my site mate Katie can testify to this). As of yet I haven’t taken the time to be introspective, something I plan to do via extensive journal writing (I haven’t written in my journal in over a year). However, my life in Nicaragua is constantly present in the back of my mind, and surges forth every time I have a quiet or alone moment.

Always on my mind. A not-so-white Christmas.

One thing I wanted to do in this blog is something I should have done a long time ago: describe what a typical work week looks like for me. Keep in mind that there have been many interruptions in recent months due to national holidays, patron saint holidays, final exams, etc, but you can get an idea of what my life is like here.

Monday: Wake up at 5:30 and go for a run. Ride bike to Urbaite (4 km) to co-plan classes at 9:00 with my counterpart Shirley. Eat lunch at her house, then hang out (this can be accomplishing useful things or visiting people) until class at 2:00. Teach two 90-minute classes to 8^th grade students.. 6-8 Community English class at the primary school. On Mondays and Wednesdays I teach an advanced class of 8 students, and on Tuesdays and Thursdays I teach a “beginner” class of about 15 students, though I think very few actually came in as true beginners. I started the beginning of the year with over 50 students and have lost a lot, due to waning interest, other commitments, etc. I try not to take this too personally, but sometimes it’s hard. After class I bike the 4 km back to my house, eat a late dinner, and collapse into my bed.

My advanced community class with their certificates!

Tuesday: Teach two 45-minute classes to 9^th grade in Altagracia, a 1-km ride all downhill from my house. I give my little host brother a ride on my bicycle to his primary school, which is on the way. Something I’ve become very adept at is passenger-bike riding; I’ve lowered the seat on my bicycle so I can balance while a passenger seats themselves side-saddle in front of me, after which I push off and hopefully maintain equilibrium (easy when going downhill). Men do not ride side-saddle, but mount the bar like a horse; I have carried a man in this way, because I believe it is unmasculine since I am a girl, and also because I think it would be awkward. Instead, I have installed foot pegs on the back of my bicycle for passengers to stand on, while holding on to my shoulders. Passengers usually choose to mount this way while I am already in motion, which makes me a little nervous, but hasn’t caused any problems so far. But I digress. After class, I usually ride into town (Altagracia is one of the two main “urban centers” on the island) and set up in one of the hotels with my laptop. I buy a lemonade, and they let me use their wifi for as long as I want. This is sometimes the only time all week that I use the internet, and I usually have a to-do list a page long. From 9-11 my counterpart at the university, Santiago, comes, and we plan our two classes for the upcoming Saturday. When we first started working we were just teaching English classes, but lately we’ve been given more technical classes like Translation and Interpretation, Teaching Practices, and English Linguistics. These courses require research on the internet to educate ourselves on the material before we teach it to students, as the university gives us nothing more than a vague syllabus to work with. I have the afternoon free to plan classes and prepare materials. At 4:30 I head to Urbaite for soccer practice from 5-6, though I’m never quite sure if my teammates will show up, or if I’ll just end up running laps by myself. 6-8 Beginner Community Class, then home.

My beginner community class, with certificates!

Wednesday: Pretty much the same as Monday, except I teach the first two hours of class to 9^th and 10^th grade, from 12:30-3:45. Then I have an hour to kill until practice 5-6, class 6-8, then home.

Thursday: I teach 9^th grade classes in Altagracia from 8:45-12:00. After lunch, I ride to Urbaite to teach a business class to the women with whom I will be building new efficient ovens (hopefully). I have applied for a grant from the foundation Energy Conservation Program of the Americas (ECPA) to build 12 energy-efficient wood ovens out of recycled metal barrels in my community. I was hoping to have received a response by now, but I suspect the people responsible for reviewing the grant are on holiday vacation. This will cause an inconvenient delay in the project, which I was hoping to get underway during my vacation in January. The women who will receive the ovens completed a dessert-making course and are now receiving classes from me on how to run a successful business, based on the curriculum the small business volunteers use in the high schools. So the goal is that the women will use their new ovens to run a small business selling desserts, and thus be able to generate additional income to support their families. So fingers crossed everything will work out and the grant people will get back to me soon with an affirmative response! Again, I’ve digressed. After class I have practice and class again, then home. Though I admit sometimes I skip practice to stay and eat dinner with some friends.

The women I will (hopefully) be building ovens with!
With my friend Colleen, who was giving baking lessons. Thanks so much Col!

Friday: This is my “day off”, meaning I don’t work in the schools. Recently, as I’ve been training for the 50k on the island in February, I use this morning to do my long run. I can either take the 17km back way or the 23-km route along the paved main road to Moyogalpa, the port city. There, there is a wonderful café called the Corner House, run by a wonderful British-Canadian couple that serves fantastic Eggs Benedict. I usually get a slice of carrot cake for dessert, too, as a reward for my exertion. Sometimes I can convince my site-mates Katie and Emily (another TEFL volunteer who arrived two months ago) to join me, though they usually opt to take the bus. The afternoon is free for me to spend as I wish, either planning, using the internet, fulfilling some other obligation I have neglected during the week, or occasionally just relaxing. But only very occasionally, I like to be busy and usually look to get ahead on the next week’s planning if I have free time.

Saturday: At 8:00 I bike to Urbaite to teach at the Saturday-only university set up at a Christian conference center. My students usually don’t show up until about 8:30, even though they know we mark them down every time they are more than 15 minutes late.  Our first class, Teaching Practices, finishes at 10, then there is a half-hour devotional, during which time an energetic evangelical preacher from Altagracia comes to read from the Bible and offer a reflection. We have a free period and lunch break until 1:15, so we go to my counterpart teacher Santiago’s house nearby to eat lunch, correct papers, etc. Then we return to teach Linguistics in the afternoon. The university has classes year round, for 48/52 weeks of the year, so I barely ever get a free Saturday unless I skip. After class I bike to Altagracia (5 km) to meet with my counterpart Dora at her home to plan our classes for the upcoming school week. Then I either go home for the night, meet up with my sitemate Katie to hang out, or go to whatever party is going on that night in Altagracia. The islanders love to party, and it seems like every other weekend they have some excuse to set up the outdoor disco and dance the night away. The main nights for parties are Saturday and, surprisingly, Sunday. Friday not so much, which is fine by me since I have to work early on Saturday. 

Sunday: Church with my host family at 8:00. The father of my host family, Julio, is an Anglican priest who preaches at a small mission on our property. I’m getting pretty good at reciting some of the prayers, but I have a long way to go on the songs. We’re usually done and back at the house by 9, which is weird for me because I’m used to returning from church and eating lunch. But now I have to wait three whole hours…so weird.  In the afternoon I have a soccer game at 3, so I need to head out on my bike at 1:30 to arrive on time. I think I am the oldest on my soccer team by at least 5 years, but I really enjoy playing and I usually get to play the whole game, which is nice. It’s also the time I feel most connected to the community, and I’m pretty sure it’s the reason most of the people in Urbaite know who I am. The unfortunate part is that my weekends are so busy I have little time for traveling, but maybe this is best for community integration purposes.

My host family got an adorable kitten! This is our post-shower selfie.

So that’s my life, from which I am on vacation right now. Maybe one of my new year’s resolutions will be to write more regular blog posts…but don’t hold your breath. I’m still waiting for people to come visit me! Especially if you’re into running, there are some great runs in February.  So again, may everyone have a very merry Christmas shared with loved ones and a happy new year, I send all my love and hope that everyone keeps in touch in the upcoming year!