Un poco de viajes y cultura

To my beloved friends and family,

Brace yourselves, this is a long one. (TWHS)

I apologize for the tardiness of this installment, and I am presumptuous enough to presume that you are all waiting on pins and needles awaiting the explanation.  PC organized a practicum week in which our entire group went to either Chinandega or Corinto to work with established volunteers in those areas to get a better feel for what life is going to be like as a volunteer, receive advice, and get hands-on training.  I was sent to Corinto, which is a port-town in the northwest.  It is extremely colorful and has very unique architecture that gives it an almost Disneyland feel to parts of it.  The fountain in the central plaza has a live 7 foot crocodile and a dozen turtles living in it.  It’s pretty bizarre.  As for training, it was super helpful.  First we gave an HIV charla to a classroom of about 40 kids from 12-14.  We included some games in the lesson plan that they really enjoyed to keep their interest.  They go crazy for hot potato where someone has to answer a question if it lands on them.  And that’s like the least fun game.  They had received talks on HIV before and were fairly aware of the basics, but at the end we had everyone write down and turn in a question for me to answer to the class.  This was, by far, the most rewarding part.  When you give a charla, you know most are listening, but it’s a forced listen and you never get that feeling that your audience is waiting with bated breath for the fourth and final bodily fluid that could potentially transmit HIV.  But when I was answering those questions they had written down, I acquainted myself with omnipotence.  They really wanted to know the answers to the questions that you just can’t ask most people in Nicaragua.  For example, during the charla I mentioned that oral sex can transmit HIV, but at the end I received the question, “What is oral sex?” quite a few times.  Because they could ask questions about necessary concepts and receive information that they might otherwise never have gotten, I definitely walked away feeling like it was the most important and rewarding part of the talk.  That’s actually a perfect example of how taboo sex is in Latin American culture.  But the fact that we’re forcing the subject on them will definitely increase awareness, and hopefully communication about healthy sex practices as well.  We also gave a charla at the centro de salud there, as well as the naval base.  The naval base was a blast because were given a bit more liberty with the charla to make it more entertaining.  We played some games that had nothing to do with the theme, but were a blast nonetheless; just to make it more fun.  In one we gave them all a word we had cut out of a magazine and they had to say, “What I have between my legs is                   “, and read their word.    Pick the right words, and it’s hilarious.  We also did one where everyone gets in a circle, puts a piece of tape anywhere on the body of the person to their left, and has to pull the piece of tape off the person to their right using only their teeth.  Watching grown men in military outfits do it is priceless.  We also did a condom demonstration on a wooden dildo, including all the steps on how to correctly apply a condom.  I think they listened, were interested, and had a good time.  Then we went to a beautiful beach with water at the perfect temperature, played soccer and watched the sunset.  It was torture.  Finally, we saw a billiards tournament the volunteers had organized in which they gave a charla between each round.  This seemed a little less effective because everyone was young, rowdy, and very focused on the games, but you never know if the quiet guys in the back came away with something that could change their lives.

So that was two weeks ago.  The week before that I traveled to Masaya, the capital of the state I’m in.  We went as a part of class “to practice bartering”.  It is a huge, colorful market with rows and rows and rows of covered shops.  You can buy all the typical little trinkets you find all over Latin America, but they also have a lot of stuff I haven’t seen anywhere else.  I’m thinking about buys a basketball jersey that just says Nicaragua across the front.  It’s tight. Tight like cool, not tight fitting.

I have also started attending free yoga classes that a TEFL volunteer that lives here in Masatepe gives two days a week.  I go after playing soccer, which is tiring, but I figure I need it in my feeble attempt to combat the ungodly amounts of oil and sugar I consume daily.  And speaking of soccer, I still play most nights on the cement basketball court til dark, but I also joined an outdoor league.  My neighbor’s boyfriend played for a team and invited me to play, once again before ever having seen me play.  There are two fields that they use, and neither is of very high quality.  The first one we played on is horrendous.  It was mostly unever, hard dirt, and one of the goals has solid, jagged rock right in front of it.  Playing on that field makes a man out of you.  The other field is Astroturf in comparison, but still not fantastic.  Furthermore, our team is very young and not exactly Barcelona.  We’ve lost all three games we’ve played, but showed immense improvement each game, and narrowly lost to last season’s champions in our last one.  And despite putting sun block on before all the games, I always get burned.

But probably the most exciting/interesting/illuminating aspect of joining this soccer team is the number of facets of Nicaraguan culture it so clearly demonstrates.  And I haven’t mentioned the culture yet, so this is the perfect segway.

It all began with the team meeting organized at 5pm on the Saturday night before our first game for 7:30pm that same night.  It was held in the club director’s garage, which he had converted into a small church.  Nica Cultural Difference Presented by the Soccer Meeting #1:  Nicaraguans do not stress punctuality.  It’s called Nica Time.  Rarely does anything start when it is scheduled to because no one wants to worry themselves with time.  It kinda makes sense, if everyone’s late, no one’s late.  Plus, unnecessary stress is just that, unnecessary.  No one wears watches unless they are going out (decoration).  But I, being the punctual person that I am, showed up at 7:30, and waited 45 minutes for the meeting to start.  NCDPSM #2:  Religion permeates most sectors of Nicaraguan life.  To begin the meeting, the director gave a straight up sermon.  Soccer was barely even referenced, and I had to wonder if I was at the right place.  Especially entertaining for me as a science major was the fact that evolution was denounced because the earth was created 6000 years ago.  I must admit, however, I found the sermon extremely interesting, and would actually have enjoyed it had I not been so concerned with the ending time because I still had to eat dinner.  He also mentioned that alcohol used to be a problem with the team and got general agreement, but through perseverance and dedication to God, they had largely overcome that.  That also might explain why the meeting was held on a Saturday night.  But I guess I should have guessed the meeting would contain religious overtones when I showed up at a house/church.  NCDPSM #3:  They are obsessed with national heroes and famous Nicaraguans.  There isn’t an excessive amount, but the most famous is the poet Ruben Darío, who is known throughout the Spanish-speaking world and the Prince of the Spanish language.  In the sermon he only quoted two people:  God, and Ruben Darío.  Granted he is one of the most famous poets in the world and a source of immense national pride, it struck me as a little humorous. 

So that was the meeting.  But there are a couple other things I wanted to mention about the team and Nicaraguan culture.  Nicaraguans, and I’m confident this is consistent throughout Latin America, don’t like to admit when they don’t know something or understand.  If you ask for directions to a place that someone’s never heard of or not sure of the exact location, rather than say that, they give you directions to where they think it might be.  Sometimes you end up walking in circles because the three people you asked weren’t sure where it was.  And it makes it even more difficult to get around because there are no street names or numbers on buildings.  All directions are given from a well know place relatively close to the target destination, like a church.  But going back to the understanding thing, it’s also a very funny experience when you try to ask a question of someone with your accented and grammatically incorrect Spanish, and rather than answer, they just nod ever so slightly and look away.  If you were waiting for the answer to a yes or no question, it can lead to some misunderstandings, but if it was an open-ended question, it’s just confusing.  Fortunately Nicaraguans have a nose-scrunch that means, “I don’t understand”, without actually having to say, “I don’t understand.”  Another interesting mannerism is the lip-point.  Instead of pointing with the hands, they point in the direction they’re talking about with both lips, sometimes while still talking, which is hilarious.  I smile every time it happens.  The second cultural aspect I wanted to mention is generosity.  Everyone here is extremely generous.  Most people are pretty inquisitive when they see a chele, (I don’t remember if I’ve already said what a chele is, but it’s a white person), so talking to people on the bus is really easy for me.  On two separate occasions I struck up a conversation with an older woman and she gave me food.  Once we were chatting about music that we like, she asked me randomly if I’d ever tried a certain type of Nicaraguan bread, I hadn’t, so she pulled out a bag of bread and gave me some.  The other time we were talking, and out of nowhere and for no reason she gave me two mandarin oranges from her bag.  And no, I didn’t mention being hungry or demand payment for the conversation.  But it doesn’t stop with women.  If you’re out with friends and one owns a taxi, he’ll give you a free ride even if it means passing up some business and walking wouldn’t be hard at all.  Or if you haven’t tried some street food, he’ll buy it for you before even asking if you have any money on you.  A man associated with my soccer team gave me socks and shin gaurds to play because I didn’t have any.  People have invited me into their houses off the street to sit and talk.  I’m sure it has a bit to do with curiosity, but they also want me to feel welcome and comfortable in their country.  But the curiosity also contributes to my local fame.  It seems like everyone in my neighborhood knows my name.  Walking down the street, little kids yell my name, old men nod their heads, women say good morning, and I’ve never met half of them.  Not to mention, when I joined La Ronda, my soccer team, EVERYONE knew about it instantly and would ask me if I was really going to play on the team.  I still have guys I’ve never met from other teams yell my name, come up and chat with me about how we’re playing each other this weekend.  After the games everyone asks me how we did and if I scored.  I seriously feel famous.  It’s the last thing my ego needs, but, oh!, how sweet it is.  J.R. Tolkien and James Taylor reference in the last line. Cuz I luv ya.

I love and miss you all,

Nick

Entrenamiento

To my beloved friends and family,

I feel I have kept you all in the dark for too long.  I amn aware that all of you have had but one thought/ponderance/obsession pertaining to my trip to Nicaragua, and now I will put your minds at ease.

I have decided to grow out my facial hair for my time in Masatepe.

I still shave the sides, so it's not completely "No-Shave November"-esque, but the 'stache and chin have maintained the manly reggedness that you have all come to know and love.  Now, someone's going to ask, "Why does he do that to his beautiful face?", to which I would respond, "Not exactly sure.  It just feels right."

And now witht the stuff you might actually care about.  Training has really picked up the pace.  We recieve technical training from PC staff and current volunteers for hours on end on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, and have class all day on Mon, Tues, and Thursday.  My Spanish class and I, consisting of 3 other people, started a youth group that meets twice a week as a platform to begin spreading our "Use a condom or you'll get HIV and pregnant" gospel.  It's one of the training requirements and I can't tell if the kids, 12 to 17 years old, keep coming back because they enjoy it or because they're bored and school doesn't start until next week.  Established volunteers have like 10 youth groups that they juggle, which is quite impressive and makes having youth groups in general seem more fruitful of a task than just the one.  I also gave my first talk about HIV to about 20 women in the waiting room at the centro de salud (Health Center doesn't sound right so I'm using centro de salud.)  Doing the charlas there is common because they've got time on their hands to listen while they're waiting for something and couldn't escape even if they wanted to.  My next talk is going to be on nutrition.  We make little posters to put up while we give it, and I think I could definitely get used to giving them.  It's nice to feel like I'm on my way to making a small differece, but all the volunteers tell you it gets much easier once you're done with training, at your official site, and don't have the strict and busy schedule imposed on you.  Not to mention the PC continuously mentions that a good part of the impact you will make comes in the close relationships you build in all areas of your life.  That's why they refer to it as a 24-7 job.

I also never brought up the food here.  If I could use one word to describe Nicaraguan food, it would be, without a doubt, "fried".  EVERYTHING is fried.  The most common traditional dish is gallo pinto, which is fried rice and fried black beans combined and fried again.  And gallo pinto is served with every meal.  Every day.  Breakfast usually also includes a fried, scrambled egg, simple bread, and a cup of absilutely delicious coffee.  (Taylor, you are my resident expert on coffee, so when you come you can let me know if it's actually that good or if I'm just biased.)  Lunch, the most important and biggest meal of the day, has some sort of meat or carb dish, usually fried, and fried plantains.  To wash it down I get a refresco, which is a blended fruit drink.  It's usually made fromsqueezed orange juice mixed with granadia, which I had never heard of before coming here, but is fantastic.  I also got a tomato, onion, and chilote salad with lemon juice and salt once, and it was so refreshing to get vegetables that I made a huge deal about how much I loved it and now they serve it to me everyday for lunch.  But it really is delicious.  Dinner is usually gallo pinto, bread, refresco, and whatever else happens to be easy.  It has to be prepared and eaten in the hour we have before novelas, after all.

Basketball.  I played it.  Kati and I were looking for a place to play soccer because our normal place was shut down for some reason, and they were playing basketball on the other court, so we challenged them to 2 on 2.  The rims are bent and super bouncy, so perimeter shooting is almost impossible.  Furthermore, they play rim instead of posession, clearing it is only out of the key, and inbounding is unannanounced and always directly beneath the hoop, so the entire game takes place within a 5 foot circle in the key.  And they must have gathered all strategy from watching And 1 and NBA basketball because defense is practically nonexistant and everyone just drives the lane, usually calling a foul.  I went back the next day because I was bored,a dn there  was a semi-pro team playiong an official game there.  It was far from what we would expect semi-pro ball to look like, but Nicaragua is a baseball country, give them a break.  What was most exciting for me was seeing the team.  Extremely breif and oversimplified Nicaraguan demographics lesson time.  The east coast of Nicaragua was settled by the Brittish for a while and they brought with them a good deal of Caribbean inhabitants.  For that reason, English, Spanish, and a Creole language called Miskito are all spoken on the side, and the black population is much higher than on the Pacific coast.  So the coolest part was seeing the team that had like 6 black guys that looked just like African Americans in the US, but spoke perfect Spanish.  For me, I don't know if most people have seen that or not, it was like the Starburst commercial witht the Japanese guy that plays the bagpipes and has a Scottish accent; it was awesome.  That same day the two guys we played against were there and asked me to play on a different team representing Masatepe.  I went and practiced with them the following day, but they put me as a center.  Yeah, at 6 feet tall, I'm a center.  Once again I did ok, but I'm still debating whether or not I want to play with them because the style is just so very much not me.  But I'll keep you posted ont he one.

I feel like everytime I have less to say in these things, but write more.  Once you acheive the level of fame that is 11 followers, the fans become your world.  By the way, I will get pictures up before I come home, I just have to travel an hour on bus to Managua to do it, and it could be a while before I have that kind of time.  But I will do it.

Love,

Nick

Mi primera fin de semana

To my beloved friends and family,


Since training has yet to get very intensive, I've had a lot of time to keep you updated.  I promise I actually did go to Nicaragua, there are not computers at every corner, and I am spending time outside of the ciber.  But since I've got some time, I figured I'd write about my first weekend in Masatepe.  Someone's got to be at least a little curious, or, at the very least, people can use it as yet another reason to not study for midterms.


There was an earthquake last Friday near the coast.  It was a 5.1 on the Richter scale, (Tim, is that good?), and we felt it all the way over in Masatepe, which is a couple hours' bus ride away.  It was kind of exciting to feel the ground and house shake, and to be able to say I've experienced an earthquake, but what devastation did it leave in it's wake?  You'll have to research that one on your own, because I don't know. I just added that last phrase in to keep the rhyme going.


For the first week it was a nightly routine to play with the kids in the street in front of my house.  There's always about 10 out there just hanging out anyways, ranging in age from 6 to 12, and having an older person play makes it all the more exciting.  But they do not take competition lightly.  As it should be.  Life's too short to lose or "play fair".  Sharing can beat it too.  OK, so they do play fair and share, (rhyming's in my blood), but there have definitely been some heated arguments, of which I understood very little.  We play whatever strikes their fancy that particular evening, be it fútbol, kickbol, or noche y día, a think-fast, tag-type game.


However, lately this has become a less frequent occurance because, as I´m sure will surprise everyone, I found the soccer ballers.  They play on and extremely slippery cement court with a relatively flat ball, but it is an absolute blast and I could do it all day everyday.  I just discovered the court a few days ago, but I go out there every chance I get.  Some of the guys hit it up just to run around and hang out, but most are pretty good.  I go with fellow Trainee and next-door neighbor, Kati, who I have to give props to because she is always the only girl playing.  It's also a great way to integrate into the community because they see us out there and get to know us and realize that we're here for a good while, and not just a week or two. The last time we played, we went til dark and got to chat with the guys afterwards and learned all the nicknames they have, very few of which are kind.  One guy assumed we were German because we play soccer, which I found hilarious, but most enjoy the opportunity to practice their English.  They call me chele and her chela, the Nica word for gringo.  My host family finds it quite amusing how much I play, partly because I come home drenched in sweat everyday.


On Saturday Carlo took me to Jinotepe to buy soccer cleats, (which they call tacos, oddly enough), and a short-sleeved button-down because I'm supposed to wear them when I'm working and I die in the long sleeves.  They didn't have cleats anywhere in my size, because Nicaraguans aren't as big as Nickaraguans, so we then travelled to Diriamba, found a cheap but decent pair, and bussed home.  I really liked Jinotepe.  It reminded me of being in Mexico.  I also am head-over-heels in love with the Latin American bus system.  It's cheap, quick in comparison to the US, it's exciting to ride because it passes slower cars on two-lane roads and barely stops for passengers to board, and its refreshing to think that public transportation is actually utilized in parts of the world.  Sunday Carlo and I went with Kati, who lives with his mother, on a 5 km hike to the laguna at 5:30 in the morning. It was extremely steep and a bitch to get back up, but the lake was very cool and there are some great views.  The best part, however, was definitely when I decided to go off the path and explore the ruins of this huge mansion that belonged to the former, US backed, Nicaraguan president Anastosio Somoza.  It was super cool to see a huge, fancy builing in ruins in the middle of a jungle-like area.  It had a very Tomb Raider like feel.


But don't worry guys, I didn't forget about the fact that I have access to a flat-screen, either.  I watched most of the Bears-Packers game, and watch telenovelas nightly with Doña María and Salvadora.  It gets dark, I come in, we watch Truiunfo del Amor, I shower and eat, and then we watch India: Una Historia de Amor.  They help me practice my Spanish, and it helps me connect with the women of the house.  But these novelas are ridiculous.  I get excited when I finally understand whats going on with certain characters because I came in late in the show, and EVERYONE has a baby that the father doesn't know about or thinks is his own, but isn't.  And the ones that aren't in that situation are seducing someone for their money or betraying their son/friend/spouse.  It's quite entertaining.  


This has, by far, been my longest blog.  I had a lot to say.  I'll come home and everyone will just be like, "Yeah, Nick, no one wants to hear about Nicaragua.  I didn't actually read your blog, but your mom told me all about it.  Shut up."  Oh yeah? Fine.


Love you all muchísimo,


Nick


p.s.  I think it's stupid to italicize Spanish words in documents in English and I refuse to do it.

Como va a ser mi vida por los próximos tres meses

To my beloved friends and family,


I have finally arrived in Nicaragua.  I wrote this blog to the sound of trumpets and Elvis Crespo at a dining room table while a 2 year-old imitated me with his pen and paper on a beautiful day with the perfect amount of breeze. (For the rekerd, this computer dusnt have spell check for English that I can find, so any misplelings shud be overlukt.)


After flying into Managua and being separated from real Nicaraguan life for 3 days, they finally judged us on our Spanish-speaking abilities and sent us into the country.  They sent me, and 3 others to Masatepe, a town of roughly 30,000 and no white people.  I am staying with a family far more well-off than I ever expected when I signed up for the Peace Corps.  Doña María Gertrudis, her aunt Salvadora, her husband Carlo, and their 3 boys all live with me.  Fabian (who's first name is actually Leikar, after the Lakers) is 9, Jeanfranquito is 2, and Agdel is almost 1.  Jeanfranquito doesn't really speak Spanish, more a mix of baby and Spanish, but tries to talk to me nonetheless, and appears to love having me beacuse he has boundless energy and is trapped in the house with his aunt and a baby most of the day.  He enjoys having a new jungle-gym, and I must concede that I enjoy being his play-thing.  Doña María works in the bank not far from the house, amd the house is above a little place in which the local kids can come play Playstation on 4 different TVs, which Carlo own's and operates, as far as I can tell.  It's a very nice house, has a flat screen and cable, and I have my own (albeit tiny) room and bathroom.  Cold-water showers are tough, but you learn to deal.


The other cool thing is that, because a lot of kids come by the house to play video games and the houses are close together, all the neighbors come around and hang out every evening to chat and watch the really little kids.  Today some people waved me up to their house to watch Nicaragua play Belize in the Central American cup that's going on right now.  And 2 days ago, my first evening here, I played jacks and "estop" (essentially Scattergories but even better and only requires a pen and paper) with some young girls from down the street.  As it turns out, Nicaraguan children know their shit, and I got destroyed.


I'm in class for most of the day.  It's a Spanish class for most people because the Peace Corps makes it very clear that the key to integrating and being accepted by the community is speaking their language.  But because I'm in the advanced group, we talk about specifically Nicaraguan phrases and customs and train for our service.  Today we went to the health center to meet the director and walked around town to get a feel for it.


So far it has been great, but its only been 2 days, and I'm guessing it will get far more challenging.  I also am guessing that when they send me to my site of service, it will be a bit farther from my comfort zone.  I'll let you know how that goes though.  Still working on getting pictures up.


I love and miss you all.


Nick


p.s. Shout out to Andrew Martinez because he said it would make him happy.

Inicio

To my beloved friends and family,

I wasn't 100% sure I´d actually get around to writing a blog even though I told almost all of you I would, but alas, it has come to be.  (Disclaimer:  This is not an exciting blog yet.  It is merely an update as to the happenings of my life since departure from Sacramento for the curious.  The interesting ones with information about Nicaragua will have to come at a later time.)

I flew into Arlington, VA on Tuesday, hung out in a hotel for the evening, and began the staging event the next day.  It consisted of meeting all the other volunteers going to Nicaragua, 45 in total, and briefing us in safety and what to expect before the real training began. Everyone is going in either the same program as me, reproductive health and HIV education, or maternal and child health, which are apparently fields dominated by females because my group consists of 37 of them and only 8 of us reppin' the dudes.  We were set to leave that night when 3 inches of snow got our flight cancelled.  Of course I had packed for Nicaraguan heat, and was completely unprepared for the frigid weather wonderful DC so generously offered me.  It turned out to not be all that bad, however, because I got to go out and see the Smithsonian Natural History and American History museums the next day, as well as  try some of the most delicious beers of my life at a place that has a selection of over 300.

We finally left for the airport at 1:30am on the 14th, and got into Managua around 1:00pm.  Because of the delay, plans for training upon arrival were changed.  Initially, we were going to go to Grenada for a 3 day training retreat before we were separated into groups of 4 or 5 and sent to the towns we will train in for 3 months (we begin the the job VERY well trained), but now we are going to have that retreat in a hotel across the street from the airport before going to our training towns.  It feels amazing to be here.  Not only to arrive in country, but also weather-wise.  It's about 90 degrees, sunny, bearable humidity, and has a nice, cool breeze.  Hope the rain is good too, though.

Until this point, I forgot I even owned a camera, but now that I'm actually here, I'll start snappin' away and hopefully figure out a way to upload them.  I've been talking to volunteers that have already been serving in Nicaragua for a while, and I'm getting more and more excited to get to the heart of both my service and the country.  (Reading back over this, that sounds super cheesy.  And I don't like it.  But I'm not gunna change it.)

Like I said, the delay has left me without much to report, but I figured at least my family will be glad to hear that I'm here and happy.  If you guys have any questions you want answered in the next blog, or requests, concerns, comments, compliments, good jokes, or just feel like telling me how much you love me, feel free to leave a comment on this.  I'll try to check facebook, but family takes the priority on this one so I might not always have time to check it.

I love you all so much and hope everything is going well.

Nick

p.s. SO EXCITED!!!