long time, no blog

2011…really!?! Sorry I’ve been very MIA with my blog recently. Opps. So here is what has been happening in Nicaragua.

Our community house/library project continues to be difficult. Most of the construction has been finished for months; however we have been waiting for wood for the roof for a while. The wood that the community supposedly had…well I guess they really didn’t. So we found an NGO that was going to donate wood – wonderful! Except that only begins the yes in this week we will drop off the wood…really this week…for sure this week…and months later we are still waiting. To add to our worries, our builder was planning on leaving the country to look for work elsewhere. I finally got word while in the states that we did finally get the wood and that the roof was up, as were the doors and windows. So I was ecstatic…thinking as soon as I got back we could start using the house for meetings, all our groups and the library would finally have a home. Except that they failed to mention that while waiting for so long the cement turned hard and is no longer usable. Great…now we have a roof but no floor! So the wait begins yet again. Supposedly the mayor’s office is going to donate cement…they were also supposedly dropping it off this past week. Did that happen? Nope. So we are closer to finishing…but not there yet.

School…classes ended in November and graduations began. So many ceremonies…one is my town, 3 in my other town, and 1 in yet another town. I was up at the table of honor for 3 of them (since I’m a teacher) and a girl who graduated from high school asked me to go as her special invitee. It was sad watching my 6th graders graduate…they are a fantastic group. After the ceremony, my English class had a small ceremony – they have been working for 2 years. One of them never missed a class in two years. She’s amazing. Since I’ve been back from the states, I’ve been giving her English class everyday. She catches on very quickly, is super enthusiastic about learning and always does her homework. So I have a new goal for my 3rd year…I’m going to have her speaking English before I go! School starts February 15th this year…which just happens to be my birthday! And my host sister’s birthday. I don’t know yet which teacher is teaching each grade at the school in my town yet…hopefully soon. I do know for my other school – unfortunately at that school 2 of my favorite teachers to work with aren’t teaching within my range.  I have a new plan of how I’m going to work with my teachers this year. I’m going to attempt to have them write a whole month plan outlining all of their activities for the month…instead of doing this the night before. That way we can spend more time preparing materials and looking for additional information since this is fairly impossible the night before. So that’s my goal.

Chicas Pavanicas…my adorable girlies decided to use the money they earned to have an end of the year celebration with a secret Santa gift exchange. I decorated my house…we listened to music…danced (girls are super goofy when they get together)…hung out…drank coke…ate sweet bread and exchanged gifts. It was a blast. They rest of the money they divided between themselves to use for whatever they wanted. We had our first meeting this year and will be working on forming the group again…inviting new girls…and writing up a more stable work and selling plan. I have high hopes for them this year…but they have a lot of work to do! The most important thing they need to do this year is come up with a better strategy for selling. They make so much jewelry but then can’t sell it all.

Gardens…still going for some! I have lots of work to do in this area this year. One of my friends promised me she would plant a garden while I was gone. And she did! She has 10 green pepper plants, 4 tomato plants, a few banana trees and yucca. She also planted trees which will be ready for transplanting in a few months. Compost and tree nurseries will be one of my first projects when school starts. After a month or so we will start on the gardens.

Melon picking…a few of the guys here went down to Costa Rica to pick cantaloupe. So the next time you buy a cantaloupe at the grocery store, you can think about the guys getting up at 4 to go to the field, working bent over turning and picking melons until sometime between 8:30-11 at night. Does not sound like a good time at all.

Puppies…one of my friend’s dogs had puppies. An all white puppy, an all black puppy, and a brown and white puppy (my fav). So they other 2 puppies were given away and the brown and white one stayed. She’s basically my puppy. Her name is Mancha (stain) because of her coloring…it looks like she has white stains. She’s absolutely adorable. Unfortunately she hates going to my house because I made her stay in the house instead of going outside, which is where she wants to be. But my host family has a lot of really mean dogs so I’m afraid they would hurt her. Maybe when she’s bigger.

HIV prevention…one of my favorite side projects…and by far my father’s favorite  we had our first meeting of the year. We ended the year being the most active municipality in the entire department…and the municipality with the highest number of HIV infections. However it is always difficult to compare numbers…yes we have the highest number of infections…but we also have the highest number of tests performed. And we had the highest percentage of pregnant women do the test…98% in 2010. So that was super exciting. Our goal this past year was to really focus on informing and testing men. We definitely improved a lot. The number of men tested in 2010 greatly exceeding those tested in 2009. It is still one of our main focuses this year. We also want to focus more on the rural areas. We are in the midst of planning a few soccer tournaments in the rural sectors and a concert to celebrate May 18th…day of solidarity for people living with HIV/AIDS. We are also attempting to meet with sex workers to form interest groups…one I’m very excited about…a few women expressed interest in learning to read and write…that will be a group I will be working with…if we are successful in creating the groups.

Home leave…so since I extended my service for a year I got to come home for a month. Overall opinion…it was freezing. Very fun but very cold. I got back in time for Christmas…and snow in North Carolina. I also got to go to San Francisco for the first time. It is an awesome city. Way too expensive but very cool to visit. I saw a lot of friends and ate an incredible amount of food…it was great. And I got to go to my cousin’s wedding which was absolutely beautiful. A few random thoughts after being home…

1. Static is annoying is thank goodness does not exist in Nicaragua.
2. My hair is so much prettier and actually stays straight in the States.
3. I love that I can walk outside and not get hissed or yelled at about how beautiful I am… not that I was out walking a lot in the cold but you know…
4. I love that I am outside basically all day in Nicaragua.
5. I love food…best meal…Burma something restaurant in Berkeley (I think)…probably best meal of my life.
6. I missed riding my bike.
7. Mattresses are so much softer and more comfortable than wicker.
8. I don’t like being stuck in some sort of house/building all day.
9. I like the sun very much.
10. Everything is so big and there is so much of everything in the states…2 story Target!?!?

Speaking of so much of everything…funny story. I’ve never been very good at making decisions…mostly because normally I don’t really care. But I normally can handle going to a restaurant and ordering something...yeah not so much anymore. Since there aren’t really many options here, I’m not used to having so many choices…it’s intimidating. So my dear friend Carrie witnessed this firsthand. I was in San Francisco and she was taking me to all these amazing restaurants. I was totally fine when she just ordered for us since she knew what the best dishes were. However, when I had to make my own meal choice…yikes! It was like I had a nervous breakdown. Way too many choices…I didn’t know what to do. Pathetic. I explained to her that I don’t really have that many choices and was getting overwhelmed…so she patiently helped my make some decisions. Slowly my meal decision making time went down…or at least I think it did…or I took just as long but wasn’t nearly as stressed. Haha. I’m sure this sounds ridiculous to most of you but I assure you it’s not! So thanks Carrie, for putting up with me and my freak outs over what kind of toast I wanted and the whole Chipotle fiasco! Among other freak outs!!  You’re the best!

Well I guess that’s all I have for now. Sorry again for the delay! I’ll try to update this more frequently. Love from Nicaragua!! Oh and after a week…my house is finally clean again…dust and leaves…awesome.