September 29, 2005

Jason: The presentation at the school went really well. The introduction about the Peace Corps covered a lot of ground, and the participation during the interactive culture discussion was really good. The kids loved looking through my pictures, and unfortunately, they continued to do so throughout some of the later presentations. Note to self, pictures for everyone after class, or larger photos to show the whole class at once. All-in-all, though, for my first classroom teaching experience, I think things went really well; especially considering it was all in Spanish. I was encouraged.

The practical session in Miraflor yesterday was my favorite thus far. We covered most aspects of chicken care, including construction of hen houses, praparation of balanced chicken feed from local resources, organic parasite control, and how to vaccinate chickens for two common viruses.

September 27, 2005

Jason: Quite the soggy week. It rains almost every day, but today, the storm was so strong that we had a river for a back yard. These corrogated tin roofs sure are hot during the day, but they keep the rain off effectively. Right now, I'm sipping hot coffee, writing in the living room, enjoying a slightly overcooked, yet tasty, sweet potato (called camote) with carmelized honey on top. There's a light leak at the peak of the roof, where the tin panels don't quite overlap, but all the rooms are warm and cheerily lit with flourescent lights. The insulated electrical wires run exposed along the rafters to the electric meter affixed to the outside wall of the coral-colored, painted concrete house.

On the walls, pictures of family members and posters encouraging Catholic devotion proudly hang, framed in inexpensive, yet tastefully hand-painted wood. My host mom is in the process of blending fruits to be bagged and frozen for the popular posicle treats the local schoolchildren, and even the adults, enjoy.

My ring continues to elude me, but I have a good hunch that I took it off at the waterfall to avoid loosing it in the river. I think I put it by my shoes and bag, and it got thrown to the side in the rush to catch up with the rest of the group. They had started leaving while I was photographing some marvelously large spiders. I intend to go back in search of my ring, but this rain makes it quite possible that the ring is now washed into the river. I'll hope and pray that isn't the case.

In two days, my training group and I will be giving a small presentation about the USA and Peace Corps to a group of 7-to-9-year-olds in their small, two-room schoolhouse. I've never done anything like it before, so I'm admitedly a bit nervous.

Tomorrow, all the trainees are visiting a farm near Miraflor for a day-long technical session. I'm excited to see something new.

We should know where our sites will be in a few weeks. I'm trying to focus on Spanish right now, though, so I haven't really thought too much about what service will be like. It's probably best at this point, because any expectations we have will brobably be wrong in light of how little we still know.

Nuevos fótos

We finally found an internet cafe that has photo-processing capabilities, so check out some of our first batch of pics from Nicaragua! http://www.flickr.com/photos/carterjk/sets/1008714/

September 22, 2005

Jason: Not a good day. I discovered yesterday that my wedding band had worked its way off my finger. Since then, I've been over every inch of my room, bags, pockets, gloves, shower, yard, etc., to no avail. I also looked throughout the garden, but that is difficult due to the turned ground and tall weeds. I hope it's not lost on the side of the mountain leading to the waterfall. I don't think I could have gone since Saturday without noticing, though. It's probably in the garden.

September 18, 2005

Jason: Friday was fabulous. We took a field trip out to an organic farm and learned about a ton of agricultural techniques, like growing squash and grapes in the same field to maximize land use, composting for soil improvement, tree nursuries, and how to turn old tires inside out to use as patio containers.

Afterwards, a bunch of us went to a restaraunt in Estelí, and Kris and I discovered the first beer that we´ve ever enjoyed: Toña. We still prefer water, juice, or soft drinks (all of which are cheaper and tastier), but we were pleased to finally find a "social" drink that didn't wrinkle our noses.

Yesterday, we went with a couple current volunteers down the mountains into a valley with a beautiful waterfall and swimming hole. Kris and I didn't swim, for lack of proper attire, but we got some pictures. It was a tiring, hot climb back out, so we probably wouldn't go a second time, but it sure was fun.

September 12, 2005

Jason: It´s a late night for me. I´m listening to Kutless cry Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lamb on my MP3 CD player. God has sustained me and encouraged me throughout the last week-and-a-half. I´m just now starting to recover from the initial shell-shock of being dumped amongst strangers with whom I can barely communicate. I´m definitely the alien here.

Praise God that I haven´t forgotten Him in the melee. I forgot a lot of things, though. Why am I here? How will Kris and I ever survive this? Through the fearful haze of all these questions, I can still here the holy whisper, "I will be with you. I AM."

Kris and I were joking this weekend, reminiscing how one of our motives for joining the PC was to stretch ourselves and get out of our comfort zone.

Sounded like a good idea, in theory.

Problem is, it worked, and we´re discovering now how much we like being comfortable. This is hard stuff. But we´re convinced that this is better than the comfortable, familiar track we were on. Love and purpose lead us on, a purpose to live more like Christ did.

Sept 11, 2005

Kris and I have seen each other the past 3 days! We even got permission to spend the weekend together right away. We're starting to realize some of why we’re both having a rough tie, besides the separation. For Kris, it’s a combo of sickness and being an introvert in a gregarious society, in a job that expects a lot of close contact with people. And they speak much better Spanish than we do.  For me, I realized that I’ve been treating the whole thing as a short-term missions trip or extended vacation. I haven’t even unpacked my bags, yet. I’m realizing that I’ll never be comfortable or confident here until I can call Nicaragua home. So, I started getting creative with hos to organize my stuff and spruce up the place a little. It’s actually quite fun! I have a few interesting cultural factoids about life here:

• The people on the street say "¡Adiós!" as you pass by, not "¡Hola!". If you say "Hola" or "Buenas Tardes", they think you want to stop and talk.
• They love their plastic baggies here. They will even pour your Pepsi or Fanta out of the bottle and into a baggie for you to take with you. You rip the corner of the bag with your teeth and sip. I think it’s so that they can return the bottles for a refund.
• Estelí is teeming with internet cafes, sidewalk vendors, narrow roads, on-storey buildings, and small stores that resemble ramshackle mall stores, but open to the street.
• My first pair of really nice jeans cost me C$145, about $8.53 US. My second pair only cost C$140.
• It costs about $6.50/hour to call home from an internet café, and half that on Sundays. However, we only get paid the equivalent of about $18/week, so that can really cut into the savings. Using email is much cheaper, since it only costs about 60 cents/hour.
• There is cell coverage in much of Nicaragua, including Estelí, and several people, even the poor, have them, because incoming calls are free. Calling a cell phone costs double, since the initiator has to pay for the air time. It’s not as typical for rural families to have cell coverage, though.
• Learning a new language is REALLY hard and confusing.
• Everyone here believes in God and Jesus, but I haven’t been invited to a single church yet.
• I’ve been hiding the camera thus far, until I can find a place to develop digital photos. I don’t want to take people’s pictures unless I can give them a copy. I have snuck a few backyard views, though.
• Music here is a strange mix. There’s plenty of ranchero music, the type you might hear in a Mexican restaurant, but there is also a lot of regetón, a modern hip-hop/reggae mix that doesn’t have very much musical or lyrical value, but has a catchy beat. The most surreal thing is the 80s, 70s, and even 50s music, which seems to have a fairly popular following here. Some are even covered in Spanish.

En La Tierra

Yesterday, Kris and I arrived at our respective host family houses. I haven´t seen her since yesterday afternoon, and everyone speaks in Spanish all the time. There have been many tears, and our malarial medication has given us all a severely decreased appetite. It is frustrating having so many things that are different. I can live in this environment, but it is very difficult to live without Kris and without the English language.

Things were not exactly explained to us when we arrived. We had to be inquisitive and ask tons of questions just to figure out how to go to the bathroom, wash our hands, brush our teeth, bathe, etc. The "bathroom" is an outdoor concrete structure with no running water. It´s bucket showers for us. La letrina is a crude hole in the ground with a wooden structure for privacy. Most houses have electricity, and it´s fairly reliable, but there is no telephone, and most things are done by hand, not with electricity.

Our language skills are improving, though. Our families are all as nice as can be, and very patient with us. There is a constant feeling of being unprepared, however, and it wears on us constantly.

Added to all this is the noise problem, with dogs and roosters and crying babies and such. I brought ear plugs with me, but for the life of me, I can´t seem to find them.

I´m stationed in El Naranjo for our 11 weeks of training. Kris is in Santa Cruz, the same town as the Instituto de Santa Cruz, where I am writing this post. 10 córdobas per hour, about 70 cents.

I´m hoping to see Kris today. Tomorrow, our training officially begins at 8 and ends by 3pm. After class, my family is going with me to Estelí to buy some more socks, some tshirts, and maybe some ear plugs.

This is by far the most dificult thing either of us has ever done. I really hope we make it. If I know Kris, she´s probably scared out of her wits and crying every other hour, but she will never quit. I miss her so much, and we´ve only been apart for a day.