Starting Work

Well, after our first 3 months in our site, things are starting to pick up speed. We were told that volunteers usually spend their first three months doing nothing (besides just getting to know people and getting aquainted with the area) and then things just naturally pick up. I didn't quite believe it, but it's true. We went from having maybe two things in our schedule every week in addition to working on our house and hanging out with our host family, to having several community meetings set up with our counterpart, 8 sections (about 170 students) of agriculture classes to teach at the local high school every other week, 3 informal English classes a week at the high school, a grant proposal to write, family gardens to start with local producers and their families, and at least one week long Peace Corps sponsored workshop a month for the next three months! Yikes! I was actually beginning to enjoy sleeping in and reading in my hammock. It doesn't look like we'll have much time for that anymore.

February 18, 2006

Cultura Comica

It is perfectly acceptable in Nicaragua for men to unzip and urinate on the side of the road in broad daylight. See-through blouses and public breast-feeding (without any sort of a cover) are also commonplace. However, don't get caught talking alone with a friend of the opposite sex in your living room over coffee unless you want to be accused of having an affair with him or her.

Yikes! Talk about a stale blog. Been kind of busy every visit into Ocotal, so the blog has kind of taken a back seat to more pressing errands.

Anyways, here we are, three months into our service. We are settled into our new house and have made friends with most of our neighbors. Our adorable new cat, Nico (the Nicaraguan gato) provides us with endless hours of entertainment and comfort. Spanish is still flippin' hard, but we can at least understand most of what people say now, even if we aren't very comfortable taking the initiative in conversations.

Most of December and January were spent fixing up the house, being sick, and generally avoiding the indigenous population. February has been much better, since both of us have yet to get sick this month, and we've finally made contact with our counterpart from the Ministry of Agriculture. She's super motivated and enthusiastic, so our work relationship should be a good one.

We're starting to pursue the possibility of teaching part time in the local high school in a nearby town. We really want to teach practical agriculture, horticulture, and environmental protection, and the teacher we've met from the school really wants us to take some classes in these areas, but we probably won't be able to squeeze into the already packed schedule. We'll probably end up tutoring 7th- through 9th-grade students in English during study halls. Maybe if the classes don't work out, we'll end up starting a 4H club for after school.

There's already a 4H club in our own town that our Ministry of Agriculture counterpart started a bit ago, so we can probably start teaching there, too, as soon as we meet the club.

As far as teaching English goes, we've been giving one-on-one lessons to a couple of motivated individuals that have sought us out. We enjoy the teaching, and it fits with the Peace Corps' work in Nicaragua, since a new English as a Second Language program is starting up here this Fall.

So, all in all, things are going much better. Life in the country, close to the land, is so much more enjoyable than the hectic pace of suburban Chicago. And it feels good to be somewhat proficient at another language.

The thing we miss most besides our families and friends is mostly just a sense of feeling normal. Here, we are always noticed everywhere we go. We are called cheles and gringos quite often. It's not meant disrespectfully, but coming from a culture that stresses the value of individuals, regardless of skin color, race, or creed, we can find ourselves offended every once in awhile. Mainly, we just don't want to be the "white people" that stick out. We want to walk down the street without everyone's eyes following us.

Of course, sticking out does have its advantages. We never have to worry about strangers being able to find us for an appointment.