So what does it really mean...

So this is the blog post to clarify some things...What does it really mean. I have realized that as I post stuff I am not clarifying the difference between how it is in the US and how it is Nica style...

Roads- Yes I do have road access to the Pan American Highway, which is quite nice. However no it is not paved and yes it definately has a lot of manure (both cow and horse) guiding the way. A little funny side note is that my town just completed a two week project where EVERYONE in the town helped out to expand it to a 2 lane road. The funny part is that we only have two vehicles in the WHOLE town. Thus it is now safe that if the two vehicles do meet paths they can cross safely.

Water- Yes I have access to safe drinking water, no I do not have sinks or a hot shower still. Instead I have a water spicket in my yard (much like the old time wells) in which I get all my water (shower, cooking and drinking).

Electricity- Yes I have electricity, however it is only two light bulbs and two electrical outlets. Also, while the President here has assured the public no more blackouts this year (yes he said this with only 15 days left in the year) our power already went out again last night. Blackouts are a regular thing here.

Wake up call- Yes I made the mistake of telling my host family that I could sleep through anything. Now i get the delight of a wake up call every morning at 6am. Oh but this is not a normal wakeup call they blast ranchero music (which is a lot like the worst music you could ever think of). They turn their radio as loud as it can go and think that I can hear my little wrist watch alarm. Yeah it wasnt working....but luckily I am living on my own how.

Shower- Yes i get to take wonderful cold bucket baths...but I also never mentioned that my shower is outside and only has 2.5 walls. Yup its a great show for all the little kids playing outside there with me.

Polisima- this is an event held every december for about 15 days in which the community honors Mother Mary. To do this everyone in the community celebrates at one person's house and the house changes every day. Well no families have any money for decorations, instead they tear down all the decorative plants in their front yard to amass a shrine to the Mother Mary. It is quite amazing the shrines they create, however it leaves their yard a complete disaster. Yeah Im thinking this tradition wont be starting anytime soon in the US.

Meat- Yes I get meat about 2-3 times per week, which is most then many families that I live with. However, I have not seen meet thats not attached to the bone. Oh how I crave a filet mignon.

Living Room Furniture- No there are not lazyboys and definately not couches. Instead we use hammocks (yup those are comfortable) but for chairs we get to enjoy those good ole plastic chairs that many people use for deck furniture back in the states.

*A little side note- once again I am still loving it down here. I do not post this as a slam against Nicaragua. However, I am just posting it so you get a more complete picture of what I see everyday.

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Some more pics for you...

This picture shows David, but more importantly what most of the area around me looks like. Like I have mentioned I am surrounded by bean fields but also what you can see better in this picture is I live in the mountains. This is good and bad, first its absolutely beautiful. However it absolutely sucks to walk anywhere. Like I said in the pic below my closest site mate is Marlena, she is only 2 miles away, however there is a huge mountain I have to walk and can take up to an hour and a half walking back from her site.

Here is a picture taken from a project we just completed yesterday. We went to one of my neighboring volunteers sites and built an improved stove that will used less firewood, thus saving the environment and the family money. In this picture is David and Marlena, they are the two closest volunteers from my training group. Marlena is a 2 mile walk while David is only like an hour and half by a bus.

Here is the swearing-in picture I mentioned in the last blog. The joke is that we all greased our hair back for the swearing in ceremony, along with the greased hair many of us decided also to sport various facial hair styles. Well lets just say that the PC thought it was our way of being professional and dressing up and thought we were one of the best mannered ag groups in awhile. Sorry I dont have a picture of the whole group as the picture that I have is quite fuzzy and you cannot tell who each person is.

Here is a picture from my youth group going away party. There were four volunteers that worked with this group: myself, Greg on the upper left, Ivy is in the upper middle with blonde hair and a tiedye shirt and then Sarah is in the lower right with the tiedye shirt. This was the group of volunteers who lived in my training town and had spanish class with me. Unfortunately because of health problems Greg had to terminate his service early and return to the US. He was a great friend and will be missed over here.

This is a picture of my host family. Yes that is my first Nica shirt as they say, first shirt given to me down here in Nicaragua. It was a gift from my sister, Eymy. Eymy is the one on the right, then my host mom Marisol and my little sister Fatimah.

The big update!!!

Well its been a little while since I last posted so I will try to update you with as much as I can. Ill apologize in advance because it will definately ramble and it will definately have bad english. Sorry!

Anyways in the last three weeks I have sworn in as an official Peace Corps Volunteers, went to a conference of all volunteers in Nicaragua and have now moved into my permenant site for the next two years. Yes, I am now officially a resident of Nicaragua, how crazy is that. Only two years ago I didnt want to speak spanish for the rest of my entire life, only four months ago I couldn't even ask a question in spanish but now I am sitting in the middle of nowhere in Nicaragua and relying on spanish to survive....its quite startling at times.

Anyways its been a great three weeks, during the swearing in I got to hang out with all my friends down here for a week in Managua. It was good having everyone together but we had meetings everyday from 7am until almost 7pm at night when you include dinner. Also our hotel was near the airport which means that we were near no places to do anything fun. So most of the time we hung out at the pool, which was fun but when you have been out in the country for the past three months you just want to get out to a bar once in awhile. I got some nice pictures from the swearing in ceremony though as we all had to get dressed up and the ambassador from USA was there and spoke. All in all it was a pretty cool event. I will explain some more when I post some pictures of the event.

The all volunteer conference was fun meeting other volunteers. I acutally have a friend that is down here from UNC so it was good to see a friend from back in the states. But also it was a cool event because we could see projects that other people are working on that we can do in our site. Also people were selling things that they made in their villages so that was a good chance to pick up some small things for the new site.

So now the important stuff....THE NEW SITE!!!
My new site is really awesome. For the most it is really well organized which is great because lots of groups want to work with us. Thus I already have two projects set up..

Bean Project
My town is a bean town, they grow red beans. Thus they got a group to come in and support the building of a bodega, spanish for essential a building of silos, thus the town formed a cooporative and has began buying and selling beans. This is a great practice as during parts of the year the price of beans can triple. For example right now the price of beans is 15 cordobas per pound, while only 2 months ago the price was 3-5 cordobas per pound. (A side note the exchange rate is 18.5 cordobas per dollar) So with silos the group can buy beans when they are really cheap and then sell them once the price goes up. The bad part of this project is that only one person has a truck to transport the beans, thus he is the person in charge of making the sales. Now the only way to make sure he is not keeping the money for himself is to get a bill of sales, pretty simple and logical. Well the problem is that the town trusted him so much that they havent ever asked for these bill of sales. Also, when your tripling your investment most people are just happy to have the money and dont ask questions. Well the town noticed that he has accumulated quite a bit of wealth (which I think most of this wealth is because he has a brother in the US that is sending him money), but anyway the town decided they wanted to see the bill of sales for the last month. Well lucky me he doesnt have any and all hell broke loose. My first week here I am going to a meeting and there is all this yelling back and forth and my spanish is not good enough to understand all that is going on. So the gist that I get is that they questioned the guy and he said he has never received bill of sales, he then questioned the group who could make a bigger profit then he has been making, which of course no one can because no one has a truck to sell the beans. So the way I am taking it is that they just wanted to call him out and he will have to get bill of sales from now on. Anyway this meeting was like four days ago and everyone is all friendly so I dont think anything major is going to come out of it. I guess when you live in a town of 400 people you cant be mad at people for too long!
So my part of this project is to work with them on business projects and for the long term they want to export the beans so I will be working on figuring out how to do this.

Pig Project.
This will be more of my project that I will work on. Essentially the town was given money to start a project of reproducing pigs. There will be 55 families in the community divided into 11 groups, 5 families per group. Each group will be given funds to build a pig pen and also be given a pig. There will be 10 female pigs and 1 male pigs. Right now the breed of pig in my town is not very good. On average they have between 4-6 babies per litter. The new pig that we will be getting (Yorkshire for you piggy fans out there) has 10-12 babies per litter. Thus over the years we will have quite an influx of pigs that we will then sell or eat.

So those will be my two main projects, on top of these I will be working on making new stoves that use less firewood, painting world and Nicaragua maps on the local school, working on gardens and etc.

Other updates:

Horse update- I think I have mentioned before that the best transport in my town is by horse, thus I have started talking to a couple people in the town and told them I want a horse. They said they will start looking but I told them to hold off until January. My month of December is extremely busy and I also dont want to give off an impression of a rich american.

Cat- I was given the cutest little cat by the volunteer before me. She keeps my house free of rats, scorpions, snakes and all the other fun stuff. The only problem is she has like 9-12 babies a year. So I will be giving out a lot of free gifts to the community.

Two funny stories....
Beans, beans and more beans.
So like I said before I live in a bean town. This is good because beans are expensive and thus if I didnt live in a bean town I probably wouldnt be eatting beans right now. But with that said I am at the other extreme. I have beans and coffee for breakfast, I have beans and a tortilla for lunch, and I have beans and chicken for dinner. At times I feel like Im on Survivor for how many beans can I eat in a week. I have scientific proof that I can eat over 21 lbs of red beans in a week (7 days a week, 1 lb of beans per meal, 3 meals per day). Anyway the bad part of this is that I am pooping a lot like a deer now, except its not pebbles is beans coming out. The good part is beans are selling for a lot now so it is an extra source of income.

A little roll in the carpet...
So I know my family is really big in weekend projects but my new family beats any project I have ever seen done. See the the families are really poor down here, thus many have dirt floors. Well my new family that I am staying in has a dirt floor, and well I am not quite sure why (Perhaps there was a little hill forming that I didnt notice, or they wanted to creat a put-put golf course in living room, not quite sure) but this weekend my mom broke out a bucket of water and the machete and went to town on the living room floor. For over an hour she was rearranging the dirt and what not and when I returned home an hour later there was a "new floor" in the living room.

The big update!!!

Like I promised last week, here are some pics. I will post an udate next week with how my site visit went...
First pictures is of all the Nica 45 volunteers. This is the all the volunteers that I came with and comprise 21 ag volunteers and 19 environmental ed volunteers...
This is my amazingly cute little sister. This picture was taken when she was about 1.5 months old and she is now around 2.5 months. She is my amigita which translates to little friend...
This is a picture of my sister... and I know she would kill me if I put this picture up here but the thing is Nicaraguans are not big fans of pictures unless they have time to get all done up for them. Well I didnt feel like waiting... Anyways this is taken in a cave we visited with our youth group.
This is another pictures from the youth group hike... In Nicaragua a youth group generally includes ages from 15-25, so yes some members of youth group are older then me!


Here is another pictures from the trip looking out from the caves...

Anyways expect some more pics shortly as I only have one more week here in my training town and then head to Managua for two weeks and I should be able to get more pics and an update of my site visit on here.

Oh what a week it was...

Maybe it has actually been two weeks or more since I have last posted. Sorry but it has been extremely busy, this blog will be quite long to make up for it. So there are going to be three parts to the blog...

Tech Days- this is where I went to visit a volunteer for four days and learned what I will be doing as a volunteer.

Flooding in Nicaragua- this is where we got evacuated from Esteli and got hooked up in a nice hotel in Managua for four days.

Site Assignment- Yes I know where I will be living for the next two years...read below to find out.

TECH DAYS
So tech days is an opportunity that we have to go visit a volunteer for four days and we get to actually participate in stuff we will be doing as volunteers. For my tech days I went in a group of eight people to a town called La Chinea. The rumor that I heard is that it gets its name because some farmers were plowing a field and the found some old China handmade plates hidden in the soil. Thus, when other people were saying where they were going it was the place they found the China, which in spanish is La Chinea.

So during these tech days the volunteers site is right near a twenty foot wide stream that we got the joy of crossing atleast four times per day. This was not funny as I did not have good footwear for this and as it rained everyday the river got higher and more rapid as the days went on. To top it off six out of the eight of us came down with some bacteria, and yes I was one of the lucky six. So I had the joy of 4 days of diaharria. Luckily it is all better now and I am back to 100% healthwise.

So back to the tech days, during these days I learned a lot of useful information for my job. Including how to build ovens (yes oven that use wood not electrical) that use less wood. One oven we made cost a whole $20 and the other we just used dirt, thus it was free. Both oven took a full day to build and were quite interesting structures. (If you want more information most a comment and I will add more detail next time.) After that we worked with some youth groups and made some organic insecticides and fertilizers.

FLOODING IN NICARAGUA
As some of you are starting to hear on the news Nicaragua is having some SEVERE flooding. It literally has rained here for the past two weeks or more. Included in these rains were two tropical storms. Thus all PC personnel in the north were evactuated for four days to the capital Managua. It was actually kind of funny because all four days we were in Managua it was sunny, however up here in the north it continued to rain. Well we returned to Esteli on Thursday and are back living with our families. However it continues to rain here everyday and like I said there is severe flooding, mudslides and lots of roads have been washed out.

How does this affect me? It really hasnt effected me much except the sky is always gray, I always have my rain jacket and my shoes are always muddy. Where we are in Esteli there hasnt been much damage per say. Most of the damage and true flooding is still to the north of us in Chinendaga and other cities. The sad part is that three out of the four hats I brought with me have started to mold, yes it is truly a sad day. Luckily my Nica mom is coming to the rescue and has washed them to get rid of the mold. They should be back in business once they dry...which could be another month.

So now to the exciting part....

MY SITE ASSIGNMENT!!!
Before I say my site I want to go into the process a little. First what happens is we have a meeting where we learn of all the possible sites. We get to see pictures of all the sites and get a page on each site describing the site, weather, projects and etc. We then list our top three and have an interview with the person in charge of all the Ag Volunteers in Nica. At this meeting we talk about our qualification and previous experience. This is also where we lobby for the site we really want. Well there were 21 sites and 21 volunteers (however we have one married couple so only 20 sites are going to be used). Thus after the interview the Ag Director goes back and puts all the puzzle pieces together and 3 days later we know where we will be living for the next two years.

So without further a do....I will be spending the next two years in La Trinidad, Nicaragua. La Trinidad was my number one choice for many reasons. First, it is only 10-15 minutes from where I am living now. Thus I can visit my host family whenever I want and I am also only 30 minutes away from the city of Esteli. While the city of Esteli isnt the prettiest city, I have become very well acquainted with it and I like spending some time here. It is where I use the internet and also have a PC office so I can meet other volunteers here. I am also excited because I have another person in my training group who will be only 2 kilometer or 1.5 miles from where I am living.

Second reason while my site is perfect is that there is currently a volunteer at the site. There were only five sites to choose from where we will be immediately replacing a volunteer and La Trinidad is one of them. Thus I have some projects already set up for me and also more importantly I have a house set up for me. This is awesome because I can buy the bed and all that other stuff off the current volunteer and not worry about having to haul new stuff to my site. (Did I mention that the method to haul stuff is on top of a school bus?) Another nice thing is that the house has fruit trees and other amenities already growing so I will get the fruit of others labor. Third reason, the projects that are set up involve agribusiness which is right down my alley. The major project right now is exporting red beans to Costa Rica or the US. Now that doesnt seem like much but right now the process involves around 4 middle men and the community wants to eliminate all four of these middle men. So needless to say it should be interesting.

So yeah it has been an exciting two weeks and on top of that I have realized that I can hold conversations in Spanish, so it has been productive too. I will try to update this blog more frequently from now on but no promises. And remember if you have any questions you can always email me (hollinsj@gmail.com).

In closing a little something to think about...Payless Shoes Store is expensive down here!

Almost a month in Nicaragua....

This is going go be a very short blog because I dont have much time...

1. Cooking Nica Style- this weekend I started to learn how to cook like a Nica. Sounds easy, its mostly rice and beans but the tough part is cooking over wood. You must control the heat of the fire while at the same time keeping the smoke out of your eyes. It can be quite intertaining watching a gringo (foreigner) attempt this. Anyways, I learned how to cool tortillas and rice. I also learned to cook some other stuff but those I had already known how to cook.

2. Testiculos- Yes the word is very similar is spanish and english. My Nica Mom wants me to try Testiculos as the rumor down here is that they make you stronger. Well I gracefully denied and informed my Nica Mom that I believe I am strong enough already. Haha it was quite the interesting conversation, she even got her aunt who was visiting to try to convince me as well. Anyways I have put my foot down, no testiculos or tomates. I did try Rinon (cow kidneys) and Titiles (Chicken Stomach, I think). They actually weren´t too bad although I dont plan on eating them again. Oh a quick side note, no this is not typical Nica food, however I think my family wants me to try it all before I leave so why not.

3. Tarantula- I had a big ole spider in my room the other day so I asked my Nica Bro what it was...yup it was a small little tarantula. I found out that yes they do bite but not bad, but luckily my bro killed it anyways before I had to ask him to get rid of it.

4. Medical superstitions- there are a lot of interesting medical superstitions down here. I will get into more later but two really surprised me this week that deal with my baby sister. First, my sister wears a red wristband. I asked my other sister why the red wrist band and I was informed that a red wristband, yes it has to be red, on babies helps keep them healthy and avoid illnesses. I guess we will have to see if it works.

The second one is that fathers who work a lot are not supposed to hold their babies. This is because when the father leaves the baby will miss them. If they dont listen the father will get sick. I actually was told this tale when the other day when I saw my Nica father hold his daughter for the first time since I have been here. It was the only time I saw him hold her, and then that night my father got terribly sick and was vomiting and what not. Well he traced it back to holding his baby daughter earlier that day. Amazing!!!

Anyway more next time as I have to run, and remember these are not stories of all Nicas but stories of my experiences.

A Typical Day in Nicaragua?

So I got a couple responses asking what a typical day is. Well the easiest answer is there is no typical day down here. But there are some common occurences so I will try to give you what I look forward to each day.

A typical Monday through Friday...

Wake up at 630am...yeah I know everyone is laughing here but the days are completely different here and for some reason I cant sleep much past 630, maybe its the going to bed at 830pm that helps.

I start off my day with a trip to the latrine and follow it up with a cold bucket shower I talked about last blog. They have not improved at all, I am tempted to break out my solar shower to have nice warm showers however I dont want to be that rich american coming to visit so I have not broke out the solar shower, computer nor camera(s).

I then usually have breakfast waiting for me around 715 where I eat and talk to my Nica Mom and and baby sister. The conversations are starting to get better as I learn more spanish. Today we talked about jobs, both here and in the US, and yesterday we talked about dating and marriages in Nicaragua.

Then I head to spanish class from 800 am until 1200. I have spanish class with 3 other aspirantes (not a volunteer during the first 3 months)

Sorry but I have to run...out of internet.

Next time I will talk about after lunch and also the weekends...

Made it to Nicaragua!!!

So I have now lived in Nicaragua for 10 days and a quite exciting 10 days if I may say so. First off there is no way for me to explain this experience in words or pictures but I will try my best. I apologize for any wandering thoughts, haha.

Im sure most of you are worried about the hurricane so I will start off with that. I am totally fine and the city that I live in barely even noticed a hurricane was anywhere near us. We had a good rain for one night but that was it, and since we are in the rainy season it was not that out of the ordinary. I only have one channel on TV down here and it is mostly in spanish so I am pretty unaware of how bad (how many people died?) the hurricane was. I know it wreaked havoc on the east coast but that coast is pretty scarcely populated so that is a small blessing. But anyway all is fine here and we were not affected. PC did consolidate the volunteers across Nicaragua but the trainees are all together in one city so all was fine.

The first three days were in probably the nicest or one of the nicest hotels in Nicaragua. It was a guarded compound in the heart of Nicaragua and was absolutely beautiful. We got to meet all the volunteers and have 3 days of meetings in Nicaragua.

We then moved to our training site, I moved in with a family of 5. I have one brother that is 20, one sister that is 14, and one sister that is 19 days old today. It has been absolutely great. The dad and brother work ALL the time and I almost never see them. I have learned much of my spanish from my sister who eats lunch and dinner with me and sometimes my mom. My mom owns a pulperia which is kind of like a corner store that has the basic necessities. They are quite popular around here as the city that I live in has about 200 people and we have like 4 pulperias. Anyways from what I see our family is pretty well off as we have a fridge, microwave and 12 inch tv. We also have a seperate house which has bedrooms for my brother and myself and a large living room. The tough parts are the outdoor latrine and bucket showers (which I will talk more about below). For security we have two LARGE dogs, one german shepard and one doberman. As I am the new guy they havent taken a liking to me yet but are starting to not bark as much or as often as at first. They are both caged in a small pen that is between my house and my parents house, and because the food, brushing my teeth, bathroom and exit to the community are all in my parents house i have to pass them quite often.

Through the first eight days of living at my sight I have learned quite a few things, this list is quite negative but is more hilarious then anything else. I truly am enjoying my time here and have adjusted quite well, and sometimes it takes humor to get through some of this stuff. So here is a little list...

1. If it is raining and you have to pee you are shit out of luck. Bathrooms are latrines here and you must walk out side to them. Rains here are not sprinkles they are downpours.

2. The warm refreshing shower in the morning comes from cold buckets of water. The showers here are not warm and not refreshing, haha. Instead what we do is take a 10 gallon bucket of water and do the old fashion take a bowl and rinse off and then soap up and rinse off. One interesting thing about the Nica culture is that they believe that night time showers are colder then morning showers and thus strongly encourage you to take a shower in the morning. We are living near Esteli in the North, mountainous part of the country. I can literally see the heat coming off my body when I am taking a shower.

3. Drinks down here are extremely thick. I have had many drink they use blenders for and throw in either rice or cereal. The taste good but are not much for the traditional USA refreshing drink. Not to mention I havent even seen a beer here since I have moved to my training site.

Overall it is quite interesting and has been a lot of fun meeting everyone. Hope all is well wherever you are...

Welcome to Nicaragua!

Just wanted to let everyone know that I made it safe and sound to Managua, Nicaragua! We have already gone through a day of training and will continue here for two more days before heading to Esteli. I woke up this morning and had no clue where I was, it was quite startling. Anyway this post is going to be short as I have to head to my language interview so PC can assess what my skill level is currently. The interview is set to last twenty minutes and I will be amazed if I know more then five minutes of Spanish. Hope all is well in the states and I will be able to check my email fairly consistently for the next 2 days while I am in Managua.

Quick note... My brother pointed out that I had my email address incorrect in the last post. I have since corrected it but just in case the correct email is jhollins@gmail.com.

One last night in the USA..

So tomorrow I will arrive in Managua, Nicaragua. The last month has been a blast: from going to baseball games with my brother to boating with my grandparents, aunt, uncle and cousins. Then, I finished up the month with visiting my mom and relatives in Illinois and down to Charlotte, NC to watch some dirt track races with my dad and say good bye to my step-mom and brother. It has been a great trip seeing everyone and got a chance to do a lot of fun things. But, all that will now come to an end as I head to a whole new world in Nicaragua.

I have now gone through two days of training here in Washington DC. Each day I see new challenges that I never thought of, however, I stay steadfast in my excitement to arrive in Nicaragua and take in the new challenge. I will arrive in Managua tomorrow around 11:00 am with 38 of the most amazing people I have ever met. The kindness and warmness shows through with every volunteer I have met.

After arriving in Managua, Nicaragua tomorrow we will have a three day retreat. During this time we will receive training on survival Spanish, vaccinations and knowledge on safety and security. We will also be tested on our Spanish knowledge and placed accordingly in our home stays. After the retreat the Agriculture volunteers, around 20 of us, will head to Esteli where we begin our home stays with 11 weeks of intensive training on language, job training, safety and security. During this time we will be staying with a local family and training with 3-4 other volunteers for 8-10 hrs per day. After we complete this training we will be sworn in as PC Volunteers and will receive a site all to our own. Wish me luck and feel free to send me any questions or comments that you have, you can do this by email (hollinsj@gmail.com) or post a comment below (thanks Sam and Bryan, although I'm guessing it was more Sam).

Why the Peace Corps?

So its less then two weeks until departing for Nicaragua and I wanted to take a chance to explain why I am joining the Peace Corps. As you can imagine I have been asked this question almost on a daily basis, and yet I have not been able to come up with a concise two sentence or less answer. That's because there are WAY too many positives that I will gain out of this experience. Learning Spanish, helping out people that truly need it, traveling a new country, testing my skill and determination. I could go on and on about all the things that intrigue me about this experience I am setting out on, however luckily at the end of our 80 page book on Nicaragua that the PC gave to us there were several welcome letters. One of these stood out to me as why I want to join so I will share that with you.

On a quick side note, I am not planning on running away and never coming back. I want to take this chance while I am young and unattached to try to make a small difference, try to help people out that truly need it while growing and challenging myself. I have plenty of time to settle down and climb that corporate latter, now just isn't the right time...

With out further ado here is the passage, and I do apologize to the author as I did cut out several sentences as to make it shorter and more relevant to my interests.

"The most important quality that a successful aspiring Peace Corps Volunteer should have is a willing attitude. One should be ready to adapt to another culture without a lot of resistance. You must maintain your thoughts and ideals, but have an openness to them maybe changing a bit and that being just fine.

Things are going to be awkward, uncomfortable, and just plain weird, but go with it. It will all mean something in the end. Maybe realize that you may not change the world, but you are going to make an impression. You will see poverty like you have never seen before, but those poverty-stricken people will become your neighbors and your friends. You will spend many days drinking coffee with them, sharing food with them, and talking. You will teach and you will learn. They will give you warm tea when you are sick. They will teach you how to wash your worn-in clothes on stones. They will take you to hidden rivers and waterfalls. Many will listen to your advice about planting trees, taking birth control, or not throwing their trash on the ground. They will correct your incorrect Spanish. They will smile at you when you have a bad day and toss you some inside joke that will make your struggles disappear for a moment.

In the midst of all of it, you will be a better and stronger person. Have a great time and savor all of it. This experience, your Peace Corps host country, and most of all, the people in it, will influence you in ways you can never imagine."

—Annie Burtch

You can find the full letter by following the link provided in the last post.

All about Nicaragua..

Nicaragua, where is it, what is there to eat, whats the weather like? I know many of you are asking these questions, I know I was when I received my invitation to serve in Nicaragua. Luckily we received an electronic book from the Peace Corps that is about 80 pages long, through my reading I have shortened this to 2 pages for you. So enjoy reading the struggles I get to look forward too including living on rice and beans, learning Spanish and the luggage requirements (yes, we are only allowed to check 80 lbs of luggage).

History of the Peace Corps in Nicaragua

Nicaragua probably derives its name from an Indian chief, Nicarao, who ruled part of the area at the time of the Spanish Conquest. The first Peace Corps Volunteers arrived in Nicaragua in 1969. Volunteers provide assistance in areas such as education, vocational training, rural nutrition, rural waterworks, agricultural extension, cooperatives, and municipal development.

Agriculture is the cornerstone of the Nicaraguan economy. The principal domestic crops are corn, beans, sorghum, and rice. Cotton, coffee, sugar, bananas, and tobacco are the principal export crops. Additional export products are beef and shrimp. The combination of unemployment and underemployment exceeds 50 percent. The U.S. Marines introduced baseball to Nicaragua in the early 1900s, and it is now the national sport. Most communities have baseball teams and weekend games.

Government

A 1989 accord permitted free elections in 1990, in which Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, known for her conciliatory nature, became president. Nicaragua has experienced relative peace since 1990, and the country has celebrated three successive free elections to date.

Nicaragua is an independent republic with a democratically elected president. Presidential elections are conducted every five years. In the most recent election (November 2001), more than 90 percent of eligible voters went to the polls in an unprecedented demonstration of hope and faith in democracy, electing Enrique Bolaños as president.

Environment

Nicaragua is the largest of the five Central American republics, with a land area of almost 50,000 square miles (slightly smaller than New York). It is the least densely populated of the Central American nations, with a population of 5.3 million (July 2004 estimate) and an average annual growth rate of 1.97 percent.

The climate varies with the region, but Nicaragua generally is hot and tropical, with cool, comfortable nights and a very short dry or cool season. Known as the land of lakes and volcanoes, Nicaragua has a diverse environment including highlands, lowlands, tropical forests, lakes, and two oceans. Lake Nicaragua is one of the largest freshwater lakes in the world and contains such aquatic oddities as freshwater sharks.

Agriculture Volunteers generally live in small, remote communities (as few as 200 residents) concentrated in the northern region of the country. Most(but not all) Volunteer homes have electricity, and most have running water. However, both electric and water service may be intermittent.

Food and Diet

The staples of the Nicaraguan diet are beans, rice, eggs, dairy products, meats, and foods made with corn. A wide variety of fruits and vegetables are grown locally, from cabbages and carrots to pineapples and papayas. As a result of the endemic poverty in Nicaragua, most Nicaraguans’ daily diet consists of gallo pinto, a mixture of red beans and rice fried in vegetable oil, which might be accompanied by corn tortillas, cabbage salad, a small amount of meat or chicken, or locally made salty cheese.

Transportation

Most Volunteers travel in Nicaragua on commercial public buses, flatbed trucks, bicycle or foot. . For the vast majority of Volunteers, traveling to and from site entails a ride in an old school bus, which may be overcrowded, slow, and sometimes unreliable. At more rural sites, Volunteers may be required to travel in converted flatbed trucks, as the rough terrain makes bus passage impossible. Volunteers are not permitted to own, drive, or ride on motorcycles or to own or drive other motorized vehicles at any time during their service. In very few instances, Volunteers also own or rent horses to travel from home to isolated communities and farms.

Health Issues in Nicaragua

The most common health problems among Volunteers are upper respiratory infections and diarrhea. Some gastrointestinal problems can be avoided by boiling drinking water and thoroughly washing fruits and vegetables before eating them. Two additional major health concerns in Nicaragua are malaria and dengue fever.

How much luggage am I allowed to bring to Nicaragua?

The Peace Corps’ allowance is two checked pieces of luggage with combined dimensions of both pieces not to exceed 107 inches (length + width + height) and a carry-on bag with dimensions of no more than 45 inches. Checked baggage should not exceed 80 pounds total with a maximum weight of 50 pounds for any one bag.

People and Culture

The majority of Nicaraguans can best be classified as mestizo, a mix in which neither the European nor the Indian cultures predominate. The official and predominant language in Nicaragua is Spanish. More than 90 percent of the population belongs to Christian denominations. The traditional social structure of Nicaragua has been essentially colonial, with a small number of wealthy landowning families at the top and a broad peasant class at the bottom. Despite the country’s economic growth in the 1970s, the emergence of a middle class, and the decade of socialist rule, there are still stark inequalities in the distribution of wealth.

The country’s educational system, a major avenue for economic and social mobility, recently replaced the traditions of classicism and intellectualism with vocational training. Thus, the lower class now has a somewhat better chance for economic advancement. The literacy rate is estimated at 68 percent.

Nicaraguans are warm, generous, and friendly. Despite the tensions between the United States and Nicaraguan governments in the 1980s, the Nicaraguans are open to receiving Peace Corps Volunteers into their communities and homes. Their hospitality is humbling.

If you do want to read the entire book the website is http://www.peacecorps.gov/welcomebooks/niwb524.pdf.

41 Days till Departure! Where will I be...

In case anyone wants to see me before I leave this is my travel plans for the next six weeks, as you will see its extremely busy but hopefully I can see everyone before I go.

Wednesday, July 25. Last day at work (How sweet it is...). Only downside is this is also the day I will be selling my car. So long to the Mustang, my first car, kinda sad.

Thursday, July 26. Moving all my furniture back to Charlotte.

Friday, July 27. Flying to St Louis, Missouri

Saturday, July 28. Cardinals vs Brewers at Busch Stadium. This will be my last Cardinals game, also last sporting event, for 3 years.

Sunday, July 29. Driving to Memphis for a week. If anyone will be around Memphis let me know because we will be hitting up Tunica for some Gambling and also Beale Street for some country music and some "scenery".

Friday, August 3. Drive to Nashville, Tn for a family reunion and a chance to see the Grandparents one last time.

Tuesday, August 7. Flying to Moline, Il to visit my Mom. Hopefully finish buying all my supplies for this adventure.

Friday through Sunday, August 10-12. Hopefully going to University of Illinois to visit friends and check out the school my Dad is always raving about.

Saturday, August 17. Flying back to Charlotte, NC to visit friends and Dad.

Tuesday through Thursday, August 21-23. Hopefully one last throw down in good old Chapel Hill. That is if I can convince my parents to let me "borrow" the car. This is where the reality of not having a vehicle is setting in.

Monday, August 27. Let the Peace Corps Experience BEGIN!!!


So as you can see these next six weeks will be extremely busy but hopefully I can see everyone one last time before I leave.

I'm going to Nicaragua!!!

So after a six month long process of applying and medical clearances I received an invitation to serve the Peace Corps in Nicaragua!

This was quite a surprise, let me take a chance and inform you a little more about the application process...

First step is sending in an application; this includes a resume, two essay explaining why you want to join and then a very long survey about past experiences.

Second step is an interview; this is where you meet a RPCV (Returned Peace Corps Volunteer) and discuss if you have the skill set required to join. The RPCV then discusses possible programs you could serve in and finishes by nominating you (essentially recommending you for a program) to serve. I requested Latin America, however because of my lack of Spanish and the number of applicants that request Latin America this was not a possibility. I believe that the statistics show that over 2/3 of volunteers request to serve in Latin America. Anyways back to my nomination, I was invited to serve in the Pacific Islands in the Agribusiness field.

Third step is receiving Medical Clearance. This is a lengthy process including a dental checkup (five fillings later), medical checkup, vision checkup and months of waiting. Luckily the doctors said I was healthy enough to go, must have tricked them!

Final step is to receive an invitation (job offer). This is where my story gets interesting as I said above I was under the impression that I would be sent to the Pacific Islands. After reading four books on the pacific islands (let me note, this is more reading then I did during college), I received a call from a Placement Officer for Latin America. She informed me that the officer for the Pacific Islands was out of town for Fourth of July and she would see if she could process my information. She closed by asking if I had any Spanish training and asked me to fill out an extra form on my agricultural background. The next day I received an email saying that I would be receiving my invitation in the mail shortly, this was all the information I would receive until I would get the mailing. Now you would think that with the technology that we have today I would not have to wait for Fed Ex to deliver a package that would notify where I would spend the next 27 months of my life, however thats the way it goes, let the excitement build...

A week later I received my invitation to serve in Nicaragua! On Friday, July 13, 2007 I accepted my invitation to serve as a Agricultural Rural Development Extensionist. I will start my training near Esteli, Nicaragua on September 1, 2007 which will be followed by two years of services at a site to be named later on November 16, 2007.

The Peace Corps is an amazing experience, let me go through the process of what I will be doing over the next 27 months.

August 27-29. I will spend two days somewhere in the US (probably Washington D.C.) where I will meet all the other volunteers that are going to Nicaragua with me. This will probably be a group of around 20 and according to Peace Corps statistics will be roughly 60% female! During these two days we will receive more immunization we will need during our service and also finalize all paperwork for our service.

August 29 or September 1, 2007. I will start my Peace Corps journey by flying into Nicaragua.

September 1-November 16, 2007. I will be stationed in a small community near Esteli, Nicaragua where I will focus on learning three things; Spanish, Cultural Training and Job Training. From the reading I have done it looks like I will be in a group of around four other volunteers for Spanish learning, I should have about 10 other volunteers in my job training courses and then all 20 volunteers will come together for cultural training. During the cultural training we will all receive safety training and more of those dreaded immunizations. During this time I will also visit current volunteers and will put our training to use for a couple days helping and shadowing the volunteer.

Around November 16, 2007. On this day we will be sworn in for the first time as Peace Corps Volunteer, until now we have been a Peace Corps Trainee. At this time I will also find out where in Nicaragua I will be serving my time as a Peace Corps Volunteer.

November 16, 2007. I will pickup and move one last time as I will be assigned several projects and also a Community where I will live.

Well, I hope this gives you a quick glance of what my life will be like in the next 27 months. I will definitely follow up the next six weeks before I leave with posts explaining more about Nicaragua and also a better idea of what I will be doing.