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...