Exciting Happenings in Small Town Nicaragua

I wanted to share a couple fun things that happened lately. 

 

The crowd that gathered to see the helicopter.

About two weeks ago a helicopter came to town! As the soccer season was winding down I decided to go watch the semi-finals and cheer on my team (I haven´t been as enthusiastic lately about actually playing, but I´m all about being supportive). It just so happens that the only helicopter landing area is the soccer field.

Event Planning and My Most Embarrassing Moment So Far

The marcha stretched for blocks and blocks (cuadras)!

This week I had two semi-large events. The first was a march for world AIDS day (Dec 1^st) and the second was a youth group meeting, supported by a local NGO. Both events ended up going well, but that’s not how it seemed in the days and hours leading up to them. I have learned a lot through my work here and some of the most useful skills I have acquired are flexibility, and not getting too attached to my own ideas or initial plans. 

Thanksgiving: Día de Acción de Gracias

I know this is a little bit after-the-fact… but I wanted to share a little bit about my Thanksgiving here in Nicaragua.

First of all, I dedicated the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving to making pumpkin pie.

Winter means… Nacatamales

This weekend I learned how to make nacatamales! (Pronounced nak-a-tam-a-lays) It is a traditional food in Nicaragua, eaten year round, but especially in November and December. I made them with my host mom and new site-mate! To honor this tasty food, I wanted to do a “step-by-step how to make nacatamales” blog. Although I missed the first few steps, here is what I did learn:

Mixed Feelings

Yesterday I attended the closing ceremony for “Buena salud para todos,” a large multi-faceted public health project. It was a project completed by several different organizations, including NGOs and governmental organizations. “Buena salud para todos”…. Aka “good health for all,” lived up to its name with a wide scope, and an education centered approach community health improvement.

It's a Small World After All

There is a small group of Peace Corps Nicaragua health volunteers that are spearheading a nation-wide study on Coffee-Cutters as a migrant worker population, and their knowledge and behaviors related to HIV. I am lucky enough to live in northern Nicaragua… aka coffee country. So I volunteered to help with the study in any way that I could, knowing my location was an asset. My first task was this week. I had to figure out where the big coffee farms were in San Juan del Rio Coco, another municipality in Madriz.

Balancing Work and Life

Here in Nicaragua, the general consensus is that work is important so that one can live and enjoy life. On the contrary, the generalization made about the United States is that we live to work. In other words, work to live versus live to work.

Breakthroughs

One of the views from my daily walk (hike).

I know it’s been a while since I last wrote, and a lot has happened. I would love to give you all the play by play, but that would be ridiculously long. A few highlights have been my 3 month in-service training, working a lot in the high school teaching sex-ed, getting dengue fever and staying in Managua for 2 weeks, and a gala fundraiser for the small business sector aka Peace Corps Prom. In the last month, my various experiences have lead to a few breakthroughs for me….

Quick Update

A quick reference of Nicaraguan cities for those of you
back home. My site is 1 hour east of Palacaguina.

I have spent most of my weekends this month traveling around the country, and I am now totally broke. I went to Managua at the beginning of the month for medical appointments, but made the most of it and enjoyed an amazing Italian dinner, played pool in a billiards hall, found a new cribbage partner SO to Aaron, and spent some much needed time with fellow volunteers.

¡BINGO!

One of  the family´s farms. This one has all sorts
of crops, horses, and several ponds for fishing.

In the last few weeks I have continued to explore my site and I am quickly discovering a variety of pass-times. I have already gone fishing, played soccer, gone hiking, watched cock-fighting, cooked, and played BINGO… more on that later.

Permanent Mailing Address

Thank you everyone back home for the old fashioned letters and thoughtful care packages. They really mean a lot to me and always make my week. I recently figured out my permanent mailing address from here on out. You can now send all of your generous care-packages and letters to:

Allison Feuerstein
Apartado Postal #18
Somoto, Nicaragua, Centro América

My former mailing address is also still good. I just will not be able to check it as often, as it is in Managua and therefore a 5 hour trip away. Keep the love coming! I´ll write you back :)

Swearing In and Starting Over

Group shot of Nica 61 with Country Directors and Volunteer Greeters

Last week already seems like so long ago; I spent most of the week in Managua with the rest of my training group. We had various training sessions, our Swearing-In Ceremony, and a day off on Saturday. The Swearing-In Ceremony was very official; there were speeches from the acting US ambassador, PC Country Director, and representatives from the Nicaraguan Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health.

Transition to Service

View of one of the streets

I found out two weeks ago that my site is a small municipality in Madriz, located in northern Nicaragua. My town is absolutely beautiful, nestled in the mountains on the steep banks of the Rio Coco.
The urban area is home to about 3,000 people, with another 19,000 living in rural surrounding communities. There are three elementary schools and one high school in the urban area, as well as a health center and a casa materna. A casa materna is a house with rooms and beds for pregnant women from extremely rural areas to stay close to medical care as they get close to their due date. This helps institutionalize births and therefore reduce risks of life-threatening complications.

Jornada de Vacunas

This is the temporary health post  the nurses set up

Throughout training we’ve had tons of experiences for technical training and working in the communities we’re living in on local health issues. One part of health care that the Ministry of Health does an amazing job on is vaccinations. Every April there are vaccination campaigns (Jornadas de Vacunas) around the country. In each campaign a small group of nurses and doctors go to their local rural communities and set up a small health post.

Practicum Week in Nueva Guinea

David and I giving a charla at the Health Center on HIV

For the last week all of the trainees were scattered around the country participating in field days. In the health sector we were split into two groups, my group of 8 trainees headed for Nueva Guinea in RAAS. It was a surprisingly quick 5 hour non-stop (no-bathroom-stops) public bus ride. The trip out to RAAS crosses a good portion of the country, we drove in and out of the mountains, thus in and out of the drought zone. RAAS is (or was) a giant rainforest. Now it’s a mix of rainforest, rolling hills, swamps, and open fields for grazing and crops.

Training in Carazo

I have been living in a small town in the department of Carazo, Nicaragua for the last two weeks. My host family here is absolutely amazing, warm and welcoming. My host parents are in their early 60s and four out of their five children live within a few blocks of our house with their own families. Needless to say our house is where the action is at, there are always kids running around and someone to practice Spanish with or play a game with.

So far I have continued to enjoy the food, beans and rice are slowly becoming addictive… as I was warned. I never knew there were so many ways to prepare rice and beans… separate; together in gallo pinto; frijoles liquadas (or re-fried beans); fried rice cakes almost like potato latkes; with cheese; with fried cheese; on a tortilla; on a fried tortilla… and I’m sure the list will go on in the weeks to come. I have also tried some new meats since I’ve been here

Nica 61 Has Arrived!

We made it to Nicaragua! My group, Nica 61, has arrived! we got here yesterday afternoon and it has been a huge whirlwind already. On less than 2 hours of sleep, we had a full day of orientations and dinámicas, which are like ice-breakers or games, when we arrived. Everyone in the group is very interesting, qualified, and unique. I am excited to get to know everyone better throughout training and beyond.

Mailing Address for Training

If you would like to write to me or send me care packages, my mailing address for Training (March 10th - May 24th) will be:

Allison Feuerstein PCT

Cuerpo de Paz - Nicaragua

Apartado Postal # 3256

Managua, Nicaragua, Centro América

After training I'll be officially sworn in as a volunteer and I will likely receive a new site along with a new mailing address. I'm told that the mail can take up to a few weeks to go between the US and Nicaragua. Also, if you write to me, the Peace Corps suggests numbering your letters so that we know if one was lost in the mail. If you decide to mail a care package, know that they almost never make it fully in-tact, so don't send anything valuable. I leave in less than two weeks now! Time is flying by!