Being that I have now been in site for a little over a year, I wanted to
take the time and space on my blog to reflect on this last year. These are some
fond, and not so fond, memories that I have from the last 12 months.
June
As soon as I got to site the rainy season started. So I remember rain,
rain and more rain. I stayed at home a lot of afternoons instead of going out
in the community. It rained almost every day from about 2:30pm to 6pm and
sometimes well into the night. Along with the rain, another factor kept me home
and in bed... I was sick pretty much all month as I adapted to my new food and
water sources.
July
The rainy season continued into July, but I started to feel better and
not quite as sick. I still wasn't doing much work; I spent a lot of my time
with my host family and getting to know my new community. With my host mom and
sisters I learned how to bake Rosquillas (corn biscuits) and make corn
tortillas from scratch.
August
August was an exciting month because I started working more regularly
and it was my birthday month! My birthday, August 8th, also happens
to co-inside with Nicaragua’s National Health Workers’ Day, kind of ironic. I
had a quaint party complete with brownies, cake, and re-fried beans. …. And then a couple weeks later I got dengue.
This is a not so fond memory. I was in bed for an entire week with fever,
nausea, fatigue, and no appetite. Luckily I happened to be in Managua that week
so I had a very comfortable bed in a hotel, air conditioning, a private
bathroom, internet, and tasty food. Also a really good friend of mine happened
to be sick and in Managua that same week, so we got to spend some quality time
together… there’s always a silver lining.
September
I started teaching sexual and reproductive health classes regularly in
the town high school. I also had my Spanish Language workshop so I got to go
back to my training town for one week, brush up on Spanish grammar and re-unite
with friends and family. I stayed with my same host family that I stayed with
for training, and it felt like I was home again. I also went to my first Quinceñera.
October
I spent most of my time teaching and preparing new materials for classes
in the high school. I also discovered that my host mom and I both love to bake,
and she was okay with us using the gas oven to do so. This is uncommon in
Nicaragua because everyone has to buy their gas in propane tanks and haul it to
their house (rather than have it connected to a central line like in the
states) and baking is believed to use up more gas than cooking on the stove. So
to get the bang for your buck most people don’t bake with their gas ovens,
rather they use them as extra storage space for pots, pans, dishes, and food.
So I was surprised to find out that my host mom was not only okay with baking,
she was excited to do it and since then we have baked something at least on a
weekly basis. Lots of cakes, cookies, brownies, bread, and pizza!
November
Along with the baking theme, I spent most of November looking around
various cities of Nicaragua for materials and ingredients to make “Aunt
Virginia’s Pumpkin Pie,” the recipe that my mom has made ever since I can
remember. All of this pumpkin pie effort led up to making two pumpkin pies for
the PCV Thanksgiving in Matagalpa. It paid off, the pies made it through the 5
hour trip, and were super delicious and everyone appreciated the taste of home.
Work-wise, I planned and facilitated a very successful youth sexual and
reproductive health workshop with Plan Nicaragua and MINSA. It was my first
event outside of class-time and it was nice to have more time to work with
young leaders that were interested in the topics we covered.
December
In December I don’t remember doing much work because classes were
finishing up for the year and I was looking forward to my vacation time. We had
some traditional celebrations in town leading up to Christmas, like the
Purisima, which celebrates the Virgin Mary. I enjoyed my two weeks back in
Wisconsin and spent time with my family, friends, my dog Sophie and playing in
the snow.
January
January was an exciting month for work. I started working more closely
with Plan Nicaragua working on an HIV education and prevention program. I
extended my network out to some of the rural communities of my municipality and
strengthened work relationships with Plan Nicaragua. I also traveled a lot
around Northern Nicaragua helping to implement a nation-wide survey on the
mobile population of Coffee Cutters. The survey was the first of its kind in
Nicaragua and it looked at knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of the mobile
coffee cutters surrounding HIV/AIDS.
February
In February I spent most of my time strengthening my new friendships in
the rural areas of my municipality and assisting with the implementation of the
Plan Nicaragua HIV education and prevention program. These friendships with
community leaders have continued to grow and have helped me implement events
and activities in the rural communities, where the need is greatest.
March
In March my host mom had surgery and was on bed rest in Estelí all
month. I helped out around the hospedaje a little bit more and spent a lot of
time preparing for practicum week. Practicum week was an opportunity for the
group of new health trainees to come out to a real volunteer’s site, to do some
hands on work, and see how the volunteer lives. I had 20 people coming out to
my small town, so it took a lot of pulling strings to get everything ready. I
did a lot of networking and event planning, preparing for everything from the
hands-on work experiences and meetings to each and every meal we were going to
eat.
April
In April all of the trainees and Peace Corps staff showed up for
Practicum Week. It was a very full week, and very successful. I enjoyed myself
and the opportunity to get to know half of the new group of trainees (now they
are volunteers). After practicum week came Semana Santa… or Holy Week, the week
leading up to Easter Sunday. In Nicaragua Semana Santa is a week off to spend
with family, eating traditional food, watching TV, going to the beach (because
it’s also the hottest week of the year), and some people go to church too. I
spent Semana Santa with my host family, eating a lot, and relaxing at my host
grandmother’s house. It was nice to spend time with some host aunts and sisters
that I don’t get to see all that often.
May
In May I accomplished
a goal that I have had since I stepped foot in Nicaragua. I started a girls’
soccer team! It has been a lot of fun, and very rewarding to see the girls
gaining more confidence, and improving their soccer skills. They have become
more opinionated, demanding and vocal since we first started. This is a huge
improvement because traditionally girls and women are raised and conditioned to
be more passive than men, leading to all sorts of problems including gender
in-equality (as in many parts of the world). During soccer practice we also do
activities surrounding life skills and HIV/AIDS prevention.
June
This month I had a great In-service Training, where I got to re-unite
with my whole group of Health-61 volunteers. We had lots of meetings and
presentations on technical areas and on looking ahead to our second years of
service. It was re-juvinating to be together again and to share ideas and
materials with each-other. I am looking forward to my family coming soon as
well. I can’t wait to show them my new home and the people, community, and
culture that I have grown to love.
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