Peace Corps 2.0

On May 20^th, 2015 I finished my service as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Nicaragua. I was able to celebrate by ringing the bell with many others from my group. I am proud of my group and grateful for all of the wonderful support from Peace Corps staff and my family and friends both in Nicaragua and the US.

Since then I spent most of June in Nicaragua, applying for US Residency for my husband, which he got pretty quickly. We moved back to Madison together about a week ago and have a lot of culture shock ahead of us.

On Our Way

Rural villages like this one previously did not offer secondary classes,
now the Ministry of Education is offering secondary classes in 10 of
the 40 villages in my municipality. This has helped reduce the teenage
pregnancy rate on a local scale.

When I first got to my site almost two years ago I learned about all of the health disparities and challenges that my counterparts at the Ministry of Health are up against every day. Just to name a few, there was a high rate of teenage pregnancy. Around 30% of all pregnancies were to girls under the age of 18. Our casa materna (house for pregnant women to wait for their due date, so that they can get to the health center on time to give birth) was fairly new. It didn't have much to offer women ever since the NGO funding it had pulled out. It was essentially just a bed and a sheet to sleep on, rice, oil and 2 pots in the kitchen, a dirty bathroom and place to wash clothing by hand out back.

Calling all Readers!

I want to dedicate this post to my dear friend Ilana and the amazing work she is doing in her community nestled in the mountainous jungles of northern Nicaragua. Ilana and I clicked during our pre-service training and have been by each other’s sides, or at least at the other end of the phone, ever since. We both ended up in small northern towns in the mountains. Her town is a bit more rural though, and a lot more green. She is on the edge of the Northern Autonomous region and the country’s largest nature reserves.  In her town she has a local radio program where she invites people to talk about their lives and how their decisions have impacted their health and well being, like using family planning methods, sexuality, and giving birth. She has worked with organizations to facilitate a bridge being built on the road to a rural village outside of her town, murals of world maps painted for students to learn about geography, and has worked extensively with youth, women, and agricultural workers. She is truly an inspiration to me.

Her current project is what brings me to write this post. The health center in Ilana’s town lacks many resources, like health centers around the country. When Ilana asked her health center director and staff what would make the biggest difference in their health center, they told her...

Surprise Surprise

Over the course of my many months here, lots of things have surprised me, including lizards falling from the ceiling, chickens running into my legs when I was playing soccer and my host sister's surprise visit from England. On top of all that, I have surprised myself with many things I have said and done...

Hot Mango Crisp Syrup

I made up this recipe as a way to use up some green mangoes that I didn't know what to do with. My inspirations were memories of apple crisp and a mango crisp recipe a friend made once. I made it for my host family for breakfast this weekend and they begged me for it again for dinner, but we were out of mangoes, so I made it with diced star fruit and it turned out just as delicious. Enjoy!

Soccer in Zapotillo

Snap shot of Zapotillo

The path from town to the community of Zapotillo

The sub-urban community of Zapotillo (Sa-poe-tEE-o) sits on the banks of the Rio Coco (the Coco River), about a 20 minute walk outside of the municipal capital where I live. It is home to hundreds of people and has a rich history of indigenous culture, mounds, and artisans. Many years ago it used to be a bustling center of activity, as shown in artifacts found throughout the community. These days, things have changed.

Ups and Downs of my first year of Service

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.

Hosting Practicum Week

Arts and Crafts, making paper bead bracelets.

In February I was asked to host practicum week for the new group of Health Trainees. I was honored and immediately accepted, knowing it would be challenge. Practicum week is an opportunity for trainees to visit a current volunteer, give charlas, put on events, and get a better feel for what we do as health volunteers. In order to prepare for practicum week I had events to plan, charla audiences to invite, meals to order, and a hospedaje to polish up. I was busy for all of February and March preparing to host 20 people in my small, rural site. 

Flow

A woman in one of the
communities  making pots and komals
for making tortillas,  cooking beans and
toasting coffee from clay.

So it’s true, when things are going well and you get into a routine, it’s easy to forget about los demás (everything and everyone else) blogging, updating Facebook, writing letters, etc. My apologies, I am going to try my best to catch up on all of this soon. 

I feel like I’m in a really good spot in my service. I am happy in site, I feel very supported by my official counterparts in the ministry of health, I truly feel like a member of my host family, and I am slowly making some genuine friends in site. I am grateful that everything is starting to flow more easily. I am very busy with work, which is the way I like it, and I feel appreciated by the people who are important to me.

A snap-shot of what’s been going on lately: 

A Few Short Stories

One of the critters we found in Miraflor.

The last month here has been a lot of traveling and a lot of working in new places. As of right now I’m fairly exhausted, but I feel very satisfied and I am excited to keep on exploring new places and meeting new people. As far as this post goes, I feel like the only way I can convey what I’ve been up to is with a few short stories.

10 pounds of Christmas Cookies

Shoveling with my Dad

To celebrate Christmas and New Years I headed back state-side for two weeks. It was a big change in terms of weather, but surprisingly I adapted really quickly.

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.