Saturday, February 18, 2006

mountains and green thumbs

What a fabulous trip I had to Nueva Segovia! The mountains are gorgeous and the air is so fresh. I think the best part of my trip was the reinforcement that it brought for my desire to serve as a Peace Corps volunteer. As I left for Dolores all I could think of was "wow, am I pumped to get started".

I was very lucky in that I was able to be placed with quite possibly the most motivated and amazing health volunteer in Nicaragua. He's been in service just one year and already he has done some major projects that are impacting the masses in Nueva Segovia. What's more, he served as a great example of how to integrate into one's community...everyone there loved him!

During my visit I spent a lot of time at SILAIS, the health administration center where he works. We talked a lot there about his job responsibilities and how he got started with his projects, the challenges he faced and how he dealt with them, and other tidbits about service that they can't teach in a classroom. We had meals with 2 families that he is close with...they were both very kind and great to spend time with. We also ran an activity with disabled children in the area in which we made Valentine's Day cards with them and shared some snacks, music, and fun. I really liked this because it showed that Volunteers can work on multiple projects that interest them and impact their communities in different ways.

We also played some football which was great because I got to show off my mad quarterback skills (thanks dad for the arm). He was totally impressed (as he should be) with my abilities, even though I had some difficulty catching as always :)

On Valentine's Day there was a dance being held at the local discotec by high school students. We decided to go since some of his Nica friends were going and we both love to dance. It was pretty fun even though 70% of the people there were under 18 and I was asked to dance by a number of young boys no older than 15 :) My favorite part of the night was when they played Vanilla Ice "Ice Ice Baby" and he and I went loco dancing and shouting the lyrics...I think all the nica's were staring and thinking "crazy gringos" hehe

I was very sad to leave the O.C. as he likes to call it, but I'm sure I'll visit again if not to serve then for vacation. We should be finding out in about 10 days where our permanent sites will be...very exciting!!!

Another experience I must mention was the garden practicum that we had today. This was a class on everything you need to know to have a healthy and successful garden. It was great because it was all outdoors and very much hands on. I learned how to make compost several ways; how to plant, transplant, and care for seedlings; how to fertilize and insecticize (yes I did just make up that word) crops, and how to get seeds from one's own garden.

Given my family history of green thumbs, I was as happy as a kid in a candy store. I am super psyched about starting my own garden once I get to my site and teaching others how to start one as well. It's even more neat because I will be able to grow fruits and vegetables that we don't have in the U.S. so I get to experiment with new species.

Tonight some of the trainees are getting together to go dancing with some Nica host siblings so it should be a blast. Time to once again get my dance on!

That's it for now...take care everyone!

Saturday, February 11, 2006

off to new lands

Hello all. just wanted to let you all know that I will be taking a 4 day trip beginning Sunday to the region just below the Hondorus border called Nueva Segovia. The trip is a visit to a currently serving volunteer so that I can experience what it's really like once my service starts and get more one-on-one time with a volunteer. I'm rather excited since many have told me how beautiful and fun this mountainous region of the country is.

I'm also psyched because the volunteer I'm visiting is working with promoting health messages over the radio (which is what I am doing with my youth group) so I think I will be able to learn a lot from him. He's also a member of the GUIA committee which is a volunteer committee focused on sustainable development. He has a ton of experience with this topic, and I'm really interested in getting on the committee...so it will be great to talk with him about it.

I'll be on my visit during Valentine's Day so that will be nice to be around an American friend and not alone in my training site (well I do have 3 other buttheads with me here in Dolores but they don't count ...just kidding...you guys know you're the best!)

well here's some random (but often funny) things I have learned since coming here just to make this entry a bit more interesting:

1. Dryers are GODS! While I don't mind washing all of my clothes by hand on a flat cement board (it's hard ass work, and I'm getting muscles!), it is kind of a pain that everything has to air dry. Why? well because the hand washing really stretches everything out and usually I would use a dryer to shrink it back to size. but without one, my clothes keep expanding in size. What does this mean? well two things... first that I now have several shirts of nightgown length...and second that it's a whole lot easier for me to gain weight because as I eat more and more food, my pants aren't restricting my waist and letting me know I need to watch what I'm eating. As my waist grows, my pants do too...craziness. luckily I think I have begun to manage the food intake better and my weight is starting to decrease again....but man would I love a dryer right now.

2. I am petrified of mice. I used to think I had no problem with them. I even used to make fun of my mother, sister, and her boyfriend for their fear of them...but the other day I was in my room at night and I saw something go flying across the floor out of the corner of my eye. I wasn't sure if it was a cockroach or something else (luckily I haven't seen a roach in my house yet), so I went and got my host mom. she came in and moved some stuff around and there it was running across the floor...a small mouse. And what did Alison do? She totally flipped out. I ran from my room screaming at the top of my lungs and doing the jump from one leg to the other petrified dance...my host family found this hilarious...I wanted to cry. Luckily my host brother caught and killed the mouse, though he made me throw it away afterwards.

3. Fresh juice is wonderful, but you have to be wonderwoman to make it. at the rate I'm making juice, I'll have arthritis by the time I'm 30...but somehow it's still worth it...yum!

4. Showers in a bucket rock! They use less water, you can take one whenever the hell you want if you save the water ahead of time (faucet showers depend on when there is running water), and you can heat up the water. faucet showers are freezing cold. I swear my biggest daily challenge is getting the nerve to voluntarily walk under a freezing stream of water each morning.

5. My 4 year old sister can "shake it like it's hot" better than me! I'm still in the process of closing my mouth from the shock of seeing her break it down the other day to some reggaeton. But this is normal here. most of the kids can dance really well.

6. "cool" is out "salvaje" is in...

7. People that have the least, share the most. The kindness and selflessness of many of the people here is really humbling.

Well that's it for now. Happy Valentine's Day everyone.

Sunday, February 05, 2006

Go Patriots!

So it's Superbowl Sunday and I'm very far away from American football :(

I found out that the Patriots were out of the running like 4 days ago which is so sad (sad that they lost and sad that I just found out). ...but the good news is that us trainees are having a superbowl fiesta at one the host family's houses in Santa Teresa...so it should be a fun night. I'm going to bring my Patriot's superbowl champions banner so that my boys will be represented.

Well, don't have much time so until next time.