My host mom just killed a chicken to eat for lunch. I didn`t see it, but I could hear the chicken running around.
Also, I`ve been spending far too much money lately, going places and doing things, so that needs to stop. Sorry Luis, we`ll just have to settle for wandering the streets of Dolores.
I got a big fat package in the mail from my aunt containing tons and tons of Christmasy goodies from Trader Joes and I`m a little overwhelmed but loving it all.
Going to Niquinohomo to (hopefully) party hard for New Year`s, but we`ll see what happens.
I have spent the last week being depressed and homesick and antisocial, but that`s changing today.
I still need to do that gender post, I`ve been taking notes, my host mom has some crazy stories about her life (and other peoples...)
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Friday, December 24, 2010
Saturday, December 18, 2010
"That`s a tick, I`m gonna set it on fire..."
I always find ways to stress myself out with work when I am supposed to have nothing to do.
This week, I helped out kind of part-time at this summer camp in Masatepe (a municipality of Masaya, a good 45 minute, 8 cordoba bus ride) and ended up helping teach one of the "basic 2" groups and it was fun! One afternoon I went to Niquinohomo to hang out for a couple hours, another I went to Diriamba (the biggest municipality of Carazo, right next to Dolores) to meet with the other Carazo TEFL volunteers to work on some funding proposal for the distribution of this TEFL manual....it`s a long story, anyway, I also found myself a running partner! It`s kind of running/walking, but it`s better than what I have been doing in terms of exercise, which is nothing. I`ve definitely gotten a little pudgier since I`ve been here...oh well. My community English classes here in Dolores are up and running, although I`m having a hard time figuring out how to divide it because people are at different levels. So then I`m gonna have two of those classes, but everyone wants it twice a week, AND my host sister and my counterpart are on my back about starting a KIDS class too, so that will have to happen eventually. ALSO, the volunteer in Diriamba has been giving free summer classes to university students at UNAN in Jinotepe (the department capital of Carazo, also right next to Dolores), and she`s gonna be too busy to do it the three saturdays in January, so I`ve observed two of her classes (it would have been three but I fell on my head one of the Saturdays) and I`m gonna take them over starting January 8th. This means that I need to study my English grammar HARDCORE before then, and I don`t have convenient university libraries to run away to for silence and a place to cram. We`ll see how that goes. I`m pretty sure my whole first year of service is going to be like this, signing myself up for things that I`m not quite sure I know how to do. I`m also going to have to start saying no to people, especially when school starts.
My sister got a puppy, her kids named it Doky. It`s cute, it doesnt have a tail.
I totally got into Soy tu Dueña like, the final week of its final season, but its cool. Valentina and Jose Miguel live happily ever after, obviously.
This week, I helped out kind of part-time at this summer camp in Masatepe (a municipality of Masaya, a good 45 minute, 8 cordoba bus ride) and ended up helping teach one of the "basic 2" groups and it was fun! One afternoon I went to Niquinohomo to hang out for a couple hours, another I went to Diriamba (the biggest municipality of Carazo, right next to Dolores) to meet with the other Carazo TEFL volunteers to work on some funding proposal for the distribution of this TEFL manual....it`s a long story, anyway, I also found myself a running partner! It`s kind of running/walking, but it`s better than what I have been doing in terms of exercise, which is nothing. I`ve definitely gotten a little pudgier since I`ve been here...oh well. My community English classes here in Dolores are up and running, although I`m having a hard time figuring out how to divide it because people are at different levels. So then I`m gonna have two of those classes, but everyone wants it twice a week, AND my host sister and my counterpart are on my back about starting a KIDS class too, so that will have to happen eventually. ALSO, the volunteer in Diriamba has been giving free summer classes to university students at UNAN in Jinotepe (the department capital of Carazo, also right next to Dolores), and she`s gonna be too busy to do it the three saturdays in January, so I`ve observed two of her classes (it would have been three but I fell on my head one of the Saturdays) and I`m gonna take them over starting January 8th. This means that I need to study my English grammar HARDCORE before then, and I don`t have convenient university libraries to run away to for silence and a place to cram. We`ll see how that goes. I`m pretty sure my whole first year of service is going to be like this, signing myself up for things that I`m not quite sure I know how to do. I`m also going to have to start saying no to people, especially when school starts.
My sister got a puppy, her kids named it Doky. It`s cute, it doesnt have a tail.
I totally got into Soy tu Dueña like, the final week of its final season, but its cool. Valentina and Jose Miguel live happily ever after, obviously.
Thursday, December 9, 2010
"¿Que te pasa, mae?!"
I wasn`t going to post about this, because I wasn`t going to tell my parents about it, but I did, so here it is.
I bet you were waiting to here about when I would need stitches in Nicaragua (for those of you that know what happened in Costa Rica). I didn NOT get stitches, but I would say this injury has just as exciting a story.
On Saturday, December 5, at 1:40 pm, I was walking to a university in Jinotepe (which is the capital of Carazo) to observe a class, and as I was stepping of the curb, while at the same time texting, while at the same time looking both ways for cars, I didn`t see the giant hole in the ground that my foot was going into. So in Nicaragua, there are all these holes in the ground, like manholes, but people steal the lids because they`re made of iron and I guess they can make money off of them somehow. Anyway I fell, and scratched my thigh pretty bad, hit my elbow, and my head. Luckily it wasn`t my actual HEAD, more like my cheekbone and right part of my brow bone, but I was dizzy and my vision was a little wack for a good 15 minutes. I may have lost consciousness for an instant on impact, but I guess we will never know. About 6 strangers surrounded me and helped me sit up on the curb and started bombarding me with questions about if there was someone I could call and stuff, and I didn`t have any cell phone minutes to call a non Peace Corps phone (because we have special chips so we can talk to each other unlimitedly), so I couldn`t call my host mom, but I called the Peace Corps doctor...then some guy said he could help me into a cab and take me to the nearby hospital, and I`m hesitating about getting into a car with a strange man but I knew that I had no idea what else to do, so I went, and by the time we got there I felt fine. I was still in shock and scared for a while, slightly sobbing while talking to the doctor/nurse, and they wanted to give me a painkiller injection but the PC doc said no, so I said no, and just got some IBU profin. And basically I was just told that if I started feeling nauseous or vomiting, lost consciousness or got dizzy or confused or had really bad headaches, I would need to come back. None of that happened, but I ended up going to the PC doc on Monday just to be sure. Im still just bruised everywhere, my cheekbone still hurts, but I`m fine.
1) While I was sitting outside of the hospital in Jinotepe, waiting to be seen, and was scared, the first person I wanted to talk to was a friend from Niquinohomo, who I texted and asked to call me because I didn`t have any minutes, and who did, and then asked if they should come visit and I said no but they showed up at my front door anyways.
2) Later that night I went to hang out with my counterpart and told her and her family the story and went with her to her nephew`s graduation party where she may have starting making confessions about her more wild teenage days.
3) I came home and changed for bed and was about to hit the sack when my neices came over and my mom pulled out the Christmas decorations and I started to help put up Christmas decorations and Mayerli insisted that a Santa Claus go on my bedroom door.
4) Yesterday, there was a Catholic celebration called la Purisima, which basically celebrates the Virgin Mary, and there are a bunch of fireworks at 6 pm, then people go to houses where people have altars set up, and sing songs, and get something (like trick-or-treating) and my 13 year old neighbor offered to take me with her to check it out because I had been talking about how I`d never seen it before.
I bet you were waiting to here about when I would need stitches in Nicaragua (for those of you that know what happened in Costa Rica). I didn NOT get stitches, but I would say this injury has just as exciting a story.
On Saturday, December 5, at 1:40 pm, I was walking to a university in Jinotepe (which is the capital of Carazo) to observe a class, and as I was stepping of the curb, while at the same time texting, while at the same time looking both ways for cars, I didn`t see the giant hole in the ground that my foot was going into. So in Nicaragua, there are all these holes in the ground, like manholes, but people steal the lids because they`re made of iron and I guess they can make money off of them somehow. Anyway I fell, and scratched my thigh pretty bad, hit my elbow, and my head. Luckily it wasn`t my actual HEAD, more like my cheekbone and right part of my brow bone, but I was dizzy and my vision was a little wack for a good 15 minutes. I may have lost consciousness for an instant on impact, but I guess we will never know. About 6 strangers surrounded me and helped me sit up on the curb and started bombarding me with questions about if there was someone I could call and stuff, and I didn`t have any cell phone minutes to call a non Peace Corps phone (because we have special chips so we can talk to each other unlimitedly), so I couldn`t call my host mom, but I called the Peace Corps doctor...then some guy said he could help me into a cab and take me to the nearby hospital, and I`m hesitating about getting into a car with a strange man but I knew that I had no idea what else to do, so I went, and by the time we got there I felt fine. I was still in shock and scared for a while, slightly sobbing while talking to the doctor/nurse, and they wanted to give me a painkiller injection but the PC doc said no, so I said no, and just got some IBU profin. And basically I was just told that if I started feeling nauseous or vomiting, lost consciousness or got dizzy or confused or had really bad headaches, I would need to come back. None of that happened, but I ended up going to the PC doc on Monday just to be sure. Im still just bruised everywhere, my cheekbone still hurts, but I`m fine.
1) While I was sitting outside of the hospital in Jinotepe, waiting to be seen, and was scared, the first person I wanted to talk to was a friend from Niquinohomo, who I texted and asked to call me because I didn`t have any minutes, and who did, and then asked if they should come visit and I said no but they showed up at my front door anyways.
2) Later that night I went to hang out with my counterpart and told her and her family the story and went with her to her nephew`s graduation party where she may have starting making confessions about her more wild teenage days.
3) I came home and changed for bed and was about to hit the sack when my neices came over and my mom pulled out the Christmas decorations and I started to help put up Christmas decorations and Mayerli insisted that a Santa Claus go on my bedroom door.
4) Yesterday, there was a Catholic celebration called la Purisima, which basically celebrates the Virgin Mary, and there are a bunch of fireworks at 6 pm, then people go to houses where people have altars set up, and sing songs, and get something (like trick-or-treating) and my 13 year old neighbor offered to take me with her to check it out because I had been talking about how I`d never seen it before.
Monday, December 6, 2010
Friday, December 3, 2010
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
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