hello there

I’m sorry it’s been so long. Let’s start with the fiestas patrias, which basically translates to “Patriotic Parties” and they’re independence day celebrations. I don’t remember which is which, but one of the days, September 14th or 15th, is celebrating the independence of Central America, and the other the independence of Nicaragua. This year the days fell on a Wednesday and Thursday, so naturally we lost the entire week of class. Monday and Tuesday were spent on band and marching practice, because every single student is required to march, both days, and Friday and the following Monday the teachers had off because they were technically working on the actual days helping the students march around. So basically I had a week off. I decided to go to Leon for three of those days, which is a big historical city a little north of where I am. Like a 3 hour bus ride in total. It was just a group of 3 girls, and we stayed in a hostel and partied too hard. Saw some sights too. One day I visited Julie and Matt who were taking a break from their isolated site and staying in a fancy hotel in Granada. Since I had gone on one of the actual holiday days, the 15th, I asked the bus driver when the last bus left from Granada to Jinotepe (back to my site), because schedules are different on holidays, and he said 5 o’clock, and I said “Are you sure?” and he said “Seguro” and so I came back at 5 and there were no buses so Julie paid for my taxi home, calling it a belated birthday present. I spent a night or two in Niquinohomo too, of course. The week after that, because of a long list of reasons, I made the decision to move! Also, that same week, the majority of the new TEFL trainees (because there is a new group every year) came and observed 4 of my classes. Then the week after that, I gave them a lecture on “Your First Class” and I moved! The new place is pretty expensive, but I think I can manage if the landlord doesn’t decide to make me pay for water and electricity separately. I don’t have internet in my house, and I don’t plan to get it. Anyways, it’s an actual house, not just a room. I don’t know when I’m going to post pictures of it because my camera battery is messed up, but I will eventually. I didn’t have to pay anyone to move it, Luis and his friend carried all of my stuff the 5 blocks to the new place. I moved in October 2nd, so it’s been about 2 weeks. This past week, a storm, I think its name is Irwin, decided to come in, and there has been no class for 5 days. Basically I just sat in my house watching movies all day. It was nice the first few days but now I’m done with it. Dolores literally has seen no sun in 7 days. Work, before this week of no work, has been going well. This Friday I arranged for another volunteer that works in a university in Leon to come give a lecture on pronunciation to the English teachers in Dolores and Diriamba, hopefully the rain lets up so everyone can come…I’m kind of excited for this school year to be over, so that I can start the next one fresh with everything I’ve learned and can implement my new plans. Like an English teachers conversation group. And a better organized youth group. And a real BEGINNER’S English class. And spending a little less time with Tania and a little more time with Gilberto and Jose Antonio, who definitely need it more. And having free weekends so I can FORCE my teachers to make materials with me. I don’t know if I mentioned it here, but I’m going to be working on the Peace Corps youth leadership camp, which should be some time late January or early February, which should be really challenging and fun. In addition to all of this I have COMING HOME to look forward to! In less than two months!!! I should probably start making plans…
Luis and his friend have been spending a lot of time here in Dolores, because Luis is super Catholic and somehow became BFFs with the pastors here, and there is a big Catholic…spiritual center, I guess you could call it, here in Dolores called Betania, and he brought his friend to some event there and then he got all religious and recently got baptized. It reminds me of high school and middle school when everyone was discovering God and all my friends were taking me to church with them and people were getting serious and baptized.
I hope to plant some basil and oregano and cilantro and spinach in my front yard at some point. And maybe get a pet bunny. I was seriously considering a puppy but that might be too much responsibility than I want. And I’ve never been much of a cat person.
I suppose this is all for now, here are some pictures:

Ready to start marching after singing the national anthem.

Big band drums.

Little girlies dancing in skimpy outfits.

Marching.



Luis serenading Alison (an environment volunteer who was in Dolores visiting her training host family; she got to Nicaragua the same time I did) during a little dinner party I had at my old house.

Pata de Perro

Sorry for not posting anything in so long. Things have kind of just been coasting lately. My Saturday kids' class is falling apart. I've hit some kind of slump where I don't feel like I'm really DOING anything, also thinking that I am approaching my one year of service mark and wondering what I am going to have to SOLIDLY show for it. But things are good.
Thursday evening a rock crashed through the plastic roof sheet in my roof (they are all metal, except for one) and there is a huge hole, which was supposed to get fixed yesterday, and then today, but it hasn't happened yet. It's okay though, it's not that bad, it's in a corner so nothing is really getting wet. I just had to move my table-constructed-out-of-suitcases-covered-with-a-bedsheet that I used as a bookshelf for all my Peace Corps books. And last weekend my sink was leaking but that is fixed except for a tiny drip that I have given up on trying to fix.
I got a haircut today after....almost nine and a half months. It was nice.
More interesting vegetables have been showing up in the market lately! Instead of just different types of squash (pipiyan, ayote, chayote), taro, potatoes, yucca, tomatoes and cabbage. I have found eggplant, green beans, and broccoli. Also my host mom, and a family that shares a fence with my school in Dolores, both have abundant spinach plants that I steal spinach from. Actually my host mom has a bunch of stuff. I also steal oregano and basil from her yard. And lemons. And chiles. Would you be interested in seeing pictures of the fruits and veggies that are available here? There are some delicious fruits that I had never seen before I came here.
The latest TEFL trainees got to Carazo yesterday! There are none in Dolores though since I'm already working with the English teachers here, and they would have no one to practice with. Since I'm right here, they're gonna be observing a lot of my classes I'm sure, and I'm sure I'm gonna be asked to give them lectures and stuff because I'm so close. I am already signed up for one, "Your First Day of School". Should be good.
My camera is acting up, I think the battery is starting to fall apart. It'll suddenly turn off and stuff or say there is no charge left even right after I've finished charging it. Too bad I don't know anyone (yet) who knows how to fix cameras. Right when I started to take more interest in taking pictures. Oh well.
I'm fantasizing about my trip home in November. I'm going to buy my ticket on Wednesday, after I confirm details with one of my bosses about my vacation days. I will most likely be getting to LA in the afternoon December 9th, and leaving late at night on the 28th. I'm fantasizing about things like waxing my arms and legs, getting a legit facial, eating good food, eating taco bell, lying on a couch, drinking wine and champagne, seeing all of my friends and family, going to Disneyland, going to the movies multiple times, Trader Joe's...and many many other things.
I have had a weekend FULL of free time, and it has been just what I needed to see that I really don't enjoy SO much free time =).
Love,
Neha

Finally saw HP 7.2 yesterday. I am ready to let go. Things are changing a little bit in terms of work. I had a little talk with my youth group/youth English class thing, about how I was sick of their lack of discipline, and together we made a new structure for the group. They came up with most of the ideas, which was awesome. They even want to raise money for materials and a little party or something at the end! An embarrassing but true fact, my students at the high school don't respect me; if Tania leaves the room, the noise level increases noticeably. Except for maybe in one class. It might be because she can give them lectures about responsibility and being accountable in SPANISH, which I don't feel at all comfortable doing. I don't involve myself too much in the grades, and they probably know that. I could use the excuse that that is technically not my job, but I need to handle that situation somehow. Planning with Tania seems to be becoming more productive, and planning with Mercedes is slowly increasing in time and hopefully I can squeeze in more and more information for her in the time that she gives for meeting with me. I am taking off one class with Tania to add one with Mercedes. The people in my adult class, which now numbers 7, but usually actually only 5, goes well because they are all pretty advanced and super motivated. BUT, one of them is going to start observing and teaching my kids Saturday class with me, which is AWESOME because maybe next year SHE can teach it! Sustainability! Yessss. AND, the others have also agreed, that for next year, when I start a new beginner community class, they will help me teach that! It's gonna be ALOT more planning time, but if it all works out it will be awesome. Now, there is another thing I need to think about: most TEFL volunteers hold some kind of summer camp (summer here is December and January) and I need to start planning that now if it's happening. It would happen in January, cuz I'm coming home for Christmas, but I am thinking girls only or boys only. Ages like 12-14 or so. Things with Cesar are going slow, and San Gregorio too =/. I know I am expected (kind of) to give some kind of class or training or presentation to all of the teachers in Dolores and Diriamba, as I am soon to be (in November, when Megan leaves) the only TEFL volunteer in the area, but THAT is probably going to be the scariest.
BBL

"no voy a dejar que te pasa nada"

Just got back from four grueling days of in-service training. Tuesday through Thursday we had lectures and workshops with our counterparts, and Thursday to Friday it was just TEFL 54 volunteers. I learned a lot, and am so excited to start the new semester fresh with all of the changes me and Tania are planning to make in our classes in terms of encouraging more participation (in English) and discipline, which is, to me, the biggest issue. Actually, there are lots of big issues. Like class always being cancelled for some assembly or meeting or random day off. Like paperwork for the Ministry of Education that takes priority over teaching a class. Anyways, I'm still excited to start implementing all of this stuff, and being MORE for my 2 counterparts (Tania and Mercedes), and for Cesar and for Jose Antonio and Ramiro and Gilberto and Absalom and all of the English teachers in Diriamba and Dolores. As well as for Michael and Carlos and Melvin and Tatiana and Daniela and Stefania and Stefania's little sister and Katherine and Guadalupe and Anyeli and Ayaris and Gioconda and Gabriela and Olga and Vladimir and Sergio and Belkis and Eduardo and Freddy and Yasmina and Martha Elisa and her little daughter for my awesome bosses and fellow volunteers and finally for the incoming TEFL 57 trainees! I have learned a lot this semester and I can't wait to improve myself.

Last Saturday I woke up with diarrhea followed an hour or two later by stomach pain so I did a stool test and discovered I had amoebas. I'm blaming the increase of flies in my kitchen and EVERYWHERE. I had to take one pill four times a day for three days, and another one three times a day for 10 days! For the amoeba BABIES! Yuck. I have just finished day four of the second kind. I really don't like pills. And I think these pills are messing with my stomach a bit too. There is always something. But I did sign up for Peace Corps and all that goes with it. Half of the people at in-service training were sick with parasites or bacteria or some gastro-intestinal issue.

I keep forgetting to take my camera everywhere.

"si es amor abrazame con ganas, si no lo es tal vez sera mañana"

I semi-recently posted about being bored, correct? And that nothing new and exciting was happening to me anymore? Well, I spoke too soon. Two weekends ago, I went to Niquinohomo on a Sunday morning. I was gonna stay the night, and leave the next morning for Managua. The bus from Niquinohomo passes right in front of the place I was supposed to go to, so I thought I might as well leave from there. Anyway, I am approaching my stop in Niqui, so I do the usual, stow away my ipod, get up, tell the cobrador (The person that collects the money on the bus and also shouts out to people telling them where the bus is going and also tells the bus drive when a passenger wants to get off) that I want to get off at 'tapiceria' and some time in between when I got up, was talking to the cobrador, and waiting for the stop, someone opened my backpack and took out my wallet and my ipod. Partly my fault, because I had both of those things, along with my phone, in the same very accessible pocket of my backpack, which I had on my back, not in my arms, forgetting everything the Peace Corps security officer has told us because I am getting too comfortable and too trusting, and bad things ONLY happen in Managua, right? Anyway, Neha of course, doesn't notice until about half an hour later and deep into an animated conversation with her host mom that that particular pocket of her backpack is open, and realizes that two critical things are missing. Freak out a bit, run back onto the street to see if maybe I dropped it, knowing that that was not the case but doing it anyway, and trudging back to my Niqui host family's house, call the bank to block my account, and send sad text messages to Luis. At this point I have no money, so I borrow 100 cords from my host mom (From now on I will refer to my Niquinohomo (training) host mom as Julissa) to survive for the next two days. Then I make Luis come with me to make a police report, which I need to ask Peace Corps for a reimbursement on the cash I happened to be carrying at the time, which was about 400 cords. Oh yeah, I also had a flash drive in my wallet. The second one I had bought here. And last weekend I just bought my third. =/. The rest of the day goes by normally, but feeling stupid. So I needed some official Niquinohomo Police stamp on the police report, but they didn't have it at the time (of course) and I didn't get it until Tuesday, when they decided they needed to interview Luis too. I had to make a bunch of annoying trips to Managua to get a new ID and to get my passport so I could get a new credit card and then to return the passport (because Peace Corps keeps our passports so that we can't run away). And I guess I have survived surprisingly well without my beloved ipod, but I'm gonna have to find some other ways to entertain myself on buses.
I have ANOTHER story about this past weekend, but I'll write about it later.
In regards to work, tomorrow begins the semester break, which is a week and a half. Not much of a break though, because 4 days of it is in-service training with my counterpart (the 12th till the 15th), and then I'm helping out at a girls' camp another volunteer is doing in San Marcos (another municipality of Carazo) and she wants me to do the HIV/AIDS part, so I gotta study up on that and come up with a fun way of talking about it. That is on the 18th and 19th, and school starts back up on 20th. I'm looking forward to it all though, mix things up a bit. And awaiting the motivational push that in-service training is going to give me.
I should really sleep now. Got a lot of work to do tomorrow.
Peace.

"Esta comida es de Neja y Luis, cuidado Concho se la come, ellos van a venir." - note from Luis' mom

All of the important people in my life think so differently from each other. How IS success measured, REALLY? Can anyone answer that?

"Noooo profeeee...yo soy un angelito"

Lately life here has been "normal" and sometimes, instead of making me feel at home I just feel bored. Usually I'm pretty okay, but sometimes I do have my low lows. Ultimately I know it's up to me to make more exciting things happen, which I am working on. Right now the funnest thing I do is play with a group of kids for an hour on Wednesday evenings, followed by an hour of a light-hearted English class. It's a group of about 10-12 of my high school students, but it's really nice to get to know some of them better. Michael, Melvin and Carlos are 7th graders who like attention and like fighting each other and are super entertaining sometimes but one of them is going to get kicked out soon because they do significantly disrupt the class for other people. Ayaris and Gabriela are good studious 10th grade girls who enjoy putting the aforementioned 3 boys in their place. Guadalupe and Daniela are girly 8th and 9th graders who may slightly enjoy being annoyed by and flirting with the boys. Gioconda and Anyeli are quiet and studious but can get super enthusiastic about a competitive game of soccer or basketball. Katherine is a super studious 7th grader who is one of those who participates TOO much in class. Those are all the regulars, there are others that come and go. My Tuesday and Thursday evening adult English class has probably about 7 regulars, but I'm totally okay with that. Olga comes with her teenage son, Vladimir, and they are both hilarious and good at English. Actually everyone has a pretty good level of English in this class. Eduardo and Freddy are recent college graduates, and I think Eduardo likes Yasmina, who is another student, whose English isn't quite so good but she's very enthusiastic. Sergio is a nice tall thin man who always comes a little late on his bike because he's coming from work. That's pretty much it. A few other people stopped coming, which sucks. Oh yeah, Martha Elisa is an old lady whose daughter is in my 11th grade class, but she doesn't come regularly. I wish more old people came. I'm too lazy to describe all the kids in my kids class (not that they aren't worth it). I will have to take pictures of all these people.
Lately I have really been missing food! Fake meat! Veggie burgers! Broccoli and brussel sprouts and subway! =/ Nothing satisfies me. Also I could be starving and not want to eat unless it's something exceptional. So today I splurged on KRAFT AMERICAN CHEESE SLICES at the fancy supermarket in Jinotepe, I'm still looking for cheddar. And next time I'm in Managua I will spend whatever it takes on some frozen veggie chicken nuggets or something if they exist there.
I've also been missing friends and family and HOME. Family barbecues. Fireplaces. Wine. December is really far away. I want to watch Glee on Hulu but it doesn't stream internationally. So I guess I would like Glee Season 2 on DVD ASAP. And The Office. I've seen seasons 1-6, with a few missing episodes. Oh! I just finished the first season of Avatar, the Nickelodeon series, I dunno how many seasons there are but I would love to see the rest!

I´m hungry...

So I´m sitting at school, just finished planning with Mercedes, got some time to kill before my class with Tania, a little tired because I´ve been having sleeping issues becauseof noise and randomly waking up in the middle of the night for no reason. Also, I think I need to just be on Zyrtec for the rest of my time here. And I bought some delicious fruit to feed myself for breakfasts, but I have no desire to eat when it´s 6:30 in the morning. But right now, at 8, I am a bit ravenous. Things are getting a bit better because I took one day off of one of my classes, things would be great if I could sleep well. But I actually have free time now. I actually get BORED now. Which is kind of nice, for now. My phone broke because I kept dropping in, and the guy in Dolores who fixes cell phones and video games tried to fix it but I ended up just buying a new one. I´m also gonna give him my laptop, which has been pretty slow for years, but I never installed a REAL antivirus program that I had to pay for on, just the free ones that you can download which he says apparently don´t really protect you at all. Also, the enter key on my laptop broke, which I will see if he can fix for an additional fee. He probably thinks I´m a rich irresponsible American who doesn´t care about my things. Oh well. But it might be a good thing if my computer falls apart (it´s like 6 years old) because I have been wasting a ton of time on facebook and the internet and watching The Office and thinking about starting to watch Glee now that I have internet access in my house. I could be spending that time reading and studying and improving myself and my projects. Oh yeah, this weekend I am going all the way up to Quilali to visit Julie! It´ll be a good 8 hour bus ride, but there is no school on Monday because of Mother´s day here. I´m going with Sam, and apparently a few other volunteers are gonna be there too. I am probably the farthest one away though. I´m glad I´m finally gonna see other parts of Nicaragua. I´m going to observe a class of Gilberto, one of the San Gregorio teachers, today, so that should be interesting. Also, Luis recently joined what appears to be some kind of boyband, but I´ll have to see him perform to explain exactly what it is. It involves singing and dancing at parties and stuff. I´m going to laugh at him when I see him, which might be horrible of me, but I can´t wait to see it, haha. I´ll try to post a video. K I should go now. Byebye. Also please add me on Skype, I prefer that kind of talking to gchatting these days...

Es que tengo pena....

What do I have here that makes me happy? My host mom. My landlady's mom. Michael and Katherine and Tatiana and Carol from my Wednesday community class. Emmanuel and Rosita and Larix and Roger and pretty much everyone from my Saturday kiddy class. My little pink rose plant that Luis gave me. A group of boys that are entertaining without being disrespectful in my 10th grade B class. Mangoes. Luis. Random kids in my classes whose names I don't know. Megan (a nearby volunteer) cooking me delicious non-Nicaraguan food, and giving me wine, haha. Doky and Pelusa (my host family's dogs). Legit corn tortillas. A video I recently posted on facebook. Training friends. The people that are too nice for words. When students legitimitally understand what I am trying to teach and prove it.

...not necessarily in that order.

What do I have here that make me sad, angry, stressed, and frustrated? People who are too shitty for words. Feeling inadequate at my work. Feeling tired all the time. Being too busy to teach myself how to cook and to exercise. A bad day in class where I speak too much Spanish and the students don't listen to me but listen to Tania. Luis, sometimes. A bad day in class where I get flustered because I'm not quite sure about somethign I'm trying to teach. Weight gain. Feeling like Tania thinks I'm useless. Feeling like this planning and teaching thing is harder for me than it is for anyone else.

...not necessarily in that order.

Pictures of my new place...

Bathroom! The trashcan is clean, and full of water, so I can bathe myself and flush the toilet when there is no running water...

Bathroom...very, very nice for Nicaragua...

My work supplies and other things...

My bed and clothes...

My living room slash kitchen!

My water and my dishes and my baby fridge...

My stove and food storage place...and clothes rack...

"Nadie aqui tiene la razon."

- Stuff with Tania is going pretty well, getting better slowly in terms of my confidence and focus. Things with Mercedes are kind of falling by the wayside, I probably only teach 1 hour with her a week out of 3. There is so much to think of at one time. Lesson planning structure, inclusion of communicative activities, decreasing the use of Spanish in class, and figuring out ways to make sure the students get it. Doing this with both people. I'll stop going on about this. They are both great.
- Adult community class is great as always, a group of about 8 people that are sincerely interested and come regularly. Teenager community class is falling apart, I might end it. Kids' community class is also going great, there are some especially cute ones. One is named Emmanual, I'll post a picture of him. Another is Juan. And this little teeny tiny one named Alejandra. Did I ever mention we have a class mascot? It's this little toy animal thing named Paco, each week a kid takes it home to take care of it. They go crazy, it's really funny and cute.
- San Gregorio guys are off and on. But they're cool. Working with them isn't too stressful.
- Miscellaneous Peace Corps work: There is going to be a workshop/training next Friday for the English teachers in Diriamba and Dolores that me and Megan are leading, so that's gonna be scary, and more work, but kind of exciting.
- My social life is getting better. I've made quite a few English-speaking friends. I don't have that much time to go out and hang out, probably because I spend most of my weekend time with Luis in Niquinohomo or on a day trip somewhere, but it's nice to have people to speak English with. My host mom legitimately treats me like her own kid, which is pretty nice, for example she insists on still feeding me and doing some of my laundry even after I've moved out. Yes, I have moved out! And I get wireless internet here! Which I pay for, of course. It's this big long room which I am going to divide in two, with it's own bathroom, and I share a backyard with the owners of the house, but the place has it's own street entrance. So these past two weeks have been pretty overwhelming having to buy a shitload of stuff (like a fridge and a stove and a gas tank and furniture) and there is still a bunch of stuff left to buy like pots and utensils and a shelf and a mirror and maybe some chairs. But it's really nice to have the luxury of sitting on my bed late on a Friday night with internet access.
- The next time I post, I need to describe in more detail the people in my life. I also need to write about my mom's visit 3 weeks ago! And pictures will be appearing on facebook soon from the visit and of my new place. Once I finish putting it together nicely.
This will be all for now. Good night.

"yo yego alas 5:00 pork voy acer el amor con mi mujer" - text fomr luis` friend accidentally sent to me instead of him...

Long overdue post time. I had my site visit. It was super helpful, but also a little bit overwhelming again because there are still so many things I need to improve on. The same frustrations existing. I am really hoping that the two night community classes can be combined after this test I´m giving this week. The kids class will probably just go until October, and I think I wanna turn it into or start a kiddie youth group. A teenager youth group will probably be more useful though. Something needs to end so I can have time to exercise and re-study my training notes. I´m one of those that needs to re-study. Anyways, trying to do my taxes online got really frustrating, so I handed all my info over to my dad to give to his accountant. My birthday was busy but nice. Mercedes remembered, a few students remembered, and Luis remembered, and I got a little surprise serenade at lunch time =).
Lately only one person, Gilberto, has been showing up to San Gregorio meetings, hopefully everyone comes next Friday, even though I´m gonna be seriously distracted because immediately after I´M GOING TO PICK UP MY MOMMY FROM THE AIRPORT!! I haven´t made too many plans, I just really want her to meet everybody, even though communicatoin is going to be difficult. And we´re gonna have some fachenta time in Granada, which I am excited for, because I will get to take some hot showers hopefully. And she will get to meet Julie and maybe even Sam!
One of my 9th grade students added me on facebook.

This has been a shitty week and it´s only Tuesday.

"how are you neha? I just passed an [...] called momentos diferentes, it made me think of your funny story [...]"

I completely forgot to post on Saturday. So my boss didn't end up coming last week because Tania's son got into a little accident and had to get a bunch of stitches so she wanted to stay at home and take care of him. Hopefully she'll come this week, I am very eager to know how I'm doing and where I stand. Ummm...there really isn't much new stuff going on. I've relaxed a bit, getting into my routine, so that's good. The San Gregorio guys have become even more flaky. The huge community classes are shrinking into the people that are going to actually try and stay for good. I still want to start a youth group for doing non English related things. I've fallen in love with the TV show Scrubs, but I only had access to the second season. I've gotten seasons one through six of The Office so I'm working on those. Also started watching Sex and the City. Next will be It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Although I should be doing more READING in my free time. Really...I guess that's all for now...

"Muchas gracias querida profesora que la pase bien."

I have become so bad at keeping my blog updated. I can´t let myself forget things that happen. So let´s try to remember the last week and a half. Umm...one of the San Gregorio teachers has yet to show up to one of our meetings, and one of them has only come once. I think I may switch that back to only once a week again, if he continues to flake, because he is the one I made so many of the changes for. Last weekend I went to Niquinohomo on Friday night to see Luis perform, but, as usual, it didn´t happen for some reason or other. Then I came back on Saturday just for my kids´ class, then went back to Niquinohomo on Sunday. This past week the people that didn´t make it to an advanced Spanish level during training went back to their training towns for a week of Spanish class. I was looking forward to seeing my friends from training but Peace Corps put me in Dolores for the Spanish classes (because Dolores is a training town, and there were people coming back here for Spanish classes anyways, so they thought it better not to move me). So I went to Niquinohomo on Sunday to see Sam and Julie and Matt, and I stayed the night with Julie and got a 6am bus back to Dolores for Spanish class at 8. I went again to hang out on Wednesday night and came back again Thursday morning. It was fun. This week of Spanish class has been very helpful, too. Yesterday a big group of volunteers went to La Dalia, Matagalpa (Sam´s site) for a his house party, and I was supposed to go but I got myself a bacterial infection (i.e. diarrhea and stomach pains) so I´m here in Dolores with all of my classes cancelled getting some much-needed rest and relaxation. I plan to wander the streets today looking for houses for rent/sale. If I feel like walking. High school classes are going okay, it still seems chaotic at times, like me and Tania should be spending more time planning, but planning sessions are so draining, so it`s hard to get myself to do it. When I´m alone and can think clearly and I make a list of things to discuss and resolve the next time I see her, when I finally get there it just seems too hard. In terms of other community classes, I´m starting to get used to the high quantity of students, which I think was initially the most overwhelming part, now I just need to find time where I´m not exhausted to lesson plan well. In terms of health, there is always something, whether big or tiny, to think about. And I have the feeling the doctors think I´m a hypochondriac because I ask too many stupic questions so now every time I´m about to call I hesitate. So does anyone know of any good websites with medical information where I can go and not scare myself into thinking I have some horrible disease? The health trainees in Dolores all got their site assignments so they´re all giddy and excited with like two weeks of training left for them. I need to hang out with them some time before they go. Maybe tonight. Or next weekend when I´m not on antibiotics and can have a beer or two. Another thing is that I really need to make some good, solid friends here in Dolores. I have Luis, and his friends, but those are all in Niquinohomo. When I get my own house I want to throw a little party and work on this situation. I also need to file and pay my taxes, which I´m really not sure how to do, and will need to spend a long time reading about on the internet (probably tomorrow if I can get myself to stop procrastinating) in order to complete. I wish there was a way I could find free internet...
Anyway, I hope everyone is doing well, with life and love and work and school and family and friends and health. I hope to return with another comprehensive blog post next Saturday afternoon.
Love,
Neha

"I think he needs to forget about his parents..."

Have I explained exactly what it is I´m doing here? If you´re still unsure, here´s a summary: My main job is to work with highschool English teachers in my community to co-plan and co-teach their classes, promoting the use of communicative activities (in which students are genuinely communicating with each other to complete the assignment or task, not just memorizing words and dialogues and filling in blanks etc, although that stuff does also have it`s place in learning), and reducing the amount of time the teacher talks and increasing the amount of time the students talk. Part of my specific assignment in Dolores was also to work with a group of teachers from a rural part of Diriamba, and help them with whatever their needs or wants were in terms of help with teaching English. In addition, I`m supposed to have community English classes, work with youth talking about life skills and health and sex and AIDS and stuff, and complete some kind of community project THAT MOSTLY COMMUNITY MEMBERS ARE IN CHARGE OF that doesn´t necessarily have to do with English. So here is my schedule at the moment: weekday mornings, 3-4 periods a day I teach English with Tania to all of the 9th graders, 10th graders, and 11th graders, and with Mercedes to one classroom of 7th graders. Monday and Tuesday afternoons I plan with Tania and Mercedes. Tuesday and Thursday evening from 5:30-7 I have a community English class for people 13 and up, which is increasing in size so I may divide it by age and therefore will have this class every day Monday through Thursday. I`ve also mentioned that they can stay till 7:30 if they want extra help. Thursday and Friday afternoons I meet with the rural teachers (2 on Thursday, 2 on Friday), Thursday in Diriamba, and Friday all the way in the rural village (called San Gregorio). I had to split them up because their schedules are all over the place and they literally all couldn´t meet at the same time. Saturdays from 2-3:30 I have a class for kids from 8-12 years of age, which I had started a while ago, but stupidly began re-publicizing recently, so now there is a bunch of new students, and I`ve decided that the new people can come an hour early, at 1, for a few weeks, to catch up with the rest. I should really sit down one day and think about how I´m gonna make all of these things sustainable, maybe some older students could start teaching the kids` class? But who´s gonna do it for free? Maybe for cheap? Anyways, that basically only leaves Wednesday afternoons free, so Luis usually comes to visit then, and I go to Niquinohomo for the day on Sundays.
One day, about a month ago, my host sister secretly asked me to lend her 200 cordobas. To put that in perspective, it`s about 10 bucks. A little less. So I talked to her about it, and she said she needed it for her daughters` school supplies. I said "sure, when are you going to pay me back?" And she said, " this weekend" and I was like, okay, cool, and I gave her the money. Please don´t scold me for lending money. It`s my Peace Corps money and it was less than 10 bucks and it was for Karelia and Karelis. Even if she never pays me back I will see it as a Christmas present to them. Anyways, the weekend comes, and she´s liked "Neha, I can´t pay you back yet" and started talking about how some guy owes her money and what not. At this point I`m getting a little annoyed and suspicious, but whatevs. A few weeks later, she gets super sick, something with her kidneys, goes to the hospital has to have all these expensive tests and medicine and stuff, so SHE comes to ME, and brings up the subject on her own. (What I´m trying to emphasize here is that she isn´t trying to avoid me in order to never pay be back) and she´s like "please don´t think I´ve forgotten about your money". And she explained the situation, and I was just like "it`s okay, you can pay me back whenever you can". A few days ago, she brought it up again, and was like "I`m going to pay you back soon. I know Peace Corps doesn`t give you guys a lot of money" but then proceeded to tell me about how she had to sell some of her rings to pay for lunch today. Oh I forgot to mention about how she is considering moving to Costa Rica to work as a maid for one of her friends who married a Costa Rican and is super rich and that is the best way to save money because there is no work available in Nicaragua. Really. And she would just send money back for her kids every once in a while, maybe see them once a month. So she still hasn´t paid me back, but I´m not worried because I know she will pay me back (and I also know that some of you are thinking she probably won´t pay me back). But really, she had to sell her rings to pay for lunch today. I know my parents and my aunts and my uncles and grandparents are probably all thinking "I could tell you tons of stories like this about people in India, why didn´t you ever care to know about them?" Well, sorry. Anyways, here is more.
Luis hasn´t enrolled in school this quarter (which began in February) because he couldn´t pay. So his friend lent him a bunch of money, to pay for it, and a little extra to start a small business. His grandma sells food from her house, so he was going to start selling beer from the same place. Everyone convinced him it was a good idea, that it would go well because there are lots of drunkards in Niquinohomo and whatnot, and I`ll admit I thought it would go well too. Well anyway, his friend lent him the money, (which he needed because his dad lives in Managua with his second wife and 2 other kids and couldnt pay for Luis` school because he`s taking care of his other family) but then his mom said she really needed to pay for something so he gave some to her. So he didn´t enroll in Feb. But he started trying to start up the business and is STILL waiting for the police to come check out the location and give him a licence. Anyway, in March, he hears that most of the people in his major were unable to pay in Feb, so the school decided to start their quarter later, in March, so Luis was excited, because it was understood that his mom would be getting paid in Feb for the months of Feb and Jan, so he would (should) have been able to pay then. But NOW, his mom is paying for his little sister`s education (his little sister who has a kid) and he`s not going to ask her to pay for his instead. He has been trying to sell his violin but no one wants to buy it.
There are still Tania and my host mom`s stories to tell, but I gotta do that later.

"...no sabes cuanto..."

I need to write about recent doses of perspective that I`ve received, but I don´t have time at the moment. Maybe tomorrow.

"Si no es una cosa, es otra."

So now, in the cyber with the good music, THEY PLAY BOLLYWOOD. LOL. Crazy. I don´t really know where to begin updating. I met for the first time with the San Gregorio teachers last Friday, and today for the second time. There are 5 but only 3 are really serious and gonna come regularly. They are Gilberto, Jose Antonio, and Absalom. Today we met in San Gregorio, which is 2 bus rides, about 40 minutes, away. We alternate each week between there and Diriamba, which is 10 minutes away from me. I´m also now working with the other English teacher in my school, Mercedes, but she only teaches 7th grade, so that´s not much extra work. I haven´t been searching very hard for a house, but I should start. I am gonna try changing my malaria pills to see if it improves my hair loss problem. I also have a skin situation on my arms that the doctor said was nothing but it has spread so I´m gonna ask again. There are also a bit of constipation issues. In case you wanted all of my health deets. I have been having some strange abdominal pain for the past week, not severe, just strange, and some lower back pain, which I think is from spending a lot of time standing (in class) and reaching up high to write in the board. In other news, Luis is kind of officially turning into a rockstar. He signed some contract to perform in the artisan market in Masaya, so we´ll see how that goes. There have also been some modeling offers, and talk of going to some kind of music school that doesn´t cost a lot of money apparently. Did you know that there is some Mexican remake of High School Musical? It´s pretty much the same, except they play soccer instead of basketball. I was just watching it with my nieces. Oh, one of the cybers (not this one) has wireless internet, which is pretty exciting. I just told the guy working in this cyber about it, I still plan to remain loyal to him, he is the nicest cyber owner. My sister is moving to West Virginia, and my mom is in India, and my dad is in Cali and I am in Nicaragua. School has been pretty good, mainly trying out amazing activity ideas that fail because there are too many students in the classrooms. The class size ranges from 30 to 55. Still being a bit intimidated by Tania at times. I keep on finding students, and people in general, that remind me of people back home. Mostly friends. My schedule is falling into place, and I really want to start a youth group in addition to everything else. I got the mayor to pay for an announcement about my English classes that I´m starting on Tuesday. Hopefully not a ridiculously overwhelming amount of people show up, but a good amount. Today`s heat has drained all of the energy out of me. I´m gonna go now, byebye.

There are three internet cafes in Dolores. Two of them suck, but have printing. The third one, which is the best, is called Cyber Space, and the owners speak really good English, and the internet is fast, and they always have good, cool, hip English music playing. Sometimes you can hear them singing along (from inside their house which is connected to the cyber).

"¿Como sabes...?"

My body is freaking out on me a bit. I`m losing hair, I`m having sleeping issues where I wake up in the middle of the night for no reason and then have fitful sleep the rest of the night and wake up tired, but it seems like it`s fading right now. People are telling me it`s because of "nervios", or stress, but who knows. I`m also having allergy issues, which really aren`t that bad, but I`m on Zyrtec and Nasonex. And since I`m apparently on a rant about my health issues, let me just give you all all the details. I`ve had these wierd brown spots on the whites of my eyes for the past 3 or 4 years, and I never thought much of them at all, until this past June when my sister just noticed them for the first time on a drive home from Vegas, so I figured maybe they had grown or gotten darker or something. Most people don`t notice them at all. Anyways, she scared me, so I started looking stuff up on the internet, and ended up scaring myself some more reading stuff about cancer, and resolved to finally ask a doctor about it, and to save looking up health stuff on the internet as a last resort. Well, by this point, I had already sent in all of my medical information to Peace Corps, so of course I was afraid to make a doctor`s appointment because I was under strict orders to tell Peace Corps anything and everything about my health and I didn`t want some brown spots on my eyes to make them paranoid and decide I wasn`t ready to leave when I was supposed to leave. Anyway, I asked a doctor and he said it was fine and it was nothing, just pigmentation, which is exactly what I wanted to hear, and I was slightly relieved, but then he said "but, if you want, you could see an ophthalmologost" and of course I said "Oh no, if you think it`s nothing then I`m sure it`s fine". This whole situation still left some doubt, but, I have friends that will tell you I`m a bit of a hypochondriac, and during the beginning of Peace Corps training I was....ok I really don`t wanna tell this whole story. Anyway I finally saw an ophthalmologist here and he said everything was fine and that I don`t have cancer in my eye. I have conjunctival melanosis, which basically translates to brown spots on your conjunctiva. LOL.

I bought my first birthday present for a boyfriend today. That was nervewracking, as buying presents always is for me, which is why I prefer to make things.

School stuff started up this past week in the form of registration, which basically means wasting time talking to other teachers and not attending really to the students or their parents that come to enroll, OR meetings that end in shouting matches between the principal and the teachers. It`s probably very immature of me to post that here, or maybe not. Next week there are workshops for teachers organized by MINED (Minesterio de Educacion) and my counterpart says they are boring and stuff, but I`m gonna go because I should becausemy counterpart is required to and I need to hang out with her and talk about planning and school as much as possible while she isn`t at home tending to her kids. There is so much inefficiency throughout all of this but it isn`t my job to change how things are run, my job is to help English teachers in Nicaragua, especially the ones who genuinely ask for it.

A new group of Health trainees just got here three weeks ago, and since most of the towns in Masaya and Carazo are training towns, (including Dolores) there are 4 Health trainees in Dolores at the moment, which I am really excited about because I want to learn things from them and then teach those things to other people. This week they`re giving talks in the Health center about exercise and dental hygiene and other very necessary things. I`ve only met two of them that are here in Dolores, and 3 that are in Niquinohomo.

I have a lot of paperwork to fill out before February 15th, as well as planning first lessons and classroom routines and outlining rules and goals and all that teacher prep stuff that I have never done before in my life. There is also a birthday and Valentine`s day, and all of these teacher workshops next week, as well as my kids` English class. Again, my Spanish probably hasn`t improved as much as it should have, and I haven`t done all of the technical reading I told myself I would do, but I am just getting into this book called Blood of Brothers by an American journalist named Stephen Kinzer, which is all about the Sandinista revolution and civil (contra) war in Nicaragua. I had no idea what a Sandinista was when I got on the plane to Nicaragua, but it is a very significant word here, and I should probably make a brief post about Nicaraguan political history at some point. But I will say now that the Sandinista president, Daniel Ortega, is in the process of ammending the Nicaraguan constitution so that he can be legally re-elected this November, because the current constitution prohibits it in multiple ways. I am a little nervous some shit`s gonna go down come November, or even sooner. Nobody thinks it`s going to be serious and bloody or anything, but protests and stuff will definitely happen.

I should go now because I`ve been here for an hour and 15 minutes which is more than what I usually allow myself, and like I said, I got work to do, but I`m probably just gonna go back and read my book instead.

Peace.  

Pictures of Dolores

I know my sister posted some pictures on facebook, and I will probably post these on facebook, but I wanted to post some here too!

In the green is Karellys(10), in the jeans and plaid is Mallerly(5), in the orange is Karellya(10), and in the yellow is Naomi(6 months). Karellys, Karellya, and Mallerly are my host sister, Janet`s, kids, and Naomi is my host brother, Raul`s, third kid.


This is Franco, Raul`s second kid, in the car on the way to the beach on Christmas day, eating some chocolate-covered marshmallow thing.


This is my host mom, Isolina, at the beach. My sister has posted much nicer pictures of her, though.


This is my room, from the doorway.


This is the lavandero, which is like the bathroom sink, the kitchen sink, and the laundry area.


This is the kitchen.


This is the living room.


This is my host dad, Francisco, with Naomi, in the living room.

I really never know what to write here anymore. Tuesday and Thursday English classes are over, school starts February 15th. I was supposed to be reaching out to some teachers in a rural area of Diriamba, called San Gregorio, to work with them during the school year, but I had planned to meet them today at TEPCE, which is a monthly teacher meeting to reflect and make basic plans for the following month, but there was no TEPCE today, probably because the school schedule got moved around and now school is starting later, so now I have to figure out how I`m gonna do that before Peace Corps thinks I`m a slacker. My sister brought me some dried mangoes from the states and they are delicious and are not gonna last very long. I have appreciated all of the food that has been sent to me, but I think I`m good now, and won`t be needing anymore. =) In terms of health, I just have allergy issues, but I`m handling it. I`ve also been losing a lot of hair, which could be stress but could also be the malaria pills I`m on, so I might have to change those, which I wouldn`t mind because they are the most disgusting pills I`ve ever taken. I`ll probably get a blood text next week to make sure I`m not deficient in anything or something. And my host mom has recommended a shampoo that worked for her but I`m afraid it just might be something for old people hair loss, not this kind of hair loss. Ummm...I need to actively start looking for another place to live that is just as ideal as the one I wanted. Oh yeah, I had dinner with my would-be neighbors, a young couple, and that was nice. We`re going out for pizza in Diriamba (which apparently has delicious pizza) next Sunday night. Alex (my host nephew) is in love with some girl from Rio San Juan, which is a long bus and boat ride away, and he spends hours on the phone with her and texting, and it`s really entertaining making fun of him; and we bond over our relationship problems (if and when we have them). My sister`s family got another really cute puppy, and named it...Pelusa, and now they just ignore the ugly one, Doky, who is not as cute but I still love him even though he is necio (naughty). Oh yeah, and 80 percent of the pets I know are named Pelusa, which just means like, furry, or fuzzy, like it`s like everyone in the states named their pet...Shaggy or Furball or something. There are some videos and pictures that I want to upload to facebook but every time I come to the cyber I remember that I want to upload them too late, and decide I don`t want to pay for more than an hour of internet time and that I`ll do it the next time. My sister also brought me a few office DVDs, and I`m halfway through them already. Actually, yeah, what I do want is TV shows, I would LOVE TV shows, or movies, but mostly TV shows because they last longer. Glee maybe, I would say Lost but people have told me if I watch those I won`t get ANY work done. More Office. Ummm, I`ve heard of this show called The Wire, which is supposed to be really really good but I know nothing about it.

So my sister visited me for the weekend and Luis gave her a present. As did my host mom. Ummm...I got to eat quite a bit of non Nicaraguan food in the form of sandwiches and got some delicious cheez its. I also got to go to the movies. But right now there are too many people to talk to online so I`m gonna go.

Incidences.

The other day in this cyber cafe (the one that I am in, the best one in the Dolores, the best one I have been to in Nicaragua) I met this guy named Paul who is from Canada and he is an industrial engineer (or something) and he told me how he has a bunch of Indian friends and has been to India and has been to a garba in India, and was like "It`s funny, I`ve been all over the world, and I met my wife in Pali." (Pali is a supermarket chain in Nicaragua). Anyways he got married and has been living here for 7 years. He`s a little older, and he was interesting.
There is this place called El Mirador, and it`s just like this pretty lookout over the Laguna de Apoyo, and it is in Catarina which is a town right next to Niquinohomo, anyways, the other day I went there and got a little private concert from Luis and his friend, which was really really nice, I have videos I`ll put them up as soon as I can. He plays the violin and the guitar and sings; it`s all pretty dreamy, I know.
My sister is coming to visit tomorrow!! That`ll be fun and nice with awkward meetings with all of the people in my life.

So the house got rented to someone else, but it`s okay.
The first two university student classes went well, the last one is on the 29th.
I`m just tired and overwhelmed at the moment but that doesn`t mean im not happy.

Life Update

I haven`t included nearly as many details in this blog as I did in my Costa Rica one. It doesn`t really compare, because there is so much more (yet so much less) happening and so many more feelings and joys and frustrations, but I`m hoping this post will be thorough.

Work: In 10 weeks of Peace Corps training I learned about using communicative activities to teach English as a foreign language. The idea of speaking ONLY English in an EFL classroom was drilled into my head. I learned about using I do, We do, You do, in lesson planning, along with some other formats. I learned that class sizes range from 30 to 60 students, and there are virtually no resources except my brain and my creativity. I learned that I am not nervous standing in front of a classroom full of teenagers, but that I am VERY slow at lesson planning and it is HARD. I still have a long way to go before I feel really confident in my ability to successfully teach English as a foreign language according to the high standards set by my bosses. I`ve started these community classes here in Dolores, and they are going okay. I speak far more Spanish than I should, but that is going to change. Today. It started off with just everyone being invited, Tuesdays and Thursdays for an hour and a half, but then I realized that there was such a wide range of abilities that I needed to make two classes. So I did, and Tuesday was more basic, and Thursday was more advanced. People ended up just coming to both anyways. But I still teach more difficult stuff on Thursdays than on Tuesdays. THEN, I thought I would make it even more easier on myself and make the division between the classes easier by making a kids`class, for people 12 and under (because Nicaraguan youth don`t start learning English till 7th grade, so that would mean all of the students in the kids` class would HAVE to be at the same level because none of them had taken ANY English yet. Boy was I wrong). But things are getting better and I`m learning but I have gotten lazy in terms of the using-no-Spanish-at-all rule. My counterpart, Tania, has worked with 5 sets of Peace Corps TEFL trainees, because Dolores is a training town. So she has TRAINED people like me. And she already knows all of the things I learn and do and am supposed to be teaching and sharing with HER, because other trainees have practiced with her. But she really wanted a full-time TEFL counterpart, so here I am. I feel so unqualified to be her counterpart, because not only does she have more experience working with Peace Corps than I do, but she has more general teaching experience than I do. Basically there are very high expectations of me here, and I`ve realized that that is necessary for me, to keep me on my toes and constantly trying to improve.

"Home" life: My host family is awesome. I feel more comfortable with them already than I did with my training host family after 10 weeks of training. Probably because I spend more time with them and I`m not running around doing training stuff. My host mom lets me help her in the kitchen, and has made me a bunch of clothes. I ask her for advice about how certain things I might do might be viewed in Nicaragua, and sometimes she tells me bits of local gossip. They have said I could live with them for the entire two years, but I am eager to cook for myself and have privacy to do things my way without having people look at me funny. UGH, and now the shitty part, I found the perfect house, but now the security officer can`t come for a long time to check it out, and people are always looking for places to live, so they are going to find someone else who wants that house pretty soon, and I can`t promise landlords anything to make them hold the house for me (or maybe I should just lie) without Peace Corp`s approval, so I`m pretty sure I`m gonna lose that house and I`m SO bummed and frustrated. And I met my potential neighbors last night and they are SO cool and it would be SO nice to live there, I know I won`t find anything better or more affordable. I don`t know when I`m gonna get over this.

Emotional health: Stress about housing, stress about my abilities, stress about my relationship with my counterpart (because I know if I felt more comfortable and less intimidated by her we could be better friends, but I can`t help but feel like I need to act super professional and prove myself to her, and I know she wants to be better friends), a little bit of stress about my health and weight gain, stress about how much time I should or should not be spending with a significant other outside of my site, stress about money (but not much). This is the state right now, but a few weeks ago I was genuinely happy and comfortable and content, and I`m hoping those feelings will come back again. If the house situation ends up being in my favor, I`m sure everything will be good again.

Social life: I`m becoming pretty good friends with my counterpart`s younger sister, Ana Luisa. I`m also becoming better friends with my host nephew, Alex, who is 19. That`s about it. And I guess this is a good time as any to announce that I`ve found myself a Nicaraguan boyfriend, Luis, and I see him twice a week. I`ll write more about him some other time. Other than that my host mom, Isolina, will take me with her to random social events. I`ve met a lot of people through English class, so that`s good. No good, solid friends yet, but I´m not worried.

Keeping in touch with people back home: I`m starting to miss people and interactions from back home more now than places and food like I did initially. I`m not really sad or anything, but I do feel out of touch and want more emails and updates! I will post some more pictures on facebook soon too, I`m gonna start getting better at that.

Next week there is some in-service training, so I`ll get to see all my friends from training for a few days, that`ll be nice I think, If I remember not to be stressed out about my housing situation.

Over the past few days I`ve been wondering if I really should have waited and taken a position doing health education, even if I wouldn`t have left already. Becuase it is so necessary in Nicaragua, its almost ridiculous how much people don`t know about nutrition. But in Nicaragua, the health volunteers mostly talk about HIVAIDS and prenatal health and I don`t know how qualified I am to lead conversations about sex and AIDS and make Nicaraguans feel comfortable talking about it when I don`t even know how comfortable I am talking about it.
But then when I`m motivated I`m pretty much happy.

"Tienes un espejo en tus pantalones? Porque puedo verme en los." - Anonymous

That title is a little risky in case a student or my counterpart see it, but I don´t think they will. This week I had my first kids´ class and it was kind of a failure; hopefully more people come next time. On the 30th, the environmental education volunteers that trained in Dolores (the same time TEFL volunteers had training, they came in with us) came back, including the guy that lived in my host family`s house, so I hung out with them, had some beers, shared some of my Trader Joe`s goodies, it was nice. Also the lights went out for longer than they ever have before, right after we removed the largest spider and cockroach I`ve ever seen (not in a cage) from our house. On the 31st I went to Niquinohomo, hung out with my host family, visited with Andrea, Sam, Julie and Matt, and partied with my host family, and said people came to party as well, in addition to Jane, the small business development volunteer who lived with my family during her training, and her Nicaraguan boyfriend. In Nicaragua, New Year`s parties don`t really start until midnight. I didn`t know that until this day. That was fun. Sunday was an adventure. Today there were goodbyes but I`m gonna see these people again in a week for counterpart day and in-service training that we have next week. I`m stressed about my four classes this week, but I`m excited for a concert that I`m going to on Saturday. I felt more close to my Niquinohomo host family than I ever have this weekend when my host mom played with my hair extensively. K my internet time is almost up. Peace.