Sadly, I don't have amazing stories to tell you all about the tubing trip. My friends told me it was great- unfortunatley I was up the enitre night before with diarrhea and didn't get to go. But here´s a picture of what I missed. Thank God it looks totally terrible. Sike (psych?)




A couple pieces of good news- the high school got internet this week, which means FREE INTERNET!! Apparently they have had it before and then lost it and now it´s back, so hopefully it stays. We'll see what this does to my productivity, Lord knows I can waste time on the internet. The other news is that I started on yesterday giving nutrition consults at the health center. I'm just gonna start out doing it once a week and see how it goes. This week I didn't see any patients at all, but I think with a little more time the staff will remember I'm there and start sending people to me. I just spent the time working on this project I started, to make a reference book of all the foods common here and what they contain, what they're good for, etc. Then I can leave it here for the Health center or other volunteers.

I went to a couple outings with the health center last week to some really far out communties to do baby weighing sessions. THere is a national program called Programa Comunitaria de Salud y Nutricion (PROCOSAN- Nicaragua loves using anagrams(?), but it's not neccessarily the first letter of a word that's used, might be the first syllable of one word, one letter from another word) that facilitates monthly weighing of babies 2 and under to track their weight/health. It's a good program and we didn't see any underweight babies, which surprised me. we saw a couple who had lost weight, but were still within an acceptable weight range. Here's a picture that pretty much captures the general reaction of all babies being weighed.




I went running last week for the first time in Yali. I feel great having done it, but I thought I was gonna die during. Hills are hard! And Yali is located in a narrow little valley so there's really no way to avoid them. I went on Friday with Owen and for awhile there was this man on a bike kinda riding along beside us. On one of the particularly terrible hills, he started saying to me " You're not gonna make it are you, you don't want to do this do you?" and to owen "she's not gonna make it" until Owen had to tell him to get lost b/c at that point I had lost my abilty to speak, or just couldn't spare the breath. But I felt great when it was all over and went again on Sunday by myself. If I can keep convincing myself that the last time wasnt that bad, I'll keep going.

Alright it's Nica Time. I don't think I have talked yet about the Como No phenonmenon. It's this--Nicaraguans like to form questions in the negative. Whereas we would ask "DO you want want coffee" " Do you want to go to such and such", etc. Nicaraguans will ask "You don't want coffee", or "you're not going to go tomorrow" even if there's no evidence to the contrary and it's all so you can answer with Como No. There might be sign on a store that says SE VENDEN Posiciles, (Popsicles are sold) but people will come up and ask "NO hay posicles", and the reply is "Como No" (enthusiastically). It's a service they do each other I think, form the questions in the negative so the other person will have the pleasure of saying ¿como no?, and it'll come around to them again at some point. It's like paying it foward. But it really confused me at first, because I thought people were trying to discourage me from doing whatever it is they were asking. Like "You don't want to go, do you?"

On a more somber note, yesterday there was a suicide in Yali, which makes the third one in the month and a half that I've been here. They've all been young men that hung themselves. I'm pretty sure that alcohol was involved in all of the deaths, which is definitley something that needs to be adressed here. Alcoholism and suicide, both. (I wrote that yesterday and today they announced that we having a "March for Life" tomorrow to raise awareness about the alcohol/drug problems here. Way to go Yali)

I put some random pics below


This is what it does in my room when it rains. And that's just when it´s beginning. And that´s my bottle of Agua Pura-that I no longer use. I´ve gone local and started drinking the tap water!


This is my host mom Nelly with the flower arrangements she made out the roses in the back yard. I told her people pay alot of money for those in the States


This is the shrine my host mom makes every 21st of the month. This one is a little more elborate because it was some other special saint day.


This is me with some of the Health Center staff after our volleyball game at the AIDS fair. We did not win but everyone had to pose with the trophy anyway. This is one of like 84 pictures that people took, even people that didn´t play. I guess they really like trophies.


Alright I don´t want to make this too long--I know my mom has a short attention span! :)
I hope everyone is doing great!

Danielle

Another week down and as of the 15th I have been in service for 1 month. 23 more to go! hah I went to Leon at the end of last weekened with my host mom Nelly to help move my 2 host sisters into a new apartment. Luisa Amanda just turned 21 and is studying odontology, I think (odontologia?, she pulls alot of teeth is what I gather) and Yubelka is 17 and is studying law (you can start college here as early as 15). She gets alot of crap from the family because she has apparently gained 40 pounds or so since starting college. They way they nag her to lose weight and comment on her eating you would think they are slim and trim themselves (They're not. Except the 6 yr old, he's a normal weight). But she seems to take it in stride, it's a different thing to be called fat here than at home. But Leon was nice, but HOT, and it was really fun to be in a big city with young people that dont have babies :)

I still don't have a lot of work going on in Yali-we had an AIDS fair in one of the communities on Wed. and had a volleyball tournament and activities dealing with AIDS education. I actually knew very little about what was going to happen, I just knew I was supposed to play volleyball. That's the problem with not having mastered the language, the details are always a bit sketchy. It went pretty well, and it was fun to play volleyball, although I spent half the time being annoyed at the way they play. I am trying to get started giving nutrition consults in the Health Center to pregnant women and mothers of young children. I have asked if I could have a space in the Center to do that once a week and the Director said she would look into it. So...we'll see how that goes, I'll probably have to ask a couple more times. In preparation I've been trying to research some of the foods that are abundant here, that I don't know anything about. For example, chayote- never heard of it before coming to Nicaragua, but it is in the gourd family and a good source of Vit C. So there you go.

I made another friend this week, or she made me I should say. She was friends with the volunteer before me and I saw her in the park on Tues. and she invited me to her house and today I went with to her mom´s house...I think I´ve been adopted. Her name is Saretlly and I spent the better part of today with her and her family and I´m exhausted. I usually have little breaks from listening to Spanish and trying to speak. But it´s good to have another friend.

I´m going to Somoto this weekend with some other volunteers to a canyon that is supposed to really beautiful with a river that you can tube!!!! I´m so excited!

I found this quote on someone else's blog the other day:

"In a sense I think all of us, each in our unique way, are being called upon to find out who we are and to live that authentically, in the service of this world."

I liked it because I feel it expresses a large part of why I wanted to join the Peace Corps (aside from travel and learning another language) which is to find out who I am, what I am, my place in the world, while at the same time giving back to it in my own small way. Hopefully I can live up to my own expectations :)

I'll leave you with this Nica-ism that I learned the other day. To say that someone is cheating on someone you use "pegarsela" which literally tranlates to "sticking it to them".

(a not very good picture of the church in Yali)


(the kids and grandkids of my host parents in Yali, with a traditional Nica b-day cake, biscocho. Closest thing would be like a pineapple upside down cake)


HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!
I hope you all had a great one. I'm definitely wishing I was at Mandola's Vineyard with my family!

So I have passed a little over 3 weeks as a volunteer. Its definitely been slow and I've passed a lot of akward days either wandering around or attending meetings in which I'm not quite clear what my role is. I know that I will continue to feel more comfortable and involved here as time passes...if I just keep trying. The biggest surprise for me so far has been the education level of the people that I work with. They are all really knowledgeable and well-trained. Which is great, just unexpected. It has made me wonder why I am here and if I can really do anything more than what they're doing. But maybe I don't need to do anyhthing more, I'm just another set of hands, another mind, another person trying to help. Which is fine, just not the way I was originally looking at it.

In these meetings I was talking about, I've been noticing the way all Nicas take notes. They all have these full size hard back notebooks that say ACTAS on the front that they use to take notes. And everyone takes notes in complete formal sentences. Instead of writing the date and some bullets of important points, people will write something like" On this day the 8th of May we met in the Health Center with various Organizations from the municipality of Yali to discuss..." and thats just the intro. All the rest of the meeting is documented as such - by everyone- and then at the end everyone passes their book around and everyone in the meeting has to sign it.
My site mate, Owen, and I tried to make banana bread lastSat. night-and we were almost sucessful except that we forgot that in Nicaragua they use Celsius..not Farenheidt. So at 300 degrees C this bread was charred. Also we had to bake it in a bowl. But the top was salvegeable so we ate that and let my family try it. My mom said it was rico but the rest of them just smiled and picked at it. They'll eat an entire fish- tail, fins, scales- fried, but they think banana bread is strange. But next time we know how to bake it and we're gonna splurge and buy nuts, definitely worth it.

(the part that was completely charred plastered to the bowl below, and the part we salvaged above.)


Its been raining alot more lately, especially at night. I've found that the sound of rain at night is not quite as comforting on a zinc roof. But I'm getting used to it. At least it drowns out Arnold the Pig oinking around all night next door.

Besides Owen and my family, I have made 1 other friend in town, named Lisbet. She's 22 and she owns and runs a little restaruant in the main sqare. She's really intersesting, it's rare to find such an independent Nica woman. I mean she still lives with her family, but she has her own income and she's not married and doesn't have any children. And she's about to finish a degree in finance. But she is easy to be around but she just keeps talking even if I don't respond much more than a smile and nod and she's really patient when I don't understand. I usually just sit and watch her cook and listen to her talk about whatever. But shes going to teach me to knit as soon I get the stuff from Grandma. (Thanks Grandma!)

So I'm just going to keep trying, keep working on my Spanish and start planning for my family's visit in july!! It's really good to have that to look foward to. I hope you're all doing great!!

Love, Danielle

First Days

Hello..I arrived safely to Yali on Wed. evening and spent the next 4 days settling in. I started to fell a little lazy, but my counterpart Johana (the lady from the Health Center that I will be working with) told me not to come until Mon--so I didn´t. Today I went with some of the nurses and health workers to the outlying communities for the vaccination campagin that is going on this month. I am not allowed to stick people (which is fine by me) so I was in charge of giving the kids drops of Vitamin A and polio vaccine. It was a slow day, I think it´s going to be a while before I feel useful here. I don´t have a specific job title or resonsibilites, which means I have to be more of a self'starter--which I´m not that good at. But the director of the PC Health Program is coming for a meeting tomorrow with me and my counterpart, so I think that will help me.

Before I forget, I have a new address, which I put on the right side where the other one was. AND after April 22 (Wed) you have to dial an additional 8 when you call me, so 011 505 8847-1991. Weird I know.

Not much has happened...I went on a 6(!) hour hike on Sat. with my sitemate. It was beautiful, we climbed the tallest mountain in the area, and well worth it, but I was soo tired. During and after. I was going so slow at the end of the climb, I felt like such a wimp. Also I was sick. I´ve had allergies or a cold (or gripe as they say here, their all encompassing word for any cold symptoms) for about 5 days, but it´s starting to get better. Or the runny nose part is, now I have a cough due to cold. But I got to walk through jungles of beautiful coffee plants and I was really hoping to see some monkeys, but I didn´t. Umm what else...is it possible that I´ve never had rice pudding before? I´ve had it twice in the last 3 days and and i luvv it! I don´t know if it´s a Yali thing or what, but I hope so. So all in all I feel good here, but can definitely see that it´s going to be awhile before I ¨know¨what I´m doing.

I hope everyone is great and I´ll post some pics of Yali soon.
♥Danielle

Danielle Lewis, PCV

I'm official!! The ceremony was pretty short and sweet, thankfully. All the families came and the first half was a dedication to them for caring for us for the past 3 months. It was really nice and and a couple of the parents talked and one of the volunteers talked. Then the second half was the actual sweraing part. We had to sing the Nicaraguan national anthem then the US anthem and then take an oath in Spanish from the director of the Ministry of Health and then one in English from the US Ambassador to Nicaragua. Very formal. But now I'm a volunteer! Now we have the rest of the day free and I splurged and bought a bottle of wine to celebrate!! ($10, ouch)

Here is Elise getting ready to chow down on our cake.

This is the crew from Santa Teresa, only 2 members from the family could come so Elise, Nick and my moms came and Jessie's 2 sisters came. I finally have some pictures of my mom-she's the one in the yellow pants. Aubree-do you recognize this dress?? It's the one I bought for your rehearsal dinner! haha Thankfully it still fit. And the picture below is some girls and I at the hotel before swearing in.

Almost there!!

I"m writing my last post as a trainee!! We swear in this morning in Managua and I will finally be a volunteer! I can't believe I've been here this whole time and haven't even gotten started yet.The ceremony is this morning, done by about 11am I think and then we have the whole day to celebrate!! Then Wed. we head to our sites and the work begins. I'm getting a little nervous about that...I know it will be slow going at first as I'm getting to know people. I'll feel pretty uselss in the first couple weeks as I try to define what my role will be in the community.

My host family gave me a really fun send off on Sat. The whole family plus some uncles/ cousins went dancing at this club in Glorieta and a lot of other trainees came as well. It wasn't a sad as I thought it would be to leave, but I feel pretty sure I'll see my host family again. I still don't have any pictures of them because my camera has been dead, but it is charged now and I'll get some pictures of my mom today at the ceremony.

I posted some pictures that I stole from other people, the top one is of our youth group ceremony. My sister is the second one from the right. And the picture below is from when we went to the beach a couple weeks ago.

Alright I have to start getting ready, if the internet at the hotel keeps behaving I'll post pictures of the swearing in ceremony! Love you all !!

♥Danielle

Laguna

I don´t have anything prepared for this blog, or alot of time but here are some pictures from our trip to the Laguna Apoyo yesterday. It´s a big lake in the middle of a volcano crater. It was beautiful and perfect for swimming. It´s really nearby, I´m bummed that we just now went to it when we´re about to leave...but it was a little expensive for 35 cents a day budget or whatever it is. I went with some girls in my group- Hana, Hazel, Amanda, Jessie and Elise(not in the picture). I didn´t realize when we went that we were actually going to be swimming (alot of "swimming" sites in Nicaragua are really dirty) so I had to swim in my bra and underwear, but it was totally worth the emabarrasment. My bra was fine, passable, but the pink and white granny panties I was wearing definitley screamed underwear. But who cares I´ll never see most of those people again.

So we leave in a little over a week for our sites and I think for the most part everyone is sooo ready. This week is Semana Santa, which all the Nicas make a huge deal of, but so far it´s just been a lot processionals (i.e. a fake Jesus riding on donkey with crowds of people and brass band following.) Apparently there is one every day. Yippee. I´m about to get together with some people and and eat avocados and drink rum in the park. It´s avocado season and these are the best avocados I´ve ever had. Delicious. And rum is always good. I hope everyone is doing great and that everyone has a great Easter!!
♥Danielle