I´m a bag lady...

I realized this the other day as I was yet again washing and preparing to reuse a little plastic bag from a pulperia. I've done that in the past with ziplocs and am still doing it (even though I brought 4200 ziplocs with me) but Ihave starting saving every little plastic bag that comes my way. And paper too. I cant bring myself to throw paper away because I might be able to reuse the scraps for something else, in my classes or something. Anything to avoid having to spend money. Also little bits of string...the list goes on. I guess i should say I´m a junk lady.

I finish this week with my sex ed charlas with the 5th grade and will start next month with 6th grade. It's been a fun experience although as soon as my newness wore off they turned into little hellions. And just because the teacher is present does not mean that they will help me with discipline. Usually they just kinda laugh and comment on how terrible the kids are acting. Pretty annoying. But mostly I've had a good time and I met a lot of new kids that can now yell out my name as I pass on the street. Better than gringa. Last night I went over to a little girl's house to meet with her and a group of her friends that had invited me over to dance. I thought they were going to be teaching me folkloric dances but what it really was was hiphop/reggaeton dancing. Do you remember that scene in mean girls when they pass thru the living room and the little girls is there doing some kind of booty dance video? Thats what it was like, five 10 year old girls (and me) booty dancing in the living room. With this group of boys and 2 women watching. Akward.

I kept my promise of staying in site this month; I only went on 2 daytrips- one to Esteli and one to Jinotega to pick up a package (thanks mom and dad. katie-yours wasnt there yet, but ill go again soon, thanks!) In Esteli as I was leaving the Peace Corps office I met this retired couple that had come to donate us books. The man, Ralph, was from California and his wife Andrea is from Esteli. They were so nice and so excited to talk to me and invited me repeatedly to come for coffee or dinner to their house. Apparently she makes really good chicken mole, yum!! I would love to actually start up a friendship with them, Elise and I are thinking of going to Esteli this sat, I might try to find their house (thye gave me total Nica directions- from the banks 3 blocks west, 1 block north, no such thing as house addresses) I´ll let you know if i actually do it.

That´s all for now, sorry no pics. Hope you are all doing great!
Danielle

In Granada

I have been trying to do this for forever now, but the electricity keeps going out. It's August! Some of those weeks really flew by, others not so much. The 12 days my family was here went really fast, of course. We had a great time! It was so great to spend so much time with them and we got to see a lot of Nicaragua. The whole trip went really smoothly, except for a small hiccup when Patrick got turned away at the gate because his passport expired in a month. But he was able to get one expeditited and arrived the day after. The part I was most nervous about was renting a car and driving all over the country, especially since we were going to be doing the bulk of our driving on the day they were celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Sandinista revolution. Luckily we didn't have any problem at all, in fact I loved having a car again! So much more freedom and you get places so much faster. We were lucky though, I think, because I talked to a girl in my group whose parents were here at the same time and had rented a car and they had some trouble with the police. They probably couldn´t tell we were foreigners. hahaha


The Shays reunited

Because we had to wait for Patrick, the family got to see more of Managua than they wanted probably (it's not the prettiest city) and little glimpse into volunteer life. They saw the Peace corps office (i.e. the huge wall surrounding it) and we stayed at a hotel where most volunteers stay when they are in Managua. We ran into a couple of them, in fact. Then we headed to Yali. As soon as we arrived we got swooped in upon by my friend Saretlly who had wanted to make us lunch, but we arrived later than planned so it turned into dinner. We first had to go to my counterpart Johana's house so she could meet the fam, and she served us this very rich mango smoothie thing called cuznaca. So none of us were hungry for dinner but we all dug in anyway to be polite. I'm glad we went though so they could meet saretlly and understand the insanity i'm dealing with. She's more than a little crazy, in my opinion. But so nice.

The next day we walked around a bit and drove around a little then went to my host family's house for lunch. Again good food, but too much! And I guess it's customary that the host not eat with the guests but neither my host mom or saretlly would eat with us. they sat/stood and watched us eat. Both families really liked each other and were able to communicate enough to really enjoy themselves despite speaking different languages and having me as translator. We were going to stay another night in Yali, but after lunch there was really nothing left to see in the town and we couldn't go visit anymore people because they will want to give you food and we were sooo stuffed. Also the hotel was a little creepy... It was 2 rooms inside someone's house, in their living room. I went by today to see if they had Dad's toiletry bag that he left (they did) and saw that one of the rooms is actually used by a family memeber when there aren't guests and they just clean out all the stuff when there is!! haha So we left a day early and stayed in Granada and everyone was more comfortable.


USA meets Nicaragua

From Granada we took a bus to San Jorge, Rivas to catch the ferry to the Island of Ometepe. It´s an island formed by 2 volcanoes in the middle of a huge lake. We stayed there from Monday to Friday and it was great. Very beautiful and relaxing. Except for the day when we decided to hike one of the volcanoes. 8 hours later, completely covered in mud, we were not relaxed. In fact we were all in a pretty bad mood when we got done. Patrick tried to stay positive and win the Good Attitude Award (which I guess he did because Aubree and I were not even trying). The worst part was that everyone talks about this awesome laguna at the top where you swim, etc. But we got there and it was sooo foggy and freezing. You couldn´t see a thing. I figured out that hiking is pointless to me if there´s no view when you finish. But the rest of the stay was great.


View from halfway up the damn volcano we climbed. This was the best view, we should have turned around here


View at the top of the damn volcano we climbed. This
is the supposed laguna that it was too foggy to see.
The guy second from the left climed up barefoot!


the beach at ometepe

From Ometepe we went to Granada and spent the rest of our time there. We went to 2 more volcanoes (no climbing) and ate lots of great food and drank lots of great wine! Great vacation!



Mom and I getting drunk in Granada


So we had a great time, hopefully they feel the same! 6 months is the longest I've ever gone without seeing my family and for me it was a great relief to see them. From where I am it's easy to imagine that I am missing important happenings in their lives (which I am, but not to the degree I imagined) and it was good for me to see that none of us has changed dramatically and we're not missing out too much on each other's lives.

Since they left I have been trying to work hard here in Yali. I´m still not super busy but I know things will develop with time. I went to Esteli my first weekened back for Volunteer Trivia Night (I don´t even want to get into how my team was robbed of victory), but I'm going to try to stay in site from now until my 5 month in-service training in Sept. (day trips don´t count :) ) We´ll see how that goes...

Hope everyone is doing great!!!
Love, Danielle

I'm still here!! I wanted to wait until I had something interesting to write about before posting again. It took a couple weeks for that to happen :)

A bunch of people from my group all met up in San Juan del Sur to celebrate the 4th of July. Before going I was kind of dreading it because it's a 9 hr trip and expensive (for me) and all the other volunteers that I mentioned it to that had been said it wasn't that great...BUT I had a great time and I thought the town and the beaches were really beautiful. It's true it's pretty touristy, you could forget you're in Nicaragua, but I actually kind of enjoyed that part of it. I got there early on Fri. with Elise and Braden and we checked into our hostel and then went directly to the beach. The beach in the actual town is pretty small and really not that crowded because it's not good for surfing. It's in a little cove so the water is a lot calmer, which was perfect for me because I barely like getting in the ocean anyway (it hurts my eyes :( ). The sun was only out for about 2 hours and then it got overcast, but in that time I managed to get really burned on any place that sunscreen had missed. Nick, Penny and Craig got in later that day and we cooked dinner (spaghetti! with REAL tomato sauce, not ketchup) in the hostel and then went to this bar that had a fire on the beach and live music. It was really beautiful and Elise and I enjoyed our first taste of Tequila in almost 6 months!

Saturday we got up and had free pancakes at the hostel-you had to cook them yourself but so what- and then caught a ride to one of the surrounding beaches. It was about a 45 min ride on a poorly maintained dirt road and when we arrived we found 1 little restaurant and nothing else but an almost empty (and beautiful) beach. Then we remembered that we were still in Nicaragua. But more people arrived as the day went on and one of the hostels in town was sponsoring a 4th of July party so they brought out drinks and "BBQ". We left around 5 but not too long before we left they started giving out free rum shots, so I'm sure it got pretty crazy. We cooked dinner again (tacos!) and went out dancing. It never did feel very much like the 4th of July but it was really great to see all the people in my group that I haven't seen in months


Nick, Craig, Penny, Kerri, me, Braden, Elise


the almost empty beach on Sat.


Elise, me, Lorna


The weekend before that Elise and Braden came into to town and we all (w/ Owen) hiked to the cloud forest reserve Miraflor nearby. When I say nearby I mean in bus or truck which is how we planned to get there, but not one passed us as we were walking so we ended up hiking the entire way there, uphill (4 hours). I was already tired by the time we got there and so maybe not as thrilled with it as I would have been. But it was still really pretty.


in the forest


pretty hydrangeas -mil flores in spanish. One of my favorites!





view- you can see why they call it a cloud forest!


You've probably noticed that I'm only talking about the weekends and that is because not alot has changed in site. I'm still doing nutrition consults in the health center, and I've had a couple patients. I think they're finalle ey remembering that I'm there and referring people.Yesterday one of my bosses came with Danny the volunteer that I visited in Rio San Juan. He extended his service to a third year, but is also working with Peace Corps as a Volunteer Coordinator. He leaves not too far away in Matagalpa, so I think he'll be good support for me. Anyway they came to check up on me and monitor my progress (or lack thereof) and we had a meeting with Johana, my counterpart to address any concerns or questions she might have. It was a good visit and the best thing that came of it is that Johana and I decided we'll have regular meetingd to discusss my schedule and talk about project ideas. This is totally something we should have been doing anyway so I'm glad we're going to start that.

But that's going to be about it for July...Sunday I leave for Masaya and have a Spanish workshop until the 16th and then my family arrives!!! We'll travel around until the 28th, when they leave me, and then it will practically be August! I like it when it feels like time is moving quickly!

I hope everyone is doing great! It will be a couple weeks again before I post, I don´t want to waste family time on the computer! But we´ll take pictures!

Love, Danielle

Happy Father´s Day!!

I forgot to put it in the previous post and I probably won´t come again tomorrow. So,

HAPPY FATHER´S DAY!!

1 day early. I love you Dad! Can´t wait to see you!

Danielle

(a banner at the March for Life the other week)

Another month down and I have been a volunteer for 2 months now. I still don't have a very regular work schedule, or a clear role yet, but I´ve gotten more comfortable in the not knowing at least. In the mean time I´m just trying to enjoy myself and getting ready for my family´s visit in exactly 1 month!!

This past weekend I went to visit my friend Elise (my Anna in Peace Corps that I have mentioned before) in her site San Juan del Rio Coco, Madriz. It was very mountainous and beautiful like Yali, just a little bigger. It was the weekend of their Fiestas Patronales wich absolutely means there must be an hipica(horse parade). We set out to go watch it and, as has been our experience as gringa ladies in Nicaragua, were totally taken care of. We were searching for food and were almost immediately handed tickets for plates of food that all the people around us were paying for. It was very tasty, too- steak with some kind of pesto sauce and rice and beans. And although the raw meat was being held in a tub underneath the table before being cooked, with no sign of refrigeration in sight, you just can´t turn down a free meal when you make 5 dollars a day. After we finished eating we set off to find a good shady spot to watch the parade when this nice truck with 2 men inside pulled up and asked if we´d like to cruise around in the truck and watch. Again this is not something I¨d normally agree, too, but the rules change in Nicaragua. You can´t say no to an air conditioned car ride. You just can´t. So we went, following a long line of cars, to supposedly watch the hipica, but in the end we missed the whole thing. I think the horses started a little bit behind us and we only saw a couple at the very end. But we fully enjoyed a very comfortable car ride


( the one shot I got of the hipica. I think the sky in the background is the coolest part of the picture.)

Anyway the visit was really fun, but I probably won´t go often- it took me 5 hours to get there and 7 to get back. Mountain roads are rough.

Last Wed and Thurs I went on an outing with the Health Center to some really distant communities to do some more baby weighings. We stayed in the Health Post in La Rica and each went on foot house to house doing the weighings and talking about the flu (still) and diarrea, etc. It was tiring, but fun and I felt good because I participated alot more than I have in the past.



(a shot of the view as we were walking to the communities)


(washing machine :) )

Not too much else has been happening. I have been a sick for a little while (yes, I think it was the water and I have switched back to purified agua) but I´m feeling better now. My host mom made crepes today and they were sooo good. She called them pancakes, but they were crepes-rolled up and everything. She put the popular Nica cheese cuajada, mashed with sugar insde and it was really tasty. Sugar and cheese sounds strange but it was gooood. And finally, as I watched Nelly pour at least a half cup of sugar into the pitcher, I figured out why I like milk to drink here, but not at home. Sugar makes everything better.

Can´t think of much else, I hope everyone´s doing great

Love, Danielle

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".