25 July 2010

Back to work...sort of.

My community class had a surprise welcome back party for me the first day back at class. They were so happy that I was back, which helped the transition back to work. It was so nice of them and just reminded me of how appreciative the Nicaraguans are. They made a ton of food and had decorated the room with balloons and everything. We played pin the tail on the donkey with a Nicaraguan twist (you have to dance while you´re looking for the donkey). My sister took pictures that I´ll have to get from her to post online.

School has been fine. This past Monday was the 31st anniversary of the Sandinista Revolution so there was no school. Everyone (all the Sandinistas, that is) goes to some plaza in Managua to hear the president talk (for 2 hours!) about how great the government is and that, oh by the way, he wants to be the president here forever even though it´s illegal. Anyway, in order to transport the masses to Managua this day, the government bought out 50% of the nation´s transportation to assist in the caravans. This left the rest of the country without transportation. Thanks, Daniel. We also didn´t have school on Tuesday because of it...because all government workers are required to attend this talk in Managua or else they´ll lose their jobs and they got back late on Monday night, so obviously they couldn´t go to work on Tuesday.

I went to the town circus last night. It was interesting to say the least. They had some clowns, a tight rope (loose cable) walker and some scandelously dressed overweight women dancers. The stands were constructed of 2x4s that were not nailed together and were bowed in the middle. I´ll put up some pictures soon.

My sister is coming to visit in a week which I´m really excited about. We´ll hike a few volcanoes and it´s turtle egg laying season so I think we´ll get to a turtle refugee too to see that.

11 July 2010

Back to Nicaragua

I got back safely and uneventfully to Nicaragua on Wednesday afternoon. I was honestly a little less than thrilled to leave everyone at home and come back but once I got here everything was fine and comfortable again. My family was so happy to see me and we sat around talking for a while when I got back home. The first cold shower was pretty chilly but I think I´ve quickly re-adapted to them again.

I started going to the gym here with my sister. She´s been saying since I got here that she was going to start exercising so I´m glad she finally came around. It´s so nice to be sore again. I was getting bored and sick of my P90x workouts with the resistance bands. The gym is, as my friend Julie accurately described it when she was here visiting this weekend, ¨raw.¨ There are two rooms with a bunch of free weights, bars and benches. There are three cardio machines (a treadmill, stairmaster and bike), none of which require electricity...figure that one out. The two brothers who run the gym are deaf/mute (along with their parents and another sibling) and are former Nicaraguan champion body builders. They´re really nice and have been helping my sister and I with our workouts a lot.

Other than that not much else is new. School starts up again this week. I´m starting my new schedule with just 7th grade in the morning with my counterpart, Scarlett, and 7th, 8th and 9th grade in the afternoon with my counterpart, Ana. I´m really looking forward to spending more time with Ana. Until next time!

05 July 2010

Writing from home!

Made it home safe and sound. When I told everyone in Nicaragua I was going home they all rushed to give me presents to take to my family--typical Nicaraguan sweets and crackers. It was really nice and made me realize even more how generous the Nicaraguans are. At the same time they were kind of saying goodbye like I wasn't going to come back which was a little disheartening, but I made sure they all knew it was just for 10 days. My sixth graders were actually angry that they were going to have two weeks of vacation because they said my class gets them out of their houses.

The Carlos Fonseca English extravaganza was a complete flop. The "acto" on Friday consisted of the kids doing their skits in the library for my counterparts and I (although I only went in the afternoon. My a.m. counterpart told me not to go). The kids in the morning did it mostly in Spanish because my counterpart didn't help them or, the three times I asked her, tell me who they were so I could help them. The two groups my afternoon counterpart and I had been working with did really well. The following Monday was supposed to be the big competition between all the schools in my town and my high school was the only one to show up. We combined the morning and afternoon groups into 2 acts (about 60 kids total) to go to the department capital to compete against schools from all over the department on Wednesday. I spent Monday afternoon translating and finding the rhythm to a Nicaraguan song I'd never heard before and Tuesday morning practicing with all of the groups. Wednesday we went to the department capital, Jinotepe, at 2pm when it was supposed to begin. We waited and waited and waited until about 4pm. Only one other school had shown up and they eventually found out that the event had been postponed for a bunch of bogus reasons. Supposedly they're going to reschedule but I don't believe it. What a waste.

Home has been really nice. I've already been here for a week and it's flown by. I was expecting it to be weird and overwhelming with the air conditioning, free wireless internet and readily-available hot water but it mostly just feels like a continuation of last summer before I left for Nicaragua. The hard part will be re-adjusting to the inescapable heat, cold showers and pay-by-the-hour Internet cafe, but it shouldn't be too bad. My grandparents and an aunt, uncle and cousin came down to visit from New England which was really nice. I've eaten lots of healthy, grilled (not fried!) food and have spent a lot of time with my family and friends.

Bambi

Bambi

World Map

World Map

my bed

my bed

my sister and her novio

my sister and her novio

the little birds in my kitchen

the little birds in my kitchen

a street and street dog

a street and street dog

the church

the church

the park

the park

an interesting mode of transportation

an interesting mode of transportation

viva la revoluciĆ³n

viva la revoluciĆ³n