November 15th
Today was a horrible day, the worst day of Peace Corps yet. The whole day wasn’t really that bad, but two events happened that just destroyed the day. The first event was a problem with my neighbour, which I resolved after a couple of hours of brain damage.
The second isn’t even worth describing. I’m just going to write the dialogue I of a very hostile conversation I had with four men in front of my house:
“Hey chele! Come here.”
“Um…what’s up?”
“We heard what you said.”
“Um…what was it that I said.”
“You said that Sandinistas are terrorists.”
“Um…I don’t know where you heard that from, because I haven’t said anything. I don’t go to any of your parties, I don’t go to any of the Liberales parties. I’m not allowed to, and I’m not interested in attending any political event here. I’m a business teacher in the schools.”
“No, I know why you’re here. You’re from a ‘Peace’ organization. You’re f***ing counterintelligence.”
“I’m counterintelligence? Who the hell told you that? Why do you think that? I’m a teacher in 3 high schools here. Two of my counterparts are f***ing are Sandinistas, so why would I be saying Sandinistas are terrorists, and why would I be working with them if I thought they were terrorists? Who told you that I said Sandinistas are terrorists?”
“The people talk.”
“Yea, well who told you that? It’s obvious that this person was lying because I’ve never done anything or said anything about politics here.”
“All you white people that come to Achuapa are spies. I know you work for the CIA (He said his all as one word instead of as an acronym). We’re just good Achuapans, and you come here to invade us ”
“All of us are spies?”
“Not all of you.”
“Then why the f*** do you think I’m a spy?”
“Because you don’t f***ing fool us. We see you in the streets. We know what you’re doing.”
“What am I doing that makes you think I’m a spy? Why are you convinced I’m a spy?”
“Shut up chele, you can’t convince me. I know who you are.”
“Well, you’re obviously hearing lies and don’t have any idea what you’re talking about, because I’m not a spy. I’m a business teacher here.”
“I’ve lived here way longer than you chele. I know, the community knows – you don’t f***ing fool us. You can’t convince me.”
“If I can’t convince you, then why the f*** am I having this stupid conversation with you since you’re obviously just going to believe lies?”
“Chill out chele.”
“No, you can go to hell. You’ve seriously offended me by telling me you think I’m a spy, and that I’m here to invade your city. I’ve lived here for 4 months and have just been teaching in the schools and working with any person that wants to work with me. Go ask any of your buddy Sandinistas – everybody knows me. They’ll tell you I’m not a spy.”
“We’ll do our own investigations chele. Then we’ll find out if you’re telling the truth or not.”
“You’re an idiot.”
“We know who you are chele. We’ll see if you’re telling the truth.”
“Go to hell.”
This man then left (I almost ended up renting a house from this guy), and then I went over to one of my friends who was standing in the street. He was talking with his father, one of the men that was messing with me.
“Why do you think I’m a spy or counterintelligence? I work with his mom! He’s YOUR kid.”
“Chill out chele. We’ll do our own investigation.”
“This is ridiculous. You guys have no reason to think that I’m a spy.”
“See you later chele.”
This whole conversation was in the middle of the street in front of my house and was witnessed by probably 50 people, so I’m definitely lacking witnesses. I was irate after this and had no idea what to do. I went in my house, cracked, and left. While in the street, one of my neighbours told me I should go to the police station, so that’s what I did. The cops told me that the guy is one of those people that bark but don’t bite, but the next time I should just call them and they’ll come get him and throw him in jail. However, they did go out and look for him to talk to him after I left.
And that’s how the worst day in 6.5 months of Peace Corps service goes.
November 16th
Today was my no/limited Achuapa day. I was going to limit my interactions today so I read the last 80% of Alive. Good book.
Being idle for long periods of time makes me more motivated to work out, so I mixed that in with it too.
Oh yea, and one of my best friends, Danica, is Early Terminating. I think I’m going to take a mental health day.
November 17th
Aside from the my usual daily activities, the presentation of the diploma and prizes to the winners of the spelling bee at the primary school. So with that competition over and done with, I had successfully completed my first secondary project and it was such a huge success, that an attempt is going to be made to do a spelling bee with the 5th graders before the school year ends next week. But regardless, the spelling bee with take place next year, but will be planned into the curriculum so that all the grades can participate this time around. I’ll also be starting the spelling bee in Instituto San Jose, and hopefully with be able to do one in my private institute as well. Time will tell.
I also spoke with Georgia today regarding my extraordinarily bad weekend, and got OK’ed to take a mental health day on Friday. That being said, she wanted me to speak with the PC head of security about the situation on Saturday. It concerned him enough that he is going to arrange a meeting with the police and all my counterparts to ensure that it doesn’t happen again.
Following this conversation with the head of security, I ran into the police officer I made the report to and he informed me that the culprit had called the chief of police that night to tell him that he had done nothing and that I was the one who initiated everything. However, upon coming to the police station, the police chief was informed of my report and reneged his support for the guy who harassed me. “He was just trying to wash his hands of any blame,” the police told me. On a related note, the news about the incident spread around town, and the new mayor and vice mayor as well as all the heads of the Sandinistas in Achuapa sat down with the guy who harassed me and told him off and that they better not catch him doing anything remotely similar to that again. Oh yea.
Richard – 1, Jackass – 0
November 18th
I woke up at 9 today – NINE. Holy crap. I must still be on city time because that is super strange. I feel like I missed the entire day by waking up so late. Then wouldn’t you know it – 2 activities later, it was noon. All I did was print up a letter for the mayor, give the letter to the mayor, then went back home. Boom – 3 hours. I also saw the one volunteer from New Jersey for the second time since she got here. She’d sent me tons of messages, but with Claro – La vida en tus manos, I apparently had everything in my hands except the numerous messages that she sent me. So I didn’t receive her messages, and now she leaves Saturday. However, in light of my lovely weekend, I’m taking a mental health day this week and will be leaving Thursday. She headed to Estelí today for 3 days…so much for taking advantage of having another volunteer in Achuapa; it all just went down the drain.
The afternoon flew by too; when the other volunteer left at 1, I did some English tutoring, hung out at the cooperativa and chatted with Kenis for a couple of hours, then went to the gym. After that, there’s not much of the day left (having no streetlights will do that), so I headed over to my counterpart’s house for the daily dinner/chess game. A whole day, nothing notable.
Posted by thegoggins 
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