Some books and some stuff

October 28^th – November 11^th

The Thursday of the 29^th the lawyer from the German women’s NGO came in to speak with my kids about her job. With it being the first presentation, I was a tad nervous about the outcome – how would it go over with my kids? To promote more participation, I said my kids had to at least ask one question for every speaker (there will be one for every week we have left in the school year).

I had to send one of my students to get the speaker, but once she showed up, my apprehension over whether or not this sort of activity would work went right out the window. This woman was in her mid-twenties, successful for a Nicaraguan, and a super dynamic speaker. This wasn’t something I was counting on, but it just made the activity that much easier. Furthermore, due to the energetic manner in which she presented herself and her career, the girls in my class were asking tons of questions, which was an effect I hadn’t anticipated. This activity was in fact fighting gender roles all by itself. My girl students were able to see that they could be independent and happy.

Over the weekend, I put a big dent in the book I was reading, as well as a book about Buddhism. Unfortunately, during this time I had a spur of breathing attacks that made it hard for me to sleep. This, coupled with the inner debate over whether to get a puppy or not just made things that sleep that much harder. As a result, I fell asleep around 3 AM every night out of pure exhaustion.

The first 3 days of the week I did a bunch of reading, celebrated Johani’s 30^th birthday, and on the 5^th, the director of a big NGO we have in town came and spoke to my classes. My public school kids didn’t really take to him because he didn’t engage them the way my first speaker did, but he interacted with my private school kids in the most successful way that I’ve ever seen. He also did an opening activity where each student would mention some things about themselves, including their favourite foods. When my turn came around, he asked my students what it was that I liked to eat – and they knew everything. I had no idea that my culinary choices were such hot gossip topics. Following his presentation, I hopped on the bus headed to Malpaisillo so I wouldn’t have to go straight to Managua the following day.

The next morning, Brie and I headed to Managua early so she could work and I could head to the dermatologist (for the first time in a while). This visit to Managua also coincided with the small business cocktail party. That being said, I intentionally planned my appointment for that day for one reason – Peace Corps would put me up in a hotel if I had another reason to be there. Doing what I can to save money.

I had my appointment at the dermatologist late – 4 PM. Her office hours start at 2 PM, which is when I’ve generally had an appointment for in the past. However, the later hour made me feel that maybe that she’d actually see me on time – and I wouldn’t have to wait. And I’d be wrong. When I arrived, I saw that all the people who had an appointment from 2 PM until 4 PM were still waiting for her. Talk about irresponsible. While I waited for her to attend to me (which finally rolled around at 5:30), I chatted with some lady who too was appalled at how late the doctor was running. She was even more appalled when I told her that she’d been late to the 5 appointments I’d had with her in the past.

My plantar warts were burned off for the millionth time (or so it seems), and I was able to catch a bus back to the PC office awfully quickly. From there, I dropped off my stuff at my hotel and chatted with my roommate a bit while I got dressed. Generally, when the warts get burned off, my foot swells up in a gigantic blister, but while it hurt and was swollen a bit, I could still fit on my shoes. So I threw them on and headed to the Holiday Inn, where the majority of the people attending the cocktail party were staying.

Having waited so long in the hospital, I was unable to grab some dinner, so I did just that when I arrived. While the Holiday Inn is a modest and average hotel in the U.S, in Nicaragua it’s the complete opposite. It has the presentation of a high-class hotel, like a Hilton. That said, while in their dining hall, I was super impressed. I felt so classy, being dressed up and whatnot, and in such a “glamorous” location. It was a nice feeling being dressed up and in a uber clean and fancy setting. I’d forgotten how much I enjoy events like that, if only to look superficially elegant.

The night was a good one that even saw me get up and dance (about as rare as seeing two moons in the sky). However, while I enjoyed it, it was disappointing to see so many people (not PC volunteers) swimming around in the pool in their clothes. I feel it compromises our reputation as being serious about striving for progress. Furthermore, how does it look to the staff of the Holiday Inn to have a bunch of people completely trashed and swimming in their pool with their clothes on? Booze happens, and so do things. Oh well.

I spent the weekend in Malpaisillo and headed back to Achuapa on Sunday where I did nothing but work on the new MINED curriculum and edit the business plan of Brie’s student group that was going to the national competition on Thursday. The week held much of the same that I did on Sunday – more editing of the business plan and the MINED curriculum for the class.

The dog I “rescued,” and contemplated naming Broken Dog (I instead named him Buddy), started walking around. I had been convinced that it was going to die and I was just making him comfortable till he finally did succumb to the adverse situations he continually encountered. Since he was healthier, I decided to deparasite him. The pill went down and came up an hour later, but hey – that’s better than nothing.

Wednesday I went to Malpaisillo where I helped Brie’s group prepare for their presentation the next day at the national competition.

The Buddha In Your Mirror - A. Buddhism looks more and more interesting after reading this book.

What is a What – B. A book about the Lost Boys of Sudan (in Darfur) and their struggle to survive and escape the country. I think what has happened to them is a tragedy, but the way the story was presented really wasn´t necessary. “You´ve never suffered what I´ve suffered.” That is the tone of the story – not something I disagree with, but I don´t feel it needs to be mentioned over and over in the 500+ pages of the book.

A misunderstanding and the ´solution´

May 16^th

Today we all met at the bus stop in Masatepe to get picked up by Peace Corps to go to a training session in Managua. I got a typhoid vaccine (again, thanks CSU for not recording it), and we all said goodbye to one of the volunteers who had to ET due to a medical emergency in his family. We met at a hotel in Managua where the TEFL volunteers were waiting for us (but none of the business volunteers knew). So it was a huge surprise and everybody was super happy to see everybody we haven’t seen in a week. We did some basic training sessions then had lunch. After lunch, the Nicaraguan minister of education showed up and gave a 3-hour presentation about the state of education in Nicaragua. Basically, it’s not doing well, but he needed 3 hours and seizure inducing graphics to tell us this. Hey, however they want to do it here, who am I to argue with it?

We parted with the TEFL volunteers (my group got to take the bus with the TEFL volunteers), and went back home. I went to the internet café for a bit, ate, then went with Jordan to a Nicaraguan artisan festival. They had traditional Nicaraguan dance, song, as well as the same band that decided to play Beatles songs following a raffle. However, their singing wasn’t too hot so I Jordan and I decided to head home. This was where it got interesting.

I dropped Jordan off at her house, then walked the 30 seconds to my house where…nobody was home. My family told me they’d be there at 9:30, and being 10, I assumed they were sleeping. I clanged the lock against the big metal door like my host mom told me to do, but nobody showed up. After futile banging of the lock against the door, I scaled our huge concrete wall with steel spikes at the top and descended safely into the yard. Now my only problem was getting into my ‘apartment-like’ part of the house. I knocked on the door of my host parents room for about 20 minutes and nobody answered. I figured they were deep sleepers because it’s so loud in Nicaragua. So I had a few options, sleep in the hammock, sleep on the stairs, sleep on the roof, or try to get into my apartment. I opted for the last one. I got the window of my apartment open and tried to open the door next to it – to no avail. So I looked in the yard for an extremely long object that I could use to push the door lever open on the door across the room. As if in a movie, I found just that – in the form of a gigantic 20-foot steel rod. So I put the steel rod through the window and pushed the door lever open. Success! Except not. The door didn’t open, and I didn’t know why. I kept trying variations of what should’ve opened the door in what all proved to be useless attempts. However, while being persistent in opening the door through the window with the steel rod, the neighborhood security caught me with my shirt around my head like a bandana. Luckily, being one of 2 gringos in the neighborhood, he knew who I was. I’d passed him a couple of times when I was jogging the other night. So I chatted it up with the security guard, Bernardo, about Masatepe, how to successfully break into my house, and the current state of housing prices in Masatepe. Eventually I decided to climb back over the Great Wall of Masatepe and walk around with the security guard who pointed out that all the lights were still on in my house – which indicated that my family wasn’t there sleeping like I thought. We walked around the block twice and sat down near the broken swing set that I exercise on. Luckily, my host parents showed up extremely soon. The whole extended family was in the truck with them and they all laughed at how I tried to break into the house (I’d left the 20 foot steel bar still in the window). The laughing ended though when we discovered that the key they had now wouldn’t open the door. After pondering a bit, we finally got the other door open (by kicking it open) as well as the door I’d been trying to open for an hour. I hadn’t broken anything, thank god. I hadn’t even scratched the paint near the lock. However, despite my host parents telling me it was fine, I had successfully scolded myself for trying to break into the house.

But it got a good laugh.

May 17^th

I had to wake up wicked early this morning due to yet another PC rendezvous with my fellow business volunteers. We all went to San Marcos to do more training and learn how to start a community bank (we’re required to start at least one in our sites). My story regarding me breaking into my house was a bit hit and it circulated among the volunteers. Our master trainer, Ashley, asked how my night was. Assuming he had heard bits and pieces I told him the story to which he responded, “Yea, your host Mom called Peace Corps this morning and told us what you did and how you compromised the security of their house and they can’t tolerate that. So we have to find you a new site in Masatepe.” At first I doubted him, but no, he said it with the straightest face possible and said they were going to take me to Managua until they can place me in another house in Masatepe. All I thought was “Oh damn, that’s like strike one on the Peace Corps slate.” Luckily he was let me in on the joke he was playing on me after which I proceeded to thank him for keeping me humble – in the form of punching him and telling him I was going to kill him. Talk about terrifying, I thought that was it. Probably the best joke anybody has ever played on me.

After coming home from that, I went and got some mouthwash as well as picked up my broken sandal from the repairman who fixed it for 6 pesos (about 31 cents). I took the mototaxi to Pius 12 (a town near mine) where we unsuccessfully looked for a guy on his farm (that we had to trek through a orange/banana/misc fruit plantation. There was a kid who took the mototaxi with us the whole way who kept on drifting off while we were heading there. He kept drifting off with his head following forward and him catching himself. Finally he didn’t catch himself and smashed his head on this steel post in front of him. Suffice to say he was awake after that encounter. After that, I think I spent around 3 hours sitting in the hammock while talking with our family friend, William. It’s weird how fast time goes by when you’re just sitting around. I really enjoy having parts of my house out in the open – I always brush my teeth out in the yard because that’s where the sink is. It’s great because I get to talk to our parrot (which I just noticed mocks me when I laugh – watch it Lupe). The only thing that separates our kitchen from the yard is a wrought iron gate. This means on nice days, like today for example, I bring the table out in the yard and eat. I’ll make a video of my house to show everything in it later – it’s pretty great.

There’s a fiesta going on tonight that I’m just way too flipping tired to attend, so I made a gringo appearance to kick up my ego (it’s like I’m a celebrity, lots of people wave at me, most of whom I don’t know). I really know the town well now (as in I know where all the streets go, and which ones I need to take to get to key places), and I ‘adios’ everybody (I have however adios’ed the wrong people a couple of times which has yielded me being followed). I really ought to start reading any/all of these crappy books PC gave me…particularly since I have to plan a class for next week. Someday I’ll get around to it…