PC perks

Whoever spread the rumor that all of Boaco is cool and breezy was completely wrong.  It’s been a week in Teustepe and I am loving it, but it definitely does not feel like Christmas is coming!  I’ve spent the week getting to know the town with my host family and teachers I’ll be working with.  I arrived on Tuesday and that afternoon I took the 10 minute walk to the river with my host sister and nephew.  The same river I’ll be crossing in a couple months to get to one of my schools was about waist-high and perfect for a six year old to have the time of his life.  Let’s hope the water level goes down really quickly.  There were boys playing soccer on the sand, other swimming, and others washing clothes.  It was a beautiful day.

Later on in the week, I revisited the mayor and the delegate of the Ministry of Education   who said he’ll help me get paint to begin an environmental mural.  I went back to two of my schools to sit in on end-of-the-year evaluations that were interesting.  It helped me understand why students talk while the teacher is talking during class… the director of the school was talking while teachers were carrying on conversations on cell phones and speak louder so maybe some people will hear.  I also went to the high school graduation on Saturday and sat on the stage, front and center.  Who knows how that happened but it would be pretty accurate to say that I was in the background of all the pictures of the graduate receiving his diploma.  There was a mass that started at 1:00 pm which of course didn’t start until 1:45 then there was the ceremony in a large VFW-type room that lasted from about 3:00-6:30.  The music (typical graduation instrumental) was so loud my chair was vibrating.  If I knew how to play the trumpet, I would have had the song memorized within the first hour… that’s how many times it was repeated.  There was a fiesta Saturday night that I went to for a few hours with two of my host sisters and learned to dance bachata.  On Sunday, I went to the graduation of the sixth graders in the elementary school in Teustepe, which was a little quicker, starting at 2 and ending at 6.  Again, the loud music muffled the little boys laughter as they played on the stage (yes, during the ceremony) and a teacher talking on his phone while on stage.  In Nica graduations, a family member accompanies each student.  The get-ups ranged from baseball caps and skinny jeans to silver stilettos, red sparkly ball gowns, and see-through shirts.  Yikes.  Finally, on Monday, I went to the pre-school graduation and for the third time, I sat at the front table.  Let me tell you... the perks of being a Peace Corps volunteer are endless. 

As for my living accommodations, I’m enjoying the small room and should have never made fun of Alison’s tiny bedroom.  My suitcase is a great seat for my host nephew when we have drawing sessions (he glued one of his pictures to the front of my bedroom door) and I’ve only killed one semi-big bug.  The other night, I saw a snake on the patio so told my host mom who then called to her husband who then grabbed his 3 foot machete and gave it a  few good smacks.  The only thing that’s worrying me a little is the huge spider, I’ll go ahead and say tarantula, that was in the latrine a couple nights ago.  I couldn’t kill it because I was wearing sandals that weren’t big or strong enough to do the job.  I tried flicking a big leaf at it but it didn’t feel like moving.  Of course I left without going to the bathroom and returned about half and hour later.  It had left, which is great, but now the problem is that now I’m a little scared to go to the bathroom when it’s dark.

This week, I’m going to have my first youth group meeting and will also be working with the town librarian at her after-school program on Thursday.  In a couple weeks, I’ll be giving some English lessons to two boys who already speak pretty well and want more practice.  I can’t wait to get this juicy package that my parents sent me so I can play some basketball and softball and paint some Flor de Caña bottles.  (Another perk: parents would only send you extravagant packages if you were in Peace Corps.  College?  Forget about it.)

 I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

it's official

This morning we were sworn in as Nica 54 volunteers which means tomorrow I'm off to Teustepe for the next two years.  We sang the anthems of Nicaragua and the USA and the ambassador made a really wonderful speech.  Our host families came to the ceremony in Managua which was great but definitely caused a few tears officially saying goodbye.  My training town is planning on coming back to Santa Teresa to ring in 2011 so it was really only a "see ya soon".

To be honest, I'm a little nervous about moving to my site because until the beginning of February, I won't really have a set schedule of things to do because that's when school starts.  In December and January, I'll have to start a garden and tree nursery and form a youth group... I'll have work, but informally.  I've been so used to having jam-packed days in the last 3 months so the next 2 will be a huge change of pace.  I'm sure I'll get a lot of reading in and in the beginning of January, I'll move into my own house and want to paint fun murals on the walls.

Tonight we are going to the director of Peace Corps Nicaragua's house for an early Thanksgiving dinner... yum.  Thursday I'll be in site (so not celebrating Thanksgiving) but my host nephew is turning 1 so there will be some sort of Nica party.  Piñatas are a sure thing.  I gotta say, though, mom's stuffing and mashed will be sorely missed, as well as Aunt Joan's ice box cake and most importantly, the football game.  We already have a Skype date set up so I'll probably be shown all the delicious food through the computer screen and will realize that gallo pinto (although delish) has nothing on homemade Thanksgiving dinner.

I really can't tell you how much I appreciate all the support and constant words of encouragement you give through my blog, facebook, phone, letters, e-mail, you name it.  Love and miss all you dedicated readers!

go environment

Just a quick note to show you our final youth group project.  We had our ceremony this afternoon with the other 5 training towns to present what we have been working on for the past few months.  We hammered holes in all of the bottle caps and sewed them one by one onto the rice/coffee bags using thick string... pretty time consuming but well worth it!

Not All Trash Is Trash

I guess I'm a little biased, but I think our project was the best of everyone's.  Other groups made bracelets out of plastic bags, piñatas, change purses out of chip bags and zippers, and a small "house" out of 3 liter soda bottles.  We're hoping to hang it in the park in Santa Teresa on Wednesday.

fun news

I know this is long overdue but it’s been a busy couple of weeks.  Last Friday I found out where I’ll be living for the next 2 years – Teustepe, Boaco!  (I’ll explain more in a bit..)  On Saturday, I went to La Boquita, a beach in Carazo, with the others in my training town.  It took about 1 hour to get there and it was absolutely beautiful.  There were horses and hammocks and other foreigners.  Pictures below…

While waiting for the bus to go back to Carazo, I saw the most shocking/disgusting thing so far here in Nicaragua.  We heard terrible squealing sounds in the distance for about 10 minutes so of course we knew a pig was being slaughtered.  What we weren’t prepared for was the small car that drove down from the campo to the main road with the dead (huge) pig in the bag, taking up the entire floor and going #2 at the same time.  And yes, he was already dead.  Pobrecito cerdo (translation: poor pig).

Saturday night I went to a quince anos for the cousin of a guy who lives in Santa Teresa.  Talk about Nica hospitality—we just met the guy that day at the beach and he immediately called up his cousin so see it was okay if we came to the party.  It was a great time with tons of loud music and delicious food.

Sunday was the Hipica in Santa Teresa so another eventful day.  Each town in Nicaragua has an Hipica once a year.  It’s when hundreds of people come to ride/watch horses and of course, listen to live music all day long.  Below is a picture of the queen of the Hipica.

At night, I went to a fiesta with my host sister and cousins at a club in town.  The Nica goup, Fusion 4, played for 5 hours which meant a ton of dancing and realling sore thighs the next day.

Ok, now to the exciting info… Tuesday my entire Nica 54 group, Environmental and TEFL, left for Managua and stayed there for the night at a hotel close to the Peace Corps office.  I went to the mall and ate a delicious turkey sandwich from Quiznos then saw a movie in a really nice theater.  That quick snap back to “American life” was a little bit of a shock.  At 6:30 Wednesday morning, I headed to one of the bus stops in Managua via taxi to take the 1 ½ hour bus ride to Teustepe for a 6 day site visit, soon to be my new home!!

My new host family is wonderful and welcomed me that night with a pinata even though they thought I wouldn’t be there until the next day.  

I can’t wait to live with them for 6 weeks.  (I’ll officially be moving in on November 23)  My host mom, Rosibel, is 64 and my host dad, Umberto, is 72 and they have 6 kids, ages 21-42  One daughter, Soreida, has a 6 year old boy who is adorable and loves telling my scary stories and playing soccer.  One son, Norman, also has a boy, Hector, who will be 1 yr old on Thanksgiving.  Norman asked me my religion and after saying Catholic, he said, “Oh, so you like the fiestas.”  Apprently Catholics are much more fun than Evangelicals, the other promiment religion in Nicaragua.  I knew I was confirmed for a reason.  Soreida, her son, Norman, his wife and their son all live in a house a half block from my host mom and also own a pulperia.  The 30 year old daugher, Noehlia, works at the pulperia and is a great conversationalist which means it will  be a great place to go to in my free afternoons.  The 21 year old, Danuyzca, will graduate this year with a degree in business administration.  The 42 year old daughter, Fatima, is a teacher at the high school and there other son lives next door and works at the health center in town.  It’s super fun having so many people around all the time because they are constantly talking and listening to music at full volume. 

To top it off, Teustepe is gorgeous.  Below is a pic from my tiny bedroom’s window.

Their backyard has coconut, banana, mango, lemon, and orange trees, and avocado trees were recently planted.  There are 5 parrots, 3 turtles, a rabbit, 6 or 7 chickens, a dog (Jerry), and a goat.  There’s also a frog, “Principe”, who isn’t exactly a pet but presents himself nicely in the house and zaps all the mosquitoes.  There’s an amazing hammock underneath one of the coconut trees which I layed in for 1 hour writing this post.

In Teustepe, there’s a beautiful park with a basketball court, an AC-ed internet café (!), four or five restaurants, and a baseball stadium.  

I already met with the mayor, the delegate of the Ministry of Education, my counterparts, and a ton of teachers.  One school I’ll be working in is one block from my host family’s house and it has about 300 students with 11 teachers.  There’s another basketball court at the school.  I’ll be working with 2 teachers there, one of whom I already met.  The other two schools are in 2 of the 60 communities surrounding Teustepe.  One is in El Crucero, about 2 km from town, called Hermandad Finladia.  There are 3 teachers and I’ll be working in one class of 3^rd and 4^th graders, and another of 5^th and 6^th graders.  To get to the school using the shortest route, I have to cross a river but because it’s the end of rainy season, the river is too high so I took a taxi (50 cents) to visit it.  The other school is in Aguas Calientes and is about a 5 km walk from Teustepe and a little trickier to get to.  I walked there with the sub-director and it took about 40 minutes from El Crucero.  We crossed 3 rivers which meant I was knee deep in water a few times to get to school.  Thank God for Chacos.  If the oxen in Oregon Trail can forge the river, so can I.  The great part is that the teachers and students are fantastic!  There are only 2 classes, one of 1^st-3^rd graders, and the other of 4^th-6^th graders, with about 20 kids in each.  I’ll only be going there one time per week so that 10 km walk won’t be too brutal.

I’m sure you can tell (if you’re still reading at this point.. sorry the post is incredibly long), that I’m so, so happy with my site placement.  The volunteer before me sold me all her things so I won’t have to go bed and stove searching.  She said there’s a strong interest in sports so I’m hoping to do a lot with that.  There’s also a small library in town and the librarian already has reading/writing/craft sessions every Tuesday and Thursday.

Here’s my new address:

Meghan Wischusen

Apartado Postal 23, Boaco

Boaco, Nicaragua

Central America

The post office is in the city of Boaco which is know as the city of two floors and is only 30 minutes away.  I visited on Monday with my host sister and nephw.  I’ve gotta say, it’s a real close competition between Italy and Boaco when it comes to beauty.  The streets are just like San Fran… very, very steep.  There are 5 other Environmental volunteers in the region of Boaco as well as two TEFLers and a couple Small Business.  So, if I need an English break, I’m only a bus ride away!

What I’m basically trying to say with all this rambling is that I’m living in a perfect location for visitors come February  J  I’m 1 ½ hours from Managua and about 2 from Masaya, Leon, and Granada.  Start booking your tickets!!  I can’t talk off from school but the beauty of being a teacher is holidays and weekends.

Can you even believe it’s already been 2 ½ months??