the second list

Below is a list of a handful (or 2) of the things I have learned since living in Nicaragua for 1 year.

1.     Converse sneakers are not meant for unpaved roads, particularly paths where it’s difficult to distinguish mud and cow poop.

2.     Mosquito nets are invaluable.

3.     How to take a bucket bath and actually feel clean afterwards

4.     Spanish!

5.     There are countless crafts you can make using “trash”.

6.     Spiders really aren’t that scary, but snakes are.

7.     How to ride a horse

8.     Knowing when it’s going to rain and, therefore, not a good time to do laundry.  Oh, and hand-washing laundry.

9.     The importance of asking at least 2 people if the bus I am about to take is going to my destination

10. How to grow a garden J

11. Why people walk with an umbrella in NYC when it’s not raining

12. Nicaraguans are so incredibly welcoming.

13. Rocking chairs are essential to relaxing (although a comfortable couch would be nice once in a while)

14. 2:00 means 3:00

15. Money definitely does not buy happiness.

The list after 2 years of living here hopefully will begin with “learning how to dance”.

Mochilas!

Third grade students creating a poster of their community
using the donated school supplies after a class on what
makes up our environment.

After lots of supply shifting in my parents' basement before I came back to Nicaragua in July, we filled two suitcases... one with 33 backpacks and one with pencils galore.  Well, I can't tell you how incredibly happy these kids are to receive backpacks.  Below is a picture from students in Aguas Calientes, proudly sporting their new look.  The first grade boy, Jesús Alberto, hadn't been coming to school for the past month and a half because he didn't have a book bag.  His teacher delivered him his backpack and the very next day he started studying again.

The pencils, are just as much of a hit.  Today, I brought about 75 pencils to the school in Las Limas.  The teacher handed out one pencil to each student at the beginning of the day.  While watering the garden, one boy showed me his tuani (cool) pencil that had "Happy Halloween"written on it with pumpkins.  That sparked the conversation of what Halloween is and how it is celebrated in the US.  The group of students were amazed that on this day we go from house to house asking for candy.  (It is a pretty great tradition.)  Something as small as a pencil can be the perfect way to share American culture.

Jesús Alberto, Maryuris, Kenia, Luvy, and Mariana
1st-3rd multi-grade students

Some other updates... I am now co-planning with my teachers, which means I go to each of their houses weekly to plan the lesson for the following day.  Although it's much more time consuming, it's been a good way to personally get to know each teacher and have conversation outside of the classroom.

My women's group and I are sewing shoulder bags using material from used clothing.  Well, I haven't exactly made one yet but I did learn how to sew on a foot pedal sewing machine after 2 weeks of trying.  So far we've sold 5 at $2.50 each.  If we sell 40, we'll be able to buy another bookstand for the library to hold the mountains of books that are currently in cardboard boxes and on a folding table.

Last weekend, I went to the Miss Nicaragua pageant at the Ruben Dario Theatre in Managua because a girl from my town represented the region of Boaco.  16 other people from Teustepe and I fit in one pick-up truck to support her.  I was squeezed semi-comfortably in the back of the truck with 10 others on the way there, even though there was a ton of wind and a slight drizzle.  It was a hilarious ride on the way home with 13 of us in the back, holding the banner we had made over our heads to protect us from the 20 minutes of pouring down rain.  I can't wait to do it again.

14 more days until it will be one year in Nicaragua!

One of the cutest boys I've ever seen wrapping a trompo, 
the huge fad right now in Nicaragua.

Veggies

Deserving of its very own post…. We have fruit!  Lots of cucumber and a few pipian (squash-type veggie) are growing in three school gardens.  Having students run up to me on the road to recount this thrilling news has made the torn shirts from barbed wire, buckets of sweat, and countless ant bites completely worth it.

And my 3 favorite answers to the questions, “How were the two weeks of vacation?  What did you do?”

1.     Great.  I ate a lot of boiled corn!

2.     Fun!  I got to take showers in the rain.

3.     Excellent.  Nothing.

1-2

2 months without a post… oops!  I’ll try to stick to just explaining the exciting things that have happened.

First, thank you SO much to everyone who donated school supplies and backpacks, especially those at Bloomingdale School and the Scotch Plains Brownie Troop.  During my one week, wonderful vacation at home in July, I was able to meet some of the Brownies and see the incredible effort everyone has been putting forth to help out my students.  My parents’ basement is chock-full with supplies so now we’re trying to figure out how to get all of it to Teustepe.  I was able to carry two suitcases back to Nicaragua, one full of 30 backpacks and the other with pencils, crayons, and markers.  Can’t wait to give them to the kids!  (There’s still probably about 450 pounds of supplies waiting to get transported.)

I’m currently taking advantage of the excellent Amigos de las Americas volunteers to create another world map on the outside wall of the school in El Crucero.  These four high school students/graduates have been living in Nicaragua for the past month, working with the youth in their community to create media projects.  In their spare time, they’ve been helping me draw and paint what is soon to be an amazing, huge world map. 

After months of practice, the high school softball team I’m am the assistant coach for finally had its first game.  What better way to start the season than at Nationals?  We were instructed to meet at the high school at 7:00 AM on Wednesday morning to arrive in Managua at 9:00.  I should have known that 7:00 Nica time really meant 8:30, which was when we hit the road.  Representing the department of Boaco, we played our first game that afternoon against the department of Carazo and won 17-4!  All of the softball teams stayed at IND (Instituto Nacional de Deportes) in dorm style rooms.  We had the bad luck of getting placed in the building without running water.  Solution?  Wake up at 3:00 AM when it was pitch black outside to bathe ourselves by filling and dumping bottles of water over our bodies from washbasins in the open air.  I first nixed the idea of getting up at 3 in the morning but after some raised eyebrows from the girls, I, too, stripped down in the dark to get clean before the construction workers started their day next door.  Talk about adapting to the situation…  Unfortunately on day two, we lost 2 consecutive games versus the departments of Chinandega and Rivas and were sent home.  Season record: 1-2.

Next week, my regular schedule will start up again which I’m looking forward to (although I wouldn’t have minded to have the lovely company and delicious food in NJ for a few more days).  I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the school gardens are still green and growing.  My women’s group just bought a sewing machine with the money we earned from selling our earrings and our next project is making shoulder bags and purses from fabric scraps and chip bags.  My next feat is to learn how to use a sewing machine with a foot pedal.  It’s not as easy as it looks.

Tomorrow is the party that my Nica friends organized to celebrate my 24^th birthday!