I had good intentions to post, it has been on my to-do list for several months now…but, no excuses. Here’s a recap of what I’ve been up to, in no particular order…
1. Pizza making: I’ve been cooking a lot more, making pizza, mango pie, samoas and curries among other things. Finally got a gas tank, so I have been cooking for myself. Although I was excited about this at first, it has been hard budgeting myself to eating for less than a $1.50 a day. I am also missing my beans and crema…I might go back to eating Nica with my host family 24/7.
2. Vaccination campaign: Handed out pills and counted kiddies for two weeks straight. I’m always amazed by how my people are hidden in the hills of my municipality…
3. Semana Santa on the lake: Visited my friend Ellie at her site. We built a beach shack with her youth group, finished two seasons of Friday Night Lights, and had cocktails every evening at sunset while sitting on the wash racks in lake. Overall, very low key and relaxing and safe. Semana Santa is notoriously dangerous (think Memorial Day weekend, Fourth of July and Labor Day combined, drunk drivers, drowning and shooting galore).
4. Economics Class: Taking a class by correspondence and studying for my midterm right now. Once I get this done, the GRE is next. Still working on the life plan, I would like to start applying for public policy/public affairs/international development programs this fall but I don’t know if I will be ready. Maybe it would be best to get another year of work experience? I wouldn’t mind doing another year working abroad in development, but probably not for Peace Corps. Although I know a lot of people who are extending, the benefits are much better if you extend. Most people choose to transfer to an urban site and do more regional coordinating activities and get paid more. Or you can choose to transfer to another country (I hear Colombia is opening this fall). I’m just not sure I am totally in sync with PC approach to development, and it would be nice to get another perspective. I have learned so much throughout my service, but living in a small isolated community can also be a little limiting and under stimulating.
5. Trash bag collection: Remember making chains out of gum wrappers when you were a kid? Well, translate that same concept to chip bags, other wrappers and garbage. Make the chain long enough and then you can sew it into a purse. I had learned how to do this a long time ago and thought it sounded extremely tedious and the final products were kind of tacky. But then my project specialist mentioned it to my health director who thought this was the best thing since sliced bread and now it’s spreading like gangbusters. The objective is to make these bags with our pregnant women’s and youth groups and sell them to get funding. Plus picking up trash helps the environment and stuff. It all sounds great in theory, but man these things take forever to make. I have no patience for this. Luckily everyone else I know does. I have small children stopping me in the street wanting to learn, all the life sciences/environment classes are collecting labels and trash bags for me, I can’t go anywhere without someone asking me how they can get these bags….might turn into one of our most successful projects yet. So, cheers to participatory development. I guess I called that one wrong…
6. Teaching in La Dalia: Working with a new community and giving life skills and sexual and reproductive health classes. I think I might do a world map project with them. It’s always nice to get out into the rural areas and teach, there’s a much higher need. The kids are also much better behaved (although this might not be a good thing, I think it just means they are afraid to speak in class.)
7. Planting the garden again, starting community gardens in a couple communities as well as the casa materna.
8. Margaret visited, that was fun and relaxing. We mostly stayed at my site, but also went to the beach in Leon and Managua for a couple days
9. Work Plan making, 4 month report writing…gotta write those reports
10. Mid-Service training in Granada: Beautiful colonial city, good bonding time with my work partner and group members. Learned some new stuff, like how to promote HIV AIDS prevention with sex workers and start early childhood development classes. What a diverse job I have? Next cycle it looks like they will be expanding the program and bringing in two health groups – one solely dedicated to HIV/AIDS/STD prevention and sexual education, the other will focus on maternal, child and infant mortality. I have a large and interesting site that’s equally balanced between a fairly urban, mobile, middle class population, as well as rural communities where you deal more with extreme poverty issues like water sanitation and malnutrition (that play into maternal, infant and child mortality). Because of this, I haven’t had a hard time completing both of my work objectives. Other volunteers struggle more – if you are placed in an urban site maternal and child mortality issues tend to be lower or if you are placed in a small rural site, the need for HIV AIDS education is less of a priority. I would really like it if they placed a couple volunteers in my department next round. I have a very active community, but the area is just too big to cover. I think a municipality like mine could really benefit if someone focused on rural extension and the other stayed in the urban area.
11. Splurged and went to Fridays in Managua this weekend. Best meal I have had in Nicaragua. I have done nothing but eat this week and my exercise group has fallen apart. I flat out told the women in my group that I might not be coming for awhile because I’m lazy. I figured I would just be honest and they were amused by this because they are also very lazy. (Semi-honest, the real reason has more to do with them not letting me listen to my music and getting really sick of all the 80’s tracks). If you don’t want to do something, getting out of it is so easy here. There is no shame or guilt or need to gravel. All you need to do is start out a sentence with “Fijise que… (notice that)” and end it with some ridiculous excuse. If you’re not that creative, just say “no puedo (I can’t)” No need to explain, that should be good enough. Whomever you are speaking to will always respond “Don’t worry about it, its fine. That’s no problem!” and life will go on. That is the short and abridged version of why it’s so hard to do anything in Nicaragua.
12. Volleyball Tournament: Finally got my VAST funds to do my HIV AIDS project. That only took 5 months or so…but there was Christmas break and then a snow storm in Washington and some other things and everything got delayed (did you know they physically sent a check over land to Nicaragua? Still can’t get over that, maybe it’s generational, but this blows my mind). The tournament was a success, although a very Nica success (in other words, people who said they were going to be there didn’t show up so I pulled some random kids off the street and I think we all learned something). So glad it’s over, but since we have funds left over it’s looking like we can do it again – this time with soccer kids during the Fiestas.
13. Said goodbye to Nica 47, went to their going away party in March in San Juan del Sur. Health 52 is now in their sites, there are a couple new volunteers in my department but none close to me. We had a welcome party for them in Ocotal a few weekends back, lot’s of fun….now, I officially have less than 1 year left in service!
14. Starting to plan our regional PEPFAR conference this Wednesday. It will be a three day event in Matagalpa organized by all the Health 49 volunteers in the North. We decided to work with adult male community leaders on HIVAIDS prevention, which will be a nice change of pace since I am constantly surrounded by women and children. Very exciting…
15. Rainy season has come again! Favorite time of the year! If you are planning trips to Nicaragua I personally recommend coming April through September (although anytime is great, come visit me pretty pretty please!!!). Enough rain to make it green, but not so much that it floods or gets cold.
16. I posted some new pictures from the last year on picasa. Disclaimer: Since my camera is big and bulky and has a scratch on the lens, I hate taking it with me and most of these photos have been stolen from my friends, but I figured you still might like looking at them. http://picasaweb.google.com/elisa.poquette
17. And finally….100 thanks to everyone who donated to the International Book Project! The shipment should be coming in soon, I’ll post photos when it gets here.
