...Never! It has been a long time and I realize that the great wide world of blogging is not one of my strongest characteristics, but I will still attempt to shed some light on what is Peace Corps and my experience with it here in Nicaragua. I definitely have much more to talk about now that when I was in training, and I defintely have had my perspective changed...
Firstly, internet access in San Fernando is somewhat limited. Some volunteers here in Nicaragua have wifi in their houses, or can easily bring their computers to a cyber and enjoy the wifi there. However, here in San Fernando, the cyber of our town still has dial-up internet. It is a little ironic, because I can remember complaining to my mom years and years ago about what a hassle it was that we still have dial-up at our house in North Carolina. I am not complaining by any means, I am still able to write friends and family and this dial-up is actually pretty fast. I just can not use my computer, and there use facetime or other programs on my computer. Communication technology nowadays is amazing and I really would appreciate being able to see the faces of my loved ones once in awhile. Being able to talk face to face with my brosky Dean while he lives in Turkey is really an amazing thing. I guess people are just going to have to visit me then if they want to see this face!
Secondly, being in site is way different than being in training. This is my second month in site and I have had my fair share of revelations, new friendships, feelings of worthlessness and incompetence, and breakthrough moments. At this point in my life I am almost completely self-directed, which is what makes the experience of each PC volunteer so different, we can shape our service into whatever kind of service we want it to be. One thing that I have discovered in my time in training and in my site is a newfound respect for people that move to countries that speak a different language. Never be impatient with them again, it´s hard!! Being at the University of Miami, one of the most international schools in the country, I knew students from all over, Columbia, Russia, China, Venezuela, etc etc. There would be times talking with someone from a different country and would notice them stumble over words or reference how they really are trying to improve their english. I did not appreciate how hard it would be to go to a university and take classes in a foreign language, and then have a social life on top of that! I have friends here in site, but I bet if I were in the university setting (let's say I'm studying at UNAN in Leon or La UCA in Managua) I would not be the coolest girl at the parties. So here's to newfound respect, I'm never going to make fun of accents again (I was always bad at impersonating accents anyways, everything I do sounds Irish.)
I'll wrap this up with a little blurb about what I've been doing here in San Fernando. I'm a health volunteer, so that means I've been giving charlas (presentations) on subjects such as pregancy, chagas (a disease from a bug that poos in your eye and ends up causing cardiac problems 15 years down the road... this exists out in moral rural communties, San Fernando has had a few causes), HIV and AIDS (I am proud to say I've done such a good job on these charlas San Fernando currently has no reported cases of HIV!), higiene, nutrition and other health related subjects to rural communities, in my health center, and in schools. I have other secondary projects, I started a garden on my mom's birthday, so when I am eating my lettuce I feel like she helped me grow it (thanks Mom). It's great having a little garden of your own to nuture and see the fruits of your labor (or death, as in with my carrots, the little seeds just couldn't handle those heavy rains). One thing that Nicaragua has that we have lost in the United States is knowing where your food come from. People in Nicaragua (in the campo at least, I can't speak for people in the cities like Managua) eat the beans that come from their farms, or their neighbors farms, and they eat tortillas from corn that was cooked to mush (look at my facebook pictures) then ground in the town mill, and then hand shaped and cooked the next morning. In America, I would eat beans from a can from who knows where and would buy premaid tortillas with fun flavors mixed in. For the sake of time efficiency, I am not saying that everyone in America needs to sit around and cook their beans for hours over a wood burning stove (although it really does give the beans their best flavor), but I do appreciate knowing the origin of my food. With some packaged foods that we can buy nowadays, the orgins can be pretty shady. The cheese here is great as well! There are not as many flavors as I have been used to in the past, I've got the choice between queso seco (dry) or queso fresco (fresh) and I'm not quite sure what the distringuishing characteristics are. They are both white blocks, and is comparable the taste of a sharp provolone cheese. This month I have been cooking for myself, just to see if I could cook Nica food for myself and incorporate some vegetables into my diet. The family which I live with is great and the mother is a great Nicaraguan cook so I was very delicate in telling her I wanted to try out cooking for myself this month and assured her it was not because I hated her food. I hope she believes me and she seems to enjoy watching me attempt squishing beans or chopping cabbage with the speed and intensity at which she can do it. I am currently feeding myself for under seven dollars a week, if that gives you an idea of the price of things here... and my rent is 800 cordobas a month, one dollar is equal to about 22.3 cordobas, so you can calculate in my rent in dollars if you´d like. That's about equivalent to an apartment in South Beach, right? I am also in the process of fermenting my own saurkraut. Marcus, an agriculture volunteer, gave me a document titled "wild fermentation" which tellss PC volunteers how they can make their own wine, saurkraut, cheese, yogurt, and other fermentated foods. I´ll see if the saurkraut kills me before moving on to other foods. My host family probably thinks I´m crazy because I´ve had this chopped up cabbage submerged in brine sitting in the corner of my room for the past week. Other than the food industry I´ve been delving into I have also started up community English classes in San Fernando. There is an abandoned library that was built by a PC volunteer years ago that I now occupy Tuesdays and Thursdays for adults and Wednesdays and Fridays for kids. I´ve got a battered white board propped up by sacks of corn and I must admit, I was proud that I had managed to manuveur these giant sacks of corn across the building. I made the cut off 14 years of age for adults, I don´t know how I came to that conclusion but for my classes, adults are 15 years and up. I think I prefer teaching adults for the conversation, but the kids are most enthusiastic. It seems that "Nica time" (see older post) is a culturally learned characteristic because these 25+ kids are always on time, if not early. I have discovered that I enjoy teaching these classes and we will see where these classes go. A big part on the PC experience is community integration, and San Fernando is a community that is very open and accepting. However, it is possible that one could say this about any Nicaraguan community, at least that has been my experience so far. I have made some friends in the community, I am going to a wedding this weekend in Mozonte (cute little pueblo near me, it´s another PC site) with the woman across the street, weddings are always a good time with good music and dancing! I think that I am going to like dancing a lot more when I return to the US, its in their blood here. There is so much more to tell and if you would like to know more, email me, fb me, call me if you can find the number, or write me snail mail style! Other volunteers tell me mail to Nueva Segovia in´t thaaat slow, only two weeks or so.. The address is..
Helen Schafer
Correos Ocotal
Nueva Segovia, Nicaragua
Centroamerica
Every day is a new adventure and sometimes (well, lots of times) I wake up with no idea of how my day is going to play out. Stuff just happens here, or doesn´t sometimes, and you just have to go in with Plan A, B, C, and D.
-Helen
