... these are the thoughts and updates on my life as I begin my 27 month service as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Nicaragua in the health sector, "Estilo de la vida saluable.." This is for my family, closest friends, anyone interested in the Peace Corps, or anyone interested in Nicaragua really. Enjoy!

Saturday, December 28, 2013

Happily Ever After and Holidays-Nica-Style!

…At the end of movies, it usually gives the “happily ever after” vibe. One assumes that the couple gets married, has beautiful and perfect children, and lives in their house with their white picket fences while staying madly in love the rest of their lives.
            Well, that happily ever after does not exist. That couple may gets in fights, perhaps one of their children develops a drinking problem, and maybe their house gets foreclosed on. How have I discovered this harsh reality? Well, after successfully taking down two rats in a week, I thought the war was over. However, the next night, I woke up to hear another chewing on something of mine, and this morning I saw it scurrying across my floor, taunting me. This losing mouse-war that I am in is representative of the bigger picture; there is never a happily ever-after, where everything is perfect from there on out. Life will always throw us curve balls, or rodents. Yet I don’t mind this, how stale would life be if there never existed some challenge. Sometimes we get caught up in the current problems of our lives, obsessed with the idea that “when we fix this, everything will be ok forever.” It won’t. I guess the take-home lesson is that one way or another, there are solutions to our problems, but there is no solution to ALL of our problems for the rest of our lives, nor will we ever stop having problems. No matter how big or small, we have to be able to cope with them. As far my problem of a few mice in my room, I’ll deal with it. As long as I avoid getting cholera or leptospirosis.

            I used to say San Fernando only had room for only one gringo, but these last three months have taught me otherwise. Although it is a little town, there are still undiscovered nooks and untapped social circles. San Fernando is a very religious town (like the majority of towns in Nicaragua), and has an orphanage run by a catholic convent of nuns.  I didn’t even really know about the orphanage until one of the nuns became my pupil in the community English class that I started up in April, and was always accompanied by three young girls from the orphanage. I saw them always come out of a building, and I guessed that the younger girls with them weren’t quite nuns yet. Sor Daisy called me the other day and told me they would be having someone from the states staying with them, and would love if I would orient her, since she was still learning the Spanish language. It has been quite the treat having a padawon in my town, Her name is Anna, she is a 19 year-old from a small town in upstate New York. She had done volunteer work the organization Mission of Hope in Nicaragua twice before while in high school, and volunteered for three months in Africa after graduating high school. After doing one semester and realizing that her heart wasn’t in it, she wanted to explore other options. Mission of Hope suggested for her to volunteer at a small orphanage run by nuns in a small town in northern Nicaragua for a semester to figure things out, and here she is.  What a random, small world we live in. I’ve gotten her and the nuns in the habit of walking with me every morning in their tennis shoes and nun-attire, thus inspiring the phrase- “nuns in action!” and I’ve gotten to see what wonderful work these two women do for the fifteen children living in the home. It is eye-opening to see how delicate children are, but how resilient they can be. I am so thankful for people like Sor Delia and Sor Deisy, who have dedicated their lives to giving a family and safe home to children that would otherwise not have either of these things. Many people would not choose to be a nun caring for children at an orphanage in rural Nicaragua, but they did. It’s pretty cool that each one of us have our own special niche in this world; otherwise we’d all be astronauts or firefighters.
            We always hear our elders telling us to enjoy our youth, because then you blink and the next thing you know you are 35 years old with a mortgage, and then you blink again and you are 76 years old and you are waving your cane at the neighbors’ kids, yelling at them to get off your lawn. It’s true!!! Time flies. Before entering Peace Corps, I was mortified at the thought of a 27-month commitment, at least 1/20th of my life. The first three months of training stretched as if they were an eternity, and my first year definitely had some “No way am I do xx more months of this.” However, I found a groove, made a second home, and before I knew it, the end was near. My group, Nica 58, just had our Close of Service (COS) Conference, and we all become very aware of our PC mortality. COS Conference is for the PCV that are about to end their service, and its focus is to prepare volunteers on how to wrap up their projects, so that when the time of departure comes, they are ready to “re-enter” life in the States, and not start every sentence with “This one time, I was in Peace Corps…” It was very surreal to be sitting in a conference room with my group, discussing the end of our service, when it feels like yesterday was January 2012, and we were in Washington D.C., nervous about our departure. El tiempo vuela (Time flies).
            I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!! Going home for Christmas last year was an extremely important part of my service last year, as it was my only first and only time visiting America, and being with my family that Christmas meant the world to me. However, due to a Turkish wedding (of my big brother Dean!! Congrats Dean!!), the complicated flights of Nicaragua-Turkey, lack of vacation days on my part, and my desire to have a holiday in Nicaraguan, this year Christmas was spent in-country, Nica-style! I was excited to see how Christmas is done in a tropical country where Santa cannot afford extravagancies. Vacations started for all government workers (meaning my co-workers at the health center, trash pick-up workers, mayor’s offices, etc) on Friday December 20, and will last until January 6, which is “Dia de Los Reyes.” I hope not too many people get sick at the same time over this time period, because we’ve got only 1 doctor and 1 nurse on call in my town of 10,000 people. Regardless, the town was becoming festive. The church put on plays in the park, re-enacting biblical scenes, carolers could be heard singing, and some townspeople decorated their houses with lights and nativity scenes. The main day of celebration here is not the 25th, but the 24th. We awoke this Christmas Eve day with the roaring of the pick-up truck and 12-year old Jeison prodding me with a machete, telling me it was time to get the Christmas tree. The elder son, Oswaldo, drove the pick-up truck through the rough and unpaved road to their mountain property while 6-6-year old Drixana tried to impress me with her truck-riding skills but not holding on the handles in the back. Impress me, no- She succeeded in terrifying me. I could picture the headlines… “Peace Corps Volunteer lets host-sister fly out of truck Christmas Eve. Machete Involved..”
            We made to our very Nicaraguan version of a Christmas tree farm, called the forest, and picked out trees for the family. We brought them home, and decorated them with whatever few ornaments we had, balloons, and scattered sawdust around the bottom. With extra branches, my family decorated outside pillars with the extra branches, and created their own nativity scene, with a baby Jesus that was to be unveiled at midnight the 24th going into the 25th. Gifts can be given on this day, but in many families they are not expected. In the case of my family of four children, the only gifts they received were a “monopolio” board from me, and a few dolls from an aunt. It was a very different feel from when I was a child, and my siblings and I fought over which child had more presents under the tree, but it was Christmas none-the-less. Instead of presents-galore, the mantra of a Nicaraguan Christmas is “Nacatamales until you burst!” A nacatamale is like a homemade hot pocket, with pork stuffed into crust of corn meal and lard infused with spices and wrapped in a banana leaf. These nacatamales require quite a bit of preparation, and the women are frantically working all day the 24th to whip out the required production. There are also the traditional foods of “gallina rellena” (chicken stuffed with pork and minced veggies) and “lomo relleno” (pork back-strap stuff with minced chicken and veggies); I was a big fan of these traditional foods and the irony of stuffing one dead animal with the meat of another dead animal. They both were delicious! The night of the 24th, there was an 8o’clock church service, followed by religious activities in the park, and then everyone goes to house parties to wait for the birth of Jesus! This felt more like New Year’s Eve to me than Christmas Eve, because at 12o’clock sharp, we began cheering and fireworks went off to celebrate! Since everyone stays up celebrating the 24th, the 25th is the lower-key day of the two, and many use this day to nurse their hangovers by eating leftover nacatamales. Thanks to a surprise present of pancake batter (one has to go to the city capital for some Mrs. Butters) from another PCV, I was able to preserve my US family’s tradition of pancakes on Christmas morning, and we made banana pancakes for the entire family, extended family, and even a few neighbors. Even without presents and snow (and my beloved US family near, who I was able to talk to J), my very Nica Christmas was an amazing experience, one that I will never forget. I can’t wait to see what New Year’s is like- rumor has it that explosive rag-dolls are involved…




Friday, December 13, 2013

Letter to a future volunteer...

My boss recently asked if we would be willing to write letters for recent Peace Corps Nicaragua invitees.. This is a letter for individuals who have gotten an invitation to serve as a PC volunteer in Nicaragua in the health sector, and have accepted. This is for all of you considering Peace Corps, regardless of sector or country, or for those curious of a senior Peace Corps volunteer's reflective thoughts on her service and her advice potential newbies...


Dear future PC Volunteer,

            The fact that you are reading this little booklet tells me a few things about you. First, you are ready for the adventure of a lifetime- why else would you have signed up to leave behind the conventional comforts of the developed world to dedicate 27 months of service in Nicaragua, a raw tropical beauty, yet possibly quite unfamiliar to you. Second, you are determined- the application process, with its interviews, medical reviews, and stacks-upon-stacks of paperwork, is not for the weak-hearted, and you have successfully stuck it out. Third, you are a qualified individual- you have been selected to join the Peace Corps family because of your determination and positive attributes that you have displayed throughout the application process, and since no one has the exact credentials that you have, no one is ever going to be a Peace Corps volunteer just like you; the possibilities of your service in Nicaragua are endless.

            So, what are the next steps from here? When I accepted my invitation and got a ton of information, I began to feel overwhelmed thinking about my 27-month commitment. Try not to in terms of your entire Peace Corps Service, but instead take it month-by-month, or week-by-week. Depending of your departure date, you will have months or weeks between now and your staging event- this time is best used enjoying the luxuries of America and focusing on the relationships that you have there, versus obsessing over the unknown. Nicaragua has an amazingly rich history that you will learn and appreciate all the more once you have lived here, no amount of research on Nicaragua’s past will replace what this country will teach you through conversations with those who have lived it. Therefore, for now, do a little reading, make sure you can find Nicaragua on a map, but focus on preparing yourself to leave your home and the relationships and rituals that are with it. Spend quality time with friends and family, for you may not see them for the next couple years. Find time to do those little things that you have always wanted to do, such as take that four hour drive to visit a loved one, visit that new cafĂ© on your street, or try out that new yoga class. In my case, I started guitar lessons my last three months in America, and now, I can bless Nicaraguan ears strumming my four cord repertoire. Once again, this time should be focused on you and fortifying the relationships important to you, so that when you leave, you won’t be leaving loved ones behind, but bringing them with you on this adventure through emails, letters, phone calls, or smoke-signals.

            When your staging date finally arrives, you will meet an amazing group of people who are distinct from you in background and credentials, but similar to you in their motivation to help others and thirst for adventure. Even though you do not know each other well (yet!), these people will be one of your strongest support networks from the moment you board that Managua-bound plane and beyond. Those first three months of training will be focused on teaching you Spanish (don’t fret, you’ll learn it!), preparing you to be a health educator and adapting you culturally to Nicaragua. I remember being nervous before coming, thinking that my background did not sufficiently qualify me to teach Nicaraguans about HIV or other sexually transmitted diseases, the risks of adolescent pregnancy, or other health topics. However, once you get here, you will meet our qualified health program leaders (our bosses!), other PCVS, and Nicaraguan professionals that will teach you about the health sector, all of the health topics, and dynamic ways to teach each one. By the end of training, you will feel qualified and ready to become a community health promoter and educator, wherever your site may be!

            Once you become an official volunteer, your service is completely shaped by you. Some activities I do as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Health Sector are: I co-teach classes with Nicaraguan teachers to students about sexual and reproductive health, I host soccer tournaments that have an educational component to promote healthy lifestyle choices for youth, or I give training sessions volunteer community health workers on health topics such as proper hand-washing, dental hygiene, dengue prevention, or how to have a healthy pregnancy. Another project I have enjoyed is surveying migrant coffee pickers in regards to their HIV knowledge and condom use. I go to huge coffee farms (some as big as 500 acres!), where thousands of coffee workers migrate from all over the country, and I one-on-one assess their sexual health knowledge, and afterwards give sexual health education and condom demonstrations to groups of workers. One of the beauties of Peace Corps is that no one will ever have a service like yours. Whatever your interests and abilities are, you can capitalize on them to enjoy your service to the fullest and fulfill your potential!

            Your 27 months will also consist of getting completely immersing yourself in another culture and will be an invaluable experience that is unparalleled and irreplaceable. You will learn Spanish, make new friends, and create a home for yourself. In the meantime, I suggest you try not to make too many expectations. Like I said, your experience will be totally unique to you, and in Peace Corps, expectations function to close your mind to the numerous opportunities that await you.

            You are going to become part the Peace Corps Nicaragua family, and we couldn’t be happier to have you! Each one of us has our own special story and we are so excited to meet you and watch you create yours.

Sincerely,

Helen Schafer

Nica 58 (2012-2014)