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Published: September 27th 2008
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vivero at my house
the guys and me with our bags of marango, palm... and other trees that i only know the spanish names for.... Saturday
9-27 11.00am
OMG don´t know why I sat down here to use the internet when I have to pee so badly.... but oh well, will have to wait.
So I´M FREEEE! No hay clase today or tomorrow! My first free weekend in Nicaragua! Normally we have technical sessions on Saturdays and projects on Sundays and class and technicos all the rest of the week, but I´m freeeeeee! And I have no idea what to do with myself haha oh, the irony.
Yesterday we had, as per usual, our full Friday of charlas and classes at the AgroForestry school. Fridays are mostly all in English with charlas from current PCV´s, medical officers, our trainers, our bosses, etc. For ejemplo, yesterday we started off with a charla about Gender and Sexuality from 8am-10. Then from 10-noon a charla about Cultural Adjustment and culture shock. Not exactly new stuff for me, having gone to a women´s university and lived in China... fine with gender stuff and talking about my feelings with cultural stuff, hello anthropology and Bryn Mawr processing.
Lunch from noon-1.30... which is a really long lunch. We eat at the school, usually rice, chicken, beans, and refresco
preparing dirt for our viveros
see that little yellowishbrown ball next to the tire of the wheelbarrow? that´s a mango. possibly a mango that i´m allergic to. they´re everywhere! of some kind. Because lunch takes so long, we aspirantes meet afterward and have our Community Bank meeting.
1.30 we had more vaccinations and, while individuals were getting their last rabies vaccines, we were having a charla with the head of Safety and Security in Nica for the Corps.... learning how to prevent theft, assult, etc. about the importance of telling the PC when we are going out of site so they can find us in case of an emergency, how not to get involved in demonstrations as municipal elections are coming up and there will be protests and riots, etc. Got briefed on how emergency stuff works, again, and briefed on the happenings in Bolivia, Venezuela, Honduras, and possibly Nicaragua.
A bit about that.... So the current president here, Daniel Ortega, is a Sandanista - the same party that was responsible for the revolutions in the 80´s and during the Contra Wars with Reagan and the US.... and Ortega is great friends with Chavez and Morales... whom are, obviously, not friends with the USA. Venezuela and Bolivia kicked out the American ambassadors a couple of weeks ago and, subsequently, the PC pulled out of Bolivia. All PCV´s
mixing
mixing abono, or compost, with sand and ashes to form good dirt for our vivero at my house were evacuated to Peru... I believe there 130. About 60 of them decided to end their service and go back to the States, but the other 70ish are continuing their service, but in other Latin American countries. They get to choose the country and program. We are receiving 2 volunteers from Bolivia into our training group. Although they were already in service for 6 months and won´t need language classes or all the training, they do need to learn about agriculture in Nicaragua and get used to Nican culture.... they arrive on the 10th of October, or so they told us.
So, after our charla with Safety and Security, we had a charla with the doctors about sexual assault, rape, and what to do and whom to contact if, ojala no, something should happen. We watched a video with interviews with volunteers who bravely came forward to tell their stories of rape and assault... it was an intense charla.
We ended at about 5pm... and we all went to the restaurant where one of us lives and had a few beers and enjoyed being free on a Friday night with nada to do Saturday morning! Got home after
virginiatech, iowa, and me
mis compañeros and me with our vivero, or approximately 50 black bags of tree seeds that should sprout into seedlings and then be able to be transplanted dark at 6.30pm, had dinner, watched the telenovela and rocked the baby, JJ, to sleep and chatted with my sobrina, Xilonem, and went to bed at 9.00pm. Up late at 6.30 this morning.... usually up at 5.30.
And now I´m here! Took the bus by myself, got off early and walked down Avenida Central in Esteli, enjoying being on my own and free on a Saturday... ran into a PCV who gave us a charla a few weeks ago, she was on her way to the bank, and came to my favorite internet place next to Central Park... and ran into a bunch of my fellow aspirantes here!
So, that, in a nutshell, is roughly how most of my sessiones technicos go on Fridays during training.
............
a couple of hours later..
Ah pizza, some kind of weird ´tea¨ which who knows what it really was.... and a bathroom. Life is much better. Called home and talked to mom, which was good for both of us... and then I called Laura Beth... and, haha predictably she was at an LSU tailgate party! I LOVE YOU TITAN!
It is ridiculously cheap to call the States from here. As in, I can talk for about 40 minutes for a dollar. A dollar! Buuuut the catch, of course, is that 1. I have to get to Esteli and 2. there needs to be power... and those are two very big catches. But when I´m here! It´s a lot easier. Actually, blogging is easiest.... but phones are good, too.
Okay am going to get off of here, call home again to talk to Dad, and get home here in Nica so ... that I can go out again to celebrate our birthdays. Yesterday we celebrated the September birthdays, including that of our now 30 year old trainer, JHardCorps, with a big cake and singing and whatnot. But there are 5 of us with birthdays within 2 weeks of each other, so we´re going drinking tonight to celebrate.
The other half of us... there are 21 altogether, are on some hike to some caves or something... whatever, we have caves in Missouri. Oh, speaking of Missouri... Mom, I was on my laptop this morning and was showing Moncha photos from home and she loves your garden and flowers! She has lots and lots of flowers here, too, and was especially admiring the dark blue-purle morning glories and all the lillies, especially the tiger lillies on the rock wall on the way down toward the wood pile. Also, she was admiring th size of our wood pile as, of course, they use firewood for the kitchen stove. She´s impressed. Also impressed with the king snake and the photo of it eating the other snake.
Nicans can appreciate all that comes from the campo, or the countryside. And they think our dogs are super cute and now maybe understand a little better why I sit on the porch and call their guard dogs to me and want to pet them instead of shooing them away like they do.
Okay going to get off here and see if I can get a phone to use for a few minutes before heading home... and back...
xoxoxo
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