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Buenas from the wilds of Nicaragua!

Although I blog all the time at mytb.org/mbaade, figured I would send out one of my mass emails after my first three weeks of living and training in Nicaragua with the Peace Corps.

So with the Peace Corps service is for 27 months, which includes 3 months of in country training and 24 months of service. The PC is divided up into 5 different sectors: TESOL, Environmental Education, Small Business, Health, and Agriculture.

I am part of the Agriculture sector in Nicaragua and am 3 weeks into my 11 week training period and I AM LOVING IT! We have Spanish classes every Mon-Tues-Thursday at least, from 8am-12 and then applied Spanish from 1-3pm. Most Wednesdays and all Fridays we have technical sessions and tech training... which includes EVERYTHING from how to make organic fertilizer to how to compost with vermiculture to getting proper vaccines to talking about riots, rape, machismo, the Contra wars in the 80´s, to learning the rules and regs of a US Govt program like the PC to meeting and talking with current Volunteers about their experiences to learning how to utilize medicinal plants to how to convince farmers to plant cover crops with their corn to put nitrogen back into the soil to ... to attempting to do all of this with farmers in the backcountry ... in Spanish!

The Peace Corps here in Nica is extremely organized and very well run, in my opinion. I am super happy to be a part of it.

During our 11 weeks of training we live with host families. I had a lot of trepidation regarding this point, but it is awesome. I´m the 9th aspirante that my family has hosted, so they´re pretty used to gringos and our weird ways.

My host family is awesome and consists of mi madre and padre, Moncha and Ajenor; my 11 year old neice, Xilonem; my 17 year old brother, Isaac; my 2 year old nephew, Metzelito; Metzel´s mom and my sister in law, Rebecca; and 3 month old Jordan Jose, or JJ, the most tranquilito baby I have ever met oh-my-god-he´s-adorable! There are others who are working in Costa Rica and a son who married a PCV and now lives in the States.... but they´re not regularly there.

Nica houses are usually made of concrete or adobe or cement blocks. My house is made of cement, has a large living room with leather couches and television, has 3 huge bedrooms.... but is lacking things like... running water. Oh yes, I use a latrine that I hike to up the hill, and down the hill is the baño where there is a cistern and a bucket and I take bucket showers. We go outside to do the dishes and laundry is done by hand on a concrete lavadero. The kitchen has a refrigerator and a gas stovetop, but the stove that uses firewood and cast iron pots is used much much more frequently.

But, really, life is good! The latrine that I use is not at all scary; bucket baths are very refreshing - I can literally see the steam rising off my body in the cool early morning mountain air; the food is awesome, even though I have no idea how I´ll learn to cook like she does over the fire.... Training and Spanish and commiserating with my fellow 21 trainees keeps me PLENTY busy!

I live outside of Esteli in the northern mountains. We are spaced out along the PanAmerican Hwy which, predictably, runs from Panama to the USA... but it´s just a 2 lane highway in Nica - not remotely like I thought an intercontinental hwy would be, but whatever. Right now we are in the rainy season, so it´s usually temperate in the mornings, rains in the afternoons, and gets cool enough that I use a wool blanket at night. From afar it looks a lot like home... rolling hills, forests, fields dotted with trees and fences... and then you look closer and instead of oaks next to dogwoods it´s pineapples next to guavas, bananas, coffee, oranges, passionfruits, pihtaya, starfruits, mangos, and a whole host of other things that I have no idea what they are.

My madre is an awesome cook and I love her food. It´s so good that my two bosses come to my house for lunch every day during the week, too. The main staples are rice, beans, and corn... with a lot of tomatoes, peppers, onions, tortillas, and an awesome thick white cheese they call cuajada. Some people have been having stomach problems - both from drinking non purified water and from the food... but having just come from China where I was also eating about the same food, albeit cooked and spiced differently, I haven´t had any stomach problems at all... knock on wood.

Training is intense and the dangers here are real, just as they are in the rest of the world... we´ve already had someone break a leg and be medically seperated, had several cases of severe diarrhea, had someone bit by a rabid dog, and I ended up severely allergic to SOMETHING, still don´t know what, but am fine now. Think it may´ve been the mango I ate from the tree by my baño.... but no way to figure out if that was it... I´m going to eat another one next month and see if it happens again, because if it´s NOT the mango, no way in hell I´m going to live in the land of lakes and volcanoes and fresh fruit and not partake in the mangos.

Well, I think that´s enough for now! Email is super had to come by as we´re dog tired most of the time and don´t have the time or energy to take the two busses here to Esteli often. I do blog a lot more than I email, so check it out for some photos and more updates!

adio!
-molly

ps for you spanish speakers, the S´s are totally aspirated here. Buenos dias becomes bueno dia, adios to adio, and the voseo is used here for super familiar relations... as in, y vo? instead of y Ud or y tu.

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