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Published: October 25th 2008
Good god, time here is literally flying. In less than a month I will be done with training and out in the middle of nowhere! Okay, so not really the middle of nowhere. I mean, come on, not counting the lakes, Nica is smaller than my home state. And there are something like 200 volunteers scattered throughout. So “middle of nowhere” has to be put into context. Will find out next week where I’ll be living for the next two years. Am hoping to be in a community higher in the mountains where the primary crop is coffee… but more on that if it happens.
Learning all number of things about sustainable rural development and food security.
The ground is so fertile with all of the volcanoes, but there is absolutely no infrastructure so everything is exported… mostly to Costa Rica, where it is packaged and, often times, sold back to the farmers in Nicaragua at 4x the price. Also, most people with any education or possibilities immediately move to Costa Rica because there are more opportunities and more money.
Am very interested in working with other NGO’s here in Nica and working on eco-tourism. Will know more possibilities when I am told my future site. No matter where my APCD places me, will begin working to create youth groups , to organize sports teams, teach English, paint world maps in the community, and work toward creating community banks. If I’m put in a coffee growing region, the harvest is beginning now and will last until February, at least, so even with limited Spanish I can immediately jump in and help pick coffee beans - every hand will be needed. Will live with another host family for at least the first 6 weeks in site and then find my own house in the community… where I will plant my own garden, start my own protein banks with marango trees, and get my own lombriculturas going.
Am excited to put to use all of the ideas and projects that we’ve been learning… and to actually use all of the technical Spanish that we’ve been learning!
So, have my work cut out for me in the coming years! That said, though, couldn’t ask for a more beautiful country or more a more awesome people… the farming families are hospitable - there’s always enough gallopinto and coffee to go around - hard working, rugged, hardy, and extremely opinionated - mostly about politics and about America.
On a more personal, hygienic note…. the water that comes out of coconuts? Yeah, that’ll clean your system right out. My lovely bout with diarrhea only lasted 36 hours. I never did take any medicine; just let it ride out. And apparently it was due to the large glass of coconut water that I drank on Sunday afternoon when we were making our cajetas de coco with our youth group… which, by the way, was a success! We made 330 of them and sold out within 30 minutes! Our group is awesome and motivated and our product obviously rocked… unlike some of the other groups… we lucked out.
Ha. Giving a charla to them tomorrow with the theme “sexualidad”. Iowa, Vtech and I made the mistake of asking our group of 16-21 year olds what they wanted the next charla to be about… and of course they chose the most awkward topic for three crappy Spanish speakers to give. So we’re doing HIV/AIDS …. myths and facts, ways you can and cannot contract VIH, and prevention methods, including abstinence and a condom demonstration using green bananas that mi padre sells. Will write an update of how it went after tomorrow afternoon.
25 Oct 2008
Youth Group update: Our jovenes rocked the mic right with the sexualidad charla. They did great with all of it, were totally involved, and already knew a helluva lot about hiv/aids; no hay problema with the topic for our students.
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Mom
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Oh, Molly, we just hope that your days are really as fun and as involved as your absorbing writings lead us to believe! You sound like you're really INTO your life/job. So, you won't be with the same youth, other trainees, host family.......soon. Whoa! You are going to miss them! Time to get out the camera! XO