I think we all have lines in life. Ones to cross and ones we don’t dare even think about crossing. When I first came to Nicaragua there were a lot of lines that I had never dreamed of crossing or ever thought I would have to cross. That might be a little dramatic…but maybe it makes the story better. I had some line crossing and not crossing experiences this weekend. For example, my dear friend Henry and his two girlfriends who don’t even know about each other. I do not think I was suppose to know about the one here…but when people talk around you and they think you don’t know what they are saying you can actually pick up on some pretty good stuff. Like Henry and his multiple girlfriends. I had a slight crush on my new friend and two girlfriends is definitely a line I will never cross. The most frustrating thing is that he lied about it!! It’s not even that he lied about having a girlfriend, it’s that he seems to be the one person who I can trust and who actually wants to get to know me and he lied to me!! As much as I would really not like to talk to him for a long time I have to put it into perspective that he is probably my only friend here. When I say here, I mean in Quebrada Honda. I have actually made a lot of amazing friends they just live all over the country!! There are two girls who also teach English for Fabretto. One is located in Esteli, which is four hours from here and the other works in Somoto. They are both Nicaraguans and speak English. They are amazing women!!
Back to line walking… On Friday I decided to take a trip up to Cusmapa for the weekend to hang out with Callie. It was wonderful! When I got down to the bus stop an ambulance was going through and I decided to hitch hike my way up there. You are probably thinking I am crazy…but here I believe it is crazier to cram yourself in a bus that is 30 people over capacity, getting over charged because I am white and having to stand for over an hour. Granted it doesn’t sound that bad compared to death from hitch hiking…but that is just the way things are here. You can walk for miles and miles, wait for a bus which might not show up or you can hitch a ride. The man was very nice and funny and it was a free trip. He was saying something about his children and how he wasn’t married and something along the lines of a gringa… Maybe he proposed? I am not really sure…when situations like that happen I just say I don’t understand.
More line walking today…I have been sick with intense violent diarrhea for almost five weeks now…on and off. Well, I decided to put my foot down today and go to the doctor in Somoto. My health is not something I should walk the line with…especially here. So…went to the doctor…this one was a thousand times cleaner then the first one I had to go and see. He checked out my stomach and did an ultrasound and well…I have an infection in my intestines. Yeah…sick right? He gave me medicine then explained to me that I was going to need three shots in my ass. I had to go down the street to buy the medicine and then return with it so they could give it to me. Well the nurse/receptionist gave it to me and I really think it was probably the whitest butt she has ever seen. Turns out I need three shots all together. I have to get one more tomorrow and then on Thursday. It was my understanding I would be taken to the dirty clinic in Las Sabanas, which I guess is fine. As long as I see it is a clean needle I have nothing to worry about right? Then it was my understanding that I was going to be taken to Somoto again to get my shot. Fine! I don’t care! As long as I get it. THEN…I was told that some guy in the town in going to do it. THERE IS THE LINE!! NO! That is just what I need people talking about the gringa’s butt and how WHITE it is! Drop my pants in front of someone who works at the school…and it is not like there are confidentiality laws here!! It isn’t like I can just say no to this one either…I can say no to the salad and the juice and the water but infections…that’s just another line I won’t cross!
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
An Oasis con Polgas
As I find myself sitting and writing again. I hear my friend Callie’s choir class singing in the background. They are an amazing group. There are a lot of problems here in Nicaragua that I find myself running into. Since I live such a privileged life in this third world country I find myself getting mixed up in my own “Americanisms”, which aren’t necessarily bad but they do seem to stand in my way in keeping on track why I am here.
Today, my boss, Peter, who is one of the most amazing genuine men I have ever met explained to me that the center in Quebrada Honda has been turned into the lost child of Fabretto. Why in the world God placed me there out of all of the people in the world I can’t figure out!! It scares me to death that I have the opportunity to help turn a center around for the organization. It is mind-boggling! Which leads to me just trying to get by day in and day out with no real change…just surviving like I would in the states. Just to pass the time.
There is another group visiting our areas right now and they are the most good hearted lovely people I have ever met. They are a group from The Tin-Roof Foundation who helps with different projects here in Nicaragua. The most amazing thing I have ever seen happened this afternoon. I will get to that in one moment. The group picked me up the yesterday and I went up to Cusmapa with them where I learned about a family who lives in a house smaller then my room at my house in America. This family has seven people living in the house. The adult in the household is a woman who has children of her own and I believe some grandchildren. When Peter has spoke to her before she has said that she never learned how to read or write but she wanted her kids and her grandkids to have more of an education so she did so she takes care of all of them. Her son is on a scholarship right now attending one of the local universities and she is at home taking care of the house and the children. The children come to school everyday and I have been so wrapped up in myself that I do not even know how the children I teach live. They all come to school in uniforms so you cannot tell by looking at them individually that they might have more or less money then the student living next to them. I find it to be a good thing because I think I would try to cater to the kids who have less and that isn’t fair to anyone. While Peter was telling us this story my eyes welled up and that’s when I realized the extreme poverty I am working in. How can a person over look such a thing? I know I have been the last couple of weeks maybe because the pain is too much to bare. I mean…I cry because I miss my mom here and children are starving…but they come to school everyday with a smile on their faces. As I said goodbye to one of the woman today as they dropped me off she said “You have to go more then halfway with these people, because no matter what they are going to love you and then you are going to leave them”. She is so right. My time here is temporary but how do I really get involved with the community and make something change? People always tell you that if you can help one child then your time has been worth it…but one child doesn’t feel like enough to me. Another man who was traveling with us said that it was such a blessing to have the centers in these rural areas like we do because compared to where they live the centers are like oasis’s for the children to come and be at and have a good meal. It is also an oasis for me. If I had to stay in my tool shed all day long I would go crazy. Oh…and my boss finally admitted it was the old tool shed. It only took him three weeks. =)
The most amazing experience of my life happened today. The woman who runs the music program in Cusmapa has a young six year old child who suffered from a stroke when she was an infant. It has left her paralyzed in her left leg from the knee down. Her foot is turned in a little over 90 degrees and she can’t put weight on it at all. She has a wheelchair but how do you use a wheel chair with no sidewalks, dirt roads, no ramps, and no transportation for wheelchairs. Her mother carried her up to see the doctor in the group and he looked at her foot and said that it was fixable. Why hadn’t this been taken care of before? This is my assumption but I do not think the doctors in Cusmapa knew what to do and even if they did her mother can’t afford an operation. As the doctor told her it would be fixable and she could be walking within a year of the operation her mother bursted into tears of happiness. Her daughter told her not to cry. Due to the stress this has had on her mother she has been ill lately with headaches. The doctor also things it is linked to her worrying about her six year old daughter all of the time. I had never seen such happiness come over someone in my life. She praised God and thanked the doctor. I was in tears, so was Callie and I think my good ol’ friend Peter was a little choked up himself.
Maybe you are wondering what polgas are by now? Well polgas are fleas. I have fleas. Yes, it is not a joke it is the truth. The unfortunate truth. I think they might be in my bed. I am not sure. They are disgusting though. I mean really disgusting. I found one in my shirt the other day and showed it to my friends and they all just started laughing at me. Tomorrow I am going to wash my sheets and put my mattress in the sun and use a lot of raid in my room. It is actually pretty funny. And it is better then Malaria or Dengue Fever so I can’t really complain!! Well! Hope all is well at home and you are enjoying the snow! God Bless you all! And a very Happy Ash Wednesday!
Today, my boss, Peter, who is one of the most amazing genuine men I have ever met explained to me that the center in Quebrada Honda has been turned into the lost child of Fabretto. Why in the world God placed me there out of all of the people in the world I can’t figure out!! It scares me to death that I have the opportunity to help turn a center around for the organization. It is mind-boggling! Which leads to me just trying to get by day in and day out with no real change…just surviving like I would in the states. Just to pass the time.
There is another group visiting our areas right now and they are the most good hearted lovely people I have ever met. They are a group from The Tin-Roof Foundation who helps with different projects here in Nicaragua. The most amazing thing I have ever seen happened this afternoon. I will get to that in one moment. The group picked me up the yesterday and I went up to Cusmapa with them where I learned about a family who lives in a house smaller then my room at my house in America. This family has seven people living in the house. The adult in the household is a woman who has children of her own and I believe some grandchildren. When Peter has spoke to her before she has said that she never learned how to read or write but she wanted her kids and her grandkids to have more of an education so she did so she takes care of all of them. Her son is on a scholarship right now attending one of the local universities and she is at home taking care of the house and the children. The children come to school everyday and I have been so wrapped up in myself that I do not even know how the children I teach live. They all come to school in uniforms so you cannot tell by looking at them individually that they might have more or less money then the student living next to them. I find it to be a good thing because I think I would try to cater to the kids who have less and that isn’t fair to anyone. While Peter was telling us this story my eyes welled up and that’s when I realized the extreme poverty I am working in. How can a person over look such a thing? I know I have been the last couple of weeks maybe because the pain is too much to bare. I mean…I cry because I miss my mom here and children are starving…but they come to school everyday with a smile on their faces. As I said goodbye to one of the woman today as they dropped me off she said “You have to go more then halfway with these people, because no matter what they are going to love you and then you are going to leave them”. She is so right. My time here is temporary but how do I really get involved with the community and make something change? People always tell you that if you can help one child then your time has been worth it…but one child doesn’t feel like enough to me. Another man who was traveling with us said that it was such a blessing to have the centers in these rural areas like we do because compared to where they live the centers are like oasis’s for the children to come and be at and have a good meal. It is also an oasis for me. If I had to stay in my tool shed all day long I would go crazy. Oh…and my boss finally admitted it was the old tool shed. It only took him three weeks. =)
The most amazing experience of my life happened today. The woman who runs the music program in Cusmapa has a young six year old child who suffered from a stroke when she was an infant. It has left her paralyzed in her left leg from the knee down. Her foot is turned in a little over 90 degrees and she can’t put weight on it at all. She has a wheelchair but how do you use a wheel chair with no sidewalks, dirt roads, no ramps, and no transportation for wheelchairs. Her mother carried her up to see the doctor in the group and he looked at her foot and said that it was fixable. Why hadn’t this been taken care of before? This is my assumption but I do not think the doctors in Cusmapa knew what to do and even if they did her mother can’t afford an operation. As the doctor told her it would be fixable and she could be walking within a year of the operation her mother bursted into tears of happiness. Her daughter told her not to cry. Due to the stress this has had on her mother she has been ill lately with headaches. The doctor also things it is linked to her worrying about her six year old daughter all of the time. I had never seen such happiness come over someone in my life. She praised God and thanked the doctor. I was in tears, so was Callie and I think my good ol’ friend Peter was a little choked up himself.
Maybe you are wondering what polgas are by now? Well polgas are fleas. I have fleas. Yes, it is not a joke it is the truth. The unfortunate truth. I think they might be in my bed. I am not sure. They are disgusting though. I mean really disgusting. I found one in my shirt the other day and showed it to my friends and they all just started laughing at me. Tomorrow I am going to wash my sheets and put my mattress in the sun and use a lot of raid in my room. It is actually pretty funny. And it is better then Malaria or Dengue Fever so I can’t really complain!! Well! Hope all is well at home and you are enjoying the snow! God Bless you all! And a very Happy Ash Wednesday!
Thursday, February 15, 2007
New Developments
Wow! I cannot believe I have been able to write this much. I have been trying to write everyday. I can’t usually get my connection to keep on my computer to post but at least I am writing! I forgot how much I enjoyed writing! Today was Valentines Day. Can I tell you how much it did not feel like Valentines Day? No flowers, no candy, no afternoon party in the classrooms, nothing!! It is fine with me—I was the girl in high school who always hoped someone would have a secret crush on her and would get a singing valentine. It never happened! Ha! The things we look for when we are young!! I made the cook gave me a hug today. I don’t think people really hug here either. I feel like I am in some weird movie where I am the only one who needs a hug!! In wake of the holiday I recently found out one of my best friends is engaged!! This means I will be home in August, September or October!! Yea!! I have been thinking about planning a trip home and now I am glad I didn’t! Wow August seems so far away but we are already half way through February!!
So, I have had these guys working in my house for over almost a week now. I was lucky because I missed four days of work while I was on my last mini-vacate. Well, they are still working and just when you think they are almost done BOOM something else happens, for example, the hole in the middle of my floor. It goes all the way across my living room in the middle of the room. It is for the pipes for the toilet. In the mean time the outhouse and I became really great friends again this morning. I think that outhouse knows more about me then anyone in the world does! We spend a lot of time together. I almost feel like God is trying to make me love it. Or at least get over my attachment to flushing toilets. I don’t think there are too many things in the world I hate. I hate tomatoes and I hate outhouses. I had a very large infestation of ants last night too! Yeah…who wants to come and visit me now? Ha! It really reminds me of the movie Under the Tuscan Sun. Woman moves to new creepy place…well her place was beautiful…my place is creepy…not really…anyways…house needs to be fixed up…woman wants to do most of it on her own…but she has to hire some men to help…the organization hired my men…and they are creepy!! I try to be up and dressed by 7:15 so I am not running around in my robe when they get here. Yesterday I was brushing my teeth in the wilderness and went to spit and I didn’t do a very good job of it so I had all kinds of toothpaste going down my chin (and I wonder why I don’t get singing valentines) and I was walking back to my room and they had just got here and I just smile and laugh to myself. I will be happy when they are gone and I have that part of my house back and brand new restroom! It’s going to be so clean. I am going to make my mother proud!!
Just for the record since it is a holiday here are the top ten things I miss:
- My mom and my dad- then my family and friends…blah blah blah that’s a giving!
- Running water all of the time
- Having power all of the time
- Milk, cheese, yogurt, and ice cream
- Screens on doors and windows to protect from bugs
- The internet
- Colorado Eagle Hockey Games
- The Rio Margaritas
- My Saturday and Sunday Starbucks
- My church
More fun and stories later!! Love you all!! Happy Valentines day!!
So, I have had these guys working in my house for over almost a week now. I was lucky because I missed four days of work while I was on my last mini-vacate. Well, they are still working and just when you think they are almost done BOOM something else happens, for example, the hole in the middle of my floor. It goes all the way across my living room in the middle of the room. It is for the pipes for the toilet. In the mean time the outhouse and I became really great friends again this morning. I think that outhouse knows more about me then anyone in the world does! We spend a lot of time together. I almost feel like God is trying to make me love it. Or at least get over my attachment to flushing toilets. I don’t think there are too many things in the world I hate. I hate tomatoes and I hate outhouses. I had a very large infestation of ants last night too! Yeah…who wants to come and visit me now? Ha! It really reminds me of the movie Under the Tuscan Sun. Woman moves to new creepy place…well her place was beautiful…my place is creepy…not really…anyways…house needs to be fixed up…woman wants to do most of it on her own…but she has to hire some men to help…the organization hired my men…and they are creepy!! I try to be up and dressed by 7:15 so I am not running around in my robe when they get here. Yesterday I was brushing my teeth in the wilderness and went to spit and I didn’t do a very good job of it so I had all kinds of toothpaste going down my chin (and I wonder why I don’t get singing valentines) and I was walking back to my room and they had just got here and I just smile and laugh to myself. I will be happy when they are gone and I have that part of my house back and brand new restroom! It’s going to be so clean. I am going to make my mother proud!!
Just for the record since it is a holiday here are the top ten things I miss:
- My mom and my dad- then my family and friends…blah blah blah that’s a giving!
- Running water all of the time
- Having power all of the time
- Milk, cheese, yogurt, and ice cream
- Screens on doors and windows to protect from bugs
- The internet
- Colorado Eagle Hockey Games
- The Rio Margaritas
- My Saturday and Sunday Starbucks
- My church
More fun and stories later!! Love you all!! Happy Valentines day!!
A Different View
I am supposed to be getting a mirror today. Hopefully it will happen! My friend Henry and I always joke about things here because well they never work. Like the internet and the water and the lights. It started when we did not have the internet and I would ask about it and they would respond with maybe today. I would then respond with nunca which means never in Spanish. Also, when Henry would respond he would say someday in English so here in Quebrada Honda the joke is Nunca and Someday are mismo (the same). Funny how you can make jokes with people who don’t even speak your own language. Back to the mirror, I am getting a mirror today, and well I am looking forward to being able to see myself floss my teach but I find that when I look at myself everyday it is just not the same as once in a while. I find it makes me feel a little bit better about my appearance when I can’t really control it. I mean I get and brush my hair and if I want to put makeup on a try to using the reflection in the TV—it doesn’t work very well—but it is better then nothing! As much as I welcome a mirror I hope my big bushy eyebrows don’t break it. I guess you start to realize how much looks don’t really matter. My friend Callie and I were talking the other day about how we feel so manly compared to all of the Nicaraguan women. I mean they are beautiful and petite and can walk up the sides of mountains in high heels! Callie and I are about a head taller then most of them and the other day I was over exaggerating my largeness. I mean my should span is quite wide and so I put my shoulders up to my ears and made my voice low and said “Hello my name is Stephanie” I think you might have to see it to understand it but we got a kick out of it. Callie thinks I am a walking circus, which is probably true, but I entertain myself so that is great! I don’t understand why we get whistled at and yelled at all of the time what would these men want with any American compared to the beauty of the Nicaraguan women!
I have also started to learn how to let things go that bother me. There are a lot of things here that I get frustrated with. Probably because I have no control over them! The funny thing is, is when you have no one to really complain to about what you don’t like you just learn how to let it go. I guess I am finding that if I mention it, it doesn’t really change anything so I usually just have to get over whatever is bugging me! Ha! Life is funny. I really hope I can learn more about how to let things go. Life is so much easier that way!
The photos below are of my center, the school and some of the kids and my co-workers! I hope you enjoy! More to come!
I have also started to learn how to let things go that bother me. There are a lot of things here that I get frustrated with. Probably because I have no control over them! The funny thing is, is when you have no one to really complain to about what you don’t like you just learn how to let it go. I guess I am finding that if I mention it, it doesn’t really change anything so I usually just have to get over whatever is bugging me! Ha! Life is funny. I really hope I can learn more about how to let things go. Life is so much easier that way!
The photos below are of my center, the school and some of the kids and my co-workers! I hope you enjoy! More to come!
My return home…
I have finally made it back home! Quebrada Honda home that is-- I was actually very excited get back. I missed everyone. It is the weirdest feeling to understand or explain in the whole entire world. This is just my temporary home and I live in a tool shed…how could I miss it? I am actually having a restroom built in my house right now so when I got back I was very frustrated to see gross dusty concrete remnants all over everything. I should be happy right? I am getting a bathroom but I was almost in tears because there is so much dirt and dust everywhere in my room I don’t know what to do with it. There was a layer of it on all of my stuff. You know when you have a really dusty shelf and you can wipe your finger across it and it leaves a line? Yeah that is what all of my stuff was covered in. My clean clothes and my nice clean sheets had wet concrete on them! Again, I should be happy right? I am getting a bathroom. Maybe it is because when have almost nothing…which is a lie too because I have a lot compared to many people here…you hold a tight grip on your stuff and when it is the only thing I can control and that changes oh the emotions! So, I spent the afternoon cleaning and now it is almost back to normal I will be glad when the construction workers get out of my house. One of them was smoking where he was working in my new bathroom. No smoking in my house!! HAHA! I crack myself up sometimes. The last couple of days I spent time in Cusmapa with a lot of the donors. When we were walking back from my friend Callie’s choir concert we saw a man just laying in the middle of the street. I think he was drunk. A couple of weeks ago in La Concha there was a drunk man laying on the floor during mass and a couple pews in front of him there was a young girl maybe 2 she peed right on the floor in the church during mass. Yeah-crazy!
I had such a wonderful day at the school today. I had no idea what I was going to do with the kids and went in with no planning and just guessing. It seemed to work out well. Today was my very first day with the high school students and they were excellent! They were so much fun! I do have a girl in the class who has a baby…I would guess she is not even 17. Most of the women have children and most of them are younger then I am. There is an unfortunate amount of single mothers here. The government doesn’t do anything to help out either. I don’t think there is any such thing as well fair or child support. Even if you could take the dad to court you probably couldn’t afford an attorney. Tomorrow I have my first art class so I am very excited for that too. Earlier this morning the donors came through my town and we had an assembly for them. The children played music and danced. It was so wonderful. I have not been able to see the talent that the kids have until today and I am so impressed!! The teachers were also really wonderful today. I told them about how Bayardo and I danced the other night and they got a laugh out of that! Not too much else going on. The internet is back up! I am going to teach our cook how to make pancakes tomorrow! I cannot believe I have already been here for four weeks and I only have eight months left. I remember when I only had eight months left at home! Oh how the time passes!
The pictures below are of the choir in Cusmapa. They have toured through Nicaragua and the United States. They are an amazing group! Oh and there is one of a house in Cusmapa…things could always be worse!
I have finally made it back home! Quebrada Honda home that is-- I was actually very excited get back. I missed everyone. It is the weirdest feeling to understand or explain in the whole entire world. This is just my temporary home and I live in a tool shed…how could I miss it? I am actually having a restroom built in my house right now so when I got back I was very frustrated to see gross dusty concrete remnants all over everything. I should be happy right? I am getting a bathroom but I was almost in tears because there is so much dirt and dust everywhere in my room I don’t know what to do with it. There was a layer of it on all of my stuff. You know when you have a really dusty shelf and you can wipe your finger across it and it leaves a line? Yeah that is what all of my stuff was covered in. My clean clothes and my nice clean sheets had wet concrete on them! Again, I should be happy right? I am getting a bathroom. Maybe it is because when have almost nothing…which is a lie too because I have a lot compared to many people here…you hold a tight grip on your stuff and when it is the only thing I can control and that changes oh the emotions! So, I spent the afternoon cleaning and now it is almost back to normal I will be glad when the construction workers get out of my house. One of them was smoking where he was working in my new bathroom. No smoking in my house!! HAHA! I crack myself up sometimes. The last couple of days I spent time in Cusmapa with a lot of the donors. When we were walking back from my friend Callie’s choir concert we saw a man just laying in the middle of the street. I think he was drunk. A couple of weeks ago in La Concha there was a drunk man laying on the floor during mass and a couple pews in front of him there was a young girl maybe 2 she peed right on the floor in the church during mass. Yeah-crazy!
I had such a wonderful day at the school today. I had no idea what I was going to do with the kids and went in with no planning and just guessing. It seemed to work out well. Today was my very first day with the high school students and they were excellent! They were so much fun! I do have a girl in the class who has a baby…I would guess she is not even 17. Most of the women have children and most of them are younger then I am. There is an unfortunate amount of single mothers here. The government doesn’t do anything to help out either. I don’t think there is any such thing as well fair or child support. Even if you could take the dad to court you probably couldn’t afford an attorney. Tomorrow I have my first art class so I am very excited for that too. Earlier this morning the donors came through my town and we had an assembly for them. The children played music and danced. It was so wonderful. I have not been able to see the talent that the kids have until today and I am so impressed!! The teachers were also really wonderful today. I told them about how Bayardo and I danced the other night and they got a laugh out of that! Not too much else going on. The internet is back up! I am going to teach our cook how to make pancakes tomorrow! I cannot believe I have already been here for four weeks and I only have eight months left. I remember when I only had eight months left at home! Oh how the time passes!
The pictures below are of the choir in Cusmapa. They have toured through Nicaragua and the United States. They are an amazing group! Oh and there is one of a house in Cusmapa…things could always be worse!
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
More News...
Wow! I cannot believe that I am able to post again so quickly! I went up to Cusmapa on Wednesday to use the Internet and my friend Callie has mentioned that we needed to get our passports renewed. That means we needed to go to Managua the next day and probably come back up on Friday. Callie had mentioned that she was going to be able to get a ride down to Somoto and they will stop by Quebrada Honda on their way and pick me up. Well around here I have a lot of miscommunications especially since I don’t know the language very well. So the plan was for Callie’s ride to pick me up and Henry to take us down to Somoto so we could catch the bus from there to Managua. Henry was going home for the weekend and agreed to go with us because Karla who works in the office was worried about us coming down…at least I think she was. I was also a little worried about it. Alright…anyways Callie said they were leaving around 5:30 or 6:00. I hope my memory is suiting me correctly. Then Bayardo my boss was like I will have Trino take you and Henry down to Somoto tomorrow and I tried to explain to him in Spanish that we had a ride down to Somoto with Callie and we didn’t need one from Trino. Of course he didn’t understand me and I was like…alright…Henry will know what is going on in the morning. So we got up at 5 and left at 530 so we could be down to the bottom of the mountain to meet Callie with our ride down to Somoto. So…we get there and wait and wait and wait and there haven’t been any cars…and Henry thinks Callie is coming on a bus. See, tons of miscommunication! The bus arrives and we get on and Callie isn’t on it so we don’t take it because if we go down to Somoto we have no way of getting a hold of Callie once we get there to find her. After dropping us off Trino had gone up to Cusmapa for some reason or the other. In the mean time, Callie had a miscommunication on her end and did not end up having a ride so when she went to look for one she found Trino coming back down the mountain through where Henry and I were waiting for her. Around 7:00 she showed up with Trino and they picked us up and took us down to Somoto. It was incredibly hilarious!! Around here you plan something and then you wait for it to happen because their aren’t really cell phones or any phones at all for that matter and when the internet has been down for over a week so have no way to talk with anyone. I do not know how it worked out except for by the grace of God. I have been getting a lot of lessons in patience and trust lately. Before I get to my next story of patience and trust here’s this! On the bus from Somoto to Esteli there was an evangelical preacher who they turned down the music for so he could preach to the whole bus. Well all three of us where sitting in the back and giggling about it and Callie was like I have to get a picture of this so she gets her camera out and leans over me to act like she was going to take a picture of something out the window and then she turns to the guy and takes a few of him preaching. Oh the story gets really good…so later in the day we are waiting on our second bus from Esteli to Managua and this Nicaraguan guys steps up on the steps of the bus and take a picture out the door and then turns and points his camera right at Callie and takes her picture. All three of us saw it while it was going on and we didn’t know what to do but to laugh. Callie responded with “I just got paparazzied!!”. It was the funniest thing I had ever seen!! We spent two nights in Managua and it turns out Americans have 90 days to renew their visas not 30 like the ticket we received said when first came into the country. Our trip turned out to be pointless except for some greats laughs and great food and a great hotel!! There was hot water there! YEA!
Everything else is going well. The organization has a donor trip going on right now so we have been able to speak with donors about what they do with Fabretto. We were also able to meet Alexandra, the president of the organization. What an amazing woman and an amazing group of people. I feel truly blessed to be able to work with such passionate people! Tomorrow I start teaching the high school kids. I am excited to start working with them!! Oh! And there is a Valentines Day party on Wednesday! I think it is probably about a ten mile hike down a mountain and then back up but that is just how things go around here! Hope all is well at home! Sending my love and prayers!
!
Everything else is going well. The organization has a donor trip going on right now so we have been able to speak with donors about what they do with Fabretto. We were also able to meet Alexandra, the president of the organization. What an amazing woman and an amazing group of people. I feel truly blessed to be able to work with such passionate people! Tomorrow I start teaching the high school kids. I am excited to start working with them!! Oh! And there is a Valentines Day party on Wednesday! I think it is probably about a ten mile hike down a mountain and then back up but that is just how things go around here! Hope all is well at home! Sending my love and prayers!
!
Friday, February 9, 2007
News from Nica!
How do I put into words the last couple of weeks? First of all, for those of you who have been checking this I am sorry I have not had a chance to post yet. In a few minutes you will understand why. I landed on Monday, January 15, 2007 at 12:30 pm. My first flight was very crowded and my second flight only had about 40 people on it. The second one was amazing. I ended up sitting next to a man who works for the U.S. Embassy in Managua. He was very nice and he listened to me cry for most of the flight. Poor Man! I was greeted by my friend Callie and Roger. Roger is one of the drivers for Fabretto. And Callie is my new best friend down here. She is an amazing woman! After I had arrived I started ESL training for one afternoon and then we were taken to a hotel. It was more like a hostel but the food was great so it did not really matter. The next day we were told to just take what we needed for two weeks to language school. Language school was also amazing! I was able to stay with a family. They were very lovely. I had a flush toilet and a hot bucket shower every night. What I would give for a hot bucket shower now! I was able to travel during my two weeks in La Concha. We went to the Massaya Volcano, Granada, Chocoyorro, which is national park here with lots of pretty green birds if I remember correctly they were parakeets. I was also able to go to Diriamba where they celebrate the feast of St. Sebastion and two other saints. The whole town closes down for three or four days and celebrates. We went on Friday and were able to see the masqueraders it was amazing!
The Hotel/School I went to was very nice. I am not really sure how to explain it except how I just did. It is a hotel where Spanish is taught. Paulette, the woman who owns and runs it is from England. She first came to Nicaragua in the eighties during the war. She was a social worker here and came across a young girl named Guillermina in an orphanage in Managua. At the time, Guillermina was two years old; they think she was a victim of one of massacres that happened during the war. She has a mental disability because of the trauma she went through at such a young age. She loves to swim and horse back ride. She is also very bright, English turned out to be her first language and she has a lovely English accent that I found to put a smile on my face everyday. She also knows Spanish and was also anxious to find out what everyone at the hotel is up to during the day. Paulette adopted her and then moved back to England to work until she finally decided to move back to Nicaragua. In the mean time, she was able to build the hotel with the money she sold her house for in England. The hotel is not small by any means either. It runs off of solar power and just a small amount of energy when the sun doesn’t come out for a couple of days. It also has flushing toilets and hot water showers! What I would give for a hot water shower right now! It is a wonderful place to stay and for $125 dollars for a week plus food it is a great deal! Paulette has started a chicken project so she can raise them and then teach other people how to for food. She also has her own small coffee farm. It is probably about 10-15 bushes. She also rescues horses and other animals. She is a very strong willed person and very intimidating. Maybe some of you imagined that. Her place is great for the community too because it creates jobs for people and brings in a small amount of tourists who’s money also feeds into the economy.
I met a lot of fun new people while I was at the hotel. The first two people’s names were Sky and Aybss. I hope I spelled that correctly. Aybss was from Turkey but he goes to school in upstate New York and Sky was here from New York. She was wonderful! So cheerful…she has lived all over the US and is planning on building a boat in Georgia. It is nice to hear other people’s wild ideas for life. I want to say that it really makes you feel alive!! There were also two girls from Australia there. They were vegans and very into the environment and animal friendly things. I learned a lot from them about different products and non-profits in Australia who publish all kinds of things about the products and how they are tested on animals. I am sure we have something like that in the U.S. but I just never really cared or thought about it! Oh! And then there was Becky. She is from England and is the sweetest woman I have ever met. Well except for my mother of course! She was here doing research about some pesticide that is killing 4 people an hour. It was used and I think is still used here and in India. That was a couple of weeks ago so I could of just made all of that up. Bo par is what I think the whole thing is called. I am sure if you googled it you could find more about it. I would…but I don’t have the internet!
The family I stayed with was amazing. There were six people in the house, Mom and Dad, Veronica, 21, their daughter and their son Eric, 25, who was married and had a child. We were all in the same house. Three were bedrooms one bathroom, which consisted of a toilet, and a couple buckets. One for showering and the other for dumping water down the toilet when it did not flush. I had previously said that there was no running water but there was on faucet in the kitchen. In the back yard there were two sinks for washing cloths, your face, your hands and brushing your teeth. There was also an outhouse out back. I managed to not use it for two weeks! Going to the restroom here is no fun at all. You cannot send toilet paper down the toilet because it will plug up the pipes so you get to put it in a wastebasket that is usually next to the toilet. This is a very hard habit to get into. Not to worry though…when I messed up I just kind of flushed anyways. The family would make fresh juice every day. It was amazing! Unfortunately, it was made with the water here but it didn’t stop me from drinking it. Which probably lead to the parasite I had for about three weeks. I am doing better now though. They have an over the counter medicine that will zap almost any kind of parasite possible. It is amazing. I lost about 10 pounds in those three weeks. When I told my boss that he suggested I take the anti-parasite meds. While I was with my family we would watch TV and eat. My favorite thing that they made me was queso frito, fried cheese! Oh…I was not supposed to eat the cheese either. It was so great though! Every night for dinner I would have Gallo Pinto which means spotted chicken. I guess they call it that because when you mix the rice and beans together it looks like a spotted chicken. So, I would have gallo pinto, a tortilla, gueso frito and usually some tacos that don’t look anything like an American Taco. Which is probably a good thing because I am not in America. I would have the same for breakfast and I when I ate lunch there on the weekends I would usually get chicken which is always a great surprise! The family would always heat up water for my bucket shower too. It was wonderful! La Concha is the town I was in and it was pretty small. It was quite a bit larger then where I am now. There were a lot of stray dogs, which I think, are more dangerous then Nicaragua is and you have to worry a lot more about the flies that land on your food then the mosquitoes. I have had only two bites in three weeks and I do not wear bug spray at all. The dogs would fight in the middle of the night and you could hear them all night long. The roosters were also a nice alarm clock at about four in the morning until seven or so. I would wake up and just laugh to myself sometimes and ask where am I? I was able to stay at the house for two weeks. When I said goodbye the family cried and well so did I. For about the first two weeks I cried almost every day sometimes a couple times a day. I do not know what came over me. I was able to communicate with home and I was safe. Maybe just so much change so quickly. The weather was beautiful there! It would get pretty hot during the day but would always cool off at night. Callie and I were picked up last Tuesday and spent the day in Managua and then were able to spend the night in a hotel with big beds and big pillows and a flushing toilet and hot water! I love hot water! That is one of the things I miss the most. Having water is one of the things I miss the most.
Last week when I was dropped off my immediate reaction was to cry. Once you see the pictures of my house you will understand. The people seem to welcome me with open arms. Most mornings I have absolutely no idea what in the world I am doing here but I feel good doing it. I have had a lot of problems…well maybe not problems but situations where the people make fun of me to my face but they know I do not understand Spanish very well. It can be really frustrating, I find myself getting over it. What is harder then being frustrated is trying not to build myself up to myself. I say to myself because I do not have anyone else to talk to about it. For example, something will be said and my initial thought is “Stephanie you have no reason to let these people affect you, you have so much more going for you then they ever will”. Then I have to hit myself and come back down to earth and realize we are all humans and I am here to try to give them what they do not have. It is just such a struggle and a test everyday. I had a one of the teachers say something about me yesterday and I just glared at her and she stopped then today I decided to go and sit and have lunch with her and the other teachers. Talk about swallowing one’s pride. Yikes! I did not know I had so much of it or so much self-righteousness in me. Someone is stealing my food too. I do not have a kitchen in my house and so I keep my food over in the kitchen. I am lucky because most of my meals are prepared for me so I haven’t had to spend any money while I have been up here. I did buy some canned food and peanut butter and other things because one can only take rice and beans so many times a week. I had like 8 of my cans of food missing and tonight my Chicken Noodle Soup was open and everywhere. I just want to put a sign on it that says “THIS BELONGS TO THE GRINGA” but it would be in English and not do me any good anyways. Oh! I am also called gringa…which I think might not be a good thing. It is not bad per say but when your students are calling you that it is not a good think. I did have a good day with the teachers today. One of the children called me a Gringa and she yelled at them and said her name is Stephanie. That made me feels all warm and fuzzy inside. I do not think most of the people here have ever seen a white person. Well that is a lie there was a volunteer here who did not live here or come up very often. So being apart of their community is very different for them and me of course. I think it will all work out with the people they just need time and so do I.
My house is right across the street from the school and is livable I guess. I spend most of my time out in the sun or at the school trying to get work done. I have eight English classes and three art classes. Yea! I have to come up with all of my lessons plans! It is um…scary…and fun…and mostly scary. If I could speak in English all day that would be fine but the students do not speak English, hence me being here! Back to my house it is probably 15 ft by 10 ft. It’s all cement and I have one light and no outlets. There is an outlet in my living room along with machetes and rakes and a wheelbarrow. I have a lot of friends in my room they are called spiders and ants and miller moths. The spiders are about the size of my palm. That is including their legs. No rodents yet. Or at least I have not seen any yet. When I got up to use the rest room the other night I was chased by this pig thing. It was not a pig but it sure did look like one. I do not know what it was. I do know it scared the crap out of me! I also found out I am afraid of the dark. Yes, at 24 I am afraid of the dark. Since I live in a concrete cell I have a window that is like a door and at night it is dark. I woke up the first night I was here and I could not see anything and I panicked. So, now I sleep with a flashlight that was given to me by one of my professors. The flashlight and my Spanish/English dictionary are about the only two things I need here. They get used the most. Bayardo is the director of our program here in Quebrada Honda. He is a wonderful man. He prays the Liturgy of the Hours every night and morning along with one of my neighbors and another teacher from the school. There is a church right next to the school. Tonight, they let me read and were so patient with how slow I am at it. I really love Bayardo! Another one of my neighbors and I are pretty good friends. He speaks a little bit of English. I think he secretly knows English and just doesn’t tell me that. His name is Henry. He teaches computer class at the center and we get to hang out quite a bit. It is funny, because we joke around a lot and neither one of us speaks the other language very well but we seem to get each others jokes and well he helps me out with a lot of things. He is unfortunately good looking too. And then there is Freddy. He lives next door too. Last Friday night we all hung out in my living that consist of a filing cabinet with a TV on it and three folding chairs and weapons. Anyways, the boys played the guitar and taught me how to play the bongos. It was great. Pretty lame for a Friday night but at least I was not sitting in my room by myself. My clothes hang out two wire hangers that spread from one wall to the other and are connected together it creates a kind of drying rack. I hang my pants and skirts on it. It is a pretty simple place. Not much to do in the town either. There is no such thing as a bar or a restaurant. Or even a grocery store. I am going to have to find something to do with my time. There are not very many Roosters here so I am not woken up in the morning so that is nice. I am usually in bed by 9 and up around 630 or so. I will admit I am going a little stir crazy with nothing to do. There are no telephones either. When the Internet is down I have no way to communicate with back home. It has been out since I got here. Such silly things seem to make life complete.
All in all things are going well. I am feeling a lot better and I feel like my Spanish is coming along. I am sorry this first entry is like a paper…but a lot has happened! I hope you enjoyed and I hope you enjoy the photos that come with it! Please keep me in your prayers!! Love and Miss you all so very much!!!
The Hotel/School I went to was very nice. I am not really sure how to explain it except how I just did. It is a hotel where Spanish is taught. Paulette, the woman who owns and runs it is from England. She first came to Nicaragua in the eighties during the war. She was a social worker here and came across a young girl named Guillermina in an orphanage in Managua. At the time, Guillermina was two years old; they think she was a victim of one of massacres that happened during the war. She has a mental disability because of the trauma she went through at such a young age. She loves to swim and horse back ride. She is also very bright, English turned out to be her first language and she has a lovely English accent that I found to put a smile on my face everyday. She also knows Spanish and was also anxious to find out what everyone at the hotel is up to during the day. Paulette adopted her and then moved back to England to work until she finally decided to move back to Nicaragua. In the mean time, she was able to build the hotel with the money she sold her house for in England. The hotel is not small by any means either. It runs off of solar power and just a small amount of energy when the sun doesn’t come out for a couple of days. It also has flushing toilets and hot water showers! What I would give for a hot water shower right now! It is a wonderful place to stay and for $125 dollars for a week plus food it is a great deal! Paulette has started a chicken project so she can raise them and then teach other people how to for food. She also has her own small coffee farm. It is probably about 10-15 bushes. She also rescues horses and other animals. She is a very strong willed person and very intimidating. Maybe some of you imagined that. Her place is great for the community too because it creates jobs for people and brings in a small amount of tourists who’s money also feeds into the economy.
I met a lot of fun new people while I was at the hotel. The first two people’s names were Sky and Aybss. I hope I spelled that correctly. Aybss was from Turkey but he goes to school in upstate New York and Sky was here from New York. She was wonderful! So cheerful…she has lived all over the US and is planning on building a boat in Georgia. It is nice to hear other people’s wild ideas for life. I want to say that it really makes you feel alive!! There were also two girls from Australia there. They were vegans and very into the environment and animal friendly things. I learned a lot from them about different products and non-profits in Australia who publish all kinds of things about the products and how they are tested on animals. I am sure we have something like that in the U.S. but I just never really cared or thought about it! Oh! And then there was Becky. She is from England and is the sweetest woman I have ever met. Well except for my mother of course! She was here doing research about some pesticide that is killing 4 people an hour. It was used and I think is still used here and in India. That was a couple of weeks ago so I could of just made all of that up. Bo par is what I think the whole thing is called. I am sure if you googled it you could find more about it. I would…but I don’t have the internet!
The family I stayed with was amazing. There were six people in the house, Mom and Dad, Veronica, 21, their daughter and their son Eric, 25, who was married and had a child. We were all in the same house. Three were bedrooms one bathroom, which consisted of a toilet, and a couple buckets. One for showering and the other for dumping water down the toilet when it did not flush. I had previously said that there was no running water but there was on faucet in the kitchen. In the back yard there were two sinks for washing cloths, your face, your hands and brushing your teeth. There was also an outhouse out back. I managed to not use it for two weeks! Going to the restroom here is no fun at all. You cannot send toilet paper down the toilet because it will plug up the pipes so you get to put it in a wastebasket that is usually next to the toilet. This is a very hard habit to get into. Not to worry though…when I messed up I just kind of flushed anyways. The family would make fresh juice every day. It was amazing! Unfortunately, it was made with the water here but it didn’t stop me from drinking it. Which probably lead to the parasite I had for about three weeks. I am doing better now though. They have an over the counter medicine that will zap almost any kind of parasite possible. It is amazing. I lost about 10 pounds in those three weeks. When I told my boss that he suggested I take the anti-parasite meds. While I was with my family we would watch TV and eat. My favorite thing that they made me was queso frito, fried cheese! Oh…I was not supposed to eat the cheese either. It was so great though! Every night for dinner I would have Gallo Pinto which means spotted chicken. I guess they call it that because when you mix the rice and beans together it looks like a spotted chicken. So, I would have gallo pinto, a tortilla, gueso frito and usually some tacos that don’t look anything like an American Taco. Which is probably a good thing because I am not in America. I would have the same for breakfast and I when I ate lunch there on the weekends I would usually get chicken which is always a great surprise! The family would always heat up water for my bucket shower too. It was wonderful! La Concha is the town I was in and it was pretty small. It was quite a bit larger then where I am now. There were a lot of stray dogs, which I think, are more dangerous then Nicaragua is and you have to worry a lot more about the flies that land on your food then the mosquitoes. I have had only two bites in three weeks and I do not wear bug spray at all. The dogs would fight in the middle of the night and you could hear them all night long. The roosters were also a nice alarm clock at about four in the morning until seven or so. I would wake up and just laugh to myself sometimes and ask where am I? I was able to stay at the house for two weeks. When I said goodbye the family cried and well so did I. For about the first two weeks I cried almost every day sometimes a couple times a day. I do not know what came over me. I was able to communicate with home and I was safe. Maybe just so much change so quickly. The weather was beautiful there! It would get pretty hot during the day but would always cool off at night. Callie and I were picked up last Tuesday and spent the day in Managua and then were able to spend the night in a hotel with big beds and big pillows and a flushing toilet and hot water! I love hot water! That is one of the things I miss the most. Having water is one of the things I miss the most.
Last week when I was dropped off my immediate reaction was to cry. Once you see the pictures of my house you will understand. The people seem to welcome me with open arms. Most mornings I have absolutely no idea what in the world I am doing here but I feel good doing it. I have had a lot of problems…well maybe not problems but situations where the people make fun of me to my face but they know I do not understand Spanish very well. It can be really frustrating, I find myself getting over it. What is harder then being frustrated is trying not to build myself up to myself. I say to myself because I do not have anyone else to talk to about it. For example, something will be said and my initial thought is “Stephanie you have no reason to let these people affect you, you have so much more going for you then they ever will”. Then I have to hit myself and come back down to earth and realize we are all humans and I am here to try to give them what they do not have. It is just such a struggle and a test everyday. I had a one of the teachers say something about me yesterday and I just glared at her and she stopped then today I decided to go and sit and have lunch with her and the other teachers. Talk about swallowing one’s pride. Yikes! I did not know I had so much of it or so much self-righteousness in me. Someone is stealing my food too. I do not have a kitchen in my house and so I keep my food over in the kitchen. I am lucky because most of my meals are prepared for me so I haven’t had to spend any money while I have been up here. I did buy some canned food and peanut butter and other things because one can only take rice and beans so many times a week. I had like 8 of my cans of food missing and tonight my Chicken Noodle Soup was open and everywhere. I just want to put a sign on it that says “THIS BELONGS TO THE GRINGA” but it would be in English and not do me any good anyways. Oh! I am also called gringa…which I think might not be a good thing. It is not bad per say but when your students are calling you that it is not a good think. I did have a good day with the teachers today. One of the children called me a Gringa and she yelled at them and said her name is Stephanie. That made me feels all warm and fuzzy inside. I do not think most of the people here have ever seen a white person. Well that is a lie there was a volunteer here who did not live here or come up very often. So being apart of their community is very different for them and me of course. I think it will all work out with the people they just need time and so do I.
My house is right across the street from the school and is livable I guess. I spend most of my time out in the sun or at the school trying to get work done. I have eight English classes and three art classes. Yea! I have to come up with all of my lessons plans! It is um…scary…and fun…and mostly scary. If I could speak in English all day that would be fine but the students do not speak English, hence me being here! Back to my house it is probably 15 ft by 10 ft. It’s all cement and I have one light and no outlets. There is an outlet in my living room along with machetes and rakes and a wheelbarrow. I have a lot of friends in my room they are called spiders and ants and miller moths. The spiders are about the size of my palm. That is including their legs. No rodents yet. Or at least I have not seen any yet. When I got up to use the rest room the other night I was chased by this pig thing. It was not a pig but it sure did look like one. I do not know what it was. I do know it scared the crap out of me! I also found out I am afraid of the dark. Yes, at 24 I am afraid of the dark. Since I live in a concrete cell I have a window that is like a door and at night it is dark. I woke up the first night I was here and I could not see anything and I panicked. So, now I sleep with a flashlight that was given to me by one of my professors. The flashlight and my Spanish/English dictionary are about the only two things I need here. They get used the most. Bayardo is the director of our program here in Quebrada Honda. He is a wonderful man. He prays the Liturgy of the Hours every night and morning along with one of my neighbors and another teacher from the school. There is a church right next to the school. Tonight, they let me read and were so patient with how slow I am at it. I really love Bayardo! Another one of my neighbors and I are pretty good friends. He speaks a little bit of English. I think he secretly knows English and just doesn’t tell me that. His name is Henry. He teaches computer class at the center and we get to hang out quite a bit. It is funny, because we joke around a lot and neither one of us speaks the other language very well but we seem to get each others jokes and well he helps me out with a lot of things. He is unfortunately good looking too. And then there is Freddy. He lives next door too. Last Friday night we all hung out in my living that consist of a filing cabinet with a TV on it and three folding chairs and weapons. Anyways, the boys played the guitar and taught me how to play the bongos. It was great. Pretty lame for a Friday night but at least I was not sitting in my room by myself. My clothes hang out two wire hangers that spread from one wall to the other and are connected together it creates a kind of drying rack. I hang my pants and skirts on it. It is a pretty simple place. Not much to do in the town either. There is no such thing as a bar or a restaurant. Or even a grocery store. I am going to have to find something to do with my time. There are not very many Roosters here so I am not woken up in the morning so that is nice. I am usually in bed by 9 and up around 630 or so. I will admit I am going a little stir crazy with nothing to do. There are no telephones either. When the Internet is down I have no way to communicate with back home. It has been out since I got here. Such silly things seem to make life complete.
All in all things are going well. I am feeling a lot better and I feel like my Spanish is coming along. I am sorry this first entry is like a paper…but a lot has happened! I hope you enjoyed and I hope you enjoy the photos that come with it! Please keep me in your prayers!! Love and Miss you all so very much!!!
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