One of those weeks

Ok ok, this week wasn't THAT bad...but it still took a toll on me. It was just one of those weeks where I ask myself, "Am I really doing anything here?". I think (especially after my previous post) that I have moved into what they call Culture Shock Phase 2, so therefore I am at a low point on the "Culture Shock sine/cosine type wave". What happens is like a sine/cosine wave one goes up and down for certain time periods, so does our cultural adaptability. We hit high points where we love where we are or what we doing and then slowly we can dive down into "WTF" mode and wonder what our purpose is by living amongst others who are different from us. At the moment (according to Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_shock ) I have hit the "Negotiation Phase" where I am balancing the old and new ways of life.

Like I said before, this whole experience will make home seem that much sweeter in two years! I hope that little problems back at home will literally disappear because of the small significance they actually would have. For example, do I really need to get upset because I missed the Discovery Channel's Shark Week? No...oh wait, there's this lovely device called a DVR recorder :) Haha, yes I'm hilarious, but I think I kind of made my point. I hate the question that Nicas ask me here: "What are you going to do after 2 years here?". How the heck do I know what I'm doing after tomorrow? 2 years...come on people! I don't understand it! I'm here, right now, let's do something in this moment and not wait for some higher power to give it to you on a silver platter. Who knows if I will want to stay in this country? Who knows if I will want to go back and live in California? Quien sabe maje!? (Who knows dude?) For a people who can never seem to plan ahead, they sure are preoccupied with my future after 2 years.

This week will mark 4 whole months here in Nica! Only 23 more to go! Don't worry, I'm not counting...yet. Most volunteers would agree probably that the first 6 months are the hardest because it's about settling in and learning your site, finding out who you are as well I'm guessing. PC is nothing like study abroad in Chile because I was always on vacation every other weekend and going to places like Argentina and Easter Island. Here in Nica I could go places on the weekends, but I foresee that as a better idea for next year when I am better settled in and when everyone else has their own places so I can sleep somewhere for free. Up here in the north, we don't have as many things to do as say the Masaya area, but that gives me the opportunity to kick back and find another way of relaxing. Being by myself a good percent of the time gives room for reflection of the past, present and a little bit about the future. This is the first time in my life where my phone doesn't ring with 20 calls a day, maybe 2 a day now, and where I don't feel the need to be present at certain social scenes. My life before this was comprised of going here and going there...now I have time to take a look around at the true speed of life, well at least the Nica speed of life.

Yesterday we had our Madriz volunteer meeting, but we went to Esteli instead of Somoto because there are better cafes and restaurants, and I rode the bus with Matt & Jess who are my site mates in Somoto. We took the 10:00am bus, hoping to get into Esteli in less than two hours and then 10 min. into the ride the bus stops and they open the engine hood up to pour a couple gallon jugs of water into the coolant tank or whatever (sorry Dad, I couldnt tell). Matt, Jess and I knew what this could imply, either A) The trip would be augmented by 30 min. at least B) The engine would burn up rolling down the hills or C) We would have to get off and take another bus. We get going again and at the fork of the highway where one part goes North to Ocotal and the other goes west to Somoto (aka the Emplame) we of course pull over and the engine is still overheating. Great! Just great! We have about 1 hour and 40 min. to get to our 12pm meeting, it's not the meeting we were worried about...it was getting lunch that we worried about. Meetings never usually start on time anyways in Nica...good ol' Nica time (I hope I don't come back home thinking that a 10am meeting means 10:30am!). So the engine is busted and everyone starts getting off, of course we follow suit. What happened to us next is very common when it's gringos vs. Nicas. The guy was handing out 20 cordobas (about $1) to everyone because we paid 25 cordobas to go from Somoto to Esteli, and Jess & I were waiting to get reimbursed while Matt ran up the road to save us seats on the next bus (which turned out being way full). Well, this pinche (cheap) Nica gave us back 55 cordobas instead of 60 and told me that it cost 7 cordobas to get to the Empalme. When I asked him why we got charged the gringo price, he said it wasn't and that's what everyone was getting back, as I watched him give 20 cordobas to the guy next to me. I got pretty angry, yes it's 5 cordobas (aka 20 cents) but still that's messed up. I argued with him for a couple of minutes, but I just gave up because as PC would tell us (and common sense) in the end it's not worth it. So, I left with my words of "digraciado huevón" (unholy A-hole), "pinche Nica" (cheap Nica), and I was going to add a couple other words but I was too mad. I got over it in about 5 minutes as we waited for another bus, and we got onto an Expreso (these buses cut time in about half) to Esteli and all was good. We do get reimbursed for our bus trips to meetings, so at the end of the day the 5 cordobas didn't really matter that much. Luckily I shouldn't have to take that bus again if I don't want to.

We had our meeting at Café Luz, one of those places catering to the gringo population of Esteli and the wanna-be "posh" Nica college crowd. I finally had my first really good tasting cheeseburger in Nica and it was amazing! They even put paprika on the french fries! And there was dressing on the salad! ¡Gracias a dios! (Thank god!) Not bad for 5 bucks (not cordobas). Our meeting was to talk about new PC policies and to address any concerns we might want our Madriz representative to take to the national meeting that will take place in 2 weeks. Nothing too exciting to write about.

However, the stir up yesterday was that a member from my SBD 47 group was ETing (Early Terminating) his service and he was on his way to Managua this weekend. We all have our own reasons for doing PC and we all have our own reasons to keep going. Also, we take what we want out of our service and no one can say we are right or wrong for those movtivations. I see PC as a service to my country and a resume-building experience. I will find out if 3rd world development is the career path I'd like to pursue or if living abroad the good majority of my life would suit me well. Others see PC as a personal growing experience, a chance to see another part of the world, etc. None of us harbor the same ambitions! I am sad to see him go, he always provided a good laugh for me during training and I could always count on him to provide a realist insight on whatever was going on. I wish him the best of luck and I can't wait to see how many kids he ends up having in the future!

Another event that happened to me this week was the lack of communcation between the public school and myself. I had asked on Tuesday if there was anything going on this week that I needed to know about and I was told "no of course not, nothing special this week". Little did I know that the monthly teachers meeting was this past Friday and my counterpart sort of "forgot" to tell me! So I get all dressed and ready to give class at 7:45am...and no one was there! I had to ask one of my students why there was no class! Now I know no matter what, every last Friday of the month there is no school due to these meetings...live and learn. My day became productive after that as I went to the mail box to grab letters from Jan and Mamow (thank you!) and went to get a key copied for the Cusmapa Volunteer house. After that I went to work on Fabretto's Empresa Creativa Competition which we are going to have on September 30th.

The Competition will take place in Somoto in between the student business groups at the 3 Fabretto Oratorios. Right now I am looking for judges to evaluate the students' groups and choose the top 3 to go onto the Regional Competition, sending out invites to important community members, and sending out donation letters to get money for the prizes we would like to give the top 5 groups. During September, the competition will rule my life! I'm sure the volunteer before me had a little bit easier time because he didn't have to find funding and he was already 1 year at his site and knew more people. It will be a challenge, but it presents a great networking opportunity for me and I am excited to get to know the city leaders and NGOs better (Mom remember, NGO stands for Non-Governmental Organization...like Rotary!). At the competition the kids have to show the judges their business plan and product. In their plans they have points like a marketing strategy, know who their target market is, calculate a "break-even" point for costs and profits, etc. The judges will base their decisions on creativity, clarity of the business plan, quality of the product, as well as presentation skills. I believe at the moment we have 25 student groups who will be competing! The kids at the Cusmapa and Quebrada Honda Oratorios are really on top of things, while the kids at Somoto sometimes don't really seem to care. All in all I think we will have a great community turn out and the kids will have a great time.

After this week I don't have housing but I think there might be a big possibility for me to pay to live in the Fabretto Volunteer house in Somoto. I have to talk to someone this next week, but it's pretty empty right now and there shouldn't be too much of a problem. I found a place for $70 a month, with water, gas, and electricity included but I'm not sure how much I really like it. I want to keep looking at a couple more places around town before making a decision.

The weather hasn't been too bad here...yet. Of course there are thunder storms about 5 days a week, but they usually come after 4pm and don't last too long. The street next to the Cusmapa house is still unpaved, so I still have to tromp through mud on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Luckily I brought my rain boots up there to stay so the mud isn't as bad when I wear them. The only downside to the rain is when I have to walk 20 min. up the hills to Quebrada Honda and there is no other mode of transportation available! Knock on wood it hasn't poured on me yet, but I know it has to be coming soon. Course, if it's pouring, the kids don't come to school...so there would be no point to walking in the pouring rain...unless it's pouring when I'm walking back to the bus stop (aka the side of the road)...ugh.

I am 3 for 3 on getting packages ok (knock on wood) and the religious writing seems to be working! Thank you Mom, Dad and Gina for sending me those packages! I'm trying to ration the chocolate...but can't say that I was able to on the licorice, I forgot how much I love it.

I caught a little head cold this week, so I'm trying to rest and sleep it off the best I can. I should probably find some herbal teas so help out and keep the sugar level to a minimum. It's so hard to keep the glucose away with all the rice, corn tortillas, etc...I definately miss the healthy California life style. Granted I do the best I can, like make homemade spaghetti sauce and stir fry, but the quality of the fruits and veggies the majority of the time is not the same. Even the avocadoes, though cheaper, have less meat in them and the seed is bigger! They don't grow the Hass avocadoes that I love :( And finding Roma tomatoes is like finding a needle in a haystack. Hopefully I can find some seeds or have Mom and Dad bring some down in January.

Hope all is well at home and the heat is slowly fading away! I will definately miss the crispness of the Fall air rolling in...though we've got another month or so for that.