Fate comes in many colors

Yesterday my mami, sisters and I received some sad news, one of my cousins (who lives right across the street) is pregnant. She’s only 20 years old, still has at least 2 years of university left, the guy who got her pregnant is 26 and married…and the list goes on! I was surprised how progressive my host mom was when she called my cousin a “Grandisima Tonta/Bruta” (a great idioit) for not preventing the pregnancy with birth control pills. In Nica, birth control is completely free and no consultation is needed to get pills or injections. In my opinion, most girls are probably very afraid to take birth control because the Catholic Church continues to preach that “pre-marital sex is a sin.” I’ve been to mass 4 times here and I have heard those exact words come out of the padre’s mouth, so don’t call me a hypocrite and tell me that I need to actually hear those words first hand. Been there, done that...and I speak the truth. This leads me into another interesting discussion of Nica culture: the majority of Nicas do not legally get married or even get married in the church! Translation: there is a ton of pre-marital sex going on! I understand that it’s way harder for the Nica youth to have healthy sexual relationships because they ALL live with their parents. The lucky ones get their own places after they get married and turn about 30, but still that leaves the 15 year olds and older in a perpetual chastity cage. I say 15 year olds because the national average of losing virginity is 15 years of age for both boys and girls, and remember the U.S. national average is 15/16 as well.

So, what do I take from this experience? It solidifies my desire to dedicate a good part of my PC service to educate Nica youth about sexual health. It surprises me that the Bush Administration has not dipped into the PC’s health education system to transform it into an “abstinence” program! That makes me happy that Kennedy’s idea of PC still lives on and it is rarely touched by politicians. This week we are doing final interviews for sites and I will definitely mention the importance of being able to work with a health volunteer, or just having the desire to pursue projects of this manner. I’m sure the majority of Nicas don’t even know how the pill works! Course I’m also positive that 4 out of 5 people at home would not be able to describe to me how the pill works. It starts with education, not with pressure or preaching. You present the facts, don’t leave anything out, and then wait for questions or further assistance. This is what I would like to do at my site. All in all, it’s just sad to see someone at the age of 20, who is already living a hard knock life, have another weight put upon her shoulders.

Last Sunday the 15th I played two volleyball games with my sisters and we won both of them! One game was against the team we lost to 2 weeks ago, so it was a nice Victory to have for a Sunday morning. I probably shouldn’t have played because I had my virus still and to top it off I sweated off my sunscreen and got a bad sunburn on my nose and forehead. I looked like Rudolph for the next 3 days! The worst part about sunburns is when they start peeling and everyone can see the skin coming off…(valley girl) Like ew! On Thursday I played with one of the men’s team and managed to twist my knee pretty badly. I’ve been hobbling around a little, but it is getting better. My mami wants to have her massage therapist doctor friend come look at it later today, so we’ll see what happens.

Also on Sunday the 15th I went to a concert (randomly) with my twin sisters and mami in a nearby town, where Mokuanes was playing. They are a famous Nica band, with 3 front men singers and a full band behind them including a trombonist, trumpeter, and saxophonist (kind of a Ska ensemble). I absolutely loved them! They sing covers of other artists and they also have their own songs. They switched easily from Reggaeton, to Latin Rock, to Merengue, to Salsa, to Slow Rock, etc. and best of all the concert was free! And it didn’t rain on us until we got home! I hope to go see Mokuanes in concert on June 24th at a nearby town’s fiestas patronales (it’s a party every town has during a certain week every year to celebrate their Patron Saint).

2 weeks ago, I visited the north of Nicaragua in the region of Esteli for my Volunteer Visit. Here I got to live with Megan, a SBD volunteer who has been here for a year already, and I had the opportunity to follow her around for 3 days. On the way to Esteli Joanna and I experienced our first "fault" from the transportation system (I'm sure it will be the first of many), for our bus broke down about 1/2 hour outside of Estelí! It wasn't too bad because it wasnt hot and we were pretty close to our destinations. Yay for being positive! The Volunteer Visit was a great break from training, good practice in using Nica’s transportation system and a fun experience all around. Megan teaches 4 sections of students at one of the high schools at her site, so she had about 160 students to deal with each week. Some PCVs teach 10 sections of 50 kids, so I might have the possibility of teaching 500 kids in my site! There are only 3 sites that will have a lot of sections, so maybe I’ll get lucky and not get too many of those ankle biters…ha ha. Anyways, I really liked my visit because it reminded me that I can live on my own and have a little bit of independence while still becoming a part of my community. I’m excited about having complete control over my diet and doing house chores again, except laundry, I’ve always hated doing that! I really want to get a cat because they are great for eating the big bugs and rodents, you don’t have to feed them all the time, they don’t need attention all the time, and they give you love (when they feel like it sometimes). I mention the cat because Megan had one who ate all the big cockroaches and spiders! I liked Megan’s site because it was near a bigger city and it was small enough for the people to know her by name.

I was sick from the time I got back from my Volunteer Visit till June 16th…sad times. Nothing big, just a small virus that knocked me on my booty! I don’t like getting sick and I don’t even remember the last time I had a fever, it’s been that long! I had a fever 3 times around 100.2 degrees, my body ached, I was really tired, and I had a splitting headache. At first I thought, “OMG I have Dengue symptoms!” so when we went to Managua on Friday the 13th I saw the doctor at the office and she sent me on a quest to find the lab a couple blocks away. I’m sure I will have many more experiences with the labs and doctors in the next couple of years, better to know now how the system works right? My first time ever giving a stool sample…it wasn’t that bad of an experience, but I’d prefer to not have to repeat it frequently. I also had to have blood drawn and give a yellow bodily fluid, fun times to say the least. Results came back with a high white blood cell count, which I guess translated into a non-malarial, non-dengue fever viral infection. They weren’t sure about the results so I had to repeat them on Saturday the 14th and then again on Monday the 16th in the morning. No more tests please! I feel better really! They made me do tests on Monday to make sure Malaria or Dengue wasn’t just lying there dormant in my body. I felt so yucky from Thursday till Tuesday, so please, feel free to feel bad for me. It sucks having a fever and being exhausted in both spirit and body.

I’d like to talk a little bit about the use of whistles in Nica. People whistle at each other in the house, on the patio, in the street, at the table, etc. Everyone whistles at everybody else! My mom, and many others back home, would say that this sort of behavior is not acceptable and we should use our words, for we are not pets to be whistled at. Whistling was probably one of the first things I adapted to and I now regularly use my whistle for various reasons. I do the whistle that my dad taught me, through the side of the mouth so it sounds like the beaver in Lady and the Tramp. “Say there sonny!” Last week I came to a self realization that my whistle not only identifies me to my family, but when I hear someone use my type of whistle I know that they are saying hello or trying to get my attention specifically. It’s fun to walk out the door and hear one of my cousins imitating my whistle!

I’m going to try to put a song at the end of each of my posts to sort of describe my feelings at the time of the post.

Today’s song: “Angel” – Sarah McLachlan
It reminds me that even though life is tough sometimes, someone is always watching over me in another world or thinking of me in this world.

A promise to post tomorrow

I have so much to catch up on and this week has been crazy between my language test, charla, being sick, getting the list of potential sites, etc (and I spent a good chunk of my allowance on Monday talking on the phone to friends and my daddy, so I didn't have $ to use the net). So I promise to try and finish alot of my thoughts on my laptop tonight and post them online tomorrow. Today I am in Masaya where we had a site fair, it was basically a meeting to inform us how site placements work, what to (sort of) expect in each site: how many sections you will be teaching, if you are working with the mayor's office, if you are out in the middle of nowhere, etc., and also 6 current PCVs came to talk about their different regions. I'm trying to not get my hopes up for any one site, so I'm trying to imagine myself in lots of different scenarios. I would like a smaller site so I could get closer to the people right away, but then there are advantages to a bigger site like access to resources, not being watched so closely by neighbors, being able to do some more normal life activities. We'll see...it'll be what I make of it right?

Sounds like the weather back in Cali is getting hot again...well at least you have things called air conditioners, fans, and pools!!! I miss my parents' pool! And I'm sure everyone is loving the gas prices still! The crisis reaches to Nica too, over $5 a gallon here right now! Food costs have also gone up at least 5 cents in the past 2 months as well. It seems that everyone suffers :( We'll see if Hugo Chavez from Venezuela will keep his word when he says he wants to help Nica in this crisis...I personally think he's full of B.S.

Thank you to Jan for another letter! I love hearing about your days!

Más fotos!

Me at the Volcán Masaya, it was cool but you couldn't see alot because of the steam. One of those places where you say, "Yeah, I've been there"

PCTs in my training town! Joey, Lindsay, Me, Joanna! We heart each other during long rides in the Land Rover!

This is me and my adorable 2nd cousin Ti-Tin (real name is Pablito). He is in love with me and sometimes he calls me his girlfriend! He is always at my house, wondering where "la Katty" is...and of course that means he wants to play some sort of game for hours.

Big thank you goes out to Nishma Doshi for writing me a goodbye letter and thank you to my mom for forwarding the letter too!

Si, se fallecío

"Si, se fallecío" means "Yes, she has left (died)" which were the words I heard over and over last night. A neighbor of ours died last night of cancer, she was in her 80s and had been sick for some time. I did not know her because she was bedridden, but I knew the rest of the family. We found out around 8pm last night that she had passed away and that's when my entire night changed from ordinary to Nica Culture 101.

The whole family rushed home to change into black or white colors and my cousin was flipping out because she couldn't get home fast enough to change her red colored shirt..."es mal educación" (it shows bad education aka being rude). By 10pm about 50 people were sitting around the house in chairs or on the sidewalk. By 10:30 over 100 people were present and they brought in a truckload of chairs! By 11:00, people were handing out coffee and bread, the mayor's office was driving the truck around with the speakers annoucing my neighbor's death, a string of lights was put up over the street, and I was trying to take in the experience and finish my homework. It was amazing how fast word gets around in a small town and it was amazing how people sat around the house to show support for the family and respect for our neighbor. In little time the casket arrived and I believe they set up a viewing. I didn't get too close to the house because I was chatting with my family. My mama was very sad because our neighbor helped out my family after my mama's mom died 5 years ago. It's also a (catholic) tradition to wait outside the house until 4am in the morning if the person died at night, so about 20 people were still waiting at that time this morning. I myself went to bed around 1:30am, I had to get up early for seminars. Needless to say it was a very interesting night and now I know what to do if a person dies and I won't look mal educada.

Thank you to Jan and Doug Brown for more letters, to Mamow for another card and to Becca (who is in PC South Africa right now) for a great long letter! Everyone is jealous that I have gotten mail every single week :) The words that you all send make me feel more confident every day that I chose the right path for my life and that I am doing something worthwhile. Sometimes I get those "am I really living abroad" moments that seem surreal and I think I'm in a dream. Fact is, it is reality and I am here right now, living this life.

More fun news, volleyball season has began in my town! What does this mean? It means the pueblo has learned that this gringa can play pretty darn good! I played with my sisters for the first time on Sunday against another team of women from the town. We ended up losing, but what I ended up gaining was a reputation, new friends, and knowledge that even more people know my name around town. It doesn't hurt that I'm a couple inches (at least) taller than most of the girls here, and boys, and it also doesnt hurt that I'm frequently found at my mom's cafe right by the volleyball/basketball court. Every night that it didn't rain this week I played in pick up games and I was even asked by the Physical Ed teacher to put together a gringa team. In two Sundays my team of gringas (made up of other SBD trainees) will play another town team! It will be interesting because some of us havent played since Jr. High and others played in club volleyball in college. I think we'll do well since we are taller though! So, it's definately nice to have a "niche" in the town and be asked to come out to play!

Another thing that makes me smile every day is how people in town will say hi and call me by name, half the time I either can't remember their names or I have no clue who they are. The best is when the kids run across the park to say hi, or come and find me at home. Kids are so happy to just talk to me or to just throw a ball around. I forgot how much I enjoy working with all ages of children! My little cousin Ti-Tin (name is Pablo Juanito, but he goes by Ti-Tin...I can't remember why, another nickname) is obsessed with me ever since he discovered that I exist! He just turned 5 and he is never tired, even after running around for 4 hours with me last Saturday. Every day at 6am he asks his mom if he can come over to play with "la Katty" and when he has to leave my house he tries to make up an excuse so he can stay longer. His obsession even goes as far as to cry if I am talking or playing with other kids or my older cousins! He is adorable and I will put up a photo of us next time.

Coming up this week is a Volunteer Visit, so I will be traveling up north to visit a current PCV. It will be nice to have a 3 day break from training, from my town, etc. to see a real SBD volunteer in action! It will also be a great insight to life after training, as we are sort of in a "bubble" in our training towns.

The rain continues to fall hard and there is another tropical storm currently headed our way. I will be fine in the area where I'm headed to and it usually is not affected by storms very often. It's funny how I can now feel when the rain is coming, it gets really hot and humid and then BAM the storm rolls in! Thunder and lightning back home will be nothing anymore, because we get those every day here! And not just any thunder, the thunder that rocks the house because it's right above us and the cloud sometimes will just sit there, rumbling and waking me up at times!Grrr! It's fun though and luckily the rain isn't cold, though last week I did have to bundle up a bit in my bed. Course by 4am, it's hot again and I've thrown my covers off! With rain also comes more mosquitos and I've gotten my fair share of bites. They mostly like my feet and it's gotten better since I've been piling on the bug spray. Luckily I'm not one of those people who gets bit all the time, like one of my fellow trainees in town! Poor girl gets eaten up all the time! Even if she has long sleeves on!

Hope all is well in the states and that it's not too hot...right...oh, and Obama made the news even down here.

Some more pictures

I apologize that I can't post more pictures up, I really want to! Once I get good internet access in Managua, I will be able to show off my collection of over 300 photos already. I'm lucky if I can get one picture uploaded here!


Me and Lindsay (fellow trainee in my town) at a Laguna, with the volcano in the background.

This is a typical high school classroom in Nica. Notice the lack of lighting, the crowded space, and the open aired windows. There is enough light to work with, but little breeze to blow out the humidity.

My first major cultural misunderstanding

It’s 4am MT (May 30th) and I think I am experiencing my first major cultural misunderstanding. I know this is the first of many, but really…did it have to happen at 3am? Especially after not getting any sleep from the Hurricane from the night before? I was sleeping ever so peacefully, when I was awoken by men singing and playing the guitar outside the house. Today is Mother’s Day in Nica and my cousins decided to walk across the street (it’s still pouring rain at the moment) and sing for my mama very loudly! I’m not sure if she even heard it because I didn’t hear her get up or say anything. But I sure heard it! This is the part I don’t understand, why couldn’t they wait till like 6am or even lunchtime to sing? Wouldn’t mama get to enjoy it more that way? She cooks, cleans, washes, and prepares the food for the café, etc. all day long!!! Why would she want a serenade at 3am??? It’s really sweet to sing for your aunt and mother, but don’t wake them up because it’s convenient for you! Everyone only has to work a half day today! I just can’t get over the fact that they did it at 3am…nor can I even comprehend why. Don’t they want her to get a good night’s sleep? Maybe I’m overreacting because I was woken up and I’m sleep deprived, but then on the other hand I feel this is just another example of a machismo society. The men don’t really think about their actions towards women and I find this early morning serenade to be an example. However, I need to remember that I haven’t asked anyone in the family about the singing yet, so I need not jump to conclusions. Also, maybe it’s similar to when we wake our friends up early in the morning to take them out to breakfast. But 3am??? Who can enjoy the music that early?

After the serenade it started pouring harder and then the local band (made up of two trumpets, a sousaphone, a trombone, a bass drum, and a snare drum) started playing around 3:45am in the streets. All I can say now is, OMG, let the poor women have some good sleep for once! I just don’t understand and I’m pissy because I’m tired. So, I’m under my mosquito net in my bed, writing out my frustrations so maybe I can go back to sleep for 3 more hours, and praying the band will move to another side of the city. Three weeks in Nica and I’ve only just now experienced a major culture shock, not bad.

It’s more than just rain, it’s my first Hurricane!

Right now it’s noon on May 29th and we are in our 20th hour of the torrential downpour of Hurricane Alma. It’s my first hurricane that I have experienced, so I guess that makes it a little more bearable. However, the downpour meant that I barely got 4 hours of sleep because of the banging sounds the rain makes on the tin roof. Earplugs helped a little, but I could still hear the rain pounding the ceiling above me. Supposedly the time periods between May to June and October to November are the only ones to produce this kind of menacing weather.

When I woke up this morning the rain was still pouring down, so my mom called a mototaxi (I need to take a picture of one to show you all) to drive me to my class about 7 blocks away. I didn’t even have to pay because it was a family friend! A normal ride would have only cost about 10 cents anyways. So I got to class only to find our language facilitator soaked and only one other trainee at the house (it’s her house so she didn’t have to travel in the rain). We couldn’t really have a normal class day because we had no electricity so our teacher decided that we should work on our lesson plans for next week. The other two trainees hadn’t showed up by 8:20am, so we called them and told them to meet us at the library because they have bigger tables for us to work on our lesson plans. The three of us walked 7 blocks in the pouring rain and all I can say is THANK GOD I bought rain boots before I left! Everyone’s feet were all wet from running around in sandals or tennis, but my feet were dry and toasty. I still got pretty drenched even though I had boots on and an umbrella, however my Nica neighbors were impressed that I came prepared with rain boots. When we got to the library, it was closed so we went 2 blocks more to wait for the others at my house. At 9:45am, everyone finally made it to my house…cold and wet. We did get our lesson plans finished for next Tuesday and all we have to do now is practice. All in all the rain didn’t deter us from being productive. We’ll see if any of our kids show up for youth group at 2pm…

Since it’s a hurricane, the rain is a little bit cooler than I was told it would be. Compared to Nor Cal rain, the cold is still nothing! But I guess at home it’s not that bad because:

1) I would have a car to keep me dry during traveling
2) I would have central heating or a gas stove in the living room
3) I would have a gas dryer handy to chuck my clothes into if they were soaked

We had no one show up for the youth group, so we went to the ice cream shop (the Eskimo) to just relax and have some helado (ice cream). Then I proceeded to go to the Cyber to use the internet for a bit, and I got to talk to Danie about her and Kyle’s new house!!! I wish I could be there to see the wood paneling and shag carpet they showed me before I left…sigh. I hope they have fun with their first project…painting! I then called Mom to get directions on how to unlock my Motorola phone so I can put a Nica SIM card in it. After that it was over to my mama’s cafetin, and the lights shut out right as I was arriving. Since there was no electricity, she decided to shut down for the day. I walked home with my mama, sisters and cousin for all of us to find that our house had also lost power (bring on the headlamp from REI, it worked like a charm). Yesterday’s meals had no protein (chicken, beef, etc.) because most of the local stores did not receive meat shipments, so we had fried bananas, gallo pinto (rice and beans), and tortillas. Yay for carbs right? So bad for me! What else is there to do in the dark but pull out the candles and play a card game. I retaught my sisters UNO and taught my cousin and family friend how to play. We played 4 rounds which took about 3 hours since we played the version where you have to draw cards until u get a card you can play. It made the time in the dark go by much faster and we had a blast.

Elsewhere in the country it has been flooding in Managua and some of the northern regions since around 2pm. The threat level was yellow, which I’m guessing is about the same as our system, so we weren’t as bad off as we all thought. I’m sure the orange and red colors are probably when the country is in a state of emergency. As far as we know, no one seems to have perished from the storm. Oh, speaking of which, I have a story about the news from last week!

Last Sunday I was watching the news and the main story of the day was the discovery of a drowned young man in Lago Nicaragua (Lake Nica). Not only was this the main story, but they showed them dragging the body in with a rope…and to make it even more dramatic they got a close-up shot of this corpse, all blown up from being in the water. The shot was so close it felt like a bad horror movie since you could see the veins and everything. Luckily the dude was face down and they didn’t turn him over. I was just not prepared for the close-up shot on the TV! So yeah, that’s my gruesome story for you all.

I guess one of the advantages of the rain is the cooling effect on the land and the weather. It’s nice to not have to wake up all sweaty and it’s really nice to actually feel “cold”. I still sweat up a storm when I walk around because it’s so humid at times, but the worst heat has passed for now. In July and August we’ll have a “mini-summer” and it will go back to being pretty hot again.

P.S. The picture shows my new room...gotta love the mosquito net!