Some Scenery Shots My New Region

While on my site visit, I went on a short walk up a nearby hill to take some shots of my then soon-to-be home. As I said in an earlier post, it’s in the northern part of the country, Nueva Segovia, that borders Honduras. The area is very green, especially since it was summer, also known as the dry season. Now winter is starting so it is even greener and the rain has started!
 

Counterpart Day

Monday, May 6, we had counterpart day. All the business aspirantes went to Managua to meet our school counterparts. Everyone had a least a couple of the principals, vice principals, teachers or técnicos. We had a full day, about 8 or 9 hours, of presentations, activities, planning sessions and more. In my opinion, it was worthwhile. I was able to meet 3 of my principals, 1 vice principal, and 1 técnica. One of my schools has never had the help of a volunteer before and the other ones have. They were all very nice and seemed interested in the material for the most part. Counterpart Day is time to meet with the leadership of the school and emphasize the importance of the class and the relevance of the material. 

The day started with a presentation by the PC Nicaragua Director on the history and goals of Peace Corps. Then PC staff explained the goals of Small Business. They showed an informative and inspirational video about the national competition, which the students in Emprededurismo work towards all year developing a product or service with the goal of making it to the national competition. We also did cultural awareness exercises to highlight the differences in work and communication styles between Americans and Nicaraguans. At the end of the day, we worked on making a schedule of events for our time at site, which included when we would be visiting all the schools and what are some activities we can either observe or participate in during our first two months at site.

I felt bad for my counterparts. They had gotten on the bus at 3 or 4am to make it to Managua by 9am. A few of them had to stand for half the ride. They then participated in all the activities and spent the night at the center with us. We stayed in rooms of 4 or 6 in small bunk beds. They had thin cot mattresses, which were well-worn and as a result were extremely uncomfortable. And the place is in Managua so it was really hot. There were overhead fans in each room but they didn’t reach everyone in the room. The bathroom situation was more like campsite showers. Between the 20+ of us there were 2 showers and 2 toilets. We all felt pretty bad for the counterparts. In the states, I don’t think you could expect principals to travel 5+ hours on the bus during the night, to participate in a conference, to sleep in rustic conditions, to wake up at 5 or 6am to head back to their sites. They were all good sports about it!

Language Interviews

Since arriving in Nicaragua, I have had three language interview. One my first few days in country, one during my sixth week and one during my tenth week. The interviews are face-to-face and are supposed to give the participant “an opportunity to demonstrate, in a realistic conversation, the extent of your spoken proficiency as well as your ability to understand the spoken language.” The interviews last about 20 minutes and cover a variety of topics. Some of it is describing people in your family, telling a story, explaining about your daily activities, comparing different things, asking questions, acting out a role play and more. The interviews are graded using the ACTFL Guidelines’ criteria: functions, content, accuracy and text type.

·         Function- refers to what the individual can do with the language, including asking questions, giving information, describing and persuading

·         Content- includes the topics of the spoken message and the breath of vocabulary used

·         Accuracy- refers to the precision, quality, and acceptability of grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, fluency and sociolinguistic appropriateness of the spoken message

·         Type- refers to the quantity of speech and conciseness of the message

My first interview I scored Intermediate Low. It was quite disappointing. I knew I hadn’t spoken Spanish on a regular basis since 2005/2006, but I expected that I would have done better. The detailed explanation says “able to handle a limited number of interactive, task-oriented, and social situations… within these limitations, can perform such tasks as introducing self, ordering a meal, asking directions, and making purchases… intermediate low speaker can generally be understood by sympathetic listeners.” 

My second interview I definitely made fewer mistakes in regards to verb tense since I have been able to remember a lot of what I learned in high school with the limited grammar review we have done in language class. My mistakes were more grammatical. I did not include the “a” after ayudar and other verbs that need it. I also did not included necessary helping verbs like aprender a leer. I mixed up ser y estar and por y para, something that I am slowly improving on. I scored Intermediate Mid.

My final interview was last week. I felt like I had done a little better than my second interview but not much. I was aware of the errors I had made and tried to not make the same mistakes. I don’t know what I said incorrectly, since I did not received a detailed list, but I ended up scoring Advanced Low! According to the description, I can now “converse in a participatory fashion; initiate, sustain, and bring closure to a wide variety of communicative tasks; satisfy the requirement of school and work situations; and, narrate and describe with paragraph-length connected discourse.” 

I still have a lot to work on but at least I am making progress every day. Being at site, only speaking Spanish, will definitely help!
And so will my Skype conversations with Jesus and Laura. I wouldn’t be at the level I am at today without their help!!

Ayudantes are like Short-Order Cooks

Here we spend quite a bit of time on buses. You may be surprised (if you haven’t been reading my blog) to find out they are just retired US school buses (Bluebird) customized with stickers, lights, streamers, and more.  

The way they work is as they are passing passengers on the street, the ayudante  (or driver’s helper) calls out the bus’ destination. If you want the bus to stop, you put your hand out, with your palm down, and move your hand in a scooping motion. We always confirm that we’re getting on the right bus by asking the driving if they’re going to our desired destination. If there is a seat, you grab it. The goal is to and get a seat near the front or rear of the bus to have easy access to get off. And if you’re going to be on it for a while, the window is definitely the desirable seat. And they squish the passengers in, two on the smaller seat and three on the larger seat. If you get the aisle seat it is likely you will have someone standing directly over you and when the ayudante passes through the bus they will be forced to dangle over you to let him pass. If there isn’t a seat, you stand and the ayudante will remind you of the empty space you left between you and the person next to you if you’re not practically touching them.

One of the responsibilities of the ayudante is to collect the fares. According to the guide books, the buses are about $1 per hour (or about 30-40 km). So far the seems pretty accurate. My long ride to my permanent site cost 120 córdobas, or a little less than $5 for about 5 hours. Normally we take buses around our area and it costs about 8-10 córdobas, so less than 50 cents.

The ayudante walks through the bus to collect fares. He makes change for most of the passengers with the large wad of bills he carries between his fingers and the dozens of coins he keeps in his palms. When the bus is crowded, he squuuueeeeeeeezes past the passengers in the aisle. Sometimes it’s so tight it is as if he is lying on top of you as he passes. Some of you have asked about the smell on the buses since it’s so hot, they buses are so crowded and there is no AC. Amazingly, we have yet to ride on a smelly bus. Nicaraguans take their appearance seriously so they are all freshly showered and neatly pressed in the morning.

The amazing thing about the ayudantes around here is that they don’t issue any tickets. When I went up north to my permanent site, I was issued a ticket on all the buses, whether I was riding 20 minutes or 5 hours. Around my training town, the ayudante remembers everything like a short-order cook. It is extremely impressive, especially because sometimes there are 100 people on the bus at one time and that doesn’t include all the people getting on and off.

So far they have always been men but they are of all ages. They remember who they have and haven’t collected money from. Only once have we ridden for free because the ayudante never came up to us to ask for the fare. And it was a short ride, less than 10 minutes. Since the fare is usually 20 córdobas or less and some people pay with C$200 and C$500 bills, he doesn’t always have enough change early in the trip. The first time I handed over a C$200 bill for a C$12 ride, I was convinced I would never get my change but halfway through the ride he came back with my exact change. He repeated what I had given him, the cost of my ride and the change I was to receive. You can also have him take your large or heavy items to the back or top of the bus and when it’s almost time for you to get off the bus, you remind him and he will take them off the bus for you. Since many people don’t’ have cars, people transport sacks of food, enormous baskets, furniture, etc. You can also ask them to tell you when you get to your stop and they will let you know. All of them have a unique whistle so the driver knows if he should stop or can pull away. Like a short-order cook, they are required to have an incredible short-term memory while juggling multiple tasks. 

After 10 weeks in country, I am still amazed!

The Gift of Service

PC makes a big deal out of site placements. They have all the small business volunteers sit together and give a long speech about how we are about to receive a gift, the gift of service. It actually was beautiful. We each received a large envelope with a smaller envelope and a large purple bow. Our names were written nicely on the small envelope. We all opened the small envelopes first and our aspiration statements. We read them silently and were told to reflect on whether our reasons for coming are still true. I have wanted to do this for 15 years so my reasons have only gotten stronger. We then all opened the large envelopes at the same time with our site assignments in booklets with a bunch of information. My site mate yelled out, “Oh My God!” as she opened her envelope. It was almost a knee jerk reaction for her. We all silently and slowly digested the limited information we had in our packets about our site.
I knew by the name of the region and my love of maps that my site was in the north. My packet highlighted the site size (small, about 2,000 people), the poverty of the people and the ruralness of the site. I was pretty much speechless the rest of the day. I have had to keep reminding myself that I signed up for the unknown. I didn’t choose Central America, Nicaragua, or Pio XII and so far I have been so happy. I have felt so content in my decision to be here and honestly grateful every morning to wake up here in what used to just be a dream I thought I might never be able to fulfill. 

CONGRATULATIONS!

Just wanted to say CONGRATULATIONS to my brother!! I wish I could have been there!!
Love you!!

The Giant Granadilla

My host family has a granadilla tree in the back yard, next to where we hang our laundry. For the past month, it has been producing a bunch of delicious fruits. For those of you who know Spanish, Granadilla in the dictionary is passion fruit but here passion fruit is called Calala and Granadilla refers to a large green fruit.  According to wikipedia, assiflora quadrangularis, is the largest of the passionfruits, plants of the genus Passiflora (I included the wikipedia path below).
The fruit is the size of a small watermelon or a large honeydew. It is green on thh the outside and white on the inside with small black seeds. My family frequently makes fresh fruit juice with them. My family mixes the granadilla with juice of a bunch of oranges and adds a lot of sugar (something very common here). They add ice, which they buy whenever they make a fresco. We do not typically have ice. It is definitely a luxury. Each small bag costs 2 cords (8 cents).

Wikipedia- Giant Granadilla

A Lazy Saturday

I decided to spend last Saturday with my host family. I spent most of the morning hanging with Freddy. We of course played dozens of games of Uno! and it was definitely my day. I was on a roll. The day before was his. Usually after about 20 rounds, he needs a break. He went outside on the patio to write and draw in his notebook. He was trying to draw all the fruits he could think of. We were all calling out different fruits, some of which he found too difficult to draw. Then he started drawing different cars and animals. I decided it would be a great time to bring out my crayons. At first, he wanted to copy my drawing. I drew and house and a tree. Then we decided to both draw rainbows. And finally he suggested a city and again he used mine as inspiration.