What we collected on our walk...

I went for a walk with my host parents a few weeks ago to one of the communities. We went to place an order for yucca. My host mom wanted to go straight to the source so we went to this sweet woman´s house who has a small piece of land where she grows a variety of things including yucca. It took us about 45 minutes to get there. While there, I learned that one of my students is her son so I spoke to him for a few minutes about what I am doing here. It is super common to give people fruits and vegetables when you have an abundance. This woman had a large melecoton (starfruit) tree and she gifted us a large bag full of them to take. We used them to make frescos, homemade juice (bottom right). Her neighbor had a cacao plant and we asked him if he would give us one (top right). We left them in the sun for about 2 weeks to dry out the seeds and brought them to the mill to grind them into a powder to make frescos. The spiky one is called guanabana. It is also known as soursop in other parts of the world. According to Wikipedia, "the flavor is described as a combination of strawberry and pineapple, with sour citrus fruit notes contrasting with an underlying creamy flavor reminiscent of coconut or banana." I would never be able to describe a taste as thoroughly as a Wikipedia contributor has been able to.

Laguna de Apoyo

This is a picture taken by one of my site mates from training. It is from when we went to the lookout for the Laguna de Apoyo. It is a really pretty place and this picture actually does it justice. 

Nancites

I have found something I hate here. It is a tiny fruit that usually is yellow but sometimes is red. They have a super strong scent. They remind me of really stinky cheese or vomit. They are in season now and everyone is eating them. People are gifting bags of them to my family. Now we have the drink in the fridge and bags of the fruit in the fridge and on every shelf. I don´t like the fruit, the juice made of the drink or the ice cream in a bag. Supposedly they are also made into a dessert but I haven´t seen that yet. Instead they eat them on the bus and the smell is overpowering. EVERYWHERE. I am anxiously awaiting the end of the season.




from wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byrsonima_crassifolia

My wonderful host family

 My host parents and sisters

My immediate host family and her sister, her husband and their son. They live next door so we see them all the time! For the first month, their son was afraid of my blue eyes. I would wear sunglasses around him so he wouldn´t cry. He is no longer afraid. We are actually good friends now. He turns 2 in November.

Working in the institutos

In terms of my work, I am in the high schools. I have been assigned 5 schools in 5 different towns in 3 different municipalities. As a result, I travel a lot. I am on the bus hours each week, which I got used to living in Jersey and working in NY. The buses here are old school buses, however, and there is no AC and people are often packed like sardines. I am friendly with many of the ayudantes and drivers. One bus I take Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings so I am a frequent customer. Sometimes I even get discounts!
My role the first month was to observe. I attended the classes, took notes and observed the teaching styles of the different teachers. After about 3 weeks of only observing, I started co-planning in some of the schools. It requires meeting the teacher for about an hour and discussing the upcoming class and how s/he wants to teach the information. I try to introduce some interactive methods and try to make the teacher understands the material that s/he is teaching. The class is one that builds on itself all year long and ends with a Product Competition. They have to do a survey, make a prototype, complete a business plan, etc. We’re trying to provide them with necessary skills in a country where almost everyone is a microbusiness owner. My classes vary greatly. My smallest is 9 (the last time only 3 students attended) and the biggest is over 45. My furthest school is 70 minutes away on the bus and the closest is a 20 minute walk. I will be working with 4th and 5th year students, which is equivalent to 11th and 12th graders in the states.
It is definitely a learning experience, as I did not receive much formal teaching experience in the states. And truthfully, even if I did, there would still be a learning curve. Classroom dynamics are very different here!

IST

On July5^th, I travelled to Managua to meet the other business volunteers for our In Service Training. We were at a beach resort from Friday evening until Wednesday morning. It felt quite fitting for the time of year. Here it is the rainy season and the low season for the beach, which is why we were there. It only rained on Tuesday. We were in charlas all day, from about 830-5 so we didn’t get much beach time. Since I’m not a beach person, I didn’t mind. I really enjoyed the time with the other volunteers. Friday night and Saturday the business volunteers of the earlier groups were there for an idea exchange. One group was getting ready to leave Nicaragua after 2 years of service and the other has been here a year. It was very powerful to be in a room of people of all different stages with the same overall goal. The trainings were very useful; I learned a ton. And they also gave me more confidence in what I am here to do. I understand the curriculum a little more and now have materials to do business advising/consulting, personal finance consultingand also entrepreneurship and personal finance classes. I have to do a community analysis over the next 2 months to see what my community needs.

My host sisters have never been to the beach so I brought home a bag of shells for them. They loved them! We played with them for quite a few days. They have asked me a million questions about the ocean. Since it’s far away, the nearest ocean is probably 6 hours, they have never been and most kids they know have also never been. They are completely fascinated by the waves and keep asking me about sharks. Hopefully they will be able to make it to the beach one day!

Homework

I am responsible for homework help. I help both my host sisters with whatever they have. Sometimes they do not copy all of the directions down and other times there is a word I don’t know that is necessary to complete the homework. My bag of books (dictionary, 501 verbs, PC binders, etc.) was in Managua. I was without it and my suitcase for 8 weeks. My boss was supposed to bring it when she visited 4 weeks ago but the room was locked when she went to get it so I lived out of my hiking backpack. I put a lot of thought into packing it and I am so glad I did!

Back to the homework, the lack of a dictionary makes it quite exciting to help them. I have learned many new words, have learned a lot about the area and have had to figure out how to teach basic math skills in Spanish. My youngest host sister is in pre-K so her homework usually consists of writing her name, writing numbers 0-10 and drawing many pictures. The older of the two is 8 so in math she is learning her multiplication tables and basic division. We have spent hours working on both. She also has homework in all her other classes. We have been practicing rhyming words, discussed the importance of accent marks, and have recited a poem. For her tests, I was responsible for her test about Mozonte. She had to memorize what Mozonte means, what are the natural resources, the natural formations, the names of the 4 rivers. We recently started doing additional math practice because it is definitely lacking here. Partially due to a lack of resources, such as worksheets, and a more rigid form of math education. We are spending a lot of time on the multiplication tables and basic addition and subtraction! Wish us luck!