Bat Baseball

One night after dinner, a bat got in the house. I was unsure what the procedure would be. I have heard that some families are completely un-phased by animals in the house and others do everything in their power to kill it. During training, we had mice twice and both times my host father trapped them in the bathroom and killed them with a wooden spear.

We all realized there was a bat in the house. It was obvious. My host father went to get the broom and then started swatting. My host mom and I were responsible to tell him where it was and he was swinging away. It would fly from the kitchen to the living room and back again. I really didn’t think he was going to be able to get it but he completely surprised me. With one good swing he nailed it. I immediately started laughing hysterically. It was such a ridiculous site. We then took it to the neighbors to show their 2 year old son and I of course took some photos. 

Although Bat Baseball happened a few weeks ago, I am dealing with bats droppings in my room this week. It completely grosses me out but my host family doesn’t really seemed phased by it. I did research on it today and it looks like I will be hanging aluminum foil strips from the beams. Thankfully, I sleep under a mosquito net and it catches all of the bat droppings but it’s completely unpleasant to wake up to it every day. Hopefully they find a new place to hang out soon! 

Enchiladitas. Solamente diez cordobitas.

Here enchiladas are nothing like the Mexican enchiladas that you have all had.
Here they are corn tortillas with something additional in the dough that gives it a more orangey color. They are filled with rice and a teeny tiny bit of ground beef. The dough is folder over itself and deep fried. When the street vendor sells them, they all offer a chili sauce to pour over it. Watching the Nicaraguans do it, the trick it to bite off one end and pour the sauce directly inside the enchilada. They definitely resemble more of an empanada but they are definitely a must have. The cheapest ones are C$5 (about 20 cents) and the expensive ones are C$10. It’s definitely not a healthy snack but sometimes I cannot resist. There are a father and son team out of San Fernando who make a living out of selling C$10 enchiladas.

My host family gets a kick out me imitating the father:
“Enchiladitas, enchiladitas. Solamente diez cordobitas. Calientitas, calientitas del sol. Solamente diez cordobitas.”

Typical Week

A few of you have asked me what my typical week is like. This is what my class schedule is. This does not include all the bus travel time, which I was going to include but it is hard to capture because for example on Tuesday mornings I take a bus to a road where I try to get a taxi. I actually take a taxi about 30% of the time. The rest of the time I wait around until a good hitchhiking opportunity. So it's impossible to actually capture how much time I am standing on the side of the road. 

Mondays

7:15-8:15              Co-planning session
11:15-12:15         Co-planning session
12:15-1:45           Class with 5^th Year

Tuesdays

7:30-8:30              Co-planning session
10:35-12:05         Class with 4^th Year
12:05-1:00           Co-planning session

Wednesday

8:00-9:30              Class with 5^th Year
10:05-10:50         Class with 5^th Year
10:50-11:35         Co-planning session

3:00-4:15              Session 1 of my English Class in town (beginner)
4:30-6:00              Session 2 of my English Class in town (advanced beginner)

Thursdays

7:45-9:00              Co-planning session

10:35-12:05         Class with 5^th Year
12:05-1:00           Co-planning session

                -OR-

12:15-1:45           Class with 5^th Year
1:45-3:15              English Class with Counterpart

Fridays

10:50-11:35         Class with 5^th Year

Traditional Folk Dancing Costume

My host sister participated in the folk dancing group in town. As a result, I had the opportunity of seeing her perform a few times. Here are some pictures of her all dressed up!

And here she is with her sister (left) and cousin (right).

Actos – Día de las Madres – May 30th

Mother’s Day is big deal here. It is celebrated on May 30^th and as the guide book says, “No one gets away with just a card – more things close than at Christmas.” There is no school and every school puts on presentation in honor of the day the day before. I went to two Actos, one at one of my high schools and then went to the one at my host sisters’ elementary school. At the one at the high school, there was singing, dancing, a skit, a poem and even games for the moms. They had the moms play musical chairs and participate in a singing competition.   There was cake and soda for all. There was an overabundance of cake and I was offered it 3 times. I luckily was able to turn it down nicely the two additional pieces. Cake here is definitely not as good here as it is in the states. The icing is both a strange flavor and consistency. I miss Funfetti and carrot cake. Overall, it was a nice Acto. The only negative is that very few mothers showed up. We waited about an hour after the scheduled start time to begin, hoping that more mothers would come, but only a few trickled in.

In the afternoon, I went to the acto for the elementary school in town with my host mother. It was at the parque central, and they had two kioskos set up with seats underneath. It looked like it was going to pour so we made sure to sit towards the center of the small tent. It ended up being an acto with a long rain-filled intermission. It started an hour late, which I am finding out is completely normal and expected here. There were mostly dancing numbers. The folk dancing was performed by the local folk dancing youth group. They perform at all the local events. One of the town drinkers arrived at the event while one of the dancing groups was performing. He danced along with the music and tried to join the dancing group as well. The students were very serious and barely reacted when he got near them. The police escorted the guy out but it didn’t stop him from coming back. Luckily, he seems pretty harmless. He is a running joke in my host family because he is present at all community events and always seems to be dancing at them. I have a few videos of him.

After the rain-filled intermission, we went into a building. Unfortunately, it was impossible to see anything but a few minutes after we arrived we were all served arroz con pollo. It is a pretty typical dish here, especially for birthday and other large events. It is served with a piece of white toast. And of course we each got a cup of soda.

HAPPY BELATED MOTHER’S DAY TO ALL!

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.