The Experience of Almost Being on Nicaraguan News & My Weekly Update
I´ve had a great week! I posted last week that I was hoping to post more often, but I seem to be getting into the rhythm of posting once a week, so for now that´s what you can expect from the blog.
There was some excitement today, because at 5:30 one of my coworkers said that at 6:00 we´d be on a local news station, talking about our work with ASOHJUV. I hate talking in front of large groups and being on television in English, so the thought of giving a TV interview in Spanish thoroughly freaked me out, and I was extremely nervous. At 6:00 nobody had come, and at 6:15 we learned that the interview would actually be at 7. For the next 45 minutes I studied my "script" that my coworker helped me make, so I knew the general idea of what I had to say. At 7, a man came by to tell us that we´d be doing it on Wednesday! All my worrying was for nothing, and now I have two extra days to stress over my 10 seconds on TV. Unfortunately it´s a live broadcast, so I won´t be able to see myself, but I´m sure it will definitely be an experience!
This past week was fairly standard. I had a few English classes, all of which went very well. I´m still learning how to develop lesson plans, and what the best order is to teach grammar and vocabulary, but the students seem to be learning a lot and genuinely enjoying the classes, which is always great to see! I´m making more progress on the CBI community garden project, and I´m very excited see that develop more. This weekend I was in Chinandega as usual. Tess and I had our first salsa lessons, which were great! I knew a bit of salsa, due to my high school´s mandatory dance classes, but this was completely different. I´m convinced I lost half my water weight due to sweating so much, partly because the dancing was definitely a workout, but also because it was HOT! Chinandega is one of the hottest regions in Nicaragua, and inside our instructor´s house was absolutely boiling. Regardless, it was still a great deal of fun, and even though I do consider myself a very bad dancer, I´m looking forward to Saturdays and continuing these classes! On Sunday, Tess and I went to a place called El Campusano with 4 other Peace Corps workers, one of whom I work with, another who works with Tess. El Campusano is a large park-like space, with a series of freshwater springs/pools. The first pool is fairly deep, and it spills off into a shallower pool, which then spills off into a shallower pool, and it continues for about 6 pools that each get progressively more shallow. There are also several places to eat, as well as a music video type of jukebox that played a lot of songs from Grease and Dirty Dancing, which all of the American volunteers found hilarious. There was so confusion regarding transportation at first and we ended up having to walk a ways from the highway, but it was definitely worth it! The water wasn´t cold, the swimming was very relaxing, and it was great talking to the Peace Corps volunteers and hearing about their experiences here in Nicaragua.
The road that we walked to get to El Campusano- it was gorgeous!
Tomorrow I am giving a charla (a type of presentation) on the difference between gender and sex to elementary school students, which I am a bit nervous for. I think this is a difficult subject to explain to students in English, and I´m not entirely sure how I´ll be able to convey in in Spanish! Wednesday I´m going to Leon to meet up with other volunteers and our program directors, which I´m looking forward to. It will be nice to see everyone together, and hear from everyone, now that we are all completely settled in our internships.
There was some excitement today, because at 5:30 one of my coworkers said that at 6:00 we´d be on a local news station, talking about our work with ASOHJUV. I hate talking in front of large groups and being on television in English, so the thought of giving a TV interview in Spanish thoroughly freaked me out, and I was extremely nervous. At 6:00 nobody had come, and at 6:15 we learned that the interview would actually be at 7. For the next 45 minutes I studied my "script" that my coworker helped me make, so I knew the general idea of what I had to say. At 7, a man came by to tell us that we´d be doing it on Wednesday! All my worrying was for nothing, and now I have two extra days to stress over my 10 seconds on TV. Unfortunately it´s a live broadcast, so I won´t be able to see myself, but I´m sure it will definitely be an experience!
This past week was fairly standard. I had a few English classes, all of which went very well. I´m still learning how to develop lesson plans, and what the best order is to teach grammar and vocabulary, but the students seem to be learning a lot and genuinely enjoying the classes, which is always great to see! I´m making more progress on the CBI community garden project, and I´m very excited see that develop more. This weekend I was in Chinandega as usual. Tess and I had our first salsa lessons, which were great! I knew a bit of salsa, due to my high school´s mandatory dance classes, but this was completely different. I´m convinced I lost half my water weight due to sweating so much, partly because the dancing was definitely a workout, but also because it was HOT! Chinandega is one of the hottest regions in Nicaragua, and inside our instructor´s house was absolutely boiling. Regardless, it was still a great deal of fun, and even though I do consider myself a very bad dancer, I´m looking forward to Saturdays and continuing these classes! On Sunday, Tess and I went to a place called El Campusano with 4 other Peace Corps workers, one of whom I work with, another who works with Tess. El Campusano is a large park-like space, with a series of freshwater springs/pools. The first pool is fairly deep, and it spills off into a shallower pool, which then spills off into a shallower pool, and it continues for about 6 pools that each get progressively more shallow. There are also several places to eat, as well as a music video type of jukebox that played a lot of songs from Grease and Dirty Dancing, which all of the American volunteers found hilarious. There was so confusion regarding transportation at first and we ended up having to walk a ways from the highway, but it was definitely worth it! The water wasn´t cold, the swimming was very relaxing, and it was great talking to the Peace Corps volunteers and hearing about their experiences here in Nicaragua.
El Campusano
Tomorrow I am giving a charla (a type of presentation) on the difference between gender and sex to elementary school students, which I am a bit nervous for. I think this is a difficult subject to explain to students in English, and I´m not entirely sure how I´ll be able to convey in in Spanish! Wednesday I´m going to Leon to meet up with other volunteers and our program directors, which I´m looking forward to. It will be nice to see everyone together, and hear from everyone, now that we are all completely settled in our internships.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete