Lifes Goes On

The last week has been an absolute whirlwind of work, and the days are going by more quickly than I ever imagined they would! The garden project is progressing, but as an agency, we´ve also been experiencing some difficulties of deciding how to move forward based on what we want as an end result, but also taking into consideration the financial and time restraints that exist. Communication is absolutely vital, and it´s hard making sure that every person involved in the project is on the same page! It´s definitely not always sunshine and daisies (okay, it´s almost always sunshine here in Corinto), but regardless of the challenges, it´s inspiring seeing how motivated and dedicated everyone is, and knowing that we all have the same goal, even if we have different methods in mind, is what keeps the project going.

On Friday night I went out with Tess and a number of Peace Corps volunteers in Chinandega, which was a great way to end the week. Some of the volunteers I already knew a bit, but it was fun meeting the others and learning about what they do and their experiences here. After a night full of fun and very little sleep, I caught an early bus to Leon, where I spent the day with the two volunteers there. We planned to go to the Museum of Myths and Legends, that is supposedly very interesting, as well as climb to the top of the Cathedral in Leon, where we have heard there is a spectacular view, but unfortunately both were closed due to the holiday Día de los Difuntos. Día de los Difuntos (more commonly referred to as Día de los Muertos in other regions) is a day of remembering and praying for friends and families that have died, and people often go to cemetaries to place flowers on the graves of loved ones. We had dinner at an upscale ($6-$9 a plate! Expensive!!) Mediterranean restaurant, which served our pizza and pasta in nearly 20 minutes, which is absolutely speedy for a Nicaraguan restaurant. The night was finished out by having our own little Halloween celebration (Locals know of Halloween, but it´s not celebrated) that consisted of a mini candy-feast. Emma, the volunteer who I was staying with, lives in a house with WiFi(!) and in an effort to be festive, we attempted to stream Sweeney Todd, but ultimately failed, so we just enjoyed the candy. During the day, we also eended up planning for upcoming weekends, and signed up for volcano boarding- from what I understand of it, it´s basically sledding down a snow-less volcano- on the nearby volcano, Cerro Negro, for this weekend. I can´t wait! We looked at our upcoming weekends, and it´s really unbelievable how little time we have left here, which is definitely a bittersweet feeling.

One of the highlights of the week includes last Friday when a cruise ship stopped in Corinto! Vendors from the larger cities of Managua and Massya came to sell the standard kitschy souvenirs, as well as some beautiful jewlery and the standard T shirts. They set up booths along one street in the town where the people from the cruise could walk around and buy things (though they were restricted by caution tape blocking off the 4 blocks they were restrained to), or they could also choose to take a bus out to Leon for the day. Corinto is tiny, and the only foreigners living here are myself and the Germans, so seeing a hundred people (I estimated the median age to be about 60) with Hawaiian shirts and fanny packs walking around was quite the site! I took advantage of these visitors and the lesson for that day´s English class was to interview someone in English! We split up into 4 different groups, with about 4 kids per group, and they each went around asking a different person about themselves. The kids did a great job, and the interviewees were absolutely enamored by them!

My classes continue to go well, but the class for the younger kids has multiplied this week by about 3!  I used to have around 5-8 kids each class, and now I have nearly 20, because we´ve been advertising the classes during the charlas we do in school. The bigger classes are a very different teaching experience, and personally is harder for me because 1) Students have an extremely wide range of knowledge, and although I mentioned this in an earlier post, it´s become even more difficult to teach to students who are at such different levels, and 2) Students are more easily distracted in a larger group. Although this is a completely optional class, there is always a group of kids in the back that don´t pay attention, which is very frustrating. Of course, there is also a group of students that are so eager and excited to learn, which makes my teaching that much more fun! I want to give them the attention they need, and more material to learn, but it´s difficult to balance that while also successfully engaging the other students.

Another highlight of the week was that one of our dogs had puppies! We only found out she was pregnant a couple weeks ago, so the birth was quite a surprise. Unfortunately I wasn´t there, but my host mom called to let me know, and I was able to see them right when I got home. There are 6 of them, and they are absolutely adorable. Sadly, one of them, the smallest, died on the second night. When my family told me this I was sad and expressed my sympathy, but was not expecting them to then get the body out of fridge and ask if I wanted to hold it! Definitely a culture difference!

This upcoming week is fairly uneventful- more classes, and more garden work, but I´m still looking forward to it! My students are unbelievably sweet, and always keep teaching interesting for me, and the garden is making more and more progress every day. My main supervisor at my agency is going to Ethiopia tomorrow for a international youth leadership conference, which I think is absolutely incredible, so I can´t wait to hear how it goes. I´ve been helping him with his speech, which has to be in English.

Hasta Luego!