Hey Everyone!
So I have been living in my site for about a week now! It has been an interesting transition. I went from every minute of my day being planned by training staff to living by my own schedule. Right now, I am getting to know my town, other organizations, my new family and all the teachers and schools that I will be working with. They are all really excited for the work that is ahead when school starts February 4th.
I say it has been a transition because, just like many Americans, we are always "on the go." This is not how things work in Nicaragua. First you have to take time to get to know people personally before developing a working relationship. There has to be confianza, or trust. So right now when I am not in meetings, my time is spent sitting on my porch, or someone else's porch, and making conversation. I am also working really hard at improving my spanish but after knowing all the basics, this is a slow process.
My new host family has been great! I live on the second floor and there is actually a bathroom with running water!! My mouth dropped when I saw this! Of course still cold showers only but this is definitely an unexpected upgrade in living conditions. My host mom is about 80 years old and such a sweet heart. She is a great grandmother and has seven kids of her own so it is a big family to say the least. She is a pretty good cook but no matter how well a person can cook, I look forward to anything but beans and rice.
I am in the process of looking for my own place to live as I will only be living with this family until Jan. 6th. As much as I love my family right now, it will be nice to have my own space and cook my own food. I also want to get a dog and have my eye on a puppy right now (:
Also, I have a site mate. This is another volunteer from the English sector of Peace Corps. She lives about two blocks away and teaches at the institute in town. Her name is also Nicole...go figure...so it has been interesting when introducing myself to others. So most people call me Nicole Maria.
So there is not too much to report as of now, but everything is going well! Stay healthy, stay warm and drive safely in the winter weather.
Lots of Love,
Nicole Maria
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Monday, November 12, 2007
My new postal address!
So I have a new mailbox that you can send letters etc...
Nicole Hedquist
Apartado Postal #290
Matagalpa, Nicaragua
Central America
It is about 2hrs away from me but I will be checking about every two weeks since I will be going there for groceries and internet as well! Look forward to hearing from everyone!
Nicole Hedquist
Apartado Postal #290
Matagalpa, Nicaragua
Central America
It is about 2hrs away from me but I will be checking about every two weeks since I will be going there for groceries and internet as well! Look forward to hearing from everyone!
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Ready to start my service!
Wow...things have been hectic lately! We are fastly approaching the very last week of our training and, in less then a week, I will be taking the oath of a Peace Corps volunteer!
This last week, we had a our final youth group meeting where we gave a charla on AIDS and threw a small thank you party for the kids with gaseosa (pop), galletas (cookies) and musica. They loved it! Later in the week, all the youth groups presented their projects and received certificates for all their hard work. In addition, we had our last language interview. It is amazing how much Spanish I have learned but there is still a lot of room for improvement. However, I feel confident in being able to find my way around and get my ideas across. We also gave our last enviromental class in our training towns. My lesson was over biotic and abiotic things in an ecosystem. I will really miss working with the class and their teacher.
Me teaching a charla with a fifth grade class. We played a game categorizing things that are abiotic and biotic to test their understanding of the lesson. Here they are waiting to see which team won!
The visit to my site in Matagalpa went very well! I am in the mountains and it is absolutely goregeous! It is still very hot durning the day but the nights cool off substantially. I will be returning there for good on November 23rd. It is a fairly small town of 3,000 people. I will be working in three rural schools outside my town in smaller communities. One of my schools is about 6km away without transportation. Most likely I will be loaning a horse to use for traveling as the hills and rocky road make bicycling near impossible...unless your Nicaraguan!
To answer peoples´question about the electricity, there is no electricity during the day in many towns because the company turns it off. It is their way of conserving as it is not possible to have continuous electricity all day for everyone with the electricity shortage. There is a huge problem with water in my community after Hurricane Mitch destroyed a waterfall, a well and a ton of trees along the river. I will be working with many organizations to create tree nurseries and gardens in the school yards. The trees from the nursery will be used to reforest areas along the river and the gardens will provide additional food for breakfast in the schools. With the huge water shortage during the summer months, I will be bathing and washing my clothes in the river as running water only comes about every 14 to 20 days. This water problem is a potential secondary project for my service as my town has plans to reroute the water from a nearby waterfall. However, there are many obstacles and challenges in this project that will need to be sorted out beforehand. ¨Vamos haber¨...well will see.
Life has been so different here that sometimes it is sureal. It is a rollercoaster. Some days better than others but that is life no matter where you are living. I have meet so many amazing and motivated people, as well as, experienced so many things for the first time...drinking pop and juice out of plastic bags, seeing my first volcano, living with a host family, teaching a class...in spanish nevertheless, leading a youth group, trying many different foods, learning how to make soy products from soy beans, riding in a bus standing up, taking bucket baths, creating a tree nursery, talking to the mayor, and really, just living out of the US for 11 weeks.
People in our group walking up a path by Volcan Masaya.
Cooking the soy over an wood stove....in a very large pan!
I am really going to miss my host family. They have been so great to me and I truly feel like part of the family. Tomorrow, I am going to make them an American breakfast of french toast and bacon. Yes, you can buy things like that here in the grocery stores, they are just a little expensive.
My mom cooking rice in the dark during a power outage...I let her borrow my head lamp as she was cooking the beans outside over the wood stove. They thought it was hilarious!
My sister, Vilma, and her son, Kevin (6 years old).
My host family´s house from the back. The door on the left leads to my room.
My back yard. We wash our dishes and clothes in the ¨levendero¨ (stone thing on the left). The concrete room on the left is where we take bucket baths. We dry all of our clothes on the clothes lines. The thing with the black door in the back is the ¨letrina¨(outhouse).
So hopefully these pictures give you a visual of my life. Sometimes I feel it is so hard to explain things or even know where to begin. As soon as I get a chance, I will take some pictures of my new site so you can see how absolutely gorgeous it really is! Miss you all!
Adios
This last week, we had a our final youth group meeting where we gave a charla on AIDS and threw a small thank you party for the kids with gaseosa (pop), galletas (cookies) and musica. They loved it! Later in the week, all the youth groups presented their projects and received certificates for all their hard work. In addition, we had our last language interview. It is amazing how much Spanish I have learned but there is still a lot of room for improvement. However, I feel confident in being able to find my way around and get my ideas across. We also gave our last enviromental class in our training towns. My lesson was over biotic and abiotic things in an ecosystem. I will really miss working with the class and their teacher.
Me teaching a charla with a fifth grade class. We played a game categorizing things that are abiotic and biotic to test their understanding of the lesson. Here they are waiting to see which team won!
The visit to my site in Matagalpa went very well! I am in the mountains and it is absolutely goregeous! It is still very hot durning the day but the nights cool off substantially. I will be returning there for good on November 23rd. It is a fairly small town of 3,000 people. I will be working in three rural schools outside my town in smaller communities. One of my schools is about 6km away without transportation. Most likely I will be loaning a horse to use for traveling as the hills and rocky road make bicycling near impossible...unless your Nicaraguan!
To answer peoples´question about the electricity, there is no electricity during the day in many towns because the company turns it off. It is their way of conserving as it is not possible to have continuous electricity all day for everyone with the electricity shortage. There is a huge problem with water in my community after Hurricane Mitch destroyed a waterfall, a well and a ton of trees along the river. I will be working with many organizations to create tree nurseries and gardens in the school yards. The trees from the nursery will be used to reforest areas along the river and the gardens will provide additional food for breakfast in the schools. With the huge water shortage during the summer months, I will be bathing and washing my clothes in the river as running water only comes about every 14 to 20 days. This water problem is a potential secondary project for my service as my town has plans to reroute the water from a nearby waterfall. However, there are many obstacles and challenges in this project that will need to be sorted out beforehand. ¨Vamos haber¨...well will see.
Life has been so different here that sometimes it is sureal. It is a rollercoaster. Some days better than others but that is life no matter where you are living. I have meet so many amazing and motivated people, as well as, experienced so many things for the first time...drinking pop and juice out of plastic bags, seeing my first volcano, living with a host family, teaching a class...in spanish nevertheless, leading a youth group, trying many different foods, learning how to make soy products from soy beans, riding in a bus standing up, taking bucket baths, creating a tree nursery, talking to the mayor, and really, just living out of the US for 11 weeks.
People in our group walking up a path by Volcan Masaya.
Cooking the soy over an wood stove....in a very large pan!
I am really going to miss my host family. They have been so great to me and I truly feel like part of the family. Tomorrow, I am going to make them an American breakfast of french toast and bacon. Yes, you can buy things like that here in the grocery stores, they are just a little expensive.
My mom cooking rice in the dark during a power outage...I let her borrow my head lamp as she was cooking the beans outside over the wood stove. They thought it was hilarious!
My sister, Vilma, and her son, Kevin (6 years old).
My host family´s house from the back. The door on the left leads to my room.
My back yard. We wash our dishes and clothes in the ¨levendero¨ (stone thing on the left). The concrete room on the left is where we take bucket baths. We dry all of our clothes on the clothes lines. The thing with the black door in the back is the ¨letrina¨(outhouse).
So hopefully these pictures give you a visual of my life. Sometimes I feel it is so hard to explain things or even know where to begin. As soon as I get a chance, I will take some pictures of my new site so you can see how absolutely gorgeous it really is! Miss you all!
Adios
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
I´m heading to Matagalpa!
So today we finally found out all of our sites!!! This is where we will be located for the next two years of our service. There has been much anticipation, anxiousness and excitement for this day! Now we know at least the department of Nicaragua, the name of the town, who we will be living with, the name of the schools we will be working with and the size of the community. We will meet our ¨contraparte,¨ or person that we will be working with who has a connection in the community and will be helping to facilitate our work. Then we will be visiting our site for one week to get to know our schools, the teachers and the town! Back to finish training, take the Peace Corps oath on November 16th and then officially we will be Peace Corps volunteers!!
So my site is located in the central part of Matagalpa....in the mountains!! It is exactly where I wanted to be! Here is a website that has a great description of the area and a website with an interactive map:
http://www.vianica.com/visit/matagalpa
http://www.vianica.com/explore.php
Basically, it is a gorgeous area! I will be the first environmental volunteer at my site which has about 3,000 people in the urban area and 18,000 in the rural areas. Yea if you think about it, it is still less than half the population of students at Michigan State University! Kinda crazy! There is one other volunteer there teaching English. I am also really happy to have three other fellow environmental volunteers 1-2 hours away!
It is a really calm town with water, internet and electricity (but not from 7am-3pm), and a larger grocery store about an hour away. I will be working with three schools (one of them is multigrade) with 163, 164, and 360 students each. The teachers need help incorporating environmental themes in their curriculum. Their major environmental problems include slash and burn farming, deforestation and erosion of the soil and contamination of the water and soils with indescriminate use of inorganic pesticides. My contraparte works for MINED (Ministry of Education) and I also will be working with an NGO.
So that is all I know for now!! I will write in a week hopefully with pics from my site after the visit!!
So my site is located in the central part of Matagalpa....in the mountains!! It is exactly where I wanted to be! Here is a website that has a great description of the area and a website with an interactive map:
http://www.vianica.com/visit/matagalpa
http://www.vianica.com/explore.php
Basically, it is a gorgeous area! I will be the first environmental volunteer at my site which has about 3,000 people in the urban area and 18,000 in the rural areas. Yea if you think about it, it is still less than half the population of students at Michigan State University! Kinda crazy! There is one other volunteer there teaching English. I am also really happy to have three other fellow environmental volunteers 1-2 hours away!
It is a really calm town with water, internet and electricity (but not from 7am-3pm), and a larger grocery store about an hour away. I will be working with three schools (one of them is multigrade) with 163, 164, and 360 students each. The teachers need help incorporating environmental themes in their curriculum. Their major environmental problems include slash and burn farming, deforestation and erosion of the soil and contamination of the water and soils with indescriminate use of inorganic pesticides. My contraparte works for MINED (Ministry of Education) and I also will be working with an NGO.
So that is all I know for now!! I will write in a week hopefully with pics from my site after the visit!!
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Wish list
So in case you are wondering, ¨What could Nicole possible want in Nicaragua?¨ I have made a little list. I can pretty much get anything that I need here but some stuff is just not the same!
mechanical pencils/pens
colored sharpie markers (use a lot for teaching classes)
nutritional, yummy granola bars
chocolate/candy
...and of course, a little hello note! Miss you guys!
mechanical pencils/pens
colored sharpie markers (use a lot for teaching classes)
nutritional, yummy granola bars
chocolate/candy
...and of course, a little hello note! Miss you guys!
Nicaraguan Transportation
I was trying to think of something to write about as it seems to get harder and harder every time, but then I realized I am just getting more used to eveything. So here is a little on traveling in Nicaragua!
This is Emalee and I in a little moto-taxi. Moto-taxi´s have three wheels, a seat in front for the driver and seats three comfortably in the back. However, I have easily seen 9 Nicaraguans in one!
This is our famous Peace Corps´ bus that we take to many events a couple times a week. It is driven by Douglas, the nicest Nicaraguan ever!
So I don´t have a picure, but old school buses from the states are the main form of public transportation here. They are usually decorated and have an obnoxious horn that is used all the time. The front and back door always remain open as they will stop for anyone anywhere along the route wanting to get on. There is the driver and at least one guy collecting money and standing at the door shouting the bus´destination rapidly multiple times. As you are trying to get on, there are people getting off and more people waiting by the door for the next stop. In additon, people selling anything you can think of get on and off the bus going up and down the aisle. Yea, kinda difficult. Many times you stand the whole way as buses are packed. You have to make your way to the door before your stop as they wait only long enough for the last person´s foot to leave the bus. You can bring just about whatever and they will lift it to the top...bikes, bed frames, you name it. Animals luckily have been limited mostly to chickens. I still haven´t been able to figure out how they remember who has payed when there is a constant flow of people and you don´t pay as you enter....genius memory I guess. Well that about describes it and I will admit, riding the bus here for the first time can be quite a scare but it just becomes anther part of the Nicaraguan scene!
This is Emalee and I in a little moto-taxi. Moto-taxi´s have three wheels, a seat in front for the driver and seats three comfortably in the back. However, I have easily seen 9 Nicaraguans in one!
This is our famous Peace Corps´ bus that we take to many events a couple times a week. It is driven by Douglas, the nicest Nicaraguan ever!
So I don´t have a picure, but old school buses from the states are the main form of public transportation here. They are usually decorated and have an obnoxious horn that is used all the time. The front and back door always remain open as they will stop for anyone anywhere along the route wanting to get on. There is the driver and at least one guy collecting money and standing at the door shouting the bus´destination rapidly multiple times. As you are trying to get on, there are people getting off and more people waiting by the door for the next stop. In additon, people selling anything you can think of get on and off the bus going up and down the aisle. Yea, kinda difficult. Many times you stand the whole way as buses are packed. You have to make your way to the door before your stop as they wait only long enough for the last person´s foot to leave the bus. You can bring just about whatever and they will lift it to the top...bikes, bed frames, you name it. Animals luckily have been limited mostly to chickens. I still haven´t been able to figure out how they remember who has payed when there is a constant flow of people and you don´t pay as you enter....genius memory I guess. Well that about describes it and I will admit, riding the bus here for the first time can be quite a scare but it just becomes anther part of the Nicaraguan scene!
Friday, October 12, 2007
Nicaraguan health and enviroment connected
So I really liked some of Jamie´s questions on the last post. I guess I haven´t really talked about many health and enviromental problems in Nicaragua. I am by no means an expert but I can definitely describe what I have seen and what other Nicas have told me. Many of these problems are what we will be examining and teaching about at our sites.
Many people do have a greater understanding of healthy practices and sustainable environmental techniques, yet, some things are so deeply embedded in the culture that it is going to be a slow process to change habits. Also, a lot has to due with the lack of infrustructure and resources. The majority of the population still resides in rural areas. Communication and transportation are difficult. As I was saying in the last post, many schools do not have water, trash disposal, soap, toilet paper, or enough books for all the students. They work the best with what they have.
Many people do have a better resistance to things here but still get sick and even die from illnesses such as diarrhea, malaria, and dengue. Diarrhea is usually due to the lack of clean water and can be due to not cooking meat all the way through as meat markets are commonly buzzing with flies. Mosquitoes carrying malaria and dengue thrive here in the tropical wet climate. Not only puddles, but the excessive trash create great breeding grounds. Some streets do have garbage cans yet the garbage will be found anyhere but inside. These are just some of the cultural factors/habits that will take time to change in order to improve the health of the people.
Deforestation, slash and burn farming and pesticide use are problems here as in many other countries. There are plenty of laws here protecting trees yet officials many times look the other way. Many NGOs, organizations and local governments with both health and enviromental sectors are diligently working on all these problems. There is definitely an increased awareness among the population and interest in helping the the development of Nicaragua.
What I really love about the Peace Corps is that we do not come here with money. We live in the communties and have multipe techniques for identifying their needs. We are able to show them more sustainable options that will benifit both their families and the environment. Just handing over money to communities is not sustainable. Educating people about these issues and then teaching them how to organize projects and people will insure that progress will continue when we leave.
Many people do have a greater understanding of healthy practices and sustainable environmental techniques, yet, some things are so deeply embedded in the culture that it is going to be a slow process to change habits. Also, a lot has to due with the lack of infrustructure and resources. The majority of the population still resides in rural areas. Communication and transportation are difficult. As I was saying in the last post, many schools do not have water, trash disposal, soap, toilet paper, or enough books for all the students. They work the best with what they have.
Many people do have a better resistance to things here but still get sick and even die from illnesses such as diarrhea, malaria, and dengue. Diarrhea is usually due to the lack of clean water and can be due to not cooking meat all the way through as meat markets are commonly buzzing with flies. Mosquitoes carrying malaria and dengue thrive here in the tropical wet climate. Not only puddles, but the excessive trash create great breeding grounds. Some streets do have garbage cans yet the garbage will be found anyhere but inside. These are just some of the cultural factors/habits that will take time to change in order to improve the health of the people.
Deforestation, slash and burn farming and pesticide use are problems here as in many other countries. There are plenty of laws here protecting trees yet officials many times look the other way. Many NGOs, organizations and local governments with both health and enviromental sectors are diligently working on all these problems. There is definitely an increased awareness among the population and interest in helping the the development of Nicaragua.
What I really love about the Peace Corps is that we do not come here with money. We live in the communties and have multipe techniques for identifying their needs. We are able to show them more sustainable options that will benifit both their families and the environment. Just handing over money to communities is not sustainable. Educating people about these issues and then teaching them how to organize projects and people will insure that progress will continue when we leave.
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