Arrival at Training Sites

We spent several days in Managua for Orientation, which included all manner of administrative tasks and included getting vaccinations, getting our language level diagnosed, receiving medical info, etc. We also received a TON of technical manuals and reference books for our sector, materno-infantil. The hotel was really nice with 2 pools. So our afternoons were spent swimming and getting to know each other a little more.

Nica 55 (the 55^th group of volunteers to come to Nicaragua) is made up of 45 people who are split into 2 groups, each with a different focus. Twenty of us, including myself, are Materno-Infantil , which is a brand new program that is starting with us. The remaining 25 people are working in the Healthy Lifestyles program, which has been the traditional health program for Peace Corps Nicaragua.

Fast forward...after a few days at the Best Western - Managua Airport for Orientation, we were finally being taken via school bus to our host families in our training towns! In the pictures above are Sarah O. and Natalie on the bus! The bus ride from Managua to Carazo was beautiful.

Also in the pictures above is my room in my new home with my host family. Please excuse the mess. My host parents, Reyna and Pedro, have two daughters, Katia and Milagros, and three grandchildren, Natalie, Tito, and Brittany. There are three other Peace Corps trainees in my town named Rita, Lenka, and Liz.

I live in El Rosario, Carazo Departamento. El Rosario has an “urban” area of about 3,000 people but is the seat of a larger municipality. My training group and I will be working together to form a women’s group and implement a survey. In addition we each will develop and present four presentations on various health topics related to our field, maternal and child health. In Nicaragua, these presentations are called “charlas.”

Our training schedule is SUPER full. Typically we have Spanish class Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday from 8 to 3. On Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday morning we travel to another town to meet with all the other maternal and child health trainees to hear technical charlas related to our field. For example, this week we learned about child development, upper respiratory infections, and diarrhea. Last week, we learned about risk factors for pregnant women and how they are monitored by the Nicaraguan health system. In our “free” time if you really want to call it that is spent catching up on a ton of reading that is required of us and keeping a journal that chronicles our integration into the training communities. Whenever possible I spend time hanging out with my host family.

A language facilitator teaches all of our Spanish classes and they rotate every three weeks. The first three weeks in training our language facilitator was Nelson and we had our classes at Rita’s house, which is on the other side of town from my house. Below is Lenka posing in our “classroom” in Rita’s living room on our last day with Nelson.

My language facilitator Nelson, and my fellow aspirantes (trainees): Liz, Rita, and Lenka. Liz is from Alameda, California and has an MPH in Nutrition and is an RD. Rita is from Oregon and graduated last May from University of Oregon. Lenka is originally from Oregon as well, however has been living and working in North Carolina the last few years. We get along great and have a lot of fun together. Liz plays the guitar and sings and has a band back in Cali. After class, she plays a little for us sometimes. The cute little girl in the pictures above is Nesti, Rita’s host-niece. She was a frequent observer of our classes at Rita’s house.