I'm moving to BLUEFIELDS! Its located on the southeastern Carribbean coast of Nicaragua and is the capital of the southern autonomous region, R.A.A.S. I'm super happy and excited! Its a really interesting place because the culture there is completely different from the Pacific side of Nicaragua. It was used by Dutch and English pirates in the 16th and 17th centuries, hence how it got its non-spanish name. There are two additional languages spoken, Miskito and Creole English, and there are also people of African descent. The culture is definitely creole and I'm really looking forward to experiencing it and seeing the differences and similarities of the creole culture that I know in New Orleans.
Bluefields is very foreign to most Nicaraguans because of its inaccessibility. In order to get there from Managua, I have to take a 7 or so hour bus ride to a city on the Escondido River called El Rama, and then take a boat down the river, the rest of the way to Bluefields another 3 or so hours. Sounds like an an adventure, right? You could also fly, but Peace Corps won't pay for that. Traveling by boat is more fun anyway!
There is a lot of public health work to be done in Bluefields,especially in my sector. It had the highest number of maternal deaths last year and all but one were preventable. Because of this, I will be doing A LOT of promoting for the casas maternas.
Stay tuned for pictures because I am headed to Bluefields tomorrow morning and will stay until next Wednesday! Today at, "Counterpart Day" in Managua, I met my Nicaraguan counterpart and we discussed how I will spend the week getting to know my site. I'm super excited!
When is your swearing-in? How close will the closest PCV be to you? How different is Miskito from Garifuna? Oh! I see Bluefields on the map you have here to the right! So excited for you!!!
ResponderEliminarHey I'll be in Bluefields next month so I look forwards to reading your blog and seeing how your time there develops!
ResponderEliminarHola Renee, my name is Chris...a co-founder of the non-profit Pulsera Project. www.pulseraproject.org or facebook/pulseraproject.
ResponderEliminarWe work with groups of pulsera artists all across Nica and support lots of projects. We spend a lot of time in Nica! We sometimes run volunteer trips etc....
Por fin !!! this trip a few of the US project leaders and a few of our Nica co-op members are headed to Bluefields/Pearl Lagoon to check out some parts of Nica that we've only read about.We're not used to wandering around without some connection to the communities we visit - especially the volunteer community, so I searched on the internet to see if I could find a real live person who we could meet-up with in Bluefields...nothing fancy or complicated...maybe we could buy you dinner...even you and a friend???....and in exchange you could shed some light on the world in Bluefields and tell us about some of the stuff going on...and who knows, maybe tell us about a project you know about that could use some support. This would be especially appreciated by our 4 Nica trip compadres, one of whom spent his childhood in Bluefields.
Ok so I'm guessing you're busy as could be, but in the off chance you'd have time for a meal one day or night, we would love to meet! we'll be arriving in Bluefields on Jan.9th- Wednesday - and we leave on Jan 12th...not sure when we'll head to Pearl...here's hoping you get this message !!Also, congrats on all the awesome work you're doing...inspiring stuff. ten cuidado y abrazos de los locos y locas del proyecto pulsera.
email is pulseraproject@gmail.com