First Day of School

Tuesday morning was the first day of the new school year here and my host nieces and nephew were precious in their uniforms! From left to right in the photo above are Nelson (nicknamed Tito), Natalie, and Brittany. The kids and I get to spend a lot of time together and they are great at helping me with Spanish!

Later that morning, I gave my second charla in the Centro de Salud on the importance of washing you hands...with soap. And I did a demonstration too. It was funny and I think everyone liked it or at least were entertained.

Door to Door

This afternoon, we met all the pregnant ladies in town. Lenka’s host sister accompanied us because she is a former brigadista, which is a community member that volunteers to be a liason for the community to the health center. One of their primary jobs is to monitor pregnant women to make sure they come to each of their prenatal visits. Because of this, Lenka’s sister knows everyone and therefore was a great guide and person to be affiliated with. Altogether we met 11 pregnant women and invited them to come to a charla this Thursday. Let’s hope they attend!

Caminata con Lenka

Sunday morning, Lenka and I walked from El Rosario to La Paz, where there is a famous panaderia (bakery) and a few more Peace Corps trainees. We were falsely told that it was only about a 20 minute run away…so we figured it was a 30 minute walk more or less. MORE! It might be a 20 minute run for a professional soccer player, because it took us an hour to walk there! Nonetheless, we needed the exercise and really enjoyed the scenery. It was super peaceful and beautiful. We passed fields of sugar cane and also a sugar cane processing area. We also passed large expanses of open pasture which reminded me of home in north Louisiana except there are banana trees and no pine trees. This brought Lenka and I to a conversation about Pangea. We were imagining where Nicaragua would fit into the African continent, and that it would look similar.

When we got to La Paz, we visited fellow trainee Lauren. She introduced us to her host family and a litter of 8 day old puppies. They were so cute with their little eyes closed rolling over one another. Afterward, Lauren took us to the famous bakery for pan dulce and then we started on our long walk home.

Catarina

Last Sunday afternoon, my host mom Reyna took me to a beautiful place called Catarina. You can see the picture above. The town itself is super quaint and full of artisans. I’ll definitely bring guests here at some point. The lookout point in the picture above overlooks a beautiful lagoon. You can’t see this in the photo, but one of the big volcanoes is just to the right. Far in the distance is the city of Granada, where we were supposed to have our orientation retreat, but didn’t. Hopefully I’ll get to visit there soon. We heard there is an international poetry festival there this week. We tried to persuade Peace Corps into letting us “have class” at the festival, but it didn’t work out. Next Saturday, our training director is taking us for a little R & R that morning instead of our usual training schedule. Looks like we will be hiking a volcano! Maybe it’s the one here. Can’t wait!

Elder Flagg and the Bigg Love Jam

So Lenka has discovered that the wonderful guitar music she hears every night and morning is coming from her Mormon neighbors. I think we’re going to try to hang out with them at some point, though we are not entirely certain that they are allowed to hang out with girls. Since Liz plays the guitar too, and Lenka, Rita and I like to listen we think it could be fun and totally interesting. Only one of them, Elder Flagg, is from the US and the rest are from countries throughout Central America. Lenka and I met them in the street recently and since then have seen them around quite often. We’ll see what comes of it. Until then we’ll be referring to them as Elder Flagg and the Bigg Love Jam.

The other day at the market in Jinotepe, Rita and I spotted a bootleg copy of Black Swan and snagged it for 20 cordobas…less than $1! This was the ONE movie I wanted to see before leaving the states and just wasn’t able to make it happen. But now my bootleg dreams have come true! Its not even dubbed in Spanish and I can turn off the subtitles. AND it plays on my computer without a problem…Rita didn’t have such luck.

Other news: We spent the day in Diriamba receiving technical charlas on the role of the volunteer in development and the NicaSalud network of NGOs working throughout the country. The NicaSalud network consists of 24 organizations that work in various departments and in various sectors, but primarily in the health sector. Depending on what department my site will be located in, one of the organizations in the network may be located there as well. As volunteers, we are encouraged to collaborate with them.

SPIDER!

Just now, my host dad Pedro called me over to come check out the gigantic spider that he was about to kill in the living room. Of course I screamed and he thought it was hilarious and then murdered the thing right away. It was literally the size of my hand and super furry. Never have I seen such a thing in its natural habitat. He said they only come inside sometimes and like to be on the wall at night. All I can say is thank heavens for my mosquito net. Sweet Dreams!

Charlas, Charlas, Charlas

The time has come to start giving charlas at the health center here in El Rosario. Each of us will give one charla per week for the next month. Above is Rita presenting her charla on Dengue Fever at the Centro de Salud. Dengue Fever is a virus that is transmitted via mosquitoes and there are roughly a few thousand reported cases each year in Nicaragua. Dengue is much more of a threat here than Malaria. There have been epidemics in Nicaragua since the 1990s and the doctors are very experienced. The virus usually lasts 7 to 10 days during which you are extremely sick. There is not a cure for it so you can only treat the symptoms and get lots of rest. Above, Rita gives a charla focusing on how to prevent getting Dengue to patients waiting for the doctor.

Then it was my turn to give my first charla about the benefits of breastfeeding. The “audience” was quite participatory and seemed entertained. I think it went well and am happy that the first one is over. Now I feel the rest will happen more easily. Above is the first page of my breastfeeding charla. Power point presentations are generally not an option in health centers in Nicaragua, instead we use poster paper and drawing skills.

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.