Nica can’t keep me down

So I got sick, again.  Not bad or anything but the same as last time, bacterial infection.  At this point, it’s not really painful; it’s just uncomfortable and inconvenient.  I unfortunately can’t narrow it down to a cause either.  The fault lies with me though; I’m a sucker for trying new foods even when I don’t know what they are (plausible culprits of this week: mystery soy drink from a bag, cucumber that had a worm in it or ambient temperature street food!).  What I think makes this blog worthy is the touchy subject of healthcare.  First of all, my healthcare in Nica is probably the best I’ll have in my entire life.  From calling the Peace Corps with my condition all the way to confirmed diagnosis was less than 4 hours and not a dime from my pocket.  What I want to bring to your attention was the cost.  I visited a nurse at a laboratory, got analyzed and bought the medication all for $3.34.  That’s less than the standard copay in the USA and that was the TOTAL cost to ALL parties.  So food for thought: If healthcare can be affordable and accessible in a rural town of less than 5000 people in second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, why not the United States?

Anyway, I’m feeling much better now and ready to continue fighting the good fight!

Just another Thursday in Nica…

Sarcasm, gotta love it.  Today since my normal class was canceled, I decided to try to investigate that coffee cooperative in town.  With the help of host dad and a simple phone call, an appointment was made.  So at 9am, I walked the 15 minutes to PRODECOP (one of Nica’s largest coffee producers as I would soon discover).  After a quick introduction and pretending to be overly city like, (“I’m from Chicago—we only grow corn and soybeans.  I’ve never seen a coffee plant/tree before”) a free tour was clearly required.  So I got my own little private tour of the 46 manazas (means both ‘apples’ and ‘acres’ but I’m pretty sure it meant acres in this context) coffee plantation.  In short, it was very interesting.  I got to see what a coffee plant looks like and tour their facilities.  At the end, I got to drink real BLACK coffee (Nica’s always load it up with way too much sugar) and munch rosquillas (Nica’s versions of doughnuts, but not really.  Hard to explain but delicious with coffee).  They’re looking to expand into the world of agricultural tourism so I’m hoping that I can work with them in the future.

Then I DID go teach a class (not my normal one—a profe wanted help teaching stock appropriations which granted is a hard idea for Nicas to grasp with the whole “We don’t know what a stock market is.  To be even fairer, the word for ‘stock’, acción, also means ‘action’ so some confusion is to be expected.) in a different town.  Afterwards I met up with the volunteer that lives there and we went for a hike because there’s this big hill/mountain that we wanted to climb.  After wondering aimlessly for quite some time, we had to call it quits on account of the river we couldn’t find a way across and ominous thunder.  Still very fun though our mission wasn’t realized and I got sunburnt (curse you Cloroquina Fosfato 250mg, my malaria suppression medication with side effects of increased photosensitivity!).  Also after I got off the bus ride home, the ominous thunder turned into very real thunder equipped with an equally real downpour.  I hadn’t really got caught in the rain yet and it was actually quite refreshing and entertaining.

One of the many streams I had to cross...

Lastly, has anyone noticed that the style of my writing is changing?  As in, I think I’m using common Spanish phrases and translating them into English.  Maybe you can’t notice unless you understand Spanish…Anyway, what did YOU do with your Thursday?

Atypical week

Back during training, I was told that classes get canceled regularly for strange reasons.  It’s nice because everyone loves days off but frustrating when we have a mountain of material to cover in the next few short weeks.  Well the rumor was true.  On Monday, classes were canceled because of the fiestas so no one wanted to work/learn (can you imagine that in the States?  “Hey mayor, I don’t feel like working and would really prefer to drink a beer and ride the ferris wheel.  Mmk?  Thanks!”.  Thursday, there’s a big political gathering that most of the teachers are attending so guess what?  No class.  Friday offers a mandatory teacher capacitation.  Shocking, no classes!  Therefore, the students only attended class Tuesday and Wednesday this week.  What a life huh?

Well I’m not going to sit around and do nothing while I’m not allowed to do my job.  So to be “productive” I went on a hike!  In a community about 20 minutes is this cool little waterfall.  Not very impressive currently (but serving as a great example about how hot it’s been) because the waterfall lacked, of all things, water.  Anyway I’m sure it’ll be picturesque in a week or two.

The not so "water"fall

Quick shout outs to my parents and Michelle.  Both have successful mailed me packages!  The 93 degree heat (in the shade…) and occasional lack of electricity is much more bearable while reading books (thanks Michelle!) while munching on jerky (thanks mom and dad!)!  The new mail system is MUCH faster (a week and a half) and I’m a great penpal so feel free!

Yet another corrida

Last weekend kicked off our fiestas patronales (every town has a patron saint and hosts a festival in their honor) but this weekend boasted the main events.  As my regular followers know, I’ve attended a corrida de toros (very amateur rodeo) and a corrida de patos (duck decapitating).  Saturday I had the privilege to attend a corrida de burros.  Unlike the other two, this one was not a misnomer and was exactly what the translation suggests: a donkey race.  I swear I don’t make these up.  I didn’t have my camera but this one is pretty easy to picture.  Take eight of your average donkeys and find eight men crazy enough to ride them.  Then close off two blocks of a main road in the center of your town and voilà: you’re ready.  The format was a practice run with everyone and then they got paired off into quarterfinal groups.  Winners advance to the semi and so forth.  So the two donkeys would line up behind a rope and on the count of three, they’re off!  Except for the undeniable fact that they were indeed donkeys.  That means that any number of things happened when “TRES!” was yelled and the rope dropped.  Some of the more common responses were stand there and do nothing, run the wrong direction or, if you were lucky, actually run the correct direction for the 75 meters.  And when I say “run”, I really mean trot along as fast as a donkey can which of course isn’t very fast at all.  Other eventful outcomes include a donkey that started to run only then to decide that it’s time to use the baño, a donkey bucking wildly, a donkey running off the street and into the grass towards us spectators and a donkey falling and rolling over his rider (don’t fret, I’m sure he only bruised a couple ribs.  And his ego.)  All in all, it was one of the more ridiculous things I’ve seen in my Nica tenure so naturally I loved it.  Feel free to suggest other corridas that would be interesting and I’ll bring them up to management!

Foods Update

I had been ragging on Nica cuisine but its quality has been stepped up quite a bit.  So it’s only fair to write a redemption post.  I have started eating meat with some regularity.  This is probably due in part to my Oscar-pending acting performances (“Is this chicken?  It’s so tasty!  My mom used to make me chicken like this back home!  It’s so rich!”).  Of course one of those “meats” was sardines so maybe I only deserve an Emmy.  Regardless, my rice, beans and salty cheese combination has been cut down to twice a day.  On the other hand, I have been eating so much corn I’m pretty sure I’m secreting ethanol.  Now that harvest season is in full swing, I’m putting other corn products ON my corn tortillas.  Still no sign of fruits or vegetables being incorporated into the weekly menu (which is frustrating because they’re in abundance and they’re cheap).  On the bright side, I found a “store” that sells a lot of familiar products.  Last week I bought: salsa (added to the rice and beans it’s quite tolerable), ranch dressing (for the veggies that I promised myself that I’ll start eating), pineapple yogurt (supplement the protein and calcium I’m not consuming) and cornflakes (great source of artificially added iron).

I know I talk about food kind of a lot but it’s a big deal.  It’s just one of those things you can’t understand how much it impacts your mood/health.  For example, try spending less than $6/day on food and beverages then let me know how you’re feeling.  Some volunteers get physically ill not due to malnutrition but because the thought of eating rice and beans again literally sickens them.  Overall, minus my “severe bacterial infection”, I’ve been great.  My hair has thinned a little due the lack of protein and iron but it’s not noticeable (I promise!  I think it is blonder though so, bonus?).  Long story short, I will be gorging myself when I come home so please join me!

*UPDATE  So I bought a carrot and a cucumber from the market (people standing by the parking selling stuff) for $0.18 total.  I peeled, sliced and ate them with my newly purchased ranch dressing.  Of course my family was perplexed by this (the fact that a gingo man is in the kitchen AND he’s eating raw veggies is a double whammy) so I shared.  They LOVED ranch dressing.  7 year old sister Maria has now asked me numerous times if I can make it for dinner.  Punto para Pedro!

Competition season

Business plan competition time is almost upon us!  And by “almost upon us”, I of course mean that I’m beginning to plan/organize them.  So the mandatory highschool course that I’m teaching instructs students to create their own business and compete/defend it as a final exam of sorts.  There are three stages: local, regional and national.  As I’m sure my intelligent readers can infer, local means school district.  This is where I come in.  It is my responsibility to not only pick a date, place and time, but coordinate food/snack, judging, fundraising and prizes.  Sound like a lot of work?  Well don’t forget to multiply it by three because I work in three separate school districts which necessitate THREE separate competitions.  I’m currently shooting for all of them in mid-October but we shall see…  Anyone wanna be a judge (yes, speaking Spanish is required…)?

Keepin' busy

SO!  To keep you apprised of what I’ve been up to: meeting people and teaching classes.  Community integration requires me to pretty much introduce myself to anyone that can tolerate talkive to me for five seconds.  Some of the more notable instances include: police chief, the three superintendents of the school districts that I work at and the mayor of one of my cities I teach in.  This is giving me the false sense of importance and inflating my ego but I’m ok with it.

I also started co-teaching/observing a vocational entrepreneurship course that meets Sunday afternoons.  (Funny unrelated story, I can’t spell ‘entrepreneurship’ in English to save my life but I can spell emprendedurismo just fine.)  It’s comprised of people who want to start their own business because the job market for Nica is well, poor to say the least.  In attendance were 3 highschool students that I don’t teach, and a handful of other people dabbling with business ideas.  Next week is the last class so they’re bringing their prototypes and I’m conducting a feasibility study of their business plans.  Hopefully, I’ll continue on an individual basis with the more promising plans and act as a consultant to help them obtain the required initial capital.  Goodness, maybe I am important?  Add another point to Pedro’s ego.

And of course a productive week wouldn’t be complete without an even more productive Saturday night.  At 3pm I took a bus (the most crowded schoolbus I’ve EVER encountered, well over 100 people.) up to Ocotal.  Saturday was the kickoff to their fiestas patronales called Carnival.  What is carnival you ask?  Picture the downtown of any major city.  Now fence off an 8 block radius in the heart of the metro area.  Perfect, now add 8 stages and the most popular Nica bands performing from 9-4am.  Bienvenidos a Carnival.  Around 20 volunteers from nearby departments attended.  We grabbed dinner (bacon cheeseburger!) and drinks at a couple local bars till 11pm.  Then we danced, drank and ate dangerous street food for 3 hours.  After our feet could not stand another salsa song (or great a rendition of “I will survive”) we crashed at a local hotel.  After a typical Nica breakfast (beans, cheese and tortilla) we headed back to our sites to continue saving the world.  The best part?  Roundtrip transportation, food, drinks and the hotel cost less than 600 cordobas, otherwise known as $26.  I love this country, anybody wanna visit?

-Pedro