A buddy back home (thanks Andy) asked a couple good questions so I thought I share them with you all.
What’s your favorite part so far?
It’s really hard to choose a single favorite part so I’ll narrow it down to two. I absolutely love not being in the “real world”. Don’t get me wrong, Nicaragua and the Peace Corps are as real as it gets; I just consider myself lucky to be living such a tranquil life. The longest days I have are when I have to teach two 90 minutes classes so I generally do official “work” for less than four hours a day. Please don’t let that fool you, teaching 160 seventeen years olds, weekly, in a different language is exhausting. Plus after you throw in commuting and co-planning and the million other secondary tasks I have to, it adds up. But the pace or life down here is so slow (a popular phrase is “Si dios quiere…” or “if God wills it”.) that it’s nothing short of contagious. Add to that the falling off the 21st century grid (only having internet when I feel like paying for it), not cooking, cleaning nor doing laundry and not having to sit in a cubicle and it makes for a darn easy life. I’ve jokingly considered that after my service concludes I’m going to bust my butt working in the USA for 3 years and then retire here.
Thing two: enjoying the random things. This one is impossible to describe. There are SO many things that happen every day where I chuckle and say “Oh Nica, you win again”. Example, last night I had a 30 minute conversation with my host uncle about how Nicas' English pronunciation is awful. Every time I try to buy a Gatorade, I have to repeat myself three times and point to the refrigerator because Nicas are convinced it’s pronounced “gAY-tor-aid”. I physically can’t butcher the articulation so I, an American, am stuck gesticulating an ENGLISH word. Get the irony? Anyway, it’s these small everyday experiences that I adore.
Am I used to the food?
Sadly, yes. With a high degree of confidence I can say that 55 of my 65 dinners have been this: gallo pinto (rice and beans), a hunk of salty bland cheese and banana chips. Sometime substitute the greasy fried banana chips for fresh avocado (my preference) and there you have it. And the funny part? I can see how the Nicas like it. Since I have no control over what I eat, it’s actually kind of comforting to know what I’m going to be eating tomorrow night and July 22, 2013 (my projected close of service) and every night in-between. It does need hot sauce though. I go through one of those little bottles every two weeks.
Of course I would LOVE to be eating more fruits, vegetables and meats but I’m coping. In addition, and I’m not proud of this, I’ve also stopped exercising. During training I was running every other day or so but with the bacterial infections my clothes were beginning to not fit. Now that I'm getting healthy again I’m pretty much the same size and shape I was in the states, just a little less muscle and more skinny. This was to be expected and is a trend among PCVs worldwide. Males lose weight and female gain it. I can’t provide any conclusive evidence but I can only assume that substituting all those fruits, vegetables and meats we were eating stateside for SO many carbs has to be the culprit.
After classes end in November and I’m going to alter my new diet and start a workout plan so stay tuned!
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