Going vago

‘Vago’ in Spanish literally translates to ‘vague’.  But it also has a more idiomatic connotation of “Where the heck have you been?”  For the next undetermined amount of time, I’m going vago.  Tomorrow, I’m going to Managua to have thanksgiving dinner at the interim ambassador’s house.  According to the email, there will be a pool, free food and college football.  Needless to say, I’m excited.  That night will be spent at another super generous diplomat’s house that is letting me stay there while they’re out of town.  The diplomats have air-conditioning, wifi and told us to eat whatever is in the fridge.  Jackpot.  The next morning, the embassy is putting on a career panel about the foreign service and USAID (United States Agency of International Development) which should be interesting.

 

On Sunday we need to be in the department of Masaya for our language revaluation classes.  Since Masaya is right next to Managua, it doesn’t make much sense to drive 3 hours north only to back down 36 hours later now does it?  I didn’t think so either.  Solution: beach (as is the solution for many of the stressful questions asked of us volunteers).  Friday and Saturday night will be spent Diriamba, Carazo at a hostel on the beach.

After two days of bonfires and surfing, I will be making home base in the town of Pio XII.  Since my old training town, Nandasmo, is no longer approved for aspiring volunteers, that’s where I’ll be for the week.  Monday through Friday we will be attending language classes and the National Business Plan Competition that we’ve been organizing.  The only problem is that after language classes end Friday, Sunday night we have to be in Leon for our first in-service training.  Bum bum bum, impasse.  Do I return to the great north of Nicaragua only to 5 hour journey the next day?  Or do a bunch of volunteers find a cheap hostel with free wifi, coffee and pancakes for Friday and Sunday night in the awesome city of Leon?  No brainer on that one, Leon here I come!

In-service training is Monday and Tuesday December 6^th and 7^th.  As luck would have it, the 8^th is supposedly a national holiday for Nicas.  Do I spend the holiday heading back to site or celebrate the holiday “trick or treating” around the colonial cathedral in the heart of Leon?  Only time will tell but I’m definitely leaning towards one of them…

So long story short, “vago” also means that I’ll probably be out of the blogosphere.  Therefore, to all of my avid followers and stalkers, have a wonderful thanksgiving and I’ll talk to you later!

3 Hour Tour

Dear followers, I apologize for my near week long absence.  It’s like I was stuck on an island or something.  I was, in fact, on the AMAZING Island of Ometepe.  Too much to write about so I’m sum it up and throw on a bunch of photos.

First, Ometepe is a large bioreserve island in Lake Nicaragua.  It’s about 2 hours by bus and another hour by boat.  On the island are two volcanos: La Concepcion (active and the second largest in Nicaragua) and Maderas (no longer spewing boiling lava).  Two volunteers from my training groups someone snagged the pleasure of living and working fulltime on Ometepe.  Figuring that the volunteers pretending to pull Gilligan’s Island were getting lonely and bored (they weren’t), 12 of us came to visit them.

La Conception

Leaving the Island

Sun setting over the mainland

 Thursday.  After 3 bus rides, 3 taxi rides, a boat and a hitchhike, I arrived at Altagracia.  As luck (or great planning) would have it, it was Altagracia’s turn to host the monthly part on the island.  It was a great night of eating great food (chicken salad sandwich with fresh tomatoes, cucumbers and onions), $0.38 mixed drinks, and salsa dancing outside.

Friday.  Noelle (the PCV that lives in Alatagracia) was celebrating her birthday with her host family.  In true Peace Corps fashion of never refusing an invitation, I tagged along.  We went to Ojo de Agua which was a natural mineral spring.  With palm trees, hammocks, cabanas, boca mixtas (beef, chicken, French fries and salad) and a couple cervezas, it may have been one of the most relaxing places I’ve ever been.

Saturday.  My friends Julian, Zac and I formed a 3 man wolfpack and went to a coffee farm for breakfast and a hike.  On the hike we saw petroglyphs left by the pre-Colombian inhabitants.

Zac and I hikin'

Huge spiderweb

Breakfast at the coffee farm

3 man wolfpack

Snake!

Now I’m not sure how many of you have watched Lost but we were paralleling the islands all weekend.  The similarities became a little disturbing when we wandered upon this:

The sounds were coming from...

HOLWER MONKEYS!  It was so cool.  We wandered across a family of 12 monkeys enjoying the great weekend weather up in the rain forest canopy.  After some more great food (hummus, pate, and bean soup with wheat bread and tortillas) we called it a day because…

Sunday.  THE MARATHON!  And by ‘marathon’ I mean 12k race (Nicas use ‘marathon' for any length footrace).  Despite being hospitalized a couple weeks before and running only a handful of times since, I decided to participate anyway.  I mean honestly, how many times will I have the opportunity to race around a volcano on an island?  It was so much fun even though my time was terrible and I’m still sore.

See gringos go!

No big deal, just running past an active volcano

In short, it was a great trip and I recommend that all of my stateside readers visit!

Thursday is thanksgiving with the ambassador, more details to come!

1st Semester Favorite Moments

Well with the school year effectively over, I’d like to share my two favorite moments of teaching in Nicaragua thus far.

The first: I was teaching my students about variable costs.  The book example that we use are pillows so I had them list off the things you need to make pillows: cloth, string, feathers etc.  So to find the unit cost of each pillow we need to know the quantity and price of each of the components.  While I was filling in the chart on the board, I asked a student what unit size you buy feathers in.  He responded, 100% serious, “Well, it depends on the size of the chicken”.  In Nicaragua, if you want a feather you go into your back yard and take it from the chicken.  Students: 1, Professor Pedro: 0.

My other favorite classroom moment was at my rural school.  Their product for the competition was potatoes wine (no, I never tried it.  I’m disappointed too.) and I was helping them come up with a slogan for it.  What they came up with was: “Probalo y llegar al cielo” (Try it and arrive in heaven).  Unfortunately, my super advanced Spanish abilities heard: “Probalo y llegar al suelo” (Try it and hit the floor).  Clearly not a good saying for a product with alcohol so I repeated the incorrect version and received much laughter.  Students: 2, Professor Pedro: 0.

Overall, I’d consider my first semester as a highschool business teacher in a foreign language a success.  Therefore, time to celebrate!  This weekend I’m off to Ometepe (a large island in Lake Nicaragua).  It is their fiestas patronales so 7 of us are making the trip.  My hostel has been described as “colorful with a bar and pet monkeys”.  Is this real life?  Talk to you next week!

Brr, it's cold!

Yup, you read correctly. Now that we’re in November, (6 months in-country!) the winter chill is beginning to hit. And by ‘chill’, I mean awesomeness. Yeah between 9-5 and it’s still nearly 90 degrees with a relentless sun. But in the evenings? The breeze drops the temperature to a frigid 70. It is pretty funny to watch my host family put on sweaters and long socks and complain about how cold it is. In addition, the Nicaraguan rain gods turned off the big faucet in sky. It hasn’t rained in 3 weeks and supposedly shouldn’t until April. So I guess this is advance warning that I’m gonna be a big baby when I come back to snow and ice IN ALMOST 1 MONTH!

This upcoming weekend will include kayaking, natural springs, waterfalls, volcanos, beaches, a road race, monkeys and rum cocktails. Stay tuned!

Children

Preface: I consider myself a patient person (no matter what my mother may say…).  Unfortunately this character trait is not extended towards children.  I like kids.  Generally when they’re cute and behaving we get along just fine.  This has not been the case as of recent.  Family from Jalapa came for a visit and stayed for 3 nights.  This meant that the number of rugrats under the age of seven grew to 4.  Long story short, I didn’t get a lot of sleep this week.  In fact, I even took a recording of how obnoxious it was—look for it on iTunes later this month under “Little Hellions”.

But that’s not what I wanted to talk about; I learned another fantastic Nicaraguan custom!  Maria Jose lost her two bottom teeth so I asked if the tooth princess (clearly I never learned the word for fairy) was going to visit.  After receiving many blank stares, I explained our first world tooth-for-cordobas custom.  After having a good laugh at the expense of goofy American parents, they shared the Nicaraguan tooth-losing tradition.  At night, the child with recent mouth vacancies steps outside and faces the house.  Then the sans teeth kid sings “Little rats, little rats: take my old teeth so I can have new ones” and THROWS THEIR TEETH ON THE ROOF!  I love this country.

Two weeks of work left, woohoo!

Anticlimactic Election Results

Well the votes have been counted and…(drumroll)…Daniel Ortega won by a landslide!  I know you’re all shocked so here are the details.  Last time I checked, Danny won about 62% votes with the next closest, Fabio, coming in with 30%.  Of course there are always going to be controversies but life should be returning to normal soon.

There were some rioting but it remained pretty isolated.  Around 10:30pm election day, there was some massive cheering and firework in my town.  I not sure how they knew the results so early but that was the extent of the “bedlam”.  I was almost disappointed.

A couple more weeks of school and then Thanksgiving with Foreign Service Officers!  I’ll let you know the details soon!