Description of training

Now that my service is beginning to come to a close, I have to write up a document that includes all of the work I've done the past 2 years.  Not sure if you'll find this interesting or not but here's what I wrote for about my first 3 months in Nicaragua.

Peter Stephan began Peace Corps Niacaragua’s community-based training program in the town of Nandasmo, Masaya on May 10^th, 2011.  The intensive eleven-week training program is designed to help trainees adapt to actual field situations while living with Nicaraguan families.

The program included formal instruction in Spanish, Nicaraguan culture; cross-cultural adaptation, community development, non-formal education techniques, and technical themes related to small business and entrepreneurship education and extension activities in Nicaragua.  Training consisted of approximately 179 hours of Spanish language study, 56 hours of technical training in entrepreneurship education and extension activities, and 46 hours of cross-cultural studies and common areas.  An additional 110 hours of non-formal self-directed activities were also carried out in technical and cross-cultural themes at the community level and 26 hours of medical and security training.

After successful completion of training, Peter Stephan was sworn in as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Nicaragua on July 29^th, 2011.

WELL = COMPLETED

Surprise!  I return from vacation to find a finished well!

After 1 year of planning and $2,000 this community has access to water!

It’s done!  They are bad listeners and are already drinking from it before we go through the purification process (but no one’s been sick!).  Tomorrow I’m going to Condega to find out more chlorination and tally up the costs.  Rumor has it we’re under budget!  Hopefully I can use the rest of the money to buy clay water filters like this one that I use.

University / Opportunity fair

It has come to my attention that my students don’t think about the future very much.  In a couple classes I’ve done “my life in 10 years”.  The students close their eyes and I ask them a series of questions: where will you be living, will you go to college, will you be working, will you be married, will you have kids etc.  My students usually struggle to envision even the most basic of details such as which school or what they will study.

Therefore, I with the help of my sitemate, Alba, am organizing a university and opportunity fair.  I’m trying to contact the universities nearby to come and share information about their courses of study, scholarships and prices with my students.  And for the students that can’t afford college, I also plan to invite the police and military to speak about related opportunities.

I’m shooting for June 14^th which doesn’t leave much time to organize so wish me luck!

Open letter to Michelle

My sweet novia over at her blog wrote a cute and witty open letter to me about things she loves when I’m 3000+ miles away.  Not to be outdone, here’s my reply:

Dear Michelle,

I really miss you too.  I miss you almost as much as I miss:

Water.  Hour 29 of no running water is fast approaching and since you’re not in my odor-radius, bucket showering will be postponed yet even longer.

Protein.  My few short weeks spent as a carnivore with you has come to a sudden end.  I guess you could say I’ve gone…COLD TURKEY!

Climate control.  I’ve returned to Nicaragua just in time to enjoy that wonderful time in the year when it’s unbelievably hot but still won’t rain.  I swear, it wants to rain (the humidity is giving 110% effort because it’s probably over 100% humidity) but not a drop yesterday.

But real talk, our USA adventures were too much fun.  I’ll see you August 1^st (Spirit Airlines permitting…)!



Pedro rocks caprees

Final Push

After a wonderful and refreshing vacation in the United States, I’m currently on my way back to the highlands of Nicaragua.  How, you may ask?  Here’s my past 36  hours:

Woke up at 5:30am

Took a taxi to the Norfolk bus station at 6:00

Hopped on a bus at 7am to Newport News’ train station.

Boarded a six hour train at 9:30am toward Baltimore’s BWI airport

At 6:00pm, flew to Fort Lauderdale

From Ft L, I flew to Managua and landed at 2:10am

Waited until 4am when the buses begin running to Esteli

Attended a safety and security meet from 9am to 3pm

Then one last bus 1 hour bus ride home!

Lets make my last 50 days count!

Things I’ll miss…or not

At our COS conference, we did an icebreaker to get us to start thinking about our future stateside lives.  Here is my list of things that I will and won’t miss about Nicaragua.

WILL MISS

Being the most important person in town.  In the USA, I won’t be able to walk into the mayor’s office or superintendant's office and get a meeting on the spot.  People will no longer stare at me like they just saw a very pale white ghost.

My work schedule.  Some weekdays, teaching for 45 minutes and then spending the rest of the day in my hammock is considered a successful work day in the Peace Corps.  Rumor has it there’s this thing in the USA call a “9 to 5”…  Uh oh.

The prices.  Even though I live paycheck to paycheck, it nice to think about how low the prices actually are here.  Especially when friends and family come to visit.  Beers under a dollar.  Fine dining at $10.  Heaven.

WON’T MISS

The amenities.  Sure it’ll nice not to have to deal with Chicago’s winters.  But having climate control, hot water, microwaves and dishwashers trump 100 degree months at a time.

Being treated like an ATM.  While celebrity status is fun, it’s also nice to be able to blend in.  Definitely looking forward to being treated fairly.

The freedom.  No more having to email the office if I want to go spend a night on the beach.  Nope.  Just gonna hop in a car and go.  Amazing.

How's the well going?

The well project that I’m organizing is moving along.  Here is a new photo that shows how far we’ve come:

Hello down there

Last week I finally got the check from the USA government!  I was a little scared to be walking around with 48,000 Córdobas but encountered zero problems.  The woman at the bank was like “You want to withdraw it all?  Right now?  Are you sure?”  With the money I bought what I hope was the last remaining supply of materials bringing us to a total of 4000 bricks, 22 bags of cement and 6 cubic meters of sand.  The water analysis cost more than I planed but as of now we’ve used less cement and sand so I think we’re still on target.