Despedidas begin

Despedidas or “good byes” are now in full swing.  The last time I blogged, I had just finished eating dinner with my fellow business PCVs and our bosses.  Here’s a foto of the group

Biz Na$ty 56!

 Friday, we gave a presentation to the Nicaraguan Peace Corps office staff and Madame Ambassador Powers.  We made a video based around the premise of “A day in the life of a small business development volunteer”.  Mainly, we all took short videos of our daily activities from our point of view so it focuses on the work and not person.  It turned out GREAT.

After the presentation, we went back to the hotel and changed into casual wares for TACO TIME.  The director of Peace Corps Nicaragua invited us all over to his house and he made (HOMEMADE) hummus, guacamole, chips, salsa and beef, pork and chicken tacos for 45 people.  It was delicious.  It was also sad because it meant we had to say good bye to the staff and the agriculture volunteers whom we will probably never see again.

Yesterday we woke up early and made the trek down to San Juan del Sur (super touristy town of Nicaragua).  The 16 of us rented a SWEET house and reminisced over all the great experiences and stories we’ve had.

Air conditioning and a pool = heaven

This morning I went on a “hike” to see the largest Jesus statue outside of Rio.  At the top, they wanted us to pay $2 which was sadly outside of our budget.  So we gave our cameras to one of our Nica friends and he took photos for us.

Pedro overlooking the bay

Jesus grande

Hopefully tonight we’ll go out for a nice dinner and say our final good byes.  Then it’s time to make the trip back to site one last time and start saying good bye to them as well.  Eleven days!

Ups and downs

Sometimes, things just don’t go as planned.  As a 25 year-old in the field, I just don’t wield as much power as I’d like.  Unfortunately, even getting permission from someone in authority (say the superintendant and principals) doesn’t guarantee the success of a project.  For example, the teacher workshop that I planned MONTHS ago and was supposed to happen today and did not.  After sending reminders and confirming with the professors 24 hours before the training, 5 teachers canceled on me.  Unfortunately, that's sometimes how your cards play out.  While it is incredibly disappointing, instead of having a several hour workshop I’m creating packets of materials for my teachers to ensure the sustainability of my project.

Anyway, I took advantage of my newly wide open schedule on Wednesday to hold a meeting for the PCVs in my department.  I’m the representative for the volunteers that live nearby and every couple of months I go to Managua to meet with our staff and receive updates.  Then I take the information back to the PCVs.  It went well.  We wrote a mission statement and discussed new developments.  We also took this time to celebrate the end of Kesiah and my service with yummy food such as pasta salad, macaroni and cheese, cheese and crackers, guacamole and banana ice cream.

Last night was our small business dinner.  All of us biz PCVs came to Managua and had dinner with our bosses.  IT WAS SO GOOD.  Our boss, Georgia, is from the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua and made food from that area.  Smoked ribs, ceviche, gallo pinto with coconut oil, fish, shrimp with some sangria and macua = heavenly.  They also gifted us coffee mugs with the following picture and a nice little “thank you”.

The last photo of all 21 Biz PCVs together circa July 2012

Tonight, we are giving a presentation to our staff about the work we’ve done the past 2 years.  It’s in the form of a video so I’ll link it in a later post.  Then it’s off to Mexican food night with our boss’s boss, can’t wait!

Change in plans

After looking closely at my passport, I’ve had to change my post Peace Corps plans ever so slightly. My Nicaraguan visa expires July 17th which doesn’t allot me much time to tour the rest of Nicaragua. Therefore, my new agenda looks like the following:

New map, same poor Microsoft Paint skills

 Now that I’m fairly confident, I’ll share the dates with you.

Part 1 / July 9th or 10th: Move out of my home and stay in Esteli
Part 2 / July 11th: Travel to Managua
Part 3 / July 12th: Fly to Big Corn Island and boat over Little Corn Island
Part 4 / July 15th: Boat and fly back to Managua.
Part 5 / July 16th: Travel to Liberia, Costa Rica.
Part 6 / July 21st: Travel to San Carlos La Fortuna
Part 7 / July 24th: Travel to San Jose
Part 8 / July 25th: Travel to San Isidro Del General
Part 9 / July 26th: Travel to David, Panama
Part 10 / July 27th: Travel to Santiago
Part 11 / July 28th: Travel to Playa Blanca
Part 12 / July 29th: Travel to Panama City

And on August 1st, I fly home! Obviously everything (except Little Corn and my flight home) is subject to change because I don’t plan on booking anything more than a day or two in advance. My goal is to upload a picture and a blurb about where I am and what I’m up to daily. Stay tuned, it’ll be exciting!

Managua Observations

In an effort to try to keep up a sort of consistency with posting as the end draws near, here are some tidbits from the past couple days.

Got my language test results back and officially “Advanced – Low”. That means out of the 10 levels of fluency according to American Council of Foreign Language Teachers I’m a 7. Doesn’t sound that impressive but when you consider not speaking a lick of Spanish is a 1 and only native speakers can receive a 10, I’m in pretty good shape.

Went to Subway Sandwich in Managua and ordered a foot-long ham and turkey. Among several things I’d like to point out, it’s surprisingly popular. There’s almost always someone in line. Also, I believe they think that white people like ALL the toppings. After I pick the bread and meat (there’s only one type of cheese – provolone), the lady just started pilling on the lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, green peppers until she gets to the black olives. Now this is pure speculation, but I believe that Subway employees (and perhaps all of Nicaragua?) don’t know what olives are. Because at this point, she pauses, looks at me asked “Everything?” And then proceeds to put ONE (1) olive slice evenly spaced every 3 inches across the foot-long sandwich for a grand total of THREE (3) olive slices. I’m not sure that even equates to a whole olive?

I had some free time so I decided to catch a flick at the movie theater. Obviously I haven’t been to the movies in over a year so I decided to watch the highest rated film available at the time, Fast & Furious 6. Besides being a terrible movie, a couple Nica-things to point out. When I purchased the ticket (less than $4), the lady said the movie was in 3D. It most certainly was in 2D. Also, the theater was PITCH BLACK. You know how in the US there are commercials before the previews? Nope, just blackness AND they had the lights dimmed so I seriously had to find my assigned seat by way of my cell phone flashlight. Oh and there’s assigned seating. But the kicker that was, “Yup, definitely still in Nicaragua” was the movie didn’t start on time. So there I was, sitting in the black hole of the theater for my 12:30pm film which didn’t start the previews until 12:38.

I received the results of my second round of blood work and while everything returned normal, I definitely tested positive for dengue fever antibodies. Mystery solved! Guess I had dengue.

Wednesday I’m trying to organize my final teacher workshop. I’ll let you all know how it goes!

COS Medical

Before we officially close our service as volunteers, we have to go through a semi-rigorous series of medical checkups.  So Monday night, I stayed at a hostel in Esteli and watched the blackhawks while eating cheese, salami and bread (yum)!  Then, bright and early I traveled to Managua to meet with one of the Peace Corps doctors.  He administered a TB test (negative, yay) and then sent me to the laboratory.  I won’t delve into all of the fun tests they did but I will say they were quite thorough.  The good news is, everything went well and I’m as healthy as a gringo living in the developing world can be!  I also took a trip to the dentist for a cleaning and x-rays.  Some of you have asked, “Pedro, what’s going to the dentist like in Nicaragua?”  Now I don’t want to say water-boarding because I feel that is a hyperbolic exaggeration so I’m going to have to go with “mini-water-boarding”.  Seriously though, multiple times they had to wipe down my face with paper towels because there was so much backsplash.  But again, nothing but good news – no cavities

And it wasn’t just all poking and prodding for 3 days.  I also had time to see Fast & Furious 6 and eat Subway, Pizza Hut and BurgerKing.  All in all, I’d say COS medical was a great success.

Feria de Universidades

Organizing a second secondary project (such as building a well) is always bad for a PCV’s blood pressure. Apparently I didn’t learn this the first time around and spearheaded another secondary project – the university fair. Why is this stressful you may ask? Here’s why. Over a month ago, my sitemate and I created a list of organizations nearby that might be interested in participating. We reached a total of 11 different universities and invited them to come at 8:30am. Ten of them responded affirmatively. Sounds good, right? Wrong. Two of them canceled after we reconfirmed less than a week before the event bringing our total possible down to 8. By 9am (30 minutes AFTER we were hoping to start), 1 university had shown up. ONE! So there we are, Alba, I, 150 students and one university for our university fair. After some frantic phone calling we upped the total to 3 out of the 8 and adverted the crisis. Photo!

Not too shabby in the end

With only 5 official days of teaching left in the classroom, I’m starting to get pretty excited!

Unoffical exit interview

For Peace Corps Nicaragua's newsletter, they also have interviews with incoming and outgoing PCVs.  Here's mine.

Name: Pedro “Tan” Stephan
Site: Palacagüina, Madriz
Favorite Nica food or drink: Gallo Pinto with aguacate, fresh cuajada, ensalada and tajadas de malanga
Part of your body that will never be the same: My entire GI tract
Most creative piropo: “Voy a preguntarle algo, pero antes de hacerlo, tenes que contestarme sí…”
When were you at your most Nica I asked a bunch of missionary cheles “De donde son?”  And they responded “MINN-I-SOT-A, A STATE IN AMERICA.”  I said, “Cool, I’m from Chicago.”

Favorite thing about your site: That it’s not Nandasmo.
What did you miss most from home during your service?  Food.  And Michelle.  Maybe not in that order.
What will you miss most from Nicaragua? My D-List celebrity status.
What were you most proud of during your service? Besides surviving?  I built a well to give people access to clean drinking water for the first time in their lives.  But I think I still have to go with “surviving”.
What’s your legacy? El chele que siempre anda enfermo.
Best and/or worst memory: Coming home to find my house robbed and singing “El cristo de Palacagüina” with Daniel Ortega.  I feel that I should be clear that those were different events and did not occur in succession.

Embarrassing moment: Pooping my pants during training but my host family burned their trash so I had no choice but to throw my soiled shorts into the woods behind their house.

Craziest bus story: Boarded a bus, got sick, jumped off and vomed in front of confused Nicas, jumped back on a bus like nothing happened.
Ever want to E.T.? All the time.  You would too if you “visited the laboratory” as many times as I did…
Regrets: Eating ceviche from the park in Masaya.
Would you do it all over again?  Sure, but I also ate that ceviche so clearly my judgment is suspect.
Where will we find you in 10 years? At the 10 year Biz Na$ty 56 ski reunion.

Parting words/ advice to remaining volunteers: All Claro routers come factory set with the same password pattern: 680CFC + whatever comes after “CLARO_FC” in the SSID.  You’re welcome.

It’s not all beaches and rum drinks…

Back when I was a lowly trainee, we were briefed on blogging.  Running a blog is a great way to accomplish the Peace Corps third goal: cross-culture sharing to those back in America.  We were told don’t post pictures of your house.  Don’t write where you live.  But maybe the oddest was do not write when you’re having a bad day.  I found that this paints an unfairly rosy picture of life as a PCV.

Serving in the Peace Corps is HARD.  For example, check out this great article written by a Marine turned PCV.  Perhaps one of the most astonishing quotes is the following: “You might also be surprised to learn that the Peace Corps has its own legacy of sacrifice, with more of its volunteers killed on the job than Central Intelligence Agency officers.”

His story is not unique.  I’ve known PCVs who’ve gone through any number of horrible experiences.  My service hasn’t been a walk in the park either.  My resume includes being pick-pocketed 3 times, my house robbed once, having amoebas twice, hospitalized once, countless run-ins with bacterial infections, parasites, worms and, as of this very moment, we can add mysterious debilitating infection to the list.

Even though I’m breaking code and writing during a bad day (bad week is really more like it), I still look for the silver lining.  As I mentioned, nearly all PCVs face adversity during their service but few give in when the going gets tough.  Not one of the other 20 volunteers I came to Nicaragua with left because they couldn't hack it anymore.  In fact, amongst all of the PCVs that I know, 8 are extending their service another year and 1 is already married to a host country national.

In conclusion, being a PCV is not a piece of cake, but it’s sure worth it.

Names

For those of you who aren’t familiar with Latin America’s custom of naming its residents, here’s a quick crash course.  Everyone has two last names, one from the mother’s side and the other from the father.  But what I find interesting are the first names.  Most Hispanics also have two first names.  Recently, Nicaragua has caught “trendy name” fever.  Example: the following attendance list.

Glad I'm not in charge of role call

Obviously Maria, Guadalupe and Jose are by far the most popular names.  But look closer.  Here are my favorites:

Jackeling.  Both –ck- and -ing do not exist in the Spanish.

Brayan.  Spanish for Brian

Stiven.  St as a prefix doesn’t exist.  Spanish for Steven but probably pronounced Esteven.

Esnayder.  Spanish for Schneider?

Junieth and Nazareth.  “Th” doesn’t happen in Spanish and is unnecessary since h’s are silent.

Eveling.  There’s that suffix –ing again.

Maybe my favorite story is about my friend Jadder.  When his mom went to get his birth certificate she told them Yader, a fairly popular Hispanic name.  They got it wrong and he is now officially Jadder – an uncommon name even in Spanish.