It’s been a little while since I’ve updated, so let me catch you up on all of the happenings here in Nicaragua. We enjoyed another week of work last week. Our time has been full, between working at the clinic in the mornings and going to Carita Feliz in the afternoons. Carita Feliz is the learning center for kids to attend outside of school. I helped out with the English class (though still had plenty of opportunity to practice Spanish), and Rebecca worked with the younger kids in math. We met another volunteer, also helping in the English class. Her name is Esmee and she’s from Holland. I enjoyed working with her a lot, although the teacher we were assigned to help was extremely frustrating. She is really nice, but her teaching method is all over the place. There doesn’t seem to be much of a system, and on our first day, she handed the marker to Esmee and said, “Teach about the verb, ‘to be.’” Then she did the same to me once Esmee was finished. I had no idea what she was asking for and had to request that she give an example on the board first. I was incredibly surprised that she handed over the lesson to us on the first day. I wouldn’t mind so much if I knew ahead of time what she wanted to cover and which part she wanted me to do. I could go on, but I’ll spare you ALL of the details... :)
The week was busy, but we were looking forward to a fun weekend away on the large island in the middle of Lake Nicaragua. It’s called Ometepe, and everyone recommended going there. We started out by walking to the bus station in Granada and finding the bus to Rivas. That part was easy. We knew that once we arrived in Rivas, the taxi drivers would try to get us to go with them over the less expensive bus to San Jorge, which is where the port is. What we didn’t expect, however, was for the bus drivers to be in cahoots with them. They actually stopped the bus BEFORE arriving at the Rivas bus station and ushered all of the foreigners off, leaving us with a taxi driver who wanted 40 cordobas each to drive us to San Jorge. I asked the bus driver where the bus to San Jorge was and they emphatically told me that there was no bus and then left. I was so irritated, because I knew there was a bus...more than one person had told me that there was a bus. I was just about ready to start walking and ask for directions along they way when another taxi driver pulled over and offered a ride to us and two other tourists for 20 cordobas each. More expensive than a bus, but better than 40. FYI: 20 cordobas = $1, and a bus to San Jorge probably would have cost 10 cordobas.
Once we arrived in San Jorge, we had to wait about an hour for the ferry to leave. On the ferry we were subjected to possibly the worst movie I have ever had to watch. I’ll spare you the synopsis. And yes, I could actually write a synopsis in spite of the fast that I could hear very little. Anyway, once we arrived at the port on the other side (a town called Moyogolpa), we asked some questions in the tourist office and opted to head to a little town called Charco Verde. We jumped on a bus and about an hour later were walked down the road to find a hotel. There were 3 in the area and we ended up sharing a dormitory for $5 per night with a married couple from Canada. Ryan and Rebecca invited us to go to dinner with them that night, as they had discovered a cheaper restaurant up the road. The hotels have their own restaurants, and if we hadn't known better, we'd have just eaten there and spent much more money.
We hit it off with Ryan and Rebecca and spent the entire next day with them as well, which was my birthday. :) We began the morning with a hike in the Nature Reserve in Charco Verde. The views of the 2 volcanoes on Ometepe were beautiful (they're called Concepcion and Maderas). The other highlight of the hike was watching the tiny frogs. They looked like little flies, but once we noticed them jumping, we took a second look. There were hundreds of them, if not thousands, some of them still tadpoles...very cool!
After the hike, we ate lunch at our restaurant again. Since it was Sunday (and a lot of buses don’t run on Sundays), Rebecca (Canadian Rebecca) negotiated a good price with a taxi driver to take us to Ojo del Agua, which is a natural spring nearby. We enjoyed a few hours of swimming and relaxing. At one point, Rebecca suggested we stop somewhere on the way home and get a cake or something to celebrate my birthday. As we were discussing this, a lady came up to us with a huge slice of cake, wished me a happy birthday, and handed it to me. Apparently, she had been at the spring to celebrate another birthday and had overheard our conversation. We shared the cake and chatted with her for a while. It made my day!!! She turned out to be an American who was working at a Franciscan Monastery on the island.
Back at the restaurant for dinner, we enjoyed another delicious meal and ice cream for dessert. We all left the following morning; Rebecca and I back to Granada, while Ryan and Rebecca took off for another part of the island. We’re hoping to meet up with them again this weekend when they’re in Granada. Meanwhile, it’s back to work for us!
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Monday, May 4, 2009
Let me set the record straight...
Apparently I've caused much concern over my disinterest in dancing here. There are a few reasons I've chosen not to participate. One of them is that while they do have ballroom dancing, quite a bit of it is sort-of doing your own thing, following the guy, but free-dance style. I'm not one for improvisation in front of people. Secondly, the dancing here is a lot of hips and shoulders, which I'm less comfortable doing. But most importantly, I don't mind too much dancing with someone I know or someone a friend recommends, but then other people ask you to dance and I find dancing with complete strangers like that uncomfortable. Therefore, I have chosen to watch and enjoy, but avoid dancing myself. I hope that answers the concerns... :)
Sunday, May 3, 2009
I Walked to the Lake...the Bike Walked with Me
(10 points to whomever can place the quote that inspired the title of this blog...)
Well, it’s been a big week, full of new friends and exciting experiences. Would you like to hear about it? Too bad, I’m going to tell you anyway. We worked in the clinic Monday through Thursday. I asked Cecilia on Monday if Rebecca and I could work in separate sections of the clinic for the remainder of the week. We both felt it would be more beneficial for our language acquisition to avoid being around people who spoke only English...namely, each other. On Tuesday and part of Wednesday, I helped out in the office area, filing patient records and re-writing some of the labels that were illegible. Some of them were so bad that Olivia (one of the secretaries) and Cecilia couldn’t read them either. In addition to meeting Olivia, I also met Thelma, who is another volunteer. Since they both speak only Spanish, I had a great time conversing with them.
The other part of Wednesday and Thursday, I was back in the pharmacy again with Rebecca. They’re really pushing to get the medicines organized, because they will get a new shipment soon. Cecilia has said again, though, that next week she’ll show us both how to do the weight, blood pressure, and blood tests, so that we can help with some of the patients.
As much as we enjoy the people at the pharmacy and appreciate the help we’re able to offer, we’ve realized that we really need more interaction. After some brainstorming, we stopped by the Spanish school to talk with Angelica about the volunteer opportunities the school advertises. I was thrilled to discover that there is a free learning center about a 30 minutes walk from where we live. This center is primarily targeted at poor children who need additional help. They go there for lessons in reading, English, math, dancing, cooking, sewing, etc. etc. The children’s sewing work is displayed and for sale, the proceeds of which go to the child who made them, which I think is great!
The director of the school said their greatest need was in the area of English. I think she just said that because she saw two English-speaking girls and knew we’d be great help with pronunciation. I was skeptical at first, but they assured me that we would interact in Spanish. The only English would be the specific words the children were learning and helping them with pronunciation. So, the arrangement is for me to help in English the first week while Rebecca helps in math. Then we’ll switch for the second week. We can only get there for the final 90-minute class of the day, but I think the director was really excited to learn that we would be able to volunteer for 4 weeks. I gather it’s unusual for them to get volunteers that long. We start on Monday.
In addition to the exciting new volunteer opportunity, we unexpectedly made a new friend in the neighborhood as well. On our way home from the park one day, we decided we really wanted sodas. So, we stopped in at a local convenience store and bought a couple of drinks, forgetting that drinks in the glass bottles have to be consumed at the store itself. We sat down and after a couple of minutes, the lady at the counter started chatting with us (in Spanish of course). We conversed for a little bit, and have stopped by since to say hello. We’re now hoping to stop there periodically for drinks and conversation.
Another person we’ve developed a friendship with is Dali, who is another student. You may remember our attempt to socialize last Friday night with a group from the school. Dali is the one I identified as French. Well, he’s actually Swiss, but he speaks French. He paid for our taxi ride home that night because he felt it would be too dangerous for us to walk...he’s very thoughtful. Anyway, he hangs out at the school a lot so we ran into him one day and he asked if we wanted to go to a nearby cafe. We ended up getting ice cream, coffee, and fruit smoothies. He doesn’t speak English (or hasn’t let on that he does anyway), so we communicate in Spanish, which is great. Grammatically, we probably know (or remember) more than he does, but he’s such an outgoing person that he just communicates with everyone. So he understands quite a bit, and hanging out with him has definitely loosened us up in our willingness to just “out with it” whether we really know exactly how to say it or not. Wednesday night we went out for mojitos with him and his friend, Norlan (who is Nicaraguan). We also met another friend of Dali’s, a 14-year-old local boy who has grown quite attached to him. He sat at the table with us and we learned all about his 15-year-old wife in Managua and their 3 kids... :) He’s quite a character!
Dali invited us out to Cafe Nuit on Friday night and we ended up staying out until 1:30 in the morning. It’s a great atmosphere, and Rebecca “wowed” everyone once again with her dancing. At one point she even participated in a “threesome,” being twirled and whirled by two guys! We had told Susanna that we wouldn’t be eating breakfast the next morning because we wanted to sleep in, which I am proud to say we did. I personally slept until 9:30. I really thought I’d end up waking up at 7 and not be able to get back to sleep, so 9:30 was quite an accomplishment.
We had lunch a little early and then met Dali and Angelica again. The four of us rented bicycles and biked out to Laguna de Apoyo. On the way there, we were witnesses to a poor cow being chased by a small herd of dogs, which was slightly amusing for us...less so for the cow. Of course, on the way back, I was chased by a dog, and ended up feeling a certain empathy for the cow. I managed to nearly kill myself on the way to the Laguna, because it was in the middle of the afternoon, hot, humid, and mostly uphill. Also, we hadn’t brought nearly enough water. Once we arrived, we had a bit of a hike down to the Laguna, where we all rushed to jump in. Because we biked and hiked, this particular beach, or cove, is rather secluded. We were the only ones there, which made it really fun and a different experience than last time. In spite of the fact that I was worried I’d have to turn back early on, I was really glad we made it. The hike back up was a bit strenuous, but riding the bike back downhill was great. I liked that part a lot... :) Dali invited us to go out again Saturday night, but we were so exhausted. We ate dinner, showered, then climbed into bed and crashed!
After breakfast on Sunday morning, we went to a club where Uncle Gerard is a member. He had arranged for us to get temporary membership cards, so we spent about an hour there. It was a really nice atmosphere for relaxing and a little studying. The only other errand of the day was stopping at the big supermarket, where we got a cappuccino before heading home for lunch. We’ve had a long, entertaining weekend, and are now ready for a busy week of volunteering (and hopefully lots of Spanish speaking)!!!
Well, it’s been a big week, full of new friends and exciting experiences. Would you like to hear about it? Too bad, I’m going to tell you anyway. We worked in the clinic Monday through Thursday. I asked Cecilia on Monday if Rebecca and I could work in separate sections of the clinic for the remainder of the week. We both felt it would be more beneficial for our language acquisition to avoid being around people who spoke only English...namely, each other. On Tuesday and part of Wednesday, I helped out in the office area, filing patient records and re-writing some of the labels that were illegible. Some of them were so bad that Olivia (one of the secretaries) and Cecilia couldn’t read them either. In addition to meeting Olivia, I also met Thelma, who is another volunteer. Since they both speak only Spanish, I had a great time conversing with them.
The other part of Wednesday and Thursday, I was back in the pharmacy again with Rebecca. They’re really pushing to get the medicines organized, because they will get a new shipment soon. Cecilia has said again, though, that next week she’ll show us both how to do the weight, blood pressure, and blood tests, so that we can help with some of the patients.
As much as we enjoy the people at the pharmacy and appreciate the help we’re able to offer, we’ve realized that we really need more interaction. After some brainstorming, we stopped by the Spanish school to talk with Angelica about the volunteer opportunities the school advertises. I was thrilled to discover that there is a free learning center about a 30 minutes walk from where we live. This center is primarily targeted at poor children who need additional help. They go there for lessons in reading, English, math, dancing, cooking, sewing, etc. etc. The children’s sewing work is displayed and for sale, the proceeds of which go to the child who made them, which I think is great!
The director of the school said their greatest need was in the area of English. I think she just said that because she saw two English-speaking girls and knew we’d be great help with pronunciation. I was skeptical at first, but they assured me that we would interact in Spanish. The only English would be the specific words the children were learning and helping them with pronunciation. So, the arrangement is for me to help in English the first week while Rebecca helps in math. Then we’ll switch for the second week. We can only get there for the final 90-minute class of the day, but I think the director was really excited to learn that we would be able to volunteer for 4 weeks. I gather it’s unusual for them to get volunteers that long. We start on Monday.
In addition to the exciting new volunteer opportunity, we unexpectedly made a new friend in the neighborhood as well. On our way home from the park one day, we decided we really wanted sodas. So, we stopped in at a local convenience store and bought a couple of drinks, forgetting that drinks in the glass bottles have to be consumed at the store itself. We sat down and after a couple of minutes, the lady at the counter started chatting with us (in Spanish of course). We conversed for a little bit, and have stopped by since to say hello. We’re now hoping to stop there periodically for drinks and conversation.
Another person we’ve developed a friendship with is Dali, who is another student. You may remember our attempt to socialize last Friday night with a group from the school. Dali is the one I identified as French. Well, he’s actually Swiss, but he speaks French. He paid for our taxi ride home that night because he felt it would be too dangerous for us to walk...he’s very thoughtful. Anyway, he hangs out at the school a lot so we ran into him one day and he asked if we wanted to go to a nearby cafe. We ended up getting ice cream, coffee, and fruit smoothies. He doesn’t speak English (or hasn’t let on that he does anyway), so we communicate in Spanish, which is great. Grammatically, we probably know (or remember) more than he does, but he’s such an outgoing person that he just communicates with everyone. So he understands quite a bit, and hanging out with him has definitely loosened us up in our willingness to just “out with it” whether we really know exactly how to say it or not. Wednesday night we went out for mojitos with him and his friend, Norlan (who is Nicaraguan). We also met another friend of Dali’s, a 14-year-old local boy who has grown quite attached to him. He sat at the table with us and we learned all about his 15-year-old wife in Managua and their 3 kids... :) He’s quite a character!
Dali invited us out to Cafe Nuit on Friday night and we ended up staying out until 1:30 in the morning. It’s a great atmosphere, and Rebecca “wowed” everyone once again with her dancing. At one point she even participated in a “threesome,” being twirled and whirled by two guys! We had told Susanna that we wouldn’t be eating breakfast the next morning because we wanted to sleep in, which I am proud to say we did. I personally slept until 9:30. I really thought I’d end up waking up at 7 and not be able to get back to sleep, so 9:30 was quite an accomplishment.
We had lunch a little early and then met Dali and Angelica again. The four of us rented bicycles and biked out to Laguna de Apoyo. On the way there, we were witnesses to a poor cow being chased by a small herd of dogs, which was slightly amusing for us...less so for the cow. Of course, on the way back, I was chased by a dog, and ended up feeling a certain empathy for the cow. I managed to nearly kill myself on the way to the Laguna, because it was in the middle of the afternoon, hot, humid, and mostly uphill. Also, we hadn’t brought nearly enough water. Once we arrived, we had a bit of a hike down to the Laguna, where we all rushed to jump in. Because we biked and hiked, this particular beach, or cove, is rather secluded. We were the only ones there, which made it really fun and a different experience than last time. In spite of the fact that I was worried I’d have to turn back early on, I was really glad we made it. The hike back up was a bit strenuous, but riding the bike back downhill was great. I liked that part a lot... :) Dali invited us to go out again Saturday night, but we were so exhausted. We ate dinner, showered, then climbed into bed and crashed!
After breakfast on Sunday morning, we went to a club where Uncle Gerard is a member. He had arranged for us to get temporary membership cards, so we spent about an hour there. It was a really nice atmosphere for relaxing and a little studying. The only other errand of the day was stopping at the big supermarket, where we got a cappuccino before heading home for lunch. We’ve had a long, entertaining weekend, and are now ready for a busy week of volunteering (and hopefully lots of Spanish speaking)!!!
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