This blog will begin with the night we swore into the Peace Corps and onwards:
We swore into the Peace Corps, aka became official volunteers, on July 27th, 2012. That night we all went out to celebrate and danced the night away! It was an awesome experience and it was such a weight off of my shoulders to finally have made it through a trying training period. I had found the light at the end of the tunnel! Well the next day that light began to get a bit dim again... I had a nagging headache that wouldn't go away and around dinner time that night I just shut down. All I wanted to do was to lay in bed... Forever.
I forced myself to wake up the next morning to go back to my training families house to pick up my things. Also my host grandmother's birthday party was that day and I had promised to attend. My head was pounding and I had to lay down. For the next week all I did was lay down in my new, unfamiliar house in Masaya, Masaya. Aside from the protruding vein in my right arm, that was poked until it turned black and blue, I saw very little action during my first week in site. I missed my entire first week of classes...Luckily (and I say luckily in an interesting context) one of the many blood samples showed that I had Dengue Fever; a viral infection caused by mosquito's with symptoms similar to those of the West Nile virus. I was relieved to find that I had a good excuse to give all of my counterparts for why I was absent. I didn't want them thinking I was going to be some lazy volunteer and I felt so guilty for missing my entire first week!
Another positive aspect of having Dengue was that I was looking goooood after a week of laying in bed being too exhausted to eat. A joke we have in the PC is that we could increase tourism here by marketing all the ways to lose weight;
Come on down to Nicaragua and we can offer you any of the following fool-proof diet plans:
1. Parasites
2. Bacterial infections
3. Ameebas
4. Dengue
5. Malaria
6. Travelers diarrhea
7. Any combination of the above
Contact our headquarters for more information
```PRICES MAY VARY```
My first week of classes was interesting and fun as well as challenging. I am working with 4 different schools and 10 different counterparts. I have a very heavy teaching load and right now I am working with around 1,000 students. My first 2 weeks or so I mostly observed the classes. I was planning on observing for a month but I got too antsy just sitting there all the time so I started stepping in a bit early. I was nervous at first but quickly I became comfortable in front of the class. On a regular basis I say silly things or pronounce words wrong. At the least I serve as a form of amusement for my students.
In the following few weeks things went well. I was very excited the first time I actually made my kids laugh (with me and not at me). I get frustrated sometimes because I have such a worse personality in Spanish than I do in English so being able to portray a sense of humor in Spanish was a big win for me!
Aside from my teaching load I plan to venture into other projects. I am going to assist a nice young gentleman from the States with his hammock business. He buys hammocks from Nicaragua then sells them in the States. Once he sells a certain # of hammocks he donates money to build a house out in the campo (very rural areas) of Nicaragua. He is only a sophmore in college and already a social entrepreneur! If anyone is interested in buying a hammock check out this website:
http://hammocksthathelp.com/Home.html
I have also been blessed to find another crazy dog-lady volunteer that lives in a community near Masaya. We have connected with an NGO located in Masaya and are making plans to hold an educational animal fair in the beginning months of 2013. My dream is to collaborate with this NGO to help build a dog shelter for Masaya. There are a lot of sick, hungry, and neglected street dogs in the area and this NGO wants to help but they lack the resources. With more money and hands they could offer their free vaccinations, castrations, and medicine services to more of the needy animals. They could also expand their services to include more invasive surgeries and a wider selection of medicines. I am truly hoping that we can help this amazing organization, and others like it, better serve the animal community here in Masaya and surrounding areas.
Overall I have great students and counterparts, nice side projects, my Spanish is bettering and I am really liking Masaya. I live with a nice family (who have two really sweet dogs which make me very happy) and my "ama de casa" aka house keeper that cooks me delicious vegetarian food. I have also learned how to wash my clothes on washing board and cook numerous different things. I'll be housewife ready by the time I return to the States no doubt... watch out boys here I come ;D haha.
Sorry for the brief update... I will do a better job here in the near future!
We swore into the Peace Corps, aka became official volunteers, on July 27th, 2012. That night we all went out to celebrate and danced the night away! It was an awesome experience and it was such a weight off of my shoulders to finally have made it through a trying training period. I had found the light at the end of the tunnel! Well the next day that light began to get a bit dim again... I had a nagging headache that wouldn't go away and around dinner time that night I just shut down. All I wanted to do was to lay in bed... Forever.
I forced myself to wake up the next morning to go back to my training families house to pick up my things. Also my host grandmother's birthday party was that day and I had promised to attend. My head was pounding and I had to lay down. For the next week all I did was lay down in my new, unfamiliar house in Masaya, Masaya. Aside from the protruding vein in my right arm, that was poked until it turned black and blue, I saw very little action during my first week in site. I missed my entire first week of classes...Luckily (and I say luckily in an interesting context) one of the many blood samples showed that I had Dengue Fever; a viral infection caused by mosquito's with symptoms similar to those of the West Nile virus. I was relieved to find that I had a good excuse to give all of my counterparts for why I was absent. I didn't want them thinking I was going to be some lazy volunteer and I felt so guilty for missing my entire first week!
Another positive aspect of having Dengue was that I was looking goooood after a week of laying in bed being too exhausted to eat. A joke we have in the PC is that we could increase tourism here by marketing all the ways to lose weight;
Come on down to Nicaragua and we can offer you any of the following fool-proof diet plans:
1. Parasites
2. Bacterial infections
3. Ameebas
4. Dengue
5. Malaria
6. Travelers diarrhea
7. Any combination of the above
Contact our headquarters for more information
```PRICES MAY VARY```
My first week of classes was interesting and fun as well as challenging. I am working with 4 different schools and 10 different counterparts. I have a very heavy teaching load and right now I am working with around 1,000 students. My first 2 weeks or so I mostly observed the classes. I was planning on observing for a month but I got too antsy just sitting there all the time so I started stepping in a bit early. I was nervous at first but quickly I became comfortable in front of the class. On a regular basis I say silly things or pronounce words wrong. At the least I serve as a form of amusement for my students.
In the following few weeks things went well. I was very excited the first time I actually made my kids laugh (with me and not at me). I get frustrated sometimes because I have such a worse personality in Spanish than I do in English so being able to portray a sense of humor in Spanish was a big win for me!
Aside from my teaching load I plan to venture into other projects. I am going to assist a nice young gentleman from the States with his hammock business. He buys hammocks from Nicaragua then sells them in the States. Once he sells a certain # of hammocks he donates money to build a house out in the campo (very rural areas) of Nicaragua. He is only a sophmore in college and already a social entrepreneur! If anyone is interested in buying a hammock check out this website:
http://hammocksthathelp.com/Home.html
I have also been blessed to find another crazy dog-lady volunteer that lives in a community near Masaya. We have connected with an NGO located in Masaya and are making plans to hold an educational animal fair in the beginning months of 2013. My dream is to collaborate with this NGO to help build a dog shelter for Masaya. There are a lot of sick, hungry, and neglected street dogs in the area and this NGO wants to help but they lack the resources. With more money and hands they could offer their free vaccinations, castrations, and medicine services to more of the needy animals. They could also expand their services to include more invasive surgeries and a wider selection of medicines. I am truly hoping that we can help this amazing organization, and others like it, better serve the animal community here in Masaya and surrounding areas.
Overall I have great students and counterparts, nice side projects, my Spanish is bettering and I am really liking Masaya. I live with a nice family (who have two really sweet dogs which make me very happy) and my "ama de casa" aka house keeper that cooks me delicious vegetarian food. I have also learned how to wash my clothes on washing board and cook numerous different things. I'll be housewife ready by the time I return to the States no doubt... watch out boys here I come ;D haha.
Sorry for the brief update... I will do a better job here in the near future!
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