Updated Blog!

How do I catch everyone up on what's been going on in the last few months? I don't! I'm going to hit the highlights and show some cool pics and promise to post more often...but this may or may not be true...I'll try. I thought I'd start with my apartment. I live in a 2 bedroom apartment behind another house...so, my apartment is off the street. This is a big deal in Nicaragua because the noise level is greatly reduced and because people can't just stop by my house...which is the custom here. As far as apartments go mine is very nice. The previous volunteer lived here before me and as soon as she left I took over. My ceilings meet the walls, I have glass on my windows and tile on my floor. This is not the norm in Nicaragua. Also, I have 2 orange trees, 2 banana trees, one mandarin orange tree, one lime tree, one sour orange tree, and an avacado tree in my patio. There is also mint and cilantro growing everywhere on the ground. The family that owns the house in front, whom is very nice, take very good care of the plants. Okay, so this is my house. Nice, comfortable and I can eat things that grow in my patio. My Dad came to Nicaragua recently and we spent a few days in Granada, a d ay in Jinotega and then we went to Panama. We had a great time. I was so glad to see my Dad and we had a great time. These pictures are all out of order because I have not been able to figure out how to move the pictures around like I want them....so, just ignore that if you can. We rented a car in Panama...which turned out to be an adventure in and of itself. We made our plane from Managua to Panama by the skin of our teeth...they were calling our names as we were running up to the gate....long story involving a passport and a subway sandwich. Anyway, we made it. Landed in Panama aroung 8 o'clock. And were actually able to find our hotel all the way across town...we followed a thrifty employee for 80 percent of the way and then got horribly lost. We stopped at a McDonald's to ask directions... and to get something to eat. We thought we had the right directions but there was this one turnabout highway on/off ramp that kept messing us up. We eventually paid a taxista a few dollars to follow hime to the hotel. One of the things I learned on this trip is that my Dad and I are not what you would call strict by the map navigators. We are more trial and error types. Now, both styles are valid but with the latter type you have to be a little more relaxed and open to new and unexpected experiences...it turns out we both are and we did fine with this style of navigation. Funny thing is, that McDonalds we stopped at the first night became a very important point of reference for our future tours around the city. We saw the canal, the old city of Panama ( the oldest city in all of the America's on the Pacific coast), native Kuna peoples, the beautiful pacific and just had a great time. The picture overlooking the big buildings of Panama was taken from the top of Ancon hill where we were staying. We had a blast. Of all the things we saw and did, my dad said that he like Jinotega, where I live, the best and that he wanted to come back and spend a little more time there. We introduced him to a panadaria where they make these sweet treats and if you now what time to to you can get them fresh out of the oven. I hope he comes back.

New Post

I have discovered that if I sit just inside the front gate to my house....just off the street and in a little corner so nobody walking by can see me...there is a mysterious internet signal that I receive...gratis. Entonces, there will be a new post coming soon. Not right now becuase I'm too tired...but soon. Just wanted to give everyboy a heads up to see who all is still following this blog. I have to give a shout out to Andy who has faithfully encouraged new work...Mike also, until he got tired of encouraging and just started e mailing me to find out what I am up to. Also, some other good news. My Dad will be coming down soon and he will be spending some time here in Jinotega and we will be traveling to Panamá to see the canal. I will update with pictures and his reaction to this whole thing. I´m thinking of putting up some pics of my house, yard area so he...and everyone will know where and how I am living...and, if you want to come visit, you can see where you will be visiting. Alright, enough for now.
Shaun

Here's a story that some of you will appreciate and others well....might not get. I'm not trying to post to my blog only for some people but this particular post just kind of works out that way and it's too much to explain the whole story.
The church in the pictures above, La Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Ultimos Dias, is almost directly across the street from the house that I am currently renting a room in. I have known this church was here for sometime and thought it an interesting coincidence for it to be almost right in front of me. Well, the other day I left my house with a friend and we walked down to the corner store in search of diet coke...or coke light as it's known here. It was dark and sometimes it can be very hard to see at night walking on the streets of Jinotega. We walked to the store, bought our drinks, and were making our way back to the house. We were passing the church but I really didn't realize it because it was so dark. I heard some singing and the tune sounded vaguely familiar. Which was a little strange because here in Jinotega nothing is familiar, vaguely or otherwise. So I stopped and I listened to the singers and the song. The source of the song was the church, La Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santo de los Ultimos Dias. I knew I had heard the song before but the words were all in Spanish so I wasn't sure. I thought just by the tune that the song was "Put Your Shoulder to the Wheel". But, I kept listening and then it hit me what the song was. It wasn't "Put Your Shoulder to the Wheel" but "There is Sunshine in my Soul".
Kristi, I remember you had wanted and hoped and prayed for some kind of sign. I had been wanting the same thing. Brenda, I remember talking to you about this very thing. Now, I don't know for sure if that is what it was or not but I want to believe it was. At any rate it spoke to me and it helped me. Jinotega, now, is not all that unfamiliar.

Pics of Selva Negra and Sesion de Pesaje

Here are a few pics of a weekend trip to selva
negra and some of a baby weighing session. These
pics are for you Andy.

One Month as an official Peace Corps Volunteer and...

Entonces, I have one month as an official Peace Corps Volunteer and I have not changed the world for the better, I do not speak fluent Spanish, I have not found a house of my own, I’m having difficulties with my main colleague, I broke a tooth and had to travel to Managua to have it repaired, I was sick with parasites, again, I’m not really sure what I’m supposed to be doing, I was pickpocketed, when inquiring about the cost of things I feel as if there is always a price that’s just a little bit (sometimes a lot) higher than what is customary, and to be honest, I always have one question on my mind....What am I doing here? I was talking to a friend about these things and she said, “Well, you signed up for this”. Yes, before all of you agree with my friend out there, I realize I volunteered for the Peace Corps and I knew there were going to be challenges, hardships, loneliness, difficulties with the language and culture, sicknesses and on and on. I knew this and I volunteered anyway. So here I am and I have nobody to blame but myself. How does the saying go? Be careful what you ask for....
When I first arrived to Jinotega, one month ago, I, along with other Peace Corps Volunteers, worked with a group of doctors from the US. We went along and translated for the doctors and nurses and I was able to do some dentistry. It was great. We had to be up around 5:30 and we returned to Jinotega around 6. We traveled around to the outlying communities and worked with some really great people. I was actually able to translate and felt pretty good when someone called me over to translate and I could actually do it. I felt like Peace Corps was the right choice and I was going to be all right. Then, the medical brigade left. During this time we had what’s called a Jornada de Vacunas. This is where the doctors and nurses from the Health Center here in Jinotega go to the outlying communities and vaccinate people. This is something I was really interested in doing and I set out for the health center Monday morning at 5:50 AM; it’s a 10 minute walk from where I am living to the health center. I waited for everyone to load up the trucks, said hello to people I had previously met and was introduced to a myriad of new people. I wasn’t sure what I was going to be doing this day but I was excited. It turns out I went along with two of the health center employees. Our job was to go to the outlying communities and make people aware of when and where the doctors and nurses were coming and who should be vaccinated. This involves riding around in a truck with two seriously loud speakers on top announcing this information and posting signs. We did this all day over some seriously rough terrain. Think dirt roads with ruts, rocks, streams, mud and the mountains of Jinotega. Now, I was okay with this as it gave me the opportunity to see some beautiful country. Jinotega is the center of coffee country in Nicaragua and has a mountainous terrain with some of the communities having very cool climates. One day, I only took off my long sleeve shirt for about 2 hours in the middle of the day; the rest of the day was a little chilly. It also gave me the opportunity to see and meet the farmers of these large coffee plantations. These are very poor, humble people that always offered us coffee, beans, tortillas and cuajada to eat. I was never hungry. The guys I was working with were also given big bunches of bananas cut right off the tree and carrots the size of which I had never seen. Great people. I was a little bored as I was just really riding in the back of the truck and not doing a lot. We stayed out each day until about 7 o’clock at night. I was exhausted when I returned home. To cure my boredom on these trips I started taking pictures of some of the people. Now, at first the people were shy so I couldn’t just go up and start taking pictures. I would show them my camera and show them a picture I had previously taken and then ask if they wanted their photo taken. I was amazed at how popular I became. The kids in every community loved the camera and laughed when I showed them their picture; even if they did not smile for the photo, which is a cultural thing here. Here in the mountains I got to see how the farmers live and it’s a far cry from Managua and other major cities in Nicaragua.
During this time I was also trying to find a place to live, find my way around Jinotega, work on some of the required work I have to do within these first few months of service, study Spanish, take part in some of the cultural fiestas, figure out how to start working with the other NGO’s and the schools here in Jinotega and basically figure out what a PCV does. I am the first Health PCV here in Jinotega so I have to blaze my own path. I don’t get to pick up where someone else left off. Also, my main colleague in the health center has never worked with the Peace Corps before and we are still trying to figure that one out. He is a very nice guy that means well and wants the best for our working relationship...it’s just a little strained right now while we define roles. The Jornada continued but it continued without me for some days because I believe in the mountains I picked up my second parasite.
Not a whole lot to tell here and I won’t be that descriptive. I started having some of the same symptoms I did with the last parasite/bacterial infection I had but I didn’t feel nearly as bad; I could actually leave my bed. So, I picked up some antiparasite meds and started the 6 day course. I felt better within 3 days and was back to my normal self in 8 days. Parasite gone with no obvious signs of a bacteria. During this same time my tooth broke, or an old filling broke taking some tooth with it or some variation of both or one or the other. Believe me, I was in my mouth with flashlight and explorer trying to figure out which. The good thing is I did not have any pain. From my self evaluation, my tooth was on the verge of needing a crown so I called the PC office and scheduled a dental appt. I arrived in Managua, where it has been 98 degrees everyday for the past 2 months, this is the hottest, driest time of the year, where I was surrounded by taxi drivers who began asking, “A donde va chele?”. “Where are you going whitey?” Being in Managua can be a good thing but with a parasite, broken tooth, 98 degree temperatures, being called whitey and trying to be charged those special prices reserved for cheles; this was not one of those times. Long section of the story short, I visited the dentist and she prepped tooth #30 for a resin inlay and cemented it the next day. She was very professional, used top of the line materials, gave profound anesthesia, and I was very satisfied with her overall; this is what I reported to the PC as they asked me to evaluate her. Okay, on to the pickpocket.
This weekend was our fiestas patronales. These are big parties which celebrate the patron saint of the town. We had parades, horses, bands, mass at La Peña de la Cruz ( the cliff of the cross), bull riding and a big festival Saturday night. I went to the bull riding and festival Saturday night with 7 or 8 other PCV’s. I was told to be very careful as there would be people coming in from everywhere and a lot of people drinking. I was also told that a lot of people got pickpocketed so to not bring things of value...cell phone, wallet. I listened and only brought a little bit of cash and my debit card; I had to bring that as I did not have any cash and had to go to the bank before going to the festival. I did however have on cargo pants where the pockets buttoned down and the buttons where on the inside flap of the pocket; not visible from the outside. I felt pretty safe but was still cautious. As I was standing in line (read people pushing and shoving and elbowing each other for 15 minutes, until I decided I was never going to make it to the ticket counter and decided we should try to buy our tickets at the gate), I felt someone trying to reach into my pocket. I immediately brought my hand down on his and turned to look this would be thief in the eye. He tried a couple more times but I kept my hand there and felt him each time. I left the line with my money, debit card and the feeling that I made the right choice in pants and would be able to feel a would be pickpocketer. However, after leaving the bull riding ring and trying to get into the stadium where the festival was there was a huge crowd pushing and shoving, much worse than before and it was all I could do to stay on my feet a couple of times. After we entered the stadium I went to retrieve my money from my pocket and noticed the button undone and the pocket was open. I stuck my hand in to find it was empty. They got me. The second guy apparently was much better than the first because I never saw, heard or felt anything. The only good thing is that he did not get much money and I was able to have my card blocked before he could make any charges. I called the PC Safety and Security Coordinator and he handled everything for me, even putting the stolen money back right away. It was only 5 dollars but here it’s 100 cordobas and it’s lunch at a nice restaurant, with drink, dessert and money left over to buy a DVD on the street. And it was my 100 cordobas. Almost all the people with me said they had been pickpocketed before and some of them lost cell phones. The safety and security officer stated it had happened to him too. Next time I won’t bring my debit card and I wont’ put my money in my pockets; maybe my shoe? Here, all the women carry their money in their bras and it’s normal to see a woman before she pays for something reach in to her bra to retrieve her money; some of the PCV’s do the same. When in Rome...right?
Well, these are some of the experiences I’ve had so far this month. I still am not sure what an effective PCV is and sometimes I do wonder what I’m doing here. The good thing is not all my experiences have been difficult or negative. I’ve also had some really good experiences and the good thing about good experiences, at least for me, is that one good experience is worth more than x number of bad experiences. However, they can also be personal and difficult to put into words. So, while I may think and occasionally question out loud, What am I doing here?, it’s only because the moments I think I know what I’m doing here can be fleeting and difficult to share. I’ll try anyway but not with words. I’ve included some of my favorite photos I took while traveling in the mountains. I have looked at some of these pictures many times since taking them and yes, I did sign up for this.

Juramentacion....Gone to my site.

I am officially a Peace Corps Volunteer...we all are and I feel we have all earned it. We started off with twenty and now we are 18...miss ya’ Ginner. We lost one before we even arrived in Washington so I don’t know if you can count her or not. Anyway, we had our juramentacion in Managua at the Hotel Intercontinental. It was a very nice affair and I have to say the Peace Corps provided a very nice thank you to our host families and a good send off to ourselves. The highlight of the swearing in were: the cake, the pastries, the coffee, Mike and Ian’s speeches....and not necessarily in that order...but the pastries were so good. Let me back up just a little bit though and I’ll try to provide a glimpse into what has been happening the past weeks and why Mike and Ian’s speeches were the highlights.

We have all been separated into groups of 3 or 4 in different training towns. I have been with three other aspirantes in a town outside of Managua. We had a really good group and we have come to know each other well and I speak for myself when I say that I’ve come to rely on them for support and to speak English with. These last few weeks, after we returned from visiting our future sites, we had to finish up our youth group projects, we had our final language exam to determine if we had met the minimum requirement to be able to be a productive volunteer, we had our last few days of class, we celebrated a holiday called Semana Santa, and we had to be packed up and ready to leave our host families for Managua for a final few days of technical training. We were busy. It was an emotionally and physically exhausting time. Our group did not do a final project but the whole point of the youth group was a learning experience....point taken. We learned a lot. I entered the Peace Corps with an Intermediate Mid language level. This was good as Intermediate Mid is the minimal level we aspirantes have to obtain in order to be sworn in. I tested out at Intermediate High. I was very pleased with this even though I still believe I have somehow tricked the teachers into thinking I know more than I really do because I am constantly reminded of how much I need to learn. The last few days of class went smoothly. They were held at my house and that was great as I have been doing so much walking in the hot, dry, dust blown Nicaraguan day that being able to wake up and walk to the living room for class was a treat. No complaints there. No Semana Santa. Semana Santa is the week before Easter and it’s a big holiday week here. Most people take the whole week off and many businesses shut down. We were given Thursday and Friday off. This was a nice break we were all looking forward to until about Thursday afternoon. Most of us were bored our of our minds. Sometimes in our little training towns there is not a whole lot to do. With Semana Santa, there really wasn’t anything to do. I spent most of the day Thursday being ridiculed by someone, whose somehow related to our family, for not opening a coconut with a giant knife. Now, I’m pretty much like any other guy. I have an ego. When someone asks, especially a girl, asks me to do something, especially if it involves a knife, I try to do what I can. But a coconut...come on. I’ve never opened a coconut before. I don’t even know where to begin. She just thrust the coconut and some machete looking knife at me and told me to open it. Nothing about that scenario made my ego kick in. I just flat out told her no. She gave me a hard time for a little while but it had no effect on me. Looking at that knife and realizing there is no 911 in Nicaragua kept my ego perfectly happy to refuse to even care. She eventually got some neighborhood boy to come in and open the coconut. You know how he did it? He looked at that knife and then took the coconut and smashed it on the concrete wash basin. Smart kid. Friday looked like it was going to be another long, hot, boring day until I got a call from a friend saying that a group of people were going to the beach and did I want to come. I told her yes, packed a bag, said goodbye to my family and left for the beaches on the Pacific. Now traveling in Nicaragua is not easy. However, after almost 10 weeks at this point we felt pretty confident in our ability to get around. We got on the bus for the beach and left. We got to the beach and made a strange stop. The cobrador, the guy who collects money, got out of the bus and traded in some larger bills for some smaller ones at a pulperia. He never said anything to anyone on the bus. He got back on and we were off. We arrived at another beach, about 10 minutes away, and the bus stopped and this was the end of the line. This is not however where we needed to go nor where we told the driver where we were going. The place we wanted to go and told him we were going was the beach where we made that strange stop and nothing was said to anyone. Now, on this bus there were 4 girngos and 2 Nicas. We tend to stand out in Nicaragua and being the majority on the bus felt that because we were not told when we arrived at the other beach we should be driven back to the first beach, our original destination. However, the driver, the cobrador, and the people who were loading onto the bus all felt differently and before it took and ugly turn we all decided to get out and walk. We arrived at the beach finally and we had just enough time to go swimming and watch the sunset. Then, we realized that there were not enough rooms at our friends house for us and we set out to find the hostel in this town. It was dark and we were hungry and didn´t know exactly where we were going. I was with a good group and I have to say looking back it was a lot of fun. We all finally found a place to sleep and called it a night. The next day we were back at the beach and then we had a long, hot, dry bus ride back home...it was great. We returned to our training towns and had 2 days of class and took our final language exam. We said our goodbyes to our families...Dona Alba Luz she a tear and I have to admit it was difficult leaving her that morning as she was such a great host mom. I plan on visiting her and the family again and I will always have a special place for them. It was one of those it was the best of times worst of times kind of thing...but I tend to bond with people that feed me...especially really good gallo pinto.

We all arrived in Managua for our last training and we stayed at a very nice hotel....they had hot water,a.c., and televisions in each room. The owners were very nice also and put up with our wrestling in the back yard. Yes, we wrestled...some have the pics to prove it and my legs still hurt just a little bit. We swam in the pool, ate together, and enjoyed the freedom that speaking your mother tongue with other people that speak that language gives you...after being tongue tied for almost 3 months....it was great. We have a great group and it was tough for me to leave everyone. I will not see most people for the next 3 months....that´s longer than I have known them and they have become such good friends. This is why Mike´s and Ian´s speeches were the highlights for me. Mike spoke about some of the highs and lows of training. He did a great job of capturing what some of us felt and even though he was speaking in Spanish and to everyone, we were the intended audience. Ian had a more formal speech with the ambassador present. He too did a great job and it was a great goodbye speech.

Most of us stayed an extra night in Managua as we didn´t have to be in our sites until Sunday. It was tough leaving people but we each set out in groups of 2,3 and four early Sunday morning. I left for my site around 9 and I am here now. I have been buys meeting with people and trying to figure out the best way to start my next 2 years. That´s not an easy task...especially when you miss your friends...amigos para siempre.

Parasites, Bling and My Site

Alot has happened since I last updated and I'm going to try to relate as much as I can in this update. I will update my blog more often than this but this has been a really busy month.

It started out as a typical month with Spanish classes and technical training. We had just returned from visiting other volunteers and we were all excited about where people had been and what volunteer life was like. I think everyone had an eye opening experience and we realized that volunteer life will be drastically different than our training....which is a good thing. As soon as we returned we had a debriefing about our site visits and then we had to think realistically about where we could be placed for the next 2 years. It struck more thank a little panic into a few of us...myself included. We had a site fair where volunteers from the available departments came and briefly presented a few things about each site. We had to fill out our top three choices and that was followed up with an interview by the PC staff. The big day came after a long week of HIV training where we were all away from home and tired and worn out. We each were given our sites and for the most part people were happy. There were a few people who were not too happy. Overall the PC did a great job of placing us where they thought we could get the most positive work experience and give our available talents to the communities. I was really excited about my site placement as it was my number one choice. We had about a week to prepare to go visit our site and the families we will be living with, after we swear in on the 28th of March, for the next 6 weeks. I was excited and anxiously waiting our site visit but it was back to my training town for my Spanish and tech. training. Everything was going fine and then one Sat. I didn't feel quite right.

It wasn't a big deal. I felt a little feverish and tired but just chalked it up to a lot of traveling, classes, stress, tired....etc.,etc., etc., I felt like that for a few days and then Tuesday afternoon, after out class ended at 3, I told my teacher I was going to lay down, in my room as the class is being held at my house, and I would see her tomorrow. I felt terrible the rest of the day. I left my room only to hurry to the bathroom and I told my Mom I wouldn't be eating dinner. The next morning I felt even worse. My stomach felt like one big cramp, my head hurt and I couldn't stand without feeling like I was going to throw up. I walked out into the living to let my class know I would be quickly returning back to bed to find only my Mom and teacher. Apparently at about 3 in the morning, one of the girls in our class had to be taken to the hospital, the other girl rode with her and was going to be sleeping in and the guy in our class was on his way to Managua to visit her as he had been told the girl was about to die. It turned out she wasn't about to die but she had a sever parasite and bacterial infection and was in really bad shape. The PC had her in the best hospital in Managua and she would be fine in just a few days. Meanwhile, I had to travel to the next town to go give blood and a stool sample so they could figure out what I had. Now, at my present condition I could barely stand and there was no way I could walk out in the heat, hail a cab and travel to the next town. The doctor advised my to take a Dramamine, which we have in our PC medical kit, and lay down and go as soon as I could. I did and I finally left the house around 12 o'clock. I had my mom find a cab that would pick me up right at the front door and deliver me directly to the lab. I gave blood and the other sample, as much as I could at the time but I was really drained and the sample was very small. I returned home and climbed back into bed not to leave again until the next day around noon. Now being sick is miserable enough. But being sick in a windowless room with a tin roof that bakes under the Nicaraguan sun, with roosters crowing, smoke wafting in from God knows where and none of those unique comforts from home that we all crave when we are sick is really miserable. By Wednesday, with the help of Dramamine, I was able to leave my room and eat a little. I received a call from the PC Med officer that my blood work was normal and the other sample revealed nothing. Maybe it was just a virus. Okay. Friday we were leaving for our site visits and we would be in Managua meeting our work counterparts for the first time. I made up my mind that I would be there looking as well as I could. The morning went okay but around 11 o clock my stomach cramped, I starting feeling cold and feverish and knew all was not well. I didn't want to get on a 3 hour bus feeling like this and be away from doctors for 5 days. I told our trainers I was feeling poorly and I left the meeting early to go visit the doc and leave another sample for the lab. The PC put me up in a nice hotel in Managua Friday night and Sat. morning I was able to give the lab the sample they were looking for. I popped my Dramamine and left for a 3 hour bus ride to my site.

First, let me say that I love my site. The climate is great. Cool in the mornings and nights but it warms up during the day. I'm going to need a sweater for the nights though. I love it. I actually need blankets to sleep at night! Its located in the mountains and is green and pretty. My host family is nice and the father actually use to live in Gainsville, Georgia. He and his wife are very sweet and he speaks English. He is a real character and has taught me some good slang. And the dog, Bling, and I get along very well. Sat. afternoon I called the PC Med. officer for my results and it turns out I had a parasite. She told me what medicine I needed and I simply walked 2 blocks to the nearest pharmacy, bought the meds., for about one dollar, and was feeling much better in about a week. I am almost back to normal just still tired.

We are back in our training towns and have a little over a week left in our towns before heading to Managua. We will have a few days of training in Managua and then leave for our sites. We are all very excited and it feels like we are done and ready to go be volunteers. The picture of the spider is what I found just above my bed when I returned home. Luckily, it was on the outside of the mosquito net and I was able to take care of it easily. I have seen those spiders before. The last time was when I was in the bathroom brushing my teeth and looked up at the mirror for a few second before realizing I was looking right into the face of one of those things. They are big. I didn't know what do to...there was no way I could wash my face with that spider just above my down turned head....so, I called for my Mom. She came into the bathroom and I showed her the spider...assuming she would be a little taken back as I was....only to hear her laugh at my and grab a hand towel and shoe the spider away. It really only went about 2 feet but she seamed satisfied with this result and left me to finish up in the bathroom. I finished brushing my teeth and washed my face very quickly all while keeping one eye on that spider.

I want to say thanks to Mike and Scott for the harassing e mails to update this blog and also to Joyce for the continued support. I miss all of you guys and I hope everything is well. Dad, happy birthday again and Erin give me a call when you can so we can figure out what happened to that package. And Jackie, I tried to send you an email but it was returned. I'll try again but let me know if it has changed.

Love y'all. Shaun.

Oh, the other picture is our group on a field trip to one of the many Volcanoes here in the land of Lakes and Volcanoes.