Monday, October 29, 2012 - , , , , , 0 comments

Un Pedacito de Nicaragua


After the PEPFAR conference in Estelí, some other volunteers and I stayed one more night in the city before heading down to Managua the next day for a country-wide volunteer event. The volunteer leader in Estelí invited some volunteers to her house for a costume party to celebrate Halloween, a holiday that is not celebrated here. I came up with a last minute play-on-words costume (I've been known to be a "killer bee", "eskimo pie" and "black mail" in years past) in Spanish! I was chicha bruja which is the fermented corn drink that was served in mass quantities at the Jalapa corn fest last month...so I dressed as a witch (bruja) with a piece of corn around my neck. No one could guess the costume, but that's ok because once I explained it, everyone smiled.
Our group: frijol (bean), Bat Girl, Christmas Tree (that lit up!), pirate, Jane Goodall, chicha bruja, "Starry Night" and bumble bee.

Checking to make sure that the flash worked...I can never miss a photo opportunity!

Each year, the Small Business Development volunteers from all departments of Nicaragua put on a gala event in Managua to raise funds for a competition that they do with their students. It's a chance to indulge on some good food, stay at a Holiday Inn, network with some PCVs I may otherwise not have had the chance to meet, see some familiar faces, and above all...enjoy a HOT shower and dressing up!
It was a great event for a great cause and I can't wait to go again next year!
Dolores Dream Team (supposed to say "DDT" but our hands were backwards)


Some of the great from Nica 58!

Dancing with fellow Segovianos

Friday, October 26, 2012 - , , , , , 0 comments

PEPFAR Conference in Estelí

Once a year PEPFAR (President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief) gives second year health volunteers funds to put on a conference to fellow volunteers in different regions of the country. This year the theme is "Working with Mobile Populations". 

I came to the conference with two of my colegas from MINSA, also known as the Marvins (one of which is the owner of the gym I teach at). One is a hygenist that has connections with many of the coffee and tabacco plantations in Jalapa and the other works in statistics and is also the go-to person about HIV/AIDS in Jalapa.

We learned a lot about how to work in different environments, what different kinds of mobile populations there are in the northern region, basic HIV/AIDS information for those who came from different PC sectors and counterparts who may not have been well-educated in the topic, as well as updated numbers of HIV/AIDS in Nicaragua.

Acting out a "sociodrama" describing the chain of HIV


On the second day, we broke off into groups and went to different places to give presentations of HIV to high-risk populations, like tabacco factories, military bases, and in my group's case, the fire station.

It was a fun presentation. It reminded me a lot of like what we did in Chinandega at the naval base when I was in training. We presented what HIV/AIDS stands for, methods/fluids of transmission, some activities that show how easily the illness can be transmitted, methods of prevention and a condom demonstration.

We had a wide range of people in the small audience of 13: teenagers, men, and an older woman and gentleman. They were shy at first, but in the end were a little more open and trusting with us. A good time was had by all!

Introductions

Marvin 1 presenting what HIV/AIDS means

Presenting the fluids/methods of transmission

The audience

Marvin 2 explaining the "chain of transmission"

Sí da/No da (Yes it gives, No it does not give) Activity

Demonstrating that no one is "too big" to wear a condom (he is wearing the condom on his arm!)

Presenting the methods of prevention

Fire engine's license plate


The Marvins with their certificates at the end of the conference

Everyone who attended the conference
Tuesday, October 23, 2012 - , , , , , , , 0 comments

My Zumba Class!

This thing is taking off!

I was at a hair salon today and one of the ladies from my class did my hair! She told me she has been telling all of her clients about my class and is encouraging them to go.

Here's my class from tonight.



I'm so excited for the success of this!

Some of the ladies in the picture are also part of the running group. Last Saturday, we had a driver take us to a community about 6.5km out from Jalapa and we jogged/walked back to town. Our next run is Saturday, November 3rd, and the goal is to be dropped off a little more than 10km outside of town.

The wheels are turning to get this half marathon on the road and I'm going to look into getting funds for it thru Peace Corps for sponsors, t-shirts, water stations, etc.

More on this as it develops!
Sunday, October 21, 2012 - , , , 0 comments

Natural Disaster Drill: Nicaraguan Style

In school in the US, all students are accustomed to doing fire drills. The alarm goes off, the teacher escorts their classes to the outside of the building, takes roll call, the fire department comes, gives the "all-clear" and 20 minutes later, we're back in class. 

In Nicaragua, the same thing happens, but it's about 100x more intense. I was with the teachers during the week helping plan for the simulacro ("simulation"). The students only knew what day it was going to happen, nothing more.

During one of my presentations, the sirens went off, Cruz Roja ("Red Cross") volunteers ran up from the street and chaos ensued. The profe took her class outside to wait and as I was walking out with the group, I saw "bloody" bodies, volunteers running around with stretchers and fellow students carrying around other injured peers.

I was in shock. I had to keep reminding myself that this was all a simulation, none of this was real! Man, it was just quite the spectacle to see, though! The "blood" was ketchup, the "actors" put dirt on their bodies and colored their bodies to look like they had some pretty intense bruising.

The volunteers gathered all the bodies on the basketball court and students looked on as they were "reviving" the bodies; CPR, checking for a pulse, and in one case, putting a foil blanket over a "deceased" student.

After about 20 minutes, the drill was over and we went back to our respective classes and continued on with our lesson plans. Before I continued with my presentation, I described the differences of what OUR fire drills are like and that we only perform drills that would occur in case of a fire, especially since in Colorado we don't experience natural disasters like floods or earthquakes.

The profe chimed in saying that her class did especially well in cooperating and in case of a natural disaster, sometimes some people don't maintain order and get frantic and in some cases get seriously injured.

I'm glad I was able to participate in this and see how institute-level students react in emergency drills, as well as experiencing how different cultures prepare for natural disaster situations.

Below are the photos. Keep in mind, EVERYONE was ok and "acting". No one was legitimately injured and there was makeup and ketchup used for the purpose of  presentation.




















Monday, October 1, 2012 - , , , , , 0 comments

Working Out with the Jalapeños

After consulting with the guy who runs the aerobics studio, I taught my first Zumba class tonight...en español!

Sure, I made some mistakes (I'm still learning some of the songs and their dances) but above all, we had fun and everyone was laughing and having a good time. With the guy, we also had 6 ladies attend.

We made a schedule in which I will start teaching two classes a week! After all of us can nail down the moves I'm using now, I'll start incorporating more songs and dances.

Also! The group is also training for a "mock" marathon...in which they're training to do a longer distance running race. I don't think that they're really going to run 26.2 miles (42 kilometers...which is the distance from Jalapa to San Fernando, where another volunteer (another 1/3 of DDT!) friend is located), but we're going to try and put together a race with sponsors.

I'm not sure when we're planning it, but the group is going to do a 10 kilometer (6.2 miles) training run in about 2 weeks, which I was invited to. Of course I said yes!

They're a great group of women and I'm very excited that they're excited about fitness and staying healthy, too!
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