I haven't been up to much too exciting, recently, hence no new and exciting posts. Let's do a quick recap of the past 2 months:
August:
- I worked a lot in the high schools (yes, we now have two. Our main high school, INAJAL, has over 2,500 students, and MINED (Ministry of Education) decided to transform a primary school to a high school in the afternoon, which now hosts about 500 students) with the topics of Nutrition and Dengue.
- The annual Small Business Gala was held and my friend and I got custom-made dresses by a local Jalapeña. They turned out beautifully and everything was less than $20 each!
September:
- My host mom, Profe, is in love with the oven that my sitemate and I built for her and I told her that Agriculture volunteers also have experience with building improved stoves. The outdoor stove we had previously emitted a bunch of smoke any time she cooked coffee or beans for the week and it wasn't doing anyone any favors. One of my AG PCV friends made the trek to Jalapa and we built Profe a stove! It turned out beautiful.
- I went to my first quinceañara...during a power outage. The church has a generator so everything there went great, but upon arrival to have the actual birthday party, there really wasn't much of one. A living room lit by candles, someone used their car radio to play music for the birthday girl and her grandfather to have the first dance. The power was eventually out for about 30 hours; I hope she got a redo on the birthday party part!
- I hosted two friends for a few days in León! It was so great to see some familiar faces and show off some of the spots that I like to go. We went to the beach, walked around the historic city, hiked up an active volcano and had a blast together for a week before they headed back home to CO.
- My mom had sent down a suitcase full of goodies with my friends; most importantly filled with blankets that one of her co-workers had crocheted for Nicaraguan newborns. I have been visiting the Jalapa hospital once a week to drop off these blankets, the families are especially thankful because it's going to get chilly in the next few months towards the end of winter/rainy season. When brigades come to town, the maternity house (casa materna) gets all of the donations, but the maternity and pediatric wards at the hospital get overlooked.
- September also brings the Nicaraguan/Central American Independence Days that are celebrated on the 14/15. There were parades, presentations and lots of Nicaraguan pride that weekend. I took videos of some of the schools' performances during the parade, you can check them out at my YouTube page HERE.
- Right after Independence Day(s) was the Annual Corn Fest. I helped one of my friends make Baho, a Nicaraguan delicacy, to sell on part of the Catholic Church at the festival. It made over $3,000 cordobas in profit; I'd say it was a success. The majority of the Nueva Segovian PCVs came up to celebrate and the weekend was alright.
- After many agonizing weeks of asking, calling and rechecking our order with a lady in Estelí, the race shirts from the half marathon that my counterpart and I put on in June FINALLY arrived. We hosted a dinner for the participants to hand out the shirts and give out information about the next race in December. A special thank you to those from CMC in Colorado for your donations; these shirts could not have happened without them!
The top students of the institute and elementary schools. My friend's daughter is second from the right.
My friend's daughter won first place at the municipal, departamental and NATIONAL level for the oratory contest. Here she is giving her speech at the Independence Day presentation.
With my friend's niece. People think she's my baby even though she is 100% Nica. It's gotta be the eyes.
After peeling over 40 unripe plantains
My hands were stained like this all weekend
Reyna del Maiz (Queen of the Corn..har har) parade
The eventual winner, my host cousin!
The goddess of maiz, Chichimora.
My friend's neighbor, a little cowgirl.
Starting the Hípico (horse parade)
View from our bungalow
Another PCV teaching Yoga/Meditation on the beach
Beautiful sunset
Getting my participation certificate, presented by my supervisor and two of the facilitators.
Coming up, I am taking the GREs in Managua to enter graduate school. Throughout everything happening the past couple of months, I have been studying for this test and applying to graduate schools (ahh life as a finishing PCV). I have goals to pursue a Master's in Public Health, primarily in Global Health and have applied to: Ann Arbor (Michigan), UI Chicago, Boston University, UMinn Minneapolis, GWU in Washington DC and CSU in Colorado. I'm really putting all my efforts into getting into one of the top 4 schools listed; five out of the six universities are in the top 20 for Public Health universities in the US. No pressure, right?
The rest of October, I hope to keep myself busy working at the high school(s) and teaching Zumba twice a week. Then, on Halloween, I'll be on a plane to the US to see my boyfriend and a couple of other AMAZING friends that I met, all thanks to Peace Corps Nicaragua. I honestly cannot wait.
Upon return, I will be attending a training to execute the national mobile population survey in coffee farms throughout the northern part of the country. I will be doing surveys in Nueva Segovia and possibly Madriz and Jinotega. Not too long after, my group of Health PCVs (Nica 58) will be participating in our COS (Close of Service) Conference. I can't believe it. We're almost done. We've done a little more than 21 months in Peace Corps, and now we're on the last stretch. My sitemate's group of English and Environment teachers are on their way out of the country in November, then we're at bat! After the conference brings the second Jalapa half marathon, and possibly another grant project with ProFamilia; all the while, performing surveys at the coffee farms.
As 2013 turns into 2014, I am mostly going to be focusing on community integration and absorbing the last 3 months of Nicaragua to the fullest. I don't have any specific work plans (the high schools break is from the middle of December and they start back up in the middle of February), but I'll do what I can to stay busy. I have also been nominated by my Health Project supervisors to be a counselor/facilitator at a youth leadership camp in February of 2014; talk about working up until the final day of service, huh? The camp will be in the department of Jinotega, and I will be working along side volunteers from other projects for this camp. I am just crossing my fingers that this next trip in Jinotega won't have as many EXCITING events happen like last time...
And that's that! I'll try not to forget about my blog for another long hiatus, but hopefully I'll have some things to report after I get back from the states in November.
Pípe and Jalapa. A pup and her pueblo.