¿Y Entonces...?

I came, I saw...and it conquered. I went to Jinotega to volunteer for a bike race and to participate in a half marathon, but that's not what the department had in mind for me.

Standing in the park, waiting at least 45 minutes in the FREEZING cold for the bus that was supposed to pick us up. We then saw an open air pick up truck and piled in to make the 21km journey to Jinotega city (the route was from Jinotega city to San Rafael del Norte on the paved highway). Let’s not talk about how miserable and cold that ride was. Even huddled all together, the wind and temperature were intense and we were freezing cold by the time we got to the start. 

On the way over, I had a few more burps escape and apparently they wafted into my friend's face; he looked at me and said “Oh, wow. You weren’t kidding about those burps…I think you really might be sick, are you sure you’re ok to run?” I just said that we’ll see how I feel, but I was determined to finish. We all hit the bathrooms one (or in my case, two) more time(s) before the starting gun, and after popping two antacids, and hitting “play” on my iPod, we were all off.

 

The first few miles were ridiculously fast (well, compared to my pace lately) and I was feeling alright. I was chugging along, had some water and at about mile 5.5 I hit a huge wall. I cramped over, dry heaved and when nothing happened, just started to walk. By this time, the little group I was keeping pace with had gone and I was walking by myself on the course. I ran into a police man and told him that I couldn’t finish, I was too sick to go and way dehydrated. He told me if I could make another 3km, there was a vehicle up there that could take me to San Rafael del Norte.

I jogged/walked (heavily focused on the latter) until I saw the fork in the road to go to the community from yesterday, where there was a little corner store and a few police men on motorcycles. As a Peace Corps Volunteer, it is prohibited to ride on a moto, so I told the officer my situation and he made a few calls and told me a vehicle was on its way.

I waited for at least 45 minutes at the corner store with fellow Nicaraguans, tired, sick and disappointed. Finally, a police truck came by and picked me up; not before a nice gentleman bought me a bottle of water, without asking for anything in return. Seriously, this country has the most hospitable people; it may be poor economically, but so much more rich in its other aspects.

It was a frustrating ride back, riding along the course that I could have run. . I met up with the group of volunteers and started crying. We walked back to the clinic where we took showers, got our stuff packed up and took a taxi back to Jinotega city to go to Matagalpa where we stayed for a couple days to relax and have a mini vacation before going back to our respective sites.

Overlooking Matagalpa city from a hill we hiked the day after the race

Yes, people live in those shacks

Oh, I guess I should mention what all this stomach fuss is about. One word, starts with a “G” and rhymes with “LaGuardia”…I’m talking about Giardia. I have no idea what I had eaten or drank.  With my symptoms, and being around volunteers who have already had this bug, we’ve decided that’s what the Nica sickness gods decided to bless upon me. I went to the laboratory a few times, and they didn't find any parasites or bacteria. Granted, after my episodes on that Sunday, I immediately started taking raw garlic and ginger ale (nature's natural stomach bug cleaner). I took anti-parasite medicine for a few days and now I'm getting over a bout of an upper respiratory infection. When it rains, it pours, right?

I completed 7.6 miles, or about 12 km, of the entire half marathon (13.1mi/21km). I should be proud of myself for that, and I am, especially since other volunteers said they wouldn’t have even gotten out of bed if they had my symptoms.

There’s always next year and a lot of other half marathons to come. Who knows, maybe I’ll be doing the bike race instead? Either way, you can’t win them all, but wow, Jinotega. You know how to leave QUITE the first impression!

My colega told me that we were going to give a charla to the homosexual/transgender population of Jalapa with CEPS about HIV, STDs and overall well-being. I was beyond excited since Nueva Segovia is a rather conservative department and I have not encountered many openly-homosexual people up here. Jalapa, especially, is known for it's machismo and though I was happy to participate in the presentation, I was skeptical of the turnout.

We had about 15 people show up to the presentation (that we held at a bar that doesn't open till later in the night); they were all very friendly and knew they were among friends and could be open, honest and trusted in our environment. The presentation started with a CEPS member going over the basics of STDs. I then started my presentation of different kinds of STDs while the CEPS rep showed pretty graphic photos of what I was talking about. I also discussed HIV, and during all of our presentation, we had representatives from MINSA giving free HIV testing. Of the 15 that participated, only 4 got tested, and they were all, luckily, negative for the illness.


After my part of the presentation, CEPS went on to talk about the importance of condom use, while referring back to what I had previously mentioned. After that brief session, we went on to talk about the difference between "sex" and "gender"..."sex" referring to what separates men and women biologically and "gender" referring to what we are perceived as in society. Given that, we had about 8 volunteers get up and give us a "fashion" show in which they had to walk down the runway three times: the first: as masculine as possible, the second: as feminine as possible, the third: as themselves.



We had a lot of laughter and a ton of fun, and I'm happy to say I gained confianza within the small group that showed and I'm looking forward to working with them more in the future. It was about a 3-hour long presentation, and while the rain was pouring hard outside, the sun was shining and the rainbows were certainly bright in that bar that day!

When I was visiting Jalapa during my initial site visit, I was able to meet one of the local NGO's and private clinic, ProFamilia, that was built with help from USAID after Hurricane Mitch in 1998. I also went to the maternity house and was sad to learn that their funding is less than sufficient and their budget from the previous year was cut more than half. There are 8 beds in the house and one of the agriculture volunteers from El Carbón wants to donate a pig to the house so that they can raise and sell it to profit the house for future expectant mothers. I noticed that there was land that could be used and I asked if they ever thought about building a garden and grow their own vegetables, because the only food provided is: rice, beans, and sugar (not much for a hearty diet for an expecting mother). There are no security fences around the house and animals come and go as they please, therefore a garden wouldn't be able to survive. The women of the house have to pool money together in order to buy meat and cook meals.

Since then, my colega and I have met with other players from the community, including the head of the Casa de Adolescencia and a representative from the Friendship City Project/Pueblos Unidos...aka an organization that is based out of BOULDER, COLORADO (I was fortunate enough to meet one of the representatives from Boulder while I was here during my site visit and look forward to his return in the future to work on health projects together).

The few of us put our heads together and after a few meetings, we have broken ground on some huertos (vegetable gardens). ProFamilia has provided us with secured land: their back area is fenced in and they have a security guard for the clinic 24 hours a day. FCP's representative has built huertos in the past in her community, as well as with her NGO, and has taken the lead in showing the jóvenes what to do. Our main workers are teenagers from the youth group as well as an ecology class from the high school, to receive credit. In a little over two weeks, we have successfully created 5 large plots and 20 smaller plots and seeded: tomatoes, cucumber, onions, peppers, carrots, as well as some local vegetables such as pipian.

Each time we work for about 2 hours and have about 10-20 teens come to work. It's a big number of people for not a lot of work, so I am going to start breaking them up into groups and delivering a charla to half of the group while the other half gardens, and switch them out after about 30-45 minutes.

We are still in the beginning phases of the project, but we are having success with what we have to work with! If you'd like to see pictures of what we have so far, I have created a slideshow of the progress we are making. Click HERE to see it!

Since last week, things haven't gotten better around the house for me, unfortunately.

Next up, we are going to have some meetings to plan a few huertos (vegetable gardens) at the casa materna and ProFamilia with help from kids at the primary schools; a project that the agriculture volunteer from El Carbón is going to help us out with, too! And on Sunday, I have to give another charla to 50 cheválos about adolescent pregnancy.
Wish me luck!





PS: For those of you who would like to follow my adventures and upcoming projects on Facebook, I have created a page that will document all of that!

Translated to "Summer Plan: Day of the Water 'Resorts'"

Today, my colega and I, along with several other nurses, a hygenist and a fellow licenciada (college graduate) went to different balnearios in Jalapa to make sure they were up to health and safety standards. We reminded the dueños (owners) that they need to add a certain level of cholorine to their waters to make it safe to swim in, and if they served food at their location, the kitchen and sitting area needed to be clean of any roaches or any unsanitary things.

The majority of the balnearios in Jalapa are created with the water from the river that goes through the valley, Rio Lindo. River water can be quite dirty, with people bathing in it, washing their dishes, their clothes, and animals using it for natural reasons, it's very important that MINSA (Ministry of Health) does this check and make sure that everyone that goes to enjoy themselves during the summer are doing so safely.

Our first stop was at a place called Verano Feliz (Happy Summer). We got their fairly early, and people were already swimming and the water was quite dark. We left a nurse there, so she could supervise the swimmers, as well as talk to the dueños when they came in.

We then headed to a place right down by the river, a little farther out of town. We talked to the owner of the restaurant and looked at his pool area. It was quaint and the entire property was closed in. He says that a lot of teenagers and families like to come there because it's a very friendly atmosphere and because it's safer than going down directly to the river to enjoy the water. His establishment passed the test and after picking up some Cruz Roja (Red Cross) life guard volunteers, we were on our way to the pueblo of El Limón.

What a bumpy ride! We picked up a local doctor and she traveled with us to La Reforma, an ecotourist area that has several pools to play in. This was the first area in which we saw there were security guards, aka police. It was very comforting to know that they keep the place safe. We walked around, talked with some of the workers. It's a very nice little area and I'm kinda bummed I forgot clothes to swim in!

Side Note: I have noticed that the majority of women here swim with all of their clothes (shorts and tank top) on. I asked my colega why and she says they are very shy to "reveal" any of their skin. There were a few with actual swimsuits, but males were the only ones comfortable enough to be walking around in normal swimming attire. I was also told that "machismo" (machoism) is still very prevalent here up north, and that may be adding to the conservativeness of the females here.


After La Reforma we went to my favorite place of the day: Son Zapote. It's the closest thing to a water park I've seen here, with little waterfalls, hammocks, swinging tree chairs and a water slide! Mom, Dad and other people who are planning to come and see me: we're coming here when you visit! The establishment was very secure, sold no alcohol and was up to all standards we were checking for. The dueños were also very nice: they gave us free lunch!

It was a very successful morning/early afternoon and when I returned home, after taking a quick shower and doing my laundry (by hand!), I turned into sloth-mode. I've been fighting a cold for a few days and I'm trying to get over it as soon as possible.

¡Hasta pronto!

Today and tomorrow were supposed to mark a two day "capacitacion" or training for a group of 25 "brigadistas" or health volunteers (see how much Spanish you can learn when reading my posts?!). I arrived at the Hospital/Centro de Salud (they're in the same location in Jalapa) at 8, met up with my "colega" or counterpart and we waited for everyone to show up. At about 8:15 we had about 6 brigadistas show up. Fifteen minutes later about 3 more came. The bulk of the group was supposed to be coming from Managua, a 6 hour bus ride away.

...back up. I forgot to mention that we are in Semana Santa. The holy week. If they don't have the entire week off, people typically work until Wednesday and take Thursday thru Sunday off to enjoy their families, friends, and tend to do so near a body of water because it's HOT.

With that said, we probably could understand why the Manguans didn't show. At about 8:45 we said farewells to the brigadistas that DID show up (we gave them parting candies for their time) and decided to take a free day the rest of the day. We are, however, going to have another training on Sunday in which we travel to different areas where people will be for the holiday (rivers, local pools, etc.).

So I pretty much have the whole week off. Cool! I had a feeling it was going to be a slow first week in site, especially because of the holiday. I have been keeping myself busy, though!

Yesterday I went for a four mile run to test out the conditions and trails near me. I can run along side the main highway, where a lot of other women run, and it's perfectly safe. Getting there from my house is fun, though. I need to find the streets where the stray dogs DON'T come running after me so I don't have to slow down to a walk. I also learned that I need to run EARLY. At 7 in the morning it was hot and humid already; oy vey!

I've also bought some groceries (though I'm probably going to be stocking up again before the weekend). I'm becoming domesticated! I even made tortillas by myself! I'll be cooking all my own meals so I'll be helping the Dona pay for the gas I use.

Also, the electricity and water have been spotty these last two days. Yesterday and this morning, I took my first bucket baths! This morning I took it in the dark because the lights have been out all day. As a matter of fact, there WAS internet when I started this post about 5 minutes ago (6:17), and now I'm writing it offline...waiting for the electricity to come back. Let's time it and see when it comes back!

It's back! 6:24 now. Not too shabby! The water is still out, but that's ok!

That's all for now, I believe. Have a great Semana Santa (if you celebrate)!

Upon browsing the internet lately (thanks, Jalapa house!), I found some entertaining photos that are relevant to:

A. Being in the Peace Corps
B. Living in Nicaragua.

Enjoy!

Tomorrow marks my first day of travel for my Peace Corps journey! My parents and I are going to brave the snow and drive to Denver for the night just in time for the football game (Go Broncos!).

Really, Colorado? You had ALL month to snow and you decided to just let your skies open up the day before we hit the road! I know, I know; this is you putting up a fight because I'm leaving. My car put up a fight last week and decided to just break it's timing belt and go to Car Heaven (perfect timing if I may say so myself!).

Monday morning I take my second leg of the trip to Washington, DC. I'm arriving a day prior to the beginning of everything since Peace Corps wants me well rested and set for a full day of Staging on Tuesday.

Wednesday is the big day! We will fly from Washington, DC to Miami and after a 2 hour layover will fly en route to Managua where we will stay until Saturday for a pre-service orientation/retreat. Despite the layover, flying time is roughly 5 hours. Not too bad!

On Saturday, I will travel to my training site (TBD) and meet my host family and on the following Monday, my 11-week Peace Corps training will commence.

I'm still up in the air a little bit of where I'm going and what I'm doing, but I'll be sure and keep everyone updated!