Updates!

I have finally discovered how to feel busy in Nicaragua…just start applying to grad schools. It seems I never quite have enough internet time to get all the necessary school research done. I am currently looking into programs for Public Health or Public Health Policy (if anyone knows people in these fields or has any advice, please please please let me know). I am not completely sold on grad school; I’m still keeping the option open of working for a bit before more schooling.

"Pigs" in a small skit I helped with

I am also finding a lot more opportunities for working. It is nice having a work related activity or meeting just about every day. Recently I have been focusing on sex education. Since MINSA (the Health Ministry of Nicaragua) is instituting mandatory sex education in the schools I have been designing a series of classes that I hope to teach the teachers to give. The hardest part with that will be helping them overcome their embarrassment in talking about topics surrounding sex. I also have been giving a lot more HIV/AIDS sessions. I had a really successful workshop with the brigadistas (local health volunteers) in June and July discussing how we can prevent the appearance of HIV in Morrito. We stressed condom use and behavior change when it comes to choosing your partner and remaining faithful. I must say, it is a bit entertaining to watch an older very rural man giggle his way through a condom demonstration. It was very encouraging to see how interested the brigadistas were and how excited they were to work with their communities on the education about and prevention of HIV. They have also all invited me to come out to their communities to work with the youth. I hope I can find time for that.

HIV training on a scenic little island

My youth groups went through a bit of a lull during the months of May and June. But have started to pick up. With my older youth group, we are now planning to present a play on HIV and 2 shorter skits that revolve around the work of Nicaraguan poet, Ruben Dario. My younger youth group is working on a theatre competition that will take place in the month of August. Three groups will compete and will present short skits on HIV/AIDS, family abuse and personal hygiene. The groups are writing and preparing their own skits…fingers crossed that it all works out. The winner will win a nice trophy my parents brought down to me when they visited. (More on their visit in my next post, which will be soon, I promise!!)

Some of my youth group girls after an HIV class that they gave

So, life is moving along quite nicely down here. I am enjoying my work, making connections and finding some time to have fun with my Peace Corps friends. It is really hard to believe that I only have 8 months left. That is more than enough time for any of you all to come and visit!!

Waiting

Morrito is my waiting room. It doesn’t particularly matter what the planned activity of the day is, but I am always found waiting. Take today for instance; we, Darling, one of the nurses in Morrito, and I said we would go vaccinate in La Cruz, the closest community to Morrito that is about a 20 minute walk away, at 5:30 am in order to beat the heat. So I thought that because we actually have a valid reason, the heat, we might actually leave on time. I got up at 4:30—and we all know I’m not a morning person—in order to have ample time to make coffee and have some cereal, and then stress about being 5 minutes late. Yet there I was, at 6:30, sitting alone in the Health Center, waiting. I was lucky, I only waited 1 hour for Darling to show up. Usually the wait is over 2 hours, or half the day, especially if I am trying to leave Morrito with a group of people.
But, I never really learn my lesson. Nothing has ever really started “on time” in the year that I’ve been in Morrito. And I know late showing up an hour after the determined time is pretty much the custom here. Yet I remain hopeful, if not a little delusional, and arrive with punctuality, if not a little late by US standards. I’m always worried I’ll miss something. I guess the fluidness of time here will never be something I fully adapt to and when I return to the States I’ll probably be fashionably late to everything. But, you know, worse things could happen. And all this waiting has certainly given me a lot of time for reflection. :-)

Speed Bumps

I recently learned how to say “speed bump” in Spanish. It is policia acostada, at least in Nicaragua. This means police officer laying down. I found this definition very funny. First just picturing one of the blue clad officers from my town lying on the road to slow traffic provides an interesting vision and secondly the police don’t seem to do a whole lot, especially in my small town of Morrito. But who can blame them, when they really don’t know when or if their next pay check is coming and whether or not their job with be secure when a new government takes over? At least the police force is working in the aptly named speed bumps.

Thinking of speed bumps and the cleverness of their Spanish names also got me thinking about the speed bumps in my service over the past year. My work has definitely been moving slowly thanks to numerous obstacles that are decreasing the speed of my effectiveness here. First and foremost the rainy season (April-early December) provides a challenge because the time of the rainstorms is unpredictable and it will inevitably rain during a meeting I have scheduled, preventing anyone from coming. Some days, right in the middle of wet season it rains all day and I sit in my hammock reading or spend hours chatting or watching TV in a neighbors living room. I guess the later of the two is work, since cultural exchange is usually taking place throughout our discussions. The pace of life is also much slower down here, creating a cultural speed bump. If things aren’t completed in the most time efficient manner, nobody worries. People don’t stress about getting things done immediately, they just sort of mosey into projects. At first I found this frustrating, but now I’m afraid I won’t be able to readapt to the fast pace, production driven arena of the States. Finally, parasites have proven to slow my work down. Somehow even the most obscure forms of parasites have found their way into my stomach and intestines. I won’t go into detail of the results of my little friends, but while they don’t completely incapacitate me, they do drain my motivation to get out and get work done. And the more resistant ones require a trip to Managua to see the doctor (and get put up in a hotel with air-conditioning, wireless, and cable…so who’s complaining?). These are rather gross speed bumps.

My work is trucking along down here, regardless of the policia acostadas. I have 3 very active youth groups. Two of them are in Morrito and use theatre to teach health themes. My youth are very excited to start using the sociodramas they have been working on to teach their peers in the school. My other group is in a community, and those kids think I’m great at soccer. They are almost a self-sufficient group, but still value my presence, especially all the fun icebreakers I can provide them with. I’m am now trying to form an new group of youth health promoters in yet another community…fingers crossed. `

These are just some thoughts on speed bumps.