some hippy nonsense

I believe that since I have sworn in as an official Peace Corps Volunteer, I have full authority to go on a hippy rant about humanity, no? First I will be perfectly honest with what I have been doing during my free time here in Nicaragua, and unfortunately it is not studying Spanish. I’ve been watching TED talks podcasts that I downloaded in Managua and reading lots of books (in English). I’ll also note that this is influenced by the fact that I dropped my laptop and now The Darjeeling Limited is desperately trying, yet failing repeatedly to escape from my CD drive, so movie watching is out of the question for now (any tips on how i can fix this would be greatly appreciated). I feel both enlightened and informed and hopeful and joyful after reading Norman Doidge´s The Brain that Changes Itself (I wasn’t kidding in my book review, I’m already passing it along to as many of my fellow PCVs as possible, go read it now. And then give Elyse a hug because she recommended it to me, and because I was also very proud of her after reading her analysis of the book. She continues to be one of the most influential people in my life. I don’t think I’ve met anyone who has things quite so together as my sister) because I am now certain beyond a doubt of the sheer awesomeness of people. Just people. Ordinary as can be, everyone has this brilliant force that, though untapped for the most part, can overcome and discover the most amazing things. And I don’t think we give each other enough credit. Or we give credit to something or someone bigger, better, higher, nebulous. But it’s there right in front of you. Or next to you. Or across the street. Wherever. I think maybe because I can’t necessarily understand everything people are saying to me, my other methods of reading people have become heightened. I have to look a little deeper to understand. I taught my little sisters and cousins here during my training a little yoga, and the good ol’ word namaste, which as difficult as it is to define in English, is even harder to explain in Spanish to a bunch of 10 year olds. But I tried, and I’m going to take some more authority to fully secularize namaste, so when you express that you are acknowledging and bowing to the light or life force or spirit in your fellow human, it is wholly human-made, hecho de mano. They created it. And the only reason there is hate and war is because we don’t realize the potential of each and every human, and we don’t take responsibility for our own actions. Blame and credit are too often externalized.
Oh, and did I mention that I LOVE where I am living, and am on kind of a giddy high from being very content. You might just have to ignore the nonsense above and chalk it up to a temporary mental collapse caused by an overdose of serotonin, or maybe the air is just thinner up here in the mountains. But why not go with it and list the reasons why Jinotega is special.
- It’s beautiful. In a valley. The backdrop to every vista is lush green mountains.
- There are countless second-hand clothing stores. I bought a shirt and a dress the other day for C$ 30 (that’s $1.50 USD)
- There’s real coffee
- The people are beautiful
- It’s fresco (“chilly” one might say)
- Strawberries grow up here (though I haven’t seen them being sold anywhere, I’m not sure when they are in season)
- There is a pretty well frequented karaoke bar
- There is a 24 hour convenience store
I also think I’m managing to win over the skeptics at my places of work. It’s really very difficult to show people you are competent and enthusiastic when you only have an intermediate level of Spanish. I was relatively convinced one of my counterpart teachers hated the idea of working with me, and she very well may have felt that way, but after our first planning session, I managed to put together a few questions asking about her family and work experience, and promising that when I can speak more Spanish I will speak more Spanish. At which point she extended on open invitation to visit her house for dinner. So I guess that worked. Hopefully I can win the students over too. Hopefully the novelty of having an American in the classroom will buy me some time to win them over.
I considered several times while writing this post just deleting the whole thing and waiting til I was in a more focused state of mind to write something coherent and perhaps less offensive, but for those of my dear friends and family willing to sift through the word vomit, I applaud your patience…or boredom…or procrastination from whatever else you should be doing right now.