Mother’s Day doesn’t come around in Nicaragua until May 30th but Nicas have the right idea and celebrate mothers for the entire month. And moms deserve it…at least an entire month.
Even though I’m away from my mom this Mother’s Day, I think my time away has helped me realize the pure and awesome "amazingness" that she is. Though I’m all the way in Jinotega, she has made sure that home does not feel so far. I’m never short of moisturizers, chocolate covered matzo, or games and crafts because she never fails at getting a package out to me just when I need it. I’ve called her with good news and with sad news, and no matter what the topic, I always come away feeling better than I did before talking to her. Her support has helped me to finish my Peace Corps service, for a while I didn’t think I could or that I wanted to…but even though I know she would have preferred it if I just came home, her support made it ok to stay. Sometimes I don't think she realizes just how important she is to me.
I love you and miss you, mom and cant wait to see you in July!
To GRANDmoms too!...
To moms we're really missing...
To surrogate moms taking care of us when we're away from home...
To lots of moms for holding big families together...
So let’s take a cue from Nicaragua and continue celebrating moms for the entire month of May…because aren’t moms just the best.
so sue me for running with a theme....but give me some credit for switching up the type of bean.
i’m not one of those people who depend on my daily cup of coffee. i don’t need it, but oddly enough i admire those addicts who get more jazzed over a fine caffeine rich brew than i get over just about anything these days (yes, im bored and jaded with nicaragua, couldn't you tell)...but I certainly do love to savor a bitter cup, black, when the mood strikes. And after living in coffee country for the past two years, i know more about the little bean than i ever thought possible. The department of Jinotega produces some of Nicaragua’s highest quality coffee beans (if you like Peet’s Coffee, you might be familiar) and it is BIG business.November-March is harvest time and people will literally drop everything to participate, uprooting families and transplanting from coffee farm to coffee farm across northern Nicaragua.Money rains down from the mountains.Coffee is a big deal.
And we all love coffee.We all drink coffee.And we’re all left with coffee grounds.My mom always throws it out onto the flowers in front of our house in NY and I knew for this reason it works great as a fertilizer. But within used coffee grounds lies a wealth of practical and valuable applications.
My favorite: I take a big scoop out of the bottom of my French press and scrub that lovely caffeine filled grime all over my face. FACIAL SCRUB. Smoothes, softens, and revitalized my sun-torched skin.
Use them in brown hair too, to give it a lovely deep coffee sheen. Just be careful and try to catch the grounds before they go down the drain, large quantities of coffee grounds will clog it!
I’ve figured out the equation for making amazing bean burgers while living here (cant get away from beans! So instead of having rice and beans all day every day, I’ve done a lot of experimenting).They are easy and healthy and you can make them with whatever you happen to have in your pantry.Here is the general equation and some of my favorite combinations…again, no measurements:
Mashed Beans
+
Finely Chopped (sautéed if you want) Vegetables
+
Egg
+
Carbohydrate Binder
+
Seasonings
Lentils
+
Carrots
Onions
Garlic
+
Egg
+
Brown Rice
+
Curry Powder
Garam Masala
Salt/Pepper
Red Pepper Flakes
Black Beans
+
Onions
Garlic
Peppers
+
Egg
+
Bread Crumbs
+
Taco Seasoning
Or…Cumin
Red Pepper Flakes
Salt/Pepper
Red Beans
+
Onions
Garlic
+
Egg
+
Oats
+
Italian Seasoning
Salt/Pepper
Just mash everything together (if you have a food processor, just throw everything in minus the egg…throw that in later).Keep adding the carbohydrate of your choice until the mixture has a good dense consistency that can easily be formed into patties. I use ground oats for the most healthful option, but I’ve also used matzo meal (a lovely Passover gift from my mom!).If you’re using brown rice, you might need to add some extra breadcrumbs or oats to soak up the excess moisture.
Form into patties and coat with a little more bread crumbs/oats/etc. and let set in the fridge for about 20 minutes.
These patties can be sautéed in a pan, but I prefer to bake them.Put them on a lightly greased cooking sheet and bake at 350 until golden brown, turning the patties over after about 15 minutes.Patties will take about 30 minutes to cook, but check them as they go.
It’s mango and avocado season now in Nicaragua, and though I unfortunately overdosed on mango last year and cant stand the sight of them this time around, it’s still a gastronomically exciting time here.Produce is hitting some wonderfully low prices and even strawberries and blackberries are making an appearance in the market here in Jinotega.
Unfortunately we can’t enjoy this bounty all year round, so I’ve developed some staple recipes for tomatoes, onions, and beans…crops that can be found all year round. Gallo pinto (pictured to the left: rice and beans) is the dish of choice for Nicas...I make a lot of chili, but recently it has just been too hot to want to eat chili, so I decided to make this chili themed bean salad that I really encourage you to try (measurements are not relevant for this or really any of my recipes):
Black beans (I used black beans since they were cheaper that day at the market, about $0.40/pound.Black beans stay at low prices here since Nicas, well, just don’t like them, but this recipe would be good with red beans too)
'Plain Yogurt
'Chopped tomatoes (I bought 4 pounds of tomatoes for $0.50 the other day! I had to figure out something to do with all those tomatoes)
'Chopped onions
'Optional: chopped ANYTHING else, I used cucumbers last time
'Seasoning: Salt, pepper, cumin, smoked paprika
Mix together, smash up the beans a little, and enjoy.The cumin gives it that good smoky chili flavor, but there is no cooking involved (unless you’re using dry beans).
Up until this point my “blog” has been a scarce spattering of musings and activity updates about my life as a peace corps volunteer here in Jinotega.Well, I got bored and you got bored…yadda yadda yadda things are new and different here yadda yadda so rewarding and challenging yadda yadda look at this cute little Nicaraguan child in a third world setting yadda.
So when I was chatting with elyse last night and telling her that she just had to try conditioning her hair with coconut oil, she proposed I start putting some useful information like this on the interwebs.
So I’d like to share some of my beauty and cooking experiments and successes from my time here in Nicaragua.They should be useful to a whole lot of people on a budget and looking to improve their body (I’d say that just about describes, well, everyone).
Nicaragua has taught me many things, not the least of which is how to take care of myself on the cheap.I’ve lost about 10 pounds here and my skin and hair have never looked or felt better.I’ll attribute some of the success to Mother Nature and sunshine, but I’ve also managed to get creative with my diet and beauty regimens.
I’d like to start sharing my findings, none of which are avant-garde, but I’ll give my personal testimony from Nicaragua to the affordability, ease, and accessibility of the products and recipes....starting with:
COCONUT OIL
I’ve been on somewhat of a bender lately telling all of my girlfriends and family about the wonder that is coconut oil.
I was recently turned on to this beauty secret in a bottle by my friend Jill.We stopped into a small shop on the beach in San Juan del Sur where she picked up a recycled wine bottle full of virgin coconut oil, hand-pressed in the east coast of Nicaragua.After a day spent poolside, full of sun and cocktails (every so often we like to pretend not bound to our own reality of a ~$30/month discretionary spending budget) we were fully crisped and popped the cork on the coconut oil.
I’ve been hooked ever since.I went and bought my own bottle the very next day (my friend Kristen and I split a 800ml bottle that cost $25, more than I would spend normally on anything here in Nicaragua, but considering facial moisturizers cost about $15 for a tiny little tub here, it really was a reasonable price…especially since a little bit of oil goes much farther than the same amount of lotion).It has quickly become my very favorite beauty product.It is all natural, locally made, and smells delightfully of toasted coconut.Here are my recommendations for buying/using coconut oil:
-Buy virgin or extra virgin coconut oil.Coconut oil solidifies at a certain temp, so all of you not blessed to live in the tropics, you might find it for sale in its solid form.Just dip the container in some hot water to liquefy it for use.
-I use it as a body and facial moisturizer.It gets fully absorbed into your skin so just give it a minute or so and you will not be left feeling greasy at all.My skin tends to be on the oily side and I’m prone to breakouts, but the coconut oil has not irritated it at all.A lot of moisturizers have coconut oil as an ingredient, but why waste your money on all the extra ingredients and chemicals when the pure, all-natural oil does the trick.
-***Hair Conditioning***This is my favorite use for coconut oil.Comb a healthy amount into your hair at night before you go to bed.Put your hair up in a bun and let the oil soak in and work its magic overnight.After you wash your hair in the morning, you will find shinier, softer, more beautiful hair!I do this about twice a week now.My curls are less frizzy and can handle the Nicaraguan heat and humidity better than ever before.
I have about 3 months left (gracias a Dios) and am desperately trying to maintain a certain level of productivity, both professionally and personally, during this time.So I will try to post at least one tip/recipe a week now until I leave.
If you still find yourself interested in what life is like in Nicaragua and/or how my work here is going, email me and i'll give you an update, but after two years I honestly cant think of anything new or interesting worth posting. Life is life, lived in any country, with the same tumult you could imagine or see with your own eyes. I live it in a different language, under a blazing sun, but with you just the same.
so i have been working all year with a group of high school seniors in their entrepreneurship class. 13 student business groups were formed and last week they presented their hard work. the fair was a definitely a success...success defined here as "the fair happened." the journey was tough, but I felt such pride listening them to present everything they had learned during the year, watching them sell their products, and having the whole school participate.
one night during training I decided to number the weekly calendar in my day planner with all the days I had been and will be in Nicaragua.There were some long boring stretches during training.
Recently while I was in the peace corps office in Managua, I was scheduling and rescheduling several activities when I realized, !*$%, I’ve been in Nicaragua for exactly 500 days.That called for some serious reflection.
Here’s what I’ve learned, 500 days is TON of time, maybe too much.Maybe I should have left things sweet at 400.But 500.On my 500th day in Nicaragua, I realized just how much I have learned and grown.How worlds away my mindset is now from what it was on day 1.
As my dad says, I’ve lost a lot of my idealism.This is true.I’ve lost a lot here since day 1.Lost inspiration and motivation.Lost a certain degree of hope for change.Lost a bit of the belief I once had in the Peace Corps as a whole.This is hard work.Or let me rephrase, the “work” isn’t necessarily hard work, but life here is hard work.What I’ve learned in 500 days is that to be a Peace Corps volunteer you need more dedication, more motivation, more support than in most other jobs, if only to get out of bed in the morning.Just “going” “doing” “being” is work.So I worked and I went and I did and I was…and it was tough yet totally possible and fully rewarding.Only when I found myself being completely stripped of a support system did I realize how trying this work was.
500 days is a lot of time.And I have gained much more than I lost.While my mindset my be, well, more “realistic” my life has been so incredibly enriched.I know now that I am one of the lucky ones.I have a family that loves and supports me no matter what.My close friends would do anything for me and vice versa.I have more love in my life than anyone really deserves. (unfortunately, most of it is in another country).Hey, I speak Spanish now, and that’s awesome too.I’ve done a lot of good work here in the past 500 days.
Im working harder now on making the rest of my time here, however long it is, the best it can be.Therefore, I’ve been keeping a list of things that make me happy, here are 500 of them (or as close to 500 as I could get…maybe closer to 100…please comment and add to the list things that make u happy…maybe we can get to 500).
**not in order of importance (minus number 1 maybe)
1.mom, dad, elyse 2.my dog ziggy 3.my friends 4.the gals 5.big dancing 6.coffee 7.denise austin workouts 8.eggplant 9.extended family 10.the jersey shore 11.the jersey shore (the TV show) 12.levi jeans 13.rainbows 14.mountains 15.skyscrapers 16.new mascara 17.languages 18.good music 19.bad music 20.pretty shoes 21.peanut butter and jelly 22.wearing brown and black together 23.washers 24.dryers 25.hot water 26.grapes 27.apples 28.apple picking 29.pumpkins 30.pumpkin picking 31.soy products 32.graffiti 33.smiles 34.chocolate 35.yoga 36.ballet 37.family dinners 38.laughing 39.Ziploc bags 40.Indian food 41.thunderstorms 42.dishing 43.spending money 44.saving money 45.talking to friends 46.strawberries 47.scarves 48.sharpie markers 49.surfers 50.spain 51.Spanish food 52.wine 53.flamenco 54.hippies 55.jippis 56.purple 57.lady gaga 58.dove soap 59.klean kanteens 60.gear 61.hot corn tortillas 62.frijoles molidos 63.people watching 64.kayaking 65.reading 66.yogurt 67.holding hands 68.hugs 69.cooking 70.experimenting 71.chai 72.jokes 73.cooking shows 74.bagels and lox 75.being barefoot
Rainy season is here in force.Roads are flooded.Skies are grey.Things are just expected to get worse.Please bring back my lovely central American sunshine.
I haven’t showered in ::cough::incomprehensible number::cough:: days because it has been so cold here and being dirty just seems better than taking an icy cold shower.
Here’s a vegetable soup recipe that has been sustaining me for the past few days- nothing new or innovative, but delicious:
2 large onions chopped
5 small carrots sliced into coins
4-5 large celery stalks
1 cup dried lentils
1 cup chopped squash
1 tbsp. salt
black pepper and parsley flakes for seasoning
1 tbsp. olive oil
1.5 liters of water
sauté onions carrots and celery in olive oil with half of the salt.Cook for 5-10 minutes until they become translucent.Add water, more salt, pepper, parsley flakes.Bring to a boil and let simmer for 1 hour. Check to see if the seasoning is correct.Add lentils, let cook for 15 minutes.Add squash, let cook for 15 more minutes.Good to go.
New recipe I’m experimenting with
1 cup quinoa
3 cloves garlic
1 eggplant
lots of fresh spinach
olive oil
½ cup plain yogurt
1 tbsp. curry powder
pinch of salt
black pepper
red pepper flakes
cook quinoa with salt and 1 clove of garlic in the water.Apart: Sauté spinach, eggplant, and 2 cloves garlic in olive oil with a pinch of salt.Add yogurt, curry powder, red pepper flakes and pepper, let cook for a bit.Put eggplant and spinach mixture over quinoa.
UPDATE: I was NOT happy with how this quinoa dish came out.If you want to experiment and give me some tips let me know, it was kind of flavorless.
Coming soon: student business fairs…reading circles...
Someone, somewhere coined that phrase about peace corps.Ask the me of 3 weeks ago and I’d agree.But that was lifetimes ago, and I find myself realizing it’s certainly not the “job” I love.The job is a job…is a job.I go to work.I come home from work.I worry about work.I’m frustrated by work.I could do that anywhere in the world.Not to mention, I work for the united states government and though we are buffered from most things “political,” everything else that u might imagine going along with working for the government, well, does.No, no, it’s not the work.
I thought maybe it was the adventure. New and exotic.Places to explore.Doing something different.The foreignness of it all.The delicate balance between altruism and hedonism that only other peace corps volunteers could ever understand.Quickly though, I realized that adventure could turn hostile.
Nicaragua quickly turned hostile.Without going into the details of accusations, investigations, and interrogations, the adventure turned nightmarish, and I felt like I just was not wanted here anymore.It was something I never, in all of my dreams of a peace corps future, could have imagined.Things seemed to be crumbling.
Then the ground fell out beneath me, and your finding me here in this blog, still falling.I’ll reassure for friends and family at home that my physical wellbeing is fine.Unfortunately, for a variety of different reasons, several members of my peace corps group, Nica50, including some of my closest friends (not just from Nicaragua, but in the world, in the universe) are now back stateside.It hurts how much I miss and worry about some of them.We were, we are family.
I wish that everyone and no one had to realize what I did.
I realized it was the people that make this experience everything that it is.Oh, “duh” you say.So I wont delve into the mushy or obvious.This is a realization of the luck I have in my life to have the strongest, funniest, greatest, prettiest, most wonderful friends. Period (written out for emphasis).I’d put my group of friends up against any of yours.Any day.
So if I had to, or decided to end my experience here in Nicaragua earlier than expected, I’d leave with that.
Now im back in Jinotega, where nothing has changed really, but everything feels different.And I will leave you to navigate the labyrinth of this truly nebulous blog as I navigate that of regaining the faith I once had in what I was doing.Suerte.
- Entrepreneurship classes at the high school are going...maybe not well but going. there isnt much sanctity to class time in nicaragua, so my students are about a month behind in our course due to: earth day, mothers day, international day of the book, international women's day, impromptu teacher conferences, census work, rain, etc. but the kids are hilarious and im happy to be there catching them up. - Intro to small business classes with my adult students...fun, fine, will end in july and i think i'll have lots more free time. - just started taking aerobics classes at a gym in jinotega with my sitemate lauren, a new PC health volunteer. every weeknight from 630 to 730 i am witness to the hilarity of a 20 something, hot shot instructor high kicking and flexing while 20 or so nica women try desperately to follow along. semi-required attire for the class: - finishing up a 2 month marketing workshop with a group of university students at an NGO in town. group started at 8, now we're down to 2. cant complain to much tho, if those two keep showing up, so will i. they have requested a human resources workshop next, we shall see. - it's rainy season now, flies and mosquitoes, and therefore diarrhea and dengue are out in full force. aside from one wrenching and retching 24 hours spent in my bathroom, i have been spared the worst of it. at least the rain has brightened the mountains to a lovely hue of green once again after the brown summer months. - starting what looks to be a promising business advising project wit nt women who come into the bigger cities to give birth at the hospitals. they provide them with a place to sleep, some food, and education sessions on things such a sexual rights, domestic violence, breast feeding, etc.) they are looking to start some new income generating activities and im gonna try to make sure they arent losing money in the process. - the new small business peace corps group arrived about a month ago, weird to not be the new kid in town anymore. been contemplating this 1 year in country mark a lot lately. its a crappy place to be at first. asking what have i done? what can i do? did i really do that? whered my sanity run off to? but its also a nice little accomplishment, and i do believe year two will be just as delightful and delirious as the first. - went back to america to celebrate my grandma's 90th birthday. got to see friends and family and it was just the most wonderful :) - still teaching a wonderful little weekly english class to a group of 6 university students. last week we played simon says to practice the body parts.
installment two of my little photo project with juan carlos... when left to their own devices what do nicaraguan boys find more interesting than anything else, why baseball of course.
here's a quick video tour of where i live in nicaragua. the picture quality isn't so great, and neither are my film editing skills (i'll leave that to elyse) but i guess you can get a little better idea of the life i'm living here.
p.s. video content was taken by my counterpart who was working on a project about waste management for a class. as we all know, peace corps volunteers are not allowed on motorcycles.
so i have started working/mentoring/meeting with this boy named Juan Carlos here in my site. i met him a few months ago through a couple from California who was here working with the organization Circulo de Amiga (an NGO i think i've mentioned in previous blogs). After they left they asked if i could continue to work or check up on him. i've just started meeting with him, so we'll call what i hope to be a continuous blog series, the Juan Carlos Photo Project. I dont like to take pictures, he does, so i gave him a little job, show my family and friends at home where i live. hopefully every few weeks i'll have a few new pictures. I'm also working with him on some basic photo editing in iPhoto, here's what we got so far:
juan carlos went up to a town called San Rafael de Norte, a little north of jinotega, and took some pictures of a lovely church there...
here are a few photos of his two younger brothers and mother, he is the oldest of 6 kids...
im still trying to find somewhere with fast enough internet to upload my video tour of jinotega, so far no luck, but the search goes on.
…Lived in a world of utter extremes? Gone from scorching hot to freezing cold? Blissful to depressed to hopeless to laughing harder than you thought was ever possible? Where having a freshly made, still hot tortilla can make you smile all day, and a simple misunderstanding or missed opportunity is nothing short of devastating? Not really been sure if you LOVED or HATED something/someone/somewhere
…Manifested these extremes with only the simplest qualifiers? Where everything is either the most or the best or the least or the worst. Superlatives for the world. With nothing in between, except perhaps for the bizarre.
…Operated on HIGH…always? When everything is important, life altering, impactful…and you find love quick, frustration even quicker, confusion of course…
…Existed with seemingly no restrictions or consequences? And you and only you are responsible for setting these nebulous, impossible, irrelevant boundaries. And you and only you can enforce them. And only if you want to. And who cares if you push or even demolish them.
…Acted completely recklessly, stupidly, but never had more fun? And in doing so, recognized a lack of faith even when “Dios quiere” was the mantra that got you there …Spent most waking moments battling entirely opposing emotions, each felt with equal force? So you can’t help but question you own sanity…always.
…Been closer to and farther from your dearest loved ones simultaneously?
…Felt foreign?…always?...been early? always?
…Tried to build meaningful and consequential relationships in a different language? When even superficial chit chat can be a struggle. And then succeeded in doing so? And then broke it…
…Realized the knot in your throat and the water behind you eyes at the sight of an impossibly beautiful sunset? From total, unpolluted, never-before-felt, purest of pure awe
…Experienced, in your own joints, the strain of trees as they reach for the sun?
…Climbed through the clouds in a school bus?
…Changed more in 10 months than 24 years?
…Explored?
i guess that's what peace corps will do. (ps. just got my camera back, working on the video tour)
the new year has really just begun for me, I’ll call December and January a “lull” in my peace corps service, as it is summer vacation at the schools and at best I can say I was bored, at worst it was nearing melancholy. The transition from 2009 to 2010 has really been pulling at all of my emotional and irrational strings. It ended and began in saying adios to my students, a wild trip to the beach, a bittersweet trip back to New York, a final upheaval of our entrepreneurship curriculum, the end of a tumultuous relationship and now finally the dust is starting to settle. In talking business, January brought lots news for the small business program here in Nicaragua. The ministry of education has finally adapted peace corps’ entrepreneurship course (formerly called “la empresa creativa”) into the national curriculum. This means that every senior in every high school in Nicaragua will be required to pass a course entitled entrepreneurship in order to graduate. It has been the goal of the small business program since the inception of La Empresa Creativa, so we all feel the excitement. It doesn’t really impact my work, aside from the fact that I am working with older students (which after 2 weeks of classes is proving to be a blessing; seems that the extra two years of school bring with them a maturity that any teacher can be thankful for…ie. I don’t want smash my head against a wall after each class). Fortunately I am working with my same counterpart from last year. We haven’t really gotten into the swing of things as she was out of town for a workshop during the first week of actual classes, but that just gave me some quality time with the kids. Also, at the end of January Peace Corps held a 3-day leadership and entrepreneurship camp for our students. Each small business volunteer got to bring 2 students to Selva Negra, a hotel/nature reserve/organic farm about 15 miles south of my city. I co-facilitated 2 sessions, one on Leadership and what defines a leader, and the other on good listening skills and maintaining a positive attitude. All of the kids seemed to have a great time. For many it was the first time they were away from their parents overnight, or away from their hometown in general. There was even a campfire complete with s’mores ingredients on hand. This was the first week of classes at the adult school I work at, so we are just working on introductions at this point. No updates there, aside from the fact that I am happy to be back. I have laid the groundwork of what could be a really fun side project for me. At the end of January one of my bosses came up to Jinotega for me second site visit. While she was here she wanted to observe a class/workshop/training, and since my classes at the high school hadn’t begun, I worked with a local NGO and had a session with a group of high school and college girls. A few girls approached me after the session expressing their interest in continuing, so now I am working on making it a series of marketing workshops. The weather is getting HOT here in Jinotega, and supposedly just going to get hotter as the summer wears on. I guess the cool mountain air couldn’t stick around forever, I am in central America and should probably get used to the heat, though the browning mountainsides aren’t nearly as comforting a sight as the lush green of November. I used to go for walks when I was stressed or needed to clear my head, but now the outdoors just aren’t as appealing. Rumor has it there is a pool in Jinotega, so I am on a mission to check that out.
be on the lookout for a video tour of jinotega, i'll be posting it soon.
No, i just havent had anything interesting to say really. I’m facing what I’d call my three month slump…well, plateau more so than slump. I’ve settled in. I’ve met people. things are familiar, but still foreign. I’ve stopped being any sort of novelty, most people don’t realize im a gringa anyway. people have stopped reaching out. I’m used to life. im succumbing to the lonely side of living in a “city”, and I felt this way while living in boston, the ol’ lots-of-people-around-but-I’m-still-alone feeling, and I really don’t like it. so I am on the hunt for new projects. I have a few organizations that I am looking to speak with in the near future. especially as the school year is ending here, if I don’t make something new happen, December and January will not only be boring, but I’d be letting down myself and Peace Corps. and I need to do something to get myself out of my own head! which is where I am trapped. which is where the lack of blogging stems. all of my thoughts are stuck, or blurry, or manifest themselves in the really absurd dreams I’ve been having lately, full of giant psychedelic millipedes, where the settings are almost always airports, restaurants or hotels, and strangers, that is, mostly new and imagined faces populate the stories. I wont delve much further into my own scary grey matter. My love life is just about the only interesting, or at least ever-changing, I dare say complicated situation. and while it does a good job at occupying my thoughts, I’d much rather be focusing my energy into my work than trying to translate text messages and untangle the thoughts and intentions of Nicaraguan guys. three months is too soon for the banality to sink in, right? I know there is more to discover, and I know my own disposition to laziness has added to this slump. plateau? whatever. it is something I am trying to work on here. I’ve also recently felt first hand the wrath of projects falling apart. and it is terribly disappointing. my aspiring business owner has seemingly disappeared. ballet class has been delayed. I expected it, they told us to during training, projects fall apart, people lose interest, priorities shift, it happens more often than not. so I am not surprised or heartbroken, just disappointed, and trying to figure out what to do differently next time.
So I am on my way to niquinohomo tomorrow for a weeklong peace corps language workshop. I think it will help bring some me back to some sort of “sensicality”(did you know that though nonsensical is a word, sensical is not? and I think that should change); the closest thing to going home as I can find here. I can escape for a little bit from the inanity, from this feeling of being used, and do something productive. I cant wait to see my nica family. They have called me every month since I moved to Jinotega, just to check in. I am so thankful for them.
I think I will make stuffed peppers for dinner tonight. Oh, I guess since my last blog I have moved. I now rent a room with a different old lady. I can use the kitchen to make my own food, which has improved my QOL immensely. The woman is just precious, little, and has this sweet little voice resulting from her dentures that don’t quite fit her correctly. Among the other tenants are two teachers; a girl about my age with her 3 year old daughter who has the most hilarious laugh and spends all day calling at her mom, “¡Mamiiii! ¡Mamiiii!....te amo,” it really couldn’t be more adorable; a young guy who works at the gym and lets me go for free; and Beau from the Bronx, a retired guy who I can get my Yankees updates from in between talks with me parents. I feel a lot less lonely here, it’s very comfortable. And I have my own bathroom. I would upload photos of the new place, but I cant seem to locate my memory card reader, so those pictures will stay stuck on my camera for a while longer. You’ll also get to see my room flooded with about 1 inch of water after a torrential downpour that just overloaded the drains here (fortunately I was home and nothing but my floor got wet). Oh, and a giant caterpillar, look forward to that too.
