Health Charlas

My class is divided into 2 groups of 2 for our health charlas-Kari and Alyssa give their charlas at the health post, que se llama La Colonia and Nico and I give our charlas at the main health center in Masatepe. This week Alyssa and Nico spoke about nutrition while Kari and I spoke about diabetes-mainly about type 2. It´s an interesting process because we have to do research (which I really have not had homework to do in 2 1/2 years) about our topic and make sure our spanish grammar and vocabulary is correct. Next we have to make rotofolios, which are hand drawn posters-while I am a huge fan of drawing, doodling and coloring, I have learned a few things about myself:
1. I am terrible at writing words on large pieces of paper-I consistently have to do drafts in pencil, erase, redraft, erase and finally if I am lucky on the 3rd try I will have letters that are the same size, shape and are not all squashed together at the end of the word.
2. While drawing actual human looking people is not my strong suit, the people here think I am a fantastic cartoonist! I never knew that about myself...I´ve been pretty proud of my posters so far.
3. I am a perfeccionist. I never would have thought I would have to say that out loud, but it is true. My name is Kati and I am a perfeccionist...I cannot go into a charla with a poster that looks terrible.
4. I already knew this but I am still a procrastinator-this relates to #3 because it means I am up late the night before redoing everything until I love it. (I did not sleep as well as I should have last night...)
5. I can be funny! Today, speaking about diabetes, I told a story about how I learned how to wash my clothing and how I love the gallo pinto-maybe its because I am not Nicaraguan, but they all loved it.
My charlas so far have gone fairly well-the first one I was incredibly nervous for. I did not need to be because my topic was AIDS and I knew all of the information, but trying to say all of it in Spanish is another story. Today I felt a lot better speaking about diabetes, even though there were 2 or 3 babies crying, dogs barking and construction going on-all inside of the health center. During Nico´s charla a dog cried out, all of us jumped and these 3 old women were dying laughing and cracking jokes about the people who were scared of the dog barking-they reminded me of those two old men from the muppets who are constantly making fun of people...I do not remember their names but what great characters.
For the rest of the day today I will be at the internet cafe for another 10 minutes, then soccer for an hour and a half and then yoga class! Who would have thought that in Nicaragua I would have a regular Tuesday night yoga class to go to? Not me. The Masatepe English Teaching Peace Corps Volunteer, Janelle, teaches yoga Tuesdays and Thursdays for an hour in this cultural building in Masatepe. The class last week had about 15 people-3 PC trainees-Kari, Nico and myself-and 12 ish Nicaraguans. Everything was said in Spanish and I left feeling totally relaxed and energized. It´s been interesting to talk with Janelle about what real Peace Corps life is like-she is definitely loving everything about it. I cannot wait to find out what is in store for all of us next!
Quick update on what happens in the next few weeks: right now we are finishing up week 5. Week 6-we have a practicum week, where we get to visit another volunteer in their site (all of us Healthy Lifestyle PCTs will be going to the department of Chinandega). There we will have more trainings, see what the life of a real PCV looks like and get a chance to travel outside of our training towns. Week 7ish I think-we have a site fair-we learn about the various site placements where we could end up. Week 8 (omg not that far away from week 5.)-we find out our sites! April 1st--swearing in! I cannot believe how fast this has been going by.
Still love and miss you all! If you have questions or a theme for a blog post you´ve been dying to know about, definitely post!