Nica 55 HIV Week

(AKA: We actually got to leave our training sites and see some of Nicaragua!)
The idea behind HIV week is that we get to travel outside of the departments that we have been living in for the past month and a half to practice what we have learned so far and to learn more about Peace Corps service. The Healthy Lifestyles group (the name of my health program) was divided into 2 groups-half going to Corinto and the other half going to Chinandega-both cities are located in the department of Chinandega. Chinandega is located in the northeast corner of the country.
While in Chinandega and Corinto, while having our own Peace Corps charlas to attend on a variety of themes, we had to give a charla in a school, 2 charlas in a health center, a charla to a group of police officers and we had to attend an HIV Pool Tournament that the current volunteers were putting on. We started the week by dividing into our school groups to prepare our lessons-my group chose to do ours on Communication. We prepared for a group of 25 to 30...not really knowing exactly what to expect-number wise, participation etc... I have not been in Peace Corps for that long, but I know that if you try and expect what will happen and you are not open or flexible enough to change it...you will be extremely frustrated with life. We arrived at the school and made our way through the open air center of the school area, where there were students running around everywhere. When we walked into our classroom, I was somewhat surprised because it looked exactly like a classroom in the US-the chairs were arranged in a horseshoe shape, which worked out perfectly for the activities that we had planned. After we set up, the students started to arrive and they kept arriving and they kept arriving. The class of 25 to 30 that we were expecting had turned into 38. Our first name game that we had been planning to do was a complete failure as there were 10 extra students...it would have taken us 2 hours just to complete that one game. We went on to recover from this first mishap and the rest of the charla went really well. We talked about the different types of communication-aggressive, passive and healthy, by myself and a friend acting out these rediculously overdramatized scenes...they loved them! The students overall were very participatory and interested in the topic which made our job easier. I had a blast!
The next day we started out with our 2 health centers charlas. Health centers here in Nicaragua are fairly similar to health clinics or even emergency rooms in the US (at least the way they function). Everyone waits in a big room-you could be there for 10 minutes; you could be there all day. This health center in Chinadega had the waiting area outside which was nice-there was a nice breeze running through, so it was not as warm as it usually is. The first charla we did on HIV transmision, which went well but was extremely short...I guess we were all a little nervous and spoke extremely fast. The second theme was HIV prevention, which went a lot better. I presented on the importance of being faithful to your partner by telling the story of a Nicaraguan housewife and how she ends up being HIV positive. The people really liked the story and were laughing a lot (hopefully at the jokes I was making and not the mistakes I may have made speaking Spanish!)
Later that day we completed our final charla with the police officers, also on HIV transmission, prevention, testing, all complete with a fantastic condom demonstration by one of my colleages, Gabe. We divided all of the cops up into 3 groups, where they had to put in order the steps on how to put on a condom. They each had to present their steps with a condom demo-it was hilarious. Nicas are really into ratting on each other, so it was a very easy and fun charla to give.
Im running out of time here at the internet cafe, so the rest of this blog was written very quickly-I apologize!
Beach-we went to the beach in Corinto!! The water was absolutely gorgeous-extremely warm and very very wavy, which I love. Alyssa, Angie and I walked down the beach to watch the sunset from the other end-to be able to see a sunset over the ocean is really incredible. That{s all for now about the beach, but I cannot wait to go back to visit.
Pool Tournament was a blast. This is something that most health volunteers will end up doing at least once or twice in their service. You basically join up with a pool hall in your area, which usually there are a lot of-its a huge place for Nica men to hang out. The night started out with a basic charla on Sexually Transmitted Diseases and then the tournament started. The men are really interesting because you have these machista Nicaraguan men drinking, playing pool and yelling and screaming at each other, but at the same time-I had multiple men come up to men with follow up questions to the charla topics. They are very interested in the theme and were actually paying attention.
About to lose my internet-just quick in the future update on what is to come-Monday March 7th-I find out my site where I will be living for the next 2 years!!!!!!!!!!! I and everyone else here are more than ready to find this out!
Love and miss you all!