World AIDS Day

In honor of Worlds AIDS Day, here are a couple of interesting websites. To show your support, please look into local WAD activities going on in your area on and around December 1st. And if you do not have time to attend an event, pin a red ribbon to your shirt and do some research on what HIV looks like around the world.

http://www.usaid.gov/our_work/global_health/aids/Countries/lac/nicaragua_profile.pdf

This first website talks about the status of HIV here in Nicaragua. The most interesting and terrifying part about the number of cases here (and around the world) is that MINSA reports 3,602 confirmed cases of HIV while World Health Organization and USAID report 7,700. That means that there are about 4,098 people here in Nicaragua not knowing that they have HIV. This is why getting tested is so incredibly important. The embarrassment and overall fear of getting tested has decreased somewhat, but it is definitely still an issue.

http://www.unfpa.org/aids_clock/

This second website is a clock that keeps count of the people in the world living with HIV. Their stats show that every 12 seconds another person in the world contracts HIV and that every 16 seconds another person in the world dies from AIDS. I first looked at this page at 10:52 am on Tuesday Nov. 29th and the count was at 37,631,520. What does it say now as you are reading it?

Quick Update

I hope you all had a fantastically full Thanksgiving filled with the important holiday F's- family, fun, friends, football, fall foliage, french fried onions and fturkey (turkey spelled with an F to make it fit into my F list). I will write soon with an update on my first ever Thanksgiving away from home-the similarities and the many differences between the celebrations.

I will give you a couple of things that happened during my fantastic thanksgiving weekend: massive water balloon war with some high school students (we got beat...badly), beach, chilled white wine drunk while watching the fishing boats pull in and out of the harbor underneath a sun setting sky, football and friends and a beautifully cooked turkey.

Today is a beautiful November day here in Corinto, being spent at work preparing for the many events we have going on this week and preparing for a visit from some friendly good looking friends. Today and tomorrow we are hosting more Movie Nights, focusing on the theme of HIV, since Thursday is World AIDS Day(WAD). Thursday we will be "running" a "marathon" in honor of WAD. You may have noticed that there are quotation marks around both of those words. People keep saying that we will be running, but I'm pretty sure it'll be closer to a slow jog or walk (I'll wear my gym clothes and stretch out ahead of time just in case). And by marathon I mean take that 26.2 miles and subtract 24 of them. That will leave you with a 2 mile ish marathon. Apparently there is a WAD march done from El Salvador to Nicaragua (pretty salvaje if you ask me) and we will be participating in the end part of that. Photos and more info to come next week.

Friendly good looking friends (well one of them is good looking...sorry scott you didn't quite make the cut...you are friendly though.)-Alyson and Scott- will be traveling to Nica to visit! My first visitors from home. I am overly excited to see them and for them to see where and how I'm living here. We have a couple of small trips planned in order to see some of Nica and will spend a few days in my site as well. Also more good looking stories and photos to come later.

Election Year: Bright Colors, Catchy Songs and Political Rallies

November 6, 2011- Election day here in Nicaragua. The politics here are so different than the politics at home. (By the way-I just want to emphasize the fact that this blog has been written and posted by me and can in no way be tied to the US government as an official statement. These are merely my observations of pre-election activity. I will try to be as neutral as possible.) Anyway, back at home, a politician will travel around from state to state making speechs, giving interviews and digging up dirt of her or his fellow candidates in order to make great but dirty TV ads. Here in Nicaragua, campaigns are built on bright fun colors (which make for great t-shirts and billboards); popular and extremely catchy songs being played over and over again until everyone knows every single word and even if you’re not Nicaraguan or not attached to that specific party-you find yourself singing along (otra otra…doo da da da…Nicaragua….) and as you can imagine from the previous two points, the focus is placed on getting the youth vote. This is made obvious through massive youth clubs who attend and lead rallies and marches, put on beauty pageants in honor of their political party and sport their political t-shirts whenever and wherever possible. TV commercials do point out the flaws of the other candidates, but more so are focused on blasted their song or slogan over and over again. Massive political rallies are held-it seems like for a while, once a week. These rallies are widely attended by babies, groups of children and teenagers, adults and senior citizens. In my community, the population seems pretty split. There are a large amount of Sandinistas who are extremely passionate and wear their red and black very proudly, but there are also a huge number of Liberals, who are also very committed to their party. I honestly am not sure what will happen tomorrow. I guess we will just have to wait and see who wins and how this affects the country (if it changes anything at all). All this being said, I am extremely excited and interested to see what happens and very glad to be able to experience what could be an extremely important moment in Nicaraguan history.

Cruisin' Through Corinto

I wrote part of a blog about a somewhat strange and awkward experience of Nicas taking pictures of me and fellow gringos. Very often, I find myself the topic of discussion in what they think are hushed voices or the center of a photo or the focus of a staring contest. I realize that this is because I’m kind of white-ish (although yesterday someone mistook me to be Mexican…even after I kept speaking Spanish with my not-so-perfect accent). After all this time though, I’ve gotten used to it and even have noticed that people were not staring at me when I came home to visit this past May. It’s interesting how fast we can adapt to certain things. Anyway, apparently I have gotten so used to being stared at and so used to only seeing Nicaraguans here in Corinto, that I do the same thing they do to me. When the cruise ships come through Corinto, I stare. I stare at the white old couples as they walk past my house in their cruise clothing: sneakers, cargo shorts, white button ups and wide-brimmed visors. They stand out so much. It is not an intentional thing; it’s out of curiosity. Where else have they been and where else will they go? Do they have a single son or grandson around the age of 25? Where are they from? I wonder what they think I am doing here…or maybe they think I’m just a light-skinned Nica (although I doubt that is the case). Que se yo. By also staring, this allows me to almost see myself through the eyes of a Nica (without the cruise clothing, of course). I’m just someone new in the neighborhood who does not look like everyone else. People are interesting to look at and I dig it.

A Series of Haikus (inspired by Lindsey Leslie and Lauren Spiegel-haiku masters)

The clients line up

I sit spying on my stoop

Front row for the show

The smoke drifts closer

Prompting me to rise up

And place my order

Pollo Asado

Tejadas con Repollo

Y Gallo Pinto

As I sit and eat

Strange piropos fill my ears

What did you call me?

Baby, I love you

Chelita, Gringa, White girl

That is not my name

On bicycles ride

Legs like grasshoppers they fly

Faster and faster

Too fast to catch them

Instead, I focus on me

Life is fantastic

These sights pass by me

On the streets of Corinto

2 years: this is home