Busy Gringa

Ok. So this gringa has been very busy recently. Before this weekend I worked 12 days straight! Whoever said Peace Corps was a chill easy time to relax...you are most certainly incorrect. Here is a quick update of what I have been doing with my time! More pictures and details to come, as always.

• We opened up a new non-profit organization! It is called Asociacion de Huellas Juveniles (Youth Footprints Association). This non profit was designed by and will be run by youth. They did all of the leg work to get to where we are now. We will be doing similar work to what we do now-working with youth, promoting sexual and reproductive health.
• I wrote a grant application to Peace Corps, in order to put on a 3 day training with the sex workers of Corinto. The application was written in Spanish and in English. I put a ton of time into this, working usually at night. Unfortunately, we are still missing one number to add to the budget so the project will be delayed a bit.
• I am currently writing a manual on how to run your own Youth Health Promoter School. So far, I have 9 meetings planned out and typed up and will be finishing in April. At the end of April we will be printing about 50 copies and giving them out at the start of our own year long Youth Health Promoter Schools!
• I had to say goodbye to a few good friends who just completed their service- one I will miss for the great life conversations that we had and the other, for his raunchy and very inappropriate sense of humor.
  
• We opened a library! More pictures and info to come. Brief summary right now though- it was donated along with books, computers, tables and chairs by a few Rotary Clubs from Chinandega, Texas and Canada. It is now open Monday through Friday, promoting the completion of homework. The library was built for the homework needs and sexual and reproductive health investigations that the youth have.
• Accompanied by 2 nurses we completed diagnostic check ups on the cleanliness and health standards of 8 primary schools. At the moment Corinto is seeing a high number of parasites and bacteria infections. Because of this, we are overly promoting personal and school higiene.
• I would not describe myself as a religious person...I think churches are pretty, but honestly that is as far as I go. The bible is a foreign book to me, but I was contracted to give a charla about sexual and reproductive health to an evangelical church on the highway between Corinto and Chinandega. I was nervous to say the word sex in the church. But it actually went really well-we even did a group activity reading and examining a part of the Bible-Ecclesiastes 10.
• Baby sister, Emma, turned 20!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
• A nurse and I put on a health fair in the Ministry of Education office today. We gave free PAP exams, condoms and lots of information to the female teachers. I also got interviewed for local cable during the event...how cool! We unfortunately did not have a huge number of teachers come, but are hoping that in the next few weeks we can try again in the afternoon.
• 2 friends and I went to a foam party on the beach here in Corinto. I arrived at my house exhausted from dancing, covered in foam and freezing. It was a solid night.

So that´s what I have been up to. It´s been a very busy couple of weeks and I am ready for a mini vacation during Easter week!

And PS I´ll be home July 17th through August 6th! Get ready!!

Awkward Gringa Finds Partner in Crime…Also Named Kate

We all had a fantastic weekend…seriously great. I had spent the week in Managua taking care of some routine medical one year in country exams and giving a training session to the new group of health volunteers on how it is to work with a Nicaragua counterpart. We decided to celebrate Nelson’s birthday in the northern Nicaraguan city of Esteli. Due to a week long road block of protestors, Lindsey and I were unable to arrive in Esteli until Saturday. It ended up working out fine because we got a free ride from Don Douglas (truly amazing person-basically a man of all trades…he brought us our mail during training, drove us to training sessions, brought us to the doctors or lab if we were sick…he always has a smile on his face). Anyway, so the way up to Esteli, while delayed, turned out to be better than expected.

Fast forward to Sunday…Saturday was spent scavenger hunting around the city, celebrating Nelson’s birthday out at a great rancho style restaurant/bar/club at the Luis Enrique Mejia something concert. Now don’t get too excited…he’s not the famous Nicaraguan singer who sings “Yo No Se Manana”; he is his uncle. A bit older-50 years older-but strangely just as attractive. He sang the “Cumbia Chinandegana” and read a note that I wrote to him out loud, congratulating Nelson on his birthday. Good times…okay Sunday.

Sunday started out well. Kate is a small biz volunteer working and living in the city of Chinandega. We started out the day with delicious breakfast sandwiches on whole wheat bread, stuffed with egg, bacon, mozzarella cheese and tomato. That was followed by a hot and sweaty walk/hike to a beautiful and chilly waterfall. We swam under the fall and lay in the icy water, then hitched a ride with a group of Red Cross life guard volunteers. Everything had gone so so well! We then grabbed a lunch to go from the Hostel that we stayed at, as well as a round of Mojitos. (We thought we had plenty of time.)

Our plan was to walk to the gas station around the corner and hop on a bus going to Managua. We would then get off the bus at the intersection of the highway going to Leon. At that point, we would then get on another bus heading to Chinandega. It was such a simple plan…so we thought. What actually happened: we schlep our bags to the gas station 4 blocks away and half power walk half run to try and catch a bus that we thought was going to Managua. It was not. With a burning in our calves, we ask around and hear various answers that the bus is possibly going to pass by and that the bus is definitely not going to pass by. Okay. Being the flexible Kates that we are, we get in a taxi, expecting that because it is empty, it will leave right away. After telling him that there are, in fact, no cars coming and he can pull out onto the highway, we realize that he is waiting for someone. Still yelling at him in annoyance, we get out of his cab and flag down another and ask him as politely as our tempers allow us to, to please take us to the bus stop. At the bus stop, we calculate what time we need to arrive in San Isidro (the highway to Leon) in order to catch the bus. This bus will get us there 5 minutes or so after the time that we need to be there, so of course, we get on. Why not. We get off at San Isidro, on the phone with Lindsey, who is on the bus that we need to be on. We get in yet another taxi and get him to take us to the bus! Yay! We are finally on our way. On the bus, we settle for a second, looking around for Lindsey. Where is she? Shit. Wrong bus. This bus is literally crawling down the highway, as we call Lindsey and realize that she is on the bus, stopped on the highway, about 3-4 blocks from where we are now. In bus it should take us 2 minutes to get to her, but it takes us 10. After getting on this slower than death moving bus and then off it and then on it again, and having all of the other passengers look at us with emotions that ranged from sympathy to anger to pure confusion why we were acting so stupidly, we finally get to Lindsey. She is standing next to the bright yellow school bus, waving her hands to us, looking a bit frantic, but mainly relieved and happy that we made it. Apparently the bus had waited for us for 10-15 minutes. We 2 Kates climb on the bus, apologizing to our fellow passengers for being the cause of their delay and find some seats. Wow. Just another encounter of the awkward gringas, doing strange things, but in the end, turning out to be an adventure.

Friends are like Waterfalls: Cool and Beautiful

Sitemates!
So close yet so far from Boston


We made it to the waterfall!
Donut on a String

The first time Alyson came to Nicaragua, she came with Scott. They had a bit of a mishap crossing the Costa Rican border so we ended up vacationing in San Juan del Sur. This time she came back with Justine and they flew directly into Nicaragua. While they did have to run from one end of the airport to the other, almost missed their flight and had their bags arrive a day later than they did, I would say that we spent our time together very well. We started the trip in Leon city with a VIP room at Barbaro´s, buckets of beer, pizza, wings, dancing, doughnut eating contests and a piñata, as well as some emotional birthday cards from home. The next day, we made our way to the beach to enjoy a sun and sand filled birthday party. All of my favorite people came (a couple good ones were missing…) and we just celebrated. We celebrated with fried fish, cake, Lindsey playing Happy Birthday to me on her violin, night swimming…I honestly could not have asked for a better birthday. My family sent some awesome gifts and I missed a lot, but it was a great 26^th birthday.

One year older (but really feeling the same as before), we traveled up to Corinto to show off my current home to Juss and Al. We went to Espigon, Paso Caballo, my work, the central park…they saw it all! Then Tuesday morning at 5 am, we boarded the bus and began our adventure to Ometepe. 3 hours in a bus to Managua, 1 hour and 40 minutes to Rivas in bus, 20 minutes to San Jorge in taxi, 1 hour and a half in a boat that was constructed in 1905 (I kid you not.) to get to the island and finally 1 hour and a half in bumpy bumpy ride in a Jeep to arrive, por fin, after so many hours, at Finca Mystica. And here we are.

2/29/2012---Today is leap day! We spent it leaping over rocks, streams, waterfalls and a volcano. Woke up to the same serene scenery from yesterday and decided to test our strength and cardio skills with a hike up to a waterfall. The hike was 10 K roundtrip from our doorstep at the bottom of the volcano to the mists of the waterfall. We walked through a plantain field to arrive at the main road that lined the lake. On this side of the island the water is much less choppy than where we came in on our boat ride. We continued walking along the road, passing by cows, bikers and pretty garden fronted houses until we got to the entrance of the waterfall. After paying our 3 US dollar entrance fee, we started up the volcano. I guess we were expecting a semi-easy mosey of a walk…while I did not die, it was most definitely not “easy”. Very much enjoying it and with thoughts of showering under the sprays of the waterfall, we continued over fallen trees, under dangling vines and up and up and up and down (really just up) loose rock and dirt paths. We kept to our half hour per kilometer pace and arrived sweaty and tired to the falls after an hour and a half hike. But what a refreshing swim! Alyson, Justine and I jumped out of our clothing and jumping right in. I did not want to get out from underneath the falling water. The water pressure was much better than my one-stream-not-always-running-water shower. And the cold water was more refreshing after our 5K hike. We sat by the water, watching it stream and spray down towards us, while we lunched on PB + J sandwiches with lemon sandwich cookies. Lucky to have just missed the 30 child school field trip, we basically had the waterfall to ourselves, besides 2 attractive Spanish men and an older portly sir in a Speedo. After swimming and laying there for a couple of hours, we headed back down and celebrated at the bottom with a Toña. The beer must have given us some luck because on our walk back to our bungalow, Alyson spotted through the trees an almost complete rainbow that had formed in front of the volcano that we almost halfway (possibly…) climbed. We ate a delicious supper of coconut chicken curry, paired with a Jamaica juice with rum, and passed out early.

The trip was fantastic.

One Year in NICA-Beware this is a long on

A Year Told Through Snippets from my Personal Journal:

1/11/2011- At the hotel in Arlington! Peace Corps is actually happening!
-I dedicate this adventure to my sisters. I promise to take advantage of every opportunity that comes up…
1/14/2011- 3:50 am- Finally on our way to Nica…exhausted, but excited.
1/17/2011- Estoy en Masatepe. So far I’ve been to the cheese store, the tortilla store and the egg store. My family is pretty awesome.
1/20/2011- Lunch- still trying to figure out what it was that I ate…
1/22/2011- I’m pretty sure I took one of the illegal modes of transportation last night…
2/2/2011- I have acquired a new soccer nickname-Chinelita-literally means little flip flop-awesome-I played soccer in flip flops ONCE and became Chinela, then Nico brought it up to the guys who have now taken the name on as well.
2/8/2011- Had first health charla today-it went fairly well-need to talk louder and keep walking through the crowd. The theme was HIV and I was extremely nervous.
2/23-2/26- Summary of HIV practicum week in Chinandega- health center charlas, police officer HIV charla, beach, sunset, mud exfoliating, condom demos, hanging with amigos, good talk with Stephanie about life and white water….started hanging out which is when the countdown to my birthday started… such a nice way to begin a birthday with birthday hugs and warm fuzzy things. My group is so great…Birthday party with Dora the Explorer piñata-thanks to Gabe and Ricky!
3/4/2011- titled “The Day I Found out I have an Amoeba”. That was in fact the day that I found baby amoebas and parasites in my body.
3/12/2011- Finalmente CORINTO!! I love that everyone rides bikes here! My first day and I’ve already played soccer, ridden a bike, been to the beach, sat in on a club de jovenes and seen fish being cut up to sell. Yesterday there was an 8.9 earthquake in Japan which meant Corinto was on tsunami watch.
3/20/2011- I am happy.
4/17/2011- It’s been a long time since I’ve written in here-since the last time I wrote, we have sworn in, hung out in Managua, been to the Embassy, said goodbye to each other and to our training sites, said hello to our new sites, new families and new friends.
Semana Santa- I came in 2nd place in a dance concert out at a club- that’s right-even gringas can dance! I love bucket showers! And I do not miss hot water.
Fish Weekend!! Spent Friday night with fish-shelled shrimp, de-boned fish. Did you know that each fish has about 3.9 million tiny tiny bones? (this fact may or may not have been exaggerated due to my frustration with the fact that we had to remove each miniscule spiny bone)
5/10/2011-6 little ants marching across my bedroom wall-let me restate that last part-marching across the wall that my bed touches, meaning they are almost marching on my bed. Where are you going and why are you so close to my bed?
5/11/2011- This week has not been the best I’ve had, but the rain came. I have a ¾ length sleeve shirt on and I’m not sweating! It’s a miracle! I love the smell of rain and here it’s no different from home.
6/1/2011-How strange life can be-moving between 2 cultures, seeing 2 different lives I have and am leading-2 families, languages…explaining to each family how the other is, but it’s never truly possible for the other to fully understand without being here and there. Walking off the plane at Logan. I’m not sure how I felt…it was strange…great, but strange. I love meeting new people, but spending a week with my family and play group friends whom I have known my entire life, high school and college and after college friends…it was just great.
June- Esteli for Alyssa’s birthday- I smiled a lot, laughed a lot, danced a ton, had great food, met lots of new people, saw tons of old friends and thoroughly enjoyed myself.
6/7/2011- it is officially rainy season!
Haiku:
All of these sights pass
On the streets of Corinto
Two years this is home
9/11/2011- A few years ago or as recently as a year ago, I would have had trouble speaking in public. I could always do it, but my hands would shake, my heart would race and I would sweat…visibly. During IST though, I gave a great charla are pre and post HIV test counseling with Xiomara for an hour and a half in Spanish, in front of 80 people. It went so well!
-Old man with a very curly almost mullet-hopping on one foot, banging his boot on the sidewalk-in the middle of this very funny scene, he stops hopping in order to yell out to me, “Hola mi bonita chelita” (Hello my pretty little white girl) How did he know that he is my exact type and that I am looking for a boot stomping boyfriend?! You are so smart, yes you are.
10/09/2011- As I close my eyes, I think of my family. I had no idea how much I would miss them.
10/11/2011- Today it rained for 12 hours.
11/04/2011- …FINALLY watching the new Harry Potter over scrambled eggs with broccoli, tomato, onion, pepper and if I hit the lottery-cheese! (How funny that a splurge here is cheese…)
Thanksgiving- The day Lindsey and I made a fantastic turkey; we all got killed in a massive water balloon fight, drank wine and watched football.
Christmas- How happy it was…lo pasé con family, host family, friends and received a couple nice phone calls from home. At the end of the night I could not help but smile.
Bring it on 2012. I’m ready for you.