Saturday, October 30, 2010

I got my site!!




10/30/10

I finally got my site placement! I'm going to be going to be living in La Dalia in the department of Matagalpa. I am a little disappointed that I didn't get any of my preferences because I had my heart set on of a department capital. However it does have some of the important aspects that I told my boss that I was looking for in a site It is up in the mountains, it not a one horse town and there is going to be several NGO's and an environment Peace Corps volunteer that I can collaborate on projects so that will be nice. The only thing I wish is that it wasn't 2 hours away from Matagalpa my department capital where I will have to go for the bank, post office any big shopping that I want to do. Oh well I sure it will all work out fine. I have this weekend to pack up half my stuff and take it with me. I am planning on taking the majority of my clothes and Peace Corps books in my rolling suitcase then I take up the rest of my stuff when I go up after my swearing ceremony. I leave Tuesday morning for Managua spent the night there then get up the next morning and make the trip up north. I think the trip is about 4 hours long, a little longer than I would have preferred but as long as I don't have to standing the whole trip it should be fine. If I am lucky I can get an express bus to Matagalpa then catch another regular bus to La Dalia from there .

Yesterday was pretty fun though we got up early and were picked up by the Peace Corps bus and taken on a secret cultural field trip. I think our Peace Corps bosses have an obsession with secrecy because almost everything we do is shrouded in secrecy up until we do are on the way there. Anyway we are on our way down the highway when we are finally told we're we are going to go see the historical battlefield at Hacienda San Jaciento. This is where one of the most important battles in Nicaragua's history took place. Back it the mid 1800's this crazy American named William Walker invaded Nicaragua with about 60 other mercenaries and tried to take over the country. He burnt down the city of Granada and declared himself president of the country. It didn't end well Walker he and his men lost at San Jaciento and Walker was later executed. This day is celebrated on September 14th along with the 15th of September during their independence festivals.

After we left San Jaciento when went to the Peace Corp office. which is in a nice neighborhood of Managua surrounded by nice houses and hotels. From the street the office though seems kind of out of place. It just a high light blue wall gate with just a simple sign Cuerpo de Paz sign outside. There's no flag or Peace Corps symbol visible anywhere from the street, all for security reason    I imagine. The way we found out our site a was fun but a little stressful. We all filed into this conference room to see a map of Nicaragua one side of the room and a bulletin board with a bunch of balloons taped to it on the other side. We had to throw a dart a balloon which had a name and site in it then read it off. It was a lot better than just reading off a list I thought.

Well that's all for now I let you know how La Daria is when I get back from my site visit

Hasta Pronto!
War Memorial
Hanging out in Giant Tree

At San Jaciento Hacienda


:La Dalia Here I come!
All of our sites! This is the first year the TEFL has gone to the Atlantic coast

Monday, October 25, 2010

Practicum Week!




10/24/10

Practicum Week was incredible! I loved Jinotega and didn't want to leave. Last Sunday I headed to Managua with the rest of my Niquinohomo crew. We met up with the rest of the TEFL group at the bus station where a Peace Corps bus picked us up and took us to a nice hotel. We were super spoiled there we had wireless internet, hot showers and AIR CONDITIONING! It was so nice and to top it all off we had pizza from Pizza Hut which tasted amazing after eating mainly rice and beans for the past several weeks.

We left bright and early the next morning for Matagalpa and Jinotega. We dropped of half the group in Matagalpa and continues up to Jinotega. The drive up was very scenic as we climbed up into the mountains. It reminded me a lot of Oregon with all the greenery and rolling hills. The city of Jinotega is really nice for a department capital. It had all the big city things likes supermarkets and banks and a variety of other things but not the chaotic big city feeling, which I feel my current department capital Masaya definitely has. The weather was heavenly not too hot and not to cold. It rained a little the first night we were there but afterward I was sunny and warm. It was really nice to give my sweat glands a break since the have been working over time since I arrived in Nicaragua.

Upon our arrival Jinotega we went directly to meet our counterparts at the house of a 3rd year volunteer who had helped to organized this week for us. My partner Megan and I were introduced to our counterpart Edgar who taught at the biggest high school in town, Instituto Benjamin Zeledon. In Nicaragua because there usually more students than there are schools, there are morning and afternoon sessions. Megan I and I were were assigned to the afternoon session, which was nice because it meant we didn't have to get up at the crack of dawn to be at school by 7am. Having the afternoon session which started at 12:30pm, also meant we were able to do any finalizing to our lesson plans which was also nice. After talking with Edgar about his classes and what he had taught already Megan and I split up the class schedule. Edgar only teaches 9th,- 11th grade, I was eager to get as much teaching experience I could so I took his 10th and 11th grade classes and Megan took his 9th grade classes. I was a little worried that I had bitten off more than I could chew but in the end it all worked out well and not a single class got canceled. Rather than co-teaching the classes,as is the norm for the PC Nicaragua TEFL program, our role for the week was to ‘take over’ the various classes of our counterpart teacher and teach them individually. The non-teaching PC trainee Edgar were to observe each class and at the end of the day a reflection session was held so as to provide feedback and suggestions for improvement before the next day’s classes.

On Tuesday I went to give my first class, the topic was natural disasters. I had been told by Edgar that they had been given the vocabulary and that he wanted me to review that and help them write a small description of each natural disaster. It would have been nice to be able to start the class from the beginning of the lesson instead of dropping in, in the middle but, it all worked out in the end. I started the class with a warm up. I had the students stand up with me and sing the first two lines of “I feel the earth move under my feet, I feel the sky a tumbling down, a tumbling down.” I did a little dance that mimed the lyrics so I was moving my feet and shaking my hands. Some of the students did the dance with me but most just stood and laugh at me wondering what this crazy gringo was doing. After that I ask if anybody knew what natural disaster this song was about, and one of the student answered correctly with earthquake, so I accomplished my objective. The rest of the class went pretty well first I give them an example of how I wanted them to describe the natural disaster. After I was pretty sure they understood the instructions, I broke them up into groups where they worked on an assigned natural disaster then they presented to the class. I was pretty happy how it went but need to improve my instruction giving and clarity.

On Wednesday, I had two back to back classes of 11th grade. The topic was comparing American and Nicaraguan children and households. We talked about things like how American children usually move out after they graduate high school and go to live on their own. While in Nicaragua students that go to college usually go to a college near to home so that they can come home at night, or if its far away they stay with family members. Or how they usually stay at home until they are married working to support their parents while Americans don't. After working together we had a handful of comparisons, I then assigned each group one and they had to come up with pros and cons. I helped translate things into English that they didn't know. The class went surprisingly well the students were engaged and participated in the class and group activities. I was very impressed because I was afraid it wasn't going to be an interesting topic. I was very excited for the second class because it was the same grade and same topic and one of my teaching directors was coming to observe me. So I wanted to repeat the success I had had in my earlier class. Unfortunately the second class BOMBED! I don't know exactly what happened but it was like I was speaking Chinese to them. They were stone walling me. Unlike the earlier class where there was a lot of participation, in this class only two students out of a class of nearly 50 were answering my questions. Needless to say my planned discussion activity did not go well and I still had 80 minutes of my 90 minute class to kill. Instead of having them discuss the differences between the two countries like I did in the earlier class I just had them talk in their group about the pros and cons of having a lot of freedom. After we broke up into groups things seem to pick up a little while they were working together and by the end I was surprised how many ideas they had come up with. In the end it wasn't a complete failure and I did a lot of things well my director told me but he said the student were like zombies. The moral to this story is even though the classes sections are the same grade and same topic taught by the same teacher don't have preconceived notions that they will be the same.

In addition to all of the other things going on this week, we also had our second round of site selection interviews. In our second weeks of training all of the TEFL trainee had preliminary interviews with the director of TEFL program in Nicaragua . Among other questions about our professional and educational backgrounds, she asked us about our preferences in terms of our permanent sites. I know I have talk a lot about my preferences before so I won't go into depth about that again. We just talked about my climate and site size preferences. I told her the I prefer cooler climates and bigger cities and why. I felt the interview when pretty well, its different than a job interview where you may or may not get the job. I know I'll be placed somewhere and my director understood that the reasons for my preferences were more that superficial, so we'll see. I find out my site this Friday I can't wait, this shroud of secrecy has been killing me!!

All in all, I really enjoyed practicum week and the experience was extremely rewarding. Having missed the opportunity to teach in Niquinohomo, I appreciated both the opportunity to manage a classroom of my own, not having to mind stepping on the toes of a co-teacher, and also the insight, and critiques of my colleagues. I am going to try and improve the clarity of my instructions. Edgar it turns out is the president of the Jinotega English teachers association, so if I end up getting placed there ( which would be amazing! fingers crossed!) I hope to would work with him on that.
Lastly because it worth mentioning Jinotega has amazing coffee! They produce they majority of Nicaraguan coffee. Unfortunately the export their best stuff out of the country because the Nicaraguans don't drink it mainly because of the cost it think.. Unfortunately the drink mainly instant coffee that you just stir into you cup. Good coffee is one the thing I really miss from back home and especially from Spain. So I bought myself and my host family a bag of the best kind made. It was great I went to a cooperative where they made it and sold it in the coffee shop next door. Just one of the many reasons I loved Jinotega.
Central Park in Jinotega


View of from my hotel room
Mountains view 
More pictures to come!



Sunday, October 17, 2010

NIca Update

Practicum week is here!! I am going to be spending a week in the mountain city of Jinotega! I couldn't be more excited, from everything I have read in my guidebook it sounds amazing. Plus it will nice to give my sweat glands the week off. With the help of a 3rd year TEFL volunteer we will be shadowing a Nicaraguan teacher for a week. We will be teaching at least 3 of our counterpart's classes (hopefully more) while our counterpart and TEFL partner observe us and give us feedback. When we aren't teaching we are observing or planning with our partner for the next class.

Other than the cooler climate and amazing coffee that I have heard so much about, what I am really looking forward to is the opportunity to teach. I don't know if I have mention briefly before but I have not had the best of luck teaching here. I have not taught a single class here, which is frustrating to say the least. I have gone to school like 5 times with my lesson in hand and struck out every single time. The causes vary from rain storms and school being canceled. Band practice in which all the students are practicing for some important parade during school hours and class being canceled. Surveys and census taking for my grades and so student are not in class. Unfortunately the last day I went some student from the class I was going to teach had committed suicide and so understandably class was canceled.

There is an interesting phase that I have heard a lot since I have been here and that's Dios Quiere which in English is literally if god wills it” but I think we say more god willing. This is a very strange concept for your typical American myself included. I am not a church going person but I know a lot people who are and I have never heard anyone say anything like I'll come to that meeting or we'll have class at this time god willing. Maybe that is just because of the importance of time in the American culture, but those are things I hear often here. However I think its so much more than time conflicts happen which everywhere, but the number of times and reasons my classes have been canceled is astonishing. It really makes you think that the phrase is true and maybe the big man upstairs is just not on your side. It's disappointing but I don't let it get me down I just shine it on and look forward to the next opportunity. Apparently god has a lot more power in this neck of woods. So sí Dios quiere I will teach class in Jinotega and I will teach 3 days at my instituto when I get back back to Niquinohomo.

I'll let you know how everything goes when I get back.
Amazing coffee cooperative!

My Counterpart Edgar Fellow Trainee Megan and I

Jinotega Practicum Week with counterparts

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Halfway Mark of PST!

10/9/10

So we have reached the halfway point of training YAY!! Sorry for the delay of last week's entry I don't have the luxury of having internet in my new host family's house. Its not a huge inconvenience since during the week I walk past two internet cafes on my way to Spanish class. Its just means I have to be more organized and plan my trips out better.

Week five has flown by just like every week is now. The new host family is great! They are actually having conversations with me which is nice. In addition to that I am having to turn away food because it too much as opposed to having to ask for more.

On Friday we received the list of sites where we'll be placed for the next two years. The site list has about 20 different sites in almost every region of the country. This year they are even putting a couple brave volunteers on the Atlantic coast in Bluefields which is a first for TEFL. That should be exciting its apparently like a whole different country and culture over there. Unfortunately its also takes an all day journey to get there from Managua, because you have to take a combination of buses and boats. Sounds like a cool place to visit but definitely not the place for me. Being the native Oregonian that I am, I don't think I have ever sweated as profusely as I have here with little to no physical effort. Sometimes I'll just be sitting in class, but by judging how sweaty I am, you'd think I just finished running a marathon. So when I read about sites up in the mountains where the climate is a little cooler I knew that was the place for me. Ideally I'd love to be in Matagalpa or the immediate surrounding area. My main priorities are climate and distance from Managua both which a favorable. Our site descriptions don't actually mention the sites by name but give enough descriptive clues that its pretty easy to figure where the are. Matagalpa seems nice because its up in the mountains surrounded by trees and coffee plantations. Ideally I would like a site that is close enough to Managua that I don't have to spend long journeys on small cramped buses in order to get to meetings and doctor appointments. In addition to that the big city sites all say that the ideal person would be ready to hit the ground running, which I feel fits me well because I am anxious to put all my training knowledge to work.

Today we went to the Masaya volcano which was amazing! Also really cool was that we were able to meet up with the Environment half of our group which is always fun because we don't get to see our friends from that group often. This volcano is active so you see lots smoke billowing out from below, I looked over the ledge hoping to see the bottom and some molten rock but wasn't able to . The funniest thing about the volcano was the safety precautions, they had everybody park their cars facing the exit in the event of an eruption. Given the fact that you are allow to drive up to the top of the volcano and park within a few yards of the ledge. In the event of an eruption did happen I seriously doubt the direction car was parked would really matter. Another contradicting warning said that in the event of an eruption hide under your cars to protect yourself from flying debris. I personally believe you're chancing of living are not high in either situation.

That all the news I have for right now. Monday we have a site fair where we will talk to current volunteers about what their sites are like and then turn in our top 3 preferences. After that we have to wait another two weeks while our program directors make their final decisions. In a week from now we will be traveling north to Matagalpa or Jinotega to shadow a Nicaraguan English teacher for a week. This is going to be a great opportunity for us a trainees to see what a day in the life as a real English teacher is like. I am really hoping for Matagalpa so I can check out the city before I make my final decision about preferences.

So I will have lots to report on soon!

Nicaraguan landscape looking out from the volcano veiwpoint

Looking into the fiery pit 

My Environment Amiga Sara and I 

Funny curbs alterating in English and Spanish

TEFL 54 minus 3 girls who were sick so we wrote their names on the papers so they'd be still with us

Big Changes

10/4/10

This is my one month anniversary of being in Nicaragua now only 26 more to go haha. Said like that it sounds like a prison sentence which is not what I intended. My fourth week of training went pretty well nothing really exciting to report on that front. We had some interesting technical classes about needs assessment in the community another about gender roles and stereotypes. It was very enlightening because we talked about cultural norms in the US versus Nicaragua. We as one month old trainees have come that point in our culture shock/adjustment that we are more surprised by things that don't fit the Nicaraguan cultural norm more than the American norm. For example seeing the packed buses with people hanging the back is still remarkable but now its just a way of life. What is more surprising is seeing a husband cooking or cleaning around the house. I found that to be an interesting change in perception of culture.
Also of interest, last Friday some other PC trainees and I went to observe and occasionally offer our opinion at the monthly TEPCE teacher conference. TEPCEs are when all the high school teachers in your school district come and talk about the past months' topics and plan for the upcoming month. The Nicaraguan English teachers were all very happy to have us participating in the conference and sharing ideas. One of the main debates among the teachers was about the topics they are learning, such as climate change, which is a very important topic but is English class the right place to learn about it? They asked would class time be more beneficial for the students to instead focus on building a stronger base with the most important verb tenses and grammatical structure? On the other hand is it better to teach advanced topics to improve vocabulary, despite whether or not they understand the grammatical structure? We were able to come to an agreement that they are both important. Having a large vocabulary doesn't do you any good if you can't express your ideas, and put them into sentences. However English grammar like grammar in general is boring, so it important to introduce new topics so that the students stayed interested. I have really enjoyed learning about how someone learns a foreign language. Its completely different from how we learned English as children.
The big news events of the past week are first my volunteer visit got canceled. Curse you Hurricane Matthew!! Because of the excess amount of rain that fell during the week the hurricane was here a lot of the roads, highways and bridges around the country got flooded and or washed away as a result. The Peace Corps didn't not want to send us out to different parts of the country, and take the risk that some of us would be stranded in route or at site and not be able to get back. In fact one of the current volunteers that came and talked at one of our technical sessions last week had been stranded from her site for close to a week because the only bridge the goes into her town was under water. Fortunately the Peace Corps office paid for her to stay in a hotel in Managua until she was able to return. That being said I completely understand and agree with their judgment call, but I was still disappointed. Ironically now today was very sunny and there isn't a cloud in the sky. Although I don't have any how conditions outside of Niquinohomo, because were told not to leave are training town except for training classes which we were picked up and driven to.

My other big new of this week is that I have changed host families. I am still in Niquinohomo just on the other side of town and much closer to the high school which is nice. Early Saturday morning a Peace Corps driver came by in the standard PC big white land rover and picked me up and took me over to my new family. It was kinda of weird because got to my new house quickly shook hands with my host family members, dropped of my bags. Then got back in the car to catch up with the PC bus that was taking everybody to the neighboring department for a training session with the environment half of Nica 54.

The back story on why I changed host families is this, it all boiled down to 3 main issues. Firstly , before me my host family had only hosted girls trainees which is not bad thing, but some Nicaraguan women and girls as a result of their cultural up bringing are very quiet around men. This isn't the same across the country or even towns as I found out talking with other trainees' host families. However in my host family which was comprised of 5 females and 2 two males the only person who really talked to at any length was my host mom. The rest of the family was kinda apathetic that I was there. Most conversation I had with them was small chat that stopped shortly after “How was your day?” I found this to be very odd because I meet the girl who lived with my host family before me at the training orientation in Granada. She told me that they were a great family, very sociable and that she still goes by and visits when she is in the area. I unfortunately did not have the same relationship with them I believe that it mostly has to do with the cultural issue, that being said I don't know why the husband of the oldest daughter or my host dad rarely talked to me. The second and third issue was about food quantity and variety. One of principle expectations of Peace Corps is flexibility, so I knew when I came to Nicaragua that things would be different, and I was OK with that. A normal breakfast for me included two pieces of semi-stale bread and a glass of juice. For lunch and dinner it was usually a variation of a meager portion of Gallo Pinto( fried rice and beans) or regular rice and beans with boiled plantains and super salty cheese for lunch and dinner. Not the greatest but I was adapting to the Nicaraguan cuisine and trying to be as flexible as possible. I knew there was more to the Nicaraguan cuisine because I had seen people selling it around town. After hearing stories from other volunteers and seeing in person the big disparity between what they were eating and what I was eating, I knew there was a problem. I knew it wasn't a financial problem because they had internet and satellite TV in addition to getting a relatively large bi-monthly stipend to host me. So I talked to my Spanish teacher and he gave me some tips about how to change my meal situation.

An interesting side note here in Nicaragua if you are trying to change something indirect communication is the key. For example a lot of the volunteers here myself included don't like the boiled plantains they are very starchy and have a texture similar to an undercooked baked potato but worse taste. Instead of saying I don't like these boiled plantains I said when I was eating fried plantains one night that fried plantains were much better than boiled plantains. It worked wonders and I stopped being served boiled plantains. It took a little longer to get the message across that I didn't like the salty cheese but after 3 or 4 attempts I was able to get my point across more directly than indirectly. Saving face is very important in Nicaraguan culture so anything critical is said indirectly.

Anyways so after I talked them my meal situation improved slightly the biggest improvement came after I mention something to one of my PC trainers not only about my small portions and lack of variety but about that lack of conversation. They agreed with me that was odd and went to talked to them in more of a direct manner than I was expecting. After my host mom talked with the Peace Corps suddenly I started to receiving more food and more fruits and vegetables. I was much happier. A week later I received a call from my training director asking how things were going. I told her that the food situation and had improve and my host mom was really making an effort to talk to me more but the family conversation level had not improved. That is when she decide to move me because she wanted me to have a family where I could talk and improve my Spanish skills. I was hesitant at first because I wanted to avoid any awkward situations that involve the question “Why don't like our family” as I have experienced before. My director say that Peace Corps would take the bullet, so to speak and leave me out of it. However I was inevitably asked by my host mom and dad at separate time “Peace Corps says you are moving why don't you like our family?” I started with the excuse that I wanted to stay but they were making me moved, but at the end of the night I finally had an honest direct conversation with my host mom about the issues at stake. It felt good to get off my chest that it wasn't personal she had made a great effort to improve my food situation and that I really appreciated that however the rest of the family wasn't talking to me and Peace Corps felt that it was really important that I was in a more talkative family. I understand the importance of indirect communication and saving face but sometimes its just easier to put your cards on the table and say what you need to say, instead beating around the bush.

It has been almost a week now since I moved and I am very happy I took Peace Corps advice and moved. My new host family is much more open and talkative. Meals are great I have much greater variety of food and quantity so much that I had to tell my host mom to serve me less because I can't eat some much. They are in their mid 30's and have to young daughters and so far everything is going great. My host dad just got home from work so I am going to sign off and go talk with him and the family.

Until next time stay classy!!