¿Qué Paso?: Weather update: It’s STILL raining…and I have been EVACUTATED due to a tropical storm that is coming through the area. So, I packed a small bag with some clothes, grabbed my rain boots, and threw on my rain jacket, which is molding due to all the rain…oh sweet irony.
Cleaning house: My host mom offered to mop my floor for me because I am not doing a good enough job!! Ok, I clean but I certainly don’t mop 3 times a day (which is customary). I mop once every 3 day, which quite frankly I think is enough!
Interesting stuff that has been said to me: “Are you from Costa Rica?” (which makes me think my Spanish is getting really good…not!) and “You have nice legs” (this was said to me in English by one of my students. He was trying to practice his English with me, and this was the one phrase in English that he had been taught).
Latest infestation: As if having a bat and mouse problem isn’t enough…I am now having a cockroach problem as well!
Strike a pose: If one of my students owns a camera or a camera phone…I am likely to be in their photo archive. Why, because students like to take pictures of me…yes, just me…I try to invite others into the photos…but I am usually unsuccessful. So there I am standing (alone) smiling as students go crazy snapping multiple shots. Uncomfortable situation…oh yah…but I just keep on smiling. Don’t worry, I’m not letting the fame get to my head. But in the meantime, would someone get the paparazzi off of me?
Whoops: I went to the market to buy oranges and was asked, “Do you want these oranges for fresco?” I said “yes” because I just wanted the oranges ASAP. Well, that was a mistake. It turns out fresco oranges are not sweet…they are very bitter. So I bought 8 bitter oranges that were not edible. And I ate them anyway, but next time I will specify that I want “dulce” (sweet) oranges.
Transportation update: I bought a bike, went for a cruise around town, 3 hours later I had a flat tire, got it fixed, next day went for another ride even further away from town, the bike gears broke, I flipped the bike over to fix the gears, got grease all over me, it started to rain, I walked through a mud river to get back into town, I got the gears totally replaced. Did I mention that I bought this bike new? Yep, the guy told me it was “brand new.”
A “should we really be doing this?” moment: Cruising down the highway in a microbus is always a little bit dangerous…then add rain and total darkness and the adrenaline really starts pumping. I can usually handle the micro, but two days ago I hopped on board a micro (at night while it was raining) and the driver decided to go into reverse on a major highway right near a blind corner. Why would the driver pull a move like this? To pick up an extra passenger, obviously. No worries, I am still alive.
This is the cake and present table for the pinata party I attended. The cake is made with corn flour, which makes for an interesting tasting goodie!
I just got back from an interesting/bizarre cultural event which is called an “Acto.” It takes place at the school, and class is canceled to make room for the “acto.” To prepare for the event, there is a stage and backdrop set-up on the basketball court. There are 2 giant speakers on each side of the stage and around 200 students stand in single file lines near the front of the stage. Actos can last anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours! The acto begins with the national anthem and is followed by various presentations from students and teachers alike. I will describe Thursday’s acto only: I arrived at my school right on time, only to find out that I had walked through the pouring rain for nothing, because class was canceled and replaced with an acto. There were 5 students on the stage, 3 dressed as Native Americans, 1 dressed in a suit (who apparently represented the country of Spain) and 1 girl dressed as Wonder Woman. No kidding, she wore a cape, a shiny tiara, magic wrist protectors, a corset, and a really short skirt/underwear (apparently ready to fight evildoers at a moments call). The Native Americans wore feathers in their hair, and their shirtless bodies were painted with “Native American” symbols aka random lines and circles drawn all over their bodies (most likely in permanent marker because after the acto was finished I witnessed the boys hopelessly scrubbing their bodies off to no avail, which leads me to believe that they used permanent marker instead of washable marker!). Anyway, the girl dressed as Wonder Woman was suppose to represent the Queen of Spain (I had to ask a student to explain to me who the girl symbolized…it was apparently a stupid question because the student thought it was rather obvious). Next, and this part of the acto literally caught me off guard, the stereo speakers started booming filling the courtyard with the sounds of drums and tambourines…and then came the procession (man, I wish I had my camera on me…but unfortunately I had left it at my house). A girl wearing a gold bra entered, just like Madonna…and not the “Madonna” who mothered Jesus…the other Madonna who rocked-out hard during the 80’s era. The girl had gold glitter covering her nearly naked body, and a long gold skirt with slits all the way up, topped off with a gold headdress. Now keep in mind this girl is 15 years old, she is standing in front of all of her classmates and teachers…nearly naked and very gold. Need less to say, this outfit beat out the girl dressed as Wonder Woman. But this is the least of it, because directly behind the “Golden Goddess” was a boy wearing an adult diaper holding a stick with feathers tied to the end. The students marched all around the court and finally ascended the stage to give an explanation of what their costumes represented. I guessed that golden girl represented the 80’s decade and I thought that diaper boy represented adults who have urinary track problems …however, I was wrong). The girl was supposed to represent the sun goddess and the boy was supposed to represent a Native American! Finally, as this whole scene was unraveling, the rain was pouring all around the students! This was unfortunate for the student clad in the adult diaper; because, the lining in the diaper started to expand as it got wetter and wetter from the rain! Thank goodness the scene was short, because the students walked off the stage after a 5 minute dialogue (all except for diaper boy who had to waddle off stage because his drawers had soaked up so much water). That was my day, and I can hardly believe it happened. Finally, to top it off, the day the students were celebrating is called Dia de la Hispanidad (very similar to Columbus Day). However, the students were celebrating it on the wrong day…it was the 11th of October and Dia de la Hispanidad is officially on the 12th of October. Therefore, they canceled my class to celebrate a holiday 1 day early…argh!
Hit that pinata with all your might!! This is the birthday girl...who turned 5!
A teacher that I do not work with walked up to me and introduced themselves, however after giving me their name, they failed to include what subject they taught. We were talking and they asked my opinion on English grammar compared to Spanish grammar. The teacher asked me, “Do you think that the grammar is similar or different.” I responded, that I thought the two were different. For some reason this turned into a rather heated conversation and the teacher tried to convince me that that grammar was in fact identical. Well, unbeknownst to me, I was talking with the English teacher, who has been teaching English for 23 years, and adamantly believes that there is no difference between English and Spanish grammar “they are identical.” I tried to salvage the conversation by asking if the teacher would like to practice their English skills with me, but she didn’t feel comfortable talking with me in English!! Yikes, I think I insulted her but it was unintentional. Lesson learned; always ask the question “what is your occupation” before starting any kind of debate.
A very popular trend in the Nicaraguan classrooms is to use whiteout on all errors made on paper (even if it is not an assignment the students are going to turn into the teacher, they still use whiteout to fix their mistakes). Now a simple solution would be to use pencils instead of pens, but everyone seems to prefer pens over pencils. Early on in their lives, students are trained to use whiteout on their mistakes at a young age and therefore this trend extends into adulthood. This leads me to my story. I went over to my counterpart’s house to get a list of 10 names. I simply needed 10 student names…nothing complicated…I thought the visit should only take 5 minutes at most…right? Oh how wrong I was, 2 hours later I finally walked out of her houses with the names. What happened? Whiteout happened! Basically the problem was that each student had 5 names (lets do the math: 5 x 10 = 50 names…and don’t forget there are some tricky spellings). The teacher would start writing a name, and then inevitably make a minor spelling mistake. She would immediately reach for the whiteout to correct her error, however; if there were too many whiteout mistakes she would throwaway that paper and start anew. This paper was not going to be turned into anyone; I was simply going to transcribe the names into an email, and the teacher new this as well. Yet, it still took 2 hours to get the 10 names, which were printed perfectly (with only 1 whiteout mistake). Lesson learned, leave lots of time for whiteout!
Alright, this is another example of class being needlessly canceled. I traveled 2 hours out with a backpack stuffed full of teaching materials. I arrived at the school, and I was told that class was canceled because the usual classroom was being occupied by a guest lecturer. I proceeded to glace around the school, and I noticed 5 totally empty classrooms. I asked why I couldn’t give class in one of the empty rooms…well, to my astonishment I couldn’t…and therefore the class commenced outside in the courtyard, where we were surrounded by noisy kids playing kickball, volleyball and just throwing stuff randomly. It was a tough class to get through, especially when I was approached by Mr. Hip-hop. This 18 year old male student approached me in the middle of my class, while the students were working together in their groups. He was not in my class but he is a current 5th year student at the school. He said that he just want to introduce himself…yeah right! Here’s the scene, I am sitting underneath a tree, and he struts up with his cell phone carefully concealed in his front shirt pocket playing a really inappropriate 30 second hip-hop song clip (with lyrics like “I see you grinding up on the dance floor”). After he asked me 2 “opening” questions (what’s my name and where am I from) he got to the point, and asked me if I had a boyfriend and if I would like to get a soda. Thank goodness I have a made-up boyfriend, who is just fabulous, and saved me again from making an awkward situation even more unbearable. Oh yes, as we were talking he continued to push the replay button on his phone so that the 30 second sound clip would replay over and over again. Anyway, I told him “si, yo tengo un novio” (I have a boyfriend)…and all of a sudden he said, “ok, but where does he live, and are you going to bring him to the December festival?” I was not prepared for these questions, this guy was crafty, and so I said that my “boyfriend lives far away and that he would not be coming to the December festival.” This was all that the boy wanted to hear, he smiled and said “good” and proceeded to switch off the inappropriate rap song and walk away…calling “adios.” Yikes! What have I done? I think I just added fuel to the fire!
I attended a piñata party last weekend, which was planned out perfectly. In fact, I have noticed a trend in Nicaragua, and that is that all of the piñata parties I have attended have been executed with amazing efficiency. Here is what goes on during a piñata: First, guests arrive at the party and drop off a birthday present. Next, the seats are pre-arranged around the piñata and kids are organized into groups. The kids strike at the piñata, meanwhile food is being served to all the seated guests. Eventually, the piñata bursts open and candy goes flying everywhere (watch out because the kids will kill for candy). Finally, the birthday song is sung, and the cake is cut and passed out to the guests. Now, the party is officially over and everyone leaves. The gifts are opened later. That’s it!! The kids are well dressed and well behaved…it is unlike any kid-party I have ever attended…because it’s actually fun, and it’s all about the timing!
¿Qué Paso?:
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