No hay agua=No hay shower!! And why not have a Panqueque Block Party!!

¿Qué Paso?:

Get a shoe shine: For only C$7 I am able to get my shoes shinned. They tend to get pretty beat up on these dirt streets, so it’s a good thing it is cheap and the shoe shiner lives down the street from me.

Minor injury: I did something to my fingernail (ok I slammed it in the door one night when there was no electricity and I was super sleepy trying to guide myself around in the dark) and now it is turning black and hopefully staying put…I really don’t want it to fall off…but time will tellL

Weather: It is winter, what does that mean exactly in a tropical country…well, it’s still hot, there is no snow, and it is only going to get hotter because guess what season comes next…summer (aka hot hot hot).

My bike: The key to riding my bike is simply to never switch gears. Yes, this presents a slight problem when there is a drastic change in terrain, but I have learned the hard way that switching gears = long walk home (probably through mud). It also elicitates stares from all the people I pass by while walking my bike…this of course leads to town gossip…by the time I make it back to my house EVERYONE already knows that my bike broke down (again) and that I tried to fix it (again) and finally gave-in and resorted to just walking it back into town.

What I am thankful for this year: This was the first Thanksgiving that I did not go home to be with my family. Instead, Peace Corps arranged for volunteers to eat Thanksgiving dinner with various American families that live in Managua. Therefore, I was not without pumpkin pie and turkey (but I still missed out on Gram’s hot apple pie…can pie be shipped through UPS??).

Sweet dreams: The typical Nica bed frame is made from wood and woven wicker…then there is the option of placing a thin foam mattress (or if extremely lucky putting a REAL mattress on top of the frame). Unfortunately, I am not “extremely lucky” and I only have a foam mattress placed over the woven wicker (to provide a thin cushion for my back). I chose to buy the foam mattress to save money, but it has drastically deflated since I first purchased it and now it is merely a thin fabric covering. Recently, I also splurged and bought a real pillow!! I was so excited to have a pillow again…that very night I anticipated getting the most restful sleep ever…but unfortunately that didn’t happen…I got maybe 3 hours total! Turns out I have to ease back into using a pillow…go figure!

Playing on my radio now: Juanes

Here is a sample of a product that 4th year students came up with for the business course LEC National Contest. The product his group created was a notebook holder:

Well, the water went out again…and has yet to return!! Now if I had some warning (any warning in fact) it would be just fine because I could plan ahead…but there is never any warning and my neighbors dig into my stored water before I can even dig into it. Therefore, even though I store water (just in case) it doesn’t even matter because everyone else using it! I am left with inability to shower, dirty dishes, dirty floor, unclean clothes and barely enough drinking water (I am soooooo thirsty!). However, I have learned to wash a ton of dishes with only 1 gallon of water…I can also shower with 1 gallon of water (but right now there isn’t even 1 gallon to spare). The town announcements have promised that the water will return tonight (but I have my doubts!). In the meantime, I am using plenty of deodorant and my hair has been braided for the past few days! I have no issues living without electricity, but living without any secondary water source (my town has no rivers) is a difficult adjustment. People in my town resort to either traveling out to fincas to shower or going into the cities to shower…I am just playing the waiting game for now and hoping for rain.

Sometimes I make some poor decisions, oh the gift of hind sight, if only I had the gift of foresight! Anyway, I decided I needed to get some exercise and I went for a bike ride. However, instead of leaving in the morning (which is my typical routine) I waited until the sun was going down…during dusk! Apparently, the bugs come out in droves during dusk. Therefore, I was riding around an hour from my town and watching the sun fade behind the volcanoes, while getting pelted in the eyes with bugs! I finally made it back to my site and washed out my eyes with drops. Three days later my eyes are still blood shot and itchy! I will never again ride my bike that late in the day…it may be cooler but it is not worth getting bugs in my eyes. Another lesson learned the hard way.

The school year has commenced and summer break is in full swing. To keep myself occupied, I decided to pull together my best students and create a youth group. The kids like hanging out at my house, and I like the ability to practice my Spanish with my students. I have also been taking on some extra crafty projects…por ejemplo I made a shelving unit for my books and I also jarred my own jelly. I decided jarring food would be a useful lesson to pass on to my students, because without refrigeration jarring is a wonderful alternative for preserving food (plus it’s a fun activity to do with kids, very hands on and they can all taste the jelly!) I will give an update in a week or so about how the jarring lesson went with the kids.

The first youth group project I completed with the group was a fundraiser. I pitched the idea to the group that we make panqueque (pancake) mix. The kids are not really familiar with pancakes, because their typical diet consists of rice, beans, cheese and tortilla (morning, noon and night). So I thought it would be fun to introduce a new (and easy to make) food to the kids. To kick off the project, I invited all the kids over to my house on Saturday morning to enjoy a feast of panqueques (basically I turned my house into IHOP). Anyway, I had the kids, and all my neighbors jam-packed into my house as I was cooking up a storm. It worked out really well because each kid brought a different pancake ingredient with them (sugar, eggs, flour, and milk). Instead of pancake syrup, which costs a fortune because it is only sold at an American-like grocery store located in the city, I made a fruit syrup sauce. The kids and my neighbors loved the party and people came back for seconds!!! After the party finished, the kids and I assembled pancake mix in small bags, which we then sold for C$5 a bag! The fundraiser was very successful and now we are just trying to identify a community project that the money will contribute towards. The next party I am hosting is simply a Queque party (cake party) to celebrate the youth groups hard work (I have learned through trial and error that incentives are key to keeping a group together and making food is cost efficient because each kid can contribute ingredients found in their backyard).

To keep in shape I am still bike riding everyday, but instead of riding to my schools (since school is not in session) I have been able to explore the more rural farm community around my site. The paths have been badly washed out due to the rain but it is slowly drying up. As I was biking out by the fincas (farms) yesterday, I reached a point where there was a 4 foot deep mud pit. On the side of the mud pit was a very narrow dry path full of rocks and lined by barbed wire. I stopped my bike to scope out the situation (should I turn around? Go through the mud? Or risk riding on the small narrow dry patch of dirt?). Meanwhile, a farmer on his bike was on the other side of the mud pit doing the same thing I was doing…scoping out the situation. He decided to walk his bike carefully across the narrow dry path, teetering dangerously close to the mud one minute and barbed wire the next minute. After watching this scene, I decided to up the anti and cross the path while riding my bike. The man told me to be careful!! I backed up my bike 15 feet to get a running start…then I hopped on full speed ahead and crossed…the farmer cheered me on…I luckily did not fall into the mud pit…what a rush! The paths that I bike on are always full of rocks and I have become accustomed to using my brakes to navigate over rocks/mud/pits etc. The nicas are amazing bike riders…so I feel the pressure to be a good bike rider as well…I have mastered riding without hands on rocky dirt paths (and my neighbors just laugh when they see me coming…gringa riding without hands…haha!). My next challenge will be biking while having a fellow passenger riding on the bike-bar in-between my handle bars and bike seat (Nicas are always giving people rides around town using this method…so in order to fully integrate I feel I should also learn how to do this!).