I guess I am a Teacher Now

Hi All,
I am glad to say that I have sucessful survived my first few days of teaching! It wasn´t too bad. I guess I am a teacher now because when the kids see me in the street they yell Hola Profe (Hi Teacher). Sometimes I look around and then realize they are talking to me! Its different here because the students call the teachers Profesora or Profesora instead of Miss Bland ect. So I am getting use to that.

Being in the school for the first few days, I already realize that this is going to be a challenge. All of the classrooms are full to the brim with students and some of them are standing up because their aren´t enough desks! There are anywhere between 35 to 51 students in one classroom. One of the classrooms didn´t even have a board. The limited resources make it hard to teach and learn. But we are going to work with what we have and try and make English class fun. The fact that I am from another country makes me cool! (I think...) I am working with four teachers, two that work in the morning and two that work in the afternoon. I am still trying to figure out my schedule, but I am going to try and alternate days between morning and afternoon. We are supposed to work about 16 hours a week. All the teachers at the school are really nice and they are trying to make me feel comfortable and welcome. I also start my community enlgish class on Monday. I already have 21 people interested. This is going to be a challenging year for me but I know it will be rewarding at the same time. I feel so productive in Nicaragua. I have been getting up early (5 am) to go to the gym. Then coming home and showering and going to school. Wow, only in Nicaragua lol.

In other news... I chopped off all my hair. Turns out my hair didn´t really handle this weather too well. So after six months I decided to go to the hair salon. My hair was a disaster. It was uneven and just a mess! So I told the woman to just cut it all off and start over. I am still geting use to it. Not sure that I like it. I look at myself in the mirror and I am like hmmmm who is that. But I think it was a good idea because my hair was damaged. I think it will grow back healthy now...

Thats all for now. I will hopefully get through the first week of school. I am sure I will have more stories to come

Pictures... the hair...

“Hey Now, You’re an All Star!”

For the past few days I have been attending workshops with the other English teachers before the start of the school year. I know it’s hard to believe but I have yet to start teaching in the classroom as a volunteer. School starts on Tuesday February 15th. I am pretty nervous about it. I have basically been waiting for School to start but now that it is finally here, I am nervous!

For our workshops, all the different disciplines are split into different classrooms. So I have workshops with only the English teachers. At the workshops, there are English teachers from all the surrounding schools, so I was meeting a lot of the teachers for the first time . So the first day of the workshop I was basically the most popular kid in school. Everyone wanted to know everything about me and ask me questions and the definitions of words. I would be talking to one person and then someone else across the room would interrupt and ask another question. Then another person would invite me to their house for lunch. It was pretty crazy, although I felt pretty special. It was like I was the most popular kid in school! The group of teachers that I will be working with are really nice and they all seem like they enjoy their jobs. I am looking forward to helping them in anyway that I can.

I am also in the process of starting a community English class. This will be a class for people who aren’t currently studying English but want to learn. This will be a more informal class in the evenings I think. This class will be a lot smaller than the other classes so that should be nice. I am nervous about that class too! I just want to do well! Needless to say I am going to be really busy!

Well that’s all for now, I know I will have many stories once school starts. Wish me luck!

Dale Pues

Pictures:
A photo of my wall with all my pictures
Alex and her new rocking chair ( I tried to tell her to sit like a lady!) haha

Working it Out

Hola

I decided to write a quick entry about my first trip to the gym in Nicaragua. My host mom started going to the gym about a month and a half ago with her friends. Every time they came back from the gym they would ask me when I was going to come. I would say oh soon, soon I am going to go. I finally gave in and thought it would be good for me to hit the gym!

Monday was my first time going to the gym with my host mom and her friends. They have a whole routine worked out and they very nicely showed me how to work the machines. It was really funny, because a lot Nicaraguans are short, so in Nicaragua I am considered tall. There were several machines that I literally couldn’t use because they were made for people who were 5’3 and below or no one knew how to adjust them because they never needed to. My host mom was like, we need to get you special machines because you are so tall. It was pretty funny but I made it work. After my first workout I felt good and I know it will make me feel more settled in here in Nicaragua and healthier. I think it will also we a great bonding experience for me and my host mom and her friends. I will feel like one of the girls and gossip haha. I successfully made a joke when we left the gym (I had to explain it twice).. We also went to the gym yesterday at 5 am! It was brutal but at the same time if felt good once I was finished. I am apart of a group now! Hahah That's what I told them when they were skeptical that I would get up at 5 am.


Nos Vemos

Pochomil

Hey There,

I don't really have much to say this week. The first three days of this week I was in a place called Pocomil. We had a training there. All the Peace Corps volunteers from my group invited all the teachers we will be working with to a conference. At the conference we talked about our cultural differences and how to work with that in a professional setting. We talked about different teaching methods and our goals for the coming school year. I was again impressed with the level of English that all of the teachers have. We were able to have in depth conversations with them in English. During the meeting we found out that school isn't going to start until February 15th when it was supposed to start at the end of January. So I still have about a month left of vacation haha. I think that the free time will start to get old soon. We also found out that because of the coming election, we will probably end school early. This should be a very interesting school year. I am going to be working with four different teachers so I am sure that will be a challenge but hopefully we can all work together. In the mean time I am just spending time with my host family and getting to know my community.

The hotel that we stayed in was called Vistamar. It was a pretty nice hotel. It was right on the beach and the food was really good. It was good to see all my friends that I hadn't seen in awhile. We all enjoyed spending time together!. Our next Peace Corps training isn't until March, so it will be awhile before I see most of them again. Well that's all I have for you. The pictures all speak for themselves! It was so beautiful and it was my first time in the pacific ocean. I took a sunrise and a sunset picture!

FACE CAMP

Hello All,
I just got back from helping out with an English fluency camp for teachers run by the US embassy. It was a really great experience. I learned a lot and met some really great teachers. The schedule was really tough. We were up at 5:30 am and didn't go to bed until 9 pm! every night we were exhausted. I help out at the came with two other peace corps volunteers from my group and then three Nicaragua teachers. The teacher that I helped, his name was Julio and he was great. He had really good ideas and knew exactly what activities to do to help the teachers. He was also really funny. In the afternoon, the PC volunteers, taught the teachers about American Culture. We taught them about our individual states (MD, AZ, MN), and different types of American music (Jazz, Country Hip-Hop), and a little bit about US government. We also had a lesson where we talked about any stereotypes or myths that had to do with US culture. Apparently people from other countries think we eat meat everyday and that our parents don't care about our relationships haha. There were some really funny things that they wrote down.

We also got to know the teachers really well. They talked with us about why we came to Nicaragua and wanted to know everything about us. It was really cool to see how passionate they are about their jobs and their students. They don't get paid much at all and yet they are willing to do everything they can to improve their English and in turn help their students have a chance at a positive future. Also I was super impressed with how much English they knew. There were different levels of English at the camp but they were all very competent. We also had a talent show and all the teachers worked really hard to create dances, and tell jokes and sing songs. even though I was tired every night, I had a great time. I was sad to leave when it was over. I am glad I was chosen to help with the camp. I have posted a few pictures from the camp.

More Holiday Fun

Feliz Nuevo Ano to everyone! I can't believe that it's already 2011! I have almost been out of college for four years, that's really scary.

The past couple of days have been really fun. My friend Julie has spent the past couple of days with me at my house. We are helping out with a camp that the US Embassy is doing. She lives up north in Jinotega so she came to spent new years with me until we leave for the camp. The first day she came, we went to this place called Coyotepe. It use to be a fortress for the liberals against the conservatives. Down below there are chambers were they use to torture the prisoners. We had a guided tour of the holding sells it was really scary and a little eerie. It was really dark and cold down there so I got an idea of what it might have been like back then. Coyotepe is at the top of this big hill. The air is so fresh up there, the breeze felt so good. I wasn't sweating for once! We took some pictures and then walked back down. It was also good exercise. (Something I haven't been doing much of but I am trying to change that in the new year) The trip to Coyotepe was a great way to introduce Julie to my town.

On New Years Eve, Julie and I went to Masaya to walk around and do a little shopping. We met up with Stephanie, another volunteer from our group who lives there. We ate at a Mexican restaurant which was pretty good. It wasn't as good as Mexican food at home, but it wasn't too bad. They had flour tortillas instead of corn tortillas which I was pretty excited about, and chips and salsa. After we left Masaya, we went back to my house to relax until the family party at night.

We went over to my host mom's mom's house around 8 pm. As Julie and I are making our way over to the house, we see lots of scare crows or life size dolls, sitting in chairs on front porches of almost all the houses. In Nicaragua, it's a tradition to light a scare crow on fire at midnight on new years to burn the old year and bring in the new year. It's pretty insane. I am going to try and upload a video so everyone can see it. But before midnight, my host mom's brother Paul invited Julie and I to go to a bar to hang out for a little before midnight. We stayed there for about two hours and talked with Paul. Julie and I were proud of ourselves because we talking the whole time in Spanish and even making jokes. We also got really excited because at the bar they were playing lots of American music and we were singing along. Close to midnight we left to go back to the house to ring in the new year and watch them light the doll on fire. It was pretty funny. Something completely different from how we do things at home. There was also no count down, I looked down at my watch and all of a sudden it was like 12:05. After we gave new years hugs, we ate our new years dinner of rice and chicken and potatoes. I was pretty hungry at that point. Overall it was a really fun night and I think Julie had a lot of fun with my family. It was a great way to celebrate the new year and another good memory.

Happy New Year


Picture
#1-3- The first three pictures are when we were at Coyotepe. I am with my host mom and brother
#4- I picture of Julie and I on New Years
#5- A picture of the burning doll
The video won't upload! I will try again another day
I will put more pictures on facebook

Feliz Navidad

It’s definitely strange spending Christmas in another country. First of all it was hot and sunny and that really threw me off. Of course I am not with my family and I am eating different foods. Also in Nicaragua they celebrate Christmas on the 24th of December so that’s different as well. But at the end of the day Christmas is about spending time with people that you care about. I did that this Christmas. Before Christmas, I got together with a bunch of my Peace Corps friends and we had a little party to celebrate Christmas and one of the volunteers birthday. We made pasta and salad for dinner. Later on we made popcorn on the stove and played games and talked. It was really good. It was really fun to get together with friends during the holidays because it makes it feel a little like home. We were all saying that it is so cool that we have made such good friends from Peace Corps and that we will be friends for a long time.

For Christmas I went to my old host families house in San Juan de Oriente. My new host family was sad that I wasn’t with them for Christmas but the understood that I promised my old family before I met them. So when I got to my old training town, my family was happy to see me and wanted to know how I like my new town. I was worried it was going to be strange to be back since I don’t live there but I felt comfortable right away. Megan, who was also in my training town was back for Christmas as well so we walked around San Juan and said hi to our old friends. Everyone I have met in San Juan is so nice and friendly and welcoming. So in Nicaragua it’s tradition that you have Christmas dinner around midnight on the 24th. So you have to wait the entire day to eat. My family ate around 11 and by that time I was starving. We had a big dinner just like at home, there were about 15 people at the table and we had chicken, and beef and salad and rice of course haha. It was really good. I really felt like part of the family. Then at midnight we all hugged and said Merry Christmas, and then the fireworks started. They celebrate Christmas the way we celebrate new years. There was champagne and wine and fireworks and some dancing lol. It was interesting. Then I gave my family their gift, which was a framed picture of the whole family that I took. I think they really liked it. I was so exhausted by 1 am so I went to bed.

Then on the 25th, I was feeling a little sick, I think it was because I ate close to midnight and then went to bed soon after. I felt better later in the day. My host mom was really worried about me because I didn’t want to eat the whole day haha. I also got to skype with my mom and sister and pearly in the afternoon. I also called some of my other family members to say Merry Christmas. That made me feel really connected as well. I so thankful for technology! Megan and Sam (another volunteer) and I watched a Christmas Story at her house to get into the Christmas spirit. It was really fun. Overall I had a good Christmas and I am looking forward to new years. I am going to spend new years with my new family so that should be fun. Ok well hasta pronto ☺


Pictures
The Christmas tree and all the rocking chairs
The table with the coke-a-cola center piece haha
My host mom, her husbasnd, Alejandra and Isaura.
Alfredo and Tito being silly and dancing
The adults had wine and were toasting so the kids decided to toast with the coke
The candle on the table