Life as usual

Hey All,
I don't have anything too exciting to say this week. I have officially been here for a full month which is pretty cool! Only two more months of training to go! Haha

I taught my first class on Monday afternoon. It went pretty well. I have many many things to improve on of course, but for my first class I felt pretty good. We were working on comparatives in class. We did a couple of fun activities to make it interesting. I tried to use as much English as possible and I got some blank stares but overall I think the kids understood what was going on. As part of the program initiative we are trying to make the classes more communicative and less copying on the board. For a lot of teachers this is a hard transition to make. I think it helps the students learn better and have fun at the same time. I am excited to get to my site in a few months and work with one class more consistently.

We were supposed to go visit a volunteer in different parts of Nicaragua this weekend, but the trip was canceled because of Hurricane Matthew (Mateo). I am pretty bummed that we can't go visit a volunteer. That would have been a good way to see what life is really like as a volunteer. I guess there is nothing I can do about it! I guess that leaves more time to hang out with my host family and practice my Spanish! I can also have time to hang out more with the trainees here. We have an awesome group of people. Jessica and Megan who live in my town and awesome and we are becoming really good friends. We see sides of each other that not many other people see lol. The rest of the group is great too, I am sure I will be making life long friends!

Well that's all I have for now. Life is becoming a little more routine here. I am sure I will have more stories and experiences in the coming days. I am sad that I am missing the fall season, because its my favorite one!

Pictures
1. The whole group that came to Nica with us (TEFL group and Environment Group
2. Just the TEFL group

La Laguna de Apoyo.

So I have been talking a lot of about the Laguna de Apoyo. My first week here I went to the top of the laguna so you can look out and see the whole thing and the volcano. On Sunday I went with my family to the bottom of the lagoon to go swimming. This whole adventure is a blog entry in itself haha. It was really fun. Initially before we left I had no idea where we were going. I was told that we were going on a “paseo” which can mean a number of things. I knew we were going on a family outing but I didn’t know where. It took about three hours before we actually left. After all there are tweleve people in the house and then me, and then another grandson and the driver of the truck. My host sister made a picnic lunch for us. She made the Nicaraguan version of fried chicken and we also had rice and plantains and a fresco of Calala (a fruit it Nicaragua, not sure of the spelling). It was really good.

So to get to the bottom of the laguna you have to drive down a really sleep hill. I was sitting on the inside of the pick-up truck along with 2 other people, and everyone else was riding in the bed of the truck lol. So there were probably 11 or 12 people in the back of the truck! I should have take a picture of it. There were a lot of pot holes on the way down the mountain so the people in the back were bouncing all around. It took about 20 minutes to get down to the bottom of the mountain. My host mom said that normally there is a coastline at the bottom of the laguna but since there was so much rain, the water was really high and there was really no coastline at all. So this kind of scared me because I couldn’t see the bottom and it got deep pretty fast. So I decided to just go in just to my thighs lol. Just to be safe! I also know that not many Nicaraguans know how to swim so no one would be able to save me! There was another group of people swimming next to us. Two of the boys were using four 2 liter coke bottles as floating devices. It was hilarious. I was nervous for them. It was a fun day at the laguna with my family, and the view was great! Also we decided to go back up the mountain to another look out point to eat watermelon and relax a little before going home. On our way up the mountain the truck had some trouble getting up the hill because there were so many people in the truck. We all ended up getting out of the truck and walking the rest of the way while the driver drove to the top. It was really funny and the next day my host mom asked me if I was made at her for making me do unwanted exercise. So we had watermelon and oranges at the other look out point and then went home. I was exhausted after that trip.

This week we observed our first class at the high school. It was very interesting. The schools here are very different from the us schools. Our town is really small so its even harder to compare it to the US. The elementary school students go to the school in the morning and the high school students go to school in the afternoon until about 5:30. We are going to be working with the only English teacher. She is also the only female teacher in the school. The teachers don’t turn on the lights during class to save on electricity and there are NO BATHROOMS! That shocked me. So the teachers and the students can’t use the bathroom at all during the school day. The teacher we are working with lives in another town so she has to wait until she gets home before she can use the bathroom…wow... So we are observing this week and co-planning with our teacher. I am co-teaching my first class on Monday which I am very worried about. The students don’t know a lot of English and the teacher speaks a lot of Spanish in the classroom. I know that the only way to learn is to practice so each time I will learn something and improve. Ok well I think I wrote way too much. I was report back about how my first class goes.





Pictures: Typical meal that I eat. This is my favorite meal sopa de frijoles (bean soup) with an egg in it and tortilla and rice.
A picture of me at the bottom of the laguna
Me with my host mom.
Alejandra and Tito at the laguna
La laguna

Poco a Poco

Hey All,
Back again for an update for everyone. Last week was a week of celebrations here in Nicaragua. They were having their celebrations for independence day. There were a lot of parades... that's about it lol. It's not exactly like the 4th of July in the states. There are just a lot of children in parades wearing their school uniforms. The crowds don't really cheer at all. It's not exactly what I am use to but it was still fun. The torch of liberty also came through our town this week. Apparently it started in Guatemala and is traveling all through Central America. I took a few pictures. All the kids were out of school for the whole week basically. We have been having a lot of Peace Corps workshops this week as well. We had our first technical workshop for teaching this week. It was pretty fun and interesting. I am realizing that I am going to have to get my creative juices flowing quickly. I am going to be doing a lot of things with very little resources. It will be a challenge but I think I am up for it!

I realized that I haven't really talked about the food at all. It's a big part of my life here and I haven't even mentioned it. So everyday I usually have rice and beans. Sometimes twice a day. They are really good, but I do get sick of it. There is something called Gallo Pinto here, which is a mixture of rice and beans that are fried. It's hard to explain. It's really good and I have it everyday. I usually have bread and an egg for breakfast which I like. I have had pancakes a few times as well. For dinner I usually have chicken or beef with rice and beans lol. I also eat a lot of plantains here. I wasn't a big fan of them before I came here but I am slowly starting to like them... fried plantains are pretty good. I am still working on trying to like bananas... lol. We also have drinks here called frescos. So my host sister literally takes a fruit or two fruits and put them in a blender with sugar and makes a drink out of it. I usually have one every day and they are usually different. They are really good but full of sugar lol. I will try and get some pictures of the food

Other than that I am just trying to stay healthy and get to know my area. We have gotten to go a couple of different places this week so I am looking forward to exploring different places. Tomorrow I am going on a trip with my family to an unknown location. I just go along for the ride lol. I am sure it will be fun. My family has a car but no one has their license so we get someone to drive us. It's pretty funny.

I think that's all for now. I will have more updates maybe in a week or two.

Va Pues
Adios

Pictures- The torch of liberty (there was actually fire),some of the parades in the town.

Getting Accustom to Life in Nicaragua

I have been in Nicaragua for almost two weeks now. It’s hard to remember everything that has happened to me because everyday there is something new, or exciting or scary or bad that happens to me haha. Last week was my first full week as a trainee. We have Spanish class everyday in the morning and in the afternoon. It’s not like Spanish class in the states, it more fun and we learn practical words and phrases that we are going to need to use everyday or in the classroom. There are only two other girls in my group so it’s relaxed and I feel comfortable speaking and making mistakes. I am learning so many new words specific to Nicaragua that it’s really hard to remember them all. There is no English spoken in the class so often times I find myself acting things out until my teacher understands what I am saying lol. But I like not speaking English because it helps me to learn a lot faster and remember words that I use to know. At the end of the day I feel really tired and mentally exhausted from speaking so much Spanish. Sometimes I get together with the other two girls in my town and we just hang out and talk in English for a while. It’s a good stress reliever.
I am a lot more comfortable with my family now. I think the kids are getting use to me and they are starting to talk and play with me. Dora the Explorer aka Alejandra didn’t run away from me yesterday. Her mom painted her nails and then she came over to me to show them to me. That was a break through lol.

My host mom took me to a really beautiful place on Tuesday. We went to the “mirador” which is a like a place on the top of this hill or mountain where you can look out over the Laguna de Apoyo. I took a video of it but I am not really sure how to upload it. I really like my host mom, she is really nice. We sat and talked for a long time at the Laguna and had some bonding time.

This week we also had out first youth group meeting. The kids in our youth group are awesome and very organized. They were taking notes during our group meeting and I think they are really eager to learn from us. They also invited us to participate in their dance class and they tried to teach up some of the traditional dances from Nicaragua. It was really hard and I think that they enjoyed laughing at us! It was super hot in the building where we were dancing and I think I lost 5 pounds that night lol. Everyday I say oh my goodness I have never been this hot and then the next day it is even hotter lol. It’s pretty funny. I am trying to get use to it and just realize that I will be really hot for the next two years. I also went to a big market with my host mom in Masaya. The market was awesome. Anything you can think of you can find there. I was able to buy a few things that I haven’t been able to find in my small town. I want to go back to Masaya to get my cell phone. They cell phones are a little expensive by Nicaragua standards. They are about $20. I definitely want to get one though.

The public buses here in Nicaragua are old school buses. It’s pretty funny. They back as many people as they can into those buses I stood up for about 45 minutes on my way to Managua on Friday. It was really hot but I made it. It cost about 50 cents to go to the capitol city from my town. We went to Managua, which is very crazy, and lots of traffic. It’s not really a place I want to go back to that often. We had a meeting with the whole group about common illness (which freaked me out a little haha) and also the Peace Corps expectations for us a trainees and eventually volunteers. I am very nervous about teaching in the classroom. I am hoping that I will be prepared for everything at the end of the three months. I am glad that we will be co-teaching and co-planning with another teacher, which will hopefully help with the stress.

I think that’s all I have to report for right now. This coming week there are independence fiestas and I don’t think that the kids have school. So it should be fun to observe those fiestas. We are also going to have two more youth group meetings, which should be cool. Well I will be reporting back next week sometime.
Adios Amigos

The pictures are the laguna I was talking about, a few of the kids in my family, the tin ceiling of the house, the hailway upstairs, and the downstairs living room where we have class everyday.

My address during training

I forgot to tell everyone my address during training. If you want to send me stuff that would be great! I love food from America and I know I will miss it! lol.

OK Gracias!


Kellie Bland PCT
Voluntario de Cuerpo de Paz
Apartado Postal 3256
Managua Nicaragua
Central America

My First few days in San Juan de Oriente

Hello All,
I have finally made it to my training town. The name of the town is San Juan de Oriente. It is a really small town of about 3,000 people. It is definitely not what I am use to! We arrived at our host family's houses on Saturday morning. It was pretty scary just because you don't know what to expect or how you will be perceived. My family is really nice and full of children. There is the abuelo and abuela and they have two daughters. Only one of their kids lives in the house. They eight grand kids. They are all adorable and pretty funny. They are still getting use to me and I am trying to find ways for them to like me haha: We played go fish the first day I got here. It was pretty hard to explain the game to them and they were just laughing at me! The youngest one is 2 years old. They also call her Dora the Explorer because her haircut looks like Dora the cartoon. I will get some pictures and post them on here soon.

I had a crazy first night in Nicaragua. There was a big rainstorm and it caused the electricity to go out for the whole night. That was pretty crazy. The roofs of the houses are made of tin so it makes the rain sounds really loud and scary. The walls of the house are not connected to the houses so when it rains you feel like you are outside. It eventually subsided and I slept really well.

Sunday was pretty calm relaxed. I just spend time with my family and went to an internet cafe for a little bit. Today we had our first class and we learned some important Spanish words to communicate with our family and greetings for people. We also took a walk around the town to see where everything is. The town is very small so that wasn't hard. I also saw where the other two people from my group are living. Each one of our houses are different, so it's interesting to see that. I am hoping to get to know the town each day. We can't leave our training town for the first week. Friday we are going to the Capitol city to get our vaccines and meet up with the rest of the group.

Well that's all I have for now. The pictures are from my room, it's actually pretty nice with a window and a nice bed. I have my mosquito net up because we can't have any mosquitos getting in and making me sick! The view if from my window when I first got there. I am going to take more pictures of the town soon.

Hasta luego

I made it!

Hello Everyone,
I finally made it to Nicarauga. The build up and anticipation was crazy but I am finally here. The days leading up to my departure were pretty hard. Leaving family and friends was actually a lot harder than I thought. But I am hoping that with time I will get use to this new place and new people and feel comfortable with what I am doing.

The first few days of orientation have been intense! We have been talking about what they expect from us and what we should expect out of our experiences. There are a lot of rules and regulations being reviewed, along with a couple scary stories about other people's experiences. I think this is to make sure we are aware of our surroundings and not to act reckless in this new country. But to counter act all the information overload I have met some really great people so far. There are about 43 of us. Half of us are in the environmental group and half of us are in the TEFL (including me) group. We have been doing lots of exercises together. Because of this intense experience we having really bonded quickly. I will be sad when the two groups have to break off tomorrow. Last night after dinner we had a Salsa and or Bachata lesson from one of the girls in the group. It was pretty fun and entertaining. The food has been really good far. We have had a lot of chicken and beef and then rice of course. I haven't had beans yet, but that's because we are still at hotel lol. Something to look forward to!

Today we have a couple more sessions for them to evaluate our Spanish level and then we find out who are host families will be and where we will be living during training. I am pretty excited about meeting my family. I remember what I felt like meeting my family it Spain. It was pretty scary, but in the end it was a great experience. The next 11 weeks of training will be intense and very hard. We basically have to prove that we are capable of doing the job. I think that I will be able to do that but it is a little intimidating. Anyway I just wanted to give everyone an update! On the side of the screen are a few pictures that I took on my first day. We are in a city called Granada and it's very beautiful. It's an old colonial town with lots of colorful building and old churches. There is also a lake called Lake Nicarauga (clever)

I will try and blog as much as I can. I wanted to take advantage of the free internet here at the hotel. Ok well I will probably have an entry sometime next week!

Adios