After a rough start to my trip, my week was full of eye
opening moments and advice that made everything worth it. I stayed with a
volunteer who is about to leave around the time that we begin our service. She
was so helpful and encouraging.
As I arrived I was greeted by about five pigs in the front
yard playing in the mud that covered every inch because of the rain. The
volunteer lives in an apartment that she rents next to her “host mom.” It’s a
pretty ideal situation because she has her own space to cook and live, but can
interact with her host family when she wants to. She has five chickens, her own
fridge and stove (not necessarily a given in Nicaragua), a hammock a pretty
comfy cot that serves as a couch, and best of all a very plush bed. Most volunteers
recommend that with your moving allowance you invest in a good bed. Many of
those provided aren’t too comfortable and most volunteers find it a worthwhile
investment for two years of peaceful sleeping. Oh the things you learn from
current Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs)…
Because of my transportation mishap, I arrived at around
three o’clock on Monday afternoon. We mostly chatted, ate a late lunch, went
shopping for vegetables at a local shop, and did what all Nicas do, sat around
for hours and hours. From the moment I stepped off the bus the beauty and
quaint nature of the town captured my attention. It was also wonderful to see
that when we walked down the street many community members, including children,
greeted the volunteer. That is the feel that I hope to have in my own
community.
Her town sits in the northern part of Leon, one of the
departments in Nicaragua. It is decently sized, though I have no idea what the
actual population is. Nestled in the high hills, it is a warm city with a few
farms on the outskirts and a river nearby. When I say warm I mean that Leon is
known as one of the two hottest regions in Nicaragua. Luckily, it is the rainy
season and I have yet to experience any extreme heat.
We had a lot of fun cooking (I was so happy to eat lots of
fresh fruits and veggies!) and I simply enjoyed hearing about life as a
volunteer. In the evening two sixth graders showed up at the door asking for
help on their English homework. Really they were asking for the volunteer to
translate their homework for them. Being a teacher, she sat them down, handed
them a dictionary, and said “I will help you but I will not do your homework
for you.” I was happy to see that she had become a resource for people within
the community even outside of her classroom and traditional role as an
Environmental volunteer. There is a lot more overlap between PC sectors than I
ever thought before arriving in country. Most volunteers end up teaching or
tutoring English somehow simply because it is needed within the community.
Tuesday brought more exploring because there were still no
classes due to Independence Day break and even the library was closed so she
did not have her normal youth group. We couldn’t even work on the stove project
she had originally wanted to show me because she had lent her tools to the high
school and it was also locked up for the vacation time. So we walked to her
rural school, about a 20-minute walk outside of town getting to see more
beautiful landscapes along the way. It is amazing how much time exploring,
buying certain products, and simply chatting with a neighbor can take. This is
the part of service where the volunteers have all the time in the world. That
afternoon we baked and hauled bricks across town to prepare for the stove
project we would work on the next day.
Wednesday we woke up early to head to the high school. The
volunteer I stayed with works with seven different teachers in addition to
other projects in her town. She is an elementary teacher in the U.S., which helped
me understand why she was heavily involved with teaching. We are only required
to work with four teachers and projects above and beyond that are optional,
though I have yet to meet a volunteer who does not do work outside of the
classroom.
Back to my visit: We were helping to teach the equivalent of
a practical skills class so we taught the high school class to bake bread. I
mostly observed for this lesson as I was still trying to get a feel for the
class and have little experience baking bread. It was interesting to see how
the gender roles played into this class because the girls were participating
openly and the boys were very timid, even when they were given a simple task. I
think that is probably similar in a home-ec class in the U.S., but here the
boys (including the male teacher) are pretty heavily against having to do any
type of cooking even though it is included in the curriculum.
Next on our list was a visit to her rural school where she
teaches a multi-grade class of 4th, 5th, and 6th
graders. There are only 15 students in the class when attendance is full, so it
was a very different view of education in Nicaragua from what I have seen so
far. We did a basic lesson on animals including two games to get the kids
animated on the subject. I helped to teach the class and overall enjoyed that
experience.
After having vegetarian lasagna for lunch (so yummy!) we
headed out to work on the stove. Many Nicaraguans cook on an outdoor stove and
develop lung or breathing problems due to smoke inhalation. Peace Corps
volunteers in the Environment sector (as well as other sectors) have the
opportunity attend a training in which they learn to build efficient stoves
that help to trap the heat so that less wood can be burned in cooking. The
stoves also include a chimney to funnel the smoke in order to avoid health
problems. When used properly, these stoves have the potential to decrease wood usage,
which in turn can help with the deforestation problem in Nicaragua.
The end where I'm working is where the chimney goes as well as the hole for a warming pot. On the bottom end of the picture is where the wood goes in and the little square is where the pot will sit above the fire to cook.
The old stove
The base for the stove
The bricks are made in her town so that helps to keep the
cost low. They also use a clay mud and hay for binding materials between
bricks. However, because most people do not want or cannot afford to pay for
hay, they acquire horse or cow manure from farmers and that is mixed with the
mud to work well for a binding material. I became quite a professional at brick
laying, using precise measurements and a level while the volunteer cut some
bricks so that they would fit our shape. It is a large rectangular form with
two places for cooking, one over the fire and another for warming. We did not
have the chance to complete the top because her mold for laying the cement
piece was stuck at the high school because she lent it to them and no one could
find the key when we asked about it. It was still a great experience to see a
project with physical results and feel that accomplishment.
I really wasn’t ready to head back to Diriamba after a week
of experiencing volunteer life. Though I know I still have much to learn in
terms of technical training, I am not concerned about my Spanish and I think
that makes me anticipate life as a volunteer. I can see how being in a town
three hours from the nearest city could feel quite isolating and lonely at
times, but I am just so excited for the independent lifestyle as well as the
connections I will make in the community. Because Diriamba is such a big town I
have pretty much given up on making any lasting connections here. However, I am
set with the tools and determination to make things work when I head to my
actual community. We have also been told that many of us will head to quite
rural sites, which I am ok with at this point. My mind is still very open in
terms of site placements and it was encouraging to hear from multiple
volunteers that whether or not you love your site from the beginning, everyone
is very happy with where they are at after a while.
So now it’s back to training and a heavily scheduled
lifestyle of intense activities. We’re about halfway through and time feels
like it is going pretty fast, so that is definitely encouraging. It is not that
I am unhappy in training so much as I think this lifestyle is extremely
exhausting. I know the challenges I will face during my service are no less and
may in fact be more intense, but they will indeed be different from this life
with little free time and minimal freedom. On the bright side, I am very
excited about what I will be doing over the next two years!
Week 6 here we come!
Note: I have omitted the volunteer’s name for her privacy; I
apologize for the awkward wording.
No comments:
Post a Comment