Moving Right Along

So the school year is started and in full swing. I am working with 7 teachers this year and about 200 students. With each of my 7 teachers I give class once a week on natural science and environmental topics. This year I am working with two 3^rd grade classes, one 4^th grade class, two 5^th grade classes, and a 3^rd-4^th multi-grade class and a 5^th-6^th multi-grade class. So far this year I have made compost with 3 classes (the older students) and have done a small scientific experiment with the 3^rd grade students. They are learning what happens when you put some bean seeds in a small jar with cotton balls and water. They have to observe and write what they observe in their notebooks.

I am really trying hard to remember all of the student’s names this year, at least a lot harder than I tried last year, but it is hard to remember the names of 200 students when you only see them once a week. I have the names down for about 4 of my classes and hopefully in the next couple of months I will have them down for the other 3 as well. I thought I would give you an example of some of the names down here. Here is a list of some of the more unusual names below with the pronunciation in parenthesis.

Jendry (Yen-dree) girl

Xochilth (So-chil) girl

Geyner Hey-nair) boy

Lieven (Lee-ev-an) girl

Arelis (Are-ray-lee) girl

Breysi (Bray-see) girl

Sugeyda (Sue-hay-da) girl

Ederin (Ed-are-een) boy

Yordi (Your-dee) boy

Maybelin (My-ba-leen) girl

Crisnayeris (Crees-na-yer-ee) girl

Yescarleth (Yes-scar-let) girl

Jadier (Ha-dee-air) boy

Erlin (Air-leen) boy

Johaster (Yo-haster) boy

Breyner (Bray-nair) boy

Yubelda (You-bel-da) girl

Silenis (See-len-ese) girl

Aycer (Aye-sare) boy

Rosalba (Rose-alba) girl

Dinamar (Deena-mar) girl

Belkis (Bell-keys) girl

Yasmir (Yaz-meer) boy

Jusbeni (Whos-benny) girl

Dimas (Dee-muhs) boy

Lesyenia (Les-yen-ee-a) girl

Kenyi (Ken-yee) girl

Obeth (O-bet) boy

Deysis (Day-sees) girl

On another note, I finally saw Concepcion erupt. I was on the bus on my way to Moyogalpa and looked out the window just as it started to erupt. I was very excited because it has been acting up in the last few months but I hadn’t seen it do anything yet. So when I got off the bus I watched for a while. Some other people were watching too, but most of them didn’t really seem too concerned about it and just went on with their day. Hopefully I will be able to see it if it erupts again and will have my camera with me!

A Little Activity on Concepción

So starting last month in December Concepción Volcano has decided to act up a little bit. I was very surprised one weekend when I was checking out some volcano news and there was a story about the volcano erupting. At first I thought it was a mistake because I knew nothing about it. No one mentioned an eruption. Then I kept on reading and found out it was only a small eruption of gas and ash that reached about 150 meters above the volcano. It would be easy to miss, especially for me since I cannot see that volcano from my house. Too many mango trees in the way.

Since then the volcano has let out gas and ash a few more times. I have not seen any of them. Once, I went to the Hacienda to check my email, and some tourists drove up saying that the volcano was erupting. I went down to the docks with them to watch the volcano, but there were clouds and it was difficult to tell if it really was doing something. Every once in a while I would see a small cloud that looked like it was darker then the others, maybe full of ash, but who knows. Everyone left and I kept watching for a while, but didn’t notice anything more. I went home and got my camera and went down to the lake to watch for a while longer, but still nothing.

The photos below were taken by a high school student, a kayak guide at my host brother’s hotel. I believe the pictures were taken on January 27.

I have firm orders for one of the volunteers who lives nearer to Concepción to call me if she ever sees the volcano acting up.

Oh and classes just started February 1. Wish me luck with the new school year!

Ten Months Left To Go

So after a wonderful trip home for the holidays where I got to spend time with friends and family, play in the snow, and eat my favorite foods, I am now back in Nicaragua, feeling recharged and counting down. That’s right, counting down. At first I felt bad about counting down, as if I don’t like it here and can’t wait to leave. But it’s not that I don’t like it here, I like it a lot and I’ve met some really great people and seen some amazing sights, it’s just that I like it better back home and I’ve decided that there is nothing wrong with that. Some people come into the Peace Corps and just absolutely love their new country and it fits them and they don’t want to leave. I am not one of those people. So I will be counting down, not in an I have exactly 232 days left sort of way, but in I have about 10 months left, 9, 8, 7 etc.

But anyways, I am back and ready to start my second school year. School starts on February first. Next week all the parents will be coming to the school to sign their kids up for classes and to help clean up the school yard which is currently full of leaves and branches from the last couple months and the ridiculously strong winds we had last week. The winds were so strong that they had to shut down the ferries a few times. When I returned to the island the water was pretty rough and I think it was the worst boat ride I’ve had yet. Unfortunately I have to leave the island again on Monday, but the winds seem to have calmed down for now.

Back with my host family things continue as usual. The pig just had piglets, 8 of them, and they are very cute. The kids took me to their farm to show me the new baby cows, one male and one female. For some reason the kids like to touch the little bull’s balls. They think it is funny. I keep asking them why they do it and they just shrug their shoulders and laugh. Weirdoes.

Since I’ve been back I’ve mostly been planning out the things I want to accomplish this year. I have a lot of plans in the school and I also plan on starting my fieldwork soon. I plan on doing a study of Maderas volcano in my backyard. Mostly I will be doing some age-dating which means I need to hike up and down and around the volcano and look for old lava flows to beat up and take samples from. It should be fun and hopefully I will see more wildlife.

While 10 months is a lot less than the 27 months I had to start out with, it is still a bit of time, so please continue to stay in touch. Emails or letters are always great to get with comments or questions or stories about how things are going for all of you back home.

Happy New Year to all!

On another note:

Dear Ants,

How do I hate thee? Let me count the ways.

I hate how you are everywhere all the time, even crawling on me. Your ubiquity is irritating.

I hate how you seem to magically march up in swarms from little holes you somehow make in the middle of my concrete floor. How do you do that? It shouldn’t be possible.

Some of you are big and black and only come out at night, some of you are teeny tiny and sort of brown and transparent looking and I am sure I have accidentally eaten more of you than I ever want to know about, and some of you are bigger than teeny tiny but aren’t that big and you move sort of sluggishly and are always in my kitchen.

I hate how you, the in between teeny tiny and big ones, always bite my toes and feet and occasionally my hands when I am hanging laundry or walking to the bathroom or just sitting at my table. It stings. A lot. And you should be ashamed of yourself. I am just minding my own business.

I hate how you keep trying to make my home your home. You have tried moving into my tennis shoes, my toothbrush holder, my CD case, my clothes and under my laundry basket. It is beyond rude and I wish you would just stay outside where you belong. I don’t try moving into your house.

If you would just leave me alone I would stop sticking little rocks and sticks into the openings of your abodes to watch you remove them. I would no longer have to sweep you outside with the broom or spray around my kitchen with Raid. I would leave you be.

I hate how sometimes I think you guys are actually pretty cool. Like when I accidentally drop a larger piece of food and later see a bunch of you all working together to take it home. I sometimes even feel bad when, once you get it outside, the dog eats it before you can make it there.

So I am begging you, please, for the next few months, let me be.

Sincerely,

Me

So, unbelievably, I only have a year left in Nicaragua. Time here is going by so fast. I can’t believe I’m halfway done. The school year will be done by the end of the month. I will be ending all my classes this year with some fun games and activities.

I hope that I have made a difference with some of my teachers this year. I’m aware of some of the mistakes I’ve made and some things that I need to do better next year. Part of me is excited for the next school year (which starts in February) because I think it will go a lot better than this first year. However, I am still constantly frustrated by the school system here. I accept that they have a different mindset about school. But I still can’t help but get frustrated at times. I had a class this week where I gave them a little quiz at the end of class to see if they had actually learned what I was teaching. It was a little true and false quiz that they were supposed to do on their own, but many of them were talking with their neighbors about the quiz and one kid would shake his head yes if the question was true and no if it was false to help out the other kids. I kept telling them to stop talking and making motions but they paid no attention and their teacher didn’t do anything. I find this really frustrating because many kids here only barely pass from year to year and they do so by cheating and not actually learning. And it makes it hard for me to assess if I am doing a good job if I don’t actually know how many kids understand the material.

But one of my goals for next year is to give a class to the teachers at the beginning of the school year to help with classroom management and go over different participatory education techniques. Hopefully this will help a little, especially with the teachers I am going to work with.

Below are a few photos from some of my recent classes.

Dina and Yescarleth thinking about how they are going to decorate their cards that they made by recycling paper.

He's making a Christmas tree out of leaves on his card.

He is also making a Christmas tree out of leaves.

She still hasn't decided.

One of my new favorite pictures. I don't think he liked the flash. :o)

These are the kids in one of my third grade classes showing off the cards they made using the recycled paper that they made.

One of the kids from my 3rd-4th multi-grade class making a volcano.

Group 1 with their volcano.

Group 2 with their volcano.

Group 3 with their volcano.

Unfortunately the eruptions were very undramatic. I think that the vinagre they have here is really weak and didn't react well with the baking soda.

Me and my 3rd-4th multi-grade class.

My Favorite Day of the Week

So I've decided that Tuesday afternoons are one of my favorite times of the week. I have to go to San Ramon, a town that is about 5km away on Tuesday afternoons to work in the schools there. The bike ride there is usually hot and sunny and I end up at the school all sweaty and gross and so I usually get there about 20 or 30 minutes early so I can cool down a little. I give my first class to the 3rd and 4th graders, wait through recess either talking with the teachers or talking with the kids or just watching the kids play baseball or soccer, and then I give my other class to the 5th and 6th graders. On a side note, last week I talked to some of the kids about why I hadn't seen one of the student's for a quite a while. "She has a boyfriend now" was the reply that I got. Yeah. I was unclear if maybe that was code for she's pregnant, but I feel like the kids here are frank enough to tell me that, so apparently she has a boyfriend now and no time for school. I was a bit sad to hear that but I feel like it was also because she didn't like her teacher very much and didn't want to be there.

But anyways, my favorite part of the day is when I ride my bike home, especially now, at this time of the year, when the sun goes down just a little bit earlier. I ride home when the sun is lower in the sky and usually streaming through the clouds over the lake creating beautiful rays of light. Birds line the docks and rocks around the edge of the lake as I ride out of San Ramon; cormorants and egrets and other birds I can't name. As I look towards the volcano I can see a waterfall lit up about halfway down. This time of day is usually granted a small breeze that makes the ride home cooler. I hardly pass any people and listen to the water lapping at the shore, the birds singing, and sometimes the monkeys howling. I always end up feeling really glad and lucky to be here on these days, like I am living on an island paradise.

Overdue Update

Okay, so it’s been a while since I’ve written. Here is the update on my life for the past few months:

1. I spent August and September mostly on the island working at my schools. I work with 6 different teachers once a week. I work with two 3rd grade classes, two 5th grade classes, a multi-grade 3rd-4th grade class and a multi-grade 5th-6th grade class. The purpose of our work with the teachers here is to show them different participatory methods that they can use in the classroom. First we are supposed to observe them for a couple months, then we are suppose to model for them the different techniques, then we are supposed to co-teach with them and help them incorporate these methods, and then we are supposed to observe them again at the end and give them feedback. Right now I am still in the modeling stage with most of my teachers. I had started co-teaching with a couple of them but then I got sick and it sort of got sidetracked.

2. That’s right. I got sick. Again. I’m not sure if everyone who is reading this knows but back in June and July I had what we believe was malaria. I got treated for it and started feeling a whole lot better. Then, about 3 weeks ago I went into Managua for our annual medical exams that we are required to do by the Peace Corps. I decided to stay a second day in Managua and get some work done at the Peace Corps office. I started working, although I wasn’t feeling very well. By the afternoon I had a fever and so I went to the medical office and they said they thought I might have dengue. I thought to myself, “no way.” But I ended up in Managua all week with all the symptoms of dengue and the last day there we took another blood test that confirmed that’s what I had. I have to say it was a pretty unpleasant experience and I hope not to get it ever again, but there is currently a dengue outbreak in the country so everyone cross your fingers that I don’t catch a different strain because it is supposed to be much worse the second time around. Mosquitoes: 2 points

3. Just two days after getting back to the island after having been sick I headed out to Chontales, a different department or state, in Nicaragua. I went to visit with another volunteer to get help with classroom management techniques, since I have been having some trouble with this. She gave me some pointers and I got to see another part of the country. Chontales is quite beautiful (although not as beautiful as the island, of course) with green rolling hills and lots of cows (it is cowboy country). We worked on classroom management, ate some good food, went on some walks through the countryside, and played crazy 8’s with her boyfriend. Overall it was a nice, relaxing trip, and fun to get away from the island for a few days.

4. Following this week visiting another volunteer, I got a visitor. The new group of environmental volunteers to Nicaragua has arrived and it was their turn to visit a volunteer for a week. They sent one to me and we spent the week talking about Peace Corps and I tried to come up with whatever tips I could to help her out. She came along to all of my classes and helped out in one of them. We also managed to find time to hike to the waterfall in San Ramon and to kayak to Monkey Island where we saw monkeys (of course) and some beautiful birds (see pictures below).







So now I am heading off to Managua this week to give a talk to the new group of volunteers that is here and I am also working on a project to help bring more water into the community since many people here do not get water all day long and during the dry season some people don’t get any water at all. And this year is worse than normal since the rainy season hasn’t seen much rain at all.

I hope that everyone is well and enjoying the fall. I just got my plane ticket home for Christmas so if any of you are going to be in Montana at the end of December let me know!

El Rio Istian/ The Istian River

Lara's adventure down the Rio Istian with a fellow Peace Corps volunteer and a guide.


Here we are heading over the lake to the river paddling in sync.


From the other direction.


Finally we made it to the river!


Some cool trees. Most of the trees were filled with bird nests.


Your not in Nicaragua unless there are cows.


Do you see the alligator?


Our guide and a bird.

Twins.



Flying away.


Another big white bird.


Floaties on the water.


Joanna and the volcano.


An alligator!


Same one.


On our way out.


Parting Shot:

Seriously?!

So I was sitting at the school the other day during recess. I was supposed to meet with one of the high school teachers at the high school, but he had gone to the elementary school so I walked over there and was sitting at a table in front of the director’s office waiting for him to finish talking to the director. A fourth grade student came and sat down next to me and asked what my name was and I asked her hers. Then she asked me how old I was. Curious to see what she thought I asked her to guess. Bad idea. First she said 30. Okay I can handle that, I’m 26. But when I shook my head no she said in all seriousness “45?” Hopefully the Nicaraguan sun isn’t aging me that fast!

Parting Shot

Sunset on Ometepe

Lara's Attempt to Tempt You All to the Isla

Here are some new photos from around the island.


If you come to visit me you can see monkeys!



You can also see pretty waterfalls.

You can swim in a volcanic (non-thermal) spring that just happens to be the cleanest water I have seen in Nicaragua.



You can see petroglyphs! (And act them out if you want.)

You can walk out on a spit and look back and see the volcanoes on the isla.

Or you can look the other way.


Or you can see two more volcanoes to the north.


Or one volcano to the south in Costa Rica.

Or you can play with some very cute kids (and puppies).