Chinandega! Part 2

        I will officially be spending the next two years of my life living in the city of Chinandega, the capital of the department of Chinandega in Nicaragua. Each section of the map above represents a different department of the country. Each department has its capital city which is almost always the same name (ex: Chinandega, Chinandega; León, León; Masaya, Masaya, etc). I'm very excited because Chinandega is the fourth largest city in the country - population of about 122,000 residents, and I will be working in the second-largest instituto (high school) in the country - a little over 3,900 students - which is the same high school I taught at during my Practicum Week. Another side note worth mentioning that is not so positive however: it is hands down the hottest region of Nicaragua, and possibly all of Central America. Our Practicum Week solidified that fact. The amount of sweat that soaked my clothes while teaching class was laughable, and I had to go to my happy place more than a few times throughout the week. This should be quite an adventure!
        At site we are assigned anywhere between two and five counterpart teachers, current Nicaraguan English teachers, who we will be co-planning and co-teaching with for the entire duration of our service. I have three: Alejandro, Macdonald, and Henry. I met all three of them during Practicum week, and they are awesome; very knowledgeable, motivated, and receptive to the methodology we as Peace Corps Volunteers will be implementing into the classroom. I consider myself extremely lucky, and can't wait to get started.

      After I taught my solo class in Chinandega a couple of weeks ago, my boss, Greg, hinted pretty strongly that my site was going to be in a large city. Also Greg and I both observed some of the same classes together, and I mentioned to him that the heat was more funny than anything. I remember at one point teaching with my shirt so soaked that it was entirely a darker shade of red, and multiple beads of sweat were running down my face and sometimes into my eyes, that I chuckled to myself and thought how absurd my reality had become. I was able to laugh it off, and Greg told me that was a valuable trait. He said that to be able to have that attitude and laugh things off instead of letting them get me down will be crucial throughout my service.
        Between knowing I was going to a large city, and talking with Greg about my ability to handle adversity (i.e. the heat), the fact that he chose me to be the volunteer in Chinandega did not come as much of a surprise. What did come as a surprise was that one of my side projects will be acting as the coordinator of a teacher workshop put on by a partnership between Peace Corps, the US Embassy here in Nicaragua, and the organization Fundación Uno. The project is a teacher-training workshop, that is free for all English teachers in the Chinandega area. The program has six levels and works to graduate teachers over the period of three years, 25 weeks a year. Fundación Uno provides the funds and materials, the US Embassy provides the curriculum and certificates, and Peace Corps provides the teachers. As the coordinator, I will be making sure the program is running smoothly and that we have enough Peace Corps Volunteers scheduled to teach the classes every week. I feel like in order to be awarded this position, the training staff and my bosses had to recognize a certain level of leadership and capability in me; I am humbled by their decision. They've set their expectations high, and I'm ready to meet the challenge!

      I will be back in Chinandega all next week, getting to know my future host family as well as spending time with my counterparts. I can't believe training has flown by so fast! We swear in as permanent volunteers November 1st. It's coming up soon! Wish me luck guys, thanks for all your love and support - we'll talk soon!

Z

Site placement - Wednesday

       

        So on the last post when I said 14 days until we find out our sites, I meant 7 days. Wednesday is the big day! I could end up in Chinandega like in the photo above (credit to volunteer Jackie for taking it), could go to Rivas near the border of Costa Rica, all the way east to the Atlantic coast, or even just 20 minutes down the road... not to mention everywhere in between.

4 days 4 days 4 days 4 days 4 days.

Z 

Chinandega!

        I just got back to my town a couple days ago after spending a week in Chinandega, arguably the hottest department in Nicaragua, teaching, learning, laughing, and sweating my huevos off! It was hands down one of the most rewarding weeks I've had thus far here in Nicaragua. The ability to experience a new part of the country and roam around a large city with five other volunteers was incredible, but my favorite aspect of Chinandega was the high school. It is the second-largest instituto in the country. We worked with six other Nicaraguan counterpart teachers currently working in the instituto, all of whom were amazing and did a wonderful job of welcoming us into their team!
        We each taught four classes and observed three taught by the other trainees in our group. Three of the classes we taught were with our assigned counterpart, while the last one we were completely on our own. Throughout the rest of my service as a Peace Corps Volunteer I will never be allowed to teach a single other class solo; the experience by myself was only to get an idea what our counterparts have to do/deal with on a daily basis. That being said, I feel like I didn't have to "put up" with much at all. The students were extremely well behaved and receptive to the material we taught. All in all, I would be more than happy to be placed there for the next two years!

        Aside from teaching, our counterparts and students organized a Piñata for us! Bob Esponja! (Spongebob Squarepants). It was a ton of fun - and actually more difficult than I thought it would be. One student had control of the piñata and was constantly avoiding my blinded assaults on Bob Esponja.  I guess I forgot what being blindfolded and swinging a stick at a moving target felt like. Still, I got my hits in ;)

        Aside from the Piñata, we learned how to make tortillas, ate some street food around the city, took a trip to the beach, and played card games with our boss, Greg! As our APCD (Associate Peace Corps Director), Greg is pretty much the main man in charge of the TEFL sector and has a major say in what site we end up working in for our service. We all really benefited from getting to know him and vice versa. After observing one of my classes, he complimented on my energy and ability to command a classroom, and then hinted that I most likely will be placed in a bigger city here in Nicaragua... exciting! I'm going to avoid jinxing it though and go ahead and say anything is possible. (Knock on wood for me)

14 days until we find out where we will spend the next two years of our lives. Let the countdown begin!!

Talk to you all soon,

Z