Chin City

Greetings from Chinandega! It's been a while! I figured I should finally sit down and give you the update I’ve been procrastinating so well at posting. To be honest, as major holidays and events would pass, I would tell myself “Ok, now that you’ve done that, let’s write a blog post,” and then I would think, “Or I can wait until after Thanksgiving/La Purísima/Christmas and then post it,” and so it went until well after New Years. Well enough’s enough! Here is how things have gone since move-in November 2^nd (has it really been that long?)

Where did we leave off? I left for site on November 2nd. Since then I have taught English to high school students as well as teachers, swam in the Pacific Ocean, killed a tarantula, climbed a volcano, got a puppy, worked two summer camps and overall discovered that Chinandega is pretty much the perfect site for me. I think my bosses are very good at what they do; their choice was dead-on.

I am working with three counterparts: Henry, McDonald and Alejandro. A reminder of what a "counterpart" is: they are the current Nicaraguan English teachers we are matched with to co-plan and co-teach in the public high schools for two years. From a sustainability perspective, it would make no sense for me to walk into a classroom, kick the current teacher out and teach the class by myself. With the counterparts working with me, I can co-teach with them and in doing so introduce newer methodology as well as improve their English fluency that will in turn effect the future in a positive way. 

Despite already being paired with three counterparts, I also have the option to branch out and work with other teachers if I choose to. Obviously my primary focus is to Henry, McDonald, and Alejandro, however one lucky aspect of my job here is that I am in a department (we all remember what departments are right? They’re like the “states” of the country. Chinandega is one, and the capital city of the department is Chinandega. So I’m in Chinandega, Chinandega) with some of the most motivated and skilled English teachers in the nation. A lot of that is thanks to the Fundación Uno teacher-training course that takes place here every Sunday.

I mentioned Fundación Uno earlier, but here's a refresher: F1 is a very wealthy organization looking to create a capacity of skilled teachers in Nicaragua, whether it be in Math, Science, English, etc. F1 teamed up with Peace Corps and created a free program designed to improve the fluency of English teachers through a 3-year, 5-level course that once completed, would provide Nicaragua with highly-proficient English teachers motivated and prepared to provide high school students with the highest quality English education. That’s a mouthful huh? Yeah, it’s an amazing initiative though. We have 60 English teachers from all over the department come into the city every Sunday to take this class. By this time next year all the teachers will have graduated hopefully. F1 funds the course, and Peace Corps Volunteers teach the classes. My job as the coordinator of the program in Chinandega is to work out all the kinks and makes sure everything runs smoothly.

All of that said, the past two months have been our "summer vacation." The academic year in Nicaragua starts in February and ends in late November, early December. Also, there are only two seasons here, rainy and dry; the Nicaraguans associate the rainy season with winter, May-October, and the dry season with summer, November-April. Thus, we are currently in summer. I've been able to keep busy though and a huge part of that is thanks to the holiday season. This is a beautiful time of year in Chinandega because it's not too hot, and the overall morale of the city is high because everyone is on summer vacation! I have definitely taken advantage of the time off. Here's what I've been up to:

Thanksgiving:

The Saturday before Thanksgiving a group of us volunteers got together in a hostel in León for a "Freindsgiving" potluck we all chipped in for. It was a blast to see everyone and enjoy some good old American food (and some Mexican - Pico de Gallo and Guacamole, wassup!)

On Thanksgiving day I was invited by my counterpart to join his afternoon class for their Thanksgiving celebration. The week before, another TEFL volunteer, Aaron, had given them a presentation teaching the history of the holiday and how Americans currently celebrate. Afterwards the class decided to all bring in food and have a little feast of their own on the 28th. I was thankful to be invited! It's only one of the many things I've been thankful for lately.

La Purísima:

La Purísima in Nicaragua is a Catholic celebration of the Virgin Mary. Catholic families create and decorate an altar with a statue of the Virgin Mary's image, and then host a series of public prayers over a course of eight to nine days leading up to the actual holiday. The "Purísima" itself is on December 8th, and takes place after what's called "La Gritería" the night before on December 7th. In front of the altar are rows of chairs for guests to sit and take part in oral prayers alternated with traditional religious songs. The picture above is my host family's altar, which attracted a pretty decent crowd for La Gritería. It is also a great excuse for fireworks, which I have quickly discovered are worshiped in Nicaragua. The Nicaraguans will look for any excuse to light off fireworks, even if you're just celebrating it being 2:00pm on a Tuesday afternoon! Why not? 

La Gritería is similar to our Halloween, only instead of going door to door saying "trick or trick," the kids sing religious songs to the virgin Mary at each family's altar in order to receive candy and/or gifts.

El Viejo, a smaller city about 10 minutes north of Chinandega hosted a Gritería that was such a spectacle it was televised! The event took place in front of the cathedral in the central park with a lineup of bands performing accompanied by traditional Nicaraguan dances - fireworks and all!

Volcán San Cristóbal:

The day we climbed San Cristóbal, the tallest volcano in Nicaragua. 1,745 meters / 5,725 feet tall.

Itinerary: Meet at 5:30am to take a taxi to the edge of the city where the road ends. Hike two hours to the base of the volcano, grab two hiking sticks, pound some water, and set off!

The peak doesn't look that far away, huh? Hah... it is. 

Taking a much needed break. 

Great view

Entering the cloud. 

Watch Patrick and David disappear

It was like being in a ghost town from some horror movie. 

Made it to the top! We were literally in the clouds. It took us four hours to get up there. 

Feeling pretty boss on top of an active volcano. (Did I mention it was active?)

The trip down was twice as fast and ten times as fun. Listen about 24 seconds in, haha I almost ate it.

Christmas: 

Scroll down to the previous blog post to see my Christmas video. I went back to visit my family from training to spend "La Noche Buena" and Christmas with them. It was a fun reunion filled with lots of food, fireworks, and puppies! Panda, the family's dog, had puppies with her novio, Pancho, the neighbors' german shepherd.

Proud parents

All of the puppies sleeping with their momma

My girl, Arya Stark Moore Jirón. She's staying at my counterpart's house because I can't have dogs at my house, so she's technically part of the Jirón family, but that makes me the crazy godfather/uncle who plays with her and brings her dog bones! 

Eating the "chompipe," (turkey) from training. I finally got my revenge!  

Reunited with my sobrinos and primos! 

New Years:

I spent New Years Eve in Chinandega with my host family: Don Mario (not pictured), Mi Mamá Alma, and mis hermanitas Nina y Mia, and mi prima Ana (not pictured). As with all Nicaraguan holidays, it was full of food, fun and fireworks! It's a tradition here to make a life-size "doll" that looks like an old man, but instead of filled with hay or cotton, it's filled with fireworks. The people set the doll on fire at midnight on New Years. Sounds safe, huh? Well hey, if it's not on fire and incredibly dangerous you're not partying hard enough here!! Haha needless to say, we rang in the new year pretty well. 

Summer Camps in January:


El Sauce

Summer camps are what I was made for. Honestly, I have never felt so in my element before. I'm extremely thankful for the experience I gained from Camp Kesem at ASU (whoop whoop!), because it taught me so much; I was that much more prepared for these camps. 


The first one was in the department of León at another volunteer, Becca's site called El Sauce. Yup, the sauce. Great name. Better place. Even better group of kids. We worked with about 30 grade-school-aged kids and split them into three groups based on their age. 

Meet:

The Red Volcanoes!

The Green Guardabarrancos! (the Guardabarranco is Nicaragua's national bird)

The Blue Lagoons! 

We had three activities running simultaneously during each block: an environmental awareness activity, English class, and working on a community mural just outside the school. Each group would start at one activity and then rotate after each block, assuring everyone participated in all three activities in one day. Throughout the camp we had 8 volunteers help out, but no less than 6 on any day. Three volunteers would act as the "team leaders" for their respective group and three more would each staff one of the three activities, therefore there were always at least two volunteers helping each group with their activity.

• Camp ran from 8-12.
• 8-8:30: initial activities as a whole group
• 8:30-9:30: Activity 1
• 9:30-10:30: Activity 2
• 10:30-11: Recess/Snack
• 11-12: Activity 3

Environmental lecture lead by volunteer Ruben!

English class!

Working on the mural!

The mural was an incredible project. It was entirely made of recycled materials held up by cement as well as a little paint. The clouds, flowers, butterflies, sun and guardabarranco bird were all made of different colored soda bottle caps, the tree was made of recycled tile and glass, and the leaves and grass were painted hand prints from the kids and volunteers. "Ama, cuida y respeta nuestra Madre Tierra" (Love, take care of and respect our Mother Earth)

My main contribution to the mural: the guardabarranco! It gives you an idea of how we used the bottle caps, tile and glass to make the design. The environment volunteers came up with the project idea. So cool! 

Summer Camps in January:

Access

The next camp was a week-long intensive English camp for the Nicaraguan high-school students participating in the US Embassy's Access program. These are the top-tier English students in public high schools from all over the country that have to apply and interview before being selected to participate. There were 250 total students and 25 Peace Corps Volunteers all staying in the Mercedes Best Western hotel in the capital, Managua. This hotel was picked for camp because of how spacious it is. It has an auditorium, individual ballrooms and open grass areas that we could all occupy for activities at camp. With as many kids as we had, the space was well utilized. We split them into seven groups and gave each one a state name from the US. We had New York, Texas, California, Florida, Kentucky, Michigan and Ohio. Guess which state I was in??

To say that the week was intense would be the understatement of the year. The kids were forced to speak in English at all times and we had English classes and activities scheduled all day from 7am until 9pm. These were high school students that ranged from 14-17 years-old, so it was imperative to keep them busy. Between English class, United States culture lessons, games like flag football and ultimate frisbee, crafts, meals, and embassy presentations, keeping busy wasn't an issue. 

The Camp Kesem songs and call-and-response activities were a huge hit.

On the last day, the United States Ambassador visited the camp, gave a short speech and presented the students and volunteers with certificates. 

With Phyllis M. Powers, the US Ambassador to Nicaragua. 

With volunteers Ellen (from Columbus, OH) and Emily (graduate of the College of Wooster, OH) and some students from the Ohio group! 

Alright! I think that's a pretty good look into what I've been up to since I arrived at site. Hope you enjoyed your trip to Chin City, up to the top of San Cristóbal, back down to "my town" Masaya, over to the Sauce, and the sneak peak into the US Embassy's Access camp in Managua. I'm going to drop you guys off here though, because the airport is in Managua, so yeah it just... makes sense. 

Sorry it took me so long to post this. I'm going to start teaching here in Chinandega next week and with a new routine I'll get better at posting more frequently. As always, I miss you guys a ton and love you more. I appreciate all the love, support, and letters! Yes I've gotten your letters! I'll send responses this time, promise! You know who you are :)

Peace and love from the land of lakes and volcanoes. 

Z