Procession in town to celebrate the fiesta partronales.

Statue of Jesus in the proccession

First communion.

Back to Nicaragua

Well I've made it back to Managua, where I will be staying for a few days for some refresher spanish lessons, and one year medical exams. I had a night return flight, which I must say is quite stunning, flying over an active volcanic landscape in the pitch dark. At first I was wondering what was on fire. This large red area seemed to be exploding with orange red flames, too bright and large to be a building. A few moments later I realized, hey!! those are volcanoes. Quite a amazing welcome back!



(I borrowed this picture from google images, I can't take credit)

Hello all!

Ive made it home for the holidays. Its almost a surreal experience. Because I when I left last year the temperature was simpler, and because nothing really ever changes here, it almost feels like Nicaragua was just a short vacation or something, because the world I'm walking back into is pretty much identical to the one I left.

Im having a hard time explaining my time abroad. As many of you know Im a cynic, and its possible I've been painting my experiences rather strongly with the negative brush. But thats really not the whole reality, as you probably know from my previous readings.

Its wonderful to be able to communicate in my native language,Im actually more of a talker now than I was before, Im just catching up! My vocab in english has become slightly diminished, but it should go back up as I need to study for the GREs (UUUGHHHH!). Another thing that I hadn't anticipated was that when you can't communicate you loose a little of your personality, so its nice to have the whole Hazel back.


Happy New year everyone. When I feel more inspired I'll write more.

So this weekend I took a well needed mini break. A friend and I are down in San Juan del Sur for a couple nights relaxing on the beach (Did I mention how sweet of an assignment Nicaragua is?). We splurged on a surfing lesson and I was standing after only a few tries. We stayed in the white wash, we actually werent ontop of any breaking waves, but I think we¨ve got a solid start. Surfing has always been something that has interested me, but never imagined myself ever doing. Its fun!
Sorry, no pictures!

I went north on friday, and helped build an oven with another volunteer. (i´ve decided that I´m now an honorary Agriculture volunteer). These ovens are really awesome because they do a few interesting things, they cut back on wood used because they are more efficient and hold heat better, are cheap to build, and last for a long time. Also the design releases less smoke, therefore reducing lung problems in the household. These ovens are constructed using bricks, an old steel drum, rebar, and mud. Cement isnt used because it doesnt hold the heat as effectivly and its expensive.

Successs!

Dec 1 is World HIV/AIDS day. I had planned activities for that day in the center of town, all of which flopped, (due to a variety of things like I had a conference and was out of town the week before, my co-leader in the health center lost her father that week, and it took 2 months for the mayor’s office to even receive my letter asking for help, let alone responding to it) so I was a little disappointed. The next day I traveled out to a rural community where I have a small, but active youth group. We´d planned a presentation in the park for 2.30 pm. (Of course that really means 3.30)
So we got set up and waited and waited, and no one came. We had maybe 5 mothers and their kids, and I´m not really sure that I wanted to give condom demonstrations to 5 year olds, not really umm... pertinent yet. So we decided to start anyway. By the end of the day we had over 100 people show up. The doctora who works in the health center came by and saved me from my terrible Spanish and helped explain how HIV works, the difference between HIV and AIDS. In my site we have 16 cases of HIV in all the communities, and have had 4 deaths this year. My part of the country has over 1000 cases, and the country as a whole has well over (I think) 8000 cases. Those numbers I think were an eye opener the town’s people. After the little presentation we had maybe an hour of games and prizes (thanks to an NGO in Managua that donated the hat, towels, condoms, etc etc). The girls and I did condom demonstrations to over 100 people, I thought it would be more embarrassing, but I learned quickly how to laugh at myself.



This was a game where we tied balloons to people feet, and they had to stomp them. When a balloon was popped the person was supposed to answer an HIV/AIDS question, but that didn’t quite work out.



Here we had a competition of two pairs to see who could put the most water in their condom. This activity is designed to demonstrate how much condoms can stretch. A commonly heard complaint against condom use is that ¨they don´t stretch enough to fit¨.



The little town’s cultural alliance performed some traditional dance for the group, and we ended the day with a dance competition.



I finally feel like my projects are working out, yesterday was a huge morale booster that was well needed.

This is the virgin mary surrounded by lilac like flowers. This is in honor of the Purisima, which is celebrated from Nov 28 until the 8th of December. I´ve been told that it is a celebration of the Virgin, and the activities focus on children. Here the children sang bible songs (this was set up in the government run health
center)and we handed out oranges, rice pudding, and candy.




Lunch, beans, rice, steamed veggies, and salad- surprisingly colourful meal!