Yeesh!

Woops... It's been more than  week since an update!  Time to make up for lost time, I guess.

Last week, the primary reason why I didn't update is because KALANI CAME TO VISIT!  Whoah, man.  It was a wonderful Monday-Friday visit.  We did all sorts of neat, tourist things such as kayaking in Lake Nicaragua, zip-lining at Volcano Mombacho, and frolicking in Managua.  It was a perfect week for him to visit because things were sloooooooooow.  No sick volunteers, no crises, no nothing, really.  Just a tranquilo week.

He left on Friday, Independence Day, and I've been missing him since!  It was so wonderful to get to see someone from home.  Very refreshing!  And it gave me a chance to feel out some of the touristy stuff that my mom and I can do when she comes in August!

Since Kalani left on Friday, things have been more or less normal.  Midterm is this Saturday, July 12, and it should be fun (sort of).  Our time this past weekend and this week has been mainly dedicated to planning for midterm.  Like most of our activities, we will be having 2--one in Granada and one in Rivas.  Cheka will go to the Rivas one, and I'll go to the Granada one.  There will be some quick activities in the morning, and then the volunteers will have the afternoon to explore Granada/Rivas (aka eat pizza and call their parents).  Midterm is always sort of stressful because the volunteers can be kind of, ahem, bratty ("The internet cafes are crowded... I want ice cream... My parents didn't answer my call...").  Plus you gotta make sure they're not buying booze to take back with them...  We'll see!  I'm pretty vigilant!

This week, after the sups left on route, has been very tranquilo.  A couple sick ones to take to the doctor, but mostly just getting stuff together for midterm and preparing the midterm evaluations for the supervisors.

Midterm is this weekend, and then the rest of the project is going to fly by.  After this week, the supervisors will have completed 4 out of 7 weeks on route.  My mom will be here a month from Sunday!

An interesting tidbit: The AMIGOS video crew is coming to our project at the very end to film footage for a new recruiting video.  That's right.  They're gonna film our tearful goodbyes.  Look forward to my presence in the new recruiting video as a professional and earnest APD taking part in a largely staged staff meeting!

I miss everyone!  <3>

Waaaacky Weeeek

Just enough time for a quick update...

Sorry that I haven't been able to update in about a week now.  This week was incredibly crazy.  Tons of sick volunteers, plus both a supervisor and a volunteer went home this week.  The adjustment to life with one less staff member has been going fine, but there has been so much to do involving the youth encuentro (which was a ton of fun!) and the sick volunteers.  My weekend involved a night at the hospital, keeping a sick one comfortable--but it ended up being one of my better nights of sleep.  As it turns out, hospitals are MUCH quieter than staff house, and their beds are MUCH for comfortable.

The encuentro went really well.  The volunteers and their youth counterparts really got into the team-building games that we played.  Everyone enjoyed lunch--pizza and tres leches cakes--and the community presentations of CBIs went well.  We were really disappointed because our partner agencies didn't give us the support that they promised us, but it all worked out in the end and we're working things out with the Ministerios.

Kristen Highum, the AMIGOS Regional Director from IO, visited our project this week, so staff house was super full.  Even with 1 fewer staff member, we had Kristen plus 2 volunteers--one waiting for her flight home on Monday and one sick one.  The volunteer who went home early has been in staff house since Wednesday, and the earliest flight that IO could get her one was on Monday.  So, now it's Monday morning, and it's definitely nice to have one fewer house guest.  The sick volunteer is going back to her community today, and the supervisors are out on route.  It's fun to have everyone around the house on weekends, but it's always nice to have a quiet house again at the beginning of the week, however dirty the house may be...

One other interesting tidbit of news: Kalani is coming to visit today!  WOOHOO!  It'll be SO nice to see someone from home.

I am a bit weary after the LOOOOOONG week and even LOOOOOOOONGER weekend.  I miss everyone. Pazzzzzzzz,

Sigo marchando...

Time marches on!

It's Friday, and the supervisors are trickling back into the house after their first week on route.  They seem to be, overall, pretty upbeat and relaxed.  Cheka went to meet the Rivas supervisors in Rivas for their weekly meeting with the Ministry of Health to go over project progress, plan for the weeks ahead, and troubleshoot if need be.  I'm here in Granada, working on planning our youth encuentro, and getting ready for the meeting with the Ministry of Health in Granada at two.  Because we work in two states, we meet with state Ministry officials in each state on Friday.  It's looking like Cheka and I will try to switch off between the two meetings so that our contacts can get to know both of us.  All three of the Granada supervisors are home from route and just relaxing before the meeting.

This week went pretty well.  We took a couple volunteers to the doctor, all for bug bite related problems (aka very minor), and spent the rest of our time getting ready for the youth encuentro (roughly translates as encounter) that we will be hosting next week on June 26.  We are, again, having two encuentros--one in Rivas and one in the Granada.  They will be one day events where volunteers bring the youth counterparts with whom they are working in their towns to the city for the day to participate in team-building activities and a CBI workshop.  As many of you already know, the CBI is the Community Based Initiative, a sustainable community-based project that the community is interested in developing and sustaining.  Every community has a budget of approximately $350.  Examples of past CBIs include community gardens, community centers, sports teams, sewing cooperatives, improvement to the health clinic in the town...

Every town is supposed to have their CBI solicitude ready by the encuentro (after two weeks in community), which means that if we're lucky, half will have theirs ready.  Those who don't have their solicitudes should at least have an idea.  We're thinking of doing an activity where each community makes a poster of their community and CBI idea and presents it to the group.  We'll have experts from the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education on hand to give advice, troubleshoot, and help with ideas on where to solicit additional donations.  We did something similar in Panama last year, and it worked very well except the group was a little too large.  Because we are splitting into regions for the encuentro, it should be a more manageable number of people.

In the morning, we're planning on team-building activities and maybe route competitions.  Something fun and a way to win cool prizes like soccer balls and art supplies for the communities.  Then, we'll have lunch and segue into the CBI activity.  That's the plan anyway...

So we spent the week planning these encuentros, reserving the venues, planning the food, etc... We have a pretty generous budget, so we're hoping to buy some cool prizes!

Yesterday, I went to Managua to take out money from the bank and go grocery shopping.  We had to take extra money from the bank to give to Jesse, the Chontales Project Director, because he wasn't able to set up a bank account.  So, we spent the afternoon with him, had a nice lunch, and bought cheddar (!!) and cereal from the big grocery store in Managua.  Jesse was in town to pick up a 2-day-late Taylor Martin (Austin Chapter vol).  Poor kid...  But he finally made it!

Today, I've been taking care of things from home that needed to be done.  Calling UT about my financial aid, paying my credit card, talking to my future roommates about things to be bought for the fall.

Now, I'm planning a nice turkey sandwich with fresh juice for lunch.  And I'm going to bake a cake to surprise the sups this evening, I think.  Should be fun!

Keep in touch with me.  I love hearing from everyone.  PAZ!

A Few Pictures

Lake Nicaragua

Staff house living room

The yellow cathedral in the main square of Granada

One of the routes heading to communities in typical AMIGOS fashion

A street in Granada, with Volcan Mombacho in the background

Our beautiful staff house!  #109 Calle el Almendro

Making Jane's Eyes Light Up

PHEW!  I can't believe briefing is ALREADY over and the volunteers are in their communities.  Time sure is flying by.

The volunteers arrived late in the evening on Wednesday, June 11.  After a full morning of running errands to get everything put together for briefing, I went to Managua with Cheka and two of the supervisors to wait for the volunteers at the airport.  The rest of the staff went to the briefing sight, Casa de Retiros Tepeyac, to set up and await our arrival.

All but one of the volunteers (missed flight!) arrived at about 7:00 PM and blue-AMIGOS-polo clad adolescents took over Managua.  I spent most of the hour or so that it took them all to get through customs scurrying around, sending the volunteers in the right direction, and trying to figure out the lost luggage situation.  As per the AMIGOS usual, 2 volunteers' suitcases didn't come in, so I spent the better part of the next 3 days making calls to try to figure it out...

Anyway, so we crammed all 54 volunteers on the bus plus a couple of supervisors and we were off to Tepeyac.  Cheka and I, naturally, rode behind the bus in the luggage truck.  The Ministry of Health was kind enough to donate this transport for us, so it gives us some nice buffer room in the budget, not having had to pay for volunteer transport.

The volunteers were so pooped that night at Tepeyac.  We just had dinner, did some quick introductions, and went to bed.

The briefing sight was absolutely gorgeous.  It is a sort of meditation center owned by a bunch of nuns in the mountains outside of Granada.  It was significantly higher in altitude and therefore significantly cooler in temperature, and there were monkeys in the lush, green trees.  Needless to say, the volunteers were enamored.

We started with out briefing activities early in the morning on Thursday.  Thursday was a pretty fun day, packed with Nicaragua-specific activities and typical AMIGOS things.  I wouldn't know, of course, because I had the fun task of going to Managua that day to pick up the late volunteer and try to get the lost luggage worked out.  I left at about 10 AM and came back at about 5--the volunteer's flight ended up being several hours late and the luggage ordeal turned into quite the fiasco.  Good thing I brought my book!

It was really surprising how well behaved the volunteers were.  Usually there are some homesick ones at briefing, plus a few who are convinced they have malaria or dengue because of a few soft stools on their second day in country.  Not this group!  They were all such troopers!

Thursday night, staff stayed up late for  couple hours to figure out partnership assignments.  All of the supervisors were pretty mature about it, understanding that they can't have EVERY volunteer that they want on their route and accepting that they have to take a couple of the weird ones for the sake of the team.  During the day, staff had conducted interviews to ascertain Spanish levels and preferences, so we made sure to put at least one functional Spanish speaker in every town.  I think we did a pretty good job.

On Friday morning, the volunteers played a game to figure out their partners and routes, and there were no tears, which is, again, amazing.  What a good group of volunteers!

Friday was packed with presentations from our partner agencies and route and partnership bonding.  All of the volunteers got to hear about their communities and host families in depth--this is one the most fun times!

Henry Greeley came and did a 45 or so minute presentation about working with rural Nicaraguans, Nicaragua history and politics, and general advice from the viewpoint of a past AMIGOS volunteers and one-year Nica resident.  The volunteers had a ton of questions for him, and they seemed to really enjoy the presentation.  On their evaluations of briefing, several volunteers named his talk among the most interesting and useful activities!

Saturday morning, all of the volunteers left for their communities!  We had all of them gone from the briefing sight by 11, which has got to be some sort of AMIGOS record, given that it's generally an all-day affair.  Briefing was fun, but it's good to have them GONE.  Now the summer can really finally start!

It's Sunday afternoon and the house is full of sweaty supervisors, their shoes, and about a million dirty cups.  It's fun to have everyone around, but 9 people in a house is a lot!  I'm ready for the sups to head out on their first week of route tomorrow. :)

I'm healthy and happy, and I love hearing from everyone from home!  The two Austin Chapter volunteers are doing really well--very optimistic and excited.

Life is good!

Victór, Tres Leches, and Jeitinho

Rats!  It sure is HOT here!  No amount of fans blowing in my face can cure it.

The supervisors got home from survey today.  They all seem like they had a pretty good time, aside from the usual complaints about the food ("Rice and beans are soooooo awful!") and a few problems here and there.  They all seem to have done OK Spanish-wise, which is definitely good.

Cheka and I spent the 4 days while they were gone running MORE errands (they never end), meeting with more contacts (also neverending), and planning the training days that we are going to have on Monday.  On Monday, 2 youths from every town along with 1 contact from the health center and 1 contact from the school in every town, will come to Granada or Rivas, depending on their location, for a training workshop that staff is going to facilitate.  It's just a short morning meeting to give them more information about AMIGOS, our mission, our goals, and to discuss how the volunteers will be working with  youth in the health centers and schools.  It should be fun?

Now, on to Victor.  Victor is our landlord and he loooooooves us.  Loves us to the point of dropping by all the time to "check in," and staying for long conversations about anything and everything.  He's super nice and he would do ANYTHING for us, which is great, but he really is, frankly, a pain in the neck.

"Oh, hey, I just wanted to see how you guys handled the rain storm last night."

"Oh, hey, I brought you a piece of Tres Leches cake from the bakery in the neighborhood where my dad lives."

"Oh, hey, I just wanted to see if my electricity bill from last month came."

"Oh, hey, I just wanted to..."

You get the picture.  And every time he comes over, it turns into an hour long discussion of the cultural interchange between Nicaraguans and Americans.  He promises to get an email address so we can all keep in touch when we leave.  Great.  And he's already planning the recuerdos he is going to give us at the end of the summer to remember Nicaragua.  Again, great.  It's not creepy or anything, this dude is just nonstop.  One time, he even demanded that Meredith get him water.

"MARISOL!  AGUA!  POR FAVOR!"

Now, we just offer him water when he shows up to avoid that awkward moment again...

Everything else is just settling into the routine.  We are getting ready for the training workshops on Monday and planning volunteer briefing, as the 55 volunteers arrive in less than a week, on June 11!

Cousin Henry Greeley, Amigos veteran and current Peace Corps volunteer in Nica, will be coming to the volunteer briefing to discuss culture, history, working with rural Nicaraguans, etc.  That should be cool, and it will definitely be fun to see Henry.  I'm going to try to get out to his community where he's living by the end of the summer.  It should be easy enough to slip away for a day (and maybe a night!) sometime during the week when the supervisors are out on route.

We just installed a really loud doorbell.  Well, it's not actually a doorbell.  It's a SCHOOL BELL, attached to a doorbell ringer by the front door.  I sure am pissed at Meredith for thinking THAT was a good idea...

The next couple of days are going to be CRAZY busy.  So much to do to get ready for the training workshops on Monday and volunteer briefing, beginning on Wednesday.  Briefing will last until Saturday, when the volunteers will head out to their communities.  Forgive me for being frank, but that day cannot come soon enough!  Briefing is always so crazy, and it's such a relief to send them out to their communities!

Huzzah! BYE!

Internet, finally!

Sorry for the long break.  Things have been crazy busy.  Too busy to fit in the internet cafe.  The good news is, of course, that today we had wireless internet installed in our beautiful orange house.  We are so cool and high tech.

It's so nice to have a couple minutes to sit down and relax.

Last week, after moving into the house, we had meetings with partner agency contacts in Managua, broke about a million Nicaraguan laws to set up our bank account, and prepared for the arrival of the supervisors on Saturday.

On Saturday morning, I went to go pick up the first batch of 3 supervisors at the Managua airport and took them back to Granada on public transportation with their huge amounts of luggage.  A pretty funny sight.

The other 3 supervisors arrived in the evening, and Cheka went to pick them up and take them home.

On Sunday and Monday, Cheka and I facilitated project supervisor briefing, a 2 day period where we catch them up to date on everything that we've been doing so far.  The sups have a really positive vibe going so far, and they all seem really excited about the summer.

Today, Tuesday, they left on town survey, that super scary period where they visit each community to tell everyone about the program, set up a host family, and arrange a food schedule for the volunteers.  I went with the 3 Granada supervisors to find their communities, introduce them to contacts in their communities that have not hosted volunteer previously, and send them off on their way.

The Ministry of Health gave us a ride, and I got a real cute sunburn on my shins from sitting in the back of the truck.

All of the communities we visited today were absolutely beautiful.  We're talking right on the shores of Lake Nicaragua, a lake so big that it looks like the ocean.  It's incredible.

I know the supervisors were really scared, but it's natural and they'll get over it.  It's a really scary thing to scamper off into the Nicaraguan campo by yourself, speaking only Spanish, and expecting to set up EVERYTHING for the volunteers.  They have to meet with the schools and set up times for the volunteers to teach, meet with contacts at the health centers and set up times for the volunteers to work, find youth counterparts to work with the volunteers, find out all kinds of information about the community (population, social resources, etc...), confirm emergency procedures.... The list goes on!  They spend a night in each community with the new host families, which means that they'll be back on Saturday.  Ahhh...  5 days of a quiet house.  Yes!

Anyway, the supervisors will be fine.  I had a big of a nervous breakdown the first day of my first time on survey, and it's normal.  I've done it twice now, both times I was a supervisor, and it turned out to be super fun and rewarding.  Sort of a special time to get to know the community before the volunteers arrived.  These supervisors definitely have shaky Spanish, which might affect their experience, but I know they'll get through.

In the mean time, Cheka and I will be enjoying the quiet house.  Tomorrow, it's off to Managua for some more meetings with national contacts at the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health.  Maybe even some bulk grocery shopping in the capital city.  Yeah, my life's pretty exciting these days.

I love you all.  Keep in touch with me!