Wow, can't believe i've been in Nicaragua a week already! For our three month training period, I´m living in a small town with 3 other volunteers, called El Rosario, in the Carazo department, which is home to about 3,000 people. My host family is awesome! Technically, I live with one grandmother, named Doña Bemilda, but in reality, her son, his wife, and their son also live with us, and the house is always buzzing with activity from other family members, friends, and other people.
The title of today´s post comes from something the country director of the Peace Corps said in our training: when trying to understand the ins and outs of a culture, you need to re-examine things that don´t make sense at first and try to understand the reason behind them. Watering dirt cuts down on the work women have to do to clean. Wearing shoes means you are always prepared to kill bugs, in addition to not getting sick.
The title of today´s post comes from something the country director of the Peace Corps said in our training: when trying to understand the ins and outs of a culture, you need to re-examine things that don´t make sense at first and try to understand the reason behind them. Watering dirt cuts down on the work women have to do to clean. Wearing shoes means you are always prepared to kill bugs, in addition to not getting sick.
Training is simultaneously harder and easier than i thought it would be. We also have a fair amount of readings to do as part of training, and of course, language practice. Since i've been lazy about blogging, i'm going to try and sum up some of my impressions of about Nicaragua, "Word of the Day" style (bringing it back from the Chile days! )rather than describing events, a lot of which aren't that relevant to anyone than peace corps trainees.
la bulla- noise
I want to describe Rosario as tranquil, but that's not exactly true. sure, the pace of things is generally pretty slow and round about, and there are maybe 10 streets in the town, but i definitely wouldn't describe it as quiet. Noises, at various times of the day, include the billiards hall next door to me, chickens, birds, wind, storms, motorcycles, horses, firecrackers, blaring speakers, and various other things.
la mosquitera- mosquito net
I don't want to say that its cushy here because that's not exactly true, but its not super hard either. i haven't been anywhere near hungry, in fact, quite the opposite. There's not always electricity or water, but theoretically, the infrastructure is there. there's wifi at a few people's houses, and there's a cyber cafe next to my house. I havent been too troubled by bugs yet, although I am knocking on every piece of wood that i can find as I write this. I haven't taken a real shower yet, but it doesn't even phase me anymore. and this is coming from someone whose greatest weakness from an environmental standpoint is her love of hot showers. It's really cool to see how quickly you can adapt to new conditions. Today for instance, I used some old plastic bottles make containers to put some of my crap in. A few weeks ago, it wouldn't have even occurred to me to do this. To be completely cliqued, its fascinating how little you need to be happy and comfortable.
la petaya- the coolest fruit ever. seriously. it is literally fuscia. Nicaraguans make refrescos with it, which is basically just fruit juice. Que rico!
la mecedora- rocking chairs
Typically weekend or weeknight activities include talking for hours on end in the rocking chairs on the "porche."
el sacuanjoche- the National Flower of Nicaragua
My host mother´s grandchildren very patiently spent hours explaining Nicaraguan flora and fauna to me.
el sangre indigenahispanoamericano
Apparently, Sandino, a nationalist revolution who fought in the 20th century used this word to describe Nicaraguas ethnic heritage as a mixture of indigenous, hispanic, and american.
It is definitely a mestizo country, and i'm really interested to learn more about the role that race plays here.
otorrinolaringologia- ear, nose and throat specialist
One of my host mom´s nietas taught me this one yesterday. It is apparently one of the longest words in the spanish language. and it sounds awesome, even though i cant really say it.
fachenta- a word roughly meaning rich, but which is a lot more playful that that.
Jamey, one of the other volunteers, gets called that a lot because his host family owns a food business and the cyber cafe. Basicallly, calling him fachento is one of our major forms of entertainment at this point.
Jamey, one of the other volunteers, gets called that a lot because his host family owns a food business and the cyber cafe. Basicallly, calling him fachento is one of our major forms of entertainment at this point.
Hi Emily! I enjoyed reading your blog and hope this finds you happy and healthy. Your comments about realizing yet again how little you need to be happy brought back memories for me of living on the top of Spruce Mtn. in Prescott AZ in the geodesic dome. We didn't have a real kitchen, and used a small fridge in a trailer outside the dome to keep a few things cold. I could very easily revert back to those days of simplicity...that was before the Internet existed!! Crazy. Love you. Stay well.
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