October Updates

la diana- I think this word literally means reveille, but this refers to the bad for sleeping tradition of having a band of trumpets and probably some other instruments play early in the morning. Like pre-sunrise.


repollo caliente- Technically, this means hot cabbage, but it refers to the game hot potato, which we play a lot in classes and in our youth groups. Kids who want to be smart alecks will sometimes refer to it as "re-chicken" because there's a comercial here for an online english course that refers to it that way, in jest.

Somebody's been lazy about blogging. So lazy in fact, that this blog post's existence is entirely due to Hilary Clayton pointing out that I hadn't written anything in a while. I don't really have much of an excuse. I have been very busy, but not really enough to justify the length of time in which I haven't written anything. So what have I been up to this month? Cue the highlight reel.

The fiestas patronales, or the party to celebrate the Patron Saint of the town, which happens to be the Virgin Mary of the Rosary, lasted essentially the first week of October. For those with less familiarity with Latin America, the fiestas patronales are a huge deal, in both the secular and religious life of a town.

-During the course of the fiestas patronales:

-A statue of the Virgin Mary (with a baby Jesus in tow) was paraded around the town to stay at different houses during the course of the week. Then, on Sunday, there were even bigger celebrations, with a parade and traditional dances, and all kinds o music.

-On Saturday and Sunday, there was a diana at literally 4 am. And then they shot off fireworks. Not really a fan of this particular tradition.

-In front of my house (and when I say in front of my house I mean literally in the street), there was a carnival. Complete with a crazy ferris wheel, swings and other amusements. Also, there was a lot of CUMBIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.
By Sunday night, after a several of days of hearing music pretty much non stop, I was literally shaking from being exposed to noise for so long. It was not a good situation.

There was also a hipica, which was basically a big parade of horses, surrounded by drunk people. Basically, an afternoon of excellent horse watching (think gigantic Spanish stallions) and people watching (crowds of people dolled up to the nines in cowboy gear).

On Sunday evening, my fellow gringos and I went to a fiesta with live music which also featured a lot of people dressed in cowboy gear. A friend of mine attempted to teach me how to dance, which went poorly. At one point, I'm fairly sure that I accidentally punched a couple in the face while trying to manuever to a particularly fast number. Basically, my many attempts to rectify my natural lack of Latin dance ability are completely in vain.At least it's slightly better than my whistling.

The Monday after the Fiestas patronales, we had "Practicuum Week", a week of intensive teaching outside of our training towns, without the usual distractions of Spanish class, youth group and other community integration activities. Four other "TEFLero" (Teachers of English as a Foreign Language) trainees and I went to the fabulous city of Leon, to teach and learn about the volunteer experience from two current volunteers. It was a great, although stressful week. Leon is unbelievably hot, but it's gorgeous. There are 17 churches scattered throughout the city, including the largest cathedral in Central America, and there's a magnificent view of volcanoes as well. Sadly, we didn't have much time to do touristy things, although we did get to explore the cathedral. We worked with Nicaraguan teachers at 2 schools to co-plan and co-teach classes. I only got to teach 3 classes, because Leon was having a carnival and so my classes were canceled on our last day there. However, I got to observe 8 classes, at two different high schools and UNAN, the national university, which was a great experience, because giving feedback is an essential part of TEFL volunteers' job building the capacity of Nicaraguan teachers.

Best teaching moments: Doing a 50 cent (the rapper) impression to try and get the kids to understand the concept of a 50 cents coin, leading a scavenger hunt for garbage to teach about environmental issues, having groups of children draw a human body on the floor of the classroom with chalk, and managing to keep a class of 40 7th graders occupied with a rousing game of "repollo caliente" (hot potato) to teach the difference between there is and there are. We also had a great time throwing an American style barbeque for our counterpart teachers. Although it was stressful to co- plan under time constraints, in a new city, for classes we hadn't previously observed, it was still a good experience on the whole.

So for now, I'm back in my training town enjoying time with my host family, the other trainees, and the youth group and everything else. Savoring the cool mornings and evenings of Carazo, the sounds of the gigantic flock of birds landing in the trees, an unexpected rock concert, the clanging of church bells, the comforting sounds of rainy season, the whistling from the billiards hall, the arguing of the grandkids as they color, or fight over my harmonica or make a pinata...all the sensations that have come to make up my world in the last few weeks.

Tomorrow, I'm going to find out the site where I will be from the next two years. I'm excited...and terrified. I asked for a small site, somewhere slightly cooler, with as many counterpart teachers as possible to work with, without a gringo site mate in the same town, but with other volunteers nearby. We'll see if any of my requests are granted, but I'm sure I'll come to love my new site eventually.