Dashing thru the snow...

My blog has been severely neglected for a long time. I’d like to say that it’s because I’m too busy, but that’s clearly not true because I have nothing but free time. I’ve been in site for a month now, and things are generally going well. I had to switch host families because my first host mom left for the US and the kids did not think the amount she had agreed I’d pay was enough to cover the costs. Now I’m living with the same host family as my site mate, and besides the very dungeon-like room without windows, the family is great. I can’t understand why the concrete floor in my room won’t dry after it was washed three weeks ago. It’s not dripping wet, but it’s definitely that darker color of wet concrete. As long as mold doesn’t grow on my stuff it’s fine.
Some of the fruit seeds I had dried were moldy however, which was really sad because I had spent lots of time drying them. I started a garden at the library with some of the kids who always hang out there and hopefully my seeds will grow! I think they’ve been pretty good about watering twice a day and I’ll go visit tomorrow when I get the chance. Apparently the water pump burned out and the water did not come today. We’re hoping someone will go out there and fix it, but with the holidays and nobody working, who knows when it will come back. I guess this is when you appreciate having a well instead of a faucet.
Yesterday my family and I went to a quince años. When girls turn 15 here, the family (if they can afford it) throws a huge party to celebrate. They invite all the friends and family to a dinner, where everything –tablecloths, dishes, utensils, decorations, even the Quinceñera is pink. There are 14 little girls dressed in matching pink dresses running around so that the birthday girl can be number 15 in her wedding-like gown. The one we had here had supposedly invited 350 people, which is huge. My host brother’s friend had planned the party, and they spent $100 on the cake alone! It was this ridiculous multi-tier cake with stairs to connect various parts, and they didn’t even cut the cake during the party! Apparently when there are that many guests, they save the cake and distribute it to VIPs the day after. Sure enough, a red-eyed Douglas who had not slept all night brought my host family a portion in the morning. Anyway there’s dinner and dancing, and I love how everyone (minus the evangelicals) dances in this country. It doesn’t matter if you’re old, young, man, woman, drunk, or sober –everyone loves to dance. It’s an aspect that I wish other cultures shared because it’s fun and people go home happy. What I don’t enjoy is the incredible number of drunkards at parties here. There was a guy who sat down on a plastic chair at our empty table, fell asleep, and then toppled over still asleep. I’m not going to start with the rest of the bolos, but there certainly are plenty of them, all the time.
My ongoing search for a house to rent has been tough. I’ve seen a ton of vacant houses or piezas (rooms sectioned off/mostly independent from the rest of the house), but most of them are far away from the center of town or out of my price range. An additional problem with the houses far away from the center of town is that water is distributed differently in different neighborhoods. The houses that are far away only get water at night for a few hours, whereas houses closer to the pump may have water almost all day. Bucket baths aren’t terrible, but having running water most of the day is so convenient. During the wet season there’s always water, but then during the dry season some areas may go weeks without water. When that happens you have to go buy water from the farms nearby that have their own wells, and then you’ve got to take it home. I would also love a flushing toilet instead of a letrine, and the only house that I’ve seen with one is the one the married couple I’m replacing lived in. The house is new, humongous and gorgeous, but too expensive for me. And my search continues.
It’s hard to believe my birthday and Christmas are just around the corner. Having spent many Christmas’ away from my family, I feel fairly desensitized about the holidays. Last year I was with my parents, but the year before that I was in Costa Rica with Debra and Jess, and the year before that I was in New York with Ro and her sister. Still there’s a part of me that wishes we could do one of those extended family get-togethers with lots of food and baby cousins running around. My nuclear family’s missed out on that sort of thing for a long time now since we’ve lived in Taiwan for so long. I guess I’m looking forward to the Christmas when that’s a reality, and since I’ll be in Nicaragua until 2011, it won’t happen for a long time. Chinese New Year is the holiday that really kills me because you spend two weeks eating delicious food that I am constantly missing. Maybe I’ll aim to make it to Taipei for Chinese New Year in two years.
BTW I can’t believe I’m turning 23! EEK! I’m quite jealous about missing snowboarding, fortunately I have the beach and tropical fruit to make me feel better.
Happy Holidays folks! Hope your days are filled with Christmas music, fresh baked cookies with good coffee, and good company to pass the time.

waiting

my latest blog got lost in my mac formatted memory stick...i´ll get it from my laptop next chance i get, but here´s a link to a snapfish account with some older pictures that i took awhile ago...

http://www2.snapfish.es/share/p=34141223163844752/l=430210278/g=88138871/cobrandOid=1021/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB

briefly, we´re waiting for our site assignments from maria antonia. after the longest week ever, they´re announcing sites wednesday, tomorrow evening after a few talks...everyone pray for maria antonia and that she will give me a site in matagalpa! of course i´m not set on anything...i´ll be happy with my site no matter what, but matagalpa sounds so much like the coffee plantations and cloud forests of monteverde which was my first love. until then, nos vemos...

week 5

It’s hard to believe that I’m already entering week 5 of the 11-week training session. Recently things have been looking better. We’ve started a bunch of the projects we’re required to do during training like starting a vegetable garden, giving talks in elementary school classes, forming a youth group, and various other things. I’m gaining confidence in my Spanish from a lot of positive feedback, though there are times when my communication skills still seem inadequate. This week our group visited the little library in the central park and I borrowed a Spanish book by Gabriel Garcia Marques called El Coronel no tiene quien le escriba. I think I tried to read it when I was in college to no avail. Even this time I opened it up, read a couple pages and had very little understanding of what anything meant. But I kept going and at some point I started flipping between that and the dictionary to decipher each sentence. I really enjoy reading well-written books, and somehow the process of unveiling Marques’ prose is fascinating. It’s also good because most of it is written in past perfect or imperfect tense, which I have tons of trouble using. I think I need to go back and write down the vocabulary to actually learn it, but that’s an additional level of effort that I’m not yet ready to commit. Though I seem to be moving in that direction. Living in Nicaragua has sparked a desire to learn as much vocabulary as possible. The amount of time that I can sit and read my Spanish-English dictionary is incredible. Maybe I really just want to be able to communicate fluidly again. Something else I’ve realized is that I don’t like watching TV. My family continually sits in front of the TV every evening but I have absolutely no interest in watching TV. Usually I sit in the living room with them and read. The other day I asked my host sister what she read for fun and she said she didn’t like to read. So sad L

Today we had a session on cultural differences with Naomi that was really interesting. We read an article written according to studies that were done on how Peace Corps volunteers have dealt with cultural differences. The pattern fits me pretty spot on. There’s the initial enthusiasm period in the very beginning of training when everything is fresh and new. Then there’s the initial culture shock when you are frustrated from the inability to communicate well with the new language and it makes you homesick and emotional. It’s almost like stress and makes you extra tired and keeps you up at night. Then there’s adaptation and acceptance for the rest of training as you learn more Spanish and feel more comfortable in the community. Apparently the next two steps happen after training, where we go to our sites alone and are hit by another culture shock. This stage is followed by another adjusting time. Week three was definitely when I wanted to pull my hair out and be with people who shared my culture. I felt like I knew my own culture and was aware of my own filters and biases. But the frustrating part was the close-mindedness of everyone around me. During week three my host sister was showing me how to peel and orange with a knife. In Nicaragua, oranges are eaten by cutting the very outer edge –like when you remove apple skin with a knife. They leave the white spongy part, cut off the top and just squeeze out the juice. Anyway I commented that in the US we don’t peel oranges with knives. My sister’s response was, “You don’t have knives?” On another day, I made fried rice or arroz chino (Chinese rice is what they call it in Spanish) for my family. It was rather unsuccessful because the rice was too wet but they generally liked it. I had stir-fried the vegetables, which is a new concept because in Nicaragua the few vegetables are boiled and therefore not crispy. Rodrigo, the ten year old asked his mom if the orange things were carrots. And if they were carrots, why were they so hard? It blows my mind that this kid has never eaten a carrot that wasn’t boiled. As you can imagine, my body has spent the last 5 weeks adjusting to a Nicaraguan diet of rice, beans, plantains, and very few vegetables. I can’t wait to cook again! Anyway my point in all this was that the final step in adjusting to a different culture is accepting the cultural conditioning of people around you. I’m sure I’ll be jumping back and forth, but at the moment I am at peace with the culture of my host family.

Something very exciting is that we’re leaving to visit volunteers on Sunday! It’s an activity in week five, for trainees to visit other volunteers who have already been in their sites for over a year now. They want to give us some insight into what volunteer life will be like and hopefully provide some inspiration. Plus it’s a vacation from training! Carolina and I are visiting a married couple in Nagarote, Leon from Sunday to Wednesday. The advanced Spanish group has gone to visit them already and apparently they have an ideal situation. They’ve got a great house, and a big site close to big cities and a beach! I can’t wait!

Some thought

After two weeks of living in Nicaragua, I finally understand how it feels to be a minority. In California and Taipei, Taiwanese Americans are everywhere. Until now, I had rarely interacted with someone who was uninformed or unaware of us. Lately I’ve developed a stronger sense of what I identify with and consequently, the misconceptions that upset me. Maybe my pride is the problem, but it’s tough to get over when no one else nearby shares the same feelings. There are a few things that I wish a few people that I’ve encountered would understand.
1. I’m fine with being called Chinita. Really. But the country that provided scholarships for Nicaraguans to attend their universities was Taiwan, not China or China Taiwan.
2. Ching chong ching chong. That’s really unnecessary.
3. A discussion about how the US efforts to help development in Nicaragua are solely for political power is really not what this Peace Corps trainee wants to hear just because I look Chinese.
4. On a lighter note, I’m glad I don’t know karate because just because it is popular here doesn’t mean that every Chinese person knows karate.
I guess this is the first time I’ve really stuck out and it takes some getting used to.

I’m complaining a lot, but things are not as bad as they sound. On Wednesday we spent the afternoon in a medical session about malaria and dengue followed by a technical session about deforestation. The medical talks are given by our Peace Corps doctors and I really enjoy them. I’ve learned about Malaria before but somehow its prevalence in Nicaragua made it more fascinating this time. I am seriously going to do some research about some sort of career in pathology. Anyway we all have to take chloroquine once a week as a prophylaxis and it’s still effective against the plasmodium in Nicaragua. So good news is I won’t get malaria! Unfortunately there’s no vaccine or medication against Dengue Fever. It’s known as the back-breaking fever because the symptoms are severe and apparently pretty terrible. Since it’s a virus, you can’t do anything about it and your system clears it in about a week. If we get it we have to get our blood tested for platelet levels because one strain of the virus is hemorrhagic and that causes death. If platelet levels are normal, you’re fine even though you feel like you’re dying. Last week I developed a rash from either the soap in my bathroom, or one of the three deet-free mosquito repellants that I was using. So I’ve stopped using all of the above and I think I need to start again cause like I’ve mentioned, los zancudos love me. Apparently I’m allergic too because my bites initially swell pretty freakishly. Right now my arms and legs are covered with bites and not only do I want to scratch my skin away, but it’s also quite sad-looking. Peace Corps gave us these plastic briefcases containing every over-the-counter medical supply you could think of. There’s Sudafed, Benadryl, Tylenol, Ibuprofin, Aspirin, condoms, band-aids, cough drops, oral hydration salts, chapstick, floss, anti-fungal cream, sunblock, saline, antiseptic soap, etc. I have all sorts of things I probably won’t ever use, but it’s pretty fun to flip through. We can request anything we run out of or need and hopefully I’ll get the bug repellant with deet that I requested soon because I think they’re out at the moment. Some photos will make this post more interesting but I can´t figure out how to upload them without terrible pixelation. I´ll post my snapfish link to the album once i figure all that out. Nos Vemos!

My contact Info

If anyone is interested in calling me dial the following:

011 505 523 2961

That´s dialing out of the US, Nicaragua country code, and the phone number at my host family´s house. We´re not allowed to make international calls out, but they can receive calls at the caller´s cost. We´re one hour ahead of California, two behind New York and I think 13 behind Taiwan. I´m home anytime after 4 pm on weekdays and variable on weekends. To call the US from an internet cafe, it is one cordoba per minute, so at the terrible exchange rate i got in the Miami airport, it´s 1 dollar for 17 minutes. Calling Taiwan costs 4 times as much, and 10 minutes costs 2 dollars...

I´m not sure what how to format my address at the moment, so until I can, this one will go to Peace Corps and then me eventually:

PCT Stephanie Liu
Cuerpo de Paz
Apartado Postal 3256
Managua, Nicaragua
Central America

Bienvenidos!

Bienvenidos a Nicaragua! Today is day two of homestays and I finally feel like I am in Nicaragua. My community is Masatepe, which is actually a municipio in the district of Masaya. We’re about an hour south of Managua, though my host dad claims it only took that long because we drove slowly. My family is incredibly friendly, with a mom, dad, 12 year-old sister, 10 year-old brother and a 3 year-old sister. They live in a really modern home and I have my own room and bathroom, which is actually Rodrigo’s room, judging from the action figures and Spiderman stickers all over the walls and bathroom. My family seems pretty well off as Rodrigo Javier works in Managua for some kind of telephone-service company. He has what looks like a Blackberry from afar which apparently has internet, though I haven’t asked to use it yet. During the week we have Spanish class six hours a day in one of the trainees houses in our community, and yesterday my teacher and I walked 14 cuadras (blocks) to the house for class. Unfortunately I am making this trek 4 times a day, since we break for an hour to have lunch at 12 at home. I may resort to Jenny’s obasan ways and use my umbrella to hide from the unruly sun.
Nicaraguan Spanish that they speak here is wayyyy faster and more complicated than what I’m used to hearing. My dad has figured that out and now after he’s said a bunch of things he asks, “Me entiende? And my answer is almost always no. In Nicaragua they tend to drop the s selectively, por ejemplo adios turns into adio and nos vemos sounds like no vemos...I continually feel like my ears are bombarded with so many sounds that my mind cannot recognize. An exciting discovery that I made however is that kids learn how to roll their Rs in school with different sayings. Hopefully I’ll pick that up before I leave.
Some interesting things that I’ve noticed is that the kids in my family are incredibly well-behaved and helpful. They clear their plates, help clean the house, carry bags at the market, get things for their parents, and lock all the doors/windows whenever we leave the house. That was something different too. Whenever the entire family goes out, they close and lock all of the windows and doors. They have a huge German Shepard and Pitt Bull that live within the house gates. They even tell me to leave my laptop in the main house instead of my room because it is more secure. It’s a stark contrast to my Costa Rican homestay where Michael would take a saw to unlock the door to the main house. I guess it is good since Peace Corps is highly concerned for our safety. They have warned all of the families not to let us drink the water and for week one of homestays we’re not allowed to go anywhere alone. We are not even allowed to pet the dogs in homes or on the streets for fear of getting bitten. When my room didn’t have nails for my mosquito net and when Ernie came by he had my dad drill holes in the concrete ceiling, which was quite embarrassing to have him go through all of the trouble actually.
During the orientation retreat in Managua everyone warned us against the roosters that crow at all hours of the night. I heard the huge dogs barking outside instead. This morning I woke up to old American music blasting from a boom box outside of my window. My mom is planning to use this method to wake me up at 7 am every morning. I really just have to take this one day at a time.
After a breakfast of Nicatamales (at least I think that’s what they were), a tamale-like food that they eat on Sunday mornings, everyone showered and went to the Masaya market. They told me there is one that is cleaner and nicer for the tourists, and then there was the one for locals. The local one is far dirtier, more crowded and apparently cheaper for the same things. We walked around the crowded market, avoiding puddles of mud and hitting people with things on their heads. It reminded me of our traditional markets in Taiwan, except it was more like a flea market because it was enormous and sold everything. We had lunch at my abuelita’s, which is un campo outside of Masatepe. They have all sorts of fruit trees that my little brother was climbing to pick oranges and star fruits. The stove in the kitchen is actually a flaming log to heat the pots. When we got home we washed all of the fruits and vegetables from the market with soap before putting them away in the refrigerator. Strange, but I guess cleaning things well is a bigger issue here.

(Written on Sunday September 8)

8 hours until lift off

The Peace Corps sounds like an adventure. Unfortunately I haven’t even left the country yet and so far it is not quite the adventure that I had expected.

I got back to the states from Taipei last Thursday night, anticipating my 6 AM flight Sunday morning to Washington DC for staging (which is like a pre-departure orientation). On Friday, I got up early to drive to Fair Oaks to take the GRE and spent the rest of the day hanging out with friends in Berkeley. I didn’t get a chance to check my email until Saturday morning, when I read a letter from Cecily that said if I was not dentally cleared by 5 PM Friday (yesterday at this point), I would not be issued a plane ticket for staging in DC. I was unaware of this earlier, and the FedEx package containing my dental papers were not arriving in DC one business day after Friday, or Tuesday after the long weekend. I frantically dialed all of the Peace Corps numbers that I knew, leaving messages and trying to find someone who could tell me what was going to happen. I finally got a call back from someone who said I had not been issued a ticket to DC and should wait until Tuesday morning to call about the next step.

It is now Wednesday morning and one stressful day later. I just received an email confirmation that all the paperwork I FedEx-d over yesterday is in order, and they are issuing me a ticket for 6:55 PM tonight from SJC to Managua where I can join my training class for my original assignment.

Though I didn’t get to go to staging, I’m glad that I am going on my assignment and leaving almost as planned. I guess this is a lesson to communicate better to ensure that things go smoothly, but when necessary, accept and deal with the unexpected. Getting on the plane will be a grand relief, and hopefully getting off will be the start of a much more exciting adventure.