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!
Monday, September 22, 2008
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
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
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)
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)
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
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.
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.
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