HIVaids Health Promoters . . .

Finally a meeting!

Late last year I organized and put on a huge youth camp focusing on HIVaids. I think it was a great success. For the cherry on top a group of kids who attended the camp decided to form their own health promoter group. They were super motivated after the event, went out and recruited members and formed their own group of health educators, 30 in fact. We have been coordinating schedules and trying to work around the coffee picking season, the school schedule, and the fact that I am leaving at the end of March.

Well, it finally worked out and we had a great first meeting.

This group will be in great hands. While I leave at the end of the month I am passing the group on to Julie, an English Peace Corps Volunteer, and her wonderful counterpart Marjorie. They are amazing women. Both were formally trained last year in the Northern Regional PEPFAR Conference. I know they will be great mentors. Good luck ladies!

Half Marathon in Nicaragua!

FIFTH ANNUAL HALF MARATHON/ 10K

I ran my first ever half marathon! While this is exciting on its own right, this was also my first ever running competition. Woot woot. Before I started training last August I don´t think I had run more then 3 miles in one go. Now, I´m running 13+ miles, in the hills of Nicaragua.

 A guy painting the starting line 30 minutures before the race starts. . .

Team Half Marathon! Around 40 volunteers across Nicaragua came to participate. Most ran the 10k.

The start line.  

Two and a half hours from the end! We did it baby!

Fat Tuesday- The Celebration

Fat Tuesday rolled around and Madgalena invited me out to her house to celebrate. And, did we celebrate! This is my kind of event.

Julie´s host family lives out in Datanli, a small city (really, a small road out in the campo) located  30 minute bus ride out of town, and a 2km walk from the highway. Magdelena is Julie´s host mom. She is really a wonderful woman.

This tuesday, a pretty important part of the year for Catholics, she taught us how to make "buñuelos." These are basically corn, cheese dough balls, deep fried and dunked in cinnamon and sugar. YUMMM!

Magdelena showing us the ropes.

Cutting up "dulce," or a big cube of cane sugar. This will be the syrup we put the buñuelos in.

Julie breaking up a pound of cheese. This gets mixed in with 2lbs of cornmeal, "maseca," 2 eggs and a bit of water.

Nathan, a local Ag volunteer, watching the work being done. I know he´s waiting around for the final project.

Julie, Magdelena, Oliver (her son) and myself making the dough balls.

Getting ready to deep fry the buñuelos.

Dumping them in sugar and cinnamon.

Oliver eating up our hard work.

SO WORTH IT! 

Jenny came to visit and . . . we hiked to the cross

MEDICAL SCHOOL

Most you know the good news, I got into medical school! WOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

I received the letter a couple of weeks ago. A small envelope if you believe it, from the University of Northern Texas. So much for the large/small envelope theory. Anyway, ever since I have been on a whirlwind mission to try and get paperwork done and sent back to the US. It is not easy, let me tell you. Papers signed to accept the offer. Papers filled out for the government to see I can get any loans. Papers printed and filled out to apply for scholarships. Papers. Papers. Papers.

But today, I'm taking a break form papers. I've borrowed a computer from a friend (because my computer decided to finally fart out on me), I've walked up to the highway to the local coffee coop, I've ordered an expensive latte, and I am going to surf the web like I have nothing else to do!

Dr. Vice

************************************************************

************************************************************

************************************************************

************************************************************

************************************************************

************************************************************

************************************************************

I was going to put a funny doctor comic here . . . I couldn't find one 

with a female doctor in it who wasn't an ob/gyn. Grumph.

Photos, finalmente!

A while ago I wrote to you all about a special workshop I put on. It was a one day course taught to 20 young women in a rural community hours away from any health services. No one travels to these people. The police don´t make it out there. The closest doctors forget about them during national vaccine campaigns. Even the closest school forgets to go out there and recruit students for the next year. Obviously these women were in need of attention.

A local agriculture volunteer found funding and invited me up for the day. We spent the morning talking about health education and the afternoon sharing stories about our rights a women. It was a wonderful experience.

Well, 2 months later, I finally have photos. WOOOOOOO

Learning about HIVaids (VIHsida).

Vulvas. Enough said.

Talking about how the immune system works. I like to add in a little dance.

A serious, and pretty fun, conversation about what we deserve.

Closing 2011 with a wonderful group of young women- Circulo de Amigas

As my close of service approaches there are a few things that make me think twice about leaving. One of them is Círculo de Amigas. It has been an incredible NGO to work with. Their work and focus on young women is outstanding. In a culture strongly influenced by machismo, this single NGO has dedicated their efforts in developing young women and helping them succeed against the odds. Girls are given the opportunity to be smart, to be sassy and most of all empowered. They are told not what they can´t do, but everything they can do. When I first moved to Jinotega, Círculo de Amigas opened their arms and welcomed me in.

Over the past two years these girls have grown into young women in front of my eyes. I remeber the day I came in and Katy and Milena were wearing makeup, bras and heels. When did that happen?

Well, all I can say is these girls are some of the brightest and strongest people I know.

I love them.

Before I left for the holidays we had a little Christmas party. The girls, along with Doña Claudia, organized the entire event. There were skits, dances, a dancing competion and even snacks. Check it out.

New Year and Close of Service

Happy New Year!

The holidays have been a whirlwind. After Purísima I left Nicaragua and headed back to the US for a short and sweet Christmas. I arrived in Houston on a Saturday and left just over a week later. Enough time to see the lights, go to Christmas Mass and open presents the next morning.

After a day in Nicaragua I hopped on a Tica Bus and headed out to Panama for the New Year. Two days later Julie (a TEFL volunteer in my department), and I got in a taxi in Panama city and for $4 finally arrived! FINALLY. *For those PCVs in Panama, I have one word for you- JEALOUS. The city was gorgeous. The people were charismatic and warm. The prices weren´t that bad. It is amazing there.*

We celebrated New Years till the sun came up.
At the Panama Canal we behaved like tourists and read our way through the museum.
In Casco Viejo we drank wine and danced.
We visited the National Art Museum to see the Da Vinci Exhibit.
We loved the Panamanian life fully.

Vista of downtown Panama City from the Casco Viejo.

Me at the Panama Canal watching the ships pass.

A research vessel from Norway passing the locks.

Julie and I on our last night in Panama.

Now back in Nicaragua I´m ready to celebrate the new year with my close of service conference, youth groups, and women´s month in March. Let´s do this.

Felíz Navidad/ Felíz Navidad/ Prospero Año y Felicidad

Sorry I haven´t written in a while. Life has been a little crazy as of late. I have been to the States and back: visited the boyfriends family in Georgia, had a med school interview and was almost stuck in the US unable to fly back to Nicaragua. For the cherry on top, I gave a workshop the week before the trip to a group of 20 young women out in the mountains, 3 hours away from the nearest health post (not even health center).

Now that I am finally back in Nicaragua I am ready to take is slow. Yesterday I took a bus out to a TEFL volunteers site, walked 40 minutes through the coffee fields to get to her house, crossed two rivers and arrived to a plate of rice, beans and tortilla. It was great. As I arrived another volunteer came in. Looks like we both had the same idea. Get a free lunch at Julies house!

Today will be relaxing too. It is a national holiday, Purísima. We are celebrating the Virgin Mother.
(In a loud call and response)
¿Quíen causa tanta alegría?
La Virgen.
La Virgen.
It is something like a mix between Christmas and Halloween. Gifts are involved as well as going house to house and collecting candy. I love it.

Off to celebrate.

Love you all.

10 Things I LOVE in Nicaragua (that I didn’t notice or really like before)

   

1. Rubbery, deep fried cheese- A year ago I could not stand the sight of it let alone having it in my mouth. It was like taking the sole off your tennis shoes, cutting it into perfect squares, then smothering it in boiling corn oil. It was the worst. Fast forward to the present, I don’t eat fritanga (street food) without it. Fried cheese with a nice sweet plantain, YUM.

2. Washing my laundry by hand- I spend about 40 minutes every morning washing laundry. It has become a meditation of sorts. Repetitive. Back and forth. Not so bad really. That said, I cannot wait to use a machine when I get back the States. No more of that fire, burnt bean smell in my dried clothes.

3. Bucket showers- Ok well I don’t really need to take bucket showers here but, I do. The water that comes from my faucet is freezing. It comes from the water treatment plant in the mountains. It smells of chlorine and something else you just can’t put your finger on. It is worth my time to boil water on my gas stove, and use that the shower. So worth it.

4. Dia de los Muertos- I guess I never really celebrated Day of the Dead in the US. Halloween kind of overshadowed Nov 2^nd. Here though it is amazing. Families go out to the local cemetery and dedicate themselves to painting tombs for their loved ones. The cemetery comes to life with colors. Flower venders line the street to sell everything from real flowers to bags of plastic confetti to cover the ground in. Little boys come out, each with their own machete, to sell their labor; hacking weeds off of tombs. Old women have their great-grandsons arduously wheel then to their families grave site, all the while laying out specific details of what needs to happen when they die. It is a beautiful holiday. Quiet, colorful and full of purpose.

5. Beans- There are two main foods in Nicaragua, rice and beans. I like rice, but I love beans baby.

6. Rocking chairs- In the US a rocking chair is for two purposes: babies and old ladies. We rock and sing our babies to sleep. We see old ladies on their porch, rocking back and forth, while they heckle neighborhood kids. That is it. Here in Nicaragua though, everyone has rocking chairs. In fact, everyone who can afford it has multiple. Like 6 or more. I’m not kidding. Living rooms have rocking chairs instead of sofas. I have two. They are the BEST!

7. Jump ropes- The last time I used a jump rope in the States was probably 2^nd grade, in P.E. Here, I use one almost everyday. Braden brought me one from the US and my youth groups love it. They aren’t so good at it, but they are learning. And, like I said, they love it.

8. Big sheets of paper- Every presentation or class I give includes at least 4 or 5 huge pieces of paper. We call them papelografo here. Who wouldn’t like a vast sheet of white you can write anything or draw anything on?

9. Electricity- I love having electricity. Do I need to say it again? I love light at night time, having a charged computer, a phone that works, having a fridge that keeps my food edible for longer then a day, even watching telenovelas. The phrase se fue la luz, is so common here that I am scared when I get back to the US I will hoard batteries and make myself anxious of possible electricity blackouts. Ridiculous.

10. Christmas- Well, I loved it before but I love it even more now that I don’t really have it. Holidays like Dia de los Muertos and Purisima are celebrated more here in Nicaragua then Christmas. Pretty much, I am a sucker for the music and lights in the US. I love the peppermint lattes at Starbucks. I love waking up in the morning and digging through stockings. I love cooking breakfast in the morning with my family. I love Christmas. Enough said.

Elections

Elections are coming up this weekend and life in Jinotega has been full of music, parades and general festiveness. I can’t say elections in the States are the same. I went to work on Monday and arrived to find the health center closed and all of the staff dressed in FSLN memorabilia. There were hats, shirts, flags and even stickers for your moto (that’s motorcycle if you don’t speak the lingo).

Anyway, I left and went home. As a Peace Corps Volunteer my job is be a-political. If that is a word . . .

But, I did take some photos.

CLOSING THE YEAR- Warning- May contain condoms!

Last Friday I held my last meeting of the year with the older girls from Circulo de Amigas, a local NGO. We closed the year with a class on “behavior change” and a Circulo de Amigas/ Peace Corps evaluation. It was really an amazing get together. We had 61 girls and 1 boy, ages 9 to 28 with over 75% of them between the ages of 12 and 18.  At least 12 of the older girls are in university and wonderful help in these monthly meetings.  They have really become leaders in their own right. In fact one of the girls got up at this last meeting and announced how proud she was to be a woman. She said it was our responsibility to be informed and strong, to change the way woman are seen and treated. It was something special. Then a group of girls, contagiously laughing, got up and did a condom demonstration with one of the girls using her mouth to put the condom on the wooden dildo*.

The evaluations were great as well. Each girl was asked a variety of questions including what was the most important thing she has learned in these classes, does she understand how to use birth control, is she happy that she is a woman and what other questions does she have on sexual and reproductive health. The answers were empowering to read. A 9 year old (a girl who is not affiliated to CdA but recently started coming with a friend) wrote that the most important thing she learned is that men need to use condoms when they want to have sex with her. A 13 year old wrote she learned she could actually say no to sex. A 21 year old wrote she learned how to talk to her pareja about birth control, family planning and using a condom and asked if we could teach her how to talk to her mother as well.

 

This experience has been inspiring for me and I know it has been for these girls too. I have never once left a meeting and not been tracked down by a young women with a question. It is eye opening to know that many of these young women have no place to go and feel like they have no one to talk to about violence, sex, babies and men. We are changing that at Circulo de Amigas and opening the doors for conversation.

* Many issues that come up with condom use are focused on insecurities. Men and boys say they are too big for a condom, they feel nothing with one on and, condoms are not sexy. I have talked to boys and asked them to actually demonstrate how to use a condom. Many of them have no idea what to do. If we can teach girls (and boys) how to properly use a condom and feel capable of asking their partner to put one on we may make a small change. So, I have been teaching the girls to combat “I will NOT use a condom, it isn’t sexy” with a few different responses: “I can put it on with my mouth”, “no glove no love”, “if you love me you will use one.” Of course this is all accompanied with a serious discussion on relationships and open conversations with your partner.