Nuestro grupo de Jóvenes, los otros aspirantes y yo hicimos un huerto

Monday will be the 3 week mark of my Peace Corps experience. Since I left my “quarantine” situation I have been so busy. These 3 months of training are going to be intense and filled with charlas (talks) on health/ safety/ technical skills, many reading assignments, 6 hours of Spanish class each day, and shadowing at school classes. Then we will put it all into practice in our own charlas presented in a school class. We will be forming a youth group and developing our own gardens. The purpose is to prepare us to enter our community of 2 years and be completely ready to do it all on our own.
Last week was the celebration of their Independence, and as such they had no school for the week. On our bus ride home from one of our charlas last Saturday, we were privileged to see the running of La Antorcha (the torch). It is run through Nicaragua, Guatemala, Costa Rica, El Salvador, and usually Honduras (but it was deemed unstable and skipped this year because of their present war). The torch is a symbol of the independence of these Latin American countries from their colonizers. It is also shown on their money with the 5 mountains placed in the center of the bill. During the short parade, there was a boy holding the torch, other children surrounding him along with police cars and trucks full of people (honking their horns both before and after he passed). It was almost like we were just as much a spectacle as they were. When they noticed a bus full of Americans they were pointing and yelling “HELLO” and “BYE” at us. Then on Monday, the actual day of independence, they had a long parade with all the schools. Every grade of each school of my town had their own outfit and flag. Some of the schools had their own band and special dances that they preformed. They all filed into the outdoor stadium and sang songs about independence, the importance of anafetabismo (reading and writing literacy), and lit off a few fireworks. Then they filed-out again and did more coordinated dances.
This past week I have been attending my daily Spanish class and my Wednesday / Friday charlas. The most exciting and challenging tasks of the week have been forming our youth group and developing our garden. I missed last week (quarantine) when they went into the school library and asked for participation from the students. I was present for the planning of it all. We held our first youth group meeting in the local library with about 18 participants (ages 7 – 18) and it went off without a hitch. We started with a general introduction and played a dinámica (a group game). We threw the ball and they had to answer with their name, age, favorite singer, and a fact they knew about the United States (that proved to be a bit challenging for them). Then we showed them the map we made of their town and asked them to show us where they lived and what important spots we were missing. They said we were missing the ice cream shops and internet cafes! Then we shared the plans to make a group garden that would start the following day (Thursday and again Saturday). We played another dinámica where we made noises with our bodies leading up to a tormenta (storm). We talked about what to bring to help with the gardening. It was great and they all seemed so excited. The next day we met at our meeting site, the yard of a local school. The space had been evaluated by Peace Corps, a specialists said there were a few challenges ahead of us. The site we have chosen (really the only one available) has drainage issues and it is infested with beetle larva and leaf-cutter ants (both of which will eat our crops). There was a large mass of weeds to clear in sweltering heat. Thursday, we cleared the large majority with machetes (I am horrible at using them), shovels, and our hands. Sweat poured down our faces and my energy was drained. I was surrounded by such energetic and hard working kids who were so excited about their garden. On Saturday we worked for 4 hours clearing the rest of the land. To make our seed bed, we had to break-up the soil, take-out the larva (ekk), rip out the shrubs, and then turn the soil to make it softer and easier for the plants to root. We also added cal (a chemical that will kill the insects and helps the plants) and also some of the soil of the leaf cutting ants which is a natural fertilizer. Then we built up our seed bed, put black bags over it so the sun will heat it and kill all inside. In three days we will plant our seeds in this area. With the remaining area we added rows for cucumbers. We planted the seeds, the cucumbers don’t require a seed bed because they will not be transplanted and the soil didn’t have to be turned because the seeds are stronger (which means it took about ½ the time of the little seed bed). We also planted 6 small circular beds above the ground. They have two types of plants that will not be transplanted. To protect the garden from pooling rain water we dug a ditch around the garden. It was very tiring and HARD, by the end of the day I was a red tomato (I wore sunscreen but I think I sweated most of it off). We still have to build a fence and water the garden every day. We need to pour a small mixture on the leaves to kills the ants. In a month we will transplant the seed bed plants into two permanent rows that still needs to be developed.

Finally, I just wanted to mention some other Nicaragüense (Nicaraguan) habits that I have noticed:
 They scrunch up their noses and point them forward to show confusion or to direct you towards something they want you to do.
 They stick-out their hand, drop the wrist down and wave the fingers back and forth in unity to tell you to come to them (I had a hard time with this one at first because I thought it meant they were “shushing” me away)
 They also use a hissing through their teeth noise to get someone’s attention. Sometimes this is in a nice way, such as from within your house. Other times, it is like a catcall to a girl/me on the street followed by “Mi amor” (my love) or “Que bonita” (how beautiful).
 They mention God a lot in their sayings to others. They usually ask how you slept, if you slept well they may say " well, thanks to God" (Bien, gracias a Dios). Or when you are leaving the house and you are saying goodbye to your host mom, she will most likely tell you “that you go with God” (Que te vaya con Dios).
 Some families have children that appear like the stereotypical American with blond, red, or light brown hair, freckles, and light complexion. The funny thing is that their parents don’t look like them but rather a stereotypical Nicaraguan with dark, Latin features. My host mom explained to me that this is generally because one of their grandparents was white and that the traits usually skip a generation.
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This sweltering heat and humidity is difficult for all of us, even the people that live here.
 Also, here el Niño is a phenomenon that causes less rain than usual (it is the opposite in the U.S.) and la Niña is when there is a ton of rain. Right now we are having el Niño, which means the rain never cools us off.

I also wanted to give a shout-out to Highcrest Middle School's Spanish classes (Wilmette, Illinois) and my former Spanish Teacher! Thanks for following my blog!