Christmas in Nicaragua

My Christmas 2011 will be spent in Boaco, Nicaragua with my old host family.  Once again, the holiday is celebrated by over-drinking and setting off bombas at all hours of the night.  Unlike the States, the festivities take place on the evening of the 24^th and roll over to the 25^th at midnight when gifts will be opened (drunken unwrapping party?).  I myself have been patiently waiting to open the gifties my family has sent me, which I have placed under the tree that I made out of a wine bottle and poster board!

I have adorned my refrigerator with some gel molds that my sister sent me:

And I was able to decorate the Casa Materna with some foamy paper, glue and glitter! 

The women at the Casa Materna are much like me this holiday season in that they are not at home with their families.  So I decided to have a little Christmas celebration with them.  I began with a charla about the birthing process (very Christmasy!), handed out gifts, facilitated a craft project, and attempted to bake cookies.  For the gifts I decorated some old envelopes and stuffed them with baby clothes which were donated by a medical mission group out of Grand Rapids Michigan run by Nancy and Bob Gillette (blog post to come).  Although they did not quite understand what they are, I led my pregnant ladies in making gingerbread men out of foamy paper.  They turned out beautifully!

opening gifts

making gingerbread men

13 newly-baked gingerbread men, and 13 buns in the oven

The Cookie Fiasco:

  

I figured it would be a nice gesture to bake some sugar cookies at the Casa Materna to demonstrate my holiday spirit.  The dough was ready-made from my kitchen and all I had to do was bake it.  Unfortunately there was no baking rack in the oven at the Casa Materna, so I had to move to plan B.  I will bake them at a neighbor’s house and bring them back the next day.  Logical, right?  


Since moving to plan B I have concluded that about 1% of the oven-possessing community of Nicaragua know how to operate them.  I brought the dough to my neighbor’s house and actually found COBWEBS in her oven!  Upon asking how to turn it on, she confessed she had never used it, and when trying to light it (being a match-starting model) there was a benign but frightening mini-explosion.

I did eventually find a woman who knew how to turn her oven on and I was able to make the cookies by 10 o’clock that night.  My experience has inspired a self-conducted verbal survey.  So far, of the four oven-owners I have asked, ZERO know how to turn them on.

Donations?

I will be visiting friends and family in Alameda, California for the first week and a half of January.  If anyone has been feeling the urge to donate, I would be happy to fly back to Nicaragua with any (or more) of the following donations:

Lightly used or new:

     baby clothes

     baby blankets

     maternity tops

     twin-sized sheets

Craft supplies:

     construction paper

     permanent markers

     beads or jewelry supplies

     yarn

Email me or call the house in January to let me know!

Volunteer Service

So it has been almost a year in-country and I have yet to mention in my blog anything about my volunteer service.  That is because up until recently I haven't been completely sure what my assignment really is.  Not that we are not given a set of goals, but the means by which to achieve them are not specified.  So I (like many of my fellow volunteers) have been groping around in la oscuridad, trying to find my place.  Where can I make the biggest impact, where am I happiest, where am I needed, what fits my schedule?  After 9 months of service, I have finally figured out how I want to be spending the next 15.

In general, I am a “health educator” and have been giving health charlas to patients in the waiting room at the Health Center, Health Posts with brigades to more rural sites, health fairs, and to pregnant women at the Casa Materna.

Casa Materna, Boaco

Casa Materna is a refuge for underprivileged rural pregnant women who do not have immediate access to health care.  Ordinarily, these women succumb to midwifery or arrive at the nearest hospital many hours after labor has begun.  Unfortunately, this practice has resulted in many maternal and or child deaths due to infections, hemorrhages, or a high-risk condition called preeclampsia.  Women who stay at the Casa Materna two to four weeks before they are expecting decrease risk of complications because they have direct access to a hospital or health center.

I like giving charlas to the women here as opposed to waiting room patients because I have the opportunity to befriend the women.  They are not gone the next day like the patients in the waiting room.  I also like to conduct interactive activities after to the charla to see what the ladies have learned!  The atmosphere is much more relaxed and the audience more attentive.  When I am not giving charlas I like to do crafts with the ladies.  In turn, they show me how to make corn tortillas!

I have also enjoyed making informative posters for the Health Center.

The truth is that I am really just getting started now that I know how I want to serve and what I want to accomplish as a volunteer.  Not to mention I am trying desperately to perfect a foreign language as to be taken more seriously by my listeners. . . So much to do in so little time! 

Charlas Topics I have given:

Nutrition for Pregnant Women

Personal Hygiene

How to Take Care of a Newborn

Breastfeeding

PAP Tests

HIV/AIDS

The Birth Process

Warning Signs for Pregnant Women

Visitors!

I received my first visitors, Mom and long-time friend of the family Wendy, in mid-October just before the elections.  Luck would have it, however, that they visited just in time for the first tropical storm to hit Nicaragua since I landed in January!  Not to worry, though.  A little hurricane can’t stop a group of eager travelers!

We first visited Granada for some fine dining, massages, and island-hopping.  Being one of only two colonial towns in Nicaragua, Granada is known for its beautiful architecture, its plethora of competing restaurants, and its influx of foreigners (residents and tourists alike).  Granada sits on Nicaragua’s largest lake (fittingly named Lake Nicaragua) which is home to hundreds of small islands inhabited by local fishermen or rich family summer homes.  Some island properties are currently for sale at half a million dollars!

We then visited the slightly less glamorous town of Boaco to unload the 50 pounds of gifts that my mom and Wendy had brought from friends and family in The States.  Clothes, home decor, cleaning products, homemade cookies, towels, potholders, peanut butter, and chocolate (oh the chocolate!)  I got an Italian home-made dinner, help with my barrel-filling, and an audience during one of my health lectures.

Coincidently, my mom and Wendy not only made it for our first tropical storm, but also the 2011 Small Business Masquerade-Cocktail Party at the Holiday Inn in Managua!  After a fun and eventful night, we headed to the coast.

A great big thanks to those who sent gifts!

Mom

Wendy

Jerry

Katie

Dad

Aunt Denise

Nita

Dr. T

Juddy
Jill!

I tried to stretch the chocolates out as long as possible!

My Digs

In August I moved from a single room of a family of 7 to my own house.  This is the first time in 27 years that I have lived completely on my own.  One of the more obvious characteristics of living alone, at least in Nicaragua, is that it is REALLY time-consuming!  There is no one else to help with the cooking and the cleaning, and compared to the United States, those activities occupy an extraordinary amount of one’s time.  Clothes and dishes are washed entirely by hand, and there is a constant need to sweep and mop.


One activity that I never expected to be such an integral part of my life is barrel-filling.  “I was filling,” is a perfectly good excuse to be late for something, and everyone knows what you mean.  Where I live, running water is only available on Thursdays and Sundays (God-willing), so it must be stored in barrels or basins if one desires to bathe on any other day of the week.  Barrel-filling usually takes about an hour, and is quite the upper-body workout!


My house is located half a block from the Central Park, which is not as glamorous as it sounds (the sentence would have a whole different meaning in New York), but it is definitely a great location.  The design of my house is quite peculiar and does not allow for roommates.  It is a series of rooms connected in a row (like a hallway) so that one has to pass through ALL rooms to get to either the front or the back door.


Below is my living room.  None of the furniture is mine, but all of the books are!  When shown the space, I was especially entertained when the owner showed me the painting on the wall (not shown) saying “and this is ours, because you have to have SOME decorations, right?”  In any other occasion I would whole-heartedly agree with such a statement, but the painting is of two peasants on a farm praying over a small basket of potatoes.  It is kind of depressing, but definitely a conversation-starter, and I hope to liven it up one day with some Christmas lights. 

This is where I do my work.  I like to call it my “study” when I’m feeling fancy.  It is also my Map Room!

This is my multi-purpose room.  As you can see I have two wooden cots propped up against the wall and some clothes hanging.  That is because the room serves as a "guest room", a place to dry clothes when it is raining, and an exercise space.

Here is my kitchen.  I have a fridge, a gas-burning stove-top (which Kyle Kelly likes to call a hot-plate), and a blender.  Everything I need for gormet rice and beans!

My room is cozy and has a great view of the cemetary!

My patio is the most social space in my house.  Volunteers like to sit out here and drink coffee, look at the view and the rain, and chat.  It is also where I wash and dry all of my clothes.

I do have a bathroom and "shower", but because of the running water situation I am far more accustomed to bucket baths.  Before the last volunteer moved out, he sold me nearly everything he owned for $150.  This was a steal becaus it included the bed, the fridge, the gas tank, books, maps, etc.  Not to say that I didn't need to buy a few things to make the space my own.

Things I purchased for my house:

desk

plastic chair

plastic stools

throw pillows

lamp

blanket

a light-up framed picture of Virgin Mary (a must-see!)

Fiestas Patronales

For the entire month of July, Boaco is buzzing with visitors from every corner of Nicaragua to celebrate the “Fiestas Patronales”.  Meaning “Patron Parties”, it is a series of events meant to celebrate Boaco´s patron saint Santiago, but the activities often times seem random and unorganized . . . and in no way related to celebrating the life of a saint. 


The first event I participated in was the “Running of the Bulls”, which I was told would be quite similar to that of the infamous festival in Pamplona, Spain.  I waited in the streets with anticipation, calculating my ability to leap out of harm´s way were a raging bull to charge at me.  Imagine my disappointment when I discovered that the bulls are not let loose, but kept safely tied up and dragged through the streets against their will, once in a while being slapped on the behind to invoke some sort of excitement.   The dragging of the bulls lasted about three or four hours, and I suppose it was similar to Pamplona´s world-renowned tradition in that bulls were present. 

The second annual “Feria de Turismo” (Tourism Fair) lasted three days.  Various booths were set up with crafts from local and regional vendors including organic coffees and wines, woven hats and baskets, hand-crafted furniture, and lots of jewelry, including my favorite Che earrings carved out of wood.  There was a stage set up for entertainment and more booths promoting local tourist attractions.  

I also attended a couple of rodeos here, which I imagine are similar to rodeos in the United States, but with ten-fold the amount of drunk people, the majority of which are within the ring.  Also it is not a sport to the Nicas so much as entertainment and hope for a fatal disaster.  I did not witness any deaths, or even any serious injuries, but I did see a lot of drunk people pick fights with each other!

You can´t have a Fiestas Patronales without an Hipica!  As I explained a few months ago in my blog, an Hipica is a parade of horses and an excuse to get drunk on a Sunday afternoon.  Sometimes I think it is more about watching the bolos act a fool than admiring the procession of majestic beasts, but the people of Boaco really get into the spirit of it because there are a lot more honest-to-goodness cowboys here compared to my training town in Carazo.  Lots of pretty costumes and horses, and of course a Toña truck (national beer) with dancing ladies.

The night life in Boaco is usually nothing to write home (or blog) about, but during the month of July every bar, restaurant, and random street booth had some sort of promotion going on.  There were tons of visitors from all corners of Nicaragua and PC volunteers were always in town enjoying the festivities.  In other words I was oh-so-very busy with celebrations and visiting, and not-so-very productive at work because everything was closed.

Spanish words and phrases that have no decent English translation:

papelógrafo (large piece of poster-sized paper)

charla (mini lecture, usually accompanied with papelógrafo)

aldoquín (stones used to cover the streets)

fritanga (fried food - meat, rice, plantain - usually at a stand or table outside)

saco (colorful plastic material used for lots of different things)
bolo (really drunk person)

"muy alegre" (tons and tons of people and noise)