Nicaragua has always been a predominately Roman Catholic society. It is interesting to see the rise of the Evangelical Christian Church and its impact on some of the Nicaraguans who have converted from Catholicism to more conservative Christian churches. Despite a growing number of converts from Catholicism to conservative Evangelism the history of the Roman Catholic Church in Nicaragua will always play a pivotal role in the culture of Nicaragua. For example, every city and town in Nicaragua has their own patron saint. In many cases, the patron saint might be the name of the town (for example my training town-St. Teresa or my current site San Isidro), or if the name of the town is not a saint then there is always a chosen saint somehow promulgated from the history of the town. In San Isidro, the patron saint is Isidro, for whom the town is named. This saint is known as “Saint Isidro the Laborer” in recognition of the strong agricultural influence that is the basis of the rural “campo” habitants of the municipality of San Isidro. In San Isidro they farm rice, corn, beans, and grains. Once a year Nicaraguan towns celebrate and honor their patron saint in a 17 to 21 day event called “Fiestas Patronales” (Patron Saint Festivities). In every town this epoch of fiestas varies depending on the day the patron is celebrated. In San Isidro, it is celebrated in the middle of May with the principal Saint Day on May 15. During these two to three weeks of fiestas a fair is put up in a temporary location that includes a ferris wheel, a merry-go-round, other amusement park rides as well as a temporary arena/stadium where the riding of the bulls occurs. I have put a few of the notable pictures on my Picasa web album on Google and more on Facebook. Every weekend there is a riding of the bulls, where as many as 10 bulls are rode in one night. During the weekdays for three days during this period of festivities, younger adolescents get to ride baby bulls or calves. The bull riding area (barrera) is mostly a place to socialize as well as get a bit of non-traditional entertainment from bull riding (if that turns your crank, for me personally, I do not get any enjoyment from watching bull riding). There is also a horse race, but very informal as well where two lanes are marked in chalk in a straight area of dirt about the length of half a football field. Then bets are placed on the horse and horse rider (who rides bareback) who will cross the finish line first. Also part of the festivities includes two parades. One parade on the principal day of the Patron Saint, with a float that carries the icon of the saint, as well as other floats in the parade to commemorate the Virgin Mary and other saints from neighboring municipalities. The second parade occurs on a Sunday to put a conclusion on the entire epoch of that year’s festivities. This second parade is called “Hipico” because cowboys with their horses on horseback come from all parts of the rural country to celebrate their municipality’s saint.
Another important holiday that happens once a year in Nicaragua is Nicaraguan Mothers Day. This year it was Sunday May 30. For this holiday the schools are given a 4 day weekend and many stores and services are not open during these days. In Latino culture the mother plays a very important role in the family structure because it is the mother who predominantly is in charge of raising the children and taking care of the home, where as the father is in charge of working and bringing home the salary for the home. Where I live the mother and owner of the house lives in Miami and was not able to come down to celebrate with her two sons for mother’s day. Instead her sister and brother-in-law came down to celebrate Nicaraguan Mothers Day with their two nephews. This was a very happy and busy time for the family and our house because the aunt and uncle comes down about two to three times a year not only to visit with their Nicaraguan relatives but also to check and monitor there farms and properties, which they have invested in and are owners of. This is a very common situation for the majority of Nicaraguans, having direct remittances or money transfers or gifts from relatives in the states. This is the second time since I have been living with this second host family that the aunt and uncle have come from Miami. In both trips they bring the maximum checked baggage (2 per person) allowance and each is packed full with gifts for friends and family in Nicaragua. In Nicaragua the term “cousin” or “brother or sister” is used more loosely or informally than in the U.S. Here there are many “cousins” that in reality are not family at all but are good family friends and these family friends end up receiving benefits such as remittances (direct or in-direct) when “family members” are in the states or when they come back to visit in Nicaragua. This is the reality of living in a developing country that is economically dependent on a developed country or countries aid for their people’s economic and societal well-being.
Click here to View Photos
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Earth Day, PDM
Earth Day 2010
The celebration of 40 years of the commemoration of Earth Day was on April 22, 2010. In my site of San Isidro, I helped with an environmental awareness campaign by inviting 5 students from my health center’s youth group to attend training with 50 other high school students and youth to form an environment and global warming awareness brigade. The youth received training on the differences between organic and inorganic garbage, recycling and the topic of climate change and greenhouse gases. The next day I supervised (taking pictures) my group of youth as they went from house to house giving 5 minute education talks on the importance of separating your organic and inorganic garbage as well as on global warming. The week long campaign ended with a march that originated in the bus station and ended with a closing ceremony in the municipal city park. I have posted pictures on facebook as well as on the google “picasa web pictures” link. During this same week (April 12), the ministry of health began their annual national vaccination campaign. I helped by giving children oral doses of vitamin A (droplets) and polio vaccine as well as handing out anti-parasitic medications. Pictures of this campaign have also been posted.
I have been giving night classes at the local public high school with the latest subject on Machismo, Gender roles and domestic violence and abuse. The high school students seemed really perceptive and enjoyed these classes because I showed them a 20 minute Nicaraguan soap-opera (called Sexto Sentido or 6th sense) or dramatization video, which covered the themes of male dominance in a relationship, domestic violence, rape, unwanted teenage pregnancy and homosexuality. The video demonstrated how victims of these incidents of violence can overcome and overpower the unjust circumstances and situations these people found themselves in as well as how to combat and fight against this culture of violence.
Lastly for 4 days and 3 nights I attended a workshop at a lovely Pacific Oceanside conference and hotel called Hotel Vistamar (Oceanview). The workshop was called Project Design Management and included in the 4 days everything from the steps of “how to design a project” to community development and participative research of needs and wants in a community. About 20 volunteers attended and each was required to bring a project partner who was a native Nicaraguan. This Nicaraguan counterpart either had worked in collaboration with the volunteer before or had plans to work on a project together in the future. I also have included pictures from this workshop which was conducted by Peace Corps with the funding given by USAID.
The celebration of 40 years of the commemoration of Earth Day was on April 22, 2010. In my site of San Isidro, I helped with an environmental awareness campaign by inviting 5 students from my health center’s youth group to attend training with 50 other high school students and youth to form an environment and global warming awareness brigade. The youth received training on the differences between organic and inorganic garbage, recycling and the topic of climate change and greenhouse gases. The next day I supervised (taking pictures) my group of youth as they went from house to house giving 5 minute education talks on the importance of separating your organic and inorganic garbage as well as on global warming. The week long campaign ended with a march that originated in the bus station and ended with a closing ceremony in the municipal city park. I have posted pictures on facebook as well as on the google “picasa web pictures” link. During this same week (April 12), the ministry of health began their annual national vaccination campaign. I helped by giving children oral doses of vitamin A (droplets) and polio vaccine as well as handing out anti-parasitic medications. Pictures of this campaign have also been posted.
I have been giving night classes at the local public high school with the latest subject on Machismo, Gender roles and domestic violence and abuse. The high school students seemed really perceptive and enjoyed these classes because I showed them a 20 minute Nicaraguan soap-opera (called Sexto Sentido or 6th sense) or dramatization video, which covered the themes of male dominance in a relationship, domestic violence, rape, unwanted teenage pregnancy and homosexuality. The video demonstrated how victims of these incidents of violence can overcome and overpower the unjust circumstances and situations these people found themselves in as well as how to combat and fight against this culture of violence.
Lastly for 4 days and 3 nights I attended a workshop at a lovely Pacific Oceanside conference and hotel called Hotel Vistamar (Oceanview). The workshop was called Project Design Management and included in the 4 days everything from the steps of “how to design a project” to community development and participative research of needs and wants in a community. About 20 volunteers attended and each was required to bring a project partner who was a native Nicaraguan. This Nicaraguan counterpart either had worked in collaboration with the volunteer before or had plans to work on a project together in the future. I also have included pictures from this workshop which was conducted by Peace Corps with the funding given by USAID.
Friday, April 9, 2010
1 year in San Isidro and 15 months in country
March-April, 2010
I started a series of Sexual and Reproductive Health classes in the high school. This series of classes includes themes such as self-esteem, communication, leadership, puberty and adolescence, the reproductive system, teenage pregnancy, birth control/family planning, STDs and HIV/Aids, Gender, domestic abuse and sexual and reproductive rights. I have decided to give these classes to the students of the night school from 1st year through the last (5th) year in the local public high school. My rationale for choosing the night school students for these classes came from the results of a sexual and reproductive health survey that I gave last year in November. The results of this survey indicated that the majority of the students who lacked awareness of sexual health issues were those that took classes in the night. These students are also generally older (17 through mid 30’s in age) who work during the day because there families are poorer and need the extra income. Some of the results in my survey included: only 37.5% of the 80 surveys filled out knew that abstinence is a method of birth control, whereas 94% knew that condoms are a birth control method. This information suggests educators of sexually health should not forget or ignore the fact that abstinence can always be an option for younger students who do not want to be sexually active. Likewise, only 32.5% of the students who responded in the survey knew that abstinence is a way to prevent STDs, whereas 84% knew that condoms can prevent STDs. Oftentimes it is assumed that all adolescents are sexually active and so sexual health educators ignore the option of promoting abstinence education. I believe that it is important not to ignore abstinence education and to include this option in sexual health classes. Another question from the survey asked, If you have initiated sexually relations and 48% of the 80 contestants responded yes, with the average age of these respondents being 18.5 years old. This further justifies the need to talk about the option of sexual abstinence or at least the option of delaying your first sexually encounter for as long as possible in addition to promoting the other birth control methods such as condoms, the pill and injections.
My health survey also included questions on HIV/aids knowledge. 80% of the survey respondents knew that HIV can be transmitted via blood, 74% semen and 71% through vaginal sex, and 66% knew that the virus can be transmitted during the pregnancy from the mother to baby. Only, 49% knew that the virus can be transmitted through breast milk; only 21% knew that it can be transmitted through vaginal secretions, and only 55% knew that the virus can be transmitted through anal sex. The survey also asked if the person has been tested for HIV or for any other STD. Unfortunately these numbers were extremely low with only 10% for the former and 9% for the later had been tested for a STD. This information suggests that the ministry of health needs to promote the tests for HIV and other STDS more strongly.
In regards to other aspects of my work that does not have to do with boring numbers (yet numbers with great significance), I fortuitously met a retired medical doctor who has an hour radio show on health themes on Sundays, in the nearby town of Sebaco (about 10 minutes away from San Isidro). Upon introducing myself and my role as a PCV, he invited me to be a guest on his radio show to talk about public health issues. I told him that I would like to bring along some of the high school students who were in my youth group from last year to impart their knowledge on health. He obliged and we did our first radio show a two Sundays ago with Jose Ramon a 19 year old 4th year high school student and Juana a 16 year old 4th year high school student. We talked about domestic and intrafamilial violence and the systems of support which exist especially for teenagers in regards to this topic. At the end of the hour show the co-owner invited and encouraged me and my youth to solicit our own hour of youth programming. We agreed along with the doctor that this would be a tremendous idea and I am now looking for funding to make this a reality.
An overwhelming amount of Nicaraguans are Roman Catholic and so one can only expect for the Easter holiday to be a heartily celebrated occasion. Well, this assertion is correct and they transform the whole week beginning the Monday after Palm Sunday through Easter Sunday into daily masses and many hours of confession and sitting or kneeing on hard, wooden uncomfortable pews. 6 other PCVs and I took this week to see the sights of Nicaragua as tourists. We went to view and witness the beautiful San Juan River which serves as the Costa Rican/Nicaraguan border. The mouth of the river originates at the southeast end of Lake Nicaragua and it empties into the Caribbean Sea. We had ambitious (perhaps as my parents hinted in a phone call, overly ambitious) plans for spending the 4 days on the river canoeing and kayaking from El Castillo to San Juan del Nicaragua (the port town on the Caribbean coast). Needless to say we only lasted one day of kayaking and canoeing making it to the town of Boca de San Carlos (appears to be a little less than half-way to the sea). There were multiple factors that impeded our advancement and actualization of our plans. I did not want to continue after my partner and I capsized in the very first minutes of the trip as we tried to navigate the rapids and rocks of El Castillo. I was the only one to have my backpack and all my clothes in our canoe and everything get wet with water despite the plastic bags that lined my backpack. My camera also got soaked despite the ziploc bag, which it was in. So after the first night in Boca de San Carlos, I returned to a hotel with Craig who was badly burnt and in pain from extreme sun exposure, and with another PCV who had lost desire to continue as the odd person out (had to kayak alone in a 2 person kayak for part of the 1st and only day of kayaking). Needless to say it was a great learning experience and I was able to get about three days of photos, mostly of our long trip getting to the river, as we crossed the huge Lake Nicaragua in a Ferry boat that took 14 hours from Granada (45 minutes Southeast of Managua) to San Carlos (the mouth of the San Juan River).
P.S. Canon digital cameras (PowerShot SD 1100 IS) seems to be a resilient brand because my camera seems to work and function almost as good as new after a week of drying out in the sun!
Follow this link for photos
P.P.S. I also posted two photos at the end of the makeshift Weights that I lift with a friend from my town..I haven't been real regular in my lifting routine.. but at least Im trying to stay in shape. There is no "gym" in my site.. there is one 10 minutes to the north... but I find it a good socializing activity to lift with my friend's makeshift weights! I also admire his creativity for making the weights!
I started a series of Sexual and Reproductive Health classes in the high school. This series of classes includes themes such as self-esteem, communication, leadership, puberty and adolescence, the reproductive system, teenage pregnancy, birth control/family planning, STDs and HIV/Aids, Gender, domestic abuse and sexual and reproductive rights. I have decided to give these classes to the students of the night school from 1st year through the last (5th) year in the local public high school. My rationale for choosing the night school students for these classes came from the results of a sexual and reproductive health survey that I gave last year in November. The results of this survey indicated that the majority of the students who lacked awareness of sexual health issues were those that took classes in the night. These students are also generally older (17 through mid 30’s in age) who work during the day because there families are poorer and need the extra income. Some of the results in my survey included: only 37.5% of the 80 surveys filled out knew that abstinence is a method of birth control, whereas 94% knew that condoms are a birth control method. This information suggests educators of sexually health should not forget or ignore the fact that abstinence can always be an option for younger students who do not want to be sexually active. Likewise, only 32.5% of the students who responded in the survey knew that abstinence is a way to prevent STDs, whereas 84% knew that condoms can prevent STDs. Oftentimes it is assumed that all adolescents are sexually active and so sexual health educators ignore the option of promoting abstinence education. I believe that it is important not to ignore abstinence education and to include this option in sexual health classes. Another question from the survey asked, If you have initiated sexually relations and 48% of the 80 contestants responded yes, with the average age of these respondents being 18.5 years old. This further justifies the need to talk about the option of sexual abstinence or at least the option of delaying your first sexually encounter for as long as possible in addition to promoting the other birth control methods such as condoms, the pill and injections.
My health survey also included questions on HIV/aids knowledge. 80% of the survey respondents knew that HIV can be transmitted via blood, 74% semen and 71% through vaginal sex, and 66% knew that the virus can be transmitted during the pregnancy from the mother to baby. Only, 49% knew that the virus can be transmitted through breast milk; only 21% knew that it can be transmitted through vaginal secretions, and only 55% knew that the virus can be transmitted through anal sex. The survey also asked if the person has been tested for HIV or for any other STD. Unfortunately these numbers were extremely low with only 10% for the former and 9% for the later had been tested for a STD. This information suggests that the ministry of health needs to promote the tests for HIV and other STDS more strongly.
In regards to other aspects of my work that does not have to do with boring numbers (yet numbers with great significance), I fortuitously met a retired medical doctor who has an hour radio show on health themes on Sundays, in the nearby town of Sebaco (about 10 minutes away from San Isidro). Upon introducing myself and my role as a PCV, he invited me to be a guest on his radio show to talk about public health issues. I told him that I would like to bring along some of the high school students who were in my youth group from last year to impart their knowledge on health. He obliged and we did our first radio show a two Sundays ago with Jose Ramon a 19 year old 4th year high school student and Juana a 16 year old 4th year high school student. We talked about domestic and intrafamilial violence and the systems of support which exist especially for teenagers in regards to this topic. At the end of the hour show the co-owner invited and encouraged me and my youth to solicit our own hour of youth programming. We agreed along with the doctor that this would be a tremendous idea and I am now looking for funding to make this a reality.
An overwhelming amount of Nicaraguans are Roman Catholic and so one can only expect for the Easter holiday to be a heartily celebrated occasion. Well, this assertion is correct and they transform the whole week beginning the Monday after Palm Sunday through Easter Sunday into daily masses and many hours of confession and sitting or kneeing on hard, wooden uncomfortable pews. 6 other PCVs and I took this week to see the sights of Nicaragua as tourists. We went to view and witness the beautiful San Juan River which serves as the Costa Rican/Nicaraguan border. The mouth of the river originates at the southeast end of Lake Nicaragua and it empties into the Caribbean Sea. We had ambitious (perhaps as my parents hinted in a phone call, overly ambitious) plans for spending the 4 days on the river canoeing and kayaking from El Castillo to San Juan del Nicaragua (the port town on the Caribbean coast). Needless to say we only lasted one day of kayaking and canoeing making it to the town of Boca de San Carlos (appears to be a little less than half-way to the sea). There were multiple factors that impeded our advancement and actualization of our plans. I did not want to continue after my partner and I capsized in the very first minutes of the trip as we tried to navigate the rapids and rocks of El Castillo. I was the only one to have my backpack and all my clothes in our canoe and everything get wet with water despite the plastic bags that lined my backpack. My camera also got soaked despite the ziploc bag, which it was in. So after the first night in Boca de San Carlos, I returned to a hotel with Craig who was badly burnt and in pain from extreme sun exposure, and with another PCV who had lost desire to continue as the odd person out (had to kayak alone in a 2 person kayak for part of the 1st and only day of kayaking). Needless to say it was a great learning experience and I was able to get about three days of photos, mostly of our long trip getting to the river, as we crossed the huge Lake Nicaragua in a Ferry boat that took 14 hours from Granada (45 minutes Southeast of Managua) to San Carlos (the mouth of the San Juan River).
P.S. Canon digital cameras (PowerShot SD 1100 IS) seems to be a resilient brand because my camera seems to work and function almost as good as new after a week of drying out in the sun!
Follow this link for photos
P.P.S. I also posted two photos at the end of the makeshift Weights that I lift with a friend from my town..I haven't been real regular in my lifting routine.. but at least Im trying to stay in shape. There is no "gym" in my site.. there is one 10 minutes to the north... but I find it a good socializing activity to lift with my friend's makeshift weights! I also admire his creativity for making the weights!
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Februrary 2010, 10 months of service, 13 in country
There are approximately 180 Peace Corps volunteers in Nicaragua separated through 5 sectors: Community Health, Small Business, Environment, English, and Agriculture. Every 4 months a new group and sector/s arrives to Nicaragua. The newest group, Health 52 arrived on the 20th of January. After the 12 week pre-service training they will be the 52nd group of PCVs to serve in Nicaragua the land of lakes and volcanoes. From Sunday Feb. 21 through Wed. the 24th a trainee came to visit me in my site to get a real glimpse and perspective of the life of a PCV. Unfortunately the trainee might have gotten a “too real glimpse” of a day in the life of a PCVs experience when the 4 wheel drive ambulance that we were riding in broke down, leaving us waiting for 2 hours. We were riding with the male chauffer and another male employee who works in the malaria and dengue fever department. Both of these men (a bit too stubborn and too machista or “macho”) were convinced that we had run out of gas and that the gas tank needle that was showing a quarter tank of gas left was inaccurate. So we waited 2 hours for a health center employee to bring us a few gallons of gasoline on his motorcycle, while the “muchachos” were “playing” under the hood of the ambulance trying to figure out the problem. Well, to the surprise of the two male health center employees (and not so much a surprise to the trainee and me) the addition of gasoline didn’t fix the problem with the ambulance and it still didn’t start, so we ended up waiting about 1 more hour for a large truck to tow us with a chain (like a makeshift tow truck from the States) back to the main highway where we waited another 30 minutes for the friendly mayor’s garbage truck to tow us the rest of the way to San Isidro. The main reason I took the PCT-Peace Corps Trainee up with me to the rural community was to get a pretty view of the municipality of San Isidro as well as to know the process of picking up pregnant women. We were dropping off a mother who recently gave birth and her new born to her community about 3,500 feet above sea level and picking up another pregnant woman who was close to her delivery date. Part of the Ministry of Health’s battle against maternal and infant mortality rate is to bring pregnant women who live in rural communities that are located far from any health clinic or hospital (who are a few weeks from their delivery date) to a “Casa Materna” a house for pregnant women (most municipalities with a health center have in Nicaragua have a Casa Materna) to provide the pregnant woman easy access to doctors and access to the health center or ambulance to give birth. The idea is to discourage women from giving birth in their homes, since many complications can arise when giving birth in a home far from the human and medical resources that a hospital or health clinic can provide.
On Friday, February 5th, I gave a lesson on “teaching health in the classroom” with a fellow volunteer who is also from Minnesota. We covered how to get started in your site teaching classes such as getting to know the school superintendent, how to plan and make a class on a health theme (self-esteem, nutrition, birth control) and how to make these classes dynamic and participative. It was fun remembering back to my Pre-service Training (PST) and realizing how far I have come in my life experiences and Peace Corps experience within one year of being in Nicaragua.
There is a logical and natural sort of seniority or rank that exists in any business, government or institutional setting. In the Peace Corps, I am now about half way through my 2 year service, which means I have gained enough experiences to be able to train and give advice to new groups of future Peace Corps volunteers. After the training lesson, I was able to experience my first Cinema Experience in Managua, in a mall called “Las Galerias” a very shee, shee, upscale mall only for the most wealthy and upper class of Nicaraguans. It had very comfortable seats just like any cinema you might go to in the United States. We watched “Sherlock Holmes” featuring Robert Downey Jr. The movie was in English with Spanish sub-titles, so the experience was not hindered in anyway. When compared to the prices of movies in the United States it’s a lot cheaper (75 Córdobas or $3.50), but when taking into account the reality of living in Nicaragua, where everyone earns in Córdobas not dollars (even us PCVs), it’s pretty expensive for the average Nicaraguan.
I also applied and got accepted to be a Peer Helper (Peer Support Network Facilitator). This is a group of volunteers who have received trainings on active listen and on the specific support resources that the Peace Corps and the U.S. government provide to volunteers in Nicaragua. They also are a resource for other volunteers who are going through trying times during their service to look to and help them cope with their problem and move forward to have a successful service. We have our first PSN training retreat coming up this month in March.
Link to Photos from rural community 3,000 feet above and from Cerro de la Cruz, overlook of urban area, San Isidro
http://picasaweb.google.com/nick.halbert
I also have recently posted photos on my Facebook.
On Friday, February 5th, I gave a lesson on “teaching health in the classroom” with a fellow volunteer who is also from Minnesota. We covered how to get started in your site teaching classes such as getting to know the school superintendent, how to plan and make a class on a health theme (self-esteem, nutrition, birth control) and how to make these classes dynamic and participative. It was fun remembering back to my Pre-service Training (PST) and realizing how far I have come in my life experiences and Peace Corps experience within one year of being in Nicaragua.
There is a logical and natural sort of seniority or rank that exists in any business, government or institutional setting. In the Peace Corps, I am now about half way through my 2 year service, which means I have gained enough experiences to be able to train and give advice to new groups of future Peace Corps volunteers. After the training lesson, I was able to experience my first Cinema Experience in Managua, in a mall called “Las Galerias” a very shee, shee, upscale mall only for the most wealthy and upper class of Nicaraguans. It had very comfortable seats just like any cinema you might go to in the United States. We watched “Sherlock Holmes” featuring Robert Downey Jr. The movie was in English with Spanish sub-titles, so the experience was not hindered in anyway. When compared to the prices of movies in the United States it’s a lot cheaper (75 Córdobas or $3.50), but when taking into account the reality of living in Nicaragua, where everyone earns in Córdobas not dollars (even us PCVs), it’s pretty expensive for the average Nicaraguan.
I also applied and got accepted to be a Peer Helper (Peer Support Network Facilitator). This is a group of volunteers who have received trainings on active listen and on the specific support resources that the Peace Corps and the U.S. government provide to volunteers in Nicaragua. They also are a resource for other volunteers who are going through trying times during their service to look to and help them cope with their problem and move forward to have a successful service. We have our first PSN training retreat coming up this month in March.
Link to Photos from rural community 3,000 feet above and from Cerro de la Cruz, overlook of urban area, San Isidro
http://picasaweb.google.com/nick.halbert
I also have recently posted photos on my Facebook.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Approaching 1 yr. in country and 9 months in site!
I had a revitalizing 19 day vacation in
Rio Blanco is the site where the VAC coordinator, a health 46 volunteer who will terminate his 2 year service in March is finishing his service. Rio Blanco is a site considerably larger in population than
Like I said, the volunteer in Rio Blanco is a community health volunteer like me and on Friday night before the Saturday reunion I along with about 12 other PCVs from the department of Matagalpa helped and gave moral support to Mike as he conducted his billiards tournament. Unfortunately I did not take any pictures of this experience but it was a success and the Nicaraguan men who played in the tournament seemed to have a lot of fun, while at the same time learning about HIV and how to protect themselves and others from this terrible disease. I helped Mike with the tournament by asking pre-scripted questions to the pool players after the player made a ball on the table on HIV/AIDS. The way the tournament works is Mike or whoever is organizing the tourney will present a small lesson on HIV/AIDS before each round of pool play. The HIV/AIDS lessons begin with simple facts and move on to more complex processes of the disease. In the end, the first, second and third place players (out of 24 players or however many players you start with) win a cash prize, with first place getting the most and third the lesser amount. In addition to asking questions and giving lessons on HIV we handed out free condoms as well as giving and observing condom demonstrations.
On Tuesday, I woke up at 5 AM to catch the 6 AM bus to
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Finally, another blog post
Hello, and I am soo sorry that it's been over a month since my last post. Wow, so there are a plethora of blog topics to write about.. but since we are in the Holiday season (I can't believe it is almost 2010) I will talk about Thanksgiving (TURKEY DAY) with the embassy families and the "Purisimas" or the festivities that the Roman Catholics particpate to recognize the Immaculate Conception of Mary, a holy day in the Catholic Church.
Before I go any further I posted a few photos of the "purisimas" or "shrines/altars" that people make as devotional acts to Mary the mother of God and if you are Catholic, the mother of us all through her son Jesus Christ. The website for these photos is
http://picasaweb.google.com/nick.halbert
Bueno, first I will talk about Thanksgiving. Part of being a Peace Corps Volunteer brings a benefit that throughout the year we volunteers are able to have relations and are invited to events through the US embassy office, which is in Managua. For Thanksgiving a number of various Foreign Service workers and their families extend invitations to host anywhere from 1 PCV to as many as 30 PCVs in their home to bring the American tradition of Thanksgiving to the PCVs as they are serving their tour in whichever foreign country they are in. 19 other Nicaragua PCVs and I were invited to enjoy Turkey day with the deputy embassador from the United States to Nicaragua, Richard Sanders. He has a beautiful house with a pool (which we did not have time nor the desire to swim in - it didn't help that we all stuffed ourselves to the gills with turkey and all the fixings). We all enjoyed great conversation and food with Mr. Sanders and talked about the political situation in Nicaragua and the diplomatic relations with the U.S. We ate the traditional Turkey day meal with Turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, green beans, sage stuffing, pumpkin pie, with additional non-traditional fair of meatloaf, eggplant casserole for those die hard vegetarians.. and much much more.
Okay, well I hope you folks did not salivate too much with the last description. Now, we will move on with my visit to beautiful Leon, Nicaragua. Leon has at least 4 beautiful Catholic Churches with Colonial architecture found throughout the city. You can see pictures of a few of the churches through the link posted above. For nine days from the 1st Sunday of Advent through the Holy day of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, all Nicaraguans celebrate and devote time in prayer to the conception of Jesus Christ. On the night before the Immaculate Conception of Mary, many Nicaraguans go out house to house yelling (Griteria, is what the custom is called in spanish) "Quien Causa Tanta Alegria? (who causes so much happiness?) and the person in the house responds "La Concecpion de Maria" (the conception of Mary). Then the person in the house hands out candy, salt, sugar, plastic pans or whatever seems to be useful for Nicaraguans in their everyday lives. This tradition is very much like the tradition of Halloween in the United Sates, where people go door to door with large bags or sacks yelling out the question who causes soo much happiness instead of yelling out Trick or Treat. I participated in this tradition with a Nicaraguan friend from my site who has family in Leon. I received many things such as sugar, coffee, a flute or recorder made of bamboo, a doll, candy, gum, and many boxes of matches. They also handed out a baked good called "Gofio" sort of like a pastry that contains corn ground up into a flour, with sugar, honey.. .and is baked... I enjoyed this tasty little snack as I moved from door to door, questioning who causes soo much happiness.
This is all for this post. I will be going home to the States for Xmas and New Year's.. I am very excited to have hot running water for bathing and to see my parents and friends!
Before I go any further I posted a few photos of the "purisimas" or "shrines/altars" that people make as devotional acts to Mary the mother of God and if you are Catholic, the mother of us all through her son Jesus Christ. The website for these photos is
http://picasaweb.google.com/nick.halbert
Bueno, first I will talk about Thanksgiving. Part of being a Peace Corps Volunteer brings a benefit that throughout the year we volunteers are able to have relations and are invited to events through the US embassy office, which is in Managua. For Thanksgiving a number of various Foreign Service workers and their families extend invitations to host anywhere from 1 PCV to as many as 30 PCVs in their home to bring the American tradition of Thanksgiving to the PCVs as they are serving their tour in whichever foreign country they are in. 19 other Nicaragua PCVs and I were invited to enjoy Turkey day with the deputy embassador from the United States to Nicaragua, Richard Sanders. He has a beautiful house with a pool (which we did not have time nor the desire to swim in - it didn't help that we all stuffed ourselves to the gills with turkey and all the fixings). We all enjoyed great conversation and food with Mr. Sanders and talked about the political situation in Nicaragua and the diplomatic relations with the U.S. We ate the traditional Turkey day meal with Turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, green beans, sage stuffing, pumpkin pie, with additional non-traditional fair of meatloaf, eggplant casserole for those die hard vegetarians.. and much much more.
Okay, well I hope you folks did not salivate too much with the last description. Now, we will move on with my visit to beautiful Leon, Nicaragua. Leon has at least 4 beautiful Catholic Churches with Colonial architecture found throughout the city. You can see pictures of a few of the churches through the link posted above. For nine days from the 1st Sunday of Advent through the Holy day of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, all Nicaraguans celebrate and devote time in prayer to the conception of Jesus Christ. On the night before the Immaculate Conception of Mary, many Nicaraguans go out house to house yelling (Griteria, is what the custom is called in spanish) "Quien Causa Tanta Alegria? (who causes so much happiness?) and the person in the house responds "La Concecpion de Maria" (the conception of Mary). Then the person in the house hands out candy, salt, sugar, plastic pans or whatever seems to be useful for Nicaraguans in their everyday lives. This tradition is very much like the tradition of Halloween in the United Sates, where people go door to door with large bags or sacks yelling out the question who causes soo much happiness instead of yelling out Trick or Treat. I participated in this tradition with a Nicaraguan friend from my site who has family in Leon. I received many things such as sugar, coffee, a flute or recorder made of bamboo, a doll, candy, gum, and many boxes of matches. They also handed out a baked good called "Gofio" sort of like a pastry that contains corn ground up into a flour, with sugar, honey.. .and is baked... I enjoyed this tasty little snack as I moved from door to door, questioning who causes soo much happiness.
This is all for this post. I will be going home to the States for Xmas and New Year's.. I am very excited to have hot running water for bathing and to see my parents and friends!
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Amoebas...Parasites...
So, I felt really sick for the first time in my service while in Nicaragua. It took almost 10 months for me to really feel ill, like maybe I should go to the hospital. Long story short, I am now under treatment taking an anti-parasite tablet by mouth, 2 in the morning and 2 at night. My symptoms all started Sunday night, while I was watching game 4 of the World Series and cheering on my hopeful repeat world champions, the Philadelphia Phillies. The symptoms hit me hard and suddenly with fever and chills. I decided to go to bed early and let the Phillies fend for themselves... (in retrospect, it was a good choice, since Joe Blanton and the Phils, would go on to lose game 4). It's important to let you all know what I had for dinner that night. Two fellow Peace Corps Volunteers and I gorged ourselves with a double hamburger... But this wasn't your typical hamburger. This hamburger could have been the largest piece of food I have ever tried to put my mouth around. The patties of ground beef were fairly skinny, but there were two of them along with two bottom pieces of a bun with the top and tomato, onion, lettuce, ketchup and mayo. (I know, Nicaraguans love to add Mayonaise to everything.. there was no mustard). It was very large, and very greasy but I was hungry so I ate the whole thing anyways. An interesting sidenote is that this hamburger was from a vender (who was recommended by a local) in the park.
I went to bed that night at my friends house with chills, sweats, and a fever. I woke up Monday morning feeling no better and with the added symptom of diarrea. I made it home to my site in San Isidro later that day and now highly value having a toilet in my own room very, very much. AS foreigners and PCVs we are not entitled to much privacy just from the context of our situation. But I am very fortunate and lucky to live with a host family who has a house large enough that I am able to sleep, shower and use the toilet in my private room with a door that locks, while the rest of the family shares the two other bathrooms located in the house.
I went to sleep on Monday at 7:30 pm (early) still with diarrea and still prayering that the next day, I would feel better. On Tuesday, I didn't feel much better, still had diarrea, but by the afternoon the chills, sweats and fever had subsided. Not until Wednesday (yesterday), did I finally get my stubborn ass to give a stool test (which physically was very easy because I still had loose, watery, diarrea-like stools about 4 times a day). In hindsight I should have given a stool test to the local lab to figure out what was causing my diarrea sooner then wednesday, but I didn't.. and so that's water under the bridge. So, after getting the results of the stool test, the PC medical officer told me I have a parasite and will need to take Tinidazol, 2 tablets twice a day for three days, and after another pill for 10 more days to kill any remaining Cysts that the paraiste left in my intestine. O, THE wows, and follies in the life a PCV.
I can't wait to celebrate Christmas and New Year's with my family and wonderful Gringo Friends in the Twin Cities!
I went to bed that night at my friends house with chills, sweats, and a fever. I woke up Monday morning feeling no better and with the added symptom of diarrea. I made it home to my site in San Isidro later that day and now highly value having a toilet in my own room very, very much. AS foreigners and PCVs we are not entitled to much privacy just from the context of our situation. But I am very fortunate and lucky to live with a host family who has a house large enough that I am able to sleep, shower and use the toilet in my private room with a door that locks, while the rest of the family shares the two other bathrooms located in the house.
I went to sleep on Monday at 7:30 pm (early) still with diarrea and still prayering that the next day, I would feel better. On Tuesday, I didn't feel much better, still had diarrea, but by the afternoon the chills, sweats and fever had subsided. Not until Wednesday (yesterday), did I finally get my stubborn ass to give a stool test (which physically was very easy because I still had loose, watery, diarrea-like stools about 4 times a day). In hindsight I should have given a stool test to the local lab to figure out what was causing my diarrea sooner then wednesday, but I didn't.. and so that's water under the bridge. So, after getting the results of the stool test, the PC medical officer told me I have a parasite and will need to take Tinidazol, 2 tablets twice a day for three days, and after another pill for 10 more days to kill any remaining Cysts that the paraiste left in my intestine. O, THE wows, and follies in the life a PCV.
I can't wait to celebrate Christmas and New Year's with my family and wonderful Gringo Friends in the Twin Cities!
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