Sunday, August 31, 2008

And now it´s September!

Wow! I have been in Nicaragua for almost 8 months now and I still love the country.

Right now I am preparing for my 3rd workshop in the last 3 weeks and my stress level is extremely high. If I didn´t have some really amazing friends here that support me 100% I would definitely be going nuts. Because of the workshops I have worked nearly every day for the last 2 months and I am really looking forward to a couple of vacations in September - one here in the country and possibly another in the United States. After this week things should become less hectic (I hope!) because I don´t have another workshop until the end of October.

My fiance and I are still together and we love each other a lot but we are both discovering that cross cultural relationships can be extremely difficult.
Plans for a wedding have been postponed because of all of my work with the Peace Corps and because we don´t get to see each other very often.

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

I can´t believe it´s May!

I normally don´t have any free time, but the university is closed for the next few days because of a transportation strike and there isn´t a guarantee that I will have classes at the high school either since the teacher that I work with lives in another town. If you want more information on the strike, you can search for Nicaragua Transportation Strike on the internet and find the latest information.

I have been working at night at the high school because I enjoy working with the teacher and there are fewer students (usually only 30-35 instead of 45+). Since the high school is near where I live, there aren´t any problems with walking in the street at night and the area is safe.

I have continued working at the university with English teachers (or future English teachers) and with Sustainable Tourism students. I love the teachers group because it gives me a chance to talk with colleagues who speak English fluently. They have helped me adapt to Nicaraguan culture and learn about the school system here at the public and private high schools and the university levels. The tourism students are also fun to work with because I can combine my experience working all of those years at Marriott and my passion for teaching English. Right now we are working with several local tourist attractions to translate documents from Spanish to English to broaden the range of tourists that can be catered to.

In my private life, everything is going great. I am still with the great guy I mentioned in my February blog and we plan to stay together for a long time into the future. I am very close with his family as well and I spend most of my time between classes talking with his grandmother or his daughter. Every two weeks, I also visit the family that I lived with in May and June last year.

I can´t think of more to write right now...I´ll send the links for my pictures in an e-mail.

Monday, February 18, 2008

Ready to go...

I guess that I got a bit ahead of myself in the last e-mail. I didn't realize that organizing 1500 students into classes of 50 each in order of age was all done (essentially) by 4 people. Needless to say, the first week at the high school was chaotic with students in the wrong grades or at the wrong time of day and teachers with more than one class at the same time. Now, things are smoothed out and it looks like I'll be observing the classes that I'll be working with until the end of first semester in June. Next week, I'll probably begin co-teaching with the two teachers that I'll be working with.

In the meantime, since I haven't been teaching/working much at the high school (just observing a few classes) I have been working with a Canadian woman who is giving classes to 6 university teachers from all subject areas and 10+ high school English teachers. The classes are primarily designed to improve pronunciation and to give the teachers a chance to converse in English.

Outside of work...I have found a true friend in my host sister and we spend evenings chatting or watching telenovelas. My host family also introduced me to a single, trustworthy, male neighbor and he asked me out the next time we met (and I accepted). We'll see what the future has in store.

I don't have any pictures of my site yet...My camera is on loan right now, but when I get it back I promise that I'll make an effort to upload a few pictures of the city that I live in.

My hour is up at the internet cafe...I'll write more when I have access again.

Friday, February 1, 2008

Time to Work!

After having 3 weeks to relax and read (in English and Spanish), I went to work this week. The Ministry of Education provided training sessions for all of the teachers across the country. Conveniently, the teachers in my "state" met across the street from my house at the high school where I will be working. It was a fantastic opportunity to meet most of the English teachers that I will be working with for the next 2 years and to renew my contact with the teachers that I worked with in May and June last year.

Next Monday is the first day of school here and even though I don't know my exact schedule yet, I do know that I'll be working primarily in the mornings at the high school. In the afternoons, I'll be working with the university to provide free English conversation classes to high school students, college professors and high school teachers. This is probably the part of my job that I am most looking forward to because I'll have classes of only 20-25 students in contrast to the 50+ that I'll have in my classes at the high school. Eventually the University would like to expand the program to provide workshops for University professors...but I'm going to wait until I have everything else under control before offering any additional assistance.

Monday, January 7, 2008

I´m Here!

Here = Nicaragua :)

I made it safe and sound to Nica on Saturday (no mechanical problems this time). The Peace Corps set me up in a nice hotel (hot water, a/c, comfy bed) only a 1 block from the office here. I spend most of the weekend on my own reading and walking to and from the supermarket (the only place I had enough money to eat at). Today I signed all of the important documents for my bank account and I swore in as a Peace Corps volunteer. Tomorrow I should be moving in with my new host family and I´ll probably meet with my counterpart (the English teacher I´ll be working with for the next two years). I´m sure I´ll spend the rest of the week settling in and refamiliarizing myself with my site. Next week the real work begins with a 3 day conference with my counterpart in Managua.

Still enjoying the warm weather.

Friday, January 4, 2008

What It's All About

My mom just had me read an article by John Gardner about the secret to happiness in life is not money or luck, but a desire to learn at all stages of life. Sometimes we meet with sucess and others failure, but the key is to take the knowledge that we gain and apply it for future use. For me, that is what the Peace Corps is all about, being able to use what I have learned as a student and teacher and being able to apply that knowledge to help out other teachers and students in need (the best part is that I will be learning some things right with them). I am realistic enought to know that I'm not going to reform the English educational system in Nicaragua, but I am optimistic that I can make a difference in the curriculum and instruction at the high schools that I'll be working with directly. I know that it will not be easy, especially since the students in Nicaragua and the United States are similar in that they both have difficulty looking 3 or 4 years into the future and seeing what a difference knowing a foreign language can make in their chosen career field. I am looking forward to learning a lot over the next 2 years and hopefully coming closer to a decision about what to do after the Peace Corps. I'll keep you posted along the way.

If you want to read the article, it is titled "The Road to Self-Renewal" and was written by John W. Gardner. It can be downloaded in pdf format from http://www.aligningthestars.com/aligningthestars/gardner.pdf.

Back to Nicaragua!

Right now I'm supposed to be in 85 degree, sunny weather gloating about all of you poor folks back in snowy, freezing Nebraska...but instead I have the opportunity to be here for a few more hours absorbing the bone-chilling cold.

I found out on Monday (12-31) that I am supposed to be in Managua by Monday 1-7. My flight out was this morning from Eppley to Atlanta and into Managua. But, after arriving at the airport at 3:30 am, waiting for 2 hours to board, and getting on the plane it was determined that there was a mechanical issue onboard the aircraft and that we had to get off the plane. Initially, there was a chance that the problem would be fixed and we would only have a delayed flight, but luck was not on my side and the plane never left Omaha. After I waited until 8:15 to talk with the Peace Corps travel agency and I was finally able to get up to the airline counter, it became apparent that there was no way to get to Managua before dark today. So, tomorrow the whole adventure begins again with the same 5:40 flight to Atlanta and then on to Managua - hopefully with a functional plane this time. The only advantage is that I was able to convince the airline to hold my 90 pounds of luggage (2 suitcases) so that I didn't have to haul it home and back again.

The extra time gave me a chance to get some sleep (I've only had a couple of hours over the past few days) and clean the trash out of my car so it can be sold.

I'll update everybody once I land safely and have a chance to use the internet.