Finally an update

Wow I can´t believe I haven´t updated in like 2 months sorry!! I am lazy! Well actually I just keep on forgetting to update whenever I come into town to use the internet. Anyways things are going well here in Mozonte/Nicaragua in general. Just recently Casey visited me for around 10 days. It was awesome! My friends from the fellow Nica 37 Health group that came in a year before us are in the process of leaving right now so as with custume we have a big despedida or going away party for them usually down in San Juan del Sur. Casey flew in on a Friday, we stayed in Managua for the night and hung out and then headed down to San Juan del Sur with a bunch of friends from my Nica 40 group and met up with a ton of other volunteers. On Saturday we just relaxed at the beach and caught up with friends and on Saturday night went up to the super fachenta (ritz) Pelican Eyes where Nica37ers were staying (totally out of us normal Peace Corps volunteers price range but since they are all going back to the states within a few weeks they felt like splurging). Anyways went up to their bungalos and had drinks and hung out and then went out to the disco for the night.

On Sunday after waking up and having a really good breakfast (bagels!! yahoo!!) about 10 of us from Nica 40 and then the Nica 37ers all headed out to Playa Coco which is a more secluded beach about 45 minutes south of San Juan del Sur. We rented 3 houses between the two gropus and it was awesome! We spent the day playing on the beach, eating drinking and just relaxing. Wiffle ball on the beach is awesome really haha. That night we had a big pot luck dinner of which we made garlic mashed potatoes, an avocado, cucumber and onion salad, guacamole, pasta, cheese and crackers, tostones, and tons more food for about 30 people it was awesome. Then later at night we went down to the beach for a big bon fire, talent show and just playing around a very nice last weekend with Nica 37 before they all headed back to the good old US of A.

After that Casey and I headed back to Mozonte where we hung out for the week. It was super relaxing and Casey got to meet all of my friends from Mozonte which was nice since the last time she was here we were only in my site for like a day and a half. We hung out every night with them and on the last night before she headed back to Managua we had a despedida/fiesta at a bar with a bunch of friends which was super tranquillo and lots of fun. She got a good feel of what life is like in Mozonte.

Other than that things are going well. I haven´t really left my site much in the past few months since coming back from home so I´ve had some really good quality time with my friends in Mozonte. As for work, we just finished a water irrigation project out in a community near Mozonte which was really fun. I helped for a while digging out rocks and getting the site ready to put in concrete and what not but then when things got more complicated and needed more muscle force they decided I couldn´t really help much so I just more watched haha but it was really cool to work with the men and show them that women can work in manual labor with them also haha I think they were a little bit surprised. Also we are starting this month to make about 12 letrines working with an NGO called ADRA who is funded half by USAID and half by another NGO from the states. We are working in the same community also. I work a lot in this one community called Los Arados because its close enough for me to walk to whenever I want about 30-60 minutes away depending on how far into the community I need to go. So its a nice distance and not too hard of a walk out to plus they are really eager to work with me which is nice. I have also started working again in the Casa Materna once a week which is good since I give health charlas with them and work with the pregnant woment. Also I am going out to the communities out in the mountains with the ambulance and health center once or twice a week to give charlas and help with consultas.

So all in all things are going well here. Next week in Semaña Santa which is the week leading up to Easter. Since this is a very very Catholic country there are national vacations next Thursday and Friday. Typically everybody goes to the beach or the rivers or somewhere to go swimming and hang out since the hot season has offically started. When I ask when the heat is going to come everybody tells me offically April 1st haha like you can count on it to be damn hot starting that day. So I will be here in Mozonte for Semaña Santa hanging out with my friends, probably going to the river, cooking and just relaxing. So I hope that everybody has a good Easter and talk to you all soon. I promise I will try and update again more quickly! Cuidense! Miss you all tons!

Con mucho cariño!
Carly

More pics

First night of Fiestas Patronales in Santa Maria... JJ and me:


Jer-bug and JJ butt to butt how cute:


The girls hanging out before going out dancing campo style (Kara, JJ, Alison and me):


Ben with his Nueva Segovia Girls:


Ben, Me and Ishie hanging out:


JJ, Ben and Ishie doing their best Nica impression:


Brad and I ... I am going to miss this kid:

New pics

Hey here are some new pics from New Years Day out at the river with Nica friends, riding on the top of the bus to Santa Maria and our weekend in Santa Maria with Jeremy, Kara, Alison, Ben, Ishmael, Brad and JJ

The river where we go swimming in Mozonte, Nueva Segovia:


Me with my Nica girlfriends:


Playing a combo of soccer and volleyball in the river:


Jeremy hanging off the back of the bus trying not to fall off as we speed away:


JJ and I on top of the bus enjoying the ride (before the bitch slapping with branches started):

A weekend in Santa Maria = CRAZINESS

So this past weekend I went up to visit one of my good friends JJ (Janet) in her site in Santa Maria since it was fiestas patronales. Since Santa Maria is a really small community (630 people ... yes we know the count down to the very last baby) about 3 - 3.5 hours outside of Ocotal by the Honduran bourder with very little entertainment I decided that it would be fun to see Santa Maria during its craziness of Fiestas. Anyways I went up with my friend Jeremy and JJ on Thursday. We had all planned to meet and go up on the 11am bus but alas like usual in Nicaragua the bus doesn't show up and then the 12:30pm bus doesn't show up and someone told us that the only bus coming in today to go back to Santa Maria would be the 1pm bus which was fun except when it showed up it was the small little special bus. That's right all of the people waiting to go to Santa Maria from 11am, 12:30pm and 1:30pm all had to fit into the small little bus. Just picture this bus, its the small bus that in the US fits approximately 40 little tikes going to kindergarten and yet here we are around 70 or more full sized adults with tons of baggage. It was quite a site to behold. So JJ is yelling at us to try and squeeze ourselves into the back of the bus which is just about impossible since it was packed like a can of sardines in there. Therefore Jeremy, JJ and I decided that we will ride on the top of the bus instead of squeeze ourselves into the bus (which was a much better idea I mean really smelly Nicaraguans in a small little special bus without any ventaliation does not sound like a fun 3 hour bus ride to me). So there we are riding on the top of this little bus with the cobradores and a bunch of other Nica men who like us thought it was a better idea to sit on top. It started out really fun ... the warm sun in our faces, a breeze and getting to see the pretty scenery. However this fun game quickly turned ridiculous since was had to duck in a sincronized fashion under branches and wires all the while dust is being thrown into our faces and the sun is scorching our skin. Ahhh what fun times. Basically all the Nicas on the top of the bus thought that we were insane since we were laughing so hard that we were crying ... I think that they thought we would be prissy little girls who couldn't hold our own up there on the top but it was a blast riding through the windy mountains, holding on for dear life, getting bitch slapped by branches and laughing till we were crying. Only in Nicaragua. Oh well all is well that ends well. We had a blast in the fiestas and Santa Maria will forever hold a special place in my heart. I am pretty sure that they think I am the crazy chinita also and will be talking about me to JJ for the rest of her service. It's nice to know that I have made such an impact on Nicaragua, not only in my site but in my friends sites too.

Alright well thats all for the funny stories right now but I will try and put up pictures from this weekend and other times soon! HOpe all is going well in the states and you are enjoying your quick spell of hot weather during the middle of winter! Miss and love you all!

Con mucho carino!
Carly

New Years in Nicaragua

Yes yes I know I have been horrible at this whole updating the blog thing but as one of my New Years Resolutions I promise I will try and update more frequently (plus I don´t like getting yelled at by my mom haha jk). Anyways Christmas at home was wonderful and thankfully I was able to see a ton of people. Between surprise visits from my Bucknell friends (with the help of Casey) in Chicago/Milwaukee and then going home and seeing Marcus Whitman friends, Buffalo Bills game and having quality family time I would have to say that my trip home was definitely a success.

I came back into Nicaragua definitely sleep deprived and a little hypothermic from the northern tundra of upstate New York and Milwaukee but better none the less after being away for a year from the US. I got into Managua on the 28th and shared a hotel with my friend Erin ... we both went straight to sleep and managed to sleep for a good 12 hours. In the morning we met up with our friend JJ and headed down to Granada to meet up with some other Nica 40ers to spend some time together since we haven´t all seen each other in a month, haha yea its been forever. But it was really nice to catch up and see how everybody´s vacations back to states were or if they stayed in Nicaragua how Christmas in Nicaragua went. The majority of everybody stayed in Granada for New Years Eve but I promised my Nicaraguan friends that I could come home and spend New Years Eve with them so JJ and I headed back to the north (thank God since it was disgustingly hot and humid down in Granada and in Nueva Segovia it is nice and cool). I headed to back to Mozonte and JJ headed back to Santa Maria.

I kinda felt weird after being away from Mozonte for so long that I wouldn´t know how to flow back into my life but thankfully everything fit right back into the flow of things. I came home to a nicely cleaned house ... before I left I had asked someone to clean my house since I knew it would be disgusting. I am sure that the girls who came and cleaned my house were disgusted by the way I live ... this is probably the first time in the 10 months that I have lived in the house that it has had a thorough cleaning. I am thinking about asking them to clean it once a month for me so I can stop living in the disgusting sty that I call a house. I mean I sweep and clean but they do a thorough job like moving all my books and papers and my pots and pans and cleaning under them ... yea maybe I should do that too hahha. Anyways off of that side note, my house was wonderfully cleaned. When I got home I thankfully had water so I went right away to wash my sheets and blankets 2 times over (hopefully it got rid of any bugs right Mom?) and then unpacked all of my stuff. After resting a little bit I headed over to my friend Aura´s house to say hi. It was really nice to see her and she had asked me earlier if I wanted to go to a wedding with her. Her cousin was getting married up in Dipilto so I headed up with the rest of her family (who I am good friends with) and saw my first Nicaraguan wedding. We stayed there until about 10pm and then headed back to Mozonte so we could celebrate with our friends at midnight.

Nicaraguan New Years Eve is totally different than ours in the States. They don´t watch Dick Clark and watch the ball drop in Times Square. Rather they make these old dolls and then at midnight light them on fire and have lots of firecrackers for about 5 minutes. It was soo loud with these huge firest going on in the middle of the street and everybody yelling ¨Feliz Año Nuevo¨ or ¨Happy New Years¨ it was really fun. Then after that we started music and dancing and hanging out at Aura´s house until 3am in the morning ... it was really fun. Definitely different than my other New Years in the past but really fun. Then on New Years Day we all headed out to the river and hung out for a few hours swimming and playing games and listening to music and just relaxing in the sun. Sometimes its really nice to live in a tropical climate haha.

So that is about it for now. I hope that everybody had a wonderful New Years Eve and great start of 2007. Can you believe that it is already 2007!?! the years are going by super fast I feel old haha. Alright well I promise I will write more frequently. Keep up the emailing and sending of letters. Miss you all tons!

Love always
Carly

Updates on October ... wow it´s already over!

So life has been going pretty well ... can´t really compain except for the on going fungas thing but whatever I refuse as of now to shave part of my head as was suggested by my friend and also personal nurse Kara Mack, but we shall see how much longer I can take having head fungus. Other than that it´s hard to believe that it is already the end of October. October seemed to fly by! I had a great time down at the despedida for Nica 36 ... I went down to San Juan del Sur on Friday and met up with Laura, Marya and Tyler and we all hung out on Friday night and had the typical crazy San Juan del Sur night. Hitting the bars, meeting up with Ernie a fellow PCV and then going out to the club. A fun night of lots of dancing until 4am. Saturday, waking up around 11am (longest I have slept in Nicaragua ever ... Tyler must have rubbed off on me he can sleep forever), we all went to eat at this place called El Gato Negro, a small coffee shop owened and operated by gringos (people from the US). In Justin Kwong´s words ¨it is very pretencious¨ however the food, coffee and hot brownies can´t be beat so we go there anyways. We spent approximately 3 hours there hanging out, eating and playing Taboo and just plain relaxing. The rest of the volunteers showed up on Saturday afternoon/evening and we all met up at a Mexican bar and hung out. There were about 40 of us there for the Despedida … it was really fun hanging out and going out to the club with everybody. Its always fun to have a despedida but its kinda sad too because you know that this group will be leaving and you probable won´t be seeing them again for a long time. A big group of them were heading down to Playa Coco, which is the place where the turtles lay their eggs. They rented 4 houses and were going to hang out there on Sunday. I was very tempted to go however i decided that I wouldn´t go vaga and instead went home.

It´s weird that now alter 7 months of living in Mozonte that I think of it as home. When I first arrived to Nicaragua sometimes I would wake up and be confused as to where I was. Was I at home in New York? Was I in Wisconsin with Casey? Or was I at Bucknell? It all got really confusing. But now when I think home in Nicaragua I automatically think of Mozonte. I have really come to love it there. I thankfully have friends my age which makes things much more interesting on a day to day basis. I actually enjoy being in my site and hanging out with my friends, which was something that I didn´t really like doing when I first got into site. However now I am eager to get home because usually I have something planned for the weekend with friends. This past weekend was very calm and relaxing (probably the calm befote the storm of next weekend). Friday I atended my first reso, which is basically like a Catholic prayer in someones house. You sign up for it at church and then a group of people show up to your house and hola a prayer hour. There is a lot of singing and praying and all that fun stuff and then afterwards there is always food given out. The boys in my town like to go to the resos for the food and many a night you can see them hanging out outside the house waiting for the food to be given out, its pathetic really since my guy friends also partake in it. Anyways on Friday night my friend Dina had her first reso in her house to give thanks for the health of our friend Onegda. She had breast cancer and the doctors just the other week cleared her and said that she was in remission. It was pretty interesting given the fact that I am not Catholic and even if I was I wouldn´t understand anything because it was all in Spanish, with a lot of mumbling and singing in old lady voices. The singing is actually really beautiful and it was a very peaceful thing to attend. Afterwards I went over to my guy friends house and watched a movie with them. On Saturday I had lunch with Kara, another Peace Corps volunteer who was in Ocotal for the day. Then in the afternoon I hung out at Dina´s house and relaxed. That night we met up with our other girlfriends Aura Sophia and Onegda and hung out around town. We also were planning a party that Aura Sophia is going to be throwing for Halloween so we were planning on what we needed to do. Sunday was a typical Sunday. 6 of my guy friends all play for the same soccer team so I went to watch their game and then watched another friends game. After 4 hours of watching soccer and hanging out in the campo my friends asked me if I wanted to go swimming in the river with them. Since it was hot (thats right the weather hasn´t changed still in the 80s every day and sunny with only the variation being rain occasionally) we went out to the river and went swimming, placed some soccer and just chilled. Since it has been raining a little bit more the river is a bit deeper but it is also really dirty water so I didn´t really feel like going swimming. However I wasn´t given a choice since I was there with 5 guys and they decided to throw me in bodily, fun times were had by all. And so was a typical weekend in Mozonte.

The next 2 weeks should be pretty interesting since November 5th is elections. It´s absolutely crazy how intense people get here about elections! Technically us PCVs aren´t allowed to leave our sites for the next 2 weeks because the Peace Corps are worried about our safety since they think there is a chance that things might get violent. A great birthday present. Actually I am excited not only to be in my site for my birthday (I am going to get an egg smashed on my head by my friends since that is the tradition … can´t wait) but also to witness elections. It´s going to be insane! My town has been having parties for each of the different candidates and parties for the past week and it should be ending this week. Then on Sunday they will do the elections and we should see who is the winner by the 7th or so. Keep your eyes and eras tuned to see what happens down here … elections are never crazier than when you are in a Latin American country.

Alright well that´s about it for right now. Hope you enjoyed the update sorry that it´s been so long! Miss everybody at home and I will be back in the states for a visit in less than a month and a half! Yahoo!

Con mucho cariño!
Carly

And more pictures

So the other day I went over to my friends house to help them make a costume for a little boy who I am friends with. His name is Gerald but I like to call him pelón, which means like blad since he saves his head. Anyways he is 7 years old and absolutely adorable. My guy friends were making him a costume for El Día del Medio Ambiente and wanted help. They decided, weirdly, that the best costume would be a box of cigarrettes, the brand name being from the Simpsons since they are obsessed with that show (we watch it religiously every night). So here are some pictures from our attempts at making this cigarrette box for a little 7 year old to wear in a parade.

Dany, Juan Carlos, Barbita and Mynor working on the box:




Gerald (aka Pelón and his little friend prior to putting on the cigarrette box):


The final outcome of 3 hours of hard work:

Pictures from Somoto Canyon

Hiking in Somoto with Kara, Alison, Jeremy, and Luke:


Another shot of the canyons (with Jeremy crossing the stream):


Kara, Alison and me hiking (more like rock climbing) through the canyons:


In the canyon area where we went swimming:

Canyon hiking and med update

So I am alive and kicking thank god. I had a bunch of med appointments last week and it looks like I do indeed have fungus in my head. And yes I found the source of the fungus from my necio dog named Negro. He is my neighbors dog but likes to hang out and bug me every day. When I got home I noticed that he had basically the same thing that I have on my scalp on his body ... hence the source of my fungus. I was seriously pissed and gave some deep thought into punishing the dog (thats right Nicaragua has turned me into being violent towards very necio animals) however I restrained myself and just shooed him away with my broom. It wasn´t as rewarding at hitting him in the head with my shoe but I felt a little better about myself. So I have a lot of shampoo that I will be using for the next month or so and hopefully it will go away. The doctors also thought that I had an on going UTI/kidney infection but we think that we have gotten that under control finally so it looks like I am good to go! Wahoo!

The other weekend when I got back from my long journies to Esteli, Managua and Carazo after giving charlas to the new groups (who are awesome) I came back and went hiking out in the Somoto Canyons with friends. It was awesome. The canyons are about 20 minutes outside of the city of Somoto and then you walk about an hour to a place where these boats then take you to the canyon area. Then we hiked or more like rock climbed through the canyon to this really cute little beach area where we had lunch and then went swimming and just hung out. It was all in all an awesome little spur of the moment trip. I think I might head back there next weekend to go again with some other friends. I have a bunch of pictures that I was going to try and put up but blogger is being annoying and slow and I don´t have much time but I will try and do it again later.

on Sunday I finally was in my site so I went to see some of my friends play soccer in the morning and then in the afternoon a new aspirante named Rachel came to my site. She is doing her volunteer visit and is going to be a new TEFL volunteer somewhere in Nicaragua. I can´t believe that Nica 42 is already doing their volunteer visits. Its so weird that we have been in our sites already for 7 months are are considered ¨seasoned¨ more or less volunteers who can guide new aspirantes to get ready for their service haha its kinda weird. Anyways we are having a good time so far. I am trying my best to show her what a volunteers life is like and to get her ready for her service. Hopefully she still likes the Peace Corps after her visit with me haha.

Alright well thats all for now. i will try and post some pictures soon! Oh and if anyone wants to send down goldfishes and pretzals I would be forever indebted to you I am craving them hardcore!

Talk to you all soon!
Love always
Carly

Med update

Alright just a quick update on the medical status of my life here in Nicaragua. I have just been diagnosed with having either bacteria or fungus growing on my scalp. Thats right everybody ... I have a scalp that is oozing and pusing with fungus (or bacteria). It just made my day when I found out. So I just spend $C 400 cordobas (around $22 dollars) on buying antibiotics and anti fungal shampoo to wash my head with twice a day. Only in Nicaragua would I get a fungus growing on my scalp. I also have a doctors appointment on Monday to try and figure out what kind of bacteria, parasites or amoebes are growing in my intestinal tract and also what kind of virus I have contracted that is giving me joint pains in my hands and feet. So to sum it up I am falling apart in this country. So we shall see if there is anything good to come out of this lol. On a better side I am going to be coming home to the US for Christmas around the 12th of December. I am going first to Milwuakee to spend time with Casey and then we are driving home on the 18th-19th and will be back up in Rochester from the 19th until the 27th of December so make your appointments now (just kidding) and we can meet up! Can´t wait to see everybody in December! Hope you are all enjoying your fall weather in the north! I wish I could be there!

Miss you all lots ... I will update the medical status when there is more conclusive evidence as to what is the matter with me. Hopefully the fungus goes away ... soon!

Con much cariño!
Carly

Pictures from Miraflor

Welcome to Miraflor at 7:30am ... a wondeful mist surrounds us:


Looking all backpackerish (Kara, Erin and me):


Our little cabaña that we shared out in Miraflor ... simple and sweet:


Beautiful hydrangas outside our cabaña ... this one is for you Mom!:


6 hour hike in Miraflor:


Up up and away ...


Holy shit that is a really tallll tree: