Nicaragua Part 2

Once again it has been awhile since I have written, sorry. Here is a summery of the last month or so.

Home

Home life is good. I get along with my host mother really well. She loves to talk and explain things to me.  I often don’t get much of a chance to respond but that is ok. She enjoys showing me new things and gets a kick out of my reactions to thing that are common place, like going to the market or finding a mouse on the counter in the kitchen. My little brothers and I also get along well. I think we have bonded the most over cooking. My host mother does not cook AT ALL. She has not cooked a single meal since I have been here. Dona Ava (the house keeper), either cooks or we go to my aunt’s house, eat out or cereal as a last resort. For this reason my host brothers have been fascinated with my cooking skills. To date we have made breakfast for dinner, including bacon, ham, diced potatoes, and toast with the jelly my mom (real Mom) and I made this fall. We also made cupcakes, pancakes, French toast, and tacos. They told me I needed to start a restaurant called Karli’s, The Best Breakfast in the World. I enjoyed their confidence in my humble cooking abilities. I don’t do a lot with my host father but we have had some good conversations and we get along just fine.

  Internships
          Last time I expressed some frustrations with my Internship at the laboratory. It has been a good growing experience and lesson in patience. I am still a bit bummed with my placement, especially when I hear of what the other three health science students are doing in their internships like taking blood, learning how to do ultrasounds, e.k.gs, and watching amputations if toes, but I have come to terms with it. I am getting to help with more labs. Actually doing things and not just watching all day has helped the situation a lot. I am not observing a lot about the health care system in general so I have to go out of my way to find information and ask people questions, but that has also been a good lesson on how to take initiative and control over my education as well as my experience. The lab is still painfully slow some days but that means I get to do homework or we do each other’s hair, nails, or make-up, make lemonade, go get a hair cut or run labs on each other. I found out I have A+ blood and that I don’t have anemia, just for kicks and giggles. The school has been going really well though. I have been working primarily with the English teacher, Lenny. Each week I get to teach a class a lesson, which is fun and challenging, it also makes me feel like I have a purpose and that I am helping in someway. He is excited about my being her and loves it when I help him with his English. He has the most adorable accent I feel bad correcting it, even thought he clearly says Jell-O when he is trying to say Yellow. I went to his second job with him one week. He works in the afternoons at a public high school in a rural community about twenty minutes outside the city. He introduced me to his students as his teacher, which made me smile. It was a really cool opportunity and I am glad he was willing to take me. I am going to go back again with him this week. Two weeks ago I also gave a lecture to the teachers on emergency response. Anyone who knows me, knows how much I love taking in front of people (I say sarcastically.) It went pretty well thought. I don’t think my hour lecture on common classroom emergencies will prepare all of them. I was however, able to correct a couple hazardous ideas they had and some of them almost seemed interested which made it nearly worth all the stress I put into the presentation. The kids are still excited to see me every day and I leave each day with a few dozen stickers plastered all over my skin and my clothes and my bag. They can be exhausting at times but they are more commonly a constant source of joy. If you want specific examples ask me some time about the cookie kid in the pre-school class or the sixth graders.

San Juan Del Sur

            About three weekends ago I took a trip south with two of my friends to San Juan Del Sur. It took me about eight hours to get there from Chinandega. I took a microbus to Managua and then a taxi from one market where buses leave from to the other main market. There I met up with Emily and Rachael and we took a chicken bus the rest of the way. It was the first time we had seen each other in five weeks and it was really good to talk to them. We found a cheep little hotel and dropped our stuff off before going to explore. We took surfing lessons Saturday!! It was harder than I thought it would be but incredibly fun at the same time. Sunday morning we got up and hiked to the top of a hill where there is a giant statue of Christ. It has a really beautiful view of the bay and it was good exercise (my co-worker told me yesterday I am getting fat so I should probably work out more). We also ate ice-cream about twice a day (which is probably why I am getting fat), and spent the rest of the time walking around and exploring the town. While we were there we ran into Simon, who was Emily’s host brother in Guatemala from Switzerland. He is taking two months to travel around Central America. He attended the same language school as us in Guatemala and lived with Emily’s host family with her for two weeks. We had no idea he was there or even in Guatemala for that matter. She just saw him walking down the street, so that was kind of cool. The trip overall was incredible. It was awesome to be able to travel all the way down there by ourselves and find our way using the little bit of info we had from the internet but mainly just talking to people and asking for directions.

Granada

            This last week was spring break for Whitworth back in the U.S, so our professor came down to visit us. Our other professor was not able to come because her son had an emergency appendectomy and then spent the next two weeks in the hospital because of infections. He is home now but prayers are still needed for a quick and complete recovery. The entire group met at a hotel in the more touristy town of Granada on lake Managua in the south. We spent the entire week there together. It was a good time to be together but kind of shocking at the same time after so much time apart. We had classes for a few hours each day and then some times an activity, other days we had free time, which we mainly spent in the pool. Emily, Morgan and I ended up in the suite by accident, which was fun. There were two levels and a nice little kitchen. We ended up eating dinner in there five times to save on money. I took control of dinner every night except one and that was really good for my soul. I miss cooking like that. The last night we ended up having guests and we made breakfast for dinner for twenty-six people in our little suite. It was crazy considering we had just two pans and a tiny half stove but every one got fed and it was refreshing for me to be able to put on some music and enjoy being in control of something for the first time in about three months. The other fun things we did were, renting bikes and going for a ride down the lake, walking around the town a lot, which was filled with people all the time, watching the happenings of all Saints Week, which was educational, and on Thursday renting kayaks and going out on the lake for a couple of hours. The week was good, but by the time I got back to Chinandega Saturday night, I was happy to be home. My little brothers saw me coming and ran the last block to me to give me a hug. There really is no place like home. It does feel like home now. I still miss Guatemala but I feel comfortable here finally. While I was in Granada I got to talk to my Guatemalan family on Skype. It was good to see them and my host mother reminded me that their home would always be my home and that I had better come back in the future.

Those are the highlights of the last month or so. The time here in Nicaragua has gone by so much more quickly than my time in Guatemala, which is ok. I will be home in a just about a month which seems crazy. There are still several things I want to do before I return but I think when the time comes, I will be ready, not quite yet but in a month maybe. Anyway that is all I have for now. God Bless (Dios te bendiga).

Karli