still here

Still here. Still hot and all that. Still gross bugs and a lot of trash and poop.

Went to the Pacific Ocean for the first time on Sunday, which was a lot of fun. The current seemed to really strong at the beach we went to, not to mention that the beach itself mostly consisted of plastic wrappers and tires. When we were leaving in the afternoon, a bunch of wild pigs and dogs wandered on to the beach.

Host famlies are host families, my family especially seems to have a knack for not wanting to do anything other than watch television. This has mostly stayed the same for the duration of this trip so far. In other news, I think I have developed a rather strong relationship with the family birds. Especially the green parakeet like ones, who know continue to chirp at me whenever they see me. They also try and bite me, but they do the same for more well known members of the family.

Having a guitar in my room is nice, although I wish I had a pick, and that it was a steel string guitar most of the time. Time to work on the fingerpicking techniques that I neglected in favor of things that were more intresting at the time. I have been relearning songs that I learned a long time ago but have since forgotten, mostly beacuse of boredom, and having nothing else to do (well, there are journal entries, but really, who works on those)

Hoping to hear more about service in the next coming days. We are going to Esteli, and Matagalpa this weekend, which are two cities north of here, towards the center of the country. Not sure what all we are doing there, we will find out tomorrow after spanish classes.

Also, I find it interesting that most of the resturants are closed during the lunch hour. This is especially frustrating when the group only has about an hour and a half to eat and walk across the city to get to the other location. On the plus side, any person who travels to Jinotepe needs to check out Terry´s Diner. It is one of the few places in the city where the service doesn´t absolutely suck. (On Saturday, it took me an hour and half to get a grilled piece of chicken and rice. Others ordered things that were never even received.)

Still very few cats in the city.

Have not figured out how to make a question mark symbol on the computer yet. This could take years to figure out.

ho hum

first of all, for those who do not know, you can find pictures and a more detailed report of the activities that have been accomplished so far on the trip at the goshen website, specifically at www.goshen.edu/sst/ under the nicaragua blog (make sure you click summer 2011 if for some reason that boggles your mind).

We went to the atlantic coast this last weekend. It was really fun, the landscape is beautiful, and it is a lot quieter and nicer than the pacific coast where we are stationed for the rest of the trip. People speak in Creole, which is basically just english, so it is also easier to get to know the people who live out there and such. If it were up to me, we would have just stayed out there, because even though it was a lot more impovished than the pacific coast, the people were nicer, and the atomosphere was a lot more chill. It is basically like living in Jamica, except you are on a mainland rather than an island. Also, it smells like dead fish a lot of the time outside when you are near the town (we specifically were at the town of pearl lagoon), but it is much cleaner than Jinotepe, and there are less drunken perverts and trash on the ground.

For the rest of this week then, we have been back to the normal classes and lectures and stuff. Today our lecture ended up getting rained out, which was a sweet relief from having to take copious notes via our translator, and attempting to dissect the one question out of 2 and a half hours of material everyday that our leaders decide to test us on. ridiculous!

Also, apparently they do not have mint chocolate chip ice cream down here. Travesty! The things that I would offiically state that I miss so far are Pop Tarts, anything cheese related, and Ice Cream that is not Eskimo brand. Its cheap, but its not so great.

We are going back to Managua tomorrow for a day trip to the US Embassy, and some MCC thing. Not sure what that is going to be like, but it is in Managua, so it will likely be superbly hot. The heat of Nicaragua is practically unliveable, so its a good thing that we are getting more into the Rainy season now.

well

Nothing too much new to report. A lot of bugs. A lot of drunk people in the streets, and a lot of trash. a lot of really hot weather, although it has been clearing up and been cooler as a result of the rainy season coming.

study classes are underway, and that´s the major thing that is happening right now. We are heading to the caribaen cost tomorrow for the next couple days, and that should be interesting. Some beach time and so off time from study term I suppose.

My host family is okay, they seem to be kind of into their own things most of the time, which is okay when i need to do homework and read and stuff like that. My host brother came to my room with a guitar a few days ago. I have never seen it before in the house, and i have no idea where it came from, but my host mom insisted that it was mine for the duration of my stay down here. Interesting.

I have managed to read through a few random novels already, including the silence of lambs so far. There is a lot of down, boring, alone time here. Having an ipod on SST is a lifesaver, and keeps you sane during the nights. Make sure you have some good songs on their though. I´ve been listening to a lot of music that really makes me wish it was august already.

out.

this computr suckes

THe computer that i am using in the cyber cafe in Dolores circa Jinotepe (the city we are doing our study term in) is super sucky, so pardon this one being short, to the point, or with numerous spelling mistakes that i have not bothered to care about.

ÇWe arrivd in Jinotepe on sunday, after 2 days of service in barrio grenada, a very poor neighborhood of about 800 some people, where we helped build two houses with an ngo group in managua. So far, we have done little other than studying, reading for classes, and awkward interactions with our host families. It is kind of strange, and very hot down here. you cannot go anywhere without sweating, and the houses of course, when the fans are not running, which is often because of the price of electricity and such, it is very hot.

I have two host siblings at my house in dolores (where 4 other ssters are staying as well, which is a 20 minutes walk to jinotepe), hector age 10, and thelma 23. Hector is very shy and Thelma is eithrer never home or with her rather large novio Roberto. I will probably write more, but the c omputer sucks.

For details of what we have been doing or stuff like that, go to the SST blog.

personally, my feelings so far are very mixed. I really dislike the heat down here, and the language barrier is very tough. the showers are super miserable in the morning, and i have already gotten lost in the city once. Don´t ask. Food is decent though, and the variety of juice sand fruits are very good and large. People are nice, but there is a lot of random drunk people, or very grabby folks who seem like they are not of good will.

finally. most everything is really awkward. I really miss things like music without spanish autotune vocals, and things such as the ability to wikipedia random things. also people back at home.

Oh, and there are seriously like no cats here. Everyone either has birds or dogs. I do not approve.

tune in.

Managua

Hello everybody.
We are currently staying in Managua with some host families. We are currently undergoing various orientation activities via companeros, a social justice and community development organization that is within Nicaragua, based in Managua. So far we have arrived, met host families for the next few days (we will be leaving for jinotepe on sunday, which is where we will be for the next 6 weeks during the study part of our sst) and have mostly just been in either meetings, or with our host families, (attempting to) conversing in spanish.

For things that are interesting so far
- it is super hot in managua, everybody uses a fan because the humidity is really high and its been about 90 or higher degrees F around here
- there are a lot of geckos
- I have played both Oasis and the Red Hot Chili Peppers for my host mom on the guitar so far.

Anywho, nothing so much has happened. Here is a summary of how the traveling to get to this point was

- We left goshen at a ridiculously early hour of 4 in the morning, and despite a certain student arriving late to the send off (well, not showing up at all and having to meet us at the chicago airport) things went relatively smooth. The SST office lied to us about being able to take 2 bags in check in for free, (dirty lies) and Kaleb almost got detained for attempting to smuggle sunscreen in his carry on bag. After about 16 hours of traveling (mostly waiting at the chicago airport because our flight did not leave till 11am, but we had to be there early because of the peru folk) we touched down in managua, and met with host families, etc.

this is the story thus far.

drop out.

Malaria Meds

I feel safer already.