Lots of Rain and Soccer

The last couple days have been really busy as our projects have been starting to pick up speed. The wonderful part about HELP International is that we (the volunteers) are involved in the entire development process. That means we've been doing a lot of needs assessment, going to lots of meetings with partners, a lot of planning, and eventually we'll be doing the work and then evaluation. We get to see and be a part of the WHOLE process.

On Monday, we went to a meeting with a group of rural community leaders in Los Alpes. We've talked briefly before with a lady who works with them, but this was the first time we got to meet the community leaders and see the actual communities.

The meeting went really well. The leaders told us about the problems that they see and possible ways to fix them. Apparently the government started building a doctor's office nearby, because right now they have to take a 20-30 min bus ride into Leon to get to a doctor, and if someone gets sick at night their out of luck and they have to wait for the buses in the morning. But, the government stopped building the Health Center. So the people from these communities finished it as far as they could. Now it has plumbing and wiring and its all finished- except it needs a well/water pump for a water source, and it also needs to be connected to electricity. But, even if we were to do that for them, there's no guarantee that the government would staff the health center like the promised. They also have a well at the school that the children drink from. The problem is that nearby there are some poisonous trees, and they fear that the roots of these trees are either already or will soon be contaminating the water that their children drink at school. They recently had electricity installed in their school, but the rain damaged some of the wires, so it no longer works. The latrine at the school is completely full, so they would like a new latrine. Also, they requested computer lessons, because none of the people know how to use a computer at all.

So during this meeting we talked about the possibility/ expenses of completing these projects. And then we went and saw the actual communities. Obviously, they had a lot of need, and we could spend all summer just in Los Alpes. But, we've seen even greater need in other places at other site visits, so we want to spread out our help. So once our team was back at our house we had another meeting about what we really want to do. We decided it was too big of a gamble to fix the Health Center, and maybe it would actually be used. But, we've been studying up on something called soilets. Which is basically, a latrine, only it's specially built and designed to use earth worms to decompose the human waste that gets collected. In comparison with latrines, soilets are fantastic! With latrines, they just cover them up with cement, and dig a new one... And then when it rains... yikes... So we've been doing lots of research to figure out exactly how to built a soilet for Los Alpes.

Then yesterday we had the registration for our English classes. We had 50 or so people sign  up so we divided them into Beginning, Intermediate and Advanced classes. Two other volunteers and I taught the first Beginning class tonight. Holy cow. It was hard- but awesome.

During registration, we saw some kids playing soccer in the street. Of course, Rachel and I had to join them! We played soccer and volleyball for a bit. Eventually we moved into the backyard of the church (they built a parking lot before they realized that only 3 or 4 members even own cars, and only 1 or 2 actually use them to get to church. So they let grass grow in the parking spots. It's pretty funny, actually). Then we played freeze tag (the chelas were it the entire time), red light green light,  and did wheelbarrow races. It was SO much fun, and we were all so dirty at the end! We're meeting them again tomorrow before our English class to play soccer.

Why did my Spanish teachers have to teach me how to say "pyramid" in Spanish??

 This is my "your parents aren't allowed to sue me if you die" face.

The past couple days a member of HELP International's board was here visiting. But last night was his last night, so he treated us all to dinner. We went to this cool little restaurant on the second floor of a building. It was like outside, but covered thankfully, because it was raining. It overlooked a church and a basketball court where a lot of kids play soccer. It was so pretty. And then a group of 5 or 6 boys started playing soccer on the cement basketball court, shirtless and barefoot, in the middle of the rain. So, while we were waiting for our orders, Ashley and I went out to join them!

They told us when we were talking off our shoes that it was slippery... It's not that we didn't believe them, we just didn't know it was that slippery haha. We figured it out soon enough. Within 5 mins I fell flat on my back. And within ten Ashley fell flat on her face. So we have a couple scrapes and bruises. But it was SO much fun! We loved it. There was one little kid, probably 8 or 9, who would run up and give me a hug every time I scored. But eventually the team yelled down to us that our food was ready, so we had to leave. Upon departure, a couple of these boys wanted un besito or a little kiss. Obviously, we said no, which we were under the impression meant "no" in both English and Spanish, but apparently they didn't understand. They stole a quick kiss from Ashley while I managed to keep my hand over the mouth of the shirtless child climbing on me. But it was still a lot of fun! The pictures aren't really clear because it was dark and rainy. But as gringas we pretty much stand out.






It truely is the rainy season here in Nicaragua!

The river- I mean... street... just outside our house

This is our rain gutter/ storm drain thingy that's in our hallway. That's right. Our hallway.

This is our hallway, which is partially outside, which is great because we never have to water the plants!

Also, here's some pictures from last weekend when we made a quick trip over to Granada (about 2.5 hours away). It was a beautiful town, but it was SO tourist-y compared to Leon that I didn't really like it. But it was still great and we had lots of fun!

This is the monkey that climbed on our boat... nbd.

The monkey and I

This is me eating an especially tastey watermelon. Not in Granada, in Leon. But still.

This is me and two birds... I forgot their names, but they're pretty much my best friends.

Ashley and I, about to grab these LIVE crabs.

Not my most flattering facial expression... but quite possibly the most sincere.

Me and a little island we passed on our boat ride in Lake Nicaragua

So pretty  much I love it here and I hope you guys are all having fantastic summers too!

The Dancing Nuns

Yesterday, Megan, Warner, Ashley, and I went back to visit the dancing nuns. Basically, three nuns live in this house, but one of them is 96 years old, so there's really only two of them that can do stuff. And so every day after school 12-25 kids around ages 7 or 8 go to their house and the nuns review what they learned in school,  play with them, and feed them a meal. They all come from the poorest neighborhoods, and they're also all the worst behaved. One nun explained that they're all so unruly and poorly behaved because that's the environment that they grew up in, and so she's also trying to teach them to be more organized and better behaved.

So basically, it's a group of wild, ill-behaved, high risk, 8 year olds. So when we got there we split them up into three groups. Then Ashley and I took one group of four kids, Megan and Warner took one, and. the nuns took one. Oh my goodness. It was SO hard.

Basically, we were supposed to teach them about the letter "ñ". Which doesn't even exist in English, but that's okay because we were teaching in Spanish. At one point, a little girl named Genesis asked Ashley a question, and Ashley didn't understand what she said, so Ashley just said, "Si." And then all four of the kids bolted out of the classroom and we had no idea what just happened haha. Apparently, Genesis asked Ashley if she wanted her to go get her another marker for the whiteboard, and then they all raced to go get it.

And another little boy (we don't know his name, he kept telling us it was Micheal Jackson) would cut off the circulation to his hand and then once his hand was really pale he would tell us that now he looked like us.

These kids would get up and hit each other all the time, so pretty much Ashley was in charge of keeping them from fighting and guarding the door so they couldn't escape, while I taught the lesson. It was so hot in that classroom. Nobody here has air conditioning, except for a few banks and one grocery store (we end up going to the bank a lot haha it's just so nice inside!) So of course, they don't have air conditioning. They do have a couple fans, which is nice. But by the end of the lesson I was still dripping sweat.

Then it was time for recess. Oh my heck, they went crazy.

And then we got to dance again. The nuns are choreographing this dance for the kids to perform for their mothers on Mother's Day (May 30th down here). Helping them learn the dance is so much fun! Here's a quick little video.

The nun is so funny. She keeps those kids in line. After recess she was counting to ten, and by ten they had to be seated. But one kid kept screaming in between each number she said. So she grabbed him, put her hand over his mouth and put him in this kind of head lock until she was finished counting.... Next time she counted, he didn't scream.

At one point she also got out a mop, and at first I though she might beat them with it, but instead she would just put the nasty  wet mop on their feet if they started talking while she was.

Then, while we were dancing, one boy didn't want to be partners with a specific girl and he tried to move down the line to avoid being across from her. That nun made him be partners with her and gave him a good lecture on how that girl was just the same as any other girl and he was not going to try and have a preference over girls.

After two and a half hours, we were exhausted, so it was nice when we got to sit down and listen to them pray for fifteen minutes. After awhile some of the kids started to lay down during the prayers. Then the other nun asked them, "Who here is 80 years old?" And they all pointed to the 96 year old nun in the wheelchair, and the nun said, "Nope. She's 96. But she's still sitting up straight- so you guys can too."

Basically, the nuns are awesome. The kids are rambuntuous, but cute. I was talking with our country director, and I think I'm going to end up being project lead over our work with the nuns and their after school program, and I'm really excited.

Also, we had our first rainstorm last night! It rained so hard! All the streets flooded, but only for like an hour. Also, I don't remember if I already mentioned that half our hallway is outside. So it was refreshing to have it rain in our house too haha

I hope you guys are all doing well!

My Nicaraguan Farmer's Tan

Today, I had quite the experience. But first I have to mention, that yesterday I met some catholic nuns, who were dancing. Dancing nuns. It was great. It looks like we'll probably end up helping them with an after school program that they have for children.

Okay, today, we left our house at 630 in the morning. Which sounds way early, and it is, except that everyone here gets up with the sun. So everyone else in León was already up for like an hour and a half. Arturo, Julia and I took a bus to just outside the city. It was quite possibly the most awesome thing I've ever done, because the bus kind of left before I was all the way on. Which was awesome because then I was like those people in all the movies who are hanging out the buses while holding on to one metal bar. It was great, but eventually we had to move all the way into the bus :(

Then we met with a government organization called INTA. Sometimes government organizations are really hard to work with because they also have political agendas, but this one had a community garden already set up in a rural community and we were going mostly to observe and see if we want to start a similar project following their model. But to get to this rural community, we got to ride in the back of a pickup truck. For 40 mins. On a dirt road with lots of dips and rocks. So it was awesome, but my butt hurts.

So then Julia and I helped Oscar set up little support system thingies for their tomato plants. And while we were doing that we saw a caterpillar (which is bad for the plants) so I told him, "bicho malo." Which means "bad bug." And he came over and collected the caterpillars that we found, and he told us that they were going to make soup out of them. And we believed him for like another hour. But then we talked to him some more and we clarified it was a joke.

And then they had a little class for these rural farmers, taught by INTA. And we got to sit there and try and understand as much as we could. And then we went back out into the fields to try and find all the gusanos, which is aparently the real word for "bad bug," so that was fun. And then they had another little class session and then they told us iit was time for lunch!

And that's when it all started.

We washed our hands in there little outside sink. basically there's two sides, and one side is full of water, and   you take a tuperware container, dunk it in the water, then put it on the other side, and wash your hands with it! It's really a great system.

So then we walked over and we seen a whole bunch of giant bowls filled with... soup. Haha so we laughed a little bit and joked about the gusanos being inside. Don't worry, they weren't. But the bowls were huge, so we told them that Julia and I would share one. Then they put the three of us at a table away from everyone else, and we looked at our soup.

Of the things that we identified in our soup, there was: water, corn (still on the cob), bananas (with the peel), a crab head (yes, a crab head, dead... but brains and everything), lots of unidentified vegetables, and a bone (yes, a bone, hueso) with a bunch of tendons and possibly a little meat attached to it. And it smelt awful.

We spent probably an hour trying to get as much down as we could. Julia was a trooper, and by far the last one to stop eating. But overall, Arturo only ate maybe 1/4 or 1/3 or his soup, and Julia and I finished maybe half of ours.

I only ate broth, corn, bananas, and a vegetable that Julia said was similar to a potato- but it was the size of a banana.

It was by far the most disgusting thing I've ever eaten. And we were trying to be polite by eating as much as we could.

Also, while we were eating, we saw a mother give her child a bath in the water we had washed our hands in. Great system.

Arturo went and bought us some soda to wash it down, and while he was gone, Julia and I wrote a little song, the tune might be familiar.

99 flies in Arturo's soup, 99 gigantic flies
You swat at them a bit
They'll throw a fit
98 flies in Arturo's soup.

98 flies in Arturo's soup, 98 gigantic flies... etc.

Yes, so eventually we just told them that generally Americans eat large dinners and breakfasts with a very light lunch, so we couldn't finish it.

And then we went to a little more training meeting (this time more about pesticides being safe for the environment and stuff). And then we made the hour plus trip back to León. By the time we were back at our house, it was 500.

And I don't think I'll ever eat again...

I just wish it was a caterpillar soup...

Lovin' León!

FIRST POST FROM NICARAGUA!

So my plane landed Thursday night, and I'm pretty sure I fell in love with Nicaragua before the plane even landed! It was already dark, but you could tell just from the lights exactly where the beach was.

Of course, my dad wanted to know how clearing customs was... It was easy. It took like, 30 seconds.

Also, since I stepped off the plane, I have not been cold. It is SO hot, all the time. Apparently this is the hottest time of the year, and apparently León is the hottest city in Nicaragua. Wonderful. But I love it. And the cold showers are the best!

So we took a big van from the airport in Managua to León, and there was no air conditioning (of course) so we rolled down all the windows. Well, actually, they didn't "roll down" they just slide open. But anyways. León is about an hour and a half away from Managua. And I think I'm getting a pretty good feel for how traffic works in Nicaragua: whoever honks first goes through the intersection first. And people generally drive on the right side of the road... generally.

We arrived at our house and it is SO cute. I love it! We have green wooden doors, and then a metal gate thing that swings open. Lots of people have them, and whenever anyone's home we leave the green doors open, and the metal gate closed. And then there's a little living room and a kitchen, and then a little wash-your-clothes-by-hand area that I'm excited to learn how to use (or I could just pay our neighbor lady 20 Cordoba to do my laundry for me... Which would be a little bit less than a dollar). Then, there's our hallway, which is halfway outside and halfway inside. So when it rains half  the hallway gets wet, which isn't really a problem because we're always so hot. And our rooms are really just walls and a roof and a bathroom. We do have running water, but its always cold. And we sleep on cots, which seems to be hard for a lot of girls here but I'm totally fine. (Thanks for all those summers sleeping on your cots, Grandma Kimball!!) We always have two or three fans in any room that we're in because it's so hot. So in my mind the nights are really windy... but they're not. There's just a bunch of fans in our bedroom. Oh! And at the end of the hallway there's a very precarious staircase that leads up to THE ROOF. I know, right? HECKA awesome. And up there is where our clothesline is and there's a couple lawn chairs and a hammock (I took a quick nap out there today... Heaven.)

Okay... so that was my first two hours in Nicaragua.

The next morning Arturo and Angie (our Country Directors, they've been here for a few weeks already) took us to la Iglesia San Juan, the church a couple blocks south of us. And it was there that they told us (the group of volunteers) that we would be going on a scavenger hunt... without them. Crazy. But we totally rocked it. My team won (duh). Along the way we made lots of new friends. Particularaly with a group of 14-16 year old school girls. They showed us the way to el mercado central and we answered questions about the US (But no, unfortunately, we don't know Justin Beiber).

Then that night we met with a group of Nicaraguans at a local church to talk about an English class that we're going to be teaching. That was fun and scary all at the same time.

Then on Saturday we made a trip down to a beach called Las Peñitas. It was about 20  mins away by bus- BUT we had to wait probably a half hour for the bus to leave. Buses here aren't on a time schedule, they just leave when they're full!

At the beach we were bombarded by kids selling necklaces and things out of shells. I told and 11 year old named Antonio that I would buy one later... he made my pinky promise. So I ended up buying three necklaces from three different kids, and then giving a can of Pringles to the rest of them and told them to leave me alone. Then we played soccer with some of the teenagers ( I think their names were Efrel and Wilbur). Pretty much it was two white girls versus one white guy and two Nicaraguans. Given our circumstances, we held our own pretty dang well!

Here's a picture of Wilbur, Me, Efrel, and Antonio... (Antonio was upset because I told him "later" again). Also, yes, I am very sunburnt. No need to mention this to me, I am already very well aware.

And here's some pictures from playing soccer with them. Running in sand = difficult.

Look! Even Efrel was tired!

 This was me while we were waiting on the bus we took to las penitas, with a cool little market in the background. I can't figure out how to turn the picture... so you'll have to turn your heads...

 A local guy from Canada who runs a super delicious taco stand gave me Aloe from a real Aloe plant. My team says that a lot of people have those even in the US, but I've never seen them there before, so I thought it was super cool.

 On the bus back I chatted with baby Benjamín and his family. They were going to León to visit Benjamín's grandma!

So I pretty much have multiple sunburn lines.... hopefully they'll even out into a nice Nicaraguan tan.

A lot of you are probably thinking "What the heck? I thought she was going down there to do service??" I TOTALLY AM. I PROMISE. haha We met with some locals Friday night and we're setting up an English class for them, and tomorrow morning I'm going with Arturo to meet with some other NGOs that are already down here to see what we can do to help!

Que tengan un buen día! Les extraño!

T minus 36 hours until takeoff...

I'm warming up for Nicaragua by listening to my "Shakira" Pandora station. I officially have less than 36 hours before my flight to Nicaragua leaves, and I am SO excited!

For those of you who don't know, Nicaragua is in Central America (NOT Africa... which seems to be a fairly common misconception). Here is a lovely map of where I'll be for the next two months.

I will be living in León, which is over on the western side, just north of Managua, the capital. Don't worry, Nicaragua is safe and I've gotten all the fun immunizations that I'll need.

That's cool. But why am I going to Nicaragua?

Over 80% of the Nicaraguan population lives on less than $2 per day. 

45% lives on less than a dollar per day.

35% of Nicaraguans are illiterate. 

Of the rural Nicaraguan population, only 68% has access to adequate drinking water, and only 37% has access to proper sanitation. 

About half of Nicaraguans receive an education past fifth grade.

That sucks. But why am I going to Nicaragua?

Because as a volunteer with HELP International I will have the opportunity to initiate life-changing, sustainable development programs.  I am confident that I can make a difference in the lives of Nicaraguan people. I don't know exactly what I'll be doing yet, because this is the first summer that HELP has been to Nicaragua. I'm a part of the first group of volunteers to go down, (first wave- holla!) and so the first couple weeks we'll be doing needs assessment and then planning our projects for the rest of summer! And that's why I have this blog. I'll be sure to keep all you guys back in the US updated on everything I'm doing to help Nicaragua :)

Also, I am inviting you to join us at HELP International in serving the people of Nicaragua by donating whatever you can.  Donations can be mailed directly to HELP International (455 N. University Ave. suite #212 Provo, Utah, 84604) or through PayPal online at: http://help-international.org/donate-now, including “Amanda Dye” in the comments section. Mentioning my name ensures that your donation goes towards my team’s projects in Nicaragua. If you’d like more information please visit the HELP International website www.help-international.org, or email me at amandarileydye@hotmail.com.

Have a phenomenal summer! :)

PS. 35.5 hours :)