Que Tal,
This past weekend was interesting. I did some form of running with the bulls on Saturday. If you remember, fiestas patronales lasts for 3 weeks; well this week’s event was a running with the bulls. Now, don´t get me wrong, it was fun and exciting, but it was nothing like the Pamplona version. The fun consisted of 4 bulls being released in intervals, with people throwing rocks and hitting them with sticks to get them mad and go crazy. They were tied to men on horses to avoid any deaths or other serious injuries. Overall the experience was very fun, and I enjoyed it, although I was a delicious tomato after all the sun.
On Sunday, may 30th, we celebrated mothers day, witch was correct as it was mothers day here. It is a very large spectacle here, everyone talk´s all day and gives presents to their mothers; I gave my mom a fun little care package from the little tienda by my house that consisted of lotion and some other spay-smell good stuff. We proceeded to go to dinner, although we never ate a thing. My family ordered bottles of Flor de Caña rum with soda water. I was worried all night because I had homework which wasn’t yet complete, so while they partied, I drank coffee. Overall it was a fun event though. Ohh also while I was there, I saw another volunteer in my group named Jessica who had a bad reaction to the food and had to through up in the garbage can in plane view of everyone at the restaurant because the bathroom was occupied. HAHA
This week has been going great for me. It has gone by fast and I have been less busy. I talked with my shoemaker business that I am advising, as well as the group of high school seniors that we are teaching entrepreneurship classes to. The business advising is going pretty slow, I am just gathering information right now. The class however is in full swing. They are not quite as creative as I would like them to be, however they are great students that go out of their way to come to class after school so they can learn. I really appreciate that. Ill keep you updated with the class, because we have our competition at the end of our training and I want to dominate the other business groups with out students work.
That’s all Folks - Hope you all are doing well.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Agua, Cerveza, Coca Cola
Buenos Dias,
So Its the rainy season here. It will rain about 23 hours a day for the next month and a half. I usually don´t like the rain, but with all that HOT that has been going on, i really don´t mind getting wet as long as there is some coolness.
We went to managua today, what a scattered and dirty city. I´m sure like everywhere there are nice parts, but over all the city is very dirty, scattered(there are no street signs in Nicaragua by the way, they give directions by point of reference, like go 1 block north of the main cathederal and 2 blocks west) and it is dangerous. Anywhoo, we got back late, and we had a meating with our youth group to work with them on their creative business class. They are going to start a company and present it at a fair in 8 weeks with our help, they best company wins prizes. We showed up 45 minutes late, and they were gone, but miraculously after we left, a kid ran us down and told us to come back, and when we arrived at the school there were 8 of them ready to learn. So anyway, I had to teach in spanish a lesson about being creative when thinking of ideas to start a company, not an easy task, but I thought I handled it really well.
The fiesta patronales was very fun. party on the street all weekend. I went with my family and we danced to all types of music. When I say my family, I mean like 20 cousins and nefews and brothers.
Im learning spanish which is nice. I should have been better before I got here but ohh well, im learning now...
I hope all is well. training is very hard, And im working like 5 to 6 12 hour days a week or more.
Paz - Primos
So Its the rainy season here. It will rain about 23 hours a day for the next month and a half. I usually don´t like the rain, but with all that HOT that has been going on, i really don´t mind getting wet as long as there is some coolness.
We went to managua today, what a scattered and dirty city. I´m sure like everywhere there are nice parts, but over all the city is very dirty, scattered(there are no street signs in Nicaragua by the way, they give directions by point of reference, like go 1 block north of the main cathederal and 2 blocks west) and it is dangerous. Anywhoo, we got back late, and we had a meating with our youth group to work with them on their creative business class. They are going to start a company and present it at a fair in 8 weeks with our help, they best company wins prizes. We showed up 45 minutes late, and they were gone, but miraculously after we left, a kid ran us down and told us to come back, and when we arrived at the school there were 8 of them ready to learn. So anyway, I had to teach in spanish a lesson about being creative when thinking of ideas to start a company, not an easy task, but I thought I handled it really well.
The fiesta patronales was very fun. party on the street all weekend. I went with my family and we danced to all types of music. When I say my family, I mean like 20 cousins and nefews and brothers.
Im learning spanish which is nice. I should have been better before I got here but ohh well, im learning now...
I hope all is well. training is very hard, And im working like 5 to 6 12 hour days a week or more.
Paz - Primos
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Buenos dias,
So i read my blog for the first time, (Im too lazy to reread what i write) and i realized its not that great. I cant use my computer to write thoughtful or funny material so i go to the cybers and quickly through soming on the world wide web. I get so frustrated in there and want to leave rapido so i apologize
any whoo, my town of Mastepe is begining the fiestas patronales today with bigtime parties in the streets, although at night its suposedly super scetchy. ohh well. and the peace corps told us that everyone will be looking at us so we cant do anything stupid, which as you all know i wouldn{t do anyway.
today, in the jewish religon is the sabbath, observed from sundown on Friday until the appearance of three stars in the sky on Saturday night. well for me not soo much, not because im anti'semetic, but because we had to do our 6th long day of work in a row for the peace corps by attending a conference.
this included us learning how to start and run our community micro'finance banks. pretty cool and interesting stuff if you ask me. Brievfly this includes us finding people to participate that will elect 4 members, president, box keeper, secretary and auditor. all members will put in a weekly, bi weekly or monthly allotment of money into this comunity bank. this capital will be used for the lending of micro loans to people in the comunity who will then have to pay back the loan, usually in a months time, with a set interest rate that they decide upon, usually 5 to 10%. after a year or 6 months of putting money into the bank and aquiring interest through loans, the money is liquidated and divided acordingly to the people that participated in the bank. The idea is to promote savings and fiscal responsabilty to people in a culture that are not accustomed to doing so. this process will comence again imediatly after the funds are dispersed. they restart this process so people can realize the potential of their savings, and not have it just sit in the box forever, also all 3 head members each get a key so the box with the money can{t be opened with out all 3 present.
on a side note, it rained so im not sweating as much. also im gettting a phone tuesday, ill put my number up so if anyof you feel like im worth 20 cents a minute you can all me.
I hope all is well over there, and p.s. can somebody f'ing stop the oil spill. im come on this is getting a bit rediculous. where are the nasa engineers when you need them.
Ohh and ill put up pics when I take some!
peace out suckas
So i read my blog for the first time, (Im too lazy to reread what i write) and i realized its not that great. I cant use my computer to write thoughtful or funny material so i go to the cybers and quickly through soming on the world wide web. I get so frustrated in there and want to leave rapido so i apologize
any whoo, my town of Mastepe is begining the fiestas patronales today with bigtime parties in the streets, although at night its suposedly super scetchy. ohh well. and the peace corps told us that everyone will be looking at us so we cant do anything stupid, which as you all know i wouldn{t do anyway.
today, in the jewish religon is the sabbath, observed from sundown on Friday until the appearance of three stars in the sky on Saturday night. well for me not soo much, not because im anti'semetic, but because we had to do our 6th long day of work in a row for the peace corps by attending a conference.
this included us learning how to start and run our community micro'finance banks. pretty cool and interesting stuff if you ask me. Brievfly this includes us finding people to participate that will elect 4 members, president, box keeper, secretary and auditor. all members will put in a weekly, bi weekly or monthly allotment of money into this comunity bank. this capital will be used for the lending of micro loans to people in the comunity who will then have to pay back the loan, usually in a months time, with a set interest rate that they decide upon, usually 5 to 10%. after a year or 6 months of putting money into the bank and aquiring interest through loans, the money is liquidated and divided acordingly to the people that participated in the bank. The idea is to promote savings and fiscal responsabilty to people in a culture that are not accustomed to doing so. this process will comence again imediatly after the funds are dispersed. they restart this process so people can realize the potential of their savings, and not have it just sit in the box forever, also all 3 head members each get a key so the box with the money can{t be opened with out all 3 present.
on a side note, it rained so im not sweating as much. also im gettting a phone tuesday, ill put my number up so if anyof you feel like im worth 20 cents a minute you can all me.
I hope all is well over there, and p.s. can somebody f'ing stop the oil spill. im come on this is getting a bit rediculous. where are the nasa engineers when you need them.
Ohh and ill put up pics when I take some!
peace out suckas
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Sweating Like a Chancho
Hello My friends,
So As I said or havn´t said, i live in a little town called Masatepe. Every day I wake up at around 6 in the AM sweating and completely greasy. I have a mosquito net over my bed finally so i don´t contract bonebreaker disease(Dangue Fever). I get up, read a little from my over 1500 pages of peace corps materials until about 7. I proceed to go to the kitchen, say hi to my mother Adilia and take a shower.
Hold on - first let me tell you how luck i am. My house has electricity all the time - I have water in the mornings and in the afternoons - I have my own room which is really nice and grande with my own bed and my own bathroom.
Anyway, after i take a shower, i eat either fruit, which is rediculously tasty - mangos the size of my face, melon and pinapple. Today i had fried eggs, and always drink strong coffee.
I then walk 15 min to the house of a girl in my group, which is where we have our classes. we do silly spanish lessons till noon. I then have to walk home 15 min for lunch - at this time Im Sweating Like a Chancho. When i get back from lunch, still sweating like a chancho, we do more class till 3. After class we walk around the comunity doing exersizes to practice our spanish.
I then go home do homewook and reading, talk with the familia and fall asleap by 10:30.
This is my life as an aspirante = Trainee. The whole time I am sweating Like a Chancho = Pig
How Is everyone doing? Email me at anderlitej@gmail.com.
Oh yea, so this weekend starts the Hipica, a festival that lasts for a long time, so im excited about that, and to see some other gringos that should be coming to town to celebrate. adios primos
So As I said or havn´t said, i live in a little town called Masatepe. Every day I wake up at around 6 in the AM sweating and completely greasy. I have a mosquito net over my bed finally so i don´t contract bonebreaker disease(Dangue Fever). I get up, read a little from my over 1500 pages of peace corps materials until about 7. I proceed to go to the kitchen, say hi to my mother Adilia and take a shower.
Hold on - first let me tell you how luck i am. My house has electricity all the time - I have water in the mornings and in the afternoons - I have my own room which is really nice and grande with my own bed and my own bathroom.
Anyway, after i take a shower, i eat either fruit, which is rediculously tasty - mangos the size of my face, melon and pinapple. Today i had fried eggs, and always drink strong coffee.
I then walk 15 min to the house of a girl in my group, which is where we have our classes. we do silly spanish lessons till noon. I then have to walk home 15 min for lunch - at this time Im Sweating Like a Chancho. When i get back from lunch, still sweating like a chancho, we do more class till 3. After class we walk around the comunity doing exersizes to practice our spanish.
I then go home do homewook and reading, talk with the familia and fall asleap by 10:30.
This is my life as an aspirante = Trainee. The whole time I am sweating Like a Chancho = Pig
How Is everyone doing? Email me at anderlitej@gmail.com.
Oh yea, so this weekend starts the Hipica, a festival that lasts for a long time, so im excited about that, and to see some other gringos that should be coming to town to celebrate. adios primos
Sunday, May 16, 2010
7:00 AM run to get morongo
Hi All,
I can´t talk much because im in an internet cafe, but I moved to my small town in Masatepe, Nicaragua. Population 10,000. It is nice and pretty, I have a good host family, and we have had a good time. Last night, my family and i went to the house of my Tia, and her sister along with another volunteer who is living at her house came over. We drank flor de cana and cerveza. I was le tired so i went home at 10¨00 but it was fun none the less.
At 7 am this morning my father and brotehr hugo, who is about 6 foot 5 and 300 lbs went to some random ladies hose to get some treats for breakfast. these included pig skin fried, blood saucage and fried beaf. I got my self into this by saying i like the blood sausage last night to one of my primos.
I hope all is well. Ill call or write as often as possible.
I can´t talk much because im in an internet cafe, but I moved to my small town in Masatepe, Nicaragua. Population 10,000. It is nice and pretty, I have a good host family, and we have had a good time. Last night, my family and i went to the house of my Tia, and her sister along with another volunteer who is living at her house came over. We drank flor de cana and cerveza. I was le tired so i went home at 10¨00 but it was fun none the less.
At 7 am this morning my father and brotehr hugo, who is about 6 foot 5 and 300 lbs went to some random ladies hose to get some treats for breakfast. these included pig skin fried, blood saucage and fried beaf. I got my self into this by saying i like the blood sausage last night to one of my primos.
I hope all is well. Ill call or write as often as possible.
Monday, May 10, 2010
Flight 540 to Greatness
Leap year was a predictably terrible movie. I am on a plane right now flying to Washington DC to start the journey that has taken so long to commence. Somewhere in mid July of 2008 I pulled the trigger and sent my application to the Peace Corps. Somewhere along the way I had heard of the patience it takes to deal with the application process, let alone the 27 tough months that would follow in service, but I had no idea that 2 years later I would be sitting here on flight 540 from SFO to Dulles international airport to begin my staging event with approximately 45 other potential Volunteers. The Peace Corps has combined 2 groups, the small business development, and either the environmental or the agricultural group (I forget).
Everyone has been asking me how I feel and if I’m excited; to tell you the truth, I have no idea what I feel. I am so terribly sad to say goodbye to my beautiful girlfriend Brittany, and at the same time, I know this is a once in a lifetime journey that has the potential to propel me in life in many ways. I expect to gain a wealth of knowledge, fluently speak Spanish, and most importantly to my mother, gain much needed patience. So I guess I feel a mixture of emotions that at the moment I can’t decipher from one another, but be assured that I am excited to see what will become of me and my life in the next few years. I only know what the government has told me, which understandable is not much.
So, you may be wondering, what the hell am I going to be doing for 27 months in some far away land that some of you may believe is in Africa. Well Ladies and gentleman, I will be deployed to Nicaragua (Central America, in between Costa Rica and Honduras) as a Small Business Development Volunteer. There are many different positions and duties of volunteers around the globe. Depending on the individual’s skill sets of the volunteers and the needs of the countries, the volunteer can work in something like 8 different sectors. In Nicaragua there is agricultural, environmental, TESL (Teaching English as a Second language), and Small business Development. There might be more, anyway, I will be in the Small business development group. I will complete a small orientation in DC, and then I will fly to Managua, the capital of Nicaragua on May 12th for another in country 2-3 day orientation. From there I will hop on a bus to a city named Masaya, or a smaller outlying village, to begin my 11 week training. At this point I am not yet an official Volunteer; I have to complete the training and be sworn in by the ambassador to receive that title.
What does this 3 month training consist of?
1. Mucho training de Spanish. Now I know some of you think that I should know Spanish, seeing as how I obviously conned the University of Alabama to give me a double major in International business and you guessed it, SPANISH! Oh, and I lived abroad for a year in a Spanish speaking country, (Buenos Aires, Argentina). Seriously though, I need help, and this is the aspect of training that I am most excited about.
2. Technical training. This will probably help me learn how to teach the high school kids about starting or improving a small business. Additionally, I will learn how to be an effective business consultant to the small businesses in the community.
3. Health and safety in Nicaragua
4. More fun stuff that I don’t know about, or forget.
On another note, I just had to spend $139.00 to get this customer service for my software on my new computer because I cannot get wireless internet. I had to board my flight in the middle of talking to a technical support specialist so I have to wait till I get in to DC to finish the evaluation on my computer and hopefully get my computer fixed so I can get internet when I go to Cybers in Nicaragua. I suppose you will know that I got it all figured out if this gets posted by May 11th, 2010.
See you later!
Everyone has been asking me how I feel and if I’m excited; to tell you the truth, I have no idea what I feel. I am so terribly sad to say goodbye to my beautiful girlfriend Brittany, and at the same time, I know this is a once in a lifetime journey that has the potential to propel me in life in many ways. I expect to gain a wealth of knowledge, fluently speak Spanish, and most importantly to my mother, gain much needed patience. So I guess I feel a mixture of emotions that at the moment I can’t decipher from one another, but be assured that I am excited to see what will become of me and my life in the next few years. I only know what the government has told me, which understandable is not much.
So, you may be wondering, what the hell am I going to be doing for 27 months in some far away land that some of you may believe is in Africa. Well Ladies and gentleman, I will be deployed to Nicaragua (Central America, in between Costa Rica and Honduras) as a Small Business Development Volunteer. There are many different positions and duties of volunteers around the globe. Depending on the individual’s skill sets of the volunteers and the needs of the countries, the volunteer can work in something like 8 different sectors. In Nicaragua there is agricultural, environmental, TESL (Teaching English as a Second language), and Small business Development. There might be more, anyway, I will be in the Small business development group. I will complete a small orientation in DC, and then I will fly to Managua, the capital of Nicaragua on May 12th for another in country 2-3 day orientation. From there I will hop on a bus to a city named Masaya, or a smaller outlying village, to begin my 11 week training. At this point I am not yet an official Volunteer; I have to complete the training and be sworn in by the ambassador to receive that title.
What does this 3 month training consist of?
1. Mucho training de Spanish. Now I know some of you think that I should know Spanish, seeing as how I obviously conned the University of Alabama to give me a double major in International business and you guessed it, SPANISH! Oh, and I lived abroad for a year in a Spanish speaking country, (Buenos Aires, Argentina). Seriously though, I need help, and this is the aspect of training that I am most excited about.
2. Technical training. This will probably help me learn how to teach the high school kids about starting or improving a small business. Additionally, I will learn how to be an effective business consultant to the small businesses in the community.
3. Health and safety in Nicaragua
4. More fun stuff that I don’t know about, or forget.
On another note, I just had to spend $139.00 to get this customer service for my software on my new computer because I cannot get wireless internet. I had to board my flight in the middle of talking to a technical support specialist so I have to wait till I get in to DC to finish the evaluation on my computer and hopefully get my computer fixed so I can get internet when I go to Cybers in Nicaragua. I suppose you will know that I got it all figured out if this gets posted by May 11th, 2010.
See you later!
Thursday, March 11, 2010
The Adventure Begins
Well Ladies and Gentlemen, Today is March 11th, 2010, or exactly 2 months until my scheduled departure date to start my service as a Peace Corps volunteer In Nicaragua. I have much to prepare in these coming weeks. I have nerves and anxiety about this adventure. The hardships in front of me will be daunting to say the least. I only know that the rewards will far outweigh any hardship I may face.
So in this first little tidbit about my future expedition, I would like to state that subsequent blogs posted while serving shall only be taken for what they are. My thoughts will only be thoughts expressed on this medium for other curious cats to enjoy. I will not be complaining or bragging - because hell, I will be talking to myself - you will just be in my head as well.
I hope you all enjoy the next 25 months
Jeff
So in this first little tidbit about my future expedition, I would like to state that subsequent blogs posted while serving shall only be taken for what they are. My thoughts will only be thoughts expressed on this medium for other curious cats to enjoy. I will not be complaining or bragging - because hell, I will be talking to myself - you will just be in my head as well.
I hope you all enjoy the next 25 months
Jeff
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