IM now really excited about el Rama. we have had another busy week like usuall. we are starting to wrap up all of our projects which is really nice. Today we are cunducting interviews with owners of companies that make dried fruit candies in our town. We will be presenting our findings to the peace corps, this will be focusing on an external analysis of the factors that affect this little industry in our area. we are also wrapping up our youth group. They still need to find bottles to package their hot sauce, but we will be finishing up the business plan with them today. On monday 26th the kids will get driven to a hotel where a competition will be held between them and the kids in the youth groups from all the other peace corps trainies.
So on monday we all go to managua to meet our counterparts, or the principals from the schools that we will be working with. I have four schools that I will be working with in El Rama, and since I'm going to a new site, they invited all the principals from the schools. I don't know how many will come, but i hope all of them so I can get to meet them. I guess the day is very awkward from what i have been told. They make us play games with them before we know who is our counterpart, then we guess who we will be working with. We will then spend monday night in Managua at a hotel, SWEET. I will get hot water for the first time in 3 months. Then in the morning we leave for the Rama on a nice 6 hour bus ride.
Once in El rama I will be visiting all my schools, the teachers I will be working with, and planing my schedule for when I return, like the hours and days that i will help teach and plan with my counterparts. I will also have to go around town and talk with the mayor, police chief other people, all of this will be really awkward as well since im still not fantastic at spanish. Oh and i will be living with a national police woman for the first 6 weeks, but i heard my room has its own entrance so I dont have to go in the house to get to my room which will be really nice.
I have started to like El Rama more and more since learning about it. I will be in a bustling river port town which sounds fun. I will be a 1.5 hour boat ride from bluefields which means i will likely be frequenting the beaches there. i will have access to really good and cheap fish and sea food. It does rain a lot there but I also hear monkeys hang out like cats and dogs, although they might be shit throwing monkeys, so i might have to be carefull. I will likely buy a maskot monkey. I know i will have at least 2 fantastic hammocks so company can hang out as well.
I will return next friday for my final 2 weeks of training. I cannot wait to get that done. Im supposed to teach another class but I dont know if i will be able to.
I hope all Is tremendous.
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
El Rama - Really - better be some good seafood
Well people,
who ever guessed i would go to a site i didn´t want was right. I am going to none other than El Rama. Jason this is a site you would want me to go to. Good news is im a 2 hour boat ride from Bluefields, bad news is im not in bluefields. Im serously in the middle of nowhere. My town is pretty big - 20,000 people so thats a plus, and its said to be a bustling city which is fun.
I thought when the called me I was going to Bluefields so i was supper excited and gave them a hug, then I read my site and it said El Rama and I almost had a heart attack.
Im going to be positive, but on sunday my camera broke, and i just lost my only rain jacket. Other than that Im great. Its really good to finally know where we are going.
Well happy tuesday.
who ever guessed i would go to a site i didn´t want was right. I am going to none other than El Rama. Jason this is a site you would want me to go to. Good news is im a 2 hour boat ride from Bluefields, bad news is im not in bluefields. Im serously in the middle of nowhere. My town is pretty big - 20,000 people so thats a plus, and its said to be a bustling city which is fun.
I thought when the called me I was going to Bluefields so i was supper excited and gave them a hug, then I read my site and it said El Rama and I almost had a heart attack.
Im going to be positive, but on sunday my camera broke, and i just lost my only rain jacket. Other than that Im great. Its really good to finally know where we are going.
Well happy tuesday.
Friday, July 2, 2010
Tasty little Bonettes
Hay
This week went by really fast considering we have all been constantly thinking about where the hell we´re going to be living for the next 2 years. We find out on Tuesday by the way. We had an interview on Wednesday to help the ladies figure out where they want to send us. Of course everyone had their own strategy to coerce the ladies to send them where ever they wanted to go. I truthfully don´t think I will get one of my top sites, but at the same time I don´t really care. I’m sure it will be fine where ever I go.
We have a Saturday off for once, what a treat that is! I think I might go to the beach for the fourth of July, but I’m not sure about that yet. We only have four more weeks of training left; it has both flown by and crept at a crawl. Next week will go by fast because we have our site selection and other fun activities, the next week we go visit our sites, and then we only have 2 weeks left. The last week is pretty much a chill fest in Managua from what I have been told.
I have been trying to really study my Spanish skills, I know I am learning many new words and phrases but still I struggle with complex sentence structures and tenses. On a positive note, the Netherlands beat Brazil today. I hope Argentina wins.
If you love me you will send me things. I found a better panaderia that sells bonettes which are like the previously described Pico´s only better. Plus this place has great customer service which is nice. I have even got their schedule down so I always know when they are fresh out of the oven.
Speaking of Customer Service, I taught my 3rd class in the Public institute about Servicio al Cliente. I did a good job, and the best part is, I feel better about teaching in Spanish so when I get sent to a site that is completely dominated by classes with no time to advise businesses, I will be better off.
Remember Kids, if your not to big of cheap skates you can call me down here for a few minutes once in a while. Hope all is well.
This week went by really fast considering we have all been constantly thinking about where the hell we´re going to be living for the next 2 years. We find out on Tuesday by the way. We had an interview on Wednesday to help the ladies figure out where they want to send us. Of course everyone had their own strategy to coerce the ladies to send them where ever they wanted to go. I truthfully don´t think I will get one of my top sites, but at the same time I don´t really care. I’m sure it will be fine where ever I go.
We have a Saturday off for once, what a treat that is! I think I might go to the beach for the fourth of July, but I’m not sure about that yet. We only have four more weeks of training left; it has both flown by and crept at a crawl. Next week will go by fast because we have our site selection and other fun activities, the next week we go visit our sites, and then we only have 2 weeks left. The last week is pretty much a chill fest in Managua from what I have been told.
I have been trying to really study my Spanish skills, I know I am learning many new words and phrases but still I struggle with complex sentence structures and tenses. On a positive note, the Netherlands beat Brazil today. I hope Argentina wins.
If you love me you will send me things. I found a better panaderia that sells bonettes which are like the previously described Pico´s only better. Plus this place has great customer service which is nice. I have even got their schedule down so I always know when they are fresh out of the oven.
Speaking of Customer Service, I taught my 3rd class in the Public institute about Servicio al Cliente. I did a good job, and the best part is, I feel better about teaching in Spanish so when I get sent to a site that is completely dominated by classes with no time to advise businesses, I will be better off.
Remember Kids, if your not to big of cheap skates you can call me down here for a few minutes once in a while. Hope all is well.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Site Fair - Where Am I Going
Muy buenos Dias,
We received our packet that states all the sites that we can possibly go to for the next 2 years. We have 23 sites and 24 people because 2 people are going to be placed in the city of San Carlos, half way to Lesotho, behind Lake Nicaragua. I have to admit I have heard really good things about San Carlos but I can’t truthfully say that’s where I would like to go. En Realidad, I wanted to go to this site named Laguna de Perlas on the Atlantic coast. It is a small fishing village that speaks Spanish, Creole and English. The more I think about it though, I am going to be super open to where I get sent, because lets be honest folks, If I tell them I want to go somewhere Ill probably get sent somewhere completely different. They gave us 2 forms that we will need to fill out by the time we have our next interview, which will be sometime next week. One of these forms requests us to choose 3 sites and give reasons for why we are the most qualified to be sent there. The other form has a bunch of silly questions that ask us to rate from 1-5 our preferences and abilities. From these forms, the input from our language facilitator, other volunteers, and the technical trainer, we will be assigned our sites by Georgia and Emily, the decision makers.
Let’s Play A Game. You guys guess where I’m going to live and select it on my front page! I have set up a poll. I guess other. Then we can look back and see how everyone did. P.S. the sites vary considerably from 200,000 people to 1,500. Some work with 17 sections of school (exactly what I don’t want to do) and others such as Laguna de Perlas works with minimal schools but also with NGO´s and perhaps microfinance institutions.
Here is a list of the 24 sites:
1) San Marcos, Carazo
2) Corinto, Chinandega
3) Cinco Pinos, Chinandega
4) Tonalá, Chinandega
5) Estela, Estela
6) Granaga, Granada
7) San Rafeal del Norte, Jinotega
8) Yalí, Jinotega
9) León, León
10) El Jicaral, León
11) Nagarote, León
12) Somoto, Madriz
13) Masaya, Masaya
14) La Conception, Masaya
15) Veracruz, Masaya
16) Ocotal, Nueva Segovia
17) El Jícaro, Nueva Segovia
18) Bluefields, RAAS
19) Laguna De Perlas, RAAS
20) San Carlos, Río San Juan (2) persons
21) San Miguelito, Río San Juan
22) El Almendro, Río San Juan
23) El Rama, Zelaya Central
The Italicized Cities are where I don’t want to go.
I am open Minded and will do the best where ever I go because I am a Dominating machine. I hope all is well. Ohh we also had our second Spanish test the other day. I hope I did well so I could move up to intermediate medium (the lowest required level to make it past training.)
Its also hot as shit, I’m sweating mucho right at this very second. I’m supposed to teach class Monday, but it might be canceled due to dia de maestros.
Take it ease folks
We received our packet that states all the sites that we can possibly go to for the next 2 years. We have 23 sites and 24 people because 2 people are going to be placed in the city of San Carlos, half way to Lesotho, behind Lake Nicaragua. I have to admit I have heard really good things about San Carlos but I can’t truthfully say that’s where I would like to go. En Realidad, I wanted to go to this site named Laguna de Perlas on the Atlantic coast. It is a small fishing village that speaks Spanish, Creole and English. The more I think about it though, I am going to be super open to where I get sent, because lets be honest folks, If I tell them I want to go somewhere Ill probably get sent somewhere completely different. They gave us 2 forms that we will need to fill out by the time we have our next interview, which will be sometime next week. One of these forms requests us to choose 3 sites and give reasons for why we are the most qualified to be sent there. The other form has a bunch of silly questions that ask us to rate from 1-5 our preferences and abilities. From these forms, the input from our language facilitator, other volunteers, and the technical trainer, we will be assigned our sites by Georgia and Emily, the decision makers.
Let’s Play A Game. You guys guess where I’m going to live and select it on my front page! I have set up a poll. I guess other. Then we can look back and see how everyone did. P.S. the sites vary considerably from 200,000 people to 1,500. Some work with 17 sections of school (exactly what I don’t want to do) and others such as Laguna de Perlas works with minimal schools but also with NGO´s and perhaps microfinance institutions.
Here is a list of the 24 sites:
1) San Marcos, Carazo
2) Corinto, Chinandega
3) Cinco Pinos, Chinandega
4) Tonalá, Chinandega
5) Estela, Estela
6) Granaga, Granada
7) San Rafeal del Norte, Jinotega
8) Yalí, Jinotega
9) León, León
10) El Jicaral, León
11) Nagarote, León
12) Somoto, Madriz
13) Masaya, Masaya
14) La Conception, Masaya
15) Veracruz, Masaya
16) Ocotal, Nueva Segovia
17) El Jícaro, Nueva Segovia
18) Bluefields, RAAS
19) Laguna De Perlas, RAAS
20) San Carlos, Río San Juan (2) persons
21) San Miguelito, Río San Juan
22) El Almendro, Río San Juan
23) El Rama, Zelaya Central
The Italicized Cities are where I don’t want to go.
I am open Minded and will do the best where ever I go because I am a Dominating machine. I hope all is well. Ohh we also had our second Spanish test the other day. I hope I did well so I could move up to intermediate medium (the lowest required level to make it past training.)
Its also hot as shit, I’m sweating mucho right at this very second. I’m supposed to teach class Monday, but it might be canceled due to dia de maestros.
Take it ease folks
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Here is the link to my photos
http://photobucket.com/jeffanderlite
I will try to put more up soon, it takes forever! I do have more, so you'll just have to wait for the excitement. Although i don't really have any good photos.
I will try to put more up soon, it takes forever! I do have more, so you'll just have to wait for the excitement. Although i don't really have any good photos.
I know a mean panaderia lady that makes tasty cheese bread
I was told volcanoes were pretty stinky places yesterday. I didn't find that to be the case at all. There was some sulfur in the air for sure, but overall i felt the volcano had a pretty nice aroma. We went to visit volcan masaya today, Pretty Spectacular. We did have a nice diversity Charla before, just so we were all still aware that we were in the Peace Corps.
I am going to go get a Pico in a minute. A pico my friends is a fantastic pan dulce with 2 main flavors; pineapple and my favorite, with cheese. For a pico the size of half of your face i pay 2 cords, or roughly 10 cents American. I eat a pico pretty much everyday, although I have ventured quite a few times. The best bread in town is at a shop not far from my house, on the way from my Spanish classes actually. They sell this bread that is braided with melted cheese on top. There are 3 problems i strugle with every day when thinking about this bread. 1) It is very large and i know i will eat it all, but i don't want to be a fat ass. 2) It costs 8 cords - 40 cents, this just seems astonishingly high, although it is a big hunk of bread. 3) the lady that works there has a terrible attitude and that makes me want to go to the other place that sells the tasty pico.
Anyway, I hope America Dominates the world cup!
Our youth group is making mango hot sauce. I havent tried it but apperently its pretty damn delicious, which makes me happy because that will give us a better chance to beat the other business volunteers, and consequently make us look good!
...
...
...
1)Draw these dots just like you see them on a piece of paper.
2)connect them all using 4 lines - this means four movements of the pen, you cannot go back and forth over a line to get to the next line you want to draw.
3) the lines must be strait
4) you cannot lift the pen from the paper. Good luck!
See ya!
I am going to go get a Pico in a minute. A pico my friends is a fantastic pan dulce with 2 main flavors; pineapple and my favorite, with cheese. For a pico the size of half of your face i pay 2 cords, or roughly 10 cents American. I eat a pico pretty much everyday, although I have ventured quite a few times. The best bread in town is at a shop not far from my house, on the way from my Spanish classes actually. They sell this bread that is braided with melted cheese on top. There are 3 problems i strugle with every day when thinking about this bread. 1) It is very large and i know i will eat it all, but i don't want to be a fat ass. 2) It costs 8 cords - 40 cents, this just seems astonishingly high, although it is a big hunk of bread. 3) the lady that works there has a terrible attitude and that makes me want to go to the other place that sells the tasty pico.
Anyway, I hope America Dominates the world cup!
Our youth group is making mango hot sauce. I havent tried it but apperently its pretty damn delicious, which makes me happy because that will give us a better chance to beat the other business volunteers, and consequently make us look good!
...
...
...
1)Draw these dots just like you see them on a piece of paper.
2)connect them all using 4 lines - this means four movements of the pen, you cannot go back and forth over a line to get to the next line you want to draw.
3) the lines must be strait
4) you cannot lift the pen from the paper. Good luck!
See ya!
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Jalapa Shmalapa
Greetings,
I Went to Jalapa this weekend. People that I have traveled with can attest to the quality of buses south of panama. They are not quite the same here. I had an 7 hour ride on an old school bus to get to the volunteer, named Diego, that I was visiting. On the way there i was smart, thinking ahead to the possiblility that the driver wouldn´t stop, thus giving us a chance to get out and relieve ourselvs. Well i was right in my forthought. The town is nestled amongst beutifull little mountains that compliment the refreshingly cool nicaraguan air. I arived to a grand welcome with Diego and the principal of one of his schools along with an english teacher. We ate a typical nicaraguan rice and beens plate with some carne de res. I took my stuff to a little Hotelito owned by a guy named Edgar. We hit the town for a little bit, but called it a night quite early due to the fact that a nice hour long bus ride was waiting for us at 6 am the next morning.
We left for school the next morning to a school mear feet from the Honduran boarder. Now for those of you not familiar with recent nigaraguan history, here is a little breifing. IN the late 70´s early 80´s Nicaragua went through a civil war, well actually a lot longer than that, but for our porposes we will focus on the early 80´s when good old Regan was in office. You see, we supplied the contras that were living in the mountains in hounduras to fight the Sandinistas. Well this led to much anti american sentiment in this area. Anyways, I say this because the first school we visited was ravaged by bullet holes from the war.
The next day, tuesday, we had 12 hours of school. Well, In reallity we only had about 3 hours, but because of the bus schedule we found our selfs waiting at 2 different schools for an estimated 7 hours, not including class time of travel time.
On the last day I left early to return home. The bus actually stopped, which was a miricle because I really needed to pee. Also, i bought some tasty Nica snacks that i needed to munch on.
Last night was spent preparing for today, My second day of teaching the class. this is not to get confused with our yourth group that we meet with every week that we help to create a product, no, this is me infront of 45 17 year olds teaching a class in some foreign language with 2 people from the Peace Corps eyeing and recording my every move. It´s very nerve racking. I was told that I did a poor job the first go around, which really pissed me off. So I tried my best again, but with more visual aids, and was told that I had taught a successfull class.
Now Im going to relax, I have been stressing about teaching those kids since friday. On saturday we all go to volcan Masaya for a little field trip.
I hope your all good.
I Went to Jalapa this weekend. People that I have traveled with can attest to the quality of buses south of panama. They are not quite the same here. I had an 7 hour ride on an old school bus to get to the volunteer, named Diego, that I was visiting. On the way there i was smart, thinking ahead to the possiblility that the driver wouldn´t stop, thus giving us a chance to get out and relieve ourselvs. Well i was right in my forthought. The town is nestled amongst beutifull little mountains that compliment the refreshingly cool nicaraguan air. I arived to a grand welcome with Diego and the principal of one of his schools along with an english teacher. We ate a typical nicaraguan rice and beens plate with some carne de res. I took my stuff to a little Hotelito owned by a guy named Edgar. We hit the town for a little bit, but called it a night quite early due to the fact that a nice hour long bus ride was waiting for us at 6 am the next morning.
We left for school the next morning to a school mear feet from the Honduran boarder. Now for those of you not familiar with recent nigaraguan history, here is a little breifing. IN the late 70´s early 80´s Nicaragua went through a civil war, well actually a lot longer than that, but for our porposes we will focus on the early 80´s when good old Regan was in office. You see, we supplied the contras that were living in the mountains in hounduras to fight the Sandinistas. Well this led to much anti american sentiment in this area. Anyways, I say this because the first school we visited was ravaged by bullet holes from the war.
The next day, tuesday, we had 12 hours of school. Well, In reallity we only had about 3 hours, but because of the bus schedule we found our selfs waiting at 2 different schools for an estimated 7 hours, not including class time of travel time.
On the last day I left early to return home. The bus actually stopped, which was a miricle because I really needed to pee. Also, i bought some tasty Nica snacks that i needed to munch on.
Last night was spent preparing for today, My second day of teaching the class. this is not to get confused with our yourth group that we meet with every week that we help to create a product, no, this is me infront of 45 17 year olds teaching a class in some foreign language with 2 people from the Peace Corps eyeing and recording my every move. It´s very nerve racking. I was told that I did a poor job the first go around, which really pissed me off. So I tried my best again, but with more visual aids, and was told that I had taught a successfull class.
Now Im going to relax, I have been stressing about teaching those kids since friday. On saturday we all go to volcan Masaya for a little field trip.
I hope your all good.
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