Week 2- Matagalpa and Transitions

This week we packed up on Sunday (7/23) and took a bus from Managua up north to the city of Matagalpa for a week at a Spanish school including a homestay with a native family. After a two hour express bus ride and a bit of a tricky time communicating with cab drivers, we arrived at the school (Colibri Spanish School, click here for their website and pictures of the school), were given a brief introduction to Matagalpa, our schedule for the week, and were introduced to our families. I was introduced to my host parents Dona Ingrid and Don Pablo (last name not included for privacy) as well as their son Juan Carlos.

I was welcomed into their beautiful house with plenty of traditional Nica hospitality by both family members and the family dog, Leo. We had a giant lunch featuring lasagna (far better than my attempts to make it), salad, and plenty of other food that's escaping my memory now but was absolutely delicious. I napped and then spent the evening watching Criminal Minds with Pablo, who, much like my dad, enjoyed "resting his eyes" while watching TV. I was reassured that Ingrid and Pablo were impressed with my level of Spanish but was also feeling a bit of language exhaustion by the end of the day because of the constant work that my mind was doing. I had a very nice conversation with Ingrid over dinner about it, and she reassured me again that I was doing perfectly fine and that sometimes she couldn't understand people who spoke too fast. After dinner, we watched a bit more TV before I headed to bed since I had class at 8 the next day.

Spanish classes were four hours each morning from 8-12 with a break around 10. I was with Matt and Susan, two of my fellow PDs and Marilyn, our sweet and energetic teacher. A lot of our classes were discussion based because we had all said that we wanted to get more comfortable speaking and listening. Each afternoon or evening, we had socio-cultural activities that we did either at the school or in city itself. Monday we had an exchange with students learning English at UNAN, the local university in Matagalpa. These students were in their fourth year, so their English was impressive. They showed us around the school and then we played games such as two truths and a lie both for icebreakers and for practice. I really enjoyed this time interacting with people our own age who were so open to hearing our Spanish and helping us improve.

Tuesday's activity was a cooking class at Colibri with Esther and Marilyn to make queseo. This is a traditional Nica dish of tortillas with onions soaked in vinegar, queso fresco (cheese) and crema fresca (fresh cream, which Nicas will put on almost all foods). This was a fun way to learn new vocabulary and add something to my pretty small cooking repertoire. After that, our group went for a drink at the bar next door Artesansos before going home for dinner. Each night for dinner (which was pretty casual in my household), even if she had already eaten, Ingrid would sit with me and ask me about my day. That night she made yucca ( a Peruvian type of potato I believe) which I ate a lot of because it is amazing (or "rico" as Pablo likes to say).

The next day was probably the worst day of the week. I woke up feeling a bit full from all my eating the previous day, but still ate a pretty hefty breakfast. About ten minutes before the end of class that morning, I excused myself to go to the bathroom and was very sick (just to keep it delicate for all you readers).   I assumed it was just because I had eaten too much and told myself that I just needed to slow down and have a bland, small lunch. When I got home, Ingrid had already dished me out a hefty plate of pasta so I graciously ate as much as I could which was ultimately not very much. We were supposed to go on a hike in the afternoon, and I'd been itching for a good workout so I told myself I'd take it easy. Alas, when I met up with everyone at the school to leave for the hike, I was sick again. I still told myself that I felt better and would just go slow. So we headed off to the bus stop, and Gatorade in hand, I stood with the others as we waited for the bus. After around ten minutes, I realized that I absolutely should not be hiking up a mountain while sick. Looking back, I have no idea why it took me so long to realize that pushing myself to keep going was a horrendous idea, but I'm glad I eventually figured it out. I told Marilyn who was completely understanding and told me where to catch a taxi; the other PDs let me borrow the 10 cords (cordobas) for the ride and I was on my way.

Upon getting home, I was so worried that Ingrid would be angry with me or would think that I had been eating so much because I felt obligated. We were told to tell our host families if they were feeding us too much but up until that point I hadn't had a single problem with portions and I didn't want her to think I had been keeping quiet about any discontent, because I really wasn't. As I walked into the house blubbering and trying to explain all of this to her, she simply wiped my tears, gave me a hug and told me not to worry about a thing. She brought me into her massage room (she's a massage therapist and acupuncturist) and insisted I lie down, giving me a thorough massage. I then took a nap.

To keep this post moving I'll just continue with saying that slowly but surely I felt better as the day went, and under Ingrid's watchful eye I was well enough to go to school the next day. The following afternoon our activity was a presentation about the Nicaraguan canal (more info here) and the various controversies that surround it. After that, my fellow PDs and I headed to Seleccion Nicaraguense, a very nice local café, for a few card games and coffees before heading home for dinner.

Friday was our last day of classes and our last activity. We went to a community center for children called Las Hormiguitas (Little Ants) which runs close to market in Matagalpa and primarily serves as an after or before school program (schools are split into half days here with younger grades going 7-12 and older grades going from 1-5) for kids whose parents work in the market. We played soccer with some of the girls (who are crazy good and I have the bruises to prove it), played checkers with some of the kids and got a tour. One thing I remember thinking to myself was that even when I feel overwhelmed with my inability to alleviate all the problems in the world, places like Las Hormiguitas will exist and be impacting lives no matter what I'm doing, and that was good perspective for me to have.

Saturday morning I packed up and said goodbye to my family (hopefully I can visit someday) and travelled back to Managua. Sunday we began to transition programs from the jurisdiction of the old Program Directors who leave in a couple of weeks to us new Program Directors coming in. My programs are a lot of English teaching (two classes in the public school down the highway and two classes at Farito, our community center), a womens workout class, girls health in the public school and a health clinic that we also run out of Farito. This day included a lot of meetings all around the house all day long to ensure that programs transitioned smoothly. Today was my first day of a lot of my programs, and while I don't want to get ahead post-wise, I have a feeling that this is going to be a rewarding year :)