June 2010

Internet café guy: You are constantly walking around town, right?
Me: Yeah.
Internet café guy: But you aren’t getting any skinnier.
Me: Hmmm... true. Well, that’s because I like to eat!

So it might be true that I’m not getting any skinnier, but I’m not getting fatter either! And with all the fried food, sugary drinks, and people shoving food at me… that’s a small miracle. I’ve been cooking a lot more at my house. Nothing fancy: beef stir-fry, chicken pesto pasta with broccoli, breakfast burritos, yogurt and granola with pineapple, lots of peanut butter and bananas on toast, pancakes and Aunt Jemima’s syrup (is it bad when you start drinking syrup from the bottle?), beef tacos with homemade guacamole, and tuna Mac & Cheese with vegetables. It’s a lot of rice and pasta, but I’m happy to get so much protein and vegetables. When I’m not cooking at the house, I usually end up at Douglas’s family restaurant (Coma Rico). Sometimes we cook whatever we feel like for ourselves, other times the staff serves us what there is that day. Occasionally, I’ll go to a local bar/restaurant (La Yunta) with other PCVs or Douglas and the group for a beef dish and beer. It’s always a good night at La Yunta, especially when there’s Karaoke! Nicas have no qualms about singing… ever!

This past month I’ve had a few Peace Corps visitors. There’s a new health group that finished training at the end of May and is now in their sites. Nueva Segovia received 5 volunteers, and 3 of them have spent the night at my place. It’s the party house! Actually, it’s usually pretty mellow, but always fun. This past weekend, a volunteer from my group spent the night. He and I are trying to organize some teacher trainings in August and a summer camp in December. We recently (FINALLY) got the go ahead from our superintendants to do some training. Because there are two of us, we are hoping to take advantage of each other and do a traveling show, hitting four different cities. The Summer Camp will be a bit more difficult to plan, but we are considering applying for a SPA grant with Peace Corps. That would take the pressure off getting locally funded, something much like pulling hen’s teeth.

It was nice to discuss the latest and greatest with my buddy over a delicious vegetarian pizza at Julito’s. That night he surprised me with some books: the first Harry Potter book in Spanish and “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”. The volunteers have an informal system for book exchange. Anytime someone travels, they bring whatever books they have already read or those that they can part with. Everyone fully expects not to see the books again, and in that way multitudes of people get to read “new” books. It’s amazing how delightful it is to get hand-me-downs!

A few good books have come my way lately. First was “Replay” by Ken Grimwood, which I highly recommend to anyone that will listen. Of the 24 books I have read in 10 months here, it is on my top 5 list. Next were “I Heard that Song Before” by Mary Higgins Clark and “The Brethren” by John Grisham. It had been a while since I read either of those authors, so it was nice to fall into their fast paced rhythm again. The most recent book I have read is “The Blind Side” by Michael Lewis. I have to admit, I liked the movie better. Kudos to the screen writer; s/he got the best parts out of the book and put them together well. I did find one quote that I liked in the book though: “Moses stuttered.” Did anyone else know that? My first thought was that in another lifetime he and I could have gone to speech therapy together!

On May 16th, I moved into a new house. And, incredibly, it happened on the planned date! After my stuff was packed up, Douglas and I went out to find a guy he knows with a truck. After driving around for a bit, we found him (that is the truck we are going to put ALL my stuff in!?!). I had my doubts that everything would fit, but silly me, I obviously don’t know how to pack Nica style. It felt like a bad episode of the Beverly Hillbillies. There were four people in the cab (me sitting on Douglas’s lap and falling out the window), the truck bed was stacked dangerously high with my belongings and held down with rope. To add insult to the situation, it was raining. Slowly, we wound our way through the one way streets in town. By the time we made it to the new house, as Douglas said, “everyone in town now knows that you have moved.” That night I slept beautifully with no barking dogs, no wandering cows, and no screeching desks to wake me in the morning.

Before I signed the 6 month lease, I asked the landlord about painting the house and he agreed to paint the walls whatever color I wanted. However, when I was trying to explain the concept of an accent wall, he looked at me like I had two heads (which coincidentally is how many people look at me on a regular basis). After the paint dried, however, he half-heartedly said it didn’t look that bad. I think he was humoring me; he still didn’t look too pleased. Maybe it was the fact that I chose orange, green and yellow for the three main rooms. I still haven’t picked the colors for the bedrooms, but I’m thinking blue, purple and pink. Why not go for the whole rainbow, right?

While I’ve been writing this blog, I thought I would try to multitask (you’re already cringing aren’t you?). Earlier in the week I burnt some rice. You know, it is way harder than you think it is to cook rice well. Anyway, after scrubbing the scorched pot forever, I decided to boil some soap and water in the pot to loosen things up. What better time to do that than while I’m writing my blog? Apparently I was pretty absorbed in what I was doing until it smelled a little funny in the house. Guess I’m going uptown to buy a new pot today. :)

Yesterday I picked up a package that my mom and dad sent down. In the package, I was delighted to find coloring books. Coupled with the crayons that my aunt sent me for Christmas, it is the perfect entertainment for the neighborhood boys. The supplies are now sitting on the “special shelf” and the boys know that anytime my door is open, they can come and color. As soon as they saw the books, they started right away! It was so cute to see their little hands holding the crayons and their tongues stuck out in concentration. We already have a few pirates hanging on the wall, but I fully expect to see soccer players, space ships, airplanes, and sharks to be added pretty soon. Thanks, Mom and Dad!