working girl

saturday September 18

almost 6 weeks since i moved here and 2 weeks into my new job and i still feel like im in the beginning phases of figuring things out. Today is Yom Kippur and unfortunately since the jewish community is so small that i dont actually know of anyone this is my first year not doing anything.. including fasting since i just got back with my housemate from a delicious nicaraguan breakfast of eggs, gallo pinto, platanos and tortillas. whoops. I was hoping to find some services at a synagogue in Granada, but the one phone number i found online didnt connect me to anything so that obviously didnt work out. Aside from that, the past two weeks have been new and exciting. Work is slow and i haven't really been doing too much, which can be frustrating since i feel like a waste of space, but apparently they want me observing and 'soaking it all in'. Ive been working with the guy, Don Augusto, who is in charge of sales for the hospital's health plans and costumer service, so i've gotten to see the mishmosh of oddballs who come in. Quite a few characters and rando expats who have found their way to this country.

In other news, I had the most incredible 5 day weekend last week! Tues and wednesday were national holidays, so hardly anyone goes on monday, including myself. A friend of a friend had invited me to go on a trip up north, the details of which she couldn't really give me since we ended up winging the whole trip and planning it on the go. So on sunday afternoon (in typical Nica fashion, many hours after we had originally planned to leave) my friend Rosario showed up with her brother Berto, sister Natalia, her sis' boyfriend Ramon, an awesome spanish chick named Miryam, and these two canadians that were vacationing, one who lived in my house a year ago and his friend. Splitting up into to cars we were off like herd of turtles! It was incredible getting out of Managua. I realized that i hadn't really left since I got here and the minute i did it reminded me of why i decided to move back here. Managua is nothing like the rest of the country; granted it's not a city really as most of us in the states know it, but comparatively here is much more urban. Once you head out, the you find much more of the small town, campesino feel that dominates the rest of the country's terrain.
The northern part of the country is madeup of incredible mountain ranges, bring down the temperature, at points even requiring a sweater. Especially now in rainy season all you see is green green green. It's incredibly lush this time of year and absolutely breathtaking. It was such a freeing feeling driving through the countryside as we wound our way up the mountains.
A breath of fresh air and a reminder that my main desire was to get to see as much of the country as possible this year.

We were supposed to make it to a place called Somoto, but given that we left so late that didnt happen. Instead we spent the night in Matagalpa, in a lodge area called Selva Negra, which oddly enough is exactly the same place i visited with my mom and sister 3 years back.
We rented this large cabin right on a little lake that could have fit a group of 20. Arriving around dinner time, we followed our designated tour guide, Ramon, to a delicious steak restaurant and then to a little local bar to cheer to our adventure with more Flor de Cana and Coca cola (im beginning to realize that this friend of mine, Flor de Cana, seems to get mentioned in each of my entries... hmm). It was a fun chill scene where we all just hung out, chatted, and headed home early to supposedly wake up early and head out. I should have known better. As i got up way before most people, I walked around the place, following a little path up to a chapel where many weddings take place apparently. Walking inside i went to the altar and found drops of a bloodlike substance staining the marble.. sacrifice anyone? I'd like to think so. So i sauntered through the trees and paths, it is a coffee plantation so very lush vegetation. Of course i ended up taking pictures of trees with their little signs posted on them to send to my mother, because no matter how much I try to avoid it, I somehow become more and more like her.
Eventually we all got on the road and went to a little house of the side of the road that Ramon knew of, where a few women had made a restaurant. Sitting at a table outside they brought us coffee from the area, rice,beans, cheese, eggs, the largest handmade tortillas ive ever seen.
Their kitchen was a beautifully arranged large dirt floor room, lit by the natural light coming in, a handmade wood-burning stove, which seemed to give everything a more earthy, motherly mademade flavor of deliciousness! Well fed we ended up spending the rest of the day driving the supposed "three hour" journey up to Cusmapa. We went through Jinotega, Esteli (where we bought amazing Rosquilla--a typical cracker/biscuit made out of cor. a good blend of sweet and salty and excellent with coffee), stopped in Somoto, which is the last 'big' town before our trek up to Cusmapa. We bought two days worth of groceries and braced ourselves for the long windy and bumpy two hour drive up the mountains.

Cusmapa is the highest pueblo in Nicaragua and not an easy place to get to. It was our destination because Rosario worked with an NGO called the FABRETTO Foundation that has locations throughout the country, one of them being in Cusmapa. It is an organization that works to provide educational opportunities and economic opportunities to disenfranchised communities in NIcaragua... or so is my understanding. During her year working with them Rosario visited Cusmapa about 6 times and hadn't been back since. Its made up of a few small roads and inserted into an amazing landscape of hills and mountains that offer indescribable lookouts over the country's landscape.
By the time we got there we had missed the sunset (a few wrong turns up the dirt roads, getting stuck behind the one bus weigthed down by the overflow of people, small women's bladders that need do not get along with the bumps in the road) sadly cuz it is apparently unlike anything else. Nevertheless, we unloaded everything at the volunteer house where we got to stay for free, and cooked up a meal, had some drinks and went to bed... again to wake up early...?? Nope, just me Rosario and Miryam, self-designated adventureres of the group. We walked to a lookout point although blankets of fog dug themselves in between the mountainranges so we couldn't see very far out. Then we walked to the Fabretto office to visit, took a tour of the wood workshop they have and the local garden where we received a plant of oregano that i have yet to plant. On our way back to the house to pick up the late risers we were accompanied by some stray dogs and stray village drunks, one old man coming up to the patio and 'singing' for an extended period of time while holding a saw in his wobbling hand. Somewhat alarming, sad, and entertaining at the same time.. some people finally arrived to fetch him.

We all wandered up to the basket-weaving co-op and bought some beautiful baskets made out of pine by some of the local women. then spent the rest of the afternoon looking to rent horses by asking anyone we saw with a horse. by around 4 pm we had come up with 4 horses so the adventurous of us rode down to one of the nearby communities, holding on for dear life when the boy who was taking us smacked my horse's rear to send it galloping like a mad beast and the entire lower half of my body getting bruised in the process. Went back afterwards to cook dinner with the rest, play my childhood boardgame the Amazing Labyrinth, and have me get into a heated 2 hr conversation with one of the canadian dudes that started with sexism and feminism, and then moved on to racism, judaism, white privilege, and the works.. made me break out the academic terminology i have been getting rusty with.

Next morning Miryam and I woke up at 5 to catch the sunrise... we walked down to the lookout and waited amongst the dew covered rocks for the sun to reach up over the mountain and warm our bodies.. We sat for about an hour watching as the sunlight crept up to light the valley and people walked up and down the mountain coming and going to their respective communities. It was an excellent setting to have heart to heart conversation, discussing the meaning of life, ya know, the usual..

The rest of the day was marked by one of the most terrifying and exhilarating experiences i have ever had. and will probably never have again unless someone were to pay me an obscenely large amount of money. We left Cusmapa and drove to the Cañon of Somoto, where 5 of us took the medium length tour of about 3.5 hours with 3 local guides who were from the canyon and knew it like the back on their hand.. it was maybe the only thing that reassured me since we were trekking through strong currents, scrambling on nearly vertical rocks, plunging into rapids, without so much of an explanation really of what we were doing.. They would be like, 'ok, just follow me one by one' and then jump and yell at you to go. But after being slapped around by the water (high and strong this time of year because it is rainy season) it spits you out into the middle of the canyon where you are starring up at the narrow high canyon walls.



breathtaking really.. in part because you get the wind literally knocked out of you and also because its just an incredibly beautiful experience. after jumping 20 ft over a waterfall, floating down the river about 15 min, trekking through the muddy banks and wading through the strong current holding hands, we finally made it out of there alive, bruised and slightly broken and hungry enough to eat every cow we passed by.. which we satisfied by going to a great cuban meal in Esteli.. sorry to offend all my fellow jews, but Pork is awesome!!

Had a great two day week, and chill and relaxing weekend and hopefully today will be learning to drive some stickshift which is a good skill to have here...

changes

Sunday September 5, 2010


It’s astonishing how much things can change in such a short period of time.
It all began on Monday when I went to work, like I said, excited to figure out what my new position at the school would consist of and figure out the details. While I was waiting to meet with the directors (for over an hour, very typical, helps me learn patience) I received a phone call that turned everything upside-down, only in the best way possible. It was the director of the Metropolitan Hospital—one of the best private hospital’s in Central if not also Latin America, I should check on that—Mr. Guzman, who I had met last Wednesday at the cocktail party during the conference. I don’t know what I or anyone else said, but right when I met him he told me that he wanted me to work in the hospital. While he said that I didn’t actually think he was serious or that I would hear from him so soon. On the phone he told me he wanted me to come at 5pm that day and meet with him to discuss possible job options. Given what happened next I feel it was some strange stroke of luck that things happened as they did. As I went into my meeting, the directors told me that they had one of the options available that we had previously discussed.. as one of the preschool teacher. Ok, so first of all I honestly don’t remember that being part of the conversation, second of all, how is that supposed to be better than first graders if the whole point is that I have no pedagogical training, particularly for that age range, and third of all, to top it all off, they were going to reduce to salary to almost half… Trying to not make any rash decisions I said I thought it would be best for me to spend the rest of the day watching one of the classrooms before I made a decision. Given that the classes are smaller and the days are shorter I saw that it was doable, but because I had an interview that evening I knew I couldn’t yet make a decision. The tricky part was that they told me that they needed a definitive answer by the following morning. So after getting home I rushed to the hospital and a pretty informal interview with Guzman, learning that he was looking for someone to replace his personal assistant. Answering his questions, I had to tell him honestly the amount of experience I have in that area: less than I had in teaching. Nonetheless, he seemed determined to incorporate me into the hospital’s employee pool. He introduced me to a young woman who works in HR and told me to come for an interview in the morning. Given my time crunch of having to make a decision by the next day they scheduled me for 8am so that they could get back to me with an answer asap.
Heading home to unload all my anxieties on Matthew and a new housemate Amy who moved in that day, we decided that no matter what the outcome, I couldn’t say with the job at the school as it would be impossible to support myself. So throwing all my eggs in one basket I woke up bright and early for my interview. It was relatively easy and short and I left feeling the odds were pretty good. Next trudged over to the school and spoke with one of the directors, telling her my decision in the best, most sensitive way I knew how. I am happy I was able to leave things on good terms, especially since I am so appreciative of how compassionate and understanding they were with me. I sauntered around to say some goodbyes and do some unfinished business until I ran into the Lucia, the first grade teacher who took my spot, who was taking the class to their first swimming class. I went along for the ride, to help her with attempting to keep everyone somewhat in order, and to update her on the present happenings. While we were at the pool, probably two hours after my interview I got a phonecall from the woman who interviewed me, Vania, telling me that they wanted to offer me a job. Taking into account that I do not have much administrative experience, they decided it was best not to throw me into that position right away. Instead they offered me an opportunity for the first two months to spend as training, working in different parts of the hospital such as public relations (particularly internationally trying to expand the client market in the states), client relations, administrative stuff, etc. Honestly, since she was telling me all this over the phone it was a little unclear, but basically I get to jump around to different parts and then after the two months of training they will decide where I can be most helpful. I start on Monday and am so excited. I know the first few weeks will be hard since ill have to be like a sponge and soak up so much information, but I know that I’ll learn a lot and wherever it takes me I feel certain that I will gain many skills from my experience. Hours will for suuuure be a change of routine for me, 8-6 but open to be later in certain situations, since I’m still in the post-college transition and used to having a flexible schedule. In fact, ever since I moved here (almost a month ago!!) I think there was only like 2 days that I slept past 8 am, usually up between 6-7. For me, that is mostly just because of work, but it’s the norm for most of the country, which rises and sets with the sun. Could be that there isn’t much to do here at night, but more likely related to the fact that electricity is so expensive here and its and its an extremely impoverished country.
Anywho, that brings us up to Tuesday afternoon after which I went to the FIMI office to talk more about volunteer work. After meeting everyone in the office, I told them that I wasn’t starting my new job until Monday and that the rest of the week I could come to the office and volunteer, mostly so that I wouldn’t be bumming around since now I’m so used to working everyday. So the rest of the week I spent working on some documents for them, right now I’m in the process of translating this fatty legal document, their constitution in order to be registered with some public notary. Having had a few months break from anything academic, each page is a prescribed headache especially since my Spanish is much better on the streets than a legal setting. Regardless, I really like the environment of the office, the people that work there, and the work they do. Unfortunately, with my new job’s hours I wont be able to go work with them, but I plan on continuing doing work from home and meeting with them every month. I also finally got to start doing some more dancing, it’s nice cuz since I know everyone at Ilusiones—the dance studio and gym—I just kinda go, take classes, use the gym, without having to pay…whoooooops! Still in the process of figuring out dance classes, the guy in charge is so hard to get in touch with kinda flakey unfortunately, but he cannot escape me.
Friday night was Mirna’s birthday, the mother in the house I was at before, and I got to join the whole family for dinner. I cant even put into words how much I adore that family, they are so goofy and sweet, I call her mi mamcita (mama, I know you’re reading this… don’t worry, you’re the one and only, she is like a surrogate ). Plus they give me avocados from their tree, but I’m deathly afraid that the season is ending soon! And I’m just counting down the months for the mango and tangerine season to start again, namnamnam..
Saturday morning I woke up bright and early and waited for a woman named Xiomara—she was the costume designer for the Peter Pan show in June—to come pick me up and take me to the Mercado Oriental. It is the largest market in all Central America, really cheap, and assuredly dangerous, so you just go with some money stuffed in here and there, and most importantly for a gringa like myself, you go with someone like Xiomara who know the place like the back of her hand. Since I will now be working in a more professional environment where everyone looks so well put together, I’m realized that my laid-back California attire wont fly, especially if I want to be taken seriously since I will undoubtedly be the youngest person there and some people still think I’m 17.. with that said, Xiomara was the best person to go with, in fact I cant imagine doing it with anyone else. There are tons of chaotic shops surrounding the market, but once you enter it’s like a whole different world. Its made up of small narrow passageways with people pushing their way through while simultaneously trying to take in the unimaginable amount of visual stimulation, others push heavy wagons filled with their wares for sale, from plantains, fresh juices, electronic parts, anything… I held on close to Xiomara as she wove her way through the stalls, people, impromptu kitchens with women cooking, occasionally slapping away the hands of men who reached out in our general direction.. best to keep all body parts tightly together as any loose ends are a means for grabbing onto. All in all, however, the men behaved themselves quite well, as she and I later discussed, and it was not the terrifying experience that most people describe it to be. Although I must admit that we barely even touched the whole market since it is about 6 km and we kept to the clothing area since it is “organized” into sections. So I had an amazing time, aside from successful shopping it was just an experience to be had…and to be had again quite soon…
In the evening I went to an outdoors concert that a friend had won free tickets to and invited me. Olga Tañon was playing for the 10 year anniversary of some big store here called Gallo mas Gallo where they sell furniture, electronics, houseware, etc. Pretty random actually but regardless. The opening band was a Nicaraguan group that played a myriad of latin styles, during which of course the rain started its evening routine and started falling at a hefty speed. Luckily my friend is a great dancer so we kept warm dancing salsa, meringue and a traditional dance from the atlantic coast. Afterwards however, when we were waiting for Olga to come on it started pouring, I mean inteeeense. Surprisingly most people stayed and we waited over an hour in the rain attempting to find refuge packed under a tarp with the other drenched concert-goers. Eventually I got way too cold and couldn’t handle them saying ‘5 more minutes’ for over an hour so we left and warmed ourselves with some Flor de Cana. Best way to ward of getting a cold.

Anyways, that’s the update!! I start work tomorrow morning so I’m sure there are many more stories to come. Make sure you check out my photos now that I FINALLY figured out how to put them up..

besos