4.1.18

I feel like I have done the impossible. Two blogs in two days. WOHOOOOO

I present, week 4 (I think):

Last week I decided I wanted to find more ways to engage with my host mom and asked if I could help her with the cooking so I could learn different recipes to take back. I am happy to report I made a very successful gizo (mix of chicken, mint, onion, garlic, green pepper dish which this description is not doing justice to), a few chicken varieties, and buñuelos which felt like the biggest success of all. Buñuelos have become one of my favorite snacks made of yuka and cheese, deep fried, with cinnamon honey drizzled on top. Cooking has been a great way to bond with my host mom and work on my Spanish (and spend time in a horribly hot kitchen when its 90 degrees outside).

Los buñuelos cooking.

This week I only had two Spanish classes because it was Semana Santa and the entire country was celebrating. In my town this consisted of processions down the streets with full bands and life size Jesus and Mary's, apparently other towns were even livelier. On Saturday night I was warned that fireworks would start at around midnight in celebration and to be prepared. Not only did they start at midnight but they were basically right outside my room and horribly loud. I was told this year I was lucky they only lasted an hour.

Jesus walking down the street.

A lot of my long weekend was spent with my site-mates working on what will be our first charla. Charla's are one of the main tools we will use as Peace Corps Volunteers to educate community members on different health issues, and the word basically means a big talk. My three site-mates and I will be presenting a charla to 40 eleven and twelve year-old students about how to live a positive and healthy life and how to avoid risky behaviors in the community. Easy enough in English, but Spanish...woof. We've been working hard though and will surely be ready to present on Thursday. The Peace Corps supplied us with a great template to use with two main activities to use to engage the kids. I'll let y'all know how that goes.

During one of our work sessions we got distracted as a gigantic red macaw, indigenous to the north, flew into my backyard (see below).

And it was also a moment where my niece was being as cute as ever (see below).

I also had a pretty awesome experience this past weekend when I went to my tio's finka (similar to farm) with my sister and nephew.

Below my tio picking some limes.

There we picked fresh lime from trees and different fruits I couldn't tell you the names of. I was gifted with 30 different jalapeños after the family learned I liked my food picante and the excursion was topped with finding fresh avocado on the side of the road that had fallen from a nearby tree (yes we took them home to eat)(yes it felt like Disney world).

My nephew posing in his sombrero and pjs'.

I was talking to my brother last weekend about the impending celebrations for Semana Santa and he asked me if I was planning on celebrating Passover as well. Everyday here feels like summer so I did not even register the Jewish holiday was close. Later that day I spoke to my parents who highly encouraged me to try to be a good Jew. And I tried. I found a fellow trainee who is also Jewish and wanted to celebrate and after countless obstacles we managed to pull off a seder.

My friend Andrew traveled about an hour and a half to my site where for the first time we had the opportunity to cook our own meals (I had to explain to my host family what Passover is, how I would be celebrating, get permission to use the kitchen and house for the meal, and have her agree to make my friend breakfast in the morning because it was too long of a trip for him to return the same day)(this was all difficult to do in Spanish)(mainly the Jewish tradition explanation part).

Andrew cooking some delicious chicken with lime and jalapeño.

Regardless we pulled it off with the only traditional parts of the meal being the wine and charoset (matzah=ritz crackers, horse radish=jalapeños, shank-bone= chicken leg etc etc).

Our innovative seder table.

The next day after a breakfast of pineapple, ginger, and melon smoothie with a side of fresh avocado Andrew and I headed to the soccer field down the street. We showed up, set up my speaker, and were enjoying some frisbee until I pulled out my boomerang. This changed everything. We spent the next two hours trying to make it successfully return to us and ended up recruiting a few kids from the neighborhood to play. They were especially helpful when the boomerang would get stuck in a tree and would race 20 feet up the tree to get to it first (something neither Andrew nor I were feeling rather enthusiastic to do).

Andrew left shortly after and I made some plans with the kids to meet back up the next day. So then today, in what I have learned is Nica fashion, my new friends showed up about an hour late to rang (this was perfectly fine with me because I spent the hour dancing around Jack Stratton style and boomeranging by myself). We spent some time hanging out and practicing our throws before one of them (the boomerangs) got stuck in a tree. About 40 feet up. We took to drastic measures using a slingshot to try to get it down, but nothing worked. The kids promised they would try everyday to get it down and would return it to my house when they got it. I told them I had another and wasn't too worried.

All in all it has been a great week filled mainly with community integration and relaxation. Tomorrow starts a full week of classes (with a new more advanced teacher!), my first charla on Thursday, and as always a whole bunch to learn.