Yes, I do get to call myself a Jalapeño from here on out. I took ownership of the title last Tuesday, when I met two of the teachers I’m to be working with for two years, Edgard and Hellmy, and we were asked to take two minutes to come up with something we had in common, the more obscure the better. When the time came to present what all the trainees/counterparts had discovered about ourselves, I boomed out with conviction “Somos Jalapeños, y nos gusta ir a discos, bailar, y tomar Toña” (we are people from Jalapa, and we like to go to discotheques, dance, and drink Toña (national beer of Nicaragua)), which caused two ripples of laughter among the PC trainees/staff/counterparts, one after the Jalapeño pun, and one at the end. I feel it was a good start to our relationship.
The journey to Jalapa the next day, was not so fun. It takes six hours to get from Managua to Jalapa, which is already a long time, but is made infinitely longer when your bladder is both full and being crushed by your own overstuffed backpack pretty much the whole time. So leaving my site is going to be more of an event for me than other volunteers, which I’ve learned has perks, such as being put up in a hotel in Managua for the night if I ever get sick enough to come to the medical office for a doctor’s appointment, whereas other not-so-far-away volunteers would get sent back to their sites the same day.
My new family’s pretty great. They live in a big house with a clothing/food store (herein referred to as either a “venta” or a “pulpería”) in front, and lots of rooms in the back. The one they are renting me was open previously, which made me feel good after hearing stories of other volunteers who felt awkward after having “stolen” a room and a bed from a grandmother or other relative who was forced into an inferior sleeping arrangement as a result. My bed and pillow are comfy, and the blankets are cozy enough to keep me warm during the cold Jalapa nights. And, amazingly enough, I’m actually going to have Hot Water in the shower, which my family ghetto-rigged up for me during my second day in their house! There are all sorts of electrical wires running from the wall to my showerhead, which totally look like they could electrocute me at any moment, but proved to be safe enough during my first four days in my new town. It’s hard to convey how excited about this I am. I’m looking forward to cooking my own food with them, and if I can manage to work that out, I’m seriously considering staying with them the whole two years.
I only got to see Diego, PCV in small business and fellow Jalapeño, for my first day or two in Jalapa, because he had to go to Managua for the weekend. But, while he was there, he cooked dinner for me, a wonderful spaghetti dish with stir-fried veggies and soy meat. He also showed me around town a bit and introduced me to the delegada, or governmental education representative for Jalapa, after waiting in the rain outside her office, which was an unfortunate way to have to spend an hour of our time together; he also introduced me to the director, or principal of my school, who drank rum and cokes with us while watching the last game of the world series on Wednesday night, which was a considerably better use of time, all things considered.
I watched 15 classes while I was there over the next three days, or on average 3 per teacher I’m going to be working with. I was especially impressed with Joel (pronounced ho-AIL)’s classes in the instituto (secondary school), where the kids played swat the fly and hot potato and were so enthused and focused on pronunciation and oh man, it was just really heartening to see classes that good already. Same with Yanett’s private class of 10-or-so-year-olds, who sang “Dust in the Wind” by Kansas while playing air-violin and told me their favorite animals and colors and asked me what sports I liked and how old I was and where I was from, which was a lot more than the fourth year (tenth grade) students in the instituto I observed were able to do.
So I’m cautiously optimistic after my visit. I feel good that Wilfredo, the 5th of my teachers, already invited me over to his house to celebrate Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve (Nochebuena and Nochevieja, respectively). They all are really excited to have me there, and that most of the kids mirror that enthusiasm makes me feel good to be there. I’ll probably end up taking the two hour bus trip down to Ocotal to visit Laura, do my banking and grocery shopping 1-3 times a month, which I feel pretty good about. And I feel hopeful about the possibilities of getting together with the other people from my group who were put out more or less on their own in the other northern and eastern departments of Nicaragua. And I know Laura and I will go down to visit Liz and Megan, and that they’ll come up to visit us at some point. Like the Beatles said, I’ve got to admit it’s getting better, a little better, all the time.
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