Week 5

Week 5

Possibly, my best week ever! Not in life, that would be a rather bold statement, but if my five weeks in Nicaragua all had a battle royal of awesomeness, week 5 would probably give a firm bitch hand to weeks 1-4. Sunday, we began our volunteer visit journey. I went to Telica, Leon to visit Peter. Telica is only about a 10 minute bus ride from Leon, the second biggest city in Nicaragua after Managua. To get there I had to take a microbus (basically a van) from Catarina to Managua, then another slightly bigger van from Managua to Leon, then a real bus (by that I mean an old American school bus, cause if I haven’t it mentioned before, that is what all their buses are).

The micro from Catarina to Managua was a little bit like Way too Fast, Way too Damn Furious! If in that film there was a minivan with no seatbelts going about 100 around all these super sharp turns, switching into the wrong lane and playing the kind of game of chicken that nobody wins. At one point a rock was thrown from one car at our van breaking part of a window causing some glass shards to fly around. People screamed, but I’ll be damned if our driver slowed down. After that, I put on my sunglasses and decided to go to my happy place, Olive Garden. The ride from Managua to Leon was a dream by comparison. Air conditioning, beautiful scenery, and the best of Celine Dion. Listening to “My Heart Will Go On” whilst cruising through the tropics; that my friends, is what dreams are made of.

Almost as soon as I arrived in Telica around 11a.m., I met Peter, and the conversation was basically Peter: “So do want to go to the beach, or” Me: “YES!!!”. So he called up some other volunteers and 4 of us ended up going to the beach a little after noon. The other two were environment volunteers named Rachel and Peyton. This was actually my first time in the Pacific, a little rough, but fun. We ate at this cute little beach bar and I got a cheese burger and fries. I was most likely making inappropriate noises during my consumption of this meal. We stayed at the beach till almost 6 before taking a bus to Leon to meet some more volunteers at a bar for dinner and to watch game 5 of the NBA Finals. There are apparently a lot of PC volunteers in the Leon area. It was awesome getting to hear a bunch of different perspectives on the life of a PC volunteer.

Monday morning we watched a little 30 Rock on Peter’s computer before eventually going to meet one of his counterparts for a planning session. This counterpart was really on her game, so Peter didn’t even have to do much of the planning. Peter had another class at 3 which gave us some time to go to these hot springs that were about 10 minutes from his town. The scenery was beautiful as there are a plethora (look at me with my SAT words) of volcanoes in the area. The springs were cool too, unfortunately there was this drunk and/or mentally retarded man who would not leave us alone. We kept asking him in Spanish to go away, telling him we didn’t have money or cigarettes. Then, I think he wanted a picture of me with his cell phone, and while I know I could easily be mistaken for some glamorous celebrity, we should be able to still be able to travel in peace. Finally we just left and I didn’t get to take any pictures, but trust me, it was pretty cool.

Other things we did before I left Wednesday. Visited Peter’s old host family, there was a puppy, I wanted to steal it. I observed a couple more classes, one excellent, the other totally crazy with the kids talking the whole time. Tuesday night we went to see a movie in Leon at one of the maybe 4 or 5 movie theatres in all of Nicaragua. We saw “The A Team” or “Los Brigados A, Los Magnificos.” It was in English, but had Spanish subtitles. The movie was pretty good, didn’t love it. There was nothing not to love about the movie theatre experience on the other hand, with popcorn and air conditioning. After, we went to another bar and watched game 6 of the NBA finals. If your thinking this trip sounded suspiciously like a vacation, it basically was. Also, I probably spent way too much money, and before we got paid Friday had about 3 dollars to my name.

The trip back went mostly without incident. I decided to walk back through Catarina on the way to San Juan and investigate the Cookies n’ Cream ice cream there again. Still not sure what makes it so good, further investigation will be required. The things I do in the name of science. Thursday, we had these small group sessions on stress that were essentially bitch sessions where everyone just complained about what was bothering them. I’m always up for a solid bitch session, so participate I did. Friday, we had some more charlas and such, also they brought us Papa John’s pizza for our lunch. I’m not going to even play like I didn’t shamelessly grab one of those garlic/mostly butter things to take back to my table. A bunch of people from different training towns met later that night and went out to this really cool bar along the highway that played mostly techno music. Bundles of fun. It was decided that this will be our new Friday thing.
Today we got to go to the Masaya Volcano as a group. There were some beautiful views and a very strong sulfur smell in the air. For once, I actually brought my camera too! Though, this internet is having problems uploading them, so I'll have to post them next time. Just use your imaginations for now. Till next time people, keep it classy!