Site Visit Week!

Week 9

Last week basically started out with this super long day called “Counterpart Day”, where everyone meets all their counterparts in Managua and everyone is orientated into how they are supposed to work together in the future. This is a bit deceptive though, since our real counterparts are going to be the teachers we teach our classes with, yet the people we met with for the most part were the principals of the schools where we were going to teach. It’s odd, because while we do need to be on these peoples’ good sides and will need to touch base with them from time to time, they really aren’t going to be a huge part of lives in site. Unless of course, they too become regulars of the local discoteca. Also, they put pictures of us on this overhead projector, and the one they keep using of me for things like this literally looks like I was just the victim of some brutal sexual assault or something. It’s disgusting. I think I had just finished taking my first language interview when the photo was snapped. Anyway, so the whole day was a touch awkward as we trainees had been instructed to speak only Spanish and “mingle” during the day. As some of you might know, my mingling with strangers skills leave something to be desired even in English. The only new people I ever meet at parties are the ones that hit up the bar/food area with a tenacity like yours truly. Besides my social awkwardness, I also had to deal with having 5 counterparts to corral. Most had 2-3, lucky me. Our hour-long planning session for my site visit and first month in site turned into a straight up hot mess. They pretty much wanted to talk about anything but. Whatever, I figured who would know the difference (Jesus).

One of the very few things we did decide was to meet in the hotel lobby at 6a.m. to travel back to San Carlos together. Unfortunately, my counterparts strolled down around 6:50 and we completely missed our bus. Oh, Nica time. The journey there takes about 8-9 hours in bus and let me tell you, it feels like it. For the last 4ish hours of the trip they’re doing extensive construction on the road and it literally feels like your on one of those horrid fair rides that just shakes and throws you around till you want to throw up. Good times. The worst part was that me and Jess had to take the same trip back Friday morning. That is one trip that should never be taken twice in one week. If anyone ever visits me (bitches betta!), I suggest coming up through Costa Rica, or waiting at least 6ish months for the road to be fixed. Moving on, after arriving around dinner time Tuesday, I met my new fam! It’s really a change of pace from the family I have now in SJdO. Instead of having 2 housemates and a worker woman, I have like 8 housemates, most of them not even family, and a German. It’ll be like living in a hostel. My new room frankly reminds me a bit of a jail cell. The only items of furniture are a small bed and a stool, the walls and everything are gray concrete, and the only window is so high you can only see the sky. I’ll have to make myself a real life shank for the yard and be sure to keep my guard up in the showers. I can feel you peoples’ jealousy from here! They are also doing construction on the street literally right in front of my house, so clearly the only option was to walk straight out the first night and fall into a large hole. At least my neighbor got a solid laugh out of it.

The rest of my trip was a whirl of busyness. I had to visit all of my schools and meet with all of my future co teachers to kind of plan out when our classes and planning sessions will be the first month. My schedule is a bit of disaster right now, seeing as I have 3-4 days a week where I do little to nothing and 3 other days where I won’t have time to eat. There’s also a potential problem where I have to teach classes at some of my schools that are in other nearby communities that don’t end until after the last bus leaves. My counterparts did indeed agree that yes, this was a problem, yet were pretty okay with not fixing it. So guess I’ll be spending a few nights a week sleeping in the trees with my monkey friends. At one school where I have two counterparts, the principal had my two teachers sit at opposite sides of the room, then told me to plan with them. So I was literally walking back and forth across the room trying to coordinate their schedules and they totally were not into the idea of moving some chairs around. It was more than a bit awkward being presented at my schools to the students as well. At one school I was presented around class to class and asked to say something to each class. This led to me giving an identical 2 minute speech about 10 times that always seemed to end with me apologizing for my shitty Spanish. At another school they brought each class individually into a room where they told me to sit in a chair and receive the standing students like I was some kind of elderly visiting royalty. This appealed a bit more to my vanity. My third school made all the students come into one big room and the director gave me this grand introduction, before asking me on the spot to give a speech about why entrepreneurship is important. The final school was having this big Day of the Flag celebration during my visit and after all the kids and teachers sang the Nicaraguan national anthem the principal basically goes, and here is a North American to say a few words. Which, if you know anything about Nicaraguan/U.S. relations historically, is more than a bit ironic.

If this post sounds a dash testier than my usual, it’s probably cause this current week is hellacious. I would kind of compare it to exam week in college. We have a bunch of presentations and papers due and I have to teach a class Thursday for an hour and a half. I did get to hear the Ghostbusters’ theme song on a bus the other day, so, feeling pretty solid. I’ll be writing to you good people again on the other end of this nightmare week, wish me luck, and hug a blonde, we’re worth it!