It's my last morning here!

Well, it's my last morning in Central America.  I'm currently sitting on my bed in my hostel in Liberia, Costa Rica waiting until I have to head to the airport.  The past 2 weeks have been a whirlwind of emotions, and while I may have left Nicaragua on Friday, I don't think it has really hit me that I'm leaving for good until right about now.  My goodbye parties started about 2 weeks ago, and lasted for the duration of my last week of service.  I officially finished my service a week ago today, and have spent the last week traveling around Nicaragua and the northwestern Guanacaste region of Costa Rica.  But every time I've traveled over the past 2 years I've gone back to site afterwards.  The last time I was in this hostel in Costa Rica I returned back to site.  Now I'm about to get on a plane and I have no idea when I will be back.  I've been running through the moment of me getting off the plane in O'Hare tonight over and over in my head for the last week.  Sometimes I'm super happy to see my mom waiting for me, and sometimes I just get super upset that this whirlwind of a journey has come to an end.   I guess only time will tell how I feel when I get off the plane.  I then have 2 days before heading to Vietnam for 12 days to visit my sister, so I have a nice built in buffer to try and ease the process a little.  I am super excited to be home to see friends and family, but I am really super upset to be leaving all of my friends and "family" back in Nicaragua.  By the end of two years I felt like I was part of the community, and it's difficult to leave.  But, instead of rambling on, here's a short list of things that have changed in my life over the past 2 years:

• I am conversationally fluent in Spanish
• I am much more patient, and have in some instances even adopted the Latin American principle of time
• Got used to living in a house that, over the course of two years, also temporarily housed chickens, ducks, a pig, and I feel like I'm missing something there.....
• Now almost prefer using an outhouse. Still never got used to showering in super cold water, but I didn't mind showering in the backyard in a partially covered shack using water out of an oil barrel.
• I regularly gel my hair and tuck in my shirts (and usually wear collared shirts)
• I became addicted to sweet bread and also started baking a lot
• I started drinking coffee (when in Rome, right?) 
• Stopped caring about the nutritional value of my food and just eat whatever I feel like eating. Also grew to enjoy a diet that consisted mainly of red beans, rice, and corn tortillas
• I got a tattoo of the national crest of a country that I originally would have jumped at any excuse to leave without actually quitting.  
• Overall, I feel like a completely different person than I was on the morning of August 13th, 2013 when I flew off to DC for Peace Corps Staging. I'm different on personal levels I won't share on this public of a forum, as well as in many other ways I just can't think of right now.  

There are too many pictures from the last 2 weeks to post here, so I'm just putting these two.  The first is my last night in my site preparing to leave.  The second is of me ringing the bell in the Peace Corps office, symbolically finishing my Peace Corps service.  I actually officially finished it 20 minutes later with a signature from the sub-director of Peace Corps Nicaragua. 

My Last Week!!

Well, I'm in the middle of my last week as a Peace Corps Volunteer!  I have 5 days left in site, 9 in Nicaragua and 12 left in Central America.  So, I'm going to continue with pictures of people I've gotten to know over the last couple years! 

I swear they are much friendlier than they look in the picture!  Don Chepe (José) and his wife live in the intersection of my satellite site.  I built them a stove in April, and they have always been super nice to me.  While I didn't spend too much time at their house over my 2 years, they were always welcoming, and nice people to talk to.  Don Chepe walked up to me last week and invited me for a farewell lunch at his house, which is when I took this picture! They made me the best Indio Viejo (a local dish) I've ever had, and we sat and talked about the revolution and contra war, among other things.  Apparently Don Chepe was part of the army unit that captured the plane carrying secret information proving that the US was funding the Contras.  It turned into a major controversy.  

La familia Castro lives down the road about 10km from my site, but I have tried to go visit them every Sunday for the past year or so.  I was introduced to them through their older son, who is a good friend of mine.  I ended up building 5 ovens for different members of his family, and had a really hard time saying goodbye on Sunday (I definitely cried).  Both my friend and his 17 year old brother are not in this picture.  Through his parents, I became close with other family members in this town, and felt like part of the family. 

Don Edwin and his wife Doña Maritza have been feeding me lunch every afternoon that I am in their community for the past year.  They are family of a teacher I work with, and are extremely generous and nice.  They own the main store in their community.  They are preparing me a goodbye dinner Friday night that I'm really excited for!  I'm going to miss them a lot. 

Izdania and her daughter represent one of my best stove success stories.  They built this kitchen around the stove I made, and use it   several times a day.  I got to know her a bit late in my service, but she was always super glad to have me stop by to her house, and her daughter told me she will have a surprise waiting for me this Saturday morning. 

Yasser is the son of the family in the second picture.  He is in his final year of studying marketing, and I'm sure will go on to be very successful!  I met his last December on a bus when he approached me and asked me about my Peace Corps polo.  Apparently he had worked with a previous volunteer.  Yasser has become one of my closest friends over the past year, and I'm really glad I got to know him and his family!

The Picture Goal

Well, I just finished my 3 day COS (close of service) medical appointment to make sure I'm not going back to the States with any weird medical conditions, and I've passed with flying colors!  I don't leave just yet, but we have to do this within a few weeks of leaving. The last few days have been filled with dentist, doctor, and medical lab appointments, as well as a final interview with the Peace Corps Nicaragua director.  Now I'm stuck here for another few hours waiting for my exit interview with the Environment Program director.  So instead of finishing watching the 6th season of Modern Family, I figured I'd write in here again :) 
I've made it my goal these last few weeks in country to start taking pictures with community members I've grown close to over the last two years.  I had planned on taking them all before heading to Managua this week to be able to print them out to give as gifts, but I kind of dropped the ball on that.  It's also hard to take a bunch of pictures with different people when stopping by to take one usually involves spending at least 45 minutes sitting and talking before even taking the picture.  So, here are some of the pictures I've taken so far, with more to come!

Doña Myra owns the main pulpería in my village, which is like a corner store.  I built her an oven (my first oven of 18) on my 23rd birthday, and have since been getting gifted free bread and cake when she bakes!  She is a good friend of my host family, my neighbor, and is a really nice woman!

Elaine and Omar own one of the towns other pulperías, and were painting their house when I stopped by.  Omar is the guide at the ecolodge near my site, and I have enjoyed working with him on his English as well as learning a lot about the names of birds and plants in both English and Spanish. 

Doña Isabel lives about a seven or eight minute walk down the road from me, and has taught me so much about so many things over the past 2 years.  She grows pretty much every tropical fruit you could think of, and grows most of her own food. Before going to the States last year she let me pick a basket of coffee in her backyard and then taught me the entire process of processing the coffee.  The then brought the finished product home to give as Christmas gifts.  Through her I have milked a cow, learned how to make cuajada (a cheese many Nicaraguan's eat daily), picked avocados and other fruit, learned about so many different plants and flowers, etc.  I also go to her house to try out new recipes for things.  If I want to do something, she is usually down to let me try it.  She regularly gives me a cup of home grown and home roasted coffee, and gifts me fresh fruit from her property when I leave.  When I don't want to learn how to do something, I have enjoyed just laying in the hammock and talking or sitting on the couch and watch telenovelas.  

Doña Carmen is the most adamant user of the Peace Corps ovens I've made, and regularly gifts me bread or hornado de maíz (corn based baked goods).  I have spent many hours hanging out with her and her family pretending to bake and talking.  She speaks really fast, so spending time with her also really helped improve my Spanish!  She also insisted on standing on the step in this picture because I'm so much taller than pretty much everyone in my village.   

Profe Angelica is a teacher in one of the schools I work at.  She lives on the main road up the mountain at the entrance of the pine tree reserve.  It's a beautiful hike up to her house, so I usually find myself stopping at her house to talk as a stop over point on walks or runs.  I have spent so much time sitting and chatting with her on her porch!  I always knew if I ever needed any town gossip or advice, I could just stop by her house or ask her at school.  She has four kids, but Randy is the only one who made it into the picture.  He turned 11 the day this picture was taken.  Her husband Armando is also really nice to talk to, but he has been out of town working a lot lately.  

The Final Stretch

T-minus one month exactly until I ring the bell in the Peace Corps office, symbolically marking the closure of my Peace Corps service.  I know I´ve said this a lot, but it´s really hard to believe my time here is almost over! I started this blog as a Sawbill Canoe Outfitters Crew Member in July of 2013 talking about how I was super nervous but excited to come here. When I got here I posted regularly and managed to be at least semi-creative for the first several months.  Then I passed into my let´s put on a false front even though I´m having a hard time phase.  And finally, I started to get into the reflection of my service posts.  I have also haven´t been writing in here very frequently lately because my computer has been in the shop for 3 months and I never really have time to type up posts when I´m in town.  Now, as I´m in the final stretch of my service, I really don´t know how to feel. 

In the last several weeks I have started spending more time just  with friends and community members, and less time doing legit work (I should clarify that spending time with community members still constitutes as work... :).  I still show up to school mostly every day, but in the afternoons I´ve been trying to spend most of my time baking with people, or just paseando (hanging out).  Either that or heading into town to work in computer cafés because my laptop is broken, followed by hanging out with friends in town.  It´s great, but it also reminds me how much I´m going to miss everything when I leave.  I´ll be honest when I say that any idea I had of becoming a teacher before I came here has been shot down after working in the schools for 2 years.  I´m just not cut out to be a full time teacher.  I don´t have the skills my Dad has.  

But I´m really going to miss just being able to stop over at someone´s house to talk or watch telenovelas over a cup of local homeroasted coffee and homemade bread, then being gifted fruit as I leave.  I could do without some of the small town gossip, but I´m going to miss everyone in town knowing who I am, and most saying hi to me in the street.  I´ve been the Peace Corps Volunteer and Profe José in my community for 2 years.  That´s been my identity, and it´s going to be difficult going back to the States and going back to being Joe.  But, as I´ve been saying, todo lo bueno tiene que terminar, así es la vida.  Everything good must come to an end, thus is life.  So I´m going to live up my last month here, and know that the next phase is my life may be different, but will still be great in it´s own way.  

And here are a few pics...

I didn´t parade around the town in a burlap sack skirt like last year, but I still wore THIS for their independence festivals this year (this day was actually celebrating a battle won against Americans...)

I´ve been trying to hike more volcanos before leaving.

I went to go visit a friends on their farm last week. They have an enormous farm and grow most of their own food! They also have been planting a bunch of trees to better the environment! They´re so cool!! 

COS!

Well, it’s been a while since I’ve written in here!  As my service is winding down, my technology has been slowly giving up as well, and my laptop has been in the process of being fixed for going on two months now.  Anyways, besides not having an easy way to type things like blog post up at home, I have been really enjoying the last few months since I have written in here! I went to Costa Rica again, I’ve finished my Stove/Oven grant and have continued to build ovens funded by other means, and have been overall enjoying life.  I’ve only been sick once since the last time I wrote in here (I’m still getting over a nasty cold/sinus infection), but being sick once in 3 months isn’t that bad for me here!  My sister Jessica came and visited, making her the 5^th member of my family to visit me (or in the case of my Uncle Kevin and Aunt Betsy, I visited them).  I’ve undergone PT on my bad knee, and have just spent a lot of time hanging out with people in and around my site!

         For such a long time today has seemed like it was far on the horizon.  I just got to the Peace Corps office for my COS conference.  For those of you who are not savvy on the government/Peace Corps acronyms, COS stands for Close of Service.  It’s the beginning of the end.  It’s when we have our final language proficiency interviews (I’m hoping for advanced), when we present what we have done during our service to the US ambassador to Nicaragua and PC staff, and get a whole bunch of post-Peace Corps information thrown at us.  They put us up in nice hotels, including 2 nights at a beach front resort (your tax dollars hard at work J ), and the sub-director has us over for dinner at his really nice house!  While I’m super excited to be spending time with all of my friends here, it’s signifies that my time here will be coming to a close in just a few short months.  I was even tearing up a little on the bus ride down here this morning.  I’d love to write more, but I’m in an office full of people in my group I haven’t seen in a while!  So I’ll end this with a few pics!

Traveling with Jess!

San Juan del Sur!

 

Sloth!!

Costa Rica with my friend Jen Rowley!

 

MAY!!!!

It’s been a pretty eventful last month or so!  Regardless of some of the things you will read in here, like my getting sick, having things stolen, getting into heated arguments in with guys on busses, etc, I am still riding on the Peace Corps high I’ve been on for the past several months.  With that said, here are some of the noteworthy things that have happened this May:

1) I met a super progressive and awesome family when I went on a trip to build an oven on their farm.  They own a really large farm, and pretty much everything we ate was raised or grown on their land: rice, beans, corn for the tortillas, milk for the cheese, steaks, jalapeños, veggies, coffee, and the oranges for our rum.  The rum, however, was made on the other side of the country.  They are converting, or have converted, the rest of their land into a biological reserve.  Not for tourism or to make money.  Just to be.  It’s a pity Peace Corps Volunteers usually can’t go to this part of the country (I had to get special permission)! It really is any environmental volunteer’s paradise, and I already have plans to go back and bake there next month.

2) A minute and a half after texting the security director of Peace Corps that I was back in my department from that trip to build the oven and that nothing had gone wrong, my iPhone was stolen from my backpack.  I didn’t realize it was gone until I was on my other bus, but I know exactly who took it.  While it sucks, it was old and starting to get really slow, so it’s his problem now.  I was actually happier that he stole the iPhone and not my cheap Nica phone.  It would have sucked to get all my contacts back!

3) My Mac crashed.  It was a pretty bad week for my outdated iProducts.  I’m glad I had backed it up a few months before it crashed, and I only lost a couple months of pictures rather than them all.  It’s since been fixed, but she’ll never be the same.

4) I turned 24!! Never has the statement “never trust a fart” been so true as it was on that day.  I guess there’s a reason the told us that in Washington, D.C. the day before coming to Nicaragua.  First time I had been sick in months though, so I couldn’t complain. 

5) Several friends came to visit me in my site a few days after my birthday (when I could confidently venture away from a latrine).  We went up to the ecolodge near my site, went swimming under the waterfall, and they even bought me a really great cake.  It was great!!

6) I started getting tutored in math.  I used to be really good, but after 6 years of no classes my math skills are bordering on embarrassing.  I had met someone in the park in town waiting for a bus a couple of weeks ago that is studying to be a math teacher.  So naturally I tracked him down in his house across the valley the next day to ask if he could help me study for the GRE (which I may or may not be taking before I finish my service).  Is that weird?

7) I got into arguments with two different cobradores (the guys who charge you on busses) over the equivalent of about $.19 within an 18-hour period.  I usually take the same busses when I travel around my sites so the cobradores know who I am.  Every once in a while, however, I take a different bus with different cobradores.  In both cases they tried to overcharge me C$5 for a “gringo tax.”  They didn’t say this of course, but I made sure they knew I knew what they were up to.  While I’m of course arguing over principle, I’m pretty sure I’m getting a reputation as being super cheap by those watching me on the busses.  To be fair though, that $.19 can buy my morning sweet bread.  I’ve since come up with a battle plan for one of the cobradores for next week, so let’s see how this goes.  Maybe not the best idea, but I hate being discriminated against, taken advantage of, and lied to.   I’m also one of the few people that actually stands up to them.  In both cases, however, I got my money back after constant pestering.

8) I took a hot shower last weekend!!!!

9) I had forgotten how awesome microwaves are.  I was able to heat up the rice and beans for lunch that my host mom had prepared for me that morning!!!  It was amazing!  It was my first time using one in quite a long time though, so I couldn’t exactly remember/figure out how to use it.  I ended up having to ask for help. 

10) I just about finished my stove/oven project.  I’ve even built 4 more ovens than I had planned on building.  The extra 4 ovens were not part of my grant, which means less paperwork for me!  I’ve also finally started teaching how to bake again!

Nica Hospitality

I would like to dedicate a blogpost here to “Nica Hospitality”.  I have mentioned how nice many Nicaraguan’s are in several previous posts, but I feel that it is about time I formally come out and say that southerners in the US have some competition!  While there will always be those that like to take advantage of foreigners and would rather try and overcharge the gringo than be hospitable, I have found that not to be the case in most instances. 

         Regardless of varying financial situations, I have found that most people will offer a fresco (some sort of drink), coffee, bread, a full meal, or something else when I am visiting their homes.  I can stop by someone’s house for what should be a minute or two and end up being there for half an hour or more, usually not getting to the main point of my visit until then end.

         To keep this semi-shorter, I’m just going to highlight some examples, mainly from the past week or two.

         1) The owners of the “pulpería“ (local store) in my rural site                     regularly feed or at least offer me lunch and gift me my favorite type of sweet bread, even if I just stop in to say hey and don’t buy anything.  

         2) A few of the families I’ve helped build ovens for regularly give me baked goods for free no matter how much I try and pay for them.  And even when they allow me to pay for things, they give me more than I ask/pay for.

         3) Someone I help with English has started buying me the sweet bread he knows I like, despite the fact that he sometimes has to walk up to 2 hours because he cannot afford the bus (he saves most of his money for his formal English classes to become an English teacher).

         4) A friend in my training site let me stay the night in her house and fed me for free.

         5) I stayed two nights with a Nicaraguan friend I made at that  crazy race I ran in February.  He lives with his girlfriend and her family very close to the center of the beautiful colonial town of Granada, which is relatively expensive.  Not only did they let me stay in their house and feed me for free, but they also paid for me when we went out for pizza and drove me around the area.  He offered to cut my hair ‘Nica-style’, and both him and his girlfriend (who I now consider a friend as well) helped me out with the details of my tattoo. I had originally planned on getting it in the States, but they vouched for the tattoo artist/their friend, and I’m super thrilled I got it with those two present. It also only cost me C$500, which is less than $19!  I paid more for the tip on my first, much simpler tattoo I got 3 years ago. 

         6) I took the bus to a former friend’s house a bit further into the          country from where I live to talk about an oven I’ll be building with them (the friend has since moved to the city).  After chatting with the cobrador in the bus (the guy who walks up and down the isle charging people) for about 10 minutes, he refused to let me pay the C$15, or about $.60 for the trip.  Relatively not a lot of money, but it was still pretty cool of him to do that.           Once I got to the house, his mom showered me with really great tajadas with cuajada (fried plantain chips with a type of cheese on the side), and a cantaloupe smoothie.  I sat there and talked for a while with some other family members, and before taking the bus back to site his mom gifted me several          large bananas and at least 2 lbs of red beans, both grown on their farm. 

                  I could go on and on with examples of how awesome people are here!  I have learned not to visit people before runs, as it is usually pretty difficult to say no to free things.  Most of the time the coffee I am given is local if not grown and/or processed by the community members themselves.  No wonder I went from never drinking coffee in the States to having a slight addiction here!

         The reason I chose to get the national crest of Nicaragua permanently tattooed on my body has a lot to do with what I’m talking about here.  I mean, I got it to help me remember how much I’ve changed if I ever were to forget in the future, but also to remember how amazingly hospitable and caring most of the people are here.  I have made so many cool and meaningful connections, and am going to have such a hard time saying goodbye when I leave not knowing when I’ll be able to make it back again (damn student loans!).  At least now I will always have something that, to me, symbolizes how unique of an experience this has been and how lucky I am to be surrounded by so many caring and thoughtful people.

And for those of you that don't have facebook, here are some pics of my tattoo of the national crest of Nicaragua.

Oscar and I (the tattoo artist)

My friend's and I right after getting my tattoo