I know it´s been a while since my last blog post, but hey, I´m on the hora Latina or Nica Time, as they call it here. So far, that has been the hardest thing for me to get used to in Nicaragua. People say that a meeting will start at 8 and instead it starts at 10. Or you plan to go somewhere and someone jsut doesn´t show up, so you can´t go. There is also a lot of time to sit around and chit-chat, which is great in terms of practicing Spanish, but can feel a little unproductive. I have definitely realized how busy I always was in San Francisco, so I think this has been a good exercise in balancing my pace of life and prioritizing things that are actually important.
So far at work, I've been working on creating a resource guide that has all of the resources for women and their families in the community. It was really interesting to walk around to different organizations and government offices and talk to various people about the services that they offer - especially since in the United States you would probably just send an email or leave someone a message. Hopefully, I will be able to print the guides this week so that we can start distributing them to our clients, to other organizations in the city, and to participants at the community talks that we are planning. It was also a fantastic opportunity to improve the way that my organization works with the other organizations here in Ciudad Sandino. Intrafamiliar violence is a bog problem here, but there are a lot of people and organizations working towards solutions. There are trainings about various topics, like self esteem, domestic violence, and the legal system almost every week and I hope that I was able to improve the way that the organizations communicate with one another so that as many women and families as possible are
able to access the services.
But enough about work...
We have also been enjoying a lot of traveling on the weekends! Nicaragua is a pretty small country so you can get a lot of places on the bus, (for not much money.)
One weekend we went to San Juan del Sur, which is sort of a surfer town in the South-West part of the country, near the Costa Rican border. When we first arrived, we shoed up at an older hostel, but as soon as Danielle got bit by a bat, we knew we had to leave. After a stop at the Centro de Salud to check out the bite, we headed to Hostel Esperanza, which was very cool, and right on the beach. It was great to go out dancing, meet other interesting travelers and relax with friends. Here are some of the amazing views of the sunset in SJDS:
Last weekend, we ventured to el Norte, to visit Ivana where she lives in Estelí. We got there pretty late on Friday night, although still managed to fit in several hours of dancing. The next morning, we ventured out of the city to a waterfall called Estansuela and a nature reserve, El Tisey. The waterfall was incredible, we went swimming, hiked around it and took lots of pictures.
Here are Daniela and Richard underneath it:
We then headed for the nature reserve, which ended up being farther away than we expected. It was nice and cold at the top of the mountains, which was a welcome change from the heat of Ciudad Sandino. The next morning, we hiked to the top for views of Estelí and all of the surrounding areas. It was increible!
It seems incredible to me that I´ve already been here for 5 weeks and that my program is half way over. I've seen and learned so much and made amazing new friends. I am excited to see what the next 5 weeks have in store and always grateful for this experience!
No comments:
Post a Comment