god bless america

Hello All!  How are you?  I am writing this from somewhere between Managua and Houston, I see water so that narrows things down.  I am on my way to California for two weeks and am really excited.

Yesterday I finished moving and organizing my new bedroom.  It looks surprisingly large now that there is furniture in it and I really like it.  I’ll attach a picture but it was hard to really get the whole room.  If we hang out while I’m home I can give you an amazing virtual tour or you can just come visit me in Nicaragua and see it for yourself.  Lori pointed out that there is still plenty of room for dancing, something very important.

On Saturday night we had a birthday party/fundraiser with all proceeds going to the library.  I don’t know yet how much money we raised but I think somewhere between $500 and $1000.  There is a picture of me standing next to a picture of myself.  

The party itself was very interesting, quite different from the normal 4 options of things to do in Managua.  Lori and I were the ones collecting money and my job was swiping the credit cards if people didn’t bring cash.  This is a seemingly easy task and I have previous experience thanks to my days at the Candy Bouquet.  The only difficulty was that we had to hook up the machine down a hallway where there was a phone line, so I had to keep walking back in forth in my new gold heels, I’m sure I looked like a natural.  It did get less awkward once I realized that it wasn’t necessary for the credit card holder walk down the hallway with me.

Friday was the forth of July.  Not a big holiday in Managua but I still was able to pull out my patriotic wear.  

The rest of the week was just wrapping up loose ends, cleaning the library, going to the beach, playing speed scrabble, seeing “Kung Fu Panda,” cleaning battery acid using Coca Cola, packing, etc.

I’ll back until the 24^th and starting tomorrow I can probably steal my cell phone number back from my mom so give me a call.  I hope to see you soon.

Love, joy

PS Now I’m in Houston, my layover was supposed to be just enough time to walk to my terminal but my connection was delayed.  Sad, but it will give me some time to adjust to things in the US of A like it being OK to flush toilet paper.  Maybe I’ll buy myself a coffee soon.

7 more days

I was fairly confident that this summer I was going to be basking in my free time and boredom but somehow my time has been filling up. 

Yesterday was my last day of house sitting, so now I am back in my apartment packing both for my visit to the states and for moving to my new house.    I am really excited about both of these things, coming to the states I get to see people that I have been missing a lot lately, and my new house has a newly painted bedroom.  Thanks to my distaste for painting second coats, and the quality of local paint we have named it “the aquarium.” It’s turquoise and fades in and out a lot but I love it and it’s all mine.

Working for Matthew again has been great.  I am just teaching one day a week but he has been in the states so has given me extra responsibility.  Three girls were here from Florida and for two days I got to chaperone their visits to the school and the feeding program.  Also last week there were two men from Colorado that I met with at the feeding program to show the work that is being done currently and our goals of expansion.  Right now I like the variety of things he is having me do, plus I get a driver that is really nice about running errands with me.

Things at the library are progressing quite nicely as well.  Today I am establishing new rules, such as a minimum age limit.  No more 2 year olds coming in unsupervised and peeing in my chairs. 

This morning I met with a representative from the organization Trees For Life.  If we have two thousand dollars to pay they will pay an additional $3,000 towards purchasing more books and will give us two computers and two printers.  Isn’t that exciting. I’m excited.

But don’t worry in spite of all this work I’ve gotten to play some too.  When deciding what to do here on a normal weekend night there are four options: make dinner in, go out to dinner, watch a movie in, watch a movie out.  Friday night I went out to dinner and watched a movie in.  Saturday night I ate dinner at home and then went to the movies.  Sunday night I ate dinner in and watched a movie in.  Sometimes there is a fifth option of Game Night. That is usually paired with eating in unless you chose to eat out at a place that is casual enough to play a game at.  We haven’t had game night in a few weeks, I like to play speed scrabble during them because card games stress me out. 

During the days there is more variety of things to do but they usually require more preparation.  Often these activities involve volcanoes, the Saturday before last I went to Volcan Mombacho for canopy tours.  Canopy tours are when you strap into a harness and then have someone push you off of a platform and you glide from tree to tree on wire. 

normal

supermujer.   

See a lot of you next week, Joy  

life.

"We should all aspire to live like bananas.  They are on permanent vacation, living in lush, tropical rainforests.  From high above, a canopy of trees provides the perfect balance of sun and shade" -Banana Nut Crunch

I can’t remember where I left off in telling this saga, but frequently I have thought of things I would like to share with you over the past few weeks.  Now finally I am taking a breath and sitting down to write. 

I started teaching again, just Tuesdays.  Classes are from 8:30 to 12:30 and include two 1^st grade classes, one 2^nd grade, and one 3^rd grade.  The first day we learned a little song “my name is joy, my name is joy, what’s your name, what’s your name?”  Catchy and original.  Then I had them draw a picture of them meeting a friend and introducing themselves.  This week we talked about fruit.  In preparation I made fruits out of colored paper: Watermelon, apple, orange, strawberry, grapes, pineapple, and banana.  After we went over names I walked around with a marker and asked each kid what their favorite fruit was, I drew it for them and then they had to color it.  This worked well for first grade and for third grade I just gave them paper and they had to draw it themselves.  In second grade I ran into a slight problem.  The problem is that our two 1^st grade classes fed into one 2^nd grade class, which means there are 40 students in one room.  It is hard to give attention to 40 kids in 45 minutes and teach anything.  I need to learn how to be more prepared for that.  Overall I am really enjoying being back at the school, kids are really funny, and one day a week is about all I want to prep for. 

Things at the library are going well too, yesterday we got air conditioning!  It really cools things off.  Today was the last day of the current set of volunteers working with me.  Now I know more what I need to establish before new volunteers come.  It is so much easier to communicate with co-workers when you work by yourself. 

Another good thing at the library is that really feel that I am starting to connect and get to know the regulars.  Today I read with a little boy for about an hour.  He is ten years old and can only read by sounding words out.  Fortunately Spanish is very phonetic so we were able to go through four books together.  Our first three books were very basic picture books with labels, and then Brown Bear, Brown Bear to finish it off.  It was exciting to see how after every book we finished he wanted to go pick off another one from the shelf.  A teenage boy, Moises, also comes in the library a lot to do puzzles, his homework, or read.  Since most of our patrons are younger he has just been choosing children’s books to flip through.  Today I gave him Bridge to Terabithia and a bookmark so that he can come in everyday and continue where he left off. 

I have been house sitting for two weeks now.  For about half that time my friend Morgan was here staying with me.  We played a lot of Boggle and both enjoyed reading 4^th grade books.  I’m reading The Twenty-one Balloons right now. The house is nice and a change of scenery.  The first weekend here we had a fruit party, “bring a fruit and dress like a fruit.” I was a kiwi.  This weekend we grilled hamburgers and played Bible trivia, I think my fourth grade Bible knowledge would make you more proud than my Boggle skills, however, I am better at both of those things than cooking Nica food, which Morgan I attempted on Monday. 

One bad thing about house sitting is that things are different.  One night last week I slept with my keys dangling in the lock.  Nappy was confused by the jingling and shared that by barking, which I ignored.  Also here I don’t have a maid, this shouldn’t really be a problem but I am terrible at mopping.  I attempted this morning and maybe things look a little better, but not much.  I think before the Ferrer’s come home I going to have to get Leo to come help me. 

Just a few things more to say…This weekend I re-hiked that volcano Cerro Negro, it was one of the first things I did when I came to Nicargua but last time I quit half way through.  This time we went on the trail and discovered that it is very easy and relaxing if you do it the standard way.  

It was windy.

Last week I got hit in the face with a soccer ball.  It was fuerte and direct, but caused minimal bleeding and my sunglasses didn’t break.   I’m coming home in less than three weeks. I love you.

  

lots of information you've been dying to know

Sometimes I wish I could figure out a new way to write these.  I feel that I’ve used up all of my creative writing styles and you’re probably sick of reading.  But, pay attention! I have a lot to say.

Ay, Ay, Ay un gran tormenta…

Last week there was some type of hurricane/tropical storm.  If I wasn’t an atmospheric science dropout I might have been able to give you a more technical description of what happened but I am; so, I’ll just tell you that it rained a lot.   I do remember something about the length of time between thunder and lightening mattering.  I think if there is no time it means you were just struck by lightening, that has happened a lot lately.  On Thursday I was walking home and when I left school it was just a little misty, things change fast in a hurricane.  By the time I got home, fifteen minutes later, I was completely soaked with my jeans plastered to my legs and my shoes ruined.  At least I wasn’t sweating and I’m pretty sure I saw a partial smile on our guard Hector, and he never smiles.

Besides tearing apart my most rain-worthy shoes, the storm didn’t really have a negative effect on my life, I even got a day less of Domestic Arts out of it.  But, really why would rain matter?  The dirt roads may have turned into rivers but that just makes them more exciting to run in, and I can come home and take a warm shower and then put on clean dry clothes and drink tea.  I have walls, and floors, and a roof, and even a dryer.  Unfortunately many (maybe even most) Nicaraguans do not live in such weather resistant conditions.  The river roads aren’t much fun to walk to work or school in.   And it is really hard for people to dry their clothes even inside, because the houses are always damp since they aren’t built quite up to code.  And then there is this family I know who’s outhouse caved in during the storm.  Yes, their outhouse.  Poor me with my broken shoes.    

El fin/mi retiro

Last Thursday night we had our Domestic Arts’ banquet.  Here is a picture of me directing to prove that I actually do something.  

I think the event was a success. 

On Monday I gave my class their final exam.   School policy is that seniors with over a 90% are exempt and other students need above a 93%.  I gave the exam to three students, all boys.  So, as of 12:30 on Monday I am retired from teaching, or so I think.

Un otra vez

A few months ago I told my faithful Korean ex-boss that maybe in June I would consider helping him out again.  On Saturday May 30^th, he called me to ask what I had been thinking.  I told him that I could see myself helping out one day a week, he asked me if I had a ride to school on Monday.  Hold up, Monday!  I guess he took that beginning of June thing seriously.  I had to give my exam on Monday so he said he would come get me at 7:30 Tuesday morning, I had to clarify whether Tuesday morning he expected me to work or just to see things, he said the latter.  So Tuesday he sent me into the office to set my schedule with the directora.  Can we rewind to September 11, 2006 my first day on the job?  Similarly, on this day in history, Matthew threw me into the work world with little direction.   Fortunately, my relationship with the directora and with the Spanish language has greatly improved in the past 21 months.  Back to present day, I told her I could come one day week, she picked Tuesdays.  So next Tuesday I am starting again with my 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd graders.  Maybe the third time is a charm and someone will actually learn something.  Oddly enough, I am really excited.  I missed the school (not so much the teaching), and am looking forward to being there again.  I’ve been feeling very bubbled in lately so I think this is away to pop out and regain some perspective.  By saying that I guess now I have to let you hold me accountable.  

Mateo and I also went to see his ministry center at the Oriental Market.  It has grown a lot since I’ve been here and within the next week he’ll be opening a clinic.  In a few weeks he is going back to the states and I’ll be the on-call tour guide of the market if supporters come down during his absence.  That’s me, great at making up facts on the fly.

Los grupos y mi sello nuevo

I got my stamp.  I know, you’re excited, me too. 

 I’m trying to get the books all labeled quickly because lately it has become increasingly difficult to keep finished and unfinished books separate. You may wonder why.   I’ll tell you.  It’s because there are a lot of people helping lately.  But today I’m going to lay down the law: put things back where you found them, don’t sit on the arms of the chairs, don’t ask me to take your picture, clean up after yourselves and encourage students to do likewise.  You know, basics.  But short-term, it is great having people entertain the kids, and recently there have been a lot of them. 

Vigilancia

Tomorrow I am starting to housesit for Grant and Kandy Ferrer.  They will be gone for a month and have a dog named nappy that they are leaving behind.  They live a housing complex right next to where I live. I think I’ll still be spending a lot of time in my apartment because I don’t want to be bored out of my mind.  Yay for summer. 

Nine things about my life, written, but not posted, Tuesday night

1. I am completely exhausted.  I should go to bed soon, maybe I will.  I am fighting change-in-weather-sickness, yes that is the official name.   Then there is the level of tiredness that comes with exhaustion but is more mental.  Like “I’m sick and tired of…”  Right now those three little dots can be applied to a lot of things.
   
2. I just made muffins because I had two mealy apples that I couldn’t just throw away because apples are expensive.   The muffins are good.
   
3. It has been raining a lot lately and actually cool out most of the time.  Except in the mornings and early afternoons when it is mostly humid.  Yesterday I was tricked into wearing jeans by the massive rain on Sunday.  I finally caught on at 1 when I was walking home from school and all my clothes were sticking to my body.
   
4. This is my last week with domestic arts, they are completing their two final projects.  For one project we broke the class up into three groups and then they had to prepare us a meal outside of class.  It was a great assignment; we got three well-prepared meals.  Thursday is their other final project.  They are throwing a semi-formal banquet for selected classmates and teachers. The food should be good there too but a lot more work overall and I have to dress up.
   
5. I’ve decided to move.  I don’t know when but I do know where.  Three friends just moved into a house with an unused maid’s quarters.  It is a nice size but doesn’t have a closet, I guess maids never change out of their baby blue and white checkered dresses and white aprons.  I still need to work out a solution for that dilemma.
   
6. Living in a maid’s quarters does not necessarily make me the maid.
   
7. I designed a stamp so that we can mark all of our library books as ours.  I ordered it today and get to pick it up tomorrow.  So stay tuned for next week’s update with a picture of that.
   
8. Today I also went to the market and bought 29 plastic boxes to organize our storage cabinets with.  Then, a summer volunteer group came and did the organizing for me.  
9. This same group is coming in all month to do activities with the kids and help the program get established overall.  Right now we are open for two hours, three days a week and it has been (except for today) quite the popular hang out.  Hopefully with this new group we’ll be able to get more structured activities.    
   

Animals, rain and liquid assets

Animals: 

            There are these little beetle/grasshopper things here that sound like helicopters.  I never remember what they are called but for the most part we have a fine relationship.  Last Thursday in the library a kid was sitting down on the mats and pulled some out of his pocket, alive, to show me.  He was really excited but I can’t really encourage that, right.  He then left them in a little hole in the dirt outside of the door.

On Friday morning I was waiting in the library for furniture to get delivered and I had opened the property’s main gate so the delivery truck could pull in.  Finally the truck showed up (I won’t get into how long that took) and as I was directing the men where to put the things, five cows that were grazing on the street decided that the grass was looking greener on the other side.  And but the other side I mean the inside.  So then I found myself chasing cows back out of the gate.  All in the duty of me as a librarian I guess.

Rain:

            On Saturday night the long awaited rain came.  It was paired with no electricity, but there was a lot of lightening so it wasn’t that dark.  Monday morning around 2am the rain came back, I was immensely happy that I didn’t have any thing to do early so I could just lie in my bed listening to the sky pour out all it had been storing for the last five months.  When it is actually raining it is cooler, but the rest of the day is still miserably hot, but things will probably be green soon and green is pretty. 

Liquid Assets:

            On Tuesday I didn’t have time to walk to the library so I decided to take one of these three-wheeled taxi things.  I have a little change purse in my backpack and I know they are cheep so I figured I’d be fine.  I got one right away and told him where I needed to go then counted my change and asked him how much it would be.  He said it would be 30 Cords, since I only had 7 Cords I thanked him and asked him politely to let me off where we were, I could walk the rest of the way.  He was very nice I drove me the whole way.  I was trying to think of what else I could offer him to make up at least part of the difference but although I had my laptop, ipod, digital camera, cell phone, and lunch there wasn’t really anything I could give.  I considered the lunch but I get a little testy if I don’t have food.  I think this story signifies it is time for me to go to the bank.

oh, how i've missed you

So it’s been a little stretch since my last update.  You can deduce that I have a lot to say but right now I am really just thinking about how the power is out.  Since my return in February the power has been on very faithfully (just out a few hours here or there) but I was just informed that today is the start of rationing again.  So we’re on the blackout from 5pm to 10pm, or so it seems.  I’m writing this at 7:45 so I’m right about in the middle.  Normally on Wednesday nights I have Bible study but that was cancelled because of the darkness, all of my roommates had a meeting to go to.  So this power outage is hitting me hard.  On the other hand, this is part of the adventure of being down here.  What is the point of living in the third world if there aren’t any inconveniences.

 There is another energy crisis going on here too, with gasoline/diesel.  This week public transportation (that used by the masses) went on strike demanding the government help subsidize their fuel costs.  Because of the multi-step conversion rate I often over look the fact that fuel is expensive, what does 23 cords a liter really mean? Well cords to dollar is 19 so that takes us to $1.20 a liter and then liter to gallon is 3.79 so that brings us up to 4.59 a gallon.  When I used to get paid I made $95 a month, if fuel was my only cost for the month I would only be able to buy 20 gallons worth.  So yes, the busses and taxis are legitimately distressed. 

But enough on things I don’t understand.  Out of the past five weekends I have been traveling four of them.  This is fun but draining, and leaves me feeling a little disconnected.  I am a homebody, or at least wish I were. 

This past weekend I went to a women’s retreat for the English speaking church here in Managua (ICF).  It went from Friday morning to Sunday afternoon and was a great time of fellowship, and learning, and lying by the pool, and playing speed scrabble, and getting beat up by the waves.  Now I have a nice tan and am better equipped to be a “strong woman of God.” 

One side story, in our folders for the week there was a list of all the names of the women and something quirky or embarrassing about them.  My fact was that I don’t own a comb or brush (no surprise there).  My friend Morgan was also there and she has dread-locks so this lady walked up to her and asked if she was Joy and offered her a comb from the gift table.  Morgan clarified that no that wasn’t her fact, and then pointed me out as the scrub, once she was redirected she gifted me the comb.  Someone else gave me conditioner (another thing I don’t use).

The weekend before that I went with my co-workers Lori and Amanda (and Amanda’s seven-month-old, Samantha) to San Juan del Sur to check out the library system they have.  Our meetings with the founder, Jane, were extremely informative and encouraging.  We were able to see how she has things running and ask a lot of questions about processes she has previously tested.  Also we bought a “library in a box” from her that had lots of stuff like books and registration cards so that I no longer feel as if I’m starting from scratch.  Another good thing on the trip is that we were able to stay at the good hotel both nights, and we got a 20% discount.  The actual beaches in San Juan are not very clean but the hotel is up on a hotel with gorgeous pools overlooking the bay there.  And you know what they say about how things look “from a distance.” 

Now I think my traveling schedule has calmed down and that is exciting and also it is exciting to see progress in my work here.  Today the library was officially opened.  We’re not having our grand opening yet and still have quite a bit of preparation before kids can actually check out books but today was a start.  We wanted kids to get used to the idea of having a educational place to hang out so today I put out books to read at one table, puzzles at another, and coloring books at a third.  It is fun to finally have my job require interaction with others (even though they are dirty kids) and I am looking forward to the library developing more.

The coloring table

Lori reading to some smaller kids

Seeing the kids in action really just reaffirmed to me the need this country has for libraries or places to supplement their educational journey. Wow that came out cheesy.  After a little bit of time a two of the boys that were inside we starting to get bored with the books so I decided to get out a puzzle for them to do.  They were both around ten years old so I brought out a really simple maybe thirty-piece puzzle.  They were completely lost as to what to do.  They didn’t know how to separate out the edges or corners, or to match colors, or even the whole in/out concept.   After about twenty minuets together we got the border put together, I told them to come back tomorrow and we can fill in the middle.  Then there were other boys about six and eight that I gave a wooden board puzzle to, the kind where the design of the puzzle is painted onto the base, even that was taking them a substantial amount of time.  In how many other areas are they lacking from what we consider basic skills?  For now I am going to be open Tuesday-Thursday from 2:30 to 4:30 and we’ll see how to expand later        

And other news...

-One of my friends is moving back to the states tomorrow so today we went to coffee and on a picnic. 

-It has been grossly hot this week so just the six-minute walk to the picnic location left me literally dripping with sweat, or glistening.

-My roommates are thinking of moving, my rent is extremely cheap right now and I can only commit to living with them until December so I don’t really have a say in the matter.  There is a chance that in June I’ll be homeless, but not really because the library is pretty big and has    wi-fi and I semi-own my own bed. 

-I took the plunge and bought a ticket to come to California in July from the 8^th to 24^th.  I am already looking forward to it. 

-It’s 9:14 and the power is back on, why was I complaining.