Dear Old UVA

It was pretty challenging to jump right into college life after two-and-a-half months in Latin America.  There was no time to decompress, and it was hard not to talk about Nicaragua every second of the day.  Actually, sometimes I still find it difficult.  But anyway...I'm a little over one month into my new, unchanging lifestyle, and it's pretty good.  I know that "good" is the most non-descript word in the English language, but that's really how I feel.  Not much color or spice to add to it yet-- I'm just content.

Life is easy, despite the occasional academic stressors.  It's actually very relaxing to be in my own country.  My suite-mates are lovely people--all very different from each other and very different from me, but we have some great times and get along fantastically.  There's a ton of reading that I generally don't want to do, but I do it anyway--I've been pretty good about getting my work done!  My classes are usually really interesting, and I survived my first exam today (read as: exam, quiz, and paper due all in the same 4 hours), concluding my first college Hell Week ever--and, honestly, it wasn't bad.  Not to say I got excellent grades or anything--I really have no idea--but it wasn't too overwhelming, and I think that's because I got pretty intense about time management this summer.

I am also so, so, SO happy to be singing in a choir again!  We have a retreat this weekend and I am ridiculously excited to finally get to know people in the group.  I feel like I haven't really found my "scene" yet, and I have a lot of faith that these people might be it.  I mean, I'm getting into a lot of things and they're fun...but I'm just not totally comfortable anywhere yet.  I tried the LGBT group which was pretty interesting, but I'm not sure.  I also just started working as a volunteer Spanish interpreter at the hospital, which is CRAZY.  I am learning words like tingling and spleen and....bunion.  It's so freaking scary right now because I do need to get more confident with medical Spanish, but I'm sure once I get the hang of things, I'll love it--I'm looking forward to a really awesome experience there.  I'm also a "Sustainability Advocate," meaning I get to preach about recycling and reusable to-go dining hall containers and turning off the lights and stuff without sounding super annoying!  It's the best!  And I joined Circle K, a service group on grounds, which has been pretty awesome for making friends.

On a random note, my "home suite home" is ridiculously far away from everything, and I think that is definitely altering my experience here a bit.  Most first-years can roll out of bed and get to class in ten minutes, but I am one of the lucky few who have to trudge half an hour to central grounds.  It's a little less social, but it's kind of nice to have a suite instead of living in a real "dorm."  It makes me feel a bit more sophisticated, like having a house with roommates instead of living on a crazy hall.

Things are nice.  I'm happy here.  This isn't my home yet, but I'm pretty optimistic!

Adios, Nicaraguita

I definitely failed to update you all on the actual goings-on of the project when I promised…two weeks ago? It should come as no surprise that I have had literally no time to do so between hopping through rural Nicaraguan communities, working virtually non-stop on paperwork, herding people around tourist cities, formally putting things to an end, and just generally being busier than I ever have in my entire life. But I am pretty darn content about it.

The responsibilities that came with this job have challenged me and excited me from the beginning, but something about the end of the summer—filling out evaluation after evaluation, witnessing the drive that my volunteers put forth in the last week of the project, planning debriefing, the typical dramas of Staff House intensified, seeing all of my volunteers together again—simultaneously weighed down on my shoulders like a ton of bricks and left me feeling invincible, and like a proud and influential mother. As I assessed my volunteers’ and superiors’ performance this summer and came up with feedback on how each of them could grow as leaders, I really felt like a professional for the first time: busy, authoritative, constructive, influential. It was such a blissful thing to watch all of my volunteers finish up their projects, reflect on their summers and feel so genuinely proud of what they had accomplished, no matter how difficult it had been for some of them at times.

Pictures of cool stuff that happened in communities recently:

Volunteers and community members in La India with a trash can they made this summer!

Baby Camilo Harrington Garcia Masis, named after two of my volunteers.  Most awesome thing ever.

With dozens of hours of educational activities completed, gardens planted, bricks laid, fences in the ground, memories made, lessons learned, my volunteers left their communities after a jam-packed summer, excited to get home to share their experiences with everyone they know, but also teary-eyed and feeling alone. Even my emotions were intense as I empathized so much with parting volunteers and host families and relived a bit of my own experience in Paraguay. But after a short goodbye party complete with 150 Nicaraguans of all ages, a Latino-style talent show, tacos, and cinnamon-roll hugs, all 70 volunteers and staff crammed into a single bus and rode off to Granada, mostly cheerful, for a day of debriefing and some lovely times in the city. (Minus the part where we all boarded the bus again at 2 am two days later to get to the airport, only to discover that the volunteers’ flight had been delayed three hours and that almost everyone would be missing their connecting flights. That sucked! But…the unexpected is to be expected on an AMIGOS summer, right??)

The next day, supervisors went back on route to do our final community close-outs and evaluations of the projects with community members (in my case, that meant waking up in the dark for the second day in a row, at 5 am, to catch a 6 o’clock bus…after sleeping for only 6 hours between the two nights prior). Strangely, I was totally nervous about closing the projects out; I was supposed to organize meetings in all four of my communities with as many people as possible to get an idea of what went well, what didn’t, and what could be improved upon. And—welcome to Latin America—the largest meeting I was able to get together consisted of 15 people, despite frequent reminders and PRINTED invitations made by a local youth counterpart. In two communities, I ended up having to go door-to-door to get information because 3 people or fewer showed up to my planned meeting. Normally in this kind of situation, I would be bothered. I would be really disappointed in myself for not being able to stick to my plan, for not preparing well enough. But in one way or another, I got the information I needed, and I just had to accept the fact that I’ll have to figure something else out for next time. That is fine. Being unsuccessful is okay—who knew?!

Last moments with Denis and Yunior, two fantastic youth counterparts in the community of El Jocote, after my only slightly successful participatory evaluation.

After those two long days in communities, on the 12th, we all returned to Staff House to finish all of our remaining paperwork and get everything ready to be officially done.  By 3 pm on the 13th, we were completely paperwork free and had the entire house emptied; we squished our 9-person staff team and 18 backpacks/pieces of luggage into a small jeep and hit the road! Destination: Laguna de Apoyo, where our staff spent the next two days lounging in the beautiful lagoon, napping to make up for all of that lost sleep, surfing around OKCupid, and intentionally violating a large majority of the Standards of Conduct that we were required to abide by as AMIGOS workers. A ridiculously interesting way to close out the project and the summer, to say the least.

Currently, Seth and I are thousands of feet in the air somewhere between Managua and Atlanta, Georgia. This is the first time I’ve been in transit home this year and thought that I’d be happier staying where I was. It’s sad, having to leave so many people and things that I have grown to love so, so much. It makes me feel empty. But it’s also kind of a nice feeling, being absolutely certain that the past two months were worth it.

It was hard for me to hear that most of my fellow staff members—and even many volunteers—were so excited to see such a stressful summer come to an end. I can’t say I loved having to use a maggot-infested latrine in the pitch black of night, sitting in front of computer for a consecutive 12+ hours doing paperwork on a handful of occasions, having to deal firsthand with the gender inequalities in this country, or experiencing a lot of the difficult feelings that come from working so closely with the same group of people for so long. But I am leaving this experience a more responsible decision-maker, a more effective communicator, a better team-worker, a better leader, and a more confident person. And I never, ever could have foreseen the affection and warmth I felt these past two months. I have laughed and smiled so much and been taught more than I could ever imagine, and am leaving Nicaragua thirsty for more adventure, knowledge and love.

A year ago today was my first full day in Ecuador. I start college in two days. Life is so quick.

Birthday Week! (A Belated Entry)

I am pretty disappointed in myself for not having posted last week, after the most incredible and legitimate BIRTHDAY WEEK of my life! It's been crazy busy here, as always, which leaves very little time for social media ;).

Starting from where I left off, last week's theme was definitely love and appreciation...and cake. I visited my four different communities and was showered with surprise birthday festivities in all of them.

On Tuesday, I was totally surprised by a birthday cake/dance party in El Jocote with Josh, Brandon, Yunior, Denis, and other community members. They were super sneaky--despite various obvious hints they gave my by accident, I didn't notice a thing!

On Wednesday, something similar occured in La Lagunita with Sara, Lynn, and our friends in the community-- despite having already been surprised, I was not expecting a second celebration. It was just as awesome!! We danced in Sara's host family's fiesta attire.

On Thursday, the night before my birthday, I spent the night in Agua Fria with Camille, Brenna, and Kenzie. They had been scheming with our friend, Nora, and she woke us up at 5 in the morning to the loudest, cheesiest Latin American birthday music imaginable. (Blast this at the highest level through your speakers and you'll probably get about half the sound we experienced that morning...!) We crawled back in bed to savor our final moments before the sun came up, and Nora got us out of bed again at 6:15 for a "birthday surprise!" So, at the buttcrack of dawn on July 29th, we each cut ourselves a thick slice of Nica-cake and happily consumed it for Birthday Breakfast.

Later that night, I was surprised in an entirely different way when my volunteers poured talcum powder all over by body, apparently a Nicaraguan birthday tradition (I felt lucky though--it was better than raw egg, in my opinion, which I have seen done for birthdays here!). So...that happened...and then I took a lovely bucket shower in the dark.

When I came back to staff house on Saturday, we had an awesome taco dinner, another cake (not complaining ;) ) and an awesome piñata-- with UVA colors!!

In conclusion, I don't know if I have ever felt so loved. Most exciting and eventful birthday week ever! And...I swear I will update with more legitimate project-related stuff tomorrow--there's lots of it!

Growth and Progress

The past two weeks have been nothing less than a whirlwind. Time has passed so ridiculously quickly here; moving between communities daily and then just starting the process all over again each Tuesday makes weeks feel like days and days feel like hours. Last week especially, the flying time meant feeling rushed, overwhelmed, not thorough, and often at fault, both at staff house and with my volunteers. This week, lessons learned, it meant excitement, productivity, making confident decisions, feeling pressure to succeed, and pushing my volunteers and communities to do the same.

Rewinding to where we left off: I started Week 2 a bit of a mess, if I do say so myself. Some unfinished business at staff house left me a bit preoccupied when I went out into my communities. A phone call from Senior Staff in the middle of the week made me (pretty irrationally) feel like I wasn't being trusted to do my job. For some reason, I was being asked a lot of questions that I felt like I didn't have good answers for, which stressed me out on top of thinking about these other things that were also out of my control. The whole time, I was on edge, thinking that at any moment I could make a really terrible decision and get myself or volunteers in trouble. I was under the impression, after leaving for route on uncomfortable terms with a few staff members and after having received the phone call in the middle of the week (that seemed like a big deal in the moment, but really wasn't), that I had a lot of explaining to do when I got back to staff house. The stakes of my job and the responsibility that I have this summer really hit me hard; unlike any other time prior this summer, I had a moment of panic when I remembered just how many people are depending on me to make smart choices.

I got homesick for the first time; my life would be stress-free right now if I just hadn't done this, I thought. I needed someone to tell me I was doing a good job, that my feelings were valid, that I had made the right decisions, even if it wasn't true. When I got back to staff house, I couldn't figure out how to start talking to people about my emotions, so I just didn't for a while, and people noticed. Others in the house were angry at for some of the same reasons I was, and I was feeding off of them.

While being coaxed to discuss issues with my directors, I had a realization: I was not handling my discomfort and stress well. I was too nervous to talk about it because I didn't want anyone angry and I really didn't want my problems to be deemed ridiculous. But something that has been stressed a lot this summer, obviously, is giving and receiving feedback in a healthy and constructive way, so I decided to challenge myself to be open. It took me a while, but while half the staff was still up brooding at midnight on the first night home last weekend, I sat down with my Project Director and tried to tell her everything that was on my mind. I was nervous to hear what she had to say, and I was also worried about the reaction I would get when I gave her the feedback that I felt was necessary for me to feel supported. But it felt great to be honest, and she seriously took what I had to say into account. It showed throughout the weekend, too, as personal issues between staff members were resolved quickly after. In addition, throughout the weekend I was pushed--in a good way--to make decisions confidently and to take things into my own hands without a second thought. "Why should I be doing this?" turned into "Why SHOULDN'T I be doing this?!" basically overnight.

That weekend, I organized with my communities the ordering, pick-up and transportation of project materials to their respective work areas. I went with community leaders to hardware stores and troubleshooted issues that arose with money, missing construction supplies, and other random hiccups that honestly seem much bigger than any 18-year-old American should really have the privilege of dealing with. Throughout the process, I was really appreciative of the brainstorming I could do with my Project Director-- she made it so clear that I was capable of doing everything I needed to do and that she could support me without making decisions for me. She trusted me to do all of this, and while I imagine that was true from the beginning, it was really clear to me all of the sudden. Because she made a point to show that she was confident in me and support me in problem-solving when I needed it, I left for Week 3 refreshed and ready to do my job better than ever.

Just between this week and last, I feel myself growing. I am so much more comfortable giving people feedback and communicating openly. I obviously still feel a great deal of responsibility weighing on my shoulders, but I don't feel like I'm being watched or like I have to explain every move I make. I am trusted to do what is best because I know the communities, I know my volunteers, and I AM qualified to be asserting myself.

This week was lovely. Almost all project materials were taken care of, but of course not without issues arising here and there. But I was able to avoid thinking "if _______ hadn't happened, then I wouldn't have to go out of my way to _______," and rather just considered each extra errand I had to run as part of the process. It felt good not to be bogged down by silly things that don't matter; I am learning to be more flexible. I have a lot to improve upon this summer still, and I am excited to actively solicit feedback and push myself to be a better teammate and leader for the rest of my time here.

I am so happy, and it feels so great.

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EDIT: Here's a map of the AMIGOS work area this summer! Staff lives in Matagalpa-- the communities I visit are El Jocote, Lagunita, Agua Fria and Santa Cruz de la India.

Route Week 1: Done!

For me, this week marked the REAL beginning of the summer, what I came to do here, what I'll remember when I leave. For the first time, I traveled to each of my communities and actually saw volunteers in action, gave them feedback and suggestions, dealt with their diarrhea and homesickness (I can now discuss my and others' bowel movements/other bodily functions with the same comfort and ease that I talk about what I had for dinner last night. And, don't worry, everyone is alive and well!), and was able to really start connecting with volunteers and community members. This week, I think, was even more empowering than survey.

Things that made my heart leap with joy this week:

1. Sleeping in my exceedingly awkward "portable bedroom" in random people's houses.  This is one of my least intrusive and uncomfortable set-ups of the week.  I wish I had gotten pictures of them all!

2. Seeing volunteers with their host families and partners and knowing that they are--or soon will be--closer than they ever imagined.

3. Everyone--volunteers and kids--getting SO excited about educational activities and games.  Also, volunteers working healthily together and stepping out of their comfort zones.

Of course, there are some lows: taking sick volunteers to the clinic, chasing people around to collect things and get work done, having to take responsibility for so many things, being expected to know the answers almost all the time, living out of a camping backpack (surprisingly stressful) and generally being unsure-- I'm still so new at this and every day scares me a little. But I actually think that's good (which goes without saying). And nothing can compare to the feeling of arriving in each community and being greeted with the most ginormous smiles and hugs from volunteers and community members alike who are genuinely overjoyed to see me. I love the work and I love my volunteers and I love (almost) everyone else. ;)

Today will be errands, errands, errands. Sending mail, buying volunteers' forgotten items, meeting with staff and partner agency, exchanging money at the bank, other little things. And tomorrow, we'll be off again to begin Week 2!

Quick, Warm, Fuzzy Update

Our 59 volunteers (including three nationals) arrived on June 28th to begin a 2-day briefing on the 29th. We were so thrilled to finally welcome the volunteers to Nicaragua, and were teeming with energy at the airport as we got as close to the glass customs doors as possible waiting for everyone to arrive. Briefing itself had its ups and downs; as fantastic and as close as our Project Staff is, the whole week was high-stress and things certainly got more tense than we would have liked at times. Personally, I really surprised myself by how confident I felt as I facilitated activities, and how effective my training and advice really were. It's only the very beginning, and I can already feel myself growing as a person. It's lovely.

Since January, I've known that I'd be in Matagalpa at this time, and I knew that I'd be assigned some communities and have a route and have volunteers to train and support. But everything was just hypothetical--I was learning to lead a dozen blank faces and a group of rural locations that were fabricated by my imagination. Two days ago, as the Project Staff pieced together partnerships and community placements in one long, tense, nearly-all-nighter, those empty spaces in the picture were filled--and I am literally overjoyed. The nine volunteers I'll be overseeing this summer are some of the most insightful, articulate, thoughtful, capable and energetic people I've met in a long time, especially of their age. I really admire each one of them. I think they really do respect and look up to me as their supervisor, too, which will make for some fantastic work and healthy relationships.

My route (The Velawesomeraptors...!) and youth counterparts from all of their communities!

And to boot: we're getting a new supervisor tomorrow afternoon!! Meaning all of these extra responsibilities that many of us thought we'd have to take on this summer will be lifted off our shoulders. It is encouraging to think that at this exact time last week, I--well, all of us--were essentially panicking; right now, I, at least, couldn't be a single bit happier. I am looking forward to a (hopefully) relatively smooth summer of bragging about what awesome stuff my incredible vols are doing in their communities!

My Life is Crazy.

For the past four days, I have spent hours asking favors and questions of complete strangers, many of whom have families and lives and for no explicable reason should be conversing with some 18-year-old foreigner like a peer or coworker. I invited myself into people's communities and homes, asking them to feed me three meals a day and bathing myself with their bucket water. I wouldn't have trusted me if I were any of the people whose houses I slept in this week!

Words I have thought of to describe survey: long, nerve-wracking, empowering, emotional, exhilarating. I can't quite find a word or emotion to describe the being shoved off a bus in an area you've never visited, slinging your backpack, sleeping bag and cot over your shoulder and blindly searching for one or two people in a 300-family community that may or may not actually know you're coming. To spend the night in their house. I always found what I was looking for within a few minutes, insanely enough.

Also worth noting: I get to hang out in awesome communities this summer. They are all so different and interesting and stunningly beautiful.

After a week of cold bucket showers and beans & rice three meals a day and the ten thousand bugs swarming around inside my mosquito net and holding the latrine door shut while simultaneously trying to wipe myself and not let my butt touch the toilet seat in the pitch black of night (rarely a success, FYI), I was ready to come home on Friday afternoon to exchange stories with the rest of staff, relax a bit, and rejuvenate for the coming weeks. But, since my return, shit has hit the fan, as they say. Unexpected complications have led to a lot of extra work--I'll be overseeing five communities this summer and up to 12 volunteers rather than the anticipated 9. Between Friday and yesterday, I spent 15+ hours on the computer typing up all of the information I collected on survey and translating it into Spanish. Tonight, I have to go back to one of the communities I visited last week and spend the night again because I found a bat in the room I slept in which deems it unacceptable for volunteer housing. In addition, all of the 2-day volunteer training has to be planned today. It's so strange to be completing assignments and meeting deadlines and stressing out over things, but I'm pretty much okay with it. We're all supporting each other and keeping each other calm (well, everyone else is keeping me calm-- I don't know how much I'm doing for them!) and we always find time to cook together and tell crazy stories and laugh a LOT. :)

So they say it only gets easier from here. I can only hope it's true! I'm super lucky and glad to have such a fantastic and energetic group of coworkers, and I can't wait until the volunteers get here on June 28th-- when the summer REALLY starts!!

And Now...The Real Deal!!

After one more day in Leon, which three of the five of us spent lazing around the hostel and hovering over the toilet, we bussed to Selva Negra, a beautiful rainforest preserve and coffee plantation near Matagalpa, for one final, relaxed evening before beginning work in Matagalpa on Thursday. We splurged on this place and had our own room in their Youth Hostel, which was super classy compared to our other experiences that week.

The weather was much cooler and more pleasant than it had been in any other city. We decided we had to be outside, and took a short hike through the gorgeous cloud rainforest preserve. I was thinking we wouldn’t see much wildlife—it was late in the day, and why would these animals approach humans on their own volition? But I was totally wrong: the second we stepped onto the trail, we heard the monstrous sound of the howler monkey! A crew of them stared down at us and scrambled through the trees right above our heads. A pretty promising omen for the rest of our hike, I thought!

We walked through the jungle, talking, taking pictures, and stopping occasionally just so soak it all in. It was pretty freakin’ great to finally be out of the hot, humid cities. We decided to take a break, and sat down on some rocks in a small clearing. I decided to try to mimic the howler monkey sound, and in doing so, I joked that I would lure them in. As the others tried to suppress their laughter, I gave their deep, throaty growl my best shot as loud as I could. I must have been pretty spot on, because when the giggles subsided, we sat in silence for less than a minute before we heard rustling in the trees!! We saw one…then two…then THREE monkeys less than 100 feet above us. Trying to stay as silent as possible (or not let our excitement and disbelief overcome us and scare them away), we documented this ridiculous event on our cameras before they spotted us and hurried off. So, basically, you may now refer to me as The Monkey Summoner.

After a calm and relaxing Wednesday night, we finally made it to our beautiful staff house on Thursday (after Seth and I bussed two hours to Managua and back to pick up Megan, the last supervisor to arrive!) to start work with AMIGOS! The senior staff actually had to find a place for us that morning (!!!) because of some safety issues they’d had near the original house, so it was all of our first nights here yesterday. It.is.AWESOME: very spacious, super comfortable, seems extremely safe. Some of us have to sleep on cots, but I couldn’t care less. It is just SO fantastic to finally be here with everyone…and to UNPACK!!!!

We’ve been training all of yesterday and today, doing activities ranging from how to manage the AMIGOS budget to scavenger hunts around the city to how to work together effectively as a team. We met with our partner agency, CARE Nicaragua, this afternoon, and they are so enthusiastic and friendly and lovely. We were also assigned a “route” (AMIGOS lingo—you’ll learn many of these special terms throughout the course of the summer) of communities whose projects and volunteers we will be overseeing! Each supervisor has four communities; mine are about 45 minutes to an hour outside of the city by bus, I’m told. There is a Peace Corps volunteer working on community gardens in one of my communities, so that should be really interesting, although I’m not sure what to expect. Another one of my communities is completely new—an AMIGOS representative has never even set foot there, so I may or may not be surprising them when I should up for what AMIGOS calls “survey” (spending one night in each community, gathering information, meeting people, finding host families, emergency contacts, etc.) next week. Basically, this experience means talking to strangers in Spanish, eating their food and sleeping in their houses for five days. :)

We are all SO pumped and energy in the house is tangible. I am anxious and nervous for the next two months, but nothing could possibly compare to how completely THRILLED I am to be a part of AMIGOS in Matagalpa this summer!!!

The Most Incredible Activity on Earth

In the past four nights, I have stayed in three different dorm-style hostels with terrible air circulation, sweat more than a horse does in a week, downed 3-4 Nalgenes of water a day and STILL peed ten times less than I do at home, and eaten more weird, salty cheese and gallo pinto than I care to think about all at once (although, I have to admit, I am a rice n' beans fanatic). Yesterday, I went to take a shower, found that there was nothing but freezing cold water and actually thought, "thank GOODNESS." No matter how many of these factors of my week may sound uncomfortable or not ideal, you can't beat $2 meals, the vibrant Latin American buildings and markets, meeting travelers from countless countries...or VOLCANO BOARDING?!?!?

After a SERIOUS, rocky and windy hike up the side of Cerro Negro--the most active of its kind (erupted in 1992, 1995 and 1999)--with "surfboard" in hand blowing us this way and that, we wiggled on our bright orange bodysuits and green goggles, a bit prematurely to protect us from the swarm of bees (?!?).  After exploring a bit, seeing the volcano's crater, and taking in the picture perfect views of the countryside from every angle, we grabbed our boards and, in turn, became extremely intimate with Nicaraguan volcanic rock.  I thought I'd be completely flipping out right before my descent, but I just did it and it was fantastic and I couldn't have been happier to have sand and tiny rocks in my hair, bra, underwear, throat, etc. for several hours after the fact.  I know this video makes it appear a bit anti-clamactic, but it was so.freaking.amazing.

Everyone in the world needs to come to Leon and board down a volcano.

Granada Adventures

Doug, Seth, Brittini and I arrived in Granada, Nicaragua yesterday...we're made our own chocolate yesterday from Nicaraguan cacao beans last night, explored the gorgeous colonial city today, and are about to leave for a boat tour of the famous isletas of Lake Nicaragua. Here are some brief highlights of our time so far!

The four of us at the top of La Merced church/"best view of the city"--with the cathedral behind us. I have SERIOUSLY been spoiled by unbelievable views this year.

We also walked through the bustling (and seemingly endless) Municipal Market. We came across everything from fresh produce and spices to raw fish to exploded batteries to shirts and shoes; funny rotten smells and puddles of dirty rainwater aside, it was a gorgeous display. In our humble opinions, this was the most beautiful stand of them all:

Our handmade chocolate bars, which we left to harden last night but were able to pick up and wrap to take home today!

So, things are great. We've been eating boatloads of beans & rice (called gallo pinto), probably the most typical Nicaraguan fare. And I have become totally hooked on a tiny jungle fruit called mamones. Other than feeding new addictions and sweating a gallon of water every hour, Nicaragua NicaROCKS!

The Final Chapter: Nicaragua: First Impressions

I (along with my friends/fellow supervisors, Seth and Doug) have arrived safely in Managua, Nicaragua, after waking up at the equivalent of 2:30 am Nicaraguan time-- or, in Doug's case, flying through the night! We found ourselves in the scorching hot at humid capital city, immediately charged 20 US dollars (!!!!!!!) to get a cab from the airport to our hostel. Thank goodness we're only crashing here one night, because we were over this city after the first hour. I have to admit, we didn't really give Managua a chance since none of us were running on very much sleep...but the first place we found ourselves after stopping by our hostel was a ginormous mall, complete with American "FOOD COURT," as we searched frantically for a bank to convert currency or ATM to withdraw it. Once we had money sorted out, we proceeded to the least sketchy food source we could find: a hole-in-the-wall comedor that served heaping plates of beans, rice, plantains, and various meats sitting behind glass panels, which they so generously microwaved to order. It was only 40 Nicaraguan córdobas--or $2--per plate, though, and it really wasn't the worst first Nicaraguan meal we could have had! We sat in the unlit, pretty literal hole in the wall for an hour after we finished eating at least, feeling sticky with sweat, unable to face the heat of Managua, but still so happy to be where we were and full of uncontainable excitement.

The three of us are having a fantastic time...even while doing nothing, which is pretty much what we did today. Tomorrow we will greet another friend coming in from Atlanta and go straight to Granada, an allegedly lovely colonial city, where we will see some gorgeous architecture and maybe go on a boat tour of the famous islets in Lake Nicaragua. From there, we're on to León (at which time another fellow supervisor will join us) to go VOLCANO BOARDING!!! Finally, we'll head to the youth hostel at Selva Negra, a famous Nicaraguan hotspot for coffee, birdwatching and hiking, for a relaxing two days before things get crazy at our work site, Matagalpa! Should be a fantastic week-- except I realized today how ridiculously hard it's going to be to pack and re-pack my camping backpacks every time we move. Also, I forgot a LOT of things (including but not limited to: a hairbrush, flashlight, first aid kit, and razor). Regardless, we should be in for a super awesome week of travel!! But, honestly, I just can't wait to start working!!!

Getting Ready-- Again

So here I am at Kitchen Counter, House, Arlington, Virginia, USA, a little over two weeks into my visit home with only six days to go! Since being here, I have spent many of my evenings at Lost Dog, trying to get a little money (read as: minuscule amount) in my bank account since I don't anticipate having a job again until winter break. My mom and uncle and I have decided to get some of our backyard ready for vegetable planting (!!!), so we've been working on that a bit and--in theory--will have some spinach, green onion and cucumber seeds in the ground in the next few days (and hopefully something will actually grow even though it's a little late in the planting season...). Aside from this, I have been doing a lot more sitting around than I am really comfortable with. But that will certainly change beginning June 9th when I leave for Nicaragua, so I'm trying to accept/embrace it!

What I really should be doing instead of nothing is packing everything I own and putting it in one of two places: my backpack that will accompany me to Nicaragua, or my suitcase(s) that will accompany me to college. On August 17th, about 36 hours after I return home from Latin America. I am not going to lie about how extremely and surprisingly overwhelming this packing extravaganza is. I'm not in the college mindset yet-- there's a foreign country standing between me and it! But I know I'll be hating my life on August 16th if I don't have everything completely ready before next week...so I have to find some way to make that happen. My college pile is full of these crazy odds and ends that I'm hoping will eventually evolve into a group of belongings that actually make sense (Utensils? A mirror? Post-it notes? A small table fan?).

Everything will come together soon! And there's a lot to look forward to!

Weekly Goings-On...and Wrapping Up!

It is hard for me to believe that Andrew and I are in our final days at Foxhollow. I haven't been too good about blogging since I've been here and apologize for sometimes failing to keep everyone in the loop-- it might seem like not much has been going on! But that just goes to show you how little free time I've had-- and it's not even the busy season here yet!

On Saturday, I sold veggies at a Farmer's Market in Louisville...and rediscovered my completely inexplicable love for retail. I really like being nice to strangers and selling people things; it's pretty fun to make money. Not for myself, you know, but just in general, it is pretty darn satisfying.

(photo by Avi Hitchens)

This week has been so sunny (and HOT) and therefore lovely--what a drastic change from the first three weeks! We've been busy planting LOTS of crops including chard, lettuce, leeks, beans, tomatoes, peppers and melons. Some (slightly crazier) biodynamic farmers believe that holding seeds in your mouth before you plant them gets them in-tune to your specific nutritional needs...so my friend Mai and I tried it out this week! Spitting green bean seeds into dry furrows was definitely one of the highlights of my week, even if I possibly consumed more dirt than food that day ;). Lucy (a new volunteer-- from Scotland!) and I also used shoes as seed receptacles for a little while...trying to be resourceful...you know.

(photo by Mai Nguyen)

This weekend, Foxhollow with have representation at THREE different Farmer's Markets which meant a ridiculous amount of harvesting this week (over 40 pounds of lettuce, 20 pounds of spinach, tons of green onions, radishes, and other various goodies all in one day). They just installed an old-fashioned washing machine in the veggie shack which we use to dry large amounts of greens all at once after we wash them-- it works incredibly well and saves loads of time!

(photo by Lucy Clark)

Yesterday evening, a bunch of us tried out an old-fashioned tobacco planter on our tomatoes. After a few unsuccessful trials, we finally gave up...which meant spending all day today transplanting veggies by hand. We raced each other as we planted down the line to keep ourselves motivated! (I get really excited in that video...don't judge me.) This field was totally empty at 7:30 am this morning.

(photo by Lucy Clark)

I'm not sure how to even begin putting into words all that I've learned here: I have so many new skills pertaining to farming, of course, but also to working in groups, dealing with setbacks, and keeping myself grounded and healthy. I'm really hoping to somehow find a way to put my farming skills to use in the future, but I am taking away so much more than just that. The opportunity I was given this month to really challenge myself both mentally and physically was invigorating. I am stronger in both regards. We have met some seriously fabulous people here who have helped me grow so much, and it will be really difficult to say goodbye on Sunday.

Basically...I will miss this.

Farm Fotos!

I haven't had much time to take pictures here yet--it rains SO often and we're always pretty hard at work--but here's some of the Foxhollow I've captured so far:

The first Farmer's Market of the season was last Saturday! We harvested like crazy getting ready.
Here are interns Mai and Lou washing and bagging greens.

And some lovely Foxhollow carrots!

A super rainy Monday paired with an enormous amount of Chinese cabbage meant an ENTIRE work day of making Kimchi (Korean sauerkraut-- yeah, we do a lot of fermentation here...)!

(Mai and Lou again...clearly they work hard.)

Before squeezing all the juices out and putting it all in mason jars to ferment.

This is the veggie shack-- Andrew and I live in the loft! And outside dwell the 100+ young chickens, ready to lay eggs in a few months. They are the Market Garden's babies.

And...shallots! I planted many of these, and they're GROWING!!! I have rarely ever felt quite this proud or satisfied. (Some of the seeds we plant are SO tiny! And then they grow into these ginormous sustenance-providing life forms.) How beautiful the mystery of plant growth is.

I really do have something to write about...soon. But Andrew is bored and wants donuts, and I must appease him since it's Friday night. Tomorrow morning is Farmer's Market for me (I proved myself worthy at our "mock market" on Thursday on the side of the road-- using two bunches of green onions as pom-poms for four hours did attract a little positive attention to our stand...)!

I leave you to ponder this until next time:

Happy Energy

Hi everyone (or no one-- I have absolutely no idea who reads my blog at this point)! You may have noticed that it's been quite some time since my last update, but that is mainly because here at Foxhollow I am almost always either working, eating, or sleeping.

Obviously, we're still working hard. It's rained almost every day and we've survived two tornado warnings, but there are always things to do in the greenhouse or fields. We plant, harvest, weed, water, build (woohoo power tools!) and lots of other weird jobs. Sometimes I feel a little unappreciated, to be perfectly honest, and work gets tedious, but I am still having a fantastic time and learning new farmer skills every day.

In addition to being totally organic, Foxhollow uses a farming technique called biodynamics for their produce, developed by a man named Rudolf Steiner. From what I understand, it basically revolves around the cosmos, and different types of plants grow better if they are planted on certain days in the year. For example, yesterday and today were flower days according to the official Biodynamic Calendar (which is based on the phases of the moon...I think), and tomorrow is a leaf day. Foxhollow also soaks their seeds and spray their gardens with "biodynamic preps" made of natural herbs and minerals to help plants grow better. They are really big on the idea that attitude and atmosphere affect the way a plant grows (meditation and mental well being are a pretty prominent aspect of the Foxhollow experience for a lot of people), and that biodynamic practices bring what they call "life force energy" into food. Some people say they can taste the energy and even see the energy in the seeds-- like an aura.

I don't know how much of Steiner's stuff I really believe. Andrew and I definitely haven't ruled out the idea that plants are influenced by the moon, but neither of us are really sure about the rest. Obviously, there's a lot to know and we're both just beginning to learn about it. Regardless of what I believe, though, it has been really incredible for me to get a little more in touch with my spiritual side here on the farm. It was probably the last thing I expected to happen, but I love our meditation classes so much and for the first time in my life, I think, I feel like I am really opening my mind to the connections between living things of all kinds and my mental and physical well being, as well as my ability to control my own state of mind. I don't really know how to explain it yet (and, like all of this biodynamics stuff, I'm not quite sure what I do and don't believe), but I feel something really good and healthy coming from all of this. I am really trying to focus on positive and peaceful energy inside and and out. (I am pretty excited to be able to transfer whatever skills and ideas I hopefully gain from all of this into my hectic future college life :).)

So we'll see. Whatever these crazy mental meditation games are, they feel healthy to me. I'm not sure that saying "good luck, little baby" to a seed and kissing it before placing in into the ground is going to make it grow any better (yesssss, many of us are guilty of this), but I do think all of our combined happy energy might have an impact. And maybe "life force energy" is a part of the circle of life just as much as plants' and animals' physical beings are. Even if it's not true, I like the idea.

Our First Days of Farm Life

Foxhollow Farm! It is absolutely nothing like we expected, but I'm having a fantastic time being worked to the point of constant muscle ache and hanging out with organic-loving hippies. Although it was pouring down rain our first two days here and our time here got off to a little bit of an awkward start with food and sleeping arrangements, things are great and we're gearing up for an awesome month of farm life. It feels so good to be outside and active every day (now that it doesn't rain 24/7)!

Andrew and I are pretty much exclusively working in Foxhollow's Market Garden, which produces a gazillion different kinds of vegetables. We planted 1,000 pounds of potatoes yesterday (which will yield 5,000 pounds of produce) and about a billion onion and parsley plants today. On the one hand, being here at this time of year is awesome because there is so much to be done-- on the other hand, there are only a few crops that are ready to eat! (But people try everything. At our bonfire-potluck on Saturday night, one girl brought tiny flank steak bites topped with VIOLETS! And one of the interns casually consumed a live worm while we were transplanting onions this morning.) Still, we are often rewarded with fantastically tenter asparagus as well as loads of spinach and lettuce and other greeeeeeens from the garden.

I haven't taken many pictures yet, but here are a few to keep you entertained and informed for the time being.

Andrew and my humble abode for the month:

And on Sunday, one of the interns taught me how to make sauerkraut (it's made with collards from the garden instead of cabbage...but it was all going to waste! I think it will turn out great anyway...it will have fermented for juuuust long enough when Andrew and I get ready to leave for Arlington). Here's Lou

We started with three buckets of chopped collards and, after a few hours of pressing and twisting, ended up with half a bucket of sauerkraut!

Lou, the sauerkraut expert :

My bucket:

All the sauerkraut we made! Now we wait for it to ferment--you can leave it for 1-6 months.

In short: living on a farm. Keeping busy, sweaty, and SO tired. Learning lots of stuff! Being outside! As different as it is from what Andrew and I were anticipating, it will definitely be a valuable experience for both of us :).

On the Road Again :)

Yesterday morning, Andrew and I left for our 2.5-day road trip to Crestwood, Kentucky. I can't say we've done anything too impressive yet, but it's definitely been an eventful (and roundabout, and unpredictable) journey.

We departed Arlington mid-morning, headed to a campsite run by the park service about 10 miles outside of Neola, West Virginia. After this town, the campground, the nearby lake, and all other identifying terms we had for this place were deemed nonexistent by the GPS, we finally put in some other random city on the VA/WV border, just so we'd get to the general area without any problems.

It took about 4 1/2 hours to get where we thought we wanted to be...and after a little confusion we finally figured out how to get to Neola with the help of another amazing modern tool, Andrew's iPhone (but honestly, I'm glad we had a paper map for this adventure too...it's been an invaluable guide). We followed a relatively tiny state route, tailgating a school bus the entire time and people watching all the way. We were pretty relieved when we finally started seeing signs for our campsite, and followed a seemingly endless windy road to get there. We thought we had passed it a few times and thought about turning back...and BAM! "Welcome to Sherwood Lake! BEGIN VIEWING WILDLIFE." I was actually cheering. We turned the bend...and immediately came to this:

So that was Unbelievable Obstacle #1 of the day...no one seemed to be worried about it and there was obviously nothing we could do (and Andrew confessed that he had little to no interest in camping anyway). So we decided to keep driving. I think this was the first time in my whole life that I thought about sleep that night and didn't know which city (or even state) I'd have a bed in. After running off an ending road into a dirt trail at 45 mph (Unbelievable Obstacle #2--there were no signs, mind you), and becoming stranded when we found dead end after dead end in our least favorite city in the country, Beckley, WV, we finally stopped in Charleston to eat dinner and find a hotel for the night. Neither Andrew nor I had ever just walked into a hotel (in the US) and asked for a room, but no one seemed to think too much of it and we found a room with no trouble at all. Although we were kept up pretty late by an endless battle between a hotel party and security staff right across the hall. West Virginia is "wild and wonderful" even on Wednesday nights!

So we're about to begin Day 2, Destination: Lexington! At this point, we're ready to get out of this state. On that note:

Calling All Amigos!

Today, I am off to Houston, Texas for a 3-day training session to prepare for this summer, which I will be spending in Matagalpa, Nicaragua with Amigos de las Americas! I will be supervising high school students as they facilitate public health projects in various communities in the area. I am ecstatic to be working with AMIGOS again.

While fundraising for this endeavor is not really required, I feel that I owe SO much to this organization and plan to give it a try. (PLEASE don't cringe and close the page just yet!)

I know that everyone has a cause that is special to them and the whole world is looking for support. I also know that many of you--mostly my high school and college friends--might not even have a job, but just $5 from ten friends would make an incredible impact. I know there are many people who have very little to spare, and I deeply respect that. But many of us are incredibly lucky-- luckier than we realize!

On my donation page, I've written about my experiences in Paraguay in 2009 with this organization. In addition to doing great work in Latin America, I can safely say that my life will never be the same because of AMIGOS. I hope that each of you who is able considers a donation. Small numbers add up to big ones!

YOU are awesome!

(Please click on one of these links!)

Caitlin loves you!

From the bottom of my heart, thank you!

Kribi, etc.

Feeling a bit crispy after a sunny and seafood-y weekend in Kribi, on the coast of Cameroon.

Saying goodbyes at school in the morning and beginning the long trek home tomorrow night! With that, Chapter 2 comes to a close. A bientôt, Africa!

Une Bonne Fête

I realize that you all may have this image in your head of me completely miserable after that post on Friday. But by the end of the week, when being at school is the toughest, I have forgotten about the beginning. I really enjoy Mondays--5th grade--and I think it's because I spent a lot of time with those students and teachers towards the beginning, so we're much more comfortable with each other. They are always so enthusiastic about seeing me; the majority of them are smiling and totally into my weird white girl activities every step of the way.

The older kids seems to "get" the cultural exchange a little better than the younger ones; last Tuesday (using an idea inspired by my fantastic cousin Allison) I did a Q&A type thing with the 6th grade, where they were asked to tell me about themselves and their family and also ask me about my culture and country on a piece of paper, and then I drew questions from a bag. I got a lot of very mechanical questions and descriptions based on how I phrased the assignment (e.g. I said, "you could ask about my family." Question received multiple times: "How is your family?"), but it was still a success in my mind.

Although we're all speaking English, the language here is totally different from what I'm used to in many respects. Their liberal use of the gerund tense led to questions like "are you people eating fufu?" and "are you having blacks in America?" Four people asked if I knew Hannah Montana, and one girl wanted to know why white people have long noses and black people have short ones (thank goodness I didn't pull that question in front of the class...). Later, I was able to go back and read what they wrote about themselves. It was interesting to see what kids said that were the same--for example, a huge majority talked about how peaceful of a country Cameroon is, and that's why they love it. Most of them told me their favorite food, the name of their traditional dance, where their parents come from. It was heartwarming to see so many kids talk about how much they loved their families and how much their parents care for them. On the other hand, there were a couple not-so-happy stories--kids who said they didn't have enough money to eat in the morning or that their parents were sick and didn't work. They stick out in my mind against the others, but really there were very few.

I was planning on continuing answering questions with 6th grade today, but I was not surprised when teachers told me at the last minute yesterday that there "may not be functional classes" on account of International Women's Day celebrations today. It's a huge deal in Cameroon compared to the United States, where the majority of people aren't even aware of its existence (Cameroonians were quite confused to hear that: "it's international!" they argued). Most women wear special dresses made out of a fabric exclusively for Women's Day, and it's different every year. It's got the date on it and everything!

There was a parade this morning which I sadly did not attend. I did, however, spend what seemed like an eternity at a bar this morning with the male teachers. We discussed many culturally insensitive things I have done here (crossing my legs in the presence of a man, extending my arm to shake hands with an elder, etc. Oops.). They definitely looked askance at me for choosing a Fanta, but I decided that 10:30 AM was just not an acceptable time for me to be drinking Guinness. Over the course of the day, I probably drank an entire liter of soda on my own because they would NEVER take no for an answer when they asked what I would "take next." Later in the afternoon, when we met up with the women, we were each presented with a heaping plate of chicken and fried plantains (which I was pretty please with considering I didn't have to dip my fingers into anything--I just had to pick up the food and eat it). Honestly, I LOVE fried plantains, but when this plate appeared in front of me I definitely freaked out a little:

At this point, post-consumption of about half of the contents of this photo, I'm just praying that I don't end up with food poisoning. Unknown meat tends to be a recipe for disaster. But the phrase "When in Rome..." dictates my life in other countries and I am more than happy about it.

So, Bonne Fête to all! Happy Women's Day!