Its been over a month that I have been here in my site Maraita and I am well on the way to settling in. Let me try to paint a picture of what my life is like here.
Maraita is an extremely small town. In this first month, I think I have gotten to know half the pueblo but through chisme (gossip) they all know me. When I introduce myself as Lisette the new PC volunteer, the response I usually get is “Oh so you’re the Nicaraguan who doesn’t eat anything.” Aka the vegan whose parents were both born in Nicaragua. Here I am not American since I don’t have blonde hair and blue eyes like the ones on TV. In the town center there is a small park consisting of grass, a basketball court (that is always ALWAYS used for soccer) and a kiosk. Surrounded the park is the municipality, a grammar school, police station, and church. The rest of Maraita central is mostly houses plus the high school, kindergarten, and health center. There is also ‘aldeas’ or small pueblos that surround the main part of town, photos below:
I wake up at 6:30 am which by that time my host mom has already made breakfast, hand washed all of the families clothes, and cleaned the whole house. I head out for a morning run passing breath taking views of green mountains all around since Maraita is located in a valley. The views are also breath-taking cause I’m running and well- a little bit out of shape. All along the way, people greet me with a hello (Greeting everyone is a must here even strangers) and a curious stare or occasionally comment. Often I get a comment like “Really tired huh?” in the first 5 min of my run which is terrible for my pride but great for my motivation. The curious stares are from me being the only person in this town who runs for fun. Once my co-worker saw me running and decided to join me even though he was in his nice work clothes. People just don’t know how to react.
Next is the most detested part of my day – the cold water shower. Dun dun duuuuuuh! Ok so maybe its not the worst thing in the world but its not fun. There is electricity and running water most of the time here so I can live with the cold showers. Then after getting ready and eating breakfast, I am off to work at the town’s municipal office. I usually get there by 8:30, 30 minutes after the work day begins, where I am chaffed for being late. Looking around though I always see everyone kicking back waiting for the coffee to brew to drink with their rosquias. There is a mayor (he comes about once a week), secretary, treasurer, women’s office coordinator, 2 janitors, environmental officer and public services officer. The building has one large room, two offices, and 4 computers. I usually then sit, chit chat for a while and wait for people to get started on work. Being a Municipal Development Volunteer I have tried to get involved with as much as I can in the Municipality. So work right now is planning a women’s small business showcase and fair, helping the CATASTRO office create a property tax system for the town, creating a PARTICIPATORY 2011 municipal budget with citizens’ input, and helping to establish the brand new women’s office. This is also mixed in with employees stopping work to gossip, dance, do someone else’s eyebrows, haircuts, food parties, rounding up somebody’s donkey that got loose in the park, etc. I love the work environment here.
In between the work and randomness, I take an hour lunch break. I’m also working on some side projects including working with a community bank, and teaching the secretary at the high school how to use a computer so she then teaches the students computer classes. It’s a lot of work but with everything I do I have a counterpart so that the project is sustainable and continues after my 2 years of service. Also so I don’t have a heart attack and die at the age of 35.
At around 5 pm I head home to my host family, eat dinner, watch TV, play with the kids, exercise or do yoga with my host mom, and then hit the hay around 7 or 8pm. Yes that’s right for you smarties paying attention I sleep an average of 11 hours. There are definitely some lows but overall its awesome here!
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