July 16, 2001
So it's official, I've been placed in Nicaragua! I depart from Dallas and head for Miami on September 4th. The next day I'm on to Managua, Nicaragua.
Here's a little info Nicaragua:
Though maintaining a lingering reputation abroad for the Contra war of the 1980's, Nicaragua has returned to peace. The colonial cities have come back to life, the countryside is open to exploration, and indigenous populations that fled a decade ago are returning to their original homelands. Nicaragua is the largest country in Central America, but one of the least densely populated; more than 90% of it's citizens live in the Pacific lowlands, less than 15% of the country's area. It also remains the poorest country in Central America, in part b/c of the political unrest from the past few decades and the devastation unleashed by Hurricane Mitch in November 1998. The tourist industry is practically nonexistent in most of the country, so exploration requires initiative. Much of the terrain remains relatively untouched volcanoes along the Pacific coast, beaches on the Corn Islands in the Caribbean, and tracts of rainforest that dwarf even Costa Rica's park system. Those willing to leave the tourist trail and put up with fewer amenities will find these destinations extremely rewarding.
August 6, 2001
Can't believe how fast these last weeks are flying by! I got my info packet on Nicaragua...can't wait to get there!!
My address for training (until December) in the Peace Corps:
PCV Kari Gaukler
Voluntario del Cuerpo de Paz
Apartado Postal 3256
Managua, NICARAGUA
Central America
Also, please email me kgaukler@yahoo.com a hello/goodbye, and if you can, I'd love to have a mailing address. (This is the email address I will be using in Nicaragua).
August 14, 2001
I have a bunch of great links about Nicaragua now on my Interests and Links page. Well, things are coming together...still have a bunch more to do though. Just spent a weekend in Dallas with Jenny dumping more boxes on my parents! I'm in the process of selling my truck (email me if you know anyone who is interested!) and I'm living with Jenny at her Aunt Gloria's house. The number there is 454-2461. My number in Dallas (after August 25th) is 972-991-8417. My friend Unity and I are thinking about a birthday/going away party on the 24th so mark it on your calendar! Still would like to hear from some of you!!
September 2, 2001
Well after my final trip to Austin and a very late-night/early morning party, I'm completely off on my sleeping hours and still wide awake at 2 a.m. Maybe it has to do with the fact that I didn't get home until 6 a.m. and slept in until 1 o'clock in the afternoon (unheard of if you know me!) or maybe it's because this is the second to the last night that I'll be sleeping in a familiar place and its all just hit me--what I'm about to jump into. So with all the good-byes from last night still lingering in my head, I've spent the last 2 hours sorting through stacks of photos trying to figure out which 48 pictures I'm going to take to depict my life. The thing is, how does anyone sum up a lifetime worth of experiences and relationships in just under 50 pictures? I can't. But I made my selections and I put them in a tiny album and I'll show everyone these certain people and places but I won't let myself forget the times that I've had with each and every amazing person that has entered my life - all of you have been there and shaped the person I am today and I thank you for that.
September 3, 2001
Okay, this is it.
September 8, 2001
I have no time right now, we're about to leave for our training sites in about 15 minutes where I will meet my family. Another trainee and I ran down to this internet cafe so I could write a little about how great everything is here in Nicaragua. I've met so many people-volunteers, trainiees, Nicas - I'm not the least bit homesick (yet). I do miss everyone though! I'll write more hopefully in the next few days when things are "mas tranquilio". muchos besos...
September 12, 2001
What a mix of emotions. I've never felt so happy and so sad all at once. Nicaragua is wonderful. I'm learning so much here and have realized that I made such a great decision in joining the Peace Corps! I am so sad and frightened though to hear about what is happening in the US and want all of you to know I am thinking of you...especially those who live near New York. If you have a chance, please let me know how you are. It's an unusal situation to be so removed from the US and all that is going on there and to be struggling with the difficulties of understanding what is happening with the limited Spanish that I have. My Spanish improves everyday and mostly on account of my 19 year old Nicaraguan sister, Yessenia and my sister-in-law, Hannia. Both are such a blessing for me. I have so much to say about my experiences and so little time as we need to head back to our pueblos in 5 minutes! My thoughts are with all of you and I want you to know that I am in the safest place in the world right now - in my tiny tin-roofed casa! (However, I have to question the safety of the latrine and the bazillion cockroaches I find everytime I use it!) Much love to you all!
September 18, 2001
Finally, I've found a little time to sit down and write about life in Nicaragua! My friend Ben and I braved the buses on our own and made the 20 minute trip into Jinotepe, a city close to our pueblos. Right now the best part of this experience is all the people I've gotten to know so well in such a short period of time. I have Spanish classes with two other trainees, Ben and Ryan and we always talk about how lucky we are to be together because we all share the same sense of humor. The first week we were usually in tears everyday in class from laughing at ourselves. We are a bit more serious now because we all really want to improve our Spanish, but we're all still enjoying everything we experience. Ben,(who was at High Sierra too - for my amigos who were with me there) lives in a Paneria (a place where they make and sell bread)and we helped to make bread the other day. It was fun but alot harder than I would have thought. They make huge batches at a time to make two different types of bread: sweet bread and simple bread. Both are good, but the sweet bread is definitely the best, we usually eat something similar for breakfast with coffee, of course (big coffee drinkers here)! The coffee is great but pretty sweet, I'm getting more and more accostomed to it everyday though. After breakfast I usually take a shower (showering outside isn't nearly as romantic as it sounds) clean up my room which basically means moving all my things on to my bed and re-organizing everything because furniture is fairly expensive here and I don't have anywhere to put my clothes except in my backpack, but I do have a nightstand which I'm sure cost my family an arm and a leg! We have Spanish class everyday from 8 a.m. to noon when we take an hour for lunch (the food here is unbelievable, my mother and sister-in-law have to be the best cooks in all of Nicaragua) and then resume classes at 1:00 when we walk around and actually use our Spanish with the people in our pueblos - it's usually really entertaining for them and they get a good laugh at our expense. Everyone here is incredibly friendly, and although they have nothing in comparison to the luxuries we have in the states, I receive gifts of juice, fruits and candies everyday. The neighborhood girls are espcially fond of giving me bouquets of flowers with little poems and notes attached, in fact I'm beginning to run out of places to put them in my tiny room! I have so much more to say, but no more money to pay for this computer so I'm going to have to stop here. Thank you to all who wrote - I can't tell you enough how great it is to hear from someone. If I'm not able to write you back right away, I will - I just need to wait until I get paid again and can afford to use the computer! Miss you all, but still loving it here!
September 24, 2001
First, I want to wish mis hermanos very happy birthdays! I wish I could be there to celebrate. I'm pretty happy here though because we finally scored in the computer department - seven of us who live close to a local University have started using their computers and they said it's fine so long as we don't use them for too long - free internet access that is fairly fast - it's like a dream for all of us! Not much has been happening here though so now that I have all this time - I don't know what to write! Oh, the big excitement right now at my house is that our dog just had a puppy. No one even knew it was pregnant and the other night they found Linda, the mother, under my parents bed with a little tiny new-born perrito! My family thinks I'm crazy because everyday I make a big fuss over it and cuddle it. Dogs are treated as the lowest of the low here and it's hard because you want to be nice to them but it's extremely insulting to the people so I've tried to keep my excitement to a minimum. I get to name it though but I haven't thought of the perfect name so as of right now it's nameless. I'm going to try and see if they'll let me keep it when I get to my site - how great to know a dog from the very beginning!
October 4, 2001
Officially a month now that I've been in Nicaragua. It's finally starting to feel like home and my Spanish is off the hook right now. The kids in my neighborhood have finally taken to my hula-hoop (hula-hula as its called here) and one little girl in particular is already mastering some tricks. I keep promising them that I'll make some for them before I go but I don't have the slightest idea where to buy the tubing! I mostly would like to make some smaller ones because the little ones really struggle with my big hoop. Oh, one sad update...the puppy died. It died about 5 days after it was born so luckily I wasn't too attached but I can't say that Linda (our dog) handled it too well. She howled all night when they took the puppy away to bury it - it was really awful. We are having Spanish classes in another trainees house now. It's the one that doubles as a panderia so I'm going to be getting my fill of "pan dulce" for the next few weeks and definitely looking forward to it. We're going to be spending the weekend in Managua which should be fun (we were there last week and the hotel is REALLY nice by Nicaragua standards - each room has it's own bathroom with a real flushing toilet!) They started putting volunteers in nicer hotels because I guess they've had some problems with machete muggings here. Not pleasant to think about, but nice to know we won't be dealing with them anytime soon. On Monday we are all going to visit a volunteer in their site for 3 days to get an idea of what they do on a typical day. I'll be going to a mid-sized town up north in the department of Chinandega (sp?). I'm sure I'll have a bunch to write about afterwards. Okay, time to get back home and put my Nica mom's heart to rest - she hates it when I'm out past dusk.
October 5, 2001
Okay, now I've really been here one month. I can't believe I've gotten to update this twice in one week! Not much has changed since yesterday. We had to take the bus into Managua by ourselves today (Ben, Ryan and I) and we did really well. It's about a 45 minute drive and the buses are old school buses from the states and they are FULL. In the morning and at night the buses are so full that kids and men are hanging onto the bars on the back of the bus. We had to stand in the isle for our drive today but you get used to it real fast and since there are so many people around you, there is a bunch of padding when you go around curves so you hardly move that much. The drive to Managua is very curvy and it's really hot so my biggest problem has been fighting of motion sickness. Today was good though because I couldn't see out the window. Ugh, I have about 8 minutes until our next charla so I have to go now. A bunch of you have asked if I prefer e-mails or letters and I'm telling you now - I LOVE MAIL! Right now I have the opportunity to check my e-mail frequently but that will most likely change when I get to my site in December and besides I like to be able to re-read the letters and I've been really good about writing back so you'll probably be more inclined to hear from me if you write. So, with that said, use the address above to send me mail. I miss everyone and I really like hearing what you've been doing - everyday activities are so entertaining to me! Va pue! Adios!
October 11, 2001
Just got back yesterday from my volunteer visit in Northern Nicaragua, about 45 minutes from the Honduran border. It was really really hot. I was supposed to visit another volunteer living up in the mountains but she cancelled so I had to go with another trainee, Sue, to Chinandega - the hottest, driest place in all of Nicaragua. I had a good time getting to know Sue - she's 26 and from Buffalo, NY. We discovered we have alot of the same music tastes and ideas on life so it helped to enjoy the 5 hour bus ride to our volunteers site. We visited a girl named Jen from Arkansas. Really nice girl but couldn't have been more different than Sue and I. We honestly had such a good time with her, did alot of laughing and wouldn't have traded our 4-day experience for the world! It was interesting to be up north as well - most of that area was severly impacted by Hurricane Mitch in 1998. There were mud slides and many drownings - the bridges are only now being re-built and they have almost a HUD housing project going on there now. The victims from Mitch that are living there though are living in plastic houses in awful conditions. I can't believe that they had to wait 4 years to get help. I could write alot more about the area but I'm running out of time. Oh, real quick though - I met some guy who lived in El Paso for 7 years here. Anyway and he told me that we're at war right now? We've been bombing Afganistan (sp?) for 3 days?! I've got to do some catching up on current events.
I finally got the chance to call home last week though and found out that my brother joined the NAVY?! Sounds like it's more of a self-discipline decsion rather than a patriotic move but still makes me a little nervous and it really makes surreal to hear about it while I'm here. I think 7 of us are going to the beach this weekend to see the turtle hatchlings - it's supposed to be a really amazing site not to mention we'll be camping on the beach!
October 13, 2001
Its 9 a.m. and we're heading out to La Flor to see the turtles. My friend Tamara and I stopped in at this internet cafe while the other 3 went to buy food for the trip. We're looking at about a 5 hour trip just to get to the right beach - La Flor, on the western coast in the department of Rivas - and then we don't even know that we'll be seeing any turtles! Keep your fingers crossed! I feel guilty though because I had to leave my family again today but I think we're going to try and catch a 7 a.m. bus back to our pueblos tomorrow. But for now I'm bringing the ¨hula-hula¨ and looking forward to relaxing on the beach by this evening. Oh, one last thing, a few of you have mentioned sending care packages and I love them but make sure you claim EVERYTHING in the package because the post office has to open all the packages first and they will take anything that isn't marked as one of the contents.
October 15, 2001
The turtles were the most amazing thing I've seen here thus far. We got to La Flor around 3 on Saturday afternoon after eating lunch in the beautiful port town of San Juan del Sur. The beach was completely empty except for our group and a group of other PCV's. We spent the day swimming in the ocean, playing in the sand and hula-hooping in the surf. We had to walk about 10 minutes to get 12 beers (they're about a $1 each here) and had to haul them back but it was worth it. We built a camp fire and ate cucumber and tomato sandwiches until the baby turtles started coming out around 8 p.m. They were so tiny and struggled so hard to get to the ocean. We picked up a few and put them on the beach next to the water and watched them get taken away by the waves. An incredible experience to see it happen. So we watched that for about an hour or so and then got in our hammocks and tried to sleep. Well it started raining right as I was beginning to fall asleep and then it started raining harder and harder. I sat on my hammock with my umbrella over me and my raincoat covering my backpack with my camera (yes, I got pictures!) until we all agreed we needed to head up to the ranger station because the rain wasn't going to stop anytime soon. On our way back to the entrance, we got to see three adult turtles laying eggs on the beach. They say that when the mothers lay their eggs, they cry. I didn't see any tears but they make a little wimpering sound. I feel so lucky to have seen the whole process and in a place with very few people (although by the evening there were about 20-30 people sharing the experience - but they were mostly from Japan and then there were two couples with kids from the states that live in Nicaragua and one couple had been PCVs in Ecuador in the 80's). Well, we spent the rest of the evening sleeping on one sheet that had managed to stay dry on the cement porch of the ranger station with all the other people that had come out to see the turtles. I think I slept for a max of 3 hours and I can't say it was all that restful. The next day was rough. We caught the 8 a.m. bus to San Juan del Sur, ate breakfast at a great little resturant owned by a Canadian couple and then headed back for the 4 hour bus ride to our pueblos. We had to change buses 4 times and I didn't think I was ever going to get home. We made it though, at 1:00 I was showering in my casa. I had to wash my underwear because I didn't have any to wear for today and after that I fell asleep until dinner. My mom was so wonderful though - she washed all my wet clothes, including my hammock, and I woke up to most of my clothes clean and dry. I ate a great dinner of beans and rice (as always) and fell asleep at 7:30 and slept straight through the night until 4:30 this morning.
October 18, 2001
I've recovered from my trip and things are back to normal here. I've been reading like a madperson since I got here (check out my books page) and I'm about to finish a great book - it's called The Ugly American and it talks alot about US relations in other countries. It's made me think about what my role here is and what I want to accomplish as a PCV. I feel like I've learned so much more since being here about what it "really" means to be a Peace Corps Volunteer. I can't wait to get my site assignment (in other words, where I'll be living for the next 2 years) which we'll find out on Tuesday. I was a little worried about where they were going to put me but I've had some good head-time and I know that no matter where I end up in Nicaragua - I'm going to be happy. This country is amazing. My walks to school are awesome and the other day a group of kids from my pueblo, which is a 10-minute walk from where we have classes, walked me home. There are these three very cute, but very mischiveous 8-year-old boys who I've been trying to remember their names for weeks now. Well on the way home I started tapping each one on the head and saying their names...Ramon, Pedro, Jose...over and over again. Well, half way through the walk, Jose tells me that they've been playing a joke on me and that they switched names! Luckily, it wasn't true, but I thought it was a pretty good joke and he definitely got me. Last night I finally met my grandfather. We walked over to his pueblo, but when we got to his house we found out his wife was really sick. She had been throwing up all day and was really ill. Her two daughters were praying and crying hysterically around her bed - it was like nothing I've ever seen or heard before. After a grueling 15 minutes of hearing that, they came out to meet me and acted like nothing was wrong. When we left, my mom explained that my grandmother thought she had an animal living in her stomach and that a witch had put a spell on her. Definitely one of the strangest experiences I've had here.
October 20, 2001
I came up to the University to study today and have managed to spend the last 2 hours on the computer. I have a picture of my PC group but I can't figure out how to get it from my e-mail to my webpage so I think I'll just have to wait until I get to use a PC office computer. Not much is happening here today, it's a Saturday. I got up early and walked over to Tamara's house this morning and we went for a short walk. A bunch of other trainees want to go dancing tonight but I think I'll probably end up passing on it. It's a little bit dangerous to be out past 9 at night and I think my mom here would have a heart-attack if I told her I was going to go out dancing and not come home until 11 or 12. Besides all that, I don't think I could even stay awake that long. After a month of going to bed at 9:30 or 10 and waking up at 5 a.m., I really need and enjoy my sleep. One good thing happened, most of the kids in my pueblo have new shoes today. Bolanos, the candidate for the Liberal party was going to give a free pair of shoes to all the kids in Las Esquinas (where Tamara lives) and it really made a bunch of people angry because Las Esquinas has a large Sandinista backing. Of course it makes sense, they're trying to win over the Sandinistas in that community, but the people who live in my pueblo are almost entirely for Bolanos and weren't going to receive a thing. They all got together in front of my house the other night and made a list of all their kids names and shoe sizes so they could receive new shoes too. I'm not exactly sure what happened because I was in Managua yesterday but I've seen a bunch of new shoes on a bunch of the kids so I guess they worked out some kind of deal. And I think I heard that they are going to be giving away 100,000 pairs of shoes to children that live in this area so hopefully those who didn't get a pair yesterday will still get a chance to have new shoes too which is good because the kids definitely need new shoes here.
October 26, 2001
Okay, lots of news. I finally know where I'll be living for the next two years. It's called Las Mangas, a small town of 1,400 (205 houses) in the department of Matagalpa at the foothills of the mountains in north-central Nicaragua. (If you look at the map above - I'll be living between the cities of Esteli and Matagalpa) I'm going to visit for the next 4 days so I'll have more to update when I get back. I'm really excited though - I really think it's going to be exactly what I want for my "PC experience." In other news, I finally got sick! I guess it was food poisoning (although my family here is absolutely convinced it was because I hula-hooped after I ate dinner that night) because I was vomiting about 6 hours after dinner, around 1 a.m., during a horrible thunderstorm. I also got a little bit of diarrea which I'm still trying to get rid of. I have to have a parasite test when I get back from my site visit which I'm not really looking forward to. My family took really good care of me though and made me chicken noodle/vegetable soup which was perfect for my stomach. I don't ever want to get sick ever again here though! You can't imagine having to puke into a latrine. And the other really big event was that I felt my first earth-tremor! Granted, I was lying in bed feeling really awful, but I still felt it. The house sort of creaked and I probably wouldn't have thought twice about it if my sister-in-law hadn't been standing right next to me when it happened.
October 31, 2001
Alright, back from my site visit. I think Las Mangas is going to be a nice place to live. I want to write more about it when I get out there though. The family I'm going to be staying with are really nice and I have my own bathroom with a toilet and shower! They only have water from 6 a.m. until 12 p.m. and the toilet doesn't really work, but other than that...it's nice. One of the women that lives in the house makes tortillas every morning so I get to eat them hot off the fire and they taste SO good! Plus, they have 3 hammocks, two on their porch and one in the living room. I've used them all and plan on spending a great deal of time in them in the future. I took my first solo bus trip back to Managua (about 3 hours) today and it went really well except for the kid sitting across the isle from me got sick and puked all overhimself. It didn't really smell bad so I wasn't too bothered and he got off about 30 minutes later. I got back to the PC office about 30 minutes ago and found a whole stack of mail in my mailbox so I'm looking forward to spending a bunch of time reading and writing letters this week. We aren't allowed to leave our sites from November 2nd until the 12th because the presidential elections are on the 4th and tensions are pretty high right now since the race is so close. The PC thinks we'll be safer if we stay in our sites so I guess I'll have a bunch of time on my hands. I think a bunch of us are going to go out to eat at this great Mexican food resturant we stumbled upon a few weeks ago. It's sort of expensive, but definitely worth it to sit back and have a beer and fajitas. Happy Halloween!
November 9, 2001
Only 2 more weeks until we swear in as official Peace Corps volunteers. The election went really smoothly with not so much as one riot that I'm aware of. There were a few fights around town, some very drunk happy men, and a bunch of Roman candles, but overall life here as been pretty laid back. Not much to speak of really - I've been busy reading - just finished The Poisonwood Bible which I enjoyed. I made pan dulce again the other day and got to eat it straight out of the oven. It's like heaven with a cup of coffee in the morning. I've also been spending alot of time with my family here, enjoying the last few weeks I have with them. My sister and I went and climbed a huge tree that was knocked down in the wind the other day. It landed on the electric wires and shut off our power for the night but made for some fun climbing with the neighborhood kids. We went back to check it out again this morning and most of it has been hauled away to be used as firewood. Tamara and I went over to another training town today and met up with 4 other girls for Yoga. I'm also going to a seamstress today to have matching shirts made for Ben, Ryan and me for our swearing-in. That's about it, hope everyone is doing well!
November 20, 2001
We have three days of independent study and so I made my way to the library and thought I'd catch up on my journal. We spent last weekend in Managua and met the Ambassador, he's from Texas. The next day they took us out to Volcan Masaya and we got to look down into the active volcano and then hiked up to the dormant volcano next to it. Another trainee and I took the one hour hike around the rim - I probably took 20 pictures - the view was amazing. Sunday we're hiking Mombacho, a 1200 meter volcano with a cloud forest on top. Everyone needs to come visit me here! I'm definitely beginning to feel a little homesick, but I suppose that's normal around the holidays. I was over at Ben's house the other day talking with his "two moms" (they're sisters). I don't know if I described them before, but they are these two, sweet, old women who I just adore. They complement each other perfectly - Norma is little, short and plump and is always giggling. Maria Luisa is taller and more serious - always giving me advice and telling me to be careful. Anyway, yesterday they were asking about what I was going to do for Christmas, and although I hadn't really been upset about missing Christmas with my family in the states, I just started crying! The next thing I know, Norma can't talk becase she is crying too and then I look over and see Maria Luisa wiping away her tears! I just think about how we must've looked, two Nicaraguan women and a 25 year-old gringa all crying in a dirt-floored kitchen! It's definitely a moment I'll remember for the rest of my life.
November 29, 2001
Never made it to the volcano - maybe in the next few months. We all came to Managua on Monday and have been staying at a hotel here. It's been nice to have email access and A/C at the PC office for the last 3 days. The other big event was that I got to give my first stool sample. I should get the results later today... So, we swear-in as official Peace Corps Volunteers tomorrow. I didn't think this day would ever come, but it's finally here and I'm so ready to be out of training. We are spending Friday and Saturday at San Juan del Sur stopping in Managua on Sunday then heading to our sites on Monday morning. A group of us are already planning on meeting up in Esteli the next Sunday to use computers so I hope to be able to update again soon.
December 2, 2001
So I'm a Peace Corps volunteer now. It's Sunday afternoon and I'm in the Peace Corps office in Managua. We just got back from San Juan del Sur - it was beautiful. We went out to a secluded beach with a bar and resturant and spent the day playing frisbee, swimming and lounging. I'm leaving tomorrow for my site and by the way, the address I posted on the last entry (and have since deleted) is now different so keep sending to the original address until I post a new one. We changed our time to meet up in Esteli and use the computers so it's now going to be 2 weeks until I use email. So until then...
December 11, 2001
I've been in my site for a week now and I'm getting more comfortable everyday. The month of December is pretty much devoted to hosting or going to "Purisimas" which are big parties they have to celebrate The Virgin Mary. About half the town gathers at someone's house and then spend an hour singing and praying in front of a statue of Mary. Afterward they pass out bananas, oranges and little bags of candy (which the kids flip-out over) and sometimes serve "indio veijo" which is a traditional food made of masa (corn flour), shredded chicken, about a gallon of oil and lemon juice. They serve it with rice and a tortilla. Can't say it's my favorite food here but I guess it's not that bad. I've also been spending alot of time hanging out on the hammock reading - I'm even starting to feel the swinging motion at night when I'm sleeping! I usually spend most of my time with little kids, a group of junior high girls, or older people. I taught the little kids how to play "Pigpen" (when you connect the dots to make a square) so I now have to play about 25 games a day. Luckily, on Sunday a guy that lives about 4 doors down came over and introduced himself to me. "Josč" is 21 and just graduated from an agriculture institute and right now he just tends to the cattle for my family. I'm supposed to go with him sometime this week to take the cattle out to graze and I get to ride a horse so that should be a good diversion. I'm also having a table made and it should be ready today so I can have a place to write letters. I'm struggling with what I'm going to do about a house right now. I found a really nice house about a 2 minute walk from where I'm living now but the family I'm staying with tells me its too far away from them and they want me to build a house behind theirs. I guess it's a possiblity but the other house has a beautiful long front porch and lots of sunny space for a garden and a new latrine. Plus the family I'm living with has all sorts of animals - chickens, geese, pigs, cows and it smells pretty bad. I dunno, it's going to be my big project for the week. The volunteer that lives in the closest town to me is coming to visit tomorrow and she's going to help me decide. Well, it's 10:30 and I'm catching the 12:30 Expreso bus to my site (only a 2 hour ride vs a 3 hour ride on a regular bus) so I'm getting out of here. Take care all...
December 21, 2001
Kristina (my "site mate" who lives about 30 minutes from me) and I came up to Estelė today to use the computers and meet up with another volunteer who lives about an hour north of here. We´re going to grab lunch at this great organic cafe just outside town called "La Casita." It has real coffee, fresh fruit, homemade cheese, bread and yogurt plus they sell all sorts of plants. Anyone who will be visiting me here will defintely be eating there. Not much is happening in Las Mangas to speak of. I saw my first tarantula in my room the other night - that was pretty exciting. I´m still spending most of my days getting to know everyone. I spend alot of time with the kids and I´ve been getting laundry "lessons" from a thirteen-year-old girl named Maria. Oh and
finally, I have a mailing adress for my site:
Kari Gaukler
San Isidro, Matagalpa
NICARAGUA
Write when you can, everyone. Merry Christmas!
December 25, 2001
I spent Sunday night in La Trinidad with Kristina and Jorge, the ex-boyfriend of the previous volunteer in her site. Jorge is great and completely accustomed to the ways of the gringos. He's 20, full of energy, and just dyed his hair blond-not what you would call your normal Nica. Anyway, he took us to hike up one of the "cerros" (I guess what we would call a small mountain?) surrounding her town. It was beautiful, but a long hike. We stayed at Jorge's house since his mom was at his grandmother's for Christmas and got up early on Monday to catch the 7 a.m. bus into Managua.
Yesterday afternoon I went to my training family's house which was great. We caught up on everything going on in my new site and I found out Yessenia has a boyfriend. I'm going back to visit again in March so I might get to meet him then (if she's gotten the guts up to tell her mom). I headed back to Managua around 6:00 and spent the night at a hotel watching movies on cable, eating cucumber and tomato sandwiches, and even got a hot shower. No A/C, but they have nice big fans so I slept great and had the luxury of sleeping in until 7 a.m.
A group of 4 of us are going to see The Lord of the Rings? this afternoon and then will probably grab dinner somewhere if we can find an open resturant (if not, they serve nachos at the theater!) It's not your typical Christmas, but I'm happy.
A little update on my life in Las Mangas...I'm now waiting to talk to the brother of the guy I've been talking to about renting the house. I should be able to talk to him when I get back to my site on the 27th, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed we can work something out. I've been teaching the kids a bunch of new games. We played "Spoons" or what we call "Cucharas" here, and they love it. When kids get excited or nervous about something here they have this thing they do with their hand - they sort of shake it up and down and one of their fingers slaps against their other fingers and makes this snapping noise - needless to say there was alot of hand shaking going on during the game! I also taught Maria how to play "Solitare" and at first she thought it was boring, but after watching me play it a few times, she's taken it up too. So, that's pretty much life in Las Mangas!
You know, it's been hard being so far away from all of you for the past four months and The Peace Corps has definitely taught me alot, but more than anything, it's taught me to be grateful for the wonderful people I've been blessed to know and love. Even if I can't be there with you right now, I'm so thankful you are all a part of my life!
Much love, smiles, and peace from Nicaragua-
Kari
January 11, 2002
Things are still pretty quiet here. I went and talked to the landlord of the house and it went really well. The guy was really nice, teased me the whole time about all things American (money, cars, hamburgers, etc.), but finally we came to an agreement. I have to make a bunch of repairs so it looks like it'll be awhile before I can move, I'm thinking end of Feb. or March if I can afford it. I have to put on a whole new roof, build a letrine, a bathing room and put bars on the doors and windows. The kitchen has a dirt floor but the rest of the house has nice tiles. The best part is my front porch though. It's shaded and there's plenty of space for a hammock, or two, or three... In exchange for all that, I'll be living rent-free for the next two years. In other news, Enrique Bolanos swore-in as President of Nicaragua yesterday, and like everything in Nicaragua, it took forever. I watched about two of the four hour ceremony.
January 26, 2002
It's been awhile since I've written, mostly because I've used up all my good stories in letters home. I finally have a house and my friend Jose told me he could take care of all the repairs for me, we're going to hopefully get started on Monday!? School also starts on Monday, but from what I've heard the first couple days are kind of crazy so I'm not going to start observing classes until the second week. I'm loving Las Mangas more and more each day. Tamara stayed with me last night and it was great to show someone around my site, not that there is that much to really see, but she lives on the coast and doesn't have quite the same "campo" feel to her site. Anyway, she got to see tortillas being made, ox carts, and the beautiful view from the rock cliff that looks out over Las Mangas. We're spending tonight in Esteli with a group of about 20 volunteers who all came up for a Disaster Prep. workshop we had this morning (just in case we get another Huricane Mitch, earthquake, volcanic eruption, etc.) I'll be heading into Managua this coming week so I'll try and update again soon.
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