Thursday, May 30, 2013

Rain Makes Corn. Corn Makes Whiskey.

Well today was definitely an interesting one. 

Let me run through some highlights of the week- I made an extension cord in lab yesterday. I learned to solder today. My Spanish is slightly improving. So no complaints on any of that! Classes have been going well, and the people are still great! Our group is beyond wonderful. 

Some things as I look into the future- tomorrow is our last day of class for the week (no complaints) minus the fact that I have to give a Spanish presentation tomorrow. It won't be difficult though. Then Friday we are doing some reflection stuff and talking mainly, I think. Then Saturday we are going to the Laguna. We basically will take a bus there and pay for a day pass at one of the resorts and beach it up hand hang out all day long! Then Sunday we are planning on going to some artisan villages near Masaya because they will have good shopping and they are having some kind of horse festival? Sounds like my kind of place. Then back to class Monday. 

So now for my interesting day today. So we had class from 8 am- 4 pm which is pretty typical. Then a pretty large group of us ended up going to the nearby Internet cafe after class. We were all hanging out and talking and playing around online and then a huge storm came! It was raining so hard and lightening and thundering! It was really pretty and nice though because they have an open ceiling garden area in the middle of the building.

The rain was cooling things down and also made for some nice background noise. Until the ENTIRE room started flooding!!

We all grabbed our stuff and ran to higher ground which happened to be a staircase to someone's house I think. Whoops! But we all sat in some chairs and just hung out while the rain piled a few steps high. I sat by Akshay (dude from duke in my program) and just chatted with him and listened to music until the rain passed. Then Charlotte and I walked home in the lesser, but still present rainfall. Our family said that a few rooms in their house had started to flood too. Then we ate an amazing dinner and did homework and now in bed! 

Welcome to the rainy season mis amigos! Rain is a good thing. 

Monday, May 27, 2013

Siesta, So Hard

Dude. Today was a handful. We woke up and had to be at class by 8am, which is always a struggle in itself. So we were placed in Spanish levels for class (level one rockin’) and had grammar class for two hours, then two hours of conversational Spanish. This was a challenge porque my group has some pretty wide gaps in the levels. We range from no experience with Spanish at all, to rusty high school Spanish. But we made it through the first day, so the rest can’t be too bad, right?

Next we had lunch for an hour and then the technical class and lab. During class we are starting off by going over popular equipment that we will be fixing and learning about them. So that for an hour and a half. Then Lab. I'm not sure what your average lab will be like but today we just looked up the names for tools that we have in our bag and wrote those down.

But, overall the worst part of the day was that is must have been at least nine thousand degrees in our classroom. I know I wasn’t the only one on the verge of passing out because of the intense heat. Even with four fans, we were still all dying. This made is so hard to stay awake and alert to take notes, but I did surprisingly well. I think all of the classes will be interesting and easy to study for because the application is so direct and obvious.

So about halfway though the class Charlotte looked at me and said, “How do you feel about a siesta later?” and my answer was obviously, “Oh yeah! So hard!” Which is where the title is derived from. WE walked into our room, stripped off our clothes, put on shorts and a t-shirt, cranked our fans and haven’t left the bed since.


Good thing we have the weekend to look forward to! Hoping to plan a beach weekend or some other trip with some amigos.

Remembering Sunday

Yesterday we woke up and went on a boat tour of the lake as a group. This was absolutely amazing! Possibly the most fun I’ve had in Granada thus far. Lake Nicaragua has 365 or so islands throughout it, so we got to see a small handful of those. First we got to the dock and loaded our entire group on two boats and took off. We got to see islands with private houses on them, some with historical sites and some that had businesses (hotels and eateries). One that we visited was used as a fort to watch for pirates in order to protect Granada. But by far, the coolest was one with monkeys on it! Yes, monkeys. And one of them, named Lucy, got on our boat and we fed it. Our guide was a boss and apparently had a license that allowed him to do that. Then lastly we stopped on one for lunch and got to swim and hang out with the crew. The entire trip was so relaxing and beautiful.

Then when Charlotte and I got home our family was leaving for church, so we stayed home and showered and hung out. Then when the fam got home we went to dinner at Tip Top which is like KFC food with a McDonalds environment. For example, Dani (the 3 year old) was playing on the indoor playground for a while and then we look over and Carlos Sr. (my host dad) had just caught some pants. The source:Dani. I can’t say I haven’t gotten too hot or something and wanted to just rip my pants off in public, but I doubt my parents would have approved in the same way as Fatima and Carlos Sr did. Needless to say, Dani went the rest of the night in his polo shirt, underwear and tennis shoes.

Before we left for dinner though, Naya (our host sister who is here on a similar program but for social development) came home and told us a pretty priceless story. It was as follows: She was walking home from the lagoon and her shorts were wet from her bathing suit, so she took them off and was carrying them (what?). So while walking around in a shirt and bathing suit bottoms, some kids came up to her and she thought they were telling her to put her pants on. So she did, reluctantly and kept walking. The kids kept following her though and asking for money, so she walked a roundabout way to ensure that the kids didn’t know where she lived. So then she saw a car driving into a garage and told the people what was going on. Fast forward: she was invited in and talked to them for like 30 min and realized that two guys from our program lived with them. So she met them and ended up staying for almost an hour. How do these things even happen to people? She’s crazy, but awesomely hilarious! Reminds me a lot of Jasmine, for those of you who know her.


So easy to say, this Sunday will be remembered, but for better reasons than the All Time Low song.
Heres Charlotte and Lucy and I :)


Some dudes fishing

Retirement plan anyone? House on an island.

A guy sitting on a rock fishing.
The monkey on our boat!

Lucy straight thuggin!

Saturday, May 25, 2013

Nicaragua: Chapter One

¡Beinvenidos a Nicaragua! 

We arrived Thursday night and got in pretty late. I met my Nicaraguan Mommy and my partner/roommate Charlotte and went straight to bed. 

Friday we woke up and took our Spanish placement test. My Spanish is really rusty so I am thinking I'll probably be in a lower level. Like maybe level one. Then we went home for lunch and headed back to the language school for a short orientation about the technical classes and more logistical stuff. Then we watched a traditional folklore dance which was so interesting! We then left the school and walked around town and ended up stopping at a bar for a while and then to an Internet cafe. Later we went home for dinner and hung out with the family. The family we are staying with includes one little girl who is 10 months or so and two little boys who are probably about 3 and 9 years old. They are so precious! 

Today we visited a live volcano- what? Yeah. It was pretty cool, but it was pretty smokey so we couldn't see much. They also had a lot of areas blocked off because it was unstable, but still. 
Here are some pictures. 
This was looking down into the volcano. Pretty fancy, huh? 

Later today we will probably hang around  Granada and find something cool to do. We talked about maybe going to a chocolate factory. Who knows? 

Tomorrow we are going to take a boat tour of lake Nicaragua. It has 300 or so islands throughout the lake. I'm sure that will bring some lovely pictures. We then start classes Monday morning. 8-12 is Spanish class and 1-4/5 is technical lecture and lab. I feel properly equipped to take the classes, but I know they will be challenging. We will be working hard Monday-Friday, but we will seemingly be playing pretty hard on the weekend as well. I hope to travel to some different areas of Nicaragua and stay for the weekend and make some beach trips. Part of me also kind of wants to learn to surf, not that I could really use that skill in Hilton Head. But I know it would be really cool. 

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Nicaragua Bound!

Well the day is here. I'm headed to the airport now and take off for Nicaragua in a few hours! I can't even fathom what it's going to be like. I am sad to be leaving my friends and family here, but excited for this new chapter of my life. I'm most nervous about my Spanish. I haven't used or studied Spanish since high school, which means I'm pretty rusty. I will have pretty good access to Internet compared to my time in Africa, I think. So I will be able to share pictures and stories more often. I am so thankful that I get to spend a summer helping the healthcare in Nicaragua and see my classroom studies play out in the real world. Well...here we go! 

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Liberia is the greatest place on earth!

I don't have Internet really in Liberia so I haven't been able to post anything on how I am doing or what I am doing, but I have made a list of what I've done each day so I would be able to post it all at once! Overall this has so far, been one of the greatest experiences in my life. I have learned so much about this culture and have truly fallen in love with it and everything else here. I will include a list with a breakdown of the main characters of this story really quickly. 
In order of appearance:
Alex- grad student in enviro science, witty and interesting(in a good way)
Allison- biosystems engineer, been to Liberia before with EWB
Carolyn- biosystems engineer also, rock climber and seemingly granola
Jamie- mechanical engineer, great at cars
Jesse- chemical engineer, sings a lot
Matt- chemical engineer, really funny and the kids loved him
Pastor Sam- the pastor who drove us around and led us pretty much, so helpful
Dolo- works in the church office and is super nice
Luther- lives at the compound and is 19 and a junior in high school. He loves math and physics so much! He is so funny and awesome and sweet!
Sumo- also lives at the compound and is a junior in high school as well (I think). He is crazy and so great!
Sunday Boy- also lives at the compound and is a junior in high school and is 23. He is so loving and kinda suave.
Bicki- helped drive us, reminded me of Reggie so much. Really funny and awesome.
Yasa- works at the church too. Great lady who was a nurse during the war and is so sassy and funny!

Well here's the day by day:

May 4-5, 2013
I included these days together because I flew through the night and it kind of just felt like one huge long day.
I left Charlotte at 11 am and was off to New York for an 8 hour layover! Which ended up being less because we were delayed kind of. Then from New York to Accra, Ghana. We just touched down here to drop some people off and pick up new people. Us Liberian bound people didn't leave the plane. The person next to me on this flight was wonderful! His name was Alfred, and he works as an accountant in Minnesota. He is a Liberian but left for America and returns annually to manage his sugar cane farms which he uses to create alcoholic beverages. He told me that the people who work for him steal from him because Liberia is just so corrupt after the war. I have heard some people say how corrupt it is and some how much it has recovered. But you can very obviously see the damage from the war still. It ended 9 years ago but we saw them rebuilding a bridge that was bombed during the war. Liberia is still hurting from this tragedy, but they have a bright future I think. I heard someone say that 10 years ago the best America could do to help is send troops and now the best we can do is send math and science teachers to raise up a generation of engineers and agriculture students. Then we went from Ghana to Monrovia, Liberia. Flying in was so beautiful because we flew along the coast, including the Ivory Coast. When we got into Monrovia, we had to wait through this huge line for customs and it was SO hot and humid. Then "baggage claim" was actually a huge room with luggage everywhere and we just had to climb around to find our bags which was scary because it took me a while to spot mine and I was afraid that it hadn't made it. But I found it in the back corner. Then we were picked up by Pastor Sam and Dolo and went to head to the CRCA compound which is where we stayed. I met Luther and Sumo that day. They are great. We basically unloaded and went to eat dinner I think and just hung out mainly. I also learned the handshake that liberians do is different than americans. At the end of it you snap your fingers together. Not like individually snap, but make a snap with both of your hands together. Its hard to explain and do too.

May 6, 2013
Today we went shopping for supplies to build our projects. We went with Pastor Sam and Yasa. It was so hot and stressful because we didn't have finals plans for the playground (because we found out we couldn't use wood and the plans my group made were actually not great). So we were buying for the other project, which I didn't know much about. It was a bio-digester (turned poop to methane gas for cooking). Then we went by the CRCA church and met Dolo and saw this little boy who ran away crying at the sight of white people. Then he ran away crying everyday that we went to the church. Also the car broke down this day, but you will realize that it kind of happened most days.

May 7, 2013
Today we got an axel for the main part of the merry go round, and I spent all day cleaning it. Then when I was done we played basketball in the yard of the compound, and I was awful. The other part of our group worked on the digester all day, also at the compound.

May 8, 2013
Today we went to Jungle Farm and worked on the merry go round. We dug the hole and put in the axel and cemented it. We also hired welders to help us with the frame because we had to use metal, and we obviously don't know how to weld. This day I met my favorite kids too. It was a family of 4 kids, but one little boy stood out in particular. He was beautiful and probably about 6 years old. His name is Foni and I fell in love. He has the most amazing smile! I will post a picture of him eventually. There was also a ton of other really great kids! It was nice because we got to play with the kids when we needed a break from working. Another fun side note about Liberia is that the call mangos plums. And there are two different types, both are way better than any mango I've ever had! The end of the day, Luther and I walked to an Internet cafe and I was able to iMessage and check my 86 emails.

May 9, 2013
We made serious progress on the merry go round today! Sunday boy and Sumo came to work with us at jungle farm and it went really well. I also hung out with sumo and Sunday most of the day, so that was so fun! They are so great. Sumo kept telling me how when I was 45 I would be old. But he was acting out a little old lady walking around. Literally laughed so hard! We also had a problem because the generator coupler wasn't on straight, which would cause the generator to break in second. We also decided to wire lights to the church building as well as the playground. Foni didn't come back to play today which was so sad. His sister just kept telling me he was home, like duh he is home..go get him! Also the compound realized that a car battery was missing and it caused some serious drama.

May 10, 2013
Today we put the final touches on the frame for the merry go round! We didn't finish painting or wiring, but the metal part was done. Sunday and Luther came to work with us today and that was great too! Luther cracks me up. He told me all about the Mandingos in Liberia and around the world. They sound a lot like the gypsies. But Foni wasn't there today either. I was so upset. Also Sumo pulled Matt aside and asked if he thought I would marry a Liberian man. I dont know why Sumo thought Matt would know, but whatever! The answer: duh I would marry a Liberian. They are beautiful and have a great accent and are all so nice!

May 11, 2013
Today we went to Jawajeh village in Bomi county. This was "in the bush" aka in the jungle! The drive was pretty painful when your riding on rock hard seats in the back of an old land rover type thing. This trip wasn't very rewarding. Basically pastor Sam had to be there for some meeting and tricked us into going, so we went inside the church and napped on the pews. The culture here was different from the city and so there were a lot of naked kids running around. More than the usual dozen or so we see daily near the city. A lady also came up to me saying "I love you. I love you for my son. I love you for my son" then I gave her a questionable look and she finally clarified "I'd love you to marry my son." Uhhmm no thanks. Also she was holding a tiny baby boy so at first I was thinking she was offering for me to adopt him, which I was much more open to.

May 12, 2013
Sunday! Church day! Church was great, per usual. I was pretty prepared after singing in gospel choir at all the black churches. But they made us get up in front of everyone and introduce ourselves which was a little unexpected. After church we went to eat Lebanese food (a lot of Lebanese people moved to Liberia to start businesses). The restaurant was the first place I had been with air conditioning since America, which was a clear adjustment. I was shivering the entire meal. Sumo ate with us which was good. Any time with him is always something to be thankful for. When we got back to the compound after lunch we worked on the bio digester (aka they worked while the guys and I played basketball).

May 13, 2013
Today we went shopping for African things and for supplies as well. We also went to Kponde (not sure on the spelling, but pronounced Bondus) Town to look at the projects they did last year. Not one of them was still working which was pretty hard to see. I would like to think that our work will last better than that, but you never know I guess. Then on our way home we picked someone up to take them somewhere (which happened often). This lady was special though, she was so funny! She was decked out in a full African outfit and was telling us about the different fruits and when we stopped to buy some, she was like "well where's mine?!" so we gave her a banana and a coconut I think. She was cracking me up most of the car ride. Then that evening Sumo and Luther and I went to the Internet cafe. It wasn't the Internet that was fun, but getting to hang out with them! It was a nice change from wrestling with my engineering group all day. Luther and Sumo were some of the nicest people I know. They are just truly so fun to be around.

May 14, 2013
Our last full day in Liberia. It was a national holiday (unification day) so most things were closed. Which means we went to Jungle Farm and FINISHED the merry go round and then went to the beach! Sumo and Sunday and Amanda (the wonderful woman who cooked us breakfast and is so sweet) came to the beach with us. Bicki also came to watch our stuff mainly. He is so great. The beach was stunning. Much better than Hilton Head. Plus Sumo just doggy paddles around and has to be able to stand up on something (a rock or shallow ground) to be okay with it, so that was fun. When we got back I showered and the trio (Luther, Sumo and I) went to the Internet cafe to try to make Sumo a Facebook but were unsuccessful. Making a Facebook is a lot harder than you would think these days. You have to have an email confirmation and a phone confirmation and no thanks. He claims he will either do it tomorrow or in 2018 though. So whatever happens there.

May 15-16, 2013
Traveling home. Saying goodbye to Luther and Sumo was the worst. When Sumo and I hugged my heart broke just a little to think that I don't know when I'll be back, if ever. I would die if I couldn't go back to Liberia though. We also went by the peace corps office today to talk about partnering with them in the future which would be amazing! But now I am sitting on the plane that is taking us from Monrovia, Liberia to Accra, Ghana. Tearing up as we take off. But I know that Liberia will always have my heart and I have great friends there for the next time I go back. So much love for this place and everyone here.


Here is Foni! <3

Saturday, May 4, 2013

Liberia bound!

Well here it is. It's finally here! I am in the airport ready to board a plane to NY and from there to Africa. This is the most insane feeling. I feel so overwhelmed with joy and love and thanks! Plus I can't wait to experience Liberian culture and people!!

I hate leaving my friends and family behind. And I definitely think I have the most amazing group of loved ones, maybe I'm bias but still. But I feel like I have such a great support system in the States that if makes it easier to leave. Knowing that no matter what happens, I have people at home cheering me on. It's one of the best feelings.

I feel like I have so much gainable knowledge and available opportunity waiting on me in Africa! I can't wait to learn from all of the people there, and I hope that I am able to contribute some of my knowledge back. I also hope I have the opportunity to talk about religion while I am there. I obviously want to be able to show it as well. The motto is "peach the gospel in all that you do and use words when necessary". But I'm worried about the conflict it may cause if I ask too many questions.

Liberia is a very conflicted region. They just got out of the most vicious and awful civil war that I've ever heard of. And so there is still incredible tension and pain caused by that. Plus they are about 1/3 Christian. 1/3 Muslim. And 1/3 "secret society". Which I don't know much about but I know it's pretty vicious as well. We aren't allowed to ask people who are in the secret society about their beliefs which worries me, but I know it will be alright.

I know that God will put it in my heart when to speak about Him and when not to. Plus worst case, I end up a martyr. And who doesn't want that? I'm with Paul on this one: "For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain".

Peace and love America, see you in two weeks. ✈