Alive and Well in Nicaragua!

Warren (Jose) and I are very busy here, and also healthy and doing fine.  There is SO much to learn before we get assigned to our official sites in about 2 months. 

 

Warren (Jose) and I are currently (during the 3-month training) living in separate sites, which really helps our Spanish proficiency.  We visit each other's site every other weekend - I guess you could call them conjugal visits ;-)  We have completed one of the 3 months now.  We have Spanish classes for about 6 hours per day around 2 - 3 days per week, and then also attend "Charlas" (talks) and trainings on various subjects for the other days, including many on Saturdays.  We have homework and also various projects to complete, including creating and practicing a community survey on an environmental issue, co-planning and co-teaching Natural Science classes with a Nicaraguan teacher (4th grade for me and 6th grade for Jose), and creating a school vegetable garden (un huerto) at our school.  We have planted ayote (a squash), chiltoma (red and green peppers), rabano (radishes), and pepinos (cucumbers), all of which have come up now.



SEPTEMBER 6, 2014, SETTING UP OUR VEGETABLE GARDEN (HUERTO)


Tara, an experienced volunteer, helping with our huerto 

David, one of our cohorts at "our" school, helping lay out a seed bed of peppers.

 



Felix, our Nicaraguan PCT (Peace Corps Training) Fearless Leader

 

Jose & Cohorts' Huerto, just after creation



 

SEPT. 16, TEN DAYS LATER, some of our results

Our Ayote

Our seedbed of sweet peppers

One of our cucumbers



One of our "rabanos" - radishes

One of our garden challenges will be zompopos (leaf-cutter ants) - they are amazing critters, but not something you want in your garden.  They can wipe it out in no time!  Right now they seem to be VERY busy cutting up and moving leaves from a cut limb...to their nest, which is WAY too close for comfort to our garden.  We will try making and applying natural pesticides, but I'm thinking maybe keeping them busy with trimmed limbs is a good stop-gap measure!  Anyone else out there have experience with organic gardening near a nest of zompopos?



Entrance to "Zompopo" nest near our garden - just a few of the leaf-cutter ants bringing leaf pieces to the nest



This last weekend I went with a few Peace Corps trainees to a reserve (La Makina) not far from where I'm living. 

 

 

 

Not much time for more writing now (I have a Spanish Proficiency test tomorrow), so I'll post a few pictures here.  Also, this Sunday we leave our training sites to visit another volunteer somewhere in Nicaragua (we won't know until Friday where).

 Hasta luego (until later).

 

Anita (Ana)