What a week this has been! I've gone through about every emotion possible while here: happiness, excitement, contentment, fear, stress, homesickness, and doubt. I don't think that I've ever been as nervous as I was to meet my host family. While most people in my group have both lived abroad and with a host family, both were completely new for me and I had no idea what to expect. Not only did I have doubts about my ability to communicate with them (they only speak Spanish), but I was also afraid of the culture barrier that would inevitably be there and whether that would be an obstacle that I'd be able to overcome. I'm overwhelmingly happy to say that this was not the case. My host family is incredibly friendly, generous, and patient. They are also a huge family. I'm talking multiple generations under one roof. So you readers can ignore all the information that I put about them in the previous blog post. Apparently the Peace Corps photo that was given to me was a bit misleading. I actually have a host mom (Petrona) and dad (Manuel) as well as 2 host sisters (Mara and Sayda), 2 host brothers (Gerall and Omar), three nieces, and a nephew. One of my nieces, Naomi, is two and already calls me "Tia Clara," or "Aunt Clare" in English.
Speaking of which I have Spanish classes every Monday- Thursday for 6 hours a day with the three other volunteers living in El Rosario. Between that and talking with my host family, I am speaking Spanish about 95% of the time. I can already tell that my grammer and vocabulary are starting to pick up, although I still have a ways to go. After Spanish class, which ends around 3:00, we usually have a cultural integration activity for two hours. Last week it was making a map of Rosario. Around 5:00, we all go home to hang out and eat dinner (Gallo Pinto!) with our host families. Then Thursday afternoon-Saturday we usually go to a larger city like Jinotepe or Diriamba to attend lectures (charlas en espanol) about Peace Corps service and do technical training. Yesterday, we learned about all the diseases that we could get in Nicaragua. Fun! Rest assured that I will never buy food from a street vendor, drink water from the tap, pet a strange dog, or forget to sleep with my mosquito net set up.
Well that's all for now! If any of you are interested, I finally have an address here. Any letters or care packages (*hint, hint...kidding!) should be sent to:
Clare Pillsbury, PCT
Voluntario del Cuerpo de Paz
Apartado Postal 3256
Managua, Nicaragua
Central America
Los gringos de El Rosario en Managua :)
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