#37 Getting to Know the Community

The 5:45pm ferry to the island provides the best colors

I mentioned that I'm going to work harder to maintain this blog, so I've decided that every Monday I'll do my best to post about my activities from the prior week.

Last week, all the schools had their midterm type exams, therefore all my classes were cancelled. I went to a few of my schools during their exams to help proctor exams and prevent cheating, but my presence did very little to counteract the cheating ingrained in the classrooms. I kid you not when I say that 90% or more of the students blatantly copy or talk during whatever exam. They understand it is wrong because when I make eye contact or say something they stop or pretend they weren’t doing anything. Advice from my Ms. Abby was to explain to the students why copying is wrong and cheating is bad because (from my Ms. Abby and I agree) it is likely that no one has taken the few minutes to simply describe to the students why it is wrong to cheat. What may be obvious to some may be oblivious to others.

Because of my extremely lax week, my increased comfort level in the community and speaking in Spanish, coupled with the need for more rewarding and stimulating work, I walked around and presented myself to a few of the local organizations to explain my role as a Peace Corps Volunteer in my community.

• I stopped by the Mayor’s office to chat and am expected to return later this week to talk with the Director of Tourism about projects they hope to start.

• I went to a major organization on the Island that seems to have its feet dipped in several projects including a rural tourism project. In this project, the organization has 10 groups each consisting of roughly 20 women who hope to start tourism businesses from their home. The organization is working to help the women make business plans, learn basic business principles, and communicate in basic English. I attended a second meeting on Friday morning with my small business sitemate to discuss how we can provide support and they were enthusiastic about having our involvement and invited us to meetings with the various groups. Unfortunately for me, my calendar was booked, so I will have to wait until after this month to attend.

• This next meeting would prove to be my most promising and fastest moving project. On Wednesday night, a gentlemen from the main umbrella organization (ROCO) on the island that works with essentially all the other established organizations invited me to a meeting for the following Thursday night. That Thursday night, I learned of the existence of this used-to-be youth group (JEO) that was founded in 2003 by a former Peace Corps Volunteer and they have gathered some ex-members (some now close to 30 years old) to organize a short marathon on the island. They hope to promote healthy lifestyles, organized sports, get local businesses involved, and raise awareness for the projects underway by local organizations. We have scheduled the first main meeting for tomorrow, Tuesday, night where more detailed discussion will take place. It is my assumption, that I will be able to help with event organization, raising funds, and promoting the event throughout the island and across the Peace Corps network in Nicaragua.

In other news, this Wednesday/Thursday is Nicaragua's Independence Day(s) and class is cancelled yet again from Wednesday through to Tuesday. They will have parades, dances, and bands from all the surrounding communities so I have some more culturing to do this coming week. 

My parents and I are going on a vacation to some Caribbean island in January for a week or so :) Details to be determined but I'm already excited to see them after just 4.5 months!