Sunday, May 31, 2009
Funny story on the bus
We (staff) went to Masaya today to see the arts and crafts market there. It's about a one hour bus ride from Granada. Often vendors get on the buses for a few minutes and try to sell their products. On our bus ride back, an extremely energetic man got on the bus and spoke (very loudly and quickly) about pills he was selling to help with "flatulence, and digestion, and the breakdown of fats in the pancreas, and flatulence, and bloating feelings after you eat, and flatulence..." He also looked directly at us, and pointed when naming certain conditions. Apparently I need to watch out for colon cancer. I'm sure it was much funnier to watch than hear about. He must have yelled the word "flatulencia" at least 15 times. We were all bowing our heads down below the seats in front of us, trying to stifle our hysterical laughter.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Welcome to my summer 2009 Amigos blog!
Saludos de Nicaragua!
This summer I have returned to the Amigos organization for the third summer. This time, however, I am serving as a Project Supervisor. I arrived in country two days ago, and got all set up in Staff House with the other project staff (pictures coming soon, hopefully). Staff House is located in the city of Granada and is amazing, as are my fellow staff members - I think everyone is going to get along really well. It is hot all the time here, and incredibly humid. Also, there have been very intense rainstorms/thunderstorms both nights so far - I love it!
This morning, I found out the four communities I will be supervising (I will have 10 volunteers total). All four are in the province of Rivas, which is directly south of Granada. Two of the communities are brand new to Amigos (have never had volunteers there), and one is huge - about 8000 people and very touristy. So I will definitely have some challenges. On Monday I start town survey, which will last 5 days and involves going to each community and getting everything set up for the arrival of the volunteers - host families, contacts, emergency safety plans, meal schedules, work schedules etc. The volunteers' main projects are working in the understaffed clinics in their communities, giving workshops and presentations on health topics in the clinic waiting rooms, and also holding classes for children and youth (also on health topics).
In addition to lots of preparation and planning, I am also busily working on finishing up my medical school primary application. In fact, I have been spending all my downtime doing this, and also working on it before everyone else wakes up/after they go to bed. But it's almost done! Yay! I'm also still trying to finalize a list of schools to apply to.
I am very excited to go out to the communities! I'm sure I will have a lot to write about after town survey.
Feel free to drop me a message. Also, I will post my mailing address soon - I love receiving handwritten mail!
Maya
This summer I have returned to the Amigos organization for the third summer. This time, however, I am serving as a Project Supervisor. I arrived in country two days ago, and got all set up in Staff House with the other project staff (pictures coming soon, hopefully). Staff House is located in the city of Granada and is amazing, as are my fellow staff members - I think everyone is going to get along really well. It is hot all the time here, and incredibly humid. Also, there have been very intense rainstorms/thunderstorms both nights so far - I love it!
This morning, I found out the four communities I will be supervising (I will have 10 volunteers total). All four are in the province of Rivas, which is directly south of Granada. Two of the communities are brand new to Amigos (have never had volunteers there), and one is huge - about 8000 people and very touristy. So I will definitely have some challenges. On Monday I start town survey, which will last 5 days and involves going to each community and getting everything set up for the arrival of the volunteers - host families, contacts, emergency safety plans, meal schedules, work schedules etc. The volunteers' main projects are working in the understaffed clinics in their communities, giving workshops and presentations on health topics in the clinic waiting rooms, and also holding classes for children and youth (also on health topics).
In addition to lots of preparation and planning, I am also busily working on finishing up my medical school primary application. In fact, I have been spending all my downtime doing this, and also working on it before everyone else wakes up/after they go to bed. But it's almost done! Yay! I'm also still trying to finalize a list of schools to apply to.
I am very excited to go out to the communities! I'm sure I will have a lot to write about after town survey.
Feel free to drop me a message. Also, I will post my mailing address soon - I love receiving handwritten mail!
Maya
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