If Its Yellow, Let It Mellow

Hey everyone, just a few updates since the last entry. Well we had a security meeting in Granada this last week and we talked about, well...... security, and we went over statistics of Peace Corps volunteers like robberies, assaults and such. There were nine of use that decided to stay the night in a hostel so we could all have a nice dinner together, and then go out afterwards. We waited for all of the girls to make themselves look pretty and then we headed out. I like Liz's statement when she said, “If two applications of that make-up don't make you look better, that just means your ugly...get your asses moving!” They took FOREVER to get ready, but I digress. We got on our way to the restaurant, all looking great, we were about a block away from the eatery when I heard a loud scream. I assumed it was just some of the volunteers screaming, you know when you get girls together they scream when they are excited, but when I turned around towards the scream, I saw Kristel fighting with some man, he had grabbed her purse and she was fighting to pull it back. In return he grabbed her around the shoulders and kinda pulled her whole body. Finally she let go, raised her hands (kind of like OK I give up) and the man took off running with her purse. It was really weird because I had never seen a robbery take place in person. Although it sucks some bastard stole her purse, she didn't lose her money or credit cards, because she kept all that in her pocket. She did on the other hand lose her digital camera, some make-up and her inhaler. Makes me wonder if we hadn't waited for so long for them to do their make-up if the man would have been there... either way SORRY KRISTEL!!! In the hostel there were signs in all of the bathrooms letting us know that sometimes the city shuts off the water due to a water shortage, and they give us a little rhyme to remember whether or not we should flush, “If it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown, flush it down.” I kinda like that.
So I'm still in the market for an apartment as I haven't found anything. I walked around for 3 hours today looking for places and didn't find a damn thing! I thought I was onto something when I came across a house that said for rent, so I asked the neighbors if they knew about it and they told me the mans name and that he was a doctor. His clinic was in the market, all the way across the city. I decided to make the trek, and hiked my ass across the city and meet him in person. Well I made it to the clinic, sweating HORRIBLY, and I think I scared the poor doctor. After waiting for one of his clients to leave, I found out that he had sold the house last year, and that I had walked all that way in vain. When I got home I called the number like I should have done in the first place, and when the woman answered, she told me it was 200 bucks. F-that I say, there is NO way that the house costs 200 bucks. Oh well. What ev. I found another place that was for rent, and when I went in and looked it was more or less 1 room with a little wall seperating it into 2 smaller rooms, with a really small bathroom, and the man let me know it was 175 dollars. It just sucks that as soon as they see white skin, they assume we are walking bank accounts and wipe our butts with 20 dollar bills. I think I am going to take another approach, I am going to have my counterparts call for me and ask, and see how much it REALLY costs. I recently found out that when you buy your first gas tank for your kitchen stove, it costs 800 cords (42 bucks). I don't think we get enough money to even survive, I'm surprised how some of these volunteers do it. Some people were told that if you don't earn enough money, you should use some money from home or that your parents could help This is not right in my opinion. WRITE TO YOUR SENATORS TELLING THEM TO INCREASE PEACE CORPS WAGES. LOL Now I sound like Tessa...write your senator. OK enough bitching.
Anyways, so I thought it would be funny to write a few ironic t-shirts that I have seen here that I think are too good to pass up and not share. Many people here wear t-shirts that they are not even sure what they say or what they mean. For example, my host mom in Dolores was telling me about when she lived in California, her neighbor's son gave her a t-shirt of a “pretty green plant”, well it turns out it was a marijuana leaf; needless to say that once she found that out she never wore it again. So the first t-shirt I saw in Jinotepe when walking home from the bank. It was a pregnant woman walking with another one of her children, and the t-shirt read, “I'm easy” Hmmm BIG surprise there huh? The second shirt I thought was funny I saw when I was walking to school. It was a downs syndrome girl whose shirt read, “Keep staring, I might do a trick.” LOL . And finally there was a little girl whose shirt said, “If you're rich, I'm single”. This reminds me of something. As soon as I began observing classes and introducing myself to my students, many of the girls asked if I was married and had a girlfriend. Well I knew it would be easier to say yes, I have a girlfriends back home so I told them yes. Then the teachers told me later that many of the girls wanted to be my girlfriend. That worried me a lot because the teachers didn't even bat an eye at that, and they thought it was normal. I guess its not too taboo for a young girl to date an older man, and I am talking about a 16 year old girl with a 26 or 27 year old guy. Just walking to class today I saw one of my students who is prolly about 15 or 16, and she was leaning against the church across the street and she was kissing a guy who looked like he had to be about 30. This really worries me, but here I guess it's normal.
One last thing before I let you go here. We have to co-plan with our teachers before we teach. Co-planning consists of us looking at the book, and what they are required to teach and us deciding some time of activity for the students. I have a policy that if we do not co-plan (without good reason), then I will not teach with them but rather I will go to class and observe. So I asked one of the teachers when he wanted to co-plan and he said on Monday at 7:40 am. Well I got to the school, and looked around for him for a while and went to the teacher's lounge and found out that he had left to go home; when I checked my watch, it was 7:46 am. Well on Tuesday I went to school, he handed me the book and said, “You are going to teach this” and then proceeded to walk to the back of the room and sit in a chair like he always does when I teach. (He sits in the back of the room and watches me teach the entire hour). I had had enough, so I told him that I wouldn't be teaching anything because we didn't co plan. He then responded with, “Well, you never showed up, I waited but you never came.” I couldn't do anything but laugh, because he tells me that I was late after I spent a good 10 minutes looking for HIM and HE already left to go home. Anyways I asked him when he would like to co-plan so I can start teaching again. He said he wanted to co-plan Tuesday at 8:20. So I made sure that I was going to get to the school on time, and about a block away from school I saw him riding towards me on his bike. I waved him down and asked him where he was going and he responded, “I didn't think you were going to come because you never came yesterday.” I answered, “Well I DID come yesterday, and I am here today. This is my job, I always come to school, and I am always here on time.” With an arrogant voice he asked me, “Well what time is it anyways”? It was 8:15. Then he responded with something like oh well you've finally arrived on time. So he was upset that he had to turn around and go back to school, and we went upstairs and began to co plan. After co-planning for our first class that I was going to teach, he decided to tell me that I am supposed to co-plan ALL of his classes; meaning the classes I teach with him and the classes he teaches alone. I told him that I am only worried about the classes that we teach together, because he asked me to co-plan his other classes for him last week and I agreed. Once I helped him decide what he should teach, we asked me if I could make all the materials he would need for the classes. I told him that I didn't have the materials to create the things he would need, and he responded by telling me that it wouldn't cost me too much, but he couldn't afford to do it because he gets paid to little. LOL I just am not sure what to do. I know that when we have the summer break during November, December and January, I am going to keep one of the teachers I currently work with and find 2 new ones. I am here to HELP the teachers, not do everything for them...ya know?!? I realize that working with me actually adds MORE work for them, but if they want to better their English and learn how to incorporate fun activities and different methodologies into their classes, they will have to WANT to work with me, and I completely understand if they don't have the time, as some of them have 2-3 jobs and work 7 days a week just to pay the bills.

OK WOW this blog entry seems really negative, and seems like I am having a difficult time here, but really I just needed to vent a few things, and I honestly couldn't be enjoying my time here any more thank I am. I have met a lot of cool people, and things are going better with my family and my students and my third teacher I work with makes up for everything else. She is SOOOOOO eager to learn and is always asking me how she could make her lessons better, and to be honest (which I tell her) she is doing everything that many teachers lack. She brings in pictures for the students, brings in realia (things students can touch) and has the students come to the board to participate.

Well here are a few pictures I have recently taken that I thought I would throw up on the internet.

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Ok a few days later, I think I may have found a place to live, not sure but in the process of negotiating prices.


Boy sleeping outside my house


Food I eate, gallo pinto, fried bananas, and fried cheese


view of my host familys house


everyone in Granada chillin out