A Week in the life of Avi Richman

In a previous comment to my blog, Dr. Deena Safer Richman, better known as my mom, asked me to post something about my day-to-day activities. So as she is my mom and has been sending me great packages of food and presents, I feel compelled to agree to her request. So here is my life from Sunday after the Jags “our season could have been over” victory.

Sunday

I hopped out of the bar in a joyous mood, not only because the Jags won, but also because I did not spend any money. I only watched the last quarter and a half and they know I am a PC volunteer so I can get away with it. So walking back home, wearing my Garrard jersey proudly for the first time this season, I entered my lovely mansion and screamed at the top of my lungs “F$%^ Yeah”. It was one of those moments that called for excessive screaming and celebration. Anyways in the middle of one of the gleeful screams, I heard “Buenas” at my door followed by my name. Instead of saying “Hello, is anyone there” like we would do in the States (or we might ring a doorbell or knock), most everybody here just yells “Buenas” to announce that they are at the door. At the front door was this man who has been helping me to find a good, used bicycle and he told me that he had find one. We agreed that I would go to his house the next day at 5:45pm to see the bike, meet the owner, exchange the cash, etc. A little bit later, Dianne (one of my sitemates) came over for a quick conversation and to use the internet. Then it rained. It rained intensely. So intensely, in fact, that it flooded a good portion of the house. Now we aren’t talking ankle deep water but the rain basically made everything wet. Anyways, as soon as it stops raining, I get a phone call from one of my counterpart teachers and he tells me he is coming over. Earlier we had agreed to meet that night in order to plan for our class Monday morning but because of the rain I figured the meeting would be cancelled. I was very impressed that he called and came over and we discussed the class for the next day, the upcoming competition, etc. Then he left, I ate a peanut butter and banana sandwich for dinner, and then probably watched too much tv before going to sleep.

Monday

I woke up around 6:30am to the sun brightly shining into my room, but did not get out of bed until 7:45pm. I fed the dog, ate some cereal for breakfast, then got dressed and headed out to the high school, Mercedes Mondragon, for my 8:30am class. Being in Granada, I do not really get to have many “typical” Peace Corps experiences but my walk to this school is one of them. In order to get to the school I have to walk through one of the city’s arroyos (brook in Spanish; and in Granada they all lead out to the lake helping to drain the city of water and of all its trash as people just dump it in the arroyo) and have to cross it using stones and cement bags placed by the locals. My shoes normally get wet but that is about it. After crossing the arroyo, I then walk through a very, very poor neighborhood of tin houses and then make it to the school. Just so you know, I could go a different route to get to the school but that way is the fastest and I enjoy the scenery. Once I get school, I greet the doorman and then go to my classroom of 4^th year, 10^th grade students. My counterpart and I start off the class by quieting them down and telling them that the competition will officially be next Monday. This is the competition in which all the students must present their business plans in front of judges to see whose is the best and who will advance to the regional competition. Then I took over the reins and taught the class a quick lesson about mercadotecnia which I think translates to marketing. We discussed the 4 Ps, producto, precio, promoccion, y plaza, and I taught them how to make a good slogan and that a name really isn’t that important in a business….you just need one. We played a game where I passed them all post it notes with either a business or a slogan on it (all Nicaraguan companies) and they then had to match it up with another student. It was a rapid-fire lesson as we then moved onto discussing the upcoming competition and reminding them of the requirements.

I left the school around 11am after briefly talking to the director about the competition and then headed to my NGO for a quick hello and back to my house for lunch. I ate another peanut butter sandwich, this time toasted, and told myself that I needed to make some real food dinner. I then left the house around 12:25pm to make the 25 minute walk to Carmelo Noguera, another one of my high schools. Upon arrival, I immediately headed into the computer lab because it is air conditioned and I am usually covered in sweat after the walk. 1pm marks the beginning of class so along with another of my counterparts, I headed there. We had scheduled the competition at this school for Thursday but I felt like they weren’t going to be ready so I mentioned to my counterpart that we should move it back to the next week. He agreed and so we told the first class about this change and then discussed the rules/requirements of the competition. I did most of the talking during this period even though usually I do little to no talking at this school as my counterpart takes full control (even though he barely ever teaches a real lesson). During second period I have a break so I chatted with the secretary about cost of living in Granada and had class 3-5 periods. In all of the classes I gave information about the competition but during one was called outside by my counterpart. He told me that he thinks we should tell all the students that the competition will still be on Thursday so they get everything ready on time and then we will tell them of the switch during Wednesday’s class. I liked his idea but also don’t like the idea of lying to people so I told him that I would prefer if we just made everything due on Thursday and still told them about the date of the competition. I do not think we reached a conclusion but he went back into the class to tell them that the date of the competition was not changed and would be on Thursday. Looks like he listened to me! During the last period, the bell rang early and all the students went home at 5pm instead of 6pm because of some teacher’s meeting. I started the hike back to central Granada to look at my bike.

Passing through the park, I saw the man who was helping me with the bike (fortunately because he obviously wasn’t at his house) and he told me to wait for him and he would bring the kid who had the bike. So I went to my house and waited and sure enough the bike arrived soon thereafter. I inspected it even though I know nothing about bikes, tested it out, and then negotiated the price. As I didn’t have enough money on me at the time, I took the bike for a ride to the ATM to take out cash and returned to pay the kid. FINALLY AFTER WEEKS OF SEARCHING, I had a bike. I was very happy! I already made plans to take the bike the next morning to the shop to get everything oiled up, fixed up, and working like new.

I then hurriedly walked to Pali, the closest supermarket, to buy some food for dinner. I already had a TON of veggies in the fridge leftover from our tailgating party on Saturday and I was going to make a stir-fry so I bought some chicken, broccoli, and rice. Long story short, the food was amazing and I immediately declared it the best dinner I have ever made. Then I had a coke float with vanilla ice cream, watched the tele, then went to bed. No complaints here.

Tuesday

Tuesdays and Fridays are my off days from teaching but still I have other errands and work to do with my NGO. However, I do normally take advantage of the “off” day by sleeping a bit later so I woke up around 9:30am and made breakfast. Then I took my bike to the nearby repair shop so they could look at it, fix it up, and make it run like new. The owner was pretty helpful and just told me to leave it with him and to come back and pick it up the next day. I told him I did not want to do any repairs until I knew the price of them (this seems obvious) and that I would be back the next morning. Then I ran back home to get on some gym clothes and on the way to the gym decided to stop off at the bishop’s house in order to try to reclaim my Frisbee.

So why did the bishop have my Frisbee? Excellent question…brilliant I might say. About two weeks ago, a bunch of my Peace Corps buddies were in town and we were throwing Frisbee in central park when an errant (errant is gracious) throw by one of my friends went up into the second story of the bishop’s house (the huge red house from one of my old pictures). We went to ring the doorbell but no one was home and we were told that no one would be back until the following Wednesday as it was the holidays. I have been back twice before this final visit only to be greeted rudely and told that they could not find a Frisbee. I figured I would give it one last shot so went and ended up waiting for 45 minutes just to speak to this monk-woman. She wouldn’t even let me go up to the house to look for it and just told me once again that they looked and it wasn’t there. Such bullshit! I watched it go up there and heard it land. Well, I guess someone in the church now has a new Frisbee!

Anyways it was already too late to go to the gym so instead I went back to eat and then headed to the NGO for a couple good hours of work. Met with the boss, discussed some possible new projects for me and it was all good. Finally I made it to the gym after that and then went to a friend’s birthday party at one the Spanish schools in town. I ate lots of cake, chatted with some new people, got some candy from the piñata, and overall had a good time. No drinking though…I put a ban on that for a while because I felt like I had partied a bit too much during the vacations with all my friends. It is time for work, play will come later.

Wednesday

I woke up with stomachache for the second day in a row. I wonder if the ice cream on consecutive nights has anything to do with it J. I tried to leave the house a few times to make it to my class but just quite couldn’t so I called my counterpart to say I would be late and then did, in fact, arrive late feeling better from the morning stomachache. For the 19^th consecutive time I gave my class the rundown of the competition and requirements for their presentation. This class actually is prepared and I am expecting big things from them. I then hopped on the circular bus (called the ruta) back to central Granada, went to the ATM to get needed cash, and then went to the cell phone store to start my own business Avi Richman, Inc. Basically I am getting my cell phone minutes for 5 percent below the exchange rate and I can resell these minutes at a higher rate and also sell them to myself….I have always loved to beat the system. This is a very very common micro business here in Nicaragua and I felt like I should be at one with my people. So I am now an official recargador (recharger man)!

I then shuffled over to the bike shop to see how much the repairs would cost and lo and behold, the repairs were already done and I had a bill. Because it wasn’t too high, I just went ahead and paid it and moved on with my day instead of complaining to the owner. Now being the owner of a new bike, I hopped on it and went out to Carmela Noguera for class. After the first hour of classes, I learned that school would be ending early today because of an upcoming band competition. Even though only like 5 percent of the school is in the band, the entire school had to go watch band practice for the last two hours of the day. Have I mentioned that they miss a lot of class?!?! So my day ended early, I went home, went to the gym to get huge, cooked some more stir fry, did laundry, and chilled. I also believe I had a nice, long conversation with my little brother on Skype. It was nice to have a relaxing evening for the first time in a long time.

Thursday

I woke up a 6:30am again due to noise and sun but didn’t get out of bed until 9am. I decided I should go to the NGO to show my face and do a bit of work then rewarded myself with a chocobanana (only costs 1 cordoba or 5 cents). A chocolate covered banana for 5 cents…honestly the best deal in the universe. Then I came home to get ready for my Thursday afternoon class at the rural school. I was ready early so decided to take the yellow school bus to the school instead of the micro buses in order to save between 2-5 cordobas. Normally the big bus is a bit slower but not too bad. However, this time the bus took 40 minutes for what should be a 10-15 minute trip and I was pissed. Sitting in the seat behind the bus driver, I yelled at him for going to slow and he just ignored my comment. Anyway, I was late to school and was already in a bad mood that was just made worse when not one single one of my student groups had brought their completed business plans. I told them that if they weren’t going to do their assigned work then there was really no reason for me to be there and left the classroom. Not sure if this plan of mine was effective at all but I went directly to the directora to ask her to speak with the class about the importance of the competition. She said some strong words to the students who seemed to listen attentively and then left the class to me. I then took back control of the class explaining my disappointment in them and that they had until Monday to complete the business plan or there would be no competition. Normally these are good kids so I felt bad about yelling at them but they really left me no choice. So we will have to see if they actually do their assigned work the second time around now. Before I left the school, I chatted with Glorida, the woman who runs the snack stand, and Jacqueline, one of the English teachers who is a really cool woman.

Got back home around 3:30pm to eat a late lunch, then took off on the bike to meet with Charly, a business owner and volunteer firefighter in Granada. The meeting was scheduled to talk about my future work with the firefighters (they want me to organize the business and help them in administration and fundraising) and he gave me a detailed rundown of everything that was going on. I’m really not sure how involved I am going to end up being in this project but it seems interesting enough in the meantime. I made it back with just enough time to make some food and sit down to watch the season premiere of “The Office”. Oh, how I love this show and gracias a dios I get to watch it even in Nicaragua! I am even teared up when Jim finally proposed to Pam. Then I walked the dog, showered, and starting writing this daily diary of sorts for Mommy.

Friday

Friday is another non-school day for me but on this particular Friday I still had to go to school. Why? Because in the morning of the last Friday of every month, all the teachers around the country have municipal meetings called TEPCEs (taller educativa para capacitaciones or something like that). During the TEPCE, all the teachers get together in their respective subject areas in order to discuss the last month and plan for the upcoming month. In theory, this is a good idea as it gives teachers a break for the kids and a chance to discuss techniques, have training, etc but in practice I think it fails on numerous accounts. The main failures according to me are that kids miss even more school, the teachers spent most of the time in the meetings doing paperwork, and no one seems to like having to go the meetings. So I woke up at 8am on Friday in order to arrive at the school by 9am just in time to meet with my counterparts. We talked briefly about the competition and then I left promptly at 10:30am. Friday was HOT….we are talking like sun beating down, 100 degree weather hot. So on the way back to central Granada I stopped in at one the hotels to ask the owner, a friend of mine, if I could use her pool. She let me know that her personal pool was having work done at it but that I, and the two girls, could use the hotel pool later that day. Sweet! So I hopped back on my bike and then made my next stop at the Casa de Tres Mundos which is a cultural center right off of Parque Central. The purpose of this pit stop was to ask them if they could possibly donate their facilities for my regional competition of the student businesses. The regional competition will be between the best groups of all of my four schools with the top two advancing to the national competition in November. I went to the office and gave them my elevator pitch and they told me to return at 4pm when the director was there so I could ask him personally. As I was heading out of the office, a woman stopped me and asked if she could interview me. I responded “por supuesto pero sobre que?” or for all you English speakers out there “of course but about what?” She just wanted to interview me about the competition and my volunteer work for the radio station. So no more than 5 minutes later yours truly was live on the radio talking about my work as a small business volunteer in Granada. I did not even have time to be nervous. So I can check already check off writing in a newspaper and being interviewed on the radio in Nicaragua. Anyways, I really want to hear a tape of my interview so I can hear myself in Spanish.

Moving on with my day, I went straight to my NGO to have a meeting with Carolina, a colleague of mine, in order to begin to create a guide to be used to follow up with all of the micro entrepreneurs with whom we work. I then returned home to strip off my clothes, sit underneath a fan, and eat lunch. Watched some tele and was literally frozen due to the heat. I finally budged around 2:30pm in order to go to the hotel pool and hang out in the water for an hour. Hung out, chatted it up with the maids, cooled off, then ran back home to change for my meeting with the director of Casa de Tres Mundos, the cultural center and possible site for the regional competition. Went to the place, met with the guy, we discussed all the details, and then only at the very end was I told of the C$1500 cost. I wrongfully assumed that someone had filled him in on the conversation from earlier but he did not realize that I was looking for free space. Anyways, after he thought about it for 30 seconds he agreed to do it all for free!!! Yay! So the regional competition is in the center of Granada in a very visible place and is going to be awesome! I was pumped and surprised at how easy it was.

I then returned to my NGO to do all my printing and preparation for the competition and successfully completed it all around 6:30pm, just in time to watch the presidential debates. Some friends came over to watch the debate and we ordered delivery pizza for “halftime”. I found the debate pretty interesting as I am very emotionally involved in this upcoming election. I really want Obama to win as he think he will be by far the better representative of the United States on a global level. I think McCain is a good guy with a good record of public service but it just seems like it will be more of the same. For all of you who haven’t noticed yet, the US is literally going down the drain right now in world opinion and as a superpower. We have lost A LOT in the past 8 years: respect, money, power, to name the major things. We really really do need a dramatic change in the way we run our country in order to build it back up to the respected country we once were.

Another interesting thing to mention about Friday is that I met up with my Couchsurfing friend. The CouchSurfing Project is a facebook like social networking site specifically for travelers who want to meet new people by staying on someone’s couch, offering a couch, or just going out for a drink. As I am now semi-settled in Granada, I decided to make myself available for the many couch surfers that will be coming through. The guy’s name was Cody, he is from California, and has been traveling for around 8 months through Latin America. Cool guy, he ended up hanging out with my PC visiting friends and me Friday and Saturday night.

Saturday

I was awoken with a phone ring. This man who I have not met got my name/number from another person who told him I was looking for a place to stay. He said that he and his wife are moving away from Nicaragua indefinitely and were looking for someone to take over their small house. We planned to meet later in the day and he would take me to see the house. I was really hoping that he would charge me nothing and that I could just take care of this nice little place…the perfect situation for me. Anyways, went back to sleep for a bit then ate a quick breakfast, a slice of pizza leftover and a banana, and then headed to the gym with Goggins (who is visiting this weekend). Then I came back home, showered, and heated up leftovers from the delicious stir fry. I also happened to see the Gators were tied with Ole Miss so I tuned into the live internet radio broadcast. Anyways while I ate, I heard the Gators score the tying touchdown, miss the extra point, and then miss a 4^th and inches with the Heisman Trophy winner qb Tebow. Un-friggin-believable! I was in shock and actually still am. How do you lose to Ole Miss at home?

The afternoon wrapped up with my first real basketball game in Granada. I played with a group of guys I had met a couple of weeks ago and it was an unfair fight. We played against high-schoolers, two of which were my students!! We won handily, easily, and I missed 4-5 layups due to my suckiness. Another game is tomorrow so hopefully I will play better.

And this is where the journal stops…for now. Hope you made it through it all and now understand more or less what my life is like on a daily basis. Every single day is different and filled with surprises. This is why I love my life right now…this is how life should be. It should keep you on your toes, keep you challenged, and keep you learning. And when that stops, one must seek it out or move onto something new, which I am prepared to do.

Love, Avi

ps. excuse all the unavoidable grammatical errors and misspellings in the post. I did not feel like going back and editing.

Peace at Last

Ah….exhale…inhale…relax. Finally, after ten straight days of visitors, I have a few moments of absolute peace and tranquility and some time to write and catch up. The last ten days have been absolutely crazy, fun, and a bit stressful, with a lot of my Peace Corps buddies coming into Granada to visit me, take advantage of our five days of vacation (that just kinda happened), and stay with me in an incredible house that I am taking care of currently. So starting last Friday (the 12th), I have had at least two people staying with me every single night. They came from Jinotega, Matagalpa, Costa Rica, Chinandega, la isla de Ometepe, Chontales, Boaco, Esteli, and Masaya. I tried to get someone from every single department but ultimately failed. While my guests were here, we basically just partied, bummed around Granada, cooked amazing food, and enjoyed the time off of teaching and working.

Let me back up a bit…..I am currently taking care of a foreigner’s house who is back home on vacation so I just have to take care of her dog and be responsible in exchange for getting to live rent-free for 3 weeks and use her amazing house with cable, internet, washer/dryer, fully stocked kitchen, library, couches, etc. Not a bad deal if I do say so myself! I am going to post a video tour of the house shortly so you can all see an example of a Spanish colonial style house. So being here, also means that I moved out of my host family’s house. Although I was a little sad to leave, I couldnt pass up this opportunity to live in a sick house rent-free. I didnt even realize until a few weeks ago that I had been living with host family’s for 9 of the last 10 months of my life! How crazy is that?!? Anyways, I am enjoying my independence, learning how to cook some Nica food on my own, and really learning about cost of living and prices here. The owner of the house is going to come back on October 1st and then I am going to make my way to another foreigner’s house for at least the month where I will be renting a room. The owner wont actually be in the house but his cuidador lives there so it will just be the two of us hanging out. This next house, though, is not nearly as luxurious as my current house so it will be quite another change.

So about this vacation that just sprung up on me….well the 14th and 15th of September turned out to be Independence Day from the Spanish crown for all of Central America so of course there are parades and parties. Also we got Tuesday and Wednesday off because of course everyone needed time to rest after their days off. I just want to make it absolutely clear, how little school there is here. So I have now been teaching for eight full weeks and during this time we have missed class for the fiestas patronales, the literacy campaign, two exam weeks, and the Independence Day celebrations. So for those keeping score at home, out of the 8 weeks, I’m pretty sure only 4 consisted of classes. And people wonder why Nicaragua is third world….look no further than the educational system.

Anyways, I am not complaining about the time off as I had a wonderful time with my friends but at the same time felt guilty as I feel that I really havent accomplished anything in site as of yet. I have been working, or at least trying to, but with little results so far. I still feel like I am getting my feet wet in many respects even though 8 weeks should be long enough to be a little soaked. But in a big city like Granada (at least by Nica standards) everything takes a bit longer. I just finally found a used bicycle for a decent price so now I can get to class without sweating my ass off, walking through the blistering heat. So I am becoming a better teacher and my relationships with my students and counterparts are improving by the week but due to a lack of continuity everything seems a bit more jagged.

So what else is up with Avi? I started working out and playing basketball. I, along with some other UF and UT grads, tailgated and watched the UF-UT football game. Go Gators! I have seen parts of every single Jaguars game and screamed with joy after Scobee hit the field goal. Go Jags! In some ways, life is pretty normal right now but still it is challenging living in another culture. I am struggling making Nica friends and right now only count two girls as actual friends. I know a lot of people here as I do like to socialize but havent really made many friends. It is partially due to the fact that Nicaraguans are so different when it comes to relationships/friendships and partially because I dont want to completely trust anybody yet. One has to be extra careful in choosing friends here!

Honestly, I am really happy down here, and feel as if things are only going to get better as I get more involved in my work, make more friends, and begin to involve myself in the community. I have lots of another funny stories, etc that I want to share with you and now that I have some time to think/write, I will be doing that. Just realize that when I dont post it usually means I am having too much fun to sit down at a computer and write a post….so its a good thing. But I hope yall are continuing to read my articles in the Mandarin Sun and pretty soon I think I am going to start writing for Peace Corps. I will keep you updated on that….

Mom, the next post will be about a typical day for me….its just that the last couple of weeks havent been typical.

send me mail!

It’s Getting Warmer Over Here…

And I am not just talking the fact that it has been a brutal 95 degrees for the past 3 days. If you are a fellow news follower such as myself, you may have noticed some interesting stories over the past few days. The headlines are as follows:

1. Nicaragua becomes the world’s second country (Russia was first) to officially recognize the breakaway provinces of Georgia.

2. US Secretary of Commerce cancels his visit to Nicaragua in light of the headline above. Supposedly this guy was one of Ortega’s closer friends.

3. Bolivia’s president Evo Morales publicly declares that the US Ambassador is a persona non grata meaning that he is no longer welcome in the country. Morales claims that he is helping to fuel the anti-government protests going on right now.

4. Venezuela psycho president Hugo Chavez declares that the US Ambassador has 72 hours to leave the country, declaring his solidarity with Bolivia and saying that when the US has another president he may reestablish diplomatic relations.

So far we have yet to hear from Daniel (as Daniel Ortega is so lovingly called in this country; remember the entire country has only 5.5 million so everyone knows each other) BUT as a betting man, I am putting down a lot of pesos that he will be speaking up shortly. I am actually sitting here a bit worried about what he will say. In my head right now, I am thinking that it is very possible that he will follow suit “in solidarity with his brothers” and decide to kick out the US Ambassador. And where do you think that would leave Peace Corps? Probably not in Nicaragua! Anyways, my Tio Jorge and I discussed this exact topic before I ultimately made the decision to come to Nicaragua so I know that it was a possibility that I wouldnt make it through two years. Honestly, I dont think that Ortega will kick out the Ambassador (as there is no reason to) but if he does it really makes you think….

Who are these big babies running the world these days? There just seems to be a lot of bickering, fighting, killing, and name-calling in the news especially with the new leftist Latin American leaders and the United States…..and this includes the US leaders. Why is it that government has to stoop to such a low level to connect with its people? The fact that it works sometimes, what does this say about us as people? I have started to follow the US presidential elections a bit more closely now as well the elections are getting closer. And I just want to ask of both the candidates that they actually be the men they say they are and behave in a mature, presidential manner. I honestly think it is pathetic when grown men just basically gossip and call each other names. It especially is pathetic when they use the media as their means of doing it. I just dont understand why more world leaders dont just stand up for what they believe in and talk about why what they stand for will work. I really think the world needs more leaders who behave this way.

When you stop and think about it, world politics is just one big soap opera with characters getting killed off every few seasons, new villains emerging, and alliances always changing. All in all is quite interesting…but just imagine what could be done if the world leaders were actually focused on real issues such as poverty, education, and health instead of playing toward their audience and worrying about each other.

Anyways I have set the odds at 3-1 that Ortega will make a speech in the next 3 days declaring that the Yanquis need to mind their own business and stay out of Latin America and 12-1 that he will kick out the ambassador.

Time to rock and roll!

One Giant Leap for Avi’s Tongue

Huge news today! I was telling a fellow professor my name and when it got to my last name he asked me how to spell it. I then responded of course with R-I-C and he interrupted me and asked whether it was a R or a RR meaning that he couldnt tell by my pronunciation of the R. Meaning that I can now roll my Rs relatively well. My tongue is finally working in the Spanish language! Yay! I am still unable to roll my Rs just on my own but within words I can do it quite well at this point.

And to respond to my Mom’s previous comment…Yes, I will write my next post about what my daily life is like.

ps. Football has started. Avi is happy. The world is at peace. Well maybe the world isnt at peace but it is close because football has started and Avi is happy.