"Nica Time"

Over the past two weeks, I have accomplished quite a bit. I’ve conducted about 20 more interviews, received permission from more parents and conducted two focus groups. I believe I have yet to describe what my daily schedule is like so here it is. On an average day, I wake up at 7 and start my daily routine, and I leave my house at around 7:30. After a 10 minute walk to the bus stop, 40 minute bus ride to Nandaime and 10 minute ride to Manchon, I finally arrive at the Children’s Wellness Fund clinic, which I suppose is my headquarters, from which I branch to nearby communities in Nandaime. After finishing my work, I usually have very few options to return to Granada. I have to wait for the one clock bus, but if I miss that, I have to wait until 4 o' clock. The bus can come anywhere from 15 minutes before or half an hour after. So an average day includes a lot of waiting.

Made a new friend on my bus ride to work.

When I’m in the community itself, I usually need to wait for one of the brigidistas. There are about 13 brigidistas that work in the Children's Wellness Fund clinic. These brigidistas are scholarship students who received financial aid from Children’s Wellness Fund to pay their tuition for University in return for their work at the clinic and nearby communities. These brigidistas are often my key to networking into schools and setting up interviews and focus groups. It has been especially frustrating when they are consistently late, building my frustration in the teeming tropical sun of Nicaragua. This kind of habitual lateness is so common here that many foreigners refer to as “Nica time” where being late by an hour or more is normal. This kind of habitual stems from its own culture. In contrast with Nicaragua, America has a different concept of time. While Nicaragua has a polychronic view of time, America has a monochronic view of time. To put it simply, in Nicaragua, people are WAY more relaxed with time. Thus, it has been especially hard for me to persist among this frustration, but I have been able to achieve my goals to a certain degree.

Brigidistas giving "charlas" at the clinic.

During times of waiting and when my appointments have been cancelled, I have learned to take advantage of this time to help the community. It took me a while, but I've finally been able to understand that my project goals are only sub-goals of my greater goal of the helping the community in general. Thus, during my free/waiting time, I have also started helping the community through other projects. Working with another student in Manchon, I helped build “fosas” for the community. These fosas are built to reduce the amount of standing water in the Manchon community. In the community, all households wash their clothes and dishes outside. This soapy water does not absorb into the ground and remains stagnant above ground. In order to alleviate this, “fosas” or pits with gravel and sand are built underground, so the soapy water can be absorbed by the ground. Even with this though, soapy water will soon begin to accumulate again, so the conservative estimate of the fosas' lifetime is about an year. I’ve worked with another student to procure the gravel and transfer it to four households to build the fosas. This has involved a lot of physical labor, but it has already started working in two households. This experience has been very rewarding. I’ve also gone around the community to give SODIS, solar water disinfection, workshops and given talks to help the the brigidistas improve their presentation skills.

View at Corn Islands.

During the weekends, I’ve also had the opportunity to travel and experience other parts of Nicaragua. Last weekend, I went to the Corn Islands which is off the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua. It is almost an another world there since it is so secluded from the mainland of Nicaragua. People speak English, Creole and Miskito. It was quite an adventure to figure what language to speak to them since I couldn’t really understand their accented English or creole. In English, they would say things that sounded like “do you have your bat suit?” I was quite confused of what they were referring to and as my friend said, I was quite tempted to respond and say I left it in my bat mobile. In actuality, what they were referring to was a bathing suit and calling it a bathsuit which sounded like bat suit. Overall, the corn island was a good experience though as I was able to experience a different culture. The coconut bread is also delicious which you cannot miss out on if you get a chance to travel there. While there, I was also able to fish and acquire my scuba diving license. Quite an epic trip.