Diakachimba

Phoebe, Shohta, and I have settled nicely into our house a few blocks from central park. We have a lovely house with a big open space, kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom downstairs, and two bedrooms and one bathroom upstairs. Phoebe and I live upstairs and each have a shower in our rooms, which is awesome. We've explored the market thoroughly. We can buy anything from street food, to fruit, shampoo, rice, veggies, flip flops, bras, notebooks...the list goes on. It's all packed into a small area. People just throw garbage on the ground, but someone comes around with a garbage wagon to sweep it up. Two more interns arrived this week, Margot and Corie, so six interns went with Gilberts and Marcela (the Nicaraguan employees of People Helping People Global) to the Friday repayment meetings with the group leaders. On Fridays, we meet with a total of 6 group leaders. The first two leaders have 'Pulperias' or little convenient stores. Some of the other popular businesses of our clients are firewood cutting, selling clothes or other goods in the market, and there is even one dentist. I think I'm starting to get a better idea of the layout of the community. Shohta is working on a map of the area which we can then fill in and add more details, such as specific houses and landmarks, to help us get around when we don't have the guidance of Marcela and Gilberts. The picture is of some of the kids at the third or fourth group leaders house. They were super excited when Margot started taking pictures of them, so I had to join in and catch one of them posing for the camera. After our visits to the group leaders, we were asking Marcela and Gilberts about Nicaraguan slang and how to say things like 'cool.' They taught us 'dia kachimba' which means something along the lines of 'cool' or 'awesome' if someone asks you how you feel. On our way back to our house, we passed this little old lady selling merengues on the corner. So we decided to buy some. She counted our change for us in English, so Phoebe asked her how she knows English and she launched into her family history, telling us about her 9 children and how she was a nurse (we think that's what she said, but something might have been lost in translation). The merengues were too sweet for our liking, but we will stop and chat next time we pass her. Side Note: On our walk from house to house on Friday, we came across the coolest plant. It looks like a tiny fern, but when you touch the leaves, it folds and closes. Part of what we'll be doing this summer is working on independent projects, such as the map, quality of life surveys, and making small videos to send to donors. Phoebe and I are trying to gauge the health needs of the community to see if there is a health education program we can incorporate into the micro-lending model. We found out that visits to the local health center are free. However, prescription drugs are not. We plan on visiting the health center early Monday to ask them questions to find out more about the health problems specific to the communities we're working with.