Kukra Hill
Kukra Hill is the name of my permanent site assignment. It is a small (3,000 person) community on Nicaragua’s Atlantic/Caribbean coast. While here isn’t much that I can tell you about the place without having been there—as it only appears in my Lonely Planet guide in passing reference to “Activities” in and around Bluefields—, I can say that Kukra Hill is located in the RAAS department of the country, the southern half of the two departments that stretch the length of the Atlantic coast. The acronym RAAS translates roughly to “Southern Atlantic Autonomous Region”, a title well-earned not only for the greater political autonomy enjoyed in the region due to its elevated proportion of indigenous and non-Hispanic communities, but also for its cultural and economic uniqueness.
Another fact that I can relate to you is that the population of Kukra Hill is of mixed African, Indigenous, and Hispanic heritage that the predominant language of the city (and the greater region) is Creole with Spanish coming in a not-so-close second.
I will be leaving for Kukra Hill this Tuesday and staying there for one week during which time I will hopefully meet me soon-to-be counterpart teachers, new host family, and the rest of the community. The trip from Managua is an unfortunate 13 hours by bus (to Rama), panga (motorboat to Bluefields), and another panga the rest of the way. Finally, as the first TEFL volunteer in the community I will hopefully be able to establish a solid foundation on which future PCVs will be able to work in the community and the region.
Also, above you’ll find a video of a band (Dimensión Costeña) that my host brother here, in Masatepe, made me download when I told him where my permanent site will be.
