Volunteers are the only human beings on the face of the earth who reflect this nation's compassion, unselfish caring, patience, and just plain love for one another. - Erma Brombeck

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

One month

Wow it's hard for me to imagine that it has been one month in site already. I still feel at times that I am not doing anything but i know that i am. It is just a very slow process. Lets see alot had happened in these last few weeks and yet very little. Life here in my village moves slower then in the US or my training site. Things happen when they happen and people do things when they want to. A different way to look at life. It is peaceful and frustrating at the same time. You have something scheduled and it falls through on that day and time. Then a week later someone says we are doing to meet tomorrow at 4. So you change a few things in your schedule and life goes on. When this happens you grumble under your breath and stomp your foot in privet. On the flip side to that you are never really late for anything except maybe work. Something starts at 4 and you either leave the house then or begin to get ready then. I enjoy this because there is no pressure to get somewhere on time.

A good example of this happening would be the No Violence event that was to take place a week ago. I was in charge of helping with the pinata and doing the games. I had my part done and when it came time to do the pinata only two people came. The date was rescheduled for the following week when no one showed. The following day was to be the meeting to put the finishing touches on the plans for the event and once again no one comes. The day of the event comes and goes and nothing happens. So i ask around and am informed that it has been moved to Jan. date and time unknown. I sigh and nod at least it is not canceled it will still happen.

I have started my group of youth we are doing arts and crafts today would be the third day. Things are going well there is only 8 people as of now but i have faith that it will grow. They all seem enthusiastic to continue and enjoy bracelet making the most so far. I am now looking for more designs to teach them. I find it hard to explain the instructions at times with my limited Spanish but i find that they eventually understand and can do the work correctly. I can only get better and teach them more things. I am using this as a way to show them that trash can be used as a product. Later on I want to teach them a small business class and encourage entrepreneurship. Hopefully this will give them some ideas on what they could do.

I am also in the process of planning an adult basic English lesson and a baking class. Both of which were requests from the community. It will also give me something more to do. The problem is that both have to be at night because that is when adults will be free. I am now currently looking for something to fill my mornings since my nights are busy.

I thinking i could do the garden and i am but there are many barriers that i am running into. The ground here is very hard almost imposable to break through. I have been soaking it with water to form a mud like mixture then breaking to soil that way. Long and hard work and very impractical. I contacted Peace Corps for an idea and got the response to get a tone of cow poop and form a mound over the garden and use that. Now I have the joy of finding and scooping cow poop. Isn't my life grand here? Once i have all of my poop I am going to recruit little ones to help me with the planting and shifting etc.

On the social end of things. It is hard to break the circle and get people to open up. It is always the same conversation when i try to talk to people. Where are you from, what is your name, what did you study, how long have you been here, do you like Nicaragua and my village etc. I wan to break out of this to get to what they like to do and have a real conversation. There is only one person in town that i really talk to. I mean like a real conversation. It is amazing and releasing to have someone like that. It has taken time to find her now i just have to find others like her. In time I'm sure all of this will work out fine and my site will become home. Now don't get me wrong i love it here and i feel happen here. Just adjustment is difficult.

My family is Jehovah Witness and I am currently going to their services which is an interesting experience. Not my kind of religion but i am learning Spanish this was and I am meeting people so kill two birds with one stone. They don't really celebrate holidays so my Christmas this year will be very different than usual. I am thinking of seeing if i can join in on my counterparts celebrations but i don't want to intrude. This will be a very delicate line that i am walking on.

I have started my Spanish lessons and it is going surprisingly well. I have them almost everyday and we are going over basic sentence structure and pronunciation. My tutor is my mom who is also the Spanish teacher at the high school. I hope that i start to improve faster now. It is tiresome not be able to say what i want to people. I also have to break out of my shell and get out more to talk to more people. Easier said then done.

Ah one last things or so i think. I have made a shaky friendship with one of the kids that lives next door. He invited me to his farm the other day. He is also the one who is going top help me with the poop. He has a bunch of cows and i got to see milking being done. Very fascinating in it's own way. As well as help herd cow to the pasture. If only i got to help with the milking didn't ask didn't want to so anything wrong and ruin things. They had a great system going.

Until next time, love you all and miss you. XOXOXO

Saturday, December 10, 2011

1st two weeks in site

So alot has happened i have been in site for two plus weeks now. It has been a busy two weeks yet at the same time it doesn't feel like it. I feel like I am not getting anything done and very lonely. Yet i have to remind myself that it has only been two weeks. It is hard just starting off and i knew it would be but it is not what I was expecting. I'm not necessarily sad more like just am not happy not sad, not angry not excited just am. Very strange feeling.

So I got to my site the night of Thanksgiving at about 4:00. I unpacked and ate dinner and went to bed. It takes up to 3 1/2-4 hours to get to my site and I was tired. The 1st few days was me greeting my professor and getting to know the village some. I started a community map and mama brought me around to meet some of her friends which helped break the ice.

The next week I had two days of classes where I observed classes and talked with professors. I even co-taught one English class. It went surprisingly well and i really like that teacher. I hope he is back next year. I spent this week talking with people and planning my youth group which is making arts and crafts. It will start on the 19th or December and go for 5 weeks. I still have to hand out the flyers to the youth here. I will do that tomorrow I hope that some of them show up. I went to Leon the region capital and bought some things for my room like a dresser and fan. That Friday I went to a woman's group it was very organized and had about 30 woman in it. They all did topics ranging from youth to environment and politics. There were a few woman per section. Right now they are working on a No Violence day which i am helping out in. I will be planing the carnival games and helping with the pinata. It should all be really fun and it will be my first community event. It is taking place next Saturday.

I have participated in graduation which is a bit different and yet the same here. The students are escorted to the stage by their parent either a mom or dad. They are given an certificate and some of them a ring of excellence or hard work etc. Some give presents to their teachers. It took place in the community rec center. A big area with a stage. Then the teachers (an me) are called up to sit. The first time they did that I was so confused as to why i was going up. I haven't taught classes yet and in my eyes have to position being up there but i went anyways. Afterwards the pass out food the the teachers and there is more pictures taking. Then later on is a dance! Which is loads of fun. I am being taught different dances!

This week I have the cold which is dragging my down and I have not been very productive but I have got some planning done. Next week it's back to work or so i hope this cold is gone by then. I am also helping one of the teachers daughters with her English homework. Rather hard in my eyes it's is about drugs and alcohol with alot of technical words in it. I will do the best I can to explain things with my limited Spanish.

Talking about Spanish my mom is going to tutor me in Spanish! I can tell that i am getting better just being here but i still have along ways to go. I can't wait to be fluent. That is all for now catch you up again later. Love and Miss you all.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Second training site

Hola todos,

I am currently in my next trainning site which I am at for three days. I am almost done and will be going to my site on Thursday! I can´t wait. It is really hard to use a Spanish keyboard! Miss my computer but it is packed away. I really like my family here but time seems to be going really slowly and i just want to get started.

I have some great ideas for my site. I want to start a recycling program and trash collection. I want to build a park for the children to play maybe in the school. I want to plant more trees at the school and surrounding areas. There is a serious lack of trees and shade. I also want to get some other volunteers to start a small buisness compotition where youth from there towns come up with an idea for a product and how they could sell this product. Then they will come together and compete for the best product the winners get some money to start up their busness. I don´t know how this will turn out but I hope that I get to try it. I want to start a youth group the first few months there doing manualidades or crafts using trash. Like baselets, bags, earing ect. We have to do a youth group anyways so I might as well do soemthing like that. Let see what else. I want to learn more about the womans group in town and what they are doing maybe i can help out.

Classes I guess and going well but i don´t feel like I am going to get much out of it that i couldn´t get from the village. Maybe some pronounciation stuff that thats is about it. But that will be very useful so it is a good thing in the long run.

Friday, November 18, 2011

Finally a Volunteer!

Hey i got a new key board so now i can actually type which is amazing! I did my poem during the ceremony and i am going to copy it here so that those that can read Spanish can read it. Those that can't can have it translated for you or just make up what you think it says. The ceremony was great a bit long up fun. I am trying to get a recording of it and hopefully i can show it to you guys. That is only if i can get permission to post it. I don't want to break any security rules.

To night we get a thanksgiving dinner at one of the staff's houses which i am looking forward to. It will be a fun and alto of yummy food. There will be a talent show as well and I will be reading another poem. LOL. This time i didn't write it but i like the message that it says. I'll write that one down too. I will miss a few of the staff members here it will be hard being at post for the first few months.

I am not looking forward to the loneliness and the hardship of finding friends. I can't wait for the service to start though. It will be hard but i can work thought it. just forcing yourself out of your house everyday and get involved in things. To just go out and thrive. Which is easier said than done.

Poem for tonight:
who among up could deny that we were tested? But how look at us every person is stronger. Now there is something like light. Prosses is being made. We have removed the rot and we are strenghtening the foundations. There is much work to do and we all know what needs to be done. We can only do the work. SO let up get up early and stay late. Brick by brick and block by block let us get that work done. If we can picture it then it can be done. Ludicrous dreams followed by hours, days and years of work and then a reality that surpasses our wildest hopes and expectations.

Ceremony poem:

En mi Cuerpo de Paz

En mi Cuerpo de Paz nos separamos las Américas de Europa, quienes van al Caribe de África. Tenemos Ingles, tenemos Medio Ambiente, Salud, Agricultura y Pequeños Negocios… tenemos una categoría para todos.

Luchamos con el idioma, la cultura y con las reglas. Algunas veces nos sentimos como ¡gringo tantos!

En mi cuerpo de paz hay algunos que piensan ser Fuertes, pero cuando yo miro en sus ojos puedo ver inseguridades.

En mi cuerpo de paz hay algunos quienes van a juramentarse y algunos no. Algunos Cruzan esta línea y algunos no... Tenemos adultos, tenemos jóvenes, a parejas y amigos.

¡Pueden mirarse a lo largo y a lo ancho de Nicaragua!

Nosotros luchamos con nuestros proyectos, con nuestros sitios y con nuestras clases… ¡Queremos algunas horas de tregua!

En mi cuerpo de paz nosotros reímos, lloramos, callamos, y volamos; algunas veces nos preguntamos ¿que están hacienda aquí?

¿Pasamos? ¿Fallamos? Pero, solamente el tiempo va a decidir si podemos hacerlo por dos años.

En mi cuerpo de paz los aspirantes estábamos ansiosos porque llegara este día, sin embargo no sabíamos que el tiempo pasaría tan rápido.

Nosotros vamos a trabajar con doctores, maestros, finqueros y más. Vamos a vivir sueños grandes y pequeños. Vamos a luchar con reajustes, amigos y con un Nuevo horario

¡Vamos a recordar los mejores años de nuestras vidas en Cuerpo de Paz!

¡Gracia Cuerpo de Paz! ¡Gracias Nicaragua!

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Sware in

Hey this is like a record I am writing alot of entries lately. We sware-in tomorrow! i did better than I thought I did. I got intermidiet low not the one they like for site so I still have to do the extra three days which I think will be fun. I will be in a village with other volunteers so we can all hang out. The last few days were charlas and some were very interesting like the AIDS one and talking about the embassy. Where we went the embassy today. They were very funny and i had a surprisingly good time. There was a place to get American candy and I stocked up. LOL.

Also we got to sleepover at a hotel tonight and tomorrow for swear-in. I had the most amazing shower. Real shower with hot water and steam and pressure and did I mention hot water? It was heavenly. Then I had Chinese for dinner and walked around a mall that had alot of American stores it was a nice refresher. I'm excited for the ceremony tomorrow. I will be reading a poem I wrote at the ceremony in Spanish about Peace Corps. I'm very nervous and excited at the same time. More tomorrow.

Sunday, November 13, 2011

LPI results

Well I did a bad job on my LPI or the language test or at least I think I did. So I will be staying back for more training. Joys I am sick of training I have been doing 6 months of training! At least I don't thing I will be sent home. Its only for like a week so in the long run it will make no difference. It's hard to imagin that training is almost over. Time went by really fast.

We finished our youth group project. It turned out really nice. It is of a mural I will put a picture of it on facebook. The sware-in is in one week! I can't wait. Now its just a bunch of charlas about technical, medical and security stuff. Boring but essential.

Sunday, October 30, 2011

My Site

Hey all so my computer is acting up again. The keyboard is crazy some key’s will work others won’t very frustrating. Anyways I can still use it with the on screen keyboard. Let’s see a lot has happened since I last wrote. I stopped at my volunteer visit right? Well I had the second LPI or language assessment. I went up a level but not enough I was hoping to do better. I will just have work harder. Though things seem to be against me. I am sick and we have less classes and more technical training. I get my site on Fri. Then it is the site visit. I will be able to speak a lot then. I am really excited about this.

A lay out of my request:

  • · A small site close to the city.
  • · I want to do work with conservation.
  • · I want to work with NGOs and community organizations
  • · I want to work with youth.
  • · I am nervous about teaching but excited as well

Talking about teaching I just finished my last class in training. My class gave me 2 gifts, a pencil eraser holder and a wooden turtle. They are both very cute and beautiful. I was touched and surprised I know it wasn’t the best teaching they had but the kids even asked if I was going to come back to visit. I felt loved.

On the other hand the youth group is not working out well. There were two weeks of no meeting because of rain and Peace Corp commitments. When we tried to have our next one, we only had 2 out of 20 people showed up. We need to get our product done in fact we are changing it to something easier. We are going to do stuff with plastic bottle flowers and a mural. We now have 5 people in our group, which I am more than happy about.

I got my site assignment I am going to a small town 45min from Leon. We had our site visit the other week. My site has 3,000 people but nit feels smaller. I have two schools that I work in one in town and one about 4km away. I didn’t get to see the one fare away because of the rain it was flooded. The teachers were great and I can’t wait to start working there. They already came up to me with a few project plans, a park, a trash collection and dump, they seem receptive to a recycling campaign but it is not really part of the culture to recycle. Everyone is very nice and helps me with my Spanish. I can’t wait to get started!

My family consists of all women again. There is my mom and a 21 year old and an 18 year old. The 21 year old has a daughter 5 and the 18 year old has a 1 year old son. The 5 year old loves me and the 1 year old is scared of me. The family is really nice and I feel very welcome there. I get to be a vegetarian here as well! My room isn’t anything to write home about. It’s small with no ventilation. So in other words it is very hot. Leon is one of the hottest parts of Nica. This should be fun come summer.

Went to the Laguna yesterday which was cool if the hike wasn’t an hour straight down and you had to climb back up. I felt like I was going to die. I will not be doing that again.

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Volunteer Visit

Hi, Lets see, much has happened since i last wrote. I just got back from volunteer visit. Which is when we get to spend three days with a current volunteer shadowing them and learning about what it is like to be a volunteer. I stayed in a small village in Leon which is hot and humib. When i say small I mean small. There were like 700 something people in the village. I loved it! I felt so at ease there. It was silente, well as silente as you can get on a farm. But at least there was no radio blaring or horns honking and tv's. Heaven in my eyes.


The house was really small though and it was really crowded. There were four of us cramed in there. The house was a thatched roof with a garden in the middle which was cool but took up to much space. There were alot of biting ants and i think i am allergic to them. My feel swelled up and got numb after getting bit. I'll just have to carry around benadril from now on incase i get swarmed by them. No real deal just very annoying.


The village was a bit spread out with tons of animals and farms. There was alot of errotion problems. I went to the school with my volunteer and observed him teaching two classes. Then we toured the village and spoke with people there. I was very excited i understood most of them! Afterwards we had his youth group and played soccer. We had food that wasn't meat which i was craving. I really want to live in a house by myself with in a family consetion. I feel like i will be more comfortable and sain in that situation. I'll have to talk to PC about that. I can make my own vegetarian food. I really think i will be one when i get home.


My spanish is slowly improving i guess it is hard for me to tell but i'm sure i am. I understand how it is supose to be but when i try to speek it it comes out all wrong. Very fustrating. At least i can understand everyone even if they can't understand me. I can only get better and will improve greatly when i get to my site. I can't wait I'm soo excited to get started.


Love you all and miss you though not as much as last time. Hope all is well for you guys in the states. Until next time.


P.S. I get PIZZA for lunch!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Problems in Nica

Hello from Nicaragua. Life is hard right now. Spanish has been kicking my butt. I fear i am not learning enough fast enough. I know it's one step at a time poco s poco but i can't help be get dicuraged. It is not what i expected it to be. Even though i don't know what i expected it is not this. The people are great and i'm having fun to some extent but I'm not falling in love with it like in Niger. Don't get me wrong i'm not close to thinking about quiting. I just don't feel as prepared to be successful here as i did in Africa. They say that Nicaragua's training is the best i have not found that to be the case. I can't quite tell what is wrong with it though. I just don't feel prepared technically to teach. I'm sure a lot of my droughts has to do with language though. I have little to no confidence in my Spanish abilities at this moment which is really hurting me.

I now have a class alone for Spanish to help me improve. It is working but i still have along way to go. I can't tell if I'm getting better or not which is frustrating. My new teacher is good and very patient with me. I have a lot of assignments of going and talking with people in the village to gain my confidence. It's scary but very effective. I hope to make a few new friends doing this. I'm also talking more with my family :) I will get there soon i know.

Our youth group is going well we had less kids this time around but that is to be expected since some of the kids were skipping class to go to the last one. We had to change our project a little bit. We are going to make a mural instead of a playhouse out of bottles. It takes a lot of work to make this happen and we only have a month to get it all done it. The kids seem excited none the less.

I taught my first class last monday. It went better than expected i taught it on recylcing and did a game with clay which the students loved. It would have been better with most language background. I'm beginning to see the true importance that language has on my work. The kids got it eventually. I do my next on in two weeks on the carbon/oxygen cycle. Fun which i find is hard to do in english so this should be interesting. I just need to prepare more at least i have more time to do so.

I want to take the time to write about some problems i have noticed in Nicaragua. I would love comments on how i might be able to fix them or help. Also just comments in general on what you think.

Environment
1. Deforestation: The farmers are cutting down trees for farming and making a living for their family. The land that they are using is not fertile and this is the only way they know how to make a living. They use slash and burn. There is also areas that are suppose to be blocked off for conservation that is slowly being sold.
  • Possible solutions: Teach farmers other farming techniques, replant trees
2. Trash in streets: Before plastic banana leaves were used as plates and were thrown on the ground this is fine then since it just decomposed. Now they use plastic and still throw it in the streets. There is little to no garbage cans present and the children think it is funny to do so. They have a trash pick up but i don't' know how much it is effecting the trash. Not all villages have a pick up.
  • Solutions: Create more trash cans, teach about recycling, do projects using recycled products
3. Polluted water: There is a lot of sun off from erosion and waste. The factories dump waste into the water. The villages dump waste in the garbage. The rivers and lakes are all contaminated and some are incapable of handling life. There are some areas that drinking water is not possible because of chemicals or lack of freshwater. Salt water and fresh water are mixing.
  • Solutions: Teach about waste control, teach about the importance of clean water
Social

Teen pregnancy: There are many 15-18 year old having baby with older men or boys in their schools. Parent are afraid to let their kids go out and many girls an locked in the house. They use of contraceptive is frowned upon. Parent will not buy contraceptives for their child yet they also don't want to be grandparents. Sex edu is taught in school with a focus of abstinence but i am unsure how much is taught in homes.
  • Solution: Teach parents how to talk to their children
Drowning: Many children drown because they can't swim even though there is alot of water in and around Nica. There are not many body of waters in villages and children/adults alike can't swim
  • Teach swimming lessons if water is available, teach about water safety
Obesity: It is considered healthy to be overweight. mother worry when their child begin to loose weight and many of the foods are fattening. This is part of the culture of Nica. Their is little to no exercise done by Nica's.
  • Teach cooking classes, teach about exercise and the importance, healthy living
Any other ideas? I'm all ears. Love and miss everyone.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Indpendence Day

Hey Just wanted to give you some information about their independence day. It goes for two days. 14 and 15 of September. It starts off on the 13th though with the passing of the torch. Which is when a torch is passed form Guatemala to Costa Rica. It goes through Hondores, El Salvador, and Nicaragua. Each of these countries have their Independence at the same time. Then on the 14th at 7:00 in the morning all of the schools march in a parade throughout my village. See the pictures on my Facebook. Then they did a grand performance in the park. It was really cool and interesting. The next day they repeated the same show for those who missed it the first time i guess. Don't know for sure. Then in the afternoon schools from Managua come and preform.

Monday, September 12, 2011

One week in still going strong! (with some set backs)

MY COMPUTER IS FIXED FOR THE TIME BEING BUT I CAN'T SEE IT LASTING FOR THE WHOLE TWO YEARS.

It's really cute i have two little girls watching me type they are fascinated by it.

So I have been here a week now and I still like my village. My family is nice but i find it hard to start a conversation with them. Mama is very overbearing and acts alot like well a mom. Fancy that. LOL It can get very annoying at times but it is nice to know that she worries about me. The food is good but I'm getting sick of gallo pinto or beans and rice. There is at least a veracity of other foods that i get through out the day. Like sopa de pollo and their version of hamburger with is not a hamburger by the way. The food is very greasy here as well. A lot of fried stuff. Apparently chunky is healthy and good looking in their eyes. They keep trying to get meat on my bones! I can't eat a whole plate full of food lol. Oh well i try but i don't stuff myself and get sick.

My classes are ok, i am in the second to lowest group and the lowest in my group but i am learning alot. I can see the difference when i talk. At least when i'm having a good day. Today was long and hard but i'm sure tomorrow will be better. That is just what happens here. We get a new teacher which i am looking forward to not that i don't like my teacher but i'm really for a new person. She is not what i would call my favorite teacher but i could have worst.

We have visit the school and i saw the class that i am to teach. I will visit it observe next week which i am looking forward to. We are trying to get a group of jovenes (teens) to have a good to teach them about recycling. However no one showed up. We are now trying to get people through the schools and talking to people on the streets. It was discouraging but that happens. Try and try again that should be the Peace Corps motto. Lets just hope we do better next time.

The weather here is strange it rains for like a few minutes to and hour the sunny. But rains most night really scary at times since the roof is a tin roof and it is really loud. Thunderstorms are the worst since they stay right over you and are really loud. I had one a few days after i got here and thought the house was going to blow over! All was well but i hugged my teddy all night long.

I went to the beach yesterday it was beautiful and soo much fun. I can't remember the last time i was there. I really want to learn how to surf! I have fish which was great and the first seafood i had. It was also cool to see different parts of Nicaragua. I have also been to the lookout over the lagoon that i close to my village. But i haven't been in it that is my next goal.

So i'm going to write my typical day for you guys:
6:30-7:00 wake up
7:00-7:50 get ready and eat breakfast
8:00-12:00 Spanish class
12:00-1:00 lunch
1:00-3:00 Spanish activities in my village
3:00-4:00 rest aka me time
4:00-6:00 talk with the family and watch tele novelas
6:00-7:00 dinner
7:00-8:30 Homework and more talking
9:00 Sleep!

Wow that was hard to do in English keep wanted to type in Spanish. I guess that i a good sign.

Sunday, September 4, 2011

In my village

Well today is my first full day in my village. I am a bit homsick being away from all of the othervolunteers. There are four of us in the village doing training together. We all are fairly closetogether but it´s not the same as a room together. I am really confused with this keyboard. It isan english keyboard with spanish placement of letters. I have to try different buttons to get theright combination to write what I want. Still can´t find the at key lol. Anyways i got off course.

My village is a small village a little bit away from Masay which is a about 40km from managua. Itis not too noisy however the church likes to shoot off these loud gun like noices at random times through out the day! Very loud and annoying it shoocks me everytime. My family finds it reallyfunny. It is also a very safe town I have already checked in with the police to inform them of mylocation and time of stay in the town to make sure i am safe. There is also no post office so i don´t know how i´m going to write a letter i´m sure that Peace Corps can help with that.

My family, I have a Mama and three sisters two of which are twins. Which i can´t tell apartluckily we just call them twins so i don´t really need to tell them apart. I sometimes wonder ifthey ever get tierd of being called that are wish they had more of a separate indentity. Maybe i will ask them sometime when my spanish is better. I really like my family, they are all reallypaticent with me while i strugle through spanish. They encourgage me to talk although it is hardto get a work in edgewise with Mama. Then she wonders why i don´t talk lol.

Elections are happening soon so it is intresting to see all of the campaining that is going on. I amnot alowd to get involved with the election at all of really talk about it with people. But there are trucks that go through town with loud speakers that broadcast the runnering ideas andinfromation with a flag. It happens a few time a day very intresting. To bad I don´t understandwhat is being said. I don´t see alot of stuff about it on TV at all but that could be because of thestations that are on at home.

has so Training is ok a bit bording. I learned alot of it in Niger but it won´t hurt to learn it again or thatis what i keep telling myself. I find it hard to not fall asleep through some of the lectures. However the people are really nice and i´m finding i´m making alot of new friends. Class so farbeen easy but i know it will get harder later. Right now i just need to talk and get betterwhich is easier said than done. We have a rule that we volunteer came up with no english exseptfor certain times of day. So far with have been somewhat succesful but then we only had one daygive us time. Everything is still new we will get there soon.

Nicarague is beautiful with lakes everywhere and beautiful greenary and volcanos. Reallydiferent than Niger and the Us. Still hace alot to learn about the culture and life here. I will learneventually. It rains strangely here sort of like how it is in New Orleans. A little bit of rain for a short amount of time then sun. So you really don´t need an umbrella beacuse you can just wait itout.

So my computer is broken and i´m running out of time on this computer. I will have to finishsoon. Peace Corps is seeing if they can fix my computer is not i will just use my kindle or publiccomputers. IT will have hard to do my homework since i need to read stuff online but peacecorps with figure soemthing out. So i can´t spell check since everything is spanish so i´m sorry from all the bad spelling. Love you all and miss you.

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

First Day! HOT AND HUMID

Well I'm in Nicaragua where it is very hot. It's not as hot as Niger though. And it is humid I was outside for a few minutes and was dripping with sweat. It will take a little bit getting use to. I love my new group. We are all getting along well but I will miss my Niger group. It is luxurious we have real bed, electricity, internet and running water. We are rooming with four others for the first four nights before we go to our host families. There we will have our training groups about four people in each group.

Staging was boring! They did the exact same thing when I went to Niger. It was very repetitive and I just wanted to go to bed. Unfortunately I still had to participated which I guess was a good thing in the long run. It was nice to be away from home though. Wonder how long that will last until I get homesick. I know I will eventually. So mom dad cheer up I will miss you!

We are all so tired. We had to get up at 2am to get to the plane this morning so none of us got much sleep. I also didn't sleep well the night before I left so we are all running on little to no sleep. Luckily Peace Corps Nicaragua understands that and hasn't planed that much stuff for us to do. We had lunch when we got here which is good since I was hungry. NO BEANS! Yet! It was really good too, chicken, rice, salad, and roles. They had potato but I did NOT eat it. We will dive into everything tomorrow. So wish me luck! I’m excited to finally be here but my exhaustion is winning out a lot of the positive emotions. We will get to go to bed early tonight so all is well. Not much more to report right now since nothing is really going on. Just relaxing and getting to know each other.

Love all of you guys and will keep you up dated. XOXOXO