We are all enjoying our final days in Carazo before we go off to Managua.  I have officially cut my beard off so I am just with the mustache.  Before any of you doubting thomases naysay I will tell you that if it isnt guapo in the states, it sure as hell is guapo here!  Besides, all the guys in sector medio ambient will be rocking the mustaches so be ready for the photos as they come.  I tried to do a photo upload tonight but the odds were stacked against me and everthing went to shit.  Sorry.

 So I made dinner for my family last night and being that it was my first and only meal I was going to make for them I came out with guns blasting.  I bought some broccoli in the deparmental capital as well as some olive oil and set out to make pasta and broccoli.  Aside from having slightly overcooked pasta and no parmesan cheese, I thought it turned out well.  Culturally, I didnt really take my familiy´s needs into consideration because:

Well folks I´m back from my site visit in Sunny Chinandega where the Devil runs for shade.  I´ll go ahead and apologize for not update often but the nature of my work/training has kept me from being able to organize my thoughts enough to sit down and write.  I will say that everything is going well and I´m healthy. 

Since everyone else is saying stuff about the elections I will too.  This sunday is going to be a big deal and I will not be able to make it to a cyber cafe for a minute so dont worry if I dont respond to anything you write immediately…  Rest well knowing that we are well cared for and the Peace Corps has an established way of dealing with these things.

I´m back from the volunteer visit and I can say that it really opened my eyes to peace corps life.  The upside is I know that I made the right decision coming here and I will have the freedom to pursue projects that are important to me.  I will have the time to improve myself through study and socializing.  The downside is by tasting a hint of volunteer life, i am very ready to be done with training.  To the people waiting for letters:  I will have some time to get those done tomorrow and will probably have them in the Nica mail by monday….. maybe.

Tomorrow I´m heading out to the beautiful Department of Leon to visit a PCV (peace corps volunteer).  I will be observing the daily routines and activites and generally getting the jist of what volunteer life is like.  I should have the time to crank out all of those letters people are expecting so look out for those in a few weeks!  Thanks again for the comments people and I do read them all and they are so appreciated!  I should have alot to say when I return in a few days so keep posted!

New pics are up on flickr so go check ‘em out!

Today we did some work with local youth on builiding a “vivero” or tree nursery.  We chose a site behind their school and dug a trough for the bags.  Later we built a sifter for removing rocks, leaves and roots from the soil.  Lastly we employed a crap-ton of kids into filling bags with dirt and getting them ready for planing seeds.  The pictures speak for themselves I think…  just look at the album, otherwise the pics will be in the wrong order.

A big thanks to everyone who threw down comments thus far!

You all really make my day to know that I´m still swimming around up in your heads somewhere! First some clerical things:

I found my alarm clock. My apologies if you have sent it already Mom and Pops.

The powder is indeed dry.

I´m with my host family now, and I´m sorry to say that I will be very, very busy for the next 10 weeks.  Apparently this will be the most busy I will ever be during my Peace Corps service.  Allow me to go through a description of my day:

Spanish from 8-12
Lunch 12-1