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.
Take care all of you and I will look forward to reading your comments.
Oh, and the World Wise Schools letters have been written and will be sent soon. Adios.
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.
Other than that I am feelin’ healthy and my spanish is improving!
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 mourn the passing of Steve Irwin, but I´m happy he went quick. Eric, that stingray apparently had yellow testicles.
Now, I had some questions about food so I´ll elaborate on that some. The food here varies greatly but it is unified on the fact that it will touch hot oil somewhere in its lifespan. There are an abundance of wonderful fruits and its insane on how many delicious combinations you can make with tortilla, beans, tomatoes, and crema. On average I eat beans 2.5 meals a day and I think its getting easier, I just have to think about people who have been eating them for a lifetime and that they´re down with that. I think that now that I have my alarm clock I may start waking up earlier to run a bit. Its tough to find a good place to run and not get chased by dogs. They are pretty mangy and hungry and tend to get interested in anything that moves faster than a walk.
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
Spanish 1-3ish
That´s a ton of spanish, so suffice to say my head is a´swimmin with it when I go to bed. But here´s the best part of my day, our malaria medicine has a sweet side affect called “enhanced dreams”. This means when I escape from the day I step into the madhouse of my subconscious. I wake up to some seriously weird dream residue in the morning.
Other than being super busy and stressful, it is really cool living with a Nicaraguan family. They really remind me of my own family and they are very good to me. Don´t expect picutres soon because I don´t know when it will be kosher to pull out my camera. Much love to you all…
We finally had a chance to really check out the city of Managua with a little bus tour around some historical sites. The picture is a giant sandino that looms over the city.
Some more detailed info for those who have been asking: There are a couple groups of us in Nica 42. We are composed of agriculture, environmental education, and teaching english as a foreign language (I think ->TEFL). I can’t say for certain what the exact job description for the other people are, but as an environmental ed person I am really happy with what I have in store for me. There are so many interesting things I could get into, I don’t know where to start! I’ll let you know once I get my life sorted out a little bit more and we have some technical training.
Language-wise, I am doing well and am really please with my performance on the placement test. This will allow me to be placed in the proper language training class with affects my host family placing. I must achieve the level of mid-intermediate by the end of training to qualify for volunteer service. Below is a url with the description.
ACTFL Intermediate
I have just finished my first day here in Nicaragua and it has certainly been a blast. In lieu of sleep, most of us opted to stay awake for our 1 AM checkout and 6 AM flight out. A few delays aside we arrived in Nicaragua at around 11ish I speculate. We are now at a really nice hotel/resort going through the official business of vaccinations for Rabies and receiving training materials. For anyone wondering I have only been using conventional toilets thus far and I will surely let you know when I use an outhouse or poo in a hole or anything of the sort. Thank you all for the kind words and I will fill in the gaps later when I have more time. Until then,
Lucian
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