Just after i completed the last blog session, a fellow trainee and i went out east of town and found some wild monkeys! it was great.. they swung from branch to branch trying to follow us only to satisfy their own curiosity. in order to find these guys we had to crawl down into a dried up river and walk for a bit.. we found a yellow snake a little longer than the length of my leg and the thickest part of him was about the size of my lower leg... walking only 10 minutes in one direction from my pueblo i am able to be completely surrounded by nature!.. spanish classes are going well.. little by little i am learning and i think within a few more months ill feel comfortable trying to start up conversations that are slightly more complex than the typical ice breakers..
our garden has started to grow and we are going to be transplanting tomatoes and peppers this weekend!.. our youth group is coming along great and we are getting ready to do a market study to find out the demand for our mango pineapple jam.. tomorrow morning we are headed to masaya to hike a volcano and then have lunch.. i still have not made it to the pacific coast but im sure that is around the corner.. looking over lake nicaragua is quite the site as well.. you can definately tell what a beautiful city managua used to be..
i am getting to know all of my fellow aggies better as well.. i think we have a pretty good group! the last 5 weeks i have been in La Paz.. it is great but i cant wait for next week!.. i am headed to a small rural community in matagalpa.. apparently i am going to be in the mountains.. i am going there with 5 other trainees to learn about technical agriculture skills.. i know one of the main projects we will be doing is building more efficient stoves for women who would like to start a business selling bread or other food.. we will be building them with current volunteers and they are made of dirt, horse shit, and a few other random ingredients!.. also we will be working on making drip irrigation systems.. im sure there is much more but that will be part of the surprise.. next friday we have our site fair,... where all the volunteers present available sites and we choose our top 5 or 6... the following monday we find out where we will be placed for the next 2 years.. then in week 8 we take off individually to our sites to meet our new host families! so although things have started to slow down, there are still many things on the plate for the next few weeks..
coming down i knew i was just going to tell the peace corps to put me as rural as possible and hopefully in the mountains.. turns out i have had a slight change of heart.. although i would like to be rural, the grammer is terrible and i know that my already broken spanish would have slim chances of improving.. also all of these other aggies are wanting to be in the mountains.. so although there is still a strong possibility i could be in the mountains, i could just as easily be placed in the hottest part of nicaragua... being chinandega or leon.. i do not know how close to the beach an ag volunteer can be but i can hope for the best.. also esteli is an absolutely gorgeous place that i could find myself quite content. i guess ill know in a few weeks.
all of my trainees love the fact that it takes about 12 hours for my mustache to grow in so now i, along with a few other trainees, have a mustace ready to start curling over my top lip any time now.. everyone has either gotten a buzz cut or a short haircut since we have arrived.. there are suprisingly still some nicas with long hair.. much of our youth group loves the song {in da club) by 50 cent.. ha.. so remembering my middle school days they were extremely impressed when i rapped most the song to them.. same goes for marvin gaye´s song (sexual healing) and anything by celine dion or michael jackson.. ha.. many of the kids love their hollister outfits just like thoses in the states..
the last few weeks have been great.. i am playing more games with my family and we have been talking all about our pasts. i have taught them to dance to a few bob marley songs that i brought down.. they love bob ha.. and they have taught me to act like i know how to dance! all in all it has been a month i couldnt trade for anything..
a few weeks back i went to bed around 930 not feeling the greatest.. i figured everything would be fine in the morning so i tried to sleep .. around midnight i found myself with nothing but a headlamp and underwear on trying to unlock the back door so that i could vomit up the goat soup that i had for lunch.. ha .. in the process of regurgitating the soup and gallo pinto i had for dinner i was alerted by my stomach that we had an emergency on the other end of body.. after doing the same thing in reverse order in the morning, i skipped classes the next day and slept the whole day away in our hammock.. looking back now that mental break from class couldnt have come at a better time.. sure i have great days.. and there are also days when i wonder if i am even able to learn the language.. there are days when i become frustrated becuase we are doing more team building activities and there are days that i couldnt feel more blessed (which are most days)! there are days when i am discouraged and wonder what difference can i make here.. and there are days i wonder if these people want help.. with all that i know i am only a trainee for now and i have a long ways to go.. the one thing that is certain thus far is that when i sit back and examine the big picture, i couldnt feel any luckier to have the opportunity to be apart of an organization that has the sole purpose of promoting friendship and peace with people around the world.
hope everyone is doing well and ill try to get back on this after returning from tech days in matagalpa!
much love,
maclaine
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