I was working on my lesson plans the other night and I realized I needed to print something before I could create the other part of the materials. It was already 7:30pm and my host mom was cooking my dinner, so I told her that I was gonna go to the cyber really fast. Well of course I decided to run because I don’t like walking sometimes and I needed to be fast. I had flip flops on, but what the heck. So I took off running down the street and it was pretty dark, but the street lights were on. There were a bunch of young boys in the street playing and they started shouting “Corre! Corre! Corre!” which means “Run! Run!” So, I shouted back “Vamos!” which means, “Let’s go!” and they started running with me down the street. It was hilarious. I turned the corner and headed down the main street to the cyber and the race evaporated. I then realized that I get plenty of attention being a gringa walking down the street, but now that I was running (which no one ever does here) I got a lot more attention. I didn’t really want this extra attention, but I also needed to travel quickly, so whatever. I just ignored it. So, I got my copy in time because the cyber was still open yay :) On the way back I decided to run as well because it felt good. I need to exercise more and it felt great to be running again. Anyway, I ran down the main street and then rounded the corner onto my street and there were a couple little boys sitting on the sidewalk and they started shouting at me again, so of course I encouraged them to join me by saying “Vamos!” and they took this as an invitation to a race. The next thing I knew, I was in a full on sprinting race down the cobblestone street in the dark with little 8 year old boys in my flip flops. I kept thinking I was going to trip or run through dog poop, but fortunately neither happened. The race did have to end because my house was at the corner, and sadly I don’t think I would have won if it had continued, but I blame my flip flops and the cobblestone. These kids have the advantage of playing in these streets every day. This is one of those experiences that I’ll never forget. I’m glad I’m still able to be free and have fun being myself :)
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Back to reality
Matagalpa was so much fun, but yesterday was time to return to reality. The other half of our group met up with us in Matagalpa and we had a time for reflection on the week, including sharing most challenging moments and funniest moments. It was a good time to hear stories from everyone, especially those from the Jinotega group. We then went out to lunch before coming back. The ride to Managua was about 2 ½ hours, but we were in our Peace Corps microbus, so it wasn’t too bad. Then, we had to take a bus back to San Juan. This was the worst part. The ride to Managua on Sunday had been pretty bad (waiting forever for a bus, they were all full, having to ride to Masaya and switch buses, etc.) so we weren’t looking forward to getting on the bus again. We found a bus in the terminal that would take us right to San Juan, so we got on there, and fortunately there were seats. Well, this just meant that we had to wait until the bus filled up of course. After waiting for awhile, we pulled out of the terminal, but picked up several people on the way.
Kellie and I were squished against each other on a seat with people pressing against me because I had the aisle part of the seat, and Jess was across the aisle from us sharing a seat with a lady and her crying child, but we couldn’t see her because the aisle was crammed pack with people. We finally made it home after an hour and I had never been so happy to get off a bus.
I arrived home and was welcomed by my family. I was unpacking my stuff and found out we had water!! I was so hot from lugging my stuff around and traveling all day, so a cold shower felt nice. Then, since we had water, I was able to use the washing machine which was awesome! After eating dinner, I unpacked the rest of my stuff and relaxed because I was so exhausted.
I’m really excited for this week because we get to find out our site assignments on Friday! Then, the next week we’ll get to meet our new counterparts, visit our sites and meet our new family :) But, we do have a lot of work to do in between…back to the reality of work and class.
Kellie and I were squished against each other on a seat with people pressing against me because I had the aisle part of the seat, and Jess was across the aisle from us sharing a seat with a lady and her crying child, but we couldn’t see her because the aisle was crammed pack with people. We finally made it home after an hour and I had never been so happy to get off a bus.
I arrived home and was welcomed by my family. I was unpacking my stuff and found out we had water!! I was so hot from lugging my stuff around and traveling all day, so a cold shower felt nice. Then, since we had water, I was able to use the washing machine which was awesome! After eating dinner, I unpacked the rest of my stuff and relaxed because I was so exhausted.
I’m really excited for this week because we get to find out our site assignments on Friday! Then, the next week we’ll get to meet our new counterparts, visit our sites and meet our new family :) But, we do have a lot of work to do in between…back to the reality of work and class.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Matagalpa, I love you.
Wow! This place rocks and I wish it was one of our site towns, but unfortunately it is not :( There are two other sites in the department of Matagalpa, but the city of Matagalpa is not one of our sites. We have been having so much fun exploring our area of the town and eating some great food and just relaxing in the hostel. Yesterday was our first day of teaching and it went really well. We got up pretty early because we had to be at the school by 6:50am and we didn't have time to eat breakfast before heading over there which was a bummer. Julie taught an 8th grade class in the morning and then we did a little debriefing and headed back to the hostel for breakfast. We had gallo pinto, scrambled eggs mixed with some veggies, tortillas, cheese, and fresh pineapple juice. It was so good! We then talked through my lesson to make sure everything was set for that and then we hung out a little before going back to the school.
My first lesson was for 7A (they split each grade level into two sections--A is for the higher level, B is lower level. Some schools have sections all the way to I, and it's pretty unfortunate that they track the students in this way and don't mix the levels). I taught a lesson on things we like to do in the summer, practicing "I like" and He/She likes". It was good and the students seemed to enjoy the lesson. They all swarmed me at the end and were asking me questions about where I was from, etc. We then went to the teacher's lounge to do a debriefing, but our counterpart wanted us to go back to the classroom. I thought she wanted to do the debriefing there, and I had a one of our trainers observing me there. There was a little confusion, but apparently the computer class for 7B was canceled so she wanted me to teach my lesson then instead of waiting until their English period. So, without a debriefing, I went straight into teaching the next class. Fortunately, it was the same lesson, just a different class section, so I was already prepared with my lesson in mind and materials in hand. I just wasn't expecting to be rushed in there. Also, the class didn't start on time because we were walking around the school and the confusion was taking place. The lesson went well though and I could tell that these students were taking a little longer to understand, so I did use some Spanish. I was in the middle of my last activity when the bell rang and the students got up and started heading out of class. This was weird because in the last class I had plenty of time in the end and I was reviewing some extra questions when the bell rang and all of the students stayed in their seats and let me finish the question and they answered. Weird.
So, we still get a weekly allowance while we're here and we are given a certain amount of money for meals each day. Well, Julie and I decided we wanted to go a little cheap and save some money because we did spend a lot on our handmade purses and chocolate... So, we bought bread, jelly, and yogurt at the supermarket (I brought peanut butter from my host family), and then we bought some bananos at a little store. We got an awesome deal on those--12 bananos for 8 cords! They usually sell for 1 cord each, so we were pretty dang excited! It's the simple things in life, really. We came back to the hostel and enjoyed our cheap lunch on the balcony and relaxed in the beautiful environment.
We had a little debriefing session with on of the volunteers here that organized our practicum week to discuss how things are going at our schools. It was cool to hear about the other schools too. We are at a semi-private, Catholic high school so it's a little different--in the beginning of the first class everyday, the teachers read out of the Bible and then the students say a prayer. That was interesting.
After our discussion, we planned our lessons for the next two days to make sure we would be prepared. It was nice to get all of that taken care of, because the first night we were here, we met with our teacher at 5:30pm and talked about what we should be teaching this week, and then had to go get dinner, and then we started planning around 8pm for the 7am class the next day. This time was much better and more relaxed. We then walked around down town and we ate dinner at the same place we had dinner the night before because it was great food for cheap. I had gallo pinto, scrambled eggs with ham, a cooked plantain, tajadas (which are the banana chips), and some pico de gallo salsa on the side. This was a full plate of food for 38 cords--that's less than $2.00! I was full after eating all of that and it was delicious. The night before I got pretty much the same thing, but I had beef with sauce and veggies instead of the eggs with ham, and that was a little more, 50 cords, but that's only $2.50. I love it! Julie and I also went and got Eskimo after dinner to celebrate our first day of teaching. We had coconut ice cream, which was awesome.
When we came back, I had a debriefing with my trainer who had observed me earlier, because he didn't have time after my class with all the schedule switching. We had a good chat and I feel like things are going really well. We then hung out with the other trainees and our friends that we've met in the hostel (3 girls staying in our room--1 from Canada, 1 from Australia, and 1 from Belgium).
My class this morning was scheduled to start at 7:43am (random, I know), so we had enough time to eat breakfast before leaving. Yes! We got to the school and started setting up and then found out that the students were still in PE and their teacher had taken them to a field that was off campus. We waited, and waited, and waited. Some of the students started trickling in around 8:20 and my class was scheduled to end at 8:26am. Needless to say, I didn't get to teach this morning, but Julie and I did have to sit and wait for 45 minutes in case the students did arrive. Bummer! Well, we have two more classes today which is 7A (they have two classes, split by a 45 minute break) and we are co-teaching these, so that should be fun. I'm excited to teach with Julie because we have been working really well together.
My first lesson was for 7A (they split each grade level into two sections--A is for the higher level, B is lower level. Some schools have sections all the way to I, and it's pretty unfortunate that they track the students in this way and don't mix the levels). I taught a lesson on things we like to do in the summer, practicing "I like" and He/She likes". It was good and the students seemed to enjoy the lesson. They all swarmed me at the end and were asking me questions about where I was from, etc. We then went to the teacher's lounge to do a debriefing, but our counterpart wanted us to go back to the classroom. I thought she wanted to do the debriefing there, and I had a one of our trainers observing me there. There was a little confusion, but apparently the computer class for 7B was canceled so she wanted me to teach my lesson then instead of waiting until their English period. So, without a debriefing, I went straight into teaching the next class. Fortunately, it was the same lesson, just a different class section, so I was already prepared with my lesson in mind and materials in hand. I just wasn't expecting to be rushed in there. Also, the class didn't start on time because we were walking around the school and the confusion was taking place. The lesson went well though and I could tell that these students were taking a little longer to understand, so I did use some Spanish. I was in the middle of my last activity when the bell rang and the students got up and started heading out of class. This was weird because in the last class I had plenty of time in the end and I was reviewing some extra questions when the bell rang and all of the students stayed in their seats and let me finish the question and they answered. Weird.
 |
| This is me teaching in the first class. There was a skylight shining right on me, making me sweat profusely. |
So, we still get a weekly allowance while we're here and we are given a certain amount of money for meals each day. Well, Julie and I decided we wanted to go a little cheap and save some money because we did spend a lot on our handmade purses and chocolate... So, we bought bread, jelly, and yogurt at the supermarket (I brought peanut butter from my host family), and then we bought some bananos at a little store. We got an awesome deal on those--12 bananos for 8 cords! They usually sell for 1 cord each, so we were pretty dang excited! It's the simple things in life, really. We came back to the hostel and enjoyed our cheap lunch on the balcony and relaxed in the beautiful environment.
We had a little debriefing session with on of the volunteers here that organized our practicum week to discuss how things are going at our schools. It was cool to hear about the other schools too. We are at a semi-private, Catholic high school so it's a little different--in the beginning of the first class everyday, the teachers read out of the Bible and then the students say a prayer. That was interesting.
After our discussion, we planned our lessons for the next two days to make sure we would be prepared. It was nice to get all of that taken care of, because the first night we were here, we met with our teacher at 5:30pm and talked about what we should be teaching this week, and then had to go get dinner, and then we started planning around 8pm for the 7am class the next day. This time was much better and more relaxed. We then walked around down town and we ate dinner at the same place we had dinner the night before because it was great food for cheap. I had gallo pinto, scrambled eggs with ham, a cooked plantain, tajadas (which are the banana chips), and some pico de gallo salsa on the side. This was a full plate of food for 38 cords--that's less than $2.00! I was full after eating all of that and it was delicious. The night before I got pretty much the same thing, but I had beef with sauce and veggies instead of the eggs with ham, and that was a little more, 50 cords, but that's only $2.50. I love it! Julie and I also went and got Eskimo after dinner to celebrate our first day of teaching. We had coconut ice cream, which was awesome.
When we came back, I had a debriefing with my trainer who had observed me earlier, because he didn't have time after my class with all the schedule switching. We had a good chat and I feel like things are going really well. We then hung out with the other trainees and our friends that we've met in the hostel (3 girls staying in our room--1 from Canada, 1 from Australia, and 1 from Belgium).
My class this morning was scheduled to start at 7:43am (random, I know), so we had enough time to eat breakfast before leaving. Yes! We got to the school and started setting up and then found out that the students were still in PE and their teacher had taken them to a field that was off campus. We waited, and waited, and waited. Some of the students started trickling in around 8:20 and my class was scheduled to end at 8:26am. Needless to say, I didn't get to teach this morning, but Julie and I did have to sit and wait for 45 minutes in case the students did arrive. Bummer! Well, we have two more classes today which is 7A (they have two classes, split by a 45 minute break) and we are co-teaching these, so that should be fun. I'm excited to teach with Julie because we have been working really well together.
 |
| My empty class this morning :( |
Monday, October 18, 2010
Life is rough in the Peace Corps...
So I've been talking about how we've been so busy and life is crazy different here, but today is unique. We are currently in Matagalpa for our practicum week and as I type this, I am lying in a hammock on a balcony of a hostel with free wi-fi. Oh, the life of a Peace Corps volunteer... Well, this definitely isn't the usual, but I'm enjoying the time to relax. My brother was actually just teasing me asking if we ever work around here between going to volcanoes and eating ice cream and such. I guess I don't blog that much about the non-exciting things regarding work, but really there hasn't been that much that's not exciting. Everything here is a great experience, something I'll never forget. We really do a lot of work and have long days of Spanish class (which can be exhausting) and youth group (again, exhausting) and meetings (did I say exhausting?). However, there are the few times like today, and the rest of this week for that matter, where we get to kick back and hang out. I am really loving this, especially getting to hang out with people that I usually don't see very much. I was sad to be separated from Jess and Kellie, but this is good to hang out with the other people who aren't in my town.
Ok, now about Matagalpa. So I had been thinking this is where I wanted to live for my two years, but then I was worried that I would arrive here and change my mind. Maybe I had built it up too much in my head. Well, I'm here and I love it. I'm not sure if there is a site in the actual city of Matagalpa, but this place is great! It's a pretty big city, but it doesn't feel that big. They have everything here and we walked around the "downtown" area and it seems really safe and clean. The weather is cooler, which is a definite plus. The hostel we're staying at is owned by a previous PCV who finished last summer. He served here in Matagalpa, returned to the states, and now co-owns this hostel. It's actually a really nice place, and I'm looking forward to bringing friends here. It's only $7.00 a night for a bunk bed which is shared with 7 other people, but there's these big closet things to lock up your stuff and there's a giant bathroom in the room too. If you want a private room, it's $30.00 a night for a king size bed and a bathroom. This place is super clean and they have awesome food in their cafe. There's coffee all the time and purified water, a TV room with shared dvds, a book exchange, hammocks galore, and did I mention the free wi-fi?? Ok, it sounds like I'm writing a review for this place--are you wishing you were here yet? Oh, I forgot to mention that there's a chocolate factory really close, but the hostel sells some of the chocolate, so we've already purchased and eaten some fantastic REAL chocolate :)
Ok, now about Matagalpa. So I had been thinking this is where I wanted to live for my two years, but then I was worried that I would arrive here and change my mind. Maybe I had built it up too much in my head. Well, I'm here and I love it. I'm not sure if there is a site in the actual city of Matagalpa, but this place is great! It's a pretty big city, but it doesn't feel that big. They have everything here and we walked around the "downtown" area and it seems really safe and clean. The weather is cooler, which is a definite plus. The hostel we're staying at is owned by a previous PCV who finished last summer. He served here in Matagalpa, returned to the states, and now co-owns this hostel. It's actually a really nice place, and I'm looking forward to bringing friends here. It's only $7.00 a night for a bunk bed which is shared with 7 other people, but there's these big closet things to lock up your stuff and there's a giant bathroom in the room too. If you want a private room, it's $30.00 a night for a king size bed and a bathroom. This place is super clean and they have awesome food in their cafe. There's coffee all the time and purified water, a TV room with shared dvds, a book exchange, hammocks galore, and did I mention the free wi-fi?? Ok, it sounds like I'm writing a review for this place--are you wishing you were here yet? Oh, I forgot to mention that there's a chocolate factory really close, but the hostel sells some of the chocolate, so we've already purchased and eaten some fantastic REAL chocolate :)
 |
| On our way to Matagalpa...so green! |
 |
| This is the hostel in Matagalpa, Matagalpa. |
 |
| Coffee and chocolate :) |
 |
| Julie and me toasting to chocolate. |
 |
| Yummy chicken sandwich. |
 |
| Hammock on the balcony. |
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Jess is back in town!
Yes, Jess is back, but she is still trying to gain energy. Thanks for your thoughts & prayers! Her blood platelets started to rise so they let her come back to San Juan and we visited her Thursday evening. It was so nice to see our friend again :) She was able to come to meetings today in Masatepe, but I think she needs more rest…the weeks following Dengue apparently are full of fatigue. Continue to pray for our friend!
Today in our meetings we found out where we’ll be going for next week’s Practicum Week. This is an experience where we “shadow” a Nicaragua English teacher for a week. We go to his/her classes, observe, plan, and teach. We are paired with someone in our group and our whole group has been split in two. I am in the Matagalpa group—yay! We will be staying in Matagalpa for the week and I’m going to be working with Julie Elena (Julie). I’m so excited! This should be a fun and unique experience and I’m really looking forward to the cooler weather :) We have a pretty busy schedule as we are supposed to be at the school all day with the teachers and we have other meetings with our whole group to reflect on our experiences.
We are now finishing Week 6 of training…we are over half way through, but really it feels like we’re much closer to the end than the beginning. We have Practicum Week this next week, then a week of classes & finding out our site on that Friday (Oct. 28th) & a Teacher Training Conference on Halloween, then we have our site visit week, and then only 2 more weeks of wrapping things up with our youth group, co-teaching, and final projects/reflection papers, etc. Before you know it we’ll be swearing in as volunteers! Woo! I’m ready!!
Today in our meetings we found out where we’ll be going for next week’s Practicum Week. This is an experience where we “shadow” a Nicaragua English teacher for a week. We go to his/her classes, observe, plan, and teach. We are paired with someone in our group and our whole group has been split in two. I am in the Matagalpa group—yay! We will be staying in Matagalpa for the week and I’m going to be working with Julie Elena (Julie). I’m so excited! This should be a fun and unique experience and I’m really looking forward to the cooler weather :) We have a pretty busy schedule as we are supposed to be at the school all day with the teachers and we have other meetings with our whole group to reflect on our experiences.
We are now finishing Week 6 of training…we are over half way through, but really it feels like we’re much closer to the end than the beginning. We have Practicum Week this next week, then a week of classes & finding out our site on that Friday (Oct. 28th) & a Teacher Training Conference on Halloween, then we have our site visit week, and then only 2 more weeks of wrapping things up with our youth group, co-teaching, and final projects/reflection papers, etc. Before you know it we’ll be swearing in as volunteers! Woo! I’m ready!!
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Learning
Tuesday night we had our youth group meeting without Jess because she has been in Managua trying to get better. We were sad not to have her, but we had to continue. We took our jovenes to a shop to teach them some vocabulary. Instead of sitting around in a room and trying to explain products and doing direct translations, we took a trip to a shop and discussed the items in the shop and explained how to describe them in English. It was a great experience! Even some people who work in the shop “attended” our class so they could learn some vocabulary. We had a good time and it was fun to learn some new words in Spanish too. When we came upon a small ceramic turtle, which happened to also be a whistle, we took advantage of this to teach our jovenes something important. We talked about whistling which led to whistling on the streets, specifically whistling at women/girls. Then, we explained that American women do NOT like it when men whistle at them. In fact, it’s very rude and disrespectful. They were surprised, along with the man in the shop. They asked “men in the US don’t whistle in the streets?” (of course this was in Spanish) and we replied with NO! haha This was a good opportunity to share this cultural difference because we, American women, have been whistled at many times, as well as called various things, and it’s really frustrating. When I walk down the streets here, I don’t usually say anything to men because they give me looks, whistle, say “hey lady” or “I love you”, and then sometimes women in their mid 20’s to 30’s give me mean looks because I guess I’m drawing attention from the men. It’s really frustrating. It’s definitely harder to be an American woman here. For the most part, I ignore men on the streets, unless I know them. I feel like I’m being rude, but they continue to say they love me each day I walk by, so I don’t think their feelings are hurt. Anyway, just had to vent a little about that, but I’m also glad Kellie and I got to “teach” our male jovenes a little something yesterday.
Yesterday when Kellie and I were walking over to our meeting in Catarina, a man started saying things to us, but we ignored him like usual (I think he said “hey where are you going?”). Anyway, as were continued walking and ignoring him, he said “I know you’re listening” in the same creepy voice they all use. We couldn’t help but laugh. It was actually good English though. We always joke how the men continually use certain phrases in English, such as “I love you”; “Hey lady”; “Where you going?”; etc. and that we need to teach them some new phrases. This guy knew what he was saying, clearly.
The topic off catcalls came up again in our youth group last night when the jovenes were reviewing the vocabulary they learned—they actually brought up the topic which was funny, and then I suggested that they teach the others what we taught them about whistling in the streets. It was pretty funny. They asked why we don’t like it, so I said, because I’m a teacher and when I’m walking down the streets and the jovenes/muchachos say “Hola blanquita; I love you; hey lady…” (I made sure to use the voices the men use in the streets) it’s inappropriate. They loved my impressions and I think I got the point across.
Yesterday, in our Spanish class we were practicing present perfect and past perfect with things that we have done in Nicaragua or had never experienced since we got to Nicaragua. This was very interesting and I thought I would share some of them just for fun. Here are some of the sentences we wrote:
Before coming to Nicaragua…
-I had never taken a bucket bath.
-I had never sweated so much in my life.
-I had never slept under a mosquito net.
-I had never been told “I love you” by so many men in the streets.
-I had never not been able to take a shower because the water “se fue” (went away)
-I had never been on public transportation where men were riding on top of the bus to hold onto passengers’ bags.
-I had never been on a school bus with 3 to a seat and people crammed into the aisle.
-I had never seen people walking down the streets with machetes.
These are just some of the experiences I’ve had so far in Nicaragua. They are definitely different than what I usually experience in the U.S., but they’re normal here. I’m curious what is strange in our culture to foreigners??
Yesterday when Kellie and I were walking over to our meeting in Catarina, a man started saying things to us, but we ignored him like usual (I think he said “hey where are you going?”). Anyway, as were continued walking and ignoring him, he said “I know you’re listening” in the same creepy voice they all use. We couldn’t help but laugh. It was actually good English though. We always joke how the men continually use certain phrases in English, such as “I love you”; “Hey lady”; “Where you going?”; etc. and that we need to teach them some new phrases. This guy knew what he was saying, clearly.
The topic off catcalls came up again in our youth group last night when the jovenes were reviewing the vocabulary they learned—they actually brought up the topic which was funny, and then I suggested that they teach the others what we taught them about whistling in the streets. It was pretty funny. They asked why we don’t like it, so I said, because I’m a teacher and when I’m walking down the streets and the jovenes/muchachos say “Hola blanquita; I love you; hey lady…” (I made sure to use the voices the men use in the streets) it’s inappropriate. They loved my impressions and I think I got the point across.
Yesterday, in our Spanish class we were practicing present perfect and past perfect with things that we have done in Nicaragua or had never experienced since we got to Nicaragua. This was very interesting and I thought I would share some of them just for fun. Here are some of the sentences we wrote:
Before coming to Nicaragua…
-I had never taken a bucket bath.
-I had never sweated so much in my life.
-I had never slept under a mosquito net.
-I had never been told “I love you” by so many men in the streets.
-I had never not been able to take a shower because the water “se fue” (went away)
-I had never been on public transportation where men were riding on top of the bus to hold onto passengers’ bags.
-I had never been on a school bus with 3 to a seat and people crammed into the aisle.
-I had never seen people walking down the streets with machetes.
These are just some of the experiences I’ve had so far in Nicaragua. They are definitely different than what I usually experience in the U.S., but they’re normal here. I’m curious what is strange in our culture to foreigners??
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Site Fair
So, we were given a packet of site descriptions for us to look through and see what kind of place we wanted to live. There was a catch though; the sites did not say which town, or even which state they were in. We only had “Site A” at the top and a description of the site, including climate and an approximate distance from the capital, but it still wasn’t clear. I did some investigation and thought I found at least all of the states, because we knew which states were options, just not which ones went with each site. Are you confused, ok then you’ve caught up with all of us…
Well yesterday we had a site fair, where volunteers from the departments (states) that we will be going to came and shared things about towns in their state. They didn’t tell us any specifics about town names, just what small, medium, and large towns are like in their department. Ok, how is this going to help us since we don’t know what site goes with which department. Confused again? We were too. Anyway, it was neat to hear about the different departments and I put in my preferences of site names. I’m hoping for the department of Matagalpa because it’s mas fresco (cooler) and it’s still not too far from Managua (less than 3 hours). We don’t find out for 2-3 weeks, so we have some time to worry…haha Ok, I’ll try not to worry. We have another interview coming up to talk about placements so we’ll get to talk more about our preferences and such, so hopefully they’ll put us where we would best fit :) I’ve heard that somehow PC magically knows where you should be, and everybody ends up loving their sites. They always tell us, “no matter where you go, you will find something you like. All of the sites are great and there are wonderful people.” I hope they’re right! :)
Anyway, Jess couldn’t go to the site fair yesterday because she’s still sick and had to stay home. So, I used my digital camera and videotaped each of the short presentations on the different departments to take to her. Kellie and I went over to Masatepe after the meeting so we could activate our PC bankcards and then we went shopping at Pali and bought some snacks to have a girls’ night since Jess was going to leave to Managua for more testing. So, we finally got back and made popcorn (Jess’ family has a microwave!), watched Friends, and hung out. We were sad that Jess missed the site fair, but we shared the information with her and she has the videos to watch now.
Jess left this morning to go to Managua because her blood platelets were dropping in number. She has done more tests, but we’re waiting to hear if she has to stay overnight or not. Please pray for her to get better soon. We really miss her and hate to see her sick and weak :(
Well yesterday we had a site fair, where volunteers from the departments (states) that we will be going to came and shared things about towns in their state. They didn’t tell us any specifics about town names, just what small, medium, and large towns are like in their department. Ok, how is this going to help us since we don’t know what site goes with which department. Confused again? We were too. Anyway, it was neat to hear about the different departments and I put in my preferences of site names. I’m hoping for the department of Matagalpa because it’s mas fresco (cooler) and it’s still not too far from Managua (less than 3 hours). We don’t find out for 2-3 weeks, so we have some time to worry…haha Ok, I’ll try not to worry. We have another interview coming up to talk about placements so we’ll get to talk more about our preferences and such, so hopefully they’ll put us where we would best fit :) I’ve heard that somehow PC magically knows where you should be, and everybody ends up loving their sites. They always tell us, “no matter where you go, you will find something you like. All of the sites are great and there are wonderful people.” I hope they’re right! :)
Anyway, Jess couldn’t go to the site fair yesterday because she’s still sick and had to stay home. So, I used my digital camera and videotaped each of the short presentations on the different departments to take to her. Kellie and I went over to Masatepe after the meeting so we could activate our PC bankcards and then we went shopping at Pali and bought some snacks to have a girls’ night since Jess was going to leave to Managua for more testing. So, we finally got back and made popcorn (Jess’ family has a microwave!), watched Friends, and hung out. We were sad that Jess missed the site fair, but we shared the information with her and she has the videos to watch now.
Jess left this morning to go to Managua because her blood platelets were dropping in number. She has done more tests, but we’re waiting to hear if she has to stay overnight or not. Please pray for her to get better soon. We really miss her and hate to see her sick and weak :(
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)