6 weeks!!

Hey there!  Another week has gone by again.  I went to Frank's to paint again (this time I surprised him) and we made more progress at his other school.  It felt like a déjà vu since we were painting the same colors as we did last week at the other school.  He keeps saying he'll be done by next week, but I'm not so sure about that...and that's a big reason why I wanted to go help. 

 

Frank found out that this Sunday he'll be getting some visitors--PC trainees from the new group.  So, I told him he should definitely take them to check out his schools and paint for a bit :)  Since there will be 3 of them, it would be a lot of help for Frank.  The students do have good intentions, but their painting skills are lacking and so is their patience. 

I got back today and went to the public school to help the students who are participating in the national English song competition.  I felt like such a professional standing there, tapping my feet, stopping & giving suggestions, having them just sing a line for me and practice the pronunciation.  Never thought I'd be in this place, but I guess I was more of an English pronunciation coach rather than a voice coach.  They got the great voices & melody down.  I was just there to "clean" things up a bit.  Really though, I was impressed.  This was the team that we chose for first place at the municipal competition (remember that scandal?!), then they went on to win the regional competition which included all teams from the department of Boaco, and tomorrow they head off to Managua to compete against schools from all over Nicaragua (one team/school from each department).  Sounds pretty cool & I kinda wish I could go, but since I didn't find out until today that it's tomorrow, I don't think that will really work out.  Also, Peace Corps has made Managua off limits this week (unless medical/security issues) because of the taxi strike taking place.  Even though I wouldn't technically be riding in a taxi, probably shouldn't go just in case.  Oh, so this taxi strike.  Well, apparently the Managua taxi drivers are on strike because the government isn't giving them the gas subsidies that they requested and they want to increase the taxi rates.  The taxi drivers that were not participating in the strike were being harassed by other taxi drivers and even some of the drivers that work with Peace Corps were being threatened, so Peace Corps told all PCVs that if they need to come to Managua (medical/security reasons), they have to call the office and PC staff has been picking them up.  Crazy.  Hopefully all this gets cleared up soon...violence is not good.

Well, I'm glad it's already October, but I just looked at my planner and there's lots to do!  Gotta get a move on.  Tonight I have my very last real community class.  We're going to review all the topics we've covered throughout the whole course, then it's the test on Monday!  Woo-hoo! :)  So happy to be wrapping this baby up.

Now that my countdown chain only has 6 weeks, I might just have to start a day countdown.  I'm certainly not gonna make another chain, but I can count things down on my calendar :)  That means...41 days til COS!