Out in the country

I went out to a more rural community this weekend to hang out with my friend Melissa (PCV in Frank's group) and celebrate her birthday.  I was a little hesitant before because I've heard it's fairly rural and usually without power and water.  Also, there was definitely a chicken on the infamous "chicken bus" so I knew we were getting further away from the city.  But, everything turned out great! 

Not a great picture because the bus ride was bumpy, but that's Melissa's foot, and then there's a chicken in a bag.  That's usually how their transported.  No chicken kennels here!

We got to her place Saturday and the power was on so all was good :)  I got to meet her host family, the neighbors, which are also part of her family, and the owners of the only little shop in town, also her family members.  A little different out in the country, but it was fun.  There were definitely more critters which I assumed there would be, but her house is very enclosed so we didn't really have any issues--just one weird bug was in her room, but crawling on the outside of the mosquito net, and we (well she) took care of it. 

Weird bug crawling on the mosquito net...

Melissa doing her thing getting the weird bug.

It was a pretty chill weekend and I actually got a lot of work done without the distraction of internet.  Go figure!  It was actually nice not having the internet and we got to have some fun hang out time.  We made a lemon cake for Melissa's birthday and enjoyed some family time.  I had given Melissa some movies on a usb so we were able to keep ourselves entertained even without the capital luxuries that I have. ;)  However, Melissa did have a good supply of cheddar cheese, which happened to be Tillamook cheese!  She didn't even know that she had Oregon cheese in her possession, but I proudly pointed it out and scarfed some down.  We actually made makeshift grilled cheese sandwiches and then she let me take some extra cheese packets with me--they're those small ones that usually come in gift packs.  I was so happy!  I guess it was a sort of payment for me helping her clean/organize her room.  Oh yeah, we did that too.  She'll be moving to Boaco at the end of this month because she's extending to finish a project, but she'll be living in the capital.  Kind of a bummer just as I'm leaving, but we've been able to hang out a lot lately so that's good :)

After spending some good time in Boaco Viejo (Melissa's site), we headed over to Camoapa to have lunch with Jason and pick up some neat crafts from his town before I headed back home.  We had a nice time there and it was just good to be hanging out with friends and enjoying places I haven't been too, or very often.

Saw a neat house while I was in Camoapa:

It was really interesting to this house.  Not many are like this anymore, but it was neat to see how it was constructed.

Other news: Tonight I gave my community class their final exam so I'll have that to grade this week and then on Thursday we'll have a little party.  It feels really good to pretty much be done with that class.  No more planning!  Yeah :)  They are sweet students, but it's time to wrap things up.  Then we have our big party this weekend with all the PCVs in our group.  I'm hoping it turns out well.  I gotta talk to Edwin about the details tomorrow.

Well, it's late, so I better get to bed, but it's kind of hard since I've been staying up late and sleeping in so often...well just on the weekends ;)