I realize that it has been FOREVER since I´ve sent any sort of update on how my life is flying by down here in Nicaragua. Pretty bad, huh! Well, after my amazing trek home for Christmas time has just seemed to slip right through my fingers.

Well, I´ve spent the last 2 months in a stupor of occupation. The projects I am currently working on consist of a world map project for the elementary (the funds and materials have been donated by the local mayors office -- took 2 months of pestering them to get it), a modified oven project, and the biggest project -- trying to begin a small business with a group of women interested in taking local fruits and processing them into marmalade and jelly.

So the last couple months have been full of meeting after meeting and training after training. With all these crazy activities happening, my mind has been very sidetracked from the countdown to the end of service (which is now only a little over 8 months). It´s very hard to believe...I feel like there is so much more I need to accomplish in these few months and I definitely won´t have enough time to do everything the community needs and would like to work on (I guess that´s why another volunteer will come in after me!).

But enough of my rambling, I am doing wonderful these days (other than the frying 110 degree afternoons). I unfortunately don´t have any more crazy critter stories. Ever since I´ve gotten a cat that problem has disappeared, of course at the expense of good "critters attacking Lindsay" stories!

As of September 3, 2009 I have been in this crazy country of Nicaragua for one year! It's hard to believe at times that it has been a whole year. It's been a roller coaster year of activity, some days not as exciting or easy as others. However, overall it has been the adventure of my life!

To celebrate this year mark, 14 volunteers from my group and I made our way down to Granada and Laguna de Apoyo. Granada, one of the most popular tourist destinations in Nicaragua, is located in the southern region on Lake Nicaragua. We took a boat trip on Lake Nicaragua that lasted 6 hours. The boat sailed through the majority of the 360 islands on the lake. On of the most popular islands, Monkey Island, is a frequented stop for all tours. The anxious monkey named Lucy is known for jumping onto boats and stealing what ever she can lay her hands on. The entire tour only cost us $5 each and was well worth every dollar!

The following day, we made our way to Laguna de Apoyo. The most beautiful place I think I been to so far in the country. It is a lake situated in the middle of a crater. So there are mountains surrounding the lake, and less than half of the land is developed! The water is crystal clear blue, and no seaweed. We stayed at a very nice hostel called the Monkey Hut. They have a floating dock, kayaks, inner tubes and a dock, all included in the affordable price of $12 per night for a dorm room, or $26 for a private! It was absolutely gorgeous, I didn't want to leave the laguna!

So after being here for a year, I have decided that I really love the United States. Sure it has it's difficulties and at times I do not agree with what's going on. But, I really appreciate the freedoms that we are allowed and the convenience of life back home! I have really enjoyed my service here as a volunteer and have learned so much more than I ever thought. However, I will be ready to go back home when the time comes! Thank you all back home for the support and encouragement you've given me throughout the past 12 months. If it weren't for you I don't think I could have made it here as long as I have. I love you all very much! Only one more year to go! Cuidanse, Lindsay

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY to all the great fathers back home.

Especially my own, love you Dad!

Great story for those back home with well-sealed homes!

It's the rainy season now here in Nicaragua. This means that all the creepy crawly creatures from the campo come out of hibernation. The other week my neighbor and friend Carmen was over at my house around 8:30 p.m. She had been over hanging out and discussing an activity we were planning together for the community. As she was standing in the doorway saying goodnight, all of the sudden I saw something moving slowly out of the corner of my eye. I told her to freeze, and back into the house. She cautiously asked why as she backed in. Well as we both stood there in fear, we watched as a snake creepily tried to slither itself from out from behind my map on the wall. She quickly shouted for her husband to come running with his machete. As he arrived, with machete in hand, he began hacking at the map trying to knock the snake down so that he could kill it. With luck he ended up killing it, unfortunately before it fell to the ground. It was conveniently stuck behind the map, in between pieces of duct tape. Somehow the snake thought it would be a great idea to wrap itself behind my world map, into two pieces of tape. So as the snakes blood was slowly dripping down the backside of my map, my neighbor carefully loosened it out of the grasp of the duct tape and it fell limply to the floor. I left everything as it was that night. The next morning, I carefully nailed my newly bloodstained map of the world back up on the wall. Every time I glance at that map, specifically the Pacific and Southern oceans, I will forever remember that dreadful night! So cheers to those with walls that touch the ceiling and doors that hug their frames. For those are two of the many things I took for granted back home!

Since that horrific night, which was only 3 weeks ago, I have encountered and killed a total of 7 snakes inside my home, and countless scorpions! My skin is quickly thickening and when I get home I will be able to handle anything! Moral of this story, love where you live and enjoy the safety of knowing that you will never walk into your home and encounter creepy crawly creatures in hidden places!

Enjoying the adventure of my life,

Lindsay

Since the day I arrived in my community, community members have been consistently asking me to give classes to their children. So I began the month of May by starting to teach English classes twice a week to 12 youths from my community ranging in ages of 12-20. Nicaragua public school students begin receiving English classes starting in the equivalent of U.S. 8th grade. However, the majority of the English teachers in the country schools are not well trained. I finally gave in to giving classes in order to fill some free time of mine and hopefully correct some mistakes and create more interest and motivation in learning English in the community. It has also been a really fun activity for me, something I actually have to plan for. Also, a great after school activity for the kids. A lot of the kids do a wonderful job and I´m impressed by the amount of English they already know!

I was invited by the PC to be a Volunteer Greeter for a new group of volunteers that came into country on May 13. I got the opportunity to meet the ¨newbies¨ and give them the insider information about what it´s really like to be a volunteer living in rural Nicaragua. Peace Corps put me up in the hotel that all the newbies got to say at for 3 days. It was great because all my meals and lodging were paid for. Those 3 days were like luxury for me, there was actually a shower and a toilet no latrine)! So after they complete their training, assuming that everyone stays, we will be welcoming 17 new agriculture volunteers into the group beginning on July 31.

We´ve been doing a lot of construction projects as well. May 19-21 I spent with four other volunteers at his site about 1 hour north of me in Leon. We helped build another modified oven for one of his neighbors. If you don´t remember the description these ovens are built outside the home preferably under some sort of roof structure. They are made completely of 220 bricks, rre-bar a metal barrel (in the center on its side), and a mixture of horse manure, water, dirt and tree sap (this creates a free concrete like substance). I attached a photo in this email.

This past Wednesday I got to join the ¨newbies¨ once again to doing a presentation on Nicaraguan food processing for them. Basically what myself and the other volunteers did was teach the newbies how to process your own peanut butter and soy and make a variety of recipes from the finished product. We also demonstrated how to make these recipes suitable for Nicaragua families who are not aaccustomedto this variety of food. Why peanut butter and soy products? Well because the majority of the Nicaraguan population is lacking protein and iron from their diets. As you all have been aware of since you were young these are nutrients that are essential for development and maintaining good heath. One of our main tasks as agriculture volunteers is to teach sustainable food processing to community members. So in short this presentation for me while I was a trainee was the most interesting and fun, and the information I learned is something I have been using everyday since becoming a volunteer.

Well, after this crazy busy month, a couple of us winded down at the beach yesterday. We had to take a break now before the intense week we have coming up. Eight of the newbies will be spending four days with six of us volunteers June 8-11. So we will be very occupied with training and a mountain of questions from the newbies! We have a lot of activities planned for them and are looking forward to helping them get their hands dirty for four days!

I´m Sorry it has been so long since I have sent you an update on my life here in Nicaragua. It has been a little crazy lately! For those of you a little out of the loop, I moved into my own house on Valentines Day. It´s a red and white brick house. There is one large living-room, one very long bedroom (with two very short doors), a kitchen, outdoor ¨shower¨, and a latrine (basically an outhouse), there are a total of 6 doors in my little house (I don´t understand the reasoning on that one). I have a tile roof, which allows for a lot of creepy crawly creatures to easily enter my house at any given time. My least favorite of a creepy crawlers is of course the scorpion, which I have unfortunately encountered on many occasions! I have neighbors on either side of me, who take very good care of me. They frequently invite me over for lunch and dinner, so I don´t always have to cook alone (which I don´t mind at all). It´s nice to get time on my own every once in a while, I usually always have visitors at my house!

Along with World Vision we have started a tree nursery in my community. It is being constructed at my community leaders house in her front yard. We are working at planting 50,000 seeds and hoping that they will all grow in order to start a reforestation project. The majority of the women in the town chop down the trees in the community for firewood to cook with. Therefore, there is a ton of deforestation and a lot of problems with water loss and lack of shade in the entire country of Nicaragua. So little by little Peace Corps Volunteers and other organizations are helping with reforestation projects.

I also introduced a Youth Community Bank to the youth in my town. Our first meeting was last Friday and it was very successful! 16 youths from the community showed up for the informational meeting and were very interested. This bank will be used to teach responsibility with savings, loans, attendance and team work. The former are not heavily taught in Nicaraguan school systems. The majority of Nicaraguans, no matter what age, have a difficult time accessing banks. So this is a great way to have a project in the community, that is run by the community and allows its members to responsibly take out small loans. Our next Youth Bank meeting in Monday and I´m hoping that their interest continues to grow!!

At this very moment I am up north in Nicaragua in the department of Jinotega. There is a half marathon scheduled for tomorrow morning at 7 a.m. There will be a bunch of PCVs racing, as well as many Nicaraguans. I think there expecting about 200 people to show up for the race! That is big here, since working out is not the latest fad. It is beautiful up here in Jinotega. We are actually sitting in the bottom of a crater. So there are mountains, coffee plants, flowers and tons of vegetation surrounding us. In contrast to Leon, it´s like we are in the jungle up here...Leon is a desert! So, I haven´t exactly been running everyday like I should, so to say the least this race should be interesting tomorrow! I will try to run as far as I can...Wish me luck!

I hope you are all staying cozy and warm in your houses back in Minnesota and North Dakota with all that snow, I must say when I am laying in my bed at night sweating on top of my sheets I do kind of miss all that white stuff floating around. Drink some hot chocolate with marshmallows for me!!!

Happy New Year 2009! I´m still having a hard time believing that it´s already 2009, where have all these years gone? Now, here I am living my life in Nicaragua -- crazy! Life is like a neverending dream sometimes that in retrospect seems so cloudy you wonder if parts of it ever occured. At times it´s like one of those dreams that you never want to end, but recently for me lifes had a very surreal, more tragic feel to it. Upon arriving to my site after a wonderful New Years at the beach with my closest volunteer friends, my service took a little dip in the road. January 4th I spent an entire afternoon with a dying 27 year old mother of two, those two children have become great friends of mine since beginning service. They are only 8 and 10 years old. Their mother has been slowly dying of an infection caused by an operation she received to remove a tumor from her knee. After spending the past couple of months in the Nicaraguan hospital (somewhere I hope to never be admitted), she was released for the fact that nothing more could be done to improve her condition. As I sat with the family and closest friends of this young mother, I couldn´t help but notice her knee -- which was swollen to the size of a watermellon. I wondered how much pain she was in and if she realized how much her two young children were going to miss her. I quietly watched as her family tended to her every need; moving her from a rocking chair, to a bed in the middle of the patio -- helping her sit up to watch the cars and motorcycles pass by, only to help her lay down two mintues later. She was gasping for breath, but could speak. Everyone was well aware of why we were all sitting around this woman -- it was unfair and undeniably ovious that there was nothing we could do but pray. However aware we all were of the inevitable, when she took her last breath at 8:28 p.m., not a single person in the house could hold back the tears -- myself included. I had never met this woman, but seeing the care and compassion on behalf of her friends and family and always keeping in mind her two kids, it was impossible to have a dry eye. The acceptance of death here in this culture feels somewhat different to me, eventhough I suspect it is the same to a certain degree in every nation. There was only immediate mourning for about a half an hour. But with the somberness of the moment, her family began dressing her for the wake. Her fingernails were painted, hair combed and set with rinestone clips, and she was covered in a lily-scented perfume. Her children were not present when she died, nor did they attend the wake which lasted until 4 in the morning. When a person dies in Nicaragua, their family and friends remain all night keeping them company until the morning. It´s something very beautiful and nostalgic about the communities silence in the middle of the night surrounding the death of their loved one.

The following day was very quite and tranquil, with very little activity. Most of the community were in their homes tending to their daily activities, but keeping close to their family members. Your really never realize what you have until you have lost it. That phrase will forever hold true. The funeral was held in the late afternoon, in the house where she died. It´s suprising to see peoples different reactions to death here, some people were laughing and smiling, while others were sobbing and wailing. At the final resting place, we all watched as she was placed in the grave. It was the most difficult for me seeing her father throw the first handful of dirt over her coffin. I can´t even imagine what it must feel like to burry a child. The whole crowd stayed and watched as the gravediggers pilled shovel after shovel of dirt on the coffin. It ended very peacefully with her two children laying yellow and white flowers on top of the mound. I will definitley be praying for all my loved ones back home and am surely counting my blessings that they are all healthy and safe!

I hope you are all keeping warm in the new snow cover! How many inches did you end up getting? Still keeping warm here...a little too warm at times, the average temp here has been a constant degrees during the day.

I finally did my laundry yesterday, it´d been a while since the last time. I probably shouldn't´t put it off for so long. It took me about 2 hours to finish washing it all...keep in mind that that´s not with a washing machine! I´m pretty sure I will be getting really nice arm muscles living here! I had to take a break in between bucket loads because my arms were getting so tired. I hung the washed clothes on the line to dry. When I came back from my break I found one of our cows eating my SOCKS! Yes, a cow ate a pair of my socks. It was the funniest things I´ve ever seen. I tried to chase her down, but she didn't´t seem to mind the rocks hitting her butt. She just kept standing there gnawing on my freshly clean socks! To say the least I won´t be leaving my clothes to dry unsupervised again!

So I´ve been trying to keep updated on what´s happening back home and I see that you are all expecting a huge winter storm! I hope you are all keeping warm and can enjoy your hot mug of hot chocolate! It is the complete opposite here. Summer has begun and the sun is getting hotter by the hour! I can barely handle a cup of coffee at 7 a.m., too hot to drink but I´m getting by! I love all the fresh fruit drinks that are made here!

Peanut harvest began last week in my community, so I´ve been helping with the collection and sorting of peanuts. This is one of the main money making activities in my community, and harvest lasts until about the middle of February. The set up of harvest is very interesting here. Of course it´s not at all like the states. There are huge loads of peanuts that are dropped off at the ¨peanut house¨ here and many community members head there every morning to take up their spot in the peanut line. There are people sifting peanuts, separating peanuts, using a very dangerous machinery to take the shells off the peanuts and more! There are no OSHA regulations here about safety that´s for sure! However, no one seems to get injured or so far anyway! Because I am surround by peanuts and I´ve been collecting a lot, I will be starting to teach my community how to more effectively use that resource for other purposes other than just eating the peanut alone. I know it´s hard to believe, but no one in my community has ever had peanut butter!!!! I´m going to teach them how to make it this week! Hopefully they will like it and add it into their diets! Protein is a lacking nutrient in a lot of their diets, this will be a easy way to add it in!

Well, my first two weeks in site have been very interesting and undoubtedly HOT! I´m continuing to meet all the community members by visiting the houses one by one. Sometimes sitting in very awkward silences at times, but the people are so friendly and accommodating!

This last week in all of Nicaragua was a very special holiday called Purisima. Because the reigning religion here is Catholicsim, the week of Dec. 7 is in celebration of the conception of Mary. I spent Monday-Saturday from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. going from house to house in my community singing songs with community members. After singing, the host would give out some kind of treat to all the guests. One of the popular treats of Purisima are cookies called gofios (made of pure sugar, milk, licorice and piñol - all of which are boiled together to create a tasty treat). All these activities lead up to the major Purisima event held in the capital of León on December 7. During this grand celebration people from all over the country, as well as tourists, come together to go door to door (like trick-o-treating), sing carrols and watch fireworks infront of the main cathedral. These events take place from 6 a.m. until 2 a.m.! It was a lot of fun to be able to experience this important holiday for Nicaraguans. December and January are the most active times for celebrations here in Nicaragua, so we will be attending many more celebrations to come!

Last Saturday was my first camping experience here in Nicaragua! About 10 of us got together and hiked a ways up the mountain here and set-up camp in a deserted rock quarry. It’s a gorgeous spot, too bad I don’t have any pictures to send you right now from that night! There’s a great view of the neighboring cities from the quarry as it’s situated a good hike up the mountain! We all chipped in and bought marshmallows & chocolate covered cookies, unfortunately we are not use to the different types of trees here in Nicaragua and it took us about an hour and a half to actually get a campfire started! But once we did we chowed down all the roasted marshmallows and improvised smores. One great thing was no one had tents, so we all camped under the Nicaragua moon! It was almost like camping back in the states (hehe, I don’t think I’ve ever camped without a tent in the states). It was a great time and a perfect night; the rainy season is over so we didn’t have to worry about waking up in a puddle of water!

Last Sunday the entire country of Nicaragua had its municipal elections (elections for department/state mayor), so there has been some drama around the country since. The percentage of voting citizens here is outstanding, 80% of Nicaraguans get out and vote. There are two distinct political parties the Sandinistas and the Liberales; they are constantly combating each other. The reining party now is the Sandinistas, so there have been debates that the Liberales lost/miscounted ballots in certain departments. Unfortunately, some people are very passionate about their political party and a few people have been killed because of the instability. Don’t worry; none of the incidents have been close to our location, so it’s very peaceful where I am! However the news in Nicaragua has been very interesting and the PC has kept us on a short leash, meaning we can’t enter certain areas of the country, mainly Managua. The activity has begun to stabilize, which is a very good thing as we are headed to Managua on Tuesday for the swearing in ceremony.

We leave our training communities this coming Tuesday for Managua, where we will be staying in hotels all week to officially swear in as Volunteers. The swearing in ceremony is something very important for every Peace Corps Volunteer. We meet the ambassador to Nicaragua Robert Callahan and receive a briefing from him, we were supposed to go to the Embassy, but they had to take it out of the agenda. The PC is highly respected here; so many TV news stations will be present during the ceremony as well as other government officials from Nicaragua and the U.S. So it’ll be a great event and a way to meet the “important people” in the country! However, many in our group are just as excited to eat the Pizza Hut pizza that we get on Friday, as they are to swear in as volunteers! Which I find quite hilarious! – Yeah, one week of a real shower and not a bucket bath, that’s definitely something I’m looking forward to! – So a week from today I’ll finally be an “actual” volunteer and no longer a trainee! It’s crazy to think that I’ve almost already been here for three months! But I haven’t stopped thinking about everyone back home; I miss you guys a lot! I’ll be in Managua Tuesday – Saturday, so I should have easy access to the Internet and phone all week! So keep me updated on your life in the states!

I finally was able to buy a cell phone on Friday!!! Yeah, so now you all can call me by using an international phone card or plan. Shoot me an email to get my number and you can call me anytime, we are on the same time zone! Well, we finally got our site assignments and had the opportunity to visit them all last week. I will be living the next two years of my life in the department of León, which is one of the Spanish colonial departments in Nicaragua. This town is also only a 2-hour bus ride from the Pacific Ocean (hint: for those coming to visit me)! It’s a very small farming community, only 38 houses with a total of about 200 people. So I will fortunately have the opportunity to get to know every member of this town and hopefully be able to form good working relationships with everyone! Almost everyone has cows, pigs and chickens, so there is an abundance of fresh milk…delicious! The town is surrounded by multiple acres of corn, sesame, millet and peanut fields. Yes, I will definitely be making my own peanut butter! It’s much hotter is this part of Nicaragua, as it’s located not far from the pacific. There are three different massive volcanoes that can be seen from any front or backyard in my town! So we have a gorgeous sight! It’s really sizzling and dry in this volcano alley, so even in the shade your dripping with sweat. However, there is a great quantity of fruit trees and large shade trees. It’s not desert like, just a lot hotter than other regions in Nicaragua, word on the street is that it gets up to 110° in the summer months (January-May). One good thing about being in the hotter region is that the bucket baths are much more tolerable! I didn’t shiver once in León, compared with the ice-cold bucket baths in Estelí. The closest volunteer is only a 25-minute bus ride and then 2-mile hike away. But there are a total of four of us in a 12-mile radius, so we will be in good contact over the next two years. We’ll also have the opportunity to collaborate on a couple projects as one of those volunteers has a lot of experience to livestock/animal care. That’s extremely important for me, as I don’t have a clue how to improve the milk productivity of a cow! My site visit of five days was an interesting one! I slept on a bed made of wicker, woke up at 5:30 a.m. every morning to snorting pigs outside my window, got eaten by hundreds of mosquitoes, discovered who the new president of the U.S. is from a Nicaraguan on the 5th, got attacked in the middle of the night by a scorpion on my middle finger (yes it stung me, it was a pain like no other! Don´t worry their not poisonous here), and got to check the market in Leon!

Well, what’s been goin on here? We’ve kind of been in the same work mode for the past two weeks: “in the field” Spanish class Mon – Thurs and various technical trainings in between. To practice, each group has built a protein bank, veggie garden and tree garden to work on while we aren’t doing our grand variety of other projects in the community. The protein bank is made up of only seeds of an amazing tree called Moringa (a remarkable tree that is practically edible in all forms; has 7x the amount of vitamin c than oranges, 3x the potassium then bananas, 4x the calcium of milk, 4x the vitamin a then carrots). The PC really wants us to push the education of this tree because it provides so many nutritional benefits for people, as well as animals. Being an Agriculture Volunteer has a lot of benefits, one great one being that when each volunteer gets to their site they have a choice of what kind of projects they’d like to work on with the community. Because most of us will be working with school gardens and personal patio management (among other projects) it would be a great idea to try to integrate this tree and its nutritional benefits to the people, I’m sure it’ll probably be something I’ll be working on. There are so many astounding facts about this tree that I could go on and on about (for example, it helps those suffering with AIDS and allows for easier consumption of food because of all the inner mouth sores it’s victims suffer from). Sorry I’ve been rambling on about this tree, but I think it’s fascinating; especially with all the malnutrition going on around the world, its products could really make an impact.

Buckets baths haven’t been as pleasant the last couple of weeks, as it’s been quite a bit chillier. We’ve been getting a lot of rain and not as much sun; so bathing outside (without heated water, straight from the well) just hasn’t been the same! So to say the least, I’m looking forward to getting to a warmer site. We find out which site/community will be working in next Tuesday. It’ll be really exciting to finally know where I’m going to live for the next two years and where you’re all going to visit me!

(Picture of me demonstrating the proper gear to wear when applying pesticides to Nicaraguan crops!)

A new experience for me was that I voted for the president of the good ole U.S.A yesterday. It’s very interesting voting by absentee ballot. I’m not quite sure if it will get to the states, but I’m hoping it will before the election. The PC office actually gives our ballots to the Embassy in Managua and supposedly they overnight them to the US. Anyhow, it’s going to be crazy here during the election, except all volunteers in my group will be on our weeklong visit to our sites and won’t be able to be together as US Citizens rejoicing or crying depending on who wins. In any case it will be interesting to hear who wins and look forward to positive changes made in our country. Food has been great in my host house. I’ve had the typical Nicaraguan food of Gallo Pinto (rice & beans) and tortillas with practically every meal (with a few exceptions). I have been really lucky because my family here buys Jiff Creamy Peanut Butter and actual loaf bread, most other volunteer don’t have this luxury. I get super-excited every morning when I see that delicious PB&J sitting on the table with a good cup of Nicaraguan coffee! It makes my day! The only really crazy thing I’ve had to eat was a sardine with a really odd red sauce. It tasted horrible and I only took one bite, so thankfully my host mom never made that again. Yuck! Other than that, the food has been amazing, but yes I could really go for a night out at the Olive Garden! Well, I think I’ve probably written enough for one email and I don’t want to take up all your day with my rambling banter about my crazy new life, but así es la vida!

Also, Halloween is basically illegal in Nicaragua, so no dressing up for me this year! I will definitely miss out on those black & orange wrapped, peanut butter filled candies this year! (hint, ha ha!)

So we are now in the month with the most rain out of the year! It has been raining everyday since the beginning of October and it´s been quite cool, for Nicaragua! Around the 70s, again with tons and tons of rain!

I just got back from tech week in the town of El Sauce about 2 hours south of here! It was an awesome four days! We learned about how to build a biodigestor, modified stove/oven, animal consentrates, and an elevated garden! I´ll try to post some pictures soon, but I forgot my camera back in my training town! I know I haven´t posted pics for a while so the next time I´m at the internet cafe I will!

Our team received two new volunteers last week. They were evacuated from Bolivia because of instability, so they will be joining our group for the next two years. They had been volunteers there for eight months, so they already have a lot of experience and have the language down!

I did finally get sick last week, but don´t worry it was just a cold! Nothing at all compared to what the others have gotten. The cold is called La Gripe here and everyone in the whole town knows when you have gotten it. However, because of the weather changes and all the rain, the cold lasted for like five days! Everyone in the whole town knows when you´ve gotten it and constantly ask you if you are better, but I´m great now and back to my good old self!

We’ve finally received all the necessary vaccines to be able to live in Nicaragua as a PCV! Every Wednesday and Friday have been known as the “days of the shots”! So if, God forbid, a dog bites me – I won’t get rabies, sigh of relief!! I’ve also gotten the vaccines for Hepatitis A, B, Tetanus and Typhoid. Oh foreign diseases – how interesting they are, not that you can’t get the same in the U.S.; they’re just more evident here! So, still no signs of sickness for this trainee yet (knock on wood)! I’ve definitely been praying to hold strong throughout my service, but almost everyone in my group has gotten sick (probably a good handful who haven’t). There’s been a grand variety from E-Coli, an ameba, allergic reactions, to a dog bite, and the infamous travelers diarrhea. Also, unfortunately two weeks ago, a fellow trainee from Minnesota broke her foot carrying a bag of sawdust and had to go back home to the U.S.! It was really sad, everyone in our group is becoming really great friends and it’s sad to lose anyone!

Last week was a lot of fun in Spanish training class. We had a cultural exchange with our Spanish facilitators, ours showed us how to cook Arroz con Leche (a very popular cream and rice dessert) and we showed them how to cook chocolate pancakes! They were soooo delicious and a good change from the everyday typical Nica. food of gallo pinto (rice and beans, which is very tasty, but I get it twice a day!).

Yesterday was amazing! Five of us went hiking in the mountains near our training towns to encounter the “cuevas del duende” or Elf Caves, which has been an ongoing legend here! It was a crazy adventure…we started out at 7 a.m. and didn’t end up actually finding the caves until about 12:30 p.m. Yeah, it took us the grand amount of 5.5 hours to finally find the caves. No, we weren’t lost, we just didn’t know exactly where in the mountains it was! We asked everyone who passed us “are the elf caves up here?” and the response every time was “yeah, they are right up there no further!” They neglected to tell us that we had to take a sharp left through a oxen pasture, trample through multiple streams, and hop over ridiculous barbwire fences! However, the almost six hour hike was absolutely worth it! When we finally did make it to the caves it was an amazing sight! You could see for miles from the top and what was even more incredible was there was another cave within that cave. Of course, we had to crawl through a 3 ft opening to get to it, and there was a bat inside waiting for us, which was a little insane! Don’t worry the bat didn’t attack us, just swooped down a couple times! Over all it was an incredible hike and yes I am ridiculously sore today!

Well it certainly has been a while since I’ve had access to the outside world. I’ll really try to keep the gap shorter from now on – depending on what’s happening around here. So you’ve probably been wondering what’s been goin on since I’ve arrived at my training site? A WHOLE LOT to be honest, so this is gonna be a long one! It’s hard to know where to start!

Well, we began our adventure to Esteli (training department) on Sept. 6 with an ever eventful, typical Nicaraguan experience…a flat tire! It was hilarious – I’d be lying if I said that I was surprised. All 22 of us soon to be Ag. Volunteers broke out in a simultaneous laugh, as if we knew it was inevitably going to happen. Nicaragua has great highways and main roads, but because most of the side roads have ridiculously huge rocks and tropical weather tires wear out a lot faster. To say the least we started with a great bonding experience. I have definitely been blessed; my host family that I live with is evangelical and get this my dad is the pastor of the church! I was super-exited when I found this out upon arriving in my training town of El Naranjo (and yes that means orange in Spanish). My house is situated about 100 ft west of the Pan-American Highway and 10 ft from the La Iglesia Bautista Evangelica de Naranjo (the church is painted a bright sky-blue color). We have a dog (Pitufa), a parrot (Luis), a cat (Gato), a rooster (that insists on crowing every morning beginning at 3 a.m. and every two hours thereafter) and two chickens (that roam around freely in our backyard). My host mom Zoila is an amazing cook! Because our schedules are so crazy during training, my host family prepares every meal for me, washes all my clothes (by hand, with bucket water from a electric well), and suffers through my outrageous Spanish mistakes when I’m trying to have a conversation with them. Overall, I love my family here! They have really made me feel like I am at home…it will be sad to leave them when I go to my permanent site in Nov.

My typical schedule as a trainee: I get up every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday for Spanish class that goes from 8 a.m. - 12 p.m. (classroom setting) 1 p.m. - 3 p.m. (hands on in the community). There are three others in my Spanish group. Wednesday, Friday and Saturday we have technical trainings held at organizations around the area. The other days I learned how to cut open a tire, turn it inside out, cut handles in it, and use it as a planter (all with my bare hands…pretty amazing!). When we’re not in class, we are required to work with the areas university students with commercialization, grow and sustain a community garden, protein bank and tree nursery. So to say the least, we haven’t had much time to hang out with our host families or just relax on our own.

Electricity - we have it almost everyday. Usually it´s pretty spotty on Saturdays and Sundays. Bucket baths - the form of bathing at my house...it´s pretty interesting. We have an electric water well (unfortunately it only works when there is electricity.) There is also a huge basin to collect rain water and city water. It is not heated, so in the morning it´s a great waker-uper!

Well I've been in Washington D.C. for the past 48 hours, unfortunately we haven't had any time to sightsee (boo!). My team is called team Nica 48, we are the 48th team to enter Nicaragua with the Peace Corps since the program was reopened in 1992. There are 40 of us, about 15 guys to 25 women. There are two married couples. We will be departing for Nicaragua tomorrow 9/3 at 4:30 a.m. from the hotel...way too early. This extremely disappointing because our flight doesn't leave until 8:55 a.m., so we will definitely be getting some sleep on the airport floor (just kidding...maybe not?). Once we get to Nicaragua we will be staying at an awesome hotel called Las Mercedes in Managua until Saturday. I guess we get some sort of pre-training overview, and then it's off to our training towns on Saturday morning. We will be spending 11 weeks in our training towns, that means after October 20 I will get my permanent site assignment. I hope all is well with everyone and I look forward to hearing from you all whenever you have time to write to me.

I can't believe that today is already Friday and I have been here in Nicaragua three days already! Tomorrow morning we will be completing PC (Peace Corps) orientation here in Managua and moving on to our training sites. I know a lot of you are interested in where I will be stationed for the next two years of my life, but unfortunately I will not know that until the end of October. However, I can tell you where I will be located for training. Our team will be separated tomorrow morning into Environmental Education (19 volunteers) and Agriculture Development (22 volunteers) groups. I, along with the 21 Agriculture volunteers, will be spending the next three months in a community by the name of Estelí. Estelí is located in the northwestern pacific side of Nicaragua.

We will be spending the next 10 weeks in intensive language, technical and cultural classes! All volunteers will be living with host families in communities around Estelí. My community is called El Naranjo, it's about 15 minutes from Estelí (which is our departments "hub city") I am super excited because I get to meet my host family tomorrow afternoon. We have already received information about them. There are five people in my family, the mother, father, granddaughter (8 yrs) and two sons (16 & 18 yrs). I will not have access to the Internet for a while, as there isn't any in my immediate town, but I will try to get in contact with you all soon!

This is where I will be enjoying the next 2 years and 3 months of my life! Nicaragua, located between Honduras and Costa Rica, is approximately a little smaller than New York state. It is encompassed on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the east by the Caribbean Sea. It is covered in range of environmental beauties; mountains, volcanoes, oceans, lakes, rain forests, waterfalls and more!

~These are some photos I took from previous trips I've had to Nicaragua~

If you are planning a visit to come see me (WHICH I HIGHLY SUGGEST YOU DO!) the rainy season, runs May to November, at its rainiest in September and October. So you might want to avoid that time period. Obviously, the prime time is winter in Minnesota (December - March). Check for flights into Managua!

As of July 16, I have been nominated to serve as a

Rural Development Extensionist

(agriculture volunteer) in Nicaragua!!!!

I leave for staging (orientation) in Washington, D.C. on September 1, then take off on September 3 for Nicaragua.

At first I was a little hesitant to accept this nomination:

#1 – I have been to Nicaragua (twice in fact)

#2 – I was hoping to go to a country I've never been before

After long contemplation (about 3 days), I decided to accept the placement. My rational was that the positives of going to Nicaragua highly out way the negatives of declining the placement. I accepted this placement for the following reasons:

I love, love Nicaragua! It's definitely one of the most beautiful countries I been to.I have been to Nicaragua before, therefore I have previous experience with the culture and customs of life in Nicaragua. This allows for me to dive right into training (11 weeks long) without being worried about what to expect from the country.While I was there I meet amazing missionaries who are connected to my home church. They currently reside in Managua (the capital), so I could possibly catch up with them when looking for something different to work on or other people to hang out with.I also have kept in contact with a few Nicaraguans who live in various communities in rural Nicaragua. It would be wonderful to see them again!My home church sends groups down every year for four weeks in the month of February to build schools and churches in rural communities. I thought it would be really great to see that many familiar faces every year. I know there will be times when I really miss everyone!I am beginning to get really anxious about leaving. I know I will miss all my family and friends immensely! As of today I have 5 weeks and 3 days until takeoff...CRAZY! This is going to be a fun-filled, packed last month in order to see everyone and say goodbye for the next 2 years and 3 months of my life!

This was my initial letter I received from the recruiter in Minneapolis about my acceptance into the Peace Corps!

I slowly began my Peace Corps experience in April 2007 with the following:

29-page application

250-question health survey

Personal Interview with a PC recruiter

Fingerprints

After I had completed the above, I decided to join AmeriCorps*VISTA to gain a little more organizational and leadership experience before the GRAND PC adventure. I have been working as a volunteer coordinator for Habitat for Humanity since August and will finish this August.

I was finally nominated in April 2008 for the Agriculture Extension program that will be based somewhere in Latin America (country info to come) leaving in September 2008!!! I have recently completed the following:

Physical

Blood Tests

Immunizations (my arms are still sore)

Once I send in the medical kit to the PC Medical Office I should hear which country I've been nominated for and exactly what my work project will be! I am super-excited and am very anxious to hear where I will be serving for the next 27 months of my life! Therefore, this will be my blog site for the next two and a half years of this adventure.