Well, it has been a while since I updated this thing. Sorry! Much has happened. I have been back to the states twice now, once of the wedding of my sister and the other time was for my mother. She has been on dialysis for a while now and finally received a kidney transplant!!! YAY!! It was amazing to be home and help her through the difficult recovery. Now I am just hoping she will be able to come visit me down here! We will see.

As for what has been going on here in Nicaragua... Many things. The end of the school year was a week ago. Before that I was running around trying to get the regional competition of ´La empresa Creativa¨ organized. I did run into a few small problems, and was sort of freaking out the night before wondering if I had forgotten any last minute things, but it went really well. Great in fact. Just goes to show that I shouldn´t stress out as much as I do-things kind of have a way of working out. As I was typing that, I was disagreeing with it.. haha. I guess I am just that way.

Now that the school year has ended, I do have more free time to focus on secondary projects. Here is what I am interested in to keep me busy these next two months-

Start teaching swimming lessons at the local pool with my sitemate Ryan Get more involved in the projects my NGO are doing. They focus in agribusiness, something I really enjoy, but after peace corps will probably not have much of a chance to get involved in.Research for a thesis I would like to write about the Zona Franca here in nicaragua. The zonas francas are special zones where foreign investers can come in and build factories and pay little to no taxes. They employ the people here paying them around 3$ a day. There are many types of factories, but textiles is very common. Think about nike, GAP etc. Check your tags! I am not sure weather these factories are a good thing or a bad thing.. While they don´t pay well, they supply a lot of jobs to people that wouldn´t else have any work. Some money is better than no money.. but they also are rumored to have horrible working conditions, and break labor laws without paying the consequences. I have to do more research to find out what the truth is about these factories. I will be starting a community bank with my host mom and her group of teacher friends. I am helping them organize a savings system so that they can borrow from each other, as opposed to the banks that charge insanely high interest rates. On a more fun note, I will be receiving my first visitor at the end of December! I am excited to show someone Nicaragua. Anyone else interested, let me know! The tickets from Michigan are not that expensive!!Well that is about all I have going on for now. I just went to the All Volunteer Conference for Peace Corps. I was surprised by how much money they were willing to spend to get us all together. But I met a lot of new people, and had a lot of fun. It was a refreshing break from everything I suppose. Hope all is well with everyone! OH! One more thing. I set a personal goal for myself to read 100 books during my service. I am only on book 15, but any suggestions of good books would be great. Currently I am reading a little of everything, some in Spanish, some in English. I am trying to get the classics out of the way. I also enjoy reading book with themes in economics and development. I just finished Banker to the Poor by Muhammad Yunus, and I HIGHLY recommend it. I was amazing and got me excited about the work I am doing here again. Please comment any books you have enjoyed, or think I will enjoy. They dont have to be those themes. I like everything for the most part. If you have any laying around you would like to send to me here in nicaragua, I have posted my mailing address in a previous post. Just make sure you let me know you have sent something so I can remember to check the mail (something I almost never do!)

Hey everyone!  I am back in the US for my sister's wedding, and thought I would take advantage of the fast internet speeds and upload some fotos of what has been going on in Chinandega!  Enjoy!

Here I am with Juan at the swearing in ceremony.  He always wanted to do the peace corps and at the age of 72 his wife told him to go ahead and do it.  We just got sworn in!This is Esteli and friends erin and ellen.  We found a random little waterfall to jump off of.  After much planning, I had my local competition.  Here is a group of students that commercialized perfume getting ready to compete for best business.Here I am with my beloved dog Nena.  Shortly after this picture was taken I found she was covered with tics.  One of them must have had babies because I pulled 32 off of her.  Gross!

Well its been a few weeks here in chinanadega. I just decided to update my blog because it is down pouring outside and I dont want to walk home in the rain! I thought I had seen it rain hard before in my life... I had no idea. Anyway.. what is new in my life?? I am starting to furnish my new place. My host fam is going to close off a big room for me and build me a bathroom, so I am going to stay there for a while it seems. I have a private entrance, so it is like a studio apartment. They also have the most amazing dog nena, and I wanted to get a dog while I was here, but didnt know what i would do with it at the end of my service, so I have just kind of adopted nena as that dog. I have been doing all sorts of cooking here. I have been trying to make lots of nica dishes- gallo pinto, tostones (double fried, smashed plantains), torta de arroz, arroz a la valenciana... Not much meat though-I dont have to budget. We dont have a fridge where I am, just a cooler... I am working on finding one though. The other day I can home and I had put a tupperware of gallo pinto (fried rice and beans) in the cooler and all of the ice had melted and my tupperware was full of water.. I couldn´t let all of it go to waste, so I strained it and fried it back up. I think I have sunk to a new low of cheapness... But that is the way I have got to be... Hopefully I can find a fridge soon, it is just expensive. Everything is going well here though. I am really really busy though, but the weekends come fast. I am guarding my weekends carefully though... everyone wants me to teach them english! I am not working on the weekends. I need those to keep my sanity here. I am cheap during the week, and when the weekend comes all of that goes out the window. I buy luxury items like chocolate milk, yogurt, gatorade, fried chicken, take ciclotaxis- you know, really cut loose. My mouth is watering just thinking about it, but alas the rain has stopped and I am going to go home watch my beloved telenovela doña barbara... (I know its on telemundo too, so let me know if you have seen it and love it as much as i do!)

Well everyone, I am an official Peace Corps Volunteer! Hooooray! Three long months of training, and probably over 100 hours of charlas (lectures), and I am sworn in. The whole swearing in process was a very good time. My group got to spend the week in Managua (an expensive week, now I am broke !). It was worth it though. I actually felt like I was in the U.S. for the most part. We ate American food, watched American television shows in our air conditioned hotel rooms, went out on the town… It was nice, but I feel like my Spanish has suffered for it. Anyway, now the actual work begins. I feel like I am starting over. I was comfortable in Masatepe. Now I have to find new friends, learn new bus routes, maybe find a new house, have responsibilities! I suppose it is exciting. I am kind of hesitant to fill up my schedule with tons of activities at first, so I do get a little bored a veces. As of now I am introducing four new sections of la empresa creativa (the business course for high school students) in three different schools, I have two follow up schools (they are already teaching this course-I just have to supervise, not teach) and I will be working with the NGO UNAG. Before talking to UNAG, I was under the impression that they worked with youth, but come to find out that is not at all what I will be doing. They are helping local farmers commercialize their products and form co-ops. It sounds like it will be fun, and I get to visit the campo, which I am excited about! I will help them figure out and minimize their costs and find new markets for them to sell to. Anyway, it seems like a pretty full schedule to me. Also, at the end of the business course there is always a competition between the student groups. The groups throughout the year come up with a product and learn the steps of commercialization then write a business plan. The competition is to determine the best business. I am in charge of organizing this competition, which is a little intimidating. I have to find and book a location, find judges, prizes, an MC, refreshments, etc, with no money. I have to get everything on a donation basis. So, as I said, I think I have plenty to do, although sometimes I don’t feel that busy, I know I will in a couple of weeks. What else is new…Hmm. OH! I huge thank you goes out to my amazing masatepe host family. They were sooooo wonderful. I obviously had to move all of my stuff from masatepe to chinandega and was a little worried about how that would go with the insanely crowed buses, oppressive heat, and not to mention all the ladrones (robbers). Well, my family was nice enough to arrange me a ride in a nice, air-conditioned, conversion van all the way to chinandega. They also were extra amazing and gave me two huge bags full of really useful things when starting fresh at a new apartment (pots, silverware, T.P, pasta, towel, knives, dishes, a school bag, matches, dish soap, laundry soap..etc etc.) It was incredible, and a sobbed like a little girl when saying goodbye to them. I am even getting a little choked writing this. Anyway I love them and the next volunteer that gets them should know they are incredibly lucky. As for my new place, I like it. It is located in the center of the town, which is really nice. All of my work is really spread out though, so that makes it difficult. A difference a lot of people from the U.S. notice about Nicaraguans in how slowly they walk. Now, as many of my friends would tell you, I also am a really slow walker, but they literally take one step every few seconds it seems. I get it now! It is so hot here that if you walk any faster you will die of heat exhaustion. So I just have to plan to leave my house a lot earlier. Thats all for now!!

Well everyone, the big day has come and went. I now know where I will be spending my next two years here in Nicaragua- CHINANDEGA, chinandega!!!! yeah!!! Very exciting. It is a large departmental capital and has something like 90,000 living in the city. It may not sound like a lot, but for a nica city it is very large. Many of the other sites consist of between 6,000 and 20,000 people, so it is big. Agriculture sites have between 200- 1000 people! Something I am excited about is that there is a laundry mat in my city. Those of you who know me well probably know about my obsession with laundry mats and doing laundry in general. I find it relaxing. Although on the other hand I was excited about the huge arm muscles I would be building doing my laundry the old fashioned way. One reservation I have about the city is the climate. It is rumored it be the hottest city in nicaragua.. when I told my house mother where I was going she told me the heat there is "unsupportable"- but like all of the other changes I have had to make here, I will adjust to it. I will be working in the high schools teaching business courses and also working with an NGO that helps create opportunities for poor teens (scholarships, technical training, mentoring etc.) I think I will also be teaching some university students business courses. I have a lot of room to play with what I will be doing and mold it to fit my interests. Chinandega as a department has the highest rate of HIV/Aids infection so I would like to try to collaborate with the heath sector to raise awareness of that problem. Overall I am very excited. The beach is only about 15 min to an hour away, depending on which one I want to go to, which will be very nice. I have never lived near the ocean, but have always wanted to. If it really is that hot, it will be nice to escape to the beach every now and again. I also will have a friend living about 7 kil. outside of the city, so I am excited about that as well. Some other random happenings... I told my family the other day that I wanted to eat a sandwich for lunch and they looked at me like I was crazy saying, "A sandwich, for lunch, this is not lunch!" In my mind I think sandwich is the definition of lunch. My family just got a new puppy as well! I wanted to name it mani (peanut) or chispas (sparks) but was shot down for negra (black). You can't win them all I suppose. She is very cute. So, Michael Jackson died!! Yes, this is also a big event here in Nicaragua. I am currently typing this while watching a day long marathon of his videos. This is actually fantastic for me, because I LOVE michael jackson videos.

I also would like to, now that I have a minute here, give some of my suggestions for alterations to the peace corps packing list that was given to us before coming here. I think it is a little out of date.

1) BRING JEANS!! everyone here wears jeans, all of the time. Even in the schools, what teachers normally wear are jeans and t-shirts. While working with my NGO I will be wearing more business casual, but not in the schools. It may be more comfortable to bring pants of a lighter fabric though, but pants are key-especially for mosquitos!!

2) Spices available here include: oregano, bay leaf, worcestershire sauce, curry (not amazing quality if you a picky), and parsley. There are others, but they are more difficult to find. I suggest bringing thyme, basil (although you can find it, it is just a little more difficult), favorite spice mixes (I really like a chicken rub/blend and herbe de provence), other ethnic spices (asian, indian etc are difficult to find). The food here does not have as many spices as most americans are used to so it is helpful to bring some spices you love.

3) Peanut butter. Even if you don't like it that much, you will find yourself craving it because you can't have it. Trust me. Also if you are a big fan of ranch or anyother special bottled salad dressing, bring it. You can get italian and oil and vinegar, but olive oil is kinda difficult to find as well as expensive. They variety of hot sauce here is also limited. I miss my rooster sauce severly!

4) Good shoes for when it is raining and closed toed shoes you can wear walking around. I for some reason thought all I would be wearing were sandals and my hiking boots, but I really really wish I would have brought my converse or some other kind of shoe for the rain. Also, you need flip flops for the shower, and despite what peace corps says, people do wear them on the street, but not to work. Also many/most ladies like to wear heels. I suggest bringing your favourite heels. You will wear them- if you are the kind of gal that likes to wear heels that is.

5) quick-dry anything is a good idea. During the rainy season, things do mold- especially your towel.

6) TIDE PENS!!! amazing. other little handy things have included a collapsible shelf unit for your closet, wet wipes, and small travel size bug spray for your pocket/purse.

7) One thing that would have been really nice to know is that peace corps provides you with pretty much all the medicine you will need (cough drops, bugs spray (but not the small ones!), sun block, asprin, cold medicine, anti itch cream, antibac ointment, bandaids and much much more!) when you arrive to country. They also will continue providing you these items through service, so don't bring or buy them. If you have a prefered brand of pain killer, bring that though. And nyquil.

8) for the ladies only- divacup. You can order it online.

9)chocolate and mixed nuts. They have peanuts and not very good quality chocolate here, so if you love these things, bring some with you!

10) They don't have puzzles here. Impossible to find, along with many other games like cribbage, uno.. I don't know, whatever you like to play. They do have and love monopoly though!

Well those are my words of wisdom for now. I was looking for something like this when I was about to come here and couldn't find it, so I hope this helps someone! I wish I could go back and re-pack but so does everyone and you really can buy most things here...just a matter of knowing where to go.

Hello everyone!  Thought I would give another update with some photos.  Here we all are (nica 50- the group I came here with) at Volcan Masaya.  We went on a "field trip" with the peace corps.  It was amazing.  The volcano is active, but I wasn't able to see any red flowing lava.  That was a little sad, but still it was extremely cool to see and I will never forget it.  As for my life here, everything is well.  My spanish is good... I still want it to be better though.  I want to be able to speak without an accent.  Perhaps this will never happen, but I am trying.  I am still very very happy here.  I have made some good friends and already seen some unforgettable things.  I am anxious to get training over with though and begin my real service.  I love working with the youth here and recently started getting involved in business advising.  I also was recently in Esteli and had an amazing time.  I got to drink some coffee that wasn't instant and see some beautiful scenery... sorry-I took no photos..  Just imagine a city surrounded by beautiful green green green mountains and cool temperatures...it was nice.  I wish that that could be my site but there is a volunteer there already and she has another year to go so it isn't available.   Happy Fathers day to all by the way!!  In Nicaragua they celebrate on the 23rd of June-the day doesn't change.  Speaking of the 23rd....my birthday is coming up, and not being presumptuous I would like to include some small things I am missing here in Nica.  I know some of you said you would like to send packages and what better an opportunity than my bday!-rooster hot sauce -nuts of all varieties except peanuts (there are a lot of those here) salty mixed are always good..-Puzzles!!!  the more pieces the better (they can be put in plastic bags with the picture cut out to save on shipping)Dijon mustardFoot callous remover with handle Dry-erase markers for my classesCrayola Markers (the thick ones) for my classesFun and simple recipes (keep in mind my resources and available ingredients are limited)Map of the U.S.Hot shower..(if possible :) )

Here is the address :PCT Amber Madden

Cuerpo de Paz

Apartado Postal 3256

Managua, Nicaragua

Central America

I am mostly looking for puzzles...  my nica sister and I both really enjoy them.  Hope all is well!!  Miss everyone!  Enjoy the photos, they took about an hour to load onto this site!!

This is the opening to the volcano..in the volcano I guess..  All of the smoke coming out of it made it hard to breath sometimes.

The other day I got the honor of seeing the infamous nicaraguan running of the bulls!   I was so excited, it being something I missed while I was in Spain and had always wanted to see.  I heard they were coming by my house at around 1 in the afternoon.  There were supposed to be four of them, and everyone warned me it would be dangerous.  People started to gather in the streets around quarter to one.  I had my seat ready and was sitting in a doorway with a metal gate I could shut incase a it ran at me.  Well we waited until about 4pm...  the nica's tricked me again!!  Everything here runs late, even my favorite telenovela (soap opera)  sin senos no hay paraiso (without breasts there is no paradise).  Nicaraguans are infamous for the "hora nica"- it is perfectly acceptable to show up to a meeting 30 min to an hour late..  Sooo I should have known.  Anywho, I found out that 3 of the four "bulls" were too tired to make it past my house, and the reason for the delay was they were laying in the middle of the road taking a siesta...  One finally did pass my house...walking...and it was more like a starved cow than a bull.  Oh well!!  Not exactly the image I had in my head..  but nothing about nicaragua was what I had imagined really.  

Well I realize now that I have left out the work I have been doing for training.  I am working in the high school here in masatepe giving talks to juniors and seniors in high school.  When we first went to visit a class to observe, I think everyone in my training group was a little intimidated.  The students talk all class to each other, and their cellphone, to other students passing in the hallway.  When we passed the classrooms some students would give us cat calls.... whistling and hissing..  Anyway, at this point I have given  two talks to a class and it has gone surprisingly well.  If you use the right tone of voice it seems to keep them on task...  I think it is fun.  I am also working with a youth group made up of 10 students from the high school.  We are teaching them to develop a product start to finish and sell it, like a mini business.  The product they came up with is chocolate, which is a great idea because one complaint I do have is the serious lack of good chocolate here in nica.  Everyone wants it, but there isn't any to be found.. or if you do find it, it is imitation.  The students are great and I have been having a great time working with them.  One more note...  Because we are half way through training we get to go visit and actual volunteer (I am not yet sworn in as a real PCV, just a trainee).  I found out I will be going to Esteli for my visit and am very excited.  I wanted to see that city anyway, and it is relatively large with a lot of big business.  Well it is 9pm, an hour past my bed time!  Wish me luck in Esteli!  

Sunday I saw the black jesus procession at the church in masatepe.  Needless to say, I have never seen anything like that in my life.  People were crying, dancing all around the procession in traditional outfits, street venders were everywhere..  Some people crawled on their knees from their home with people laying down blankets to make it a little easier.  Everyone wanted to touch its feel and give it money or flowers...  Photo follows.  It was hard to get close enough to get a good one, but I think I managed.  After the procession there was a dance that I went to with my sister, her bf and my primo.  We dance all night and I learned five different dances.  It is amazing to me that they all can here a song and recognize it is salsa or merengue or bachata....  I had no idea, but I sort of figured it out.  It was the best time I have had in nica so far!  Saturday we went to the laguna de apollo and it was sooooo beautiful, I don't the the picture does it justice, but here it is anyway!  Hope all is well!!  

some photos, me eating gallo pinto, a monkey in las isletas and lake nicaragua...  

It’s soon approaching one month in country, only 26 more to go!!  The short term is that I will be done with training in two months, which is rapidly approaching and I am already beginning to feel sad.  I feel so lucky!  Great family, love my training group, the city, being close to all the other volunteers..  It has been great so far.  So what has happened since my last blog..  The Hipica (I think that is how you spell it) came through my town.  It’s parade where people come to show off their horses and drink heavily…  It was a big party that the whole town gets involved in.  I think there were around 100 horses.  That was fun…  I was a little scared walking in the streets though because the horses were literally trotting through the town right next to you, there was no barrier between the horses and the huge crowds of people.  My little brother was gifted a drum from his father, a very nice gesture, but it is driving me CRAZY!!!  He plays it all day.  I tried Nicaraguan meatballs and made my meatballs for my family, which was fun.  Last night was my “sisters” b-day and we planned a surprise birthday party for her at a restaurant in Catarina.  I felt bad though because in the middle of the day we were all acting like we didn’t care it was her birthday and I guess she started to cry.  But at least she really was surprised.  Training is going well, I taught my first class yesterday with another person from my group.  We worked well together and I think it went well.  I actually am kind of excited to start teaching.  I like the idea of the challenge of it..  I might have classes up to 70 students, and I am curious how I will handle it.  I think it will be fun.  For my sisters birthday they bought a goat to slaughter in the backyard for today.  I was going to watch, but I made friends with it last night..a mistake!  I pet her and gave her leaves to eat.  I knew if I was going to eat it, I couldn’t watch it die.  I caught the end of the craving though, and the meat was very very good.  Mild, not gamey at all, which is not what I was expecting.  Everyone else from my group watched though.  I think I have to warm my way up to a goat..starting with a chicken or rabbit or something.  Well if all goes well, this post with be followed with pictures…  Hope everyone is well!!  

In response to your comment ma-no, my teacher is from nicaragua, but works for the peace corps. She lives in San Juan de oriente, which is close. She is really nice, and I love the class structure. But the classes are tiring because it is so hot and I am concentrating. Did I tell you I joined the gym for 8 dollars a month... It is run by a spaniard which is fun for me.

Wow!  I have only been in Nicaragua for one week and I feel like it has been at least one month.  My Spanish is coming back to me quickly, which is a relief!  When our group arrived here we were sent to a compound and didn’t speak a word of Spanish, so I didn’t really feel like I was in another country.  Now I definitely do.  It hasn’t been difficult to adjust though because of the family I am living with.  I live with my house mother, Soledad who is 53, her two daughters Sole and Hilda-25 and 30 and my brother Andres who is 6.   They have been sooooooo nice to me.  I really feel like part of the family.  They are always looking for ways to include me and things for me to see- different parts of Nicaragua and introducing me to everyone.  I live in a small town in the province of masaya where everyone knows everyone.  It makes me feel safer because everyone knows there is a gringa in town and who I live with and that I am working with peace corps.  There are three other volunteers that live in this town with me and we all have class together.  We speak the same amount of Spanish, so it makes it easier to learn.  It is amazing that peace corps puts us in such a small class.  I have already learned so much and have only had two classes!  They are six to eight hours a day though, m-f, and trips to different popular places on sat. so that we can get used to public transportation etc.   I wake up at 5 or so in the morning because there are a ton of roosters here..and motos and dogs and parties that begin super early and birds and sooo much more.  I kind of like it though!  My only complaint is they didn’t give us the most honest advice on what we as women should wear in nica.  Everyone wears jeans and a t-shirt.  No one wears skirts or dresses unless going to a really formal event.  My sister Hilda is a teacher in the high school here and to school wears jeans.  So I almost always feel over dressed because I only brought skirts and dresses.  I will have to go shopping for new clothes!  Luckily the clothing here is very inexpensive…  T-shirts are a dollar or two and jeans I think are between 5 and 20 depending what you want.  It isn’t as hot as I was prepared for, which is nice.  Also because I live in a town, not the country, so I have a normal toilet and shower.  The only problem is the water only works for six hours a day, so you have to take your shower then, and flush the toilet with a bucket after.  But none of this is so bad.  I also have been enjoying the food.  I haven’t really gotten sick at all, but am still waiting for it to happen.  The diet is different.  Rice, beans, fried meat, pues, everything is fried, plaintains (fried), fried chicken, which is lucky for me because I love fried chicken and a lot of fresh fruit.  My only complaint is that they use a lot of sugar, and I am having a difficult time explaining to them that I don’t like sugar…at all really.  They make me coffee in the morning and it has like 3 tbs of sugar in the glass and the fruit juice has that much in each glass too.  I am scared to try the deserts… Maybe I will get used to it, but I don’t really want to.  They other thing I think is strange is that the coffee is instant.  What is strange about that is Nicaragua is famous for the coffee they grow in the mountains.  They export it everywhere, Europe, the US, and it is very expensive, but the people here don’t drink it.  I don’t know why.  It isn’t expensive to buy here….  Anyway, that is all that I have for now.  Hope this gave ya’ll and idea of what my life here is like.  I do have internet in my house, which is incredibly lucky.  I think I am the only person in peace corps Nicaragua who has it, so I will be able to be in contact fairly often…but I must warn you that my days are soooo full here that I normally don’t even have time to check my email, let alone write a long blog like this one.  Hope everyone is doing well!  Please don’t make fun of my jacked grammar… It is hard to think and speak in Spanish all day, they write a blog in English.   

I am here!  I made it.... two long days and I am in managua on the training compound.  It is not too hot actually.  Not as bad as I expected!  No time for more!

A big thanks to everyone that came out in kalamazoo on Sunday.  I really appreciated it!  And okay... I will admit that I am getting nervous now!  There are a lot of loose ends to tie up and not a lot of time to do it.  Wish me luck!!

So, I did it.  I have a blog.  It's April 20, and I leave may 12th for nicaragua for Peace Corps...  I am thrilled!!!!    Not so nervous yet. I am sure that will come when I am boarding the plane.  I am going to be doing small business development, probably working mainly on the empresa creativa, but what I will definitely be doing is still some what of a mystery to me...  Well there you have it everyone.  My first blog.  Hopefully I will be faithful in keeping everyone updated!