Training goes really fast!

This is gonna be a rapid recap of everything that has happened in the last 8 weeks because using dialup internet makes everything seem like a chore....

Every morning I wake up around 6am (except for Sundays when I get up around 8). I crawl out from under my mosquito net to go outside and take a bucket bath. The first splash I always have to hold my breath
so I dont scream. The water is FREEZING in the morning. After my bath I finish getting ready and have breakfast around 7. My Nica mom calls me when its ready. Usually, breakfast consists of coffee, a
piece of fresh bread and some pineapple.

Just before 8, I walk the two blocks to class. Everyday I wave to the old tailor sitting out on his porch drinking cofee and Anita, the woman that makes the best bread in town. My favorite kind has honey in the center. The three other volunteers in my town and I have class until 12 when we all walk home for lunch. At one, we head back to¨class¨but really we spend the afternoon walking around town, getting to know people in the community, talking to the mayor or the schooldirector and practicing our Spanish.Wednesday afternoons, the whole day Friday as well as Saturday mornings we have business conferences with the whole small business group. We also get lots of vaccines. So far, Im vaccinated against typhoid fever, the flu, hep a, hep b and rabies.

Every night at 6pm my family and I watch the telenovela Marina. If its Tuesday or Thursday, the youth group we started shows up at myhouse at 7pm to have our meeting and discuss plans to fix up the park.

Most of my free time I spend hanging out with my little brothers and my cousin. My one brother is 16 and is absolutely great.

Ah, one thing I think is really funny is that just about every time I come home I get a welcome parade from my two little sisters (they are 6 and 3). The youngest one cant say my name so she just runs towards
me screaming MANTHA!

The other volunteers and I were sitting in the park in our town when the mayor drove by. He got out of his car to introduce himself to us and tell us that he was at our complete disposal for whatever we needed. Its a really strange feeling. Very surreal. I feel like Im dreaming most of the time.

and now back to present day......

I FOUND OUT MY SITE TODAY! (Drum roll, please)... For the next two years I will be living in Somotillo, Chinandega. On the map, its in the department in the northwest corner of the country, a little bit inland, half an hour from Honduras. It´s a small town, less than 10,000 but there is electricity. We have running water, but it is rationed daily so mostly we only have it at night. The climate is ¨savannah¨ and its supposed to be REALLY, SUPER hot. We shall see how that goes.

I will be working in three schools (two of which are technically not in my town--I have to commute, hopefully by horse). I will be co-teaching a business class with the ultimate goal of teaching the professor how to teach it after I´m gone. I will also be working with small business projects coordinated through Save The Children and an NGO called Nitalpan. A lot of my work will also be focused on HIV/AIDS education/prevention because 60% of the adolescent population in my town is HIV+.

I will have lots more info next week because Tuesday I head up there for five days to meet my new family, my counterparts (i.e. the teachers I will be working with) and the people I will work with at the NGO.

I´m super, super happy with my site placement!!!!!

Bienvenidos a Nicaragua!

I have been in Nicaragua for three days! Staging went well and so has the orientation retreat in Managua. We were all expecting a really shitty hotel but it turned out to be SOOO NICE! We even have A/C! The last couple of days have been filled with lots of paperwork, a couple of vaccines, lots of seminars about what to expect and everyone generally trying to get to know each other.

Four current volunteers came down from their sites to talk to us about their experience (two from TEFL and two from Business). All four of them were really great. I spent a lot of time talking to one of them about the host family experience because that is the thing I have been the most nervous about. I'm one of the only people who hasn't lived with a host family before. The volunteer I was talking to currently lives in a big city (more than 100,000) but his host family had very modest accommodations. His host family had FIFTY chickens, a pig and over 10 people living in two rooms, the kitchen was outside and they have a latrine (imagine me squatting over a wooden box with a hole in the top) for a bathroom. No running water so he had to take bucket baths. Very rural. We found out our training sites today, guess where I will be living? That's right, with the chickens. The pig won't be there though because they slaughtered it as a send off meal when he moved out. I know the situation sounds crazy, but he describes the family as really kind and genuine and I can't wait to move in with them!!! Apparently, this town is too small even to have a bar. I'm pretty excited about this because I will feel really safe. It's the kind of place where everyone literally knows everyone. Addresses here are not described by number and street. The people literally write "One block south of the old church, two blocks left of the store" on the envelope. This is gonna be an ADVENTURE!!!


I don't know how often I will be able to update this for awhile. I won't be able to travel outside my town because there is currently a transportation strike in Nicaragua. None of the taxis or buses are running. Some people have been arrested but I am in NO DANGER AT ALL. Peace Corps does a really good job of protecting us and our families are well trained in the procedures as well. No one needs to worry. When I get the chance to post again I will try and put up some pictures of the first couple of days.

Orange tic tacs: tangy and delicious

I have officially purchased everything I need for Nicaragua. I feel like my bags are going to be overweight even though I'm really not bringing all that much with me. I refuse to worry about it.

For so long it didn't seem that this day would ever come. Now that it has, I don't know where all the time went. I already miss a bunch of people but I'm SOOOO EXCITED about finally going to Nicaragua.

When I was applying, I spent a lot of time looking at Peace Corps blogs to find an unofficial time line of the process.....

late October '07: start application
mid November '07: finish/turn in app
First week of December: interview
Dec 7: Nomination
Jan 15ish: mail off medical forms
Dental Clearance the next week
Medical Clearance two weeks later
Invitation mailed three weeks later

I should mention, I made it through the process EXTREMELY quickly. Not everyone has such an easy/lucky time with the medical process. If you are left waiting for months on end, hang in there!

DC has been a fun, touristy time with good friends. I saw the monuments, Arlington (where my grandfather is buried) and a fair share of DC bars. If you ever make it to DC/Adams Morgan street make sure to stop by the falafel place just after last call---it was amazing!! Thanks are owed to Bailey and Brandon for putting up with me the whole weekend. :) You guys are awesome!

I checked off my last "to do" today by getting my haircut. It is about four inches shorter, I have side-bangs and it's no longer parted down the middle. Those are some big changes for me. This is the first time in my life my hair hasn't been parted down the middle. I didn't really plan the changes... my stylist and I had communication issues and this hair cut was the result. Either way, I think I like it.

Tomorrow is the first day of staging (orientation). We meet up at 1:30 in Georgetown. Tuesday is more of the same and then we fly out on Wednesday. My phone was supposed to have shut off last Thursday but hasn't yet. I need to call tomorrow and clear that up.

The next post will most likely be from Nicaragua!

Chuck Norris may not have tear ducts, but I do.

I'm not a big fan of flying. My ears hurt just about the whole time and I generally just feel crappy afterwards. I'm excited to see Bailey in a couple of hours. It has been about a year since I have seen her. We have lots of fun stuff planned for the weekend. My flight for DC leaves in about an hour. I made it safely through security without being interrogated. Normally, I am one of the lucky ones selected to sit down in the cubicle and answer questions while my flip flops are inspected. I've determined that I am in the most ghetto terminal in MCO. The walls and ceiling are not even finished. On the whole, MCO is a really nice airport, which is why the disparity between this wing and the rest is so obvious.

I cannot believe that staging starts on Monday. It hasn't really sunk it that I'm leaving. The sadness began to hit me this morning when I woke up. Up until then, the goodbyes felt like I was going on vacation. Getting dropped off at the airport wasn't fun. It actually kinda sucked. It's weird that I can be so excited to get to Nicaragua but that it hurts so much to let go of other stuff. There isn't really a good way to describe all the stuff going on in my head right now.

Thank you to everyone who made these last two weeks so special!! I love you all dearly.

My flight is getting ready to board. Hasta luego

I'm stuck on you

Saturday was the Bon Voyage party. It was pretty low-key. I finally made the mental connection and realized this person I have met (multiple) times is the same guy that my recruiter told me about months ago. This guy is a Mongolia RPCV (AKA returned volunteer) who lived in a tent for two years. He had to burn horse dung and tires to stay warm. I really cant imagine living through a -40 degree winter at all, let alone in a tent. I'm nervous about having to boil my water before drinking it... he had to MELT SNOW to have water. I hope being a PCV turns me into that much of a badass. I also hope he never reads this overly-enthusiastic-awe-inspired entry.

This weekend I kicked the packing into high-gear and actually started putting things in the duffel bag I'm bringing with me. I have to be ready to leave this weekend because of all the traveling I will be doing.

A week from tomorrow is Hank's last day in Gainesville. On my way to Stuart I am dropping him off at Rory's. That is going to be a sad day. I don't remember what its like to sleep without a dog snoring so loudly I have to have a pillow on my head. I guess that sound will soon be replaced with roosters or neighbors.

In closing, I'm worried I won't have room for my pillow in my bag. Sad day.

Staging Kit

My staging kit arrived Monday afternoon. I had been out of town for five days so the packet was lovely to come home to. I called the next day and made my flight arrangements. The whole process went really smoothly. I almost didn't know what to say when an actual person answered an 800 number before I pressed 1 for English or 0 for the operator. Ah, but the point of this story is that my flight leaves Orlando the afternoon of May 2. My weekend with Bailey is officially scheduled!

Coming up soon:

• UF Bon Voyage party for all the PC invitees.
• Lots of packing
• Write three research papers.
• Joint going away party for my cousin and I.
• Move out of my apartment.
  
• Going down south to say goodbye to the girls.
  
• Finals.
• Orlando for a couple of days.

Our staging kit includes a tentative schedule which unfortunately says we check out of the hotel at 4am on Wednesday the 7th. YUCK. It doesn't look as though I will be sleeping that night. Once we fly out of DC we have a connection in Miami. Our flight arrives in Miami at 10:55 and our connection departs at 12:45. This leads me to believe that whoever booked this flight has never flown out of Miami Intl. I just don't see how 40 of us are going to get all the way across the airport and on to that plane before it takes off. I REALLY hope our flight is not delayed even 10 minutes. Even if we make it, I'm skeptical our bags will. Hopefully, there wont be that many people (total) on our flight and they will hold the plane for the 40 of us.

25 days and counting!

It's getting real, folks.

Today I woke up from a nap and suddenly realized that if I subtract the number of days I will be out of town visiting friends, from the total number of days before staging... I HAVE 23 DAYS LEFT IN GAINESVILLE! That figure seriously crept up on me. One minute Nicaragua is three months away and now its 36 until we are IN COUNTRY.

Although we have not yet received our staging packets, I have heard that it will be in DC. YAY! I get to see Bailey and Brandon before I leave! I'm going to beg SATO travel to let me fly to DC two days early to spend time with them. I won't need hotel accommodations so as long as the price of the flight isn't significantly different than that of the routine day of departure, I should be fine. We have already made an unofficial itinerary which includes a night tour of the monuments, the Holocaust museum, the Library of Congress, a visit to Arlington National Cemetery (to say hi to my grandpa) and some bar hopping.

Some things are beginning to concern me. For one, I have no idea what type of shoes I'm supposed to wear to work because sneakers/chacos/tevas are not exactly business casual but we can't wear heels seeing how the roads will most likely not be paved. I have not purchased a single thing I listed in the last post as "to do." I still have to go and get the second dose of the chicken pox vaccine. (I'm not sure if I have mentioned the fact that I have never had the chicken pox and don't plan on getting it down in Nicaragua.) I haven't told Verizon I'm going to be suspending my service... or my cable company that I'm canceling.

I need to remind myself that now is NOT the time to procrastinate. Having said that, it will continue until at least next week because every day until Thursday is going to be consumed by a hellish amount of school work. Thursday night I'm heading to Savannah for the weekend. "Ghost tour pub crawl" here I come!