Carolyn's First Visit to her Permanent Site

Hello hello! So I have returned from my site visit. The place is tiiiinnnyyyyy! haha! There are about 450 people in the town, so about 40 houses. I have one small little shop to buy things like oatmeal, i think pasta, little snacky foods, milk, eggs, and a very very limited amount of veggies. But there is a truck that brings in some veggies twice a week, but it looks like for fruits and if i want vegetables other than tomato, potatoes, or onion i will have to go into the big city 45 minutes from me. They also have a big supermarket, and I have a friend who lives somewhat close so we are planning on meeting in the city once a week for a shopping spree! My town is basically a really small circle. We dont have plumbing so I will be working a latrine for the next two years, and water comes for an hour once a day or every other day so I will be collecting. I had my first bucket bath experience....it was cold. And kinda hard to get out the shampoo, but I will become an expert in no time (or be really smelly, whichever comes first!) I do have electricity though! Thank goodness! But sadly I dont get cell phone reception unless I army crawl under a barbed wire fence and climb a little hill. The life of a PC volunteer! And rumor has it that the town has bought land to build a tower! So perhaps in my two years of service, I will have reception!

 

The people in my town are really really nice! They all know my name and when I got off the bus the school kids had made me a welcome sign and all crowded around me screaming my name. One little girl even carried my bag (which was bigger than her) to my host families house! Really sweet. Everyone calls my name as I pass and invites me in to their houses and force feeds me food. They are really excited that I am there! And luckily because I am a replacment volunteer, they all kinda know what my role is in the community and know why I am there so I dont have to continuously explain my purpose! And apparently the community was asking the old volunteer if I liked it, and if i liked them. They are really trying to make me welcome and happy! I also have a somewhat big city close by (like 20 minutes) and have met some nice people there in case I want to escape small city life for a while.

 

Its a lot different than I was picturing in my head, and I will be living a very low key, quiet lifestyle, but i really think i am going to like my site and the people in it! and there are always weekends to explore the cities of Nicaragua!

 

Hope you are all well! I love you and will talk to you soon!

Carolyn Learns Her Permanent Site!

Hey guys! Ok so here is a quick recap on my life so far....I would post it on the blog but i dont have time. Cathy you can do the  honors! I have officially received my site assignment and in three weeks I will be moving there permanetly! I cant state the place in case this gets posted on the blog, but there are roughly 450 ppl in my entire town. Its really out there in the country. I have lots of cows by me and apparently mountains. Woohoo! I will give you guys more info after I visit on TUESDAY!!! Woohoo! In other news, I found a random car here in Nicaragua with a Baylor sticker on it. Needless to say I freaked out and scared all the people within a block of me who were really confused on why the gringa was so excited, but non the less, I was excited! Training is going very slowly, but we have had some good times recently now that we are more confident with spanish and about leaving our training towns. We had a finca party last weekend where we went to a little tree nursery and played random games that one of the trainees host familys thought of. This included vollyball with water balloons and using large sacks to toss it over a string, eat a banana with no hands, and ended with a water balloon fight. It was a lot of fun. And we made a feast of VEGETABLES (shock horror! we all miss veggies in our lives so much!) So we made shis kabobs of chicken and lots of veggies, we made salsa, and had smores. It was a great great day! Really relaxed but lots of fun! The elections here in Nicaragua are approaching quickly, which means there are random parades at all times or days of the week with loud loud music blaring from cars and sometimes a band following on foot. Everyone has some sort of horn and blasts it at least 7 times every minute, and there are loud fireworks that are set off ever block. Its been interesting to say the least! And its really awkward when you get caught in the middle of the parade. OH! and awkward moment, my training group and i were going to give a class in the school and as we headed into the street there was a big parade complete with marching band for a funeral of one of the people in the town. They walk the casket around the entire pueblo while the band plays, and its a big procession. Unfortunately, we also got stuck in this procession. It was really awkward and everyone was looking at us trying to figure out what we were doing, but because we were also running late, we were weaving in and out of the people in the procession (we were not respecting the dead!) and we ended up having to run around and sprint past the funeral party. Needless to say, awkward! Anyway, nothing too exciting has happened recently, but i will keep you up to date on my site!

 

 

Carolyn