Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! Sorry I haven't written in a while, but sadly I have had a relatively normal month or two. However, I figured it was time for an update, and since I am sitting in the Peace Corps office with bronchitis and FREE Internet, I decided this was as good a time as any! So...here we go!

 

I have started teaching in the schools. After a month of "observing" my schools and the classes I was going to teach (aka bringing in magazines and trying not to fall asleep at my little desk) I started giving classes in all 4 schools. The biggest shocker of the new year....I actually enjoy (most of the time) teaching my class! The kids are always excited for my class and behave well and participate! An even bigger shocker is who has taken the number one spot in favorite classes: The second graders! I know what you are thinking....I greatly dislike small children, which is true, but they are fun to teach! They are soo bright eyed and easily bribed and entertained by games! They really like my class and are actually more intelligent than some of my 4th and 5th graders, which makes my heart giddy with joy. I was so happy that after 2 weeks of no class (teachers randomly cancel class all the time and there is a holiday approx every 3rd day which cancels class) they knew what each part of a tree did! Woohoo! Other schools have no idea what the leaves of a tree do, but my second graders know they make food! Success!

 

Other news, it is soooooooooo hot here! I am literally frying in my little house that has a tin roof. Its around the 90's outside and 150 inside. My fan just laughs at me when i switch it on. It blows hot air at me and mocks me. I sit on my porch a lot to cool off. And of course there is the hot sun. It is so strong here! Everyone carries around big umbrellas to block it out. At first when I saw this I thought to myself, what are they doing? This is not 1820! BUT then I gave it a little test run for myself and I am now a believer! I walk around looking like Marry Poppins with my big ole umbrella happy as a clam!

 

The new love of my life is the portable DVD player I bought recently and bootlegged DVDs. God bless the people who sit in movie theaters and tape the latest releases (more enjoyable when people's heads are not in the way) and make it available in my town for the small price of 20 cords! (1 dollar). And sometimes you can get 3-4 movies (half normally in English) for the same amazing price of 1 big one! Thank you Nicaragua! I support your illegal activities with all my heart!

 

I have been traveling around a bit more and have really enjoyed the change of scenery from my small village! I have been visiting other sites of volunteers and am planning on some beach time in the coming weeks! My latest outing was in the site of one of the other volunteers living in my department. We decided to go hiking in this "nature reserve" aka a coffee plantation speckled with a few trees. It was starting to get late so we decided we should probably head back. It might be good to mention we are probably the most directionally challenged people on the planet. So we are walking and talking, having a jolly good time when we notice that we never passed a big field of flowers on the way up. So we think to ourselves hmmmmm how do we get out of here. So for the next 40 minutes we spend trying to find a path that will not lead us to our death (there were lots of steep drop off points) and back to civilization. As the sun is setting and we start panicking by laughing hysterically and just wondering in circles. No worries, eventually we made it out of the reserve after another 20 minutes and a standoff with a group of cows that refused to let us pass.Moral of the story: The two of us should never go into the rainforest alone which had been our plan up until that point.

 

Anyway, as I said, pretty boring life lately! I hope everyone is doing well and send me updates!

 

Carolyn