Volunteer Visit

Hey everyone sorry its been so long since my last post but I have been crazy busy for the last 2 weeks. Our schedule has kicked in full force and I am now giving charlas and meeting with my youth group on a fairly regular basis.

I spent this past week visiting Rio Blanco, Matagalpa which is about as far east as you can go without entering the autonomous northern region of RAAN. Despite what it may look like on a map (pretty much directly in the middle of central america) it was one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. I left my training town on Sunday morning to take a crowded bus to Managua, the capital of Nicaragua. This was my first time traveling alone and since my Spanish is still far from perfect I was a little nervous about my trip. I traveled to the capital with a lot of the other trainees but from there I was on my own for the 5 hour journey into the mountianous region of Nicaragua. Luckily, I happened upon some Belgiun exchange students who were headed in the same direction to a rural community to do a survey on water quality. They, along with their very accomidating teacher, made sure I got on the correct bus and did not end up heading south instead of north.

When nearing my destination, a blond haired blue eyed American approached me and asked if my name was Jen and I was in the Peace Corps. Startled that she knew who I was, yet happy to speak to someone in English, I told her that yes I was a PCV. She explained to me that she lived in Rio Blanco and was friends with the volunteer I was headed to visit. She said she would get me safely to his house (which made me feel good) however then proceeded to tell me all about the dangers of Nicaragua all of which I am already acutely aware (which made me feel bad). Needless to say this girl had me scared to death by the time I got off the bus. She eventually led me to my volunteer (Mike's) house where she left me to ask about 54,000 questions. He had a sweet living situation which I hope is similar to what I will have in my site. He lived in a larger house which was separate from that of his host family, providing him privacy but still being part of the family. The city was gorgeous. It was situated in the mountains, giving some amazing views but causing some problems for us walking around in the 100 degree heat. The trip was meant for me to see what its like to be a volunteer. The main thing I noticed was the lack of structure you have as a Health PCV. Right now my life is very rigidly structured by classes, charlas, and studying, so it was nice to see that volunteers are not restricted to this kind of schedule.

The best part of the trip was hiking up to this waterfall. The fall dropped into a lagoon so if you were willing to climb up the rocks you could jump into a small lake. I decided to brave it but definately fell a couple times and have some not so attractive bruises to show for my clumsiness. I put the pics up from the trip on facebook so check them out.

Now Im waiting to hear about my placement. Its a really stressful time and the whole group is buzzing about where they hope their site will be. Ill keep you all updated on whats going on in the next few weeks! Miss you all every day!