My First Tarantula

I have now been living with my host family for 6 days in a small town called Santa Teresa. I have been having mixed emotions while living here. While excited to see new things and meet new people, I have found that I can not communicate with anyone. My Spanish is worse than I even thought and that is not good haha. I arrived here on Saturday and was greeted by a large Nicaraguan family who speak absolutely no English. Let me tell you, it was very awkward sitting with them and not understanding a single word they were saying to me. My family owns 2 houses and an ice cream shop which is right next to my casa. I'm still not exactly sure who lives where as my mama, papa, brother, sister, their spouses, cousins, neices and nephews are constantly between the two homes. Nicas don't seem to have boundries when it comes to this. Doors are always open and people walk into other families homes without a second thought.

I have now taken a week of Spanish classes, each day consisting of 6 hours of classes. This whole immersion thing actually does work because I do see a big difference in myself in only this short period. On my first day here I had no idea what anyone was saying and I can now survive in a very basic conversation (with many mas despacios, por favor or slow down please). The food here is actually very good. Everything is fresh and cooked in the home. They even fresh squeeze the juice each morning that we have with every meal.

On Sunday I attended a large festival in the nearby city of Diriamba with my sister-in-law which I would compare to the feast for all you New Bedfordites. There was a huge parade of horses and everyone in the crowd was wearing cowboy hats, which I found very odd. All the people in Nicaragua wear clothes made my American brands. I see people walking around everywhere with Hollister, Nike, and Polo shirts that they have bought at second hand stores. People buy this clothing, which is apparently very expensive here, and most don't even know what their shirt is saying. I saw a girl a couple of days ago walking around with a shirt that said "I'm F***ing awesome!" and I'm sure she had no idea what she was broadcasting across her chest.

There is a large festival in Santa Teresa this weekend which the whole community is very excited about. Everyone is abuzz about the upcoming "fiesta". My house is in the center of the party as it is directly accross the street from the park. Our street is filled with small ferris wheels and carnival games. Needless to say, I doubt I'll be getting much sleep this weekend, but I'm excited to experience this type of event as a member of the community.

Oh, and about the spider.. I went into my bathroom last night to brush my teeth and next to the sink was the largest spider I have ever seen. Larger than a doorknob. When I gasped loudly my sister-in-law came rushing in, smacked it with her shoe, and walked out unscathed. I, on the other hand, was traumatized.

Orientation Retreat aka Freshman Orientation

Hola! The last few days have been a complete whirlwind. I arrived in Managua on Wednesday afternoon and was greeted at the airport by a bunch of the PC staff and a few current volunteers. Surprisingly going through customs was no big deal and they didnt even open our bags. We were then brought to a NGO headquarters where we have been staying in dorm style rooms with a common bathroom. I am actually rooming with one of the volunteers and she has been super helpful in explaining how things actually work. During the days we have been having sessions basically just giving us an overview of what our lives are going to be like for the next 2 years and the training period in particular. We have also had to do tons of icebreakers which makes me feel bad for all the times I made the kids in my orientation groups do these.
I took a Spanish placement test and obviously placed into the bottom level. For the next three months I will be taking Spanish classes all day on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday and Wednesday mornings. The rest of my time will be filled with studying and doing technical training on the specific health info we need to pass on. Within the first 6 weeks I need to form a youth group and be able to present a "charla" which is basically a talk on some health issue in Spanish. The language classes are cool because the teachers do not speak English and there really is no book learning. All the language learning comes from talking to them, your host family, and people in the community.
Today we took a tour of Managua. Despite its large size and number of people, there really isn't that much to see here. The historic center of the city was destroyed by an earthquake and never rebuilt after they found it lay on some major fault lines. We did go up to a observance point that overlooked the city and had some fantastic views. The landscape here is absolutely gorgeous with lush greenery, blue lake water, and huge volcanoes on the horizon. I can not wait to take a trip to the volcanoes where I've heard you can do an activity called volcano boarding which involves sliding down all the black lava rocks on a sled.
Tomorrow we move in with our host families which I am super excited but very nervous about. My family is huge! The parents have 2 children who are both married and still live in the house with their children. This is apparently very common here. Including me there will be 9 people living in my house! Thankfully, Peace Corps makes sure that you have your own room. The families have been trained so they know what to expect when we come but I'm still nervous that its going to be kind of awkward. They live in a town calle d Santa Teresa which is a smaller community outside the larger city of Jinotepe. There will be 3 other trainees with me in this town and we will be taking all of our language classes together. Thats pretty much all I know right now! Miss everyone and send me some emails!

Staging

I am officially a Peace Corps Trainee! I arrived in Washington DC today for my staging event, which is basically just an orientation complete with lots of icebreakers. There are 24 people in my group and only 5 boys.. very similar to a class at CofC. Everyone seems really positive and excited about our trip tomorrow morning. I was originally really nervous about how much luggage I'm taking and how terrible my Spanish is but being here with everyone has reassured me that everyone is having these doubts and that we will be able to make it through our training together. I cant wait to fly out tomorrow and see this country I have been talking about for so long in person. I miss all of you at home already!

Hi everyone! I’m gearing up to head out to Nicaragua in a little over a week. My packing is pretty much done and I think I have packed just about everything on the list. I’m sure I will be quite the spectacle and a source of laughter for many of the locals while trying to drag my giant suitcases around the city and on what I’m sure will be very cramped buses. I will be spending my first three months outside the Managua, the capital, where I will do my pre-service training. I’ve heard training is a pretty intense experience. We will be taking language classes every day and learning how to perform our job as health volunteers effectively. I will be spending a lot of time at Peace Corps headquarters so my internet availability should be good for at least these first few months. I’m very excited and a little nervous about this new stage in my life. I will keep you all updated throughout my trip!

I’ll post my address as soon as I know it!