Another week down and as of the 15th I have been in service for 1 month. 23 more to go! hah I went to Leon at the end of last weekened with my host mom Nelly to help move my 2 host sisters into a new apartment. Luisa Amanda just turned 21 and is studying odontology, I think (odontologia?, she pulls alot of teeth is what I gather) and Yubelka is 17 and is studying law (you can start college here as early as 15). She gets alot of crap from the family because she has apparently gained 40 pounds or so since starting college. They way they nag her to lose weight and comment on her eating you would think they are slim and trim themselves (They're not. Except the 6 yr old, he's a normal weight). But she seems to take it in stride, it's a different thing to be called fat here than at home. But Leon was nice, but HOT, and it was really fun to be in a big city with young people that dont have babies :)

I still don't have a lot of work going on in Yali-we had an AIDS fair in one of the communities on Wed. and had a volleyball tournament and activities dealing with AIDS education. I actually knew very little about what was going to happen, I just knew I was supposed to play volleyball. That's the problem with not having mastered the language, the details are always a bit sketchy. It went pretty well, and it was fun to play volleyball, although I spent half the time being annoyed at the way they play. I am trying to get started giving nutrition consults in the Health Center to pregnant women and mothers of young children. I have asked if I could have a space in the Center to do that once a week and the Director said she would look into it. So...we'll see how that goes, I'll probably have to ask a couple more times. In preparation I've been trying to research some of the foods that are abundant here, that I don't know anything about. For example, chayote- never heard of it before coming to Nicaragua, but it is in the gourd family and a good source of Vit C. So there you go.

I made another friend this week, or she made me I should say. She was friends with the volunteer before me and I saw her in the park on Tues. and she invited me to her house and today I went with to her mom´s house...I think I´ve been adopted. Her name is Saretlly and I spent the better part of today with her and her family and I´m exhausted. I usually have little breaks from listening to Spanish and trying to speak. But it´s good to have another friend.

I´m going to Somoto this weekend with some other volunteers to a canyon that is supposed to really beautiful with a river that you can tube!!!! I´m so excited!

I found this quote on someone else's blog the other day:

"In a sense I think all of us, each in our unique way, are being called upon to find out who we are and to live that authentically, in the service of this world."

I liked it because I feel it expresses a large part of why I wanted to join the Peace Corps (aside from travel and learning another language) which is to find out who I am, what I am, my place in the world, while at the same time giving back to it in my own small way. Hopefully I can live up to my own expectations :)

I'll leave you with this Nica-ism that I learned the other day. To say that someone is cheating on someone you use "pegarsela" which literally tranlates to "sticking it to them".