Happy Father´s Day!!

I forgot to put it in the previous post and I probably won´t come again tomorrow. So,

HAPPY FATHER´S DAY!!

1 day early. I love you Dad! Can´t wait to see you!

Danielle

(a banner at the March for Life the other week)

Another month down and I have been a volunteer for 2 months now. I still don't have a very regular work schedule, or a clear role yet, but I´ve gotten more comfortable in the not knowing at least. In the mean time I´m just trying to enjoy myself and getting ready for my family´s visit in exactly 1 month!!

This past weekend I went to visit my friend Elise (my Anna in Peace Corps that I have mentioned before) in her site San Juan del Rio Coco, Madriz. It was very mountainous and beautiful like Yali, just a little bigger. It was the weekend of their Fiestas Patronales wich absolutely means there must be an hipica(horse parade). We set out to go watch it and, as has been our experience as gringa ladies in Nicaragua, were totally taken care of. We were searching for food and were almost immediately handed tickets for plates of food that all the people around us were paying for. It was very tasty, too- steak with some kind of pesto sauce and rice and beans. And although the raw meat was being held in a tub underneath the table before being cooked, with no sign of refrigeration in sight, you just can´t turn down a free meal when you make 5 dollars a day. After we finished eating we set off to find a good shady spot to watch the parade when this nice truck with 2 men inside pulled up and asked if we´d like to cruise around in the truck and watch. Again this is not something I¨d normally agree, too, but the rules change in Nicaragua. You can´t say no to an air conditioned car ride. You just can´t. So we went, following a long line of cars, to supposedly watch the hipica, but in the end we missed the whole thing. I think the horses started a little bit behind us and we only saw a couple at the very end. But we fully enjoyed a very comfortable car ride


( the one shot I got of the hipica. I think the sky in the background is the coolest part of the picture.)

Anyway the visit was really fun, but I probably won´t go often- it took me 5 hours to get there and 7 to get back. Mountain roads are rough.

Last Wed and Thurs I went on an outing with the Health Center to some really distant communities to do some more baby weighings. We stayed in the Health Post in La Rica and each went on foot house to house doing the weighings and talking about the flu (still) and diarrea, etc. It was tiring, but fun and I felt good because I participated alot more than I have in the past.



(a shot of the view as we were walking to the communities)


(washing machine :) )

Not too much else has been happening. I have been a sick for a little while (yes, I think it was the water and I have switched back to purified agua) but I´m feeling better now. My host mom made crepes today and they were sooo good. She called them pancakes, but they were crepes-rolled up and everything. She put the popular Nica cheese cuajada, mashed with sugar insde and it was really tasty. Sugar and cheese sounds strange but it was gooood. And finally, as I watched Nelly pour at least a half cup of sugar into the pitcher, I figured out why I like milk to drink here, but not at home. Sugar makes everything better.

Can´t think of much else, I hope everyone´s doing great

Love, Danielle