Volunteer visit

haha This is in Jessie's host family's house and it makes me laugh everytime.

So I went this past week to the department of Rio San Juan to visit a current volunteer. It was cool to see a couple days in the life a volunteer; to see all the things we've been learning out into practice. The town was really pretty and the people really nice. The volunteer I visited had a lot of really good friends in his site, which is encouraging to see. Someday when I learn Spanish I hope I have ggod friends in my site:) However, I wouldn't want to be placed there, it's too isolated for me...it took 13 hours by bus to get there!! Ah I'm not that extreme. But it was really beautiful, a lush jungle type of place. the picture below is Rio San Juan. 6 of 20 of our group are going to placed there sooo...I could be there.

We had a site fair today where we learned about all the sites that will be available to us and we had to choose our top 3. I chose all sites in the north, in the mountains, but I'm trying not to get attached to any one site so that I don't end up disappointed. We'll find out in 2 weeks!! I can't wait. Until then we are really busy-this next week I have to give a charla to 4th graders by myself for 45 minutes!! I'm really nervous. And we have another language interview this week to see how we are advancing. I'm nervous about that, too b/c lately I feel like my Spanish is getting worse! I'll let you know

This is a picture of my egg baby Noyman (haha Mom). We had a charla about teen pregnanacy and had to care for an egg baby the whole time to emphasize how much time babies take up. Noyman was abducted half-way thru the session, so evidently I am not ready to be an adolescent mother.

So I got a lot of responses about jellies. Apparently other people have fond recollections of them as well. Aubree-"the jelly purist", I guess you are right that these have non-plastice insoles and are therefore not real jellies. But they're the closest I've seen in a good while and I'm excited! And yes Anna everyone here wears them even old ladies.

I've been thinking that I haven't posted anything about my host family or really any of my thoughts or observations about Nicaragua thus far. So I promise next time I will do that - I will compile a list in my free time and get some pics of my family. ok until then- I hope everyone is doing great!!

♥Danielle

Jellies!

Well I am thrilled to tell you that jellies are are a huge deal and I bought my first pair this week!! They are awesome!

This week has been pretty good, it went by really fast, thankfully. Training as a whole is still going really We have our first 2 charlas this week, one with the youth group and one at the health center. Our youth group voted overwhelmingly to have a charla on abortion ahhh!! But we are not going to do that right now-we are going to do self-esteem first, which is what they wanted second, so...and at the health center Nick and I are doing a charla on Malaria/Dengue and Elisa and Jessie are doing one on Diarrea.

I am writing this as I'm talking to Aubree so if it doesn't flow I apologize.

There really hasn't been too much different going on.. next weekened we leave to visit a current volunteer at their site and I'm really excited about that. It'll be good to see another part of the country.

Grandma- the picture I drew was of Patrick and Aubree walking Penny- not houseboats!!! haha

Sorry this was such a lame post but there is not a lot new going on, sadly. I'll let y'all know about where Im going next week!! Love you!

♥Danielle

Sometimes I cant think of a Title

This is a picture I drew in class the other day; Family, can you tell what it is?

Things are going alright in Santa Teresa. Although, we have been without water and electricity for about 3 days. We did get electricity today, but still no water. I did have a bucket of water in my shower, as does everyone for just such an occasion, but the water outage doesn't usually last this long. It's definitley rough and I don't smell too good either. Today there were crowds of people all over town either waiting to get water from someone's house that has a well or from water trucks that will periodically pass through town.

This is the youth group that we formed and have just started working with. As part of the Peace Corps Community Health project, one of our projects in site has to involve working with a youth group in some way and teaching them the basics of health, sex ed, HIV/AIDs ed. etc. There is a big problem here with adolescent pregnancies( I say adolescent because they are not necessarily teenagers), so there is a big focus sex ed, family planning, condom use, and things like self-esteem. In training we have to form a group and do a mini community project and have weekly meetings where we give them charlas on the topics I mentioned above and anything else they are intersted in. For our group, they chose to do a periodical focusing on Youth interests in Santa Teresa. It is really pretty impressive to me that they chose this, because some of the options were creating a sports team or painting a mural, which seem a lot easier.

Anyway all of this is sort of like practice since we will only be here for another 9 weeks or so.

This is the Sant Teresa crew--Jessie, Nick, me and Elisa. Anna-Elisa reminds me of you in almost every way possible, its really bizarre. She even walks the same and speaks the same (uses difficult words when a simple one would suffice :) ). Its a good group and so far we all get along pretty well, just get sick of seeing each other every day. The weekends get a little rough because we are not allowed to travel and there is very little to do. We went on a long walk today, but got finished at about 11 and still have the whole day. Actually, we can travel a little bit, to like the next biggest town-but there's not a lot to do that doesn't cost money and we dont get very much of that right now. Peace Corps was not kidding when they said they would treat us like children during training. But in 9 weeks I will have all the independence I could want, so I can make it. So all in all, I am well. As for my Spanish, I don't know how many new things I have learned yet, but I dont care as much when I speak and make a mistake, which the first hurdle for me I think.

I hope you all are doing great!! Take care

♥Danielle

Santa Teresa

Well, it's hard to know where to start. Thank you for all the birthday wishes!! I didn't get to read them all until today, but it was still really special. If you have talked to my family you know I have been having a difficult week, just feeling really unsure about if I really want to commit 2 years of my life and missing everyone alot, etc. But I got to talk to both my parents and Aubree and Roger on my birthday and that encouraged me alot. I still flip out a little in my head when I try to think about 2 years of being here-so I'm following the recommendations of my family and breaking it into smaller segments. Like in 3 months I will finish training, 3 months after that my family can come see me, about 3-4 months after that is Christmas and I can come home to visit and so on. This is helping me alot.

So...Santa Teresa is a small little pueblo of about 5000, I think, in the department of Carazo. This is where I will be for the next 11 weeks for training. I'm living with a really nice family- I have a mom, a sister(16) and a grandma. I dont have any pictures of them yet, but I will. My pictures are again backwards--and Jordan I read your instructions, but I'm gonna have to play with it some more and I don't have time. So I'll just explain them like last time.

1.This is my whole group of 21 in Diriamba yesterday where we went for a medical "charla" or lecture. We go every wed. to Diriamba and every Fri. to Managua while we are in training. Even though we've only known each other a week, it was so exciting to see everyone else. Peace Corps bought me a cake, which was delicious, but different. I think it was made with corn meal. And they sang Happy Birthday and played festive music, which in reality was all wedding songs for whatever reason.

2. Me with my cake. And yes, that's the shirt I've had since I was 12.

3. My host sister- Maria Isamar-was the queen of this celebration in town on Sun. Basically it was a horse parade. Horses are a big deal in this town.

4&5. These are of my room. I have a big bed and my own bathroom, which is really rare, so Im very lucky. And I have a sweet cheetah for decoration. I have yet to name it but I'm taking suggestions :)

Okay I'm running out of time, but thank you all again for the birthday wishes and comments. I hope you all are doing well and planning your trips to Nicaragua!

Pictures

Sorry, I still haven't quite figured this out. I don't know how to space the pictures out and
they posted backwards, so the first is the most recent.

#1- A fellow trainee named Ruth and this is for real the mosquito net tent that she plans to use for two years. We are provided mosqutio nets, but they're not sealed at the bottom and I guess she's super afraid of bugs.

#2-Me in my sweet room at orientation. The only thing it doesn't capture is the smell of burning trash wafting through the screenless windows.

#3-All of us at the airport in Miami waiting for the flight to Managua. Our flight was at 1pm and they made us get to the aiport at 8:30am. A lot of down time.

#4-Me and my first roommate Amanda at the hotel in Miami with all of our luggage. She had more stuff than me, if you can believe it.

We had our language interviews today, and I feel fine about mine except for one part where I completely forgot anything that I liked to do while I was in college. I couldn't come up with a single thing. We will find out tomorrow our language groups and which training town we will be in. We also went on a bus tour of Managua today, which was pretty cool. We went to one of the high points of the city and saw a lake that was formed in a volcanic crater and there was a good view of Lake Managua. It looked enormous, but apparently it is totally dwarfed by Lake Nicaragua, which I think we will go see during training. I forgot my camera during this outing so I'll have to get photos from someone.

I am feeling pretty good today, just tired. I got to talk to my parents and Aubree/Patrick and Roger on Skype so that has helped. Thanks to those that have emailed and commented. Have a good night!!

♥Danielle

Managua

I made it to Managua! Our flight was alright, although delayed an hour because of engine trouble. My first impression of the city is that its large and kind of unorganized, there's no city center or downtown; and it's smelly and dirty. Smelly because of exhaust on the roads and dirty because everyone throws their trash on the ground. But the place where we are staying until Sat. is nice, it's a little training center with cabins and meeting rooms and cafeterias. It's kind of like being at camp.

We are here until Sat. evening and then we meet and move to our training family's house. So all day tomorrow is meetings and our language interview, which I am of course nervous about. They have stressed that it is not a test, but that it is important because that's how they determine what training town we will be in. We're split up into groups of 4 or 5 and sent to different areas depending on our language level. There are some current health volunteers here to help train us and they say that usually health volunteers are in a place south of Managua and all pretty close to each other for training, which is unusual I think.

I will have wireless until Sat. so Im sure I'll write again, and then it will probably be pretty sporadic after that. I'm feeling alot better today, thanks for the support. I found out yesterday that I am like the third oldest person in our group which I find hilarious. I guess I really am getting old! haha
♥Danielle

It's Cold in Miami

I thought it was always warm. I made it safely to Miami and have made through the series of meetings called "staging". It actually was helpful for me though, just because I got to meet and spend some time with the people Im going with. There are 20 of us total, 14 girls and 6 guys. It helps to see that other people are struggling with making this commitment as much as I am. I still really want to do this, but it is really hard to leave. But everyone is really nice and I look foward to getting to know them better. We leave for Nica tomorrow and should arrive in Managua by 2:40pm. It's in Central time zone so there's no jet lag which is nice. Take care everyone.
♥Danielle