Masatepino

So it is official, I am a Masatepino. I feel like I am really a part of the community here. Sure I am just a gringo, but I can now walk down the street and recognize familiar faces, stop on people´s porches to talk, and have a normal routine of going to the gym or going for a run. It is weird to think that I am starting to live a normal life in a different country, a third world country at that.

As a Peace Corps trainee my life has been revolving around our weekly charlas ¨talks¨and class. My usual schedule is that I wake up around 5 o´clock thanks to the crying of my dog and the annoying honking of the buses that like to announce they are passing. I go to the gym where my trainer gives me some unheard of training schedule and I work out until about 710. After that it is a sprint back to the house, bucket shower, eat some beans and rice, then rush out the door at 745 to meet my other Peace Corps trainee and we are off to pick up the third. We have to travel in a pack because our class is of course in the most dangerous part of town and they dont want to girl walking down alone. Well back to the schedule, we are in class from 8-12 and then it is back home for an hour lunch which is more beans and rice. From there we have a technical session in the afternoon which usually involves trying to find jovenes to join our youth group or teaching a class from 1-3. Finally around the end of the day we are left with either our youth group meetings on Monday and Thursday or just left to relax when I usually go over to my sister´s Panderia to work and just talk with the customers. It is a nice schedule that is broken up on Wednesday when we have technical charlas in Managua or other cities and security briefings. And on Friday and Saturday when we of course have more charlas and get shot up by the doctors.

It is a good life that doesn´t always make sense. I complain during the week that I am often stressed out, but it is then followed by periods at night or on the weekends when I have absolutely nothing to do. I was originally stressed out about the sucess of my youth group and our joint venture to construct a garden, but the results have been unbelievable. We have a steady group of 13 jovenes everytime and our garden is a full 5x8 meters on a corner of farm land that a local let us use. I will try and post pictures, but each joven worked so hard and it is amazing what you can do with some sacos ¨large bags¨and manual labor.

Other than that I am about to start week 3 of training and that means I start teaching. I met with my coteacher today and it was not as intimidating as I expected. After observing a class the previous week I expected to be berated and under appreciated. However, the teacher welcomed me into her house and was very eager to participate in helping me prepare the lesson. So this Tuesday I will be teaching my first class in Spanish to a group of 28 5th graders about the difference and similarities of plant and animal cells. It should be fun and I have already begun planning a lesson that involves a game of hot potato, building puzzles, and learning new vocab.

Also on the plate is that we are going to introduce ourselves to the Alcadia this week and try and form some relationships with the government. As most of you would expect this is not likely to go anywhere. As with most countries local governments drag their feet and are likely to be less than impressed with some gringos showing up.

I will do my best to keep you posted on what is happening here and hopefully I will have some more exciting stories than me just doing my normal workload. I am starting to meet some friends and they have plans to take me all around Nicaragua, but who knows if that will ever go anywhere.