¡Matagalpa!

D-day finally came and passed... I am going to Matagalpa. I am beyond excited and cant believe that the stress has finally been lifted from my shoulders. I will be living in the center of the country which is hillier and cooler. While it will still be hot, about mid 80s it is considered fresco or cool compared to the North and Chinandega. I will be in an area that is famous for its chocolate and coffee. I guess I have to get in touch with My Colombian roots and grow a sense of appreciation for coffee.

It may not look that far, and you have to remember the entire size of the country is the same as New York State, but I am over 5 hours away from Managua. It seems pretty rough, but I am quickly getting used to the time here where 1 hour is considered just around the block. I guess I cant complain when I really wont have that much to do and time is just a measure and not as important as it is in the States.

Anways more about my site. I am being placed in San Dionisio. It is a medium sized community of about 5000 people. You can see it here on the map of Matagalpa, it is in the lowerhalf kind of on the left. I know it is really vague, but then again I am not exactly sure if that is the exact location on the map. From there it says I am about two hours from the departamento capital, Matagalpa, but it looks so close and isnt that far in km. I do have to take into consideration, and what I am really excited about are the mountains. I get to be a real country boy and cowboy. The area is knkown for the horses and as my description says, ¨horses for everyone¨. You know I will have one and I am thinking of giving it a dog name like Spike or Bud, but I will have to wait and see. The other good piece of information is that there is internet in my site. Even though it is small I can still go to the ciber and wont have to travel 2 hours, even though I will have to if I want to see a supermarket or bank. Right now this site sounds right up my alley. I get to rough it in a fairly small site, I am in the mountains, I still have internet, and here is the kicker... I only have water once every two weeks! That might not be so much of a plus, but I promise I will get real good at bucket showers with only a gallon of water. Like they say, ¨someone will look at a glass and say it is half full, another will say it is half empty, a Peace Corps volunteer will say I can take a shower with that¨. It wont be so much of a hurdle, I just have to plan carefully and regardless of where I go I would have to buy purified water, I just might not be able to shower regularly, not anything unusual for me.

That is all I know for now, I still have the rest of the week here in Masatepe and I am off to Managua on Tuesday. I am so excited, but I still have a week until I get to actually visit my site. In typical Peace Corps fashion, there has been a lot of confusion and we all at first thought we were leaving on Sunday. Then we learned we had counterpart training on Monday, which is now actually on Tuesday and Monday is just a normal class day in our training towns. Regardless, now we will be in Managua on Tuesday and either leave that afternoon or stay the night and leave early on Wednesday. I am positive beacuse I will be a replacement volunteer and will get to meet the current volunteer on my visit and pick up some tips about how to best work with the community.

Either way it looks like even with my campo site I will not be completely lost to civilization. I will have internet in one way or another and that means more updates and hopefully skype dates.