It may seem like a random collection of events and it is. Nicaragua and especially the Peace Corps makes no sense. My life is split between being a small child again, yet being an adult with more than enough responsibilities and obligations. I probably mention it too much, but I am trapped as a middle school student. I have to tell my parents here when ever I leave, I have to ask permission to stay out late, and I try to hide my breath if I dare go out to get a beer. It is not all bad, it is kind of exhilerating to escape at night and feel that rush of heading home knowing that you were supposed to be back before dark. I love being able to walk down main street at night and think I am breaking a rule.
So enough of that, last weekend I got to go visit a volunteer up in Chinandega. It is the northern most part of the country and also the hottest. It is right before the Honduran border and next to the Pacific Ocean. We started the trip off right and went straight to the beach. It was a blast to just relax and live the life of a real volunteer, no more being watched over and just getting to relax. The beach wont make it onto any postcards, but it was just what I needed. The water felt like a warm bath, the waves were big, but the water was brown, and the sand was like CT. It was a good stress reliever and then I was off to my volunteers town. She lives in a small community of about 5000 called Rancheria and it only has one paved road. I spent the week with her teaching english to her youth group and visiting the three schools she is in charge of. It was a lot of fun to see how our projects are actually going to come together and to see that you arent under as tight a time table as we are now under training. Also, it is ok to have some failure. Her community group is three people and all her gardens havent made it, yet she is still in Peace Corps and not in trouble. Perhaps the best part of training was the fact that she had her own house. That meant we cooked every night. Now I am no chef, but I fell in love with cooking these last couple days. It was amazing to just saute some vegetables and do it all yourself. I made stir fry, pasta, pancakes, tuna salad, and eggs. It was great and I cant wait to do it everyday. As for sleeping arrangements I slept on a wicker bed which I found humorous. It was a wood frame bed with a tight wicker weave in the middle which was my makeshift mattress. I wont say it was comfortable, but it was basically like sleeping on the floor. Now I wont sleep on the floors because I saw way too many tarantulas and scorpions to risk that.
Finally for that trip I read the entire first Harry Potter. I am sorry for making fun of all those who read the books, it is addicting. I will never say they are great works of art, but they are fast and quickly addicting. I am curious to read the next six and if anyone is bored and wants to send a package, Harry Potter would be perfect.
Now up to modern times. This week flew by since I got back to Masatepe on Thursday. Yeterday I headed off to Volcan Masaya for group training. We got to see the TEFL crowd again and it was fun to catch up. It was actually a great day to be outdoors and I have some great shots of the giant crater and the rolling landscape around it. Also afterwards I got to go out with a bunch of fellow trainees and relax at a bar for a while.
Lastly, today I learned I am no longer in high school or on a college sport. I am not in the same shape I was in college or even last year. I ran a road race today that was only 7km and about half was up a huge hill, but it hurt. I was tired and to make it worse i didnt win. I was heartbroken and to rub it in we had to max out in pullups, dips, pushups, and squats and I couldnt even keep up in any of those. It is motivation and I plan on training again here, but it will be hard once I get to a site to stay motivated.
Besides my little physical backstep it was a great day for cooking. I made vegan banana pancakes for my family and they really enjoyed them. I also had a fellow trainee come over and she taught me to make sourdough bread and cinammon rolls. I wrote down all the recipes and hope to be able to cook them once I am at site and on my own.
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