One month has come and gone! I can´t believe this time last month I was shoving last minute tidbits into my suitcase and saying goodbye to my folks. Time really is flying. Training has been very intense and yet very fun so far. Craig and Jill and I have managed to form a very devoted youth group. We have about 20 teens who we meet with once a week, 1 day to play soccer and the other day to have health related presentations and prepare our final practice. The youth group chose a small project we will be working on with them, and they chose to put on a play! I was very excited when they choose that. They will be writing their own scripts and we have broken them up into 3 groups to work on skits based on the themes of drugs, love and trust, and teen pregnancy. They started writing during our meeting yesterday and their ideas are looking great!! We have also gotten some of the high school students involved and those groups are working on the skits about family violence and HIV_AIDS. They are going to present their plays during the end of March or beginning of April. I´ll be sure to include pics of those performances.
Other than working with the youth group we have been preparing small presentations (charlas) to give in the Health Center and classes to give to the middle schoolers. I have given charlas on the Importance of hand washing and Nutrition. They actually went a lot better than I expected. The 3 of use in my group also gave a class on STIs to a sixth grade class. That was interesting, and the vocab was extremely hard. Next week I´ll be giving a class on self esteem to fifth graders. They ages in the grades are pretty close to those in the US, except people only have to go to 9th grade to get a HS diploma and 2 more years if they want a specialty, in areas like teaching or computers.
On sunday I will be leaving for the Northern part of Nicaragua to visit a volunteer and see was life in the Peace Corps is like outside of the bubble our training has produced for us. I´m heading to La Dalhia, Maltagapa. I´m excited to see up close examples of what health volunteers are working on.
Finally: Happy 60th Birthday Dad!!! I wish I could celebrate with you. And congrats to Zach and Carrie Anne for their wedding tomorrow!
Friday, February 20, 2009
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Pictures!
Here are some pictures. Enjoy these because it takes forever to upload them. I might just set up a shutterfly account and include a link, but we´ll see.
Ferany on her first day of school
Jill (far right) and Kerry with Jill´s host siblings
At our super bowl party! (Nico, Hazel, Lorna, Liz and Amanda)
Me, Jessie and Adam in Managua
Kerri (my roomie the first 4 days) andI with a Sandista monument
At our super bowl party! (Nico, Hazel, Lorna, Liz and Amanda)
Me, Jessie and Adam in Managua
Kerri (my roomie the first 4 days) andI with a Sandista monument
Monday, February 2, 2009
One week down and many more to come...
So I am finally getting around to blogging...it only took me a week and a half. I gues that shows you how busy Peace Corps is keeping me here in Nicaragua.
Now, how do I begin my first blog that will chronicle the next 2 years of my life?
I arrived in Managua with a group of 20 other volunteers last Thursday, January 22. We were the first Peace Corps group to be sent off after Obama was elected and that fact has been mentioned over, and over and over again, so I thought I´d share it. My group is really great. Everyone is passionate, driven and they all have great senses of humor, which helps ALOT! The come from all over the US, but a surprising number come from the Midwest. So I am finally being exposed to what life is like in the US away from the East Coast and California. After a 3 day orientation retreat we were broken up into 5 groups of 4 and 5 and bussed off to 5 towns that are within a half hour drive of each other. It was sad breaking up but we all see each other at least 3 times a week.
I am now living in a small town named Dolores and have Spanish class all week with Craig (from Oklahoma) and Jill(from Seattle). We had one more in our group, a Tim who was also dating a Liz, but he decided he can´t devote 2 years to the Peace Corps and is leaving Nicaragua today. It´s sad, because even though we haven´t even known each other a week, our group has grown close pretty quickly. And he was our only musician.
My host family is really great! I live with 2 parents who are in their 60s, Ana and Fernando, their 30 year old daughter Johanna, her 3 year old daughter Ferany and another 14 year old daughter named Maria Fernanda. Fernando drives an old yellow school bus all day, it´s one of Nicaraguas forms of public transportation and the girls started school today. It was Ferany´s very first day and she was so excited and very cute in her little uniform. I'll post pictures later. Johanna talks with me the most and regales me with stories of other Peace Corps trainees they have hosted in the past, I´m their 8th. Her husband lives in Ft. Lauderdale.
So now I have 10 weeks left in Dolores. While here we have to form a youth group, our fisrt meeting is tomorrow, do a project in the community with them and give charlas (chats) in the health center, elementry and high schools in Dolores. It´s all part of the training, I just hope my Spanish is good enough to run our first meeting tomorrow. Craig and Jill will be there as well, so no worries really. I keep you all posted as to how it went. And I promise to post pictures next time. I miss you all!
Now, how do I begin my first blog that will chronicle the next 2 years of my life?
I arrived in Managua with a group of 20 other volunteers last Thursday, January 22. We were the first Peace Corps group to be sent off after Obama was elected and that fact has been mentioned over, and over and over again, so I thought I´d share it. My group is really great. Everyone is passionate, driven and they all have great senses of humor, which helps ALOT! The come from all over the US, but a surprising number come from the Midwest. So I am finally being exposed to what life is like in the US away from the East Coast and California. After a 3 day orientation retreat we were broken up into 5 groups of 4 and 5 and bussed off to 5 towns that are within a half hour drive of each other. It was sad breaking up but we all see each other at least 3 times a week.
I am now living in a small town named Dolores and have Spanish class all week with Craig (from Oklahoma) and Jill(from Seattle). We had one more in our group, a Tim who was also dating a Liz, but he decided he can´t devote 2 years to the Peace Corps and is leaving Nicaragua today. It´s sad, because even though we haven´t even known each other a week, our group has grown close pretty quickly. And he was our only musician.
My host family is really great! I live with 2 parents who are in their 60s, Ana and Fernando, their 30 year old daughter Johanna, her 3 year old daughter Ferany and another 14 year old daughter named Maria Fernanda. Fernando drives an old yellow school bus all day, it´s one of Nicaraguas forms of public transportation and the girls started school today. It was Ferany´s very first day and she was so excited and very cute in her little uniform. I'll post pictures later. Johanna talks with me the most and regales me with stories of other Peace Corps trainees they have hosted in the past, I´m their 8th. Her husband lives in Ft. Lauderdale.
So now I have 10 weeks left in Dolores. While here we have to form a youth group, our fisrt meeting is tomorrow, do a project in the community with them and give charlas (chats) in the health center, elementry and high schools in Dolores. It´s all part of the training, I just hope my Spanish is good enough to run our first meeting tomorrow. Craig and Jill will be there as well, so no worries really. I keep you all posted as to how it went. And I promise to post pictures next time. I miss you all!
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