Well it was a long and hot full first day here in Nicaragua. We successfully ate rice at all three meals, and beans at two of them. The coffee (even if it is Nescafe) is pretty good, and the air conditioning in our meeting room is a nice break from the heat outside. Tonight we are hearing some thunder so hopefully it will rain and we will get a little relief from the heat. So day two of Pre-Service Training (or PST in Peace Corps speak) was full of briefings on health, safety issues, project overviews, a tour of Managua, and various chores including the first round of vaccines and language interviews. I think the language interview went well, we ran over the 30 minutes allotted so that is a positive sign I think. I will know more tomorrow when we get our results and our home stay assignments.
The best part of the day was getting all of our Medical Kit goodies including our Malaria prevention pills (gonna have trippy dreams tonight), a Mosquito net, and a box full of medications, bandages, etc. (It even has Dramamine Mom, more for nausea, but hey it will work for motion sickness too!) We also got an overview of the work we will be doing at our sites, and it made me very excited to be here. We will be teaching, but it appears we are teaching more the teachers and aiding them in the classroom. Also there is a business plan competition at the end of the year, and I am excited to see what the students will come up with. I will know more as we get more technical training, but since that was one of the most popular questions, I thought it couldn’t hurt to include it.OHHHH also, biggest news of the day, we will apparently be in our homestays at our permanent site for 6 months instead of 6 weeks! So that changes things a bit. They are doing so as a safety precaution so we can have more time to integrate into the community before we live on our own. I don't think I actually mind it, just wish I had known so I would not have brought some things down and would have had family bring them down in January. Oh well.
Since I am still tired from the past two days it will be another early night for me! Make good choices!
I think the language interview is a good sign, how long can you keep it up with Rosetta Stone. Did you bring rubber boots? I imagine you did. I used the plastic bag technique in Peru--you put them over your shoes, lean forward and grasp them around the top and waddle into the house. Boots are better.
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