Volunteer Visit to Rio San Juan and Site Fair"

So I made it back on the 7.5 hour bus ride from the very rainy Rio San Juan Region of Nicaragua on Wednesday. I then proceeded back to my training town about an hour outside of Managua, and tried to rest up for Thursday which was packed, but more on that in a bit.

So last Friday after technical classes, I headed to Managua with some of my fellow trainees to stay the night to catch our early buses the next day to visit fellow volunteers all over the country. And LOVED my night in Managua. Not only did we get to see the Peace Corps office, but we got to hang out with other volunteers, get some great advice, check out a new book at the PC library (The Bourne Ultimatum!) I also got to eat Quiznos, a Buffalo Chicken Salad for dinner (that later I regreted) and a hot shower and a room with air conditioning. It was a lovely little break from training. The next day I boarded my 6.5 hour bus ride to El Almendro alone (since this was a direct bus to my destination) and luckily had taken a Pepto before I boarded so I was good to go! (Travel I mean)

The views along the way were beautiful, (I will post some pictures next) and the ride went quickly due to my new reading material! When I arrived in El Almendro, I met Jane, the volunteer I was visiting as well as three other volunteers who either were a site mate, or ag. volunteers visiting to build a cleaner burning oven for the Casa Materna. A casa materna is a public boarding house where women who live far from medical care can stay for the last 2 weeks of their pregnancies so that they can receive the appropriate medical care when giving birth. And now with the addition of the oven, these women can bake bread and sell it in the community to generate some income while there. Its a great win win for all.

Unfortunately the rest of our plans to go visit nearby waterfalls, and some class activities were cancelled due to the following three days of rain that ensued my arrival. But alas I had a wonderful time because I was able to see how a volunteer lives, what type of autonomy she had and make some great home cooked american food as well. I always forget how much I love pasta haha!

So I returned to my training town on Wednesday and prepared for my crazy day on Thursday that looked like this:
Wake up, shower, wash clothes, go to market, make two prototype for the youth group, conduct youth group meeting, run to San Juan de Oriente (about 45 minutes away) for a coping with stress training session, then run back to my training town to co-teach my 90 minutes class (which only had 45 minutes left) then go to a yoga class (that was actually cancelled).

It was a long day but a pleasantly good one. Friday was also a great day, I was able to review the 20 sites where I might possibly be placed for the next two years, got fed Pizza for lunch (SUPER SCORE!), listened to some great talks given by current PCs, and then had a great happy hour with some fellow trainees. I think I haven´t laughed that hard in a long time. Overall great day!

Today we had a site fair where some volunteers came from different regions to tell us about the available sites. I have decided that I would like to focus more on teaching and teacher training then possibly working with NGOs (trying to gain new experiences here right?) and so I have narrowed down my search by quite a bit. I will share with you my choices a little later when I have them confirmed.

I hope all of you are doing well! Keep putting one foot in front of the other and make good choices. I know I am trying to do so! Love you.