NEW HOUSE

Kitchen area




Living Room



My Bedroom




Well I have been in my new house now for about two weeks now and I love it! The move was surprisingly pretty easy. My two guy friends that are like my little brothers have been a huuuuge help. They are the two that took care of Princesa during my trip and they have been the best friends I could ask for here. My house is just one big room so I had to buy materials to make a division for my room. I also needed materials to make a metal door frame for protection. They made a list of all the measurements and materials, took me in their truck to the city to help me buy it and haul it back, found me the people to put the division in, found me the guy to make the door protector. On moving day Manuel came over early to help me pack everything up, then Roberto came over with the truck and his cousins and we got everything moved in one trip to the other house. We went back to quick clean the old house and when I say we I should really say they because they swept it all out, mopped it, everything. Then Roberto made me a table for my kitchen (my old one belonged to my old house) so I wouldn’t have to spend fifty dollars on a new one, Manuel painted the kitchen table. The next night they came over to figure out my electric work. Which by the way I decided I can probably be an electrician down here, it isn’t too hard considering I trusted my 19 year old friends with no experience to do mine. In my house I only had one light and one outlet so they put a light in my bedroom that we divided off and added another outlet on the other side of the house. They were over for 5 hours working on it and I wish I could have videotaped it all. We use a rock for our hammer, and since I don’t have a ladder they had to stand on each other’s shoulders to get the cord high enough. After all their work they went to turn on the light in my room and guess what it didn’t light up! Haha It was already almost midnight but they wanted to figure out what happened, and then after another half an hour they realized they put two negative currents together or something. My job through all this was to lay on my bed and take a nap…haha, I also made tacos for them!



Me and my hermanos Roberto and Manuel. My best friends here, and they are both wearing the shirts I got them from the states...and Manuel developed this pic for me to put up in my house...love em!

So my house is almost completely put together, I just need to put up my Christmas lights and my hammock! As for my new neighborhood and family, it is pretty good. Granted everyone is SUPER curious about me living down here and the first few days the new family was always in my house looking at all my stuff, but now they are getting used to me. There is a huge chunk of land and the parents live next to me in a different house and then all their kids have houses on the same chunk of land but in different parts so there are always people and kids everywhere. But I don’t mind it. At first the dogs here attacked me every time I went to go use the bathroom but now they are used to me, and are friends with Princesa. On the same topic of Princesa...I think she might be pregnant. YikeS! My good friend's mom told me she was certain about it, but I didn’t believe her. Then about 5 other people told me she is…so now I keep thinking that maybe she is! Plus I mentioned it to the two guys that have been helping me so much and took care of her. Sure enough, all of a sudden all these stories come out about these close calls when I was gone ”but they didn’t get stuck together, so she can’t be pregnant” is what they keep saying. I have to take her to the vet to be sure. The funny thing is, if she is pregnant she will have her puppies right around the time that I will be in the states for Christmas. I guess it’s only fair that if it’s their fault she got pregnant they get to take care of the puppies…am I right? Quick Diego update since I always leave him out. He is good, he hurt is front paw, probably playing with princesa, so he has a little limp right now. But at my new home he is more famous than Princesa, the kids play hide and seek with him at night since he blends in and everyone always talks about my cat and how its not fair that I wont take him back to the states as well. (even though they are secretly pleased cause they all want him!) He also serves as a guard cat. He sits on my front porch and if any other dog comes by he chases them away...dogs are terrified of cats here even if they are triple in size. My pets make me laugh everyday, dont know what I would do without them.


Taking a nap!



Sun tanning!

We just had our year anniversary in country and to celebrate all the volunteers in my group got together and went to a brunch in Managua at Hotel Intercontinental. It was four hours long, and probably the most luxurious thing I have experienced in Nicaragua. They had every kind of bread you can imagine (which was actually the enemy because it fills you up), a sushi bar, typical Nicaraguan food bar, seafood station, assortment of cheeses, pasta salads, 20 different fancy desserts, a crepe station and best of all unlimited mimosas! There was 2 waiters they just walked around with bottles of champagne to top of the drinks, nobody ever saw the bottom of their glass! It was really great to see others in my group that live farther away that I don’t get to see as much and find out about their schools and lives. The four hours flew by and then I had to take the 3 hour bus back to my house because I had special ed school the next day. The bus ride back was less than pleasant with my mixture of food, desserts and mimosas in my stomach…ugh. They played a movie but again I was unlucky because it was a movie titled Bloodsport from the 70s that was dubbed in Spanish. When I got home I went straight to bed.



Mimosas with the girls!



Pretty sure this is why I got my tummy ache...the dessert table!

The new Environment group has already arrived and I have my training session with them on the 16th to teach them about lesson planning format. I’m excited to meet them all! Next week we have the whole week off for their independence day. We are doing a parade that starts in a nearby community which is where one of my schools is and we are marching down the highway into my community. In order to get ready for this I did a big town clean up or should I say organized a big town clean up with my students. It ended up falling through because they are “repaving” our horrible road and it was too dangerous with all the students out in the street. Instead I took just the sixth graders to do one are and the rest of the younger students cleaned within the school grounds. So it turned out to be a half of a success, 12 sacos full is quite a bit of trash…Monday the kids have off of school but 10 from each grade that volunteered are coming to finish cleaning the rest of the community!



Cleaning up Quebrada Honda



Isnt it lovely, all the plastic that my school burns! I arranged for a truck from Matagalpa to pick up the garbage and take it to the landfill in the city.

Last bit of update is that my friend Jamie and I are on a committee for a Recycling Fair, the first ever in Matagalpa. Even better is the fact that it is working with Santa Julia which is my special education school that has a recycling center! The funds raised are going to them to buy a truck to have a weekly recycling pick up in Matagalpa! As Peace Corps I want to set up a hands on table that teaches kids a recycled craft and then have some kind of competition or races going on that deals with organic and inorganic materials so kids can practice separating trash and more importantly throwing it in a trash container and not on the ground!