Busy Busy

It’s been a very fulfilling week and a half!  This past Friday, we found out our potential sites for the next two years so everyone is now thinking about where they’d like to go.  We were given one page of very vague, and I mean vague, information about each site.  For example, basically all sites have water “most of the time” and electricity “almost always”… hmm.  Anyway, we don’t get to actually choose where we want to go but we do have a say in the region and types of things we are looking for that would work best with our strengths.  I’m hoping to get to go somewhere with sports fields!  The five regions I could go to are Leon, Chinandega, Matagalpa, Boaco, and Rivas in case you’re bored one day at work and feel like doing a little research.  If you do get that desperate for something do to, please pass the info along.

On Saturday, we went to Volcan Masaya with everyone in Nica 54.  It was a gorgeous day so we were able to take a lot of pictures.  Supposedly, at night, you can see the lava glowing at the bottom of the crater but all we saw was a ton of sulfur… still a pretty cool.

Sunday was another busy day.  We gardened in the morning and finally have our cucumber bed set up and seeds planted and we also planted the squash seeds.  The tomatoes are growing in their seed bed which is super exciting and was a “wow” moment for us who never thought we’d be able to grow anything.  In about a week, we’ll have to transplant the tomato and pepper plants into the ground so that will be a whole other task to take on.  We had help from a friend of my host family who is studying agriculture at university right now.  He came over last week to stop in and say hi and little did he know, he’d get ambushed to help us keep our garden alive.  I’ve perfected the question “Can you please help us?” and use it very frequently.  We are having a little trouble getting students to work and are hoping for more participation next weekend.  Sunday afternoon was another youth group meeting and we’ve started on our project.. finally!!  We sewed rice/coffee/bean bags together using thick string and a nail and hammered holes in hundreds of soda/beer bottle caps.  This weekend, we’re going to begin sewing the caps on the bags to write our message.

Tuesday really made my week because I taught my first class in 6^th grade.  Okay, so it’s extremely difficult teaching in a language that you don’t really know, but I think I pulled it off.  I taught an hour lesson on simple machines and the kids were pretty into it.  I also realized that as a gringa, I have a huge leg up on Nica teachers because the students absolutely love when we’re in the classroom.  I didn’t have time to finish my lesson but I’m going to pick up where I left off next week.

More thrilling news… Greg, Sara, and I made rice krispie treats for Natalie because it was her birthday on Tuesday.  My host family was fascinated by the complicated procedure of melting the marshmallows and mixing in Coco Krispies.  My host mom teaches me how to make gallo pinto and carne asada and I bring a little bit of the American culture to her.  It’s a win-win.

This past Thursday to Sunday was a big celebration in my community to celebrate Santa Teresa.  A big event were los toros which I went to with some member of most host family and it was pretty interesting.  There were about 30 men inside a "stadium" that was constructed for this weekend, some with red flags, while one man rode the bull.  It basically was mayhem while people climbed up the side of the stadium fence to get out of the way or ran for their lives.  We watched 5 or 6 bull rides and only two guys fell off.  Three men died last year so thank goodness I didn’t have to witness that... no blood at all.  A Nica singer came to the town to have a mini concert at the club which was completely packed with people.  The “bombas” (firecrackers that could easily pass for gun shots) went off on Thursday and Friday starting at 4:00 AM along with the marching bands that think it’s acceptable to begin playing at 4:00 AM as well.  But, there was also a really great show of actual fireworks on Thursday night.