¡Beinvinido al centro d Nicaragua, al centro del continente americano!

I am going to go ahead and apologize yet again for the lack of a post in about a month. Things have been pretty busy down here, and a lot has happened. I'll try to remember at least 2/3 of it.

-Most importantly I figured out where I am going to live for the next two years: Matiguás, Matagalpa.  It is a decent sized town of about 8,000 people or so and another 40,000+ living around the main urban center. Much to my happiness, it is in the mountains. I have some amazing views of the Darien Mountain Range and the weather is much cooler than where I am now. I was actually really cold at nights when I visited, something I thought wasn't going to happen for the next 24 months. The town is also much more "cowboy-ish" than Masatepe, where I am now. Cowboy hats, boots, plaid shirts, mustaches, and cows are much more common sights in Matiguás. I found this GIF below on the internet (http://www.quirraguabrand.es.tl/) that actually does a decent job of showing what the town looks like, even though they are a little blurry.

I got a chance to go visit my future site a couple weeks ago for 4 days or so and absolutely loved it. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures, but they will come I promise. With amazing timing I also contracted dengue - a wonderful, mosquito-transmitted tropical disease - a couple days before going to visit my new family and meet all the new professors that I will be working with. So for the entire trip I had horrible headaches and body aches and was incredibly tired. But I still managed to meet some great people and get to know the two schools that I will be working at and a little bit of the town. On the way back, I was also able to eat an amazing hamburger from Burger King in Managua that was truly incredible.

-Now that the big news is out of the way, I finally got a chance to go down and actually swim in the Laguna de Apoyo, which I have only been able to take pictures of from above until then. It was pretty amazing and I have put some pictures up in the Picasa album.

-A lady around the corner must have just started selling balloons, because for the past 4 nights or so all of the kids on my street have been playing with balloons. Last night I finally went with them to buy some and it ended up being more interesting than i though. For one cordoba you get to peel off a sticker from a sheet of paper that has a number underneath it. You then get to have the corresponding balloon that is on another sheet of paper. The balloons range from giant to small and ones for animal balloons and normal ones. It is a pretty genius way to sell balloons because it keeps the kids coming back to try to get the one giant balloon.

-Our garden is continuing to grow nicely. I had a radish salad the other night from some of the radishes, and we have some tiny cucumbers growing that should be ready in a few weeks.

Other than these things, my life here in Nicaragua is pretty much the same. I ate cow's tongue the other night, danced a traditional Nicaraguan dance- "El viejo y el viaja"- with a cane and a person with balloons shoved in their shirt and down their pants, I've watched a lot of soccer games, and was finally able to watch an Alabama football game but unfortunately it was the one this weekend.

That is all for now. I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving. I will be spending mine with all of the other trainees in the group at a staff persons house in Managua. I am pretty excited to eat some turkey and dressing. The day after Thanksgiving is the Swearing-In Ceremony when we all will officially become Peace Corps Volunteers and the next day move off to our sites. Pretty exciting.

nos vemos

Mondongo, Matagalpa, and More

I apologize, folks, for the lack of a post in several weeks. Things have started to pick up down here between teaching classes, receiving classes, and everything else, but I will try now to keep a pace of one post every week and a half or so.

A lot has happened in the past three weeks. In no particular order:

- I went to the hipica in San Marcos a couple weeks back.  This is basically a giant party in the streets where all the people who own horses in what seemed like the entire department ride their horses through the streets. Everyone else who doesn't own horses dances in the streets, trying to avoid the horses, with a rum drink. It was pretty interesting. This is traditionally done one week before the city's Patron Saint's Feast Day. This hipica was for all of Nicaragua, though.

- I had my first Nicaraguan barber shop experience a few days ago. The barber, Roger, did an excellent job and it only cost me a buck and a few cents.  He was a little confused though when I told him to buzz my entire head and not just the sides. I am much cooler now.

- I am continuing to try all sorts of new fruits and refrescos (fruit juices) and they all seem to be delicious.

- Yesterday I was finally able to help make and try Sopa de Mondongo (The last time I tried the grocery store was out of cow stomach). Ever since arriving in Nicaragua I had heard a lot about Mondongo, which is simply tripe soup, and that the city I live in is pretty famous for its style and preparation of it.

• First, you have to marinate the tripe, along with the four cow feet, a few bones, and a lot of tendons, overnight in sour orange juice (not normal oranges, but sour oranges - there are a billion types of citruses down here) and other herbs and spices. 
• After everything has marinated, you bring it to a boil in a large pot over an open fire, adding firewood often. 
• After it has boiled for a while, you add a ridiculous quantity of vegetables: cabbage, two types of squash, yucca, onions, peppers, plantains, and more. This all simmers for a few hours and then you are ready to go. 

Doña Cleo working her magic

The taste is pretty smoky because of the fire, but is really pretty delicious. The texture of the mondongo itself is pretty chewy, as well as the tendons, but with a dabble of chiles, onions, and lemon juice, is not bad at all. You will also have plenty of leftovers to feed on for several days (I'm going on 3 days of different preparations of leftover mondongo and I'm not complaining)

- In other news, I visited a volunteer in Ciudad Dario, Matagalpa, last week.  It was a nice break from the normal training schedule and gave me the opportunity to see some projects in action and get a glimpse of the mountains of northern Nicaragua, which were beautiful.

- Finally, only 9 more days until I find out exactly what site I will be at for the next two years!

adios until the next post (hopefully I will own a Nicaraguan guitar by that point too)

Update

Week 3 in Nicaragua has come to a close. Pretty wild. The time has flown by, but looking back to the first day we arrived seems forever ago.

My schedule has been pretty much the same for the past few weeks: a lot of spanish class and a few technical sessions. Today though, we finally made our first school garden with about 10 students from 5th and 6th grade. As exhausting as it was, it was really nice to interact with the kids in a positive way. It was very gratifying to see how excited they were about the garden and really just playing with us gringos. They also have much better machete skills than I do and can climb trees really well. I have put some pictures up of the garden and the kids.

As for other things in Nicaragua, life is good. I'm still enjoying it all. I go this Sunday (not tomorrow but a week) to visit a volunteer somewhere in Nicaragua and get a glimpse into that life and a new place in Nicaragua. I am pretty excited about that.

I will try to update and will continue to add photos to my Picasa Web Album.

adios

Dia de Independencia

Today was the Central American Independence Day. Events started this morning at 7, with all of the students from the different schools marching in front of the church. After a few speakers, the best students in the city were presented and then all of the schools paraded around town for about 2 1/2 hours. It was pretty entertaining, especially the bands and dancers from each school.

This afternoon, the other two PC trainees in Masatepe and myself went with one of the host moms to a couple of miradores close to Masatepe. I've put some pictures up that you can look at by clicking the thumbnails in the new "My Picasa Photos" gadget above this post. I finally was able to get some good views of Nicaragua. The first one we went to, in Nandasmo, overlooked Laguna Masaya and the Volcon Masaya. The second one, in Catarina, was nicer and had pretty incredible views of Laguna de Apoyo, the city of Granada, and even Lago de Nicaragua. It was also my first experience in a mototaxi.

As week one comes to a close, everything is still going well here. My family is great, I'm still enjoying the food (I've had chicken feet twice in two days), and my spanish is slowly improving. I haven't gotten sick yet, nor have I had any big encounters with any large, tropical insects - although there is a spider that lives in my sink and a couple of lizards that live in my room.

Also, I have found shaved ice in Nicaragua. They shave the ice by hand. I would've bought one today but I didn't have any money on me. I will let you know how they are next time.

I have made it to Masatepe

Today is day 3 in Masatepe, Masaya, Nicaragua. Things are going great. My host family is wonderful and I haven't felt any earthquakes yet - or seen any lava. This is going to be a quick post because I need to go study more Spanish for tomorrow but I have included some picture. There will be more to come.

Three more days...

Three more days of waiting for something that I have been looking forward to for almost 17 months. Three more days to hold on to the image of Nicaragua that I have painted in my head from the many videos, blogs, and books I have read and replace it with reality. Three more days to indulge myself in all things American - movies, popcorn, popsicles, Alabama football, food, hot showers.  It is a bit surreal that I will be leaving this soon.  The past month or so has been rather busy - getting paperwork in order, buying things I (think I) will need, moving out of my apartment, organizing things at home, etc. - but now all I really have to do is wait (and pack, no big deal though).

A rough schedule of my first week in Nicaragua:
Tuesday morning (Sept 4th) I fly out of Birmingham to Washington, D.C. where I will spend less than 24 hours for a sort of "pre-orientation." Here I will get to know the other 27 or so people that will be part of "Nica 60", as our training group is called.

Wednesday morning at 7 our flight leaves for Managua, Nicaragua, via Miami.  The first three nights in Nicaragua will be spent at a hotel in Managua for a more comprehensive orientation, with a few crash courses in what to expect out of the pre-service training.

Finally, on Saturday morning, I will travel to my host family's home where I will be living for the next three months. I believe this will be somewhere around the city or Jinotepe, in the departamento of Carazo or Masaya. On Monday, training begins.

Map of Jinotepe

Additionally, I've updated the "Contact Me" page with some new information about my address and what not. 

Also, if you want to receive email updates from my blog, use the "Join Site" button on the right.

¡Adiós!

I can't forget to thank Denise, Jonathan, and my parents, as well as everyone who came to Good People last Saturday for my going away party. It was a great time and I will miss you all!

So I've set up this blog to publish to the entire world wide web my stories from the next couple of years while I am in Nicaragua. I think this will be the best way for whoever to keep in touch with me and see what I'm up to.  I'll try to take as many pictures as I can and post as often as possible. I'm not sure what my internet situation will be yet, so I'm not sure how easy it will be to do this. Please feel free to comment as often as you want, I will try to respond quickly!

The next month or so won't see much activity, as I will still in here in Birmingham and Gadsden. But after September 4th, the adventure begins...

FYI..the pictures to the right aren't of Nicaragua yet, they are from a trip to Linville Gorge, NC and are just acting as a placeholder right now.