this is a giant avacado given to me by my friend, grown right here in my training town! can you imagine what this would cost in the U.S.??

One of the isletas on the lake of Nicaragua. No, I didn´t get to see any fresh water sharks!

Here is a picture of Mombacho Volcano, and a lancha (the small boat taken to tour the isletas) on the giant lake, lago de Nicaragua, by Granada.

scorpions....

i just wanted to let you all know that i killed my first scorpion the other day! i was scared to death (even though it was small, about the size of a dime) because it's still a scorpion and the first time i've ever really seen one that wasn't in a cage. it was just crawling on my wall, so i smashed it with my shoe and left it there to show my host family because i knew they wouldnt believe me otherwise. its definately my biggest accomplishment for the week!!

as a side note, i was actually cold this morning....that is a first for me here!

On Monday we will start our 3rd week of training. We will be in training until mid-July but the first few weeks have flown by. We are kept very busy working on projects and going to training sessions on every topic imaginable. My training town is very small, only about 3000 people. It´s nice though because everything is within walking distance and everyone knows us already. My family is very nice. My new Nica family includes a mom, her two sons (ages 11 and 12) and a grandpa and grandma. They take very good care of me!! All of the food here that I´ve tried so far is really good. There is a lot of rice and beans, but it´s always supplemented by other things like meat, cheese, vegetables and lots of fresh fruit. I´ve never seen so many mangoes in my life!! I think I´m slowly get used to the heat, or at least being hot all the time! (Or maybe its just finally cooling off since rainy season is beginning)

I haven´t traveled too much yet, mainly just to the neighboring towns and to Managua for training. I did go to Granada last weekend which is on the huge lake with the freshwater sharks. I took a boat tour of some of the isletas, but unfortunately didn´t see any sharks....maybe next time! In Masaya (which is about 20 min by bus) there is a huge market with everything you could ever want. At least I know where to go if I need to stock up on anything.

Thanks to all who have written and for those who haven´t, I hope to hear from you soon! My time is running out, but I hope to have more updates soon!

and yes, it really IS that hot here!!

My address during training (May-July) is:
Megan Straube, PCT
Voluntario del Cuerpo de Paz
Apartado Postal 3256
Managua, Nicaragua
Central America

I also just got a cell phone, so if anyone would like the number, I can email it to you.

hello everyone and welcome. i just wanted to let you all know that i made it to nicaragua. we´ve been in a hotel for the last 3 days though, so i can´t even really tell you my first impressions of the country. we move in with our host families today and start language classes right away....not wasting any time there! i don´t really have any exciting stories yet, but i´m thinking my life will get a lot more eventful in the very near future....