Happy Thanksgiving!! I hope everyone had a good holiday. I was able to celebrate Thanksgiving here as well....I went to the house of an Embassy family with some other volunteers. The family was really nice and the food was great! Turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberries, stuffing, even pumpkin pie (which is a big deal because they don´t even sell pumpkin in Nicaragua so that had to be ordered from the states!)
Before Thanksgiving, I spent the week in Managua for our annual All Volunteer Conference...which along with some training sessions, basically involves staying in a nice hotel and eating a lot of really good food. It was really hard to come back to cold showers and a hard bed after being there for so long. I was also able to go to the Maná concert...now I realize most of you have no clue who Maná is, but they are a really popular Mexican rock group who has been around for a long time. We were really fortunate to be able to go because I guess when they play in the states, tickets sell out really fast and are much more expensive. Down here, my VIP ticket only set me back $30!
Other than that I´m just counting down the days until I come home and until my friend comes to visit next week! See you soon....
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
6 month update...
Well, after spending nearly a week consolidated in Managua because of the heavy rains and threat of flooding, I returned to my site. Unfortunately, I didn´t exactly "return" to teaching. In the last 4 weeks I have taught only 1 class...yes, thats one in 4 whole weeks. I´m supposed to be teaching 8 classes per week, but for the last month all of my classes have been cancelled for various reasons (meetings, holidays, rain) or I´ve had to miss to attend PC related events (consolidation, competitions). So, now there is only one week left (I just found out that final exams start next week) before school gets out for the year. The "summer" break here is from Dec-Jan and then classes start back up in Feb. These first three months at my site have flown by. In less than two months I´ll be back in Nebraska for Christmas!!
I´m finally settled into my house. The only thing I still need to buy is a matress, since the bed I have now basically consists of a 2" piece of foam on a wooden frame. Real comfy... I now have a t.v. with cable! I honestly never thought I would have cable in the Peace Corps but its just too cheap to turn down. This way I´m able to keep up with college football (even if NE is horrible!) and movies on HBO.
Last Thursday I went to Venecia, a little town about a hour away from Condega into the mountains, with all of the people I work with at the Mayor´s office. We brought food, played Twister (not my idea...), and visited a cute little "pond" nearby. While rowing around on the little rowboats with my friend, Johana, our friends decided that we needed to go swimming and proceeded to tip over our boat. So, in we went, clothes and all...I didn´t mind too much except that it was freezing! I will post pics as soon as the internet wants to cooperate...
Just as a little bit of explanation for when I refer to the "competitions"....The main idea of the business course that we teach is that the students learn to start & manage their own business. So, in order to get hands-on experience to put into practice what they are learning, they form groups of approximately 6 people and form their own business. They start by establishing the product or service that they will sell and work through all the aspects of running business, setting their price, marketing their product, accounting, etc. Towards the end of the school year competitions are held between the student groups at the local, regional and national level. This gives the students something to work towards and gives them the opportunity to present their business and sell some products.
I´m finally settled into my house. The only thing I still need to buy is a matress, since the bed I have now basically consists of a 2" piece of foam on a wooden frame. Real comfy... I now have a t.v. with cable! I honestly never thought I would have cable in the Peace Corps but its just too cheap to turn down. This way I´m able to keep up with college football (even if NE is horrible!) and movies on HBO.
Last Thursday I went to Venecia, a little town about a hour away from Condega into the mountains, with all of the people I work with at the Mayor´s office. We brought food, played Twister (not my idea...), and visited a cute little "pond" nearby. While rowing around on the little rowboats with my friend, Johana, our friends decided that we needed to go swimming and proceeded to tip over our boat. So, in we went, clothes and all...I didn´t mind too much except that it was freezing! I will post pics as soon as the internet wants to cooperate...
Just as a little bit of explanation for when I refer to the "competitions"....The main idea of the business course that we teach is that the students learn to start & manage their own business. So, in order to get hands-on experience to put into practice what they are learning, they form groups of approximately 6 people and form their own business. They start by establishing the product or service that they will sell and work through all the aspects of running business, setting their price, marketing their product, accounting, etc. Towards the end of the school year competitions are held between the student groups at the local, regional and national level. This gives the students something to work towards and gives them the opportunity to present their business and sell some products.
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