It´s official...

It´s official…I´m now a “real" volunteer! (Before, because we were only in training, they called us “aspirantes” as we were “aspiring” to be volunteers) Anyways, a lot has happened in the past few weeks. After finding out what our sites were, we went a on 4 day site visit to meet some of the people we will be working with and familiarize ourselves with the town before actually moving there permanently. When we got back to our training towns, we only had about a week left, which was spent finishing projects, preparing final reports and of course, saying our goodbyes. Last Tuesday I packed everything up and moved to Managua for the final week of training. It was nice to stay in a hotel with A/C and hot water and also to hang out with everyone in our group before going our separate ways. We were able to go out and eat at some good restaurants (a small, but expensive break from Nica food). Friday we had our “swearing in” ceremony and Sunday we all left for our sites, our new home for the next two years.

Well, now that I´m a real volunteer and am officially living in Condega, Estelí, what is it exactly that I will be doing??? Well, good question!! No, actually, even though our jobs are kind of a “work in progress” we do have set projects to work on during our 2-yr service (in addition to being able to develop secondary projects as time permits). Our main job as Small Business Volunteers in Nicaragua is to teach a business course to high school students; basically teaching them how to start and manage their own business. I will be working at one high school, teaching four sections that meet twice a week (meaning I teach 8 classes per week). Others in my group will be teaching up to 12 sections and usually work in two or more schools. In addition to my work at the high school (or Instituto, as they are called here), I will be working with the Technical Team for the Mayor´s Office. They are involved in managing various projects for the development of Condega, often times collaborating with the various local, national and international organizations working in the area. I know for sure that I will be helping teach computer classes, giving business classes to local small business owners and artesanos (handicraft makers), and possibly teaching english to the Technical Team. My final “established” project will be to work with a group of women in developing an ecotourism project in the munincipality of Condega. In addition, I´ve already found a couple of secondary projects that I could work on...if there is any time left over that is! I think I will be pretty busy and boredom should not be an issue!

I am also living with a new host family for the next 6 weeks and then after that I will be able to rent my own house. My new family is one of the teachers I work with at the Instituto and her 14-yr old daughter. This time, however, I´m on my own for meals. It´s kind of nice to “take back control” but it means that I have to cook!! So far I´ve made pasta (with homeade sauce), peanut butter sandwiches, tuna (with peppers, onions, tomato & lime)....Nothing too involved, but I´m still trying to figure out what you can buy here and where to buy it! (Which really makes me miss Super Target & even Walmart!) If anyone has any good, simple recipes (using only basic ingredients) please send them my way! At least I´ve already gotten over my fear of lighting the gas stove :) In addition to cooking, I´m also responsible for doing my own laundry. I know I´ve been doing my own laundry for years but it´s a lot more work here! So, yes, that means I have to do it by hand. Washing machines are few and far between here. Fortunately, one of my new friends, Angie, taught me how when I was on my volunteer visit. I have yet to actually wash anything, but it doesn´t seem too complicated, its just time consuming. On the other hand, it´s a great workout! Between walking to the Instituto and washing clothes, I´ll be in the best shape ever.

As a side note, I live with bats and mice....do bats eat mice??? I hope so!!!