In the big city!

Well, the title isn´t exactly true if you saw the town I live in. Two of the other volunteers and I decided to walk to a town called Jinotepe. It´s only about a 10 minute walk from the town I am in, which is called Delores.

So, we met our families on Saturday. Mine is very nice! I have a mama, papa, two brothers that live in the house with us, one sister, and a little boy who is 10 years old. He´s so cute...even though I can´t quite understand him that well yet. The house is pretty big. All of the families we are staying with are middle class, which is completely different than our U.S. definition. We do have a toilet but it´s in a little room in the patio behind the house. Our shower is the same with only cold water. If I get up at the right time in the morning though when the sun is beginning to come up and it´s starting to get warm, then the cold water is actually refreshing! My family has a panaderia in the back of the house as well which is where they make bread for a living. I enjoy it though, getting fresh bread everyday. I have my own room with a big bed and a dresser...and a fan! We also put up my mosquito net the first night. It´s kind of cool because it reminds me of sleeping in a tent. The food is delicious so far, definitely no complaints, especially about the fresh, natural fruit juices I get to drink everyday from the fruit growing behind their house.

What else can I tell you? Classes are going well, even though we just started yesterday. We usually have classes from 8 to 12, have lunch at home, then go back from 1 to 4. For today´s class, we made a family tree and that´s our homework for tonight with our families. In the afternoon, we walked around the town making observations in order to create a town map for ourselves, then we identified some environmental problems to get ideas on projects we could do in the community.

One thing I can say about the Peace Corps is that they really know how to break you in slowly, even though there feels like so much to do. It really seems like we´ve already been here for several months and not just one week. Well, I guess I should get going...my time is almost up! Hopefully, there are some letters coming soon!! : )