Site Visit!!

I'm so excited because on Sunday we will be leaving for 4 days to go visit another volunteer in their site. Today (at the end of the day!), we will find out where. It should be an interesting trip because this will be our first time traveling by ourselves. We haven't even been to Managua (which can be pretty sketchy alone), but it should be a fun adventure. Then, when we get to the volunteer's site, we basically have to go around the town and ask where the gringo (white person) lives in order to find them. I love the Peace Corps!

The four of us in our town found this really cool path to go running on. So, this week we've gone three times. What a relief especially considering the fact that everyone here expects you to become gorda. While I was running with one of the other volunteers we encountered our daily herd of cows. Usually, they just move to the side or leave us somewhere to walk around them. That day, however, they spaced themselves out so that we literally had to try and squeeze between them. I really thought we were going to get rammed or trampled, but we survived! We also started a habit of getting eskimos (icecream) in the afternoons after our meetings. Then, we go to the park to eat them or rather swallow them whole because it is so hot that they melt immediately.

I saw my first big bug the other day in the shower. Towards the end I noticed it sitting on the wall. I thought to myself, "As long as it doesn't move I won't scream." So, I dried myself off and put on my clothes as fast as I could and right when I was about to pick up my things, it dropped right behind my shampoo bottle. So, as you all know my fear of bugs, insects, etc., I shrieked and family came running over to see what it was. Of course, they all stood there laughing at me because obviously they are used to these massive, man-eating (o.k. maybe I'm exagerating a little) coachroaches.

Every Friday we have technical classes all together in another town close to ours and for lunch today they were serving lengua (tongue), but I went for the chicken instead. When you are really hungry you have to go for the safe option. Our Peace Corps meetings usually consist of a lot of skits and dinamicas (games) which means they are usually pretty fun. The ride home from the meetings is usually pretty interesting, too, because we take a microbus home and being that there are either no laws on the number of passengers or they are not followed to closely, they try to cram in as many people as possible. I think the record so far has been 24 people in a bus that probably should only hold 16.

I gave my first charla in the 6th grade class this past week. It was pretty basic, I introduced my rules and then, we talked about respect. It went pretty well, although I am definitely going to have to get used to the constant noise (both inside and out of the classroom) because they are not really used to just sitting and listening quietly and it is probably pretty hard to do some when kids are constantly outside screaming and running around. I also had two kids that were a little disruptive who looked to be about 16. I guess it is pretty common for kids to be held back several times. Overall though, it went well for the first one. Definitely glad to have just gotten a foot in the door.

Time for the meeting to start! Hope everyone is doing well and I will let you know how my site visit goes!