hello rice and beans

so yeah...the whole rice and beans thing...totally not kidding...lots and lots of rice and beans here! So far I´ve been liking the food...but my family gives me so much it´s ridiculous...and I think I´ve actually finished 2 meals since I´ve been here. My training town is a super cute little town...there are 2 other volunteers with me. My family is awesome. They are artisans and make fruit out of wood. My 18 year old sister takes me everywhere with her and my 13 year old brother is a riot ... he´s so entertaining. The other sisters don´t live at home but one comes over everyday to cook and she brings her 2 sons who are adorable...although sometimes hard to understand! But they are good to practice with. We have spanish class Monday thru Thursday from 8 till noon and then applied practice from 1 to 3. Wednesday afternoon and Fridays we have technical sessions or medical chats...our first will be on gardening and common illnesses. also some Saturdays we have stuff as well.

How to describe the experience...as one of the other volunteers said...imagine any possible uncomfortable situation and that´s what we are doing. Today we walked to the police station to introduce ourselves...so much fun. Yesterday we walked around to all the house asking if youth lived there and then invited them to join our youth group. We meet with them twice a week and will be doing a garden and at least one other mini environment project with them as well as games and life skills chats and who knows what else. We were going to have our first meeting today but it poured and poured so no one came. So tonight we will walk around with more invitations for Thursday. Today we also went to the elementary school where we will be teaching lessons every week. I will be working with the 6th graders. I´m really looking forward to it! Talking to police...not really my thing...teaching kids...totally my thing! So I´m pumped about that.

Independence day is coming up here so every afternoon the kids have been practicing for the parade...I´ve never heard so many drums play the same thing over and over again! Oh and the parade starts at 7:30 am and ends around 11 so that should be quite interesting. There is a really beautiful lagoon here and a sweet volcano not far away either.

Weather...so it´s really hot and humid here. I´m not sure I really ever stop sweating except for in the shower..although tonight has been cooler since it rained. It gets dark at exactly 6 pm which is very odd for me. The other volunteers and I have started walking at night when it´s not so hot for some exercise because I really don´t feel like we are getting any, although we do walk around town a lot...everyone walks really slow here so it´s not really exercise. The mosquitos are terrible! I never see them yet somehow my legs are covered in bites. Not fun. Sleeping under a net is also interesting. Not really a huge deal at all...my only complaint would be when I get into bed I just want to go to sleep...not tuck my net in for 5 minutes...slight exagerration :)

Oh also about my family...we have a shower outside which is just water coming out of a pipe and the cold water feels really really good. And we have our little outhouse but it has a toliet in it so that´s nice...still spoiled haha. The water goes off every afternoon and night so you have to fill the tank. No big deal. And I did take a bucket shower the other day since the water was off...also no big deal although getting the shampoo out of my hair was a little difficult...but I´ll get better at it.

This is totally random and not in order but I keep remembering things. The first night I got to my town, my sisters took me to a quince años party (15 years old) which is a huge deal here. So we went to this other town ... to a big hall ... everyone was dressed up. It was a lot of fun...everyone out dancing and enjoying themselves...although cultural difference : dancing with 15 year old boys totally normal here...umm SUPER uncomfortable for me! The music was great...they played a lot of different stuff. and the occasional song in English: got low, a random mix of older stuff, Elvis, who let the dogs out techno version, and others that I don´t remember. So great.

Training in Mangua was lots of fun. We were busy most of the time but we did take advantage of the pool at night. There were current volunteers who told us lots of valuable info. I kinda feel like we just keep getting bombarded with information - all very important but a little overwhelming. Also, all the volunteers in my group are amazing! The only sad thing was we got to hang out for a few days and now we are all separated by language ability. Sad. And I don´t think we will see everyone from both sectors until swearing in. (there are 2 sectors here training now: environment and agriculture).

Well that´s all I can think of now...oh and my town has a little internet cafe and a post office so that´s fun. but that´s about it.

I miss everyone!!! BESOS!