Volunteer visit and Volcano hike

I visited a volunteer in the department of Chontales, which for the most part is cowboy country. lots of farms, lots of cattle, and lots of men on horseback driving the cattle through the streets. the town i visited has about 5000 people and is located in the mountains. it is absolutely beautiful and it wasn´t too hot. my journey there was pretty uneventful but full of firsts. my frist experience with cabs in Managua. my first trip alone in Nicaragua. my first 5 hour bus ride on a school bus. the bus was very full and i was glad i got a seat. unfortunately it rained almost the ntire 5 hours which meant that all the windows were shut making it pretty hot and stuffy. and normally nicaraguan buses blair music..which is great for me because i love music...but of course this bus didn´t have any music...what are the odds! and let me tell you...i had one sore behind after that trip! when i got off the bus i walked around asking people where the american lived...got lost a few times...asked more people and eventually found the volunteer´s house. it was really nice to see how a volunteer actually lives. she had a very nice house, complete with a small fridge, stove, oven (we made oatmeal raisen cookies) and a blender. her town only gets water twice a week so everyone has to store it in big barrels. electricity is always present although it does go out some in storms. she gets fresh milk twice a week and i learned how to take the cream from the mild and make my own butter. so awesome. i really hope i can buy fresh milk and make my own butter.
My favorite part of the trip was our journey to one of her multigrade schools. the school is 1-6th grade and is out in the middle of nowhere. there is no road or anything close to a road going to the school. so basically we hiked through the brush, through streams of water up to my knees, through fields of mud - i got stuck several times, through farms and cattle grazing, up and down hills - almost fell multiple times, and the best part...crossing a river in a canoe. an hour and a half later, we arrived at the school a muddy mess. it was awesome. and the 1 teacher in that school does that hike everyday - it´s incredible. overall a great experience..and teaching 6 grades at once is a crazy challenge!

Volcano trip! all the trainees went to volcano masaya - one of the 5 or 7 volcanos where you can actually see the lava. so we hiked up the volcano...looked down at the giant hole, took lots of pictures of smoke and what not. then hiked up to an extinct crater which was awesome. and there is a beautiful view of a lagoon, a lake, the volcano and a few different cities. it was beautiful and we got luck because it didn´t rain at all and the sun was out. and the best part - i got to use my hiking shoes and my fanny pack...so cool.

Other updates;
rainy season is frustrating. besides the fact that i don´t really like rain...although i am learning to handle it better..nothing happens when it rains. i can´t teach on days when there is a lot of rain because no one comes to class. we had an activity planned with our youth group that has gotten cancelled twice because of the rain. no one works on the garden because of the rain. it´s like rain = do nothing. so that´s frustrating especially because we only have a few more weeks here.

also, we got the list of possible sites but won´t find out for a week where each one of us will go. must have patience!

i did my patriotic duty the other day and voted...pretty exciting.

i started going to the gym daily...which consists of weights, a stair step and an eliptical. it´s funny because the trainer tells you what to do which is great except i´m out of shape, it´s deathly hot, and he´s trying to kill me. but it´s fun and i definitely work harder when he is constantly pushing me...and he´s a pretty funny guy so we have fun. i feel so much better so that´s exciting.

that´s all right now. love you miss you thanks for the emails, letters, and packages!!!

Elizabeth
ps i´m changing my name here to Elisa because i don´t like the way Elizabeth is pronounced!