First post from Nicaragua!

This is my frist post from Nicaragua and I will try my best to keep up with this thing but am making no promises. Last weekend I moved in with my first host family in the small town of Guisiquiliapa (whiskey-lee-a-pa) near Jinotepe in the Carazo department. My family is very kind and consists of a mom, a dad, and their 4 year old son, Nicolino  in their small house. I have my own room in their 2 bedroom house. For income, my host dad makes and sells organic highly fertilized dirt. They also have horses, roosters, hens, a dog, a cat, and unfortunately cockroaches. I promise to post pictures soon. Side note, mosquitoes love me and despite wearing repellant, I  have more than 12 bites already that itch like crazy. Good thing I´m on antimalarials! Fingers crossed, I don´t get dengue.

My days consist of 6 hours of spanish class 4 days a week. Two other days per week are classes on Nicaragua, safety, their status of health, and our jobs that we will be doing. Since I will be teaching nutrition at the casa maternas, my fellow Maternal and Child health volunteers and I will undergo gardening classes as well. My family is patient with my poor spanish and speaks slowly and repeats things for me when I don´t understand.  I am already surprised by how much spanish I remember and how well I am improving. My family and spanish teacher here speak NO english so I have no choice but to speak in spanish. Actually, right now I am having a hard time typing in english and not spanish because my mind is set to spanish. Also, this week I have to start a youth group with 2 other volunteers and teach them how to teach safe sex practices with others and other health information.

Nicaragua is a poor country but the people so far are very pleasant and it is beyond beautiful. I can´t wait to see more of the country especially the volcanoes and islands where are a plenty. Nicaragua´s tagline is, Land of Lakes and Volcanoes. 

That is all for now folks. Pictures to come!