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!

Best News Ever!

After months of agony and anxiety over getting a Peace Corps placement and job assignment fitting to my interests and experience, I finally have one that is just perfect! NICARAGUA!!! That's right, as of January 2012, I will be moving Nicaragua to work on Maternal Child Health programs specifically on improved nutrition and hygeine practices. If you know me, then you probably agree on how perfect the assignment and placement country is. My educational background in Spanish, International Development and Global Health as well as volunteer/research experience in women's health education is going to be put to good use. I've got a lot of paperwork to get through in the next two weeks to solidify my January departure but come 2012, stay tuned for updates on my life in Nicaragua!


To give a glimpse of the loooong Peace Corps Application process, here's my timeline:


December 2010: Completed online Peace Corps Application
March 2011: Interview with Seattle office recruiter
May 2011: Nomination to serve in Latin America in Health programs
June 2011: Dental and Medical clearance received 
August 2011: Notice of departure deferment 
September 2011: Final interview with placement office
October 26, 2011: Official invitation to Nicaragua (apparently Peace Corps was kidding about the deferment) 
October 26, 2011: I officially accepted the invite, pretty much as soon as I got it!
January 10, 2012: Staging

January 11, 2012: Departure for NICARAGUA!