BUCKETS annnnnd Site Placement!!!!!

Buckets, and Barrels, and Pans
Amazing how much of my life here revolves around these things….The barrels are a standard at every house I have been in here---we keep them full of water all the time (5-7 huge ones at my house) in case of a water outage and just for daily tasks in general. You use smaller buckets to get water out of the big barrels to put water in the medium size bucket that sits in the shower room. You then use a small plastic pan/bucket thing to pour the water from the shower bucket onto your body. The big barrels also come in handy if the water is out and you reallllly need to wash something. Also, to flush the toilet at my house anyways (‘member Matt has a latrine), you also use a small bucket to get water from one of the large barrels to pour into/flush the toilet. I also use a small pan/bucket to wash my face at night and to get water from the deep sink that we try to always keep full in order to wash the dishes. I know you may be thinking, all this standing water, what about mosquitoes? There is a powder here, which I can’t think of right now (but will likely be buying frequently) that you can sprinkle in said water that keeps the little buggers at bay and is non-toxic. Brilliant! We also keep the barrels covered with lids or big wooden boards. I don’t know if this will be exciting to you all or not, but I thought I would share my love and appreciation for Barrels, Buckets, and Pans with everyone at home!


Now, THE BIG NEWS!!!
We had site placement yesterday and Matt and I will be living in DRUM ROLLLLLLLLLL PLEASE
Quilali, Nueva Segovia, Nicaragua
For the next 2 years!!!!!
That is in the Department of Nueva Segovia and it is waaaaayyyy up north near the border of Honduras and Nicaragua. You pronounce it KEY-LAH-LEE (or something close to this, with the accent on the last “i”. It looks pretty tranquilo—it is a town of about 13,000 peeps, is surrounded my mts., there is a look out point we can hike to—as well as a spot on the river where people go to swim and relax that is supposedly clean and well maintained. Matt has taken to saying that we are going to be “hillbillies in Nicaragua”. There are men’s baseball and soccer leagues---none for ladies yet, something which if there is any interest at all I will be working to change (-: and a few high schools, elementary schools and a university nearby. There is cell phone service and internet cafes so it should be easy to stay in touch. It should take us between 5-7 hours to get there by bus from Managua—The closest “big” town is called Ocotal. This part of the country also has a cooler climate than other parts. It is suppose to be very safe, but if it rains a lot the roads may become tricky.
I will be working in the public high school with 2 lady counterparts and matt will be working in a semi privado (yes that is semi private) high school with a male counterpart—and we are both expected to reach out to other area teachers and the University to plan workshops etc. We are living with a woman and her grandson and a couple nieces ??? (we aren’t really sure), but one of our bosses told us yesterday that she is crazy---so that is exciting (-: So she told us she is really nice actually and pretty liberal especially by Nica standards. We will have one volunteer in our site from the Health Sector and there are a bunch in the Department but a few hours away…
We will know OH SO MUCH more about our site after next week when we actually go to visit for 7 or so days!!!! I hope to have some pics and more details. On Wednesday morning Matt and I will be on a bus on our merry way---we only have to take 2 buses to get there, and then find a taxi to take us to the high school where supposedly our counterparts or someone?? will be waiting for us. Yes, this is sort of intimidating, but I just keep thinking of all the others in my group who are doing this alone! You guys rock! There is only girl from our group going further north than us, and I don’t think she will be toooo far away so it will be nice to have someone to visit (-:
Matt and I are pretty happy with the site—it seems like it will be a good fit for us even though it feels so crazy to be starting over after getting comfortable where we are….onwards and upwards! (literally)

PS I am sorry I never put pics on here, it takes too long! I am using FB to post pics (-:
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So what is up with us !

Hey all,
Know it has been awhile....we are still busy bees and this past week we went out of town to a city called Matagalpa to practice teach in a public high school there. This was probably one of the scariest things I have ever done--you know going to a new city in a foreign country walking into a classroom you have never seen before teaching students you have never seen before etc. but--BUT we all did it and did it successfully! Matt and I worked with an incredibly nice Nicaraguan counterpart named ALFREDO and we taught 7th 8th and 9th grades. It was interesting to say the very least, and also matt and i co-taught one class together--it was super fun to see Matt teach and to have him there to observe my classes too! 2 of our bosses also popped in from time to time to observe us teach. Matt and I ended up sharing our school with the other married couple because something happened at their school to where they could not teach ---so we referred to our last day of classes on Thursday as DOUBLE DATE day ---and it was great to see them teach as well.

I was a lil sick during the week but am healing quite nicely, poor Matty ate something that got him pretty good over the wknd and he was pretty sick at my house but he is now also doing better---so all you mama s out there dont worry!!!!

Matty and I celebrated --one---of our anniversaries on Saturday the 23rd by going together to a town called Masaya and drinking fruit shakes and eating pizza ----maybe the pizza is what got him! he surprised me with a necklace he managed to buy in the park when I wasnt looking!!! We also watched a slideshow from our AWESOME celebration at Pedernales FALLS and the Bowling Alley extravaganza---man oh man we have INCREDIBLE FAMILY AND FRIENDS!

We find out where we live on Friday for the next 2 years! For now it is , co planning and co teaching, translating my resume, preparing a charla for our youth group and working on our teacher taller and we still have Spanish class everyday!!! aiy yai yai! Love you guys!!!!

Please continue to stay in touch and let us know what you are up to!!!! we LOVE hearing from you!!!!

Vida es GOOD.

Coming off a super wknd in Catarina—got to return to the Laguna de Apoyo with Matt and some of his family. We had a nice hike down through some jungle type terrain, saw a snake, claimed a spot on the coast, hung our clothes on a tree, went swimming, met a man fishing, played in some hot springs (The Laguna is in the crater of an old volcano)---arranged for one of matt’s host brothers to pick us up in his moto-taxi (how lucky for us he is a driver!). The ride back up was lovely—and long, it is much quicker to take the steep hike down from town but I am grateful we didn’t hike back up! This really is a beautiful country with sooo much to offer---The Laguna is beautiful, blue mineral water surrounded by mountains mas or menos and you can see Granada in the distance…on the ride back up we passed small houses, pulperias, tons of farms and fields of fruit trees etc. Matt’s family owns some farm land out there and I can’t wait to take a tour! People on horses and bikes and people carrying firewood and baskets of supplies on their heads---and we are talking a pretty steep and long hike up! Of course, there were also the sprinkling of fancy big houses likely owned by ex-pats—but I am happy to say the Laguna still remains free from too much development (am sort of nervous as I type this because I want to remain so!) I know there is part of it that is a Nature Reserve and therefore I am pretty sure there are laws protecting it from development, but I still need to find out more.

I still haven’t been able to teach a second class due to a multitude of reasons---something I am adjusting to as well (could be a day of bands at the school or the students have to go out and give a census to the town, or it rains too much and class is cancelled etc). Our youth group is going well, though we had some speed bumps there too what with ALLLLL the rain last week and we tried to change locations—learned that wasn’t a good idea—back to our original spot and with our original kids—I think we are becoming quite fond of them (-: We have just started planning for our Teacher Workshop we are giving in a few weeks and I can tell it will require a lot of work. We want to be super prepared for this since it is teaching teachers most of whom have already been teaching for years!!! No pressure!

My host family is still AWESOME and I miss them when I am in Catarina—though I love matt’s family there too!!! Now that we are busier I feel like I don’t spend as much time with them as I want to!

Matt and I had a site placement interview the other day which consisted of us reading about 4 possible sites we may end up in and ranking them in order of preference. The handout didn’t give the names of any places or directions or which part of the country they are in—It is SUCH a mind game! All the sites sounded really cool, one is only about an hour from Managua, one is 3, and the other two are b/t 5-7 hours from Managua. They are all a little different but the same---I know that sounds confusing! I guess I won’t write too much about them because we will know in about 3.5 weeks which one we are being sent to---will be sure to let you all know as soon as we do!

We are currently having Spanish classes at mi casa on our patio in rocking chairs, so that is wonderful! And our new teacher, Gloria, is AMAZING and we love her—she has been with PC for 15 or so years! She took us to our town’s library today which just re-opened not too long ago and I am pretty pumped about being able to go there to do hw and plan and read books in espanol! It is small and really pretty and was the house of the famous revolutionary Augusto Sandino---if you know about him it is pretty amazing to be living down the street from his house. (which they are restoring and maybe one day hope to turn into a tourist destination??) For anyone who is interested in Nicaraguan History a great read is “Blood of Brothers” by Stephen Kinzer—much thanks to Sam for loaning me the book! It is super intriguing and easy to read—I started yesterday and am hooked.

Ok that’s a pretty good ramble for today I think—sure feel that I could write forever—

PLEASE keep sending me updates on your lives as it really makes my day!!! And I like to know what you guys are up to!

Mom—still waiting for your letter so I can like one of the cool kids at our training sessions(when they pass out our mail!) Thank you!!!!

Okay much amor a todo!!!!!!!!!