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!!!!!!!!!