MAY UPDATE

Mother’s Day and Beyond…
Happy belated Mother’s Day to all in the USA! Nicas celebrate Dia del Madre on May 30th…To all the mommas out there---you ladies are allllll INCREDIBLE!
Little update from Nica-land-- We recently went to Jalapa, nearby town, (3 .5 hours on bus) to use bank, hook up with other veteran TEFL volunteer there, and then went together to the town of Santa Clara to check out the facility where our teacher taller we are giving will be on this coming Friday. We spent a few hours over coffee, beans, tortillas, cuejada etc. hashing out the details/deciding who will present what etc. Just to give you an idea, one of the things on our list to bring on the bus is 50 bananas (-: fun times! I am looking forward to the taller, but at the same time, it will be a brutally long day---the teachers that live in Quilali have to leave at 530am due the bus schedule……this means we will be in the little town almost 2 hours early…..but the next bus we could take would get us there an hour late……fun times again! Also due to the bus schedule, we will all probably have an extra hour AFTER the taller…..putting us back in Quilali around 6pm. Just in time to give our adult community class…… It seems in Peace Corps those random days you find yourself with very little to do, you make up for it somewhere down the road (-:
I will say that some of the moments I enjoy the most in PC thus far have actually been during these long periods of waiting…..waiting for the bus….or the next bus…..or on the bus….or waiting for someone to show up……sounds sort of frustrating, and it can be, but most of the time, I meet really interesting people and have really random strange conversations…..or play with gorgeous little kids or a family shares their mangos with me etc.
This week I have survived my Monday, which for me is the toughest---on my feet from 7 until about 530…includes a sort of grueling 2 hour r/t bus ride…..but it’s getting easier. I have about 33 million thousand things I would like to work on with my counterparts, and like many other volunteers, I sometimes feel overwhelmed and just don’t know where to start…..but I guess that’s why this is a 2 year and 3 month commitment….
The next couple mths should be fairly busy, lots of reports are due to the Ministry of Education…class as normal….the teacher taller….and coming up soon another Peace Corps training week….
Not much else to report—rainy season is supposedly around the corner. People are saying that the TV and paper in the states show RAIN RAIN RAIN already in Nicaragua—however, it really has yet to begin here in Quilali….though folks are saying it’s going to be a rough season—we’ll see. For now, it’s just HOT. In hot, I mean that by 930 or 10 am we are in the upper 90’s or low 100’s….sigh, I can’t wait for the rain! Though I may regret that statement later (-: esp. because it seems it will be raining INSIDE our house a good bit….
As always, I miss home. A lot. Especially the people. We love you guys…..stay in touch POR FAVOR!!!!