I´m Sorry it has been so long since I have sent you an update on my life here in Nicaragua. It has been a little crazy lately! For those of you a little out of the loop, I moved into my own house on Valentines Day. It´s a red and white brick house. There is one large living-room, one very long bedroom (with two very short doors), a kitchen, outdoor ¨shower¨, and a latrine (basically an outhouse), there are a total of 6 doors in my little house (I don´t understand the reasoning on that one). I have a tile roof, which allows for a lot of creepy crawly creatures to easily enter my house at any given time. My least favorite of a creepy crawlers is of course the scorpion, which I have unfortunately encountered on many occasions! I have neighbors on either side of me, who take very good care of me. They frequently invite me over for lunch and dinner, so I don´t always have to cook alone (which I don´t mind at all). It´s nice to get time on my own every once in a while, I usually always have visitors at my house!
Along with World Vision we have started a tree nursery in my community. It is being constructed at my community leaders house in her front yard. We are working at planting 50,000 seeds and hoping that they will all grow in order to start a reforestation project. The majority of the women in the town chop down the trees in the community for firewood to cook with. Therefore, there is a ton of deforestation and a lot of problems with water loss and lack of shade in the entire country of Nicaragua. So little by little Peace Corps Volunteers and other organizations are helping with reforestation projects.
I also introduced a Youth Community Bank to the youth in my town. Our first meeting was last Friday and it was very successful! 16 youths from the community showed up for the informational meeting and were very interested. This bank will be used to teach responsibility with savings, loans, attendance and team work. The former are not heavily taught in Nicaraguan school systems. The majority of Nicaraguans, no matter what age, have a difficult time accessing banks. So this is a great way to have a project in the community, that is run by the community and allows its members to responsibly take out small loans. Our next Youth Bank meeting in Monday and I´m hoping that their interest continues to grow!!
At this very moment I am up north in Nicaragua in the department of Jinotega. There is a half marathon scheduled for tomorrow morning at 7 a.m. There will be a bunch of PCVs racing, as well as many Nicaraguans. I think there expecting about 200 people to show up for the race! That is big here, since working out is not the latest fad. It is beautiful up here in Jinotega. We are actually sitting in the bottom of a crater. So there are mountains, coffee plants, flowers and tons of vegetation surrounding us. In contrast to Leon, it´s like we are in the jungle up here...Leon is a desert! So, I haven´t exactly been running everyday like I should, so to say the least this race should be interesting tomorrow! I will try to run as far as I can...Wish me luck!
I hope you are all staying cozy and warm in your houses back in Minnesota and North Dakota with all that snow, I must say when I am laying in my bed at night sweating on top of my sheets I do kind of miss all that white stuff floating around. Drink some hot chocolate with marshmallows for me!!!
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment