Answers to Commonly Asked Questions

Question 1: Do they have siestas in Nicaragua?
Answer: Sadly no, I think I could really use a good nap after lunch but I guess that tradition never got this far south from Mexico where I hear they do still do the siesta thing, at least in some parts.

Question 2: Do you have a latin lover yet?
Answer: Nope! We're thinking about putting together a pool to bet on who dates and/or marries a Nicaraguan first. So far, nada.

Question 3: Are you tan?
Answer: Yes! Well, my arms and face. My legs don't really see the light of day that often, or else I'll have lots of people wanting to be my latin lover!!

Question 4: Where will you be living for 2 years?
Answer: Ha! Not telling!

No, truly, I'm not going to post my whereabouts nor those of my soon-to-be fellow volunteers on the blog for everyone's personal safety. But I will say that I'll be living in the department of Managua, but closer to the coast than to the city of Managua itself. It's a mid-sized town, so I probably could post the name and not have to worry too much about some random person walking into town and asking “Where does the gringa live?” and getting the right answer (FYI: gringa, or gringo, is what us white, American types are referred to here. And yes, this tactic does work in small towns - we used it to find our friends in one of the smaller training towns once.)

Overall, I'm pretty happy with my site. In fact, it almost made it into my top 3. I'll be living with a woman who teaches at my school and her daughter who is somewhere around 12 years old. And their dog. I've been assured that they're lovely people :) I'll be working with two of the three English teachers at a good sized school, one man and one woman. They're highly motivated, according to my packet so I hope that's accurate. There are two other TEFL kids from my group who'll be living fairly nearby and a business volunteer from last year's group lives in the department as well. I should be pretty well connected by transit as well as phone and internet! I'll spend Wednesday through Sunday meeting people and getting to know the town a little bit and should have more interesting information to share after that.

Pretty much everyone is happy with their sites, some people got just what they wanted, most people got something they're at least happy with, and at least one person got a site that's almost the opposite of what he wanted but even he's not too upset about it. The only thing I'm disappointed about is that my closest friends are kind of far away, but they're also in areas I really want to visit and I should be able to do a weekend trip everyonceinawhile to see them.

Oh, and we definitely put together a betting pool on the site assignments. I only got 3 of the 20 correct, the girl who won got 6 right. Cheap entertainment :)

Another Peace Corps hurdle down!!