Oh! The Places You'll Go!

One of the fun (crazy) things about the Peace Corps is that not once, but twice you leave the very important decision of your place of residence up to someone else. The first time, I got Nicaragua. Next Friday I'll finally be able to tell you all where exactly in Nicaragua I'll be biding my time for 2 years! We received a packet of information on the 17 sites including population, services, info on the schools where the volunteer will work and opportunities for secondary projects. Yesterday, after talking to volunteers who are serving in the same area talk about the sites, we all were able to express up to three preferences. After final interviews with the boss-lady this week, the staff will choose sites for us based on our skills and preferences, in addition to medical considerations if there are any.

I'm trying not to get my hopes up for anything in particular but my preferences were for two mid-sized towns in the mountainous regions north of Managua (read: it's not so hot there!) and a rural town in southern Nicaragua near the big lake. None of the sites are places I feel like I couldn't live, but I'm gunning for a mid-sized city, or a rural area. I'd like to steer clear of larger cities.

I think much of the group is hitting a mid-training slump of some kind, at least I know I am. We're more than halfway through now and we can almost taste our site assignments so it's hard to concentrate on the tasks at hand. And despite now feeling much more confident on the transportation system and my Spanish abilities, I'm still not supposed to venture very far from my town without having a host family member present. It can be frustrating at times, but I know when training is over that I'll miss having my American safety net.

The good news is that I've been out seeing a little more of the country and the culture recently. Last weekend was busy as Peace Corps took us and the Small Business group to the Volcan Masaya (oh yes, that means volcano!) and on Sunday I went with my host sister to an Ipica a couple towns over. An Ipica is usually part of a town's fiestas patronales which is just a big party to celebrate a town's patron saint. An Ipica involves everyone lining one of the main streets in town, drinking beer, and watching people parade around on horses. It's a pretty good time :)

Photos from the volcano:

Alli and I as dinosaurs

And the Ipica:

Yes, this man is standing on his horse