Ciao Chele

Although I’ve never had a Peace Corps sitemate, I was blessed with a random white South African German dude named Bernd, or Bernardo as the case may be. He’s been here almost the entire time I have working in primary schools as a physical education teacher and training some soccer teams. This kid has one of the best dispositions I have ever seen, rarely in a bad mood, always ready for an adventure, willing to talk to anyone and everyone. We’ve shared good experiences (days at the beach, nights out, traveling, learning the difference between British and American English, & when to slip “cheeky” into a sentence) and bad ones (that time I kicked rebar into my foot and he helped me to the centro de salud, the general stress of living outside one’s country). It is entirely impossible to explain our friendship, so I give you Montage de Bernd:

I think this one photo sums him up:


Getting crazy in the truck:


Gangsta volunteers:


The beach!


Getting more crazy when the truck breaks down:


Excellent posture:


Training a soccer team on the beach – with Bernd I got to get a peek into the life of men in Nicaragua that I may not have seen otherwise. Since I can’t trust really any man in Nicaragua, it was nice to have one guy I could go places with and not worry if it “meant” something:


I can’t remember what they’re called in Spanish, but those things we’re eating are bull testicles:


Throwing around small children, as usual:


It’s not really goodbye, it just means that a trip to South Africa is in the works :)