Anyway, let's do a quick update on my vacaciones. I fiiiiiinally made it out to Esquipulas, Matagalpa, to visit my friend Steph. It was great! She has such a cute house with a great view of the mountains from her backyard and the weather was beautiful. On the last day of my visit, I went with her to school, and on the way home I saw a MONKEY, yes that's right, MONKEY, chained to a trash can in front of someone's house. Here's a pic, or a video, depending on which I can get to upload. They don't have that in Chinandega, at least not in the city.
So from there I went home for a few weeks to chill out and finish up the school year before the annual ::drum roll please:: All Volunteer Conference. It happens once every 2 years (used to happen once a year before budget cuts) and all 180+ volunteers from all the nooks and crannies of the country reunite in the capital city of Managua. We go to lots of workshops and work-related train
ing but we also ended up doing lots of drinking, dancing, and sitting by the pool. Rough life, huh? So that was last Tuesday-Thursday. It ended on Thanksgiving. It seems like only ye
sterday that we were at Adam and Lara's in Leon (I talk about them too much!) rolling pumpkin pie crusts with a can of RAID...but this year for Thanksgiving I went to a US Embassy family's house to eat. It was AMAZING. Great group of people, very funny, driven, and last but not least, they fed us 6 different types of pie for desert. I feel like I should enumerate: 1) Pumpkin 2) Apple 3) Apple with cranberries and raisins and walnuts and all kinds o
f crazy things 4) Blueberry 5) Chocolate 6) Gingerbread cookies (ok, not a pie, but still delicious). We were wined and dined for sure, but on top of that I got some insight into what life in the Foreign Service is really like. I duno if I'd mentioned before that I am in the process of studying to take the Foreign Service Officer test, which would mean I'd work in a US Embassy somewhere. Supposedly the test is similar to playing Trivial Pursuit, so lately I'v
e been kind of discouraged. But it was really motivating to see what life in Nicaragua can be like when you make more than $250 a month and live in the country capital. Ex. they can afford to send their kids to private school and buy the bags of rice that you don't have to pick little rocks out of. Oh, and P.S. I got to play a Wii for the first time, ever. This is me bowling.
ing but we also ended up doing lots of drinking, dancing, and sitting by the pool. Rough life, huh? So that was last Tuesday-Thursday. It ended on Thanksgiving. It seems like only yesterday that we were at Adam and Lara's in Leon (I talk about them too much!) rolling pumpkin pie crusts with a can of RAID...but this year for Thanksgiving I went to a US Embassy family's house to eat. It was AMAZING. Great group of people, very funny, driven, and last but not least, they fed us 6 different types of pie for desert. I feel like I should enumerate: 1) Pumpkin 2) Apple 3) Apple with cranberries and raisins and walnuts and all kinds o
f crazy things 4) Blueberry 5) Chocolate 6) Gingerbread cookies (ok, not a pie, but still delicious). We were wined and dined for sure, but on top of that I got some insight into what life in the Foreign Service is really like. I duno if I'd mentioned before that I am in the process of studying to take the Foreign Service Officer test, which would mean I'd work in a US Embassy somewhere. Supposedly the test is similar to playing Trivial Pursuit, so lately I'v
e been kind of discouraged. But it was really motivating to see what life in Nicaragua can be like when you make more than $250 a month and live in the country capital. Ex. they can afford to send their kids to private school and buy the bags of rice that you don't have to pick little rocks out of. Oh, and P.S. I got to play a Wii for the first time, ever. This is me bowling.So, that was great. Next stop: Somoto, Madriz. I had my mind made up after the volcano climbing disaster that I was just not cut out to be a hiker or an outdoorswoman or whatever. I mean, it's not like I wear make-up to sleep at night or won't go anywhere without my manicure kit but seriously, there was a point on that volcano where I wondered why a helicopter wouldn't come air lift me off the thing. But due to an unforeseen chain of events, I went with a bunch of health volunteers to hike the Somoto Canyon. I heard someone say that it was so easy that you could do it in flip flops if you wanted to. They said that it was about half hiking and half floating/swimming down a river. I was still nervous, but that sounded doable enough. So I popped a Valium (just kidding, mom) and got on a bus up north. Turns out, I could do it! It was challenging in some places not to slip on wet mossy rocks in the riverbed, but I broke no bones and came out with minimal bruises and all toenails intact. Only bad thing: I didn't bring my camera. I'm going to have to jack someone else's pics when they put them up on Facebook some day.
After the Somoto weekend, I spent roughly 5 days back in site and now, here I am! Up north again... As it turns out, I can't be kept far from the mountains these days. There's a breeze, it's green, and the people seem to be a lot more even tempered. All the bus stations are really nice and clean too, and a couple of them even have TVs! It makes the bus station in Chinandega seem like someone took a baseball bat to a beehive. Tomorrow I'm going with a friend to place my order for the boots, and hopefully they'll be ready before I go home in 2 weeks! I doubt it, but it doesn't hurt to ask. If they will be ready, that would mean 3 trips up north in 3 weeks!
Well, I'm going to get some work done. Send me a message if you'll be in Charleston for Christmas!
Elizabeth
