Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Por Fin - A New Post!

It’s been quite a while since I’ve written. There’s no real reason…unless work counts. What I mean to say, is there’s no excuse. I apologize to my many, many dedicated readers.

So, it’s December. Just less than 8 months left in this adventure. I’ve definitely enjoyed it so far. In Peace Corps, there’s this interesting phenomenon of days taking FOREVER to pass, where the months fly by. I have no hypothesis as to why this happens; I just thought I’d share another little piece of my life with you.

I realize I haven’t really clued you in to what it’s actually like to live here: there is constant noise in this country. I’d say for the most part, Nicaragua sounds like a mix between unnecessary car horns, cat-calls, the non-clink of beer bottles being set on plastic tables, food frying in far too much oil (ckckckckckckckckc), motorcycle engines, Daddy Yankee being played through static-ky cell phone speakers, the deafening thud of mangoes falling on tin roofs, the background music from telenovelas, the scuttle of cockroaches at night, dogs barking in the streets, the pitter-patter of tortillas being made at 4:30 each morning. Oh, and excuses.

My description may seem less than comforting, but it’s actually quite endearing. Not the cat-calls, but I’ve begun to get a little sassy and talk back.

General Update:
School is now out for the year, and we’ll be starting back up again in the first week of February. Overall, the year went well. There have been some changes purposed to our curriculum by the Ministry of Education that will be tough to handle next year, but overall, is a step in the right direction. We’ve been teaching the business class to 4th year students, and one of the changes is to switch the course to 5th year. It makes more sense to have the class in the last year of high school because of the level of math required to understand the concepts, but the transition won’t be quite as flawless as we’d hoped – I’ll be teaching the same students the same class next year. Although this isn’t ideal, the class will also be required by every single high school in the country (with or without a volunteer). This shows that the Ministry of Education supports our work here, and recognizes the validity and importance of our entrepreneurship course.

I’m heading back for Christmas 2 weeks from today. I’m very very VERY excited for the break, for snow, for good food, my family, for friends, for Jason. Once I get back to Nicaragua, I’ll have just over 6 months left in my service. Plans for after Peace Corps: I don’t know.

Miss you all!

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