Hato Grande

Thats ¨the big herd, or flock¨for those of you that arent spanish speakers... but more importantly, its the name of my future site! It is a small town in the middle of Chinindega (not quite sure on the exact location yet, but I know its a little north of the city El Viejo). It is a town of 450 people and the main crops are corn, rice, and beans. It sounds like there is a lot of milk and egg production as well. I will have electricity (at least sometimes), no running water (although I havent really missed that yet), and a cell phone signal (Im told my current phone will work there so those who have my number can assume that it will be staying the same... those who still want it can email me to get it). Im fairly excited about being somewhat close to the beach, at least in weekend trip range.

Unfortunately thats about all I know about the site as of right now, but I will be in site this coming weekend (from friday to next thursday) so I´ll be able to give a better update and hopefully some pictures next time.

Hope all is well back in the states

The Best Western... Round Two

Well its been a pretty busy week, so I guess I will start from the begining... As stated in my last post, I had tech week at one of the other volunteers site earlier this week to learn various useful bits of knowledge... like how to make Chicken Feed or an Improved Stove (improved in the sense that it uses less wood and doesnt fill the house with smoke). I thought it was a great trip, I think I learned a lot and seeing an actual Peace Corps site was really cool, gives me a clue on what to expect as this week unfolds and I hopefully recieve my site assignment this coming Friday.

Then it started to rain, and rain some more... and rain a lot more. The last tech day was a lot less productive as we had to cross what then was a pretty big river every time we wanted to work or eat, but this really wasnt bothering me too much because I spent most of the day in the lab with my first Nica Illness anyways (bacteria infection of the intestinal track for anyone who is wondering... not too much fun). But I spent the next day or so doing pretty much nothing and I feel a lot better now (Im sure the super antibiotics they have me on are having an impact as well).

With the rain that almost washed away the tail end of tech week came more rain, when we got back to Esteli it wasnt long before we all got word that the volunteers in the north half of the country were all being evacuated to the capital until the weather passed. So now Im in the same hotel that we had our welcome retreat at, watching football (what happened to the Bears defense... I leave and all the sudden they cant do anything right), enjoying the pool, and waiting for word to head back North.

More Pictures!

Well, I headed down to Esteli after class today to finish putting up the pictures that i was trying to last weekend, so here they are! sorry Im not going to have time to answer emails this time, so dont feel left out.

Me, after a long hike up to visit some caves with the youth group
A fairly common scene here
My town
Part of the youth group and other aspirantes after doing out first square meter garden



On an unrelated note, This week I´ll be heading out to a volunteers site for ¨tech week¨. Im pretty excited about getting my first experience on a real peace corps site. Then next weekend is the site fair where I will be looking at all the availible sites in country and putting in my word on which ones I am most interested in, also very exciting. Anyways, hopefully I´ll be able to update sometime during all of that to keep everyong posted.

hope all is well