Almost done with training!

This coming week is our last week of training. We have a bunch of charlas and events in Managua to finalize the ¨bridge to service¨ and finish up the technical stuff. Swearing in is a week from this coming Monday.

Last week was my ¨site visit.¨ Everyone went to their future sites for 4 days to meet everyone and get a feel for everything. I stayed here, of course. It was nice to not have Spanish class or technical training sessions, but weird having so much free time. It rained pretty much nonstop the whole time thanks to Hurricane Ida. The Carribbean Coast of Nicaragua was hit really hard; luckily we just got rain here. I went walking every morning with my host mom. She showed me a few paths through the campo that I hadn´t seen before. One was particularly beautiful...very quiet and peaceful and it winds through fields of sugar cane, plantains, beans and corn. I co-taught once more with my counterpart, Ana. Class went well until we asked the kids to close their notebooks, at which point they immediately forgot everything we had been talking about for the past hour. Welcome to the world of teaching! I met my other counterpart, Scarleth, during my ¨visit,¨ too. She is very nice and low key and seems excited that I´ll be staying here.

I finally unpacked and rearranged my room since it will be my room for some time now. I found an etch-a-sketch and some glow-in-the-dark stars that I gave my sister. They were a hit.

This past Monday we went to the U.S. Embassy in Managua. It´s pretty removed from the busy city and was really quiet and calm. There were automatic flushing toilets and you could put the toilet paper in the toilet (instead of in the trashcan next to it) which were new concepts. Everything was also excessively air-conditioned...I had goosebumps for the first time in a few months. We learned about the extensive list of scholarship programs that the embassy offers. I hope to get some kids from my town to the United States to study or visit with one of them.

Yesterday we had the big presentation with everyone´s youth groups from our TEFL group and the group of environment volunteers. Almost all of the TEFL groups made videos of a Michael Jackson song for their final project. The environment groups made some interesting stuff with recycled materials--piñatas with food wrappers and newspapers and bracelets with coke bottle tops.

This afternoon I´m going to Managua with my host mom and sister for an uncle´s birthday party. It sounds like it´s going to be a lot of fun. We´re staying over at their house to avoid leaving Managua at night. On the way back I´m going to meet Julie and Jocelyn to go to the beach! Next time I write I will officially be a PCV!