Work has finally started!

Lots has happened since I wrote last, sorry!

Tyler was here for 11 days visiting. It was great to see him and to show him around what will be my home for the next 2 years. He brought me a ton of stuff, including a lot my sister Cristina sent along (thank you, Cristina!), the ingredients for hummus that I was missing and enough peanut butter to last 2 years. We went up two active volcanoes, swam in the Laguna de Apoyo (200m deep crater lake that used to be a volcano), visited my friend Julie in Leon and went to the beach, and went to Granada and Masaya. If you have facebook, you can see the pictures he took.

Everything at school started, finally, this past Monday. It´s just registration and teacher meetings, but at least it´s something to do! The first day of school is February 2nd.

A volunteer that lived with my family during his 3 months of training, Luciano, came back to visit. He helped me catch a lonely, lost baby chicken that had been wandering around the house for a few days. It´s now my pet/daughter and is named Lucy in honor of Luciano, her godfather. Ha! It´s been a blast. She eats rice out of my hand. We recently just untied her so she can wander around the yard and the town all day, but she´s learned where her home is and comes back every night to sleep.
My host grandmother´s brother died the other day. He had been sick with cancer for a while so it´s good that he´s not suffering anymore, but the viewing, funeral and burial were really sad. Viewings here are 24+ hour events. The whole town is invited, even the drunks, and sits in and outside the house in plastic chairs for as long as they want, until the funeral mass starts the next day. I went with my host mom and sister at 8am and came back to the house at 2am, but my mom stayed until 5am! Now that he´s been buried, they have 9 days of praying sessions at his house, which my grandmother will go to.

It´s actually been pretty chilly here at night. I had to shut the window to my bedroom for the first time ever...and I´ve slept with socks a couple of times!
My dad gets to Managua with a friend to do/explain some knee surgeries on Sunday. I hope to visit him in the city while he´s there, before he comes to my town for the weekend!