We're officially halfway through the school year and on semester vacation. The first half of the year went by pretty quickly and now I only have about four months left (not that I'm counting or anything). August should actually be the last "real" month of school. September is full of Independence Day celebrations and days off from school, October is when patron saint festivities are here (more missed school) and then the elections are the first week of November which are definitely going to affect class since the schools are used as polling centers. The fact that election day is on a Sunday certainly does not mean that classes will be unaffected and resume as normal that Monday. And the week(s) before will be used for setting everything up, naturally. So I basically have one more solid month of teaching left. I think I can handle that.
I had a really nice time at home for my sister's graduation. Luckily the graduation was an excuse for everyone to get together so I got to see the whole family. I also got a lot of "So, what are you going to do when you come back?" I think I've resigned myself to going to grad school to get a Master's in International Development. Peace Corps is great work experience but everyone still requires a Master's...so back to school I go.
After telling the mayor of my town that, no, I will not trade in my boyfriend for him, I'm very sorry, I received all the materials for my world map. Last weekend Ana's husband graciously volunteered 6 hours of his time and manual labor to cement over the brick wall at the school where I'm going to paint the map. In the next couple days we'll go back to add another layer of a finer cement mixture so the wall is smooth and ready to paint. My friend Julie, who's done 3 maps in her town, will be here next weekend to help me with the grid and to start drawing.
Rainy season is in full swing and has brought with it zillions of flies and mosquitoes. I haven't yet decided which of the two is worse.
Today I was enlightened by the Nicaraguan interpretation of a rainbow, as told by a 15 year old boy: the rainbow represents peace in Nicaragua, it comes out of the hearts of two angels (one at each end) and in the middle of the rainbow is Jesus with his arms spread open. Not quite as exciting as the leprechaun and his pot of gold but it will suffice...
On Wednesday my conversation group and I are going on a field trip to Granada so they can practice their English by interviewing tourists. They're really excited about it...should be fun. It's cool to see how much they've learned and improved since we started from zero a year and a half ago.
