Well, today marks one month for me here in Nicaragua! I can't believe how quickly time has flown! It seems like just yesterday I was freaking out over packing and preparing for my departure. At the same time though, I already feel so accustomed to life here in Nica. I'm so comfortable in my host family's home and coming back into my town after training in the city feels like coming home. (Well as close to home as possible considering I miss my real home like crazy.) I really love my training town though, and I hope my actual site will be something like this. It's small and quaint and pretty much everyone knows everyone else, yet it´s only a 10 minute bus ride into the city. The kids are absolutely amazing and I feel really safe here.
Anyway, I figured since I've been here a whole month now, I should share some of the things that have become norms to me. For example, walking home from language class yesterday, Katie saw a herd of cows walking towards us on the street and nonchalantly asked me, “are those your cows coming home from the campo?” and I just as carelessly responded, “yep those are mine!” and waved to my host brother who was guiding them home. It's completely normal to see a micro-bus, about 4 stray-ish dogs, a horse or cow or pig (or all three), and a bicycle with at least 2 people on it, all at the same time on the same street in my town! I love it!
It's also become normal for me to walk through the mercado (market place) in Jinotepe every weekend when we have Peace Corps training with the other trainees. Doing so is so cool because you really get to see all the different types of foods and there are so many other cosas (things) being sold. I actually made my first market purchase in my second week here, because I REALLY wanted a pineapple. It was fantastic!! Since then, I've also bought rain boots (for working in the garden during our monsoons) and flip flops since mine broke the other day. All together, those three purchases cost me 212 cordobas (or about $10.50). Unfortunately, on a Peace Corps training salary, that's substantial lol. It's become normal to think in cords rather than dollars here, because when one is getting paid in cords, thinking in dollars is just depressing lol.
Oh, and how could I forget?? Here in Nicaragua, instead of people saying ¨hi¨when they pass each other in the street, they say ¨adios!¨ It actually makes a lot of sense when you think about it. My host sister told me it´s because if you say, ¨buenas dias,¨or ¨hola,¨ people will assume you want to stop and have a conversation. I´m definitely a fan of it, and I´ve become accustomed to saying ¨adios¨ to everyone in my town as I pass them on the street. (With the exception of the little kids who love to say ¨hello¨ or ¨goodbye¨ to me in English lol.)
Random sidenotes ← yep that reminded me of u...
I played futbol in the rain with some of the boys from my youth group on Sunday and it was the most fun I've had in a long time (and I am NOT a fan of soccer!). These kids are sooo sweet and fun to be around. They just want to play and are so far from tainted and spoiled. The rain didn't phase them one bit. Even the older ones played with us!
I totally pretended to love the Yankees the other night because my brothers here all love baseball and we watched a Yankees/Red Socks game. They were so excited to tell me MY team was playing (since I'm from NY) so I was obviously to be delighted to watch “my team” with them. It was completely worth it.
Our school garden is officially up and running! Yesterday, we finished the barrier and finally got to planing! We now have tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, squash, and a bigger squash all planted! =D I´ll be sure to let you know how that goes. =)
All in all, it's been an amazing month, and I can't wait to see what's in store for October!
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