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Venta terreno en carretera Granada-Nandaime. - Nandaime (Granada, nicaragua) - En venta (Inmuebles) [Anuto]

#nicaragua #Granada #Nandaime #Inmuebles #En venta

Pasando por #diria #diriomo #catarina y #nandaime (en Diriomo, ciudad de granada) https://www.instagram.com/p/B3GRCqkg0F1/?igshid=snd16cgt1hno

#diria #diriomo #catarina #nandaime

when the waiter says “toña”¯ \_(ツ)_/¯

site placement: where am i going?!?!?!

Last Wednesday was “Site Placement Day”, also known as a BIG FRIGGIN’ DEAL. When I was reading Peace Corps blogs before coming here, I was confused about why this was such a big deal. I mean, you’re already in the country – why does it matter exactly what tiny town you’re in? But now, I get it. The Trainees and the Staff all build it up over the prior ten weeks, until we’re all guessing where everyone will be placed. We even did a “bracket” – our program director gave us the list of sites two days before, and for 10 córdobas, everyone filled out a bracket guessing which site would be matched to which Trainee. In the end, we all did pretty terribly guessing, but no matter – after eating raw vegetables with ranch dressing from Miguel (!!!), and rereading our Aspiration Statements to prepare ourselves and set intentions, we all opened our site packets.

And my site will be ..... drumroll please .....

Nandaime, Grenada!

It’s a medium-sized town about 40 minutes away from the huge colonial tourist city of Grenada. I’m pretty excited about this, because it means I’m super centrally located – the Panamerican Highway goes right past my town, and I can easily travel nearly anywhere in Grenada, Carazo, Masaya, or Rivas within an hour and a half. There are lots of other Trainees and Volunteers who will be located near me in those departments, and I even have two sitemates, so I definitely won’t be isolated.

This week was “Counterpart Day” and Site Visit”, which meant that on Saturday, we all convened in a nice hotel in Managua and each met two of our Nicaraguan counterparts from our future sites. Then, we traveled to our sites from Sunday through Thursday to get a firsthand glimpse into our future lives. I was able to visit all four of the schools I’ll be working at and meet the principals and my teacher counterparts, with whom I’ll be teaching the Entrepreneurship course. Below is my friendly counterpart Levintong, who was kind enough to introduce me to the MINED Delegate and all of my teachers and principals. He was basically my guide for the week, and I couldn’t be more grateful!

Wednesday I also had the pleasure of being the guest of honor at the high school Poetry Contest, in which students choose a poem by their beloved Nicaraguan poet Ruben Darío, and recite the heck out of it, with flailing arm motions and angry monologues. It honestly was much more a theater competition than a poetry competition, analogous to Shakespeare Monologue in the United States. I enjoyed getting to see these kids work hard for a competition, and finally get exposure to Darío’s poetry, which all of Nicaragua basically worships. (Also, the girl in the gold dress just sat there, as the object to illustrate the subject of the love poem being recited. That really bothered me -- I want to hear your voice, as a strong woman!)

I spent the rest of my time walking around town, saying “Adios” (a casual passing hello) to pretty much every person I passed, and running every evening. The first evening, I got caught in a torrential downpour in the middle of my run. I should mention that Nandaime’s namesake is “nanda”, which in an indigenous language means “flood” – when it rains here, it rains HARD, and the streets always flood – thus, I had to run home repeatedly submerging my feet in six-inch-deep water, to the amusement of every Nicaraguan staring out of their doorway, wondering “who is this crazy white person I’ve never seen before, running in the middle of a rainstorm?” Somehow, this first impression seems fitting.

For those of you who have been asking about my health – it’s still not stellar. It’s been generally improving somewhat, but I’m nowhere near 100% yet. The doctors are suggesting I return to the United States, which makes me interminably sad – here I am, meeting my future coworkers and partners and community, and I might not even be able to be there working with them. I’m still taking it day by day, holding out the slightest glimmer of hope that it will get better. Thanks again for all of your support! It means the world.