Esquipulas to Volan Masaya

Hola Familia y Amigos,

I´ve officially been living in Nicaragua for over a month! I´ve reached the half way point of training week 6, which means we have a lot to do in the next/last 5 weeks of training. Here is a recap of all the happenings the last few weeks since I last wrote.

One Saturday a group of us trainees meet up with a volunteer in the pueblo next to mine called Didia. She took us on a hike down to the Laguna De Apoyo, which is a lake in the crater volcano near San Juan De Oreinte. It was a long steep trek down but it paided off with a swim in the volcanically heated laguna. Very nice and relaxing. The hike back up is another story but the howler monkeys did not throw anything at us, we only heard their calls.

During week 4we had to do 2 formal charlas (meetings) in the elementary school and with our youth group. The elementary school one was on ¨los tres erres¨ (the three R´s). The kids seemed to enjoy the activities but discipline in the schools in Nicaragua is highly lacking. The youth group on the other hands rocks and really got involved in our decision making charla. We also had to select a mini proyecto (mini project) to do with the youth group and they selected giving a charla to the elementary students about trees and then planting some trees in the community. They are really motivated.

This past weekend (Sun-Wed) I spent in Esquipulas, Matagalpa on my volunteer visit with another trainee (Margot) visiting the volunteer Erika. Esquipulas is about 4 hours north or the pueblos and all we got was a sheet of paper with the prices and names of the bus depots and buses to take to get to there. So on Sunday morning at 6:30 am Margot and I flaged down the bus to Managua and were on our way on our adventure / field trip (we are traveling on a school bus). We had to transfer bus depots in Managua which ment we had to take a taxi. It really was not as scary as Peace Corps (PC) makes it sound plus I was able to bargain down the price. We arrived at Esquipulas and Erika was nowhere to be found at the bus depot / park. So we pulled out our map of the town ( not at all to scale) and walked in the direction of her house. We got about a block before we ran into her and her sitemate a TEFOL volunteer. In the 4 days that we were there Erika showed us about her town, 2 of the three schools she works in, where to buy the best vegetables and baking supplies, and on lots of hikes up and down the city since it´s built on a hill and you are either going down or going up. Her town is in the mountains so it rained a lot but the view was beautiful since everything is green right now. We also baked a lot of cookies and they were yummy!

Yesterday we went to Volcan Masaya. It´s one of the most active Volcanoes in Central Amaerica. We climed the volcanoe and could see the smoke coming out but no lava. Then we the crater volcano to the vista point where you can see all of Masaya, the laguna of Masaya, and the smoking Volcan Masaya. Then Don Douglas the P.C. bus driver dropped us off in Masaya for lunch and some shopping in the local market. The local market where we shop is non-tourist market so it is cheaper but dirtier then the tourist market. But hey I make a whopping 2 dollars a day so I go where I can get more for my money. The Market though is equivalent to a Walmat where you can buy anything from lunch to clothes, to household supplies, to bootleg music and DVDs. Its a very interesting place to shop. And today I may go to Granada if it does not rain.

In the coming weeks we have our mid training language interview and then our site fair to learn about all the potential sites we could be placed at. Then in Week 7 we have our last site interview and then on Monday of week 8 we find out our site. It´s all coming up fast.

I hope everyone is doing well. I´ve received my first package (thanks Jackie) and I have one more in the Peace corps office. I´m way excited to find out what I got. Thanks for all the letters. I love hearing about whats going on back home.

All the best,

Olenka

Write me:
PCT olenka langen
Cuerpo de Paz
Apartado Postal 3256
Managua, Nicaragua
Central America