Piña Piña Para La Niña, Caña Caña Para La Araña

Shoot, it has been busy down here! We finally began our training projects this past week and so far, so good! One of our assignments was to form a youth group with the goal of creating young health promoters in the community. We meet with them twice a week for about an hour and thus far the attendance has only been increasing! [knock on wood] Next week we will start getting into the real stuff. But like most teens, they’re still pretty awkward around us and have a lot of pena (shame/shyness) in speaking about tough or uncomfortable stuff. Cross all your fingers and toes that it’ll all go alright! Below is a picture from our last meeting on Thursday. We did an activity with them called “Community Mapping” where they split up into groups of girls and boys and drew maps of their communities from their perspectives. It was super interesting to see the differences between the two groups to get an idea of how they view their community.  It was also pretty great to see the amount of detail that went into the girls’ map while the boys just drew a bunch of floating buildings. (Not being a hater)

On Saturday the town threw a massive 500th Birthday party for Santa Teresa (the saint who our town is named after). This celebration should have been aired on MTV… First of all, Nica’s love to set of bombas (literal bombs) starting at 4:00am whenever there is a big celebration. So, the day began with a marching band through the town and bombs at 4:00am. I woke up in sheer panic and honestly thought there was a man throwing grenades into my house, trying to come in and kill me. It made it even worse that no one was waking up in my house! All of the PCV’s in my town were texting each other making sure everyone was safe haha. My family thought it was hilarious when I told them because it doesn’t even phase them anymore. Oh, and the bombs didn’t stop there… They actually didn’t stop for about 24 hours! I facetimed with a couple friends from home who got to experience the ruckus first hand. There was a slew of processions throughout the day and a couple of masses to celebrate. Oh! And I can’t forget the cakes that fed the entire community. I kid you not, each was as big as a full sized dining room table. I unfortunately did not snap any photos of them so you’ll have to take my word for it!

Sunday was the most adventure I’ve had here so far. My Tía, primos, and my PCV primo Jay went to Granada! Jeepers crow, talk about one of the most beautiful places my eyes have ever seen! My Tía cooked a delicious lunch and we ate picnic-style on our own personal boat as we toured the little islands in Lake Nicaragua. One of the Islands had monkeys on it so OBVIOUSLY we came prepared with some bananas to feed them. After the boat, we went downtown, danced a little in the center and walked around to look at the beautiful colonial architecture that has been so beautifully preserved. Breathe. Taking. Wow. All I’m saying is, Granada made me excited to continue exploring this country.

For the week ahead, there’s a whole lot of planning to do. We have a couple days off for Semana Santa but I’m sure they will be jam packed with preparation. We need to plan health charlas (chats or lecturettes) for the health center as well as one for our youth group. These are nerve wrecking because teaching health topics in English is difficult, never mind in Spanish… Last week we interviewed some community leaders on health problems that exist in the community. From that data, we need to select a focus group and a health topic to start conducting surveys. It’s fun now that stuff is actually happening but it’s also stressful in looking at the weeks ahead. For those of you who know me, I am definitely straying from my “plan oriented, always looking ahead” self because it’s pretty impossible to do that here. But, such an outlook has calmed my stress un poquito and mentally it’s a wonderful thing.

However, let me be very honest and tell you that tough days are TOUGH down here. Please be praying for my endurance and strength through the rest of training. Semana Santa (Holy Week) has been beautiful thus far and I’m so soo excited for the celebrations this weekend. Pray that I look to the Lord always and find my purpose and drive in Him. Oh and do me a favor and buy out all the Cadbury Mini Eggs from all the CVS’s in New England then send them to me (even if by the time they get to me they are mush)… Kthanx, I love you forever.