Saturday, February 9, 2008

Home Sweet Home

Another picture of english class.
My beautiful kitchen-living room- dining room-entry way- other half of my house! Ain´t it purdy?!?!

View2, from the back.


The view of my "bedroom" from my front door.




My kitchen, bathroom, and back yard, all in one!



Cows on the soccer field, while the team is practicing.





My community english class in 4 Esquinas.













So I moved into my own little house, por fin! The school year is starting and we are having a little get together at the beach for all the volunteers birthdays soon, but i wanted to send out some picks of the new place. I´m still in the process of organizing. I have to buy some cinder blocks and wood planks to make shelves with. Still need a fridge, and a bike, but that will come with time.







Monday, February 4, 2008

Well classes started today... but I am not there :( I am in managua again for some asma problems, but no worries, I am sure that the meds they put me on now are going to work. Lots of good news though. I finally found a house. It's beautiful, 1 room, with a running water shower outside, my own lavandero and latrin (outhouse) to use. The landlords let me a plastic table, and a dresser! I am soooo lucky b/c those things are sooo expensive! I will share a yard with my neighbor, but that's fine with me. My neighbor has a whole family of little ducklings, which I am sure are going to wander into my house, but she said that she has to get rid of her pig... he eats the ducklings! I'm telling you, they are bravo here... although, i don't know why the starving dogs don't eat the chickens or the pigs, but there are a lot of things that i don't have explanations to as of yet ;)

So far things are going well. English classes are a lot of fun. The kids seem to be really enjoying it. We have had to slow down are lesson plan, but that's for the best, we have a lot more younger students than we thought we would when we first set it up, which has actually served to help the class a lot i think. They have so much energy, and are not as shy about not knowing the right words. That's one of the hardest things to accomplish i feel, to get people to forget about they're fears of saying the words right, and just to say them. Which i think we are all guilty of that, at least i was, but now i don't really have the choice to be shy, just gotta say it.

I have met with the environmental sector in the mayor's office and hope to start getting some work accomplished with them. I would also like to get started on a youth group, but that will probably take a little bit more time, maybe not. Just got to get creative. I can't wait to get started on my garden and my compost pile! finally i'll have the ability to do it. thank god my neighbor keeps her pig tied up and i haven't seen any wandering pigs in the yard.

List of things I bought for my house:

juego de sillas (set of 4 plastic chairs, that i beleive are made out of recycled plastic ;)

cocina (a gas range with 2 burners that i bought used from another volunteer)

balde con tapa (plastic bucket with lid that i will use to bucket bath when the water goes out, and to soak laundry and store whatever)

panita (bowlish that i can use to scoop water while doing laundry or baithing)

broom

mop

dish drying rack

bed

wooden table to put cocina on

cleaning stuff

*luckily the voluntaria before me left me some dishes! and plastic containers to store things! (seriously saved me a lot of money!)THANKS!!!

and some other stuff like black beans, brown rice (yes i splurged), bread, tuna



well i know that's exciting to read! i would put prices next to all of it, but that would be hard to explain b/c for instance i paid 4o cords for a mop stick and 27 for the head, which is like 2.50 dollars, but that set me back a bit. especially with all the other purchases.
hope all is going well back home, hope to have pics next time!