Hello to all my loyal readers, I'm terribly sorry for my blog negligence, and have no real legitimate excuse for not writing, nor do I intend to try to invent one.

Let’s see the last time I wrote, I believe was mid October. Since then I've started coordinating with a US group called Power to the People in order to get solar panels installed in a rural health post, restarted (somewhat) my youth groups, helped facilitate an HIV/AIDS workshop with sex workers, been back stateside for Turkey day, and had my close of service conference which concluded with a surprise turtle hatching!

Where to start? Every year Peacecorps Nicaragua gives health volunteers money, set aside by the US government through a fund called PEPFAR (ya'll may have heard of it, it was controversial under President Bush) for HIV/AIDS education. (http://www.pepfar.gov/about/index.htm) We here in Nicaragua use the money for workshops. The volunteers in my area and I decided to focus our attentions on the booming sex industry. Since I live near the Honduran boarder, we have an abundance of traffic, mainly being commerce, with that comes exchange of money, lonely men, and women working to serve that demand.


Of the 30 women invited, about 13 made it, some of them bringing their children. One city in which we had half our invitees is a port town, and apparently a large shipping vessel from I believe Ukraine had arrived, meaning work. We had a variety of NGOs from the area come and speak about Gender, and Human Rights. Although I feel the workshop was highly flawed (bad communication between us volunteers and NGO's etc) I think we set a decent framework for the next volunteers if they choose to work with sex workers when it comes their time to have a PEPFAR workshop.

Here I have a picture of my almost completed world map. It’s been a larger project than I had ever imagined, but well worth the work. I've painted it in the municipality library where students have access to books and internet. My grand plan is to have a weekly trivia question in which students can hand their answers into the librarian, and I will give out prizes to those with the correct answer. I hope this will encourage curiosity and research skills. Vamos a ver




I originally had decided not to go home for Thanksgiving. Since I leave in April, I didn’t want to "waste time" by leaving for the US. But a couple weeks before I decided to go home, a group of volunteers, having had completed their 2 years of service, left. I was struggling with the loss of a huge support network I'd learned to lean on, that coupled with the discovery of a cheap ticket (Spirit Air!!) I packed my little backpack, and headed home. I pretty much spent a week sitting, eating, visiting with friends and doing some more sitting, and eating. Since arriving back in town, I think every 5th person has made a point to comment on how fat I am (Apparently my half pound is that noticeable, although I guess I'm flattered that many of the women here have nothing better to do than comment on the Gringa's weight fluxuations, it still is a cultural differencce I've never been able to adapt too).Anyway, I had a restful trip home, and returned to Nicaragua with recharged moral, and motivation.

Upon arriving back in Nicaragua we had our 3 day Close of Service Conference which consists of a reflection of our service, suggestions for the program, job hunting skills aka resume building, interviewing etc, and grad school searches. I came out of the workshop about as lost as I was going into it, but hey, at least I'm consistent...?

On our last night at the conference, which Peacecorps so kindly hosts at a beachside conference center, the turtle nursery on the property had a nest hatch. The 89 baby Olive Ridly turtles were placed in a shallow barrel, and held overnight so they could be released at low tide in the morning. I was told by staff that it is preferable to release the critters as the tide goes out, so that the pull of the water assists them, rather than throw them back on the beach hence helping to avoid baby drownings. The pictures I’m attempting to load shows one little guys pending dive into the water and the large waves ahead, the second one is crossing the sand in hopes of not getting lost. Those little guys are born strong, I was impressed with their strength and determination. Of the 89 hatched, only 9 will make it back to lay eggs. The others will be eaten, or drowned, or killed by human activity. Unfortunately many people see these nests hatch, and think, 'look there is an abundance of turtles, who gives a crap I want to eat them so I'm going to.." I have recently heard that of the turtle eggs laid, only 15 survive long enough to hatch, and of that 15% only 10% will live long enough to return to their original beach to lay eggs. I doubt that barely covers population replacement, let along population growth. Anyway it was an amazing and humbling experience. I was tempted to jump in the water and swim with them a ways, but decided they were superior swimmers and that breakfast had priority...






Well everyone, that’s all for now folks!

I've had a crazy week of traveling! These most recent photos are from an activity I coordinated with another volunteer to promote HIV/AIDS awareness. In the morning we hiked up a series of waterfalls, which because of the rains were stunningly full, and crystal clear. I for some silly reason which escapes me now, had decided against bringing a swimsuit but plenty of wading was to be had.



The activity was a billiards tournament. In between each round a small lesson is giving, one about what is the difference between HIV and AIDS, how you can get it and not get it. The importance of getting the test done, the laws protecting those who have the disease, and at the end a segment about condoms. Here in this photo I am demonstrating how condoms can stretch by putting a condom on this guys arm. He was a great sport. I kind of forced him to participate. Many complaints about condoms is that they don't fit, so this is kind of myth buster activity. So in order to win, in the final round the finalist have to answer correctly questions about the mini lessons given every time they shoot a ball into the pocket. If they don't answer correctly, they either loose their next turn, or the ball is placed back on the table. Normally the men are super respectful, and don't haze us.



Usually working with men, is highly intimidating, but these events have proven to be highly successful

ok so I have other photos, but theyre not on this flash drive... so these are from a long weekend to the beach, One night at a place called Playa Gigante, (named so because the point looks like a big giant´s foot) which is by far the most beautiful beach i´ve been to thus far, the other photos are taken from a church tower in Granada. The last photo is me in a chocolate museum. I dont get credit for any of these photos. A friend just was here visiting from the US, and these are her´s

This week we´ve been celebrating the independence of Central America. My town tends to go a little crazy, bringing in people from all over the country. Horses run through the streets, everyone wears plaid shirts, jeans, boots, and sombreros (I only have the jeans no boots or sombrero yet...). The local schools present their marching bands, and acknowledgements are given to students with good attendance, and grades.

I´m staying with a nurse for the week as my little room I rent is right on the park, and with all the noise, and drunkards, I decided it was in my best interest to stay away from the activity at night. She’s wonderful, takes wonderful care of me, and I know if I ever need ANYTHING she´ll be there. I´ve been spending more time with her family, and I adore her grandchildren.

Last night I helped butcher a cow before bed time. I was literary getting into bed when the nurse im staying with said her son had dropped it off. It showed up large chunks in two plastic sacks. They had partitioned it using an ax I think, and the thing was full of bone shards. An hour and a half later we had it cut into family sized portions ready for gifting. Today we got a chance to eat some of it, and it was worth the work.
(it didn’t bother me, I feel like if you´re willing to eat meat, you should be willing to also do the dirty work, though this wasn´t all that dirty, although my pj´s definitely needed washing after)

A friend from Peace Corps recently came down to visit and we gave a workshop to a group of women on how to process soy. It’s really cheap, easy, healthy and for the most part accessible. We made milk and ground meat.


Pictures to come soon...ish

New art class member. Do you remeber in elementary school making the stained glass windows with crepe paper and black construction paper. We did that today, and it was a blast, and made a huge mess!

Here is one of my youth groups. We are painting Wacalls which are like gourds once cleaned out and dried. We are hoping to sell them as wall decorations and flower hangers in order to save enough money so we can take a field trip to Leon so the girls can see their own museums and learn their own history. Most of them have never been, and the city is of huge historical and national importance.

here I am with the crew that I frequently visit. They range in age of 11 months to 12 years old. We watch cartoons together, play jump rope, and just the other day, one of the girls pulled three white hairs from my head. Thats true friendship. I´ve learned kids are fantastic when you can hand them off when they´re acting up.

This photo is from a march which was facilitated by a volunteer who lives north of me. myself and 4 other volunteers, along with their youthgroups participated in march through town against domestic violence.


Laundry day in the rainy season

youth group meeting. Don´t they look excited!



Workshop with 46 middleschool and highschool teachers, teaching teachers to how to teach HIV/AIDS in their classrooms. This is pretty much what I do. I walk around with a wooden dildo all day...