Week 10/11

I’m a real volunteer! (To be said in your best Pinocchio voice) Yep, that’s right, they can’t take it back now, I’ve been sworn in as a volunteer. To get to fun times Managua week though, I had to make it through poopy hell week first. It basically went: take language test, give presentation, teach class, write paper, prepare your youth group for presentation, write another paper. Major flashback to college exam week, minus the coffee breaks, 10 packs of cigarettes, nightly waffle house trips, and dance party study breaks. Man, I miss college. Anyway, it was pretty awful, especially the class I had to give that Thursday. The location changed last minute and it went from supposedly teaching a class of 20 Nicaraguan senior year private school students, to wrangling over 50 Nicaraguan freshman year public school kids. Not only were these kids the completely wrong age for the material, but I had totally not prepared for a class that size. I ran out of materials and the class next door was so loud I had to scream like a crazy person just to be heard.

But if week 10 was like an exam week, week 11 would be the equivalent of beach week…without the actual beach…and with a whole day of AIDS lectures, who cares, it was magical. There were places in Managua with automatically flushing toilets, not many, but still, I felt like I was in a strange future world. We had our youth group competition Monday last week. Good times, I mean we lost and all, but the kids did a swell job and it was really fascinating seeing all of the finished products of each group. The competition was held at this odd mini-resort/restaurant/discoteca (I mean, why not?, right) so after the youth groups left we all got to have a few beers and go swimming. Tuesday we headed off for Managua and got to stay in a hotel for the whole week! With air conditioning! A pool! And hot showers! There was eating out! Italian! Sushi! McDonalds! God if there had only been a Bojangles. Get your asses out here, Bojangles! I basically had reverse culture shock, got a sunburn, and gained 10 pounds. It was fabulous. We visited the embassy again Thursday and actually got to meet the Ambassador this time. We had to address him as Mr. Ambassador, it gave me a weird thrill. Oh, and one of the embassy employees dropped this bit of information “Part of my job is to visit American citizens in Nicaraguan prisons, like the serial killers caught last week.” Just all casual like. None of us had heard of American serial killers loose in Nicaragua, and we were all like, say what! She went on “You would never know they were serial killers from looking at them.” Look at a picture of them right now online and tell me those people don’t look like serial killers. I mean I guess they could be covered in blood wearing a sign that says “I collect human hands” or something.

Friday was the actual swearing in ceremony at this really fancy hotel that we didn’t actually get to stay at, but trust me, it was fancy. There was this really awkward part though where they called all the families up with the trainees to give them diplomas in front of everyone. Well mine and a few other trainees families didn’t show and we had to walk up there alone while the lady in charge of training goes “Oh, I’ll be your mom.” And most of us sat at this orphan table. Just another day in the life of me. Everyone went out Friday night to do some serious dancing. Sunday was kind of a downer though, they kicked us out of the hotel and most people had to head to their sites in all different corners of Nicaragua. Me and 8 others in the lower language groups are staying behind this week for “special” attention.

Although awkward family moment #2 in one week is why I’m now actually living in Catarina. So I went back to my San Juan house Sunday and everything seemed normal, but then Monday morning I sat around 20 min waiting on my teacher to come. Finally, I called someone in the office and they basically said someone really should have told you that your not supposed to be staying there anymore, your now living and having class in Catarina. Pretty much my host mom declined to keep me an extra week and no one told me and I guess my family was too non-confrontational to kick me out Sunday. Then, I had to pack all my stuff up, which is a lot, and drag my ass to Catarina at 9 in the morning. There are more roaches in my new house, but it’s closer to ice cream and she serves me cake for dinner, so….even. Either way, it’s only for a week, cause I’m headed off to San Carlos on Saturday! I’ll probably be expressed kidnapped on my journey, but I’ll make it one way or another. At site I should theoretically have a more relaxed schedule, so posting should become regular, we shall see, since I’m also planning on re-starting my workout program, which will surely be very time consuming. What with all that sitting around thinking about working out and such. Till next time, go dance in the rain, I did it this week a bit, cures all troubles.