Over Due Thanks!

I haven’t taken the time to thank the following people for packages, letters, birthday and xmas presents! How do I remember everyone…well, every time I receive anything in my post office box I write down who sent me something in my little notebook in the “Mail Received” section, and then I write that person back and note it in my “Mail Sent” section. In addition I try to describe what I sent so that I’m not sending the same postcard twice. If it wasn’t for my notebook I would be the most horrible penpal/friend/daughter/niece/etc.! I recommend this technique for anyone who likes writing and receiving mail! Especially for the Peace Corps Volunteers who ALWAYS complain about not getting anything in their mailbox. Don’t they understand they also have to want to write everyone who sends them stuff? Luckily it’s one of my favorite hobbies here, so I take time everyday to make or write cards. I guess that’s what happens when there is no TiVo to distract one with all the recorded TV shows. J/K

Also, when I get home I can’t wait to scrapbook all my letters and pictures that everyone has sent me! My family took back with them all the letters I had received up until Jan. 3^rd, so they are at home waiting to be put into an album.

Everything that I pick up at the post office and get to open makes my time here so much more enjoyable. It all helps me realize the end is almost near and very shortly I’ll be back home seeing all of you. Less than 6 months!!! Semi-official end date is July 16^th, 2010. And no I have no clue what I'm doing after PC...if you were wondering. My future plans change about 2 times a day.

Muchisimas Gracias to:

-Mom and Dad (for the awesome vacation, bday and xmas presents, monthly packages and phone calls)

-Gina (for bringing me 1^st season of Glee, a book, and other miscellaneous things that I can’t remember at this very moment...oh and the package in Sept.)

-Jan and Doug (for sending goodies with my family to Nicaragua, and lots of letters)

-Mamow (for bday and xmas dinero, which I used to pay for my Scuba trip)

-Uncle Bruce and Aunt Judy (for my bday and xmas present)

-Aunt Anne and Uncle Mike (for new clothes that were MUCH needed and some smelly things from V.S.)

-Uncle David and Charlene (for letters and emails)

-Uncle Curt, Aunt Lisbeth, Ann-Charlotte, Ann Cartin (for the Clinique and earrings)

-Ali Sambu (for the package filled with new music, magazines and wholesome goodies)

-Rosine (for the package that included my all time favorite junk food [chocolate covered, peanut butter stuffed pretzels...dont even ask for a calorie count on those babies], hilarious bday cards, the fixings for her hummus recipe, spices and much more!)

-Mel Yu (Big Bro) (for letters and all the junk food I could wish for…it was sooo yummy in my tummy)

-Arielle (for the “Congrats” card…hehe…)

-Amanda (for the letters including a picture and wedding announcement…even though I can’t go)

-Sarah Ruiz (Patterson) (for the adorable pictures of her daughter and cards)

-Dr. Jones (for the UCD card…oh the memories)

-Dave Wagner (for keeping me up to date on his PC service in Panama)

-Alison and Jesse Bjerke (for always sending me awesome cards like the Robot/Dog one!)

-Allison (for also keeping me up to date about her PC service in Tanzania, I loved the xmas card!)

-Kim Somers (Culver) (for the update letter)

-Paula and Hugh (also for the update letter and picture…I’m very jealous of the Guinness)

-Caitie (for the bday card and update)

-Priya (for the xmas card in Dutch, and all the other fun friend cards all the way from the Netherlands)

-John Aragon (for the hand made xmas card!)

-Joey Martinez (for the UCD postcard, the decorated card and envelope, the letter that included chisme, and for surprising me with his letter)

-Nozomi (for the Japanese food I plan to cook very soon!!! Yum!)

And now for your viewing pleasure...the animals of my house:

Layka the guard dog...but loves me to death. Sadly she is probably preggers again.

Like all cats Mitch will sleep anywhere and in anything! Watch out, sometimes he'll attack your feet!

Xmas 2009, Island of Utila

Last year I went home for xmas because I was very homesick. This year I was so busy I didn't have time to think about being homesick, let alone the cold weather I only "sort of" missed. I figured it was time to head up to Honduras and spend my bday and xmas money to get diving certified at one of the most famous places in the world to dive. My plan was to meet up with Elaine, an old childhood friend who is currently PC Honduras, at her site and then head up north to the Island of Utila.

I got into the city before Elaine's site and missed the last bus to her town...ugh. So I called her and found out the poor girl had gotten dengue fever and was at the medical clinic. Dengue Fever is one sickness you don't want to get! Knock on wood I haven't gotten it and it's less common here in the north of Nicaragua...but basically from what I've heard your whole body is in such pain, like you ran 10 marathons, and you have no energy, similar to how mono affects you. Luckily I stayed at her host family's house for the night and continued my journey the next day.

I got to La Ceiba around 6pm after 2 annoying bus rides and waiting for 3 hours in San Pedro del Sula. I had NO clue where to stay the night, luckily a nice girl on the bus said her brother worked for American missionaries and they had some places to stay. Not only did I get my own cabin, but hot water and a huge bed for $10! Her brother also gave me a ride to the port the next day!

The whole situation ended up working out in my favor because the ferries didn't leave the day before, so I caught the morning one just in time. At the dock I ran into Elise, a PC Health Volunteer in my department of Madriz. Her and her friend Angela got stuck in La Ceiba for an extra night than they had anticipated due to the ferry siutation. It was nice to see a friendly face and make some new friends.

The ferry to Utila is a crappy closed up flat boat, unlike the Roatan Princess which was like on the nice ones that travels around the islands up in Washington. They give ppl barf bags for the rocky ride, but in my opinion it wasn't too bad at all. I actually read about 50 pages of 1984 during the 1 hour ride...people looked at me like I was crazy. Got to the dock, pushed through the crowd to grab my backpack and then met one of the Utila Dive Center staff members who took me to meet my instructor Fernando. Utila is not a big island whatsoever...but they still had a mini-van that took me to the hotel, which sadly is not located at the dive shop (the ONLY downside of UDC, but then again I got more exercising from walking...guess that's a plus). After dropping off my stuff Frenando took me over to the dive shop and gave me a tour, then I went back to my room to wait for my class to start at 4pm.

Elise and Angela were at a different dive shop than me, so sadly we were separated in that respect...but it was probably a good thing because I'm sure they would've gotten sick of hanging out with me ALL the time.

All Open Water Dive courses start with classroom work, and then you get in the water. For the next couple of days I watched the PADI video and studied my book, I also had to take some quizzes. Fernando and my other instructor Marta did a great job explaining the physics and principles of diving...especially the DON'Ts of diving.

Christmas Day the dive shop was closed, so I took pictures for Elise and Angela during their confined water dives. I also tanned on the dock, read a book and enjoyed the general splendor of the island. The night before we had gone out and partied till 4am or something like that...eat your heart out Santa!

On the 26th the four of us in the Open Water class got together for a classroom session and then we hopped into our gear for the first part of the confined water dives. They start you out at around 6 ft., then about 12ft. I'm glad that I did the course at a dive shop on the ocean instead of doing the confined dives in a pool...because one's buoyancy is soooo different in fresh water! The 2nd part of the confined water dive we couldn't see very well because there was alot of bottom sediment on the tarp they have weighted down right off the dock. It was so bad we could barely see Fernando and Marta...I had a slight panic attack and forgot how to breathe for a second. It got better after we swept the sediment off the tarp and I never had a problem again!

The next day we finished our shallow dives and then in the afternoon we went to our first Open Water Dive! We went to 45ft. and saw a moray eel and a leatherback turtle. We also repeated alot of the same exercises from the shallow dives, but this time deeper of course. The most nerve racking one for just about everyone was taking off the mask all the way, putting it back on, and then clearing it. I didn't like how my eyes stung...I was more worried about my eyes stinging than I was about getting water up my nose.

The 28th was the last day of the course, and this time we went to 60 ft...which is still pretty shallow, but it can get a little freaky just looking down into the blue emptiness. After a couple more drills and exercises we all passed our class and then got to enjoy the scenery of all the coral, fish, sponges, etc. It was amazing and I can't wait to do it again! Since I had the leave the next day, I got to do 2 fun dives (with Tom and Alicia) in the afternoon with one of the UDC divemasters. We once again did 60ft. and tried a drift dive which was something fun and new. After the 4 dives we were soooo pooped!

Later that night we all got together for pizza and beer to toast our successful completion of our certification. Instead of the ferry the next morning I took a charter boat with Elise and Angela from their dive shop, which was nice since it was a little later in the morning and we didn't have to fight the crowds. Thanks girls for waiting an extra day to travel back to Nicaragua with me! We got to La Ceiba, then ended up stuck in Tegucigalpa because of a 6-car pile up on the highway. The next day we pulled back into Nicaragua...ready to begin our next adventures.

Even though Elaine didn't make it (I was very sad about this), I still made alot of new friends and fell in love with diving. I can't wait to go back! Semana Santa (Holy Week) possibly?

I also recommend diving with Utila Dive Center, they were very professional, helpful, enthusiastic, and above all environmentally responsible. Thanks Fernando, Marta and the rest of the UDC staff for a great experience on Utila!

Waiting for the Tegus bus from La Ceiba.

Christmas Eve, on the dock at Alton's Dive Shop.

Beautiful sunset from the dock of Alton's Dive Shop.

One day I'll have my own yacht...

Elise and Angela are ty-ty from a long day of dive training.

Merry Christmas from Utila!

Members of my dive class, plus Dale

Tom, Alicia (PC Honduras), Lu, Dale (Lu's husband), Moi

Dive buddies! Lu from Alaska!

Me, Fernando (our instructor), Marta (other instructor), Lu, Tom, Alicia

"Be your favorite sea creature!"
Me: Pufferfish, Fernando: Himself, Marta: ?, Tom: Dolphin, Alicia: Turtle (you can't see her arms), Lu: Some sort of fish

Waiting for our dive gear at the shop.

The boats of UDC

Yay I did it!

Good job everyone! Remember kids, no peeing in your wetsuit...that's gross.

We almost forgot to take pix, but I ran (waddled) to grab my camera on the boat with my gear on and made sure we captured the moment!!!

New Postings!

Hey all, I'm very sorry for the delay on postings. From October till December I was running back and forth between Somoto and Managua just about every week. Then I was on vacation from Dec. 20th till about Jan 12th; it was hard to come out of vacation mode. The following posts will be in reverse order, newest events to oldest events...I figure it would be better for the ones that are fresh in my mind. Sorry for the inconvenience of backwards reading.

In addition my computer crashed at the end of October, so I wasn't able to write ahead on my blog. Sadly I lost all my recent documents and a couple of pix, but the good majority was backed up on my external HD. I was thankfully able to reboot it and reload Windows, so it will last me up until finishing in July...which is only 6 months away! I still can't believe I will be finished in such a short amount of time, it's the home stretch!

Enjoy all the new pix and stories! Happy 2010!

Regional Competition Madriz 2009

I want to write about the awesomeness of my regional event, but I'm going to do it when I get the next round of pix. For now, please enjoy the splendor which was the Madriz Regional Competition of Empresa Creativa. I promise to go into detail when I have the other pix!!!

Thank you to Kristen, Penny, Jennifer, Emily, Peter, and Lauren for all the help before and during the event! I couldn't have done it without you guys!

Kristen, my fellow Small Biz PCV in my department, and fellow event coordinator

Setting up tables...crap the tents are up yet!

Ahhhh, there they are...whew!

Purses made out of old clothes...to your style and tastes...

Café...always good to have!

Can't see them, but they are vases made out of bamboo.

How many times do we need to say that necklaces are not creative...

My girls from Cusmapa with their recycled glass jewelry...at least it's something different!

All 6 judges showed up...that's unheard of!!! How did we get so lucky! I swear I'm not scolding Kristen in the background!!!

Pretty sign that we will use for years to come!

Spectators came in and out, but at least it was open to the public!

The kids sitting around...come on guys, sell, sell, sell!

The choir from my public school came to sing some songs and the national ath

Profesor Ernesto led the choir with his guitar

More music by the Instituto Nacional de Madriz, bravo!

Krisly, age 5, a daughter of a Fabretto coworker, does a folkloric dance called "The Somoteño". She was soooo adorable!

The crowd couldn't get enough of her!

Some highschoolers singing "Colgando en tus manos", a popular Pop song at the moment. They really got into it and put alot of acting into the singing as well which made it fun.

Another folkloric dance by the House of Adolescents from the Mayor's Office of Somoto.

They were also very good and everyone seemed to like them.

Since the cultural acts were going a little longer than expected, the judges took a tour of the groups to ask some peliminary questions and get their hands on the products. Thanks Kristen for suggesting this! It worked out great!

Sadly we had a group make picture frames out of fomey that made it to regional. Technically fomey was banned this year, but we had to let them in...at least they had a good presentation.

Some of my Fabretto kids not looking very lively...I told them they needed to look approachable if they were going to sell more.

The Cusmapa girls explain aspects of their market (aka potential clients) to the judge from Palacaguina.

Coffee boys again.

Bamboo Vases otra vez.

No comment...

Yay more dancing by the kids from the Mayor's Office!

They wore their best costumes for the event.

We also had a group of little girls dance folklore and merengue. Here they are in their merengue outfits.

Each group had 7 minutes to present their Business Plan and then the judges had 3 minutes to ask questions.

My group from the public school, their business was a student-run restaurant.

Everyone seemed to find the Master of Ceremony energetic and entertaining!

We got through 9 groups in less than an hour and a half...amazing!

One of Kristen's groups from Palacaguina.

My brillant and very creative idea for trophies, clay piggy banks that we paid under $5 for and then I paid Anna $3 to paint them. Way better than regular trophies and way cuter!

Gold, silver, bronze for the first 3 places of course, then blue pigs for Best Presentation, Best Business Plan and the Most Creative Product/Service.

I'm so proud how well they turned out!

Thanks Emily (one of my bosses) for being there and helping with awarding the teams their trophies!

Emily and Kristen waiting for me to announce the 3rd place team, which was the coffee group from Condega.

The girls from Fabretto Cusmapa won 2nd place!

And the winner of the golden piggy is...

Oh wait...another shot of the MC...

The Bamboo Vases from Palacaguina! Congrats Kristen!

This group now goes on to the National Competition on November 12th in Managua.