The volunteer visit was very helpful and informative. The volunteer I visited serves in a small town called La Playa with only about 900 people. The terrain is very hill and the 900 habitants are spread out a lot, so a volunteer in this site needs to walk a lot. This site is not being replaced since there are 2 more sites being vacated than trainees that can fill them. I do not know the rationale for why La Playa was not chosen to be replaced.
During this volunteer visit, I discovered that I prefer to be placed in a site that is medium in size, maybe about 4,000 to 8,000 people. I also came to the conclusion that I would like to have running water. With my luck, I ended up visiting the only Health Sector Peace Corps volunteer in Nicaragua, which needs to carry their water from a well every other day for their cooking and bucket bathing needs. Since it is difficult to carry lots of water from a well over a large distance, the volunteer I visited is also the only health volunteer in Nicaragua that needs to wash her clothes in a river. So, during my stay I used a latrine (which I could get accustomed to, but would not love using one for two years) and an outdoor three-walled receptacle that does not have a roof, for bathing from a bucket.
Yesterday, we had a site fair. A current PC health volunteer from each of the 6 potential departments that we could be assigned came and gave a pitch as to why their department is a great place to be a volunteer in and answered our questions. At the end of the fair, I had narrowed my site possibilities to three. Villa Nueva, Chanandega; Yali, Jinotega: and Quilali, Nueva Segovia. All these sites are in the northern portion of the country. The final say of placement of course comes from the PC staff in-country who know the needs of the Nicaraguan people, specifically related to health.
This week, I give my first solo lesson to a group of 6th graders on nutrition. Also, we have our second language proficieny interview, to track if we have improved in our language abilities since our arrival to Nicaragua.
That´s all for now.
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Glad to hear you are surviving with all the changes in your lifestyle. Hope you get the position you would like. Glad you have good teachers and a good support system. We're thinking of you. Phill and family have moved into their new house this week. We go to Phoenix on the weekend to celebrate Ben's 7th birthday. Love, Lorna & Dean
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