Deanna's Exciting Blog!: Much to learn and experience

It has been a few weeks since I have posted, and a lot has been happening. The SST students arrived on April 25, and Keri and I have been busy keeping up with all of them. We had orientation in Managua before coming to Jinotepe on Friday the 27th, and the students are now experiencing their second full weekend with their host families. Last week was full of the academic side of SST - four days of Spanish class, four afternoon speakers on Nicaraguan history and the literacy campaign, and lots of adjustment to a new way of life for the students.

Thankfully, everything seems to be going well. We had one sick student last Sunday-Monday, but have managed to keep everyone else relatively healthy. The students are getting comfortable finding lunch on their own and navigating public transportation. Keri and I are staying busy with the many large and small details that need to be taken care of for everything to run successfully. We have even started talking to students already about service placements, which they will be at for the last six weeks they are here. There is a lot of planning we have to do to successfully place all 23 students into a new location for six weeks. The upside is that we will get to go visit all the students in their service locations in late June and July!

Yesterday Keri and I took the day off and went to the beach. La Boquita is about a 45 minute bus ride away from Jinotepe. We took a micro-bus to the neighboring town of Diriamba, then took another micro from Diriamba to La Boquita. Taking public transportation requires a lot of flexibility in your schedule because you don't know how long the bus will wait around until it leaves, or how long you will have to wait to find a bus to get back. We enjoyed a nice seafood lunch at the beach, the warm ocean water, and the relaxed atmosphere. We saw two students there with their host families and know of several more students that are going there today with their families.

This coming week brings our first big trip. We are going to the East Coast of Nicaragua for four days: Thursday - Sunday. The East Coast has more of a Caribbean feel than the rest of the country. Creole and English are the most common languages. It is a part of the country that many Nicaraguans who live on the Pacific coast don't get to experience. We will visit a Miskito village (indigenous Indians), hear about the history of this part of the country, and have a beach day in the Pearl Keys. The trip starts with a 6 hour boat ride to El Rama, then a 2 1/2 hour boat ride up the river to Pearl Lagoon. Let's hope that no one gets seasick, including me!

Here are a few pictures from the last several weeks.