...are not as fun as those at home. Not only were we away from all our friends and family this Christmas, but Christmas in general was dissapointing here. We simply assumed that all other countries with a foundation in Christianity considered Christmas to be the big holiday of the year. Not so in Nicaragua. Turns out that Easter gets an entire month of celebration, but Christmas is more just a semi-formal dinner. Our family did have a fake tree and ornaments, and they did wrap presents. However, there was certianly no Nat King Cole and obviously no snow. Furthermore, the main activity for the Christmas night turned out to be dancing to reggaeton at the few discotecs in town. Needless to say this did not coincide with our idea of Christmas.
New Years! That turned out to be a good time. We had to make the tough decision between staying in our site and enjoying the big festivities with our Nica community or spending it with our fellow volunteers. However, after a long first month and a half in our site, we were ready for some gringo exposure. We stayed for three nights in our local beach hang out at Playa Rocas, Las Peñitas with about 15 Env. Ed. and Agriculture volunteers, all from our training group. A very laid-back, beautiful place. Cheap seafood, comfortable hostels, and deserted beaches (except for New Years day). We had a great few days relaxing and exchanging tales of each others' experiences in our new sites. Many of which are very different from ours, especially for the Agriculture volunteers. For instance, in comparison to our large town with a supermarket and bank, one Agr. volunteer lives in a town on the other side of the mountians, in a crater, on the edge of the rainforest.
The big announcement is that we now have our own house, which we moved into yesterday. We loved all of our host families very much, but after more than 4 months we were more than ready for our own space. Plenty of room and much cooler than the average house in Nicaragua. Mango and lime tree. Friendly neighbors. Both toilet and latrine. Hammock hooks to be installed Thursday. Pictures coming. We'll be buying an extra matress, so we'll be waiting.
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Sounds like you are having a good time. It looks like a beach vacation spot where you live. I heard about your scorpion bite. Ouch!! That would have sent me on my way back home> We had a nice Christmas and a quiet New Year. Muzz is doing very well. She is at the hair dressers right now. She likes living up here a lot. She enjoys having a big family around. I am preparing for another knee replacement on 1/24. I am quite frightened about it but have done everything I can to try to prevent anything going wrong this time. I have hired a Pain Management Doctor and an Infectious Disease Doctor as well as the surgeon so hopefully I won't wind up a drug addict like the last time or get MRSA (infection). Your Dad and Kris and Kara are coming up to see Muzz aroud her birthday so she is looking forward to that. Bye for now. It is so nice of Becky's Dad George to have your blog on his website. It makes it easy to access. xoxo Aunt Cathy
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