A Tour of the Area

I can’t believe I actually live here. This site is amazing and so far my family continues to be pretty great. I’ve discovered that they’re evangelical – which means that their four sons aren’t aloud to dance, among other things – which is great for me, though I’m still pretty sure the 19 year old has his eyes wide open, asking me if I’m aloud to marry while in the Peace Corps and all. When my fellow PCVs learned I had 4 host brothers, they all joked that I’d be one of the ones getting married. I guess he has the same idea. But they really are wonderful. Zuni, my host mom, really cares to find out what I like and don’t like – to eat I mean. And she’s actually gone out to by the things that I’ve said I liked, which pleasantly surprised me very much. And as for the religion, it hasn’t really affected me that much yet, I just hope they don’t ask me to go to church. Actually, so far, I rather like living with this kind of a religious family whose friends also forbid themselves from drinking and dancing and such. That makes for a much more comfortable and pleasant Friday night by my standards.

One of my project partners is also some sort of a tour group coordinator, so he got us (the four of us volunteers living in this area) a free tour around the area. It was absolutely lovely. We started by going to the top of a mountain with an amazing view of the mountain range and the lakes and ocean below. We had a local products tasting and saw a cock fight – that thank god was not a real fight-to-the-death fight – and then we ate lunch at the hotel, after which we took a horse ride to and along the beach, spent some time in the water, and then took a boat trip back across the lake to where we started. So this is an example of how generous the people are here, including my project partners. The tour costs about 150 US dollars. We got it for free. Time will tell how my project partners are work wise and how that whole aspect of it will go – but time we got.

I used to be quite anxious about what I should be doing with my time. But lately, I’ve gotten so used to taking afternoon naps that when I go back to the capital for our final training session, I’m going to struggle not taking them! I go to bed fairly early, but I find that I also wake up really early, partly because of the damned birds – so taking a nap works out pretty well, you escape the hottest part of the day that way, too. Here in El Cedro, it’s actually not all that bad. My bedroom has a zinc roof, though, so my room is pretty hot during the afternoon, hotter than it is outside. So nap time could take place on the floor depending on well the fan feels like working, but Zuni just brought in a new one which seems to be working great.

I can’t wait to share this place. I know I just got here, but I’m already anxious for people to come and visit. By that time, I’ll be able to give tours of my own