Update from Leon!

Happy almost Nicaraguan Independence Day! If you have access to a drum or tambourine start banging it from dawn to dusk and you will know what all of Nicaragua has sounded like for the past two months (you could also ask your local high school band to play obsessively for you, as well). Of course, the school bands here are gearing up for the traditional independence day parade, so their incredible amount of practicing is fully accepted by everyone around the country and doesn't seem to bother anyone except for the gringos. In fact, the people in my town analyze their playing and comment on their improvement as the weeks go on, looking forward to the upcoming parade. I look forward to the upcoming parade because it means a thankful end to band practice. Four days to go, phew.

Otherwise, all is going well in site. No more ear infection (woohoo!), garden FINALLY planted in the smallest of my schools, a couple of days of vacation coming up do to the parading and celebrating, and I am currently hanging in Leon with my best bud Krista! Krista and I were in training together but placed in opposite ends of Nicaragua to live, so we are both pumped that she was finally able to visit and we are here hanging in Leon. We even went and saw a movie and the nights plans probably include dancing and general Nica fun.

Looking forward to meeting the new group of volunteers who have just arrived in site...now that I am over ONE YEAR in Nicaragua, a new group of Environmental Education volunteers have been brought in, and I get to help present their new possible sites (where they will live) to them....very excited to be a part of their training process, and to present my part of Nicaragua. Hopefully they are a good bunch.

Also, very proud to announce my volleyball team continues to be the champions of Posoltega! Finals happened por fin and we came out on top : )

Not to many other updates at the moment, but I'll leave you all with one of my more embarrassing moments of the last few weeks...

So in order to reach the smallest of my three schools, I have to cross a decently wide, always muddy, and really dirty river...Due to the start of rainy season the bank of the river is insanely muddy, to the point were it is uncrossable...little did I know all of the Nicas had stopped using the normal entrance to the river and had started using a passable side path...so anyway, in my need to cross the river (on my bike) I decide that the best way to get through the initial muddy (we're talking mix of mud and cow poop up to your knee) river bank would be to just pedal hard right through the middle....well as I get into the middle of the large mud pit I realize there's a slightly better part to the side, so I attempt to turn my bike and pedal over...you can imagine the turning my bike in knee high mud not only killed any momentum I had going in, but got my incredible stuck...in my desire to not place my clean sandaled foot into the mud disaster I wavered there on my bike for about five seconds realizing I was going nowhere and going to fall if I didn't put a foot down and walk through the mud and out to the grassy side...well as I'm sure you are all picturing...thinking took to long and clearly ended up losing my balancing, attempting (too late) to stick my foot in the mud and falling over...completely and fully on my back into the mud...I looked around, laughed it off, and biked home looking like a disaster...naturally I saw everyone in the world and they all stared...luckily after changing, and on my second attempt that day to cross the river I ran into the preschool teacher also crossing to get to school and she kindly clued me in to the new path....duh...what are you gonna do?

So that's all for tonight...I'm off to get my salsa on...lots of love!