What the what! I have been in Nicaragua for a YEAR!!!! When did that happen?! You are probably all wondering how I'm feeling right now; excited for my last year; concerned about my projects; desperate to get home? Maybe a mixture of all. One year later and I feel good; content with my service so far. If it's one thing I do well is not compare my service to other PCVs. It can be hard sometimes to feel good about the small accomplishments when your site mate is off saving the world. But surprisingly, I feel very good. I finally have a good understanding of my role and durties in my community and they do to. It feels good to be missed by my community when I leave site for a few days to work on something in the capital, makes me feel like one of them.
August has been an extremely humbling month. I had many wonderful experiences and everything seems to be looking in Michelle's life. First, I finally put on a project I had been planning since February of this month with the Government Environmental group in my site, MARENA. I first approached them at the beginning of this year when I was feeling pretty down about myself. Work at the schools was going pretty slow and I felt that in comparison to other PCVs from my group, I was a little behind (this is why it is not good to compare services). I went to MARENA with the hopes of integrating myself in any environmental activities that had going on, little did I know that they actually wanted my help. They showed a lot of interest from the beginning of receiving training in environmental education, and so the planning for the project "Somos Eco-lideres" (we are eco leaders) began. For half a year, Somos Eco-Lideres was brought to life and at the beginning of August I was able to successfully share it with MARENA with the help of three other wonderful PCVs (I owe them some ice-cream or something). It was a full day of 6 training sessions that the employees of MARENA could not be more excited about. We had full grown men and women playing games with eachother, making arts and crafts out of recycled trash, things could not have gone better. At the end, all of the MARENA employees took turns sharing how they would utilize what they learned to better the environmental education in my site (I was very close to tears). I'm excited to see what wonderful things MARENA does with the skills gained through "Somos Eco-Lideres"
August has been an extremely humbling month. I had many wonderful experiences and everything seems to be looking in Michelle's life. First, I finally put on a project I had been planning since February of this month with the Government Environmental group in my site, MARENA. I first approached them at the beginning of this year when I was feeling pretty down about myself. Work at the schools was going pretty slow and I felt that in comparison to other PCVs from my group, I was a little behind (this is why it is not good to compare services). I went to MARENA with the hopes of integrating myself in any environmental activities that had going on, little did I know that they actually wanted my help. They showed a lot of interest from the beginning of receiving training in environmental education, and so the planning for the project "Somos Eco-lideres" (we are eco leaders) began. For half a year, Somos Eco-Lideres was brought to life and at the beginning of August I was able to successfully share it with MARENA with the help of three other wonderful PCVs (I owe them some ice-cream or something). It was a full day of 6 training sessions that the employees of MARENA could not be more excited about. We had full grown men and women playing games with eachother, making arts and crafts out of recycled trash, things could not have gone better. At the end, all of the MARENA employees took turns sharing how they would utilize what they learned to better the environmental education in my site (I was very close to tears). I'm excited to see what wonderful things MARENA does with the skills gained through "Somos Eco-Lideres"
Some of the MARENA employees with their certificates for "Somos Eco-Lideres"
Last week, I had the great privilege of being chosen as one of the four PCV greeters for the new TEFL and environment group N66. It was one of the coolest experiences I've had in this country simply because I got to relive my orientation week from a year ago in Nicaragua. I got to spend my one year with some of my fellow N64 PCVs, catching up on the many ups and downs of our service and getting excited for the last 15 months of Peace Corps. I also got to spend it with the new trainees which was extra special because I was able to reflect and observe their pure excitement for joining Peace Corps, something that tends to dwindle as the months go by and the struggles begin. It was amazing being around such positivity and curiosity; it was a nice way to reflect on the last year and how my ideas and goals for my service have changed. It was also great getting to share with N66 all the fun parts of being a PCV from clogging your host fams bathroom to almost pooping your pants in front of your class.
What better way to greet!
Bonding time with N66
Welcome to the family N66!
