Site Placement and Visit

On my 23rd birthday, I, along with the forty-three other health volunteers found out where we would be living for the next two years.  We had received information over the possible sites, then had an interview with our programming director asking us what we were looking for in the site, and everyone was obsessing about which sites they wanted and which they would hate to get.

During my final site interview I put the information away, didn´t mention any specific sites, and only stated what I wanted in a site: 

climate didn´t matter

being the only PC volunteer in my site was ok

I wanted to do a lot of trips to outlying communities

smaller was better

I wanted to work in a casa maternal

internet had to be available within at most two hours.

After the interview, I systematically when through the information about the sites, trying to determine which site my programming director, Ximena, would pick for me, based on the criteria I had stated.  I figured that she would put me in either near Jinotega to the north, or in Rio San Juan to the south.  During the site placement ceremony, by the time Ximena got to my name on the list, I pretty much knew what she was going to say next, and I was put in Rio San Juan.

I was happy, it fit with everything I wanted, but I was also suddenly terrified as the reality of two years in this place that I only knew of from a piece of paper hit me.  It was overwhelming, especially when I read further in the information and realized that it was a ten hour bus ride from the capital to my site.  I knew it was isolated, but I´m not sure I knew it was that far away, and it´s not really that far away, it´s just that the highway isn´t complete, and travel over dirt roads makes the going rough.  But my experience with the trip there and back is another story, now I present to you my new home.

 I met two of my counterparts, the people I will be working with most, on Friday the 11th, and on Saturday I rode the bus with one of them, Ana, arriving at 5pm.  The next day she took me to a farm in one of the communities where we will work.

Ana, she´s in charge of education at the health center.

One of the doctors from the health center, and the little girl from the farm.  She never did tell me her name, she just giggled and looked away…

...just like this.

Picking guayaba.

They dye the chicks pink so no one will steal them.

We then went to a poza, which was fun.

Two of the doctors from the health center where I will be working.

It is a rural community, meaning that there are animals everywhere.

As we hiked the hour and a half back to the actual town, we ran into a party and this man decided he wanted to sing…just for me.  That is an awkward smile right there, also Dr. Chileno there, encouraging the guy on…thanks for that.

 Despite my occational moments of panic, (which are apparently normal at this stage of training), I think I will be happy here for the next two years.