Yalagüina, Madriz is where I´ll be for the next 2 years. Urban population is about 2,000, with a total population of 8-10,000. Madriz is a department in the northern part of Nicaragua. My town is set in the hills, 15km from the department capital, Somoto and 20km from the department capital of the northern department(Nueva Segovia), Ocotal. I´m about 10min by bus from the nearest volunteers.
The two parks in town have recently been renovated and are beautiful. The main park is one block from my house. I´m living with another host family. My host mom, Doña Dora is a prominent member of Yalagüina´s community.
The health center is really new, only 2 years old. It´s open 24/7, which I haven´t heard of before in a health center, so that´s exciting.
Introduced myself to the director at the elementary school and we have an appointment to discuss the charlas I´m going to give. I think he´s going to put me in this very undisciplined class because he thought my self-esteem charla would be good for them. Woot.
Through the previous volunteer, Carolyn(a retired UNC Nutrition professor), I´ve met various people in the community. Her friend Karen is a teacher at the high school and is studying English, so I´m going to help her with her English and she´s going to help me with my Spanish.
So that´s a tiny little hint on what Yalagüina is like. Hopefully I´ll be able to capture a better picture when I´m there.
How stoked are you!? Nothing like site assignment to hit you with an overwhelming sense of the reality of two years of service.
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