Last Day of Training!!

Today was our big youth group presentation in Diriamba. I am very proud of our group. They did a great job even though they were really nervous. We had a nice powerpoint that Holly put together and a poster that I made in case the electricity went out, which it did but only for a few minutes. It was fun to see everyone else´s projects. I think everyone worked really hard. Tonight is my last night with me host family. Tomorrow we are off to Managua for four days for the swearing in ceremony. Tonight Holly is going to come over and we are going to play Salon de Belleza with my host sister, who is going to give us one last manicure/pedicure for the big day. I am fighting the urge to dye my hair right now. I know it´s not a good idea, and that one of the reasons I wanted to come here was to simplify my life, but after looking at pictures of my self all morning I am feeling a little scrappy-doo in the hair department. Oh well. I guess that´s all part of the process.
I never did write anything about my visit to La Conquista. In case anyone is curious, I really liked it. It is a beautiful place with tons of trees and greenery. In that way it reminds me of Oregon. My backyard is pretty much a forest. There are several little boys who are the grandchildren of my host mom. They range in ages 18 months to 4 years old. There is also an 8 year old girl and a 12 year old boy. They are all really nice but I really cannot wait to get my own place. They could be the nicest people in the world, letting me live rent free and feeding me gourmet meals every night and I would still be counting the days until I am allowed to live alone (that would be 47.) As for my counterparts, they are both really cool. I was really nervous about working with someone a lot older than me who already had their whole teaching routine down and would probably be resistant to change, but it turns out that I am older than both of my counterparts! Neither of them are married or have kids so I think we will have a lot of time to plan classes and develop materials. One of my counterparts is a twenty five year old woman with the very progressive and modern ideas. She is having her own house built just for her. This may not sound very progressive but trust me it really is. I have never heard of aNica woman living alone here. She is really cool and we have a lot in common. I will be working with her in a comarca of La Conquista. The night before I met her my director told me that she rides her bike to school and asked me if I knew how to ride a bike. Everyone was surprised when I said that I did. So the next day they found me a bike and she picked me up at my house and we proceeded to ride to Santa Elena. Well, the first few hundred meters were fine. Then the sidewalk ended. Then we came to a very steep down hill dirt "road". After about 10 meters of this I had to ditch the bike. It was seriously frigtening. I felt like I was a participant in an extreme BMX tournament or something. Needless to say I am going to have to figure something else out. I think I will be getting a dog to accompany me on the 3 km hike.