Busy Gringa

Ok. So this gringa has been very busy recently. Before this weekend I worked 12 days straight! Whoever said Peace Corps was a chill easy time to relax...you are most certainly incorrect. Here is a quick update of what I have been doing with my time! More pictures and details to come, as always.

• We opened up a new non-profit organization! It is called Asociacion de Huellas Juveniles (Youth Footprints Association). This non profit was designed by and will be run by youth. They did all of the leg work to get to where we are now. We will be doing similar work to what we do now-working with youth, promoting sexual and reproductive health.
• I wrote a grant application to Peace Corps, in order to put on a 3 day training with the sex workers of Corinto. The application was written in Spanish and in English. I put a ton of time into this, working usually at night. Unfortunately, we are still missing one number to add to the budget so the project will be delayed a bit.
• I am currently writing a manual on how to run your own Youth Health Promoter School. So far, I have 9 meetings planned out and typed up and will be finishing in April. At the end of April we will be printing about 50 copies and giving them out at the start of our own year long Youth Health Promoter Schools!
• I had to say goodbye to a few good friends who just completed their service- one I will miss for the great life conversations that we had and the other, for his raunchy and very inappropriate sense of humor.
  
• We opened a library! More pictures and info to come. Brief summary right now though- it was donated along with books, computers, tables and chairs by a few Rotary Clubs from Chinandega, Texas and Canada. It is now open Monday through Friday, promoting the completion of homework. The library was built for the homework needs and sexual and reproductive health investigations that the youth have.
• Accompanied by 2 nurses we completed diagnostic check ups on the cleanliness and health standards of 8 primary schools. At the moment Corinto is seeing a high number of parasites and bacteria infections. Because of this, we are overly promoting personal and school higiene.
• I would not describe myself as a religious person...I think churches are pretty, but honestly that is as far as I go. The bible is a foreign book to me, but I was contracted to give a charla about sexual and reproductive health to an evangelical church on the highway between Corinto and Chinandega. I was nervous to say the word sex in the church. But it actually went really well-we even did a group activity reading and examining a part of the Bible-Ecclesiastes 10.
• Baby sister, Emma, turned 20!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
• A nurse and I put on a health fair in the Ministry of Education office today. We gave free PAP exams, condoms and lots of information to the female teachers. I also got interviewed for local cable during the event...how cool! We unfortunately did not have a huge number of teachers come, but are hoping that in the next few weeks we can try again in the afternoon.
• 2 friends and I went to a foam party on the beach here in Corinto. I arrived at my house exhausted from dancing, covered in foam and freezing. It was a solid night.

So that´s what I have been up to. It´s been a very busy couple of weeks and I am ready for a mini vacation during Easter week!

And PS I´ll be home July 17th through August 6th! Get ready!!