Welcome to the Jungle

Hola Folks,
So I arrived from the Rama Today. Whoohoo, I took a marcopolo Mercedes Bens bus on the way back. For those who are not accustomed to long bus rides, this is as you can imagine from the name, one of the comfortable ones. Now in true Nica fashion they were really cheap about it and would not utilize the air conditioning or the built in tv screens they had, but none the less it was a much improved ride from usual.
So how was it? Tremendo as my counterpart would say. On Monday I met all of the Directors, AKA the principals of the schools I will be working with in Managua for a conference type meet and greet. One of my counterparts is a Nun at the Catholic school. Guess what question was the first to come up in conversation with all the counterparts. What religion are you? Do you believe in god? Well that was semi awkward, but I held my beliefs firm and told them the truth, that I thought it was absolutely ridiculous and that god is fake. Haha, no but I did tell them that I am not religious. This brought on ohhs and awes, and "wow gringo you are lost,” to which I replied, “no, I’m just as sure as you are of where we are at in this world.” Anyway the Nun actually stood up for me and said that she was totally fine with all my beliefs and basically that the other guys hounding me should get off my back. Good job Hermana!
We stayed in a hotel with A.C. internet hot water and nice beds, this was fantastic. The next morning I woke up at 4:45 to get ready to take the 6:00am bus to El Rama. I showed up at literally 5:59 with the bus departing and me jumping on with all my bags. We get to the Rama in about 7 short hours, a nice ride in reality. The first day I meet the chief of police just to get acquainted with him, followed by the visit to my future house for the next 6 weeks at least.
The Peace Corps requires us to live with a host family for 6 weeks. My new host mom is a lovely young lady that happens to be a national police woman. She is tranquillo though so im fine with it. The only problem is there is no running water, and the bathroom faces the kitchen. This is of great concern because there is only a transparent sheet as a door, and constantly people in the kitchen. I like to poop more or less in private. She really wants me to stay the 2 years I think because she told me that she would put a door on and connect an electric pump to the well so we could have a running water shower and not take bucket baths. Now of course I didn’t ask for this, but if she followed through, I would definitely be more inclined to stay longer than the required 6 weeks. My room has a nice big bed and a door to the outside so I don’t have to come through the front door if I come home late; huge plus.
The next day, I visited Wapi. This is the school that I have to travel 2 hours on a dirt road in an ex military canvassed covered wagon each way to teach my class. No big deal. The school is nice and small and my counterpart is really awesome which helps a lot. I then journeyed back to visit my second school which is about 7 km from my house. This is a fine school. The funny story here is that during my introduction to the class, the principal had me write my number on the board for the students. This has led to a constant prank calling and messaging from girls that say “hola mi amor, donde estas?” This by the way is much more acceptable here than in the land of opportunity.
On Thursday I checked out the remaining 2 schools that are write in my town. I found out that 3 of the 4 schools have the entrepreneurship class only on Fridays, so there will be a scheduling conflict with that. Wapi has the class on Mondays, so it looks like Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday I will have some hammock time.
I came back today with an overall good vibe from El Rama. It really is like the Wild West. Cowboy hats and machetes galore! That’s all here. 2 weeks from today I will be sworn in – at least I hope, nothing is for sure, so send me money, I mean good thoughts.
Adios