My New Job!

I am in my third week of volunteering for the Ministry of Education and I´m excited and exhausted. The first things that really blew my mind about this new job is that we have air conditioning, internet and bathrooms (trust me - all three are really big deals). I adore my coworkers, all of whom are incredibly smart, passionate and welcoming. Particularly, my counterpart Don Nelson is hilarious (I´m finally getting to the level of Spanish where I understand jokes!) and really talented. He´s the "Science Guy" and I am working with him on teacher trainings in environment (yay!) and biology, chemistry and physics (yikes!). Each training is about 20 classroom hours over a few weeks and we currently have 7 scheduled over the course of the year. Not only will I assist in the actual trainings, I will be significant in the development of the curriculum. How cool is that?! Also, we will be traveling to schools all over the East to give specialized technical training. For example, if a school or district wants to start a project in recycling, soil conservation, gardening, etc., we go and give trainings and help them get started. Evidently I´m an expert in soil conservation! Who knew?

Also I´m still working in my school when I find the time and energy. So far all my free time has been spent sick from the suffocating dust, doing laundry or playing softball. But this week we´re making recycled paper. I found a NGO in the city that will come out and collect our recycling and pay us for it, so I´m trying to stir up some recycling enthusiasm!

Some personal notes:
Last week I went to a dance with some gringo friends and a group of people from my community showed up and they spent the whole night taking videos and pictures of us. It´s the freaking paparazzi!!
A spider bit me on the eyelid last night and it´s all swollen and really painful. And not at all attractive. Lovely.
I saw the first ripe mangoes of the season!! I remember the first time I tried a mango here I actually said "It tastes just like mango candy!" They are beyond belief. Meghan and I have plans to go sleep out in a mango orchard and just eat mangoes but someone mentioned that that´s what all the bolos (drunks) do and also it´s technically stealing. Also after this spider bite I´m not excited to sleep outdoors. But I think the mangoes are worth it.