I can hardly believe it, but here I am again at the beginning of a new school year here in Nicaragua. Only this time, I know the people I’m working with, where the schools are, and what Peace Corps expects of me. I know the students’ names (most of them) and I have a fairly concrete idea of what projects I want to accomplish this year. It’s a whole new feeling, this knowledge, and let me tell you – it feels great. We, the volunteers, jokingly refer to this as the “do over” year, meaning that we are able to correct all the mistakes we made last year, rebuild all the gardens that failed, work with new teachers if we so choose, adjust our schedules, and basically start over – only now, we have the aforementioned knowledge Personally, I am going to change my schedule around to spend more time in the school in my town because, honestly, I feel closer to those kids because I see them every day in the streets, and also because it has the fewest resources and has the most room for improvement.

One of the things I would like to start is a community bank with my teachers, which means that each person that would like to participate will contribute $5 a month for each month during the school year and will be able to take out loans from the total amount, with a one-time 10% interest fee. For example, if they borrowed $25, they would pay back a total of $27.50, and they would have 3 months to do so. Then, at the end, they would all split evenly the money they had saved plus any interest that has accrued. This is important because in general, Nicaraguans don’t save their money. They only worry about today, not about the future, so the goal of the community bank is to promote saving. I’ve heard stories about how happy the participants are to receive their money plus interest at the end, so hopefully it will work the same in my site and encourage saving.

And then, of course, there is the ongoing water tank project. It is moving along, slowly but surely. We finally got the total cost of the project, which is over budget of how much the project funds will cover. So now we are looking at cutting the project down to the bare bones and looking for other funding. It looks like it’s still a go, so I am still optimistic that it will happen. I’m still doing everything in my power to get it going, so hopefully I’ll have some more news the next time I update.

I finally moved houses! As most of you know, I wasn’t feeling too great at my other house because I knew my landlord was charging me WAY more money than he should have, but I didn’t know what to do about it because I didn’t have anywhere else to go. But thankfully, a family was moving out of their home and building a new one so I was able to rent their house for almost half the price, AND it’s a nicer house. I’ll put up pictures soon!

Honestly, I’m feeling a whole lot better about things than I was last year at this time. The time is passing, and quickly. I’m on the downhill slope. I feel like I have lots of things to keep me busy this year. And I’ll be home in 9 months! I haven’t thought about this so much, since I’ve been so focused on the present, but I am going to pretty dang proud of myself for finishing what I started. I’ve quit on a lot of things, but this – this I will see to the end. And at the finish line, what a party there will be!