Corinto!

So….we got our site assignment about 3 hours ago and I´m super happy! I´m going to the city of Corinto. It is on the Pacific coast in the Northwest part of the country. This was my first choice for site placement so I am quite thrilled! So let me explain a little bit about the process and a little bit about the city...

First the site selection process. The sites are picked by the Associate Peace Corps Director (essentially, my boss...he runs the PC health program in Nicaragua). He has an hour long interview with each of the trainees to discuss things like what types of things you want to work with (HIV, Maternal health, children, youth groups, etc.), what type of place you want to live (big/small town) and what type of resources do you want/need (access to cell phone, access to internet, running water, etc.). So he gets an idea of where we want to go and where we think we would be good. Then we have a site fair, which was this past Saturday, we a PC Volunteer for each area of Nicaragua explains a little bit more about the area and the different sites. We could ask a lot of questions and find out more specifics about each individual site. Also, we got a packet that had information on each of the 20 sites that were available. At the end of the site fair they gave us a piece of paper where we could write down our top three choices and reasons why we should be sent there.

So then during this past week, my boss discussed and decided with his assistant, the training team that give us a lot of our classes, and other people that know us well. They take into account what us trainees say we want but ultimately they can decide wherever they think that you would be good.

So...all of us trainees were ANXIOUSLY awaiting where we would be living for the next two years! Today they told us in a mini-presentation and gave us a booklet of more detailed information about the site and in what areas we´d be working. It was really fun to find out where everyone would be going. We put our name on a map of Nicaragua where each of us is going. The majority of the sites are all in the north, but there are three sites in the south. All in all it was really fun and most people were really happy. A few people would mildly disappointed but no one was too upset. One of my good friends in my training group is placed about a half hour from me so I´m happy about that. And I am within a 4 hour bus ride of most people in my group (seems long, but definitely close enough for a weekend visit) so that made me happy.

As far as the city...

Corinto is a port city with about 20,000 people living there. It has cell phone service and an internet cafe, running water and electricity, so I have all my bases covered. It is actually an island right off the western coast. It is connected to the mainland by a short bridge. So yeah, i´m going to live on an island for the next two years of my life! As a midwesterner I´m still getting used to this idea, but also very excited about it! It is also about 30 min bus ride west of the city of Chinandega (where I visited for my volunteer visit) so I´ll be very close to the third biggest city in Nicaragua.

The reason why I wanted this site had nothing to do with the beaches, but it is definitely an added bonus. Actually, this site really appealed to me because it is a port town. Therefore it has one of the highest rates of HIV in the country. But at the same time its a smaller town. So I will have access to NGOs and other resources but not be stuck in a huge city. My main job will be working with my counterpart with HIV education. This site also appealed to me because there is huge opportunities to work with men in this area. A lot of the health care here in Nicaragua is focused on the women and children because they tend to have the most health problems. The problem is that the women are being educated on health issues, but in this machismo society, the men usually make the final decision. So things like the importance of condom usage need to reach the male population so it can hopefully come into practice. Since its a port town with a lot of port town problems, I think its really important that the men have access to this education. Corinto has a lot of opportunities to be working with men´s health such as with the taxi drivers, the nearby military base, and some other places. Also, this site works with youth promoters. Youth promoters are teenagers that go and give talks to other teenagers about how to live healthily. So part of my work will involve training them on how to give effective talks.

I´ll have a lot more information after I go visit it in a week. I leave next Friday to go visit for a week. During that time, I will get to know my counterpart, meet the family that I´ll be living with for the first 6 weeks, and get to know exactly what I´ll be working on. Anyways, needless to say I am really happy about this site for a bunch of reasons! I´ll try to post to pictures soon cause I have been lacking in that department. Hope all is well with everyone! Happy unofficial St Patty´s Day to all Illini! I want you guys to email me stories...

Thanks for people that have sent me letters...its great receiving mail!