Monday, August 16, 2010

2 weeks left!!

That's right folks just 14 more days! By this time 2 weeks from now I will have already boarded the plane head for DC for pre-departure staging.  My anxiety and excitement levels are only increasing. I can't believe that the summer has gone by so fast. I have been reading up as much as I can on Nicaragua as well as blogs and packing lists. I think I have pretty much everything I need and what I don't have I hope to have by the end of the week. plus a few last minute purchases in Portland.

For anybody interested in Nicaragua and their tumultuous history, I recommend reading Blood of Brothers Life and War in Nicaragua, by Stephen Kinzer. I have never been a big fan of history books but this one reads like a spy novel. Kinzer was a New York Times Foreign Correspondent there during the 70's and 80's, so he has an eyewitness account of everything from the Somoza dictatorship to the Sandinistas and Contras rebellion. I picked it up at the library because it was on the Peace Corps recommended reading list and I'm glad I did it has been a real page turner. Before I started reading I didn't know much about Nicaragua's history, other than like many Central and South American countries the US government meddled in their country's affairs for our own benefit regardless of outcome. So I figured that I would educate my self more on the topic in the event it came up in conversation, I didn't want to be perceived as an ignorant American.

Well that's all for now more soon!