So this is what service is supposed to feel like...

I´m happy to say that 6 months into my time here in Nicaragua, I am finally starting to really enjoy my service. Somehow everything has been starting to fall into place and some of my side projects are coming together. I started English classes this week and each class keeps growing in size as people hear about the free English classes with the gringa. In all honestly, teaching English was the last thing I wanted to do before coming here, but after seeing that it´s something that people really want in the community and could really use, since many end up living in the states at some point in their lives, I figured it would be a rewarding and productive thing to do. People seem to be enjoying the classes, both young and old. The previous mayor of my town is one of many enrolled, which makes me feel pretty important ha. I am also going to take the opportunity to teach this group a little about environmental ethics, just little tips here and there about conserving plastic bags, not burning trash, not throwing trash on the ground, etc., since this is the primary reason why I´m in Nicaragua. Other things that are coming together - the soccer commission here has been trying to form 4 women´s soccer teams by neighborhood and I´ve been kept somewhat in the loop until last night when I ran into them in a meeting. We are going to try to meet with the directors of each high school to recruit the women from there. Apparently the directors aren´t too fond of sports, I´ve been told, so we´re trying to meet with the mayor´s office, a local NGO from Spain who works with schools in a variety of extra curricular activities (and to see if they can donate uniforms too), and the main director for the entire municipality at the ministry of education. My role is to pretty much act as an assistant coach/trainer for all the teams, and also I´m going to try to take the opportunity to have discussions/talks with the players about life skills, HIV/AIDS, health, etc. This, I think, would be an additional incentive for the school directors to be more supportive of our efforts. Also, I´m trying to coordinate with a high school in my neighborhood to form a student ecological brigade to help with environmental projects in the community. With all this going on, and with more interest among the community, now that I´ve made the connections I need to get things done, I´m feeling a lot better about my service and am excited for things to finally materialize.