Bienvenidos al departamento de Masaya!!

Hola!! I am now in my new town in the department of Masaya in Nicaragua! For security purposes I cannot write on here what town i am in but feel free to email me or FB me and i will let you know if you want to research it.
Yesterday morning we woke up early in the hotel in Managua and broke into our main two groups. There is one group of people that are doing Maternal and child health and another that is doing reproductive health/ HIV & AIDS awareness (my group). Each group hopped on a school bus and off we went to our host family's house. We stopped in the first town and dropped people off one by one and watched as they went inside to meet families. I was really nervous but I saw that every person was met with open arms and their families were really excited to have their volunteers with them. Mine was no exception. My family consists of my mom, my grandma and grandpa, and two younger sisters who are 17 and 19. I love them already. The girls are awesome and are really patient with my spanglish. They understand all my charades and are sharing words and phrases with me. At this point i am really overwhelmed. There have been a lot of changes in such a short period of time. The hotel we were staying in for the first 3-4 days was an American hotel so it was not a hard adjustment. Plus we were not allowed to leave it. The ride to our families house was my first glimpse of Nicaragua. (besides the flight in). It is definitely a culture shock to come into a house where no one speaks the same language as you. There are times i feel like a toddler because i cant express even a basic thought. I am great with spanish vocabulary and i can read and write it better than most but when it comes to recalling some spanish words and all the conjugations of verbs i get a bit flustered. (so to all the kids in my sisters spanish class that may read this... know your conjugations!!!)
Last night was fun for me. It was the birthday of my aunts aunt... so we went over for a small get together complete with good food, drinks, music and a pinata! I was excited that a lot of the music that Yoise and i listen to at the house and in Miami is really popular here too! They thought it was kind of funny that i started singing along to certain songs. I went to bed kind of late last night and woke up REALLY early this morning. My house has two guard dogs. They bark at everything that walks by... but i guess thats not always bad. However once they start they dont seem to stop! Then they have a parrot which is really pretty but it mocks that dogs and barks just like they do, it just eggs them on even more. I also think there is a rooster around here who got into the rum because it starts crowing (correct term for a rooster?) at 3-4am!! UGH! Needless to say i was up before my alarm went off.
My house here is awesome! My family seems very well off in the community. They have a beautiful house and wifi!!! (i was really shocked to even know they had a computer, plus a better TV then me in the states, and wifi!!!) ahhh i'm thrilled! This will give me a chance to blog and keep in touch for the first 3 months as it is proving to be challenging already for me mentally and emotionally. Although i must say i am finding it hard to write some of this blog because i am thinking things in spanish all day and i keep writing in spanglish. haha but i guess that is a good thing because i reallly need to practice!
I have my own room here at the house. Its really cute! The room has a cute canopy over the bed so i don't need to hang my mosquito net up yet, i thought that was cool. The house is built in a square with the courtyard or patio in the midde which i love. There are 5 bedrooms and a bathroom, 2 living spaces and an open kitchen. There is a picnic table in the middle where we eat our meals. They have running water and electricity but no hot water and no water after 3pm. I learned that today when i asked to take a shower after my spanish class at 4-5. I took my first bucket shower. It was interesting but it may be better than the shower if the water is going to be cold. I hate cold water!! I havent taken pictures of everything yet, but i will. I do have some pictures of the area below. 
Some facts about the town, it is the birthplace of Sandino (which i guess gives away where i am... oh well), there are a few churches of different religions here (catholic, evangelical, jehovah witness etc. ) There are a few pulperias which sell a little bit of everything kind of what we would go to CVS for. Randomness. There is a park which is about the middle of the town, where many people seem to congregate. As we was walking through town today there was a funeral procession. It was like something we would see in New Orleans. There were tons of people in the procession carrying the casket down the street and playing instruments. I didnt take any pictures, wasnt sure how appropriate that was. I also stopped at the health center today to introduce myself with my group here. Tomorrow after spanish classes we are going to stop at the police station and a few other places in the town.
I need to start thinking of where i can find kids (ages 15-20) in the town to attend the youth group i am starting. My sister here said there are already groups of teens such as religious groups and sports teams, we passed a gym and the cyber cafe and some other places kids seem to hang out, so i will start there. I need to find some way to recruit them. When speaking to my sister she said she thinks the biggest health problems here are first and foremost the trash. They burn trash piles in the street which isn't too healthy and there is a lot of litter and waste water gets dumped in the streets. There are also alot of stray sick dogs around here which poses a concern to me. She also said a HUGE problem here is teenage pregnancy. The majority of the population of the country is under 18. She said in this community there are alot of girls pregnant at or before 16 some as young as 12 or 13!! That breaks my heart. There are no health classes in schools here, they are not taught healthy sex habits or general reproductive health for that matter. It makes me think of how embarassing it was in 5th grade to talk about body parts and sex and these kids want to learn but have no place to do so or anyone to teach it. I think i found my first topic of discussion. Now i need to find a culturally appropriate way to bring it up.
Well since it is getting really late again, i am going to bed. Here are some photos i took today around town of some buildings of interest. I have not taken photos of the rest of the town to show what it is like down the street. But i will. Buenas noches!!

My new home

one of the Pulperia's on the left

The outside of the Cemetary... this pic is for you mom! I will take more photos of the actual cemetary but didnt have time to go in. 

One of the statues of Sandino.