schtuff happenin´ ... actual update

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8 August 2009
Saturday night 6:15 pm

A lot has been happening. Like, lots. In no particular order... My camera was stolen; everyone here was convinced I was pregnant but I definitely am not; I was tested for Chagas Disease and, thank god, don’t appear to have it; I dropped below 150; and Lenin asked for my hand in marriage… and I said yes!

We are headed up to Wiwili to visit his family in a few weeks. The next goal then is to get him a tourist visa and us tickets and head home for the holidays. Then I will fly back to the homeland again in May and hit up the Mawr for the 2005 reunion. Then there will be a Nicaraguan wedding! After which we do visa stuff and embassy interviews and alla that bureaucracy. November comes and my Peace Corps service is done.

By the end of my service hopefully I will have attained a higher level of Spanish; a working knowledge of coffee from the bush to the cup - and how to export the product; an ethnographic photo essay of everyday life in the Nicaraguan countryside - worth publishing; and contributed a few sustainable projects in my community and been a good ambassador to the town and country that has given me so much.

Like a man with whom I want to spend the rest of my life.

Damn these mosquitoes are ridiculous. Which reminds me, it’s Saturday and time to take my malaria pills. I never used a mosquito net during training for 3 months in Esteli but the first night here - during my site visit! - I put it up the first afternoon and it has been invaluable.

Lists of things that are always welcome in packages:
- real handwritten letters / cards!
- granola bars. power bars. luna bars. etc.
- chocolate
- soup in a envelope type stuff
- starbursts / skittles
- used books / magazines
- photos!


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18 Aug

How in the world are tickets home for the holidays like $1,300 for two? i am looking at flexible dates, flexible airlines, and $642 each is the cheapest i can fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiind!!!

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Comments

[Wendy Brownell]

wow!
Congratulations Molly!!!! How exciting!!!!

[Cassi]

Molly, it's great to hear you're doing so well (minus the camera thing)! Keep me posted on the juicy details of life as a PCV!

[Rachel Friedensen]

congrats!!
So many congratulations, molly!!!!

[Zeeke]

Wow!!
Congratulations on your engagement. That is a big step in life,and the day you decide to have kids they will be like the best looking kids in the world. Latino/Caucasian kids are so cute and smart too because they have the chance to live in two worlds. Take care.

[Mom]

hmmmm,....
Sounds like all GOOD NEWS this time, except for the camera (and btw, a replacement is on its way to you as we 'speak')! Can hardly wait to meet Lenin, though feel as though I almost "know" him by now through you! ***Anyone out there have any edge on the cheapest flights to/from Managua to Missouri???????????*** Molly, I still have people asking me about sending seeds your way; it's an on-going project, right?! With any and all seeds-for-the-future welcome?

[Judy Lynch]

How Wonderful
We are so happy for you . Alittle to far for us to come for the wedding but let us know what we can send as a gift or what you would like as a gift.

[Eric Chaffee]

cheap tickets
Check out sidestep [dot] com. Consider flying from Tegus!