ya recibílo!

The suspense of receiving an invite had really been testing my patience. I spoke with my placement officer the day after I returned to the US from México and she said that she'd be contacting post for my assignment and it could take anywhere from a day, to a week to hear back. Two days later, I rolled onto my driveway and saw a white envelope on the porch. Alas! It was FINALLY here and I was nervous to find out where I was assigned...

I received my assignment from Peace Corps headquarters on February 9th and I will be serving in Nicaragua as a Business Educator and Advisor in the Small Business Development program for 27th months starting May 5th! I am so excited about this opportunity to serve overseas and most excited to live among the people of Nicaragua. The experience is going to be amazing, the job--challenging, and I look forward to all of it :)

Here are some fun facts about Nicaragua that I read in my Peace Corps assignment book:

--Peace Corps entered Nicaragua in 1969, and worked until 1978 when the program was suspended for security reasons. PC reentered Nicaragua in 1991 and have grow to over 160 Volunteers working in five project areas: agriculture, environment, health, small business development, and TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language).
--Nicaragua is the second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, just above Haiti.
--Nicaragua's per capita GDP is almost half that of twenty years ago.
--Nicaragua's economy is based on family-owned companies.
--The formal economy does not produce enough jobs for Nicaragua's graduates. Most of those students completing school or college have mainly two options: engage in part time, informal or poorly paid jobs, or to start their own business.


Here are NGOs (that I know of) who are currently working on capacity building in education in Nica:

American Institutes for Research:
http://www.air.org/international/default.aspx

EQUIP1/Nicaragua – Excelencia: http://www.equip123.net/webarticles/anmviewer.asp?a=433&z=16

Save the Children: http://www.savethechildren.org/countries/latin-america-caribbean/nicaragua.html

UNDP:
http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/nationalreports/latinamericathecaribbean/nicaragua/name,3008,en.html