31 May 2011

Miscellaneous Updates

The rainy season is trying to start. It's not raining consistently everyday yet but we're getting there. In the meantime the humidity on the days it doesn't rain is unbearable.

Mango season is starting to slow down so my dozens of mangoes a week have been reduced to maybe six.

Last Monday on the way to a rural countryside school where I've been teaching English, the tire of the school's principal's motorcycle (my mode of transportation to get there...if Peace Corps knew I'd get kicked out) popped when we crossed the river. I walked the rest of the way to school to teach class and he was going to push the motorcycle back to fix it and come get me to take me home later. Important note: this is a very overweight and inactive Nicaraguan man and we were approximately 9 miles from my town. So I finished class and started walking figuring I'd run into him on his way to get me and save some time. Wrong. He never came back and I got all the way to my town (a little over 3 hours and 9 miles later) without even hearing anything from him. He should have sent someone to get me if he wasn't going to make it, or at least called to make sure I was ok. If I hadn't started walking I would have been waiting for him alone at the middle of nowhere school all night. So, needless to say, I'm not going back there.

I'm in the process of getting the mayor's office to pay for the materials to paint a big world map at my school. I talked to a few people about it and wrote up a formal letter asking for the materials and explaining the importance of the map and today I actually got to talk to the mayor about it. It sounds like they're going to help which is good. I'll have my work cut out for me during the semester vacation in July. Peace Corps has a website for the world map project if you want to see what it's like: wwwtheworldmapproject.com

I'm going home on Monday for 15 days for my sister's graduation! I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone and getting a little break from Nicaragua.

12 May 2011

Mangoes!

Mangoes are officially in season and I can't go two days without being given at least a dozen mangoes. I haven't completely OD-ed on them yet, but I'm getting there. Hopefully by the time I'm completely over them it'll be the end of the season.

It's been really hot here because the rainy season should be starting soon...though some people say it's because there's going to be a huge earthquake on May 21st when the world is supposedly ending.

We've been missing so much school lately for various Sandino actos, etc. Tomorrow is the 32nd anniversary of the Sandinista Revolution, so there obviously won't be any class.

I'm really looking forward to going home in less than a month!

Bambi

Bambi

World Map

World Map

my bed

my bed

my sister and her novio

my sister and her novio

the little birds in my kitchen

the little birds in my kitchen

a street and street dog

a street and street dog

the church

the church

the park

the park

an interesting mode of transportation

an interesting mode of transportation

viva la revoluciĆ³n

viva la revoluciĆ³n