let the rain fall down...

my three month "anniversary" of being in nicaragua! i can't believe how fast the time is going- yet sometimes it truly seems to stand still. today was my first day back at work after a week-long trek around southern nicaragua with james and josh. i visited my family in la concha for a weekend, then we went to isla de ometepe, grenada, and i spent the last few days of my trip in managua staying at the jvi house. here are some trip highlights:

- morning from hell getting out of cusmapa: a bus breakdown between las savannas and somoto- 45 minutes of three guys taking pieces of the motor off, cleaning them, and re-assembling them on the sidewalk much to the amusement of passers by- fransisco assuring me that they were "engineers" as i (baffled) watched one lean over the running engine with a lit cigarette hanging from his mouth- drinking apple juice and feeling very much a spectator in some ridiculous nicaraguan sport
-spending time with paulette and gaiermena, enjoying her lovely library, meeting new members of their animal clan (or zoo as i like to refer to it)
- climbing a mandarin tree with elton and raquelita (two of the kids in my family in la concha) to get a view of a volcano- eating handfuls of plump perfectly ripe mandarinos, stuffing ourselves silly- trying to explain to them why i felt more comfortable with my feet planted firmly on the ground
- day trip to grenada with mama gina, raquelita, and madi (from florida who is living at their house)- hopping on a boat and walking past a 50-year-old woman saying the rosary, boat ride to an island with a "pool" which was filled with kids and dirty lake water, sharing beers with mama gina, a beautiful sunset over the lake and a purple moon rising
- long trip full of mishaps to get to ometepe: left late, took a useless 100 cord taxi cab ride to see the "scenic route" in grenada, a long bus to rivas, another taxi to san jorje, caught the last ferry to the islands- had a spectacular sunset approaching the island, caught the last bus to altagracia (which got us half way to our hotel) and wandered around asking about a place to stay for cheap, stumbled into a house where we were put up for 30 cords per night (less than $2), ate fritanga with an argentinian jewelry maker and his girlfriend- talking about politics and hitchhiking while attempting to drown out evangelical ramblings in the city's central park
- beers at a random tucked-away bar, the glorious cartoon of a man who struck up a conversation with us: think billy crystal but nicaraguan with a purple long-sleeved satin button-up shirt and poufy curly hair and a voice like a cross between mickey mouse and the gatekeeper to the city of oz ("not nobody, not no how!")- some choice quotes from his side of the conversation:

"you like this music? (we were singing along to summer of '69) i thought only people my age like this music? you like Brian music? (i assume here he was referring to brian adams) and patrick swazy? you know him? i would not recommend you to Rambo, the movie- all nicaraguans are rambo junior (i don't even know what that means). i have been practicing my A.B.C.'s this week. you know, mouth to mouth? A.B.C.'s? we are all very important people (gesturing to the three other men who were seated at his table). these two work at the mayor's office, he is a doctor, and i am that guy" (at this point i was holding in what was sure to be an explosion of laughter and replied enthusiastically while pointing for emphasis: "you ARE THAT GUY!". james turned to me and said "no, Cal. he's a GUIDE. he's a TOUR GUIDE." OH. i still think he was that guy. best character i've come across in a very long time.

- bonfire the first night at monkey's island hostel, sharing a little rum and skinny dipping under a full moon
- josh & i taking a somewhat treacherous swim out to an island made of volcanic rocks, seeing monkeys curiously poking their heads out of the trees (joking that both of us are blind and neither one had glasses on... which was sort of sad)
- waking up in the middle of the night and listening to the rain for an hour
- a day spent reading, playing 31, chess, checkers, and singing along to james playing the guitar- sharing pistachios and macadamia nuts with jacinto (the hostel owner) who'd never tried them before
- throwing rocks at 60' tall mango trees to get the ripe fruits to fall- young nica boys taking pity on the gringos and showing us proper form
- sophie the crazy belgian who has a not-so-sneakily taken picture of james in the buff
- chocolate ice cream shared in an empty market vendor stand
- glorious fritanga and the biggest vat of ensalada i have ever seen, people-watching in the park of grenada
- playing pool, yahtzee, and trivial pursuit with james while eavesdropping on josh playing monopoly with two 18 year old norweigan girls in our hostel- key cards and factoids learned: pope JPII wore white doc martens, the buffalo bills cheerleaders are called 'the buffalo jills', there are 15 people on a scottish jury, they don't speak egyptian in egypt, israel's not in europe (HM. think i need to work on my geography), and the kicker: about 10 years ago london tried to enforce slow and fast lanes on its sidewalks (i wonder are there speed limits to these lanes?)
- waking up early in our hostel (after enjoying a night's rest on couch cushions and being bit by a nasty spider) and enjoying a cup of coffee in the morning breeze before anyone else woke up
- finding out my high school choir gets to go to DC in june for an international children’s arts festival!!!!
- walk to the laguna apollo- being a bit sketched out about getting robbed and having a guy with a leather glove endowed with metal spikes try to convince us to take his "safer" road down to the lake. we may be gringos but we're not that stupid!
- day spent at the laguna relaxing, swimming, exploring underwater, reading out loud to each other, picnic-ing, and getting royally sunburned
- catching the last bus to managua by an absolute miracle
- sleeping in till 9 AM!!! going to james' favorite reading spot and devouring a david sedaris book, james knocking down starfruit out of the tree we sat under (just the fact that i was reading under a starfruit tree was pretty awesome in general i think) for a snack
- good friday service- my teary-eyed singing along to 'be not afraid'
- an excellent and very patient guitar lesson from james
- a fest of a dinner for the arrival of ad's friends from the states (who she hasn't seen for more than a year) beans, veggies, garlic bread (thanks josh!), and spaghetti
- james and josh finding, reading out loud, and performing songs they'd written in high school mostly about loves... my favorite being josh's "apple of my eyyyeeeee"
- giggling with margy till my belly hurt and i had tears running down my cheeks
- riding an expresso bus with reclining seats (i didn't even know those existed here!) not getting off at the right spot (though i've made the journey about 10 times now) and instead an hour later realizing i had no idea where i was- taking a random taxi to somoto (when i realized it we were somehow near a junction and somoto was only 10 minutes away!), feeling like a silly gringa
- getting to talk to my fam on the phone (and regs!)
- a day spent in easter celebration by writing letters and cooking a weeks worth of beans, listening to the rain trample across my rooftop

today i got back into the swing of things, though in my 5 classes i had a grand total of 10 students... but we finally had the internet so i got to respond to all sorts of emails and post pictures, chatted with jason and nikki (who i miss terribly), had quite a bit of cleaning time (the amount of dust here after a week is phenomenal!), gave a frustrating english class (i hate the books we have to use) to ONE person, loved my little ones- who held my hands and gave me hugs at the end of class, practiced the guitar, had a heck of a time with my tenors in the high school choir.

right as i was about to leave it started raining so i thought "i'll wait it out" because i wanted to bring my computer and guitar home. so i sat to practice the guitar a bit and watched the rain. the eye of the thunderstorm seemed to hover over the oratory for at least 45 minutes, pouring huge droplets and letting forth a FURY of thunder which (even when i anticipated it) made my heart leap. i finally decided (after a good hour of a relentless storm) to just leave my computer in my office, and that i'd better get home before it was completely dark. i went to get the key from juan carlos (one of my roommates) and in the 20 seconds i was outside i got absolutely soaked to the bone (i needed the house key because a missionary stayed at our house last week and left with my key- or so i thought).

i resigned myself to getting good and soaked and made my way toward home, leaping across small rivers which had formed in the road and hopping gleefully in puddles. a small figure came scurrying toward me buried under a broken umbrella- the only other person silly enough to be out in the dumping rain- she stopped, lifted her protective cover- and it was Anyelka- i exclaimed "what ARE you doing?!" and she answered "i came to look for you" so we walked, her arm around my waist and mine around her shoulder back to he house. along the way i lifted her over particularly large streams of water while we giggled and she pointed out a frog hopping across the street which made me wide-eyed and open-mouthed in delight. i had water running down my entire left half but a smile on my face. when we reached the house there was a light on and jubelki poked her head out the door. dona miriam was STILL THERE! (it was about 6:30 by this time) they had all been worried and waiting for me to come home. turns out dona miriam had my house key- the missionary had left it with her, and she couldn't bear the thought of leaving my house open, so she was waiting till i got home. i invited the girls to stay for tea and crackers, and we chatted for a bit- anyelka started to try to go home barefoot because her shoes were so awful and soaked so of course i gave her a pair of shoes to wear.

again i am humbled by the amount of thoughtful and genuine care i receive from people here, i am brought to my knees. three months blessed by lots of living, learning, and love- good health and good spirits, and the making of wonderful new friends. here's to many more months to come!

love and miss you all- joy and peace to you! cal