Buenas...

That’s the first thing that I learned here. The most common greeting here is Buenas…not hola, but Buenas like Buenas dias or tardes or noches…but the rest is just left unsaid with the understanding of what is meant by the greeting. Often when you enter the classroom or see large groups of students grouped together you will hear a loud shout of “¡Buenas!” I really like to hear the sound of the kids yelling it out! It’s like if you walked into a classroom and the kids yelled out Good!

On Friday, I went to work and spent most of the day trying to format the evaluation for the youth into some kind of codified document. It was “El dia de los niños” (kids day) at the center, so there were really any classes. There was dancing and music and other events, but two youth were put in charge of the center as directors and so there wasn’t any classes for me to follow up on. So mostly, I listed and watched the kids having a great time. I took some video of some of the kids competing in a Kid’s Day. What they are doing, I can’t really describe, I think its some sort of fashion show, but I am not really sure since I didn’t catch the instructions in the beginning. But basically each girl parades down the line and tells her message. The one that gets the biggest applause says, “My message is that all boys and girls have the right to live!” I can't get the video to load onto you tube so when I can I will showcase it here for you. But, here is a picture of the kids in the lunch room enjoying the show:

I had a great weekend. On Friday after work, one of the staff here dropped me off at Pali, the local supermercado. I know grocery shopping is not very exciting, and Pali is really small compared to the supermarkets back home, but it was exciting for me. Everything in the store that was American brand like Nestle, Coke, Oreo, etc. are more expensive (like three times their counterparts), but the other brands are not local but mostly imported from Mexico.

I didn’t really have a list so I just sort of bought some random items that looked appealing for that night realizing that since I still had to walk back three or four blocks to the house, I couldn’t buy everything in one day. So when I went home, I started working on sorting all my stuff out so that I could be sure that I had everything in order. I couldn’t eat my dinner of choice (Ramen noodles) because I couldn’t get the gas stove to light and I couldn’t find the fosforos (matches), so I settled for a small snack and tried to finish up some work that I needed to complete. That night there were tons of bugs in the house and ants all over the place and I got eaten alive. I have twenty bug bits just on one leg! There is a mosquito net, but the ceiling is too high to reach so I can’t hang it. But one of the volunteers is going to try to come by tonight and hang it for me. Last night I sprayed myself with OFF and sprayed my pajamas too just for good luck! So hopefully, I won’t get malaria, especially if the net gets put up.

For Saturday, I woke to the sound of roosters, dogs, donkeys, etc. all competing for the prize of being the loudest and most obnoxious. This is the view from my house at 5:30 in the morning:

For the day, my plan was to a) find a cell phone and b) make it back to Pali. The first part of my plan did not fare well at all. All the shops here have signs that say “Si venden Click aqui” which is their brand of cell phone, but unfortunately that only means that they sell the prepaid cards for the phones, not the phones themselves. I went walking all around looking for the shop and finally found it, but unfortunately it was closed on the weekends, so I guess I’ll try to go back today after work.

In wandering around looking for the cell phone store, I became hopelessly lost, so I figured that I would walk around in circles until finding something reasonably familiar. I walked all through town and I do mean all through town before finally seeing Pali! It was like a great sigh of relief to know that I had made it to where I wanted to be but also that I knew how to get to the house from there.

So this time in Pali, I had a plan. I bought things that don’t have to be cooked and of course more water. There is no limit to the amount of water that I drink in a day. It’s really kind of healthy, but since I really don’t like water, its not making me happy. But, I did have a major cramp in my leg on Friday and I realized that I need to be sure to drink enough water to avoid that again. Plus it is so hot here, that I don’t want to eat that much, but am thirsty all the time. So I drink like two liters of water a day.

After Pali, I successfully made it home in one piece although some young teenage boys did stop to whistle and make stupid comments at me assuming that I couldn’t speak Spanish, but I set them straight pretty fast. All in all I spent about an hour or more wandering around the City which is good exercise in itself as well as being a good exercise in figuring out where everything is.

*At this point I have to stop to point out that the music that was playing outside has just changed from some sort of Christian Spanish Gospel hybrid to 50 Cent’s P.I.M.P. there is a wealth of contradictions aqui!

At the house, I got down to cleaning the house, washing dishes, and washing my tennies which were covered in dried mud because of the rain on Friday. Later that night two volunteers came down from Cusmapa to visit Somoto. They invited me to go with them to the Grand Cañon de Somoto and we went on Sunday. We left early in the morning and it was a beautiful day out. The rainy season has just started here so the guide kept telling us, “El Rio es bravo” (the river is mad) and that we couldn’t cross with out truck. That pretty much decided it for me, so I stayed on this side of the River while the others crossed over to the other side, took a hike, then a boat, then another hike before making it to the other side of the Cañon. Maybe before I leave when it’s calmer water like in August, I will try to make the trek, but yesterday it was good just to sit on the rocks talking and watching the washer women cleaning clothes in the river on a rock. And here is a picture of the angry river:

And, I got my first real quality time in the sun, so of course I got burned! When I got back to the house I couldn’t figure out why it was so hot in the house when it wasn’t that hot outside. Well, the answer is that it wasn’t it was me. My skin was starting to feel the impact of the sun and so now instead of my usual peachy color, I am almost a coral color, but hopefully that will fade out into beautiful brown.

Today I walked the 9 blocks to the center uphill! Let me tell you there is no mascara that does not run in this kind of hot! But it was nice trip I got to see some different stores that you wouldn’t see in the US like the Doctor’s office also say he’s some sort of faith healer! I stopped at a small store to buy matches so I should be set for tonight! Ramen it is! Yeah baby, good times. Well now that I know the stove works and I have matches, I can make café leche in the morning. I haven’t had any coffee since I have been in Somoto and its kind of wearing me out! Well friends, I have to work now so I will talk with you all soon. Tonight I try to find the cell phone store once again. Wish me luck!