Hip hop Nica style...

Flat Stanley says, "Call me please. Maricella's backpack is super boring!"

So, while I am sitting in my room preparing to write today’s blog, the ongoing loudest noisemaker competition from the houses surrounding mine begins. The first to enter the fray today is the café oasis next door which surprisingly enough has chosen to lead off with “Crossroads” by Bone Thugs and Harmony. I can’t fully describe to you the truly surreal feeling that I had when I first understood what I was hearing…

“Hey, and we pray and we pray and we pray and we pray
Everyday, everyday, everyday, everyday…
See you at the crossroads, crossroads, crossroads
So you won't be lonely”

in Somoto, Nicaragua. Craziness! Even more absurd is that next door has decided to enter the fray by blaring (literally I can hear every word) of Shrek! And of course across the street has to join in by bumping Suavemente! It’s like I’m on some strange reality tv show, but nobody decided to tell me in advance. I can only say at least it’s lively and I like most (but definitely not all) of the local music choices.

So yesterday, kind of out of nowhere, the sky opened up and poured out enormous buckets of rain like an hour before I was supposed to leave from work. Thank God that one of my spontaneous not sure if I need it purchases was to buy a travel umbrella. However, the storm lasted only about 45 minutes and by the time I left, the roads were full of mud, but at least it wasn’t raining anymore. I didn’t even get to use my pretty pink umbrella which one of the little girls assures me is too small to stop the rain!

So, my goal was to go to Pali and buy more water and make it to the cell phone store before it closed. Unfortunately, the rain didn’t cool anything down, if anything it made things ten times more hot plus added the fun component of mud. So by the time I made it to the street where the authorized phone dealer sign was I decided that would be my last stop of the night. However, even though they had a six foot sign that said Claro! autorizado, apparently they were not authorized to sell phones. That’s what I get for putting my faith in a sign. But, they were kind enough to give me the directions to the real dealer and after another brief walk I made it to the store.

Since it was close to closing there weren’t any people in there so that was good they could help me right away. I got my new very tiny Motorola phone for 500 cordobas (like 40 dollars). I also had to buy minutes because they don’t have contracts over here for the short term. The sales guy was very nice and explained everything to me like I was slow because I told him I didn’t know anything about how the cell phone system worked here and he took that to mean I had a mental impairment so he spoke very slowly and very loudly! Why does that happen in all cultures? Just because you don't understand doesn't mean more volume will help!

After being sure that he wrote everything down for me and paying I was on my way to the house. By the time I reached the house, my shoes were once again covered in mud. It’s a common thing here, since we are entering the rainy season, I only hope that my shoes make it the duration. I have already had to wash them twice by hand. Thank goodness that I bought them because they’re specially made to go in water!

At the center today, I worked on translating the completed evaluations. That part is a headache in Word, for some reason it keeps changing the set language so everything that I type in Spanish gets highlighted as misspelled, which then keeps you from finding things that really are misspelled. Oh, well such is the trial of computers, they think they’re helping you, but they really aren’t.

I had a traditional Nica sopa (soup) today for lunch, it was very hot and reminded me of something that my lita used to make. And, we had havena today. And for my mom if she’s reading, ha ha! I had pinot lio ayer! I sat with one of the other staff Sonia who is really nice and who is going to take me around Somoto and show me what I missed while walking in circles last weekend!

I wish I could say that walking to work has gotten easier, but really it hasn’t. In the morning after a cold shower, I feel good, but once I get about a half a block uphill and it starts to feel like working out! For Kelley, if she’s reading, I gotta say the hair is holding up better than you might imagine, but the main problem is that its so hot here, that my hair is pretty dry! I can’t wait to have a full treatment done when I get back!

Seriously though, I think I’m starting to get into the groove of things here. Last night I slept really good! I only woke up at 4:50 once the animals began their morning chorus. I am starting to get used to the various sounds that occur on my block. I am also getting used to my work schedule. Today we set a time for me to do the parent evaluations during a monthly meeting they have with parents in a couple of weeks so I will be working on making sure that the staff know how to administer the evaluation and how to assist the parents if they need help.

This weekend is the big trip to Managua. I will be going to visit my mom’s cousin Lynda’s house and meet Lynda’s grandson. I hope to get some good rest and hopefully get to enjoy some time in the city. On Monday I will make my way back to Somoto and hopefully have the information that I need to get the evaluations for the students underway by the end of the week.

Well, that’s all I have to report for now, I will be heading to the Pali tonight again since I definitely need water and sugar (for my café leche) and now a flashlight! The power went out the other night for over an hour and I didn’t have anything to light the house with, not even a candle. Thank goodness I wasn’t alone, and apparently the custom is when the power goes out to sit on the stoop and talk which is what we did. But, if it happens again, I definitely need a flashlight. I was in the middle of eating dinner, and if it wasn’t for one of the volunteers passing through Somoto having a light I would have to sit in the dark eating my sandwich! And, today, the power went out very briefly when big gusting winds shot through town! So, flashlight is a priority, wish me luck on finding a flashlight and batteries that will fit it!