Rough Week

Hello, Hello! I hope this finds you all well and dry! I have just entered into the rainy season, and am currently dealing with all the joys the rains bring such as bugs, mud, and a rapidly filling latrine due to the runoff! FABULOUS!

Since my last little letter home, I have been busy doing manual labor with my students! We have started tree nurseries in all the schools and are now starting on vegetable gardens. This means that my kids are working with shovels, hoes, machetes, and of course, the  trusty pick axe. Lord help us all! Basically it has gone well, we even have had some success! Little trees are-a-growing! But of course, there was a mishap. On my first day, I brought out all the kids (my first mistake!) to start digging a hole and using a tool called a zaranda to sift the soil and remove all the rocks and roots, basically leaving beautiful soil. SO, all the kids were working, and fighting over who got to use what tool, when all of a sudden I notice a kid clutching his bleeding forehead looking terrified. My first reaction was , "oh my God I`ve killed a kid!". So I ran over to find out what happened. Apparently he had walked behind one of the pickaxes, and was hit squarely in the head. Great. So I ran to the teachers to ask what we should do. They merely looked over at the kid and said, "Oh he is in the 3rd grade, he isn't supposed to be out here. Send him back to the classroom." WHAT?!?! He was hit in the head with a pick axe! But, alas, off he went to his class to do some math problems, head still slightly bleeding. But luckily, that has been the only "incident" i have had thus far.

In other news, Miss Emily Nicole Spangler visited the grand country of Nicaragua! We spent the week at a lagoona in the bottom of a volcano, the beach, and my lovely little house. She even visited one of my schools with me. We made Mothers Day cards and Miss Emily showed off her Spanish skills by reading a book to them! They loved it, I loved it, she loved it, it was a love fest! So, the moral of this story: you should probably start checking out tickets to see when you too can book your dream vacation to Nicaragua! Your own personal tour guide comes FREE with the package!!!

So as stated before, I am currently experiencing some difficulties with my casa. The first sign of trouble was when I was sitting in my chair hammock, reading a book, enjoying my fan. All of a sudden I hear the sounds of some animal drinking water outside my house. I thought to myself, how odd is this? Where are they getting water? So I go outside to check it out, and to my horror I find a very dirty, stray dog drinking from the water bucket that I use to wash my dishes, brush my teeth, and wash my face. So I was slightly disgusted, chased her off, and went back to my hammock. Low and behold, 20 minutes later she was back! I chased her off again and realized that she has probably been using my bucket of water as her personal water fountain for weeks. Which would explain why my water has had lots of dirt in it. So I bought a better top for my water. Now I just feel bad that she doesn't have water so I am going to buy her a water bowl. 

Secondly, with the heavy rains comes lots and lots of mud. Every time I walk outside, I sink into mud. For some reason, its just my house that does this. So I have taken to wearing my big yellow boots to slosh through the mud or craftly climbing on walls and random rocks to go to my latrine. Which as stated before, is rapidly filling with water now that the rains have come. I ask you this, what is one to do when their latrine floods? Hopefully I will not find out! BUT don't worry, I will keep you posted!

Thirdly, with the rains come an insane amount of bugs. We are talking huge, small, in between. All over, all the time! Its not really that big of a problem, but they like to dive bomb me in the head and in the morning I have to sweep them all out. But the cool thing is this week I have had my house invaded by lighting bugs. So when i turn out my lights at night, it looks like little strobe lights. Really kinda fun if you think about it. I should convert my house to a disco! 

So that is life as of now! Hope you are all doing well! Keep sending the updates!

Carolyn