No hay agua, an earthquake and plenty of barbed wire

My week started off with a few minor glitches…Monday I observed a few classes. Nothing out of the ordinary happened and the students were all tranquil. Then came Tuesday…I woke up to find out the there was no water (No hay aqua), which meant no shower. I took a long dusty bus ride to a rural school, taught a class in español sobre La Epresea Creative (LEC), mi familia en los EE.UU. y que es Cuerpo de Paz (quick translation: LEC is the business course, my family in the U.S.A. and what is Peace Corps). The Nicaraguan people are very family oriented and they are always amazed when I tell them that I only have 1 brother. Also, they are surprised that I don’t have at least 20 first cousins. I also get some laughs when I talk about my golden retriever (Zoie) because everyone here owns at least one dog as well (and they probably also own some chickens, a pig, and of course a rooster). Anyway, I finished teaching the class just as a deluge started, right in time for my walk back to the bus stop. There was a big mud river (note to self buy some goulashes) and water running everywhere. The mud was gooey and deep. I tried to hop around desperately looking for dry spots…but that is when I started to slip and fall.

Another quick side note, all around Nicaragua you will see barbed wire. It lines the houses, acts as a fence, protects animals and of course you can dry your cloths on it as well. It keeps people and animals from breaking in or out. Quite frankly, I’ve never seen so much barbed wire in my life!

Therefore, when I started to slip in the mud and lost my balance I reached out to steady myself and what did I grab…barbed wire. My hand was bleeding, it was raining and the bus still had not arrived. Around 30 minutes later, plus a 1 hour ride home I was able to bandage up my lesion. Luckily, no stitches were needed and my shots are all up to date. I learned a valuable lesson…better to get muddy then to get barbed.

Moving on to Wednesday, still no water. I took a three hour bus ride only to find out class was canceled. If they had phone service in the town they would have called me! I did make a new friend on the bus and at least had someone to talk to on the ride back to my town. When I finally went to bed, I was awakened shortly after around 10pm because my bed was shaking. At first I thought I was dreaming. Then I thought something was under my bed making it shake. And finally I just went back to sleep…because I was half asleep as it was. In the morning it was confirmed that there was a small earthquake. So I was not loosing my mind…but in fact was awakened by a small quake. No big deal I guess, but I hope in the event of a major disaster I decide to get up and not just go back to sleep!

Friday was an eventful day…still no water…but I arrived at my final school for the week only to find out that I was going to be judging a contest! I had to judge a student project about “Cooperation in the Work Field.” Students had drawn beautiful posters with pictures of people working together throughout Nicaragua. There were 3 places and the primero lugar (1^st place) went to a group that used creativity and context to convey their message. Segundo lugar (2^nd place) went to a group that drew a picture of Nicaragua and people throughout the country working together…again very creative. I gave a brief lecture to the students, took a break for lunch and got to judge another contest in the afternoon session. I was a little confused about the topic of this contest “Alternate Means of Energy and Wine.” I suppose energy is the new cheese! For this project, students explained different methods of energy used throughout Nicaragua such as wind energy and thermal energy. After their presentation, they taught me how to make homemade wine, which I was then able to sample. The energy projects were well done and the wine was sweet. I sampled apple, pineapple, milk with cinnamon, wheat, and orange wine. Don’t worry I just took a sip of each and my favorite wine was the pineapple wine.

Next week, I am going to learn how to make tortillas and hopefully I will make some new friends as well…si, Dios quire. The phrase “si Dios quire” (aka if God wills) is heard all over the place. Here are a few brief encounters I’ve had with people concerning this phrase:

Situation 1:

I am shopping at the local outdoor market and buying some eggs from my usual egg lady vendor (Doña Eva). She sells me the eggs and then I tell her I’ll see her again in 2 days (as I buy eggs every 2 days) and she tells me “Si, Dios quire.”

Situation 2:

I am leaving one of the small local towns I work at and I tell the teacher I will see her again next Friday and she replies “Si, Dios quire.”

Situation 3:

I get off the bus and tell the bus driver I will see him again tomorrow morning and he responds “Si, Dios quire.”

I’ll be honest it scares me just a little when people use this phrase because it makes it sound like something horrible is going to happen to me and that is why I won’t return. Of course, I have learned to take it as simply meaning “Adios.”

Therefore, I will update this blog again in 1 week and hopefully I will have showered by then as well… Si, Dios quire!!