Belly Full- Finally!

I’m sitting here with my belly full listening to the church karaoke across the street. It’s the third time this week and I’m catching myself singing along. They are really loud with lots of clapping and they have the same clapping issues as we whitties do. Today was a good food day. Isolina fixed chicken on the bone with vegetables and soy tortillas for dinner and an oatmeal drink. For lunch the four PCTs in Dolores went with our Spanish teacher, Damaris, to Liz’s house. Her host mom, Doña Cristina, cooked yuca topped with pork rinds, shaved cabbage, tomato and beets. It was random and the pork rinds weren’t my favorite, but I absolutely love yuca. Breakfast was my usual: cherry jello with bananas and coffee. I like to start my day off light after a nice jog.

I have a chance to write tonight because both Isolina and Francisco are at church, and for once I don’t have Spanish homework. Tomorrow is our last day of daily class and I am wicked pumped. It will be so nice to have time to go to the market with Isolina and help her around the house, read the newspaper and discuss it with Francisco, watch a movie with Alexander in Spanish, and work out a bit more in the mornings. Don’t get me wrong, it has been great to ease into life here with my gringo safety net. But I feel like I am ready to dive in to my family. This comes at a time when I’m really starting to get into the classroom for co-teaching and co-planning. Steve and I also just started our youth group- which is story within itself… for another day.

When I first started this blog tonight I heard a little thunder. Now it is coming down so hard it sounds like the roof will collapse. That is one thing out Nicaragua, when it rains it pours!

So I wanted to take a moment to tell what I am thankful that I brought to Nicaragua:
· Wrist watch- I use it every morning when I run to know when to turn around and run back.
· Computer- it saves me a ton at the internet café (which we call the Cyber)
· Microfiber towel- Thank you Katie! It dries me off well and then dries itself well too.
· Flashlight- At night I have to get out of bed to turn off my light and then use my flashlight to get into the mosquito net. Also helpful to find the bathroom.
· Bag of perfume samples- I never sweat in the US unless I’m exercising. Here I sweat way more frequently. This little magic bag makes me smell better. Why, you may ask, do I not just take a shower? Because it is viewed as extravagant to take more than one shower a day.
· Individual drink mixes and Nalgene bottle- We drink a lot of water here (because we never have milk, I don’t want to buy coke, and we need to stay hydrated). These help vary it up a bit.
· Alarm clock- I usually wake up around 6am. Sometimes I don’t need the clock because the chickens and other birds wake me up.
· Prescription Sunglasses- It is really sunny and these have been phenomenal.
· 3” x 5” Mirror- It is the only time I see my reflection. The other day I saw myself in a full length mirror and actually stopped in my tracks. I didn’t recognize the other person because I hadn’t seen myself in three weeks.

Things I could have done without:
· So many dressy clothes- their “dressy” doesn’t even reach our “dressy casual”
· So many socks- I only wear them when I run
· Dictionary- They gave me a better one the third day we were here. And I have only cracked it once when we had homework. I usually figure out words by describing the object or concept and asking what it is.

If I could pack again, I’d bring:
· Dressy open toed sandals (everyone here wears them)
· More pictures
· Art materials for the classroom (tape, scissors, markers, crayons, colored paper, paper clips, etc)
· Books with ideas of teaching activities

BTW: I haven’t had any really strong food cravings since I have been here. We’ve had pizza twice and I have to admit, it was fantastic! Vegetarian pizza rocks!