Across the Agua to Managua Nicaragua

Greetings from Managua, Nicaragua! This blog is going to be pretty disjointed, so let me just tell you my first few impressions of Nicaragua and the project I'm doing...First off, it's HOT here and I don't think I could possibly exaggerate this point enough! It hit 100 degrees yesterday and before I left today for the internet cafe at 11 AM, it was already 97 degrees out. It is so hot that I actually sweat while I am taking a cold shower!! Speaking of showers, I realized that the water in the shower shuts off around 8 AM and doesn't turn on again until the night. Since I normally wake up around 6, I can normally get in an actual shower before I leave for school, but I "slept in" yesterday and today until about 8:30, so there was no water in the bathroom. Instead, I took a bucket shower =)  To take a bucket shower, you fill up a large baison with water from the spigot outside, carry it into the shower and then use a bowl to scoop up the water and pour it on you. It's actually really refreshing  and, I'm not going to lie, I get a little excited when I realize that we have to use the bucket.

The water in the toilet also doesn't work during the day. Instead, you have to manually pour water into the toilet to get it to flush. You basically take about a gallon or two and forcibly dump it into the bowl. If you want to try it, the key is to aim for the water already in the bowl...otherwise you'll just make a mess. I also think I should point out that I am a GREAT toilet bowl flusher. I'll add that to my resume.

I'm also living with a host family =) I live with a host mom named Marla, two brothers (ages 21 and 14) named Dennis and Issac and another girl who is part of ATRAVES named Sandra.Our room is actually quite large, but there is just two beds and a bedstand, so there was really nowhere we can put anything. It is nice and clean though, and our host mom said that our dog, Quicha, likes to eat any mice that get into the house, which is GREAT because I am scared to death of mice...I've also noticed that Quicha likes to chase down cats, so I'm also safe in the gato department. However, he's not very good at catching the cockroaches and we have had several close calls with them all ready. I also now have la coucaracha song stuck in my head =/

The whole lack-of-Spanish is a bit difficult, but I think I am trudging along well enough. I really try to speak with them and I am starting to really regret not knowing Spanish. For example, it took Sandra and I about 10 minutes to excuse ourselves from the kitchen to explain that we wanted to unpack our bags...and that was with the help of two dictionaries. I guess I feel stupid about not knowing any Spanish, especially when Sandra is at least able to communicate with the family, but I think I'm actually doing pretty well considering I didn't know a word of the language a week ago!

On a more serious note, I think I am once again having a mid-college crisis. Similar to how I felt when I went to Senegal, I feel like what I am going into will not make any real difference in the world and just seems so insignificant. Most other people in my group are pre-med, study international buisness/econ or study development, and I feel like they are going to be the type of people who will make a difference in the lives of people in the world. Although I love linguistics (honestly, I LOVE it!), does it really matter? We went to the place where we are going to be doing the classes and health clinic the other day, and the place really needs improvements. The place where they wanted us to hold an after school club was basically 4 brick walls with no roof on a 'road' that was covered with broken glass. The clinic is being held in the school that is extreamly hot, dirty and cramped. I realized that almost everyone else in my group were planning on doing things that would improve lives, but what am I going to do with linguistics? I love it, but am I actually going to improves lives of people who really need it? Probably not.

Also, I am starting to think pretty seriously about joining the Peace Corps after college. I think I'll have to seriously think about this during my summer.

I also just realized that my spell check was in Spanish. Great.

The other day, we took a trip to the Masaya Volcano. We were so high up that our ears were actually popping while we were climbing. The volcano wasn't really the typical volcano that you normally think of when you think of a volcano. It was actually covered in green and had plants growing. It was smoking, so that was a plus =) The scenery was great, but I'm not sure if any of my photos could do it justice!

As promised, that was a very disjointed blog post and I don't think I talked about everything I wanted to talk about either. We are planning a trip next weekend to go hiking on another volcano, so I'm hoping that I'll be able to type up another blog post on Thursday or Friday about my first week of class.

Last but not least, HAPPY MOTHERS' DAY!!

Love, Tiffany