Why Nicaragua remains a 3rd World Country

I now know why Nicaragua is a 3rd world country. It´s hot. It´s really really hot and most places don´t have air conditioning. I worked for 5 hours straight today, which is slightly unusual, and I am realllllllllly tired. Like, can barely stay awake tired, but you can´t take a nap. You know why? It´s too hot. Too hot. I think that if first, air conditioners were installed everywhere, then everyone would work longer hours and get more done. Although, do I really want to work more hours? Scratch that last idea. But really, less work here takes more energy.

I finally have a schedule!!! It´s been a month since school started and today I have a permanent schedule. Also, my counterpart and I planned an entire month unit today together. We are doing a unit on story telling and using the simple and progressive past. I think that it should be fun. I am working mostly with the older students at the school which at first was intimidating, but now I really like it. Today, a student asked me about 15 questions in English. And they were good questions too, not just ¨what is your name?¨. It was pretty exciting. So things are going well. I am also starting a new English class today for adults. And the best part about it, it´s in an air conditioned room.

Also Jeff and I went to a birthday party for one of my 14 year old students (in my NGO English classes). It was really fun! We sat around with the men and talked about interesting subjects and they taught us some new Spanish words. We also drank rum with them (obviously because that is what you do here), which makes our Spanish that much better! It was a really great time and we met new friends. I also learned a new icebreaker that I plan on using back home with students.

The first week of April (Semana Santa) Katie, Ben, and Todd are coming to visit us! Katie wanted me to put it out there that if you have anything you would like to pass along to us, she would be happy to bring it for you. You just have to email me or Jeff for her email address/phone number. I´m sure Ben and Todd would love to do the same. 2 weeks later my dad and stepmom come! April is going to be an exciting month filled with travel and vacationing. We are really looking forward to it. We miss everyone and hope you´re all doing well. Also, Congratulations to our friend Kelly who is engaged!!!!!! Felicidades.

Worst Moment of the Week

Nothing beats waking up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, opening the door to go outside to the bathroom and finding a dead rat at your feet! Scared the hell out of me, which in turn scared Jenny. We are such city people. Anyways, the next question was what to do with the rat. So after much arguing , I put on some shoes, just in case it came alive again, strapped on the head lamp and got my trusty broom ready, while Jenny inched towards the dead rat holding a bucket which I was going to sweep the rat into. Also, Jenny did this while covering her face so she didn´t have to see the dead rat. After a few tries (he was a heavy sucker!) i got him in the bucket and took the bucket outside and tossed the rat into the middle of the street for any lucky dog to retrieve. The best part was that since he fell from our roof, might have been pushed might have been suicide we don´t know, his blood splattered all over Jenny´s sandals that she uses to shower. So she ended up getting a new pair of sandals out of the deal! And our site mate Carrie says that rats don´t fall....

Happy Super Bowl Sunday!

Thats right, we´ll be watching the Super Bowl tonight with our sitemates, eating wings (well I won´t be doing that), guacamole, and homemade salsa! We´ll even be drinking Toña beers which in the only kind of beer that we know anymore. It sort of tastes like Bud Light....I think. Maybe we´ll even do the betting the with the grids and the numbers, I don´t know, it´s all to fantastic to think about. However we will be sitting in Carrie´s room with 2 beds, an ity bity TV (sort of the opposite of Joel or BJ´s) and plastic chairs. But it´s going to be awesome. So think of us tonight when you´re all having your great parties with all of that delicious food. And FREEZING because its so cold in Minnesota!!!

Thanks to all of those who sent recipies with a special shout out to Renee and BJ for their incredibly fast response time.

We went to the beach yesterday. It´s about 30 minutes away from our site. It was a nice time. We did some swimming, some eating PB & J sandwiches, some drinking beer. It was a nice little Saturday that we had. I however did burn my nose despite putting on sunscreen 30 minutes before I went in the sun, proper application. The sun is just so strong here!

We have started working and teaching and the week went by sooooo fast! We are hoping that this is what the rest of our service will be like! Can you believe that we´ve been gone for 5 months already! If nobody had plans for February 24th we will be celebrating Jeff´s Birthday at the beach and the disco if you´re interested. We´re celebrating late because our sitemate Carrie will be out of town on Jeff´s BDay weekend! So you know if you´re doing nothing that weekend and happen to have 1,000 extra dollars hanging out for airfare, come on down!

We miss everyone a lot! Love, The Pilóns (it wears in accent in Spanish)