Hurray for not being sick!

Well it was just earlier this week that I had my first normal poo in over a month. Being sick for a month really wears on you and to be honest I have really been feeling pretty crappy about living in Nicaragua. I haven´t really had strong urges to come home until now. We are working on our 7th month of service right now and it´s been rough, well at least for me. Being sick and hot and not exactly THRILLED with my job, all amount to Jenny (me speaking in the 3rd person) wanting to come home as fast as possible. Not to mention I found the perfect job for me at a charter school located on craigslist. Thats right, I was even looking for jobs at home.



But just as I thought I couldn´t take the heat anymore, it started raining! And my illness went away and I could finally EAT! Speaking of the rain, when I talked to Ernie about the rainy season, he said ¨Its not like it rains EVERYDAY.¨ Well guess what, it has rained everyday since it started. Hard a lot of the time too. I don´t mind yet. I´m sure it will get old after awhile, but right now it makes me really happy. It´s so much cooler!



And speaking of the rain, when it rains really hard, they cancel school. It floods really fast here so when it is downpouring the streets flood in a matter of minutes. Its amazing. Jeff and I have recently taken some pictures of the rain that we will post soon. The walkway between our bathroom and our living room floods instantly and we have to wear knee high boots to go to the bathroom. Its kind of fun, only because I´ve never HAD to wear rain boots before.



So now I´m feeling better and life in Nicaragua seems normal again. It´s funny what being sick can do to you. I have decided to write 10 reasons why I like living here, because once again....I like living here. Here goes.



1. Our neighbors our awesome!

2. I can wear sandals all year round.

3. I can eat mangoes out of a bag when I feel like it (if they are in season of course)

4. I shower outside (sort of) which I assume I won´t be doing again when I live in the US.

5. I get to learn another language and it doesn´t cost anything! (except for 2 years, 3 months)

6. Most everyone is really nice to me and wants to be my friend.

7. I don´t have to drive. I can walk almost everywhere.

8. I get to meet some really amazing people that I would never have had the chance to meet otherwise, including other volunteers and of course Nicaraguans.

9. I am a specialist at what I do! (there aren´t too many other native English speakers at my school, actually I´m the only one)

10. Many people WANT to learn English. This makes our program a little different from others because people are constantly wanting our help. Nobody ever looks at me and says....so what are you doing here? We have so many requests we have to turn people down. Its great (for us).

So there you go. They are in no order. Tomorrow evening we are having our first youth group meeting. We have space for about 15 people. About 60 have expressed interest. To cut down on our students we did the following:
we charged 20 cords (1 dollar) for the class that we are going to use for a whiteboard. We are ONLY speaking in English. Its at night at our house which is kind of far for many students. So we´ll see how it goes. Hope it doesn´t rain!