Right now it’s noon on May 29th and we are in our 20th hour of the torrential downpour of Hurricane Alma. It’s my first hurricane that I have experienced, so I guess that makes it a little more bearable. However, the downpour meant that I barely got 4 hours of sleep because of the banging sounds the rain makes on the tin roof. Earplugs helped a little, but I could still hear the rain pounding the ceiling above me. Supposedly the time periods between May to June and October to November are the only ones to produce this kind of menacing weather.
When I woke up this morning the rain was still pouring down, so my mom called a mototaxi (I need to take a picture of one to show you all) to drive me to my class about 7 blocks away. I didn’t even have to pay because it was a family friend! A normal ride would have only cost about 10 cents anyways. So I got to class only to find our language facilitator soaked and only one other trainee at the house (it’s her house so she didn’t have to travel in the rain). We couldn’t really have a normal class day because we had no electricity so our teacher decided that we should work on our lesson plans for next week. The other two trainees hadn’t showed up by 8:20am, so we called them and told them to meet us at the library because they have bigger tables for us to work on our lesson plans. The three of us walked 7 blocks in the pouring rain and all I can say is THANK GOD I bought rain boots before I left! Everyone’s feet were all wet from running around in sandals or tennis, but my feet were dry and toasty. I still got pretty drenched even though I had boots on and an umbrella, however my Nica neighbors were impressed that I came prepared with rain boots. When we got to the library, it was closed so we went 2 blocks more to wait for the others at my house. At 9:45am, everyone finally made it to my house…cold and wet. We did get our lesson plans finished for next Tuesday and all we have to do now is practice. All in all the rain didn’t deter us from being productive. We’ll see if any of our kids show up for youth group at 2pm…
Since it’s a hurricane, the rain is a little bit cooler than I was told it would be. Compared to Nor Cal rain, the cold is still nothing! But I guess at home it’s not that bad because:
1) I would have a car to keep me dry during traveling
2) I would have central heating or a gas stove in the living room
3) I would have a gas dryer handy to chuck my clothes into if they were soaked
We had no one show up for the youth group, so we went to the ice cream shop (the Eskimo) to just relax and have some helado (ice cream). Then I proceeded to go to the Cyber to use the internet for a bit, and I got to talk to Danie about her and Kyle’s new house!!! I wish I could be there to see the wood paneling and shag carpet they showed me before I left…sigh. I hope they have fun with their first project…painting! I then called Mom to get directions on how to unlock my Motorola phone so I can put a Nica SIM card in it. After that it was over to my mama’s cafetin, and the lights shut out right as I was arriving. Since there was no electricity, she decided to shut down for the day. I walked home with my mama, sisters and cousin for all of us to find that our house had also lost power (bring on the headlamp from REI, it worked like a charm). Yesterday’s meals had no protein (chicken, beef, etc.) because most of the local stores did not receive meat shipments, so we had fried bananas, gallo pinto (rice and beans), and tortillas. Yay for carbs right? So bad for me! What else is there to do in the dark but pull out the candles and play a card game. I retaught my sisters UNO and taught my cousin and family friend how to play. We played 4 rounds which took about 3 hours since we played the version where you have to draw cards until u get a card you can play. It made the time in the dark go by much faster and we had a blast.
Elsewhere in the country it has been flooding in Managua and some of the northern regions since around 2pm. The threat level was yellow, which I’m guessing is about the same as our system, so we weren’t as bad off as we all thought. I’m sure the orange and red colors are probably when the country is in a state of emergency. As far as we know, no one seems to have perished from the storm. Oh, speaking of which, I have a story about the news from last week!
Last Sunday I was watching the news and the main story of the day was the discovery of a drowned young man in Lago Nicaragua (Lake Nica). Not only was this the main story, but they showed them dragging the body in with a rope…and to make it even more dramatic they got a close-up shot of this corpse, all blown up from being in the water. The shot was so close it felt like a bad horror movie since you could see the veins and everything. Luckily the dude was face down and they didn’t turn him over. I was just not prepared for the close-up shot on the TV! So yeah, that’s my gruesome story for you all.
I guess one of the advantages of the rain is the cooling effect on the land and the weather. It’s nice to not have to wake up all sweaty and it’s really nice to actually feel “cold”. I still sweat up a storm when I walk around because it’s so humid at times, but the worst heat has passed for now. In July and August we’ll have a “mini-summer” and it will go back to being pretty hot again.
P.S. The picture shows my new room...gotta love the mosquito net!
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