It's September Already?

You know how in my last post I totally said how awful the night bus in Rio San Juan is and how never to ride it? Well, I’m either a hypocrite or a glutton for punishment, probably both. Since my last post, I’ve rode the night bus twice, TWICE! Both to and from Managua last week. Why, may you ask, did I need to take a 9 hour trip to Managua last week? Probably due to the fact that my glasses seem to be a magnet for bizarre accidents. Some of you may remember how I lost my first pair of glasses here in an unfortunate bus incident. We’ll call it the Great Glass Bus Incident of 2010. The losing of the second pair was certainly more my fault. I was walking back one night from downtown where I helped this lady who runs a center for women translate a document for USAID, but enough about my saintliness, so on my way back it started faintly sprinkling and I picked up the pace a bit. Suddenly, it just started pouring and I couldn’t see a thing with my glasses on, so I put them in my pocket and started to run. When I got under some cover I checked my pockets to make sure everything was there…and not so much. My glasses were AWOL, unfortunately at this point I had covered over 2 blocks running, it was pitch black, and still pouring down rain. There I was vision impaired and all trying to search the ground with my crappy phone flashlight in the rain for an hour. Needless to say, the search was fruitless. I even got my site mate Jess to give me some backup, but still nada. I looked again the next morning, but at this point I pretty much knew I was going to have to call the PC med staff. They told me I was going to have to travel to Managua to get my prescription filled and they would put me up in a hotel for the night. Since I was traveling all the way there, I figured I might as well spend as much time in air-conditioned bliss as possible, so I went on the dreaded night bus yet again to get in around 5 in the morning in Managua.

This time though, I decided to follow 30 Rock’s advice and traveled under the influence of medication. There was no Oprah, but the trip was a bit more pleasant. Managua was a great treat. My appointments only took an hour or so, and I was a bit nauseous the morning I was supposed to leave, blessing in disguise, they let me stay another night! I even got to go see Inception (so much tension, so good!). All in all, really nice trip. The way back was still medicated, but much stranger. There were little Tvs, so I got really excited. I can’t accurately describe the movie that followed, since I was in and out in my haze, but it seemed to be some sort of 3 hour early 80’s Mexican murder mystery musical. I guess the bus people figured they couldn’t top that, so it was the only movie during the 9 hour trip, but somewhere around hour 8, I hear some pop and metal grinding sound and the bus just stops. I took a 5pm bus, so it was sometime after 1 at this point, and the people start getting off and the bus driver starts getting out tools, and people starting talking about maybe sleeping there. We were in the middle of nowhere, at this point my mosquito spray had run out, and I almost started crying. After about half an hour, I literally started calculating if I could walk it back. Clearly an hour in bus even on that shitty road would still be like a 4 hour walk in the middle of the night, but in my desperation it was starting to sound doable. I was about at the point were I was calculating if I jogged some of it that thank Sweet Mother Jesus they fixed the bus! The rest of my last week was fairly uneventful. I had my site visit from my boss before I left for Managua and I think finally got my schedule fixed! My classes this week haven’t been superb or anything, but they’ve happened!

Things on my mind/minor bitch session “They” (the government, power company, I dunno) really need to get their shit together down here in San Carlos with the electricity issue. It goes out almost daily for indeterminate amounts of time, which isn’t always so bad, but Sunday/Monday it was out for over 48 full hours. The worst part is that when there is no electricity there is no water here. They generally only get water a couple hours a day anyways and fill up big buckets that we use for showers/dishes/laundry etc., but that ran out and I couldn’t take a shower for awhile, the dishes also started piling up. Not to mention it makes nights pretty boring, basically I sat around with my site mate in the dark till 8 and then went to bed both nights. The street in front of my house is also still under construction. This is the same street that was under construction during my site visit over a month ago, it’s not a very big street. In fact, they actually finished 2/3 of the street a couple weeks ago making it to about right in front of my house. Then, they stopped, and decided to start on another street. They just started working on our street again yesterday. There is still an issue with the dogs and dog shit everywhere, the roam the streets freely and wildly. I just know one day they’re going to turn all “The Birds” on our asses. Seriously, it’s like Bob Barker’s worst nightmare down here. Dogs just go around humping each other all over the place! Another ongoing problem is the trash issue, especially along the highway, people just straight up toss trash out the window. There is a great need for Captain Planet in Nicaragua. Either the real thing, or the animated recreations of his struggle against pollution. I’ll even volunteer myself to be one of the Planeteers (I was always partial Fire, but I’m flexible, just don’t give me Heart, that shit is weak).

Also of note, one of the classes I teach is literally held in a shed. The school has four classrooms, but apparently needs 5, therefore me and my counterpart are in a shed with no walls save for half a sheet of tin they put the whiteboard on and dirt floors. I was fumigated today as well. One minute my host mom was warns me that the men are coming to spray for bugs, so I go to get my money, not the best move in hindsight, cause next thing I know a man with what looks like a leaf blower and a mask comes in and fumes are everywhere, I got out as fast as I could, but those guys don’t mess around. The whole neighborhood was out in the street and everyone’s houses looked like they were on fire for 15 minutes or so. Anyways, besides the cancer I’ll be getting from that, I’m doing great overall. I need to start an exercise and Spanish studying routine, for reals I’ve gained pretty much all my weight back, damn you carbs and comedor lady down the street who serves so much deliciousness! I’ll keep ya’ll posted on my progress. Oh, and shout out to mom, dad, and Katy for the package/letter/cash, ya’ll are the best! I hope everyone back in the States had a great summer! I know I did! Oh wait, it’s not even the warm season here yet, I have to wait till November for that! Also I've had no luck putting pictures on here since May, it just isn't happening, so sometime in the near future I'll make a facebook album and make it public.