My Chinandega

I have finally found the time to take photos of my new house so you can all see where I reside here in Chinandega.  Yes, my house is purple, I hate purple, but in this case I think I can deal since the family is so incredibly awesome.

 The living room is the first room you walk in to from the front door.  Sofas are a rarity in Nica.  Most people have plastic or wooden chairs so I am feeling very lucky.  Last night I curled up in a sofa chair to drink liters of beer and watch a movie with my 24 year old host brother Jose and his friends.  The next photo is of Ralph, our six month old puppy.  He likes to steal the family's underwear/ intimates and drag them all over the house.  Last night he came running in to the living room with my bra in his mouth while all the guys just starred uncomfortably until my host brother asked if it was mine, oh Ralph.

 I absolutely love this kitchen!  My host sister Sandra and I both love to cook so we spend most of our quality time here.  Please note that there is a microwave and a wine rack, two things that signify a well equipped kitchen here in Nica.  We also have an oven, which I de-flowered after several years of no use, by cooking the family brownies.  They were a big hit!

This is the hallway that leads from the living room and kitchen to all the other bedrooms.  That light you see pouring in through the arches is straight from the good ole outdoors.  A lot of houses here are open air since it never really gets cold.  Along the right had side their are flower beds where I have my basil planted.  Sargo and Ralph are also featured.  My room is at the end of the hall where it the house breaks out in to an open air patio where we dry our clothes and I get a breeze!

That's my yogi toes matt drying behind the jeans!

My room is a mess right now, but you can see that one wall is all dark wood shelving and closet space, which is unheard of here!  I'm standing in one corner of my room which leads around a wall to my own bathroom.

I live just four blocks from the central park and Santa Ana Iglesia.  I swear I'll take pics of the inside next time.

The central park is littered with jungle gyms and brightly colored stands that sell food.  You can barely see San Cristobal Volcanoe in the distance due to the fog that sets in after the rain.

This is one of the three open air markets where I get a majority of my fruits and veggies!

Hopefully all these visuals give you a better context of what I'm writing about in my blog.  This last week was definitley more play than work as Nicaragua celebrated their independance also known as Fiestas Patrias.  Basically all my classes were cancelled for the entire we in honor of the parade that takes places featuring all the high schools in the city.  The students were too busy practicing their marching and musical instruments to learn a single thing.  As frustrated as I got with the lack of progress on our business plans, I had a great time marching and representing one of my schools in the parade.  I marched with Filemon Rivera, which is a small semi-private high school.  The Director who I am close with made me a traditional Nicaraguan shirt to wear and match the rest of the teachers.(See below).  Does the yellow church look familiar?

 Here we are marching through the central park next to the yellow church of Santa Ana.  Ahead of me are my students who are dancing a traditional Nicaraguan folklore dance in traditional dress.

Here I am with my counterpart Silvia who is actually a doll despite that look on her face.  We work closely and Monday's are our days to eat out together.  She is one of my favorite people here.  She is working towards a bachelor's degree right now on the weekends while teaching and raising two beautiful children solo.  After we marched through the hot sun for about 3 hours the director treated all of us to a grand lunch of Albondigas soup.  Albondigas translated to meatballs, but its tradition here to make a soup with meatballs made of maza and chicken while an array of veggies accompany the mmeatballs in a rich broth.  Needless to say this is one of my fav Nica meals!

Due to the lack of classes and businesses being closed I took the opportunity to take a mini vaca to the beach with several volunteers to Coco Loco and see some of my best girlfriends from my months of training in Masaya, but that's the next post.  The night of the parade is also a popular night to go out so my host brother and his friends invited myself and my site mate Lindsey to a night out of dancing and rum.  We had a great time and found ourselves at an On the Run at 3 am eating Ramen Noodles, go figure but they are a huge hit here!

All in all not too much more to report on accept that life is good, really good.  Everything has gotten 100 times better since I moved in with my new family who obsesses over my funny quirks and teaches me knew things everyday.  Just yesterday my host brother almost had a heart attack when he saw me walking around the house barefoot, heaven forbid!  Nicas just don't walk around barefoot, even in their own house, I don't have an answer so please don't ask.

Not too much else to report on accept that there is a lot of rain, everyday after hours of blazing sun, around 4 en la tarde the storm rolls in.  Please note that I have changed my Acuweather gadget on the right hand side of my blog to reflect the weather here in Chinandega.  Please also note the temperature listed under "real feel" which takes in to account how one actually feels with the ridiculously high percentage of humidity in the air.  So when it says its 85 degrees F in Chinandega with a "real feel" of 109 F you can start to feel bad for me and then send me a care package, just kidding, but not really.  Some of my shoes have started to mold and even my pillow is affected by the massive amounts of humidity in the air.  Oh the random challenges that pop up from living in a new environment, gotta love it!  I thought it was hilarious tonight watching my host bro and sis fight over the amount of bleach I should use while washing the mildew out of my pillow.  It was quite the debate and a spectacle to watch three 20 somethings try and wash a down pillow.  Later on my sis asked me if I was bored here in Nicaragua compared to the states, how could I be?!