The Nica life

Two great landmarks of my life in Nica have finally occurred!

Uno: I had a dream in Spanish!  I don’t remember too much about it.  I blame the malaria meds because one of the side effects are “vivid dreams and in rare cases, night terrors”.  I can remember that I was at the New Market in Masaya and I was helping my youth group sell their product.  I rattled off two solid sentences to a customer and then I came to a word or phrase that I didn’t know how to say and POOF, awake.  I hope that’s not a bad sign to come…

Dos: Background.  My training town, Nandasmo, is suffering from the inconvenience of having the water shut off around 5pm (It used to be 6pm but is now creeping ever forward).  It usually stops being beastly-sauna-7^th-circle-of-hell hot around 5pm so I like to shower at that time in hopes of later retiring to mi dormitorio without sweating.  How do you get around this obstacle you may ask dear readers?  Bucket showers?  Yes, but my lack of coordination usually leaves me feeling soapy afterwards which is the ONLY worse feeling than sweaty.  Any other ideas, followers?  Yup.  I SHOWERED IN THE RAIN!  It was epic.  Picture Andy at the end of Shawshank Redeption (for those of you who haven’t seen it, shame on you…) showering in the river beneath a thunderstorm.  That was exactly what it looked like.  I know I described in an earlier post how hard it rains here but I have another anecdote.  The rain was pouring down SO hard on my ZINC roof that I had to put in my earplugs.  Yes, after years of over-using Ipod in-ear headphones, rock concerts and bumping parties at the fraternity house, I acted like 77 year old and put my beloved professional grade 3M ear plugs to escape the deafening downpour.  I seriously think there’d be less noise waving green light for takeoff while standing next to a F-16.  For those of you who’d like to experience this at home here’s a science project for you:

1.      Open a tin/aluminum can

2.      Discard contents

3.      Dump $.99 of spare change inside

4.      Close can

5.      Hold next to ear

6.      Shake violently and incessantly until your arm gives out

Not only does it shed light on living in the rainforest but is good exercise!

Va pues,

-Pedro