¡Hay MUCHO Lluvia!

(Written during the last week of September - Feels silly to post it now that it´s been sunny for over a week, but oh well lol. Sidenote...sun for a whole week in October is unheard of here, and is a huge problem for the farmers that are counting on their last month of rainy season. More to come on that topic in a later blog.)
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Well it´s true what they say...when it rains, it pourssss!! So Tropical Storm (or Hurricane? idk) Matthew has been wreaking havock here in Central America. Luckily, I'm currently in a region that´s only receiving tons of rain for now. Closer to Managua, and farther North, they're not so lucky. There are already many regions there that have been severely flooded and it's only just beginning.

Living here has allowed me to see how much of an effect rain really has on the everyday lives of these people. Since I've been here, I haven't ever left the house without an umbrella or rain jacket, no matter how sunny it might seem. The rains had generally only been in the afternoons or evenings during most of September; now though, with all the hurricanes in the area, we've had rain for 6 straight days! And I'm not just talking about little showers...I mean deafening rain that's enough to completely halt conversations when one is living in a house with a zinc roof.

The effects of such rain? Well obviously there is mud EVERYWHERE, but that's bearable. Walking back from class the other day with my raincoat and umbrella was a joke because I was literally soaked through and through by the time I got home for lunch. Needless to say, my jeans have still not dried. Again, inconvenient, yet bearable. The real inconveniences become apparent when you look a little deeper. Laundry, for example, is done by hand here. Therefore, one must have two necessities to wash ones clothes...available water (we havfe running water about 40% of the time in my house, the rest is saved in buckets for when the water is turned off), and sun. One without the other is not enough to get the job done. My idea of “dirty” clothes has greatly changed since I've been here. At home I always re-wore jeans a few times before washing them, but here I re-wear everything! There's just no need to go through the agony of washing and waiting days for things to dry, if one doesn't have to. Now though, aside from having an increasing pile of ropa sucia, I also have a room full of damp everything! Bedding, clothes, walls, books, papers for class. My cloth purse and the hat that I have hanging up are both beginning to grow visible mildew! GROSS!

My sisters can't wash clothes because there is no sun to dry them, but what makes things even more complicated is that my little niece is only 8 months old. She wears cloth diapers which need to get washed daily, regardless of the water and sun situation. Therefore, there are always cloth diapers hanging on the rope in my living room, and since they can´t dry in this rain, my sisters have to iron them to dry them enough for her to wear.

On top of the laundry situation, most of the men in my family here are farmers. Therefore, they work outside all day, regardless of the weather, and they have animals to drive through the deep mud. Their crops are constantly in danger of being flooded out during the rainy season. Even just in the case of our school garden, we were scared to plant our seeds because the rain has been SO strong that we thought they'd wash away. We ended up having to make seed beds in tires under a roof on the school property so that we'd guarantee not losing them.

It's just interesting to me how much I used to complain about rain back home in the States. One day of rain, and we'd all be depressed and complaining about how we just want to sleep and be all cozy. In reality though, we're not actually effected by it at all. We all have insulated houses where the walls touch the ceilings and cars/trains to get us pretty close to where we need to be without getting soaked. Even when we do get soaked, all we have to do is throw our clothes in the dryer, and we're back to being warm and cozy and dry. Here, that's just not possible. Of course people complain about the rain here too, but it's because there are real inconveniences that come with it. Here´s hoping for sun!