Mom & Mary in Nica!!

It has been an unbelievably long time since I've blogged - well I guess it really hasn't - but soooo much has happened since the last time I posted anything on here! My mom and Mary have come and gone, I've become significantly more comfortable here in my town, I've been working wayyy overtime on gardens/tree nurseries/composting in all of my schools (on top of giving daily science classes), Nicaragua's Mother's Day passed, I danced a traditional Nicaraguan folk dance ON STAGE in one of my schools.......andddd back home in good ol' NY, my baby brother graduated from grad school, and my family and friends had yet another amazing camping trip without me.

I'm not sure yet if I'm going to try to cover all of the above in this blog because that might be exhausting...but we'll see what happens.

I'll start by saying that my visit with Mom and Mary was obviously amazing!! We cooked lunch for my training family, hung out in my new house with my students/friends, watched a parade of 66 ox-drawn carts in my town, talked/moved furniture/slept through the first night of rainy season in my house, and hung out on the beach in San Juan del Sur.

The procession was probably my favorite part because it was so "Nica!"  All of the farmers from the surrounding "campos" decorated their carretas beautifully with palms, flowers, balloons, streamers, you name it, hooked up their oxen and paraded into town with bands playing, heading straight for the church.  This is something they do every year on the 15th of May to welcome the rainy season.  They honor St. Isidro, a former farmer, by bringing all the oxen to the church to have them blessed and to pray for a good rainy season.  It was really a beautiful thing to see, and just like they said it would...it rained!!  First day of rain in almost 6 months!

I got to wave at tons of my students who were passing in their families' carretas, while at the same time translating between Mom and Mary who were talking to my students that were hanging out with us.

                                          Edwin, Josue, and Carlos Erik - some of my favs!

Halfway through, the already constant rain turned into a monsoon! We were standing under an awning, but that didn't stop us from getting soaked by the giant raindrops that were bouncing up from the curb.  After the procession passed, we  tried to wait out the monsoon before walking to the church to watch the outdoor mass in the park where all the carretas were parked, but the rain didn't let up one bit.  So??? We decided to throw caution to the wind and left the safety of our awning.  We walked out into the street and made our way down the 2 long blocks to the church in the pouringgggg rain!  We had to kick off our sandals to cross the street that literally turned into a river, and in the second "river crossing" Mary lost her flip flop!! Luckily, one of my valiant students jumped off the curb and chased it down before the current carried it too far.

                                          Please note the river they're standing in...

It was such an awesome morning - especially after spending the night sleeping under my zinc roof during the torrential first rainstorm of the season!  After that, we changed out of our soaking wet clothes (yep...down to the underwear), used my rainboots to make one last latrine run since my yard was a lake, and headed out to relax at the beach in San Juan del Sur.  Amazing times. <3

              Amazing bunk beds Dona Lidia lent me for them <3 Complete with my mosquito net!

                                     Mary getting ready to brave the trip to the latrine!

                                  Cousin lovin <3

                                     Me and FM!! <3

                  Mary and I walking back from the beach while my mom stalked us from our balcony.