Rainnn

So today marks 12 days straight of rain here in my little corner of Nicaragua...and I actually have to say I kinda love it! Sure it leaves us with having to choose between mud splattered, thrice worn clothes, or “clean” clothes that have been hanging inside our houses to dry for three days but are still damp and have acquired a mildewy stench...but other than that, it's actually really refreshing! I didn't realize how hellishly hot it always was here until it started cooling down. I'm currently sitting here with jeans and a hoodie on and it feels amazing! I have my front door closed to try and keep my house a little warmer (even though that's a joke because my windows don't close and my walls don't touch my ceiling), and I'm drinking my second cup of hot tea and absolutely loving it! Sleeping has turned back into experiencing a little piece of heaven each night as I get under my covers and drift off into dreams to the sound of rain on my zinc roof. These twelve days (and nights) straight without sweating have been such a blessing. Today's actually the second of these 12 days that's a “rain day” from school!! That's right...since the roads have turned into rivers, there was no class today! That might seem a little extreme, but since getting to school here means walking or riding bikes...doing so in monsoon-like rain just isn't going to happen. (There are also tons of students that have to cross rivers to get to their schools, so even on the days when we have had class, we've only had about half of our kids.) My nights have been less social these past few days because the rain literally kills anyone's “ganas,” or desire, to leave the house. Sure my friends and I have braved the rain a few nights to hang out, but my students and random visitors have seemingly disappeared! This means I've had blissfully peaceful noches with my door closed...laid up in my hammock with a blanket, tea (thanks mom), and some awesome movies (thanks Steven and Uncle Richie!). I didn't realize how long it had been since I'd actually watched a movie, and now I'm finding it's my new guilty pleasure.

I guess I should stop being selfish though, and should join the bandwagon of people who are wishing the rain would stop already. I live alone and therefore don't have piles and piles of clothes waiting to be washed from my kids who were playing in the rain or from my husband who was trudging through the mud in his plantain farm. I don't have any crops that are being ruined because of the saturated soil (unless you count my school gardens which have been completely neglected these past two weeks due to the “pereza,” or laziness, that the rain has caused me and are therefore probably destroyed.) I teach indoors, and although I have to bike a few kilometers in the rain to get to some of my schools, I usually dry off during the hours I'm giving class and don't return home soaked to the bone (unlike my best friend who is a landscaper/caretaker at the local convent and had to clean up a tree that had fallen there yesterday). Although my latrine roof leaks enough to make it feel like I'm peeing under the open sky, the roof of my house is close to flawless, especially when compared to the rest of the houses I've been in these past few days, with their buckets scattered around the house catching gallons of water each day. I also happen to live in one of the departments of Nicaragua that isn't experiencing severe flooding. Up in the north, they haven't been so lucky. There are tons of towns that have been completely washed out due to proximity to rivers, lakes, and just general inundation. In the capital city, people's houses have been ruined, and bridges have been overtaken by the rivers they were built across.

So while these past few days have meant relaxation, refreshment, and awesome rain forest-like surroundings for me, they have meant destruction and devastation for some, and just general frustration and boredom for others.

***Gahhhh!*** I just got back...While writing this blog, I decided to run out to the store because the rain stopped and had turned into just a misty sprinkle which has been happening for half-hour stretches a few times a day lately. I needed to refill my oatmeal supply and decided I'd also buy some milk to make “cafe con leche.” Since I'm only a block from the corner store, and I'm an idiot, I decided I'd go quick on my bike and make it back before the rain started again. Apparently I have not learned that leaving without my umbrella and jacket during days like this just makes God (and my neighbors) shake their heads amusedly when the rain picks back up just as Krista's 30 meters from home and gets her once semi-dry “clean” clothes soaked. I should've known better and I can literally hear the umbrella I ignored, mocking me with “I told you so” from it's new home right next to the door.