of beaches, home improvements, and errands

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WTF? I am sitting in the PCV office in Esteli and was just accosted by Jehovas' Witnesses. He was like, "Do you speak English? We are JW -" and that's where I interrupted him and said, "Yeah, I don't need this." And he was like, "You don't need what? God's love?" At which point I said, "Look, this is an office; I am working, have a nice day," and walked away.

But what I WANTED to say was, "YOU ARE WASTING YOUR TIME! GO BACK TO THE STATES!" But I didn't. Because that would be rude. And I'm having a great day and wasn't going to let some proselytizing gringo ruin that.

So! I am back in Esteli with my host family after a few glorious days at Playa Roca in Leon. There was lots of fun in the sun, wave jumping, wave riding, being tumbled by said waves, liters of beer, plenty of rum and juice, sunscreen applications, barefoot glory, spin the bottle, fireworks, truth or dare, skinny dipping to bring in the new year, and lots of catching up to do with all of my fellow Nica 48ers!

All in all, it was worth the time and money and I am so glad I got in at the last minute. However, after speaking English for nearly a week, and still speaking English with Isaac here in Esteli, and having such wonderful food variation for a week.... going back to site and eating rice and beans and speaking the Spanish is gonna be difficult.

Luckily, I have English classes to plan and someone waiting (impatiently) for my return. Lots of laundry to be done. And, as I lay in my big fachenta bed last night, I woke up at 1:30am with my mind racing. I have decided to indeed stay in my room with the T----- family for the next 2 years.

Yes, it is a small room. But I can make it work. I want the tiles gone and zinc for the roof, first. I have no idea how much zinc costs. So that's something to investigate. Next, I want a real mattress for my bed. Those two things alone will make my room 10x better. But then! Whoa! I want a shelf. And I want to paint one of the concrete block walls to lighten the place up.

So. Roof. Mattress. Shelves. Paint. And with that, I think my living situation will be like, pretty much awesome. And once I am comfortable in my own house and actually unpack my bags, I can start things.... like agriculture stuff. I realize that all of this will take time. Mostly because everything takes time here, and I don't have the money for all of the above mentioned things this month. Or even the next couple of months. So it will be a work in progress... and in the order mentioned above.

In other news, went to the PCMO while in Managua, and in my 4 months in Nicaragua I have lost 40 pounds. Which means all of my pants are huge and I end up wearing skirts a lot more often. And it means that I finally need to suck it up and go shopping. Thankfully, there are 18 million used clothing stores in Nicaragua, all with used clothes from the States, so it shouldn't be a hard search. And I wonder about selling my old pants? That could work....

Okay. Went to the bank. Am using the internet. Need to get a hair cut. And go to Super Las Segovias to buy ingredients for no-bake-cookies to make this afternoon with the fam. And study Spanish so I can get back in the swing of things before returning tomorrow to site.

PS Don Tomas! Look me up next time you visit! Yes, I am in Moropoto but have not made it further along to Las Sabanas or Cuzmapa yet, though there are Health PCV's in both of those communities that I plan to visit. Message forthcoming...

And on that note, all y'all that come to the Nica... to visit, to proselytize (I like that word today), for vacay or whatever - look me up!

over & out from the wilds of nicaragua,
-molly

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Comments

[Mom]

ok. Gotcha!
OK. Asked your Dad and found that,...well, YES!, of course, a "zinc" roof is but another name for a galvanized metal roof. Silly me! ;)