I have just come off of almost a week spent in the capital city of Managua. The reason I am here is that there has been wave after wave of rain storms inundating Nicaragua. We are in the middle of rainy season, as well as hurricane season, but normally rains run like clockwork, coming in the afternoon and then quitting. Well the rains began last Monday, the 8th and now writing this on the following Tuesday the 16th it has been raining in some part of the country ever since. In the mountains this is creating landslides, avalanches and roads being washed away.
Last Friday, the 12th, I received a phone call from Peace Corps saying that I had to come to the capital of the country. It was no longer safe for me to stay in my village. While on the way, we passed a section of the road that had fallen away. The two lane Pan American Highway, was reduced to one lane. This is an issue for the country because it is their main highway. I have to admit that it was a bit nerve racking to have in the back of my mind that I am traveling through mountain highways and pieces were crumbling.
Once in the capital we were put up in hotels. We were glued to satellite weather reports to see how long it would last and how bad it would get. The strangest part was that there was very little rain where we were, but we kept getting reports of severe flooding, families losing their homes and mass evacuations. It is strange to think that some of this was going on where we were previously living. The low lying areas in the north were the hardest hit. All of the water that was falling in the mountains were I live was filtering down and flooding the rivers in the low lands.
Fortunately the rains should be stopping, so things can begin to dry out. Other than the obvious immediate damage for the country there is going to be problems to come. A lot of the bean harvest has been destroyed. A majority of this country relies on beans and rice to survive; this will be devastating for thousands of families. The price will be rising to actually surpass the price of chicken per pound. Since most people eat beans in place of chicken because they can not afford it, we shall see what happens.
Another issue that will be emerging will be the drinking water. At this point it is mostly contaminated. This has not even been an issue discussed in the news at this point, but it is an inevitable side effect of massive flooding.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Success and Failure
The school year is quickly wrapping up, in fact I have less than a month left, since my last day giving class this year will be the 8th of November. I have certainly had my ups and downs this year professionally. The course that I am giving is called “La Empresa Creativa”, or “The Creative Business”. The point of the class is to give high school students other options after high school, since most of them will not be going off to college. We are also trying to teach them to look at something differently and try to make it better, in the process giving them an opportunity to make money.
To say that this whole process has been a challenge is an understatement. To change a culture is next to impossible; it is like carving a marble statue with a Q-tip. One must take seriously the mantra “if you can make better one persons life…”, otherwise time seems to be wasted.
How the course works is that the students form groups, which will become their business partners and they spend time together developing the different aspects of their business such as the idea, organization, production, marketing, budgets, initial capital, etc. The culmination of this course is that Peace Corps has a series of competitions where the students compete against other schools. The final competition has prizes such as scholarships, internships and cash.
In trying not to downplay the circumstances that the other business volunteers are placed in, mine is certainly distinct. They are all working for public high schools that have set teachers and organization. They also have a set of obstacles that I am glad I do not have to contend with, such as enormous class size and office politics. My situation is different because the school I work with is not even a real school, but more so an after school program, run by a NGO (non governmental organization). The issues that I run into are attendance, homework being done and being taken seriously that this information is important.
My students have real school as well, so to have to do extra work for me, understandably, is not high on their priority list. I am not able to have actual grades, since they would not mean anything and carry no weight. I also get very little support from the people who are supposed to be “in charge” of these students. Suffice it to say I was a bit nervous when it came time to prepare for the competitions. I had a few groups tell me that they did not yet have a product, although I had not been privy to this as we were doing the business development of the product they told me they had. I spent about a month giving a crash course on all the information that I had covered prior. I had laid down the hammer in saying if they did not have things done by specific dates, they could not compete.
The day of the competition I was clearly nervous. I had invited judges as well as prominent people from the community to see the work done by the students. I had left it up to some of the people I work with to decorate and help with other aspects of the day. This was a huge leap of faith because I have not met too many people here who I can count on. I figured that they would not want to look bad either, so I crossed my fingers. The day went off without a hitch. It did last longer than I had anticipated, but then again everything takes longer here. Most of the groups really had their acts together and knew their material. The judges were impressed, as was I. Most of the groups had a different product that they had told me two weeks prior, but they had crammed to put together their business plan and prototypes. They actually learned how to do what I taught them to do, remarkable!
To say that this whole process has been a challenge is an understatement. To change a culture is next to impossible; it is like carving a marble statue with a Q-tip. One must take seriously the mantra “if you can make better one persons life…”, otherwise time seems to be wasted.
How the course works is that the students form groups, which will become their business partners and they spend time together developing the different aspects of their business such as the idea, organization, production, marketing, budgets, initial capital, etc. The culmination of this course is that Peace Corps has a series of competitions where the students compete against other schools. The final competition has prizes such as scholarships, internships and cash.
In trying not to downplay the circumstances that the other business volunteers are placed in, mine is certainly distinct. They are all working for public high schools that have set teachers and organization. They also have a set of obstacles that I am glad I do not have to contend with, such as enormous class size and office politics. My situation is different because the school I work with is not even a real school, but more so an after school program, run by a NGO (non governmental organization). The issues that I run into are attendance, homework being done and being taken seriously that this information is important.
My students have real school as well, so to have to do extra work for me, understandably, is not high on their priority list. I am not able to have actual grades, since they would not mean anything and carry no weight. I also get very little support from the people who are supposed to be “in charge” of these students. Suffice it to say I was a bit nervous when it came time to prepare for the competitions. I had a few groups tell me that they did not yet have a product, although I had not been privy to this as we were doing the business development of the product they told me they had. I spent about a month giving a crash course on all the information that I had covered prior. I had laid down the hammer in saying if they did not have things done by specific dates, they could not compete.
The day of the competition I was clearly nervous. I had invited judges as well as prominent people from the community to see the work done by the students. I had left it up to some of the people I work with to decorate and help with other aspects of the day. This was a huge leap of faith because I have not met too many people here who I can count on. I figured that they would not want to look bad either, so I crossed my fingers. The day went off without a hitch. It did last longer than I had anticipated, but then again everything takes longer here. Most of the groups really had their acts together and knew their material. The judges were impressed, as was I. Most of the groups had a different product that they had told me two weeks prior, but they had crammed to put together their business plan and prototypes. They actually learned how to do what I taught them to do, remarkable!
Adventures at a concert in Nicaragua
Last weekend I decided an interesting experience to have would be to go to a music concert in Nicaragua. The act was Black Eyes Peas, a fairly popular hip hop/ pop group from the US. I got together with a group of volunteers from various organizations and we bought tickets. Prices of tickets to the concerts here were certainly an indicator of the haves and have nots. Normal tickets were $12 and these were in the bleacher like seats, or you could pay $50 for standing room, much closer to the action. The common consensus between us was that no one really liked the band enough to pay that much and being smashed in a mob of thousands, many of whom were looking to pick your pockets was not very appealing. We all arrived at the stadium together and since the seats were not assigned, we picked out the best we could find. I am sure it’s as much of a shock to you as it was to me, that the section we had purchased were like nosebleeds, but instead of height it was distance that was the issue. The concert was to begin at 8:30pm sharp, but true to Nicaraguan fashion it did not start until about 10pm. A few things worthy of pointing out was that there was a wall of chicken wire separating these seats from the field where the band was as well as all the people who had paid more for closer tickets. The beverages offered were rum by the bottle or by the shot. It was certainly a bit different from selling soft drinks and beers. For food choices in place of hot dogs they had a plastic bucket filled with cold, unwrapped, tacos and enchiladas.
Finally the concert began. I noticed that there were a lot of people crowded against the fence dividing the stands from the field. Suddenly you could see people making a run for it through the fence. It seems that people had cut a big hole and were rushing to blend in with the other fans on the field before the police tackled them. Out of nowhere about 30 police ran towards the hole with batons raised high and were able to deter anyone else from making the dash. I then noticed in another part of the fence there was a police officer guarding another hole, but periodically letting one or two people through onto the field. This sparked my interest so I asked one of the people standing around what was going on. He told me that for an extra 50 cordobas, the equivalent of $2.50 you can pay a police officer to get onto the field. Well due to my rum judgment I though this to be a fun idea. Well I approached a guy on the other end of the fence and asked if we could get through. I handed him a 100 cordoba bill, about $5. He said that I had to wait a few minutes and then the police officer would let me and my friend crawl through the hole in the fence. Well after about 10 minutes of pressing against the fence with a police officer pressing his back to me, he moved out of the way as we snuck in.
As we were walking slowly onto the field to escape being obvious, 6 police were running in our direction. Fortunately they were occupied by carrying off a fan who had apparently gotten a bit aggressive. Well we were able to get into the mass crowd and blend in, well as well as two 6 feet, white, gringos can blend into short Nicaraguans. The concert was a good time, I will certainly be making a repeat appearance.
Finally the concert began. I noticed that there were a lot of people crowded against the fence dividing the stands from the field. Suddenly you could see people making a run for it through the fence. It seems that people had cut a big hole and were rushing to blend in with the other fans on the field before the police tackled them. Out of nowhere about 30 police ran towards the hole with batons raised high and were able to deter anyone else from making the dash. I then noticed in another part of the fence there was a police officer guarding another hole, but periodically letting one or two people through onto the field. This sparked my interest so I asked one of the people standing around what was going on. He told me that for an extra 50 cordobas, the equivalent of $2.50 you can pay a police officer to get onto the field. Well due to my rum judgment I though this to be a fun idea. Well I approached a guy on the other end of the fence and asked if we could get through. I handed him a 100 cordoba bill, about $5. He said that I had to wait a few minutes and then the police officer would let me and my friend crawl through the hole in the fence. Well after about 10 minutes of pressing against the fence with a police officer pressing his back to me, he moved out of the way as we snuck in.
As we were walking slowly onto the field to escape being obvious, 6 police were running in our direction. Fortunately they were occupied by carrying off a fan who had apparently gotten a bit aggressive. Well we were able to get into the mass crowd and blend in, well as well as two 6 feet, white, gringos can blend into short Nicaraguans. The concert was a good time, I will certainly be making a repeat appearance.
Thursday, September 6, 2007
The Hurricane that wasn’t
On Tuesday, September 4th 2007 I lived through my first hurricane. It came bursting onto the coast of Nicaragua with a category 5 rating. It took out whole villages and caused gusts of wind up to 180 miles per hour. Due to the trajectory of it we were, as Peace Corps volunteers, told to group together depending on our location. The city in which I live is in fact the meeting point, so I was to stay in a hotel until further notice. It is a bit awkward telling your native friends and neighbors that you are being evacuated due to the danger and good luck to them. I packed belongings with the possibility, if things got really bad, everything left in my house would be ruined. Basically that consisted of my I-Pod, Camera, Lap Top and Passport. I rushed to the hotel, as the skies could not look less threatening.
The first night, all of the volunteers in my area were together and watching, on CNN, the advancement of the swirling red ball. Like every weather report, things were changing moment to moment. At one moment it was heading north of us, the other it was losing strength, next moment it was regaining strength. Still the night sky was clear and star filled. The next day, it had hit Nicaragua directly on the Caribbean coast at a category 5. It was coming directly at us in the north, and still holding strong, but having dropped to a category 4. We were told that it was to hit my location around noon. The skies at around 11 am began getting a bit cloudy and drizzle began to fall. We were hidden away in the safety of our hotel, but outside the children were still going to school and it was a normal day for all the rest of the city. I asked around a bit about past hurricanes and I was told that in our town, surrounded by miles of mountains, there is never any major impact by the winds of a hurricane, but the rain is what to watch out for. It causes flash floods and mudslides.
Come noon the outer reaches of the hurricane, according to the Doppler radar, were touching my city. The rained increased a bit, but still no wind to speak of. This continued all afternoon. At about 6 pm the storm had lost power, but still was advancing strong. It was directly above us at this point. The rain never got any stronger than a torrential drizzle and the winds were a whipping 2-3 miles per hour. The volunteers all huddled in my hotel room, watching DVDs and drinking vodka, sprites and pineapple juice. Were clearly were all terrified. I had experienced rain much harder since I have been here as well as stronger winds. Well that was about it. Nothing much ever materialized and it had moved on to Honduras.
I do not want to take anything away from the hurricane, it certainly did some damage on the coast. I was kind of hoping though for a bit more excitement. I am the type who likes to watch a bull fight in hopes of a god goring, or watching a car race for the accidents. I guess I should consider myself lucky that things were not worse. As of today, two days later, things are back to normal as if nothing ever happened. I did feel somewhat ridiculous to return to my neighborhood and see everyone again. I am sure they were thinking, “are you going to be evacuated for every rainstorm?”
I can now say that I am a hurricane survivor.
The first night, all of the volunteers in my area were together and watching, on CNN, the advancement of the swirling red ball. Like every weather report, things were changing moment to moment. At one moment it was heading north of us, the other it was losing strength, next moment it was regaining strength. Still the night sky was clear and star filled. The next day, it had hit Nicaragua directly on the Caribbean coast at a category 5. It was coming directly at us in the north, and still holding strong, but having dropped to a category 4. We were told that it was to hit my location around noon. The skies at around 11 am began getting a bit cloudy and drizzle began to fall. We were hidden away in the safety of our hotel, but outside the children were still going to school and it was a normal day for all the rest of the city. I asked around a bit about past hurricanes and I was told that in our town, surrounded by miles of mountains, there is never any major impact by the winds of a hurricane, but the rain is what to watch out for. It causes flash floods and mudslides.
Come noon the outer reaches of the hurricane, according to the Doppler radar, were touching my city. The rained increased a bit, but still no wind to speak of. This continued all afternoon. At about 6 pm the storm had lost power, but still was advancing strong. It was directly above us at this point. The rain never got any stronger than a torrential drizzle and the winds were a whipping 2-3 miles per hour. The volunteers all huddled in my hotel room, watching DVDs and drinking vodka, sprites and pineapple juice. Were clearly were all terrified. I had experienced rain much harder since I have been here as well as stronger winds. Well that was about it. Nothing much ever materialized and it had moved on to Honduras.
I do not want to take anything away from the hurricane, it certainly did some damage on the coast. I was kind of hoping though for a bit more excitement. I am the type who likes to watch a bull fight in hopes of a god goring, or watching a car race for the accidents. I guess I should consider myself lucky that things were not worse. As of today, two days later, things are back to normal as if nothing ever happened. I did feel somewhat ridiculous to return to my neighborhood and see everyone again. I am sure they were thinking, “are you going to be evacuated for every rainstorm?”
I can now say that I am a hurricane survivor.
Purified Water Is For Sissies
I, since I have been here, have considered myself pretty tough. From the beginning I chose to throw caution to the wind and drink the local tap water. My rational, other then me being a bad ass, was that I am going to be living here for a long time and I might as well get used to the fun new organisms here. The water here has different bacteria, as well as an assortment of parasites and amoebas. I figured, who was I kidding by drinking purified bottled water to avoid sicknesses? If I did not get something from drinking water, I would from a salad, brushing my teeth, breathing etc. So I dove in. I drank pretty much any tap water I could get my hands on. I felt like quite a native when I would go to a restaurant, ask for water, and when they brought me a chilled water bottle with a glass and no ice, I would shoe it away and say tap is fine. Sometimes I would even get impressed looked from the servers. I wonder now if that was because even they don’t drink the water in those places.
Up to this point I have been pretty lucky with not getting any sicknesses from the contamination of water, I think that my system is clearly accustom to the water and I have now intestines of steel. I have drunk some pretty questionable glasses of water, but I am still here.
This is all to change however starting today. I was informed, by a local NGO (nongovernmental organization), that the water in my town is contaminated. They have apparently just tested the water here and found unsafe levels of lead and arsenic. For almost a year and a half I have been drinking 2-3 liters of water with lead and arsenic. LEAD AND ARSENIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The effects of lead are: may cause impaired mental function. Other symptoms are appetite loss, abdominal pain, constipation, fatigue, sleeplessness, irritability and headache. Long-term exposure to arsenic in drinking water can cause cancer in the skin, lungs, bladder and kidney. It can also cause other skin changes such as thickening and pigmentation.
So what is going to happen in my community now that this information is known? This is certainly a legitimate question. Unfortunately the answer is nothing. The NGO has decided that they are probably not going to release the results. Why? Yet Another fantastic question. This is due to the fact that nothing will be done by the government if the information is released. The money does not exist to upgrade the filtration process. If the community finds out there will be a panic. Most people can not afford to buy bottled water, so they will be forced to use water that they know is contaminated. In this case, it is assumed that ignorance is bliss. My personal question is do I tell people I am friends with in the community? I know full well that they can not afford bottled water and they will tell people they know, eventually creating the panic that is trying to be avoided. Should I respect the decision of the NGO and whoever wants to keep it suppressed?
Suffice it to say I have, as of now, switched. I will be drinking strictly bottled water from this point on. This is certainly not an easy task. It is kind of like being a vegetarian. I have to inconvenience everyone I come into contact with. When I am at peoples houses and they offer me coffee, fresh fruit juice, etc. I have to turn them down and ask for either a coke or something else bottled.
Basically cut me some slack when I finally come home. Due to these contaminants my brain has slowed down to a crawl. I have forgotten most of your names, or even what you look like.
Up to this point I have been pretty lucky with not getting any sicknesses from the contamination of water, I think that my system is clearly accustom to the water and I have now intestines of steel. I have drunk some pretty questionable glasses of water, but I am still here.
This is all to change however starting today. I was informed, by a local NGO (nongovernmental organization), that the water in my town is contaminated. They have apparently just tested the water here and found unsafe levels of lead and arsenic. For almost a year and a half I have been drinking 2-3 liters of water with lead and arsenic. LEAD AND ARSENIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The effects of lead are: may cause impaired mental function. Other symptoms are appetite loss, abdominal pain, constipation, fatigue, sleeplessness, irritability and headache. Long-term exposure to arsenic in drinking water can cause cancer in the skin, lungs, bladder and kidney. It can also cause other skin changes such as thickening and pigmentation.
So what is going to happen in my community now that this information is known? This is certainly a legitimate question. Unfortunately the answer is nothing. The NGO has decided that they are probably not going to release the results. Why? Yet Another fantastic question. This is due to the fact that nothing will be done by the government if the information is released. The money does not exist to upgrade the filtration process. If the community finds out there will be a panic. Most people can not afford to buy bottled water, so they will be forced to use water that they know is contaminated. In this case, it is assumed that ignorance is bliss. My personal question is do I tell people I am friends with in the community? I know full well that they can not afford bottled water and they will tell people they know, eventually creating the panic that is trying to be avoided. Should I respect the decision of the NGO and whoever wants to keep it suppressed?
Suffice it to say I have, as of now, switched. I will be drinking strictly bottled water from this point on. This is certainly not an easy task. It is kind of like being a vegetarian. I have to inconvenience everyone I come into contact with. When I am at peoples houses and they offer me coffee, fresh fruit juice, etc. I have to turn them down and ask for either a coke or something else bottled.
Basically cut me some slack when I finally come home. Due to these contaminants my brain has slowed down to a crawl. I have forgotten most of your names, or even what you look like.
Monday, August 20, 2007
Sorry for the delay
I would like to apologize for being such an inconsistent blog writer. It has been almost 3 months since my last entry. To be honest I have been struggling to think of a cool story to share. My life these days has been pretty average. I am giving class during the week and hanging out with friends on the weekends. These days I think that I am getting quite used to this life in Nicaragua. Things are not shocking and different to me anymore. I was not suprised to be bombarded by 10 chickens in my house while I was trying to read and relax, nor the fact that some of my Nicaraguan friends spit the floor of my living room. I am slightly nervous that things are not strange to me anymore. I just hope I will be able to assimilate back into civilization when I am finished here.
The main thing that is frustrating me recently is the fact that now for 3 months straight the power company has been cutting power from 7am to 2pm. This is not a huge deal for me, since there is daylight and other than using the internet, I am not tremendously affected. The problem that I have is that it is devistating for businesses. Imagine trying to run a restaurant during the day when you can not refrigerate your products. Also for any company that need to use computers during the work day, they are not able to function. When the power goes out so does the water.
Apparently the main problem lies in the fact that the Nicaraguan government has been using two late 1970's diesel powered power plants. Unfortunantly the cost to run these things is more expensive than what they can collect charging people for the power they produce. There does not seem to be any light at the end of the tunnel either. They say that things "should" change next year, but I imagine that is not the real truth.
The main thing that is frustrating me recently is the fact that now for 3 months straight the power company has been cutting power from 7am to 2pm. This is not a huge deal for me, since there is daylight and other than using the internet, I am not tremendously affected. The problem that I have is that it is devistating for businesses. Imagine trying to run a restaurant during the day when you can not refrigerate your products. Also for any company that need to use computers during the work day, they are not able to function. When the power goes out so does the water.
Apparently the main problem lies in the fact that the Nicaraguan government has been using two late 1970's diesel powered power plants. Unfortunantly the cost to run these things is more expensive than what they can collect charging people for the power they produce. There does not seem to be any light at the end of the tunnel either. They say that things "should" change next year, but I imagine that is not the real truth.
Friday, June 1, 2007
Ode to the Rainy Season
Finally the rains have arrived. After going through some of the driest 6 months I have ever experienced, of everything in my house being covered with a layer of dust only seconds after dusting and hot days with sweaty nights. This is now a time of fruits so succulent that juice runs down your chin. All of the mountains transform from a distressing brown to a lavish green. It was the equivalent of winter for foliage. In the past 6 months it rained maybe 3 times. The colors of blooming trees are astonishing and almost counterfeit looking. I have been waiting for this time for quite a while. I have so been looking forward to cloudy days, cooler days and chilly nights. Being a Chicago native I hate myself for wishing it were cold and gloomy, but I have learned to live with myself.
Unfortunately I have found myself in a situation where I just can not win. Since the rains have begun it has rarely stopped raining. Like the first snow it is a magical time. Everything looks beautiful. Also like snow though it becomes quite a nuisance. When it rains here there are two ways in which it likes to present itself. The first is a torrential downpour where water leaks through walls, roofs and floods any possible walking path. Typically it is short lived. Umbrellas are little match for this because it comes down at all angles leaving your top half only slightly saturated while your bottom half resembles stepping out of a pool. The other way is a slow steady rain that lasts all day. This is annoying too in that you never catch a break, when dashing from place to place, without getting soaked, unless it becomes second nature to dress in plastic in the morning.
This is the season for mud. My backyard is basically a mud wrestling pit. I would not have any problem with this if I did not have to walk through this when going from room to room, since that is how my house is designed. I had thought that I was a genius in paying the neighborhood kids to collect rocks and make me a walking path. Well I did not take into account that this path would soon sink into the mud, apparently rocks do not float in mud, who knew? So I am back to square one and track mud into every room in my house. Also while walking I have had to put away my sandals. As I walk around town it is impossible to avoid mud pits. As you walk through this it covers your bare foot and squishes up through your toes. I could normally live with this if I didn’t think about what percent of that mud is horse, cow and dog feces. “Serenity Now”
Bugs! Well since the ants have been displaced by water filled tunnels they have joined my living quarters in mass. I have recently been introduced to an ant the size of a finger. It was moving rocks I might have considered skipping in a lake. There are also flying insects that look like ants with wings that come in swarms at night. They are attracted to the lights so the only way to avoid having a shower of flying ants is to sit in complete darkness. Mosquitoes have gotten much worse and have defeated me by confining my time at home under a mosquito net. “Serenity Now”
Teaching will become more difficult as well. Since most of my students come from other communities by bike, they chose not to make the hour journey through waterfalls. The ones who do come must strain to hear my screaming as the rain pounds against the tin roof. I am looking forward to my trips to rural communities in the back of a pickup truck and showing up looking as if I swam there with my clothes on. “Serenity Now”
Unfortunately I have found myself in a situation where I just can not win. Since the rains have begun it has rarely stopped raining. Like the first snow it is a magical time. Everything looks beautiful. Also like snow though it becomes quite a nuisance. When it rains here there are two ways in which it likes to present itself. The first is a torrential downpour where water leaks through walls, roofs and floods any possible walking path. Typically it is short lived. Umbrellas are little match for this because it comes down at all angles leaving your top half only slightly saturated while your bottom half resembles stepping out of a pool. The other way is a slow steady rain that lasts all day. This is annoying too in that you never catch a break, when dashing from place to place, without getting soaked, unless it becomes second nature to dress in plastic in the morning.
This is the season for mud. My backyard is basically a mud wrestling pit. I would not have any problem with this if I did not have to walk through this when going from room to room, since that is how my house is designed. I had thought that I was a genius in paying the neighborhood kids to collect rocks and make me a walking path. Well I did not take into account that this path would soon sink into the mud, apparently rocks do not float in mud, who knew? So I am back to square one and track mud into every room in my house. Also while walking I have had to put away my sandals. As I walk around town it is impossible to avoid mud pits. As you walk through this it covers your bare foot and squishes up through your toes. I could normally live with this if I didn’t think about what percent of that mud is horse, cow and dog feces. “Serenity Now”
Bugs! Well since the ants have been displaced by water filled tunnels they have joined my living quarters in mass. I have recently been introduced to an ant the size of a finger. It was moving rocks I might have considered skipping in a lake. There are also flying insects that look like ants with wings that come in swarms at night. They are attracted to the lights so the only way to avoid having a shower of flying ants is to sit in complete darkness. Mosquitoes have gotten much worse and have defeated me by confining my time at home under a mosquito net. “Serenity Now”
Teaching will become more difficult as well. Since most of my students come from other communities by bike, they chose not to make the hour journey through waterfalls. The ones who do come must strain to hear my screaming as the rain pounds against the tin roof. I am looking forward to my trips to rural communities in the back of a pickup truck and showing up looking as if I swam there with my clothes on. “Serenity Now”
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