Ambitious

I got cut off last entry because Doñá Lorena was done making phone calls. Anyway...Watching the funeral, I thought about how lucky I a to see costumes and traditions all around the world...or at least in Latin America. People invite me into their lives and I just fit. I kind of love it!

After the funeral, Doña Lorena, Don Gustavo and I walked home (stopping at the cyber to make some phone calls.) I quickly packed and took a taxi to Doña Dulce Maria´s house. I watched Telenovelas with her and her 21 year old niece, Jaqueline. I played games and watched cartoons with Mario, Filena´s son. All of a sudden the water tank started to leak so we got the ladder out and Jaqueline climbed up to the top. The tank is in the patio of the house (in the center of the house there is a 5 X 5 ft opening in the roof, open to all the elements. They call that the patio. Anyway, I climbed up half way (scared of hights) but even from there it felt like I was on the top of the world....on top of the house at least...looking at the stars and the moon in the deep dark sky and feeling the warm breeze brush across my face. Amazing. It turned out that we had to turn the tank off so we went outside to turn the ¨key.¨ However, there was no key and nobody knew what to do. After digging around in the mud we decided to let the water pour and in the morning the tank was empty.There is never a dull moment in Nicaragua. Even when you think you are bored, just wait; something will happen. (I will repeat this again later in this post.)

Friday morning I woke to Mario Javier whispering, Katy, wake up!¨ It just so happened that the city water ¨se fue¨ so we had to take bucket showers!!! Jaqueline cleaned the house (that is her job) and I played with Mario and watched the Brazil v. Netherlands game (everyone here was rooting for Brazil.) We ate breakfast and then went to run some errands. Mario ate a footlong hot dog by himself and we all drank red Fanta (which made our tongues red!) We went grocery shopping and paid some bills. Later, we returned to the house and ate lunch. In the afternoon, I went to a meeting at Jaqueline´s school (she works as an English Teacher in Academia Europa, a redeemed language academy.) They asked me to be a substitute teacher on Saturday and I said yes! Friday night, I went back to Doña Lorena´s to watch a telenovela (Donde esta elisa?) Later, Adonis and I went for a walk to the lake and to drink a Tonya.
This morning I got up at 6:30am because I had to be to school by 7:30am. I could never do this in Minnesota but here it seems easier to wake up in the warmth. I taught an English class to high level students. 1 from Denmark (high schooler living in Nicaragua with her parents who ¨wanted something different¨) and 2 from Nicaragua. We had discussions and did some vocabulary activities. The program Academia Europa is very well organized and has good people running it. They have high expectations and use good language acquisition methodology. They offered me a full time position and man did I want to take it but I feel that I need to stay at Wellstone for one more year. They said the doors are always open :) Teaching English is hard because I don´t know any of the rules. I´d have to learn. All morning, we got updates on the Argentina v. Germany game. There were many disappointed students when Germany won.

After teaching, I went to visit Mario and Dulce Maria. Mario and I played (rode bikes and scooters around the house and threw the frisbee in the patio.) Then, I left for the park to watch the Spain v. Portugal game on the big LCD screen. Hundreds of Nicaraguan and gringo world cup fans gathered in the park to watch. They also had the very Latin American hoochymamma dancers and bass singer.

Now, I am sitting in Cafe Email trying to stop sweating and downloading pictures (check out facebook.)

Note: popular songs in Nicaragua

1. Time for Africa (Coke World Cup song) - Shakira
2. Wavin´ Flag (Official FIFA song) - K'naan feat David Bisbal
3. Baby - Justin Beeber
3. Alejandro - Lady Gaga

Tonight, Jaqueline, her friend Lenny, Adonis, Kelvin and I are going out dancing! Woohoo!