Another Heinz Post

That's right - more ketchup!

(Get it?  'Ketchup'… 'catch up'...)

Let's see… oh, yeah!

Boy, is it hot.  And dry.  February, March, April constitute the biggest chunk of the 'dry season' here and they are not kidding.  There has been only one rain of any significance in the last couple of months and about all it did was settle the dust.  It sounded like thunder on our corrugated metal roof, which was incredibly awesome!

Last fall when we arrived on the island the first time around, Ometepe was green and lush, the lake was full and the Rio Istian was actually accessible by kayak.  Now the island is not so green, not so lush.  It's still beautiful but the fields are dry, some of the trees have shed leaves and the little ponds scattered about that appear when it rains regularly are no more.  As we walk down the road, little clouds of dust rise up with every step we take, like Pig Pen in the Charlie Brown comics.  The Rio Istian has reverted to its natural state - that is to say the swamp that it really is, accessible only by a portage of a couple of hundred meters.  When it's been raining, you can kayak in and out easily.  The picture below is from last fall when there is a plenty of water.

Looking out the mouth of the 'river' to the lake

There is a piece of driftwood on 'Playa Gringo', what we've named the beach at our house.  It's a log, about ten feet long, with a piece that juts upward.  When we moved in the only part of this that was exposed was the piece that sticks up.  Now, the log is completely exposed, with an additional fifteen feet or so of rocky beach between it and and the lake.  The water level is way down!  It means we have to walk farther to go swimming, damn it.  I know, I know - first world problems, right?

In November, we didn't even know this rock existed

We are fortunate to have running water in our house.  A kitchen sink, a bathroom sink, toilet and shower.  It truly is a blessing.  But during this dry season, there are many days when there is no water available.  The village has no real reservoir.  There is an aquifer and when it's dry, it's dry.  The water supply comes off the volcano and it's kind of 'first come, first served' meaning those that live higher up the hill get water first.  The lower downhill you live, the less water is available.  While there are many benefits to living on the lake as we do, we are about as close to the end of the line as we could be!

The aforementioned sink, toilet, and shower

This means that when the water is running, even a dripping trickle, we fill pots, pans, water bottles, pitchers.  We fill a bucket from the lake to rinse dishes and flush the toilet.  At night, after a long hot day, nothing feels better than a cool shower.  When there is no water, we climb the barb wire fence, stumble across the rocky beach in the dark, wade out into the lake until we're about waist deep and dump buckets over our heads or even go for a short swim.  It's a little creepy being in the water in the dark.  It's a huge lake and the inability to see the far shore or even beyond the next few waves is a little anxiety inducing.  Not exactly sure what I think is in the water that should make me afraid but…. SHARK!!  Just kidding.  There are bull sharks in the lake, but not in this area.  They hang out southeast of here, where the Rio San Juan runs out to the Caribbean.  But the stars!  Oh my!  The stars are amazing!  You can get lost staring at the sky at night.  Virtually no ambient light means the heavens look so close.  Awe inspiring.

There have been stretches of several days with no water.  Rinsing in the lake only goes so far, so on a couple of occasions we've showered at Hacienda Merida.  They are on their own well, so have a fairly consistent water supply.  We've also purchased several 2 liter bottles of water to have on hand in case things get really bad.  So far, so good - and the rains usually start in May, so we're almost there!

[I think 'Dripping Trickle' should be the name of a whisky or a bluegrass band.]

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We spotted our first hummingbird!  That was pretty cool.  So cool that now the hunt is on for a DIY feeder, one we could make from recycled or scrap material.  If anyone has any ideas, let us know.  We've found a few ideas online and are experimenting.

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We are both intelligent individuals with a solid grasp of the English language.  We know we're new at the teaching thing but we believe we're capable of figuring out how to succeed at what we're doing.  We're both driven to excel at this.  However…

… there have been a few times when students have asked us questions that have truly stumped us.  We're not so proud or cocky that we BS an answer.  We tell them straight up that we don't know and we'll research the answer.  Which we do.  But it is humbling when we get stuck!  A student in one of our adult beginner classes asked us to explain the difference between 'make' and 'do' - ex. I do the laundry; I make dinner.  "Why?"  Good question!  We found the explanation and did a whole class on it, and it cleared up the confusion.  We learn as much as our students sometimes.

Another great example was a question about the use of 'could' and 'would' in the first conditional (only allowed in specific circumstances).  Another:  'I will help you carry the couch' vs. 'I will help you to carry the couch' (both okay, but one or the other may sound better to you depending on your particular dialect of English).

English are is hard.

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Bex! took me to visit the kindergarten class at the public school in the village.  It was a blast!  Much more organized and structured than what we see at OBS, although we're making improvements with our kids.  They start each day with breakfast (supplied by the Ministry of Education), then they go outside for morning exercise - songs, active games, calisthenics.  We led them through the ever-popular 'Hokey Pokey' and 'Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes'.  The teacher, Nellie, is great with the kids.  They told us we are welcome to visit any time we'd like.

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Like many houses here, we have an 'antena parabolica' on the roof of our house.  It's a satellite dish used to get a TV feed.  We don't have a television so we don't use the dish.  No time for Spanish-language telenovelas (soap operas) anyway.  One day we were sitting on the porch working on lessons, the wind was blowing hard and had been for quite some time, with huge gusts.  We heard a loud 'BANG' that sounded like it came from inside the house.  Assuming it was one of the heavy wooden shutters slamming in the wind, we got up to investigate but found nothing out of order.  A short time later, I walked around the side of the house and saw our dish on the ground.  The wind had ripped it right off the roof!  Hamilton checked the roof for damage and it passed inspection.  Whew!!

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We teach a class at our friend Noldan's house.  His parents are great people.  Classes finish after dark sets in, so they always have someone walk Bex! home, at least far enough up the road until I meet up with her.  The village is plenty safe but it's a nice gesture and we are grateful for their friendship.  Bex! was walking home from a class one evening, being escorted by Noldan's little brother Yasir, when they saw a man in the road ahead dropping a big rock on something.  The guy walked off, so they went over to look.  It was a snake.  And it was still alive, although mortally wounded.  Yasir finished it off.  I came by a few minutes later, from my class on the opposite end of town.  We looked at the snake - pretty sure it was a fer-de-lance.  Yasir had a different name for it - a Spanish name, obviously - but said it was one of the most dangerous snakes on the island.  AKA, if it bites you and you don't go to the hospital, you die.  At the very least, you'll lose some weight - click the link to see what I'm talking about.

Yikes.

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Ometepe es la mayor isla del mundo dentro de un lago de agua dulce

The lake sometimes reminds us who is in charge.  Sometimes the water is calm, serene.  For a few weeks, however, it was angry and violent.  This is a large body of water, so when the waves get going they can be pretty nasty.  Our house is on the lake and situated between Hacienda Merida and the Rio Istian, one of the most popular kayaking destinations.  Several times during this angry stretch, we found kayaks stashed at our beach because tourists just couldn't handle the water.  They bailed out, making for the nearest place to come ashore, then would walk back to the hotel.  Smart move, too.

Really sad news - the lake showed just how angry it can be by taking two lives from the village in a weeks' time.  The first was a young man who was out fishing with his brothers.  The stories conflict on details, but what we heard was that he was using one of those circular nets to fish, the kind with weights around the edge that you throw out.  They sink to the bottom then you pull them up, drawing the edges together and netting fish.  In a poor village like this, fishing gear is valuable and it appeared that the net got caught on rocks on the lake bed and he dove down to free it and possibly got tangled up.  It took them several days to find his body.  Very sad times. 

That same day, a friend of ours was cooling off from the hot day and dove into the lake off the dock at Hacienda Merida.  As I said above, the water level is dramatically lower than normal, which Jamie found out when he hit the rocky bottom - with his face.  A nasty gash on his forehead, another right below his eye and 30 some odd stitches later…

And sadly, a week later some young folks were enjoying the lake at another nearby dock on yet another dry hot day.  A young man did a back flip off the dock and landed on his neck right on a rock, killing him instantly.  

When a community this small loses one person, let alone two, it has such an impact on everyone.  People of this age are earning money for their families, working the farm, working in tourism.  They are 'bread winners'.  Losing them is bad enough, of course, but it has many other consequences that go beyond their passing.  

So, hug your loved ones, please.

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After one of our afternoon beginner classes failed due to lack of attendance, we decided to replace it with an early morning session.  This class is extra awesome because we hold it right on our porch, twice a week at 7 AM.  This one immediately took off!  We had to buy more plastic chairs to accommodate the number of people, and may have to add to our collection soon.  Bex! loves early mornings.  Umm, yeah.  I am not what one would call a 'morning person'.  But this class is a great way to start the day, with eager people who are so excited to learn.  We are thinking of adding a day to this one, to make it three classes a week.

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As part of our financial planning while on this mission to teach, we have an entertainment budget.  Mind you, there ain't a whole helluva lot to spend money on here.  So we were rather excited to have been invited to attend the viewing of the Classico:  FC Barcelona vs Real Madrid.  At a cost of a whopping 60¢ each, plus a few beers during the game, we would have to watch a LOT of soccer to blow our budget.  

Soccer - not my favorite game, by far.  But we're living in futbol country and before we came down here, we promised we would engage the culture in every way we could, so this is part of that commitment.  And it was a blast!  We arrived at Rancho Merida and watched the game with a large chunk of the village population.  In fact, there were so many bikes and motorcycles parked on the road, a pickup that was trying to make a delivery to a nearby hotel couldn't get by, so the driver threw a horn-honking fit until someone went out to clear the way.  He was probably pissed because he was working and not watching the match.

We were all packed in a large room; it was hot and everyone was sweaty.  Drinking beer, high fiving,  trash talking.  Half the crowd was rooting for Cristiano Ronaldo and Real Madrid while the other half was cheering for Lionel Messi and FC Barcelona.  Us gringos, the only ones in the room?  We were rooting for FC Barcelona.  Why?  Two reasons:  all our Nica friends were fans of Messi and his team; Bex! was wearing red and blue which, unbeknownst to us when we arrived, just happens to be the team colors for FC Barcelona.

The game itself was very exciting, each gooooooooaaaaaaallllll bringing simultaneous cheers and groans, but as we were told by one of our friends, 'during the game everyone roots for their team, but after we are all friends'.  As this contest worked out, we won!!!  And we celebrated with the rest of our amigos as Tia Margarita's restaurant up the road.  It was a great time and we were happy to have been included.

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The last Friday of each month is what y'all in the US would call a 'teacher in-service day', so March 28th was a down day for us!  We spent all of Friday planning lessons and researching teaching techniques.  This made for a glorious - and unexpected - three-day weekend.  Hell, all day Saturday we felt like it was Sunday - and we still had another whole day off!!  Ahhhh.  

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And - boom - done.  Now we're into April...