rabbit (say if first thing tomorrow morning)

It is rainy season. The streets are now rivers and water is plentiful. The air is fresh and I get to wear pants. The only problem (because there must be one) is that now those cold showers are back to being miserable. Oh and I'm supposed to be tutoring right now but can't because it is raining too hard to walk and I am, as always, out of minutes on my phone. Has having flaky friends finally rubbed off on me?

Yesterday was Nicaraguan Mother's day. It is a way bigger deal here than in the States. On Tuesday my school was only half day because there was some sort of Mother's day presentation. And then Wednesday there was no school at all. Hallelujah, I love moms. Another thing here is that Mother's day colors are red and white and pretty much every where is decorated to look like tacky Valentine's day.

Tomorrow is Kid's day or something so we have another half day and I was informed this afternoon that I am supposed to have some sort of game and prizes prepared. What games are appreciated by kids ranging in ages from 4 to 16?

I often mention that my kids are out of control but maybe I don't go into enough detail. I have to admit that sometimes I question myself about whether or not it is really as bad as I think, but things happen and I am comforted that I do teach at a crazy school. Now for one of the primest examples (yes, even beyond eating toothpaste for lunch): On Monday I walked into my 1st grade class and one of my students asked if he could go to the bathroom and I said no because he asks every single day as soon as I walk in. I ushered him back to his seat, along with the rest of the class, and then started to talk about the book we were going to read. Then I look up to the back of the classroom and there he is peeing on the wall. I was like “oh my, please don't be doing what I think you're doing,” but the other students made sure I knew exactly what was going on. So I told them not to worry about it and go back to their seats but one of them when out side and told their regular teacher who then came in and yelled at him in front of the class. At this point all of the students started chanting something and banging on their desks and Sacarias started crying. Yeah and just if you were wondering no emergency cleaning team came.

OK and maybe I've talked about my student's home lives being messed up too and now have a great example of that. I was talking to the pre-school teacher today, she's a good one to explain every one's history in the school. So I was commenting on what an attentive grandpa Lucy has and the teacher told me that it isn't Lucy's grandfather but dad. Which is crazy because he is old (no offense to my elderly readers, but you don't have a 4 year-old). Then the teacher started telling me about her own family. Her parents divorced when she was twelve because her father wanted a new woman. Through some process, that I would know more about if my Spanish had less issues, her father ended up marrying her brother's girlfriend. That is strange and I'm sure Deuteronomy has something to say about it.

Yesterday Cristina and I went around town taking pictures. We are hoping to eventually put them into a book along with some fabulous commentary that may be available for purchase one day. So be excited for that day.

I hope your life is going splendidly...let me know.

love, joy

i love lamp, and some other things

i love lamp
i went to the states for the weekend. i love usa. i love target. i love vanilla lattes. i love changes in temperature. i love hot water heaters. i love friends. i love english. i love weddings. i love unlimited cell phone use. i love 2nd birthday parties. i love cereal. i love english muffins. i love crepes-a-go-go. i love frozen yogurt. i love cherries. i love family. i love dry heat. i love poetry. i love shoes. i love coffee shops. i love walking in peace. i love garbage cans (as opposed to trash on the side of the road). i love you.
So I had a good time this weekend and this morning at 12:30 I got back to Nicaragua. The rainy season has officially started. That means it the humidity has kicked in. Today was pretty good, I actually woke up on time to get to school which surprised everyone (myself included).

back in time to may 15th, 2007
Last week I didn't update because things were a little crazy getting ready to come back. So here is a little on that. Last Tuesday my students grade 6 and up got to go on a field trip. I think it was the first one they had been on because they were really excited and parents came to wave us off, I felt like I was being sent of to war. Fist we crammed three to a seat on a yellow rented school bus then we made a few stops and were on our way to Volcan Masaya. I'd been there a few times already but none of the students had. We saw the volcano and bat caves and had lunch and went to a museum and the students filled out a worksheet on what they learned, it was like a real field trip. Matthew had gone to the States and raised support for everything so it was a very cool opportunity, and we are hoping to be able to go on more. The whole idea of raising support for this trip is odd because besides the cost of the bus it cost 10 cordobas ($.55) a student. It is strange to think that this wouldn't be in everyone's budget. Now for some pictures I'll try to not pick too many.

Some students in front of the volcano

mi colegio walking down to the caves

mi colegio walking up from the caves

the lunch provided for the teachers

our trusty bus "Christ's Blood"

99 degrees and counting

It seems as if I have less and less to say recently but I end up writing the same amount. So I fully do not blame you if you can't put up with reading my ramblings.

• I am starting to write this at 12:30 on Friday afternoon. In the past 30 hours the electricity has been out for 15 hours, including right now.
• I took a taxi home today. Last time I took one Matthew gave me money and made one of the other teachers not only help me get it but also had her ride home with me. Today two guys from my work walked me to the street. While one of them told the taxi driver where to take me and paid him the other wrote down the license number.
• My school is in a canyon and to get to the main road you have to go up a hill, so me and my buddies (one of whom Cristina is pretty sure is the ring leader of all the people that sniff glue in one of the most dangerous areas in the country) were walking up to the road through the neighborhood where most of my students live and I still got this group of men yelling at me informing me of my white beauty and professing their undying love. I thought this only happens when you are by yourself or with a group a girls but no I guess it happens when you are walking with Nica men too. I then took the opportunity to reinforce to Julio that I don't go to clubs. The walk was much more eventful than the taxi ride.
• Another topic I considered addressing that someone somewhere might find interesting is the lack of good cereals here. The other day I had a dream in which I was at Costco and bought a box of Frosted Mini Wheats and it came with a free box of Grape Nuts “Now easier than ever to eat!” It was a pretty detailed dream.
• Last Saturday night I went to the movies and saw the new Spiderman. We went to the VIP theater which costs $6 instead of the regular $3. I'm a fairly cheap person and wasn't going to go but I got a sponsor. In the VIP theater you can order food to be brought to your leather recliner. I brought my own apple and trail mix instead of ordering Sushi but fully enjoyed the comfort of the chairs.
• On Sunday we went to fancy lunch. It was a expensive but I skipped my next to meals so it averaged out not too bad, plus my mom paid. It was definitely worth it because now I can tell people I ate lunch at The Club.
• Between when I started writing this and now I went to the mall and bought new shoes for $12.
• The electricity turned back on at 2:30, seven hours after it went out today.
  Love, Joy
  PS. I guess if you are expecting a surprise it is that I am coming home on Thursday for the weekend. This isn't a super surprise because chances are if I am going to see you, you already know that I'm coming. But I am very excited and if you live near by I would love to see you but I think I'll be on house arrest of sorts so traveling will be cut to a minimum.

Re: I love you

If you're bored I have a suggestion. You should write me an e-mail. You don't even have to respond to anything you have (or haven't) read in my posts it can be completely one sided about your life. Because maybe sometimes you think about it and then don't, this time you should. I'll even make it more exciting, for every 100 responses I'll do something really cool (I don't know what, I'm open for suggestions).

Last weekend I went to a woman's retreat for Christians in Nicaragua that speak English. It was at at a swanky hotel on the beach with the biggest swimming pool in Central America. It was a little pricey but we had high-pressured hot showers . I think it got rid of all the grime that had been building on me for the past three months. Maybe that was too much information. I'm really glad I went for other more spiritual reasons too.

My mom is here for a week.

A few weeks ago at this teacher meeting 100% attendance awards were given. I didn't get one. I didn't go to school on Thursday last week, Monday,Tuesday or Thursday this week. But now I'm not planning on missing any at least until the middle of May. Matthew just sent me an e-mail thanking me for my commitment.

There is a shirt being sold at a department store here. It is very cute but $25. They only have one left and it has been in the store by itself for at least a month but they still haven't put it on sale. Injustices like that don't happen in the states.

I don't like it when my knees are exposed and I am sitting in the back seat of a car and they rub against the seat in front of me. I thought that was a fairly standard annoyance but I said it the other day and nobody understood. Things/people touching me in general I just don't know how to deal with.

On Tuesday we went to this town Granada and to it's famous "Kathy's Waffle House," it was super good. I had the pecan waffle, oh man.

I got a new job tutoring, already. I could start today but since la mama esta aqui I decided to wait until next Tuesday. I'll be tutoring in math again. Good thing I retook Calculus, oh maybe that was to get off of academic probation.

Yesterday at school I was working with my second graders on the phrase "How are you?" and the various responses. So we had gone over them and I had drawn some really high quality pictures on the board and was going around the room asking my students what the words meant in Spanish. I asked this kid Dominic what Hungry was in Spanish and he answered "comida(food)," so I said, "what about food?" and he said, "pescado(fish)?...um...arroz con pollo(chicken and rice)?..." and he kept going and I was just standing in front of the class laughing because he was so confused.

Another interesting thing happened yesterday at my school. At 1:30 in the afternoon, about 2 hours after i left, 20 armed gunmen came to rob us. The went into the office and took our 2 laptop computers, $600 cash, and the cell phones of the people that were working. But today attendance wasn't down at all and everyone seemed fine, I wouldn't have been fine if I was there. Nicaraguans aren't considered a violent people, they didn't hurt anyone and and everyone knows who did it because the school is in such a small barrio. It is sad that people think they should go rob the poor school that most likely one of their relatives goes to. And it is lame that the police don't actively work at stopping things like this when last week I got pulled over for turning left.

My mom took us grocery shopping today and I got pickles and Gatorade and lots of other exciting treats.

I learned at school that May 13th is Saint Fatima Day or something like that so the rainy season is supposed to start, but on the other hand my roommate said her leg was hurting and she thought that was a sign of rain. I think I'll place my bets with Rachel's leg.

OK brief recap, fill me in on your life or just tell me something and if I get enough responses there will be a big surprise.