Mrs. Spider

I´m back! I´ll start with April. Holy Week is big here in Nicaragua and nobody works nor goes to school. So I decided to take a vacation, too! Part was spent in my site. On Wednesday I went with a group of people from my site to a river a couple of hours away (one of the few that hasn´t dried up), where we spent most the day swimming. It was a beautiful place.

Afterwards we went to a nearby farm (owned by the father of one of the girls in the group) and ate a whole shmorgasboard of Nicaraguan food including different roots (potatoes, yucca, malanga, and quiquisque), tortillas, plantains, tamales, and cooked chickens that had previously been running out back that morning; no part is wasted- I actually got a chunk of the skull. It all tasted great after not eating breakfast that morning and swimming all day!

The rest of the week through Easter weekend was spent in Boaco and Managua with Raina, a volunteer living about an hour from me, and Megan, an ex-volunteer now working in the capital. On Easter we got dressed up and went out to an Easter buffet at the fanciest hotel in Managua. They had everything from sushi to lobster to a desert buffet large enough to put anybody in a sugar coma. I was in non-rice-and-beans heaven. Here Megan, Raina, and I are outside of Megan´s apartment dressed up and ready to go:

And here´s a great picture of Bandido, Megan´s new puppy waiting with us patiently for the bus in a bed only a US citizen would buy for an animal (but doesn´t he look comfy?):

The rest of April was busy and flew by. The final week I had my final In Service Training with my group. It was great seeing them again, and afterwards I traveled with a few of them visiting sites in the Northern parts of Nicaragua that I had not been to yet. It made me realize how important it is to visit with other volunteers while I´m here as it really is the best way to get to know the ¨forgotten corners¨ of Nicaragua where the tourists don´t go. I´m going to try to get in as much travelling as the Peace Corps allows me during the rest of my time here. Can you believe I only have 6 more months left??

One more picture I want to share with you. This is my neighbor, Mrs. Spider, who made her home right outside my window. I never met her husband, but I figure she probably ate him. By the time I got back from my trip up north, she had died, but about 5 of her children had comfortably moved into my room. I felt bad for killing the descendents of such a peaceful neighbor, but they had effectively made it hard to get into my bed! So I dedicate this blog to Mrs. Spider. May she rest in peace and not curse me from her grave for playing God.