The backyard. Note: Chicken bottom left corner.
Doing laundry . . .
My little garden.Top Eleven
1. I moved into my own place on Saturday! I have a living room, a small bedroom and an even smaller kitchen. I love it!
2. My living room comes with two rocking chairs, or what Nicaraguans call grandmother chairs, sillas abuelitas. I feel very Nica now. At night I will open my windows and doors, sit in a rocking chair and watch people walk by on the street.
3. I made ratatouille in my new kitchen on Sunday, with eggplant!
4. Oh, and with my new place comes the benefit of being able to walk around barefoot. No one can see me. In Nicaragua people do not walk barefoot, at all. Well, I may have to sweep my floors twice a day to do it but I’m not wearing shoes. Muahahaha.
5. Someone gave me a live chicken to pass on to my landlady the next morning.* I put it in my shower . . . It’s making me rethink the whole owning my own chicken thing.
6. Nicaraguans have the Monday after Mother’s Day off. It is a National Holiday. Unfortunately no one bothered to tell me so I ended up sitting in the Health Center waiting for an hour this morning. No big deal, I have the day off now!
7. Thursday I was invited to a Mother’s Day church service at the Casa de los Mayores, literally House of the Elderly. It was just a group of older women. The service was nice. The best part though . . . they all pulled out flasks of Nica booze afterwards, to celebrate. I may have no Nicaraguan friends my age, but these women are one hundred times better.
8. I’m starting a little herb garden. I just bought a small basil plant, rosemary and mint.
9. I’m starting to take sign language classes at the Casa de Mujeres, Women’s Organization, with disabled children. I’m taking an hour long evening class five days a week. Once I am good enough I can start giving health classes to the children in Jinotega who sign.
10. In Nicaragua or maybe just Jinotega, I’m not exactly sure; they have a really beautiful procession through the streets one May night called La Procesión de la Virgen. All of the Catholic homes create small shrines of their favorite Saint or Virgin in their front porch or living room. It’s sort of like Christmas. They all have lights in red and gold. And it only happens one night out of the year. So, if you know of any particularly fabulous saints or virgins, I’m looking for one. I want to be ready for next year.
11. I just did laundry and am currently trying to hang dry my clothes in the rain. It’s what people do here.
* Doña Ruth, my landlady, asked me this morning if the chicken was mine. No, I said, it’s yours. Again, she asked it if it was mine. Maybe something about ‘is this chicken yours’ was lost in translation. And again I said, it’s yours, this time explaining that someone gave it to me last night to give to her in the morning. Doña Ruth was not happy. Apparently chickens poop everywhere, are dirty and belong out on the farms. Looks like I’m going to learn how to kill and gut a chicken.
1. I moved into my own place on Saturday! I have a living room, a small bedroom and an even smaller kitchen. I love it!
2. My living room comes with two rocking chairs, or what Nicaraguans call grandmother chairs, sillas abuelitas. I feel very Nica now. At night I will open my windows and doors, sit in a rocking chair and watch people walk by on the street.
3. I made ratatouille in my new kitchen on Sunday, with eggplant!
4. Oh, and with my new place comes the benefit of being able to walk around barefoot. No one can see me. In Nicaragua people do not walk barefoot, at all. Well, I may have to sweep my floors twice a day to do it but I’m not wearing shoes. Muahahaha.
5. Someone gave me a live chicken to pass on to my landlady the next morning.* I put it in my shower . . . It’s making me rethink the whole owning my own chicken thing.
6. Nicaraguans have the Monday after Mother’s Day off. It is a National Holiday. Unfortunately no one bothered to tell me so I ended up sitting in the Health Center waiting for an hour this morning. No big deal, I have the day off now!
7. Thursday I was invited to a Mother’s Day church service at the Casa de los Mayores, literally House of the Elderly. It was just a group of older women. The service was nice. The best part though . . . they all pulled out flasks of Nica booze afterwards, to celebrate. I may have no Nicaraguan friends my age, but these women are one hundred times better.
8. I’m starting a little herb garden. I just bought a small basil plant, rosemary and mint.
9. I’m starting to take sign language classes at the Casa de Mujeres, Women’s Organization, with disabled children. I’m taking an hour long evening class five days a week. Once I am good enough I can start giving health classes to the children in Jinotega who sign.
10. In Nicaragua or maybe just Jinotega, I’m not exactly sure; they have a really beautiful procession through the streets one May night called La Procesión de la Virgen. All of the Catholic homes create small shrines of their favorite Saint or Virgin in their front porch or living room. It’s sort of like Christmas. They all have lights in red and gold. And it only happens one night out of the year. So, if you know of any particularly fabulous saints or virgins, I’m looking for one. I want to be ready for next year.
11. I just did laundry and am currently trying to hang dry my clothes in the rain. It’s what people do here.
* Doña Ruth, my landlady, asked me this morning if the chicken was mine. No, I said, it’s yours. Again, she asked it if it was mine. Maybe something about ‘is this chicken yours’ was lost in translation. And again I said, it’s yours, this time explaining that someone gave it to me last night to give to her in the morning. Doña Ruth was not happy. Apparently chickens poop everywhere, are dirty and belong out on the farms. Looks like I’m going to learn how to kill and gut a chicken.
