Q: Has Amanda finally lost it?
A: No. (At least not completely.) Amanda experienced these 3 cosas/things (and many more!) during her final night in Esteli.
I knew it was going to be one of those "Twilight Zone" days from the beginning, when our section of town lost all electricity and water. Businesses were closed, there was no Cybercafe, and, horror of all horrors, the kids, Diana, Dona Alicia and I had to find a way to entertain ourselves without television. Dona Alicia and the kids gave me a tour of her patio (backyard), which Diana not-so-lovingly referred to as "The Farm," but I really enjoyed it. In it we encountered a lemon tree, a mango tree, a banana tree, cacti, begonias, roses, and even a coffee tree, as well as some haphazard gallinas (roosters) running about. After going inside, Luisito and I played Hide and/or Catch the Lemon for about half an hour while Diana and Michelle bucket showered. We got power back around 2 pm (but not water--you can't ask for too much), so everyone else got their daily intake of Rosalinda (which, by the way, has a very catchy theme song that repeats her name over and over) while I bucket showered. It's amazing how good dumping cold water on yourself can feel, even though it feels a bit like bathing a toddler when you have to tip your head back and use the bowl to get the soap out of your hair. The kids were very excited that they would not have to miss Patito Feo at 5 pm, which also has a very catchy theme song and opening dance number reminiscent of First-Album, innocent-but-destined-for-something-not-so-innocent-in-the-very-near-future Britney Spears. During the show Diana re-French manicured my nails and painstakingly put a flower on each (not entirely my style but I do feel bien elegante when I catch a glimpse of them now).
Then Diana's very talkative and fun friend Giovanni and her fiancee stopped by while Diana is in the process of painstakingly straightening and curling every piece of my hair (which, as you probably already know, is thicker than some small countries). Giovanni is my age and is getting married in April, and, I won't lie, I really want to go to the wedding. So I shamelessly sucked up to her for a little bit (I really like her anyway, so I didn't feel THAT bad), and she and Diana then said how I should come to the wedding if I could and I feigned surprise and said that I of course would love to come. I gave her all of my information--which at this point is the office number at AKF, my email address, and a jumbled mess of words that somehow qualifies where the AKF office is located. She gave me her correo y numeros de celular y convencional--e-mail, home and cell #s--and I'm hoping one of our modes of Spanglish will work (Me being the only one speaking Spanglish, of course). She is always very eager to talk to anyone, myself included, so I think this might actually work.
Then I told Dona Alicia that I wanted to get pizza for our last night and the floodgates of party-town broke loose. She ran five streets over to get ice cream (which we will encounter later) and then we called to order Hawaiian (yes, that's right) pizza for delivery (yes, that's right as well--the address for their house, from what I heard, involved a school, lots of cuadras, gold doors, and a tree, as you may remember from one of my first posts about addresses here). They told us 35 minutes (and amazingly it was right on U.S. time and not on Nica time), and more drama unfolded as we heard Diana scream from the bathroom. "Mama, Michelle, vengan/come here now!" she was screaming, and, as you may remember, she is 8 months pregnant, so I'm thinking her water broke. Of course then I start thinking about the stupid little things that shouldn't matter at that time, like, what are we going to do about the pizza? But then we go in the bathroom, and it was there that I witnessed my first alacran/scorpion. There are 2 things I am very glad I know now:
1) They are easy to kill (I thought they had a hard shell, but evidently you can just smack them with a shoe to knock them off)
2) They will not kill you (They can paralyze you and leave you in severe pain for a day or so, but in comparison to dying I can tell you this was pretty exciting news to me)
I also found out that the number of links they have in their tail indicates how old they are...Alden, the 11-year-old nephew that lives there, wanted very much to show me exactly how many years this one had, but I took his word that he was either 4 or 5 years old. Meanwhile, the pizza guy shows up and we all enjoy the pizza (except Michelle, who only wanted her pizza with soda, and couldn't for the life of her understand why I did not like soda, which Dona Alicia used to set the example that if I wasn't drinking it, they shouldn't be either). Then I had to run, because a group of us from the Spanish school had decided to meet at 8 to go to an Art Gallery opening. Sharon and I took a taxi and met up with Jess, his Nica girlfriend/friend for the evening, and a couple from the hostel he was staying at. The guy was from Michigan, the girl was from England, and they met while being camp counselors in California, and were spending 6 months traveling thru Latin America before counseling again this summer. I really love international couples (aka guy and girl are from different countries), and they were no exception. Together we all listened to a mariachi band and checked out the artwork from local artists...very cool! Flor de Cana sponsors the majority of the events here (including several Nocha de las Damas nights and a Mass service?? if I read the sign correctly, which I probably didn't), so there was free rum flowing, as well as appetizers, which was also nice.
We headed home around 11, and upon getting back Diana pointed out that we forgot to eat the ice cream. (I felt horrible because I knew they wouldn't dream of eating it without me, and it's a fairly special commodity.) So, ONLY to make them feel better, I suggested we eat it right then. Watching some strangly dubbed movie about cloning that had Sandy from the O.C. in it, Diana and I sat around in our pjs and ate the tutti frutti sherbet, complete with canned mixed fruit on top, which I would never have thought to do, but now highly recommend! I was a bit nervous beforehand watching my 8-month-pregnant host mom and 74-year-old host grandma open the mixed fruit can with a carving knife, but, though unconventional to me, it worked, as do most things in Nicaragua!
In closing, I loved my host family and will miss their warmth and affection, but I'm hoping that Adam and I can go back in March and visit with the new baby! Sorry for the rambling, I worked in the kitchen today for 12 hours, so I needed some decompression, but writing may not have been the smartest/most logical outlet lol...you are a saint if you have borne it til the end, and I will now provide you with the answer to my poll: A telenovela star. Love you all!
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