I´m currently watching some of my fifth year students reenacting some of Nicaraguan folklore in our computer lab/auditorium/biggest room we have. The kids are speaking really campesino (farmer) and have chickens and dogs. This has got to be one of the funniest specticals I´ve seen, which is good.

I´ve realized that I´m getting really sick of my host family. I´ve never lived in an environment that was so negative. If I were to write a book about them, it would be called, La Quinta Perdida. They live in their cumulative losses, and can´t seem to recover. I´m too poor to move out (which would necesitate a bed, posibly a fridge and a stove). I now know what its like to be poor and stuck. It´s like having a bad lease, a job that doesn´t pay, and a bad roommate all at the same time. I was hoping I would never do this, but countdown: ten months.

I finally finished my proposal for a project I´ve been working on for about three months. The Mayor´s Office, and a small community two hours north of my town and I are working to rebuild a once-dirt floored, open aired class room. The walls, and most of the corrugated zinc roof is up. Still, there is no floor, gaping holes in the corrugation, no windows, doors, or floors, much less chalk boards. Hopefully USAID will help us out with paying for all the rest.

Between getting that application in and working towards the first annual business competition, I´ve been quite busy. This October 2nd, all of my four classes of high school students will gather in the park to compete for the best business innovation and planificaiton. They have spent the better part of the year working on creative businesses that fill specific needs pertaining to the community. We´ve spent the last month writing the business plans. I´m actually quite proud of the majority, and can´t wait for the regional competition.

This week was also Central America´s 188th year of liberty from Spain (September 15th). There were a lot of college age kids and recent grads around hanging out at the pool, and staying out until all hours of the night. Except for the fact that I live with small children and have to be extremely quite entering at early hours of the morning, I almost felt like I too was back in college. Except that my host brother playfully pointed a gun to my face the following morning interacting what would have gone down had I not been me. The gun fight in the mountains last night that kept me up until 5 in the morning didn´t help to calm my nerves. No one else has mentioned it, but it was the first time I had ever heard anything like that. Ever.