The hurricane is currently on the Pacific coast of Nicaragua and we´ve had non-stop torrencial rain since yesterday afternoon. The news has been reporting ¨alerta amarilla¨ yellow alert (whatever that jeans), and no one is going anywhere. No one can leave to buy vegetables or other needed supplies because of mudslides, flooded streets, walls falling (yes, walls have fallen), etc. The streets are so incredibly flooded that the water level is up to my shins. The electricity has cut out periodically with the heavy rains, and quite a bit of water has been all over the floor and bedrooms. For the first time, I find myself wearing a sweatshirt in Nicaragua and it´s about 72 degrees Fahrenheit and everyone here is practically freezing! We have yet to see if we are to get consolidated. We have been hearing that the rain is going to be much worse tomorrow but we have to work tomorrow so who knows how we´re going to get where we need to go. The storm is moving north towards El Salvador and Guatemala.
The flood in front of the house with water level coming up to my thigh.
The ministry of education in Nicaragua, MINED, has suspended classes in the capital, Managua and the department of Chinadega. The police department here has recommended that we stay put to avoid ¨accidentales fatales,¨ fatal accidents. I´ve been in Nicaragua for all of 3 weeks and there´s been a transportation strike and now a hurracane…welcome to the Peace Corps!
I moved to another house yesterday afternoon, right by the center of Niquinohomo because the medical office said it was ¨necesario¨ for me to be at a house where my whole room wasn´t filled with smoke from cooking on firewood. My health is much better now and I am definitely on the road to recovery. It was difficult to say goodbye to my first host family, but I expect to see them often anyway. My new host family is pretty cool too--I now have a brother Omar (22), sister Consuelo (20), brother Rafael (17), and sister Alicia (7). It´s great to have long conversations with people around my age for hours at a time and chat about life etc. I now get the best of two worlds, young siblings from my former host family and older ones in my current one. Thanks to all of you who have emailed and left comments wishing me well--miss you all!
Notice the rubble behind us...there used to be a wall there...that is, before Huracán Álma decided to pay us a visit.
2 comments:
so glad to hear that you're feeling better!!!
oanna, So I read your entire blog so far. And here's what I gathered. You are an intermediate on the spanish language, waking up early is no longer a problem for you, we can save mucho agua using a bucket to bath rather than a shower, us asians are lumped into just one category, you caught some lung sickness but in recovery, a storm has caused black-outs and fallen walls, you now have siblings and a new family host...(whew!!) that was a mouthful. I think that's it. Owe yah "Tsss...tsss.tsss". I think that's totally hilarious.
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