House Search

Holly and I managed to get our Fridays off together, so we spent an unfruitful morning searching for houses. We've both been walking all around the city and have just had to ask little old ladies sitting on their front porch if there are any houses close by and they will say, "No, there's nothing like that around here" only to tell you five minutes later as you pass back by that the house across the street is for rent but the person who owns it lives in Costa Rica and is only here the second Tuesday every other month. There are a couple of houses that we're interested in, but we haven't seen the insides yet because in one the key is lost and the other's owner is impossible to track down. The other day I walked around the big dirty market (where there are hundreds of vendors) looking in vain for a person named Silvia who might have a house that is for rent.

I'm just wasting some time before I have to go to the bank. In Jinotepe (my training town) there was always a guard right by the ATM, but here there's no such luck. The other day I had to get some money and there was a woman standing by the machine just looking at it. I went up and put my card in and she was still just staring at me/it so I tried to shield the numbers to I put my PIN in, but she wouldn't take the hint so I finally had to say, " Por favor no mire" (Please don't look), which worked, but her 3 year old son still had his hands all over the money slot so I had to fight him for my money. I was lucky that time, but I can't keep puttingchavalos in the hospital just to get a couple hundred cords (That's a joke. Neither I nor the Peace Corps support violence against children. In fact it's discouraged). It seems like things that are happening all the time and I just think, "This would never happen in the US," but there's not much I can do but deal with it.

Last but not least, we got a post office box, so anyone who's eager to send a care package can send it to:

Paul/Holly Ragan
Apartado Postal #59
Masaya, Nicaragua
Central America

This is right before I left Jinotepe--that´s another volunteer Nicole on the left and my next door neighbor Gloria on my right:

This is Kyle and me after swearing-in:

This is our new host family's dog Lucy. She is exactly as frightening as she looks:

This is our family's puppy. Fortunately, she is exactly as cute as she looks: