amenities

Back in December while I was still living with my host family, I woke up a little after 5:00 one morning, really having to use the bathroom.  I couldn't hold it so I quickly slipped on my flip flops, grabbed my roll of toilet paper, and walked outside to the latrine.  All the while, I had the intention of jumping back in bed and falling back to sleep after peeing.  Well, instead of falling back to sleep after peeing, I ended up falling down the stairs of the latrine, ripping my pajama pants and gushing blood from both legs.  Within 6 seconds, my host mom (who was hanging up laundry) came scrambling over, squeezing my hands to make sure they weren't broken... obviously they weren't but the squeeze could have been the cause of a broken hand.  Within 5 minutes, the whole house was woken up to "Meghan fell!".  Within 10 minutes, all 10 member of the family had come into my room to see how I was doing as I cleaned out the cuts.  Notice that I didn't say, within minutes, I was back asleep.

So why tell this story?  My feeling towards that latrine got exponentially worse after this experience (piggy-backed onto the huge spider I already told you about) but ironically enough, I miss it.  Now that I'm in my new house, which I love, I wish we also had a latrine.  The regular bathroom is great, don't get me wrong.  But, when there isn't water for an entire day, it's a pain in the neck to "bucket flush" or even impossible when I haven't stored enough water.  So do I prefer the latrine over the toilet?  I'm going to take the leap and say, maybe.

This past week I went back to my training town to have 4 days of spanish class.  It was great staying with my old host family especially since now my language ability actually let me have decent conversations with them.  I forgot how uncomfortably hard my bed was, though, and think I have some bruises on my hip bones.  Most importantly, I learned how to correctly form a "would you rather" question which had been a huge concern of mine for months.  

I was going to spend the following weekend in Matagalpa but decided to return to site because I have a lot of planning to do for the upcoming week.  I stopped by the school on Friday to speak with the sixth grade teacher and she informed me I'd be introducing the reproductive system to the class of 35 students.  Funny how the week I return it just so happens that they're beginning this unit that will undoubtedly be extremely awkward as I try to pronounce, and teach, all the female body parts in spanish.  

I'm counting the days til my 7 month mark in Nicaragua because it's when I get to see family!!!  Hopefully the current water situation gets better by the time they come.  There's water from about 9:00 pm to 6:00 am which clearly is not the ideal time to do, well, anything requiring an abundance of water.. wash clothes, dishes, or bathe.