Settling In

So, it's been almost a week since my last entry and a lot has happened. I've obtained a job as an English teacher, gotten comfortable taking the public buses on my own, and even gone through some rough storms. Hurricane Felix struck the Atlanic coast to the north, but his presence was felt in Managua as well. In northern Managua, about a half hour away, there was a lot of flooding, but in my area it was just raining. Lightning struck nearby and somehow took the power from my room but not from the rest of the house. Our water line was cut and we were without for a couple days, but a man came and fixed it today. Hopefully we'll get the electricity thing figured out too. I have two lights in my room, and when i turn one on the other goes out. the outlets don't work, so I haven't had a fan at night. It's been alright though, because Felix made the nights cooler. I've had a cold for the past couple days but it seems to be going away. I've been training for my job this week, but yesterday and today training was cancelled. i'm supposed to teach my first class this saturday, but i don't feel ready. We'll see how that goes.

I've still been doing a lot of work just settling into my living conditions. I went to the market today and got a rod to hang some clothes on. I'd been going to work in wrinkled pants and shirts, and hopefully the makeshift closet will help me keep things organized. I also got a big tank of pure water to drink, which costs only $1.35 or so (26 cordobas) to get a full jug if you return an empty one. I'm still working on getting a small dirtbike or moped to get around. Today i'm going with Escarleth, a girl who lives in one of the rooms in my house, to the "transito," where i can find out what i need to know about getting a motorbike license, insurance, and other things to that effect. We went yesterday, but the people who work there were off for a holiday. Nicaragua has a lot of random holidays that sometimes people don't even know about. Apparently this was one of those. This weekend I'm going to get in contact with the directors of the school in La Chureca (the dump) as i haven't been able to get ahold of them via cell phone yet. Hopefully I'll be able to jump in on a project. I'm also looking into the possibility of helping out with the places affected by Hurricane Felix, but I don't know if that's going to be possible since it's so far away and I have a job here. That's the news for now, until next time.