Que Pena

Okay I did it. All three shows, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday are behind me, and I still can't believe it happened. Last night we actually did a pretty good job, but Thursday was absolutely a joke. The problem is that they filmed on Thursday and Friday, but not on Saturday, so the tv commercial is going to be hilarious. I posted one of our dance numbers on youtube.com for those interested. Just search for Nicaragua High School Musical. I'm the one in the green jacket, although all of the guys are wearing my clothes..haha. I was surprised at how legitimate the show actually was on Saturday. A famous Nicaraguan band played and the show was followed by a very formal dinner of steak, chicken, soup, and for dessert there was tres leches and cheesecake. The downside of it was that we still haven't gotten paid. They're telling us that we will get the money on Tuesday. We're supposed to be a group all the way until January, when we will go on tour in Costa Rica. I'm not sure I'm liking where this is going, but a free trip to Costa Rica might be nice. I just hope we don't have to make this group any more time consuming than it has been so far.

I've had fun working more with La Chureca. We had a fiesta on Friday where the kids performed in costumes and had face painting, pinatas, singing, and dancing. I left on Friday just with one kid from the school rather than a teacher, and I think soon I'll be able to walk around on my own as soon as I get to know more of the families there.

My friend Dylan came down on Wednesday, and I met up with him for the first time today. He's living down here with a friend of his named Lauren until the end of January. They don't speak any Spanish, so for the first two weeks they're doing a spanish school. We went to church together this morning and I bought them some of my new favorite snack, "Churros." They're just fried bread and cheese, but they're muy ricos. Well, that's all I got for now. Hopefully I'll have my license the next time you hear from me.

Pues, Mucho ha Pasado

Another two weeks, and I still don't have everything together. My Spanish is much better, but i'm still finding it difficult to understand people talking to each other. When someone is talking to me I can focus, and move slower with the conversation but when people are talking amongst themselves it's difficult. I just found out today more what the High School Musical thing is about. What we're doing is advertizing for a distribution center. The people in the audience are coming from all of the other branches of the distribution company. Our show will be filmed and made into a national television commercial to advertise the products of the distributor. There are branches in Costa Rica, Mexico, and all of Central America, so people from all over will be watching us, but we are so bad that I have no idea what's going to happen. Tomorrow we will practice in front of the owner of the distribution center and hopefully we will do well? Anyways, we have two days until the show and we have a lot to improve.

In other news, my work with the school in La Chureca is going well. Today I helped kids between 9 and 12 with math, as well as helped with the painting of a mural. I met a girl who has been living in Nicaragua for the past 10 years with her family. They have been working with the school for three years and have built a rescue home for some of the girls whose families are either abusive or unable to care for them. I want to talk about the possibility of a home like that for boys in similar situations, but I don't know if that will happen. I will hopefully get to get really involved there, with the families and everything, through Melissa and her family as well as through the directors of the school.

I'm trying to get my motorcycle license this week or next and buy a moped to help me get from place to place. It takes me a long time to get from my house to the dump everyday, because, even though it's only 20 minutes from my house, there is no convenient bus route. I talked with the directors, and they thing it's the best thing to do.

I met a christian girl at my job at the English school, and through her I got involved with a college age christian group somewhat like Campus Crusade. They had a psychologist from the states come and talk about how to grow in relationships through conflict and counselling in a Godly way. He was a really cool guy, here with his daughter and some other psychologists, and tomorrow I'm going to attend his lecture at a university near my house.

That's it for now, I have to go but if anyone wants to talk to me, just comment on one of the blog posts and I'll respond whenever I find the time.

Until next time...

Finally, a Schedule

Yesterday I got to go to La Chureca, the trash dump, for the first time on this trip. I took a taxi to a car dealership near the entrance to the dump, because no taxi wants to go in (it's dangerous and the road is in bad condition). So, I waited on the corner for a teacher from the school to come walk with me into the dump. I started walking a little closer to the entrance, but a security guard warned me not to go in by myself. So, I just sat and talked with him until the teacher came to meet me. The walk to the school was long; full of rank fumes and dust that made you want to hold your breath and close your eyes forever. Once we got to the road to the school, the smoke cleared and the smell faded. I started playing with some kids while I waited to speak with the directors. I saw some of my old friends and made some new ones. The directors told me that I would really be needed in the mornings, because there are more kids during that time, and I'd be able to help the teachers with their larger classes. I was so thrilled at how excited they were to have me.

I've been working a fair bit at the language academy, having taught five classes so far. I've been teaching a class at seven in the morning as well as another at six in the evening. I'm enjoying it, much to my surprise, but I've decided to limit my work schedule to the evenings to give me more time to work with La Chureca. I've also got a job with a group of guys and girls my age as a dancer... I can't believe I'm even talking about it. A man drove by as I was walking to the mall, and asked me if I'd be interested in being part of a "high school musical" group. I didn't know what I was getting into, but I said yes. Later, I had pictures taken, along with some other guys, and then yesterday I had a meeting with the whole group to figure out what all was involved. It turns out, I'll be dancing in a live show in which each person represents someone from High School Musical. I start my dancing classes on Monday. I think this could very well be the most embarrassing thing I've ever done, but it will be a good story i guess. I'm actually laughing as I write about it.

So, this week I'm still working morning and evening with the english teaching job, but next week I'll be starting my work with La Chureca Monday through Friday from 8-12 in the mornings, dance classes in the afternoon, and english teaching in the evening... Hopefully I don't die of exhaustion.

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.