Rain, rain, GO AWAY!

Ok, its been along time since I´ve posted, but I actually haven´t been online since Sept 1st!!

On the news stations in Nicaragua they were always saying that Sept and Oct are the worst months for rain, but I spent last year here and it wasn´t really that bad, so I though "how bad can it be". Its bad. And thats why I haven´t been online for almost 3 weeks! The first weeks and a half in september it rained all day every day. Luckily we bought a gas tank for the stove, and food to cook, so I didn´t have to walk for 10 minutes for every meal, I really didn´t leave the house much at all. Plus, I have to hang clothes to dry here, and there was no way clothes were going to dry that week....I literally was down to my last few pieces of clothes when the perpetual rain gave up for a bit!

After about a week and a half of all day, every day rain, a storm knocked out the power, and unfortunately here, when there is no electricity, there´s no water either(The house that we are living in is supplied by city water, but there is an electric pump that pumps it to us, and there is no back-up generator!). The rain storms came just in the afternoon, but we lost power for about 15 hours. Then the power came back, but the water didnt... I was very confused! After asking some neighbours they let us know that the pump at the water station needs to get started again, but there wasn´t enough current to get it going. Its wasn´t very long before the electricity went out again anyway, and we were back to where we started! At the end we had 3 full days without water, and most of that time with no electricity. David and the boys from the orphanage had to go with buckets to the water tank and bring water back so that we could bathe and bucket-flush the toilets.

Once the electricity was back I raced over to the orphanage property to do some laundry and use the internet, but of course the internet was down!! I was pretty sure the world was against me, and I gave up on internet for the rest of the week.

This week Nicaragua celebrated its independance, and David had Monday and Tuesday off! Instead of going anywhere, we had the whole family come here and help dig the dich where we are going to lay the electricity line. They were supposed to come Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, but they only stayed the first two days. All the men we out working (and playing soccer), and all the wives hung out with me, and we cooked lunch for the boys. David and I were both exhausted after everyone left, and we were also once again without electricity or water because of a storm.

Building update: the stormy weather has delayed alot, we are still hoping to get the electricity lines in asap so that we can move in!!

Since monday (the 13th) the electricity and water has gone out every day in the afternoon because of the storms, and usually (hopefully) comes back before 10pm. We have laundry tubs full of water in the bathroom so that we can bathe and flush the toilets, and bags of ice in the freezer so that the food we have doesn´t thaw!!

Laundry has been very difficult as well. Some of David´s jeans that I washed on Monday are still hanging on the line (That is under a roof) because they are wet! I wish I had a dryer!!

A short one...

Hmmm...it´s really frustrating when you type out a whole blog post, and then an error make the whole thing disappear!! Anyway....to sum up what I already typed before...

1. Move in day has been postponed. We don´t have our electricity or water hooked up yet, and we need to wait until David´s brother, Joel, gets back from Costa Rica (hopefully on friday). Until then we are finishing up other last minute details, like installing the toilet and sink, and painting the iron bars that have been finally welded into place on the arched windows.

2. "Missions Season" has come to an end, which means alot less translating jobs between now and December. I have been sending out emails to any organisations I can find online to let them know that I am available to tranlate, and *fingers crossed* I will have a few jobs to keep me busy! While I´m not translating I will be keeping busy organizing and reorganizing the new house, and trying to make the yard look less grungy!

3. David and I said goodbye to Jellybean (the parakeet that was given to me at the beginning of august). It took me about 3 weeks to realize that I really don´t like birds at all, and I will never again have one as a pet. We gave her to a neighbour who just receintly lost her bird to a cat. We gave her the cage too.

Thats all my updates, thanks for reading!

Julia