Where the streets have no names

Here is a link to an interesting article about Managua, Nicaragua's capital. It will give you an idea of how screwed up the direction system is. Although, I have grown to love it because in the end you always know where something is!

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1701487,00.html

A few more less interesting pics...

Here are some more pics just for fun.

On January 6th, I went with some friends to a all you can eat brunch in Managua. They serve delicious food and all you can drink champagne. What could be more fun!

This is a picture of Katrina, my sitemate, and me. Katrina is the only other Peace Corps volunteer that lives in Corinto with me. She teaches English as a foreign language in the high school. We don't live together but we do see each other fairly often. We teach an english class together on monday and thursday nights. Also, she lives by the hospital so I sometimes see her on my way to work. She will be done with her service December of this year, 4 months before I am done. We are each others support system whenever we have problems with work or life in Corinto. I'm lucky to have someone that lives so close that can help me with whatever I need (including taking care of my cat, David Beckham, when I have to be in Managua for work).


A picture of Lisa and I at the buffet.

This is a picture of Playa Maderas in San Juan del Sur. We had to hitch a ride for about 15 minutes away from the town of San Juan del Sur to get to it but it was definitly worth it. Close by is one of the beaches where people say it is one of the best surfing places in the world.

This ones for you, Dad. Here's me on my cell phone at our cottage in San Juan del Sur overlooking the ocean.

Taco night at the cottage. I brought back some taco seasoning packets from the states and we made ourselves tacos for New Years Eve dinner.

Cat got your lip?

As I think I mentioned I got a cat recently. My host family in Corinto had a cat that recently had kittens and they offered me one. Since I have a significant mouse/rat problem in my house I thought, what the hell, I could be a cat person. Plus, I live alone and its nice to have someone to talk to other than myself. The odd thing is that I only talk to the cat in Spanish. I just don't think it would make sense to talk to in English, its a Nicaraguan cat. With the recommendations of some of the neighbor boys, I named the cat David Beckham, or Becks for short. Anyways, here are some pics of little David Beckham:




Chewing on my bike spokes which I thought was funny...

And now for the mystery of my lip....

On Jan. 2nd, the day my friends and I were leaving San Juan del Sur I woke up at around 8:00am. I didnt eat any breakfast. Around 8:34am I said to my friends that were awake, "My lip feels wierd." They shrugged it off. Within 10 minutes they were saying to me, "Holy crap Paul! What happened to your lip!" My lip apparently just decided to start swelling up, a lot. Only my upper lip. Everyone asked me, did you get bit by a spider or something? Not that I noticed. Did you eat anything out of the ordinary? Nope, just things that I've eaten my whole life (or at least for the past year). So it was a bit of a mystery why I had an upper lip roughly the size of a football. We all chalked it up to a probably spider bite while I was sleeping. I took some Benedryl, and we had lots of laughs about it until later that afternoon when the swelling went down (although it didn't go completely down until the next morning). Chalk it up to something wierd that happened on vacation.

People were calling me Marge Simpson because the Simpson's characters have a bigger upper lip than lower. I look just like her.

I purposefully made myself look like a sad puppy in this picture so that when I showed people the pic they would feel really sorry for me. But the truth is that I was pretty much laughing during this whole ordeal.

So Jan 3rd my upper lip was finally back to normal. I thought to myself "What a wierd freak thing to happen, I don't even have any allergies that I know of. Oh well, its over now." By Jan 4th I was back in Corinto and completely forgot about the lip swelling incident.

I woke up on Jan 5th, my birthday, and went to lay in my hammock. A neighbor boy came over to wish me happy birthday and we were sitting there talking. All of the sudden I had a sensation in my lower lip and I thought to myself, "This cannot be happening again!" I ran into my room and popped two Benedryl pills. I thought I might catch it before it got out of control. But no. It swelled and swelled and swelled until I looked just like Bubba from Forrest Gump. Again, I didn't eat anything strange and didn't feel anything biting me. Plus, the spider bite theory was pretty much debunked because it is very unlikely that a spider would bite me in southern Nicaragua on the upper lip, cause me an allergy for the first time, and then three days later bite me on the lower lip in northern Nicaragua. I think the early Benedryl did help me this time because the lip was unswollen by 5pm. Thank goodness because I was still able to go out for my birthday.

Anyways, I still have no idea exactly why my lip swelled up twice. I talked to some doctors here about it and they say it must be from something I ate. Maybe. But I just ate what I always eat. Anyways, I am now 16-days lip-injury free. I'm going to try and keep the streak going.

Happy 2008

I know that you all miss me. I haven't written in over a month. But the truth is that I've busy, sick or travelling. I'll recap.

I left for the U.S. on Dec. 19th to visit family and friends for Christmas. I was super excited to see everyone and hang out at home. But, to be honest, when I was taking off from Nicaragua, I was thinking, "Thank goodness I'm not leaving here for good!" It was a good feeling to have, knowing that I wanted to come back to my life here in Nicaragua. A lot of Peace Corps Volunteers go home for a visit and say they don't want to come back to Nicaragua. That being said, after spending a great 10 days with friends and family, I could have used another 10 days more. Home is home for a reason, you just feel comfortable there. I did a whirlwind visit of everyone in 10 days and really enjoyed myself. But, I could have used another 10 days to just chill at home.

Many people told me that it would be wierd for me to visit home. But the reality was that I felt like I had never left! Although a couple of things did strike me when I arrived in the Houston airport on my way to Chicago. First would be hostpitality. I bought a bagel and cream cheese in the airport (delicious). When I walked up to the counter I was greeted with "Hello Sir! How are you doing today! What can I help you with!!!!!!" I literally had to take a step back from the woman for a second. I have not recieved that friendly of service in over a year! That continued to strike me throughout the trip with waitresses and everyone. I would think, "Is this waitress interested in me?" Then I would quickly realize, "Of course not you fool, she is just nice so you give her a tip!" The other thing that struck me in the Houston airport was accents. Everyone had a Texan accent. And then I stood in line for the flight to Chicago and heard Chicago accents, and embarassingly, I got a little emotional. Thinking emotionally, I said to myself, "These are my people!" Luckily I snapped out of that emotional state pretty quickly. Anyways, other than that it was pretty normal being at home. I enjoyed every meal, every moment on a couch, and every moment with friends and family. Thanks to everyone that made time to see me and made my visit great!

When I got back to Nicaragua I went for 3 days to the beach town of San Juan del Sur. I met up with 15 Peace Corps friends there and we rung in the new years on the beach. It was a really fun and relaxing trip and great to catch up with those friends. On Jan 2nd I headed back to Corinto. I thought that it would be tough for me to adjust back but it wasn't as bad as I thought. Although I did have a tough time motivating myself to get back into work. But it was great to see all my neighbors and friends here. And now after 3 weeks of work I have my motivation back!

Anyways, I have some pictures and stories to share that I will try to post this weekend. One involving my new cat and one involving a random swelling of my lips. Stay tuned...