September 30 Wednesday

Spoke too soon. I wore my shoe-repaired flipflops for 15 minutes in the house before they broke again. So much for my good deal. I was lucky I wasn’t walking to school when it happened or I would have been barefoot on the cobblestones. Tomorrow after class I’ll take them back to the reparador and see if there’s any Nicaraguan solution before I take them back to Los Angeles and stoop to paying the big bucks. My housekeeper from 3 stays in Casa Fonseca visited me yesterday. She wanted to see Casa Pilar, she wanted to tell me the story about her husband kicking her out of the house they shared and installing another woman in her place, and then she got to what she really wanted: a C$500 loan, which is approximately $22. She borrowed 500 cordobas from me before. I reminded her that she never paid it back and never mentioned it again (I took it out of her tip). She promised this time would be different and she gave me her cedula (ID card) to hold as collateral (Daniel said, “you should have asked for her phone…what are you going to do with her cedula if she doesn’t pay you?) She says she’ll pay me 100 cordobas each week. She had an appt. w/ a lawyer today. I didn’t ask for more of the story. She was just so pitiful, I had to give it to her. I don’t understand why everyone asks me for money; I’m the stingiest person I know. The circus finishes its run in its present location on Monday. It tried to find another spot on the other side of Managua which is a really big city, but was unable to get a permit. So it’s coming back to Granada. It will do an additional month here. So, even though Daniel will continue working 7 days a week, he won’t have to leave for Managua at 6 in the morning and return to Granada at 7:30 p.m. It means he’ll have a job for at least another month. He’s so much happier when he’s working. And I’ll get to go to the circus. This is the rainy season, up until the end of November, and it rains almost every day. Torrential rain. It rains harder in Latin America than any rain I’ve seen in the US. Night before last it was accompanied by lightning and thunder and wild wind. Electricity is out in the city and Daniel has my phone. I wanted to Skype a couple of people, my Spanish teacher and the purified water delivery guy, but Internet is gone with the electricity.

September 27, 2015

I knew this going in, before I signed my lease, that on November 20 the owner is coming for the Thanksgiving holiday and I have to get out for 9 days.  Considering it took me 2 days to unpack my suitcases and saved boxes, I’m less than thrilled at having to get out and repeat the process.  but Casa Pilar was far and away the nicest house for the money, so I signed on the dotted line, hoping the owner would change her plans.  Apparently not.  So I have to find somewhere to rest my bones for that period of time.  I’m thinking I can stow most everything in the storage area and just take one duffel with me.  But now I’ll have food in the refrigerator to deal with as well.  Things rent up around the holidays so I guess I should start to look around.   Almost everyone I know here has contracted a mosquito-bourne infection called chikungunya, which is described by Wikipedia thus: Chikungunya  for "that which bends up") is an infection caused by the chikungunya virus. The disease features the sudden onset of fever two to four days after exposure. The fever usually lasts two to seven days, while accompanying joint pains typically last weeks or months but sometimes years.[2][3][4]  Years????!!!!!  Daniel had it, Pauline had it, almost everyone in the office, several of my students, and a lot of the ex-pats.  It’s accompanied by high fever and killer pains in your bones and rashes over your whole body.  Daniel couldn’t walk for 2 days.  I never even heard of it until my last trip.  The city has been fumigating like mad.  People don’t usually die from chikungunya as they may from dengue, but it’s terribly uncomfortable.  I don’t want chikungunya…even though it is cute to say. The circus asked Daniel to work this evening and tomorrow evening, taking tickets for the night performances.  Usually he’s finished driving about the Managua streets with his loudspeaker car at 5 p.m.  There are no late buses back to Granada so he’ll stay in Managua.  I’m less than delighted to be left on my own for the whole weekend but he’s so happy with his job.  The circus will be in Managua for another week.  There was a chance they would then move to San Juan del Sur, too far for Daniel to commute, and he would have lost the job.  But now they’re thinking of returning to Granada for another month.  They were here for a month before I arrived.  That would give him another month of work.  Local.  I’m keeping my fingers crossed for him, even though they work him 7 days a week.  Just realized today would have been my parents’ wedding anniversary.  Wouldn’t they be surprised at the turn my life has taken!  Although they were avid travelers, and even lived in Europe for a while once we all were grown. Daniel’s spending the weekend w/ the circus.  I’m enjoying my solitude.  I made a quick trip to the market.  I can’t buy much when I'm alone because I can only buy what I can carry. Without Daniel’s help, because there’s a stairway from the street up to the house, I would have to leave packages on the sidewalk.  They would be gone within seconds. I bought the ultimate extravagance: chopped garlic in olive oil.  $7!  I don’t enjoy food preparation at night in Casa Pilar because the kitchen is so poorly lit.  We eat dinner in almost every night.  If someone else can chop the garlic for me, makes me happy.  Today gringa Melissa delivered her homemade lasagna, pulled pork, Boursin cheese, and a couple of pies to me.  If there were more services like Melissa’s, I’d never cook again.  Southwestern-born Melissa told me she’d have more cooking time if she could stay away from the pool table at Margarita’s Bar.  Melissa has her own pool cue.  I’ve never met a girl with her own pool cue.  She’s in the middle of a divorce from her much-older husband.  She told me he “hid the guns,” but a neighbor helped her find them.  When I’m in Los Angeles, my friends are just like me; here, no one’s like me. On Friday I went w/ Pauline after class to the weekly ex-pat Happy Hour at The Grill House.  Interesting to trade tips w/ other gringos on how to get US TV and where to buy vitamins, etc.  I usually spend all my time w/ my Nica students and Daniel, speaking just Spanish. I broke my flipflop in Los Angeles and the shoe repair wanted to charge me $12 to fix it.  I brought it here instead.  The “reparador” pulled up a milk crate for me to sit on and set to his work on two of my flipflops.  Ten minutes later, he charged me the equivalent of $2, and I was on my way. There was a bird trapped in the second bedroom yesterday.  It must have walked in the door because the big windows were closed.  By the time I realized it, there was shit all over the nice white bedspread and the floors.  I’m afraid of birds.  Not on the street, like Jamie, but I don’t want to be in a small room w/ one.  I saw Alfred Hitchcock’s movie and I totally believe that they’re plotting against us.  I put on a sombrero (as if that were going to help) and shielded myself w/ a curtain panel while I attempted to pry open the unyielding double window door.  Couldn’t do it.  I was finally able to open the double windows and I shut the door to the hallway, hoping the bird would figure it out.  I haven’t been back in there, but I don’t hear anymore flapping.  Wait until the poor cleaning lady sees the mess in the morning.  Me against the elements!    

September 23

I’m getting way too old for this.  I stopped by the office on Monday to pick up my teaching schedule.  All I had done was walk the six long blocks from home to the office.  Donald, one of my supervisors, who’s not known for his tact, asked, “Why are you so wet?”  All my students wanted to greet me with a hug and kiss, which just slid off my sweaty face. I’m like a farm animal.  I’ve been able to handle the heat before.  It’s getting to me now. it’s fine in the morning, it’s fine during the night.  But daytimes are killers.  I started teaching yesterday.  A grueling way to begin because I had 6 classes, back to back, with an hour off at the Garden Cafe for lunch (my favorite waiter remembered my daily order…BLT, no mayonesa, no mosteza, fruta, y un vaso de agua con hielo).  And then I went directly to the 5 p.m weekly volunteer meeting.  You coulda wrung me out. instead of sharing space with all the ayudantes, La Esperanza Granada gave me my own little table, decorated with Bienvenidos welcome paper flowers by creative Antonia, pushed up against a side wall.  I have my fan, stacking letter trays, my school supplies. I don’t have to shlep my books back and forth.  I love my space.  But I’m nowhere near the open front door and there are no windows.  In between the classes, I have to walk to the door and gulp air to sustain me. My Spanish is rusty from 3 months of dis-use, I’m searching to come up with words.  I’m crazy about my students.  A few of my longterm kids aren’t taking English because they’re too busy, but I’ve got a full schedule, and only two new students.  They’re so jazzed about learning English.  They write down everything I say.  I had packed my usual wardrobe of shorts & tanks.  Unfortunately, I went to the dermatologist a day before departure.  I’d had 6 cancer biopsies on my legs 3 mos ago.  They were slow to heal.  My doctor suggested chemo treatment, so he injected each one (that REALLY hurts), which resulted in exactly the opposite of what I’d hoped for.  I must have an allergic reaction because now the cancers that were on the brink of being gone are bright red and the size of jar tops.  My dermatologist hasn’t answered my email.  It’ll be months before I can wear shorts, and I only brought a limited amount of long pants.  I think of myself as this healthy person; the Fates don’t seem to have the same perception. 

Jamie's been overruled

In defiance of my daughter, but in deference to my friends, I’m reverting to emails. I received many messages preferring inbox clutter to using one’s fading memory to remember to search out blogspot.com. I simply removed my children from the mass emails. I’m sorry I don’t have an “unsubscribe” option, but you can simply ignore me. Casa Pilar is on the market. The rental agency asked if they could show it on Saturday. A gringo couple from California. The asking price is $450,000. A lot of money for a Nica house, even one as nice as this. The owners have stepped up their game w/ some new furniture, art work, and plants. They didn’t, however, do anything about the lousy overhead fan in my office or the lack of a fan in the kitchen or the crappy kitchen lighting. I have to prepare dinner before it gets dark or I don’t tell salt from pepper. I have avoided the lamp cords. And last night Daniel finally gave me an oven tutorial. I’ve cooked 2 meals, both stovetop, because I was afraid of the oven. I was all set to bake chicken. I tried to light the pilot. Someone was shooting off fireworks in the street, and I jumped 6 feet w/ each one. I gave up and cooked the chicken in a frying pan. I’m chicken shit. Everything I unpacked from the cartons stored here had bugs in it. A shower cap had a lizard. It was a little lizard. Daniel is happy because he has a job. Temporary, but a job. He’s joined the circus. No tightrope; he paroles the city by car with an annoying loudspeaker, advising the population that the circus is in town. There are 3 drivers w/ different routes. He was with them for a month here in Granada, then they moved to Diriomo near here, so he went w/ them. Now they’re in Managua, an hour away. Daniel has a friend w/ a car who works in a factor in Managua so Daniel hitches a ride w/ him daily. He drives from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m., when he returns to the circus for lunch. Then continues driving from 3 p.m. until 5 p.m. No air conditioned car, so it’s really really hot and uncomfortable, not to mention he has to listen to the recorded circus commercial on a loop all day. He gets back to Granada by 7:30 p.m. and then leaves again in the morning at 6 a.m. No days off. The circus works 7 days a week. The poor performers have 3 shows on Saturdays and Sundays. And when they move to the next city, they have to do it w/o missing a beat. They talked to him about getting him a passport and taking him to Panama. I’m sure there was a look of horror on my face when he told me. But he assures me he won’t leave me. Maybe the circus people need an English teacher?

Saturday, September 19

Not to give myself a kenahora, but I've been in Nicaragua for almost two days, and I haven't broken a single bone. I do tiptoe around lamp cords and the stove, however. They are worthy foes; I will respect and avoid them. Thursday was exhausting travel day from hell. Off to the airport at 5 a.m., didn't arrive at my Granada house until about 11 p.m. Somewhat unexpected six hour layover in Houston. Luckily, I had a pass to the United Club so I set myself up in a computer cubbyhole and made extensive use of their snack bar. Actually, I made 2 whole meals of it. I always wonder about all the people in the United Club and all the people in First Class and Business Class, while I stumble on toward steerage; how did they get so much more money and privilege than I? They don't look like they should have entitlements. I spent all of yesterday unpacking suitcases (for some reason, I brought 3 xs as many clothes as I will need) and the 7 large cardboard cartons I left here at Casa Pilar in the storage room. I'm a Nicaragua hoarder. I don't know how I've managed to accumulate so much stuff. The first time I came here, I just had clothing. Now I have a toaster oven and a steamer and knives and a microplane and a sound system and many fans and lamps and pool toys and pans and spices. That doesn't begin to take into account my teaching materials. I'm going to teach out of the office this time, rather than my home. Now that my ankle is mended I can walk and I missed the camaraderie of hanging around the office. It will be hot and I'll have to wear one of their logo T-shirts, but it's hot here too. I bought 2 beige T-shirts at the Gap and had the logo attached so at least I'll have a breathable fabric. These poor volunteers wear the equivalent of iron shield T-shirts buyable from La Esperanza Granada.