Rainy Season - I Hate You

You know the saying, "April showers bring May flowers"? Of course you do. Well in Nicaragua, the saying should be, "April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, and (if you live in the northern regions) December showers bring mangoes and avocadoes." Yes, I love mangoes and avocadoes. I think they are some of the most delicious things that could be produced on this earth. However, I would be willing to sacrifice them if I didn't have to deal with 8-9 months of daily rain.

Does my job depend on the rain? Yes. Without it, we wouldn't be able to have school gardens and plant trees, since two out of three of my schools don't even have running water. But I absolutely cannot stand the rain, and the rainy season's only just beginning. Sure, I wouldn't mind the rain every once in a while, but when it's every day for 8 months and you have to walk/ride your bike everywhere on dirt, or better said, mud roads, and wash by hand the resultant filthy clothing (that will never dry) in an area where every five seconds your feet are bitten by fire ants, you start to abhore the rain.

The rain here as it relates to my life in Nicaragua means constantly dirty floors and mounds of dirty laundry. Why don't I just wash them, you might ask? Well, all chores and manual labor are pretty much left to the mornings. If you decide to so much as life a pencil in the afternoon, you have so much sweat pouring out of you you're practically swimming in it. So that cuts out half my day. Then, factor in that I spend most mornings at school, in meetings, or cooking, and that limits me to about 1-2 free mornings a week. Now, understand that in the rainy season, the water schedule is very unpredictable. Water can go out for days at a time (for some areas, weeks) due to flooded rivers, and that means the chances of having running water on those one or two free mornings I have are slim to none. Therefore, in my mind, I am living in a constant world of filth.

Another problem that I am facing which has been 100x worse this year because last year was a fairly dry year, is ants. Billions upon billions of them living in and under my house. And these ants aren't the gentle, lovable ants that you get to know in the movie Antz, these ants have attitude. They will bite you any second they get and it stings and itches for days. I look like I have some kind of disease on my feet. So, I being the environmentalist and all have tried all sorts of natural remedies to get rid of them - chili powder, soapy water - you name it, but nothing has resulted. I've really reached my tolerance level, and at this point, Raid or any other kind of fast-acting poison is looking like an excellent solution.

I could go on and on about how much I hate the rain, but really I don't think it's something you want to read about. Besides, there were many farmers who got hit really hard last year because it was so dry and farming is their only source of income. So who am I to complain? I've only got less than six months left here. Maybe I'll just buy a pair of rubber boots in the meantime and move to Arizona when I get back?