Home Strech

Buenas tardes a todos.

This weekend was quite busy for all of us. Saturday night was the famous carnival in downtown Somoto. It was such a wicked party. Almost all of main street was closed off for the party. There were dozens of beer tents, several stages and a few food tents as well. The music was totally awesome, even though I didnt dance very much. There were people from all of the world who attended. Some Nicaraguans, Hondurans, Americans, Germans, Spaniards and, of course, Canadians! We met a couple new canadians and hung out with our Peace Corp friends. The boys bought 5 litre beer bottles, but the bar tenders only put two beers worth of beer in it at a time. you can buy seperate beers to fill it yourself after. One guy was hitting on me and asked me if I had a boyfriend. Obviously I said yes and then he proceeded to ask me where he was. So I had to get Romain to pretend to be my boyfriend. We only had our arms around eachothers waists and held hands for a few seconds... but that was enough to fend him off. Thank God. Now I owe Romain big time. I told him I would by him a beer. The carnival was so much fun. Im so glad I went. Its so different from everyday Somoto. After a while people were getting too drunk for my liking though, so Shayne walked me home at around 2:30 am. Thelma was surprised when I got home because she said thats unusually early for the carnival. I laughed. Somoto is secretly a party town I think...

Yesterday we went to Matagalpa for a short while. Its about three hours away from Somoto, so we mostly spent time in the bus. We went to someones farm and ate a ton of fruit. Then we went to Matagalpa itself and watched fireworks. Yesterday was another important day in Nicaragua, because its the day that the Virgin Marie was conceived. So we ate ice cream while watching these lovely fireworks that were litterally right over our heads. Some of the leftover flame things went into the tree next to us. That scares us a bit... understandibly, I think.

Something that I love about Somoto is that I am not treated like a tourist here as I was in Leon and Granada. Here, I am treated like a foreigner. I much prefer it that way. However, after having been here for three months, the foreigner feeling is almost gone.

Today, while I was hanging out with Thelma and Melania in the kitchen at home, I realised that my time with Melania and Elsa is very limited. I started choking back tears. Just thinking of it now is making well up. Ottawa will always be my true home, but Somoto is my second home. And the Ortiz family will always be my second family. I wish I could have the oppertunity to meet Thelmas brother, Luis Alfredo, but he isnt coming to Somoto until mid-december.

Today the Nicas are getting their criminal record check, which is essential for our work placements in Canada. We wont know what our placements are until we get there though.

As for my host family in Canada, I still refuse to tell anyone about them. Nick is the only one who knows... Nick... you better keep your mouth shut, lol.

Well, thats all for now. Hasta luego!

Ari