Shalala laaaahhhh

I realise that it has been quite some time since I have made a really thorough post. And seeing as how lost has happened in the past couple of days, why not make a thorough one today. Lets just hope I have enough time to do so. Here we go!

Well Saturday was Halloween. Halloween is recongnized mostly as an American holiday I believe, but the truth is that they celebrate it all over the world, its just not as commercial as it is in the States and in Canada. There were two big parties happening at two of the clubs here in Somoto. One of them was a costume party, which took place at El Colonial. Ruth´s daughter went dressed up as a tree. The other party, at El Exclusivo, was not a dress up party, however it was still festively decorated and there was a costume contest, for which Shayne was one of the judges, hahahaha. We went to El Exclusivo, mostly because none of us really bothered to pack a halloween costume for this program. We had lots of fun, even though of course us white girls got harrassed alot, but thats nothing new. Were used to it at this point. (When I say harrassed, I mean asked by every single young man to dance, nothing more). I always kept Luis Carlos close to be my protector. Lake had actually gotten trapped by a local Nica girl and was stuck dancing with her for a while. The other boys didnt help him, they just laughed at him. Finally, I stepped in and she was pretty scared of me, so she backed off and left Lake alone. I have that effect on other women... dont know why. So Lake went and yelled at the other Canadian boys "WHY DIDNT YOU SEND ARIANE SOONER???" What can I say?

On a different note, Yanine (Alex´s counter part) had a pregnant dog who gave birth to 6 puppies about 2 weeks ago. Alex and Kayla were there for the birth and said it was pretty gnarly. Kayla has the birth of one of the puppies on video tape... I dont know why... Kayla and Alex named all the puppies, and I must say, the names fit them all very well. The two biggest and Ying and Yang. They are twin brother and sister. These puppies are part rotweiler (sorry dont know how to spell that), and Ying and Yang are the only two puppies of the litter that have the rotweiler white patches. Ying is a lighter brown and Yang is black. They are always together, which is why their names are perfect. Another one is named Rudolph. He is completely brown with a red nose. The first puppy that started walking was named Forest, of course. Forest is completely black. The runt was named Charlie, because he is a nice chocolatey brown. Charlie unfortunately died yesterday, while Kayla was trying to feed him. They burried him in Yanine´s backyard beside a tree with a bunch of stone to make a pretty little grave. The last one is the blackest with a small spot of white on his chest. His ears tend to stick up all pointy. His name is Spock. Of course, Spock is my favorite. Thelma is worried that Melania is going to be lonely when she goes to Canada, so Thelma is going to adopt Spock for Melania. Im a little worried however that our cat, Pepita, who is the spawn of Satan, is going to try and rip Spock apart. Hopefully Spock will be bigger than Pepita in no time though. Yanine is probably going to keep Rudolph and Ying. Tania, who is Kayla´s counter part, will be taking Yang, which works perfectly because Yanine and Tania are the best of friends too. I believe Enmanuel, who is Romain´s counter part, will be getting Forest. So all of these adorable puppies will be going to a nice home. Yay!

In other news, yesterday was the Day of the Dead, which really has no relation at all to Halloween, in case you were wondering. Its one day of the year where everyone in Nicaragua go buy flowers and visit the graves of their relatives. I expected this to be a very sad and dreary holiday, but it was actually quite cheery and festive. The graveyard here is nothing like the ones in Ottawa. The ones in Ottawa are so bleek and dark and tragic. The one in Somoto is so bright and colourful. Thelma doesnt have any family in the Somoto cemetary, but we went to visit Luis Carlos´ family and Jorge´s family as well, I believe. Afterwards I took Thelma and Melania out for ice cream at Eskimo´s. Ironicly enough, the Day of the Dead is also the anniversary of my Nana´s death... unless I am mistaken, but I dont think I am... right Mom? D: Then at night we hung out with the puppies and a bunch of us went over to the Mirador and had a pop.

Another big thing in Somoto has been the basketball tournement. INPRHU has a team in the basketball tourney and Shayne was a player. We made it really far into the playoffs, but we lost Sunday in the last game of the semi-finales. They played very well though. Shayne can be pretty intense when he wants to be. My friend Charon, who works for INPRHU and also speak really great english, also plays on the basketball team. The faces he makes sometimes when he plays make him look like a ferocious chiwawa or something... partially because he shows he teeth alot, but also because hes like 5"4.... yes its weird to see something that short play on a basketball team. But hes a good player, I assure you.

Yesterday, Thelma also took me to the piece of land that she will inherit when she gets married... which is in May.... which shocked me when she told me. Its really nice, even though is really far from town it seems. She shares this land with Melania, but I dont think Melania is anywhere near ready to get married. Thelma told me she wants to go wedding dress shopping in Canada. I hope we can find something nice and inexpensive for her. She deserves a gorgeous dress. Alex and myself are planning on coming back to Nicaragua in May, just for Thelma´s wedding! WOO! :)

Well this afternoon Im going to work in the country side. So I best be going now I suppose. This is a huge post. I hope you all got your fix, haha.

Ari