Catching Up, Part I

I woke up this morning around 4:30 am and just lay in bed and listened and thought about how incredibly quiet it was compared to how it normally is, and then I realized how funny that thought was because compared to living in Provo, it was unbelievably loud.  And it was all animals.  It sounded like our bedroom was in the middle of an aviary, a dog kennel, a hen house full of roosters, and a pig slaughterhouse all at the same time, with horses' hooves clopping up and down the pavement outside our bedroom wall pulling carts to town.  And it all seemed so normal. Gotta love it :)

So, it's been a while since I've posted, and there's actually a reason - for the last 3 or so weeks being on the computer has made me sick.  It's been the weirdest thing.  I haven't been able to spend more than a few minutes looking at the screen without getting a throbbing headache and feeling like I'm going to throw up.  I've always treated my headaches before with water and it's worked, but this kind is definitely not a lack of water :)  I think it's because I've spent so much time on my computer down here.  EVERYTHING involves the computer because that's all I have - I read conference talks on my computer in the morning, I find recipes on my computer, I talk on the phone and Skype on my computer, I read articles and books on my computer, I research places to go and things to see on my computer, I practice my Spanish on my computer, etc. and then in the evening Joe and I play games or watch movies together on the computer.  And usually I spend my time in the bedroom so that Joe and I can each have our own fan, and it's darker in the bedroom than the living room/kitchen.  So I think my eyes are just done. 

Needless to say, I haven't been dying to blog :) One week I didn't even touch my computer.  Joe did everything for me that involved a computer: he read my talks to me in the morning, he checked my email for me, he googled everything for me that I wanted to know - and by the end of the week my eyes could handle a few hours on the computer again.  So now if I need to use my computer I sit near the door where it's the lightest, and I keep it to a few hours a day, and never after dark because our lights are pretty dim.  So far, so good :)

Then a few days ago, Joe's "a,s,d, and f" on his computer stopped working, so he's using my computer as a keyboard for his so he can program, which deletes even those few hours I could spend a day on it. So my journal writing has skyrocketed the last month, and my blogging has all but disappeared. So this post is my attempt to catch up with pictures using as little typing as possible. It's really random and choppy, but it's something :)

An old lady using her machete to get some firewood from some tree branches that had been cut down.  They use machetes here for everything.

Our landlords have a bird nest that was built on top of their cupboard because their house is completely open to the outside. The nest is on the top right of the right cupboard. They told us the baby birds are learning how to fly now around their house. 

 Close up of the baby birds.

Running of the bulls! Quite the event.  The whole city turned out for it. We didn't know the route, so we just followed the hoards of people walking there.

We found some space on this wall to stand and watch.

It poured rain the whole time and we were all soaked.  Clocks really have no place in this culture, so no one really knew when the running of the bulls was going to happen.  We probably stood in the rain a good 1 1/2 hours before the bulls came, but there were plenty of drunk people around to provide entertainment in the meantime.
 

The crazies in the middle of the street waiting for the bulls to appear so they could run for their lives.  We loved the people sitting in the trees. Brilliant.  By the time the bulls actually came there were 9 people in the tree.

The first bull! He was the least exciting of them all, but after we got a picture of him, Joe's camera stopped working because it was soaked. So those are all the pictures we got.  There were probably 9 bulls altogether - one went off course and created a stir in the nearby park, and one kept changing direction so the people would all scream and run down the street ahead of the bull, and then scream and run back up the street when he turned around, and then scream and run back down the street.  The whole thing was way more fun than I thought it would be, and no one on our little section of the route got hurt, which was definitely a plus.

Just had to take a picture of our kitchen drawer.  We go for variety around here. 

 We went out to Diriomo to visit the Whitings.

 While we were standing on the bus, Joe got a kick out of the repair job on the red plastic tub.  These people sure make things last for a long time!

The central park in Diriomo.

I didn't take any pictures of the meal the Whitings fed us, but she made homemade bread and it was absolutely divine. The first real bread we've had since coming here.

Some street food we tried.  Little scone balls that they pour liquid honey over.  Delicious!

I love to sit on our porch in the mornings, evenings, and during rainstorms and read...or eat banana splits :)  It's so beautiful here!

When Joe and I wake up before 5:30 we like to take walks down to the lake and wade up and down the lake shore for a while.  It's so beautiful and peaceful.  And usually no one else is out there but horses :)

This is what cilantro looks like here!  It took me forever to figure it out - I just figured they had found a way to cook with dandelion leaves or something.  I saw this stuff and mint everywhere in the market but finally stopped to smell it one day to figure out what it was and found out it's cilantro in disguise! (It looks oily because it's wet).

I love the little girl dresses here.  They're in almost every store and they are adorable! The funny thing is that you see little girls wearing these elaborate dresses while they're playing in the dirt in their front yard. Hmmm...
This particular dress made me think of my niece, Emily, who loves to dress up and play princess.

A picture of the Whitings leaving our house one day in a taxi.  We found out not too long ago that Angie Whiting was in my sister-in-law's elementary education cohort at BYU before they graduated.  Small world :)

This is the biggest bike rack I have ever seen.  And I'm sure during church on Sunday it's full.  If you look closely, you'll see that there is a chain already attached at each section so the biker just needs to carry a lock.  So smart!

Everyone carries baskets on their heads - and sometimes the baskets weigh like hundreds of pounds! Amazing!

This is a common sight - people pushing carts of pigs around delivering them or trying to sell them.  The other day we saw a guy carrying pigs around the market trying to sell them.

Women selling fire wood on the street.

Mangos and avocados for sell!

A Nicaraguan version of a hearse that we thought was pretty cool.

There are always soccer and basketball games going on at the church, but one evening the youth in the branch did a fundraiser for their EFY and invited teams throughout the city to come play at a soccer tournament.  There was quite the turnout and teams were playing all day and pretty late into the night.  We just stopped by for a bit to watch and take a picture.

One evening Joe was asked to play the piano for a meeting the church was putting on for a bunch of civic leaders in Granada. He took this picture in the chapel while they were setting up.

Elder Ayala (from El Salvador) and Elder Parish (from Brigham City). They were a big help to us our first couple of months here.  This picture was taken when Elder Parish found out he was being transferred. Elder Ayala has since been transferred too.  They were both really great elders.
 

I love seeing the little kids try to sweep. This little girl was in the market helping her mom.