Three Months to Go

This week we have our close of service conference! That is crazy. Means we have been in country exactly 2 years, 3 months left to go and we are off to a new place, new experience. My stove project is wrapping up. I have about 4 stoves left in my group to finish. They have been held back due to crazy rains and other events such as me being attacked by dogs… yes that is right I had a most lovely encounter with two dogs that decided I looked more like an angry steak than a girl on a bicycle. It was probably the most traumatizing experience I have had yet. You know when they say your life flashes before your eyes in moments of near death… well I beg to differ, It doesn’t have to be a near death experience at all. My life definitely flashed, and I realized it was short. Well luckily people came running before the dogs moved from tearing into my legs to attack the rest of my body, which I was definitely sure they were going to do. I had already begun imagining what it was going to feel like when they got to my face. Yeah, it was horrible. Somehow in my shocked state I rode to my host families house, against the opinion of the concerned neighbors that wanted to bring me into their home to dump diesel on my legs… oh dear. Well by the time I got to Chepa’s house, only 30 seconds away, I was hyperventilating and crying hysterically. They were able to calm me down and to shorten the rest of the trauma I got rabie shots and pills and cream in Managua. My legs are nearly alright… I am going to have some sweet scars though. Yeah fun.

I have finally been able to start my little english class again. I changed the location so as to have less kids and only the dedicated kids to come. They are sooo cute! I am giving out a prize now each class in order to motivate them to do the homework and study more. It’s working. The last gift was a Mcdonalds toy… a little puppy. They loved it. haha!

I am going to have some materials left over from our stove project when we are all finished. So those are going to be used to build an Improved Oven for one of the teachers that i worked with alot last year and then build some more improved stoves in the neighboring community through the evangelical church. They have a really nice organized group together which will make things alot easier!

Katie and Joy just came and left. We had a lovely visit. They got to meet my host family and see my town as well as experience a good deal of Nicaragua including the Patron Saint Fiestas in Managua. That was a crazy experience. We saw the horse parade… where poor Joy was nearly robbed, but thanks to her sharp elbows her attackers gave up! We also went to a bull riding show… we saw a boy get gouged in the stomach.. ouch, luckily it wasn’t too deep and he was up and walking 15 minutes later. They got to experience some typical Nica dancing as well, that was fun! I am going to miss being able to have friends come down and see where I am living and experience Nicaragua. I love being able to show people around. Only my mom and sister to come visit one last time, soooo if anyone wants to come for a visit… there are still three months of chances left!

Closing note of the day: How to Prepare a Chicken for Lunch
1. Run screeching around the house in search of the perfect chicken
2. Begin howling for dog to come
3. Yell at dog for chasing the wrong chicken
4. Yell at daughters to get off the hammock and help find the missing chicken.
5. Become obsessed with finding the white chicken instead of the many others that are bumbling about
6. Locate chicken under bike
7. Corner from each side and then screech at dog to attack (sounds something like oooooochoooooochooooooch)
8. Scare chicken out from under bike
9. Watch dog chase chicken
10. Screech at daughters to get chicken away from dog
11. Grasp chicken and dog and wait for daughters to come help
12. Realize chicken is already dead
13. Triumphantly remove chicken that will soon be lunch from dog’s jaws (he is trained apparently to rip throat out… problem is if you dont get to him in time… welll … the rest of the chicken is history as well.)
14. plunge full body into boiling water to loosen feathers.
15. tear feathers in a forceful manner from chicken body
16. chop off legs and head
17. fling creepy innards to dog and cat
18. rip chicken apart and fry’r up!
19. eat EVERYTHING, cartiladge included….

Yes… that really happened… I had no idea they trained their dog to do that… I thought he was just getting in the way, little did I know they always have him kill their lunch that way. I felt very different about eating the chicken that day….

Have a wonderful week and eat lots of chicken.. haha