It's been a busy few weeks as I try to get ready for my mom and Kathy to come down. First, the minister of education came to town, so the kids got all dressed up and we made signs supporting the local version of No Child Left Behind (which is having more success here than in the states).

Here is a good chance for a laugh at my expense:
We had a few cold days a couple weeks back and I was freezing during my showers, which really upset me because I paid good money for an electric hot shower that was not doing it's job. Let me emphasize, it is very not fun to take a cold shower in a cold house. After a few days of this shower cursing, I finally realized that a week before, when it was really hot, I had flipped the switch to turn off the heating element. So to keep a short story short, all I ever had to do was flip the switch back on.

Last Friday I went with a couple friends to the colonial town of Gracias, just a couple hours away. We attended a salsa class being given by another volunteer and made every volunteer's most important purchase: my first machete. I had looked at many a machete when I finally came across what I knew was "the one." I was sure that it would work for whatever I could find to use it for. The price started out at about $2.50. I tried to bargain the price down, but when the seller didn't budge and had a pistol holstered around his waist, I decided $2.50 was a great price and took my baby home. Now I have no excuse to be bored, because a your machete can never be too sharp!

I have a friend hear who lives up in the mountains and has started a beekeeping co-op with the locals. The bees are African so they sting (there are some here that don't). Wouldn't you guess there aren't a lot of bee suits around here, so that makes his job all the more interesting. So when it's about 90 degrees, he puts on a few sweatshirts and a "bee-hat" that he made from cutting up the moskito net he is supposed to use and goes to work with the bees. He's already skinny so the "sweating the pounds off" thing doesn't appeal to him. He never complains though, just laughs as he tells us about the hole in his pants that he didn't see but then felt the bees stinging his legs. Anyway, they do make good honey.

I'm happy to report that the rainy season is about to return and thinks will go back to being green and muddy instead of brown and dusty. Not sure which I like more, but the heat has been pretty intense and I'm not one to complain about an afternoon rainstorm that allows me a couple hours of relaxing on the porch in the hammock.

ps. thanks to all those that have wished us well and are helping to support the baseball team. We don't leave for another month and a couple kids told me they're already packed. The kids that have televisions have also been catching MLB games on tv, so I've had to teach them to root for the Mariners and Red Sox (they think that is a very silly name) and boo the Yankee's