June 8, 2010

El Charcón is once again living up to its name as the “Big Mud Puddle.” Starting a couple weeks ago my little valley went from drought to monsoon, and the whole area exploded with greenness. The humidity of June makes me wish for the heat of April, well almost.
These past three months have been terrific. Thirty women bought the concrete washboards and they are almost completed and ready for transport. I am nervous about getting them through the mountains and will be relieved when this project is over.
A month ago I went up to Honduras to visit my friends Stacey and Harrison, who is the Peace Corps up there. It was great to see another Volunteer’s site and spend time with good friends. I doubled on good friends on my way back as I met my friend Eli at the beach in Leon. He came back to my site and we had a very busy week. We replanted the garden at the primary school, visited with everyone in my community, and Eli coached the girls’ soccer team every afternoon. This was the week the rain started and the field was a disgusting combination of mud and cow manure, and of course none of the girls had shoes, but it was the best turnout for a practice I have seen in my time here. All of the girls fell madly in love with Eli and even got him to dance with them at a celebration for Mother’s day. My host mom was trying to convince Eli to marry one of them and stay forever. It was sad to seem him go, but we had a great time.
The banks are still going well, and we are hoping to build some more silos around harvest time in September. Life is pretty quite here. I have gotten into a pretty good routine and feel great being here. I am going to Costa Rica the end of June and Mom, Wayne, and Blair are coming for another Nicaraguan adventure in July, all great things to look forward to. Hope everyone is doing great.


Take care,


austin