hello from Jenna! it's been a bit of a rough start for me here in Nicaragua. mainly because it was so incredibly hot. and not so much Indiana or Arizona or North Carolina hot. the kind of hot that only a country without air conditioning or safe-to-eat ice can have. and then i got sick - a cold i think. :( but i feel much better now and have exciting news!

1. dogs are everywhere here. and they are lovely and they love me. maybe not love in a real love sense, but they follow me. i think stray animals are supposed to be sad, but they bring me a lot of joy, seeing them lounging in shady doorways and...stuff. i guess that's mostly all they do. follow and lounge. but it's incredible.

2. when children want to stop doing something here they say "bom bom" and that means, "i'm done. i'd like to stop, please." so you're feeding them carrots and they say "bom bom" and that's that. no spitting or screaming or what not. how smart is that? dave and i have implemented the system into our conversings, so we'll let you know how it goes.

3. some toilets here do not flush. not in the port-o-potty way, but in a way which requires you to take the bucket outside your stall, walk to a large rainbarrel of water, fill the bucket and come back to your stall and pour the water in. i guess gravity takes care of the rest, because after a few rounds it seems to take the bad and leave the good. it's an ok system, but a bit of a bummer to pick up the "bathroom bucket" before washing your hands.

4. we made some friends! well, friends of friends that work where we will volunteer. so that's good! pictures to prove them soon. and we like our spanish classes. "like" is actually the median of our feelings toward them, mine being love and dave's being "they're ok, but totally great because i love you". i think once he can form sentences it'll get better...

5. we're slowly finding ways to get involved in Granada. we're trying out teaching english tomorrow, so that will give us something for the afternoons. and dave found a group of Nicos to play basketball with, so once he learns "pass" and "shoot" and "watch out" he's set. and i found a place to go to paint twice a week, with other Nicos and americans. i tried to ask about tap dance lessons for me, but people only seem confused about "baila de tap"...or maybe they're just confused that an adult wants to take class??

ok. more soon. thanks for checking up on us. even though central america is so cosey between nor-amer and so-amer it can get lonely here... :) love you guys!

bom bom.