Rainy Sunday

We finally got to this smiley point after a long, hard day.

 Once again, we got up at 4:30, and the kids up at 5:00. We probably should have done 4:30 for the kids. We were chivying them out the door while they were still trying to grab breakfast (we have to be there whenever the bus decides to come by). Tia brought her cereal in a Tupperware, and while we were out waiting for the bus, tried to eat it, and dropped it all over her skirt. She just about cried. She ran in to quickly change, and ran out just as the bus came down the road. Whew!

 It was raining pretty steadily by the time we got going. We still had the window down, and it was wonderful to feel the cool breeze on my face, with a raindrop hitting my forehead or chin occasionally. The driver played the relentlessly cheerful music of the area, and as I watched the dripping jungle outside, realized that what the music made me think of, what it conjured, was THIS. Do you know what I mean? Spanish guitar music makes you think of a coastal stone balcony in Europe with candlelight, Classical music makes you think of an elegant concert hall at night in winter, etc. This music on the bus, made me think of jungle and a rickety bus traveling through Central or South America. Huh.

The picture above is the cemetery in San Juan. All of the graves are above ground in cement tombs. Interesting to us --we think maybe because of the water level in the ground?

 

The bus stopped in San Juan, and a lot of people got out and got a cup of coffee, and what looked like a hot dog bun. This little boy couldn't have been more than 8, but drank his cup of coffee too. So universal --don't a lot of people drink coffee and a muffin or donut in the morning in the States? Coffee and Biscotti in Europe, I do hot chocolate (protein shake really) and toast at home every morning. Here I do toast and pinole (pinolillo) with a little extra chocolate added.

 We finally got to Rivas a little after 7:00, and it was raining hard. We were thinking about sitting under the bus station overhang for an hour and a half, but it was dirty and pretty wet.

 We ended up walking through the big open air market (how I wish I had gotten pictures of it! How I wish it hadn't been Sunday so I could shop!), down the streets to our park from the week before. We thought maybe there was a pavilion or something there.

 There were two.

 We waited under the larger one, and Jeff had a nice conversation with the policeman that had clapped at me the week before. Ari thought this huge broom was so cool!

I made progress this week, and only slept through most of the first talk (4:30 people!). We giggled a little about the kids passing a bag of what looked like Doritos back and forth in the row behind us. In front of us was an American family I didn't talk to, but Jeff said the father worked for Survivor. He looked like it - big old beard, Birkenstocks, jeans. He had a nice shirt! Survivor is filming an episode now in Playa Hermosa ( between our beach and San Juan del Sur).

Tia REALLY wasn't thrilled about going to Young Women and Sunday School again. Ari is always game for stuff like that. You've got to think, not understanding what's going on around her? Happens to her a lot. Tia was not happy though. Kai said there were two or three people that understood him in his class, and bounced off just fine.

I got smart this week, and sat in the front of the room for Sunday school and Relief Society, and was able to follow along much better, although most of the Relief Society lesson was the teacher telling us about her slacker husband. I caught most of the jokes though! After class, the girls and Kai were smiling. The girls had had kind of a translator with them, and had a much better time. We were hoping going to class would help them learn Spanish, but I think they need more of a base before that's possible. 

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