I felt the earth move under my feet

I have many firsts in Nicaragua and today was my first earthquake, little earthquake. I got home from work just before a thunderstorm and torrential downpour began. I was enjoying the loud booms of thunder and downloading some pics onto my computer when an especially loud boom of thunder seemed to shake the apartment and even the couch I was sitting on. At first I thought that the building had been hit by lightening, but then I realized it must be an earthquake! And I realized the loud boom of thunder must have actually been the sound of the earthquake.

I spoke to Ivan soon afterward and he confirmed it was a little quake, registering 2.5 on the Richter scale, a surface quake, that's epicenter was 4 K outside of the city. There was a pretty big quake in Honduras today and since I have been here we have often seen and heard of large earthquakes in Costa Rica and Guatemala, it is only a matter of time before a large earthquake hits here.

One of the contributing factors of Nicaragua's downfall to one of the poorest nations in the hemisphere, besides the Sandinista Revolution, was the Earthquake of '72, which hit Managua very hard and much of the "old city" was never rebuilt due to mismanagement of funds by the government. In fact, many directions here are given by prominent landmarks that were there before the earthquake, "go down to the corner where the BAC building used to be, and then go two blocks toward the lake".

Anyway, Managua is long overdue for a big earthquake. So Ivan and I have an emergency evacuation plan, "get out!" And like my dad always says, "I'll be in Idaho that weekend" referring to my worry of Mount Rainier destroying Seattle...I guess I will have to say "I'll be in the States that weekend".

Help I can't get out of Nicaragua! Awww yeeeah, I got myself an Exit Visa!

So now that I am a legal resident of Nicaragua (I have my very own cedula (Nic ID card), as of March) apparently I have to get an exit visa to go back to the States! So Ivan and I went the Foreign Migration office this weekend to get it sorted out.

We waited in line for about 15 minutes(which is not that bad compared to other stories I have heard), and the woman at the counter told us that we had to get copies made of several pages in my passport and my cedula. I also had to fill out this form, which I had to pay a few cords for as well! So we went to a copy place and got the photocopies taken care of, filled out the form and waited in line for a bit again.

Not liking the thought of having to do this all over again for my visit home this summer I asked about multi-exit visa. I could pay a few dollars more ($10 total) for a 3 month exit visa. So I did that :) I was excited at the thought that I wouldn't have to pay $5 to get back into the country, as they say the $5 is for your 3 month "tourist visa" but the woman told me I still have to pay that too, apparently my cedula is only good for allowing me to stay in the country for longer than 3 months without being fined and I am able to legally work here. So I guess I will still get my passport stamped with a tourist visa, which confuses me a bit, but I guess it just doesn't matter.

All and all, although I feel like it is a little strange that I need a visa to leave the country, because I am a resident, but still have to pay for a tourist visa to come back even though I am not a tourist and just giving my money away to the Nica gov't...it would be MUCH more difficult for me to live and work in the USA if I was a foreigner, not to mention WAY more expensive! I think it cost a Nicaraguan $100 just to apply for a US tourist visa and most applications are denied!

I am glad the US will always take me back for free...I just will have to pay a little money to get out of Nica :)

Now I am off to Danielley's College Graduation!

The rain is back, Yay! or not.

So the last couple of weeks it has been really humid and when I say humid, I mean I dont think anyone has ever felt this kind of humidity before, EVER! Its humid when you wake up, all day long and still when you go to bed. Finally, a few days ago it rained, no, it poured! And with that rainy season is back. It was a welcomed homecoming for the rain, after six months of dust everywhere, seeing people watering the dirt to keep the dust down, burning fields, brown foliage and hot humid days. But after just a few days of it, I think I am good with the rain for awhile.

First thing I hate about rainy season is that our landlord shuts off the internet router at the first drop of rain cloud or distant boom of thunder and then never turns it back on. I feel so disabled when I dont have internet. Plus twice this week our power has gone out which makes it impossible to get any work done and you cant even sleep because it is so hot without the fan. You would think the rain would cool things off and sometimes it does, but other times it makes it feel more humid because the sun starts to burn off the rain that has just fallen.

Things have already begun to smelly musty again and I am really not looking forward to the mold that will be growing on the clothes in my closet and having it take 3 days to dry the laundry, just to have it feel wet again from all the humidity.

OH! Dont let me forget the flying ants that have invaded the house. It is like a horror movie, they are literally coming out from behind the electric outlets and falling from light fixtures! Ivan says they always come with the rain. Sabine predicts that since we are seeing the egg-laying ants that soon there will be larvae and then millions of ants everywhere! I, no-joke, killed 79 ants (with or without wings) when I was on skype with my parents on Sunday. They were crawling up my legs, on the table, falling onto the computer, awwww!

With all those negative things, I will never complain about the sound of rain hitting the palm trees at night, big big thunderstorms and the orchids that seemed to bloom overnight outside my apartment!