Hello again! Here I am with a baby raccoon for sale (along with apples) on the side of the road on the main bustling market street of Chinandega. Unfortunately I couldn't take this little critter home with me because 1) I'm pretty sure I couldn't take him back to the states no matter how many rabies vaccines 2) I didn't have the dollar fifty on me to buy him.
Anyway, I've been sick for about 2 months now. I had been feeling great for the better part of 6 months (no parasites, bacterial infections, food poisoning, unusual rashes or fungi, etc) but I suppose it had to come to an end sometime. It could be the climate change (freaking hot to freaking hotter) but I've had at least 3 full blown respiratory infections recently (we're talking starts in your throat, moves to your sinuses, and ends in your lungs). And then about 3 weeks ago I got this mysterious bug bite while I was in the shower. It was on my butt of course, the best place for a mysterious bug bite that you have to show everyone so they can try to figure out what kind of bug it was. I went to the public health center and dropped trou at least 7 times. PIC: First aid cart at the health center. Notice betadine and rubbing alcohol in Powerade bottles.
Anyway, the thing gets infected so badly that I could hardly sit or lie down, so they gave me an oral antibiotic, which I promptly had an allergic reaction to. I had welts all over my thighs and back. So then I started rounds of benadryll and prednazone, which is a steroid. All I wanted to do was go to the gym and eat like 6 times a day. Unfortunately, the more I sweat the worse the rash got, so I just ate like 6 times a day. Oops. Long story short, I guess my defenses were already down when I tried to eat a cashew fruit for the first time a few days later (fyi I only licked it before I realized there would be extremely undesirable consequences if I were to ingest the thing completely) and my tongue fell asleep for 2.5 hours and the top layer of skin peeled off my lips over the course of a week. I vowed not to try anything new ever again. Maybe it was just "after shock" of the cashew fruit, but a week after the exposure I broke out into the worst hives of my entire life. And believe me, I know hives. I was allergic to "Runts" candy as a kid. Especially the banana flavored ones. I outgrew it, thank goodness. OK, back on track. So I have hives and weather.com says Chinandega is at 99 degrees "feels like 109". I get on the bus to Managua to have the PC doctors check me out. I suspected the doctors at the public health center were tired of seeing my ass every other day (literally) and they probably would have just told me to put lime juice and salt on it (in Nica that seems to cure everything from minor scrapes to diabetes). I was quarantined in an air-conditioned hotel room for 2 days with a friend from a neighboring department who had dengue for the second time during her service, which prompted me to count my blessings. A week later, I'm still a little blotchy, still on Prednazone and Allegra, but the desire to skin myself has decreased slightly. PIC: My tattoo is swatting away the hives.

Moving right along, last Saturday I went to a quinceanos (Latino version of a Sweet 16 birthday party). It was only my second quinceanos in almost 2 years, and very fancy. They slaughtered a cow for the occasion. And I'm telling you, the girls were dressed to the nines. I kind of felt like a bum...I mean I know I looked fine but almost all of these chicks looked like they came straight out of a music video with their stilettos and trendy tube dresses. I don't know what it is about Nicaraguan girls but they must have a genetic immunity to frizzy hair. I haven't even bothered trying to straighten mine lately because it turns into insta-mop before I even walk outside, but they were dancing around and everything and still looked like exotic little Farah Fawcetts! I wish I had pictures, but unfortunately I thought it might look a little weird if I were 1) the only white person, 2) the only person who didn't know a soul besides her date, and 3) the only person frantically taking pictures.

In other news, about 3 and a half months left of Nicaragua. Sometimes I can't wait to go home, other times I feel tears coming on just thinking about leaving. Is it possible to miss a place before you've even left? As annoyed as I am daily by little inconveniences and cultural discrepancies, will my life ever be this carefree again? Work is relatively stress free, for the most part strangers treat me like a princess, the food is cheap and delicious, my aerobics/ethnic dance class costs less than 50 cents a pop and I'm addicted, and I'm finally making good, solid friendships. But on July 16 give or take a week, the proverbial Peace Corps plug will be pulled. More thoughts to come.
For now, random pictures:
1: Jimmy, a student student from my community English class, fetching me a coconut to drink.
2: Prehistoric treadmill at Woman Gym, my muchachas-only gym in Chinandega.
3: Iguanita. Tried to keep it as pet but it got away and I think it's raising a family in my ceiling. I guess I did keep it, in a way.
4: Flor de Abispa at my school (not sure if that's spelled right)... is that Hibiscus in English?