I have been in Managua now for the past four days. Today may be the day where I have the chance to leave and go to the department capital of Chinandega.

I had come to Managua to give a charla with my counterpart and we traveled through torrents of rain and witnessed flooding on both sides of the highway. Farmland looked like swamps and the microbus had to slow down and wade through flooded sections of road. Upon our arrival I was informed that the department of Chinandega was in a state of emergency and all of the volunteers were being “consolidated” to the department capital of Chinandega City… unless they were in Managua whereupon they would stay there for the duration of the consolidation period.

So now here I am… still in managua with the few clothes that I had packed for a supposedly short trip turned terribly long. I believe that we will be able to get back to the department capital soon and stay there but the Northern Alliance Cats wont be able to get back to our sites until they reopen the highway which is officially closed as is the border crossing.

Im so sorry that all of those that have been following my blog with any interest have been sitting around and waiting… and waiting…. and waiting.

I am less sorry about not updating photos, there is some money involved with pushing those kinds of bits and I am very cheap nowadays.

Lastly I am somewhat sorry for the state of my english presented to you here today. As my Mother or Sean can attest to you, it aint what it used to be. These paragraphs may read well, but it will have taken waaaay longer than it should have to write. The direct consequence of “complete immersion” is that while my spanish has improved, my english has raced downhill to meet it. I´m not worried, Im just trying to be cheeky so stop biting your fingernails Mom.

So I have officially settled back in here in Nicaragua with minimal difficulty. As many of you know, I was in the United States for the awesome wedding of Todd and Amee. The weather was perfect and due to my current living situation, I think I was the only dude who wasnt annoyed by the bugs. The food was great and greatly missed. An extra special shoutout to the day I ate tomato sauce and meatballs for two different meals.

Eric made the event extra awesome by meeting me in Miami and traveling with me up to Virginia. We checked out some vineyards with pops around the Charlottesville area.

We were able to make a trip down to Lexington to see the other side of the family. I am so lucky to have been able to see 99% of my family in about a week`s time!

As of the writing of this blog entry, I am not only alive, but very well. It seems that I have one of the more robust Gastro-intestinal tracks in my group. I have either not been exposed to a parasite, or they are no match for the killing power of my immune system. Mom, I don´t know what you fed me as a child but I want the recipe.

My spanish has also been improving, things are coming to me without as much work and I am starting to understand what they hell they are saying in the Reggetón Jams. Once I get studying on my grammar I expect even more gains. Perhaps I will understand what the chavalos and ancianos are saying to me. Ojala.

Lastly and most importantly, I would like to thank everyone who thought about me on my birthday. I will do my best to send thank yous but I am pretty bad about getting them out. Usually I sit down to write them and I am distracted but some ungodly insect or a chavalo so forgive me. I am looking forward to my visit back home for the wedding! We will have fun, oh yes.

The family visit was a success with the maximum amount of sights seen within a weeks time. I now know that I will not pursue a career of Nicaraguan tour guide until there is some serious repaving on the roads around here. The fam seemed to enjoy themselves, especially in the company of my other host families. Great memories. Jillian will be posting the pictures on her flickr account pretty soon so you guys can play visit Lucian, the home game!

I have been really busy lately with official Peace Corps stuff like additional training and planning so I have been out of site for a while. It is nice to get away and enjoy some “american” time with the other volunteers. My life is not about to become any less hectic either. We are starting teacher workshops this week where volunteers share teaching techniques to Nicaraguan teachers around the department. This should give me some practice on giving charlas before I start my real work. I think that I´m also going to put a bookshelf together so therewont be a mess in my room when the family comes!

They´re arriving on the 10th for a whirlwind tour around Nicaragua. I am so ready to see them and I believe that they feel the same way. Here´s hoping that this week goes by fast, and next week goes by slow! ¡Saludos a mi familia!