Mike Piazza

Oh.My.Gosh.

So Ive finally made it to Nicaragua. This country is amazing! Today, its about 80 degrees with blue skies and sun. Im dying! Right now, Im in a cyber cafe in Tipitapa and I cant find the apostrophe key on this keyboard. It very weird. Anyway, theres a lot to say here and Im not sure I can remember everything right now. Im living with a guy named Xavier and his family in the village of Tipitapa. Xavier is the director of the school @ Chacocente and he lives with his mom and dad, brother, and three nieces. Its like a full-time party at his house. There are always tons of people there. Oh, and did I mention that no one in his family (except Xavier) speaks English? No one. It is really hard to communicate with them, but Im learning words and phrases pretty quickly. I have no choice! In the meantime, we have resigned ourselves to universal sign language. Luisa, the mom, just points to the food and shrugs, which is her way of asking me what Id like to eat. Xaviers dad, whose name I cant remember right now but is referred to by his family as abuelito, is hysterically funny. Hes skinny and older and tan and always smiling. He talks really fast (they all do!) and he mumbles, which makes it really hard to understand. Not to mention its all in rapid-fire Spanish. But that doesnt stop him from talking to me. When I arrived on New Years Eve (Año Nuevo) he talked to me for, I swear, half an hour. And all I could do was nod. >Finally, someone told me he was asking how to say things in English. I taught him midnight (medianoche) and daughter (hija). He just giggled at me. He appears at the most random times, too. Like, Ill be sitting in my room reading a book and Ill look up and hes there. Standing in my doorway. Peeking his little head around the corner smiling. Its really funy. And then he starts talking and the rest is history. We seem to have found common ground with baseball. He loves the Yankees ( I try not to judge him for that) and Im partial to the Mets. So baseball is usually the topic of conversation. On New Years Eve, he said the word Yankee, which was the only word I could understand, and then said it was his equipo favorito de Nueve York (his favorite NY team). His son said You know the Mets (which is the only English I have heard him speak before and since) so I ran into my room and brought out my Mets shirt. Abuelito started giggling and took the shirt. Mike Piazza! He said. I know him! I know him! Then he made a gesture of swinging a bat and we both laughed for five minutes. Its fun here. Sometimes it can get frustrating because the language can be such a barrier, but I have Xavier. And Omar. Omar is awesome. Hes the guy in charge of delegation for the Project and hes really nice. He speaks perfect English so its nice to able to speak with him when I can. He lives a few blocks from Xavier so I see him alot. Yesterday, Omar and Xavier gave me a tour of the Project. Its about a twenty minute drive (by car- forty by bus) and it consists of a school, a main building, and eight houses. Its a really cool place. School is out of session now (its their summer break) so the place was pretty empty. Omar took me to some of the houses where families from the Project live. They used to live in the dump, so these houses are like heaven. They were all really nice. They let us into their houses, introduced me to their kids, and one woman even gave me a papaya. Nicaragua really is a magical place and Chacocente is no exception. Omar best described it as a place of Gods Peace and if youre quiet, you can hear it...the peacefulness. And its true. After the tour, Omar took me to his house, where I got to meet his family. He has a wife, Maria, and a son, Omar Steven. They are such a friendly family. His wife cooked for me, and Steven played with my hair and kept hugging me. Hes so cute! Omar is a very nice guy and I love being able to spend time with him. The people here are all so friendly! Anyway, Ill write more later. My time on the computer is running out and I still need to try to find the apostrophe key.

Buenos dias, todo el mundo!