What else can I do when I am so grateful to have this blissful rainy day and the ability to sit here on the Wisley House terrace and listen to classical music from my Sacramento station streaming from capradio.org! Yes, I could succumb to my addiction of playing Candy Crush Soda Saga but alas, I’ve decided to share the latest and greatest news.
The hills are now very green and the flowers are blooming profusely around the house. The terrace where I am sitting smells of the multiple gardenia blossoms on the bushes surrounding one part of the terrace. I planted a gardenia bush under the office window in my CA house because I love the smell and I am once again blessed with this aroma.
This is also bird nesting season and I have been battling two pair of jarracas who want to build a nest in a funny lamp on the terrace next to where I sit. They have tried to start a nest in the back of the sofa where I sit. I talk to these birds and again they don’t listen with their “bird brains”. On the other hand I do listen to their beautiful voices and generally that is how I know that they are on the terrace when I am not sitting here myself.
The past week we have had rain almost every day during the day and night with and without thunder and lightening storms. It reminds me of my first year in Nicaragua, 2004, when we had LOTS of rain with rivers overflowing the roads and lakes across the road that were too deep to pass. We didn’t have “chicken buses” then that go through almost unbelievable depths of rushing waters. (I think either the drivers are nuts or they have such a heavy load, 4WD and tough engines.) This past week I was in a line waiting to cross a very fast running deep river and watched as the bus drove through with water up to a little above the back door. Needless to say, I along with several others in the line decided to turn around and go back to whence we came. I know the water stops rushing if it stops raining in a few hours. You still have to drive through the river but you won’t be flipped sideways or hit by a tree or animal as the river races on course. I made my same attempt about two hours later successfully, slowly in 4WD. It is a riot because the village kids think this rushing water is a fun place to jump in and play. I think it is their form of “chicken dare”. Scary since few of these kids know how to swim and in 2004 and 2005 we had three deaths at the very river I am talking about, one was someone who was in an SUV and flipped sideways down the rushing water and the other two were trying to cross on horseback. Things that NGO volunteers are teaching kids are swimming in the ocean as well as surfing.
Dr. Basha Healthcare Clinic’s May trip was much more organized and successful. No use of my condo as the treatment space so he had privacy in his living space. Carmen Spa was perfect and he successfully treated 6 to 8 patients at a time on several days. Of course, the local Nica people were given free treatments. What a blessing for all of us. He worked at Carmen Spa in the morning and Rancho Santana Spa in the afternoon. Basha will be coming back again at the end of August and I’m looking at a new Spa in Laguna Apoyo–Hotel Placaya–to service more of the Managua and Granada folk. I need to start working on the logistics before the family comes–Aaron and Rivka this coming Wednesday for a week. Leah and family and my cousin two weeks later for a week. I am so excited to have them see this Nica Life.
I have been busy for the past two weeks listening to webinars on investing and health. Actually I’m collecting CEUs to renew my CA nursing license and Gerontology Clinical Nurse Specialist certificate. I’ve had several health issue consultation projects as well this past month. I love these opportunities. It keeps me on my toes and off the streets.
My house in Guasacate is now visible to all from the road since the roof is on. I’ll try to attach photos that I took looking from my terrace through Ron and Ana’s house where I could see Costa Rica from my terrace. The electrical wires and tubes are being chopped into the concrete walls at my house and Ron and Ana’s place now has tile floors and lighting. It looks like I’ll have room on the lower level for a small apartment. Ron wants me to design it soon so he can put in the utility infrastructure while he is doing the main house.
Progress is being made even with the rain. I’m glad that the roof job is over. I hate to see the workers up on the sloping roof beams when they are slippery. One of the workers fell a couple of weeks ago and broke his collar bone. Ron and Ana took him to the hospital in Rivas and the next day to his home in Managua. Construction accidents are very common. I have seen many patients since 2004 who had serious accidents that we treated at the Roberto Clemente Clinic.
Enough writing for one month. Next blog will have adventures of Margie’s family in a third world country for the first time. Pretty exciting.
Sorry about the photos at the top. I am still trying to figure out how to attach photos in WordPress.
Margie Fincham in Nicaragua 