Approaching Elections
Yes, I may have some of my facts mixed up (who doesn't when it comes to politics), but here's a bit of general information and some updates about the approaching elections. (I actually just write my mom a huge long email and thought I should include the info for the edification of all.)
Things are good here. We've both been working hard, shocker, right? We're actually paying some friends now 100 cords a month to use their washing machine, so we don't have to hand-wash clothes anymore! This has been a huge blessing for us. (Toot your own horn, Ponch!) Although it's hot today, the rains have recently kept it nice and cool during the day.
So the elections are on Sunday. The latest news is still up in the air, but Jason said some people at work stated that if the Sandanistas and Ortega don't win but lose closely, they very well might cry fraud and there might be some problems (protests, etc.). The deal here is that a candidate has to have 35% of the vote on the first election day in order to win. Most people are not expecting this to happen (that someone would get that high a percentage the first time). However, if Ortega doesn't win it in the first round, no one thinks he'll win it in the secomd round of voting because there are just too many people who will vote for anyone who is running against Ortega, regardless of who it may be. But ortega is 64 and this might be his last chance at the presidency (he's been running since the early 90s I think) and some people are saying that he'll do everything possible to cause some problems if he can't get back into power. Tfunniest two things about him recently, though, are: 1. he refused to debate any other candidates during the debates b/c it's not something he is good at, although he would say that they were unreasonable or unfair or something 2. he promised that if he is elected, the blackouts would stop. Now THAT'S a joke. However, there is a rumor floating around that, because of elections, we might actually have power all day for 12 DAYS IN A ROW!!! That would be awesome. Right now we're on about the 4-8 in the evening schedule (sometimes 3-830 or other variations), which just sucks. We hung out last night at home with a friend of ours and had a bunch of tealights burning for light, and we inadvertantly kind of burned a hole onto the table. So now there's a lovely dark circle about 1 1/2 inches wide as a momento to our lack of light. Beautiful, isn't it?
My kids in biology just finished studying mitosis and meiosis, and i'm trying to design an evolution vs. creation unit for them that gets them out of the textbook, and then I get to (almost) start hitting the fun parts of the different kingdoms! In chemistry they just finished learning how to draw bonds and will get into nomenclature and stuff like that. In faith and discipleship I've been using Foster's Celebration of Discipline as a catalyst to talk about different spiritual discplines. We just finished talking about fasting, which was interesting with 14 and 15 years olds - they were totally intrigued by the ideas behind it. In chemistry I'm still waiting for my chemicals, and then I can begin blowing some things up, which shoudl be fun. (Actually, I'm still really intimidated by running a real lab, so we'll se how it goes. If we get the stuff.)
It's also hard to believe that it's November and that Thanksgiving is almost here, and then it's going to be Christmas almost immediately. I can't wait to go home; a year is a long time between trips! I'm also really looking forward to cold weather, sweaters, and purchasing items in English! Sometimes the language thing is still really frustrating. FOr example, for the pst two weeks a cafetin worker has told me when I've gotten something to eat to return my plate, which I always do. (Occasionally I have left it in my classroom but I always get it back to them.) Well, they keep pointing this out to me, and I was confused because I felt like they were implying that I didn't do this. Well, this morning when I got some gallo pinto, there was a man there who translated to me that they told me be sure not to throw my palte away in the trashcan. After being told what to do with my plate like half a dozen times, I was confused and frustrated because I thought they thought that I was throwing away their stuff! Well, I had to get a friend to translate the specifics, and she said that they've been trying to talk to everyone about it because 12 plates have gone missing and that they didn't think it was me or anything, which was a huge relief because it certainly sounded like they believed I was a bad steward. But THAT'S why it can still be frustrating; I understand ideas, but getting some of the specifics is still difficult. I'm improving gradually, although I'll never be anywhere close to fluent. However, I can get myself around the city and have basic conversations, which is great.
Time for me to go now. I have a NHS meeting after school and we're going to try and figure out how to raise money in order to buy a commercial blender for a nutrition center. If every student in the school would give 50 cords, we'd have like 300 bucks, which is about what it costs. I don't think we'll get THAT much, but I'd like to try. Adios, for now. (my mad phat espanol skills)
Things are good here. We've both been working hard, shocker, right? We're actually paying some friends now 100 cords a month to use their washing machine, so we don't have to hand-wash clothes anymore! This has been a huge blessing for us. (Toot your own horn, Ponch!) Although it's hot today, the rains have recently kept it nice and cool during the day.
So the elections are on Sunday. The latest news is still up in the air, but Jason said some people at work stated that if the Sandanistas and Ortega don't win but lose closely, they very well might cry fraud and there might be some problems (protests, etc.). The deal here is that a candidate has to have 35% of the vote on the first election day in order to win. Most people are not expecting this to happen (that someone would get that high a percentage the first time). However, if Ortega doesn't win it in the first round, no one thinks he'll win it in the secomd round of voting because there are just too many people who will vote for anyone who is running against Ortega, regardless of who it may be. But ortega is 64 and this might be his last chance at the presidency (he's been running since the early 90s I think) and some people are saying that he'll do everything possible to cause some problems if he can't get back into power. Tfunniest two things about him recently, though, are: 1. he refused to debate any other candidates during the debates b/c it's not something he is good at, although he would say that they were unreasonable or unfair or something 2. he promised that if he is elected, the blackouts would stop. Now THAT'S a joke. However, there is a rumor floating around that, because of elections, we might actually have power all day for 12 DAYS IN A ROW!!! That would be awesome. Right now we're on about the 4-8 in the evening schedule (sometimes 3-830 or other variations), which just sucks. We hung out last night at home with a friend of ours and had a bunch of tealights burning for light, and we inadvertantly kind of burned a hole onto the table. So now there's a lovely dark circle about 1 1/2 inches wide as a momento to our lack of light. Beautiful, isn't it?
My kids in biology just finished studying mitosis and meiosis, and i'm trying to design an evolution vs. creation unit for them that gets them out of the textbook, and then I get to (almost) start hitting the fun parts of the different kingdoms! In chemistry they just finished learning how to draw bonds and will get into nomenclature and stuff like that. In faith and discipleship I've been using Foster's Celebration of Discipline as a catalyst to talk about different spiritual discplines. We just finished talking about fasting, which was interesting with 14 and 15 years olds - they were totally intrigued by the ideas behind it. In chemistry I'm still waiting for my chemicals, and then I can begin blowing some things up, which shoudl be fun. (Actually, I'm still really intimidated by running a real lab, so we'll se how it goes. If we get the stuff.)
It's also hard to believe that it's November and that Thanksgiving is almost here, and then it's going to be Christmas almost immediately. I can't wait to go home; a year is a long time between trips! I'm also really looking forward to cold weather, sweaters, and purchasing items in English! Sometimes the language thing is still really frustrating. FOr example, for the pst two weeks a cafetin worker has told me when I've gotten something to eat to return my plate, which I always do. (Occasionally I have left it in my classroom but I always get it back to them.) Well, they keep pointing this out to me, and I was confused because I felt like they were implying that I didn't do this. Well, this morning when I got some gallo pinto, there was a man there who translated to me that they told me be sure not to throw my palte away in the trashcan. After being told what to do with my plate like half a dozen times, I was confused and frustrated because I thought they thought that I was throwing away their stuff! Well, I had to get a friend to translate the specifics, and she said that they've been trying to talk to everyone about it because 12 plates have gone missing and that they didn't think it was me or anything, which was a huge relief because it certainly sounded like they believed I was a bad steward. But THAT'S why it can still be frustrating; I understand ideas, but getting some of the specifics is still difficult. I'm improving gradually, although I'll never be anywhere close to fluent. However, I can get myself around the city and have basic conversations, which is great.
Time for me to go now. I have a NHS meeting after school and we're going to try and figure out how to raise money in order to buy a commercial blender for a nutrition center. If every student in the school would give 50 cords, we'd have like 300 bucks, which is about what it costs. I don't think we'll get THAT much, but I'd like to try. Adios, for now. (my mad phat espanol skills)
posted by Jess Edgerton at
2:09 pm
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