Goodbye Sahuayo

Hello all!
Well, it´s been a long time since the last post, as usual, and I have LOTS of news.. Let´s see if I can remember it all, and get it typed in time to get to my last class of the night. My students didn´t show up this hour, so I have some free time, which is nice.

Ok, backtracking a bit... The rainy season DID start... The weekend we decided to go to the beach! Friday rolled around, and it started POURING buckets from the sky, including some hail, which is almost unheard of around here. The street filled up with rain (and we have HUGE high sidewalks) but that is pretty common I guess. The rain started coming in through the doors and windows, and beacuse our school has an open courtyard in the middle, the rain started filling up the school! The real trouble started when the power went out. We had screaming children, (who were supposed to be writing tests) and if we opened the windows to let light in, it only increased the flooding problem! So we pretty much gave up on the last half of the class, and we all gathered in the biggest classroom which has no windows, closed the door, and tried to tell ghost stories, until everyone´s parents had come to pick them up. Then, all the teachers got brooms and sweegies and started sweeping the water into the middle of the courtyard, where there is a drain. Because of the heavy storm, most of the students didn´t come for the last 3 classes, which was alright with us, because it was a Friday afternoon!! We sat around talking, and I joined the 1 student Lauren had in her conversation class. It was fun!

Ok, so you think that´s bad... Just wait! After class, 2 of Lauren´s students(one´s a heart doctor and the other is a teacher at a school nearby) had promised to take she Jen and I out for dinner, so we all got in his car and we drove to Jiquilpan, which is the next town over, and has much better restaurants, culture, nature, EVERYTHING!We had a nice dinner and shared some good conversation, then went home, where we found... our apartment had been flooded! The water had poured in through the front door, the windows under the doors into our bedrooms, and Lauren had her window open in her bedroom, with her computer nearby. So her computer didn´t work at all for awhile, and now everything seems to be working except the keyboard (which is a bit of a problem, because it´s a laptop, but at least it´s replacable!)

We mopped up the mess, spread out all the papers and books that had been drenched, and I went and hung up a bunch of my clothing that had been soaked. (That will teach me to not leave my clothes on the floor!!) Then, after we´d tried to sweep away some of the water, we got a few winks of sleep, and I think I woke up about an hour later (which is more sleep than anyone else got.) We got up and headed off to Manzanillo with Victor (our friend from the music store.) We decided to leave early in the morning (2am to be exact) so that we could have the full day at the beach. We drove through the night and listened to lots of music, and had lots of good middle of the night talks to try and keep Victor awake. When we got about an hour from Manzanillo he was practically nodding off, so we decided to switch drivers. And since Lauren and Jen both don´t drive stick, the lucky winner was ME!!! It was fun, except for the CONSTANT speed bumps!!! Soooo annoying because you have to gear down to 1st every few minutes, and then back up to 5 and back and forth sooo often. The drive was soooo nice once the sun came up. Tons of forests of palm trees with coconuts and everything. SOOOO cool!!!

The weather was bad when we first arrived, but we yelled at it, and asked it nicely, and did every superstitious ritual we knew of to get rid of the clouds. Once we had found a good hotel which backed onto the beach, and had a short nap, we woke up to a beautiful afternoon! I laid on the beach and swam in the huge waves for most of the afternoon. We drove into town to have dinner, and then came back, played some guitar and hung out on the beach late into the night, chasing waves, and racing along the shore.
The next day, we got some coconut drinks (inside the huge green coconuts) and had a delicious fresh shrimp lunch! Then I laid on the beach for awhile longer while everyone else packed their stuff and got ready to go. We bought some beautiful jewlery and then headed home. It was such a wonderful weekend!!! Everything I had hoped the beach would be!!

The last few weeks have been a blur! We´ve been busy wrapping up classes, giving final exams, marking, marking marking, and finishing up report cards.

For those who don´t know, Naomi was in an accident and was hit by a car, but she´s doing remarkably well from what I´ve heard. She has no broken bones, and no internal damage, so she just has to heal the wounds on her face (she needed 17 stiches!!!) My poor baby sister. I wish sooooo much that I could be there right now to take care of her, but it´s only a couple more days now, and I know she´s being well taken care of anyway.

Ok, well we finished recording a few songs, so the CD should be ready to come home with me. Tomorrow night all my friends are going to have a goodbye party for me at the apartment, which will be nice. tonight I´m going to see a band practice for the Patron San Diago celebration that happens in Sahuayo in July. It´s a huge famous party, and I really wish I had known about it when I booked my ticket, but alas...

See you all soon, I hope!!!
Love, Hanah.