Rain rain go away!

Here in El Salvador, we only have two seasons: hot and dry or hot and rainy. The rainy season just recently started, and on top of that, a tropical storm passed through central america this week so literally it rained from thursday afternoon until wednesday afternoon, just stopping for a few minutes every now and then just to start raining again. I mean, I like dark, rainy days, but I really wanted to enjoy some sunny days since I'm on vacation. Plus, we needed to catch up on washing some clothes because we only have enough water pressure in the mornings to wash, so if we aren't at home in the mornings, we can't wash, and if there is no sun, we can't wash because we hang our clothes out to dry and obviously you can't do that in the rain. We can hang some clothes out in the garage to be protected from the rain, but still if there is no sun, it ends up stankin' like something crawled up in there and died. So, all that to say that we have a mound of clothes to be washed.

This morning, we were really excited to see the sun out, so while Elvis was in class (he had a presentation in his 6:30am class...and i thought that 8:00am classes were killers!!) I put in several loads of clothes to wash and was so happy to finally get to wash clothes! So guess what happens just as Elvis is hanging out the last load to dry (I can't really reach the clothes line..good excuse for him to always have to do it! )....yep, the black clouds roll in, and the raindrops start pelting down from the sky. ARGGGG!!!

The good thing is that in our neighborhood, we have literally everything you may need within walking distance...several banks, grocery store, ice cream stores, like 20 tiendas, hardware store, about 10 hair salons, about 20 billion pupuserias , a Taiwanese cookie and wantan stand, fruits and vegetable stands all along the sidewalk, our church is a 5 min walk away, and lots of home open up their garages to sell used clothing, fresh cheese, and many have made diners in their garages. Oh and I almost forgot about the best part! The pirated DVDs on the corner! We can get all the newest releases with perfect DVD quality (not videotaped in the movie theater) for $1...I mean they've had Narnia for weeks, Indiana Jones, etc. Our top pick of the month is "Lars and the Real Girl". Plus there's a pirated Christian CD stand...that one makes me laugh sometimes. Anyways, I've gotten off track. What was the point? Oh yeah, so luckily, we have a laundry mat right in front of the house, but we are trying to decide whether it is worth it to pay $.30 per pound to dry these clothes, because wet towels weigh a lot more than you would think.

The other interesting thing about rainy season is that with the first rains come out these gigantic mutant ants called "zompopos de mayo". Remember "Honey I Shrank the Kids"? Remember what the ants looked like to the dwarfed kids? Yeah, it's pretty much like that. Not only are they humongous, they have wings. And they smell weird. And the worst part is that the kids in my class love to collect them in their pencil cases. I mean, just imagine opening up that thing and seeing 30 inflated winged insects crawling around, letting off their stank. I almost peed my pants the first time I found out about that little hobby in my class. So, these mutants come out with the first rains, then you don't see them anymore all season. Upon reading about them on google, they are found in other countries too, and are eaten in places such as Guatemala, Japan, Columbia, etc for being rich in protein. Yummy. Here's a video so you can get an idea. Just keep in mind that they get bigger than this one you see here. I'm pretty sure they will take over the world one day, but it must be rainy day in May.