Update

Dear Friends and Family,

The rain has stopped! I've never experienced such a long period of intense rainfall. It's amazing that there weren't any landslides or major issues in my town...we lost power last night, and still don't have running water (the water tanks are pumped electrically). But the rain has stopped, which I'm taking as a very good sign. I've heard that damage is pretty bad in other parts of the country, although it's been hard to find reliable news sources. The Peace Corps has us on a 72-hour alert to be safe, although I hope this is the end.

Because of the power outage, my host family and I ate dinner by candlelight last night. It was actually kind of nice...we ate boiled platanos and peanut-butter toast (the peanut-butter courtesy of my personal stash) with Atole de trigo (my favorite type of atole...it's basically cream-of-wheat in a mug) and told adivinanzas, or riddles, to pass the time. It was the first time that we all just hung out together after dinner, no dishes, no tv, just adivinanzas by candlelight. I went to bed early (for lack of anything better to do) and awoke this morning to the beautiful sound of silence--it was the first time in over 48 hours that I didn't hear the rain beating away at my tin roof. I really hope it lasts.

Love,
Hannah