erikwinkler

¨Erik,¨Marta said softly. Cee Cee´s tail was wagging and I drifted out of my daze. Marta woke me up at 5:15 this morning so I could come out and see the pig dangling from the tree. He oddly enough didn´t make a noise getting killed and the cute old campesino man that did him in made me laugh. He had no shirt on and was using rope as a belt. I paid him 50 cords, he swung the axe (pig killing method) over his shoulder and swaggered off to start his work day fishing on the lake, just like that.

After washing down some coffee, helping to skin the pig, and minutes later eating some of the fried pork rinds, I was off to the country side by bike to help cut palm leaves with Erikson (the family farm hand), to wrap up the nacatamales.

Water service has been very irregular in town this month. We went three days without it last week and it´s been off every afternoon since. We have to fill up huge plastic barrels and resort to bucket baths at night, which are actually quite refreshing after you get over the initial dump on your head. I don´t think any of my neighbors saw me standing out by the lavendero taking a bath the day I took Cee Cee to Managua. It was still dark anyway.

The economy here is as always struggling. The government just announced that all ministries (aka government organizations) work from 7AM to 1PM as a cost saving measure because they can´t pay their utility bills. Prices keep rising, which is a never ending problem and conversation topic, while salaries stay the same or go down. Last year inflation in Nicaragua was a whopping 18%. I fear that it´s only going to get worse herewithout trying to sound too speculative.

	Marta toasting corn to make pinolillo
	Toasted cacao