It is the rainy season in Nicaragua right now- actually, October is supposedly the rainiest month. And then we were told we wouldn't get any more rain until May... But this is how it is right now:

Our clothes have a hard time getting dry sometimes simply because there might be a small shower in the afternoon when we're not home to take our clothes off the clothesline that is outside. Or even if the clothes are simply on the clotheslines under the house, they still have a hard time getting dry due to the extra humidity in the air.

One night there was a rainstorm occurring but we needed to get to church and decided to go anyways... So we ran through the streets filled with 3 to 4 inches of water in some spots, having Nicaraguans call us loco while standing in their houses. At church that night, there was a continuous puddle where I was sitting.

This past Friday, the bottom level of our house flooded. We were fortunate enough to have been home and we were all able to pick up our suitcases, clothes, laptops, ect, off the floor. And then we waited and watched the water rise. And rise. And then overflow onto the floor of the laundry area and then spread to the bedrooms and bathroom. The reason that this happened was because the drainage pipe that leads from the "outside" (which is technically in our house) to the street was clogged with items (they happened to be a dead rat, trash, a small towel and part of a nerf football... go figure). Two of the guys from El Puente, Danilo and Manny, were gracious enough to come to the house and bring a large pipe to unclog the drainage pipe. And then we all spent the next 2 or so hours mopping our house and drying out our rooms. Even though it could be seen as annoying and frustrating that our house got flooded, I could look at it and realize that this rain is simply a blessing. Again, it does happen to be the rainy season down here which explains the immense amount of rain that we are getting- I'm simply trying to enjoy it while it's here because I love rain and I will miss it when it doesn't come around every day...

On a different topic- Our ministry this week has been mainly working with El Puente still. We've been really blessed with getting to know the guys who work there better and become even better friends with them. Our team is beginning to really become integrated into the life down here. We're building relationships with people who we see at shops that we frequent (the internet cafes, the tienda across the street from us, the bread store that sells picos) and people that we simply see day to day (the boys on the streets, the ice cream vendor who comes down our street, the family living next door). 3 of the guys on our team have actually been gone since Friday and are coming back this afternoon from playing in a basketball tournament with some guys from the young life group down here- building relationships with them.