Ants on ants on ants

Today was our first day in Masaya, in a small town outside of Masaya actually called Diriomito. The two towns in this area are Diriomito and Pacaya, which are both relatively rural, though very welcoming and nice. The outstanding feature of both towns is that they have an amazing view of the Laguna de Apoyo, which I’ve mentioned in at least one blog post before. It’s essentially a giant volcanic crater formed 23,000 years ago which is now filled with water and has created an amazing, otherworldly place where situated between volcanoes. If one walks along the main road through Diriomito, one can see the Laguna shimmering ethereally in the distance on one side. 

The view from the top of the main road in Diriomito.

Before traveling to our home stays however, we stopped by for about an hour at the famed artisanal market of Masaya. It covers an entire block and is ringed by restaurants and food stands. Inside is stall after stall of ceramics, cloths, bags, jewelry, scarves, etc of all kinds. My goal was to find hammocks, which were rumored to be extremely cheap here, but they really weren’t. I did practice my haggling skills quite a bit; there’s really no trick to haggling at all, only to be shamelessly cheap, asking for prices you know they won’t give you and feeling to traces of remorse or guilt at being so stingy. I didn’t get a hammock (I hear they’re cheaper at the commercial, and not artisanal market) but I did pick up a few things to bring back home.  

I’m living with Julia, a grandmother, and her husband. The house is also inhabited by her extended family and grown-up children, though due to the traffic in and out of the house I’m not sure who lives here and who doesn’t. The people I’ve met so far include: Julia (of course), mi papa nica (Carlos, but Julie introduced me to him as my papa nica, which I had a good laugh at), Camelo (Julia’s grandchild), Daniella (another grandchild), Margarita, Carla and Blanca (her daughters), and the baby of Carla, who kept shrieking and making faces at me but was otherwise completely adorable. Papa Nica went straight to his room to watch TV when he got home and has been there ever since. 

The house itself is one of the nicer ones from what I’ve heard from people in the program and the girl who stayed here the week before. I have to admit, it’s relatively nice and looks extremely welcoming from the outside, having been painted a vibrant yellow. It appears to be well taken care of with an iron gate and cleanly painted lines. My room is also very nice, with its own armoire and TWO mirrors. Que lujoso! The only downside are the ant. I discovered the ants somewhat accidentally. I noticed a few huge ants crawling around and promptly snuffed out their meager lives, thinking nothing of it, only that they were the largest ants I’d ever seen (they were about half an inch big). Then I noticed a few more, and a few more, and realized the were a handful crawling on the walls, until I traced them back to the source, which was a huge fissure in a corner of the wall, about a foot away from my pillow. Through this fissure there was quite literally a flood of huge brown and black ants, some with wings, pouring through, milling around and swarming on the floor in the corner. There were so many that the corner was almost black. I screamed a little inside, composed myself, and ran out to tell Julia that there were a lot of ants all over my bed. 

We proceeded to spent the next hour systematically killing and sweeping up piles and piles of ants. I took my handy Repel spray, meant for clothing and equipment as it will stay in the fabric even after repeated washings, to douse the entire corner with toxic chemicals. Many of the ants kind of convulsed for a bit, while the rest began a mass exodus across the room and into the waiting feet of Julia, who was also armed with a broom. We’d sweep the masses of ants into the center of the room where Julia would crunch-crunch-crunch away and then Camelo would come in and push the pile of black bits into the backyard. I was alternately consumed with laughter and disgust. Afterwards, I thoroughly doused the bed frame and the underside of the mattress with more Repel and moved to the top bunk while also pulling out the bed farther away from that grim corner of death, site of the ant massacre. Apparently, these “ants” (I put quotation marks because they’re really more like dirt dwellers with wings) come out every time it rains, which is everyday. I’ve hopefully poured enough noxious chemicals on the walls to keep them out for a couple of days. 

I also taught Camelo and Daniella how to play BS; they were highly amused by my translation of “bullshit.” Meanwhile, we’re test driving the filters and stoves here with the families. So far, the families love the stoves and we’ve just started using the filters. Julia was immediately fascinated by the filters when we introduced them and inquired about the price ten seconds into the presentation; I’m really glad to see the immediate need and demand for our products and witness the cause and effect our work can have on real live people here. 

Goodnight for now! It’ll be a relatively early morning for me tomorrow since I didn’t realize there are no lights in the outhouse here, so I’ll have to take my shower tomorrow morning. I actually got to use the solar lamp today while brushing my teeth! It truly is a good product and now I can do my sales pitch with more authenticity. The bathrooms here, speaking of, consist of a hole in the ground with a wooden seat built over it (don’t get me started on the smell) and it’ll be bucket baths all around for the next seven days.