The bus... what a ride

The school bus that I am sitting on is decorated with Tweetie Bird stickers right nect to a black and white portrait of Carlos Fonseca, founder of the Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional, the left party that guided Nicaragua through the revolutionary 1980´s. How´s that to put things into perspective? Out of the tinted windows (which I still feel guilty for opening below the imaginary black line that I was so used to in elementary school) I can see only the tops of the lush tropical forest that covers this region of northern Nicaragua, where though few people actually go to church, anything good in one´s life is "Gracias a Diós". This bus, one that makes four daily trips out the pot-holed, one lane, dirt highway to the communities of Yasica Sur, is known as the disco, due to its neon lights, big speakers, loud music, and very tinted windows. The driver, Bismark, and Victor, the fourteen-year old that spends his days walking up and down the aisles charging people their ten cordoba fares, each breakfast and lunch everyday in the house of my family here before turning around to head back for their next trip to Matagalpa.
Today I was putting a few things into perspective on the bus ride. I am currently living an hour and a half´s bus ride from the nearest telephone or flushing toilet. I haven´t had a hot shower in four weeks, since when I am not pouring bowls of icy river water over my head, I am merely turning the knob on the shower at my $4.75/night hotel from off to on, no temperature control. The legal safety stuff is also an interesting perspective, making life seem obviously much more carefree, but also more dangerous. Yesterday, one of the buses I was on got stuck in the mud because there were so many people inside, it was too heavy! And, when there are too many people inside, they simply put more on the roof of the school bus, wedged in between the one-hundred pound sacks of elotes (corn cobs) and other agricultural goods.
So, though this entry is short, just a few more things I have been thinking about, noticing, and working on. More to follow...