Nicaragua does not have four seasons as we have in the Netherlands. Here we have a dry and a wet season. The dry season lasts from about December till May. In Juigalpa during the day the temperature is then about 35 oC with little drop in temperature during the night. It’s a dry warm heat, easily tolerable once you get used to it.
Just before the start of the rainy season the humidity rises. It is less comfortable, tiring and it makes people sweat a lot. Sometime in May the first rains ought to fall, but when the rainy season starts and how much rain we receive during this season varies from year to year.
Rainy season
We are now into the rainy season. Rain usually comes in huge downpours, very powerful but usually lasting less than one hour. The temperature normally stays around 30 oC, so getting wet occasionally does not really matter. But this year the rains are ferocious and the temperatures have dropped to about 25 oC in daytime, even lower during the night, and people perceive this as very cold. So at Ruach we’ve been searching our cupboards of donated clothing for sweaters and warm pyjamas. There was a fair number. Whatever was still needed we bought in a 
second-hand clothes store of which there are many here. Manuel en Maria Helena enjoy their new sweaters in this picture!
We also stocked up on big umbrellas, because a standard-size umbrella does not give enough protection in a tropical down-pour. We also bought knee-height boots for those participants of the activities club who usually walk back home after their time with us. So we’re reasonably prepared for the wet season, but it remains a problem to get our washed clothes dried as clothes driers are not available here.
And you can understand that work on the drainage and sewage system in Juigalpa that is currently going on also has an impact. Mud pools, huge water puddles and slippery roads are everywhere.
But our inconveniences are nothing compared to people who live in corrugated iron houses or near the rising river. We’re sincerely grateful for what we have got!