A Tornado and Halloween!

            I didn’t believe it at first, but after a few community members successfully described something that has never hit this region, I finally admitted that it was possible that a tornado did in fact hit my small mountain village while I was in town getting lunch with friends.  The damage wasn’t too bad, and other than a few roofs ripped off, damage to a power pole or two, and several large trees uprooted, everything else was fine.  So while crazy climate change may allow for tornados to hit in the mountains of Nicaragua, I doubt we’ll be getting any EF-5’s anytime soon!  Funny thing is 3 days beforehand I specifically used tornados and an example in class of a natural disaster that we are not vulnerable to in the mountains of Nicaragua.  (As a side note, the tropical storm that was predicted to drop up to 10 inches of rain on us just 3-4 days after the tornado hit moved north last minute, giving us a bit of a break.  An earthquake, tornado, and flood would have been a bit much for a 2-week span). 

            The day after it I finally decided to stop being cheap and spent the C$110 (about $4.10) to buy a machete and help one of my neighborhood friends cut up some of the trees that were uprooted in his backyard.  Soon after getting started I realized that one of the branches was “bleeding.”  A few of the particularly “juicier” branches even squirted a few drops of what looked like blood onto my arm and face.  It was the creepiest, and yet coolest tree ever.  Its sap is literally the same consistency and color of blood, and the tree’s name in Spanish is “Palo Sangregado,” which pretty much translates to Bleeding Tree.  So I naturally turned into a 10 year old when everyone went to eat lunch (or just wasn’t looking) and covered myself in it. 

            The night the tornado hit I was invited to a going away/Halloween party, but was having a hard time thinking of costumes.  I had one or two mediocre ideas, but nothing to write home about.  There aren’t exactly Halloween stores to buy fake blood and other materials like in the States, and while cheap secondhand clothing is super easy to come by in the city, I had just gotten back and did not have plans to go back until the day of the party.  So when this mysterious fallen tree started squirting blood sap on me the following day I was pretty excited!  I was first thinking machete murderer, but just decided to just fall back on something that would most likely not need an explanation…a zombie.  So I covered myself with “blood,” and gathered up some in a baggie to apply before the party.  Even though I knew this tree existed beforehand, I had honestly forgotten about it.  And even if I hadn’t, as an environmentalist I would never have machete hacked the bark of a living tree.  The tornado came through and knocked over several trees, but not one on anyone’s houses, didn’t hurt anyone, and gave me my Halloween costume idea :).

Halloween night