Late at Night When All the World is Sleeping I Stay Up and Dream of Food

Hola Companeras,

It’s been a hot minute since I’ve written.  I’m starting to leave the honeymoon stage and enter the holy shit; this is going to be my home for 2 ½ years stage.  I’m in a new city, getting to know it a bit better along with the ciudadanas.  I have to start over and in about 2 ½ months the process will begin again when I move to my permanent site.  Things seem to be going well, though they can, at many times, be incredibly overwhelming. 

Next week, we will have many firsts.  We will conduct our first charla at the Centro de Salud, which will center on methods of family planning; begin finding participants for and conducting our survey; and conducting our first charla with our primary and secondary youth groups.  It’s a lot and it’s getting to me.  Fortunately, today I had some time to myself to breathe.    

After my last run, Chepe told me about a route that he used to run that goes from Diriamba to Dolores.  It’s about 2.5 km each way.  It was liberating, to say the least.  The route was littered with runners, covered by an ascending shade, and nearly free of dust.  It gave me some time to recharge and reflect while enjoying the new Macklemore and JT albums.  I feel a bit safer and more aware of my surroundings as well.  She doesn’t even go here!   

I definitely need to make a concerted effort to take time to myself each day.  Whether that means going for a run or just leaving the house to explore the city during the day.  In the states, I generally have a space for this in the house, even if I don’t make an effort to get outside.  In my house, however, it’s much more of a community, which I love.  But, I feel guilty and anti-social, at times, when my family is watching TV together and I take time to myself in my room. 

During my run, I passed Hotel Lupita, which is equipped with a pool where you can enjoy a cool tona.  I passed my companeras on the way back and now that we know we can walk there during the day, we can save the 7 cords each way.  This totals about 50 cents both ways but as we’re getting paid about 250 – 300 cords or about 10 – 12 dollars a week, it ends up being a relatively costly ride.

This past week, we aprovechared an excellent opportunity to cool down from the inferno, that is the Nicaraguan sun.  Vamos a la playa!  I’m generally not a big fan of the beach.  You end up with sand in every possible part of your body and the last time I was there I froze my buns off.  This beach, however, was spectacular.  It appears to be a relatively new beach as the sand is very coarse and dark.  Upon arrival, we ran to the water where Isabel was determined to drown.  My first attempt to follow her resulted in being knocked on my ass.  It didn’t take long for us to see that the ocean, more or less, wanted us the hell out. 

We played Frisbee with Roxie’s kids and her mom made us a delicious lunch.  The ride is about an hour and costs 19 cords.  Well worth it as the ride alone will make you relish the next cold shower you take.  Outside of the house, was a farm where pigs and chickens fought over the discarded bags of jocotes.

Today marks the first day of  Semana Santa, todo el mundo tiene vacaciones, while Cuerpo de Paz is holding out on us.  Pues, we start “vacation” (we still have a mountain to accomplish before next week) on Wednesday afternoon.  From this point on, our entire weekend will be ours to enjoy (que le vaya bien Saturday classes).  Anyway, my whole family has been cooking, cooking, cooking all the day long.  They made this delicious desert with jocotes, mango, and sugar.  I have developed a slight allergy to one of the following: my pillow case, mango, or jocotes.  I’ve yet to determine which.  Regardless, I devoured the whole thing.  Other than that, so much beans and rice!

Giant rats still hold the number one spot for greatest fear which was greatly heightened by the fact that the house next to ours was recently torn down.  This created what I can only imagine as the first scene in Wilfred.  When I asked my host family how they get rid of them, they told me they place poison throughout the whole house.  So, they generally die midway through the house.  Buenas Dias! 

My dreams are still pretty weird, though they seem to be returning to normal weird.  I’ve had dreams where I’ve been chased by The Dark Lord before so it’s not like this came out of nowhere but last night was the third one I’ve had.  I also keep having dreams that it’s the night before we leave for service or I’ve been given a chance to go back to the States one last time.  Each time I pack things I desperately wish I had brought.  Last night I had a suitcase full of my favorite pillow/pillowcase, my favorite jeans, my New Orleans shirt, some sheets, and my movies.  Mom, this is probably an indication that those are the most important to send. 

On the subject of movies, if anyone knows of anyway to watch Modern Family/Parks and Rec/New Girl outside of the U.S. please, for the love of God, leave your suggestions.  

All of you that are reading this stateside, enjoy your biscuits and gravy.  I’ll be dreaming of the food you’re eating.