One thing I am learning is there is no typical day in Nicaragua. I keep waiting for our routine to settle and when I say that to other people living here they just smile or stifle a laugh. Expect the unexpected. Hold your plans loosely in your hands for the day and say a prayer to be love however it is needed.
So this Thursday I woke up, made banana muffins and iced coffee. Dustin and Nolan head off to work with a recycling/educational project with our friend Joe in the community. I help everyone begin their work for the day, which includes more than just my kids going on schoolwork. I have one conversation with the Spanish teacher about what I would like the kids to learn. Then I talk with a woman who needs to borrow some money for a medical procedure about what she could clean around the house to repay us. As soon as I sit down to call my mom and hear how my grandma’s funeral went, our neighbors come to the door. Martin has a bloody head and needs to go to the clinic 5km away. The Spanish teacher assures me she will watch the kids and so Martin and I head to the clinic. There is a clinic open three days a week for a few hours and Martin just happens to be hurt at the “right” time so we are able to avoid going to the hospital in Leon.
However, the clinic doesn’t have any stitches so we go from pulperia (tiny shops in peoples' homes) to pulperia asking if anyone has stitches. We eventually find some, and head back to get stitched up. At the clinic, there is a long line of mamas with new babies. I love to hear them talk and they seem in good spirits despite the lack of sleep and the fact that they walked to the clinic. Many of them just days or weeks after a caesarean birth. We give rides home as we leave the clinic three hours later. After a quick lunch of sopa de queso and guacamole with chips, I head to teach English all afternoon at La Cooperative middle school. I walk in the door around 5:30, grab some sparkling water, and walk out to the beach where I know all the kids will be playing since its nearly sunset. We watch the red ball drop into the ocean and feel thankful for another day. We make some pasta and eat dinner outside where the air has finally cooled off for the day. Evening is the time when we take a deep breath and remember why we love Nicaragua. We end the day reading under the rancho at the beach. The kids hang in hammocks and we take turns reading until bedtime. So..... that was this Thursday and next Thursday will be different. Who knows what will happen?
-Angie
