As it comes down to my last couple of days here, I feel like I should say that it flew by, or it seems like I got here yesterday, or something equally cliche. But it doesn't. I feel like I have been here for a very long time! It's strange, when you start living in a new place the daily routines you develop. I am a person of habits and rituals and it starts early in the morning, when I stumble down the stairs to start the coffee machine at 5:30 a.m. After making my breakfast, I sit down with Rachelle's laptop to read the New York Times while I eat - and the cat, Robin, has a favorite ritual of sitting on the keyboard, blocking the news and trying to stick her paws into my breakfast.
From there it continues, seeing many of the same people every morning as I make the first branch of my commute, trying to avoid carts and baskets of vegetables as I traipse through the crowded market. Then there's the ride in the minibus, which often takes over an hour as we travel around town picking up different employees at their houses.
I am ashamed at how little of this blog I've devoted to Abigail. I spend every day from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. with Abigail, sometimes more time. That's a lot of time to spend with one person. Abigail is... how do I describe her? She's nineteen years old, but if you see her for the first time, you will think she's eight, until you spend enough time with her and see the nineteen year old come out in her eyes. During the mornings we do art therapy, read stories, do puzzles and legoes, and sometimes just sit outside watching the coconut trees or laughing at the little kids' antics. I also dress her, feed her lunch and snacks, change her diapers, do her hair. Abigail was born with cerebral palsy, which really doesn't slow a person down that much if they are given opportunities and treatment to overcome their difficulties. However, life hasn't been good to Abigail. She never was taught any way to communicate, and since she doesn't speak, the only way she can talk is with her facial expressions. She was abandoned and starving and barely alive when she came to the orphanage less than a year ago, weighing 26 pounds at age 18. Not only does she need a wheelchair, but one of her legs is fused together in a completely bent position from a severe burn, further limiting her movements. Luckily, she will have surgery to fix it in a little over a month. I hesitate to tell people details about Abigail since her story tends to make people sad, but she's not a sad person, nor is she unhealthy or suffering. She loves to work on everything I come up for her for that could pass as therapy, she spends most of the day grinning and is a very caring person who has giggle fits for no reason. I only wanted to share her story so that you have a better understanding of what I've been doing here, and who I spend most of my time with!
Other things I do at the orphanage are teach English to the two oldest boys, who are 12 and 13, and help with the other English classes as well. I play a lot with two kids who have special needs and are very high maintenance and high energy. I spent a lot of time drawing pictures for kids to color, and a lot of afternoons I just like to hang out with whoever is around.
After two months of this, I have become very comfortable there and have enjoyed it a lot, but I am a kind of exhausted that before this I didn't know existed. I sleep very well at night, but it's never enough time and vivid dreams probably induced by malaria medication keep me from getting any rest. That in combination with giving all my time, energy and listening to others has made me ready for a break.
It's funny because I've been complaining so much about being cold here, because it gets below 70 at night. I sleep these days with the windows closed, a sweatshirt on and three blankets on my bed... and it is warmer than summer was in Wisconsin. I'm not exactly sure what next week is going to be like, probably a lot of hot chocolate will be consumed. The weather here is absolutely beautiful though; right when the rainy season was supposed to end, we got a ton of rain from the tropical storms in the Caribbean, so it was just a mudhole here for a while. The first 48 hours that it didn't pour rain, I thought it was some kind of miracle; now it's been over a week since it rained! The skies are clear and blue and it's always windy; warm during the day and "cold" at night.
Last night, the power in the whole city went out for a while, so Rachelle, Megan and I stopped the Harry Potter movie we were watching and sat out in the courtyard, shivering, to look at the brilliant stars. They were beautiful.
Even though there are numerous things I love about my two homes, Washington and Wisconsin, and even though Nicaragua is the poorest country in Central America and has a poverty level exceeded in the Western Hemisphere only by Haiti, there are still many aspects of Nicaraguan life that make me jealous. Everyone is outside all the time, sitting on the sidewalk in front of their houses eating, chatting with neighbors or just relaxing. Everyone has time to walk without rushing, or sit in the market with acquaintances enjoying a cup of coffee. There are very few real doors on houses, just gates, so there is always fresh air and very little feeling of being shut out. Almost all the food is fresh since refrigeration is not a big thing here and neither is transporting food from other countries. There are many more things I could go on about - life is a struggle here, but it's a beautiful place.
After all this, I think it's a good time for me to leave. I haven't had really any time to myself in three months, I'm usually gone from the house for 10 or 11 hours every day and I'm getting pretty worn out. I'm ready to see my friends and family, and also, anti-American sentiments here are getting stronger every day. I've already received an advisory not to travel to or within Managua this Saturday unless it's essential, and I'm hoping things will have calmed down by the time I go to the airport early Sunday morning. Luckily, I have a ride from my house directly to the airport so I will be safe, but it seems like things are definitely escalating in a bad direction.
Well, sorry this was a ridiculous long blog entry about almost nothing in particular. It's past time for me to go running... will write more after my ziplining experience this weekend.