23 days & counting...time to live it up.

Tuesday morning found me light-headed, weak-bodied, slightly sick...I stayed it this mode until Wednesday afternoon. I guess Kid’s English perked me up. Perhaps it had something to do with making silly faces with Marcos. That always lifts me up.

(despite appearances, this kid always makes me really happy)

Thursday heralded the month of July, and the month of July meant 23 days left in Nicaragua. Thursday meant three more weeks left in the place I’ve called home for the last 12 months. All this time I’d been dreaming of home (family, friends, American food, aiiiiir conditioning, etc etc) and here it comes...REALITY CHECK! Realizing “the end is near” must have kicked my butt into shape. Walking around on Thursday in the community, I realized it’s time to live every day as if it were my last (in that I don’t pass over any opportunity) and also the first (in that I bring that same enthusiasm to each and every moment as I would have during my first days here). I also want to start blogging more about my last days here so as to shed more light on my day-to-day. So here goes.

THURSDAY.

Thursday morning after Chureca as usual, I went to my last Comedor. Comedor is a time where all the kids in the Cedro Galan are invited to have a meal, and we come to help serve/wash dishes. After Comedor, Manna hosts “Tuani Hour.” As this wasn’t my designated day to wash dishes and/or plan Tuani Hour, I went to visit friends who live in the community. I ate fresh calala ice cream and walked down the road to pick mamones at my friend’s sister’s house. All of this was completed in time to join in the last bit of Tuani Hour fun - an art class involving sketching faces. I had some very interesting interpretations of my face done by a few mischievous students. Next my friend Mayquelin invited me to see her pictures of her recent Quinceanera party. The girl was decked out princess style with a huge pouffy pink dress and a tiara. Absolutely gorgeous. I told her so, too.

After these adventures I walked down to 13.5 where I was heralded with the “You don’t visit us enough!” greeting. I made myself a promise to come back as much as possible and spent the rest of the afternoon playing SET with Maycol. Great game. Great boy.

FRIDAY.

With both of our cars out of town, Daniel & I figured we’d try our luck and see if the kids wanted to walk from Farito to the Library for our usual Library hour. We walked from our house the back way to Farito, a dirt road passing families, dogs, chickens, beautiful hills. Greeted by a group of ten little ones waiting our arrival, there were mixed emotions about the walk to the library. In the end, walking won and off we went. I mostly chatted with the girls, held hands, learned about their schools (they’re on winter vacation now for the next week), and then raced across the field to beat the boys to the library. After an hour or so of reading in the Library, Armando and I were off to pick mangoes. And then we were all off to an afternoon of soccer before the long walk back. According to my promise, I detoured on the way home for a 13.5 visit and more SET.

The night didn’t bring much scandal or interest, but I did learn to play desmoche, a Nicaraguan card game reminiscent of Jin Rummy.

SATURDAY.

Today I went to a soccer game held nearby in which the girls from 13.5 played (and won, might I add). Leah and I convinced the Lesther and Marcos, two younger brothers of a teammate, to accompany us. Their shenanigans didn’t disappoint. Lesther and Marcos are always full of energy and Marcos kept passing me nancites (disgusting fruit) of which I ate a few before declining the others. People here love nancites; from what I know, gringos usually don’t. There are plenty of other Nicaraguan fruits - mamones, jocotes, icaco, mangoes, pitahya - which are absolutely delicious.

I promise to have more reflective/interesting updates in the future. I just wanted to get the scattered details of the last few days on paper...well...on the blog.