When it rains…

A change of scenery here because I’m about to have yet another change of scenery in my life.  I’ve developed this habit of moving around a lot.  It’s good, because it means I have gotten rid of A LOT of the junk I had been collecting over the years.  Cleaning out a storage unit you haven’t really opened much in 2 years is really great.  I threw away or donated more than half of that crap.

Anyway, this friday I’m moving to Portland, Oregon.  I should really say I’m starting the process, since a few boxes will remain at my parents’ house in Baltimore.  One day, I’ll have it all…..

I just got back from Central America last Friday and have been spending the past week organizing myself for this next change.  I’m getting really excited about it, and things are falling into place already, from nearly 3,000 miles away.  I have several open doors (to borrow a phase from Sarah Palin) right now for housing, and am beginning to explore what job possibilities there might be.  It is fun to sit back and see what God delivers!

The news

Ok, so it has been a while since I posted last, but I have excuses.  First, I spent one more week at the farm, where you read by candlelight, so you can’t even hope to use a computer.  Blogs just aren’t much of a priority.  Then, I came back to town last Saturday, but I spent my time on the computer buying plane tickets, and then ran out to catch the next bus, so yet again, I didn’t bother to post.

I spent the next 3 days on buses.  Yes, 3 days.  3 countries.  I arrived back in Copan, Honduras late Monday, and now, after “the excitement” I’m ready to fill you in.

I decided to go back to the states.  Yeah, it’s about 2 months earlier than I originally expected/planned, but I had 2 major revelations.

1.  I don’t really like traveling alone.  Sure, it’s fun for a short while.  Seems like my threshold is about 2 months.

2.  It will really be wise to start working again, and stop spending money.  Especially with grad school impending, this is quite important.

And, I have already learned much more Spanish than I expected to learn in 2 months, so I don’t feel like I’m cheating myself out of that.

So, I’m going home.  For a week.  Then it’s off to Portland to find some sort of a job….but that really is quite a mystery.

The Princess Bed I Always Wanted

I told you that I was going to a remote farming village to do a little more Spanish study.  I didn´t quite know how remote it was going to be… but it is about as remote as you can imagine.

The farming community was established a couple decades ago, during the height of the Sandanista government and ensuing opposition in the early 1980´s.  Then the village was attacked by the Contra forces in ´84.  There is a very dramatic story associated with that day.  The anniversary is New Year´s Eve, and I think I´ll plan to be there then to experience the memorial.

This is my bed.  Yeah, there´s a mosquito net.  It´s actually pretty uncomfortable to use.  You can see that while it is suspended above the bed, it would hang on your head and toes, which is mildly annoying.  I´ve probably used it about 1/4 of the time.

That is about the extent of ¨comforts¨in Lagartillo.  There are no phones, TVs, or plumbing.  This means I haven´t had a hot shower since I left the States!  Here in Nicaragua, there´s a bucket full of cold water, and a small pail.  It does the trick.

 

Since there is no plumbing, there are of course outhouses.  Here´s the one I stumble to each night.  It get´s dark at around 6PM, and I ran out of batteries for my flashlight with a week before I could buy more.  Candles work, but…

It turns out I´ve studied most of the grammar in Spanish..that is I´ve seen all the forms and tenses.  So I just need to practice speaking as much as possible.  I´m getting to do that by spending morning in the local school.  Not teaching English, but teaching… in Spanish actually.  I´m surprising myself every day.  THen in the afternoos is my ¨class time¨which recently has mostly consisted of chatting with my teacher for 3-4 hours about topics ranging from NCLB, to the election, to Korean.  He let´s me talk a lot about Korea and Korean.. which is good because I know a fair amount about those topcis, and it is always encouraging to talk about things you know well. Next week I´m planning to work my way towards Costa Rica and Panama, with the goal of seeing the canal.