Into the Home Stretch

After another long day of traveling, I made it back to Managua late Monday ready to embark on the ‘home stretch’ of my Nicaragua experience. I came back bearing many gifts, almost all thanks to the generosity of family and friends back home. My suitcase was full of yarn for Kelly’s knitting group, spices for our kitchen, games and art supplies for the neighborhood kids, and a little bit of Easter candy…for me.

The roommates came to the airport to pick me up which was really nice because they helped me with my luggage and caught me up on the happenings from the week prior.

The biggest news story out of San Isidro was a bit of a disappointing one. Last week small amounts of money began disappearing on days when some of the neighborhood kids were over. Joe and Kelly finally isolated the culprits down to three, and it took until last night for them to find the guilty party, but the case has now been closed. Unfortunately the kids who were the troublemakers will have to earn their way back into the house and earn the ability to play all those fun new games.

The other big news was that Joe and Kelly broke down and bought a blender so that we no longer have to borrow the neighbor’s all the time. It’s been spaghetti sauce and milkshakes galore ever since. I think the blender usage has actually already surpassed the grill though, to be fair, one is a lot easier to use than the other!

Other than those two developments, though, I’ve basically just fallen back into the same routine as before I left. I was back at work yesterday and had a meeting with the Director and COO to discuss use of my last few weeks and plans for next steps. It sounds like there may be a ‘new Nicky’ coming down the pipeline too – but this woman has a nutrition degree from undergrad and an MBA from Kellogg, so she’ll probably put me to shame.

Last night I returned to bucket showers after a week of being spoiled with water pressure. The one point of good news, though, is that it’s gotten so hot here during the day that the water we save in buckets from the night before actually is still quite warm by the time I use it to bathe at night. How convenient!

At any rate, I know how quickly my last few weeks here will go, and, while part of me was ready to stay Stateside after my nice trip home, I know that I need to soak up all that Nicaragua has to offer – the good and the not-so-good – because I won’t have the opportunity for much longer.


P.S. Not to overkill on soliciting donations since I sent out an email to many of you already, but I just wanted to put out a reminder that I am trying to raise money for health and nutrition programs at Fabretto through Razoo pages that a co-worker and I created. Links are below - donate if you can. Thanks!

Nutrition:
http://www.razoo.com/widgets/1f516f7d-1724-479c-9f09-bcb42dd62613

Health:
http://www.razoo.com/widgets/39e7b7f1-9886-4303-91d1-3a35af327c5f