Just an ordinary day

Like I said, there´s a volcano that looks directly over my house called Mombacho. I really wanted to hike it, so yesterday Lesbia and I took a bus to the park and, through a long series of walks, rides and waits, ended up hiking around the peak for awhile. I´ll be real, it was a lot like hiking on a mountain with a few puffs of steam floating around, but I think I´d like to hike another volcano that´s about 3 hours from my house. That will have to wait, though.

Probably the most interesting part of my day was spending 4 or so hours talking to Lesbia. She told me about how she had to quit studying architecture when Marie Esther was born, how they worry about money constantly, how she wants to travel (but doesn´t have money), how they need their own house (but don´t have money), etc etc. She talked, too, about how she wanted to go to the States but couldn´t (finances, family, etc). The more I talk to people here, the more I get the sense that, to them, the US is a slice of paradise where they´ll have all the money they need, their own house, schools for the kids and food to eat always. And I guess in that sense, the US is more or less a utopia, especially for those who are willing to take any job that comes their way. There´s air conditioning, and you can buy anything you want in the supermarket, and education is at least decent and you can drink the tap water. Part of me always wants to tell these people that the States isn´t perfect, though, that we still have our share of depression and loneliness and suicide and rape and eating disorders and theft and cheating and confusion. But I guess in Maslow´s hierarchy of needs, most of that just isn´t that important.

Lesbia also asked me if I´d ever considered joining a convent, because apparently 20 is way past my marriage expiration date. I told her I wasn´t Catholic, which was a huge shocker (an estimated 90% of the population here is Catholic) and so wasn´t a likely candidate for life as a nun.

Speaking of the nuns, my volunteer work is going pretty well. The more time I spend with the little kids in the daycare, the more I realize that I absolutely do not want such young children to be the focus of my future career. Not that I in any way would degrade people who work with children for a living, but it´s not where I want my life to go. Today I started going in the afternoon to help the older girls with their English lessons. I´d really like to get to know them as people, not as the stereotyped Nica orphan girl, so hopefully our afternoon hours will be good. Some of them are almost my age, too, but because of whatever nasty situation they´ve been taken out of they´re a few years behind in school.

As far as adapting to life in Nicaragua goes, I´m progressing rapidly. I washed my clothes this weekend with a tub of water and a washboard, I´ve begun craving beans, rice and fried plantains and I´m mildly addicted to a telenovela called En Los Tacones de Eva about a man who faked his own death and now lives life dressed as a woman to avoid jail time for a crime he didn´t commit. Hilarity, danger and romance ensue.