Mis Pensamientos

“Someday all that’s crazy / All that’s unexplained / Will fall into place / And someday all that’s hazy / Through a clouded glass / Will be clear at last / And sometimes we’re just waiting / For someday.” -Nichole Nordeman, "Someday"

Monday, December 05, 2005

My hammock



I am excited because the hammock stand I ordered arrived today so I was able to put up the hammock my best friend Ivonne bought for me when I was in Nicaragua last time. It's really way too big for my livingroom so I am going to need to move the stand outside but it's too cold and rainy to do it tonight and I am still sick so I am going to leave it for a couple days more. I know I'm weird too but I don't want to leave the hammock outside. I know they're really well made and they're designed to be left outside and withstand rain and weather but I want to preserve it as much as possible so I am just going to leave the stand outside and only bring the hammock itself out when I want to use it. Nicaraguan hammocks are the BEST! They're sooooooo comfy and cool looking too. Mine is especially special because it was a gift from my best friend, who is Nicaraguan. She was working at the orphanage when she bought it for me and I know it wasn't cheap for her, but she really wanted to get it for me. In fact, on my last trip before that, I had bought a hammock but Ivonne told me to give that one away because she wanted to buy me one on my next trip. So I gave that one to some friends who had just bought their first house, as a housewarming present. And then when I went to Nicaragua in September, Ivonne took me to the marketplace and bought this one for me. So many Nicaraguuses are like that, even though they have so little, they are so generous and giving. Like Ivonne, like her mom who cooks special lunches for me when I am in Nicaragua, like Isamar, my "hija" at the orphanage who gave me this really beautiful butterfly pin that I wear every day because it makes me think of her, like Luisa, a 89-year-old woman who lives in the same pueblo as the orphanage in a tiny one-room shack with her granddaughter and two great grandsons with no running water or plumbing, just a pump outside. I met her about a year and a half ago when I was in Nicaragua with a team and she gave us these beautiful flowers she had made herself from dyed cornhusks. She wouldn't take any money from us, nust just wanted to give them to us. And my friend Paula who works at the orphanage. She is a single mom with an adorable 8-year-old son, Saul. She hardly makes any money at the orphanage but before I left, she told me that when I come back next time she is going to make bunelos for me (they're my favorite Nicaraguan dessert) I could go on and on because there are just so many examples of how the Nicaraguans I have met are just so warm and loving and giving. I miss Nicaragua and my friends and the kids sooooooooooooo much. I can't wait to go back, but I don't know when that will be. Maybe, hopefully, in January, but I don't know for sure.
I also found this interesting article: http://www.nicanet.org/Katrina_and_Mitch.php It's a comparison of Hurricane Mitch 7 years ago in Nicaragua and Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans this year and the hadling of the hurricanes, especially in how the poorest people were affected. Definitely an interesting read and I agree with a lot of what was said.

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