These last two months, I have visited so many places and said hello and good-bye to so many people. Upon arriving in Puerto Cabezas, I felt like my soul had been stretched over a large portion of the continent, from Milwaukee, Oberlin, Chicago, and Madison to Granada, Nandasmo, Niquinohomo, and Managua, and it was only a hollow shell of me that was actually arriving in Puerto Cabezas. Slowly, I am starting to gather myself back up and bring my entire being here into this present moment. Joyce Rupp's book Praying Our Goodbyes has been my constant companion during this journey, and I have revisited her meditations many times.
It helps my transitioning that Puerto Cabezas is absolutely lovely. The Agnesian sisters have a convent and a garden right by the ocean, and fresh sea breeze is always blowing through. We live about a 25-minute walk away from the convent and the schools, and there are lots of little stores and markets between the two. We can very easily pick up food we need for dinner from the vendors in the market on the way home from the schools.
The owner's son lives in the house with us, and his friend is over all the time. This arrangement may not last, as some of the nuns really want us to have our own space for a variety of reasons. However, it has been very helpful for me these past few days to have people around to explain life here. We don't have a refrigerator, and we have learned that the microwave can double as a storage space for anything that we don't want bugs to get into. They have gently chastised us about leaving the windows unlatched when we leave the house ("Don't they have burglars in your country?").
As our bootleg Internet connection fratzes out, I will leave off there and resume at a later time.
Ah, I've found your blog and bookmarked it--pretty good for me! I'm glad to hear that Puerto Cabezas is lovely--beauty feeds the soul, too! The breeze sounds wonderful, but maybe it doesn't reach to the house where you are living? Keep up the description--it makes me feel closer to you!
ReplyDeleteK-ray... this is great, I have a blog to comewalkwithtania.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteThis was a great start... I am glad that you finding your self in Cabeza...Your life is so much different then ours here in Lima (especially the living situation. I can't wait to read more my friend. Miss you and hopefully we can talk on the phone together. Do you have a cell phone?