Leaving the House July 17th, 2010
My little shell of a room is mostly dim. The only light that enters the house during the day enters from the carefully designed missing bricks in the side walls, and the front and back door, which remain open from 5am to 9pm daily. At times I get caught in the familiar rhythm of indulging myself in the privacy of my own room, where I could happily pass hours reading and writing and thinking of the little space I´m carving here in this canopy of spanish-speaking newness and babies laughs and trying not to rush. I spent that latter half of the week bedridden after a tremendous adventure out to Caracol, a neighboring farming community about 3 hours away on bicicleta and a short hike despues. Apparently the cows butter I ate is parasite ridden and contains every kind of fatty richness that will make the stomach turn. Without too much detail, let´s say I spent a good chunk of Thursday making continuous trips out the latrine to empty my system. And it was pretty miserable until Friday afternoon when I decided that despite feeling wholly exhausted, I would make the short trip to stop by the library and platicar un poquito con Payita, the librarian, because I felt bad that I had missed three precious days of my time there. And so glad I was that I did! About a half a block from the library three little girls come up and grab me from each sides (shhh… secretly their my favoritas) one, Katerin, a fierce and obstinate little one with too much smarts for her own good, the other, Yharitz, a sneaky dark-skinned and wild one with always a trick up her sleeve and finally Cristel, the quiet sidekick of Katerin. And when I got in best of all who was there but one of my less trustworthy teenage helpers Mario, working on the mural on his own initiative! He was putting the finishing touches on the world map so that it will be ready to paint next week. I was so çontent and relieved to spend the next hour and a half doing watercolor with the çhavalas (little girls) and smiled and took a deep breath, remembering the light that hits me each time I step out of my little brick shell and find myself amongst the people of Achuapa. Today the same phenomena happened where I found myself without ganas de salir (didn´t feel like leaving) and I decided to just go out for the heck of it and of course I saw this chavala I work with named Ghrety and I talked with her mom a while in the street and just stood with all the time in the world (here the expression is hay mas tiempo que vida, which means, there is more time than life) And its so true! The less you rush things the more you can feel your feet on the ground and be true. Which reminds me that i´ve started a daily yoga routine! Ashtanga to be exact. But enough of this cyberworld, I´m taking to the streets again.