My new host family
So I have been meaning to update my blog for several weeks now, but life has gotten away from me and I am now in the final month of my time in Nicaragua and can hardly believe that six months have almost passed me by. Where the time has gone I do not know. It seems in many ways I arrived here yesterday and in other ways that I have been here for several years. The country has become a part of me and I feel at home here. Even speaking Spanish every day no longer bothers me and I can now eat beans and rice for all three meals without horrible stomach aches. In some ways eating other food seems a little strange.
About a month and a half ago I moved host families. I used to live in Jinotepe and I now live in La Conquista. It is a smaller town of about 3,000 people and is about thirty minutes drive away from Jinotepe. I moved in with a woman and her family who works with Luke’s Society. She is in charge of running the organization’s small pharmacy that sells discounted medicine in La Conquista. When I moved here her husband was a way working in the north and she was a little bit lonely and wanted some company. Also my directors felt it would be good to give me time to see and experience life in one of the poorer cities of the country. So I made the move.
My family now includes the father – Denis, the mother – Gladis, and four children – three boys and one girl. Wesley is 12, Javier is 10, Graving is 4, and Leslie Priscilla is 1 ½. We live in a small house constructed by the government. The house consists of a small main room and two other rooms that come off of that main room that have curtains covering the doorways. In reality the house is one large room, with particle board dividers that were put up to make walls. Out of the back door is the families underconstruction kitchen. The house belongs to one of Gladis’ brothers who is away working in Costa Rica. Bit by bit he is adding on to the house to make it larger and more luxurious. But as of right now he has made little progress. The back section has a hard dirt floor and concrete walls on three sides with openings for the windows and the door that have not yet been covered. In one corner are a pile of concrete blocks that will eventually be the bathroom.
There is also a hammock where the dad almost always lies after finishing work for the day. He lays there in the hammock and I sit on one of the several tree stumps that are going to be cut later into firewood, while Gladis stands in front of the woodburning fire making our dinner. The kids wander in and out of the room and sometimes all sit down on the other logs and we begin to tell stories to one another or to make shadow animals on the wall. While we wait for dinner or after we have eaten the kids and I usually play various games that involve much laughing, usually at me for the inability I have to use their toys. We also take turns drawing different pictures and showing them to one another. Sometimes Wesley, who is taking guitar lessons, will go and get the guitar and bring it into the kitchen where he then begins to play. Leslie, Javier, and I begin to dance as the parents sing and clap along to the music. Graving varies between dancing and sitting there watching us.
After playing for a while I will usually wash the dishes and hand wash some of my clothes before going to bed.
They are a delightful family and I feel honored to live with them.
two more photos - the top one is of me, with the families mule, my little host sister Leslie Priscilla, my brother Graving, and my host father Denis
