It´s a rainy October day here in Managua, and I know I haven´t written in ages on this blog, but the rain has some strange consequences here-basically nobody comes into the center-so it´s been a quiet day. I´m thinking I could get another blog post up before the craziness that is sure to be the last couple months of my experience as a Jesuit Volunteer in Nicaragua, finishing up in December.
Several weeks ago we finished up the annual ¨Re-Orientation/Dis-Orientation¨ retreat with a visit from the JVC staff, based in Washington, D.C. We headed up to one of my preferred locations in Nicaragua, the tiny village of La Garnacha in the mountains of Esteli.
Heading into the retreat, I was beginning to feel some of the concerns of the upcoming transition I´ll be going through. So many cultural differences, the change from a tight-knit, intentional community of volunteers, changes in climate…I´m sure I could go on and on with a list of all the differences I will be encountering. Anyway, thinking about the implications of all those changes had me feeling a bit nervous, to say the least, of what´s to come. The retreat however has brought me to a place of feeling at peace with where I´m at, trying to make the most of the last two months that remain and in many ways excited for the upcoming transition. We spent time on the retreat talking about how to go about telling our story of the experience to those who care to hear upon returning to the U.S. This is something I hadn´t thought much about beforehand, but an important preparation I´m realizing I´ll need to prioritize as that reality approaches.
Over than all that upcoming transition preparation, life in work and community has been rewarding and enjoyable these past months. At my work site, a recent project I´ve gotten pretty excited about is a small community garden at the youth center where I work. This year I¨ve been involved in a project to bring groups of 5 to 5 youth from the inner city barrio where I work to a farm about an hour outside of Managua. On the farm they help work on a variety of projects such as planting and harvesting tomatoes or learning about beekeeping. We started the community garden to try and make the opportunities to learn about basic farming and planting accessible to more youth in the barrio who don´t have the opportunity to go out to the farm. The garden has been slowing coming along, with a few cucumbers showing up as the first fruit to be harvested. It´s been an enjoyable challenge trying to motivate kids from the barrio to come help out in the garden.
It you´re reading this you may be curious about my future plans after finishing up…I anticipate getting asked about that more and more in the coming months, and although I don´t have a definite answer at the moment, I have some ideas I´m getting excited about that I can share. First off, before returning home immediately I plan on doing several weeks of traveling up through Central America and into Chiapas, Mexico with one of my fellow JVs who is finishing up as well. I plan to leave Chiapas in early January to be home in time for the annual Krista Foundation re-entry retreat for colleagues (check out www.kristafoundation.org for more info!). I´m VERY much looking forward to that opportunity to reflect on the transition and share with other recently returned volunteers. Following the Krista retreat, I plan on spending a good amount of time catching up with friends and family in the Pacific Northwest. I imagine at this point I´ll be based out of this little town I know called Hood River, but hope to do some traveling around the Northwest, so if you´re interested in hearing more about the Nicaraguan experience let me know and we can try and set up a visit! When it comes to what I´ll actually be doing next, I have thought a lot recently about working in immigration work or with migrant farm workers somewhere on the West Coast. I´d of course love to keep up on my Spanish speaking and I feel like it would be a good way to stay connected to the Latin America I have come to know and love and also to facilitate that transition I´ll be going through. So…it anyone out there has ideas or suggestions for getting involved in this type of work please do let me know!
Okay, I think that´s about it for now amigos. For those of you reading this from home, I´ll be around in few short months and look forward to reconnecting and catching up. All the best in the autumn season and hasta pronto!
