Leaving Nicaragua….temporarily

It is midnight. I am sitting in the Managua airport after my friends and girlfriend (yes i have one, parents already know, more on her in a later issue) dropped me off 30 minutes ago. I am waiting for my Spirit flight that will be leaving late (how late? nobody knows yet). I do have a window seat. I am very very excited. I should be in Jacksonville, FL in my bed, with my family, in air conditioning, eating food that I have missed so dearly, straight up chillin, around 1030am; even earlier if I can catch the southwest flight on standby. A year and two weeks ago I was coming to Nicaragua for the first time and now I am taking the reverse trip and am making a long overdue visit to Duval. I wonder if things will be different there…

I am still planning on taking some time while home to truly reflect and write about my one year in service but in the meantime here are some quick sitting at the aiport reflections. In one year my Spanish has gone from good/functional to great/fluent. I was just chatting with some duty free girls and they were all very impressed with my Spanish so I think it is a job well done. I still have lots of work to do on my accent, pronunciation, and enlarging my vocab but I think by this time next year, I will be native. pat on the back to myself. A girl at the duty free also asked if I had already accustomed myself to Nicaragua (it sounds better in Spanish) and I answered honestly by saying that yes, I now understand a lot about how the country works, why the people do what they do, and can notice the differences, but no I do not think that I have gotten used to it all. I dont think I will ever fully be adjusted to the lifestyle here. I like certain aspects and dislike others. that is that.

I definitely know that I am a different person today than I was one year ago. The way I think about the world is very different, the way I think about myself is definitely different, and my life is very very different. Different is the key word as you may have noticed. I am not sure if my life or who I am is better or worse that it was in the US but I do know that I have grown and have been able to experience both the good sides and bad sides of both life and my person. On one hand I feel more knowledgeable, understanding and sympathetic and on the other hand I feel ignorant, stubborn, and less sympathetic than I was. It is interesting what really living in a third world country will do to you.

Eso es todo por ahora. Ya tengo sueño y quiero dormirme pero aguantaré…porque yo se que muy pronto estaré en mi hogar. ¡Qué emocionante! ¡Qué alegre! Buenas noches mi gente.