Ramblings and other Assorted Nonsense

Hi all! So I am headed out this weekend to Miraflor, a natural reserve with waterfalls in the mountains outside of Esteli, where my language school is located. I have decided that Managua is like the LA of Nicaragua, and Esteli is more like the Denver, Colorado--cool weather, laid back people, nestled in the mountains. Also, I was having lots of zen-like thoughts running thru my head this afternoon while reading The Road Less Traveled. In it, it talks about how it took the author 37 years to realize that often we think we´re not good at things because we don´t take adequate time to learn how to do them. For example, the author, M. Scott Peck, was talking about how he could never do mechanical things or assemble anything from an instruction booklet. He was talking to a neighbor about how great it was that his neighbor could fix his own lawn mower, saying gee, I wish I could do that...I wonder why I can´t. And his neighbor responded by saying, you can, you just haven´t taken the time to learn. And it was true: when he took the time to try and fix a simple problem with someone else´s car, he discovered he could do it.

This got me thinking about Kendal and my conversation with him in October.
Me: It´s so awesome you´re volunteering here in Nicaragua. I wish I could do something like that.
Kendal: You can.
Me: Yeah, but I have a lease and a dog and people I love in the U.S. and...
Kendal; Yeah, but if you don´t do it now, you´re just going to keep having more of those responsibilities and things that pull you farther away from doing it.
Me: Yeah, but...
Kendal: AND, you can only avoid doing what you´re supposed to be doing for so long. Eventually IT WILL catch up with you.
Me: OK, I´m coming.
So maybe this isn´t exactly how it went, but it was something like this, and it worked, and I am grateful! Thank you, Kendalario! I don´t think we realize how much we affect one another´s lives, but I´m beginning to understand...

Also, another thing I am getting used to is never being alone lol. I was reading my book in the room they gave me, which I basically only use to sleep in, and my host grandmom walks in (and catches me cramming down a Zone bar, of course lol) and was like are you lonely? Do you miss your family? And I was like, yeah I wasn´t thinking about it but I do! How did you know? And she was like, well because you are solita (alone). Here, that´s about one of the strangest things you can be caught doing lol. And I think I am growing as a person and in my interactions with others because of this consistant togetherness. The warmth of the people here is shocking, and I´m appreciating it more every day. OK, that´s it! :)