A Slice of Heaven.

I got a little slice of heaven recently.

It came in the form of my mom and dear friend Drea coming to visit me.

They came to see my life here and treat me to a mini-vacation.

Talk about being blessed!

We started out the week in my site, where they got to observe some of the work I do, meet community members, and experience that ridiculous heat that never seems to end. They were such troopers, dealing with jet lag, culture shock and not understanding Spanish.

My English Crew was so welcoming to my family – they even made a special dinner of repocheta to share during our weekly meeting. It was fun to have my dear friends from Seattle and my dear friends here in Nicaragua together in the same room. Talk about worlds colliding.

I also took them to meet some other PCVs and my mother and Drea royally spoiled us with delicious food and coffee. My Nica PCV friends were pretty excited. It’s not often we get to have fun deliciousness bought for us!

Coffee + Mom + Dear Friends = Self-Care High

After a few days in my site and a pit stop in Masaya for some shopping and lunch, we headed south to San Juan del Sur, a beachy tourist town in the very southwest side of Nicaragua.

Thanks to Drea’s amazing Groupon-scouting skills, they got us an incredible hotel up on the hill overlooking the bay. It was as if a white-washed hotel from the coastal hills of Greece had been transported to Nicaragua just for our enjoyment. I would be lying if I said we did much more than just hang out there, enjoying delicious cocktails, reading and watching the gorgeous sunsets.

Drea wrote a beautiful post on her blog about her time here. I loved hearing her and my Mom’s perspectives on my life here and observations of the culture of Nicaragua. It is strange how fast my perceptions have changed and to see someone witnessing Nicaragua for the first time was a treat (and kind of hilarious at times!).

I dropped them at the airport after only 7 short days.  Tears came and while it was so sad to say goodbye, I am so thankful for the time, money and energy that these two put into coming down here. I think sometimes we need our worlds to collide a bit to give us some fresh perspective and renewed energy, and that is what their trip did for me.

Love you, Mom and Drea!

Chair Bliss.

 

My mom and dear friend treated me royally by buying me my first piece of Nica furniture – this beautiful woven chair!

It now sits on my little porch outside my little casita…

.home sweet sweet home.

Pictures of my little slice of paradise to come soon!

The Ground On Which We Stand.

“Patience is not a waiting passivity until someone else does something. Patience asks us to live the moment to the fullest, to be completely present to the moment, to taste the here and now, to be where we are. When we are impatient we try to get away from where we are. We behave as if the real thing will happen tomorrow, later, and somewhere else. Let’s be patient and trust that the treasure we look for is hidden in the ground on which we stand.”

~Henri J.M. Nouwen~

Midnight Special.

Peace Corps Moment #123019:

Exactly what I never, ever, ever, want to find in my shower at midnight.

Little Big Fella is resting in sweet peace now – it only took me about 10 minutes to get up the nerve to kill him, after running around my apartment looking for anything that would be effective in trapping and killing him. Praise the Lord for bug spray. Half a can later and he was belly-up.

Here’s to getting over your fears at the most inopportune times!

Also, can anybody tell me what this is?!

Pincers on the claws, huge sack of what I assume were eggs underneath its belly, and a hard shell like a cockroach. Not fully pictured are his antennas, which were about 6 inches long.

A student just saw this picture and told me it was a scorpion-spider mix. Ummm, gross.

Update: A friend who has experienced these before just informed me that it was a Tailless Whip Scorpion, otherwise known as a Whip Spider.

Here’s to trying to sleep tonight…