The WindDown

As I write this, I have 6 more days in Nicaragua. My feelings are... mixed. As I´ve mentioned before, I certainly am excited to be back home, for many obvious reasons. But I am also going to miss Sabana Grande. Especially the people. And especially one person.

The timing has worked well, however. I have completed our goals for the summer successfully. In fact, not just our goals for testing, but our goals for all of our projects for Salud del Sol. A success. The details of the results of the testing are being worked out right now in report form, and we hope to present that soon.

As far as life goes, I have finally gotten sick. My time has come, I suppose. But hey, I was the last of all the volunteers to get sick, and I didn´t get sick until my 9th week, rather than my first or second. I´d say that´s something. I did have a pretty bad fever though. Today I went to ProFamilia in Ocotal to get tested for parasites. Of course I probably have them. At any given time, it is pretty certain that every volunteer has parasites... you just don´t know that you have them. They usually don´t cause much discomfort and don´t harm you. Of course, some are worse than others, and I might just be one of the lucky ones. But it´s OK, I´m going to let them accumulate, and then take the pills before I leave and wipe the suckers out. Lori says she was sick for several months after she got home, and it was probably because she never got checked for parasites before leaving. After this whole conversation (which we had, of all times, over lunch one day last week), going to ProFamilia shot straight up to high on my to-do list.

This past Tuesday was our desperdida, or going-away party, for CJ, Jenny, Matt and myself. This is fiesta in the solar center, where all the women and their families get together, and make the volunteers play games and stuff. We had to do pin the tail on the donkey, carry-an-egg-with-a-spoon-in-your-mouth-and-run, and whatnot. It was fun. I was not, however, expecting to graduate. Indeed, towards the end, we all had to walk and recieve diplomas saying we worked at Grupo Fenix! It´s going on my wall.

Once again, I have to apologize because my time spent here on this blog was short. However, I have people waiting for me. I do plan to write at least one more blog before I leave, and one final one once I get home. Oh, and I leave for Managua this coming Thursday afternoon, and then my flight leaves for Houston at 7 in the morning. (whew, I just got chills thinking about returning to the States!)

Next time, I hope to talk a bit about visas and passports, gifts, goodbyes, parties, my final work and thoughts, and Dayana. Until then, carry on!

-Daniel