Goodbye doesnt mean for forever
It’s Tuesday. The kitchen at el Puente is bustling with activity – Maria is working on gallo pinto for the dump ministry, and Oscar and Kennedy are making a huge batch of eggs to take to the dump. Oscar chases me around with an egg (he missed my birthday since I was in Honduras during it- and you have to throw eggs on peoples heads – tradition) and I scream like a banshee Indian. Heather is in the bathroom yelling about parasite tests and Liana is trying to get her eye opened (she has pink eye) enough to put eye drops in. Garrett is sleeping on the hammock and Valerie is chatting with the people in the kitchen. Trevor is singing the same song over and over at the top of his lungs in his room. As I wait to make my French press coffee, I think about community.
This is what I will miss the most. Having someone to talk to all the time. Sleeping in close proximity to everyone, so that any time Garrett yells in his sleep we can hear everything he says. Hanging out with the girls at night. Waking up in the morning, making coffee together, and loving life. Together. I hope one day to have something like this again.
Heather leaves tonight for the states. This starts the process of saying goodbye. What I hate the most about leaving Nicaragua are the friends I have to say goodbye to. One chapter of my life will close and another one will open.
I like the way you captured community! It’s so great. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking on community recently as well and have been blogging about it. I’d be interested to hear, in retrospect, how it helped refine you.
Just think, though, if it weren’t this important to you, the journey would have been much harder 🙂 Celebration sometimes comes at a price doesn’t it 🙁 Looking forward to seeing you next week and processing more.