The Day Before

We leave for the airport in about 36 hours. We go home tomorrow. I keep waking up earlier than usual, and I lie in bed and think about Virginia and going home, and then I think about Nicaragua and the fact that I don't think it will hit me that we're really gone until about a month down the road. No more eating on Tennessee orange plastic plates. No more hoping that the grocery store has green beans. And a comfortable place to sit... I'm really looking forward to that.

Jason and I drove down the Superbana (sp?), Managua's equivalent to a highway. It's the last time I'll drive down that road, and the sun had mostly set as we were coming back from the other side of town. The night weather is perfect this time of year, and I know the cold, while welcome, is going to be a shock to my system. I think a lot of things will. While I'm looking forward to the grocery stores, I think I'm also going to be overwhelmed with the options. And while I truly can't wait to have a real couch, the kind you can take a nap on and don't have to fluff every day before sitting down, I'm going to miss our small home here. I imagine that an 800 square foot apartment is going to seem huge. I did the math, and apparently our new living room will be able to almost contain our current living room, dining room, and kitchen. Hooray for space!

We've been packing and packing, trying to clean, making last decisions about things that won't go back, and really ingraining Nicaragua into our brains. For example, while getting gas the other morning, we saw dozens of cars cutting through the station just to avoid a stop sign that merged into traffic from another road. We saw at least two almost accidents, and then we looked up and two cars had hit each other, one with a cop in it. I don't know if it's illegal here, but it's unbelievable to me the measures that people will go to just to avoid stopping at a stop sign. Jason asked the guy pumping our gas (another thing I'll miss) if it happened often, and his response was classic: "Several times a week."

And we've said our goodbyes. We got invited to the teacher Christmas party tonight, but I don't think we'll go. It's all the way across town, we've already sold our car which makes us a bit paranoid about driving it around too much, and I think we just need the night in. I went by school yesterday to say goodbye to the kids, and the Nehemiah Center had a going away party for Jason. The funniest part of that was instead of playing pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey, they played pin-the-goatee-on-Jason. Yes, the blindfolded people, spun them around, and had them put a cardboard goatee on a picture of Jason. It was hysterical. And they said all sorts of really nice things about him. I know I'm partial, but it was great to hear what a blessing he was to the Nehemiah Center, how excellent his work was, and how much he's going to be missed.

Okay, now that's REALLY it for now. Maybe I'll write again once we move.