I’m not sure how it happened, but September has come and (almost) gone without a single blog post. Things have been crazy! It really didn’t take long to get back into the swing of things at home and at school. While I didn’t experience much culture shock, I still had some adjusting to do when I got home. For starters, I almost got hit by a car when crossing the street to go to the Farmer’s Market the day after I got home! For the first few days, I kept leaving my phone everywhere because I wasn’t used to having it on me; after a while, I was ready to abandon it on purpose because it wouldn’t stop dinging.
Now that I’m settled in, there are a lot of things that I miss – like everything on that list I made ages ago, of course. Luckily, I’ll get to see Brianne when she visits soon! As for the other things, it’s really the whole experience. When I’m walking around Old Strathcona, I keep remembering the feeling of walking home from the clinic in the hot afternoon sun, wondering how it could be true that I was living and working in Nicaragua, speaking Spanish, learning a lot and making a difference. It’s strange to be home and know that I might never go back, but I know I’ll find some way to keep making a difference at home.
In other news, I’m still working on tracking down some late coffee payments, so the fundometer isn’t completely up to date; suffice to say that thanks to support from a lot of different communities and wonderful people, I raised over $5000 for my trip. Thank you!
This financial support definitely helped turn the trip into a reality, but the support and encouragement I received in other ways was every bit as important. I did my best to blog a few times a week while I was in Jinotepe and sometimes it was hard to find inspiration – until I checked out the statistics and saw things like “1300 page views in July.” Every time I saw those numbers, received a comment or found out that someone new was reading my blog, my motivation was renewed. Since I’ve been home, I’ve been finding dedicated readers in all kinds of places and I really can’t believe it. I’m thrilled to hear it every time! So to those of you who read over the summer – whether once in a while or every single day – thanks so much for encouraging me to keep sharing my experience; you may have turned me into a blogger!
I’m not sure if I have enough interesting things to say to justify starting a new blog, but I think it’s time to retire this one. This journey has been incredible; now I’m ready for the next one.
