Walking Around, Shape Shifting

It's been a bit of a slow week, just waiting for school to start, and dodging in and out of meetings that are not exactly riveting, especially in my second language. I'm trying to stay calm and go with the flow, but not having a firm schedule established that I know will not change is killing me a little bit, especially since I'm finding it hard to fit in all the time, particularly for planning, that I need to work effectively with my 4 counterparts.

To help combat this tension, a lot of what I've been doing this week has simply been walking around. My site mate, Christina, made a pact that we would walk around every day to be more visible in the community. This has yielded some unexpected adventures and conversations, with each other, and community members. We ended up going down an interesting rock scramble past a beautiful ravine on a trail that goes somewhere still unknown, and we've seen some truly spectacular sunsets over the lake.

 Today, at one of the teacher's suggestion, we went with some of the profes to matriculate students. When I heard that this week they would be matriculating students, I assumed that this meant the parents would come to the school and sign their kids up. This is not what happens. Instead, the profes go house by house, throughout each sector of the town, to sign people up. This was a great way to meander down some side streets I didn't even know existed, meet people and have a visual connection to where they lived. It's always fascinating to me too, a vicarious pleasure, to see what people's homes look like.

One thing I absolutely love about Nicaraguan homes is their flexibility and openness, to change, to the elements, to passersby. Unlike American homes which are practically closed off fortresses in comparison, with very fixed shapes, with defined rooms and heavy furniture, Nicaraguan homes take form according to the needs of the moment. Having another child, taking on a renter or have family moving in with you? Add some concrete on back and you've got an extra room.  Move a bed into another room, add a curtain and a bit of wood, and you've got an extra space. Have neighbors chatting with you out front for a long time? Move a few plastic chairs out and you've got an instant porch. People's inventiveness and creativity is amazing. Function drives form, completely.