The Great Key Mishap

January 6, 2009
Today was great! I had a great sleep despite the wind last night because I remembered I had put ear plugs in my toiletry bag from my last trip…but of course only one earplug was in there. Good thing I have one bad ear, eh? Soon after I awoke, Doña Pilar informed me that Don Henry was not going to the Nehemiah Center which meant that I had to either ride the bus or get a taxi…so I did both. I first caught a taxi to Siete Sur and then caught a bus up to the cemetery and then walked to the Nehemiah Center. There was a new security guard at the gate so I had to give him my license so he could record my personal information and for some reason whenever I say I am from Ohio, the Nicas say, “Iowa?” I made it there with plenty of time to spare…a successful trip! Spanish class started at 9 and ended at 12 with lunch following shortly after. Iskra came in and talked to us for a while (she’s the receptionist who speaks both English and Spanish) and then I was able to talk to Dilaun for a while about our experiences in Nicaragua so far and about life experiences. Dan and I played a little one-on-one basketball at the school on the property to 5…I’m out of shape but won 5-1! We went out to wait for a bus that comes by the Nehemiah Center…but it took forever and a guy came out of the Nehemiah Center with a big bus that we all hopped into and rode to the bus stop. Oh yes! When I had left the house earlier that morning I had realized that I had locked my keys, mis llaves, in my room but there was nothing I could do about that now so I decided to worry about it later…so now it was later, so I had to worry about it. When I got home, only Sarai was home, or at least in sight when I remembered I had locked my keys INSIDE my room. I had to come up with a plan. I put down my backpack and sat down where Sarai was watching TV and thought it out. I had already checked my window to see if there was any way I could unlock it…there wasn’t. So I knew the only way to get into my room was over the wall (the walls don’t go all the way to the top of the roof in many Latin American homes). Sarai left the house to go to her house next door and it looked like I would have to step on the kitchen table and jump/hoist myself up over the wall (pared en Español). I took off my shoes so as not to dirty the table cloth and threw them over the wall onto my bed and then took the chance. I quickly stepped onto the table, looked over the wall, placed my hands and jumped up. Those walls are less stable than they even look…but no worries as I was able to get over AND down without anything happening. Once I was in the room I grabbed the keys…HOME FREE! Except that the lock is on the OUTSIDE of the door. So then I had to open my window and check if anyone was coming but I could see one of the doors to the sister’s houses was open but I had to go so I went feet first out the window and went around to my door and unlocked it! I thought I got away clean but then the daughter-in-law came in the house and started asking me about it…I had been caught! I had a REALLY hard time understanding what she was saying after more than 2 tries got the impression with our GREAT communication, I had told her I had left my keys in the room and that the door had been locked. She had apparently seen me check my window the first time and knew that it was locked up and so she had asked me, “¿Como este?” or “How is this?” When I finally understood what she was saying, I sheepishly gestured I had come over the wall. She was content, and I think astonished, with my answer and I don’t know if she told anyone else about it but if she did it wasn’t brought up at all. So there is some adventure for you…and me for that matter. I still consider it a success as I was able to problem solve the situation…however, afterwards I wondered if maybe they had an extra key for the lock but it is one of those cheap lock too…so I don’t know. After that great experience I set about labeling with note cards all the things in my room that I didn’t already know or could remember at that moment in Spanish. Fan, bed, mattress, interior wall, exterior wall, floor, ceiling, clothing basket, rug, toilet paper, mirror, and rocking chair. Then I went out to watch the news wit h the rest of the family. The news here is a lot different in the area of gruesome images. They will show blood and bloody people and bodies which I view as something both good and bad. Bad because the images are disturbing and who really WANTS to see all that? But it is good in a way for us to see that because then it really hits home as to what is really happening and could move people to action in the case of injustice or exploitation and violence. However, a culture will get desensitized to it after a while and the effect will most likely fade after a while. The moral of the story is that is was a good dose of reality and I still need to think about it more as it pertains to media’s influence on a population and society. On to dinner! They keep feeding me these, like cheese squares that are REALLY salty and I feel like it’s sucking all the water out of my body and I think it’s fried…I don’t really like but I tried to eat half of one tonight out of the two given me. They just bought one of those coffee pitchers that conserve the heat for a long time which is great because the occasion cold coffee wasn’t terribly appealing. So anyways…now the coffee is really hot and to make conversation I exclaimed, “¡Caliente!” and Don Henry agreed and sorta expressed to his wife that is was TOO hot. Her response was hilarious and I almost missed what she said until I heard the word “hacer” which means “to do” and I caught that she had quite humorously said something my own mother would have said, “What do you want me to do about it?” I laughed and when she understood I knew what she had said, we all laughed. Then right after Don Henry got up from the table to do something, a piece of bark fell off from the branches that support the roof right on the spot he had been sitting! He turned around and said, “Que…” or “What…” as if he were going to say “What the heck” or something of the sort. Everyone once again burst out laughing. That is one thing I am very grateful for in this house…laughter. All the daughters love to laugh and mess around with each other and when they laugh it makes you want to laugh too…even though I have no idea sometimes what I am laughing at. For all I know it very well could be me!
Switching subjects real quickly, here are some oddities of my house here in Nicaragua. There are those geckos or “perros son popos” barking in my room right now, the toilet here has no toilet seat…just the back and the bowl, and bark is constantly falling from the branches from the roof because of the wind.
Blas Morales (that’s the boyfriend’s name I finally found out) came over and brought me some small chocolate covered bananas, 3 to be exact, which I really like! He’s a really nice guy and always has a smile on his face when I see him and we greet each other with handshake of “hermanos” or brothers (that’s not what it’s called I just thought it sounded legit). I finished watching Oceans 12 and am now in bed at 10:49 PM signing off. ¡Buenos noches!