I made it safely to Yali on Wednesday evening and lugged my big suitcase up the dirt hill to my house. I was greeted enthusiastically at the door by Nelly, which made me feel good, and by Jose Santos wheeling slowly toward the door in his wheelchair. He had surgery right after I left on both of his feet-for what I’m pretty sure is arthritis-and now has both feet in casts. They showed me the X-rays and he has 2 nails in an X in each foot. Literally nails. In the X-ray they looked exactly like something I would hang a picture with. He says he can’t put any weight on his feet yet, but that he’s not in the constant pain he used to be in. He is in really good spirits despite being in a wheelchair and he wheels back and forth between the den and kitchen various times in the day, occasionally bumping a wall or door frame.

Until yesterday the biggest news I had was the near-loss of my Squishy Pillow (alternately called Huggy Pillow). It’s the very soft down pillow that I hug in my sleep. I came home and Nelly had cleaned my room and changed the sheets (for which I am very grateful), and apparently changed the pillows, for some reason. The one she put was the literal opposite of Squishy Pillow; it was Brick Pillow. I don’t know if it was a mistake or she had pillow envy, but I had to spend my first night back with Brick Pillow, imagining all sorts of horrible scenarios in which Squishy Pillow was thrown out or washed or stolen. Thankfully though, none of that happened and Nelly found it and gave it back right away when I asked where it was.

So yesterday, I was getting ready to leave the house when in the den I heard them start praying. I’ve gotten used to this because every month Nelly holds a prayer meeting with about 15 women and they pray and sing to the Virgin Mary. So I was just going to wait in my room until they finished like usual when I heard moaning and the priest starts saying things like “In the name of God leave!” “The blood of Christ has power”, etc. I peek out of my door just in time to see Luisa Amanda (the older daughter) “faint” and Nelly and some other lady lowering her to the floor. She keeps moaning and then starts to shake and cough and then make sounds like vomiting. I couldn’t see if she was actually vomiting or just, like, heaving. Meanwhile the preacher is still going crazy yelling things about her kidneys and liver (?) and in the name of God get out. It was sooo weird. Luisa finally came to or whatever and they continued to pray for everyone in the house, but no one else had such a reaction. Then they start walking around blessing the house with holy water and I think Oh my God they are gonna come into my room and see me just sitting here, obviously spying on them. So I run and hide in my shower as the priest comes in to sprinkle my room, and I am dying of embarrassment hoping he doesn’t feel the need to bless the bathroom. Luckily he doesn’t and when they all go into the kitchen to eat lunch I try to sneak out of the house to pretend I hadn’t been there the whole time. But I got caught by Luisa Amanda and Jose Santos, and they both laughed and laughed and asked me if I had hid in the closet. Then Jose Santos told me, totally straight faced ,that they were coming back for me at midnight. When my eyes widened they both started laughing again. I managed to get a little of the prayer session on video until I almost got caught, mostly you just hear Luisa and the preacher, though, and I don't really feel right about posting it here so...

I was telling my family about how, as is common in Latin American countries, men in the street like to yell or whistle or hiss( I think that is unique to Nicaragua) at women as they pass. It’s common to hear things like Adios chelita, adios mi amor , or just adiosssss, the last s’s being a hiss. To me they like to bust out the English so I hear things like “Goodbye, I love you” or “hey baby, I love you” or “good morning, I love you or sometimes just “Hey!” I was talking to another volunteer about it when I was in Managua earlier this week and she told me that in her site they do the same, but also just throw out whatever other random words they might know. She said a very common one right now was Barack Obama. So when she’s walking down the street she hears “Goodbye, I love you” and “Barack Obama!” That’s pretty hilarious.

I go back to work on Monday, so I’ll spend the weekend visiting people I haven’t seen yet, giving out the little gifts I brought back and watching LOST. I watched 3 episodes of season 5 the first night I got back and was in danger of finishing it all this weekend, so I decided to watch all the seasons from the beginning in order to pace myself. It’s cold in Yali, nothing like what you guys are experiencing, but still,open air house and no heater means I’m wearing 2 pairs of pants, a hoodie and socks to bed every night. I hope you are all great!

Danielle