Vaya, pues

So I'm chilling here, waiting in the airport with my 2 new amigas! Our flight to Atlanta leaves soon.  It's been an interesting week, getting to know people from all over the world. There were people from the US, Canada, Zimbabwe, Indonesia, Brasil, Nicaragua, Serbia, Laos, Kenya, the DR, Haiti, Colombia, China, South Korea, PARAGUAY, and other places.

Two things really stuck out this week, the first being the music. Each morning we had a worship time and different geographic regions provided the music each day. There were so many different types of music and dance (which we enjoyed both during impromtu dance parties and the end of the week talent show). I loved the diversity in the styles and the instruments and the sounds and the movements.

The other thing which really made me think was a short video we watched about the concept of a single story. It's essentially the idea that we all have a single story (what we usually call a stereotype) of a person or a group of people or a country or whatever. We assume certain things, forgetting that each person/people group/country has their own context. The video was pretty powerful and I will post a link to it for those interested. It will be interesting for me to see how my single story concept of Nicaragua is changed during my time there.

It’s funny to come to orientation, to meet so many people and get close to them in a week’s time, only to leave and head to separate countries all over the world. I guess though, as one of the SALTers said, this isn’t just my adventure. It really belongs to all 108 of us who are getting ready to go to our different assignments. We’ll all be facing similar struggles and obstacles, but we will also be lifting each other up from around the world, working towards the same idealist goal of a peaceful world where people love another and appreciate one another.


On a lighter note, the three of us headed to Managua wrote a song this morning about our excitement for the year ahead!! It might make a debut on this page one day….

The difference between a good hair cut and a bad one is two weeks

I'm down to one week left at home before orientation. I've been pretty productive, but pretty stressed.

I've been not wanting to get a hair cut because I don't have a lot of money, but after encouragement from Nadia I decided that it might be my last one for a while, so I might as well go for it. While the lady was washing my hair, I was taking in these wonderful floral and fruit essence smells. In her husky Russian accent she said, 'Smell nice, right?' I agreed and drew in a long breath through my nose to relax and savor the scent at the same fated moment that she leaned over my face to thoroughly scrub the other side of my head. I think she forgot to put on deodorant before leaving the house.

Once back in the chair, she asked me, 'Vaht you vant?'  so I started to explain. Slight bangs with angle, long layers, about 1 inch off. Ten minutes later, I was re-living 5th grade with short cow-licked bangs and hair about 3 inches shorter. 'Dis is better, dis is how it should be' she said. 'Look nice.' I am going to trust her.

Today I've been contemplating getting my suitcase down from the attic. Maybe I'll pretend pack tomorrow and see how one year fits into a bag.