Everything's ending here.
The most noticeable sign of this is that I just hosted the trainee who will replace me here, Trey, for three packed days. Lots of introductions were made, volleyball and basketball were played, baseball was watched, gifts were given, beer was downed, dancing and karaoke occurred, and conversations happened (my AP English teacher, Mr. Quick, would be appalled at the amount of passive voice in that sentence). Trey seems like he’ll be a great fit for Jalapa, and I’m glad he’s going to be here carrying on the work I started with my counterparts, and doing his own thing, too (he’s excited at the prospect of starting a preschool/primary school literacy group, which sounds awesome!).
Trey got here about an hour after I got back from my ten-day vacation, where I saw a lot of people I’m probably not going to see again for awhile. Mixed in those ten days were Alex and Alex’s wedding in Masaya, which was beautiful; seeing the Little Islands of Granada (finally!) and spending a relaxing day with Donna; three days of COS medical appointments and boring administrative stuff in Managua, during which we saw The Dilemma (Don’t Do It!), and Friends With Benefits (which was surprisingly funny, and where the title of the entry comes from: “You know? That Third Eye Blind song?”); a night in the Holiday Inn in Managua for the Cocktail Party, which was notable for its super-fanciness, the good company, and seeing this scantily clad dance troupe/drum line that performs on the lottery show on TV here perform live in front of a lot of inebriated PCVs and staff members; and finally a trip to the island to make an oven for Donna’s host family, which fell down on us just as Lindsey and I had to leave, but which was successfully completed by Donna and her host fam in our absence!
Woo! If that sounds like a lot, that’s because it was. The last two days have featured a delightful amount of alone-time and relaxing, but also more reminders of my imminent departure. Yesterday I took down all the pictures and letters and Toña labels and random things I’d put on my walls in my time here, and sorted it all into what gets thrown out and what I’m going to try to send home. Today I made a Nicaragua playlist, and downloaded a bunch of songs to round it out (prominent songs that I procured: Yo No Se Mañana, the Papa Americano song, and the new omnipresent one with Pitbull where Ne-yo echoes the thrust of Andrew Marvell’s To His Coy Mistress by urging us to “Grab somebody sexy tell ‘em “Hey, give me everything tonight; for all we know, we might not get tomorrow.” (Mr. Quick would probably forgive my passive voice slip for including a reference to Andrew Marvell a mere two paragraphs later. He would probably not forgive how loose I play with parentheses and ellipses, however...)).
The next two weeks will be busy, but hopefully not quite as busy as the last two. Still! Expect more thoughts and updates on the end of my service to be forthcoming!
And know that the whole time, I'll be trying to keep in mind that "Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end..."
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