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Favorite Memories So Far

It rains here in Nicaragua, quite often, almost every day, and about half the time it rains, it pours, hard. So one night, a storm came right before dinner and we were all at the eating area. It thundered, the little kids screamed, lightening cracked, the rain pounded so heavily on the metal roof you could hardly hear, and the electricity went out. We made lanterns by putting our water bottles on top of our phone flashlights, illuminating the table in blue, green, and orange. After dinner, no one wanted to go out in the rain so we played BS (also known as lies when played around children). One of the boys, Alonzo, asked if he could join. He’s 13 and one of the sweetest, most respectful kids you’ll ever meet. One of our Spanish speakers explained the game and he joined in.

When you don’t speak the same language as someone else, you appreciate body language and facial expressions so much more. His reactions where hilarious when we called him out on lying and he would act angry and then laugh or give me a “how did you know?” face. Some of the staff came and watched and laughed with us when people got called out and had to take the whole pile or vice versa when they were wrong. A few of the other boys joined the game as well and we huddled around the “lanterns”, some sitting on the table, some standing, and some in chairs as it kept pouring. We are a family all having game night together, sheltered from the rain. It didn’t matter much that we were from another country, wholly different backgrounds, and times in life; we laughed and spent time together and that was all that mattered.

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One morning, about 5 weeks in, my job was to help in the kitchen peeling papayas. One of the staff was helping/directing us and previous to this, I’d never really interacted with her and she had certainly never smiled at me or talked to me outside of me asking her questions. So I wasn’t comfortable around her and felt I needed to impress her. That day though, she asked all our names and remembered them all. She then said her name was Elizabeth pronounced Elisabet. I asked if she meant her middle name because everyone else called her Raquel. She said yes and I told her my mother’s name was Elizabeth. She was excited about this and said from now on call me Elisabet, so I did and whenever I did that day she either laughed hysterically (she was one of the most joyful laughs I’ve ever heard) or she’d smile at me demurely at our inside joke and say “Hola Yessica”. Later she tickled me from behind while I was doing dishes. It made me really happy to finally be accepted by this woman who pours a lot into this place and is respected here.

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One night, the second or third week we were here, they set up a projector outside on the basketball court to watch a movie (in Spanish with English subtitlesO. I asked one of boys, who I had yet to really bond with, if he needed help and we brought down a speaker together and talked about his favorite movies and music, both of which are Micheal Jackson.

Sitting there outside under the moon with all the kids and the caretakers was the first time it felt like home. Some of the kids sat in our laps and of course there was arguing about who would sit where and who was blocking the screen but we all laughed at the funny parts and felt apprehensive together at the climax and happy at the end then said “Buenas noches” before going to bed.

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I have many favorite memories with one of the boys in aprticualr. However, he left CICRIN to go back home off the island last week. It was sad to say good bye to him because he was the oldest at CICRIN and is always a pleasure to be around. He was never violent or disrespectful, played games with us, and was always polite. One of my favorite things about him is that he calls us “prima (cousin)” which I think is adorable.

One day he was doing a school project and asked if I could help him. He showed me a map of the world that he was supposed to draw on a poster so I did it for him and afterwards he brought over to one of “Tias” (what the kids call their caretakers) and showed her. It was so sweet how proud of it he was and that he wanted to show it off. Another day, I came down early in the morning before they left for school with my hair down in a loose braid and he said I looked like Rapunzel.

The last night we saw him at a church near his home, he came around and gave everyone from our team a hug but right before he got to me, he stopped to talk to someone else and walked away. When he came back, I put up my hand and pretended to be offended that he’d left me and he just rolled his eyes and pulled me up by my hand into one of the sweetest hugs ever.

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One day, one of the boys was singing one of the few songs I know in Spanish and I sang along for a line as I passed by. An hour later or so I was reading in my hammock and he came and sat down with me and we swung for a bit together and shared a cookie. When he got out he started laughing and pointed to my backpack which now had ants crawling all over it because I had left the wrapper next to it. I was slightly annoyed with the ants but I was glad it amused him. Then, I remembered the song and told him to sit back down and I got out my phone and gave him an ear bud and we sat and swag back and forth in the hammock and listened to the song.

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Given that this is a children’s home and the kids come mostly from abused, broken, impoverished homes, it’s no surprise that many of the children have behavioral problems, but it makes the times they act like children without all that hurt all the sweeter. There’s one girl Anielka, who speaks angrily to all the other kids, almost never responds to us with anything other than a glare, and rarely participates in group activities. One day however, we were playing cards and I pulled out Dutch blitz (If you weren’t homeschooled, you probably don’t know what it is, don’t worry, maybe one day you’ll live life fully). I asked her if she wanted to play and for the first time, she didn’t turn to her normal response of anger but her eyes lit up and she nodded animatedly. I explained the rules (In Spanish, I will add, which is impressive because the game is somewhat complicated) and we played a few rounds just us and one of my teammates. She loved it. The entire time, she kept nodding, drinking in the rules, and as we played she had this joy I’d never seen before.

During the game, one of my teammates had Michael Buble Christmas on, and Anielka got a hold of the control. We sang to Feliz Navidad for an hour on repeat and she sang and danced to the music and didn’t get tired of pushing the repeat button. More kids joined us for a couple rounds before getting bored or frustrated but she and I played for probably an hour and a half before dinner and she didn’t stop smiling the whole time. I loved seeing her just be a kid.

  

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