Familial Introductions

On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving I had the pleasure of taking my parents and younger sister, D'Arcy, into La Chureca. Driving through the front entrance, we saw several men pointing at our micro. I made a joke to my parents that even the people in Chureca make fun of our transportation. However, one man was so persistant that we stopped to see what he wanted. Little did we know that we had been dragging a branch-- which really qualified more as a small tree-- for quite some time. If they had not told us, we absolutely would have gotten stuck in the mud twenty feet ahead of us. In true Nica fashion, ten men appeared out of nowhere to help us, not allowing us to touch the branch. As soon as the crisis was averted, they all disappeared just as rapidly as they came. When we got back into the micro, my dad asked what their motivation was to help us. While I do not know the exact reason, I do know that they were not looking for a handout, but rather looking out for us.

So began our journey. My family saw all the sites: the clinic (where Esmo declared my sister and I twins), los Quinchos (an alternative school for kids who sniff glue), the "hole" (where we saw children bathing in rainwater collecting in the middle of the trash), and finally the school (where my entire family became jungle gyms for preschoolers to climb). My mom's favorite memory is of a little boy trying in vain to eat some soup the school had given him. Unfortunately, using his hands was causing more soup to fall onto his lap than to enter his mouth. The girl sitting next to him saw his plight and without a word dropped her own spoon into his bowl. Unfazed, the boy took the spoon and went to work on the soup.

Every interaction I witnessed in Chureca on that day seemed more significant because I was seeing it through my parents' eyes. I love that they now have personal memories and that they have met some of the people that have shaped my experience here thus far. Additionally, the thought that my Nicaraguan family knows my actual family means that they know me more personally, hopefully allowing our relationships to grow even deeper.