Otra vez, otra vez!

"Otra vez, otra vez!" (again, again!)

That's what I heard every time I tried to stop giving (not-that-small) kids piggy-back rides last Friday. Maggie and I spent about an hour and a half hanging out with one of the families in our child sponsorship program in La Chureca. Esteven is an incredibly energetic 4 year old who often seems to be a monkey as he climbs all over us as if we were jungle gyms. His older brother Jose and cousin Richard are just as energetic. I had never met Richard until Friday, but about three minutes after getting to Chureca, he was on my back and I was running back and forth giving him a piggy-back ride. And there-in lay the problem: once one starts giving piggy-back rides, one is expected to continue indefinitely. Occasionally, one is also expected to give rides to multiple kids at once. Needless to say, although I took many breaks, I was still pretty exhausted by the time we were ready to leave Chureca. I was also pretty darn dirty, both because of Richard's dirty hands and feet which got all over my t-shirt and because I slipped and fell while punting a random American football that Jose and Esteven had.

One of my favorite things to do here in Nicaragua is just spend time hanging out with families - sitting and talking with the adults, and running around playing with the kids. It is something which I often have a chance to do in Cedro Galan - it's a short walk or bus ride from the house, we're there all the time, and it's safe to walk around. In Chureca, however, it's less common to be able to spend a long amount of time with one family. We're not there as much, it's not a great idea to walk around alone, and we have to visit a lot of families with the time we do have. Spending more intentional time with families in Chureca has been one of my goals since getting back in January. It's hard to do since it's not fully in my control - like I said, I can't just hop over to Chureca and walk in whenever I want, and I have to work within certain timeframes. But the opportunities I have had to sit down and talk with mothers in our program have given me a better understanding of their lives in Chureca, what's going on in their families, and how their kids are doing. It has been a huge blessing to have these opportunities. Having an hour and a half to play with Esteven, Jose, and Richard and talk to their mother, Karla, was an unexpected highlight of last week for me.

And when I'm talking to a friend or running around with some kids, it doesn't even really register that I'm in a trash dump, or that the person I'm talking to lives in a one-room shack made of plastic tarp which a family of five call home. All I realize is that I have been blessed to meet these people and get to know them and learn from them this year - which is far more important and relevant than the garbage trucks driving by and the shack that I'm sitting outside.