The more things change . . .

It has taken 8 months for our lives in Nicaragua to be almost exactly the same as our lives in Seattle. This last week I was working on a grant for ReWA with its usual miscommunications, last minute scrambling and anxiety. Jonathan just spent 12 long days in a row working on funding proposals for CO2Bambu. We had to make numerous trips to Managua to get the kids back and forth to work with their friends on Science Projects. Bank transactions didn’t go through, taxes had to be filed. We were getting up early and falling into bed exhausted. I went to a parent meeting at the kids school and felt like I was the only one who didn’t know everyone. We have been missing many sunsets.

I hardly left the house, limiting my social contact to whoever happened to come by. (Avi mostly) When I did venture out, I went to the bank to get money to pay the staff. I ran into my neighbor, Anders, who was a little stressed out himself. He handed 20 cords to a beggar and turned to me and said, “What happened that my life in Nicaragua is now just as hassled as my life in Denmark?”