Into the Wild Spaces

The character of America strikes you early when you've been away for a while. I was appreciative even in the airport of a society that gives you a straight answer to your question, and of people who, if they can't help you, can tell you where you might find the help you need. I was appreciative too, of our capacity for large-scale construction and planning, and the foresight and organizational skills we prize so much. Having lived not amongst poverty but amongst chronic disorganization makes it so much more obvious to me how much progress we've made in the United States since our colonial days. The poorest of the Nicaraguan farmers have yet to progress to the technological level of the wooden plow used by Jefferson at Monticello in the 1700s, and the idea of farm equipment using satellite GPS equipment to monitor crop density is nothing less than unthinkable in Central America. Looking around I was proud to see how very much we do in the United States, how hard we work, and how much we produce. And at the same time, I was happy to leave it all behind to spend more time in a country where six year olds don't shoot each other in elementary school and retirees with semiautomatics don't blow each other away in retirement homes, where road-rage hasn't been invented yet, and where contentment means the family close by and a full plate of food on the table.

Three and a half weeks weren't nearly enough time to do the things I'd have liked to do back in the States, and family-wise I was only able to make it to Philly to see David and Susan, and New Jersey to see Laura and Frank. I'll remember this hurried trip as an endless succession of long-missed foods: chapchae and sushi, Brazilian feijoada, fresh pasta, deli sandwiches and iced-tea in Styrofoam cups, cups of steaming Lapsang Souchang tea with my old roommate Kathleen as we sorted out the world, fresh bagels with cream cheese and pesto, espressos served scalding-hot, and glasses of Merlot. I return to Nicaragua with a renewed desire to keep in touch with the people I love, all too aware that with only two exceptions, my trip took me from happy couple to happy couple. I even got to meet little Shannon, the 2-year-old daughter of an ex-girlfriend. A milestone for me perhaps, yet indicative of how the choices I've made with my life mean embracing one future and putting another one off. I also return to Nicaragua with a computer for my home, putting email at my fingertips and making staying in touch that much easier. Give me a ring.

All's well under the mango tree.