Well, I'll tell you that people who say that Nicaragua does not experience seasons are propagating a myth. We have seasons, I tell you! There's the rainy season that starts around May, then the mid-winter sunshine that gives your clothes a chance to actually dry on the line in mid-July. Rain starts up again in August, but by now everything is bursting with color, flowers, mud, etc. At least the streets aren't flowing with the garbage build up of several months anymore. Around November, the rain stops coming every day, and in December and January the nights can get downright chilly. I'm talking hoodie weather if you have fully acclimatized! Then February comes with wind and heat, and you think that maybe you were Shadrach in a former life because it sure feels like a furnace, and the convection oven steam kicks in hotter and hotter through March and April until the rains come again in May. See? We definitely have seasons. Granted, the temperatures still range between 75-95 C all the time, but we will take what we get.
In the midst of the cool nights turning to burning furnace weather comes another special season for the Nehemiah Center... TEAMS. They start arriving in January and don't let up until the end of March. Thankfully, I'm not involved in every team like some of my coworkers. I just deal with partnership teams, meaning we have some kind of relationship between North America and Nicaragua all year round, not just a yearly visit.
Though teams are great fodder for blog material, they leave me so busy or exhausted that I don't have time or energy to write. Instead I hear the comments about whether or not I have left the country, been ill, or possibly even died. Well, that's what happens when I disappear for 10 days at a time with a group of strangers to take care of their details, translate, and help bridge gaps between the home and visiting teams. In the end, though, we're all players. (I wanted to say basketball, but that's just because I'm from Indiana. You can think of any sport you like.)
Thankfully, I have fulfilled my team duties for the next month or so... I just have to prepare for one coming in March. They are another partnership team (really, those are the only teams I deal with if I can help it), and they were the first team I met last year when I came to Nicaragua. This is a partnership with churches in León, so I get to be on my home turf when they come.
Besides preparing for the next team, I've been sorting out visa issues, catching up on meetings and paperwork, and attending meetings. A lot of meetings have come up because I'm the main note-taker for the long-term strategic planning committee that is meeting now to determine the Nehemiah Center's direction for the next 5 years. We are also trying to get a hold of IMPACT club direction again. Some are struggling after the Christmas break (if they weren't struggling before!). So there are some projects which are consistent, but most of them have come upon me all at once. Oh well, when it rains, it pours. I guess I'll have to go find my umbrella or a good book to deal with the rainy days. Figuratively speaking, since it's quite dry and sunny here for the season. :)
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