An ode to rocking chairs. Plus, some random pictures!

Something I've really gotten used to here and will definitely miss when I return to the US is the culture of sitting outside in rocking chairs. Every family probably has at least 4 rocking chairs, and if you walk the residential streets of Granada at night, almost all the houses you pass have families sitting outside in their rocking chairs. The other night, a friend came over and played guitar, sitting outside in the 75 degree weather in one of the rocking chairs. Although there are times when I miss having seasons to designate passing of time, I can't say I'm missing the freezing cold.

I also just wanted to post some pictures, which are from random times here in Nicaragua--mostly from when I had a stream of visitors actually. (To give some sense to what the pictures are, the people in rocking chairs are family members or friends of the family that I'm living with, the 2-year-old is Christopher who lives in the house and calls me "Tia" which means "Aunt," the people sitting around the table are the staff at Opportunity International currently, there are two of me dressed up with friends was when we went to a fancy party a few weeks ago, and the last are from when Ben visited and we went to the beach, volcanoes, and the largest island in a freshwater lake).