hello from nicaragua

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Hello. I’m Marcus and at the moment I’m living and working in Granada Nicaragua. I’m finishing a Master’s degree in Religious Studies at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. At the end of last semester I was burnt out with seminar after seminar of religious histories and speculative theologies and so I decided I wanted a practical field education placement for my final units. A few years back -on a trek through Central America- I made friends with a former Peace Corp volunteer who runs an NGO in Nicaragua. So after some forms and a few phone conversations, I am now a month into my three month stay in Nicaragua.

Life is different here and that’s what I expected, but you don’t know what you miss about being home until your long gone. Power outages and water shutoffs are a way of life and A/C is a rare exception to the heat.

I woke up today about 7am, read the last few chapters of Luke and said a few words of prayer. It’s been a while since I have held regular prayer and devotions. But life has recently taught me some lessons. One of which is, that with all the poverty and powerless one feels in a situation like this, if you don’t reach for something beyond yourself you don’t have much of a chance of keeping the nihilism from overwhelming your mind.

After my reflection time I pulled together my note cards for my Spanish lesson. Learning Spanish is one of the great advantages of being here. However, I’ve found asking questions in Spanish is a lot easier than understanding the response. I’m sure it’s going to get better.

Well I got to get something to eat, It’s hot and I don’t often have much of an appetite, but since I’ve lost ten pounds I think it’s time to start eating a bit more even if I don’t feel like it.

With the power outages it makes it hard to get an Internet connection sometimes. So if I miss a day, you’ll know why.