The voyage isn't over...tendrils of it still twine through my days (much like a sprouting Panamainian bean-beaded necklace--don't get them wet). For example...Nicaragua is the 2nd poorest nation in our hemisphere (Haiti is the poorest). Their annual average income is about $800 per year. Emails from my new friends in Nicaragua reach out with this reality...money is needed...dental work...aftermath of a hurricane...sick parents. These emails come sandwiched in between emails from Nigeria and Britain--"dear sir or madame, happy salutations. I have come into some perfectly legal money but I need your assistance in transferring it, for a payment to you, to a safe account..." I know those emails are bogus, and here is another true solicitation, twisting into my world, presenting me with ethical choices, forcing me to realize that on the global scale of things, I am definitely a HAVE...and that we don't get to have tidy relationships with the have nots. I send money...a bit more than I would have sent on my own perhaps, but that was what was asked for. I know this is needed--I watched the homemade dinner being made in the back kitchen, with one bare bulb in an alley-like room, plastic bags used to fuel the grill--half of an oil drum--right in the kitchen. I went shopping for the food for the meal, asked if anything else was needed--yes, the humble answer--toilet paper. Of all the gifts brought to all of the homes for hosts & hostesses--never before toilet paper. I know this is needed. Another email--much thanks...more money for school fees? Lo siento--possiblemente en Deciembre...more ethical choices. And I know that it is needed. Fragmented spanglish on both sides. Still a connection, maybe more real now and less a tidy fantasy. Lights flashing between a multi-million dollar ship and a small bicycle on the beach...estoy pensamiento.
pictures: street in Corinto Nicaragua...Rebecca, colleague from the ship, with tp
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