Finding Balance in Nicaragua

Every Tuesday and Thursday evening the Manna girls lead exercise classes for "women" in the community ranging in age from 9 to 40. We work together to discover ways to exercise using only objects you can find in a typical Nicaraguan household (benches, towels and filled water bottles) and mix traditional aerobics with Latin dances—you know I relish any opportunity to shake my hips. The past two weeks Julie and Tessa have integrated yoga into the last half hour of class, explaining in Spanish active cats and downward dogs. Many of the women had difficulties with balance poses until Julie instructed them to imagine their feet as roots holding firm to the ground. Then, almost magically, all of the women could balance and we had thirty seconds of silence punctuated only by the sound of our breathing.

While my roots will forever be with my family in the US, I know that I now have roots in Nicaragua as well. Like the yoga positions, these past two months have been a quest in finding balance in my life, from knowing when I can help and when I've done all that I can to understanding that it's perfectly fine to choose a slice of pizza over rice and beans. The moments of balance seem all too few and far between, but they do come. In those instances I am truly traquila, letting the breeze brush past me as I listen to my own breathing.

En Paz

P.S. Many thanks to all of you who have been thinking and praying for me during Hurricane Felix. Since Managua is on the Pacific side of the country, we only received lots of rain, which has only delayed some of our programs because of roads becoming rivers… however, not all of the country fared so well. Please keep the North Atlantic region of Nicaragua (RAAN) in your thoughts as they begin to rebuild—the tallies so far have it at 4 deaths and 5,000 homes destroyed. --emd