Routine...but cheaper

I was thinking I should update since it's been a while, but really...I haven't done anything new. We're still in the same segment of the semester. Kylie and I are still working at the prostitution rehab center, but not with any of the women since they're only there Tuesdays and Thursday while we only work Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Mostly we just do office work, organizing and reorganizing and other things that make us feel like we're giving them more work just to figure out what to do with us. Grammar and literature classes are both really boring but we only have seven more classes, so that's encouraging at least. And this is our last week of volunteering at the rehab place (which, if I have neglected to mention is named Rahab Foundation, and if you don't know why, look up the story of Rahab in the Bible because it's a really cool story).
After this week and next, we head to Panama! I'm having very mixed feelings about this part of our semester. On the one hand, we will get to see the Canal and live with indigenous tribes and learn an indigenous language on their islands. We will get to sleep in hammocks and just live with these people for six days. On the other hand, we will probably get lice and scabies while we're there. Scabies, for those of you who are like me before this trip and have no clue what they are, are microscopic bugs that burrow under your skin and lay eggs. Then, you end up with little red bumps all over that itch really really bad, but if you itch them, you spread the bugs that are invisible to the naked eye. Then, once you get them, all your clothes, bed sheets, anythig you touch basically, is infected and will reinfect anyone else who touches them. So to get rid of this problem, we will have to shower for...I don't remember how long with this special cream all over our bodies. Then, we put all the clothes, etc. that were with us on the islands into a big garbage bag and tie it up. We either have to boil it, freeze it for 24 hours, or just burn it all in order for it to be un-infected again. Yeah. So you can see why most of us are dreading those six days a little bit.
In other news, I went shopping for Christmas presents this weekend and was too successful. I'm done with presents now, but also only have 24 dollars left for the next 24 days of my life. In case you're not doing the math, I'll help you out: that's a dollar a day. I thought about emailing my family and getting them to send some emergency funds or fixing my atm card so I could withdraw some if necessary, but after some thought, I've decided that this will just be another challenge to live through. I kept seeing beggars and homeless men sleeping under boxes on my way home from work today and I kept really wanting to give them some money and then realizing that I really don't have anything to give them! Then, I saw a man wondering the street without any shoes and I seriously considered just giving him mine, but they are obviously too small to help. Then, a man with one arm cut off at the shoulder came on the bus I was riding home and gave a little speech about his family not having any food and how hard it was every day and then he went down the aisle collecting change, and it almost killed me to not be able to chip in, but I literally only had brought enough to get me to work and back. The moral of this ramble is that in the end, I decided it would be one more lesson I get to learn while here if I just dealt with only having one dollar to spare a day. And as hard as I feel like that is, there are people who live on so much less. In Nicaragua, 80 percent of the entire population live on less than 2 dollars a day. Which is twice as much as I have, but I have a host family provide food and shelter and a study-abroad program that is giving me my education that definitely wouldn't have been taken care of by that dollar-a-day deal. Also, most of those people are supporting their parents or children or both.
When we went to Nicaragua, we visited the capital city Managua. I've already mentioned this part, but the part that I was going to save for the "Open at your own risk" entry (which obviously, I'm going to just say now instead...) is that while there we visited the city dump. 2,000 people live there. In the garbage dump. Imagine if Chicago had one place in the city where they all just dumped their garbage, and then imagine that there are 2,000 people living there. There is a school and a church there inside the dump, too. The parents and older children even work there. They collect anything that can be recycled and sell what they've been able to find to trucks that come every day to collect it. We sat on our school bus and watched out the window as two little boys ran around in their underwear barefoot across the garbage heaps. One of them had a real gun that he had found and was now playing with. Then, a man from that "community" came on the bus and we had a little question and answer time. He had moved his family there from the country because he actually made more money! In the dump, collecting recyclables, he could make about four dollars a day instead of the two he was making before. By the way, two or less a day is considered below the poverty level, but more isn't. That means that this man who made four dollars a day and lived in the city dump is NOT considered to be in poverty. That means he is part of the richest 20 percent of the entire country of Nicaragua. I mean, really stop to think about that for a second. Making anything more than two dollars a day in Nicaragua makes you richer than 80 percent of everyone around you.
So you can understand why I don't really feel entitled to complain, and maybe you can even understand why I'm kind of excited to experience this. It's not even going to be that hard compared to peoples' lives who actually have to survive on that much forever. I'll just have to skip a few things and not buy comfort things every few days. No bottle of Coke for the bus ride home. No special Thanksgiving dinner Thursday night. No more bus rides if I can possibly walk. (The walk to class is only forty minutes and I'll save almost four dollars by not taking the bus!) But really, that's nothing compared to anyone who actually has to struggle through life. This doesn't mean I'm not going to complain about it every once and a while, but it does mean I'll sober up a lot faster. :)
Anyway, so that's the newest facts of my life so far! I'll try to get in a couple more updates before December 3 because that's when we leave for Panama and I doubt we'll have an internet access then until I get home. (Especially since I have no extra money to spend at the internet cafes!) So I'll let you all know what's going to happen with that.
I'm getting really excited to see everyone again soon! Have a great Thanksgiving and especially remember everyone who lives on so little a day. Maybe donate some food to a soup kitchen or invite a homeless man to dinner. I know you can find at least a couple in your area. I love you all and can't wait to see you again!