5:50am
I wake up, and after fifteen minutes of remembering my name and location, I put on glasses. Our patio comes into focus, and I can see the papaya growing in our neighbor’s yard. It’s Monday morning, but I definitely don’t have a case of the Mondays.

6:15am

I stumble out of bed and go grab a glass of water. I guzzle it as fast as I can. After saying good morning to my pets, I pull out my calendar to plan our week, check my email, surf Facebook for a bit, and get a little bit of work done.

7:00am

I lay out clothes for the day and grab a new towel. I forgot to hang the old on in the sun. It’s the rainy season, so unless my towel gets an hour or two of sun, it molds. I take a shower as quickly as possible. The water is especially cold this morning, but I manage to dodge mosquito bites today.

7:15am

After my shower, I read and journal for quiet time. It’s a little short today, but I’ll finish it later on. I snarf down my breakfast, hot tea with milk and sugar and a granola bar.

7:30am

I drain the rest of my tea. pack up my bike and start the morning commute. Our house is a mere seven blocks to our base, El Puente. I’m a few minutes late to the staff meeting, but they haven’t started. After a few minutes of chit chat, we settle in to talk about our week. It’s a relatively low key schedule until Friday. It’s great to work at an organization that wants to make a difference in the lives of Nicaraguans, and with people I’ve grown to love.

9:00am

After the staff meeting, Frank and I go over details for our departure with the El Puente Directors. We’re starting to turn over our responsibilities to other people in preparation for our departure in October. We’ll start transferring our “institutional knowledge” as they prepare for the newbies.

9:40am

I bike home to pick up instructions for bracelets and then race back to El Puente to meet Masiel. Sarah and I are teaching her how to make bracelets out of recycled paper beads. It’s a great opportunity for Masiel. She supports her family of five on $8-10 a week. She also received a grant from team members that were here last year that provides her with basic food each week. Putting together these bracelets could triple her income, with only a few hours of work each week.

12:45pm

Instead of 45 minutes, the training session took almost 3 hours. I didn’t have time to make lunch, so we go out to eat instead. I’m craving American food, so we head over to Roadhouse and split wings and burgers.

2:30pm

After lunch, I head back home to pick up supplies and then it’s back to El Puente for the afternoon session of bead making. I put together kits for earrings, cut paper beads down to size and joke around with the girls. We talk about babies and boyfriends. Chit chat is the same everywhere you go in the world.

4:30pm

We’re done with the session, so I bike back home and take an hour to read and check email.

5:30pm

There are only two ideal times to run in this heat, early morning or twilight. I didn’t get out of bed in time for our morning run, so we wait for the sun to go down and then head out. We’re definitely more physcially fit now than last year. Not having a car has melted the pounds off of us.

6:30pm

After a second shower, it’s cocktail hour in the hammock. A few months ago we started meeting on our patio after dusk to talk and connect. Iced raspberry tea is on the menu tonight in our oh-so-classy free glasses from a local mercado.

7:30pm

I finally get around to my freelance work, image uploading, blog scheduling and other various details. It’s all part of my online life!

9:00pm

Lights out! I’ve definitely earned this night’s sleep.