Hasta Nunca/ Until Never

A few little kids in Nicaragua always used to bid us farewell at the end of the day with the parting words "hasta nunca" which translates to "see you never." Oddly enough, these children would say that even if we were going to see them the next morning, but at the end of my month there, "hasta nunca" took on a different meaning... I may not see these beautiful children again.

I still think about my students and friends - Armando and Ulises, Tatiana and Lester, Gabe, Fabre, and Adrianna - all the time. I see them in the pictures up on my bulliten board and in my memories of my summer. I hope that I will return to Nicaragua in the Spring to serve with an Orphan Network trip and perhaps steal away for a day or extend my trip to pay a visit to our beloved barrio (village) where Manna Project is located.

For me, going into the trip, I knew I was going to get to know these communities and then in a month's time have to say 'goodbye.' Allthewhile, knowing who was going to carryon our efforts and mission - the same community of volunteers that had been doing a superb job for nearly a year before us. However, this week marks the end of Manna Project's 13-month program. The 8 year-long volunteers will be packing up their belongings, donating their stuff, finishing up their lesson plans, and handing over the reigns to the new team of year-long volunteers. What a difficult position to be in!

Indeed, service always does a great service to the volunteer. In stepping out to live for others, we inevitably get taught a lesson, have our lives changed, and feel touched by beautiful and painful experiences.

I commend these Manna volunteers for their commitment to the communities of Cedro Gallan, Chikilistagua and La Chureca for the last thirteen months. They have gone from being a new kid on the block who hardly spoke Spanish and couldn't drive a stick shift car, to the most beloved gringos that some of these Nicas will ever know.

And now they will be replaced; replaced by amazing and bright new volunteers but still replaced. Will they be forgotten? Is that okay? After devoting so much of their life to these people, can another gringo with the same rubia (blond) hair just swing in and take their place?

I really dont know if the people will remember them after a number of years...for now, the new gringos will not be able to compare to their dear friends who are moving on. Nothing the new group does will meet the standard they set, until everything sets into place and the communities become adjusted to one another.

Manna Project provides a truly amazing opportunity for average Americans to step out of their world and into another, not just for a week or a month, but for over a year. Through that year, both the volunteers and the Nicaraguans they are serving will grow to be genuine friends and confidents and will learn important and substantial lessons from one another. And then, at the end of the year, things will change. The Americans will return home and the Nicaraguans will be introduced to their new friends. Is it okay to continually take and place strangers into these people's lives? Can we ask young Nicaraguan children who don't understand what love is because their father walked out on them when they were little and their mother beats them, to grow cross to an young American, and then in a year's time, they too will be gone?

I don't know what the best system is, so I do not ask these questions to point out a problem or propose solutions. I simply ask these questions in reflection and challenge of pursuing a continued life of service.

Could you give it all up? Would you go and never come back?

I am so thankful that there are people in this world who would answer yes to both of these questions without second guessing. (And I'm thankful for those that second guess, and go anyways!)

For me anyways, I hope it's not 'hasta nunca' to these people. I'll be back!