{"id":132,"date":"2018-07-20T19:12:44","date_gmt":"2018-07-20T23:12:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jordanstovka.com\/steepedinsound\/?p=132"},"modified":"2020-08-09T14:53:41","modified_gmt":"2020-08-09T18:53:41","slug":"nicaragua-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.jordanstovka.com\/steepedinsound\/nicaragua-mission\/","title":{"rendered":"updated travel advisory – level 3: reconsider travel"},"content":{"rendered":"

We as a culture have forgotten what it means to connect, to take risks.\u00a0If an interaction isn’t over wifi we panic, clam up; label ourselves as insecure, awkward or socially inept and opt to live inside our own heads.<\/p>\n

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We disregard the importance of intentional conversation, of expressing care and love for one another and instead hope that a like on Instagram will be enough.<\/p>\n

We prefer peering into someone\u2019s life through glossed-over eyes upon blinding screens than looking into another\u2019s, face to face.<\/p>\n

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Sometimes that means \u00a0taking the plunge, a step in the dark, a flight into a country with a level 3 out of 4 travel advisory.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t speak Spanish. I\u2019m barely a francophone. English is my sole fluent language. So visiting a primarily Spanish\/Miskito-speaking nation proved its difficulties.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019ll admit, at the start of my week in Nicaragua I felt inadequate, unprepared, like I\u2019d bitten off more than I could chew. Many times I felt isolated because I couldn\u2019t speak the children\u2019s language. I desperately wanted to ask how old they were. I wanted to tell them I liked their shirt. I wanted to tell them I loved them, or that they were beautiful.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But the most I could do was give a smile and a wave, and that didn\u2019t feel like enough.