“Brittney, you are just unique. The way you think about things is just . . . “different.” – Michelle
haha
So the first thing I noticed when we explored Jinotepe wasn’t the trees or the people at all. It was the burglar bars. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I was surprised in any way that they are on every door or window or that they caused me to be alarmed. It’s what they look like. Have you ever seen burglar bars with hearts on them? If you said, yes, I’d say you’re probably lying. But it’s not like every couple of homes there is one with heart burglar bars. It’s like if you can actually find one without hearts, I’ll give you ten bucks. If you don’t have the hearts, you’re an absolute outcast. Here’s a nice one . . .
So I have a theory . . .
I mean really, the heart burglar bar making company could just have some huge monopoly on this place but I think there’s more to it than that.
First off, why do people have burglar bars? Because they don’t feel safe. Because the place they live is sketchy at best. So everyone in this place knows that crappy things happen here all of the time or they wouldn’t go through the trouble of protecting their home and family.
Everywhere in Galveston or Houston that I’ve seen with burglar bars (which is a good percentage), they are just normal bars. To me it says, “This situation stinks but I’m not going to try to hid it. That’s just who I am.” But here in Nicaragua, they don’t just say, “That’s who I am.” They say, “no that’s not who I really am. You may think that, but I’m going to try to cover up the darkness with these cute little curly hearts. See I tricked you. Now you’ll never guess that bad things happen because our burglar bars have hearts on them.” There are bars on their hearts. The hearts are a façade for what’s really going on.
On the other side, think about this.
Every home, every building is covered with burglar bars. But the people are loving. They share even when they have nothing for themselves. They allow strangers to pray for them and all acquaintances into their HUMBLE abodes. Their society screams that they must fight to protect themselves, but instead, they look out for each other. Even though there are bars, even though there is much darkness, their hearts and love prevail. Their hearts make even the bars of protection something beautiful to see.
I think it’s the latter.
What do you think?
