I lost my glasses

Today I had to say goodbye to my cherished, ten dollar, super-glued sunglasses.  It was a little sad, but I got as much use out of those things as I possibly could have and super-glued the side pieces on several times even to the point where only one side could fold in and they were awkward to carry in my purse, so they just rode all day on my head if necessary.  Well, today I had to give them up for good.  It was an unusual way to lose my sunglasses, but I wasn't heartbroken because I was distracted with other things. 

The story begins on a bus, as most good stories here do.  I was leaving Frank's and hopped on a pretty full bus, and was left to stand, balancing my bag on the back of a seat while gripping one of the overhead bars.  Finally, the guy working on the bus helped me with my bag--he was annoyed that it was big and that I brought it on the bus because it was a large bus that they put bags underneath, but my bag fit just fine.  Anyway, he put it up and then I was just standing, holding onto the back of a seat.  The bus was really crowded so there were people pressed up against me and I was leaning over a lady sitting in one of the seats.  It usually gets pretty warm in there and in the mornings a lot of people don't open the windows because of the cold breeze.  Ugh!  I hate that because when you're standing it's so hot and stuffy so the cold breeze is necessary.  I was feeling a little woozy so I asked the guy in the seat near me to open his window more and he did thankfully.  I did some deep breathing but I started seeing splotches, felt hot, and my inner ears were plugging.  I started to feel a little better after deep breaths and closing my eyes, but then the swerving of the bus and everything else just did not help.  The splotches were worse and I was leaning over the seat and then I felt my body sort of crumble.  The next thing I knew I was sitting in the bus seat and my glasses had fallen off and a guy who was standing next to me said that they broke, but he handed me the pieces.  I wasn't really in the place to get upset over broken sunglasses nor did I realize that I only had 2 of the 3 pieces of my sunglasses.  Oh well.  I was a little disoriented and as my eyes blinked open and closed, I realized that the guy who was sitting next to the window got out of the seat, the girl slid over, and I was not in her seat.  I would have thanked him right away had I not been so disoriented and confused.  I just sat there slouched in the seat trying to regain consciousness and figure out where exactly we were on the route.  I hoped that we hadn't passed my stop, but figured if I took the bus all the way into Managua I would just call the doctors to have me go into the office anyway.  Fortunately though, we hadn't passed my stop as I recognized some things out the window.  A few tears streamed down my face and that's when I took notice of the broken sunglasses as I was unable to cover my tears.  Bummer.  I'm pretty sure everyone was staring before that anyway, so I guess it wasn't too big of a deal.

After I felt a little better, I got a phone call from Frank which was weird because he was at school, but I told him what happened.  It was nice to hear his voice.  Not too long after that, I saw signs out the window which told me that we were now at my stop.  It's a good thing that the bus always stops at this town because it's a checkpoint and the guy has to run across the street to stamp their card.  I had enough time to pull myself out of the seat, say thank you to the man who gave me a seat, ask another guy to help me with my backpack, and squeeze through the line of people to get off the bus.  It felt good to be off, but I was still not feeling so hot.  So, I headed across the street and bought an apple juice and some bread and chugged some water.  Unfortunately, when I was on the bus and feeling dizzy, my water was out of reach.  Glad to have that back!

The Boaco bus pulled up about 15 minutes later and I got on to see an open seat right up front.  Perfect!  This was extra nice because all the air comes in through the open door (yes, they leave the doors open while driving on the highways).  I pretty much slept the entire way which was nice, but awoke abruptly a couple of times to big gusts of wind sweeping through the bus.  Not the worst thing, but it sorta scared me.  Anyway, I made it back to Boaco and after a lot of people got off the bus in Boaco before my stop, one of the guys working on the bus asked me where I was from in English and I told him.  Then he told me he used to live in Canada and we had a nice little conversation in English and he invited me to come to his restaurant sometime.  Nice people :)

After I got back to my place, I told my host family what happened and of course they were so worried about me, especially that I had been traveling alone.  They all said that I was so lucky that someone didn't rob me.  I hadn't even thought of that, but was sure glad that the people on the bus around me were so generous to help me and not take advantage of me.  I saw a lady come close to passing out on the bus once before and people were very kind to her, but I'm a gringa, so ya never know.  Fortunately though, they were kind to me. 

Well, that's the story of losing my sunglasses.  Bet ya didn't see that coming!

P.S. I threw away the two pieces of my glasses at the bus stop because I determined them beyond repair, considering that the other piece was lost somewhere on the bus...