Days 6 - 9

The last few days are kind of all blurring together, but it feels like I have been here a lot longer than a week. I guess it´s because when I´m by myself, I get to do literally what I want all day, and the days go by slower because I have much more time to do things. I think once the group gets here (tonight) it´s going to pick up the pace. a lot. Today is kind of my lazy day, and I´m going to pack up my stuff and go check in at the Nicaraguan Ritz-Carlton. This is the same place I stayed at two years ago (right), so it will be quite the change from the hotel I´ve been at the last eight nights. I like the hotel I´ve been at because it´s right in the ¨city¨. I can walk almost anywhere, and I know how to get almost anywhere now. However, since I´ll be working with the group, I think it´s best that I go stay where they´re staying. Plus, this afternoon when I go check in, I´m going to teach Karla how to swim... should be interesting, coming from someone who can barely do more than doggie paddle...

On Tuesday, I went to Villa Catalina. Pulling up in a taxi, I saw the beautiful new school building and playground. It is really something. I went first to see Zayda, who was the first friend I made in Nicaragua. She was SO excited to see me, and ran and threw her arms around me. That is a lot for her, since she is usually so stoic and doesn´t show emotion. She just wasn´t expecting me, so I caught her off guard. We caught up and she painted my nails, like she always does, although this time I convinced her to use a not-so-obnoxious color. She even painted pretty little white flowers on my thumbs. ha. Her little girls are so big now too! The ´baby´Jenifer is not a baby anymore, and it was so nice to see how these little girls are growing and doing so well.

After leaving Zayda´s house, I went to go see Emilio and fam. As I was walking up, I saw Manuel (little brother) playing outside the house. When he saw me, he ran in the house to tell his mom I was here. They came out and were so, so excited to see me, since they also had no idea I was coming. Little Manuel is so big now too, and he´s talking up a storm. Before he mostly just shouted ¨me¨at the camera. Then my little guy came in from playing because he saw me, and he is just precious. He has grown a lot since I saw him last, and lost some teeth. He´s finally starting to look more his age. He told me about what he´s learning in school, and showed me some of his work. His mom told me he hasn´t missed a day of school, which is huge for down here. One thing I always forget is how much hotter it is down in the Villa, so I couldn´t stay as long as I wanted to, since I was dying of heat stroke. So I went back into town with plans to see them the next day. I ate lunch at ¨On the Run¨, the gas station, which consisted of a hot dog with fries, and a frappuccino. I felt that I just needed some good, refreshing minutes of air conditioning.

I walked around the market a little, and then went back to the hotel to rest. Later on, I met up with Freddy and Liza and attended a meeting for church with them. Then, we went to get a milkshake in the park (banana for me, as usual), and then Freddy had to go tutor a student, so Liza came back to the hotel with me and hung out for a bit. I gave her the clothes I had set aside for her and for her niece, Saskya. (The night before, I had gone through all the clothes with Karla and Dina and we decided what might fit whom.)

The Best Day

The next morning, I went out shopping to get some school supplies for my three boys. I keep harping on them about how important education is, and so I got them some stuff to help motivate them to want to study and do well. I got a few notebooks, tons of pencils, a pencil sharpener, crayons, two coloring books, and markers, all for about $15. I then went out to the Villa to pick them up for our traditional day of fun. It is sad how much they look forward to this, because it is literally the only time they go into town, and the only times they have ever eaten at Tip Top or at the Eskimo ice cream place. It was the fifth time we did this, and every time I am reminded of how simple pleasures mean the world to them. They were more excited just to play in the park (free) than to eat at Tip Top or to eat ice cream. I got tons of great pictures and just enjoyed watching them play.

After sending them back home in a taxi, I quickly went home and showered, and then Liza came to pick me up for our shopping date at El Bizne, which is the biggest and nicest outdoor market here, where you go if you want furniture, tools, etc. She thought she was just meeting me because I didn´t know where to go, and I wanted to buy clothes. In actuality, we were going so that she could pick out her housewarming gift from me, a dining room table and chairs. Like I said before, she and her husband, Freddy, just moved to a new house, and have basically nothing, besides a bed and dresser, and a tiny stove. I realized that I had a little extra cash on this trip, due to I don´t know what really, besides God, and that I wanted to get them something really nice. I had already told Freddy, and he said Liza would be able to go with me that day. So, after we got out of the triciclo (rickshaw), I said, ¨busco una mesa con las cuatro sillas para una amiga que se acaba de mudar a otra casa¨ (I´m looking for a table with chairs for a friend that just moved to a new house), and she just looked at me and then burst out laughing. She wasn´t sure what to think at first, but then she was so excited and could not stop thanking me. It really was a wonderful moment for me, because I was happy that I could really give someone a gift like this. Obviously, I´m not rich, and in the States I could never give a gift like that, but I just wanted the two of them to know how much they mean to me and how much I appreciate all they have done for me. So, we went to two or three different stores and she picked the one she liked. It was like watching a kid in a candy store; she was basically giddy. We had it delivered (for about $3), and then I hung out at her house for a while. She said now she would have a ¨real¨marriage, with their own house and a dining room table. ha. The table and four chairs, made of real wood, with glass panes on the top, cost about $175. Yes, that is still expensive, and not something I could easily do again any time soon, but if you think about how much that would cost in the States, it´s crazy cheap. And that, my friends, was the best day I´ve had here so far.

I Sometimes Forget How Nicaraguans Are Just Like Us

This is silly, but I always feel like the people here are so different from us. On the outside, they look differently, they dress differently, they lead their lives differently; but really, when it comes to family and how the heart works, they are just like us. Two cases in point:

1. I was eating lunch at Dina´s house, and she was showing me pictures of the families she lived with in the States. Meanwhile, her younger sister, Sara (18 yrs.), and younger brother, Duban (7 yrs.), were fighting over the remote like we do. Then their mom had to break it up and Duban ran to her like a little baby to get coddled.

2. My friends Liza and Freddy finally moved into their own home Sunday night. At church that afternoon, the band was singing quite a few songs (they sang about 50 total) about moms and their love for their children. I noticed that Liza´s mom was crying, and I realized it was probably because of the impending move. Then, after church, Karla and I went to their house to say hi (right next door), because Liza and Freddy hadn´t been at church since they were packing, and we walked in and saw Liza and her mom hugging, and sobbing. It was very sweet, and a little sad. Liza is 29 years old and had never lived away from her mom. The only times she´s even spent away from her are when she came to the States for a little over a week, and about three weeks ago when she went on a business trip to Panama alone. That´s it! She is only moving about three minutes away, too. It´s just so sad for her to leave her mama. It´s just like a kid leaving for college in the US.

Day 5

The past few days have been filled with visiting friends, and yet I still have not seen my godson or anyone at the villa! That is very, very strange, since usually I go out there the first minute I can. I´m not sure why it´s been that way, but I guess I have just been keeping busy with friends. I´m going out there today though. It is a little difficult to get out there, since it´s farther than the average taxi wants to take someone, plus I don´t really know the proper way to tell a taxi driver where it is, so I´m going to call a taxi driver friend that I´ve made, and just tell him that I will tell him when to turn, because that´s all I know!

Anywho, my last few days are kind of blurring together, but I have gotten to visit a lot with Liza, Karla, and Dina (some friends from the church here), and I´ve gotten to eat some good, authentic food. The strange thing is, at times I have actually just been craving to talk with people in English. Dina speaks English really well (she lived in the States for two years working as a nanny), but when we are all together, we speak Spanish, of course, so that everyone can understand. The exciting thing is, my Spanish has definitely gotten better since the last time I was here, and I can understand more and more conversations, even when people are speaking at normal speed! It has been really nice to go out to eat with Dina and Karla and be able to all speak in Spanish, like normal friends, and actually be able to laugh with them and get all their jokes.

However, like I said, I was missing gringos a bit, I guess. My friend Toney had a group come in two nights ago and stay at the hotel where I´m staying. I heard them come in around midnight, and I was super annoyed at their loud-gringo-ness. They are a bunch of high school kids excited about traveling and and their trip, so I shouldn´t have been annoyed, but I was, because I was trying to sleep. So, in the morning, I got to meet them, and they are really great people. They are a bit odd for a youth group, though. More... ¨free¨than mine ever was. For instance, the boys in the youth group talked all morning (with the youth director, who is a lady probably in her 40s) about how they were going to walk around in their speedos all week at the ranchos, and once we were at the ranchos, the youth director walked around in one of those strapless dress-like cover-ups to go to the shower, and told everyone how she was not wearing undergarments. Strange! Anyway, I had breakfast with them and then walked around town with them, helping Luis (tour guide and English teacher) give a tour of the city. Then, when they were off to Jiquilillo, I decided to jump in the truck with them. It is a long ride (apparently only 40 minutes, but felt like two hours) to sit in the back of a truck on top of cement bags, piled in with 15 other gringos and all their luggage! Anyway, it was great to see what Toney has going on there. He has two great big ranchos with sleeping quarters and then a kitchen and dining area. It is beautiful and so natural out there, and a one-minute walk to the beach! Gorgeous. Except that when it was time for me to come ¨home¨, I realized that Gerry´s wife (who does the cooking here) was not coming back, but rather spending the night there to get up and cook this morning. I didn´t bring anything with me to spend the night, so I was really set on getting back to town, especially because I had dinner plans with Karla and Dina. So, Gerry´s driver was coming back to town and I rode with him. I was a little hesitant, because I didn´t know this guy, and it is a long, dark drive back to Chinandega. There were literally several times when he slowed down that I was afraid he was going to stop all together and drag me off somewhere and, well, kill me. However, he was actually a really nice man (which I figured, if Gerry trusts him enough to work with him daily, he must be okay), and we talked the whole way. He is a former policeman, and he told me all about his two marriages and why they both failed. In essence, giving me marriage advice. It was pretty funny.

When I got back to the hotel, I had about two minutes to get ready before Karla and Dina came to pick me up. They had promised me a good, home-cooked meal with all of my favorites: gallo pinto, maduros, queso frito, carne asada, etc... Turns out they both had extremely busy days, with no time to cook, so they had a surprise for me. We went ¨out¨to eat to a home restaurant. A lot of people make ¨restaurants¨out of their homes, and that is where we went. You go up to the front of their house to order, still on the street, and then you go sit in their front room, usually a sitting room, to eat. It´s interesting, and actually really cute. I had a delicoius meal with everything I was hoping for, including a cacao fresco. These places are funny, because since they aren´t real restaurants, they don´t have names. You just have to know where they are.

While we were walking there, I was telling Dina and Karla how cute the guy is that works at the hotel. His name is Jose Luis (shocking, I know), and he works the 4-midnight shift at the hotel (it´s not creepy-stalkery that I know that; I´ve just been there long enough that I know), and he is probably the cutest Nicaraguan I have ever seen. He dresses nicely, and he is very friendly and polite. His only downside I can see is that he smokes. And he doesn´t speak English, which I could learn to overlook. He actually went to school (college) with Dina for a while, so she thought it was so funny that I thought this, so she talked about setting me up with him and talking to him when we got back to find out more about what he´s like now (it had been two and a half years since they had seen each other, since Dina was in the US). Anyway, the whole thing just made me laugh, because we were really talking just like old friends, and it seemed like we were in the States, talking about guys. As it turns out, he has a girlfriend, but hey... at least we tried. :)

Which brings me to today... I slept in late (there was an awesome but LOUD thunderstorm that kept me up a lot at night. It thundered literally for a half hour straight. It didn´t just thunder at the lightning. It was very strange) and then came here. From here, I´m planning on going to the Amigos for Christ house to visit, and hopefully see if anybody is heading to the Villa, so I can catch a ride. Otherwise, I´ll call my taxista friend.

Over the last five days, I feel like I´ve really gotten a glimpse of what it would be like if I lived here (well, except for the living-in-a-hotel thing, and the I-don´t-have-a-job-and-I-just-do-what-I-want-all-day thing), and it is a pretty neat life...

Day 2 - What the hell's wrong with this keyboard?

You will never know how long it took to me to just write that title. I am on a crazy keyboard where they've changed all the symbol keys to mean something else. For example, the key that is usually a 'dash' is ' on this keyboard. The key that is usually the question mark is a - on this keyboard. Only on accident have I been able to find the actual keys to match up with all the actual marks. All of them, that is, except the 'at' sign. I g'chatted with Alexis and had to ask her to type it so I could copy and paste it into something I was trying to log into.

To clear things up from yesterday's post, I had to get into the bus because it drove us around the entire parking lot of the airport to get into our plane. We were at Gate '25A', which, I think, was an afterthought (and thus, the 'A'), so it didn't actually attach to the airport the way the others do. Still strange.

The book reference yesterday was to the title of Jen Lancaster's first book, 'Bright Lights, Big Ass. Formerly titled, Who are all these idiots and why do they all live next door to me?' or something like that. Congrats to Jenny and Jason for getting it!

Moving on... Day 2 has been great. I decided to come down and write today, because once things start getting more hectic, I'm sure I won't have time to come every day and write, or maybe even every other day, so I figured I'd take advantage of the free time now. I went to bed around 7'00 last night (still haven't found the colon key). I was just exhausted from all the traveling. Plus, it was dark out, so why not? I woke up around 6 and could not sleep anymore. Their 6'00 is like our 8'00; (I just found the COLON! but I'm not going to go back and insert it.) People were out and about, the market was opening up, and it's definitely not too early to expect some places to be open (however, not the internet cafe where you're desperately trying to find out who won the game last night. Little did I know, it would not be worth it). After wandering around and getting breakfast (some little danish type thing with a pineapple jelly in it - really good) I noticed that every school child in Chinandega was marching down the road around the park. It appeared to be some parade or festival of some sort. There were hundreds upon hundreds. And of course, there was no organization to the way they were walking. Teachers appeared to be shepherding them in some way, but the kids were running all over the place, going to buy a coke, sitting on the park benches, just complete madness. I found out later they were all going to some place for some type of celebration for a festival to celebrate 'la feria de la tierra', roughly translated 'Land Day', sort of like Earth Day, I supposed. Only, the funny thing is, as they're on their way to celebrate 'Earth Day', the kids are throwing their breakfast trash all over the ground, just like this entire city does, making their city even more disgusting. I love irony.

I thought again at how different our cultures are, in the sense that these kids were walking, basically unsupservised, through morning rush hour traffic, in the craziest driving I've ever seen. There were cars, trucks, bikes, rickshaws, and crazy people all over the place. My friend Liza's niece did stay home, though, because they were concerned about her running around out there without supervision like that (only normal family around here), but they let her brother go. He's about 9.
After waiting for all the kids to clear, I took a taxi to my friend Liza's house. Liza is my best friend here. She is 29 and lives with her husband, her mom, her sister and her sister's two kids. Actually, today or tomorrow she and her husband, Freddy (our translator a lot of the time, who speaks better English than most of the Georgians that are coming next week (sorry Hartley!)), are moving to a new house they are renting. It's finally time, now that they've been together about FOURTEEN YEARS, to live on their own! It's funny, Liza asked how I can live away from my parents when I'm single, and she is sad to do it when she's married. I just laughed and tried to explain how very different we are... Anywho, I hung out with Liza all morning and afternoon, and ate a delicious lunch prepared by her mom. Then, I needed a nap so I went back to the hotel. I quickly stopped at a nearby kiosk and got a banana 'liquado', basically a milkshake: banana, milk, a tiny bit of cinnamon, blended with ice = amazing. All wrapped up in a plastic bag with a straw, the 'to go' way. Awesome. The timing was perfect, because shortly after I got back, there was a huge downpour of rain for about an hour and a half. That was also perfect timing, because the heat has just been almost unbearable, and it has cooled off considerably now. I watched TV a little while during the rain - what else? Law & Order: SVU! In English and subtitled in Spanish! That was certainly exciting for me to find.

Now, here I am, writing all of this. I'm waiting on a call from Liza. I'm taking her and Freddy out to eat tonight! As an informative reference, the restaurant we're going to is called Rosti Pollo. It is an 'upscale' place, I suppose, in that it has nice dining areas, air conditioning, and the meals are not dirt cheap, per se. I would compare it to a Chili's, ambience-wise. Anyway, we Americans love to eat at Rosti Pollo when we're here. The average meal is probably $4-7, which is really expensive for down here, but it's so good, and you get a TON of food for what you pay. Freddy and Liza have only gone there for their anniversary, except for when we gringos are here. They consider it such a treat.

Tomorrow I'm off to Jiquilillo to spend the night and get some good beach-slash-hammock time, and Sunday I'll finally go see my kiddo.

I'm not sure when I'll be back, but you can always purchase an international phone card and call me at 011-505-837-4629 - that's right, my Nicaraguan cell phone! I love it. I am so very legit.

I don't see any wings on this bus...

...formerly titled, "Who are all these idiots, and why are they all sitting near me on planes today?" (Free Nicaraguan souvenir if you catch that book reference. My bet is, Jenny is the only one who does).

4 June, 2009
Estoy aqui! I'm here! After traveling from 5:00am until 3:45pm to come to a country that's about a 2-hour straight shot from where I live, I am exhausted, to say the least. My flights all went well, Copa is a wonderful airline (french toast w/ sausage for breakfast, hamburger, chips and chocolate bar for lunch - what?), and my friends Toney and Gerry came to pick me up at the airport - all is well. However, there have already been a few funny occurrences:

1. I'm in a hispanic country (Panama) maybe 37 seconds before I get what I like to call the Spanish version of the cat call, which sounds kind of like a cat's hiss mixed with a "hey, you". Funny.

2. When I was called to board the flight from Panama to Managua, I was surprised to find a small set of stairs leading outside, to the ground. They left me right in front of a 15-passenger van, so I got in it. I was feeling really confused, thinking, "Wow, it's going to take forever to DRIVE to Nicaragua". But, I kept my mouth shut. Another American dude got on the bus, and as he looked around, just as confused, he said, "We're getting on a plane next, right?" to which I responded, "That's what I'm hoping!" He then said, "Yea, 'cause I don't see any wings on this bus!" The sad part is, he thought he made a real funny, but I wasn't helping to discourage him by smiling and laughing with (at) him.

3. On the way back from the airport, we stopped at this little stand on the side of the road to get quesillos, which consist of a cream made from cheese, mixed with onions, rolled inside of a few tortillas. They're actually pretty good, even for a non-onion lover like myself. While we were there, one of the employees was walking around with a bag full of juice, with a small hole cut in it, letting the juice spill all over the ground. When I looked pointedly at Gerry for an explanation, he said "air freshener". Yes, they pour juice on the ground to make it smell nicer in the 'restaurant'. I'm gonna try that one in my house when I get back!

4. Things you forget about a place like Nicaragua until you're back -
a. All taxi drivers ask you for your number - because you're female, and because you're a gringa.
b. When people are sweeping up trash and you try to walk by, they will not stop sweeping trash towards you just because you're trying to walk.
c. There are hundreds upon hundreds of men at the airport who dress up in employee-like clothes and "help" you with your bags. You try your absolute hardest to NOT let them touch your bag, and just carry it yourself, but alas; they will carry the bag, and you will have to tip them.
d. When you see a friend/meet a stranger in Nicaragua, they always say "Dios te bendiga" (God bless you) before asking your name or how you're doing. Interesting.

That's all I've got so far. Not bad for about an hour and a half, huh? So, my stuff is at my hotel, I've already visited with a friend, and I'm just going to get some dinner and wait for my other friend to get home. Tomorrow I'm headed to the villa to see my godson (!!!), as well as my other little kiddos there, and then Saturday I'm going to Jiquilillo, a small beach town about fifteen minutes up the road, where Toney stays and has lots of stuff going on. It is a little strange being here completely by myself, but it's kinda nice. I'll let you know how the days go...

Sign me up for the next bandwagon ride.

List of things for which I've recently jumped "on the wagon", in no apparent order:

1. Blogging - It's not what you think! Okay, yeah, it is. The thing is, as much as I thoroughly enjoy reading blogs belonging to my friends (Hartley, Adam [he actually stopped writing about a year ago, so it's really only Hartley]), I've never had anything interesting enough to write about in my own. I also cannot write as clever and as witty thoughts as my aforementioned friend(s). However, the facts remain that I always want to write down everything I do in Nicaragua so that I can remember it all when I get back, and each time I tell someone about my trip, more and more details seem to fall along the wayside. So, who knows if I'll ever use this as more than a Nicaragua-trip-blog; that remains to be seen. Moving down the list...

2. The Orlando Magic - As discussed with Jess P., this is not exactly accurate. I was a big Magic fan in the 90s (the last time they were this good), but since then I've not paid much attention to them, just like every other Florida citizen (except my brother-in-law, Jason). So, I'm back on the 'wagon... so what?

I could only think of two... I think by definition, one has to have three items to be considered a 'list'. Whoops!


I'm leaving for my trip to Nica on Thursday, June 4th, at 7:00am (no, I haven't yet told my parents how early they'll be driving me to the airport). This will be my 6th trip, and I am very much looking forward to the things I know to expect to happen, as well as all the new things God will put in my path. I'll keep you posted...