July in Nica Part II

* Note that I wrote this on July 4th. I know today's actually the 6th :)

July 4, 2011

Happy Independence Day! From 2005 until now, I have only been in the US for 4^th of July one time, in 2008, which is right when I moved back to Melbourne and was teaching English at FIT, before starting my “real” job. The other six years, I have been here. Like I said before, every time I’m here it feels more and more like home.

A few things:

* I used to be SO independent here, that I surprised not only everyone here, but also myself, with the things I was willing to do solo. Now, it seems Jorge and his family have siphoned off some of my independence. For example: Saturday night, Jorge didn’t get off work until 2:00am!! It was ridiculous. Basically, whoever doesn’t have to work the next day has to stay while people come and restock shelves and do inventory. Jorge doesn’t work Sundays, so he had to stay. He got off at 8:30 for about 45 minutes to get to come home, eat and change. So the plan was that I would have food ready for him, to save time. I left Liza’s house down the street at about 8:00 to go get food. I decided to go to a little place just around the corner where he has taken me before. The lady makes real good chicken and steak. As I passed his house, his mom asked where I was going, and I told her. She told me I shouldn’t go alone, and I laughed her off, but she was serious. She made Anthony (Jorge’s older brother) go with me. I told him that I know they’re just trying to be protective, but that I would have been fine. He said he agreed with his mom, though, that even though it’s just around the corner, I shouldn’t go alone at night J. Also, every time we go somewhere in a taxi or tricycle, Jorge tells the guy where to take us. He also orders for me usually when we go out to eat. It’s funny that I not only don’t mind this, but I actually like it a lot. It does, however, make me feel much less like that independent girl I used to be. I guess in a way it makes sense, because I had learned how to get along just fine alone in all arenas of life, so I guess that has changed for obvious reasons.

* The thing that is the most uncomfortable for me (this sort of goes along with the last point) is that I feel like a useless child here sometimes. I don’t know how to hand-wash clothes (any clothes I have that are “hand wash only” usually get run through soapy water, but I wouldn’t exactly call them clean…), I don’t know how to cook on Jorge’s family’s kitchen set-up, I don’t know how to get to lots of places or what lots of things are called. It’s another thing that strips me of my independence. The good thing is now that I’m here for a month, I am finally going to learn to remedy some of these things. I decided to start with washing. Jorge’s got a giant pile of dirty clothes, because with his work schedule, he doesn’t have a ton of time to wash, and he is a little too lazy to wake up early and do it before work. So, he had no clean work clothes for tomorrow, and of course he waited until today to realize this, so the poor guy was out there washing clothes this morning. I go out sometimes and watch him, so I can learn, but it just makes me feel so ridiculous. I decided that under no circumstances would he wash all my clothes for me like he has done in the past, so I would either wash them myself or take them somewhere to be washed. When we were eating lunch today, he told me to tell his mom to get his six or so shirts out of the ace, where he left them after he washed them, (it’s like bleach, but not as strong) and wash them out and hang them to dry. “Or you do it,” he said to me, sort of joking but sort of not. I had just finished telling him how I feel like such a child, not knowing how to do these things like they do. So he explained to me exactly what to do, and when I saw that nobody else was out back where they wash the clothes, I went and did it. For some reason I didn’t want anyone there watching me, in case I did something wrong and looked stupid. About halfway through, his sister-in-law came out and was washing dishes and we were chatting about how there has never been a need for me to know how to hand-wash clothes, that we all have washers and dryers. I felt like so spoiled saying that, but it’s the truth. Anyway, she didn’t tell me I did anything majorly wrong, so I must have done okay :). Just typing it and reading it back to myself, it all sounds so silly, but to me it was a big deal. Tomorrow Marga’s grandmother is coming to wash Jorge’s huge pile of clothes. After that, I decided I can wash every other day and keep up with his and my dirty laundry. Baby steps, you know. :)

* A lot of people asked what I was going to do with all my free time while Jorge was working. It certainly has been a BIG shift, not spending all my time with him. Basically, in the morning we get to spend time together and eat breakfast, and then he works at 9:30. He gets out usually around 1:30 or 2:00 for an hour and a half lunch break, where he either comes to the house and we go out, or today we met out in town. Then he comes home at 8:30, and we have the rest of the night together (except on Saturday, when he got home at 2:00). The first few days, I kept busy sleeping, cleaning up all our junk, or visiting Liza and the baby. Today I napped a little bit when he left and then went to On the Run because I just needed my coffee BAD. I ended up staying there working on my “variety puzzles” book until he went on lunch and he came and met me and ate there. So I was there for three hours. Then I came back to the house and achieved ‘hand-washed clothes’ status. I still have about four hours until he gets home, so I think I’ll go to the internet café. I am actually just typing this on my laptop, so when I go there, all I have to do is copy and paste, and my blog post is done! I realized this way I will keep up much better with what all I’m doing down here. In the future, I plan on being out and about more and seeing more people, but I’ve sort of been enjoying this relaxing time, as this is still my “summer vacation”. I worked summer school until the day I came here, so now it’s sort of awesome to have free time to just lay around and be lazy. I still wish he were here more though :).

* Yesterday was this big horse parade called the “Hípico”. I have no idea what that means or why they have this horse parade, but I do know it’s a big deal. People come from all over the country to watch it. We went to Rosti Pollo for dinner last night, and the place was packed with super rich-looking, fancy, white Nicaraguans, which Jorge quickly explained means that they are from Managua. We didn’t go to the parade, because the weather seemed sketchy and it really didn’t interest me that much, since I saw it last year, but dinner was wonderful and I had the two best margaritas in my life.

* I don’t have the words to say this the way I want to, but I love being with Jorge so much. This long-distance business has lost all its allure, (not that it really ever had any), and this last time apart – 86 days – was really difficult. We need each other so much, and I just feel so much stronger being at his side. We are able to talk so much better, being face to face, and just being able to reach out and wipe a dumb piece of bread off his face makes me happy, as ridiculous as that sounds, because all I normally have are his voice and some pictures.

* Any time I am out with Jorge, nobody talks to me. Any time I am out alone, EVERYBODY talks to me. Meaning, random guys on the street do the Nicaraguan ‘ssht ssht’ (that’s the only way I could figure to type it), every taxi driver asks me where I’m from, where I’m here, how I know Spanish, etc. and guys driving by call out and whistle. Now, I’m not flattering myself, as they do this to pretty much most girls, and ALL gringa girls. I stand out like a sore thumb, obviously, so I call the attention more than “normal” girls. A lot of times people look at us funny too, like they are so curious about what the heck the two of us are doing together. It’s interesting.

Piggybacking off that point, white people never talk to me here anymore. Before, whenever I was at On the Run or sometimes out and about in town, and I saw a white person, we’d always end up talking about where we’re from, what we’re doing here, etc. Or we’d at LEAST give each other that “yea, we’re both foreign here and from the same place” smile. It’s that weird, common bond I have with them, knowing nothing about them except that they must be from somewhere near where I’m from. Now, they look at me with glazed-over eyes, just like they look at everybody else. I don’t know if it’s just because I am with Jorge, and obviously with him, or if gringos just aren’t as friendly these days. I mentioned this to Jorge at lunch and he was all, What, do you want them to hug you or something? Just because you’re both white? And the truth is, no, I definitely don’t want to hug strange gringos, but I sort of miss that kinship. Is that weird? I know Jorge will definitely understand more when he’s in the US and randomly hears someone speaking Spanish with a Nicaraguan accent. I bet he’ll go running to them in a split second.

* As you can see in the picture above (that's him with the bat), Jorge played baseball on Sunday and they got to play in the "real" stadium. They won 1-0, and it was actually a pretty exciting game towards the end. Now they are in the final round of the finals, and play this Sunday.

* I experienced my first earthquake!!! (I know I said before that I experienced one when I was on the phone with Jorge and they had one here, but it's for real this time!) Saturday night, when Jorge had to work until 2:00, there was an earthquake around 12:30am, so really on Sunday morning. According to what I've read, it was a 5.8 magnitude and about 50 km (31 miles) WSW of me here in Chinandega. I was alone in the room and the roof started to shake and be really loud. It's aluminum though, and just sounded like a ball had been bounced on it or something. Then when everything started shaking, I got a little scared and jumped up and went outside. Jorge's mom and brother met me out there and were a little shaken up too, but not as much as I was. Jorge called to see if I was scared, but by then I was pretty much over it. Just an interesting occurrence!

With all that, I leave you. Hope you had a great 4th of July. A family friend of ours passed away this weekend in an accident at work. He was 30, and married, and it just makes me miserable thinking about his family. Please join me in keeping them in your prayers.

July in Nica Part I

I know I´ll probably get some guff from some people (Jessica Scherzer) for not having a witty blog title, but I´m just all out of wit right now. Deal with it. :)

I am officially in Nica for my 12th trip, and the fifth one in the last twelve months. It feels more and more like home every time I´m here! So, the recap...

Per my usual (of late) bad luck with flights, my flight from Orlando, which I was all responsible about and checked in for super early, was delayed by one hour to 10:30. No biggie right? Except that my connecting flight from Ft. Lauderdale to Managua was supposed to leave at 11:30. So I started to worry until the airport people kept saying that it was okay, all connections were fine. So that made me wonder and I went online to check it out, and sure enough, my second flight was delayed until 3:30. in the morning. awesome. So, I did my usual ´find a decently clean enough space on the horrendous floor to sleep in 20-minute cycles until the plane may or may not leave at the new schedule time´drill. I´m pretty good at it now. Luckily it did indeed leave at 3:30 and also luckily, Jorge and the entourage (his brother and the guy that drove them) were actually there to pick me up at 4:00 local time. Yes, that´s right. I went back in time. The drive home was super quiet, since I just slept as much as possible. We got to the house around 6:45, when the whole town was basically up or waking up, so my internal clock was such a mess, being that it was 8:45 to my poor exhausted body. So we slept until around 10:00 and then got up and got ready to go eat, as Jorge had to work at 12:00. I was also starving, since my last meal had been at 5:00 pm the day before, and I was virtually awake for more than 24 hours. We ate at La Parrillada, where we eat a lot. I had my delicious rice, beans, queso and a chicken in a delicious sauce with vegetables (carrots, green beans, onions - the tolerable ones :)). Then Jorge was off to work and I was off to the house to crash for another three hours. Jorge works long hours and it´s definitely something different I´ll have to adjust to - him not being here with me 24/7. But as I told someone before I left, that means I´ll definitely be more faithful with blogging and emailing, because usually I hurry because he´s bored out of his mind waiting for me to type my novels.

After catching up on my sleep, I went to go see Liza and the baby! The good thing is that they are staying at her mom´s house for ten days, which is right down the street, so it´s super convenient for me to go see them. Liza looks great and feels great, aside from normal c-section discomfort and pain. The baby is beautiful! She weighs only 6 lbs. and is very long and skinny, for now. She already has big feet though. The little heels on her socks are actually on the balls of her feet instead of on her heel, so Freddy´s already got it in his head that she´s going to go to college on a basketball scholarship :). Anyway, motherhood just suits Liza, as we all knew it would. I have watched her for five years oodling over everybody´s baby, because she just loves them so much, and she feels so humbled and blessed to be chosen as this baby girl´s mama.

For those of you who don´t know, the path to parenthood was very difficult for these two. After three miscarriages, Liza got pregnant in the fall of 2009 and was supposed to give birth in July of 2010. In early April, though, her blood pressure was dangerously high and they had to deliver the baby at just six months, and he only lived for two days. Amazingly, through the power of prayer and faith, Liza and Freddy managed to get by and continue to live faithfully, believing that God had a wonderful plan for them, and that if they were meant to be parents, they would be. When Liza announced that she was pregnant again in the fall, everybody was sort of nervous, understandably. This time, though, they were more prepared and Liza saw a specialist from day one, who had her on all sorts of medication to help her blood pressure, including having to get an injection every day. They had to sacrifice a lot in order to be able to afford these last 9 months, but of course it was worth it! Once they got past the 6 month mark, they started to breathe a little easier, and when it was time to deliver, they were calm and confident. They did a c-section on Tuesday, the 28th, and little Lisa Anaiah was born. After running all sorts of tests and undergoing observation because of the medication her mama was on for so long, the doctors declared her a perfectly healthy baby girl. Now, the name: Freddy and Liza deliberated over the name for some time, and decided that they would each get to pick one name. Freddy originally wanted Dolores, which was his grandmother´s name, but Liza didn´t like it, for more reasons than the fact that dolores means ´pains´in Spanish. Liza had originally picked Adelita for the first name, which is her mother´s name, but her mom begged her not to use it because she says she has always disliked her name and that one day their daughter would ask them why they named her that horrible name! I actually love the name and think it´s adorable, but Liza complied and decided upon Lisa, with an s. It means ´dedicated to God´. Freddy picked Anaiah, which comes from Hebrew and means ´God has responded´. Both names are so perfectly fitting.

I visited with them for about four hours, and of course held that baby as long as she´d let me. A couple friends came by to visit her and see the baby though, so I had to relinquish her to them. It was so wonderful to catch up with my sweet friend, and to see her the happiest I have in years. She is so blissfully happy and so thankful to God, and just so in love with her baby girl, as is Freddy of course. I don´t have a picture to upload now, because the one thing I forgot at home was the cable to connect my camera to the computer, but don´t you fear. I´ve gone high-tech now and will start to take pictures with my phone instead, because I did remember to bring that cord.

By that time I had a monstrous headache due to overtiredness and not enough caffeine (Liza´s mom did give me a delicious cafe con leche but I think it was too late - the caffeine-withdrawal damage had already kicked in. I went back to the house and waited for Jorge to get home from work. Just a few minutes before he got home, I went outside and sat with his mama and chatted with her, and I was actually a little cold! Oh yea, I forgot to mention it poured (like level 2 hurricane poured) for about 3 hours! Jorge came home and we went to get food at La Casuelita, which is just down the street. They make this to-die-for chicken in jalapeño sauce (remember Jess?). On the way there we passed by my friend Karla´s house and got to see her, Sara and Talia. I love that it´s a small enough town here that I can see several people I know no matter where I go! We took the food to the house and ate. I think I ate it anyway. It was gone so fast I hardly have any recollection of it :). We then watched a really bad copycat of Step Up, one of those ´people off the street turn to dancing instead of being in gangs, and then they compete with each other´movies. I tell you what, this boy has terrible taste in movies. and music. but that´s a whole other blog post... And we finally were able to just sit and talk and relax, just enjoying being around each other. With his new work schedule, I feel like we have barely talked, I mean really talked, for the last month or so. I can´t even explain how good it feels to just be here and be able to just be. I feel so, happy, just being with him. Okay, sorry about the momentary mushyness.

This morning we woke up and got ready to go have breakfast before Jorge went to work at 9:30. We went to On The Run so that I could go to the ATM too. I had, and am still drinking, my cafe con leche, and also about half of Jorge´s frappuccino, and we both had a croissant. On the Run is expensive, but sort of worth it for how tasty it all is. Then he was off to work and I was off to the internet cafe, where I have been now for about an hour! The game plan is to go buy a cell phone (I´ll put the number on here in case anybody feels like paying to communicate with me), go back to the house and clean, as I´ve been here just over 24 hours and the place is suitable for pigs right now. Since I´ll be here an entire month (yay!!!) I am going to actually unpack my suitcase and actually organize things. Then Jorge will come home and we´ll eat lunch together, and then I´ll go visit Liza and baby again. I´m not sure yet what the night will hold, but tomorrow Jorge is off work and we have baseball games (sarastic ´yay´!). His team gets to play in the big stadium which is cool, except that means I´ll be sitting alone in the stands, unless I can convince someone to come with me. Then in the night we´ll go to church and we´re thinking of going to Rosti Pollo afterwards to celebrate our one-year anniversary! I´m not much of an anniversary-celebrating person, and neither one of us knows the exact date we got together, although we know it definitely was more in the middle of July than this early on, but either way we know it´s in July, so we thought we´d celebrate.

That´s all I´ve got for now! and oh yea, because this is usually the first thing I´m asked - yes, it´s hot. Although right now I´d say it´s probably not any hotter here than it is in Melbourne. and I´m in a tiny cubicle in a non-air conditioned internet cafe, drinking hot coffee. You know me though, I´m practically Amish. So I´m good :).

More to come in a few days, including pictures, hopefully! I hope everyone´s doing well. Enjoy your 4th of July! There won´t be any firework shennanigans here like last year, because I´m the only gringo around that I know of, but I´ll be thinking of you all in brush-fire city.

Adios!