Baho, Dominoes & Rain

As promised, I¨m back!

A few notes:

* It has rained every single day for at least 30 minutes, and some days, it has rained pretty much the entire day. I don¨t like the fact that it makes me change my plans somewhat, but I love how cool it has been. Presently I¨m wearing jeans and a cardigan, at 11:00 in a poorly ventilated internet cafe in Chinandega, the hottest part of Nicaragua. The temperature has been in the mid 80s, which, for anyone living in Florida, probably sounds great right about now.

* I¨ve been watching a LOT more soccer here than I know I¨d be watching back home. This should please my mother to no end. Everybody here is obsessed with the World Cup, and it´s fun to watch how much they get into it. The other day (Sunday, I think, but the days sort of all run together), I walked from the hotel to Liza´s mom´s house, which is probably about .75 of a mile, while Argentina and Mexico played. While I was walking, Argentina scored twice, and I knew it each time because all the TVs were cranked up and I could not only hear the TV announcers, but also the people watching were freaking out and crazy about it. And at the hotel, they are constantly watching whatever game is on, so when I sit in the lobby, that´s what I watch.

* I ate another traditional dish here, baho. It´s made of yuca, plantains and pork, and it is basically slow-steamed over night. The yuca has this delicious soft texture, and the plantains are practically mushy - SO good. The picture really doesn´t do it justice, but here it is: They put a salad made of cabbage and carrots on top. It was all very tasty. There´s also a picture of Liza eating hers.

* After we ate the baho, we played Dominoes. Liza was given a set from some gringos last year. It was funny to me because I´ve never actually played Dominoes, and in fact, I didn´t actually know how to play. We played a game called Pata de Pollo, or Chicken Leg. It was really fun and easy to catch on to. It took what felt like hours to play the whole game, but it was really fun. That night, we ate dinner at Karla´s house from a place nearby, and afterwards Freddy dropped me off at the hotel on his MOTORCYCLE! I had never ridden on one before, and I had hesitations, to say the least. This doesn´t exactly seem to me to be the safest place to first ride on a motorcycle, (without a helmet of course), but Freddy is a really good driver. It was actually really fun and I think I´ll do it again!

* Hospitality is really taken to the next level here. I am never permitted to help prepare any food (and no, they aren´t just worried about me burning the house down or anything like that), wash a dish, or pay for any meals when we all go out together. For example, when we ate baho, there was only enough prepared for three people, so instead of giving me less (I had quite the plateful), Freddy went out and bought something to eat for himself, while Liza, Karla and I ate the baho. Many people have offered for me to stay in their houses. While I would love to do that, to feel more ¨Nica¨, I really don´t want to be a burden to anybody. I know that no matter where I stayed, someone would feel the need to cook every meal for me, constantly get me drinks and basically, serve me, which is exactly what I don´t want. At the same time though, I don´t want people to think that I don´t want to stay with them because their house isn´t nice enough. It´s tough to get this point across.

* Example of the difference in the importance of time in our cultures: Yesterday the plan was to go to Liza´s house for breakfast around 10:00. I was supposed to go to Karla´s house, from where we´d talk together to Liza´s. I called Karla at 10:00, and of course she was just beginning to get ready, and told me she needed another half hour. So I gave her 40 minutes and when I showed up, it appeared that nobody was there. I knocked and knocked, called out her name and called her phone, which I could hear in the front room. I figured she was still getting ready somewhere in the house and just couldn´t hear me. So I left and took a taxi to Liza´s house, because I don´t know the way well enough to walk on my own. When I got to Liza´s, she was still in her pajamas and was cleaning the house. Bonita, the adorable puppy pictured (I think she is mostly cocker spaniel), had made a mess the night before when we were hanging out at her mom´s house. Then Karla showed up and started cooking while Liza took a shower and got ready. We ended up eating around 1:00. Of course, I didn´t mind at all, as I had no other plans and like spending time with them regardless of what we´re doing. It´s just so funny sometimes to see how different we are.

* After we ate, Liza and Karla´s friend, Eunice, came over and we played Nertz! I had taught Liza and Karla last year, so Liza remembered somewhat how to play, and she helped me explain the game again. It is really hard to not know certain important words when you´re trying to give instructions for a game!

* I went back to the hotel and slept hard for about two hours. I was really sleepy because the night before, I watched the movie The End of Time, or something like that (everything translates weird in Spanish so I´m not sure what it´s actually named in English). It has Mark Whalberg and that girl Zoe something who´s in lots of movies now. I missed the beginning, but basically it´s about some phenomenon happening in the northeast US where people are just starting to drop dead, or start killing themselves, and it was happening mostly in public parks in big cities. Then it started happening in smaller cities and in smaller populations. Anyway, it was creepy and there was one especially creepy lady who I now cannot get out of my head. I had trouble sleeping that night, so I needed a nap yesterday. I hung around the hotel most of the night afterwards, because it was raining and because I had nothing else to do!

* From 2005-2007, I experienced a lot of water and power shortages here, but in the last few years, none. So I was surprised to find this morning when I was in the freezing shower, with shampoo all over my head, that the water just stopped. Not even a trickle. So I checked the sink, and it had a slow trickle. The sink is tiny, though, and there is no way I could have fit my head in there to rinse off. So my next thought was that it was raining lightly, so I could go outside and just rinse off au natural. But then I realized I didn´t want to get clothes all dirty just to go out and do so. So I just sort of sat there for a few minutes and kept trying the water. Eventually, it came back as a small trickle and I was able to rinse off. Apparently they were cleaning the city water filter or something bizarre like that, so supposedly it´s not going to happen again. We´ll see!

* I´m hoping to FINALLY make it out to the Villa tomorrow to see my two favorite families. I really don´t want to go in the rain, because everything will be muddy and make it harder for me to get out there, but it appears that the rain is not going to stop any time soon.

* Tomorrow night I am cooking dinner for everybody, and I still have NO idea what to make. Nobody has an oven in their house, just a cooktop, so that rules out a lot of things. I think I´ll make mashed potatoes, and some sort of chicken, but I´m not sure what. I´m going to do some researching of recipes online, and then go to the supermarket to see what is even available for me. I´m sure there will be an interesting story to tell about it tomorrow!

... I guess I thought I´d write less if I put it in bullet point format, but 11 bullets later, it appears that is not the case.