Some thoughts… also strikes

Hello folks!

Before my trip to El Salvador on Thursday, I just figured I’d share some thought I’ve had recently about living in Nicaragua for over a month (I still can’t believe it’s been that long). As I was walking to the bus stop to go to my first class the other day, I thought about everything I was doing and how everything I do on a daily basis seems normal, like it’s something I’ve been doing my entire life. I walk to the bus stop in the morning, avoiding the enormous gaps in the sidewalks where it’s like someone just forgot to fill in the space. I ride overpacked city buses and hold on for dear life. I drink orange and papaya juice out of plastic bags with a straw. Any meal that costs more than 100 córdobas (about $4) is just way too expensive. I haggle taxis down to 1o córdobas (less than 50 cents) each, because there is no way I’m paying 15 or 20 córdobas for a ride to Metrocentro (the mall). Everything I do here seems to weird when I write it all out or talk about it to someone back home. But when everything is actually happening, it just feels normal. Like my new normal. It’s amazing how quickly one can adjust to a new country, new norms, a new life.

Also, I didn’t have time to write about this before I went to the Coast, but there have been quite a few protests and strikes in the past few weeks. The first occurred on the same day I was supposed to go to a Pitbull concert. Pitbull was supposed to have a concert in Managua on September 28, so a bunch of us bought our tickets for $30 each. When we got there, we were informed that the concert had been cancelled at the last minute. Of course, we were all pretty upset and hoped that it would be rescheduled for before our trip to the Coast so we could still attend. Luckily it was rescheduled for two nights later, so we got to go and have an amazing time. Apparently, it had to be cancelled because there was a sugarcane plantation worker strike up near the border with Honduras, so the necessary equipment couldn’t get to Managua in time.

A little scarier and more recent was the taxi strike in Managua the day before we left for the Coast. We were told that morning that the majority of the taxi drivers in Managua were on strike. As we walked to our class that afternoon, we could see a plume of black smoke rising ahead from one of the protest sites. They were burning tires in the street. Later that evening, three of us walked to Metrocentro (about a 20 minute walk) to take some money out of the ATM for our trip. By the time we were ready to leave, it was already dark (it gets dark by 6 PM here). Normally this means we would take a taxi back, but then we remembered that the strike was still going on. After a quick call to the office coordinator, who told us we should be ok to walk home, we set out. Just outside the mall, we saw a taxi looking to pick up passengers, but we decided not to get in, since we didn’t know what the consequences would be if we were to run into a strike area. Thank goodness we didn’t get in. We later got emails from the US Embassy about the strike and saw the news reports. A taxi driver ran over and killed two police officers at a protest site. Also, striking taxi drivers were physically pulling people out of moving taxis that were still picking up passengers. Definitely one of those moments that reminds me how quickly things can change and how important it is to always keep your wits about you.

In other news, yesterday we got to look down a volcano and swim in the Laguna de Apoyo in Masaya. It was so beautiful and the water, like always here, was incredibly warm. I’m uploading pictures to my album, so you should check it out! http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1869690821974.2045784.1232190724&type=1&l=9629e7f55e

El Mercado

Hola!

So I had myself a little adventure yesterday. My mama told me she was going to the market yesterday morning and I asked if I could go with her. She said of course, so we set off for the Mercado Huembes with bags in tow. The journey there was slightly hilarious, as we passed by a church and I could hear the pastor giving a sermon about the evils of Harry Potter. Good stuff. Also we passed a small pile of garbage that was on fire (as in legit flames) in the middle of the street. When I asked my mom if that was considered dangerous, she told me that it’s only a problem if it’s a big pile. Since that one was small, it was totally fine. Okay then…

Unfortunately I couldn’t take pictures as it would be too risky to take out a camera there, so I’ll try to describe it the best I can. Let me tell you one thing about that market: I could hear it before I could see it. As we walked up, I noticed that it was set up in two parts. The outside part sold mostly produce under canopies of tarp and plastic garbage bags. The isles were incredibly narrow and crowded, with men and women shouting out the prices of their produce and trying to get customers to stop at their stalls by any means necessary. I remember once woman announcing that she was selling a bag of oranges for 10 córdobas (less than 50 cents USD). We would frequently have to jump out of the way for a small boy carrying a straw basket nearly twice his size over his head to pass through the crowd. We navigated through the outdoor stalls for a while and I desperately tried to keep my mama in my sights at all times.

We then entered the inside part aka the part that was open on the sides but had a roof of corrugated sheet metal. And it was enormous! Once we went it, I wasn’t sure if we would ever get out. It was dark and smoky and loud and even more crowded than the outside section. Stalls were crammed together in a dizzying maze (it’s incredible we didn’t get lost) and vendors selling everything from huge slabs of meat to medicine to leather shoes shouted their prices and added to the overwhelming cacophony of people hustling and bustling with their shopping. I have to say, I was a little concerned to see so much cheese and raw meat sitting out without refrigeration, as it was so incredibly hot in there. My mom bought some chicken for tonight’s dinner, so hopefully that turns out ok. I was also not a huge fan of the flies swarming all over the raw meat. And when I was outside, I saw a woman pick up an onion that had fallen in a pile fruit peel, general garbage, and flies on the ground and put it back on the display. I guess the “five second rule” really is a universal concept! Also… machetes. Stall owners were sharpening and using their machetes a little too close for comfort for my taste and I actually had to duck under a woman chopping a coconut with a machete to throw my soda in the garbage. Happy to report that all my limbs are still attached!

As overwhelming as the mercado was, I definitely enjoyed having that experience. It’s so hard to describe it but it felt like every single person in this country was there all at once. And I really liked spending some quality time with my mama and learning about what she buys and from where and how she navigates the chaos. I really would like to go back again while I’m still in Managua, but only with someone who actually knows where they’re going. Otherwise, this redhead would never see the light of day again and would have to spend the rest of her days wandering aimlessly through the aisles and buying tropical fruits (actually doesn’t sound half bad…) We’ll just have to see what the next market adventure brings!

¡Bienvenidos a mi casa!

Hola amigos!

I am finally writing from la Colonia Maximo Jerez, the neighborhood where I will be living for the rest of the semester! We finally met our host mamas on Sunday night and we went home with them to eat dinner and get settled. I live with Doña Silvia, Kenia, her empleada (housekeeper), and Sayuri, Kenia’s adorable one-year-old daughter. Doña Silvia has three grandchildren, but Francisco, who’s eleven, spends lots of time in the house and he always eats dinner with us. The first night was a little awkward, especially since there still is a bit of a language barrier. But I definitely feel more comfortable in the house and with my new familia. My mama is very nice and we have really nice conversations at night on the porch. And ohmygod this country has the best fruit juice and Kenia makes it for me at least twice a day! My favorite is jugo de pitalla and pitalla fruit looks just like a bright red artichoke. Totally crazy but really tasty!

We started our classes on Monday. In the mornings, we have our intensive Spanish classes from 9:00 until 12:30 at the Universidad Centroamericana (UCA). We have to walk there and back and it’s about a 20-30 minute walk. In theory that doesn’t sound so bad, but it the heat it can be a little treacherous. I can’t wait to learn how to take the public bus there and do that instead of walking. In the afternoons, I have a Monday field study seminar from 2-5 and on Tuesdays-Fridays I have my culture, revolution, and history lecture from 2-4. The classes are definitely interesting, but they make for a long day. I typically then walk back to my house, say hi to my mama, and then spend some time doing homework in the study center. Today I took a little side trip to the local panadería for jugo de cacao, a lovely drink of milk, cacao, cinnamon, and another spice that I can’t place. And all for 20 córdobas (less then $1 US). Things are very cheap here. I can buy a full plate of food with a drink for about $3 US. Definitely makes for cheap living!

So I’m trying to upload the photos of mi casa, but the Internet in the study center is being a little difficult. Hopefully I can return tomorrow and upload them into a different post. Until then, adios a todos y hasta luego!

*** Also there was an earthquake in Costa Rica at about 8:45 this morning. Just wanted to say that I’m safe and I didn’t feel it. I didn’t even know about it until my Spanish professor mentioned it in class!

León y Un Concierto

Hola amigos!

The last couple of days have been crazy long, but so much fun! On Friday, we left our hotel in Managua at 8 AM and took a 2 hour bus ride to León, a city to the north. On the way there, we passed the volcano named Momotombo, which was enormous and so cool to look at. Unfortunately, my camera ran out of charge that day, so I wasn’t able to take a picture of that or of any of the day’s adventures. 😦 I’ll try to borrow some pictures from on of the other students to  post.

León is a colonial city set up in blocks. Apparently it’s more touristy, and, while we did see some nice hotels there, I can count the number of foreigners I saw during the entire day on both hands. So as we drove into León, Aynn told us that we were going to do something called the “SIT drop-off.” Basically, in pairs, were each dropped off from the bus at a different point in the city with some money and a research question to answer. She told us to get lunch and meet her at El Convento Hotel at 1:30 (four hours later). We were on our own to find the right people to interview regarding our questions, to get lunch, and to find our way to the hotel at the right time. Paris (my partner) and I were dropped off on a random street corner with a question about the products that León produces now and what it produced in the past. We spent the next four hours wandering around to different landmarks, interviewing a man who works in a church, getting lost, eating lunch, and sweltering in the crazy heat. It was insanely hot and it was impossible to escape it, since no stores have air conditioning. It was definitely fun, though. We kept asking for directions to a certain cathedral and art gallery, but we kept getting lost each time. Apparently, if you ask someone here a question, they might make up an answer if they don’t know how to answer it just to save face. I think we ran into a lot of that when we kept asking for directions!

Once we all met up at the hotel, we got to sit in on a town hall style meeting led by the US ambassador to Nicaragua for all American citizens living in León. The meeting itself was quite nice (it was in an air conditioned room and they had refreshments after!) but the ambassador tended to skirt around some of the questions asked by our group.

We finally returned to Managua after our day in León and that night, a bunch of us decided to go to a nearby nightclub. I’ll try to post pictures of this later, but it’s hard enough to walk on the sidewalks in Managua during the day, but it’s nearly impossible to do it at night. They’re incredibly uneven, sometimes covered in trash, and there are these enormous exposed potholes that come out of nowhere that are definitely big enough to fall into if you’re not careful. Those things freak me out! We often had to walk in the street because the sidewalks became impassible at times. We had fun once we go to the club. I really like Latin music and I really want to learn all the dances that people here seem to know so well. Gotta learn how to move my hips more!

Yesterday was much more relaxed. We spent the morning doing Spanish placement interviews with the three Spanish teachers to determine our levels for our intensive Spanish class. We then had some free time for lunch, so many of us walked to the nearby mall and bought cell phones and ate in the food court. The mall honestly looked like any mall in the US, other than the fact that there were some stores I had never seen before and everything was in Spanish. But they had a Payless and a Untied Colors of Benneton, so it was interesting to see some foreign stores there.

After lunch, we returned to the hotel to get to know our Spanish conversation partners, who are students from the UCA, a local university. A couple of times a week after our Spanish classes, we have lunch with our partners and just practice casual Spanish conversation. They seemed really nice and were pretty patient when I sometime had trouble explaining myself in Spanish.

That night, we at dinner at Aynn’s house and it was gorgeous! Her outside patio has this thatch roof and there was greenery everywhere with twinkling Christmas lights. It felt like a fairy land. We left her house and went to a concert by a famous Nicaraguan band called La Cuneta Son Machín.  They were incredible! They had so much energy and ended up playing encores until 1 AM. I was so exhausted by the time we got back to the hotel.

Today we leave the hotel and finally get to move in with our host families! I’m so excited, but still a little nervous to meet my new familia. Also I won’t have constant access to Internet anymore, since my family won’t have Internet, so my posts and emails might come a little more sporadically, but I promise I’ll keep up somehow! Lots of love to my family and friends!!!

Hola de Nicaragua!

Ok I tried to post this last night but the Internet wasn’t working. So just pretend it’s Thursday night and not Friday morning. 🙂

I’m here! My plane landed in Managua last night at about 7:00 and a bunch of us on the trip met up in the airport. After paying $10 USD for our visas at Immigration, we were all loaded onto a bus and taken to the Hotel Casa San Juan, a hotel in an upper-middle class neighborhood of Managua.

The view of Hotel Casa San Juan from the street

Since this is a wealthier area, there are a bunch of private security personnel that guard the neighborhood and, at night, you can hear them blow whistles to let the people who hire them know that they’re out patrolling. The hotel is really nice. I’m sharing a room with two other girls from our trip and it has air conditioning! It’s a nice treat, since our homestays will not have A/C.

Today was mostly orientation stuff. Our academic director, Aynn (who’s insanely cool), took us around to the places where we will take our classes and to the SIT study center in Colonía Máximo Jerez, where we will be living with our host families. We had a bunch of presentations regarding safety and health (a little scary, but it’s good to have the information). In the middle of everything, we took a little bus tour of Managua. It’s a pretty spread out city, but there’s no downtown or city center. Managua suffered an earthquake in 1972 that destroyed the downtown area and the government never rebuilt it. So now, Managua is this spread-out city without a central point. It definitely lends a different character to the city. But it was still nice to have the tour today and at least check out the streets and the different neighborhoods. Also, none of the streets have any names here. People identify addresses by distance from various landmarks throughout the city. Often, these landmarks no longer exist, but people still know where they once were. It’s totally crazy and it’ll definitely take some getting used to! Before it started raining like crazy, I took photos from out the bus window. I can’t wait to take more and explore more of the city! We’re heading out to León tomorrow, which is nice but apparently more touristy. I’m definitely excited to explore as much of this country as possible!

Pro-Sandinista slogans in Managua

A mural about abortion and women’s health at the school where we take one of our seminars, which is a public health institute

An Ortego billboard in Managua

The Augusto Sandino monument right as the rain really started to come down