That's all my luggage for 2 years and my beautiful self : )
Rice and beans in EVERY meal. Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner. Rice and beans, rice and beans, arroz y frijoles. The food has been pretty good though, I am growing to like Nicaraguan/Hispanic food more. I especially like food that you can pile together all the dishes into one bite. Check.
Nicas don’t use addresses. They use directions. Example, my name is Obama and I live in the White House. My address would therefore be: Across from large phallic structure, large white building (Capital) go 2 block south, turn left, 400 feet on the right.
There is no hot water. I'm glad too. When you wake up sticky and midday sweat and evening humidity, the shower is more than refreshing. Depending on my home conditions, it's likely I'll have to take bucket baths to conserve water.
I just got my first mosquito bite on my elbow. We get mosquito nets to keep the bugs and malaria away. God that would suck... We are taking anti-malaria medicine that spooks you with vivid violent and/or sexual dreams. : D
It's like 20ish Cordobas to the USD. A beer costs a little less than 20 "Cords" and we can get by living with our host families on $2 per day. Some even save money. Mind you, we don't have to pay for food as the host family cooks for us.
Professionalism is stressed to the max here. Everyone dresses nicely anytime in public. Ironed shirts, slacks, etc… Being clean and professional is not taken lightly.
If they say 8:00, they could mean 8:15, 8:30, 8:45 or just not show up. Nica time. Learn it, love it.
In all the photos of Nicas, they are not smiling. They could be the happiest people just prior to the photo, but at 3 the smiles drop and they all look like mug shots devoid of human emotion.
We took a tour of the capital city, Managua, yesterday. Drove through serious poverty (shacks for homes and trashed areas), but other parts were surprisingly nice. I guess not that unique compared to most other large cities. We saw where a devastating earthquake ruined the city years ago and how they rebuilt around the mess instead of cleaning it ($$$).
The current President, Daniel Ortega, has changed the constitution for his benefit 3 times now. The first changing the need for more than 40% of the popular vote to be elected to far lower. The second to simply needing to get the most in comparison to your rivals, used to need a 5% margin, now it is just more votes than the opposition. Thirdly, changed the 2 term max to a 3 (or more?) term max. He will be running for his 3rd term in November. He also changed the law to allow government funds to be used for his campaign. One of his slogans is “The party that pays” because President Ortega pays his voters to support him. He runs as a candidate who aims to help the poor, but from what we have learned he has no real interest in helping impoverished families at all. As a PC Volunteer, I must be apolitical so you will not hear my opinion, but you get the picture.
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