La Vida Diaria

Daily life in rural Nicaragua has some pretty drastic differences from what I’m used to in the U.S. For one, like I mentioned earlier, everyone wakes up around 6 or earlier and goes to bed around 9:30. They have to use as much daylight as they can. There’s also the matter of the roosters, who start crowing around 4:30am. I’ve gotten to the point where they don’t always wake me up that early, but I can always count on hearing one as soon I wake up. Another reason they wake up early, at least in my community of La Virgen, is that there is only running water from 5-11am. Every other night there is also water from 6-8pm, which is really nice. There is no hot water; sinks and showers only have one setting. If the power goes out, the water goes out with it, which happened my first morning here, so I learned how to take a bucket bath pretty quickly.

That’s one thing I’ve been surprised by; I’ve had to relearn how to do extremely basic tasks, like washing my hands, making my bed, and doing laundry. When the water isn’t running, people have a supply of water in the sinks outside there houses they use for washing. You can’t put your dirty hands in the water, because it’s the only clean source of water until the next morning, so it becomes a more complicated process. I also have a mosquito net over my bed, which has to be properly tucked in every night and raised every morning to keep bugs out. The houses aren’t closed; not all the windows have glass in them, and there’s a several inch gap between the roof and walls, so this is a pretty important precaution. There are no washing machines, so we wash our clothes pioneer style, by hand in the outdoor sink.

Most the roofs here are tin, and anything that hits the roof, from rain to tree branches to animals, echoes through the whole house. I’ve also gotten better at sleeping through those noises, but a strong gust of wind that knocks the tree branches over my room against the roof can still wake me up. They’re just entering the rainy season here, which they call winter. Its only rained a couple times, and other than the noise, its great when it does rain; it really cools down the air, and it settles the dust, which is otherwise constant.

I ride my bike to work on gravel roads. Hardly anyone has cars here, but most families have a small motorcycle. There are also a few public buses (they look like school buses in the U.S.) on the roads. You have to watch out for pigs, dogs, cows, chickens, and horses too. The pigs especially have no fear and will not get out of your way. Accidents don’t seem that common, but I’ve already fallen off my bike on the way to work. I have some nice road rash and a bruise to show for it, too. Amanda’s host family thinks its because I fell because I’m so tall, and its true that I tower over most the natives here.

There’s so much else I could say about daily life here; they watch the TV a lot, which has a lot of programs.My host dad loves to watch baseball, which is at least as popular if not more so than soccer here (he loves the Red Sox and hates the Yankees.) My host sisters like Disney channel and Nickelodeon Jr. We have dinner, which is usually rice, beans, plantains, and something else, in front of the TV most nights. The doors are always open, and friends, relatives, and neighbors stop in without knocking frequently. The community is small and tight knit, and I already feel welcomed into it. It’s been a huge adjustment, but I’m starting to get the hang of life here and enjoy myself.

Nicaragua: First Impressions

We flew into Managua, the capital of Nicaragua, last Friday May 15. A FIMRC driver picked us up at the airport and took us to Granada, a historic city on the shores of Lake Nicaragua (the big one you can see on a world map; it’s the 8^th largest lake in the world.) We spent two nights at a little hotel there as they transitioned our host families to be ready for us (I’m working with another Notre Dame student, Amanda). We explored the city a little bit, but we were both so exhausted from the heat (around 90 and extremely humid) that we didn’t get to see everything, although I’m sure we’ll go back there at some point while we’re here.

It reminded me of Mexico in lots of ways. There is a central square where the cathedral is located, and lots of older churches. All the buildings are painted bright yellows, reds, greens, and pinks. There is also a main pedestrian street lined with restaurants and bars that comes alive at night. Because we’re so close to the equator here, there are almost exactly 12 hours of daylight all year long. Everyone gets up with the sun around 6am, and then once it cools down after the sun sets at 6pm, people visit each other and go out.

The cathedral was a beautiful but pretty simple as far as Spanish architecture goes. Inside, we found a replica of the Grotto at Lourdes with Mary and Bernadette. It was pretty cool to find something that reminded us of the Grotto at Notre Dame so quickly. We also visited a church that one of the locals told us was the oldest in Nicaragua (he may have also said in the Americas, but I think that needs a fact check.) It turned out to also be a Franciscan convent. The church was built in the 1520s, but had been burned down by pirates (!!!) in the 1850s and then rebuilt.

We also took a boat tour of the isletas in Lake Nicaragua. These tiny islands are close to the shore of Granada. Many of them had houses or even hotels on them. There was also a ton of wildlife: lots of birds, fields of lily pads, fruit trees, and even one island with a colony of monkeys. The city and lake are shadowed by the Mombache Volcano.

We had our first few Nicaraguan meals as well. I had my first gallopinto, which is rice and beans mixed together and (probably) fried. I’ve had it probably once a day since then. I also tried tostones, which are fried plantain chips that are delicious. Mango season is ending, and avocado season is beginning, so those are both in plentiful supply. There’s also papaya, guanabana (my host family has a tree in their year), guayaba, and cantaloupe, which they call melon. Rice and plantains are staples here.

Sunday we came to La Virgen Morena, the town where we’re living for the next eight weeks, and got settled with our host families. More about that next time!