I'm big into community. There are few things as comforting as knowing you're a part of a bigger group of people who care about you, whether that bigger something is a family, a faith, a political party, a neighborhood, or just a tight group of friends. One of the things I miss most about my life at Brown and in Durham are those communities I've left behind - the old YPPC gang, Hillel, Safewalk, Englewood Ave, the Beth El kids, West House, NP3, Janus, THEA, the list goes on. On a nostalgic whim, I called into the Safewalk office a few nights ago and requested a walk from Managua to the Ivy Room from my friend who was dispatching that night. Unfortunately, I'm a bit beyond the edge of Safewalk territory.
Luckily for me, with the support of the (mostly) awesome moms of La Máximo, we've been forming our own community here in Managua. I'm finally starting to feel like a part of the neighborhood, and not just a house guest. When we got back from El Salvador late last Friday night, the moms were waiting for us in the study center with a surprise welcome-back party. Early last week, I called over to Doña Carolina's and invited myself and a few students over to play cards. And this Saturday, the moms banded together once more to throw a birthday party for the two students and two moms who had March birthdays. (In the picture above, Doña Sandra, one of the birthday girls, takes on the piñata.) Yes, we're still sitting ducks for the "monkey" gangs that hide in the trees at night and drop down to mug us (hasn't happened yet, but apparently it's only time...). But we've got the moms on our side.
My mom prepares a massive portion of a traditional Nicaraguan dish for the party: Chop Suey
In other news, we figured out that we can use our gringo card to get us into this fancy hotel that's not too far from the colonia and use their pool as long as we order a few ridiculously overpriced drinks. So fresh and so clean! As they say here, vale la pena - it's worth it.
Just to accentuate the obnoxious, rich, gringo nature of this hotel, a few minutes after I took this picture, over $600 blew into the pool. Some business type apparently had his money just resting on his chair. As we dashed around gathering fistfuls of wet $20s to give back to him, he was remarkably unconcerned. And he didn't even buy us a drink afterwards.
$600 is more than the average yearly income for a nicaragüense.
Tomorrow, we head off to the Atlantic Coast. There is no road that connects the two coasts - we're gonna drive 6 hours and then hop on a ferry. I've heard it's like going to a totally different country. I'll let you know if it's true.
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