I think the best word to describe Nicaragua is: different. Absolutely, remarkably different than any other place or culture that I have been exposed to so far. Wow! It has been such a culture shock. I am finally starting to develop a little bit more of a relationship with some of the people around here and get a little more accustomed to life here, but at the beginning it was definitely tough. Basically, the director, Cecilia, and I live on site at the school and all of the Spanish teachers live at home, the Spanish students live with host families or by means of their own choice. Here are some pictures of my new room for the next 5 months.
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| Quite a difference from my room in Germany! |
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| Nuestros vecinos have all sorts of animals, including a pig, roooster, and some chickens...which do not exactly help the sleeping process |
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| The fan runs every night to keep air moving, since it is still amazingly hot during the nights, but also to keep mosquitos and flies from feasting on me |
The meals here definitely summed up for the most part by fruit, vegetables, rice, and beans. A local breakfast is fruits. A local lunch (which I am blessed enough to receive from the school on weekdays) is a ton of rice, a bit of beans, salad (which is more like coleslaw since lettuce is not as common), and then whatever the food is that day, such as chicken legs, chicken with a salsa over it, and other types of meat usually. Chicken seems to be the most common meat though. I am left with deciding and putting together my desayuno y cena everyday, and then on the weekends almuerzo as well. I have 3 main choices of where to get it. There is an outdoor market down Calle Xalteva (one of the main streets in town), which is the street we are on basically. This is the cheapest option and I usually buy all my fruits and vegetables there. The second cheapest is a supermarket called Palí. The most expensive, but with a huge variety of things that you would be able to get here normally, such as name brand American products, is a supermarket complex a few blocks to the north with a lot of new stores.
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| Cecilia and I's basket in our little office sort of room upstairs. |
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| Cecilia's drink this morning with breakfast (coconut) |
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| My breakfast this morning (papaya), I also had a couple eggs that I bought at the market |
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| My dinner last night that I bought from a street vendor...absolutely HEAVENLY!!! Carne asada, with fried plantains, regular sweet plantains, and a little bagged salad |
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| Milk here comes in bags...quite inconvenient |
The local currency here is the Córdoba. The exchange rate is 24.3 Córdoba to one U.S. dollar. An average bag of 10 small mangos costs 10C, an egg is 3C, a bag of 4 onions about 10C, a 12oz can of the local beer costs 20C. I will let you all do the conversions. Then, if you are eating out it is a little more expensive, you can plan on spending about 100C on average for a normal meal, obviously foreign meals with imported ingredients cost more, but still very affordable.
I will end this entry by telling you how the school is set up. Here is the bottom floor's courtyard:
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| Courtyard |
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| Patio by the courtyard, where I will many times do any work that I have. |
Then opposite from where this picture is facing is a staircase that leads to the upstairs, where these is a little office (or at least used as an office) room, and then Cecilia's room is on one side of that, while there is another door leading to a balcony with two more rooms and a bathroom. That is where I live.
Well, I hope that this was a little more satisfying of an entry than the last. I have also taken two little trips this past week to local destinations...those will be the subject of my entry next week!
Saludos!
