My Weekend Staycation

It was yet another fun and fairly packed Nica weekend. On Friday after work, Kelly and Joe invited me to meet up with some other volunteers living in Managua. The group – 6 people all volunteering with an organization called Jesuit Volunteer International – wanted to celebrate one of the girl’s birthday with dinner and dancing. It was really cool to meet a new group of people and see another part of town.

Dinner itself was an adventure, with two foods I had not yet tried in Nicaragua – pizza, and fritanga, or street food (specifically a fried enchilada, fried plantains, and beans and rice). The latter has the reputation for being delicious and also full of parasites, so when I’d originally heard the menu, I was relieved that pizza would be an option. When we got there, though, orders had been crossed a bit and either Kelly or I had street food to eat. Since Kelly’s been sick a few times already and had a long bus ride ahead of her the next day, I figured I’d take my chances and try the fritanga myself. It was quite good, though I was nervous the whole time eating it after one of the JVI’s told me, semi-sarcastically, that “it probably wouldn’t make me sick.” I’m happy to report that I think I escaped parasite-free. The place we went out to after was also fun. It was very open and breezy, and as always, the Nicaraguan rum lived up to expectations. I’m still pleasantly surprised every time I see that we can buy a bottle of rum for the table with a soda for mixing for about $5.

After a good night Friday, Joe and Kelly left early Saturday morning to go up to Cusmapa. Since I’d already been there last week and needed to work Monday, I stayed back. I decided earlier this week that I probably wouldn’t feel comfortable at our house alone for the whole rest of the weekend, so I decided to head for a hotel. The whole thing made me feel a bit guilty at first – the Intercontinental does not exactly qualify as living the simple life of a volunteer – but I got over it pretty quickly once I arrived, took a hot shower and found my way to the pool. Don’t judge! In all fairness, though, it surprised me how much of a culture shock it was to be back in such a modern environment after only a few weeks away – a sneak preview of the even bigger shock I’m going to have come April, I’m sure.

As for some of the interesting parts from my ‘Staycation’, I went to the Cathedral in Managua for church Sunday. It was quite the experience – the building itself is a huge concrete structure with dozens of domes on top of it sitting in the middle of a field. It looked more like something that would belong in the Middle East than Nicaragua. The path leading to the church was about a quarter mile, and all along the way there were vendors selling just about everything – water, rosaries, food, etc. Once I got inside, the scene was even more unexpected. I think it was probably the biggest turn out I’ve ever seen at a church. My initial ballpark estimate of 8,000 has been revised downward somewhat (I was never good at estimation), but the real count of 1,500 – 2,000 was still pretty amazing. On top of the crowd, the music being played over an elaborate and modern speaker system consisted of a lot of keyboards and drum backbeats (the kind that they have stored on keyboards) and the whole crowd was clapping. There was a film crew there for the whole thing too – apparently the mass is broadcast every week. All in all, it was quite the production. And I still failed to understand 80% of it.

The other highlight was a tour I took with a driver from the hotel. It was really good to finally get out and see Managua, and I’m glad I did it in the safety (and air conditioning) of the hotel car. I took a lot of pictures, which I’ll post later this week with captions to fill in the details. However, there is one story from the trip that I found really funny and will share here.

At one point, we were standing in one of the public areas near Lake Managua and the guide was telling me the history of the place. After he’d finished, I noticed some animals just walking around in the middle. While I’ve grown accustomed to this sight in the more rural parts of town, it seemed pretty out of place right in the center of the city. I couldn’t really make out what the animals were, but they looked like goats, and I asked the guide to confirm. We then proceeded to have a 5 minute Spanglish conversation trying to get to the answer. The guide first said they were ‘veil’, which he spelled out several times. At first I thought it was a Spanish word I didn’t know, but when I realized it was English, I immediately thought he must have meant ‘veal’ – not technically an animal, but hey, who am I to judge someone else’s language skills. Since I still have never figured out what veal actually is and mistakenly think it’s sheep most of the time, I asked him if that’s what he meant. He said no, but then said the word for sheep in Spanish (oveja), so I repeated the word ‘sheep’ again. This seemed to spark recognition for him, and he repeated the word back to me – sort of. However, the way he said it sounded more like profanity (sh*t) then anything. I figured I misheard. Then he proceeded to list off examples like “black sh*t” and “white sh*t” and I had to stop and correct him before he started using this word in front of other Americans. Finally, after all this back and forth, we determined that the animals were, in fact, goats after all. Having grown up with a few pet pygmy goats back in the day, it turns out I know a goat when I spot one. I guess the guide had forgotten the word in English altogether – hence the mass confusion. I thought the whole thing was funny – both the language part and the fact that, sure enough, there were a bunch of goats right there in a plaza where Pope John Paul II had spoken only a decade or so earlier. Pretty typical Nicaragua.