Monday, April 27, 2009

The Last Weekend

After some 15 blog posts on my various weekends here in Nicaragua, I have finally come upon the last. It goes without saying that the time has gone unbelievably quickly. However, I also find that, thinking back on weekends past, I’ve really done a lot. I’ve traveled to Granada, Leon, Laguna de Apoyo, Ometepe, Masaya and the beach. I’ve visited four of the five markets here in Managua, including the biggest in Central America. I’ve washed my clothes by hand on a washboard. I’ve had nights of going out and nights staying in and playing scrabble, crocheting, making dinner and eating Eskimo. In short, I’ve had a lot of fun weekends, and my last weekend no doubt continued this trend.

Friday night after making dinner at home, Kelly and I went to Caramanchel, the bar with the hammocks and wine, to see a concert with our friend Rosario and some of her other friends. We got there relatively early (since, to be honest, we had no idea when the show started) which was good since we got a table and got to see both of the opening acts. The main group finally came on around midnight, and it was a relatively young/new rock group that has become one of the most popular here in Nicaragua. They definitely put on a good, high energy show and we had fun dancing until pretty late.

Saturday was a big day for errands and cleaning in preparation for my despedida party that night. It actually worked out pretty well because our neighbor, who has a car and a PriceSmart card, helped us out with a bunch of it. Having direct transportation like that versus taking buses and hailing cabs probably cut a few hours off of our day and was well worth the $5 I paid him to do it.

First we went to PriceSmart on a hunt for, among other things, an ice cream cake. PriceSmart is a wholesaler much like Sam’s Club, and I have to admit that going there was like stepping back into the States momentarily. The set-up was exactly like a Sam’s Club at home, right down to the people with their sample tables in the aisles and the restaurant with greasy food and soft-serve beyond the check-out.

PriceSmart itself was kind of a disaster of a trip. We did score a huge 1.75L bottle of rum for a pretty good price, as well as 6 pounds of candy for the piñata, but beyond that it was all trouble. First, I couldn’t bring my bag into the store so our neighbor had to run it outside to some bag checking station. Then we realized they didn’t actually have ice cream cakes, just ‘cold cakes,’ which are easily confused with ice cream cakes because the words are the same in Spanish (queque helado). It was a bit of a maddening process to come to this realization too because I must have asked two or three people if they had ‘queques helados’ only to be led to the same place over and over where there were cakes kept in a fridge (not freezer) that were clearly not made of ice cream.

After we ruled out the cake, we went to the check out where I found out I couldn’t pay with my credit card, only cash, and also threw away the receipt that I would later realize was necessary for us to show at the door when we left. Then we got soft-serve (obviously) which gave me a brain freeze and made Kelly want to throw up. I also took out money at the ATM which, much to my dismay, came out in dollars instead of cordobas. In all my frustration over the mix up, I walked away from the ATM without taking my card back, which I only realized when our neighbor brought it to me after he took out cash. THAT would have been trouble if I’d left my only bank card/source of money sitting in the ATM. Then, just to really put the icing on the cold cake, we almost pulled away before realizing that my bag was still at the bag check. What a trip!

From PriceSmart things went a lot more smoothly – we got my piñata at the market and found a cake at the bakery chain in town. This cake, too, was a cold cake rather than an ice cream cake, but it ended up being the best cake I’ve had here in Nicaragua so that was okay.

When we got home, we finished getting ready for the party. By six we had about 15 of the neighborhood kids over anxiously awaiting the piñata. While we got it set up, they played with all the new games, which they LOVE, and which made me realize that Don’t Break the Ice, while a crowd favorite, is the most obnoxiously loud game ever created.

Soon enough it was piñata time, and the kids went CRAZY for it! I was literally beside myself watching the whole spectacle – from the kids begging for a turn to take a swing at it to the kids literally hurling themselves on the ground to scoop up the candy. It may have been one of the ten most dangerous things I’ve seen here in Nicaragua…and I’ve seen families of five riding on motorcycles. But, I guess that piñatas are dangerous by design, given that you have one kid swinging a stick near 15 others who are all gunning to get the candy out of the very target of the beating.

After an hour of the kids’ party, we were ready to clear them out and get ready for the adult party. My friend Rosario brought the pizza, Joe and I picked up the case of beer we bought for the occasion, and the people started coming pretty close to the 7:00 start time. There was a mix of neighbors, co-workers, and other volunteer friends, and it probably amounted to almost 20 people in all. We had a really good time hanging out and dancing…it was all I could have asked for in a despedida, and a great semi-last hurrah.

Sunday was basically spent doing work and packing around the house, though there was a glimmer of excitement when Kelly and I did Zumba (or rather, Kelly did Zumba and I showcased my inability to do any form of organized dance/work out). I also had my last Sunday night fritanga, which was good but made me nervous at the time since we had to go to a different place than usual. Joe described the experience as 'rolling the dice' because apparently they'd gotten parasites at this fritanga place before which, of course, made the food really appetizing. It's been 12 hours though and I feel fine so I think the dice landed in our favor.

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