It's the Little Things

I apologize for the recent absence of blogs. It is due in part to the absence of internet in my site (someone forgot to pay the bill) and in part to the absence of anything notable or interesting happening to me.

Two weeks ago, my fellow group members and I traveled to my favorite Nicaraguan city, Granada, for a Peace Corps in-service training with counterparts from our sites. On our way up, Jess and I were lucky enough to sit behind a girl who ended up puking out her window and right into ours. The weird thing was she was fine for the majority of the bumpy dirt highway and only got sick once we made it on to the paved part of our twelve hour bus ride. I won’t lie, getting thrown up on is not cool but Jess and I may have overreacted a bit, screaming out loud and ducking behind our seat and jumping into the aisle to avoid it like it was hot magma. Just vomit, not molten lava.

The actual workshop was interesting and relevant to our work. The majority of us stayed in Granada the night it ended and went out on the town. Because Granada is a city unlike any other in Nicaragua (a haven for ex-pats, backpackers, real estate investors, and old white men with a penchant for young Central American girls), I felt the need to take advantage of the opportunity to put back drinks such as mojitos, martinis, and vodka cranberries, and by the end of the night pulled out my new “break dancing” party trick that I’ve perfected while here: the coffee grinder. This is a move I learned around age 7 in a Flint Hill Elementary School gym class and it certainly requires none of the skill necessary to participate in a “You Got Served” type break dancing competition but it serves me well and has become an indicator for my friends here of when Alexis has “gotten there.”

Back in Sabalos, it is the same old, same old. The 30th was Mother’s Day, which is a pretty big deal and may be the most important day of the year. The kids have the day off from school and everyone else only works a half day. The most popular gifts are made of fake flowers in plastic vases straight from China. I bought some of these for various women who treat me like a daughter as well as hideous flowered photo albums, and another popular gift: underwear. I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to this custom. Whether it is a child’s piñata, a teenage girl’s 15th birthday party, or mother’s day, underwear is always a go-to gift.

The really exciting news is that I now have water in my house due to the monsoons that have begun. At least once a day, the sky opens up and it pours for a good 20 minutes straight. It’s great because we finally have some source of water, it cools the place down for a bit, and I’ve always heard rainwater is great for washing your hair. The bad thing is once the sun comes back out, pounding down on the sidewalks and roofs, my entire town turns into a giant sauna. The power goes out just about everyday midday, so just once it really heats up, we’re deprived even of the minor relief of a fan. But, I can flush my toilet and shower every day so I won’t complain.

Also, the Chino just recently came back from Managua with…broccoli! This was a huge surprise as we normally just have access to tomatoes, onions, carrots, peppers, and the occasional brown stick of celery. I introduced my adopted family to stir fry and they loved it. In fact, my little Nica brother keeps asking me when he can eat the little trees again. I also found out upon visiting my friend Karla that she has an extensive pirated DVD collection that she rents out of her house. Now, we’re not talking about “Frankenfish” or any of the normal crappy action or horror movies that most Nicaraguan’s enjoy. She had “Capote,” “Memoirs of a Geisha,” and tons of other good finds that I would easily have rented in the US.

While I’m sure that bathing with rain water, eating broccoli, and having access to movies that are six months old aren’t things that garner too much excitement in the U.S., here they add up to a great two weeks. And of course the best news is that I’m coming home for a visit in just a week!