Livin' la vida Managua

Here are some examples of the charms, frustrations, and ironies of life in Managua:

There is trash all over the streets but in any given school, home, or shopping center, the floors get mopped at least once an hour. In my own house they leave discarded meat out on the counter for the flies, but every single piece of furniture gets dusted every morning.

Lots of women make a living by going door to door selling off brands of clothing and shoes for cheap. Yesterday a woman came with a duffel bag full of sandals, was invited in, and stayed for about an hour showing Dona Mirna and Karla everything she had, which led to them each buying several pairs. It was part business exchange, part social hour, which I found nice.

Until Friday, the UNAN still hadn't provided us with schedules of when classes were to be held, even though they are starting tomorrow. We had to jump through major hoops to access the schedules too!

Packaged food and produce at the grocery store is just as expensive as in the States, but food purchased from street vendors is really cheap.

My beloved Fuji apples are expensive and hard to find fresh, but I can get mangoes from a street market near my house for about 12 cents each. My plan is to make mangoes my new food staple. I wonder what they taste like with peanut butter…

All day, every day, men walk through the streets with pushcarts of Eskimo brand ice cream products... popsicles, ice cream cups, fudgesicles… needless to say, I’m becoming a regular customer.

A common phrase in Nicaragua is “adios,” which, besides being used as a farewell, is used as a greeting in passing because it literally means “to God.” Sometimes as I walk by someone sitting in front of their house and they want to be nice, they’ll say in English “goodbye,” not realizing that goodbye does not, in fact, also mean “hello” in English.

Men love gawking and making kissing sounds at both foreign and Nicaraguan women, but especially those of us with blond hair. I hate it. I have to laugh, though, when they try to show off their heavily accented English with phrases that come out sounding like “I loaf you,” and “be ma goorl fren.”