Spanish and Gardens: My Time in Nicaragua: Nica Hospitality

I would like to dedicate a blogpost here to “Nica Hospitality”. I have mentioned how nice many Nicaraguan’s are in several previous posts, but I feel that it is about time I formally come out and say that southerners in the US have some competition! While there will always be those that like to take advantage of foreigners and would rather try and overcharge the gringo than be hospitable, I have found that not to be the case in most instances.

Regardless of varying financial situations, I have found that most people will offer a fresco (some sort of drink), coffee, bread, a full meal, or something else when I am visiting their homes. I can stop by someone’s house for what should be a minute or two and end up being there for half an hour or more, usually not getting to the main point of my visit until then end.

To keep this semi-shorter, I’m just going to highlight some examples, mainly from the past week or two.

1) The owners of the “pulpería“ (local store) in my rural site regularly feed or at least offer me lunch and gift me my favorite type of sweet bread, even if I just stop in to say hey and don’t buy anything.

2) A few of the families I’ve helped build ovens for regularly give me baked goods for free no matter how much I try and pay for them. And even when they allow me to pay for things, they give me more than I ask/pay for.

3) Someone I help with English has started buying me the sweet bread he knows I like, despite the fact that he sometimes has to walk up to 2 hours because he cannot afford the bus (he saves most of his money for his formal English classes to become an English teacher).

4) A friend in my training site let me stay the night in her house and fed me for free.

5) I stayed two nights with a Nicaraguan friend I made at that crazy race I ran in February. He lives with his girlfriend and her family very close to the center of the beautiful colonial town of Granada, which is relatively expensive. Not only did they let me stay in their house and feed me for free, but they also paid for me when we went out for pizza and drove me around the area. He offered to cut my hair ‘Nica-style’, and both him and his girlfriend (who I now consider a friend as well) helped me out with the details of my tattoo. I had originally planned on getting it in the States, but they vouched for the tattoo artist/their friend, and I’m super thrilled I got it with those two present. It also only cost me C$500, which is less than $19! I paid more for the tip on my first, much simpler tattoo I got 3 years ago.

6) I took the bus to a former friend’s house a bit further into the country from where I live to talk about an oven I’ll be building with them (the friend has since moved to the city). After chatting with the cobrador in the bus (the guy who walks up and down the isle charging people) for about 10 minutes, he refused to let me pay the C$15, or about $.60 for the trip. Relatively not a lot of money, but it was still pretty cool of him to do that. Once I got to the house, his mom showered me with really great tajadas with cuajada (fried plantain chips with a type of cheese on the side), and a cantaloupe smoothie. I sat there and talked for a while with some other family members, and before taking the bus back to site his mom gifted me several large bananas and at least 2 lbs of red beans, both grown on their farm.

I could go on and on with examples of how awesome people are here! I have learned not to visit people before runs, as it is usually pretty difficult to say no to free things. Most of the time the coffee I am given is local if not grown and/or processed by the community members themselves. No wonder I went from never drinking coffee in the States to having a slight addiction here!

The reason I chose to get the national crest of Nicaragua permanently tattooed on my body has a lot to do with what I’m talking about here. I mean, I got it to help me remember how much I’ve changed if I ever were to forget in the future, but also to remember how amazingly hospitable and caring most of the people are here. I have made so many cool and meaningful connections, and am going to have such a hard time saying goodbye when I leave not knowing when I’ll be able to make it back again (damn student loans!). At least now I will always have something that, to me, symbolizes how unique of an experience this has been and how lucky I am to be surrounded by so many caring and thoughtful people.

And for those of you that don't have facebook, here are some pics of my tattoo of the national crest of Nicaragua.