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 “pulperÃa“ (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.
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| Oscar and I (the tattoo artist) |
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| My friend's and I right after getting my tattoo |
