Now in Nicaragua!

Hello again!  I know it has been a VERY long time since my last entry. I've had internet issues.  I have documented the last weekend and my last days in Costa Rica, and will post them sometime in the near future.

Kate and I now reside in Boaco, Nicaragua, with the family of one of our hospital's administrators.  Nicaragua is the northern neighbor of Costa Rica, but as we quickly found out, they are two completely different countries.  I'm glad we went to Costa Rica first or I would have died of culture shock.  This is the second poorest country in the Americas, and accordingly they do things a bit differently.  The bus we took to Boaco was a remodeled school bus, and vendors boarded the bus at stops and hawked their wares.  We had no idea what to do once we arrived, but looked over to see our luggage being hauled away into a random car by random strangers.  Luckily they were the maid and her husband, and they took us to our house.

Boaco is a nice little town settled in the mountains.  The atmosphere is very friendly and safer-feeling than a big city, although I know I'll have to be more careful than ever.  Spending a month in this town will be very pleasant.  Everything is half the cost here.  The bus from Managua to Boaco cost all of C$ 35, or about 1.50 USD.  Lunch at the hospital is free.  Our weekend trips and supplies should be our only expenditures.

Most unfortunately, I find it very difficult to understand the Spanish they speak here.  I can't put my finger on their accent, but it involves dropping consonant sounds in places where I depend on hearing them.  Mas (more) becomes ma, Granada (the city we're thinking of visiting) becomes 'anada, and I'm sure there are more.  The result is that I end up asking "como?" (what was that?) much, much more often than I did previously, and everyone I come into contact with is under the impression that I speak far less Spanish than I actually do.  I expect I'll eventually get used to their accent.  In the meantime, though, it stinks.

The hospital visit was good today, but stressful due to the language barrier. We met a few administrator/doctors and a technician who was the only one in the hospital who spoke any English.  Maintenance guys seemed pretty nice, and though we insisted on starting to do an inventory of equipment, we spent a few hours troubleshooting an issue with an infant incubator with the boss-man, Victor.  Tomorrow we'll continue the inventory. 

I'm using a mobile broadband card to access the internet right now, borrowed for a few short hours from our host dad.  Kate and I are going to go buy one tomorrow.  This will probably make us less social, but we'd like internet to be able to do our job, too.  There are loads of helpful troubleshooting websites online, but the maintenance department doesn't have access to internet.  And I'll be far more able to update the blog!

Wish me luck with everything here - I'm sure as hell going to need it!