Tuesday, July 03, 2012
One week today in Boaco! I suppose it’s home now. We’ve settled. Things are nice.
The birthday party this weekend was nice. It was a lot of Kate and me sitting at a
table, occasionally joined by family members who spoke a bit of English and
wanted to try it out on us. There were
quite a few people there who were from Miami originally. And there was indeed dancing… I think every
male there must have asked either Kate or me.
We got our white girl groove on out there. I just didn’t look at the onlookers very
much; I know they were blown away by my moves, no doubt about it :)
We decided that we’d get Maria something. We just meant to go to the grocery store and
pick up some flowers like we would at home, but apparently supermarkets here
don’t do that. We ended up spending $20 at
a florist, but it was a very nice arrangement.
Thank god for Lupe. First, we never would have found the florist without
her. Second, we wouldn’t have had any idea what Maria would have wanted. And
third, we would have run straight into her on the way back in the door,
carrying the arrangement, if it weren’t for her taking her by the arm and
leading her onto the back patio… Too bad
I didn’t get to present her with it :( I was ensnared by a person I call The
Captain (he showed me his ID that said he was the captain of something). He was dancing and wouldn’t let me go. I hope
she knows they were from me, too, haha.
Maintenance at work is a nice department to work in.
Today a guy in the department (can’t remember his name, darn) came up and
started talking to us about where he lives, and invited us to come visit with
him someday! Kate and I were both so excited (first that we could understand
him well enough to know what he was offering) at the prospect! We didn’t nail down a day or anything, but we
told him we’d be here for a month, so we’ll probably get to that later. He said he lives in a place called “La Launa,”
and I could totally be spelling that wrong; I only heard him say it. It’s about 8km away from the hospital, and
there isn’t a public bus that goes out that way like there is in Boaco. I want to talk to our host about it just to
make sure it’s safe and all before we go setting things in stone.
We were walking home from where the bus dropped us off
today and we passed a mom with a little boy, about 4 years old. He stared us down from the moment he saw us
to the moment we passed, and even then turned right around and gawked at us
until we turned the corner. I had a very
hard time not cracking up laughing: he’s the young, undisciplined extreme
example of everyone in Boaco. Wherever we go we draw eyes. I don’t even notice it anymore; I’m too busy
admiring the fine weather, or thinking about hospital things, or whatever else
occupies my mind. Kate is a different
story, and quite a bit more annoyed by it.
She stares right back at them, challenging them. But we are the foreigners! We are the minority! Some of these people have lived here their
entire lives, possibly traveled only as far as the next city over. It’s possible they can count the number of
white people they’ve ever seen on one hand.
I know what I’d be doing if a novel race waltzed past my house as
casually as if they were part of the scenery.
Stare it up! Tolerance tolerance tolerance
tolerance tolerance. It’s long been my
way of existence and so it takes no effort to employ here, but I’m worried for
Kate. I want the two of us to be seen as
friendly and open, and unfortunately that conduct is counterproductive. I commented today that the best way we can
deal with it is to be as nice as possible in return. We’ll see how it goes in the days to come.
I don’t think I ever got around to explaining the housing
situation. We live in the center house
of a strip of three houses that all belong to the same family. There are two other bedrooms in addition to
ours down a long outdoor hallway. On the
street end there is a sitting room and dining area, and at the other is the
patio area that’s shared with one of the other houses. I am not sure where precisely everyone lives,
but I know that our host Maria (not the birthday party 77-year-old Maria, her daughter
Maria. That’s not confusing or anything,
lol) lives in the house to our right.
The hired help Julia and her daughter Lupe cook our meals and look after
getting us water and things like that. During
this first week we’ve been trying to acclimate, and so we’ve been spending what
I think is too much time in our room in front of the computers. I think we’re good and settled now, so I
think we ought to venture out and try to hang out with the family.
But we have big weekend plans! Granada! We’re leaving Friday
at noon after work and meeting up with Luke and Friz and Derek and Tracy and
Bam and Tim and probably loads more that I’m forgetting at the moment but I
miss ALL of you people and can’t wait to see you! As the biggest tourist city in Nicaragua I am
sure we will find some exciting things to do.
This past exciting weekend was spent reading Speaker for the Dead
<--AMAZING (and for Kate finishing the Hunger Games trilogy). We definitely needed the down-time, first
time in a month (even if it did make me a bit lazy with the blog writing ;] ),
but I’m ready for more adventures! NOSOTROS SOMOS TURISTAS :D
Hey babe!
ReplyDeleteGreat post! Loved hearing about the family & surroundings :) Looking forward to hearing all about Granada, too!! Be safe & have a fantastic time!
Love you!!! Ma