you know you're in nicaragua when...
i've wanted to write this list for a while and haven't gotten around to it. this will just be a start...
*no café sells decaf *coffee tastes very good *the most common meeting place is a mall (at least in managua) *you end many sentences with " va pue' " *you define yourself via soccer allegiances, as in: barca or real madrid; brasil or argentina *you eat gallo pinto at least one meal a day *you start many sentences with "Ideay" *you define yourself politically as either "con daniel", "sandinista, no ortegüista", or "liberal" *you define yourself religiously as either "católica" or "cristiana" *a "cool" day is 80F *7 out of 10 of your friends and neighbors have at least one family member living abroad (Miami, L.A., Costa Rica, Spain) *a meeting set for 9am starts at 10:30 and no one seems to mind *a common accessory for women is a small towel (to fan/wipe sweat with) *at least once a month, there is a political crisis of varying proportions that leads people in the opposition to claim "coup", "chaos", or worse *firing mortars or home-made rifles into the air is common at political rallies or cultural events, even if it does make your skin crawl *if you have money, you spend semana santa and other vacations "en la playa" *the main daily newspaper refers to the president as the "dictator" *the president refers to "Hugo" (Chavez) as if he were a national hero *Cuban medical brigades are providing (high-quality) care in at least one neighborhood in your city at any one time *At any public event (political rally, student demonstration, soccer match, church service), the louder (the music, the mortars, the loud speakers) the better *minimum wage is @ $125USD/month *As soon as you arrive at someone's home, you are offered food and drink, and you must accept, or risk insulting your host (even if they only make minimum wage and are giving you the last beans and rice they have) *women over-adorn themselves in matching jewelry (including the cheap, plastic, made-in-china kind) *as a woman, it's common (even expected) to be honked or yelled at as you walk down the street (by men, taxi drivers,etc.) *female taxi drivers basically don't exist *in hiring, it's normal to age-discriminate (e.g. "Seeking attendant, female, 18-25 years") *you have the "choice" of two cell phone carriers, both probably owned by the same transnational company, and both offering so-called "promociones", but you keep adding "saldo" (money) to your phone and it just keeps running out of calling time *you can be very proud to call Katia Cardenal your own *the sun set over lake managua and surrounding volcanoes is beautiful enough to take your breath away, if you take the time to look
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Ana Paula -
rebekah -