San Rafael Market

               Today I went to the San Rafael Market in San Rafael.  A market in Nicaragua is not what you would expect in a market in America;  nice, clean,  easy to get through.  No.  This market was what a typical market would be like in Nicaragua.  There were stray dogs roaming around, little back ways to get to some of the shops, it was crowded, and people would bargain with you to get you to buy something.  To us, these markets feel dark, dirty, and dangerous.  But to the Nicaraguans, this is normal.  This is a place where you would find all of your necessities in one place.  You can find clothes, notebooks, vegetables, fruit, meat, kitchen utensils, even backpacks! 

               Most people go to markets because it is more convenient, and less expensive than a supermarket, or a mall.  When I was in the market, there were piles of fruit, giant potato sacks full of beans, and meat hanging from the ceiling.  All sorts of people are walking through the market.  While we were buying produce, other people came up to buy things, and the vendors worked with them at the same time.  They would work with their friends across the walkway if they didn't have it to give their friends business.

               My family went to this market to get vegetables, and almost came home with another hammock.   A man followed us around asking us to buy a blue jean hammock and would not take "no gracias" for an answer from my dad.  While we were getting vegetables, an elderly woman asked me to help her out to the exit because she was nervous to walk through the crowd alone.  She was very sweet.  She started to talk to me in rapid Spanish, but I didn't know what she was saying.  I still helped her through the crowd anyways

              Outside of the market, there were people waiting for buses and taxis.  A taxi can be a car or a bicycle with a carriage on the front.  There is also a motorized vehicle that acts as a taxi called a tuk-tuk.  On the streets of San Rafael, there were people walking on the sidewalks, on bikes, in trucks and cars, and "taxis" all competing for the narrow road.  They drive very fast, and people stopped wherever they needed to, causing traffic jams, or just chaos. It was very different compared to New Hampshire roads.  It made me cautious and alert to what was happening on the road.

              In the end of our market adventure, we got: 12 tomates, 6 zanahorias grandes, 1 piña, 1 sandía, 6 naranjas, 6 aguacates, 6 cebollas, it was very inexpensive and it was all locally grown.  After, we got little ice cream bars from a vendor pushing a cart up the road.  The two ice creams together barely cost more than $1. 

                                 Adiós y hasta pronto,
                                                            Addie!    :)

Scorpions, Horses, and Children OH MY!

¡Hola Everyone! 

            My mom told her friend (who lives here) that we wanted to see a scorpion.  He asked one of his workers if he could find one and take the stinger off and give it to us.  This morning he brought us the scorpion and he asked if we wanted to hold it.  It was crawling up his arm, and he was just playing with it like a toy.  My mom held it, but she was too afraid to hold it for more than 10 seconds.  I held it too, and it was really weird.  It felt like nothing when it was in your hand, but when the worker took it off, its legs felt like little grappling hooks as it was trying to hold on. 

            There are over 1,500 types of scorpions, but this one is a bark scorpion called a Centruroides Limbatus, and it lives in Nicaragua, Honduras , Panama, but is most common in Costa Rice .  Centr- means "pointed" and ur- means "tail."  There is already an animal with the name Centrurus, with -oides meaning "like" as the ending root, the first word Centruroides means "like centrurus(pointed tail)" and Limbatus means "black-edged." Although, I held a scorpion, I don't think I will be holding another one any time soon... 

                                            
            Yesterday I went to the orphanage in Los Cedros.  I volunteered with my family for 3 hours to get to know the kids, but we are going two days out of every week our entire stay.  The things the orphanage want us to do are: Arts and Crafts, Music, and play with the kids.  I made friends quickly with them, but all they wanted to do was play on my phone.  They took a ton of pictures, and I had to delete most of the blurry pictures of foreheads and grass.  They also play with my ukulele, and I didn't know how to say "Please don't touch the tuning pegs on my ukulele" in spanish, so most of my spanish speaking consisted of "no toca" (tōkä) which means don't touch, or "este" meaning this... We played tag, or "toce" (tōkāy) which means touch, around their little play structure.  I have to admit it was pretty fun too!
            The kids here in the orphanage were happy and well cared for.  They were like one big family.  In the orphanage, there are: nine kids under the age of 7, one baby, and two boys in their early twenties.  The boys weren't there.  They were at a religious camp where they are learning life skills and learning about the bible, so they could come back to help with the orphanage.  A lot of kids end up in orphanages because their parents abandon them without any explanation, their parents are unfit to care for them and the government takes them away, or their parents wish for them to have a better life than being in poverty without food.  When I was at the orphanage I felt like I was making kids smile.  I am excited and I can't wait to go again! 

            The other day, I went horseback-riding.  I went with my mom, my sister, her friend Taylor, and Taylor's instructor, Martin.  We started at 5 o'clock pm (when the sun was just starting to go down) and we got back around 6:30 pm when it was pitch black.  While we were walking, the sun was going down through the tall grass and wheat.  It was so beautiful!  My sister rode a hoarse for her first time, and she loved it.  She wants to take horseback-riding lessons, and what shocked me was that they are only $6 a lesson! Our ride was through overgrown pastures, but to me it looked like an overgrown Savanna.  We rode through this for an hour until we finally reached the beach.  My horse and my mom's horse wanted to roll around in the sand when we were on the beach, so we had to keep our horses moving, we couldn't let them stop.  To get off the beach we had to "run" up a steep hill, and I felt like I was going to fall off! Other than that, and losing my sunglasses twice, I had such a fun overall experience on the horse!   

I'm Here!

              Hola!  I've had such a fun experience in these past few days!  Today is day 6 on my trip! The weather has been a little rainy in Managua because it is in the mountains.  This is because as the air rises to cross the mountains it cools down and doesn't hold as much moisture, so it drops in the form of rain.  Yesterday I went to Managua, Nicaragua's capital. It was very busy.  The main road was still set up for Christmas with huge life-size nativity scenes. There is a guard protecting them and keeping people from stealing, or damaging the nativity scenes.  There are also huge yellow, lit up trees, and a huge lit up mural of the President Daniel Ortega.  These huge light-up sculptures was the idea of the First Lady, Rosario Murillo.  Christian is the main religion in Nicaragua.  In Christmas all these nativity scenes are set upon the roads, but there is always a nativity scene in every single home.  There are a ton of churches there.  While some of the churches are little clay buildings, others have ornate designs and huge spires.  

              Here in Nicaragua, Christmas actually begins on December 6, but activities begin in the 16th.  Every single home contains a manger scene during Christmas time.  Every evening from December 16 to Christmas Eve Mass, a prayer is held in the home  followed by refreshments and caroling.  After Christmas Eve Mass, there is a Christmas Dinner of which only the adults attend.  Cards are then passed out.  The cards are white and plain.  Nicaraguan people celebrate differently than most Americans.  We have decorated trees and big family feasts with our entire family.

              The First Lady in Nicaragua seems eccentric to me.  She put up lots of lights for Christmas, but a lot of the population can't afford their own electric bill, or even a house.  The First Lady put up giant paintings, a huge light up poster of her husband, Daniel Ortega, and these huge light-up trees.  This was to make the city of managua more exciting so people would want to come to the beautiful city.  She also set up a campaign for witchcraft.  She says "Without magic, which is the capacity to invent, dream, to fantasize, there wouldn't be confidence in the future. Without magic a human being cannot be creative in a hostile environment. Magic is everywhere, it is absolutely visible, transparent ... and every day it encourages us to live and act, and to try to better ourselves"
             
             We went to a market to get some fruits and veggies.  What I thought was different was that they came right up to your window and gave you your food!  You didn't have to get our of you car! I thought it was really cool that you could just drive down a road and ask for what you want for food, they give it to you and then you pay them.  The money in Nicaragua is the Cordoba.  The exchange rate is $1 to 25 C$ or cordobas.  If something cost 500C$ in Nicaragua, then it would equal $20.