Getting to Know Masaya, and Swimming in a Volcano

6 de Junio, 2010


My street in Masaya, my house is a half a block and on the right from this spot.

It has officially been one week since I arrived in Managua airport. On Friday my week of orientation came to a close and I took a taxi to Masaya and moved into my new home for the summer! I am living with a family of four, a grandma (my house mom), her son, her son’s wife, and their two year old daughter. There is also a very nice woman who works 6 days a week as a maid and a cook (this is common in households that can afford it), and a girl from Honduras who is working and going to school at a University in Masaya rents a room in the house (I haven’t met her yet). I have my own room, that is very small but it has everything I need and more: a bed, dresser, a desk, and even a TV! The TV will be a great way for me to practice my Spanish comprehension, I get CNN Español. I am not sure yet if CNN Español is significantly less annoying than CNN in the U.S. or if it is just because I am not comprehending 100%. At least one thing is for sure, twitter users don’t serve as policy analysts, how refreshing. Also, at this point it appears the plague of pundits telling viewers what to think in the United States has not spread to Latin America.


Another street in Masaya.

I have clearly won the lottery of placements in Nicaragua. My house is in a safe area of town that is largely Nicaraguan middle class. From what I have seen of the country so far and what I have learned, there is very little middle class here. My drive to Masaya took me from one of the poorest urban areas, Ciudad Sandino, through the higher elevated areas of Managua where wealth is highly concentrated. Gorgeous houses on the hilltop felt pretty divided from the poverty at lower altitudes. However, one only has to find a stop light even in the wealthy areas of Managua to see poverty, because street children will be trying to sell drivers drinks or wash their windows. An FSD employee came with me in the taxi and pointed out a bar along our drive that he said would rarely allow dark skinned Nicaraguans to enter. Apparently, this was a result of a subliminal marketing technique attempting to portray an image of a “hip spot” for the upper class. That was certainly a glimpse into the ugliness of divisions that accompany wealth in poor countries. I find myself constantly thinking of the morality of living comfortably in a world with such extreme hardship (I will write a future blog post entirely devoted to this topic, for now Ill stick mostly to descriptions!)


Swimming in the volcano near Ciudad Sandino!

On Thursday after orientation workshops my group went out to a laguna in Ciudad Sandino. In order to get there you leave the urban area and take a turn off the highway and pass through a couple of miles of agriculture. I cannot say enough about the beauty of the landscapes in Nicaragua. The pictures can only do so much! Unfortunately, due to free trade zones, a lack of adequate environmental regulations, and poorly designed drainage systems a lot of fresh water in Nicaragua is too polluted for people to swim or use. However, the laguna near Ciudad Sandino, which is a volcano that has filled up with water (I have no idea the science of that), is clean enough to swim in so we spent an afternoon there, a wonderful experience. The last morning in Ciudad Sandino I woke up with 3 other interns and went for a run at 6 AM. We ran out towards the laguna. On our way there we passed many Nicaraguans fascinated to see 3 gringos running through the city (we ran with an FSD employee). The streets were already busy at that time, so we passed all sorts of activity. Many people were catching a ride to work which generally consisted of piling in the back of a friend’s pick up truck or taking the bus. Every time I see a public bus in Nicaragua I laugh to myself because it is never more apparent that I am in a totally different country and culture. Public buses are old school buses (which I assume were purchased used from other countries, because it is unlikely there was ever a widespread school busing scheme here). The school buses would appear to a person from the United States as decorated as if it was the inside of a Mexican restaurant on Cinco de Mayo. Confetti, spray paint, all sorts of strainers and designs, loud music blaring all the time, and in addition to all that, add a significant amount of religious imagery and declarations of the bus’s loyalty to God, Jesus, and Mary – quite a sight!


Central park in Masaya.

My first full day in Masaya I took a 4 hour walk through the city. There are not many things I find more liberating and exhilarating than being in a new city and taking a walk without plans. Just following whatever interests me or catches my eye, controlling my own destiny. All of the normal feelings are exponentially better in a new culture and a new country. I set out a goal of finding the organization where I am going to work MASINFA (about a 30 minute walk from my house), on my way I spent an hour or so touring through the “non-tourist” Mercado in Masaya. There were some parts in which I had to duck to avoid the hanging clothes or backpacks, while dodging running children and aggressive but friendly salespeople, other parts I was outside, extremely hot, and amazed at how people spend every day of their lives at a stand swatting flies off of raw meat. The rest of my walk was a tour of the downtown area of Masaya, there is a beautiful central park that includes a historic church, as well as various drink and food vendors. I bought a newspaper and spent time reading and soaking in a typical day in the park for residents in Masaya. My medal on the wall with my new family is that I am the only intern/house resident to not get lost on my first walk through Masaya! They were all very impressed and told me some pretty funny stories about past interns.

So rest assured, I am loving life in Nicaragua!! I will post again this week :)

-Chris