This photo demonstrates two pieces of Nicaraguan culture: 1) pretty painted nails, and 2) pointing at things with your lips. My new host mom continues to make it abundantly clear that she has adopted me into the family, mostly by feeding me copious amounts of food. Sunday we spent the day at the beach and last night she painted both my fingernails and my toenails with tiny flowers. I've been instructed to let my toenails grow longer so she can fit the white stripe on the top because that's what makes it classy. After years of cramming my feet into toe shoes for ballet class, long toenails freak me out, but I'll give it a try in the name of refinement. Needless to say, things are going very well with my housing arrangement here.
As for #2, if you ask for directions, you may think you're being hit on but really you're being pointed in the right direction by a pair of lips. I haven't assimilated yet to the point of really using this tactic myself, but don't be surprised if I come back to the States pointing at things with my mouth.
I don't know if it made it on the news wherever you may be, but last week the Mercado Oriental in Managua burned to the ground. The Oriental is the biggest market in Nicaragua and also in Central America. I've been told you can find just about anything there, someone once said that if you wanted to build yourself a helicopter that you could find all the parts you want in the Oriental. It's also a fairly dangerous place where people get mugged a lot and as a foreigner, I'm supposed to avoid it at all costs. From what I can gather, illegal tapping of power lines is what started the fire and they couldn't get water in fast enough so it burned all night Thursday and through the day on Friday. Pretty much every one of the approximately 1,500 stores was destroyed. This will have a huge impact on prices here because so many goods are distributed out of that market. My host mom has a little clothing shop in our local market here and had actually been at the Oriental earlier on Wednesday to buy goods to sell. So one more thing on top of inflation and transportation costs that will make living in Nicaragua more expensive, joy!
Finally, the same address applies if you feel like sending something my way (just switch the PCT after my name to PCV since I'm not a Trainee anymore but a Volunteer!). That address will be valid the whole time I'm here, it's the Peace Corps PO Box in Managua, but if I decide to get a PO box at my site I'll let you all know.
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