Anecdote of the Day

I hope to have an exciting and photo-filled post after this weekend's Fiestas Patrias (aka Nicaraguan Independence Day), but for now I thought I'd share a little story that exemplifies the weirdness that I encounter on a day to day basis.

This morning I was walking to one of the local NGOs when this man next door to my destination started calling out "Alemana! Alemana!" which basically means German girl (this is not surprising to me because this particular NGO has a lot of funding from Germany and I was actually on my way to see two German girls who are working there for a couple months, people rarely think I'm American). So I stopped and explained that I'm actually American. He then told me that he was going to give me a souvenir so I'll remember that I have friends here, or something like that, this is a random, old, semi-crazy guy speaking in Spanish so I didn't catch quite everything. Anyway, he pulled the rubberband off his wrist and placed it on mine.

I was actually pretty relieved to see that he was only giving me a rubberband, I'm still not very good at accepting the sometimes overwhelming generosity of some of the Nicaraguans I've met so I wasn't sure what he was going to give me. Then, in true Crazy Guy in a Rocking Chair style, he asked me to give him my ring as a gift. I kindly explained that this was a ring from a trip a long time ago and it meant a lot to me, but would he like his rubberband back? No, no, I got to keep the rubberband and my ring, win-win for me.

Mini-life update: Last week it rained everyday because of the passing tropical storms and hurricanes in the vicinity. My laundry didn't dry and that made me sad, but otherwise I enjoyed the cool weather. This week it's hot and dry and despite all the damage they cause, I miss the tropical storms. This weekend is the equivalent of Nicaraguan Independence Day so classes have been erratic with cancellations for band practice, as well as missing students due to torrential downpours and we've been doing exams as well so nothing has been happening like it should. Lastly, my “site mate” arrived this weekend, he's a South African soccer player who's going to be working with the phy ed teachers in the schools and who knows what all for the next year. He makes me feel unaccomplished as he's already gotten himself a spot on one of the Division I soccer teams, that's professional soccer here in Nicaragua, and he's only been here about 5 days.