February 22, 2007
Dear Friends,
A few days ago I went with Galen to a birthday party for one
of his new classmates. It was at a Pizza Hut, a “package
deal” party complete with clown, the indispensable piñata
(Superman hanging in the air, kids whacking him until the candy
spills out of his legs, head, and abdomen), and a huge cake with
meringue icing.
As I was sitting there with the mothers, our children being entertained
by the clown, one Nicaraguan woman asked me, “How long have
you lived in Nicaragua?” “Nine years,” I replied.
She then said, “And what do you like about Nicaragua?”
I hesitated. There was so much I could say, yet I wasn’t
sure how to respond. Finally, I said, “There are a lot of
things I love about Nicaragua: the culture, the people, the food.
And it’s very rich in history.” Our conversation ended
when the clown cranked up the volume on the amplifiers and set
the children dancing to “reggaeton” music.
Since that day I’ve been thinking about what I love about
Nicaragua. So here is a laundry list of my Nicaraguan “love-affair”:
Expressiveness
When I came back to Nicaragua in January after four months of
mission interpretation in the United States, I felt a physical
joy using Spanish again. It’s not just Spanish words: there
is a culture of communication here that makes use of facial expressions,
hand gestures, and varying tones of voice that brings conversations
to life.
Culture
Nicaraguans are strong in music, poetry, art, dance, and drama.
Most Nicaraguans could recite verses of their world-renowned poet
laureate, Ruben Darío, at the drop of a hat. And I’ve
seen more than one of my CEPAD colleagues recite a lengthy poem
by memory with great dramatic suspense. Then there are the folk
dances, beautiful handicrafts, and appreciation for national singer-songwriters
like Carlos Mejía Godoy, Katia and Salvador Cardenal, Philip
Montalban, Norma Elena Gadea, Otto de la Rocha, among others.
Ethnic cultures and history
Being a country the size of the state of North Carolina, Nicaragua
packs in a whole lot of ethnic groups, each with its own language
and culture—especially along the Caribbean, where Miskitos,
Mayagnas, Ramas, Garífonas and English Creole populations
span the length of the coast. The history of each of these peoples,
added to the history of indigenous peoples on the Pacific region,
Spanish colonization, and more recent history of U.S.-led invasions,
dictatorships, and revolution makes Nicaragua a fascinating place
to live. I’ve met people whose grandfathers fought with
Sandino in his rag-tag army against U.S. marines in the 1920s,
and once had lunch with a woman who was the great-great-granddaughter
of a U.S. marine who had an amorous relationship with the Nicaraguan
woman who ironed his clothes. These stories are tucked into every
inch of Nicaragua.
Heat and humidity
Here my skin breathes better and wrinkles less.
Fresh food and fried food
In markets and along the road in make-shift stands you can buy
fresh fruits and vegetables, and freshly made tortillas and cheese.
And then there are the fritangas, charcoal grills on city sidewalks
roasting beef, chicken, and ripe or unripe plantains. My favorite
is fried green plantains accompanied by big rectangles of fried
cheese and shredded cabbage salad with a vinegar dressing.Yum!
Mountains and volcanoes
I live an hour from the Pacific Ocean, and from a high point
in Managua I can see volcanoes ringing Lake Managua and just south
of the city. My favorite places in Nicaragua are the lush, majestic
mountains of the north-central region of the country. A mist rises
from the earth in the early morning, obscuring the beautiful views
of deep valleys and pine-covered peaks.
Clouds
When I was a little girl I had a large stuffed camel named Harold.
He was the ringleader of all of my stuffed animals, and I believed
that on certain evenings when the clouds looked like stringy pink
islands in the sky, Harold would journey out, ambling from one
cloud to another. In Michigan, these nights were few and far between.
But here in Nicaragua I am often astounded by the majesty of the
clouds, and many a night think of Harold on one of his “Harold
Walk-Out Nights,” tripping along from one pink island to
another in the Nicaraguan sky.
Resilience
This is harder to “enjoy” because the underside of
the resilience that most Nicaraguans have is a culture of threadbare
survival, of falling short of meeting basic needs. Yet Nicaraguans
keep on keeping on, selling bags of water and washing windshields
at streetlights, persistent in their pursuit of survival. I still
see Antonio (remember Antonio, who approaches cars with rock-in-hand
to ask for money, then disappears for weeks at a time?) I give
Antonio a coin every now and then, and he peers at my car’s
coin holder by the gear shift and asks me to give him the other
coins, too! Nicaraguans’ resilience and their capacity to
live life and even share laughter in the face of great difficulties,
violence, and hunger amazes me.
I hope that you, too, can find the things you love about your
life where you live. And that maybe, if you haven’t yet
visited Nicaragua, you might feel encouraged to do so!
With love,
Ellen Sherby
The 2007 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 58 |
