What it means to be disconnected: August 18

This I have noticed and learned thus far:

-How to eat ice cream from a baggy

-Cold showers aren’t bad when it’s hot outside and you have running water

-It takes a lot of thinking to remember that the toilet paper goes in the trash, not the toilet

-No wifi, access to computers, or telephone (or chance to gain access to one) is what it means to be actually disconnected

-When integrating, one week feels like a lifetime

-Kids are very hard to understand in Spanish

-Kids are also a good source of vocab because you can ask what everything is and pretend like you’re testing them instead of wondering for yourself!

-I am now treated as one of the kids and feel like they actually want this to be my home.

-Nicaraguans are loud all of the time (cars, music, shouting, dogs) and are very used to it

-Nicaraguans watch a lot of tv

On Saturday morning our group split into TEFL and Environmental volunteers. We boarded two separate buses after a sad farewell to our new friends and were delivered to our host families. The ride was full of nervous chatter and lots of silence as thoughts drifted to our new realities and for lots of people, the language obstacles that loomed. Though I had experienced this before, I still felt nervous and insecure as I headed south to my community of 30,000.

I was greeted by Daysi and José, my new host parents in their sixties. As many know, I love old people (grandparents) nearly as much as I love children. Daysi immediately showed me around, welcomed me, and sincerely told me that I would be their new daughter and they hoped I would feel at home here. I have never been so touched at a time when I really did need that reassurance. This really is the country of “open arms” or brazos abiertos.

After a lunch of rice with veggies and beef (yes, we have been eating rice with almost every meal) and salad, I headed just down the street for my first Spanish class at another volunteer’s house. Mostly we discussed Nicaraguan dichos (slang), greetings, and gestures. It was again comforting to be with fellow volunteers.

I then returned home and met my three year old host “brother” (their grandchild). The house is made up of: José and Daysi, their daughter Claudia who works in Managua and only comes on the weekends, their daughter Violeta and her husband Luis, and their two children (the grandchildren) Luis Jesús (3) and Claudio (2 months old). In addition, there are aunts and uncles, cousins, and friends who are in and out of the house all of the time.

José took me under his wing because the 2 month old was scheduled for surgery the next and there was family everywhere. My host mom was obviously worried and preoccupied with that situation, so I got to know José. I discussed sports with him and discovered how truly connected to the world he is. He doesn’t watch any of the national channels (a topic to be explored later) and loves U.S. channels on his flat screen tv. He knows all about soccer and baseball and asked me about Los Gemelos (Twins). I was lost for a minute, I mean who really knows about Minnesota sports teams outside of the Midwest!? What a small, interconnected world. We watched and discussed soccer, baseball, fútbol americano (football) and I discovered he has a son and three grandkids in LA. We chatted about Nica and previous volunteers who stayed with them (I’m the 17^th!), and my newest challenge with Spanish is to understand everything he says while the tv is blasting and motorcycles roar on the street in front. He speaks quietly and not very markedly anyway, so this will definitely be a difficult task. We ate Nacatamales for dinner, a Nicaraguan form of tamales. ¡Qué delicioso! The night ended with Daysi, José, and I watching an old western dubbed in Spanish. I was shocked that José had seen it many times and loved it. These older movies my dad had watched many times were being watched here in Nicaragua!

My host family is pretty well-off, they have a “domestic employee” and a babysitter for Jesús. Their flat screen is just as nice as the one in my family room at home. They are politically informed and José watches the news many times per day. Here I am, clashing (chocando) with this culture. I am hyper-connected and seeking a break from the internet, phone, and tv. But everyone here has a cell phone and lots have a tv (at least where I am). They are more connected than I am and now I am finding comfort in that. I felt relieved that although I couldn’t talk to my parents I could watch the Westerns my dad always watched and feel closer to home than I actually am.

Here I have no phone (yet), no wifi, no access to the internet at all. I wanted to feel relieved by escaping this aspect of the U.S. and yet I feel this disconnect making m y transition a bit harder. It’s not that I would be connected everyday, but I would have an opportunity to share stories with my family if I wanted to. I will have to let go of that need for immediate contact.

Update! I have obviously found internet at a couple of places, so updates will come. I will probably be posting later than I’m writing.