Blog Post Closing 2010 and Opening 2011 Pt. 1

I thought about titling this Thanksgiving Week/Early December/Costa Rica Vacation/New Years Eve/Early January Pt.1, but that seemed like kind of a mouthful. I’m splitting this post up into two parts posted separately due to the long time frame since which I have last posted. It’s been a busy holiday season for me, and don’t want to bore all three of my loyal and lovely readers to death with a two page essay. Also I feel I must clarify that while I almost never write about actual work, I do in fact work somewhat frequently. I just don’t always find it interesting to write about. If you want to read about the day to day work of a PC volunteer, read almost anyone else’s PC blog. This however, is a blog of fun, only sprinkled with a light dusting of work details.
The holiday season is a touch different around here. For one thing, Thanksgiving doesn’t exist. I guess that should be obvious, seeing as only in America would we celebrate the ritual slaughtering and later forced relocation of our nation’s native inhabitants with a giant fatty feast, football, and excessive drinking. I guess nothing says sorry for reducing your race to sports mascots and casino owning stereotypes on tiny shitty plots of land like passing out at 3 in the afternoon with the TV still on. I love trying to explain Thanksgiving to Nicaraguans. I usually go, “It’s a day for saying thanks! You eat a big meal with family“, and they’re like, “what does saying thank you have to do with eating a lot“, and I go, “Indians! Pilgrims! Eating together! Not historically accurate!” It usually ends with me receiving blank stares and condescending noises. Don’t worry though, we still did our best to keep the bold American tradition alive here in Peace Corps Nicaragua. Sure, we didn’t have those random family members that we only see twice a year to sit around and argue politics with, but we did have booze, lots of food, and each other. Also the beach. It was ordained by some genius volunteer that there should be a celebration of whoever wants to come in a hostel/restaurant on the beach 20 minutes outside Leon. Well, about 30 of us showed up. Clearly, an Indian slaughtering spirit was in the air. The restaurant made us an authentic Thanksgiving meal and had American football playing. It was just like home, if home was 90 degrees in November and on the beach.
The next day was a little like New Years Day, what with everyone cursing their hangovers, shame, and lost shit. I for one lost my sunglasses and phone. Who knew you couldn’t leave stuff over night on a chair on the beach without it going missing. I like to think they got washed into the ocean and at this moment a lonely mermaid, possibly named Ariel, is putting them into her cavern of human treasures whilst singing a fancy tune.
The business competition was that next Tuesday in Managua, which meant it was pretty silly for those of us who live far away to go all the way back to site before turning right around again. Therefore, a fair amount of people decided to stay in the city of Leon for the weekend. There was much drinking, dancing, eating, and drinking card game playing in restaurants (Holla Montreat people! Brought back good times! I even introduced people to superlatives. It was a fairly, but certainly not ravishingly successful venture. Guess you need a special kind of group for it to work). I even got to have ranch on pizza one night, so in the end it was obviously a satisfying trip.
On Monday, I headed to Managua to stay there the night before the student business competition. Managua is truly ugly and scary. Not scary in the me being paranoid way, but in the people get robbed or worse there all the time way. For one reason though, I’m always excited to go. That reason is a free hotel room. Judge if you must, but keep in mind that this hotel room is air-conditioned, has TV, hot showers, and is near food. Food that is not rice, beans, or fried chicken. I guess what I’m trying to say is that eating a Milky Way McFlurry in an air-conditioned room whilst watching My Super Sweet Sixteen is in fact worth getting robbed at knifepoint for.
The competition was a very well put together affair. It’s the culmination of the year’s business course in which student teams make products all year long with business plans and such. They compete in a local competition, with the winners moving on to a regional competition, before the real cream of the crop go to nationals. All the business volunteers come to attend the national competition. It was really great to see all the hard work paying off for the student groups that made it to Managua. Many teenagers never leave the city in which there born in Nicaragua, so it’s truly an exciting event for them.
That’s all for Pt. 1. Stay tuned next week for Pt. 2 where I discuss traveling in Costa Rica, Christmas, New Years Eve, and more! I will say that Christmas does not in fact include ugly sweaters (you would literally pass out) or eggnog (vomiting would surely ensue after the first glass), and that New Years Eve does include literally burning stuffed incarnations of people you don’t like. It’s like a holiday made specifically for me! For more, you’ll just have to come back my three remaining readers!