Al Mercado -- To the Market

Most Nicaraguans don't buy their produce at the grocery store where you take a cart down a spacious aisle over a tiled floor. They buy them at the market where you find the freshest produce for the cheapest price.

One Saturday morning Ena Patricia, her mother, and I boarded the bus (the full bus) to go to market. I was told not to take anything with me save my clothes; so no pictures on this one. There are tons of people at the market. This open air market covers an area of about 12 city blocks. Although I've been to other parts of the market I'd never been to the produce section. It's really only accessible by bus and on foot. Many people feel this market is very dangerous and indeed it is in certain sections and at certain times of the week or day.

Our goal for going to the market was to buy produce and cheese for the week. We walked by lots of venders who all pretty much had the same types of stuff. Grandma knows the market well and what venders to buy from. She is a pro at finding the best stuff for the cheapest price. The walkways are very narrow in the market and with lots of people things seem crowded until a cart comes up behind you and then another one in front of you. Where you thought there wasn't enough space for all the people passing, now suddenly their are two carts coming on head to head. It was little situations like this that just made me laugh out loud.

My favorite places to stop at the market was where you buy cheese. They had tons of cheese blocks. When someone buys cheese they can first sample a little piece to see if its the texture they like it. The most interesting part of the market is where they have raw meat and skinned chickens lying out on the table in the open air.

The real challenge in buying produce at the market is being able to bring heaping bags full of 50 oranges, watermelon, papaya, and lots of other fruits and veggies onto the bus (the full bus). But the even greater challenge was getting off the bus when it was our stop. The door was jammed with more people who had come on after us. In the end, I didn't exactly pass the test of bringing produce home successfully from the market. There were a few bruised bananas, tomatoes, and a papaya.

El Bus -- The Bus

God teaches us many things each day if we look and observe Him at work in our lives and the world around us. This is something I've been learning to identify more and more in my own life this year. Well I learned some great lessons last month when I had a lot of car trouble. Since I'm living about 10 minutes away from school a car certainly comes in handy, but only if it's working. My car broke down long enough that I had to make several trips to school and church in public transportation.

Since I live in the home of Ena Patricia, a Spanish teacher from the school, we traveled together. This is the normal way of travel for her and the other Nicaraguan teachers and workers at NCA (and the majority of the people in Nicaragua). We left the house at about 5:55am and walked two blocks where we than waiting until the right bus came. I was never too sure how we knew which one because many of the buses have big letters like Jesus Cristo on the front. The buses here are actually old school buses. If a bus was already too full it would pass by without stopping. Sometimes a bus would stop and it looked like it was too full, but we would get in anyway. Each bus costs about 2.5 or 3 cords about 15 cents. When you board the bus you pay the driver and then head toward the back of the bus. That sounds easier than it really is. All the seats are usually occupied and there are two rows of people already standing. You just sort of wiggle your way through the people to make room for more. The interesting thing for me was that the first morning we left at 5:55am we arrived at school at 6:20am. Another morning we left at the same time but didn't arrive at school until 6:55am. What a difference! No wonder Nicaraguans are sometimes 1 hour late.

Casa Nueva -- New Home

Some of you may have heard that I have moved in with a Nicaraguan family for two months. The perfect opportunity came up when a student teacher needed a place to stay for 2 months. She took my room and I moved out to San Judas, about a 10 minute drive from the school. Many people asked me why I wanted to do this. For me this was a chance to learn more about Nicaragua: its culture, its people, and its language. So far it has been a rich experience and I've been very blessed by it.

Living more closely in a Nicaraguan culture, I can see that our lifestyle and culture is very different. For me, I think I like more aspects of the Nicaraguan culture and the things they value. For sure the most obvious distinction of this culture is the value placed on relationships and community. With warm weather people naturally congregate in the streets. After a full day of work people visit with neighbours and family in the evenings, but even more so on the weekends. In our house, there are always things to do but just chatting and laughing together takes the highest priority.

Food seems to be the biggest change for me but definitely not in a bad way. Let's start with breakfast. A good breakfast would consist of rice, beans, cheese, and a tortilla or a nacatamale and a tortilla. This just doesn't suit me well in the morning so I've chosen to stick to Corn Flakes. The lunch meal is the biggest meal of the day which is commonly rice, beans, tortilla, meat, and fried plantains. In the evening, we usually eat a smaller portion of what was prepared for lunch. We have fresh fruit juice daily. Yolanda prepares all the food in the house and is an amazing cook. I thoroughly enjoy all her meals. She watches me closely though to be sure I'm eating enough. Sometimes she sneaks an extra pancake on my plate on the weekends. They're hoping I'll be round and plump by the end of February. I think they might just succeed.

One of the most interesting concepts about culture I've learned was in a conversation we had about the word ambitious. In North America ambitious would be a positive attribute. Someone who is energetic to become successful; someone with good ideas and is motivated to accomplish them. In Nicaragua ambitious is a negative attribute. It describes a person who is never satisfied with where they are and always needs to pursue more. Left me thinking that is for sure.

Ontario Time

Since I'm a month behind on blogging I'll keep it short. I had a super time in Ontario over Christmas break. It was full of social activities and quality time with parents, siblings, nieces and nephews. The time just flew by and all too soon the two weeks were over. In between Christmas and New Years my family was altogether, first for my birthday and then to celebrate Christmas. It's special to be together since these moments don't occur as much as we'd like.

Ontario didn't have much snow, but it did have some. As soon as the toboggan hills had a dusting of snow, I took my nieces and nephews down them. We had a hoot together. A couple days later the pond was just perfect to skate so we took advantage of it as well.

Below are some of the best pics of the trip.

Annika on the big kid sled on the big kid hill.

Everyone in the family demands a turn with baby Anna.

It's a fake... We got all bundled up to go for a walk, but it was tooooo windy and cold. Anna protested so we took the picture and then went inside.

Ahhhh what a precious gift!