Managua billboards

Hello faithful blog followers. We have long been fascinated by the government-sponsored billboards all over Managua (and along the highways in the rest of the country). Here are a few of them with my (Beth's) explanations and/or commentary.

"We turned 30 fulfilling our promises! Country and freedom!"

Happy Birthday, Alan! He was born in 1979, just a few months after the Sandinista Revolution triumphed in Nicaragua. So last year was all about celebrating turning 30! But there are still several of these billboards around, so we are still celebrating. Sometime you should ask Alan to model for you his pink t-shirt that says the same thing (a gift from our neighbor, who is part of the Sandinista youth movement). The face on the billboard is President Daniel Ortega (also one of the military commanders in the revolution who became president for the first time in 1980).

"Nicaragua: Christian, Socialist, In Solidarity! 31 years of triumphs: The revolution lives on!"

Now we are completing 31 years since the revolution. Here we have Daniel Ortega alongside other Nicaraguan heroes--Sandino (in the hat) was a revolutionary in the 1920s/30s, struggling for national sovereignty and the expulsion of US troops. Rubén Darío (black suit) is a very famous poet from Nicaragua. On the left, a famous painting depicts a "Yanqui"--one of those occupying Nicaragua in the 1850s--disarmed by Nicaraguan legend Andres Castro throwing a rock.

According to this billboard, we're still Christian, socialist, and in solidarity. Rhetoric does not always match reality. Nicaragua does provide some semblance of healthcare and education to all its citizens, but the economic system is far from socialist. The wealthy of the country (including current and former political leaders from all parties) enjoy all the advantages of capitalism while trying to win the favor of the masses who live on less than $2/day.

ALBA is the inter-Latin American trade agreement designed as an alternative to CAFTA and other free trade agreements between the US and the rest of the Americas. The other day we drove past a new power plant under construction with ALBA funds. It is difficult to see very many other impacts from ALBA, either due to the lack of transparency about the spending of the funds or to the minimal impact of the agreement.

"Wanted: thieves. Would you vote for these thieves?" The presidential elections are coming up in 2011. Ortega is doing everything in his power to be re-elected (something that was not constitutionally permitted when we arrived in Nicaragua), including early campaigns against his two major opponents: Eduardo Montealegre (left) and Arnoldo Aleman (right).

"Giving Hope. Giving Happiness. Giving money to your national lottery." Look at how this nice, pink, Christian, socialist government is giving happiness to its people! Buying and selling lottery tickets can be seen everywhere in Managua, from our local street corner to the airport. Incidentally, the guy in the yellow shirt goes to our church.

"Keeping our promises to the people is keeping our promises to God!" I think I may have posted this one before, but as one who has always been fascinated by civil religion, I am interested in all the religious rhetoric by this government. As in many countries, invoking the name of God is very unifying for Nicaraguans. In everyday conversation it is also very common from the mouths of both Catholics and Protestants. "See you tomorrow if God wants it." "I am fine, thanks be to God."

Hope you enjoyed this brief Managua tour and are now sufficiently familiar with the contours of Daniel Ortega's face! See you next time, si Dios quiere.

Flies

Following up on our mango post, we should note that with the mangoes come....flies. Humans aren't the only ones who feast on the sticky-sweet goodness of mangoes; the flies do, too. June and July, the tail end of mango season, are also the worst months for flies in Nicaragua. Sometimes we can hardly eat because we're busy shoo-ing flies from our table.

How do we survive these months? Fly Paper. We typically give the table a pass-over with fly paper before, during, and after a meal. They hop on and stay for a while; we eat our meal in (relative) peace. If anyone has any more ideas for keeping flies at bay, we'd be happy to hear your ideas.

Rain and a Tin Roof

We're now in the rainy season in Nicaragua, which means that it is (slightly) cooler and at times we have torrential downpours. When the rains commence, we also think about our roof. Most of the time our roof is just something above our heads to keep the sun off of us. But during the rainy season we remember that our roof is tin (or zinc or whatever material roofs are made of these days). We remember because the roof suddenly becomes a noticeable part of life - it roars at us. Well, the roar comes from the downpour-on-metal. The noise loud enough to drown out anything - conversation, music, thinking, etc. There are times when we have to stop conversations completely because rain makes such a racket on our roof. Last night it woke me up in the middle of the night with its roaring.

The roof is something I usually take for granted, but I now recognize what a luxury it is to stay dry when it rains. There are plenty of people in Nicaragua who have only plastic tarps above them, or critter-infested thatched roofs. We are grateful for a solid roof over our heads; when the roof roars now, I give thanks.

(above, Simon and Beth watch the rivulets of water from our roof pour into our patio - the ridges on the roof channel water into individual cascades of rain about 2 inches apart).

Mangos, mangos, mangos

'Tis mango season in Nicaragua. Well, let me qualify...'tis ripe mango season. There are always mangos around, it's just that now they're reddish-green on the outside, golden and sweet and juicy and messy on the inside. Mangos are so prolific in Nicaragua that people have to eat them year-round, even when they're green and hard (people add salt, vinegar, and chili sauce to the crunchy white flesh, or cook it down to make a juice that tastes deliciously almost like applesauce). If we didn't eat them year-round, the country would probably be up to its waist in uneaten mangos. And even with near-constant consumption, you can still walk the streets and smell the over-sweet smell of rotting mangos that have fallen to the ground because there are just too many to eat.

If you don't have a mango tree, chances are somebody who does is trying to get rid of them as quickly as possible. Or you can buy them for super-cheap - yesterday we bought a dozen good-sized mangos for 40 cents. And fortunately, our litte guy absolutely loves them. He can't get enough, whether he's sucking the juice directly from a mango, eating it in little cut-up bits, or drinking fresh mango juice. The photos are from the other day - Beth ordered a glass of mango juice w/ breakfast, and Simon drank pretty much the entire cup!

fresh fruit juice

One thing we love about Nicaragua is the always-available fresh fruit juice. The types of juices change according to the fruits in season, of course. But there's always at least one tasty alternative to the also-always-available Coke or Pepsi. In addition to being yummy, the fruit juices brighten up a table with their vivid colors. The glasses in this photo contain (from left to right): pineapple, cantaloupe/orange, pitahaya (dragon fruit), and mango. Above, Simon enjoys the pitahaya.

money laundering

Last year Nicaragua moved to plastic money for the C$10, 20, and 200 bills. The C$50, 100, and 500 bills were redesigned but are still a combo of paper material. We think that the Central Bank moved to plastic because it prevents damage from money laundering. When bills are inadvertantly left in a pants' pocket, then scrubbed vigorously on a concrete washboard, the results are still very usable bills. They also air-dry easily.

Papaya tree update

A while back we wrote about the papaya tree that's growing in our little garden. The tree continues its upward climb - between 12 and 15 ft. - and has 3 growing papayas that look promising. The tree reminds us of something out of a Dr. Seuss book - a skinny trunk, a tuft of leaves at the top, and the oversided swelling green papayas hanging off in an odd clump. In honor of our current parenting stage (and the Dr. Seuss alphabet book that we read frequently), here's a verse that includes the papaya:

Big P, little p, what begins with P? pancakes, pie, papaya tree, P...p...P.