Snapshots

I bought a bed in the Mercado Oriental on Monday, the biggest market in Central America. It was a classic experience of market shopping. Without the help of Tere and her daughter Jania, I would have been smothered in swindling. When we got out of the taxi, vendors swarmed us, saying, que busca chelita, veni ver sin compromiso. We ignored them and entered a store at the end of the row, overflowing with wooden bed frames, hutches, dressers, shelves and the classic Nicaraguan rocking chairs. An employee followed us, showing us the options for mattresses and ensuring us of their quality. Tere and Jania cunningly worked him down to the lowest price he would go to, and made no promises to come back for the bed. In the meantime, the guy who transports furniture in the back of his pickup whispered in Tere's ear that he could help find her a better deal, so we snuck out and followed him to about 5 other stores, all saying that they are always honest with their customers about the quality of their beds, which made me mistrust them even more. I finally chose a beautiful carved wood-framed bed, but the mattress is really bad so I'm going to have to buy another one with the next paycheck...

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The new house is amazing! There's two hammocks strung up in the front patio and 2 rocking chairs. The breeze comes in and out freely and it's always nice and cool. There's political posters up all over the main room, including one about the life of revolutionary El Salvadoran leader Farabundo Martí and the schedule for a film festival from last fall. Nico and Roberto are active in what is called the Social Movement (of students I think) which is basically a social justice group, and have a huge group of friends who are also involved. Roberto teaches computers in the University. One of the greatest parts about living in this house is cooking for myself. Last night I made nicaraguan style rice and beans with an asian veggie stir fry with peanut sauce. I was very excited to eat veggies! The other great thing about the house is that my room is very well ventilated and I can leave the window open... it's almost cool enough that I don't need to keep the fan on all the time!

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This week I started a mapping project with the youth in my daily English class. The first step of the project was to think of all the places in their neighborhood, and then learn the words in English. I thought it was amusing that one of the first ten things that came up was the local Alcoholics Anonymous. Next week we're going to walk around the neighborhood noting where all of the important places are and taking pictures. Then we'll later draw out the map and add the pictures to it. I'll take pictures of the finished product and the process too...