Little Snippets

1. Fruit vendors. Every morning, I buy little baggies of cut up fruit from a woman at the bus stop in front of the Police station. From about 6:30 in the morning, she expertly wields her knife and cuts through the thick skin of a pineapple like it was butter. The fruit salad usually includes watermelon on the bottom, then pineapple, then banana then either cantelope or papaya. It's really an ingenious business. Who wants to buy an entire watermelon, lug it home, cut it up and then transport it with you wherever you're going? This way, you pay 5 cordobas for a variety of fruit already cut for you. Great deal!

2. Folklore. This is the traditional dancing of Nicaragua. For many events, groups of girls and teenagers will perform the dances in costumes like those in the picture... long wide dresses and flowers in their tightly wound hairbuns. The steps are simple, calculated and involve holding the ends of the skirt and swirling them around as you turn. Or having the ends of the skirt drawn in to the hips as you step ball change on one side. The event in the picture above is from the International Day of the Child event we had a couple of weeks ago.

3. Garbage. People throw it everywhere. Out of bus windows, on the floor of their house, into the lake. The little girls in my house in the barrio used to throw their used fruit peels, cookies and wrappers all over the floor, with the idea that someone was going to clean up after them, (ie, Ana). In the centro, people do the same, throwing their garbage everywhere... It makes for dirty streets, sticky floors and general pollution.

4. Fritangas. These are also everywhere... Little sidewalk eateries, sometimes just a table set up in front of someone's house, and some an entire restaurant in an actual building. The typical fare is carne asada, pollo asado (grilled meat or chicken), that comes with gallo pinto (red beans and rice), cabbage salad, fried plantain chips, and sometimes fried cheese. When I don't feel like cooking, I usually eat something here.