cultured

Not surprisingly, my plans are changing again.  I guess this is what happens when you go with the flow and do whatever seems to work out best at any given moment.  I was planning to hop on a bus to Leon today, but also kind of wanted to stay for the rest of the fiesta today, since today is supposed to be the more interesting of the two days.  As it turns out, the roads between here and Managua are all closed because of the fiesta, so if I were to travel today it would take me at least twice as long.  Why waste all that time traveling when I could just stay and see the fiesta today, and then spend a normal amount of time traveling tomorrow?  So, one more day in Granada. 

The fiesta last night was pretty interesting.  I met up with my friends Will, Julian, Ellen, and Hanna, who I had met in San Juan del Sur, and went to see the parade.  The parade consisted of dance troupes from each of the 15 different departamentos (similar to our states) competing for a cash prize.  Each troupe had a minimum of about 15 dancers dressed up in fantastic sequined matching outfits of the sort you might expect to see on an olympic figure skater.  Without exception, each troupe had some pretty incredible hats.  I saw everything from 6 inch tall sequined headpieces to hats with 3 foot long peacock feathers coming out the top.  The dancers all looked to be in their mid to late teens, and were both male and female.  I was really interested to notice that the male dancers were dressed very similarly to the female dancers, in that their costumes were decidedly feminine, and that they wore makeup and had their hair done equally as nicely as the girls.  Essentially they were cross-dressing.  And it wasn't just one or two, it was usually at least a third of the troupe.  Clearly this is something that is very accepted in Nicaraguan culture.  I tried to imagine how Americans would react to having their teenage boys dressing up like that, and I'm pretty sure the reaction would be a lot different than it is here.  Yet another example of things we could stand to learn from other cultures. 

On a typical evening in Granada the streets are pretty quiet and empty.  Everyone closes up shop at around 5pm and heads home by around 6 or 7.  Not last night!  All day yesterday they were busy setting up stands in the central park, and by evening there were rows of street vendors grilling food and selling beer along the parade route.  The entire town, plus a large portion of the rest of the country, turned out on the streets.  It was a great atmosphere.  Unfortunately, large crowds mean lots of pickpockets.  Right now I am sitting at the computer in my hostel listening to 5 of the 6 people nearby talk about what was stolen from them last night.  The common denominator between all of them is that they were carrying valuable items like iPhones and cameras.  It's a good weekend to take mental pictures and carry a minimum of cash. 

This morning I had a bit of a cultural misunderstanding with myself that I found amusing.  Last week I bought a packet of what I thought was powdered milk so I could eat cereal.  At the store I just grabbed the packet that said Nido, because where I come from Nido is powdered milk.  I kept thinking, when I was eating my cereal, that the milk was ridiculously sweet.  This morning I bothered to take a good look at the package and realized that it's powdered baby formula.  So, cereal with baby formula.  Not bad, really!

I've been wanting to write about life in Nicaragua, and now seems like as good a time as any.  I've really enjoyed getting to learn bits about this culture firsthand, and I wish I had more opportunities to truly immerse myself in it.  When you stay at hostels it's pretty easy to get more immersed in Australian or British or German culture than in Nicaraguan culture.  Some bits of Nica culture are there no matter where you go, though.  Things like the plumbing.  None of the plumbing here was designed to handle toilet paper, so none of it goes in the toilet.  Every bathroom has a trash can next to the toilet where you toss your used toilet paper.  Woe to the traveler who forgets and clogs up the toilet and pisses off the rest of the hostel.  Luckily, I have yet to forget!  Showers here are cold, which sounds unpleasant except that it's pretty hot and humid, so after the initial shock it actually feels really good.  It's rare to find a cheap room with air conditioning, so we all sleep with a thin sheet and a fan.  Again, this suits me just fine, I love being warm!  I have really enjoyed being able to wear a tank top and shorts all the time and never feel even remotely cold.  Lovely.

More on the cultural side is the way men interact with women.  For you women reading this, if you have ever spent much time around Latino men you may have noticed that they like to whistle or catcall.  In the US I think it's pretty easy for us to be taken aback by this, not really realizing that it's just part of their culture.  When men see a woman walking around alone in Nicaragua (and in most other Central and South American countries, I understand) , it's natural and culturally acceptable for them to express admiration in some way.  The woman, however, is meant to completely ignore it.  A response of any sort is actually akin to an invitation: even making eye contact is seen as encouragement.  At first it feels strange to completely ignore someone who is addressing you, but after a while it gets pretty easy. 

As a continuation of my cultural education, I'm going to head to 'la misa', or mass, at the cathedral around the block in about 45 minutes, then go out and see more fiesta!