Nica Culture at it's finest!

This past week has been a cultural experience to say the least!  Last Wednesday November 2nd Nicaragua celebrated dia de los muertos(day of the dead) while canceling class and shutting down businesses.  Since I did not have any work on my plate with classes being cancelled due to elections, I decided to partake in the activities.  I have to say that Nicaraguans do not take this holiday as serious as their Mexican counterparts up north.  Those of you from Tucson have seen the parades, flowers, skeletons and the amount of food which makes dia de los muertos so famous.  It is similar here in the fact that Nicaraguan families will visit the graves of their deceased loved ones to clean, decorate, and lay flowers on the grave.  Some families will burn candles, sing songs and even bring a priest by to say a prayer.  Of course if you forget you're own priest there are several wandering through out the cemetery along with the "cleaning boys" who can be hired at a moments notice to tidy up the tombstone.   A traditional food that is sold throughout the streets is Bunuellos, which are much like fried donuts made of yucca.  My site mate Lindsey and I decided to make our way to the cemetery and along the way found ourselves purchasing the donut like treats and some flowers to place on a yet to be determined grave.  As we walked through the cemetery we decided we would look for the most intriguing grave to place the flowers on, but on our way we ran in to several community members we knew and had to awkwardly explain ourselves since we obviously do not have any relatives in the Chinandega cemetery.  We thought we had finally found our favorite tombstone which was elaborately adorned with a white arch and just as we were about to place our beautiful bouquet, the real family actually walked up!  We made some quick comments on how beautiful the gravesite was and ran off to place our flowers on an unmarked grave figuring we would dedicate them to all the unknown graves who would not be receiving flowers from family that day.

On Thursday I was walking back from the post office where I had just picked up a birthday care package from Aunt Kim(Thank you!!!!!) when a judge from one of my competitions offered me a ride home in her truck.  Reina and I got to chatting and turns out she is in charge of all the concessions at the Chinandega baseball stadium.  The professional baseball season has just officially started here and its a huge deal!  Reina invited me to attend the Leon vs. Chinandega baseball game that night and got us the best seats in the house, for free!  The game started off pretty all American with a few cans of beer and a hot dog when the electricity simply went out in the middle of the second inning.  I was thinking about how a back up generator would have been convenient, but that just doesn't exist here so instead the band played right on through and the Nicas did what they do best for entertainment, set off fireworks!  At one point I thought the grass was going to catch on fire, but we pushed through a half hour of darkness to make it in to the fifth inning only to experience the same incident all over again.  I couldn't help but laugh hysterically and be proud of the Los Tigres fans that surrounded me for their loyalty.  All in all it was a great experience and Chinandega beat Leon 5 to 3.

Friday we celebrated my site mate Lindsey's host cousin's birthday.  I know what you're thinking, there have been way too many birthday celebrations, but this one is quite different.  So for this particular birthday Lindsey's family decided to kill a Peliwee for the celebration.  What is a Peliwee you ask?  Well it is a cross between a goat and a sheep. This animal has a delightful flavor when marinated and grilled!  The whole process of buying, slaughtering, and then preparing the meat is a party in itself.  I choose to join in after the slaughtering.  After consuming massive amounts of Peliwee meat right off the bone along with tortilla, salsa, and beer the real party began.  It's a tradition in Lindsey's family to dress up, dance, and sing to entertain and EVERYONE participates.  I should preface this by stating that Lindsey's host sister is a dance teacher and there fore has a plethora of ridiculous costumes on hand.  We cleared out the main entrance to the house which was also decked out in blown up condoms instead of balloons(Lindsey is a health volunteer) and backed up one of the taxis from her mom's taxi business to blast the ranchero music.  The first performance brought tears to my eyes as one overweight short host cousin stuffed our makeshift balloons in his shirt and went as an older lady while another skinny birthday boy dressed as her old decrepit husband with no teeth.  They continued to dance with each other in a very inappropriate and vulgar manner for the crowd's enjoyment! At one point someone handed them each a Peliwee leg bone to sing in to. The next act was Lindsey and I singing to rancho music and the way it works is you start out singing and anyone can put just about anything on you from the costume box.  So by the end of the song I looked something like the picture below with a blown up condom as my microphone.  You can just imagine the rest of the night....

Lindsey y yo bailando

The opening act

Cookin the Peliwee Nica style on old tire rims with a grill on top

I bet you can't guess what I did Saturday?  yes!  another birthday celebration, but this time at my house!  It was my host bro Jose's 25th Birthday so we cleared out the living room for dinning(which later became the dance floor) and cooked a massive pot of Paella!  I was ecstatic when I saw my host bro and his girlfriend lug in pounds of shrimp from her dad's shrimp farm!  We all ate a mid day meal of paella and started the party by teaching my bro and Nica friends how to play drinking card games such as horse race and Kings.  I have to say my grandma was the life of the party asking me why I wasn't bringing her rum shots like everyone else and why we aren't friends on Facebook? seriously grandma?  Cake was not necessary as Jose prefers his rum....

Pot looks way bigger in real life

Jose's birthday cake

My entire familia, host mom is to my right, bro and girlfriend are to my left, sister is kneeling in front

Lindsey and I shakin our booties for the second time this weekend

Today was election day here in Nicaragua.  I escaped the mess by heading to the beach to surf, but returned in time to see the city break out in chaos as Sandanistas rallied in the streets.  At around 11 pm 66% of the votes were for Daniel Ortega foreshadowing a Sandanista victory.  I watched as my host brother and friends grabbed their FSLN t-shirts and flags and joined the cars and motorcycles flooding the streets honking and screaming.  I sat on the porch with my host mom and sister watching even young kids rally and carry on.  Do they even really understand what they're cheering for?  Ortega did a very good job of targeting youth in his campaign, but it really scares the heck out of me that these are the future leaders of this country.  I try to avoid this topic of discussion with my family, but on this particular night we ended up talking about the lack of education, but we are not in agreement on why it is lacking in this country.  It's now 12:30 at night, the fireworks are still blasting off and the Sandanista theme song is ringing in the streets.  Truly an experience to be here in Nicaragua for yet another Sandanista victory.