¡Como mi Toña, ninguna!

Hola amigos! Yes, I’m still alive. Sorry I haven’t written in a while. It’s been a rough week of classes and volunteer work and such. I will elaborate much more later, but for now, lets just say that as the level of work and Spanish increases, my understanding of it, sadly, does not. So what’s a person to do after a week of being abused by homework, improper conjugations, and creepers on la ruta? LEARN A SPANISH DRINKING SONG!

Ok, it’s not really a drinking song, it’s a song in a beer commercial. And ok, yes, I had a rough week, but no, I’m not turning into an alcoholic (...yet). One of my first days here, I was watching TV and this commercial came on. I didn’t think much of it until my whole family joined in with the song. And that happens pretty much every time this commercial comes on. So I decided that in order to actively immerse myself in the culture here, I need to learn this song. Purely educational. 

Actually this song really is educational. It incorporates the most famous parts of Nicaragua: the national flower and tree, indigenous cultures, mountain ranges, volcanoes, lakes, and of course, la cerveza Toña, which is basically the national beer. Doña Laura explained it all to me after Laura Mariela wrote out the lyrics (and calling me borrachita for wanting to learn). 

Here’s the link to the comercial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkvO0DL3s5Y&feature=related

And the lyrics. I hyperlinked some words to pictures, if you're interested. It's all in the commercial but its really fast. You can google translate the rest :)

Soy como soy porque aquí nací entre volcanes y lagos

 y si muriera y volviera a nacer no nacería en otro lado 

Soy un volcán bullanguero, un lago orgullo ,soy un caballero 

Soy la belleza trigueña que no anda con cuentos genuina y sincera 

Soy el alma pinolera del Río San Juan hasta Chinandega 

Soy el alma pinolera del Río San Juan hasta Chinandega 

Soy el cuerpo y el sabor… que hace a Nicaragua una. 

¡Como mi tierra no hay dos! ¡Como mi Toña ninguna! 

Soy Nicarao y Diriangén 

Soy isleta soy caudal 

Soy Madroño y Sacuanjoche

Soy el Cerro Negro y el Amerrisque 

Soy Ostuma y La Estanzuela 

Soy Apanás, Soy Cocibolca 

Soy montaña soy ciudad 

Soy nica como el San Juan 

Soy el cuerpo y el sabor… que hace a Nicaragua una. 

¡Como mi tierra no hay dos! ¡Como mi Toña, ninguna!

Tonces, mi nueva tarea esta semana! And seriously, I’m more about the consequences from Laurita for not studying this homework than I am about my actual clases :)

Trabalenguas

My first weekend here, the Nica brothers of two of the girls in the program took us out for a day trip. After taking a terrifying rickety-old school bus we made it to the terminal of “interlocals”, which are 12-passenger micro-buses that somehow fit 20 people plus whatever was bought at the market that day. Cozy, to say the least. 

We hopped off in Masaya, stretching cramped legs and taking in breaths of fresh air. The city is famous for its mercado viejo where artisans sell their crafts, typical looking touristy souvenirs but still pretty cool. The five of us spent the afternoon looking at hand-painted leather, knotted bracelets, hammocks (yes, of course I bought one), t-shirts, and other wears. Locals were bustling around with baskets selling food, extrañeros shopping, and kids making origami out of palm leaves in exchange for some pesos or some food.

Lauren and her brother Eduardo hadn’t eaten, so we stopped at an outdoor restaurant to grab a quick bite. Now, remind you, this was still the first weekend, so we didn’t know each other well yet and our Spanish was atrocious. We struggled through conversation, asking questions and learning new words. I was getting especially frustrated because I can’t say r’s right if my gringa life depended on it. Gersan, the brother of my friend Sheena, was laughing at me, and then wrote out in my notebook a tongue-twister for me to try. Ready? Tres triste tigres comian trigo en un trigal. (Three sad tigers ate wheat in a sill). Well, that was the source of laughter for Eduardo and Gersan for a while. To get even, we wrote out trabalenguas in English, like “she sells sea shells” and “proper cup of coffee in a copper coffee pot.” Pretty soon, none of us were able to say anything right, English or Spanish. A level playing field for once!

At dinner that night, I told my familia that Gersan gave me homework, to practice the trabalengua. My host sister added on to the assignment an even harder one. I spent the next couple of days muttering tongue-twisters about tigers and race-cars under my breath and watching my family laugh at me through the corner of my eyes. No wonder they think I’m crazy.

The next week my madre brought me to the Mercado Oriental to go grocery shopping. They had explained to me the night before that this was the biggest market in Managua. Bigger than Masaya? Uhhh, yeah. Endless streets of clothes, fruits, rice, electronics, furniture, bags, chickens, mattresses, and about anything else you can imagine. I trailed after my madre, dodging carts full of platanos, hot pans of maize, venders yelling at me to buy things, and water falling from the puzzle of scrap tin that formed a makeshift roof. Doña Laura would pause only to point something out to me or to check that I hadn’t been swallowed into to crowed of Nicas shopping and selling. 

I happily sipped cacao from a plastic bag as I waited for Doña Laura to buy groceries, grateful for the cool drink to ease the heat of cooking food and sweaty people in the market. Doña Laura turned to show me what she got, explaining a curious brown rice-krispy-treat-looking square. “Hecho de trigo,” she told me, “Made of wheat.” “Oh, like the tigers ate?” I said. She looked at me for a split second, like “Ok, I don’t know what they teach you in the states, but tigers don’t eat wheat” and they she realized that I was talking about the trabalengua and just being a smart-ass. She laughed almost the entire way home. 

For a while after, when anyone asked my madre how I was doing (usually right in front of me because they didn’t think I understood), she would answer, “Oh she’s great. She even made a joke one time, listen to this!” and would tell them the one time I succeeded in being funny - on purpose. As soon as I can use the trabalengua to say my “r’s” right, I’ll be good to go :)

Angelito

Before I left on my epic adventure, my friend Samme gave me a necklace with a charm of St. Therese on it. On the same chain I added a fleur-de-lis charm that my friend Kim gave me before she studied abroad in Tanzania. I have worn this necklace almost everyday: St. Therese to remind me of my family and friends at home, the fleur-de-lis to remind me of my friends at college, both to remind me that I have people who are thinking about me while I’m here. Yes, sometimes I can be sentimental and affectionate. 

Well, not even a week after arriving here, something happened that made me miss all those people unbearably. A friend from college, who had just barely graduated, died tragically and unexpectedly. They believe he had a seizure while swimming late in the day. I found this out while talking to my boyfriend Brian for two minutes before my internet cut out. Needless to say, I was left alone and pretty upset.

This sort of situation is one of my biggest fears while being here, something serious that would make me want to be back home, close to my friends and family. But it’s not like I can just hop on a plane for a quick trip back to the states. I’m sort of, well, stuck here. At least, that’s certainly how I felt. What made it even worse was that I had only been here for five days, had barely met my familia, and did not have the kind of vocabulary in Spanish I needed to accurately explain what was going on.

I decided, though, that it was important to tell my familia and the other chicas in the program why I was upset, even though it would be rough. And it was. Its hard enough to explain a situation like that, but not knowing the right words and knowing I was saying things incorrectly made it that much harder. The worst was telling my friend Gretchen because she goes to the same university as me in the US. But I was also more then grateful to have her here, someone who understood. Really though, everyone was understanding: the girls in the program, my teacher, my familia. 

When I got back to my house after class, my madre Laura called me into her room where her and Laura Mariela were hanging out. They asked me how I was feeling, and then chatted with me for a long time, teaching me new words, explaining new things to me. I have been carrying around a notebook solely with words I learn, and soon I had filled pages and pages with translations for clothing, body parts, things around the house, adjectives, and everything in between. Then Doña Laura showed me some of her artwork. I’m not sure what its called in English (or Spanish tampoco), but she creates still life art by carving into tin. Also, she makes all sorts of jewelry. She showed me some of the charms she made, and asked which I liked best. I picked out a little angel that was made from a blue oval and metal wing beads. As I went to hand it back, she said, “lo tuyo” “its yours.” It was so truly sweet. I told them both that I felt much better, and it was true. Of course, I still felt sad about my friend, and for my friends at home, but it was so good to sit and talk and laugh a little. The first time I really felt at home here. 

So now on my necklace I have three charms: St. Therese for my family and friends at home, the fleur-de-lis for my friends at college, and the angelito for my familia here. All to remind me of people who care about me and are looking out for me :)