So here’s the deal…you know how I said I was hoping to move some time soon? Out of Quaker House, into a place of my own? Well, it’s finally happening. Though not as I had expected. So let me lay a few things out for those who haven’t heard much about this plan.
Luis and I have two very good friends named Angie and Ariel – Angie is from Costa Rica and came to live in Nicaragua with Ariel about 10 months ago. Ariel is half Chilean, half Nicaraguan, and has lived in Nicaragua for the last 6 years or so – previously he had lived in Chile and Canada. Angie and I are both in the unfortunate position of not having Nicaraguan Residency, which means that jobs are limited (essentially we are just like the illegal Mexican immigrants trying to find work under the table in the states). Fortunately for me, native English speakers are in relatively high demand which means I was able to find two jobs which paid a decent salary based solely on the fact the English is my first language. Angie has had much more of a struggle finding jobs and currently works excessive hours to receive a very low salary at a wine shop in Managua. Between the four of us we all had hopes of living together in a house independently (of Quaker House for Luis and I, and of Ariel’s family for the two of them). We had been saving for months to be able to afford the first months rent, deposit, and other basic necessities (a fridge, a stove, furniture, etc.). Luis and I had been ready for a time, but we hadn’t found anything that made sense.
On a different note, but one which is still relevant to the end result, I have been struggling with my relative lack of independence since I came to Nicaragua. It is something that has been very stressful for me, as well as for Luis, and I wasn’t sure that there was ever going to be a real solution to this problem. And while I want to stay here for a while longer (at the very least a year more), I felt that I had to find a solution to this or I would go out of my mind. The solution finally presented itself to me this weekend. I can only feel independent if I feel that I could legitimately live for myself and not need to rely on Luis or my other two friends.
Another friend of mine who has been living in Nicaragua for the past 9 months just got a job teaching English at the same school where I teach. Her name is Heather Rankin, and she therefore needed to find a place to live in Managua. I met her for coffee on Saturday to hear what was new with her and to hear about this cute place that she had found. As she told me all about it, I started to swoon and wished I had been so lucky. Then she says, “but I can only pay the rent for a little while on my own before I have to find a roommate. You and Luis should live with me.” I bit my nails and looked at the floor thinking about all the time we had spent planning with Angie and Ariel, but I agreed to go look at the house. We walked there from the mall (!!!you can walk there from the mall and walk to Luis’ house too, which doesn’t usually happen in this city). I loved it. It’s in a great location, it’s small which is good considering none of us have much stuff to fill it up with, but it’s got a really big kitchen, which everyone knows is the most important part of the house. It’s got a HUGE gate in front which opens up into a garage of sorts where we can park two cars (ha! yeah right), and then go up the stairs to enter the house. In the back there is a large patio (as of now there is only dirt and no grass), with a great big Mango tree providing shade. Luis and I will be moving into the teeny tiny shoebox room to start until we save up a bit more, at which point we may switch with Heather to have the great big room. This is to say that we will be able to fit a bed, and maybe a bedside table, but no big dresser which we will need to store all of our clothes. That’ll just have to go out in the living room, which is gonna be empty for a short time. And I couldn’t be happier about this. Eventually we will be buying some furniture to fill the living room and kitchen. But for now we will start out with only the necessary. I had this fantastic idea that instead of buying regular chairs we could buy hammock chairs and hang them from the beams in the living room… it could happen…
Anyway. After seeing this house, and talking to Heather, I realized that in this house with this person I could feel just fine being independent. And for some time this may be the case, while Luis looks for a more stable job (leading delegations is great, but they don’t always happen every month). It was also clear that should anything happen (such as me losing a job or losing my mind or other such emergency type situations) it would not be impossible to find some one to replace me in this house – something which would have been considerably more difficult had we signed a contract with our other friends – and it would not have been fair to put them in that position. As much as I love the other two, as soon as I saw this house and spoke with Heather about the possibility of living there, I realized that this was the solution to many of my independence problems and that it was something I was needing to do for myself. So here I go. Starting the next chapter in Nicalandia. And if anyone around these parts knows of a good NGO which could use a Managua based volunteer a few hours a week – I am ready and willing. Or will be in about two weeks. Solo avisame.
Oh, and I learned a bit of interesting information. Heather is a chemist who has been specializing in water chemistry down here, and she has informed me that the water filters at the Quaker House (as well as those used in the homes of SIT families) are only designed to filter out certain types of fecal bacteria, and that in fact the water in Managua is already pre-treated to do this. Therefore, the filters that everyone uses are only for the peace of mind of the foreigners passing through who are afraid to drink from the tap water. Who knew?
Ah yes, and the other piece of good news – I used to get very sad about the lack of interesting food at the grocery store here in Las Brisas, and not that there will be much more in the way of delicious produce, but the grocery store near our house is nearly twice the size of the other, and I’m super excited to go food shopping there.
YAY! That’s all really. Except that we have to call one of the tv/internet companies to come set up wireless at our house, so I’m going to have to go around stealing wireless for a while until that happens. Anyway, wish me luck, and I will be taking pictures very soon to show you all.
Kate. Out.
