Managua.. Which has come to be named the Cuidad de Meirde, loosely translated into the city of $hit. Is where the customs building is that has been holding my replacement iphone hostage for the better part of two weeks. I have made 3 trips there and sat around in the building for a total of 10 hours waiting to actually receive my package. I took my Spanish teacher and her friend one day to help translate obscenities for me to shout at the customs officials. It took the country manager of DHL personally walking me through the 12 step program which is customs to actually receive this thing. When I finally exited the last checkpoint out of the customs building I ran full speed without looking back the entire half mile to the car and sped away..
Since Lady the Spanish teacher and her friend were so diligent in the fight for the phone I thought after a hard day of trash talking and asking for people to bring their bosses to talk to us we should take in a good old fashioned American movie. I was a little surprised to see the movie theatre had a special offering for citizens of a VIP stature. It was twice the normal cost of a movie ticket which turned out to be $4.50 a person to sit in the luxury of a recliner, food service, beverages in glasses and nice tables. There was even a masseuse that would give you a good rub down if you couldn’t quite relax on your own.
Fearing that I was straying from my egalitarian roots I decided to wash my own clothes when I got home. I was thinking I could just throw them in the machine and wait around for a bit. That didn’t seem to be the case. There was a cement washboard in this basin made of concrete which I sort of stared at for a bit. I knew the term washboard and have used it many times to describe things, but at that moment that term slowly took on a very literal meaning. I filled up the buckets with the soap water and rinse water and thought about the movie Cold Mountain which contained the most recent memory of instructions to actually operating a washboard and set off to work. It was pretty hard to do and I was drenched in sweat so I had to wash the shirt I was wearing and go topless for a while, but I got all the clothes hung up to dry and passed out in exhaustion. Later that evening I decided that wringing out the clothes might speed up the drying process quite a bit and not leave the floor with a stream running through it.
A couple cheap laughs I get around here are things like this guy in the smoking section of the bus. You are encouraged to keep the cigarette out of the hole in the glass when not in use.
A double of double riders here, I can’t get over it every time I see them on the bikes like this I laugh a little.
And the family on the bike. Yep, I was ready this time and got the picture.
This dude love the Glue, he is always crawling around inside of his shirt for a little privacy to huff a little glue. Whenever I see him I throw a fist in the air and yell “GO GLUE!!” like he’s fighting for a cause. Now maybe once a day I hear.. GO GLUE!!.. and he comes running over to ask for money.
