Anything can be had, simply by wanting it. When more than one being want the same thing, it goes to the one that wants it most.
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The ant-head sized black pepper looks larger than usual on the potatoes. They are cubed to the size of Travel Yatze dice. Still glistening from the hot oil, the color is not too white, not too brown. Not a crunch but not a mush either -more of a subtle resistance to my enamelic demand. No hint of salt, although much was used in cooking.
The bread is a little on the dark side. Pre and post butter proves crucial. The freshly cut bakery creation disappears too quickly to be thoroughly documented.
The fluffy, folded egg doesn’t need to be spiced; the insides carry the flavor like a good vodka cocktail. Hot Mexican sausage slipping through creamy cheese accompanied by chopped bell peppers, jalepenos, onion, garlic, and salted tomato cubes. Himalayan pink salt and crushed peppercorn are hidden along with the cumin and basil. Or maybe I am just too hungry to notice. It’s our loaded omelette and it’s tasty.
The restaurant is just for fun. That’s all it really can be, because it doesn’t bring in enough cash to be a good investment. Just enough to keep my belly full and give me plenty of practice cooking. I enjoy it. The designated food cost used by most restaurants is 35%. Our food cost is more like 65%, but the only overhead is a 10% commission to the hostel manager, and because it’s easy to live on $5/day in Nicaragua, we keep cooking.
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Bad Day Bias (The drawer came up short 1800 Cordobas when I was working last night, I couldn´t prove who stole it, and I take responsibility for my mistakes)
The culture really takes life day by day, and I believe one reason is the weather. With no natural predators and no seasonal natural disasters (they don’t get hit by hurricanes, which only leaves volcanoes and earthquakes), the next necessary cause for planning would be inclement weather. The only seasons here are wet and dry. Buy an umbrella. Done. A long time ago some Scandinavians said, “I really don’t want to lose half of my family again next winter, let’s prepare a little.” Today they have pretty much the highest standard of living. Maybe the constant loom of a random volcanic eruption feeds into the Nica’s “what’s the point” attitude.
In Nicaragua, people are lazy because they can be. There are no reprocussions except to continue their seemingly comfortable existence. This laziness feeds into their general lack of morals. If someone can grab a smart phone and put it in their pocket, then they actually believe it belongs to them. If a smart phone is chained to the ground, and they can cut the chain and put it in their pocket, it’s their smart phone and chain. The funny thing is how it is so nonchalantly accepted in their society. Here are some everyday examples of being laid back to a fault:
- Two guys were hired to do work on the bathrooms throughout the night, when the toilets are not being used much. Instead of getting started, they hang out in the lobby drinking and watching YouTube videos for the next 8 hours. Around 7am, when people start waking up, they remember why they came to the hostel and hurry to work on the bathrooms. The workers occupy 4 of the 5 stalls for the next 2 hours, while the 40+ travelers start their day.
- A wild 9 or 10 year old in the audience at a baseball game is running amuck, throwing food, kicking strangers, fighting with other kids, and just being an eyesore, but I guess only to me. The security guard standing next to the boy doesn’t even notice.
- A wild 9 or 10 year old in the audience at a baseball game is running amuck, throwing food, kicking strangers, fighting with other kids, and just being an eyesore, but I guess only to me. The security guard standing next to the boy doesn’t even notice.
- Kids are playing tag and hiding under shelves at the grocery store. No one seems bothered.
- One of the employees at The Bearded Monkey has a box with trash on top. My boss asks her what’s inside. She says, “Trash.” My boss lifts the trash and there are 4 new rolls of toilet paper underneath. She does nothing. This is actually reasonable, because firing an employee for any reason means you will get sued by the ex-employee. Everytime she gets rid of one of her thieves (a quick look at the books will show they steal twice their wage nightly), she goes to court and spends hundreds of dollars, which here is quite a bit.
There are some wild attempts to use the judicial system to enforce anti-laziness. I’m not sure how the Nica’s managed to leapfrog us on ass-backwards policies, but check out this 1984 parallel. My boss has a dog on her back porch. She is at work a lot and the dog can’t always go out to drop a deuce. There is a Department of Heath official that goes into her backyard, peeks through her window, and writes her a ticket for her unclean back porch. This is the same neighborhood where houses are made of fence posts, chicken wire, and whatever scrap wood was laying around.
The people seem beaten and down. I noticed this throughout Central America by the lack of eye contact. It is a little depressing and the only conclusion I can derive is that “rich” tourists have been showing them how “poor” they are for the last few decades.
If this information seems scattered and hard to follow, it means I have succumb to the random, grabasstic, moving-target ways of the Nicas. There are no systems. There are no schedules. As I write this, I don’t know if I have to go to work in an hour and a half. I’ll find out in an hour and a half. Everyday the policies of the hostel change, along with the prices. The mood of the manager dictates the level of service given to her customers. I have seen this all over town. At the ticket booth for a ferry, the clerk looked at me and pointed to her sandwich. I stood in front of the wndow, waited no less than 5 minutes for her to set her clean plate aside and say, “Hola!” It is funny, ridiculous, exhausting, and sad.
My mind races looking for the answer to the question, “Where is the incentive for these people to change their ways?” Another question: why should they? They´re the ones laughing and smiling all the time.
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A Good (typical) Day
Knock,
knock, knock, knock. Eyes open, cover up
with my sheet. Teal; there is no color
coordination in Nicaragua, which keeps your eyes pleasantly busy. The door is forced open from its wedged
position. The night watchman tells me in
Spanish that a guest ordered breakfast and hands me a ticket. My voice cracks and the frog in my throat is
made of sand. ¿Que hora es? ¨8:30,¨ he replies and walks out. The restaurant opens at 8:00, but last night
was a good one and the watch I bought last week for an alarm keeps resetting to
midnight.
Burrito. I go take a long leak first, wash up, and
turn on the light in the kitchen/my bedroom.
I tri-fold my mattress and slide it under the pancake table. One burner on low for the wrap. One on high for the filling. Sausage and potatoes sizzle for a
minute. A handful of chopped green
peppers, onions, and garlic are added and sprinkled with salt, pepper, and
cumin. Some oil helps cook it
evenly. I grab a plate out of the
unplugged refrigerator (our dry storage) and prep cheese. The
peppers start melting, tomato chunks are added and spiced (salt breaks down and
softens), plus garlic and chili powder.
Refried red beans glue the cooked cubes into a rolling pan shape as I scoot the pan to toss the temporary colloid. Three eggs and a heavy
splash of milk are samurai diced by fork and my twitchy wrist oscillation. The cheese stats melting as I tuck the corner
like a tightly fitted bed sheet.
Orders trickle in. Chopping veggies and practicing guitar fill
in the rest of my waking mind´s limited focus.
510C$ leaves me about 150C$ after groceries and commission. This is enough for food, but I´m gonna eat
cheap so I can better enjoy my birthday.
The only time I put on shoes and
socks is to run. This week I got
Montezumo´s revenge and haven´t exercised my heart in a health focused way for 5
days. My chest cavity feels small as I
soak up the mixture of fresh lake breeze and rusty burnt fuel particles. It´s possible that the grassless neighborhood
inhabitants recognize the dreadlocked jogger.
The sun is pushed back by enough clouds so my shorts aren´t soaked when
I reach the supermercado.
Temperature change glistens my
skin and the metal basket handles slide on my my under forearm as I separate
two bags from the roll. Two tomatoes and
a green bell pepper. Buying two half
cartons of eggs is cheaper than a whole one.
You always have to pay attention to price per quantity. Bobbing and weaving across the shiny white
floor, I circle through savory aisles in search of a pouch of refried beans. The quickness with which my replenishment
routine is completed suprises me. Aloe
vera drink and yogurt are my treats.
Including sausage, bread, and cheese, the total comes to 312.33C$. A hundred cords in my pocket (the treats were
40) after 4 hours of work. I´ll make
another C$50 working the desk for 5 hours.
With a free place in which I like to live, I don´t complain often.
The walk home has a perfect record
of reminding me why I remain in Granada. The sky is
uniquely clear around the top section of Mombacho today and the overlooking
volcano must be saying the same of this town.
Nodding to some elders carrying random straw-woven sacks of common goods
on their backs, I hold my plastic bags at my sides and turn the corner. My favorite bakery is full of
transactions. I decide to grab a snack from the pulperia across from the hostel for lunch. Tod is cooking me a
curry chicken dinner with variables undetermined. Crossing the street is a 360º observation
game. Granada, and much of Central
America that I´ve seen, is about flowing around, over, and through moving
obstacles. A decaying Japanese
sedan-turned-taxi breezes past the back of my t-shirt while I wait for the
horse pulling a man above the waist-high axels to pass. On the last left turn, I slip through two
opposite moving bikes, one motorized, to get the full view of my favorite
building portion in the city. The
feeling of a small sack of gold coins landing on the floor of my stomach is
always welcome. Darkly outlined, rounded, red bricks missing mortar beg the question: will the wall last another 5 minutes or centuries? Below, the sparsely grassed earth dives swiftly
to the river bottom some 35 feet below.
Colorful plastic, paper, and styrofoam give a pleasantly appropriate
accent to the scene. It lets me know I´m
in someone else´s homeland though sometimes I want to believe I´m not.
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