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mouseworks at 05:22pm on 12/08/2010
mouseworks at 05:22pm on 12/08/2010I've been here two weeks and don't have any desire at the present to go back to the US. The city I'm living in, Jinotega, is somewhat like the Lower East Side in the 1960s, early 1960s before that many artists, poets, and writers discovered the place. The locals hustle, doing different things, some illegal (my driver who took a detour by a mariachi cantina in the opposite direction from Jinotega was recently arrested in a drug sting). It has stone laundry sinks in the kitchen rather than tubs and is surrounded by mountains, so there are some differences, but the strong feel of scrambling to do better, to make money, to survive in a strange world (internet and PlayStations are here)is the same. The people here didn't move from the Old Country -- the different arrived here, starting with the Spanish.
Jinotega has the spread between rich and poor that places with raw material export economies and seasonal work have. Coffee and cattle are the money crops here. Picking is seasonal and there's some attempt to find other crops, mainly cocoa, that are harvested in different seasons than coffee. Jinotega is the service town for the district, the equivalent of the county seat, and has the doctors, dentists, furniture and clothing stores, and such that provide the things that people can't grow for themselves.
Food is cheap; thumb drives are insanely expensive ($30 US for a 1 GB thumbdrive). Couple of restaurants and hotels have wifi. And some people ride into town on horses and burros, while behind the front walls, one catches glimpses of some very beautiful modern versions of the local architecture.
I've left my documents with Suzanne's lawyer for the approval and such of the translations of the originals. Then we have to make three copies of everything, and take them to Managua, next week. If this goes smoothly, it will be much cheaper than hiring a Managua immigration lawyer. If not, I'm out a couple hundred dollars. I don't think all the documents are time-sensitive, but if I have to have things redone, I'll be back in DC in December when I go back to sell my car and arrange shipping of my electronics gear and kitchenware, and shoes, and some clothes.
It's 73 degrees F in Jinotega at 5:25 PM.
Jinotega has the spread between rich and poor that places with raw material export economies and seasonal work have. Coffee and cattle are the money crops here. Picking is seasonal and there's some attempt to find other crops, mainly cocoa, that are harvested in different seasons than coffee. Jinotega is the service town for the district, the equivalent of the county seat, and has the doctors, dentists, furniture and clothing stores, and such that provide the things that people can't grow for themselves.
Food is cheap; thumb drives are insanely expensive ($30 US for a 1 GB thumbdrive). Couple of restaurants and hotels have wifi. And some people ride into town on horses and burros, while behind the front walls, one catches glimpses of some very beautiful modern versions of the local architecture.
I've left my documents with Suzanne's lawyer for the approval and such of the translations of the originals. Then we have to make three copies of everything, and take them to Managua, next week. If this goes smoothly, it will be much cheaper than hiring a Managua immigration lawyer. If not, I'm out a couple hundred dollars. I don't think all the documents are time-sensitive, but if I have to have things redone, I'll be back in DC in December when I go back to sell my car and arrange shipping of my electronics gear and kitchenware, and shoes, and some clothes.
It's 73 degrees F in Jinotega at 5:25 PM.