We just need to finish these verbs....then you can go kill that snake!

I believe myself to be an open, respectful and relatively culturally sensitive person. Well, after a few weeks here I still find many things frustratingly inefficient, silly, backwards(aware of the danger of stepping on some politically and culturally correct toes) and just unnecessary...so, I am obviously trying to get rid of my Norwegian glasses(which I for some reason seem to leave on longer than earlier this time around...)
One thing in particular which I have found sligthly frustrating is the common idea that when someone asks someone for a favour or for help - IT HAS TO HAPPEN RIGHT NOW....there is no: "Of course, just give me ten minutes and I'll be right there...". Of course this rapid response also has a positive side - making things happen quickly. But anyways, I'll now tell you how my frustration over such things, mixed with a temporary loss of listening skills and understanding the language, backfired almost fatally....(!)
Scene 1: Rolando and I were studying some irregular verbs and I was in the middle of explaining some rule which I am sure I partly made up as I went along..being the trained English teacher that I am. Suddenly, this woman comes bursting into the room asking Rolando to come to the directors office. As I had spent the morning waiting for people who were running from one place to another talking on the phone and what not, and was rather fed up with not GETTING ANYTHING DONE, I said: "We are just going to finish this section and he will be there in about five minutes."(probably with a sligthly annoyed voice) Well...the conversation continues as follows:
- Kari: ..so, where were we, the verb to catch. How do you conjugate that in past tense?
- Rolando: Hmm..I was just thinking about that snake...
- Kari: Snake?? What snake?
- Rolando: The snake she woman was talking about. The one just outside the director's office.
- Kari: Snake??Here? In the office?? WHAT?
- Rolando: Yes, that is why she came to ask me for help. To kill the snake. Because I am from the campo (rural areas) I have experience with killing such snakes.
- Kari (at this point feeling rather embarrassed): Oh my god ! Go, go! Get the snake!

So off he went to join the large group of our city-living snake-inexperienced colleagues afraid or the pinkish red 2-3 meters long creature....so, finally dismissed from his strict English class, rural hero Rolando came to save them all from the REAL snake swiftly moving around the grass outside the office...

Lesson learnt: I'll try not to expect that all calls for help or assistance at the office should - or can, wait 10 minutes....:):) Oh, and listen better....the word "culebra"(snake) should have rang some bells.....

PS: the snake got away..so stay put for the next episode!

Experiments with cinnamon rolls

Happy bakers after a productive Monday in my Managua-kitchen:)

Is this the way to Nicaragua?

I asked as I was slightly lost on the border between Costa Rica and Nicaragua...it all looks the same, however depending on which way you go you end up in either country..."That way, madam, straight ahead" answers the Costa Rican policeman sucking on his coke which is conveniently poured into a plastic bag with a straw sticking out... So there I go, trotting along the road with my small backpack as my Easter Holidays - or Semana Santa as it is called over here - comes to a close.

After three weeks of work I was forced to take a week’s holidays as the Holy Week was coming up...well, I didn't complain, as Managua is stinking hot these days and I could easily spend a few days on a deserted beach gazing at the turquoise blue waters of the Pacific Ocean...so that's what I did. A Costa Rican colleague of mine invited me to go camping on the beach with her and her husband, and as "all my friends" in Managua had already planned their holidays I thanked for the invitation and decided to chicken-bus it down to Playa Garza in Guanacaste, Costa Rica.

It almost turned into a trailer tour...trailer as in big truck...on the bus towards the border I met a rather young and innocent looking guy who turned out to be a truckdriver touring Central-America in his 35 000 kg Freightliner...I was quite impressed as I he looked like any highschool student...however, Marvin was an 28 year old single dad who definately deserves a mention here...why? Well, he offered me a ride to my next stop, which originally was only going to take 1,5 hours....hoooowever, I spent 7 hours hanging out with him in the trailer park at the border, eating rice and beans at the cheap foods stalls for truckies, hanging out in the truck talking about Nicaraguan wages, him telling me about how he had gone to the circus watching live bears act like humans with his son, showing him photos of snowy Norway, and above all, waiting for the papers he needed in order to take the truck across the Costa Rican borders..papers which at 5 pm hadn't arrived and I decided to jump on the bus so that I'd get to my final destination before dark...I was rather disappointed as I had been looking forward to driving a colossal truck down the Pan-American Highway...but the reason why Marvin deserves a mention is because he definitely enriched my travel experience with his stories and above all...he never, during the 7 hours that we spent together, made a pass at me or made inappropriate comments or suggested that we'd get married....I suppose the rather sad thing is that I, with my generalising attitude towards Nica-men, expected him to be disrespectful and simpleminded whistling and shouting at me... so, hurray for nice and polite fun Nicaraguan truck drivers:)

As I'd spent excessive amount of time on the border I didn't make it all the way to the beach and stayed in a small grotty hotel in a town called Nicoya..got up before the sun the next day to catch the bus, only to find out that the bus didn't leave at 5 am, but at 4:45...leaving me with the option of waiting till 10 am or jumping on another bus that would take me half way...after hanging out at the diesel pump at a cross road petrol station in the middle of nowhere I was finally picked up by Gabriel, Maria Eugenia's (friend) husband and we arrived safe and sound at the semi-remote campsite... they'd been warning me that it was going to be VERY PRIMITIVE..however, turns out that as a Norwegian I am used to rather rough camping conditions, and this beautiful beachside site with a tap of fresh water, permanent kitchen installations, a toilet with plastic bags for the organic matter leaving the body at regular times (bags which you then had to carry to a hole in the ground, empty the content and then dispose of the dirty and used bag in another bag - ready for burning!) as well as a fully stocked bar - did not really live up to the rumours warning me of a few hard core camping days...

No, it was more like a peaceful sanctuary where all that matters was trying to BE...yes... we passed 5 days eating when it suited us, fished black tuna and another special called Suegra(mother-in-law) - perfect for tasty ceviche lunch, drank margaritas and local beer, watched the tide and the full moon....it was truly a great way to spend Easter...I did manage to get the sunburn I had planned - from which I am now suffering slightly...but ah well...had to get rid of the greyish colour I had brought with me from Norway...!

You might wonder why I haven't put up any photos of this little adventure....well...in typical Kari-style I managed to lose my camera...I have learnt not to be too annoyed when such things happen as it seems I am cursed with losing such belongings....you'd just have to imagine the Pacific Ocean, endless white beaches, seafood, trucks and sweaty buses - and there you have my holidays!

Will try to write in English now and then so that all you non-Norwegian speaking crowd can follow my adventures and shenanigans here in Central-America....

Now happy and content back in my little shack in Managua, ready for another few weeks of English teaching before I start my proper job … 

Hasta la vista ;)