I was
talking with Julian about differences I saw while Eric and I visited Nicaragua.
Compared to twelve years ago I saw fewer children begging. As we
left the airport in 2000, my family was approached by three little girls who were
begging. While stopped in traffic, children approached our rental truck
to beg. Emma told us in 2000 that giving children food was preferred by
her family because there are children begging for coins who give the money to a
parent who buys alcohol with their children's earnings.
People, often adults, offered food
and trinkets while we were stopped in traffic.
Adults offered to carry our
shopping bags to our car in return for a few Cordoba. There was serious
haggling over prices in the markets. (not at the grocery stores).
We paid to have our car watched
everywhere, except Masaya Volcano National Park and Montelimar Resort.
I noticed that the horses were
thin, with ribs protruding. The quickly built homes were made of scrap
lumber and had roofs of rusty corrugated steel.
Twelve years have passed.
Other than disabled adults begging in the street, only one child
approached me, begging. This boy was clean, well dressed and well fed.
I answered, "No, gracias." He wouldn't leave our car until Eric
told him to leave. We did buy prepackaged cookies, but they weren't in
the car when the boy approached us.
There
were people selling food and many different types of small items while we
waited in traffic.
We paid a two man juggling team
at a stop light. The man on top of
his
friend's shoulders was juggling fire sticks.
Our windshield was washed as
we waited in traffic at a red light.
I was aiming the camera at a
traffic light (one
of the few we saw
during our visit) and got photos
of the experience.
A few
days later, a man offered to wash our windshield and Eric caught him before the
water was doused on the windshield. The man wanted something for his
time and we gave him prepackaged two packs of cookies that I had at the ready. One for him and
one for the man he was working with.
Many of
the tourist items in the markets are marked with price tags. Many vendors had calculators and calculated
the price for us in American dollars.
The only haggling that occurred in the market was over the price of
Guayabera shirts. Thirty dollars per
shirt was outrageous!
Paying to have our car watched in
Managua, at the Old Market in Masaya, Leon and outside the fence at a
restaurant seemed prudent. We parked without payment in Rivas, Granada
and San Jorge.
By in
large the horses were well fed. I saw
one tired looking horse with protruding ribs walking along the side of the road
in Rivas. Many of the horse drawn
carriages were decorated. I saw
Nicaraguans enjoying carriage rides.
The shacks I saw as we drove from place to place twelve years ago in Nicaragua are now more substantial with concrete walls. Many have flowers in front of the houses.
Emma and
Julian grew up in Nicaragua. Julian
assured me that Nicaragua remains a poor country, compared to the United
States. I saw improvements and have some
facts to back this up.
The
Nicaraguan economy has been on the upswing.
According to the Nicaragua Dispatch article published in 2011, Nicaragua was second only to Costa Rica in attracting foreign investments in 2011. Nicaragua’s gathering economic strengths can’t
be compared to the US economy, but there are improvements and I was happy to
see them.
Americans
are retiring to Nicaragua. Julian asked
me to find articles on this for him last week. According to several sources, Granada,Nicaragua is a hot spot for American expats.
Tourists
and expats do well in Nicaragua. The
money they pump into the economy helps fuel this economic engine in Central
America that is improving, yet fragile.
I’m a cheerleader and I am hoping that things continue to improve in
Nicaragua and other developing countries.
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