myers@uwmacc.UUCP (Latitudinarian Lobster) (10/24/85)
I am posting a series of eight articles based upon my trip to Nicaragua
in the early part of September. These articles will be appearing in the
University of Wisconsin student newspaper, *The Daily Cardinal*. I'll
be posting them one per day to net.politics. Only this first article will
be cross-posted to net.travel.
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Observations on the Nicaraguan People
This is the first of a series of eight articles written by Jeff
Myers, a Madison resident and employee of the Madison Academic Comput-
ing Center. The author was in Nicaragua for two weeks as a volunteer
for tecNICA, a North American technical aid project. The articles
will attempt to focus on present day conditions in Nicaragua, the
author's personal observations, and the small details which make life
interesting rather than on the continuing political debate in the
United States.
Is it possible to get to know the people of a country in a short
visit of two weeks? After all, Nicaragua is only a tiny nation of
about 3 million inhabitants, 600,000 of which live in the capital,
Managua (where I stayed most of the time). Well, I did my best - I
went out of my way to talk with as many people as I could, but as my
work was focused on computer technology, I was only able to have
extended conversations with members of the middle classes.
But talk isn't everything - the remarkable thing about Nicaragua
for me was the aura. In spite of the whole set of adverse conditions
hanging over the country, in spite of the long history of US occupa-
tion of the country, in spite of walking through crowds and dark
streets, I never felt so safe and non-threatened in my life. This
feeling was not a result of seeing soldiers with rifles outside
government office buildings or guarding construction projects, nor of
the common sight of traffic cops - it simply came from the people
themselves. Since I've returned to the US, I've been searching for
the single English word that best describes what Nicaraguans are like.
Oddly enough, the word that I have decided upon is `businesslike,'
taken in the best senses of the word.
I'm going to have to explain what I mean simply by giving various
examples. In the markets and stores people don't yell `ice cold coke'
or anything else - you're not bothered when you're just looking. Hag-
gling is virtually unknown, people were consistently honest about
prices (which are incredibly cheap if you have dollars). Walking down
the street, people don't stare at strangers, but they're adept at
checking you out in a non-obstrusive fashion. It is not that people
are unfriendly - it's extremely easy to strike up a conversation if
you demonstrate to people that you are interested in them. The best
way to do this for a foreigner is simply to speak Spanish and to make
an effort to learn the local accent, words, and idioms - I found that
I received a lot of respect just for being interested in little
details. But a real key to learning about Nicaraguans is to watch
them when they're dealing with each other.
Two of the most interesting evenings we spent in attending a
church service and a CDS meeting (Committee for the Defense of Sandin-
ismo). While I'll talk about these more in a future article, both
occasions had something important in common - people went out of their
way not just to pay attention to the proceedings, but also to talk or
simply acknowledge their friends. This was especially evident at the
CDS meeting, where everyone was standing and milling around, with a
lot of friendly jostling (as opposed to everyone establishing their
space and to energetic pushing). People were paying attention to the
program (especially to the music) but also had other more mundane
things going on. Depending on the type of church and political meet-
ings you attend in the US, this may or may not be similar to your own
experiences here.
So what does all this have to do with the word `businesslike'? I
mean mostly that Nicaraguans are practical - in work and play they are
unwilling to waste time on what to them is trivia - hence no haggling,
doing more than one thing at the same time when possible, and seem-
ingly ignoring people they don't know.
Another good example of the kind of the peculiar beauty and effi-
ciency that I'm talking about was demonstrated to me everytime I was
on or near a road. Vehicles honk with great frequency - when passing,
when a cycler or pedestrian is looking the wrong way, or when another
vehicle is poking its nose into an intersection. At first this all
seemed exceptionally obnoxious given the way we handle the road in the
US. But I came to realize that people were going out of their way to
make the somewhat torn-up roads as safe as possible for everyone. The
efficiency of traffic cops also impressed me in the same fashion.
More observations on the people will come out in my later arti-
cles, but here I wanted to give Madisonians a feel for the people as a
whole in Managua, which is very much our sister city in various ways.
These kinds of generalities are really only understood if you go to
the place being described - one of my reasons for writing these arti-
cles is to encourage folks to go and find out how wonderful Nicaragua
is for themselves, regardless of your level of support for the current
regime. An aura is something that you really have to feel for your-
self.
Next: Wages and Prices in Nicaragua