Who likes to get hit with a bag of juice?

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Today there is no school for us, and for kids who go to secondary and primary school here, they have off til wednesday because this weekend is the celebration of independence for Nica. So I have more than ample time to write before the power goes off.

The victor jara concert i was at a couple nights ago opened up my eyes to the accesability art gives to revolutionary movement. Although I could understand very little of what was being sung by the groups at the concert there was a feeling of unity amongst the crowd singing along with the songs that is not apparent to me at other sing-along concerts. It could however also have been the amount of rum in my system, but i think not. within the youth of nicaragua there is a connected feeling of comprehension of resistence against an ultimate power that I think is taught into the lifestyle of the youth here that has been passed along for many generations. I think it is possible in the youth around the world but that it is lacking action in most of the youth in our country. I would also guess that is similar in most 1st world countries but im not going to make that point here for a lack of knowledge.

SO that was cool. Not too much has been happening here. If you do not know there was recently a hurricane that blasted through the NE coast of Nicaragua, where the poorest part of the country exists. So all around Managua there have been many fundraising efforts, including another concert that I attended last night-and their group is called perrozompopo. They are Nica and are a wierd mix of rock, metal, psychadelic funk, and sappy love music, but it was fun and I would suggest checking them out if you can. Plus it was good for the hurucane victims. perrozompopo also means lizard, i think, and before I found this out i kept thinking the bass player looked like a lizard all night, que extrano.

So i am becomming more nicaraguan day by day, i guess. The other day was my first experience having to wash my clothes by hand in something like a washboard, but it is part of a pisa which is like the multi-use sink in most households here. Although that may not sound like any sort of achievement, and it wasn't really, but it was hard to do and enteraining as hell for my family to watch. it takes mad muscles and i have mad more respect for my host mama now. Plus I don't even think I did it correctly, because there was residual dried soap in my clothes. Also I'm sure I have mentioned there is no running water available past 8am and there are also no water heaters so the shower immediately after waking before 8 is brutally cold. However today was my first bucket shower, its exactly what it sounds like-scoop water out of large barrel, pour on self. And that was amazingly refreshing, check it out if you get a chance, of course it helps to be in a tropical climate.

Me and two friends went to this huge mercado called Huembes, where you can get most anything you want in whatever variety, and of course our group stands out as pretty damn white. Two lanky whities and one other who had just bought a guitar at the mercado. So we are standing out blatantly at this mercado and making our way back through to find a Nica baseball team cap. In Nicaragua there are these things called refrescos, which are not sodas like in some spaninsh speaking countries, but more like juices and shakes and similar beverages, usually served in a plastic bag. On our way through we enter this ally way that goes under a flight of stairs. I am the last to enter and just as I do I get hit in the back of the head with a bag still filled with refresco. Luckily it didn't break and didn't really spill but i immediately turned around and caught like 5 nicas staring at me. It was odd and I couldn't really make a fuss excepting making a few expletive deleteds without getting beat up. So I went on my way and this blog got its title.

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