Anthropological observations from a small island

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Ometepe is a weird place. For the most part it is inhabited by Nicaraguans, most of whom are from families that have lived here for generations and generations. However there is another significant people-group here – the non-indigenous. The non-indigenous population can be described in a multitude of ways – tourists, missionaries and mercenaries; long-timers and visitors; Americans, Germans, Canadians etc. Now then, Ometepe is an island made up of two volcanoes. The larger one in the north is active, the smaller one in the south is dormant. We live on the northern one, and have done for the past 7 days. The non-indigenous population of Ometepe has a somewhat similar makeup to the island itself – two peaks. Here’s what I mean:

(see graph)

As you can see from the data above* most visitors to Ometepe stay for less than 4 days. Then there are the long-termers – those who are long-term missionaries, those with businesses here, those who just retired here because they liked it. They might stay for 6 months, a year, maybe 20 years or more. We are here for a month. As you can see, we’ve already been here for longer than most visitors but nowhere near as long as everyone else. We will occupy the lonely stretch between 4-32 on the graph above.

We’re here but we don’t quite fit in. It is strange.



*NB all data collected by this researcher through conversations and imagination

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Comments

[Rox]

Chart
Nice chart, even if the data is questionable! So what else is going on? What are you doing workwise? And what's the Island like? Weather? More charts pls!!