Looking back

Its now coming close to 5 years since I first came to Nicaragua. I've since then learned a language, a new culture, and gotten married. Needless to say my view of things is not the same as what it was before. Its been more than two continuous years since I last set foot in Canada. Now the idea of going back there seems more challenging than staying here. Visa runs are now nothing more than a minor inconvenience and before long they will be a thing of the past as I will soon qualify for permanent residency. Thankfully I was also able to find work online. I have to get up quite early in the morning and it took quite a long time desperately searching before I found this one, but now our situation is significantly more stable. Honestly I don't think our financial situation would be any better off in Canada considering how much higher expenses are there.

In this post I'm going to outline some things I've learned, in contrast with some things I thought before. Some attitudes that I've personally had to change and some that I've observed as well. First of all, in terms of safety Nicaragua is not as dangerous as I thought. On my first trip down I was terrified. I was sure that death was waiting around every corner, partly because of things I had been told and partly because of the attitude I had towards "third world" countries. In North America we are taught to be "thankful for what we have" because in other countries people are poor and suffering. When you get older you learn labels like "First world" and "third world". These phrases actually have nothing to do with economics in reality. They originated during the cold war, "first world" countries being those aligned with the United States, i.e. Canada, European countries, etc. "Second world" countries referred to those aligned with the Soviet Union and having a communist ideology, such as China and Cuba. Third world countries were those that did not have ties to any of the aforementioned countries. Most of Africa is considered third world since they were not involved. This means that in reality, Nicaragua is a second world country.

This thinking leads one to imagine that everything is better in one's country compared to the lives of those in these "poor" countries. This also leads unfortunately to a feeling of superiority that I have to admit I had at the beginning. I used to think that because Nicaragua and other "poor countries" are so "bad" that they must be doing everything wrong, and that we do things better in Canada. I've come to realize that people are happier here, and although there are a lot of social and economic problems, we have other issues up north too. Political stability in Satan's world is of course an illusion, so the risk of "something happening" and having to flee the country is quite real in whatever country you live in. To think otherwise is simply being naive.

I was also unnecessarily afraid of disease. Things are not any less clean here, and infectious diseases are no less of a threat in Canada than they are here. Most of the "horrible tropical diseases" are easily treated with very cheap, common medicines that you can buy on any street corner. As for parasites, I thought if I got "a parasite" it would surely take me to my death bed. But guess what, according to some sources 85% of the world's population has parasites, plural. Parasites are everywhere and mostly inconsequential. You get sick when they get out of control. Canada, United States, Europe... these places also do in fact have parasites. If you eat food, you probably have them already.

Some things are different that may be a shock when you first get here, but after a while you realize that those things were not so important. For example houses here rarely have screens in the windows, or ceilings. But most of the country is nearly bug free compared to Alberta in the summer time. In places with more bugs, its too hot in the day for them to come out so you only see mosquitoes at night, and in those places people use mosquito nets. Even in those places Malaria is rare and something that people get once or twice in a lifetime if at all. And contrary to what one doctor in Canada told me, if you get malaria you won't be a vegetable for the rest of your life. Its a bad case of aches and fever.

When we look at the houses people live in here, people from North America may be inclined to think "oh no, poor people look what they have to live in". But a lot of times the houses here are basic small simply because of the Nicaraguan culture, their viewpoint that its generally bad to over complicate things. People here LIKE things basic. They LIKE living in the bush and seeing nature all around them. They don't WANT to look after a huge mansion when they spend most of their time in one or two rooms. When Nicaraguans have money, they would rather spend it on fancy food and well aged rum than putting in a swimming pool.

Food is different, obviously. A lot of things aren't so available here, like cheddar cheese for example. But thats again simply because different cultures eat different foods. There are some very nice, well stocked grocery stores here. When I first came down, we had been told that if we lived in Bluefields we would have to travel two hours in a boat to go to the city and buy food. I don't know why they thought that, Bluefields has everything. Street food is also quite often safe to eat, especially if its fried. And if you do eat something thats not ok (which also happens in Canada) it just sends you to the bathroom, not to the morgue.

In this time, I've really come to feel at home here in Nicaragua, and gradually I'm starting to feel like I have more in common with the locals than those back in Canada. We're also very happy to have some of my family here. After a lot of hard work convincing them my sister and her husband, and two children have permanently relocated to Nicaragua and I'm actually posting this from their house. You can see my sister's blog about their experiences http://nicalola.blogspot.com/

Hurricane Otto

A few weeks ago Nicaragua was struck by a Hurricane. Having just relocated inland we were not in danger, however many of our friends and family were still on the coast and were getting ready for the storm. I've never been in any kind of natural disaster in my life, so I really didn't know what to expect. As the storm was coming closer information was a bit sketchy. We kept hearing about it on Instagram but as far as local news was concerned nothing was going on.

As it got closer however the media started paying attention. The storm was downgraded to a tropical storm, but then back up to a category three hurricane shortly before making landfall. Our friends on Corn Island were the most concerned, boarding up the windows on the kingdom hall and taking down trees to avoid them falling on houses. Thankfully however the storm took a turn to the south and missed the Islands for the most part. As the storm hit Bluefields we were watching live coverage on TV, when the speaker said "wait... everything is shaking!" a few seconds later we felt it too. As if a hurricane wasn't enough an earthquake hit at the same moment! The table and standing fan in our kitchen started rocking back and forth. Another first for me, I didn't realize it was an earthquake until it had long passed. The shaking barely lasted a second so it was over before we knew what was going on. No damage thankfully, although it turned out to be a 7.2 off the coast of El Salvador.

But it gets better. I was talking to my parents online and telling them about everything as it happened, and my dad thinking it was comical that we had two disasters at once said "You should throw in a Tsunami just for good measure". Literally seconds later the news announced that a tsunami wave would hit the pacific coast of Nicaragua in 30 minutes.

By the end of it all, the damage was very little. The Tsunami did hit the pacific coast, but I guess it didn't have time to gather strength so all that happened is some beaches were a little washed out. The immediate area along the coast was evacuated however. As for us up here in Jinotepe, it had very little effect. We didn't even get rain actually, but it made for an exciting week.

Atlantic and Pacific

Its often said that there are two sides of Nicaragua. The yearbook even called the Atlantic coast "The Other Nicaragua" highlighting the vast cultural differences between the two sides of the country. Having lived in both sides now we have experienced this first hand and can really confirm that it is true. The east side of Nicaragua, divided into two departments: Region Autonomio Costa Caribe Norte, or "R.A.C.C.N." and Region Autonomio Costa Caribe Sur, or "R.A.C.C.S." These when translated basically mean "North carribbean coast autonomous region" and likewise as the south. Many maps still show the old name of these departments: RAAN and RAAS, however this was recently changed likely due to RAAS being uncomfortably close to a curse word in the local Creole language.

Many people in the Atlantic regions still speak Spanish, however many do not speak it as their first language. Some speak either Creole which is a dialect of English, or Miskito which is an indigenous language of its own. Economically the Atlantic coast is far behind the Pacific. Many in the Pacific believe that people from the Atlantic coast are wealthy because the cost of living is higher, but the opposite is true, wages are generally lower while cost of living is higher. Having just moved to Jinotepe, Carazo we have found that prices of everyday household items like soap, as well as food are generally twice as expensive on the Atlantic coast, becoming more expensive the further east you go. Corn Island and Pearl Lagoon being the most expensive. This seems to be in part due to the lack of transportation. The highway stops at Rama, and any travel beyond there must be done by boat, or if you're brave by dirt (mud) roads. Another reason for the prices likely is the lack of competition, there are very few shops and no supermarkets besides the ones in Rama and Bluefields, so if someone is selling anything from the pacific they can charge any price they want even for basic necessities.

On the Pacific side of Nicaragua, first of all there's a lot more people. According to some sources 5% of the population lives in the two Atlantic Regions, and 95% in the Pacific. The Pacific is divided into many departments, all of which I have yet to memorize. We live in Carazo, other well known departments are Rivas, Granada, Masaya... names you have likely heard of. There is more business over here and many cities as well. Cost of living over here is generally 50% of what it is on the Atlantic side, although tourist areas may cost many times more. We pay a little bit more for rent over here, but that comes with conveniences that are hard to get in the Atlantic, such as wifi and hot water. We can even drink from the tap in Jinotepe, something we wouldn't even dream of doing in Pearl Lagoon.

Grocery store in Jinotepe

Tourism has a much bigger impact on the Pacific side as well. On Corn Island (RACCS) tourism is only beginning, and any tourists found in Pearl Lagoon are either hard-core adventurers or hopelessly lost. San Juan Del Sur on the other hand, in the Rivas department of the pacific has a lot more in common with tourist hotspots like Cancun or Hawaii. many things are priced according to "If you have to ask, you can't afford it". Rental apartments or houses in SJDS are rare, as most opt to rent on a per-night basis and are unlikely to agree to long term. Other communities away from the beach are quite different however and rent can be very cheap. Although the Pacific coast may be more popular with tourists, the Atlantic has natural beauty that is beyond compare, just lacking in accessibility.

Sunset in San Juan Del Sur

Crystal clear water of Corn Island

Architecture on the Pacific side resembles the rest of Latin America. Cities are made up of blocks laid out on a grid, and the buildings in each block are built with their exterior wall immediately on the sidewalk, and their interior walls connected to each other, making the entire block resemble one large building.

San Marcos

In the Atlantic however, houses are well spaced out and disconnected from each other. In fact, in smaller communities the houses may not even be built near a street, but rather be behind another house or simply standing on its own.

Haulover

These are just a few of my observations, but it really feels like two countries in one, and if you spend any time in Nicaragua its definitely worth going to the other side to get the full experience.

Making the move

So having decided to make the move, our first step was to find a place to rent in Jinotepe. This was easier than expected, thanks to some very helpful friends that we met at a circuit assembly who are now our neighbors.

But first, we had to get there. We sold many of the things we had in the apartment so as to be saved the trouble of moving them across the country. Thankfully a couple was moving to Corn Island shortly after we planned to leave, and wanted an apartment in our building. This made things very easy, we just arranged with the landlord that we would give them the key and they would buy our appliances and many of our household items. That got us down to a few suitcases full of items, mostly clothes and some dishes. We didn't have quite enough suitcases, so we bought some cheap 20 cordoba plastic bags known as "Quintaleras" and put them inside sacks commonly used for rice or sugar to make durable water-tight bags to carry our clothes in.

On the day of the move we loaded everything into one taxi, and rode with it down to the main wharf. We had planned to take the Captain D which is the largest of the cargo ships that head to the mainland, but for whatever reason it was a no-show. So we went the next morning on the Island Express, our second favorite... but after getting all our bags on board we found out that it was only going as far as Bluefields, and we wanted to get as far as possible so as to save trouble. So we unloaded all the suitcases from the boat and carried them over to the next boat, the Isleño, our least favorite and also the smelliest of the cargo ships. In any case we left around 11:00 AM on Sunday, and bypassing Bluefields we made it to Rama by midnight. This was now the most difficult stage of the move, we decided to stay in a hotel (we found a rather nice one in Rama for 350 cordobas). We had to carry all of our bags from the wharf, two blocks down to the hotel, and because it was late there were no taxis around. Jean waited with the bags by the ship while I carried them one or two at a time, taking about 4 trips in all. Thankfully Rama is a fairly safe place to be wandering around at night.

The next day we were on the 9:00 AM express bus to Managua, which was a pretty typical chicken-bus ride. 5 hours later we're in Managua. We were debating how to get to Jinotepe from Managua. It is 1 hour bus ride from La UCA bus terminal, however said terminal only has microbus type buses, which are basically big white vans. These can hardly take suitcases as big as ours, let alone so many. If they even agreed to take us they would likely charge for each bag as if it were a passenger, so we were dreading the cost. Also the taxi would charge a fair amount to take us there as well. We ended up finding a fairly reasonable taxi rate to get us to La UCA. He would charge us 230 cordobas, which basically equates to 50 cordobas per person/suitcase. We felt this was reasonable so we agreed. Along the way we were calculating that the bus at La UCA would likely charge the same amount or more to get us up to Jinotepe, when the cab driver asked us where we were going. He offered to take us directly to Jinotepe himself so we could skip the bus stage altogether. We asked how much and I braced myself for some heavy gringo-tax... but to our surprise, he offered to do it for 700 cordobas. Thats a one hour trip up into the mountains, in a comfortable air conditioned car with all our bags safely in the back. We gladly accepted his offer, and we were saved some huge headaches and got to avoid spending any extra time in Managua.

The drive up into the mountains was spectacular. We're both really going to miss the beautiful blue ocean and beaches of Corn Island, but this part of the country also has its own natural beauty. Everything up here is a deeper green color than we generally see on the coast for some reason, and as we went higher we could see further and further. As we started to feel the change in altitude we could see clouds at eye level on either side of the road. Finally, we went straight into them. As we passed El Crucero we were surrounded with grey mist and we could feel the air getting cooler. As we came out of the clouds we were entering Diriamba just as the sun was setting. After Diriamba came Jinotepe where the taxi driver took us to the house of the brothers meeting us.

Jinotepe is a city of about 50,000 people according to some Internet sources. It has an architectural style similar to that of some other Nicaraguan cities like Granada or Leon, however very little influence of tourism. The climate is also very different, being at about 560 meters, or 1,800 feet in elevation. The temperature ranges from about 18-30 degrees Celsius throughout the year and is very pleasant. That being said, coming from the coast it feels very cold. This side of the country is far more "developed" also. Jinotepe has nice grocery stores and fruit and vegetables are easy to find. One can even find computer and electronic stores. Cost of living here is also cheaper. I'm not completely sure why things are so much more expensive on the coast even though its less developed. Even things the coast exports are cheaper here, for example lobster is cheaper in Jinotepe than on Corn Island for reasons beyond my understanding.

We do pay more here for rent than we did on Corn Island, but that is mostly because we had a particularly good deal before. We're paying a lot more now, but a long with that we have unlimited Internet (wi-fi) included in the rent along with cable TV, appliances, and furniture. And having a stable Internet connection of course means being able to make a lot more money.

Moving on

After a full year on Corn Island, Jean and I have come to the difficult decision that we will be moving away from Corn Island for the time being. It was a decision we made fairly suddenly and It really wasn't something we wanted to consider, but for various practical reasons we are unable to stay on the Island any longer. Corn Island is a wonderful place and we will really miss the congregation here, there is a lot of need for brothers that can stay here long term, and we really thought we could stay longer.

Some of the reasons for our move were discussed in my last post, namely the amount of time it takes to travel to and from the Island, this has meant at times we spend more time off the island riding buses and boats than we do on the Island itself. Cost of living is also much higher here than on the mainland, but still manageable. One of the main reasons for our move is that its hard to find work here. Our situation is rather unique and different than I would have expected. When we came to Corn Island I was teaching English online over skype, but after about a month of being on the Island i lost the job due to poor internet connectivity. At times the internet was fast enough but it would often cut out without warning or any reason. Also having to pay for data made it unprofitable to do video calls to teach.

Claro que no.

Since then I've tried many other things, I've applied for many of jobs online and even tried starting a business. We've sold food on the street and homemade jewelry. Selling food seemed to do the best out of everything, but this is unfavorable because my wife has to do the selling while I make the food at home, because as a foreigner my hands are tied when it comes to making a living inside the country. I'm not allowed to work, except online for a business outside the country (such as teaching English). And then, even if I could get a job in the country, I'd be looking at a wage of $5-10 US per day, and the process of getting residency takes years.

At one point we decided to give in, and go to Canada to work for a few months and save up. But those plans came to a sudden halt when Jean's visa application was denied. We had applied for a 3 month tourist visa, expecting that should be easy since she's married to a Canadian... but no. They claimed that because of her "family ties" that is, being married to a Canadian citizen, it was too high of a risk that she would attempt to stay in the country illegally, therefore her tourist visa would not be approved. Believe it or not, its easier to get into Canada if you have nothing to do with any Canadians. After some consultation it may still be possible for her to get a 1 month visa at some point in the future to go to Canada, but 1 month is not enough time for me to work enough to even pay for the flights.

Now, I don't want to sound like I'm complaining, I just want to share our experience in the hopes that maybe it could help someone in a similar situation. Some may use our situation as an example for why its a "bad idea" to marry someone from another country, and may use our problems as "ammunition". But as Jehovah's Witnesses we are not confined by national boundaries. As citizens of god's kingdom we are above such things. We have these problems because we live in Satan's world, and if someone isn't ready to face these kind of obstacles for the sake of the person they love, then they aren't ready to commit to marriage either.

Of course at any moment I COULD go to Canada on my own, work for a few months sending money and come back. I could buy a plane ticket, go to the airport and be in Canada within 24 hours, and be working in any minimum wage restaurant within a couple days which would easily pay all of our expenses for a good while. We do not consider this to be an option. Matthew 19:6 says "What God has yoked together, let no man put apart". We've had many articles in recent years about the problems that arise when a husband leaves his family to work abroad in hopes of making more money. We feel that this counsel now applies to our situation, and so we refuse to live apart. Where I go, Jean goes. Where Jean goes, I go.

And so finally, after considering all these things and what options we have we have decided to leave Corn Island. Jehovah has provided a way out for us, that doesn't force us to live apart or sacrifice our spirituality. We are moving to another part of Nicaragua where reliable Internet is easily obtained, and costs of living are much less. We will be moving to Jinotepe, Carazo and serving in the English Congregation in San Marcos. This way we will also be closer to Managua and to the border so that we won't lose time and money traveling, and the process of my applying for Nicaraguan residency will be much easier.