From Nicaragua

I had this conversation with my brother on Facebook today. He's in Nicaragua for a week for volunteer work, and I thought you might like to see this. He gave his permission at the end, just so there's no confusion. He arrived yesterday.

Nate
dude

8:31pmSteve
Hey man

8:31pmNate
nicaragua is shockingly different from anything i´ve ever seen before

8:31pmSteve
Hows that?

8:32pmNate
you need to see the pictures and videos i´ve taken

this is a city of 3 million people

and it´s the dirtiest place

there are no majors roads or road signs

and the housing is just shacks

you should see the bar we go to

8:33pmSteve
Wow. Have you got pictures up yet?

8:33pmNate
no, i don´t have a cable and the internet here is barely internet

just 1/4 step above dial-up

8:34pmSteve
Right on. I guess that's not much of a surprise, given. It sounds much worse than I thought.

8:35pmNate
it´s bad

makes me damn glad i´m an american

8:35pmSteve
I believe it. Life can suck an awful lot in a lot of places.

8:36pmNate
yea

makes me mad about all the whiners in the states

the middle class here lives in hovels

we´re in a decent neighborhood, and it´s all dirt and dirty people, most don´t have plumbing

8:37pmSteve
Makes you scared to think what the really poor have to deal with.

8:37pmNate
yea

we see that on thursday

it´s a place called La Chureca

it´s a little "town" literally in a garbage dump

the people there survive on the trash in the dump

90%+ can´t read

i need to get going though, there´s a line for the comp.

i´ll get back to you another time

8:40pmSteve
Cool. mind if I put this on my blog so the parents can see?


8:40pmNate
not at all

good idea

8:40pmSteve
Fair enough. Be safe, dude. Good luck.

8:41pmNate
thanks, i´ll catch up with you more later

adios

I'll continue to post anything that he gives me permission for here.