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So, today was another day. We went to the new orphanage location about an hour away from where we´ve been staying. It´s a huge area compared to where they are now. They´ll have space for a farm, plants and animals, so they can teach the kids life skills to survive away from Hogar Belen (O-gar bel-EN). We spent the enitre day digging a ditch for the sewer. Something that would be done in 3 hours with a backhoe has taken over a month manually. Labor´s cheap here.
Then we went out and about a little bit after working. We stopped at a couple road-side shops and got some fruit, stopped at a shack and got some fresh coconuts and drank the milk. Not at all what I expected. It didn´t taste like the coconut I´m used to, and it wasn´t even white, it was clear and colorless. The stuff you buy in the store is an imposter.
Interesting note, it´s legal to drink in a car as long as your aren´t driving.
We also stopped to see a volcanic lake; pretty cool, insanely windy at the overlook. After the exploration led by the very helpful Fernando, a local who owns a transportation company he started after moving back from Miami just before he was deported, we drove back. This route was a little different though, and took us through the upper class areas. Some of the houses were amazing, and those were only the ones you could see behind the ever-present walls that line the city. People talk about a class difference in the states. I´ve seen a brand new 2009 Mercedes, and a family living in a corrigated aluminum hut in the same day, in the same city. That´s a class difference.
Nate
P.S. Go ahead and post this too.
It's interesting to note that while the US has a higher level of income inequality by about 2 points on the GINI index, the US also has a much higher baseline for that inequality - the low end starts much higher, and the high end goes way, way higher. Here the per-capita GDP is $45,800. In Nicaragua, it's $2,800.
There's inequality, and then there's inequality as applied to abject poverty.
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