Gringa in Boaco

Saturday night I hung out with my host brother and sister on our front porch with one of their friends and then Veronica came over too. I had mentioned to my host brother about the piropos (catcalls) I had gotten before in San Juan, because we encountered some on our walk around town and this came up in our conversation. They were all joking around making the hissing noises, and I was too. It was pretty funny and we were joking about the gringa, or blanquita as a lot of men say too. I was telling them what guys usually say and we were having some good laughs and making our own piropos. We had some good bonding moments :) We listened to music on the porch and sang a little and of course did a little dancing because they wanted to see the gringa dance—that’s exactly what they said “gringa baila!” It was endearing haha Everybody had nicknames for each other so I know they weren’t just making fun of me :)


Because we stayed up late Saturday night hanging out, Sunday morning we all slept in. I got up around 9:30am which is way late here! My sister made breakfast for us—what a sweetheart :) After breakfast, my host brother asked if I wanted to go on a walk again, this time to see where the hospital is because that’s one of the places I need to find for Peace Corps stuff. He had told me that it was a pretty far walk, but I was up for it. So, my host brother, sister, one of their friends (Bismarc), and I left the house a little before 11am and headed out on a long journey. They decided to take the trip through the country instead of on the carretera. We walked quite a long time and heard some piropos, which we all started laughing after we heard what people said (oh, mi amor…gringa, muy hermosa, and lots of whistling/hissing).

We arrived to their Bismarc’s house around noon and we took a little rest and had some “enchiladas”. I never know what I’m gonna get when people say enchiladas here because it’s always different. These were good though, so I didn’t mind. We then walked over to another friend’s place and sat and chatted for awhile. Bismarc went back over to his house and his mom insisted on giving us lunch, so of course we stayed. Before leaving, I wanted to use the bathroom and his mom led me into a bedroom that had a back room that was open to the rest of the bedroom, so they shut the bathroom door. I looked around and saw no toilet and I was so confused. There was a large bucket that was pretty full with some liquid, but I didn’t know if that’s what I was supposed to use. This was bizarre. I looked around again trying to decide what to do—should I fake that I went pee or go out and ask them what I’m supposed to do? I decided to pee in the bucket, and then his mom came in to give me toilet paper and scared me. I thought she was going to freak out when she saw me on the bucket, but she said “tranquila” (calm/cool). It was a pretty interesting experience and I’m glad I’m done with that.

We then continued our journey and finally arrived at the hospital. They asked me if I wanted to go inside, but I said no because it had a large gate and guards so I didn’t really feel like dealing with all that—I just needed to know where it was. So then we walked back home, but this time on the carretera, which is pretty dangerous, but fortunately there wasn’t that much traffic. We ended up by my instituto, so that was cool to see where exactly it was in relation to other places. We still had about 20 more minutes so we powered through the hills and hot sun and made it back, but stopped at the Eskimo before going home. We got home just before 4pm…our trip was almost 5 hours! Crazy! Bismarc kept saying he was going to die during our trip, so I told him we need to go walking everyday haha

I thought I would be exhausted for the rest of the day, but we decided to go up to the park and hang out after dinner. Then we were walking around looking for a place to dance and we found a friend of Bismarc’s who was driving around, so we got in his land cruiser and cruised around the town. At first I thought we were going somewhere, but no, we were just circling around the town playing loud music. It was hilarious, but I was having fun with my host bro & sis and my new friends. Finally, they guys decided that we would go to a disco that’s popular here, right outside of the town on the carretera. It was pretty fun and I learned some new Nica dances—they are a lot harder to do than dances in U.S. clubs because they actually have steps for things and I feel like a dork because I’m the only one who doesn’t know what to do. As if I don’t stand out already…Anyway, I had a great time and it made for another late night. I feel comfortable with my host bro and sis though, so that’s good—we definitely bonded in this short time and I’m looking forward to staying with them :) Let’s hope their parents love me too!

Me with my host bro, Yasser.



Me with my host sis, Hazzel.