Running Errands

I’m the kind of person that likes to have someone come with me when I run errands so I can browse and not look lost or confused. Jasser is good about coming with me whenever I need to go somewhere and I go with him because I try to find any excuse I can to get out of the house and breathe fresh air. Lately though, I’ve realized that when Jasser asks me to go somewhere and I ask him where, he doesn’t tell me everywhere he wants to go, just one or two places or he’s not very specific. For example, the other day he asked me to go with him to deliver the last few invitations for the baby shower and I said sure. After we were out of the house and walking down the street, he asked me if I knew where we were going with a smirk on his face. I asked where and he said, remember that house we went to with Veronica (my counterpart’s daughter). I stopped and whined a little because this house is so far away and up and down some very large hills! Are you kidding me?! Fortunately though, we found the family in the market on the way to their house :)

I’ve also noticed that Nicas in general are not very specific about distances. They either exaggerate how far away something is, like when I asked a lady in Masaya how far away the central park was from where we were and she started with “Oh! It is way down there! So many blocks—just keep walking for awhile.” It really wasn’t that long. Or, Nicas will underestimate how far away things are, usually on purpose to trick you into keep going, like Jasser ;) Whenever we’re running errands and I feel like we’ve been walking for awhile, I ask where we are going, and his reply is usually along the lines of oh, just down the street…then we walk down the street, turn the corner, and walk down to the end of that street. My favorite is when he asks me to go with him to pick something up and I ask where and he says “arriba”, which is not at all specific. I guess I like to have a plan in mind and picture where we’re going and it drives me crazy when he’s not specific because I usually keep walking straight as he turns the corner and I look silly. I’m positive he does it on purpose haha I know I’m gonna miss having him to run errands with me when he leaves for Managua to start school though.


P.S. After I wrote this blog, Jasser took me on another wild goose chase and I gave him a hard time about telling me we weren’t going very far and my flip flops were ok as we walked out through a dried river bed with lots of little rocks and trash. Nice.