[Vision2020] Third letter from Dave Barber in Nicaragua

[Louise Barber]

[A short email from 2/10/07]

            Last night I took a photo of a lagartija, a small lizard, on the
ceiling.  They live in and behind the walls, and the males go CHIP CHIP CHIP
every so often at the females.  Last night I saw my first spider as I was
heading for the bathroom about 2am; it was an inch and a half long, black
with brown stripes.  You [son Chris] would be in heaven here.  So would all
animal lovers--pigs, chickens, dogs, horses, cows.  But almost no cats.

            I’m going to see if I can send this successfully now.  Much
love, Dave

 

[Later that same day]  This is the story of a wedding reception, for one of
Mario's many cousins, Saturday night 10 febrero.  But it requires extensive
family background.

            I live with Ana and Mario, who are affectionate, talk to each
other all the time, and laugh a lot.  Ana, who often looks tired (and has to
be, with her 4:30am to 7pm job in Managua), lights up with her bright smile
and happy laugh all the time.  Mario is gently boisterous and the soul of
consideration.  These days he is a house husband:  he does the weekday
cooking, he washes the clothes, and does most of the daily housework.  (He
shows no sign whatever of being uncomfortable in this role.  With all the
dust here I´ve been brushing my shoes daily, but Friday he stole them and
polished them!)

            Their family extends out in all directions.  Ana's nephew
Roberto, who has just finished his university course (and who loves to talk
with me about English sounds--BEEN vs BEAN, etc--and how English is harder
to learn than Spanish), will now be living regularly, I gather, with his
mother Amanda.  This is Äna´s mother.  Three other men live there, or very
close by, all nephews or grand-nephews.  Amanda looks frail but is tough.
She bears a jaded expression most of the time, but her smile, like Ana's
--like most Nicas in fact -- is luminous.  Mario´s mother is Aura; she has a
sister who looks just like her.  Mario has three brothers, who all live in
the area, and a sister who lives in Costa Rica [the mother of the
thirteen-year-old Aura, who lives in our house; the niece of Mario].  

            Mario has a number of primos y primas, mostly male cousins,
almost infinite.  Yesterday, Sunday, we drove out to Aura-abuela's house
[Aura the grandmother]to pick up Aura [the niece], who was staying with her
abuela for the weekend. Mario turned off the carretera [road] and we
traveled up a dirt road, kind of like the dirt road up Moscow Mt except
level and with bigger ruts.  He had to drive 10 mph, with many slow-downs to
avoid ripping out the car bottom (his ex-taxi with no shocks).  For 3-4
miles we drove past fields of caña-asucar [sugar cane], the land is owned by
his family, and as we drove Mario pointed, as we passed every house,  “Alla
vive un primo . . . Alla otro primo . . . Alla una prima . . . Alla el hijo
de un primo [a cousin lives there, another lives there, and another there,
and the son of a cousin . . .].”  He has easily ten cousins along with road.
Finally -- except that beyond this house are two more houses in which live
his aunt and one more primo -- we reached the house of his mother, where
live also a prima and her two-year-old girl, and his hermano menor [younger
brother], who raises fighting cocks, [gallos primos para jugar].  Very loud
in the morning I expect.

            I learn things about the family all the time.  For instance,
that Ana took care of Roberto [the 20-year old nephew who has just
graduated, mentioned above] for the first four months of his life.  They are
very close.  Aura now lives with Ana and Mario; she is his niece, and she is
very close to him:  Ana is Ana, but Mario is Tio [uncle].  She is like a
happy daughter.  She can pout, but there is always a twinkle in her eye.
She´s going to be beautiful in a couple of years.  She talks to me but never
slows down so she´s a real challenge to understand.

            Saturday Mario and Ana and I took a sequences of buses to
Jinotepe, where 

they had an appointment, leaving me off at CyberTech.  That night we went to
the wedding reception of one of Mario´s primas.  The wedding itself was a
civil ceremony, which we didn´t attend.  The reception was characterized
throughout by NOISE.  They had a wall of loudspeakers, and the system was on
full-blast, making us move away from the dance-floor area.  There were no
toasts, no tributes, no roastings, a nondescript cutting of the cake but no
garter-throwing, etc., though I did see the bride hand over her bouquet to a
friend.  There was a dinner served, at intervals -- almost entirely served
by the bride and her older sister (who got married last month).  

            All kind of ordinary, but it gradually became magical.  This was
in part because Mario and I were slowly putting away a bottle of Nicaragua´s
best RON.  The music went on and on:  Latin rhythms of all kinds, popular
songs, some, Mario said, in Mesquito or Meskito, from the Atlantic coast,
with a healthy sprinkling of American pop.  Mario´s side of the family, or
much of it, was there, including the two Auras.  I met Meghan’s host-mother
[Meghan Beard, formerly of Moscow, went to Villa El Carmen three years ago
for several months], and, I think, though I may be wrong, that one of
Meghan´s host-sisters was a little girl, now 11, whom I had “taught”' last
week.  She played shy for a while, but we were on good terms when we left.
Nacaraguans smile with amazing ease and grace.

            I sat and scouted out the dancers, and there was nothing complex
about how most of them were moving their feet and bodies -- perhaps because
at close range the music sets up a strong rhythm in the breastbone which
competes with the heart.  I thought to myself, “even I can do that!”
!Bueno!  The bride´s sister came over to our table para charlar [to chat],
and Mario convinced her that I really wanted to dance, and she should be my
partner.  So she accepted, and we danced, a very happy dance if stumbly and
ear-splitting.

            Saturday night was perfect.  I could have sat there and listened
to Spanish music, sprinkled with American pop, all night.  It was all magic,
including life´s basics.  I asked Mario where the baño was, and he said --
something like -- it was busy, I should go out beyond the cars.  So I did,
to the far edge of the dirt parking lot, and [found myself in the company
of] an old gray saddled and tethered horse.  The horse stood stock -- still
while I stood contentedly, looking upward at brilliant Orion, slightly
angled to the north, toward home.

 


-- 
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4:35 PM
 
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