Pearl Lagoon Part 1

Our first week in Pearl Lagoon has been great.  The town is really, really tiny and it seems like almost everyone is somehow related.  I think there are about 1,200 people here.  We are renting one of the few houses in Pearl with running water.  There is no such thing as “my yard” or my anything for that matter. The kids and dogs next door are always in and out of the house checking out what’s going on.  In Granada, people look at me like I have 3 heads if I say, “hello” or “good morning” in passing.  But here little kids all the way up to older ones ALWAYS speak in passing.  They speak English and more commonly English Creole which is fun to try and speak.  I’ll try to remember to take a video of someone speaking so you can hear it.  As soon as we got here, I set out on a mission to find someone to braid my hair so I will look different yet again in future pictures.  I’ve made quite a few friends among the locals here in the first few days.  One particular lady is always helping me with local terms and letting me know who to shop from and making sure people don’t try and rip me off.  She will walk up to me in a store as a shopkeeper is trying to charge me one thing and all she has to do is give them the “eye” and the price comes down drastically.  She is buying us some turtle meat and is going to show us how to cook it tomorrow (it supposedly tastes like beef).  One thing I’ve quickly learned about living on a budget in a foreign country is that if you try to eat like an American, and not a local, your money will disappear quickly.  For instance, you may think it is economical to eat peanut butter and jelly for lunch.  But in Nicaragua, a jar of peanut butter costs $7 when you can actually find it!  So, we have to learn to eat the local foods, the way the people here eat them.  Since we are now on the coast, I couldn’t wait to have my fill of all the fish, lobster, shrimp etc. I could eat because that is the cheapest thing here.  Unfortunately when we went to buy fish, we found that all they have usually is whole fish.  I’m usually pretty flexible about things but I was dead set against touching a whole fish.  But, my roommate reasoned with me and so we have a sister coming by tonight to show us how to gut and clean fish.  This is right on time since a bible student gave us several fish yesterday as a gift.  Another student gave his study conductor lobster tails.  Other nice gestures include all types of fruit and fresh cream and milk from their cows, yum!