X-Street Children in Nicaragua

As it turns out, ¨vigília,¨ which I thought meant ¨vigil,¨ actually means block party. The whole city was there, and there was live music and dancing and a lot of fun. It was fun because I knew some of the songs and sang along and that felt good, because I really felt it being American this week. It wasn´t because people treated me badly at all, but because a lot of their struggle and the deaths and suffering they´re remembering today would have been avoided if the United States had cared more about the Nicaraguan people and less about money and control. I couldn´t help remembering that, and wishing things had been different.

On Wednesday I went to a parade and the rally, where Daniel Ortega spoke. He says a lot of stuff that sounds very ideal, and he seems really passionate. It´s really too bad that he doesnt put his policies or the government´s money where his mouth and his ¨heart¨ allegedly is.
At the celebration, there was no recognition that Nicaragua still has any problems and a lot of poverty… it was all, ¨We suffered for years and years of war, first against Somoza, then against the Contras and the yankee imperialists, until 1990 when all of our problems went away forever!¨

But Violeta Chamorro was President in the 1990s and she only won because Nicaraguans couldnt keep fighting theUS so they elected the US-backed candidate who was not a very good leader or person… so it was kind of bizarre, but super fun to be there anyway. I guess on the 4th of July (before Bush was President at least) we didn´t spend our evening lamenting our country´s problems, but remembering how much worse it was, and how we overcame.