On Friday (July 4) Doug went to visit Joshua T, who is teaching English at a rural public school outside the town of Nindiri. When Doug arrived he found both Joshua and his supervisor, Sidney, teaching classes. Sidney lived in Canada for several years before returning to Nicaragua, and his English is very good; the school is fortunate to have an English teacher as fluent as him.

Today the school was having an unusual schedule because it was actually the start of the mid-year two-week vacation. Although the following week was also a “vacation” week, Joshua and Sidney were still going to come in 3 days to give English classes; many of the students said they still preferred to come some days than stay home all week. This day Joshua was using worksheets with the students, helping them choose the appropriate words in English to complete various sentences.

Since the rural school is a few miles outside of the town of Nindiri, where Joshua lives with his Nica family, they loaned him a bicycle that he rides to work and back each day. At noon there is not enough time to go home for lunch, so he goes with Sidney to a family farm nearby, where they eat packed lunches. A packed lunch in Nicaragua is often still rice and beans, and frequently a piece of meat. Joshua’s mom usually includes 3 lemons, a small bag of sugar, and a smaller bag of salt. Why? To make fresh lemonade, of course. At the farm Sidney’s family started their own reforestation project several years ago, and the trees planted in neat rows are now well grown.

Joshua lives with Walter, Sidney’s brother, and his family at the edge of Nindiri. As the family explained, the town is exceptionally safe, the inhabitants extra friendly, and the central park is the best of any similarly-sized town in Nicaragua.

The town sits on the site of a former indigenous village that was the most densely populated center in the country 1,500 years before the Spanish arrived. “Nindiri” in the Chorotega language means “Hill of the Small Pig.” On the main road in to town there is a statue of Tenderi, who was the Chorotega chief when the Spanish were colonizing the area. When local residents dig in the ground, either to farm to build houses, the frequently turn up pottery and other indigenous artifacts. The town has a museum where many of these are on display.

.

Journal Entry from Joshua, “Architecture and Design in Nindiri.”

One of the things that strikes me about the housing style here, as it did in Carazo, is the proximity of the houses to one another. In many cases, the houses are directly against each other. In these instances these homes are fairly close to the street, and it is very possible to make awkward eye contact with the inhabitants in their living room as one walks by. Furthermore, when someone owns property that is not completely built on (i.e., there is some space available), this property is protected by fences, walls, gates, and/or dogs. This is very different from typical housing styles in the U.S., which are mostly separate, set back from the street, and normally unprotected land. However, that style would probably not work here, as primary considerations are utilization of space and protection from theft.

One aspect of the street design here is that it is almost entirely grid-like. This is not always the case in cities in the U.S. Here, though, as in other Nicaraguan cities or towns, the grid structure helps to give the sense of a system in order to, for example, find an address or a business. Another feature of the roads I find interesting is a lack of stop signs or traffic lights at many intersections. Most of the time I have seen cars stop at intersections, regardless of who might have the right of way. A couple of times, however, I have witnessed near-accidents. This feature has most directly affected me as I walk through the city, and as I see a car approaching the intersection where I am, and my uncertainty whether or not the car will stop, or if I will have to wait.