The Problem With Having Siblings More Attractive Than You

The problem with having syblings more attractive than you get a lot of the following conversation:

LAUREN: Here is a picture of my sisters and my father.
MARGARITA: Your family is so beautiful. Especially your youngest sister.
LAUREN: I know! And she's skinny like Grethel (my skinny host sister).
MARGARITA: (Genuinely confused) I don't understand... She's so thin, and you're fat.
LAUREN : (Laughing) What can I say Margarita? That's life. Some people just get all the good genes.
MARGARITA: I agree.

Now, before you go thinking that that is such a rude or offensive thing to say there are a few things you should know about Nicaragua.

1. Nicaraguans are brutally honest.
2. There is almost no such thing as an offensive statement.
3. Margarita is one of the people I talk to the most in Nicaragua because she lives across the street from me and makes sure I don't get mugged on my way home from work. Because we are friends she has the right to say anything she wants to me.

After spending more than a year in total in some part of Central/South America I have grown very acostomed to this honesty and actually appreciate being able to reciprocate. To give more context to this conversation you should know that if I wanted to get the attention of the man who sells tortillas on my street I would yell "Hey, Fatty!!". I think the first few times you hear it it can be startling, but you actually get used to it. I find it pretty funny now.

My family who I miss so much!!

"That's the Devil's Holiday Lauren"

A couple of weeks ago I noticed that the local small supermarket had put up the usual Halloween decorations like the life size pirate that says threatening piraty things and large mechanical spiders. Wanting a bit of time to figure out a costume I asked my Mennonite sister what they did for Halloween and received the following response, "That's the Devil's holiday Lauren! We don't celebrate that here." Despite my best attempts to tell fun stories of trick or treating with your snow suit on beneath your costume in Montreal I don't think I succeded in convincing her that I am not at all afiliated with the devil. I decided not to bring up the issue again.

So Halloween day comes and I notice that it is a pretty sensitive issue among people in Nicaragua. For days there were anti Halloween panels on television and shameless promotion of Christianity. I spoke to my confused friend Audrey who had spent 10 minutes staring at a news broadcast showing images of ocean waves with the face of Jesus fading in and out and creepy classical music in the background.

But... there seems to be another festival that takes the best of Halloween (costumes, singing, candy, general happiness). It happens on December 7th and is to celebrate the conception of the Virgin Mary. Everyone pretends they don't realize that they celebrate the birth of Jesus less than 20 days later. You go door to door and when asked what could cause you such hapiness you shout out "The Virgin Mary!!". Now this is a festival that I plan on participating in with a vengence.