my first blog-entry

Last week, a very good friend of mine, Kathrin Bielowski (for many her last name may sound like the dude’s), told me I should start a blog, in order for her to read it whenever she was bored. This is my first entry to a blog.

I arrived in Nicaragua exactly 5 weeks ago as a researcher for SOS Children’s Villages. I came here with the goal of understanding what some Nicaraguans value when they think of a prosperous/flourishing life…haven’t got a clue yet, but I still have 4 more months to figure it out.

I live in the guest house of the SOS Village; nice house, cosy bedroom, hot water (the weather here is way colder than in hell-like Managua), everything perfect; however, the guest house has a dark side: even though it has a huge new fridge, there are no cooking facilities. This means I have been eating cold meals since last Tuesday (5 days already). My cooking skills has been reduced to basics:

- Breakfast: Crackers with hand-made mango marmalade and fresh orange juice
- Lunch: Cream cheese sandwiches with tomato, cucumber, coriander and jalapenos
- Dinner: same as lunch

For a change, yesterday I had lunch at a Chinese restaurant; the place’s name reminded me actually of an Italian place “la gran vía”; maybe the owner chose the name because the restaurant is located on one of the town’s main road (and it is paved!).
Afraid of a monosodic glutamate or “MSG” overdose (also known as the Chinese restaurant syndrome), I picked up a Peruvian ceviche from the menu. It had fish, shrimps and boiled potatoes seasoned with loads of lime juice and coriander. It was excellent! and had no soy sauce in it (where the MSG mainly come in cheap Chinese food).

I think this is enough for my first blog entry.

oscar