Day 25 - ¿Quien causa tanta alegria?

Martha and her son Diego came to take Ruth, Grandma and me to Managua, where Ruth and Grandma would catch up with Martha’s mom, etc. and we would proceed to Leon for the Purisima celebrations.

Taking advantage of Martha´s car, we drove to the Managua cathedral, which is just a shell of a building. The insides were destroyed in either the big earthquake or Hurricane Mitch, I can´t remember which natural disaster did the damage.

Me in front of the two volcanoes in Managua - Momotombo and Momotombito.

They say the Purisima in Leon is one of the best, and I agree. The Purisima celebrates the day the angel Gabriel told Mary she was having the Lord’s child. In Leon, people celebrate by putting up a shrine to Mary in the front room and giving away candy, small toys, matches, single serving coffee packets and Tupperware. All anyone has to do is walk up to an open door and yell out, “Quien causa tanta alegria?” <”Who causes such happiness?”> and the person behind the front door says back, “La Concepcion de Maria” <”The Conception of Mary”>, and then they hand you stuff. People had to walk around with bookbags to carry their loads, and everyone does it – not just kids! Sometimes instead of yelling, people sing songs, its really fun, and I got tons of presents for my nieces and nephews:)

Here´s a prime example of what it´s like. Please note the Virgin Mary shrine in the background, a lady handing out stuff, stickers of newly elected Daniel Ortega on the wall, and tons of people looking for a handout.

After a couple hours of walking around, we ate a second dinner for the night, and headed toward the beach. The group I was with included, Martha, her sons Diego (age 15) and Freddy (age 27), Martha’s friend, her daughter (age 15) and her daughter’s friends (about four teenagers) and a couple of their brothers (aged 7 and 10). We finally settled in a someone’s cousin’s house at about 1 a.m. With our options being to either go to sleep on a concrete floor or look for something else do to, anyone from the age range of 14-27 went to the beach.

It was hilarious hanging out with a bunch of teenagers, a few of which wanted to practice their English (which was surprisingly good), and one who said I was very beautiful:) We found some dead leaves to start a fire and stayed beachside until sunrise, to wade into the water. It was my first time in the Pacific Ocean and first time to spend the whole night on the beach. Also, it’s nice to know I can still keep up with a group of 15 year olds.